Lesson5?: The Magical Spectrum
The pair must have dropped down a dimensional layer or two as they approached the timeline, because by the time Pinkie and Twilight touched down Equestria was spread out in a massive plain below their hooves, allowing them to see both the inside of the lab they had just been occupying and that Spike and Flash Sentry were crouched behind the main entrance and nervously peeking inside. Pinkie stifled a giggle at Spike's expression and forced herself to look at Twilight, who was busy poking at one of the two rainbows they had seen, her face clouded by confusion.
"Hey, Pinkie," Twilight asked, glancing over her shoulder at her friend, "Could you come over here and feel this for me?" She tapped the indigo band of the rainbow for emphasis.
Pinkie nodded and teleported over, ending up floating upside down just over Twilight's head as she pressed a hoof against the surprisingly solid surface. She was instantly swept off her hooves by a wave of... compassion? That was what it felt like, anyway. It was the urge Pinkie got to feed the birds outside her window cupcakes every morning, or that time she slipped a hungry Apple Bloom a spare muffin. Pinkie voiced her impression to Twilight, who nodded thoughtfully.
"That was what I felt," she said slowly, "And it's not the only one, either. Feel the top band."
Pinkie did, flicking a tail up to brush against the crimson light, and felt a surge of protectiveness crash over her that pinned her ears against her head. Anything that tried to hurt her friends wasn't walking away in one piece, at least until her tail left the field and the sensation faded.
"Let me guess, a strong sense of loyalty?" Twilight asked, and Pinkie bobbed her head in agreement. "That's what I thought," Twilight continued, "It appears to me that Starswirl was right. His theories about the shape of the thaumic field have never been proven, but according to his prediction orange is honesty, yellow is kindness, blue is laughter,"-At that Pinkie rubbed her nose in the blue and promptly burst into giggles-"and purple is friendship. However, that doesn't quite add up." Twilight gestured at the green band in the center of the rainbow, "The elements only work when all six are present, and not at all if even one is missing. So why are there seven colors? "
Pinkie bopped the green line with the tip of her mane at the same time Twilight did. This one was weaker than the others, or at least more subtle. The first thing Pinkie picked up was strength. Not the flashy kind that leveled mountains or lifted entire houses over your head, but a simple conviction in her beliefs. Pinkie wouldn't back down, no matter how high the odds were stacked against her. It was softer than loyalty, but more stable, and seemed to have a hint of all the others in it, not as prominent pieces, but hidden reinforcement. Pinkie pulled her hoof back, and glanced up (from her perspective) at Twilight, who was now mumbling to herself and scribbling on a piece of parchment that had appeared from Celestia-knows-where.
Since Twilight didn't seem to know what it was any more than Pinkie did, and she seemed to be somewhat preoccupied, Pinkie floated down to the ground and stuck her head through, taking a look at the rainbow on the other side. This one was a perfect mirror of the other, with purple being the closest to the world and red the farthest away. At least, it was at first. On closer inspection Pinkie noticed the rainbow seemed rather... strained. Thick lines of white light separated each of the colors, and occasionally the whole thing would flex, bulging in random locations before those lines forced it back into place.
Pinkie frowned. This rainbow didn't look very happy. In fact, it looked distinctly unhappy. And Pinkie knew just what to do. Turn that frown upside down! Metaphorically speaking at least, since rainbows generally don't have faces. Not that that had ever stopped her.
Pinkie reached out towards the rainbow, and, after carefully sculpting a frowning face in it, rearranged its features so it was grinning.
*SNAP*
Pinkie's gaze shot up towards the top (bottom?) of the rainbow, where the white limiter holding the outer edge of the red in place had just broken.
*SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP*
Pinkie smiled in satisfaction as she looked at the new rainbow. Now that they were free, the colors flowed across the bow, switching places more often than ponies a line of country dancers. Blue sitting next to red, green coiling around purple, yellow, orange, and indigo making a warm-cold-warm sandwich, and in a moment they all switched places. Like a normal rainbow, only better!
*SNAP**SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP*
"PINKIE PIE!"
Pinkie pulled her head out of the timeline and looked over her shoulder at Twilight, whose wings were fluffed out and was looking at Pinkie with a mixed expression of anger, exasperation, and fear.
"What did you do!?" she shouted, pointing up at the rainbow that was now morphing just like its counterpart under the surface.
88888888
System's hoof passed through the barrier, and he smiled grimly. "Showtime," he murmured, then spread his wings and soared into the daylight for the first time in millennia.
88888888
"Can't you just put it back!?" Twilight shrieked in Pinkie's face, completely failing to resist the urge to panic.
"I don't know how!" Pinkie told her as she crab walked backwards, her claws clicking anxiously in the air, "I'm not even sure what I did in the first place!"
Twilight spun away and started shoving her hoof away from her chest while taking deep breaths. It didn't seem to be helping. "Well," she said after a moment, "If you don't know how to fix it, and I don't know how to fix it, then who-"She slapped a hoof against her face, "Of course! Princess Celestia can help! Get us back inside! Now!"
Pinkie considered getting annoyed at her friend's sharp tone. For about two seconds.
"Yeah. Inside," she said, her voice shaking just a little, "I can do that."
She shoved against the timeline and pulled Twilight in after her.
The moment Twilight's hooves hit the floor she knew something had gone horribly wrong. The magic in the air felt different, charged, and refused to answer her summons when she tried to reach for a nearby clipboard. Her horn let out a few sparks, but nothing else, and eventually Twilight gave up and galloped over to grab it in her mouth.
Pinkie, meanwhile, seemed to be having no trouble what-so-ever, and was casually hovering just above Twilight's shoulder. "Spiiiiiiiike!" Twilight called, giving Pinkie a momentary stinkeye, "Could you come a letter take for me please?"
"Sure thing, Twilight," Spike said, then appeared in the door, paper and quill already in claw. Then he sneezed, and a column of emerald flame five feet wide and fifteen long shot out of his mouth, incinerating the writing equipment. Spike blinked, twice. "That's new," he said after a long pause. Them his gaze drifted to the scrap of paper now sitting on the floor. Picking it up Spike read aloud, "Twilight, Ms. Pie, please meet me and Discord on the hill outside your castle. Princess Celestia."
CRACK
Spike rubbed the spots out of his eyes from the spontaneous teleportation and sighed at the empty space Twilight and Pinkie had just occupied. "Aaaand you don't tell me what's doing on. Typical. Hey, Flash," he said as he walked past the guard, who fell into step next to him, "Follow me, we need to go make sure those two didn't doom the planet or something."
"Sure, right," Flash said with a smile, one that faded as he took in Spike's grim expression.
"Please tell me that was a joke," Flash begged, and when Spike didn't say anything just rubbed his forehead with a hoof.
"I'm pretty sure this isn't in my job description," Flash muttered.
"It's not in mine either," Spike replied, looking resigned, "But that doesn't stop us from having to deal with it."
Flash nodded as a passing thought in the back of his mind wondered why his wings felt funny.
88888888
The change came as an almost invisible prismatic shimmer radiating out from Twilight's castle. Princess Celestia sat bolt upright, shaking Discord's claw off in the process, and turned to stare at him in shock.
"You actually went through with it," she said finally, "You do realize what will happen if this backfires, right?"
"My expulsion from this world, never to return?" Discord replied, holding up a dirty boot kicking a miniature him in the rear through a portal, "Yes, I'm aware. Also, could you be a dear and tell Twilight where to find us? I love the expression she makes when she has too many questions."
Celestia frowned at him before taking the scrap of paper and pencil he had summoned and writing a quick note on it. A few seconds, some dramatically enhanced dragon fire, and one teleport crack later, Pinkie and Twilight stood in front of them. Well, they would be standing if the pair weren't buried up to their necks in the dirt.
"Stupid haywire magic," Twilight grumbled as she tried to free herself, while Pinkie turned into a liquid and seeped out of the ground, then gave Celestia a sheepish grin, "Princess, could you please help me out here?"
"Of course, my most faithful student," Celestia replied, and, after having her own horn spark from a moment with no discernible effect, walked over and dug her out by hoof. She'd barely finished before Twilight barreled into her, burying Celestia under a pile of apologies, questions, and feathers.
"I just don't know what happened!" Twilight said, "One moment I was on the research high of a lifetime and then Starswirl's rainbow went crazy and now my magic isn't working right and I don't know where to start looking to fix everything!"
"Breathe, Twilight," Celestia said gently, and some of Twilight's tension slipped away as she took a moment to collect herself.
"Thank you, Princess," Twilight said with a grateful smile, "I guess you have some idea where to start fixing it?"
"Actually," Discord interrupted, fiddling with the wings on his chest, "You've got this all backwards. There's nothing to fix."
Twilight stared at him in disbelief. "What are you talking about?" she said finally, prompting a grin from Discord.
"Now that, your highness, is a very interesting story," Discord began, "You see, back when I first came to this world, it was much... wilder, than the little utopia my dear Celly has created. Part of why that was was that the Magical Spectrum, the given name of what you call 'Starswirl's Rainbow' was free, unrestrained. It did whatever the hay it wanted, and there wasn't anything anypony could do about it. Monsters roamed all over the place, eating anything and everything that crossed their path, and nothing could stop them. Well, almost nothing. In exchange for being allowed to stay here, I helped cage the monsters and bind the Spectrum, turning the world into what you see today. I know," he said in response to their shocked expressions, "It's not like me at all. I guess I just felt like being contrary that day."
"Or maybe you were tired of not having a home," Pinkie countered.
"Or that," Discord admitted with a talon wave, "It could go either way."
"So you made a deal with Celestia?" Twilight asked, her head cocked to the side as she tried to process this.
Discord curled in on himself and tapped his foreclaws together. "Not exactly," he said, "Pinkie, remember what I told you about my past?" when Pinkie nodded as a flash of confusion passed over Twilight's face, he continued, "Well, I actually had an important job on my home world. I was its Guide, the creature tasked with helping life grow and prosper however I saw fit. I was a chaotic guide, which meant that I basically let my charges do whatever they pleased, but that's not the only way to do it. Guides can be good, or evil, or chaotic, or neutral, or even," his paw and talons clapped and separated, forming a disgusted face between them, "Orderly."
"Discord?" Twilight asked again, "Who did you make that deal with?"
Discord didn't reply verbally. Instead, his tail held up three fingers, then two, then one.
"DISCORD!"
With a boom so loud it rattled the teeth of all present and blasted a crater into the earth, a grey figure descended from the heavens. As the dust cleared and Twilight and Pinkie got a proper look, their jaws fell open. Standing in front of them, radiating an aura of pure incandescent rage, was an alicorn. A male, dark grey alicorn that oozed authority and power. Twilight suddenly felt the urge to bow, although Pinkie just looked annoyed.
"That is System, a Guide of Order, creator of the Tree of Harmony, founder of the original Equine Empire, and the guy that hates my guts."
"With very good reason," System bellowed, "You know how much insanity you caused after I thought my work was done and went to rest! If it wasn't for that stupid deal we made I would have done this centuries ago." As he finished speaking his horn glowed a solid white and a shockwave blasted Discord off his feet, sending him flying into the closest tree.
"HEY!" Pinkie shouted, jumping between the alicorn and her teacher and flaring her tails aggressively, "Cut it out you big meanie!"
"And you," System spat, "You're just as bad as he is! Warping chaos to your whim instead of reveling in your natural born gifts. If you weren't a native I'd have been free the moment you ascended. But now that I am..." His wings flared out to their fullest extent as he spoke in the Royal Canterlot Voice, "This is my world, and you have no place in it. Leave at once or face the consequences."
Pinkie stole a glance at Twilight and Princess Celestia, who were staring at System in outrage as their horns sparked and sputtered, and knew that she couldn't just leave. Not when it meant never seeing her friends again.
"Hold on," Discord said as he stood up, "I need to set the mood first."
He snapped his fingers, and Pinkie watched a small spell form, sync with the spectrum, then dissipate as music began to play.
"That's better," Discord said with a grin as he summoned a pair of boxing gloves, "Now come at me bro!"
System just snarled and charged.
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Here I thought I was gonna have to crawl through my screen to check your pulse.
Nice work on the chapter.
Discord, remember the most important rule of death/grudge matches: If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough. Granted, there's no explicit rules stated here, so you're gonna have to be crazy like a fox, make some rules, and then break them. Preferably over Order's big stupid face.
Well, I was sorta right, it seems. My answer would stop the story from being written into a corner.
... greenbacks! "Of course!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Friendship is cash!"
images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/33900000/a-pony-WITH-SADDLE-BAG-FULL-OF-MONEY-mr-krabs-33900646-2211-1600.jpg
Alondro raises an eyebrow. "Oh, an OC god-mode alicorn. I eat those for breakfast." Stands up from the table, where the gory remains of the morning's repast lie in a jumbled heap. "And look at that, I'm already hungry again..." The Deus Ex Insert must feeeeeeeeed....
and nervously peaking inside
rearranged it's features
Hold on,"
1. Peeking.
2. Its.
3. Forgot your opening quotation mark.
Wait, if every author is a Guardian how many are guarding me?
Alondro, you are forgetting about hyperbolic geometry, implies that everyone, induvidually, is their own Alpha timeline. And can correctly argue that. Blame relativity.
I would assume, given System being released by the ,repairing, of the associativity rainbow, that for a being that can see the Entire tree of probabilities such as Discord, its the most optimum time to create the greatest amount of chaos while still ending with System for a given set of values and description being, defeated.
For shipping, Im afraid my favourite would have to be Zecora and Spike because of just how many different ways even I could think of that going, given Spikes unused abilities breifly seen in various canon scenes, from Slice of life as Spike doing potion sorting and shelving, all the way up to the tags which I dont see in your other stories so wont ask for, even though Zecora verses a Kzinti would be hilarious. She could do with a new rug, especially one that took itself outside to beat the dust out.
Hmm, thats an idea, Maud and Big Mac are framed for a major crime, and prison escape, and have to go underground to fight the mob in Las Pegasus. I was thinking The Silence Of The Lambs?
EDIT. Ow, ok, stop hitting me with that encyclopedia, youll break it again sheesh. Sorry. Thank you very much for the offer, not only dont I win anything all that often, usualy though not bothering to enter, but just makes a nice birthday present as well.
Do you think Spike will ever live long enough to learn how to handle Pinkies filing system, given its multidimentional and dynamically cross referenced etc?
Soooo, can I put some bits on Spike actually being the solution to this predicament?
There should be a comma between those two was'.
Wow, that was nice. So, no fanart of chaos god pinkie? And I don't mean deamon chaos goddess pinkie pie, that pinkie can stay in the loops. So when she broke the barrier between the colors, did she turn into a draquanaquous? (Good God that was butchered.) Because I saw that she had a claw in one scene, or was that her tail?
Also, what if you did a crossover with "magical mystery oops"? Where twi was converted to a (whatever discord's species is called) I think that a crossover would be really cool and fitting after the fight.
MORTAL KOMBAT!!
Alright, so here's a meta understanding from what you mentioned in your A/N that I can put together:
What you mentioned about the Alpha timeline being the only stable timeline (to which you said was like an author writing and etc.) is very believable but also creates a somewhat meta conundrum. Let me try to explain, I just hope I can.
You said that that world is the most stable version and (more or less) fixed in terms of characters, events and etc. So that means that System in this case which would be quite disliked (or hated if you prefer that term) in general however, those that feel that way in theory shouldn't direct their ire towards the character but... The author themselves because they were the one who 'created' the Alpha timeline which must have this character act this way. So in theory, if they dislike the character, they could also in fact dislike the author... Which I think some people do actually do now that I think about it but it was just never put into proper wording... If you can call this that.
But yeah, that's the meta thing that I can remember off the top of my head from when I last read the chapter. Apologies if I come off as rude/bad but this thought just kept bouncing around in my head and I felt the need to just post this.