Chaos Vs. Order

by Justice3442


Chapter 5: There, but also Here, and Everywhere Inbetween, and then Back Again. A Draconequus’s Tale

Chaos Vs. Order

Chapter 5: There, but also Here, and Everywhere Inbetween, and then Back Again. A Draconequus’s tale.

-oooooo-

I admit, perhaps at least embarrassingly, that the Order Keeper’s first shot caught me off guard a bit. It was lightning quick, but the energy behind it was weak. I made note of its strength almost as soon as I made note of its existence. I resolved to let the little potshot of energy dissipate harmlessly against me. This would turn out to be a mixed blessing.

Rather than dispel against my much greater power, the energy grabbed hold of my very essence. Mixing with the very magic that made me. I felt myself being pulled from Equestria as this happened. Pulled through space… through something beyond space. My essence spread with part of me still existing in Equestria as the rest of my spiraled as if flowing down some giant cosmic drain. As the first of me hit my final destination, I could feel it… a bright, tranquil world of flowing streams and delicious fruits and vegetables. A quiet land of endless comfort and easy living.

I immediately began to fight my relocation to that place with every fiber of my being.

I reached out and dug into Equestria in a metaphysical and very physical sense, my talon and claw digging deep into the marble floor I had created as the floor itself cracked and gave way before wrapping itself around my arms like a stone friend trying with all its might to pull me back to this world. Meanwhile, the rest of my physical and spiritual self was stretched, caught between worlds as I used all my strength to stay in Equestria. The magic of the Order Keepers continued to drag me down to the comfortable looking prison that had been prepared for me.

In between worlds… I could somehow feel the essence of other places…  I think somehow I had always know there were other realities besides this one… Though before these signs would only manifest as the vaguest of hints from my magic or actions. Now I knew there were other dimensions with physical rules and laws utterly unlike Equestria. Rules and laws I could bend, break, and immolate until time itself ran out.

How easy it would have been to escape to some unknown land. To experience the joys of seeing world after world, each with its own unique properties and even new creatures to get to know and perhaps play with.

Very, very tempting. But unfortunately for my unexpected guests, they had made me, very, very, very angry!

I shed the bits of my essence that had been mingled… poisoned by this foreign energy like a reptile shedding useless skin, or a pony biting off an injured leg. I…

… Right, sorry. I forgot for a moment you ponies have to just wait for your incredibly slow healing to kick in and repair damaged limbs.

... Let’s see… Give me a moment… Right! I ejected the infected bits of my essence like a sea cucumber jettisoning out its internal organs!

… Oh don’t make that noise! I was barely involved in that little evolutionary development!

Anyhow, as the energy that tried to pull me to that peaceful world of boredom and solitude was removed, I felt my physical and metaphysical self snap back into place. My entire body practically flew back to Equestria, slamming into the ground and throwing bits of marble in all directions.

As the dust settled, a buffet of delicious expressions awaited me. Four sets of eyes locked in confusion and bewilderment as I once again stood before them.

“My turn.” 

The very magic of my being seemed to flare up, causing me to glow a bright golden yellow! Spikey golden hair shot straight up out of my head as I moved both my eagle talon and lions paw to the right side of my body.

“KAAAAA”

I placed the two appendages palms facing each other as I channeled pure energy into them.

“MEEEEEEEE”

A brilliant blue glow emanated from my talon and paw. It began to grow brighter and brighter.

“HAAAAAAA”

My opponents seemed to gather their composer, their eyes narrowing as they prepared for the ensuing torrent of energy.

“MEEEEEEEE”

I trust my arms forward as I placed my talon atop of my paw, palms facing my opponents as a surge of blue energy shot forward on a collision course with my cloudy foes.

 “HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

In response, four dark blue beams erupted from the swirling mass of my unwelcome guest, meeting my own blast half way between us with a planet shaking ‘BOOM!’

Energy exploded outwards as the opposing beams collided. The already cracked and damaged ground right under the energy seemed to evaporate, obliterated by the ensuing wave of destructive force. I maintained my beam just as the others did, our conflicting energies seemed locked in stalemate.

I gritted my teeth and channeled more magical energy towards my foes. The swirling mass of magic was thrust towards them, however they countered by adding their own magic and forcing our blasts back into place. I dug deep within myself and channeled more energy, and they responded in kind.

A thought occurred that this ping pong match of destructive power might continue until one side simply ran out… In fact, it might be that my foes were simply toying with me, waiting to see if I would expend my energy in some foolish battle of magical attrition.  

Perhaps I could get energy from another source… Maybe calling out to the ponies and other assorted magical beings of this planet to aid me?

Hmph… Well, I wasn’t exactly on good terms with the ponies or other assorted beings, so that was out. I narrowed my eyes trying to peer past the light and dark blue ‘ball’ of energy between me in my foes.

A thought occurred that I made a threat to devour their magical essence. It seemed like a good idea to make good on that threat.

I pushed in one final bout of pure chaos magic, my light blue beam crackling red and shooting bolts off in all directions before it hit the center with an explosive conclusion and a resounding ‘KABOOM!’

The castle walls shook as rocks and dirt where thrown all about. The explosion created a modest sized crater in between the Order Keepers and I. Their expressions were a delicious buffet of surprise and confusion.

Good… To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what would happen either, but that’s just the way things go with chaos magic. All I needed was some brief calamity to ‘set the board’, so to speak. I was done playing their game. This was my castle and my world. Those monotonous blue magic-bags could play mine instead.

I grinned and snapped both my fingers. Oh it was quite ‘on’ now, chaps. Walls of dark blue magical energy sprung up from the castle scorched and damaged ground as the floor and ceiling turned black. I encased my opponents in a room with a single exit as I turned the inside of my castle into something of a maze. A maze I soon filled with small pieces of my magical essence like lines of dots neatly going down the center of twisting hallways.

Rather than create matter from magic, I built this new structure completely out of magical energy, otherwise there was little to keep my opponents from simply ignoring physical structures in favor of phasing straight through them, teleporting, any number of modes of transportation one tends to rely on when ‘three dimensions’ is more of a suggestion than a rule.

After shedding a few larger chunks of my energy and adding them to the maze, the transformation began… my arms, legs, and tail pulling into my torso as it balled up around my head. My mouth widened past my face as my head and torso merged into a spherical form. My eyes disappeared and my other senses faded away as I sensed the magic around me and my foes. Now little more than a giant head with a horn and antler sitting above a massive mouth, I reduced my thinking to the barest of instincts, survive and consume!

At the moment, any one of my four foes would be enough to overpower me, but they would have to come and get me for that to happen. With my energy spread so thin, I’d hopefully seem easy pickings as my spherical head floated hither and tither in an attempt to consume my shed bits of energy.

Though initially confused, one by one my foes left their small room at the center of the darkened maze. The game had begun and the trap had been sprung. I was able to feel even the tiniest thing that happened within the maze, and what’s more, the larger pieces of energy would give me a quick boost of energy making me capable of overpowering and eating my foes own energy.

So I wander the halls as my opponents did the same, most of them able to get their bearings and figure out where I was in the maze. Blinky immediately began to float after me in attempt to case me down. Pinky took a more methodical approach and seemed to be trying to get in front of me. Inky, possibly the craftiest of the group, seemed to be attempting to find a good spot to lie in wait. Clyde… Clyde seemed confused by this sudden new change and wandered around the magic maze aimlessly.

I fled from my opponents as they began to swarm towards me. Edging closer and closer all the while ‘hearding’ me closer to their confused comrade. I turned corners and darted every which way to no avail. All four of my foes where almost right on top of me. Why it appeared as if they had me right where they wanted me.

Of course I make it a point to make sure things are almost never what they seem.

When it finally seemed as if my capture was immanent, I made my move. I finally chomped down on one of the larger bits of energy. My power flared and my foes realized the hunters had suddenly become the hunted. They all fled from me, but it was too late.  One by one my mighty maw fell upon them, ripping from them massive amounts of their very essence and claiming it for my own.

The act came with it a certain degree of clarity. Is the energy mingled with my own, I could feel it was from this Nexus these beings spoke of. This world of stillness the Order Keepers lived in and hoped to make model the entire universe after. I somehow understood it at its most core level, possibly because part of its magic was a part of me. Yet… I can sense I was part of it too… that everything was. This truly was the center of everything and perhaps it was the nature of all things to slowly return to it. To return to peace without cause or need for our very molecules to work for anything… forever suspended in quiet tranquility.

How utterly loathsome.

Well the time for games was over. It was time I made my positon quite clear to my ‘guests’.

All four of my opponents fled as best they could, but with so little of their magic left, they were denied the abilities to flee this very realm to their own. Each was reduced to a small wisp of energy, comically trying to escape from the very predator they had arrived to subdue.

 “Enough!” 

The magic walls and energy around me suddenly broke down and returned to me as I resumed my, and I use the term loosely, ‘normal’ physical form. My, now much smaller, opponents all stopped. Floating in the castle and looking at me… each little more than a pair of blotchy eyes suspended in a wisp of dark blue fog.

I summoned my throne from the very ground, antlers piercing the wrecked stonework and thrusting upwards followed by the back of my silver headrest with two massive red jewels like eyes that stared at my opponent. This was followed by as the red ‘maw’ of the backrest. The bottom soon emerged and I sat down and glowered at my foes. “I granted you leave in peace and you chose war!” I smirked. “Dontcha feel like a buncha stupid fools, now? Hmmm…?

Clearly, devouring the majority of his very magical essence had done quite the number on Clyde’s attitude. Rather than continue with his threats, he responded with “Please, oh Lord of Chaos! Grant us mercy!”

I narrowed my eyes as I felt quite literal flames burn inside and out them. I narrowed my head and grit my teeth into a sneer. “Mercy?  You come to my realm order me… threaten me…” I rose from my throne and then several yards more as I decided to grow for dramatic effect “… Attempt to banish me to an empty realm, alone forever?! AND NOW YOU ASK FOR MERCY?!” My eye narrowed to tiny slits that burned with the fury of the very sun behind them. “Right, off ya go then!” I said as I shrank back down to normal size and sat back down in my chair.

My guests looked amongst themselves in confusing then back at me. I’ll never get tired of seeing that look.

“You’re really going to let us go?” Pinky asked. “Just like that?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said as I opened a small rift in reality above the four cloudy entities, followed shortly by encapsulating the four Order Keepers in a small, rocket shaped rocket. “Bomb-voyage, as the say!”

The Order Keepers gave me one more fearful look as I waved and the rocket ignited, launching them upwards into the rift which I closed behind them.

The ensuing explosion properly wouldn’t hurt them… much… and they’d no doubt regain their lost energy back in the Nexus. Still, it was nice to rub a little high explosives in their wounds after my victory.

My thinking tree grew up from under my throne and I found myself lounging amongst the branches. Much of my energy had been lost making sure I was not banished to that prison realm, though much energy was also gained fighting them.  With that energy came a better understanding of where the Order Keepers came from and what their ultimate goals where. It was clear that my existence and my actions of collecting energy for myself was something of the very antithesis of what they hoped to accomplish.

 It was likely my opponents would return in greater number… perhaps with more tricks. Maybe my show of strength had scared them off for good, but I doubted it. Clearly, this was a time to prepare for round two. To make ready for the war of cosmic proportions the Order Keepers were no doubt gearing up to bring to my doorstep…

Yes… It was crystal clear what my next action should be.

I would… make it rain giant and delicious ice cream cones all about Equestria to celebrate my victory.