• Published 1st Mar 2012
  • 1,680 Views, 112 Comments

Summer Sun, Dawning Chaos - CTVulpin



A Summer of mishaps and mayhem in four Acts, starring the Order-naries

  • ...
4
 112
 1,680

Act II, Scene 3: Storm Break

In a third-floor, two-room apartment on the south side of Canterlot, in the space that doubled as bedroom and workshop, Gale took advantage of her solitude and the inability to properly enunciate while gripping a socket wrench in her mouth to vent some verbal frustration at the metal tube sitting on her workbench, which had just failed her in a manner uncharacteristic of steel. She glared and mumbled at the long crack running along the tube’s length that had originated from the socket she had tried to fit a bolt into. She spat the wrench onto the workbench and prepared to give the ruined tube a more intelligible piece of her mind, only to yelp in surprise at a sudden flash of orange light from behind. She whirled around and saw Ashen Blaze standing next to her bed, already levitating the saddlebags from his back as he nodded a greeting to the brown earth pony.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to set a waypoint inside my apartment Ash,” she said in annoyance.

“It’s already dispelled Gale,” the fire-maned unicorn responded blithely, “You sent me out to gather an insidiously trouble-making plant; I’m not about to risk ‘joaking’ someone accidently by walking around with the stuff. I’ve already had to take one remedy bath today. Speaking of which…” He set the saddlebags down a safe distance from himself and Gale and then levitated a pair of small jars out of a side pocket, sending them onto a nearby shelf. “Zecora gave me some extra herbs in case there’s an accident. How’s the launcher coming?”

“I’ve got the air compressor working,” Gale answered half-heartedly, “although I’m still not sure how long the power source will last when brought into proximity with Magebane gels.”

“No one says you have to use that stuff you know,” Ash said with feigned casualness, suddenly finding a reason to inspect his hoof. Gale shot him a glare and turned back to the workbench. “So you still can’t find a battery that doesn’t utilize magic?” Ash asked.

“I might have,” Gale answered as she rolled the cracked tube off the bench and set it up on its end, “I just can’t tell the difference, and none of my suppliers seem to care if there is one. Magic, technology, it’s all the same to these candy-colored ponies. As, apparently, are steel and fiberglass…”

“Ah, the Magi-technician’s dream,” Ash said lightly. His smile faded when he saw Gale’s ears flatten back and her head droop sadly.

“Yeah,” she said, putting her front hooves up on the workbench and pulling herself into an upright posture even as her head hung lower, “Master Maesi would’ve loved this world…” An awkward silence fell between the two ponies as Ash tried to find the right words to comfort his oft-suspicious but dependable friend.

An insistent knock at the apartment door broke the silence and Ash gladly welcomed the out it gave him. “I’ll get it,” he said, running out into the main room as Gale lowered herself back onto all fours and followed him at a walk. Ash’s magic undid the locks as he approached the door and he opened it a crack to look out. “Heart, Soul,” he said with a smile as he opened the door fully, “How are you?” He then took notice that the unicorn and pegasus twins were both wearing their golden Royal Guard uniforms.

“Not so good,” Soul Mage said, “We’re needed in Discord’s cell, ASAP.”

“Why the rush?” Ash asked, confused, “I took longer than I expected with Gale’s errand, but I’m pretty sure I’m not late for my shift.”

“You’re not,” Soul replied, “but the Princess wants all of us there now. Discord’s vanished.”

“That…” Ash said, stunned, “That would definitely be a problem. Gather in team, I’ll get us to the castle.” The Order-naries gathered around in the hallway Ash traced out a pattern on the floor with a hoof as his horn and gemstone necklace began to glow. “Destulf juri iska,” he said in a tone of command as he stomped with his tracing hoof, “Transport!” With a crack of displaced air and a flash of orange light the quartet disappeared from the apartment building.


As they ran from Ash’s in-castle workroom, where the transport spell had deposited them, to the modified storage room that had once held the petrified dragonequus, Soul Mage and Gold Heart brought their friends up to speed on the situation. The unicorn guard who had been on duty, First Lieutenant Steel Hoof, had heard something walking down the hall past the room with an odd gait and had poked his head out to try and catch a glimpse. He hadn’t seen anything, but as he’d started to turn back to the statue, he’d blacked out for at least an hour. When he came to, Discord was gone. Naturally, his first reaction had been to sound the alarm. Once apprised of the situation, Celestia had withdrawn to the Day Tower to feel around for signs of rising Chaos magic while Luna took charge of investigating the room and sending the twins to fetch Ash.

“And so I’m just an incidental tag-along,” Gale concluded dryly.

“You’re PC’s official owner now,” Soul pointed out, “He could be of some use, if you brought him.”

“PC’s not allowed in the castle,” Gale replied, “The Princess is still worried about the whole ‘his A.I. is based off a Z’Nai’ thing.”

“A basic, dormant, unevolved, and technology-based Z’Nai,” Ash muttered to himself.

“It’s a reasonable concern,” Soul Mage said matter-of-factly, keeping his eyes focused on their destination.

“There hasn’t been a single report of magic-based Z’Nai since we contained that breakout,” the ash-grey unicorn said in irritation.

“Better safe than sorry,” Gold Heart said. Ash scoffed and rolled his eyes.

Soul nodded sagely at his sister’s words, smirking, but then concern clouded his features. “Call me paranoid,” he began.

“You’re paranoid,” Heart and Ash cut in simultaneously, the formerly teasingly and the latter sardonic. Soul paused and face-hoofed, to the amusement of the girls.

“You took the Z’Nai to the moon because it seemed like the only option at the time,” he said to Ash as he caught back up with the others.

“Truth,” Ash said with a nod, “It was, and is, far enough away that the Z’Nai would starve before they could get back, and has a magic field that is too weak to sustain them.”

“And Princess Luna moves it with magic every night,” Soul added, “Is there the possibility that she’s keeping some of them alive up there, and that they might catch a ride on the flow between moon and alicorn to get back here?”

“You are indeed simply being paranoid Soul Mage.” The golden-yellow unicorn looked up in surprise to see that his group had arrived at the crime scene and that Princess Luna was standing by the door to the now-vacant storage room with a reassuring look on her face. “The last time I felt the stirrings of those horrid shadows was about two weeks after their banishment to the moon,” the Princess of the Night said. For being the site of what was undoubtedly the biggest disaster to befall Canterlot since Discord’s previous escape, the area was surprisingly void of activity. Besides Luna, only a single other pony was present, and he was inside the room, helmet on the ground next to him as he stared into space with a dejected attitude unbecoming of a Royal Guard. When Ash expressed confusion, Luna motioned for him to step into the room as she explained, “The Guard completed their initial investigation whilst Heart and Soul were bringing you. Besides questioning the stallion on duty here, there wasn’t much to look at. I also prefer that your own examination be… unclouded by other opinions.”

“Fair enough,” Ash said with a nod. He went inside, looked around once, and then tapped the guard on the shoulder. “Lieutenant, was it?” he asked when the unicorn’s head snapped around to look at him.

“First Lieutenant Steel Hoof,” the guard answered.

“Any guesses as to why you blacked out?” Ash asked, squinting an eye as he walked around and scrutinized the walls, “Did you feel magic coming into play?”

“I think so,” Steel Hoof said, rubbing his head, “but I was out before I had a chance to notice anything. Discord must have been covering his break-out until I was distracted.”

“He’s not that subtle,” Ash muttered, stamping a hoof in the spot the statue had occupied, “There’s no debris from the stone breaking apart, and if he was out and about I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be any doubt to the fact.”

“He is a spirit of Chaos,” Soul Mage pointed out, peeking into the room, “by definition unpredictable and random.”

“He’s flamboyant and requires an audience to display his beloved chaos to. Or on,” Ash said in a conclusive tone as he came back into the hall. “No, whoever is responsible for this, it’s not Discord himself.”

“I am inclined to agree,” Celestia’s bright voice, thick with atypical sternness, rang down the hall. Everypony turned to see the tall white alicorn approaching and all but Ash and Luna dropped into a quick bow. “Canterlot and the surrounding lands are free of any strange occurrences and I haven’t received any notes of alarm from Twilight. I fear that Discord’s mysterious ally has managed to outwit us again and taken him away somewhere where the seal can be removed without interruption.” She raised an eyebrow when she saw Ash’s look of distrustful confusion and heard him mutter something under his breath. “Do you have something else to add Ashen Blaze?” she asked.

Ash visibly winced and kept his gaze off the Princess for a moment before speaking. “I request permission to bring PC here,” he said in a flat, businesslike tone, “With his analytical powers and database on magic spells combined with my own… skills, we can hopefully identify not only how Discord was removed, but where to.”

Celestia pondered the request for a moment, her face betraying no hints until she reached her decision. “Very well,” she said, “but do not have it with you when report your findings to me.”

“Thank you,” Ash said, turning smartly in the direction of his workroom, “Gale, if you wouldn’t mind coming with me so you can let me into your apartment?” The brown earth pony nodded and followed Ash down the hall.


Of the four performers in Trixie’s troupe, Harlequin and his pratfall acrobatics seemed to be the part of the show that Ponyville enjoyed the most, and so it had been decided that he should perform twice: a short act to open the show and attract last-minute attendees and then a longer and more complex performance following Barnacle Salt’s storytelling, with Trixie closing out the show with magic. The two stallions traded off “Security” detail, which mostly amounted to trying to find and head off Tremolo if he tried to make an appearance. When she wasn’t acting like a seapony and providing a backdrop for Barnacle’s tall tales, Cabbage managed the curtains and controlled most of the stage effects that added flavor to Harlequin’s act. That left Trixie to her own thoughts, which invariably came around to the subject of the show’s success. While she hadn’t expected a miracle, she was underwhelmed by the evening’s turn-out. She counted it as a plus that all six of Rarity’s friends, including that little dragon Spike, had shown up more or less willingly, and there were certainly more ponies out there than the previous two nights, and the response had been quite positive (there was a collective gasp followed quickly by laughter and applause as Quin turned a botched double backflip into a cartwheel at the last second). Still, the crowd was nowhere near as big as it had been on her previous visits, and certainly couldn’t match the sold-out houses from her Manehatten peak. I could blame it on my bad reputation here, she thought, but it’s getting harder to pull in crowds no matter where we go. A final thump of hooves on the stage followed by hearty hoof-pounding applause brought Trixie out of her pondering to realize that Harlequin had just finished his act.

The two nodded to each other as she trotted on stage and he made his exit. The noise died down as she took center stage and favored the audience with her best confident grin. An errant breeze began to blow, teasing the edges of her cape. “Thank you Ponyville,” she said, “Trixie hopes you have enjoyed the show so far, but now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for!”

“The final bows?” a dark-coated pegasus stallion called out from the back.

“Shut up Thunderlane,” Rainbow Dash snapped, cutting off the laughter the comment had caused.

Trixie simply rolled her eyes and continued her speech, rearing up for effect. The breeze picked up and helped her cape flare out impressively. “You are about to witness illusions and feats of magic unmatched throughout all of Equestria,” she announced, “performed by none other than the Great and Powerful Trixie!” The pyrotechnics went off on cue, mostly pinwheel flares and smoke-pots as well as a pair of fireworks, but as they did so the wind strengthened as well, blowing Trixie’s hat off and sending the fireworks off course. The showmare bit back a curse as she caught her hat in her teeth and wrapped the errant rockets in a ball of magic to make sure they didn’t hit something.

“Maybe you should leave weather effects to the professionals,” Thunderlane called out mockingly.

“This wind is not part of Trixie’s act,” the showmare retorted, putting her hat back on and holding it in place with a hoof, “High winds and flying sparks don’t mix, Trixie knows that much.”

“Well it’s not on the weather schedule,” Rainbow Dash said, looking around at the other pegasi in the group. The wind grew stronger again, and the cyan pegasus braced against it before taking flight. “I better go see what’s up,” she said crossly before flying off. The wind increased again and again as she struggled through it, but she pressed on and upward until she could see the edge of town, and beyond it the trees of the Everfree Forest were practically swaying in the gale. “Oh, great,” Dash said sarcastically, “Wild weather.” With a sigh, she started to turn around to start gathering up a weather team. A sudden powerful gust roared in, carrying a thick dust cloud with it. Caught off guard, Dash was sent tumbling through the sky and gagged as some of the dust found its way into her mouth. “Ok… ptoo. That’s it,” she said after righting herself, “It is so on now wind!” She flew back toward Trixie’s stage, calling out for various pegasi to join her as she met them on the way. Upon arrival she saw Trixie’s company closing the wagon up against the wind with the help of some of the former audience, the rest having apparently run for shelter.

Rainbow landed on the wagon roof and shouted for attention over the howl of the wind. “Ok weather team,” she said, pacing along the length of the wagon, “It looks like we somehow missed the signs of a freak windstorm brewing out in the Everfree and now we’re paying for it. It’s going to take a powerful windbreaker formation to whip up a counter-current strong enough to cancel this out. I need your best. Can you give it to me?”

“Yeah!” the flying ponies shouted with determination.

“All right, follow me!” Rainbow cried out, taking flight and letting the wind propel her to the other side of town. The pegasi took wing and fell into a loose formation as they followed.

“Will they actually be able to do it?” Trixie yelled over the wind.

“Hopefully,” Twilight responded, “They certainly won’t give up trying though, not with Rainbow leading them.” Another dust-filled gust washed by and rocked the stage wagon. Both unicorns quickly wrapped their magic around it and steadied it, and then Twilight nodded toward the harness and said, “Let’s get you somewhere that’s sheltered until the wind is beat back.”


Alone in the room that had once been Discord’s holding cell, Ashen Blaze sat seemingly alone, ears flat against his skull and every muscle tensed in carefully contained anger as his head-mounted super-computer with an attitude finished its report. “Give that to me one more time,” he said in a voice that could make monsters beg for mercy.

PC wasn’t the least bit fazed. “The results of my calculations were presented at a reading level that has been sufficient for your comprehension before,” it said, its synthetic monotone managing to convey annoyance, “I will attempt again before dumbing it down: the Magic in this room shows clear signs of being Woven, at a level of complexity beyond the naturally-occurring Weaves of recorded Unicorn magic. There is a 70% certainty that the input anchor of a Distant Retrieval Transport spell was set here and activated 4 hours ago, with a half-hour margin of error on top of the 30% uncertainty. Your signature Weave style is evident around the Dragonequus’s former location.

Skvetch…” Ash muttered, rubbing at the eye that wasn’t covered by PC’s eyepiece display, “Roughly four hours ago I was in the Everfree Forest carefully gathering poison joak, by magic and from a safe distance, and then things went fuzzy and I found myself standing in the middle of the clearing up to my knees in the botanical blue buggers.”

I fail to find the connection between the events,” PC reported.

“Five days ago,” the grey unicorn said, taking a lecturing tone, “On the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration, I lost several hours to a dizzy spell and awoke in the middle of the Everfree near a fountain that sprayed grapes instead of water, later confirmed to be a product of Discord.

Common thread search still returns- Pause. … If you are suggesting Discord is responsible for your actions during these moments of lost time, I must remind you that you are immune to mind control.” Ash winced as the computer raised its volume several decibels, a common tactic used to emphasize that PC thought Ash was an idiot. Considering how often it had been employed over the years, they were both amazed that the mage hadn’t gone deaf in one ear by now.

“True… enough,” Ash grunted before regaining his composure, “For when I was Meis at any rate. Recall: I am a significantly different kind of creature nowadays.”

Physical transformation does not equate to the loss of your immunity to all known forms of psychic, magical, and bio-chemical mind control,” PC said confidently.

“Ah, there’s the rub,” Ash said triumphantly, “all known forms of mind control. Discord’s power operates outside the known laws of Magic and Science.”

Are you happy about this realization?” the computer inquired.

“Of course not,” Ash snapped, “Especially since I don’t know what to do about it.”

The Elements of Harmony are proven antidotes to Discord’s power,” PC pointed out.

Ash nodded and said, “Quite so. I’ll report to Ponyville tomorrow, so long as Discord doesn’t try to make use of me again before then.”

A sound plan if I ever heard one. What could possibly go wrong?

“Hush you.”