Chapter 8
Original Title: Chaos to Shelter
This chapter is part of the older version of "Ein Sof Zealotry" and is to be considered non-canon in lieu of the pending rewrite. This along with the rest of the old story remain for the purpose of comparison.
Seeing Twilight rummage through the library wasn’t anything rare in Ponyville or any place where both Twilight and a library existed at the same time. However, the subject of her today’s research occurred for the first time in her life. She was never one for religious believes or any other supernatural phenomenons, yet personal experience can easily change believes into knowing and turn supernatural into natural.
While the Ponyville library didn’t dispose of too extensive collection of knowledge, Twilight was mildly surprised she could find so few mentions of Elysium and none about angels at all. Even what she found was limited to basic notes about origins of Equestria.
This whole search would go so much quicker if Spike could help me. But he would freak out if he found out about me researching afterlife. She sighed, returning yet another book to the original bookshelf. There was one last bookshelf left to search, so she turned to walk to it, her eyes heavy from the long work.
She didn’t make even four steps and hit her head against something where nothing was supposed to be. Taking a step back and shaking her head to clear it she took a better look and spotted a book levitating in the air. Looking around, she quickly found its owner, Scintillant sitting to the side and smirking at the spectacle.
“You mock dear Ditzy’s sight and overlook what’s directly in front of you.”
“When you place a book just in front of me, it is natural I wouldn’t react in time,” Twilight shot back and rubbed her still aching forehead. “I also already apologized to Ditzy for being rude.”
“Indeed you did and she was very happy about that turn of events. But in this particular case you miss to see something deeper as well. Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, why don’t you ever use what you have learnt?”
Twilight reached for the still levitating book and read its title. “Elements of Harmony, The Reference Guide.” She glanced at Scintillant with confusion. “But I have read this book many times already and there isn’t a single word about angels.”
“There wasn’t a single trace of a stairwell in the Crystal Castle either, yet the stairs were right there. When dark lord’s magic unlocks his secrets, how can you probably uncover those of Elysium?” Scintillant stayed calm and composed, patiently guiding her asset to the truth. She wouldn’t take the same risks Celestia willingly underwent when she let her pupils learn everything on their own.
A realisation sparked in Twilight’s eyes as she lit her horn in white. “Elysian magic, of course!” she exclaimed and the white aura encased the book in front of her. As it died down, the words on the cover changed. “Hymn of Creator, Chronicles of Elysium. It was here all this time! But why were the Elements of Harmony described in that book?
Scintillant hang her head low with a sigh. “Sometime, ponies are blind to the reason and see only the means. This book is protected by mighty magic to keep its contents safe. It is so powerful even those ignorant of Elysium could feel it and so used it to store what they held dearest.”
“So the author used the standing protective spells to defend a new information and didn’t even notice what was already written?” Twilight asked and browsed through the pages of altered book.
“Yes, just like you, Celestia didn’t spot a single word in the book. She tends to be ignorant to important things and focus on petty ones instead a lot. Back then, she did it unwittingly, but as the time went, she got better in it and now it seems she turned it into a hobby.”
“She really is prone to doing that recently. More so in last two years,” Twilight mused, ignorant to the changes in Scintillant mood. From an entertained state of mind the angel managed to get into one of distaste and barely concealed hostility when she mentioned the princess of the sun.
“You will make sure about that very soon. That is actually the true reason why I visit you today, as much as your studies are important to me. Soon you will be notified by Celestia that she will bring a special guest. What she probably won’t tell is that the guest is Discord.”
“WHAT?!” Twilight’s magic grip on the book faltered. It stayed in the air anyway, the protective spells doing their magic.
“As I said, she cares about petty matters. She sees the power of his magic and wants it for herself to command and ignores why the power exists in the first place. What rises from chaos can only result in chaos again.”
“But… but he is in stone! He can’t do anything!” Twilight was clearly grasping at straws, not wanting to accept the horrible news.
“Every spell can be reversed and sometimes it is easier than casting itself. The Elements of Harmony can reverse the petrification in any hooves and then Discord will be loose. You realise what happens when he crosses the line, right?”
“He will have to be stopped and my friends and I will use the Elements… My friends…” Twilight heavily sat down and hid her face in her hooves. “They won’t work, will they?”
Scintillant walked over to Twilight and placed a comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “No. They won’t work anymore. But you already have enough power of Elysium with you to end the threat on your own.” Twilight looked up at the encouragement and met with Scintillant’s concerned gaze. “However, that would expose you too soon and cause major inconvenience. I and certainly you as well would prefer if matters didn’t go so far.”
“So you ask me to keep Discord in line by any means imaginable and if it fails, to kill him,” Twilight whispered, yet her face showed determination.
“Precisely so, dear Twilight Sparkle. And I am sure you can manage this task. In the meantime, have fun with your new source of information about Elysium. I am certain that your new friends will be curious too, maybe you can give them a lecture about what you find out.”
“That’s a fantastic idea! I will start preparing it right away,” Twilight squealed, the glum news forgotten for a moment. Calming her to this extend, Scintillant took her leave with peace in her mind once again.
In her library home, a frustrated unicorn sat with her new favorite book. She was sipping herbal tea, trying to calm her nerves. UGH! Why does the princess have to choose this way of all ways to enrage me? Why does she have to be such an insolent FOAL to burden us with Discord? Doesn’t she know the consequences if we can’t do this? Well, at least Fluttershy is trying her best. She has real courage to attempt this with Discord.
As if on cue, Fluttershy barged into the library in the most quiet and non-destructive fashion ever recorded. “Twilight, I’m sorry, but I just can’t do it. He’s insufferable even for me!” shouted the normally timid pegasus.
Of course! This is what I get for being optimistic. Well, at least she held up longer than I thought she would. “Fluttershy? What happened?”
“Oh, I know what he’s trying to do. He wants to play me for a fool, but I wanted to try and reform him by being his friend. I’m trying, I really am. But… Ooh, I’m just so frustrated with him!”
Wow, I haven’t seen her this aggravated since her modeling job. But I can’t let her quit. I have to do everything in my power to keep her going. I have to! “What happened Fluttershy? I know he’s bad, but I can’t imagine him being so bad that even you would condemn him.”
“I got him to put the cottage down, but everything else started spinning. He’s just playing with me, almosted taunting me to try harder. When I asked him about the dinner party and what we should cook, he grabbed Angel and suggested rabbit stew. I just don’t think I can redeem him! I just…” Fluttershy started sobbing. “Maybe the other girls were right. Maybe we should have left him in stone. Am… am I a bad pony?”
Twilight saw that the situation was getting grave and she couldn’t let a pony so kind to hurt to this extend in front of her eyes no matter what. She scooted closer to Fluttershy and pulled her into a comforting hug. The pegasus returned it with fervor and her tears soon damped Twilight’s fur.
“Of course you’re not a bad pony, Fluttershy. Anypony would feel that way if they had to face such monster. But you can’t just give up. You would have regrets for the rest of your life.”
“I don’t know what to do, Twilight. He is so mean and I feel so small and he can do anything. I’m scared I will fail,” Fluttershy whispered into Twilight’s shoulder.
“Remember when I came to Ponyville?” Twilight asked, a sudden idea returning her hope. “I had big doubts back then too. I thought I wouldn’t be able to defeat Nightmare Moon. Rainbow had doubts about her sonic rainboom and Rarity about her career too. If we gave up, everything would be different and we can agree that it would be worse. But we pressed on and managed to succeed.”
By that time Fluttershy sat up straight and listened to every Twilight’s word like to a prophecy, so Twilight pushed on more. “Just hours ago you were certain you would turn Discord to good, that determination couldn’t have vanished completely. Few bumps on the road have never stopped us. You can do this, Fluttershy. I know you can.”
“But… but what if he does something evil to me or my animals?” Fluttershy tried to protest for one last time, though it was clear Twilight’s speech convinced her.
“When you return to the cottage, tell him that if he tries something like that, I won’t wait for other elements to turn him back to stone. I will come and outright kill him,” Twilight answered with a predatory smile. Fluttershy backed away from her in fear and walked toward the door, keeping her eyes on Twilight the whole time.
“Ok, Twilight. I-I will tell him that. I just hope you are joking. That would be mean. I will do my best with him. Thank you. Bye.” She was speaking quicker and quicker and her steps mirrored that trend. When she got to the door she was almost galloping.
Oh I most certainly am NOT joking. Try to hurt her and you will burn, Discord!
“Hahah! You see? She wants to have fun with me because we're friends. She can't use the elements against me because we're friends. I'm free forever!” Discord gleefully declared.
“Not. Your. Friend,” Fluttershy growled through her teeth.
Discord just shrugged it off. “Who cares? I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I'm Discord, the master of chaos! You think you can boss Discord around? You think I'm just going to turn all this back because you say so? Because if I don't, I'll lose the one friend I ever had?”
Twilight, who was witnessing all this, started to grit her teeth. Okay, that’s my cue to disintegrate this prick. He’s gone too far now! She was charging up her horn when she noticed a pause in Discord’s speech, not a pause of satisfaction, but one of epiphany. She couldn’t believe her eyes at what she saw next.
“Well played Fluttershy… Well played.”
Discord used his magic to revert Sweet Apple Acres back to its original state as everypony cheered.
“I liked it better my way, but... I guess when you're friends, you can't always have things exactly your way all the time, eh?”
“You know what this calls for?” Pinkie said out of the blue. “A party! Come on, to the Sugarcube corner!”
Everypony started towards Ponyville, excited and satisfied with their success. But as they all did, Discord was stopped dead in his tracks, held in place by a magic aura. He turned his gaze over to Twilight who had a death glare fixed onto him.
“You know Twilight, I have to admit I was a bit frightened by your threat earlier. But you wouldn’t dare go that far, now would you?” he said mocking her.
“I wasn’t joking Discord. If you step out of line, I WILL destroy every ounce of your being,” Twilight said in the most serious tone she could muster. As she did, her magic changed to the Elysian essence, which slightly burned Discord just by its closeness. He didn’t feel anything like that in ages and the memory wasn’t of the happiest ones. Or least painful ones for that matter. Trying to keep his face and to mask the shudder that ran through his entire body he put on a haughty expression.
“Oh posh! I’m reformed now and I meant every word of what I said.” Twilight cautiously let him go. “Besides, as much as I love creating chaos, I’m not an idiot. I wouldn’t dare go against Elysium.”
Twilight grimaced at his comment, knowing he was well aware of what she was doing. As he trotted off to join the others, the unicorn glared as her head was flooded with a mixture of uncertainty and anger. He knows, huh? That just adds to the workload we have to do. I’ve got to keep an eye on him.
Later that night, everypony settled down after a talk with Celestia and the subsequent party that followed. Spike was sleeping soundly in his small bed, but Twilight was downstairs going through her books, too distraught by the day’s events to get any sleep yet. Dammit, it’s going to take some time to replace these pages. I still don’t trust Discord, but for now, it doesn’t look like he will be much of an issue.
She went through the books that needed to be replaced and wrote the titles down so she could order new copies the next day. Once she got that done, she started to examine the Elysian amulet in her hoof, the one found under her pillow a few weeks back. He won’t be an issue now, but his knowledge could be harmful. Scintillant should know about this. The amulet started to glow with a faint light and emitted a warm radiance whenever she used her magic.
“Be careful with that amulet,” Scintillant’s voice abruptly broke Twilight’s concentration and she almost yelped. “My apologies,” the angelic pony said. “I did not mean to spook you. You seem on edge this evening.”
“I actually wanted to talk to you. Scintillant, Discord knows of Elysium.”
“I expected that much. He is a very old being and it doesn’t surprise me he met some of our ranks back when we moved throughout the land. Fear not however, he will not pose a threat to our cause. So long as you hold the threat of destruction over his head, and so long as he has a friend to keep him in line, there is nothing he can do. Still, you should be more cautious of your actions.”
“Yeah. If he rats me out, our efforts will take a harder turn. But he will fall one of these days. I never liked him much.”
“And you’ve good reason not to like him. He is a malicious entity who cannot hope to be fully redeemed. Rest assured, he will fall along with the rest of the other creatures of malice.”
Late in the evening at the Royal Academy of Arts, Acrylic Canvas, the young prodigy of her class, was held up in her cluttered dorm room, filled with used paper and canvas fabrics that were scattered across the floor. The student that owned them did not care at the moment about the mess, more so she was concentrated on practicing her technique. Her painting strokes were just fine though, what she was concerned about was her most unusual talent.
“Why can’t I get this right!? What am I doing wrong?” Canvas shouted after her latest attempt failed. During her classes, her assignments kept materializing when she didn’t want them to. After so many frustrating creation sessions going to waste, she was determined to figure out how her unique ability worked. Unfortunately, she wasn’t having a very successful night.
“Dang it. I used up all my red paint on those stupid apple paintings. Well, I have plenty of violet and blue left.”
During the following hours she drew enough apples to fill a produce market. Yet not a single one of them came to life and now she was out of canvas fabric to paint on. At her wit’s end, she had to vent her frustration.
“This is ridiculous! Stupid artwork!” she exclaimed as she punched the canvas with her hoof, knocking it onto the floor. After standing for such a long time, she plopped onto her bed and tried to calm herself down. Once she succeeded, she sat up and eyed the pieces of art she created that did not do what she wanted. With a heavy sigh, she decided to at least use up the rest of her remaining paints to give herself an excuse to purchase more over the weekend.
After dipping her brush in the last of her blue, she added onto the apple she had started on her canvas. Once she touched her brush to it though, she noticed the apple started to fall out of her workstand. It was materializing to life.
“There we go! What did I do differently?”
She stood and pondered for a moment before getting an idea. She removed the canvas from her stand and replaced it with one of the others she used from the night, using her mouth to do it as she didn’t bother to place down her palette and brush. “Maybe if I add something now, everything will materialize. It’s about mental state!” She added some paint onto it and nothing happened. Slightly confused, she placed her hoof to it, scrutinizing her work, then added more paint. This time, the dozen or so apples that were on the painting fell out.
She took a long look at her hoof, deciding to prove her suspicion about its properties. She brushed another of used canvases with it and added a single stroke with paint. All apples came to existence, making even more mess on her floor.
“Aha! That’s how it works. I’m glad I have hardwood floors,” she exclaimed and grasped one of the new apples. “I wonder how violet apples taste.” She took a huge bite and started coughing, spitting it all out. “Bleh! Acrylic paint doesn’t taste very good! Guess it’s a good thing I bought those non-toxic sets. What am I going to do with these though?”
Three beings older than any other living thing in Equestria sat in one of the many chambers of Canterlot Castle - this one decorated both in golden and in blue to symbolize the reunion of royal sisters - having a midnight tea party. The servants long since left to get their sleep, but they stocked the trio with enough pastries and drinks to suffice them the whole night if needed.
“I’m glad to see that at least your tastes in tea didn’t degenerate over the centuries,” Discord complimented and took another sip of his beverage. “Pity that those regarding your living conditions did. I vastly preferred Everfree.”
“That’s not very surprising seeing as you are partially responsible for its state. Alas, you will have to get used to brighter location,” Celestia replied.
“Brighter than that spot in your garden? Hardly. You would have to send me directly to the Sun.”
“You would make for a strange silhouette there. What would ponies even call you? Patchwork in the Sun?” Luna butted in, clearly not pleased with the presence of their once biggest adversary. She made her opinion on the matter clear to Celestia before, during and also after Discord’s reformation several times, to no avail.
“I don’t think so. It would go more along the lines of ‘My, what a handsome shade we have on the Sun.’ My picture wouldn’t be formed of craters either. Say, did your royal backside make them when you landed on the Moon?”
“Why, you dirty-” Luna started, standing up and charging her horn, but Celestia wouldn’t have any of that and stopped her with an outstretched wing.
“That’s enough, both of you!” She glared at her two companions as if they were mere bickering foals. “I didn’t go to such lengths to erase all the evil of the past just to have you two throw petty insults on each other.”
“Spoilsport,” Discord muttered under his breath, but leaned back into his chair and took another cookie to show friendly intents. “As you wish, oh esteemed ruler of the Sun, the light of our days. But dare say, why did you bring me back then?”
Celestia returned to her place and shook her wings slightly to ensure every feather sat comfortably in its place. “Because I believe in second chances, of course,” she stated as if it was the clearest thing in the world. Luna, however, didn’t share that opinion and wasn’t about to keep that to herself.
“Nonsense! We both know that Discord is alive only because he can’t be really killed. Don’t be such hypocrite, Tia!”
“I could have left him in his stone form, so I speak the truth,” she said with indignation. “If he can do good, I am willing to let him live in Equestria as rightful citizen.”
Discord extended his arms to twice their natural length and wrapped them around the shoulders of the alicorn sisters. “Dear ‘Tia’, as much as I hate to admit it, I agree with our space mare. Dear Fluttershy told me you need me for something, so drop the pretense of goodwill and spill it. I am fairly intrigued as to what you wish from me. You did just fine without my powers so far.”
Seeing as she would have to share more, Celestia placed her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hooves before answering in resigned tone. “I simply find it a terrible waste to leave such mighty asset just standing around being useless. Besides, I mean it when I say I want to give you a second chance. But if you really want to get to business your first evening of freedom, so be it.” She charged her horn and teleported all three to her private library.
“I keep these spells away from my little ponies as they pose too much threat in wrong hooves, but can serve a good purpose when used wisely.” She pointed to one of the shelves, marked with a brass plaquette saying ‘Starswirl the Bearded’. There was one empty slot in the shelf. “As you can see, final works of dear Starswirl belong to this category. However-”
“So there are more of those? I thought that book I brought you was the only one surviving to these days. You could have told me, Tia, I would have looked further,” Luna interrupted.
“You can peruse them if you want, there is nothing you don’t already know though. As I was trying to say, I am still missing one of the books. Do you know why, Discord?”
“Hmm.” The draconequus scratched his chin with his tail in mock contemplation. “Aha! I borrowed it back when I was free one thousand years ago. Wow, how am I going to pay that library fine I sincerely don’t know!”
“Discord, I want it back. Now.” Celestia tapped her hoof impatiently and stared at Discord who didn’t show any signs of taking action other than motioning Celestia to continue. “Be it your way. I promise to not turn you back into stone when you give it to me.”
“You were always quick to understand what’s required from you, Celestia, I have to give that to you.” He snapped his fingers and a book in the same binding as the ones on the shelf appeared in his claw. When Celestia reached for it with her magic, however, he batted the golden light away with his paw. “Ah ah ah. First I want to hear why you need it. I know you have ways to create alicorns without it, why such bother?”
“If you must know, I want to be sure she is the right pony for this. That spell Starswirl failed to finish will be her final test, determining if she understands her lessons well. She is very powerful, I can’t afford another misstep and I would hate for her to head astray because of my wrong judgment.”
Discord released his hold of the book at that and watched as it got caught by Celestia and placed into its rightful slot on the shelf. Then he chuckled. “Commandable effort indeed, Celestia. But maybe you aim your energy in the incorrect direction.”
“What do you mean by that?” Celestia asked irritated.
“Oh nothing,” Discord called over his shoulder, already leaving the room. “Just that it takes two right ponies for relations to work. Are you sure you alone are such pony, ‘Tia’? After all, even your sister left your side in bad blood.” With that he vanished with a fit of giggles echoing in the hallway.
Not really much going on here. Next chapter though? I think you know what's coming up.
I know you guys are probably sick of hearing this by now but I can't explain too much until the second half. Be prepared to hear that a lot. 
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Ok, I will ask the obvious question: what´s keeping Discord from telling Celestia about Twi´s connection with Elysium? after all, she may represent a biggest threat for him than Tia herself.
4117969 He's Discord, he never does things straightforward. Even if he did, I doubt he would considering the primary focus is on Celestia rather than himself and knowing discord, he would enjoy that.
Don't read too much into this chapter, it won't come into play until much later. I know this chapter doesn't make too much sense right now (fitting because it has Discord) but it has a purpose (albeit a very minor one). Sorry I can't properly answer that question.
You know, this was actually a pretty neat chapter.
She is greedy and petty and loosing even a part of her power won't be something that she will do willingly, so what is her plan?
But several thing just didn't add up:
1) Sun-Butt wants to test Twilight, but the problem here is that Twilight doesn't need the whole Cutie Mark Mess to finish the Spell, because now she has than one braincell in her head thanks to Elysium.
2) Sun-Butt sucks at being a puppeteer because she doesn't know what to do it someone knows about the strings, and too arrogant to actually think that someone can see that she's a Dumbledore incarnate, So the question is: Why the hell does she want another Alicorn to emerge?
4118066 The spell actually comes back towards the very end and it serves a much stronger purpose. She actually needs the spell later after a crippling event. It also comes again later after that.
As for Celestia's "plan", I honestly don't have an answer for you since we aren't at that point in the writing where we've determined that definitively. If I had to say, I think she honestly believes she is doing the best for her student (and to an extent, this is true). I want to point out that Celestia is NOT actively trying to be a tyrant. If she comes off as one, it's because she gets carried away with her actions and practices. She really wants the best for her subjects and genuinely cares for them, especially Twilight, but has a flawed way of thinking. Not that Twilight or even Scintillant are any better by this point.
There is a point later where she comes to her senses, I can promise you that. I can also promise you that it won't pretty.
I´m confused
Twilight and her "ex-friends" can still use the Elements to break out Discord, but not in order to re-sealing him again?
4118396 Basically yes. The elements suck the powers of harmony away from the spell and reverse the petrification. You can imagine it for example as animations. Only an artist can create good animations, but anyone can delete the file. They will both use the same computer to do so.
4118066 To answer your question, Celestia's "plan" if you want to call it that is to pass some of her workload on others while not giving up power. She can't do that with Luna because she has right to the power. Twilight however is unexperienced and it can be justified that she won't be really ruling. Nothing nefarious but not benign either.
More setup, but with this chapter over, and the remaining episodes of the season dealing with trivial things, I'm highly anticipating a bit of madness to sweep across the world.
Let's see how this turns out.
Yeah, next chapter...
THANKS M.A. LARSON!
4119471 Quite
For anyone reading this, I've like alicorn Twilight from the start as I joined the fandom around the time Equestria Girls premiered. Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing but the point is I avoided much of the drama. Even then, I don't really think of Twilight any differently.
That said, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what direction we are going with this in the project. For those of you expecting any talk involving immortality blues, prepare to be disappointed.
4118751 There are only 2 more chapters dealing with the remainder of season 3 before things start to take a drastic step. I can promise you much madness in the second half. I apologize if these chapters seem a bit slow but the rising action is the rising action. Rest assure you, the events coming won't be pretty for any parties involved.
4119615
Once again, you fail to disappoint me. Hyped for the next chapter, can't wait!
Yikes, Twilight. o.o I hardly recognize her anymore. Honestly, I liked the old Twilight more; this one is paranoid, self-serving (she's approaching making friends expressly because she wants to find Bearers - she's forgotten everything she learned about friendship), and holds incredible grudges. This is a cool story, don't get me long, but the characterization grates at me at times.
I also think that the lesson for prudence - and the reason Trixie became its bearer - is rather weak. Twilight was the one who learned that lesson, and acknowledging that doesn't really change it. Trixie should have done something to deserve it, even if it meant bending canon.
Equestria, the world of peace, love, and tolerance. Seriously though, aren't angels supposed to be paragons of virtue? The highest good that anyone can ever do is reforming evil, such that it will go on to spread more good, and thus convert other evildoers. This blanket condemnation seems very unvirtuous to me, and the way that Scintillant (who I am still not sure is male or female, if any gender at all) speaks of Celestia and blanket condemns the entirety of Equestria is a sickening reminder of Nightmare Moon. I know there are avenging angels and there are angels who pass judgement, but this just seems like hate.
4782317 One thing to remember, it was Twilight who called Scintillant an angel. Scintillant merely adopted the title, and is not, in actuality, an angel.