Marble Magic

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Eleven: Kitty Kitty

The room was dark as Baast opened her eyes. She slowly looked down at the ceiling and for a half second she panicked. Then she looked around at the upside down floor where the large bed was firmly rooted as if to say, ‘take that gravity, I make my own rules!’ A sweet smile grew over Baast’s lips.

“It has been thousands of years since I’ve done that,” she purred.

The large serpent stirred next to her and coiled around her like a circle of warmth. “Oh yes, I’ve forgotten how lovely it is to spend a few days doing nothing but creating such beautiful chaos.”

Baast rolled over and met the giant yellow eyes with their red irises and licked the tip of that horse-like muzzle. “Love, darling, love is such a chaotic thing.”

“We could be fighting one minute,” Discord said.

“Or making love the next,” She purred.

“I do oh so love playing with my kitty,” His tongue whipped out and washed across her body leaving a pleasurable tingling sensation.

“Oh shush, you just like licking pussycat,” She said playfully.

“Oh, yes, I, do.”

She gave a sharp cry of pleasure as his tongue found somewhere sensitive to lick. “Again? You naughty boy.”

“What day is it?” He asked.

“How should I know, we’ve been in this room for… ever since I was freed from that stupid orb. Those cretins think that just because I am in love with the spirit of chaos that I am some sort of evil monster.”

“We did get caught having sex in the public drinking fountain.”

“That wasn’t evil… it was sexy.”

“It was pure chaos of the best kind, the best part was when the ponies drank the water they started having an orgy right there,” Discord said with a large grin. “That was some beautiful disorder.”

“Can we do it again?”

“As a professional chaos spirit I would be remiss if we did the same thing twice, but we could try a few other things that have come to mind since you’re arrival. I was thinking of showing up in Twilight’s bathroom while she was in the middle of her morning routine.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“Oh it will be.”

He pulled his head away. “It’s Wednesday.”

“Oh really? Why does that matter?”

“I have tea with Fluttershy today. I allow her to choose the day, and I choose the hour, so long as it doesn’t disrupt her sleep. I wouldn’t want her to be any more angry with me than she usually is,” Discord said.

“You’re terrible,” Baast cried. “Leaving your kitty behind to go flirt with some, some, some floozy of a pony!”

“I am not flirting with her. She’s my friend…” Discord looked down at the ceiling. “She saved me from a dark place, and it’s been a struggle trying to not go there again. Some days I feel as though the only thing I can do is hurt things, and all I want to do is hurt them more. Other days I realize that chaos doesn’t have to hurt anypony, it can wonderful, creative, and full of life. The later days exist only because Fluttershy tries so hard to heal me.”

“You were broken when I left, weren’t you?” Baast asked. She pawed the side of his body.

“You’re back now, and I feel for the first time that true chaos sits within my grasp. We could create all manner of things together, what do you say,” He met her eyes. “Will you spend an eternity making chaos with me?”

“Oh, Dizzy, I thought you’d never ask. Of course I will!” she licked his muzzle again.

“Good, because I have some grand news for you and that body you are borrowing,” Discord said.

“Oh, you noticed that?”

“The cat inside of you is sleeping, but if he ever knew the things we did together he might just have a heart attack,” Discord joked. “So I want you to get your own body, it’s relatively easy. That orb holds some of your DNA, and old Goldielocks was doing research on how to create clones. He actually succeeded at it, but it requires some special spell.”

“Where is he now? I can get that spell from him in no time,” Baast said.

“Not quite so fast love,” Discord said. “He’s dead. You’ll need to go to his secret library and research lab located in the heart of the Everfree Forest. It’s somewhere inside an old ruined castle, one that’s chalk full of dark magic and ancient secrets.”

“Sounds like a party.”

“Promise me something.” His eyes turned deadly serious. “Don’t kill anyone.”

“Discord, I’m chaotic, not evil.”

“Baast, that’s not an answer.”

Baast growled. “You don’t trust me anymore?”

“I am the spirit of chaos, I don’t even trust myself.”

“Fine,” She stuck her nose up in the air. “I promise I won’t kill anypony. I haven’t purrsonally killed anypony since I got back and I don’t plan on doing so now. Mroew. Good enough fur you?”

He smiled. “Oh I will do such crazy things to you later that you’ll be driven sane.”

“That better be a promise, Mister.”

“I’m Discord, I don’t make promises.”

The forest had been dark, dank, and dreary. Trixie hated every single second of walking through it, and by the time she finally arrived at the old ruins she was ready to pack up and go home. Mud clung to her fur and tail and every single noise caused her to jump. She was told to expect monsters, anything form giant spiders to a manticore. Somehow though, the fact that nothing had attacked them during the entire trip was even worse.

The desolate ruins didn’t look any better with sunlight on them then they would have if it was the dead of night. Old stone walls lay half crumbled, what had once been pristine marble floors were so covered with dirt and plant life that Trixie could hardly tell there had ever been a floor. Spider webs covered the corners of the castle and various critters scurried away on their approach.

A small stone table sat with various candy wrappers and empty cans of soda on top of it. Starlight approached the table and took a seat. “Come on everypony, might as well take a break since we came all this way.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Starlight, have you been coming here often?”

“Every chance I get, it’s quiet, peaceful, and has a lot of magical secrets.”

“Well,” Twilight said as she nodded toward the castle. “I’m going to take a peek inside, you three can stay here if you want.”

Just as Twilight started walking off, Starlight followed after her. “I’ll come too.”

The two of them quickly vanished into the ruins leaving Trixie alone with her mom. Trixie found a dry place to sit and looked up at the sky. The clouds up above were quickly darkening. The air here was tense, and Trixie could already feel the weather changing. Nopony controlled the Everfree’s weather, so that meant that it could rain any time without any reason.

“You okay?” Marigold asked as she took a seat next to Trixie.

“I guess,” Trixie said lamely.

“If I had wings I’d wrap you up and hold you close,” Marigold said. She wrapped a leg over Trixie’s shoulder and pulled her close. “Guess we’ll have to do with normal hugs.”

“It’s going to rain,” Trixie said bitterly.

“Yeah, we need to find the secret lab before it does. I do not want to get caught out here in a storm,” Marigold said.

“Yeah.”

“So, your attempts at getting that unicorn’s attention kinda failed,” Marigold said. “You want any help in learning how to flirt?”

Trixie’s face heated up. “What? No, I don’t even… that was just to get her off my case. It’s… easier to let them assume that I did something wrong sometimes than to tell them the truth.”

Marigold nodded. “You were actually eyeing up that gray filly.”

“She’s not a filly! She’s older than me,” Trixie argued.

“You’re good friends with the gray one I take it.”

“Yeah, we are… I uh… I am pretty sure her sister would kill me if she found out that we were though,” Trixie said.

“Friends? Or because you have a crush on her?” Marigold asked.

“Er… both.”

“Her sister sounds awful, who wouldn’t want you in their family?”

Trixie coughed. “Marble’s sister.”

“Is there anything you can do to fix that?”

“I tried, I really did, but she’s just so mean to me… she hates me. I guess I can’t blame her, I’ve always got her friends wrapped up into all sorts of crazy trouble. I wouldn’t trust myself much either… and then I keep trying to defend myself and go overboard. I dumped ice cream in Pinkie’s hair last time.”

Marigold laughed. “That sounds awful, but I bet she deserved it.”

“Completely, but that doesn’t make it right.”

“Maybe I could help?”

“No,” Trixie snapped. Her heart raced at the idea of what her mom would do if Pinkie even said something rude. “Please don’t. I can handle this myself, I promise.”

“If you’re sure.”

Twilight and Starlight appeared from the edge of the ruins. “We found it!”

“The book or the library?” Marigold asked.

“Both!”

Trixie pushed herself up and brushed the dirt off her rump. “It’s about time, Trixie was getting bored sitting out here.”

“You could have come with us,” Twilight said.

“And leave Trixie’s mother alone?” Trixie said. “For shame, Twilight. Trixie’s mom needs protection too.”

“Ugh, there’s no winning with you,” Twilight said.

Trixie grinned. “Oh there’s winning, Trixie wins all the time.”

Starlight laughed a little. “Well, guess she just showed you up.”

Twilight frowned. “Come on.”

The four of them, led by Twilight entered the ruins. Despite the age and destruction that this castle had suffered, a large section of it was still standing and in fairly decent shape. Slowly they made their way into one of the halls and walked for awhile until they reached a wall that had knocked down, black scorch marks lined the edges of the gaping hole.

“What happened here?” Trixie asked.

Starlight shrugged. “You ever see a powerful unicorn sneeze? It was a long time ago.”

They walked inside and stopped at the sight of a doorway. A bookshelf was attached to the wall and had been drug outward like a door. Trixie frowned. “Really, a secret entrance behind a bookshelf. Isn’t that a little… classic?”

“Golden Oak did like doing things the old fashioned way, well… most things,” Marigold said.

“It’s just in here,” Twilight said with a skip in her step.

They followed her through the doorway and down a staircase. Once at the bottom they found a room lit by various crystals each shining their own colored light. Orange, blue, green, purple, and even yellow lights all filled the room. It was a venerable rainbow of light. A dozen shelves lined the walls, each filled with books. Several stone tables stood in the middle of the room with all sorts of objects on it.

“What is this?” Trixie asked as she walked in.

“It’s an old wizard’s laboratory!” Twilight exclaimed with a bounce. She quickly trotted over to one of the tables and picked up a round orb. “This here is called a memory orb! Ponies can put memories in it and other ponies can view the memories. It’s fantastic!”

“Uh-huh… that sounds sort of scary,” Trixie said. she looked down at a long string with various sized beads attached to it. The beads were ordered from smallest to largest. The last one about half the size of her hoof. They also smelled funny. Trixie picked it up and dangled it from her hooves. “Um… this is magic too?”

A wicked grin spread over Marigold’s lips. “Oh it sure is. I can get all the way to the last one.”

“Um… what?”

“Their anal beads,” Marigold answered without shame.

Trixie dropped it and shrieked.

Twilight stepped forward. “No their not! Those are telekinetic training beads. You can move them up and down the string with your magic and their supposed to help you get better control over your telekinesis…”

Marigold gave her a knowing smile.

“You already knew that didn’t you?” Twilight asked.

“Of course, but how could I avoid seeing that look on Trixie’s face?” Marigold said.

Trixie growled. “That was not nice. Trixie is not pleased.”

“Oh go right on into third person, you know it doesn’t actually infuriate me, you’re just telegraphing how upset you are,” Marigold said. “It’s cute.”

“Trixie is not cu- er Trixie is not trying to be cute!”

Twilight rolled her eyes and took a look at some of the books on the wall. It took a few minutes before she stopped skimming through them and found the one she wanted. She picked it up with her magic and began reading it. “Aha, you see here, this is what I wanted. Ancient heroes of the Sunlands. We have all sorts of cats here, including Baast.”

She flipped through several pages until she reached one and stopped to read it aloud. “It would seem that Saddle Arabia had not always been the place of diverse culture, equality and freedom that we know it as today. Once upon a time it was actually the largest slave empire in the whole of Equestria. During this time there was a group of six heroes, all working in tandem with Discord to destroy the evil empire. We all tend to forget that Discord is a spirit of chaos, a working cog in the machine that is our world. When evil rules over us all he will fight for good and vice versa.

“Now these six heroes were of particular interest to me. I have yet to find out any information on who most of them were but I do know their leader is. Baast, often viewed now as the goddess of protection, she was originally the holder of the virtue of war. She along with her friends toppled the evil empire. What really interest me is that she is also the only known creature to ever fall in love with Discord and keep a working relationship with him.

“That however was her downfall. She and Discord had gotten up to many hijinks that although humorous and often times in good nature, they ended up breeding hatred towards the two of them. When Discord vanished one day, I believe this is when he went south to the badlands and the demon empire, the citizens along with the Arch Wizard choose this time to get revenge on Baast.

“They branded her a traitor, and criminalized her for all time. Her punishment was to be locked away into a sphere which was set atop a stave. They sealed her spirit away and until this day she remains locked in that eternal prison. Should a creature of magic, unicorn, dragon, umbrum or wisp ever try to use her stave it will set off a chain reaction of destruction. It is a defense mechanism of the stave itself, to keep Baast locked away.

“Why did they put this devastating enchantment on it? Because simply put she can still break free. The fear is that if any of her bloodline should touch the stave then she could be freed. She might not have been evil before, but she was certainly full of dark magic. She used dark magic to destroy the evil in her lands and its possible that she’s been corrupted by it. Should she ever be freed we will have the equivalent of a demi-god in cat form running around and likely trying to solve problems.

“It is my belief that we should lock her away in the Hoofington Safe. My partner Marigold should be able to adequately keep it safe. Until such a time as I can find some other information and make a better decision, I will not risk any experiments with the stave.”

Twilight shut the book and shook her head. “So she’s a demigod?”

“Sounds like it,” Starlight said. “Does that mean I need to fight her?”

“I sure hope not,” Twilight said. “Maybe Discord can help us… become friends with her?”

“You don’t sound too sure of that,” Starlight said.

“That’s because it’s Discord and I just can’t trust him… but if there is even a chance that she’s not evil, just misguided, then we can help her,” Twilight said. She looked at Starlight. “You know exactly what I mean.”

Starlight looked down at the floor. “Yeah… we should try.”

Trixie reared up and slammed her hooves down on the table. “Are you forgetting that she killed my village? That she took my friend’s body?”

“Trixie,” Marigold said. “The stave did that to us, not Baast. Baast was still sealed away when you discovered her correct?”

“Yes, until Guile jumped on top of the shiny orb because he wanted to keep it,” Trixie said.

“Then why blame her for the destruction of our home?”

Trixie growled. “Then we destroy the stave!”

“I can get behind that,” Marigold said.

“First we need to try and help Baast though,” Twilight said. “I don’t want to risk endangering her by destroying the stave too early. Perhaps we can get her a new body?”

“Really?” Trixie said. “You’d help that body thieving murderer?”

“I’d help a town enslaving madmare,” Twilight retorted.

Trixie looked down at the table. “Fine! It’s not like I’m allowed to be a part of this anyway!” Trixie dropped to all fours and turned around. Every step of the stairs were stomped on with extra oomph to show those ponies below just how upset she was. By the time she got to the top of the stairs her hooves were a little sore and she was beginning to calm down.

What if Baast isn’t really evil?

The thought was stuck with her as she walked into the hallway. The sounds of ponies following her was but a brief distraction as she tried to wrap her mind around the question. There was no telling what the cat really wanted, but after a thousand years of being locked away, Trixie was sure there were a few things that she would want to do. Getting laid would probably up at the top of the list right next to eating chocolate.

A thought struck her. “Girls, I know where Baast is! She’s with Discord!”

Trixie turned around and was about to repeat herself when she saw her friends standing at the entrance to the knocked over all. Between Trixie and the others was a purple cat sitting proudly atop the wicked stave. A chill filled the hallway as the cat looked over her shoulder back at Trixie and smiled evilly.

“Oh, I was, but I’m here meow.”