//------------------------------//
// Chapter 26: Chaos Theory 
// Story: Converted 
// by Shaded Changeling 
//------------------------------//

	As Shade wandered back to his room, he couldn’t help but feel a rather odd tingle down his spine… Not like with Spine, but it was familiar to him. In a bad way…
	“Why not just submit to me?”
“We would rather die than live under your rule!”
Shade began reminiscing stories his village elders had told him, the Reign of Discord had been one of the worst time for the Alliance. The Griffons land all but destroyed, the Minotaur race was forced to live in the badlands, Equestria was plunged into chaos, The Changelings starved, and the Dragons fought the Centaurs.
	“Come now Drak-ill, even you must realize that there is no reason to keep up this slaughter. Amusing as it is.”
“Ha! You think our resolve is that easy to break Draconequus? Then you must be crazy!”
“Oh wasn’t that obvious from the beginning? Oh dear…I seem to have turned your son into a horse. How did that happen?”
Shade had always enjoyed hearing the stories about the Alliance, a golden age of Unity between the races, until Discord and an army of Centaurs decided to rough everything up a little.
Shade walked inside of his room, closed the door, and flew into the small bed. He focused on the old stories and let his mind replay them.




1000 Years Ago

The Fiords were once much more hospitable, while still mostly a lava flow filled area, it was easily much more accessible. There wasn’t just random lava flowing everywhere, the sky was clear, and the moon shone down unto the rocky plains.
“I don’t care what it takes!” Drak-ill, the leader of the Dragons shouted. “Celestia needs us to protect that element, and we will. Do not let a single Centaur pass!”
The final days of Discords rule had acted in a similar manner to this, defense of the last stronghold of the Element of Loyalty, each element spread across the lands to ensure that Discord could not collect them.
“Sir, we only have enough reserves to keep this up for a few hours.”
“That’s all we need soldier.” Drak-ill replied. “Her Radiance is on her way. We need to hold out until morning.”
At this the moon fell from the sky and the sun popped into existence overhead. “Well…actual morning.”
“Oh come now Drak-ill”
“Discord…. Show yourself.” Drak-ill shouted.
“Oh what fun is there in just showing myself?”
“Afraid of something clown?” Drak-ill replied searching around for the Draconequus.
“I came here to offer you a deal. Give me the element, and I’ll leave your race alone.”
“Not a chance you Urpalash!”
Discord gasped. “My do you kiss your wife with that mouth of yours?”
“Not anymore Draconoquis.”
“Ah yes…what did I do to her again?” There was pause. "Oh yes…I believe I turned her into that sword you’re holding.”
Drak-ill gripped the hilt of his blade. “We decline.”
“Oh come now. Why not just submit to me?”
“We would rather die than live under your rule!”
“Oh come now Drak-ill, even you must realize that there is no reason to keep up this slaughter. Amusing as it is.”
Drak-ill laughed. “You think our resolve is that easy to break Draconequus? Then you must be crazy!”
Discord laughed. “Oh wasn’t it obvious from the beginning?” There was a brief flash next to Drak-ill, and where the draconic soldier had once been, there stood a rainbow colored earth pony. “Oh dear. I seemed to have turned your son into a horse. Now how did that happen?”
The earth pony was looking at himself in shock. “Dad?”
“Oh my…he can still talk. I’ll fix that.”
The Earth pony attempted to speak but all that came out was a ‘neigh’ before he slapped his forelegs over his mouth and looking very scared.
“Discord! Turn my son back now!”
“Oh alright… You’re no fun.”
Drak-ill was consumed in a flash of light and was turned into a pure white unicorn. “Why you dirty little…” His horn began to bubble with a dark magic. “KORAK PALOS!” He slammed his hooves on the ground and Discord popped into existence in front of him.
“Oh…well now.” Discord replied, clearly surprised.
“Years of magical training under King Sombra and Princess Celestia you mix and match Son of a bitch.” Drak-ill replied. Grabbing his sword in his magic. “Now fix my son.”
“Spoil sport.” Discord replied, snapping his clawed fingers and his son returned to normal. But when he tried to speak, all that came out was another ‘Neigh’
“Discord! Fix! Him!” Drak-ill replied.
“Oh I can’t have a little fun every now and then. Is that it?” Discord vanished and appeared behind Drak-ill, running his lion paw down Drak’s back. “You seem to be forgetting who you are talking to Lizard.”
Drak-ill whipped around and planted the blade against Discords neck. “Never! Call us lizards! You deranged psychopath!”
“You may want to tell that to the boys over there.” Discord teleported out of Drak’s grip. He reappeared above them with a chef’s hat on and a small cowbell. “Din Din is ready! Come and get it while it’s nice and squishy!” He called while shaking the cowbell.
“Sir! Incoming Centaurs!”
“Get those Ballistae ready Private. And tell our “Valiant protector” to get his ass out here now!” He said ‘valiant protector’ in a highly sarcastic tone. “And tell him that if he keeps me waiting again. I’ll rip that hatchling’s armor right off of him!”
“Ooo…I need to get some popcorn for this.” Discord snapped his fingers and a large bucket of highly buttery popcorn was floating in front of him. “Want some?”
“GO to hell!” Drak-ill replied. Slapping the offered bucket of popcorn away. “And turn me back to normal!”
“Not with an attitude like that.” Discord replied. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I have some delicious Chaos to spread.” With that the Draconequus disappeared.
“What does Celestia see in him?” Drak-ill asked no one in particular. Receiving a whinny from his son. “Ditto.”
“Sir! Ballistae are ready!”
“On my mark!”
There was a rumbling felt on the ground, like a small earthquake.
“Remember soldiers! This is the last stand we have! Do not let a single Centaur through!” He gripped the sword in his magic, “Every Man, Women and Hatchling! Get ready for the fight of your lives!”
The rumbling became more intense as over the hills, a large number of red skinned Centaurs ran up the hills. All of varying sizes, their horns of different lengths, but there was a single one back there he recognized.
“Tirek…” He hissed. “Get those Ravenous children up here now! We’re going to have to use them a lot sooner than I anticipated!”
At that, multiple metallic cages were brought forward, each one holding a small dragon, slamming into the walls of the cage and trying to get out to release their animalistic anger.
“Three...” The Centaurs ran forward.
“Two…” The Cages glowed with a black aura.
“One…” The Ballistae all took aim.
“Mark!”
The ensuing chaos was a wonder to behold, Sword clashing with sword, magic causing heat to wiz through the air. The Small recently hatched Dragons rushing up to the largest of the Centaurs, attacking like a wild pack of wolves, ripping into flesh. They all took time to kill, parts of the Centaurs flying away as the dragons ripped through them, ignoring everything else.
The Ballista volleys pierced through the iron hides of the Centaurs, leaving them open to lightning from the mages.
“Where the hell are those Darklings?!” Drak-ill shouted, firing black magical beams from his horn that caused black crystals to tear through the Centaurs’ chests “They were supposed to be here!”
“Problem in the Badlands!” An intelligence officer called back. “They were reassigned!”
“Well get Morphi on the line! We won’t be able to hold this out for much longer!”
A large fireball hit one of the towers surrounding the city, causing the dragons to fly off it. “Sir… Ballistae 1-5 are down!”
“Shit! Where is that bastard?”
“You called?” A dragon clad in a red crystalline armor flew down and landed next to the Unicorn.
“What the fuck took you so long?” Drak-ill asked the new arrival.
“I was getting back up.” He pointed up to where a large number of Changelings were falling onto the Centaurs like flaming torpedoes.
“Bout time too.” Drak-ill replied. Then looking at the new dragon. “Go for Tirek! He’s the big ugly one!”
“Morphi. You ready?”
A bright green light shone in between the two of them, and a Changeling Queen stood there. She was clad in a pink crystalline armor, contrasting the black and green of her body. “As ready as my subjects are going to be.”
A few Changelings landed next to the Unicorn. The one in the center saluted. “Protector 489, Ironwall At your service sir!”
“Focus on that big ugly brute in the middle! If he gets up here we’re all dead!”
The Changelings nodded and took off, their forelegs morphing into blades, maces, anything that could be classified as a weapon, and started to push back the Centaurs.
“Oh my…how the tides have turned.” Discord replied from behind Queen Morphi. “And to think…I nearly destroyed your daughter.”
Morphi reached a breaking point she had held since her Hive was almost destroyed by Discord. “I will end you! You pathetic mix and match creature! And I will bring your head to Celestia myself!” She began rushing towards Discord.
“Morphi! Don’t!” The Dragon grabbed onto Morphi’s tail. “He wants you to get close. You remember what he did to Sombra.”
Morphi glared at the Draconequus, floating with that stupid grin on his face. “We have a more important issue here. Tirek! Remember what he did to your hive!”
Morphi turned her attention to the Centaur who was currently draining her Changelings of their magic. “Indeed I do. Shall we?”
On the ground, Drak-ill was pulling his sword out of the chest of a centaur, when he looked up to see two very bright orbs of light hovering above Tirek.
“What the hell are those two doing?” Drak-ill asked, shielding his eyes with his hoof.
The two orbs began spinning around each other, opening what looked like some kind of portal.
“Oh…Shit… EVERYONE HANG ON TO SOMETHING!” Drak-ill stabbed his sword into the rock and gripped it with his teeth as best he could. There was a rather powerful vortex coming from the center of those lights, and Drak-ill knew what was going on.
Temporary portal to Tartarus, which was based on the forbidden spells for a reason. It was stupid to do. But as he opened his eyes to look towards the battlefield, he saw Tyrek being pulled into it. Keep it up you two…
As Tirek was pulled into the portal, the two orbs of light vanished, being replaced by Queen Morphi and the Dragon Bearer.
Drak-ill fell to the ground and quickly picked himself up. “Alright boys! Clear ‘em out!”
At this the Dragons all flew into the air, followed by the Changelings rising above them. Every one of them shot fire across the battlefield, scorching the area.
There was a slow clapping from behind Drak-ill. He turned to see Discord’s legs clapping a few feet away from Discord’s body. “Bravo. Bravo! Encore!” He threw a red rose at Drak-ill, which turned into a herring that slapped Drak in the face a few times with its tail.
“I simply must say that was a brilliant choice of actors. Can I have your autograph?” A notepad formed in front of Drak.
“No.” Drak slapped the notebook to the ground, and was jabbed in the neck by a pen. “OW!” He glared at Discord.
“Don’t go blaming me. You were the one who hit his friend.”
“Why you little…”
“Discord!” Celestia’s voice rang out over the area and Discord’s smile dropped.
“Oh Tia. I was wondering when the all mighty Sunbutt would show up.”
Celestia was obviously not pleased with that comment. “Discord. Turn Drak back.”
“Or what?” Discord asked. “You can’t do anything to me.” He flicked Celestia’s horn. “Or do you want this to be a repeat of last time?”
“Discord. You’ve lost.”
“Lost?” Discord laughed. “I’ll admit that it is a shame that I won’t be able to add these lizards to my collection. But I’m no where near powerless.”
Discord raised his talon hand and as he did, the very ground began to shake.
“What are you doing Draconequus!” Drak-ill shouted.
“Oh…just spreading a little bit of Chaos!”
The Ground split open, everywhere lava began to flow through the ground, sending black clouds of poison gas into the air, a few Changelings began to spiral towards the ground, the Centaurs screamed as their very flesh was melted off.
“GET THEM OUT OF HERE!” Drak-ill shouted. All at once, the Dragons began to gather up the Changelings and the few ponies that were there and began flying them out of the Fiords.
“Prin Cough Princess Cough You need to Get out.” Drak-ill said, leaning on the sword to keep himself up. He was having trouble breathing in the gas with his new body.
“Discord! Change him back!”
“Oh Why should I?” Discord asked. “I think he looks rather funny.”
“He’s dying!” Celestia shouted. A light yellow glow surrounding her head.
“I’m fully aware of what is happening to him.” Discord replied. “I have no intention of reversing it.” He snapped his fingers and gave himself a pair of sunglasses. “Especially not on such a beautiful day as this.”
Drak-ill couldn’t stand any longer, he fell to the ground. “P-p-prin-ce-ss…” He coughed and wheezed, trying to get his lungs to cooperate.
“Now Discord!” Celestia replied. “Or are you just as gone I feared.”
Discord looked over his glasses at Celestia, and then turned to look at the unicorn gasping for air. He rolled his eyes. “Oh fine…” He snapped his fingers and an air bubble formed around Drak-ill’s head. He gasped in the fresh oxygen he desperately needed. “There…happy now.”
“No… You’ve just destroyed another land Discord.” Celestia replied.
“Oh well I suppose that is rather bad. Well…Arrivederci.” Discord vanished.
“I’m going to… Kill him…for this…” Drak-ill replied still having trouble breathing. “He’s…gone too far…”
Celestia just looked at the Unicorn. She let out a deep breath. “I’m afraid you’re right Drak-ill. He must be punished for this…”
Drak-ill lifted himself up, using his sword as a crutch. “I feel there is nothing…that can be done for him… Princess… he must be dealt with… Before he does any more damage.”
Celestia sighed. “Just rest Drak. I’ll get you medical aid when we return to Equestria.”
“Celestia…Thank you…”




Present Day

Shade opened his eyes and walked over to a small window. “Drak-ill, valiant defender, I understand the pain you went through…”
“So you aren’t what you appear either?”
Shade whirled around. Trying to find the source of the voice. “Who said that?”
“Oh come now. Really you must remember me? After all…You were just thinking about me.”
“Discord?”
“The One and only.”
“Show yourself coward!” Shade shouted.
“Would if I could little Changeling. But I’m currently trapped in stone.”
Shade smiled. “You deserved it too.”
“Oh ha ha ha… Look at the big bad Chaos Spirit that ruined your lands.”
Shade closed his eyes, focusing on the voice. “So what ever did happen to the Almighty Discord? Tracked down by a single Unicorn stallion before the Alicorns sealed you away?”
“Oh you dirty little insect.” Discord’s form appeared before his eyes. “If I could move, I would turn you into a cockroach!”
“Listen to me you child’s toy reject.” Shade wanted answers to something, and Discord may be able to provide. “I don’t care what you did in the past! I want you to tell me one thing.”
“And what would that be Changeling?" Discord flew over and poked Shade.
“Meadow… Is she alright?”
The Draconoquis looked at Shade, “That little Filly? Why would you…” He gained a wicked smile. “No…Ahahaha! That’s priceless!” He wiped a tear from his eye. "Well if you really must know…she isn't dead… Yet. Now if you’ll excuse me…I need to go and haggle Celestia.”
Shade opened his eyes, and the voice in the back of his mind vanished. He continued to look out of the window. “Meadow… I swear…I will find you… And I will make sure you are safe before I leave you again…”



Shade was sitting back down on the bed, thinking about Discord. How had he connected to me? That question bothered him for quite a while, then he remembered something very important about Discord, ‘The laws of Nature need not apply.’
That was one of the biggest things Shade had to get used to in this land, there were so many things that made no sense to a rational mind, such as Pinkie and Discord, then there were just so many things he knew about. The problem was adjusting to everything, forgetting most of what he knew in order to figure out his new life. At least until I can manage to transform into my old form…
Shade looked up at his horn, which still had the silver metallic ring around it, the single thing preventing him from trying to find answers… Impossible for him to remove, and it just makes his life much more difficult. While he never enjoyed magic, he had to admit; not having it at all was a pain.
Since the Assassination incident, Shade had little to do, not from lack of things he could do, but because of what he wanted to be doing. He wanted to do so many things, Fly, was a big one. He also wanted to actually talk with his friends, but the closest thing to a friend he had in the hospital was currently being monitored for anything wrong with her, and Silver, who was more of an acquaintance, was looking over his brother. The biggest thing he wanted to do though…was figure out how to help Sunglider and find Meadow, all of which hinged on Twilight managing to convince the Guards to let her keep an eye on him.
He even read through the other two Daring Do books, not that he really absorbed any of it; it was just something to distract his mind. Much like how he was chewing on the pen Pinkie left here a while ago. Which looked much less like a pen, and now looked like a lock pick.
When the door opened, Shade was hanging his head upside down facing the door, which almost caused him to fall flat on his face before he caught himself.
Shade turned himself over so that the world wasn’t upside down and allowed the blood to flow from his head. Even through his slightly blurred vision, he recognized the lavender unicorn, which was currently beaming at him.
“Shade! I’ve got great news!” Twilight replied, hopping like Pinkie Pie.
“Whah iz-“ Shade spat out the chewed on pen. “What is it?”
“He said yes!” Twilight replied pulling Shade into a hug.
“Who said yes?” Shade felt like he just entered the conversation, even then he would have at least some idea what was going on.
“My brother.” Twilight replied releasing the hug. “He gave us permission to watch over you.”
Shade understood what was going on now. “That’s great! Does that mean I can finally have something to do?”
“Well…” Twilight replied. “Not entirely… One of us needs to be with you anytime you leave the apartment…”
Shade lowered his ears slightly. “Oh…” He quickly recovered though. “Better than being stuck in here forever. I’ve got stuff to do!” Shade hopped off the bed, tried to land and ended up falling on the ground. “And…legs are still a bit wonky. Great.” Shade pushed himself up, looking at Twilight who was holding her hoof in front of her mouth.
“Not right now.” Twilight replied. “There are a few things I need to do before you can just walk out.”
“Oh…Well…” Shade lowered his head. “Whatever you have to do I guess…”
Shade saw Twilight’s horn glow and felt the suppression ring on his horn come off. “There we go.”
Shade reached up and touched his now smooth horn, surprised at what Twilight just did. “They…They just let you do that?”
“Well… not without a little restraint of my own.” Twilight replied as her horn glowed again.
“What do you mean?” Shade looked up at his own horn, where a small pink aura was surrounding it, before the glow faded. “What was that?”
“A little…suppression spell that I modified.” Twilight stood in front of him. “Try to hit me with a spell.”
Shade’s eyes widened. “Twilight…I…No!” He was in no way looking forward to even trying something like that. Especially with the whole, ‘brother is the Captain of the Royal Guard that caused him to fly into a dangerous forest full of wooden wolves’ thing.
“Just try it.” Twilight said rolling her eyes. “I never said it had to be a strong spell.”
Shade was still nervous, but he swallowed that. “Alright…” He sighed, pointing his horn at Twilight. He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see what was going to happen, but when he thought there should have been a spell leaving his horn, instead he found himself getting shocked.
“OW!” Shade said as the current of electricity shot through his body. “Son of a-!” He looked at Twilight who was currently a mixture of curious pleasure and success.
“It worked!”
“Wonderful…” Shade replied, kicking his right hind leg to get the last few sparks out of his body. “You could have just told me…”
“But I needed to make sure that the spell would work on Changelings.” Twilight looked back at Shade. “Now try and transform.”
Shade raised his eyebrow…ridge…thingy. “Will I get electrocuted again?” This is important.
“Well if the Spell worked the way I hoped it would, then no.” Twilight replied. “It should only stop you from using any kind of Combat magic with intent to harm, so your transformations shouldn’t be affected.”
Shade eyed her skeptically before rolling his eyes and trying to turn into Comet Trail, mostly because Twilight probably had more questions about Changeling magic, and Shade figured it would be easier to do that as a magic user.
He was pleasantly surprised to see the wisp of green flame, and then find himself in Comet’s body, the long strands of blue mane covering his vision. “Well that worked…” He replied, looking himself over to make sure there was nothing different. “How do I look?”
Twilight walked around him. “Well… you certainly aren’t Sunstreak.”
“Nope.” Shade replied. “This pony’s named Comet Trail.” Shade replied. “I saw him inside Tornado Dust’s house. So… Until I come up with something better for a unicorn form. This is it.”
“But why not change into Sunstreak?” Twilight asked.
“Well…mostly because I wasn’t sure if this would work, and in case it shorts something out, I would prefer my wings be left alone.” Shade transformed back to his natural form.
“Alright…well now that we know you aren’t going to be altered because of that spell, you should probably turn into Sunstreak. As that was another one of the restrictions…” When Shade looked at her curiously, she continued. “When Shining managed to get clearance, he had to put some restrictions on. One, no combat magic.”
“Obvious…” Shade commented.
“Two: Me, Rainbow, or Pinkie have to be by your side. Three: You can only disguise as Sunstreak.”
Shade was going to argue, but found that last one completely understandable, can’t have a possibly dangerous criminal just run around with the skin of anyone.
“Four: We have to fill Shining Armor in on everything you do, everypony you talk to, and any suspicious behavior will get you locked up again. Five:-“
“How many more of these do you have?” Shade asked getting kind of bored.
“Last one.” Twilight replied. “You are not to leave the city.”
“That it?” Shade asked anxious to get out of the Hospital.
“Yes… I have your release papers right here.” Twilight pulled a group of papers out of her saddlebag. “We just need to show this to the receptionist and you should be good to go. I already got your things from the Dungeons by the way. It’s all in the apartment.”
“Don’t your parents live around here?” Shade asked, remembering reading that Twilight grew up in Canterlot in Pinkie’s party planner.
“Well…yes but our house is not really suited for…Pinkie Pie…and I doubt my parents would be okay with you being there…”
Shade nodded in understanding, it would get pretty awkward if they had to explain why Shade was with them. He doubted that Twilight’s parents would be too understanding…if past experience were anything to go on.
“Are you ready to finally get out of here?” Twilight asked him.
Shade didn’t even need time to think about it, he quickly transformed into Sunstreak. “Yes!”
Twilight giggled slightly at his eagerness. “Alright…but we are going to have to wait a bit before heading back to the apartment, Pinkie is planning something.”
“Fine by me.” Sunstreak replied, picking the suppression ring up off the ground.
“Why are you taking that with you?” Twilight asked as she levitated the Daring Do books into her saddlebag, along with the rest of what was left on the bedside table.
“Well…Might as well have something to remember all the time I spent in here. It’s not like I can take the bed now can I.” Sunstreak replied. “And…in case for some reason I get found out by someone, I doubt they are going to trust my word on your little… What was that spell anyway?”
“It’s a heavily modified suppression spell,” Twilight explained. “Most suppression spells stop all magic, or certain spells, usually it doesn’t stop entire categories of magic. So I had it modified so that anytime you try and use magic specifically to cause physical or mental harm, the spell will backfire and shock you.”
Sunglider paused for a moment, “That spell I used…I tried to make it as painless as possible…so…”
“The suppression field amplifies the magical power of the spell you use, just to make sure that you don’t try anything.”
“Oh kay…” Mental note: DO NOT USE ANY SPELLS! “Glad we got that out of the way. So what’s next?”

After signing a few forms with the receptionist, most of which were just forms saying stuff like ‘He knew Twilight’, or ‘Understood what he was doing.’ But one of the forms he could have sworn was called ‘Queen’s Insurance.’ But after that, Sunstreak and Twilight were finally allowed to leave.
Sunstreak took a deep breath and let it out in a relaxing exhale. “Ahh… I almost forgot what fresh air smells like.”
“You were only away for around a week.”
“Yes…but in that time, I was underground, in a dark dungeon and in the sterile nature of a hospital, in which I could not open the windows.”
“Oh come on...” Twilight replied. “It can’t have been that bad.”
Sunstreak looked directly at her. “Do you know when they last cleaned those dungeons?” Twilight shook her head “Well neither do I… But it wasn’t recently.”
Sunstreak was enjoying the small breeze that was floating through the white and gold city. He began to flap his wings, lifting himself off the ground and hovering there for a while.
“You must have missed flying.” Twilight said, looking at Sunstreak keep himself off the ground.
“What gave it away?” Sunstreak replied lowering his head to look at Twilight.
“The fact that you are currently acting like Rainbow Dash normally would.” She gestured to his wings.
“Well…” Sunstreak replied. “I’ve been unable to get off the ground for quite a while… so I think I have a right to be a little excited about flying again.” Sunstreak did a flip over Twilight to illustrate his point.
Twilight rolled her eyes, “Alright I get it. You’re happy to be out and about. But you need to keep yourself grounded.” Twilight grabbed Sunstreak in her magic, pulling him to the ground. “At least for today. I want to be sure that wing of yours isn’t going to cramp up.”
Sunstreak folded his wings. “Yes my Queen.” Sunstreak replied lowering his head in a mocking bow, which could easily have been a small nod of approval if viewed from farther away.
Twilight punched him in his foreleg. “Don’t even start joking about that.” Twilight hissed. “Might draw somepony’s attention.”
“Oh alright.” Sunstreak replied. “I’m just having a bit of fun. No need to get all punch happy.” Sunstreak rubbed where Twilight punched, while it wasn’t as hard as say, Rainbow Dash, it still stung.
“So…” Sunstreak said, looking up at the sky. There was still a few hours of Daylight left. “Anything worth seeing around here?”
Twilight’s expression changed to a wide smile. “I’m glad you asked.”
Before Sunstreak could react, he found himself being pulled along the street by a very excited unicorn.



“So those are the Wonderbolts.” Shade said as he watched the flight team of pegasi fly above. “I can see now why Rainbow wants to join them so much…”
Twilight had showed him around town, showing him the various museums and… basically anywhere that was on her long list that him and Meadow didn’t look at before Joe’s place. When they came across the Wonderbolt Museum, Shade decided to actually learn a bit about Equestria.
From what he learned, the Wonderbolts were a faction of a defense force created after the Nightmare Moon incident, which Shade found correlated with the Nightmare fog’s creation in the Fiords. The defense force was originally created with all three ‘tribes’ working together, which made Sunstreak wonder what happened to the other members of that division.
“So… What ever happened to the rest of the EUP or whatever it was called.” Sunstreak asked..
“Well…most of them went on to become members of the Royal Guard, most of it isn’t to well documented.”
Sunstreak was looking over a list of battles they were involved in, which wasn’t very many, but then again, these ponies were more of a peace-loving race.
“So how does a military organization become a stunt team?” Sunstreak asked. “I mean…I understand there aren’t very many large scale conflicts in Equestria, but you always need a strong air force.”
“Well… That’s not exactly documented…” Twilight replied.
“So you have no idea.” Sunstreak replied, he knew that ‘Undocumented’ tended to mean nobody cared to write it down.
Twilight began looking around the room. “What time is it?”
Sunstreak kept reading a section on their founding, he didn’t even need to look up to tell what time it was. “about 5:43 give or take a few minutes.”
When Twilight found a clock hanging on the wall, Sunstreak could tell she was more curious now mixed with a tiny bit of surprise. “5:43” She said in surprise. “How did you do that?”
Sunstreak pointed out the nearby window, small clouds were blocking the setting sun’s rays. “We learned to tell time based on the position of the sun, useful for when you’re hunting out in the Fiords, because nobody wants to be out there at night.”
“Why not?” Wonderful…how do I explain this.
Sunstreak looked up from the panel. “Remember Nightmare Moon?”
Twilight nodded.
“Well…The elders always told me about when she was sealed away, apparently when Nightmare Moon was sealed away her influence over the world wasn’t destroyed…just shifted.” Twilight was listening with a great deal of interest in the subject. “It took the form of something we called ‘Nightmare fog’ it was a huge cloud of pure darkness that floated over the Fiords, and if you were caught in it…” Sunstreak paused, both because he didn’t want to think about it, and also because he needed to come up with some way to say it without drawing attention to himself.
“What happens?” Twilight asked with a studious curiosity.
Sunstreak sighed. “You are pulled into your dreamscape, an inner working of your mind which acts as an in between area of dreams… but the worst part is that you are challenged.” Sunstreak took a relaxing breath, just talking about it tenses his muscles. “At which point, there are only three outcomes, you survive and are let free, you fail and die, or…” Sunstreak wiped his eye. “Or you become a mindless beast.”
Twilight looked concerned for him. “I’m sorry but…who did you…”
“My best friend…” Sunstreak replied. “I-I don’t want to talk about it.” Stupid repressed memories…making me feel sad.
“I’m sorry for you. That can’t have been easy.”
“No…it was not…now if you’ll excuse me…I need to purge that memory from my mind…” Sunstreak replied. “Again.”
A few minutes later, Sunstreak had managed to rid that memory from the front of his mind, he would need to get rid of it later that night. But right now he needed to focus on enjoying himself before the three-hour time when he had to block out a memory.
“So where to now?” Sunstreak asked as the two of them walked out of the Museum.
“If it’s all the same to you Sunny, I think we should head back to the apartment… I’m worried what Pinkie will do if we give her too much time to plan this.”
Sunstreak nodded. “Yeah I can understand that…” Sunstreak grew to be used to Pinkie’s antics, but she seemed really adamant about throwing a party for him, and if he didn’t show up soon, he was pretty sure she would make it the size of Equestria, and time would be needed before he revealed himself to all of Equestria.
“Just follow me, I know this city like the back of my hoof.”
“I thought you never left the library?” Sunstreak replied jokingly, earning him another punch in the leg.
“And what have done in the past few days?” Twilight asked while Sunstreak rubbed where she punched.
“I spoke with Discord.” Sunstreak replied as casually as saying ‘I went out’.
“You what!” Twilight shouted causing nearby ponies to look over at them.
“Shh!” Sunstreak replied. “You were the one saying I shouldn’t draw attention to myself.”
“Well why didn’t you tell me that you talked to the lord of cha-“ Sunstreak covered Twilight’s mouth before she could finish.
“SHH!” Sunstreak hissed. “Not here. Not now.”
Twilight forcibly moved Sunstreak’s hoof from her mouth. “When and Where?”
“Earlier today, Hospital.” Sunstreak replied.
“About?”
“Nothing… Just…” Sunstreak sighed. “I asked him about Meadow…”
“And?”
“She’s fine.”
Twilight glared at Sunstreak, then looked around the street at the ponies staring at them. She sighed. “We’ll talk about this later.” She whispered to him.
“Fine by me.” Sunstreak replied.
The two of them walked in a tense silence, Twilight was radiating a aura of annoyance, and Sunstreak was very aware that she was angry with him about keeping this from her, even for a few hours. He wanted to know why it was so important to her that Discord talked to her, but he was afraid to do it in public… as she could easily just reveal him and wait for the rest of the ponies to deal with him.
They continued to walk in silence, drawing a few stares from passersby until they reached a rather fancy looking hotel type building that Sunstreak could have easily thought was being overly fancy if he hadn’t seen the rest of the city. He had the usual look over from the receptionist because of his eye, before they were allowed to head up to the room.
Sunstreak was surprised by the intricate inner designs; it looked like something that should belong in a castle. Marble pillars, gold laced wall tiles; he wouldn’t have been surprised to find an indoor fountain on a small magically created lawn in the middle of the room.
Twilight just walked through it as though everything was fine, but Sunstreak could tell she was still mad at him about the whole Discord thing. Mostly because he could smell it, a faint hint of something burning, but also because she refused to talk, and seemed to be putting her brain into overdrive working something out. At first Sunstreak thought the burning smell was coming from her brain, all that was left was for steam to come out of her ears.
When they reached the ornate wooden door, complete with small fancy golden numbers, Twilight put the key into the lock and opened it. When she pushed open the door, all Sunstreak saw was a pink blur and found himself on the ground in one of Pinkie’s hugs.
“Just couldn’t wait could you?” Sunstreak asked looking up at the pink pony.
“I was going to but I got too excited. I spent all day working on this party!”
Rainbow Dash, She’s on the ground! It’s a miracle!, was standing in the doorway. “It’s true. You should have seen her, running up and down the streets gathering party supplies. I lost track of her a few times.”
“Really?” Sunstreak replied. “I thought you could keep up with her. Especially with you being able to fly.”
Rainbow sighed. “It wouldn’t be the first time she vanished into nothingness. Twilight remember when she…” Rainbow realized Twilight had walked into the room without her noticing. “Twilight?”
“Why’s she all distant?” Pinkie asked, letting go of Sunstreak. “Normally she would at least say something before walking off…”
“That’s probably my fault…” Sunstreak replied. “I…uh…I’ll tell you when we are inside…”
“Well come on then Silly Billy.” Pinkie grabbed Sunstreak and pulled him into the room. “The Party’s in here.”
“Whoa…” Sunstreak said as he looked around, The apartment had been covered with multi colored balloons and streamers, on the small counter, there was a small cake, a plate of cupcakes and cookies, a punch bowl, and a bunch of cards. In the corner of the room was Pinkie’s Party Cannon, a blue cannon with pink wheels that Pinkie could pull out at will. That explains the confetti in the ceiling then.
“You set all this up in five hours?” Sunstreak asked admiring Pinkie’s handiwork.
“Yup, I had to get all the flour and baking powder from Donut Joe. Then I got the rest of the supplies from the nearby party store and the icing came from the same store.” Pinkie was hopping around.
Twilight was taking out all the stuff from the hospital and laying them on the small table. She turned around to look at Sunstreak. “What did you do with that suppression ring?” She asked.
“Oh that,” Sunstreak replied. “It’s in my leg.”
Rainbow Dash looked at him in confusion. “What?”
“It’s in my leg.” Sunstreak replied there was a small green flame on his right foreleg and one of the holes in his leg appeared, he shook the leg and the silver ring fell out of it. “See.”
“How did you do that?” Pinkie asked hopping up and down.
“I found out that I could do that a while ago… I was in Everfree, when I got a bunch of sticks stuck in my leg. I just transformed my leg and when I changed back, the stick fell out.”
“Isn’t that…uncomfortable?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Ehh… Kind of. Having anything in your leg feels really weird, I’ve only used it like twice…” Sunstreak replied as he fixed his leg. “It feels better when I fit it perfectly into the holes.”
Twilight had finished unpacking and looked at Sunstreak expectantly. “Don’t you have something you would like to share?”
Sunstreak sighed. “Fine…” He looked at Pinkie and Rainbow. “I talked to Discord.”
“What!” Rainbow said opening her wings in surprise. “What does that goat face want?”
“Nothing… Well… Not that I asked.” Sunstreak replied. “I was just thinking about an old story the elders of my village told me. Then he kind of…cut into my mind…”
“How?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Sunstreak replied. “I just asked him about Meadow, and he said she was fine…”
“I hope you didn’t trust him.” Twilight replied.
“Why?” Sunstreak asked. “Do you have some kind of grudge against him?”
“You could say that.” Rainbow Dash replied.
“Well. Details would be nice.” Sunstreak replied. “I mean…as far as I know, he should still be in that stone prison.”
“You may want to sit down.” Twilight replied with a sigh. “You can drop your disguise now by the way.”
Sunstreak sat on the floor where he was and dropped his disguise. “So. What happened?”
The three of them began to tell a very interesting story, cotton candy clouds, chocolate milk rain, soap roads, ripping apart harmony. When they began talking about how Discord changed them, Shade was already deeply invested, he already had a reason to hate Discord, but hearing what he did to Equestria was quite eye opening.
“Then we used the Elements to seal him back in stone and fix Equestria.” Twilight concluded.
“Wow…” Shade said as they finished. “So…he really can do… All that?”
“Can and did.” Rainbow Dash replied. “But what I’m really wondering is how do you know him?”
Shade sighed. “The Fiords were where most of the fighting in the war took place, between Centaurs and Dragons. There are lots of stories about what Discord did to the other races… But…” Shade was processing all of this, if Discord really did cause all of that…then why had Celestia kept him alive?
“What story were you thinking of?” Twilight asked, looking at him curiously.
Shade sighed again. “The Last Defense of Loyalty.” He watched as both Twilight and Pinkie looked up at Rainbow Dash.
“As in…” Twilight began. “The Element of Harmony?”
Shade nodded. “It was the day Discord destroyed the Fiords, making it uninhabitable by any but the dragons. Legend says he turned the leader of the troops into a Unicorn…”
Twilight’s jaw was hanging open. “He did what?”
Shade sighed. “According to what the elders say, Drak-ill was once a revered General, but after Discord transformed his wife into a sword.” Shade held up his hoof so he wouldn’t be interrupted. “He dedicated his life to trying to stop his tyranny, and during the last battle was transformed into a Unicorn.”
Twilight was running through the details in her head. “But…How did he survive the toxic smog?”
“Celestia talked Discord into saving him. If I’m remembering correctly… Drak-ill joined up with the Equestrian military as soon as he was cleared. He spent the rest of his extended life protecting the civilians.” Shade looked down at his own hooves. “And now I know what he went through…” He transformed his right hoof into a Griffon Talon. “Forcibly changed with no way back…”
There was silence in the room for a few seconds until Shade shook his head. “No point worrying about it… Nothing I can do about it.”
“Shade…I’m sorry for snapping at you.” Twilight said. “I didn’t realize that-”
“Shade held up his hoof. “No worries… I understand where you were coming from, hearing what he did…I don’t blame you.” Shade looked around the room. “Well… Now that we got those depressing stories out of the way. What do you say we make the most of this party?”