Mortal Coil

by Reeve

LX - Order And Chaos

Pinkie Pie stayed true to her threat, forcing us all to party well into the night, even Twilight couldn’t resist the urge to join in for long. We were all a bit confused as to how Pinkie planned to have any kind of party when we were confined to a fairly destitute cabin, far from any kind of civilisation. Needless to say she managed to find a way, pulling a gramophone, balloons and ingredients for a cake out of nowhere. It was a rather surreal experience for all of us, to dance and joke and laugh together like we lived perfectly normal lives in a time of absolute peace.

It wasn’t until the earliest hours of the morning, when the rest of us were clearly exhausted that Pinkie finally agreed it was time to call it a night and allowed us all to go to bed. Fluttershy and I squeezed up on the bed upon the insistence of the others, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash took the floor, both assuring us that they were used to sleeping rough. I don’t think Twilight ever went to sleep, most likely staying up all night to continue her reading, as for Pinkie, I have no idea where she spent the night.

When the following morning came, Applejack prepared a quick bite to eat before we all sat down to discuss our next moves. There was quite a lot of planning and scraping of plans, arguing and agreeing, we probably spent a good hour planning before we finally came to an agreement on what we should do.

“So that’s it then?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone, looking around at everypony. “We’re all agreed?”

Nopony looked particularly happy about it, but nor did they raise an objections.

“Ah still think this is stupid,” Applejack stated, voicing everypony’s thoughts. “We shouldn’t be splittin’ up.”

“I agree, we shouldn’t,” I replied. “But unfortunately we have to, and it’s only temporary.”

“It’s always ‘only temporary’,” Fluttershy muttered. “What if you don’t make it back? How will we ever know? What are we supposed to do?”

“Oh, don’t you worry your little head Fluttershy!” Pinkie told her as she wrapped her forelegs around Fluttershy’s neck and pulled her face into her own breast. “We’ll be fine, all of three of us have been there before, and with Twilight’s magic, nothing stands a chance against us.”

“Well thank you for the vote of confidence Pinkie,” Twilight said with a small smile. “But yes Fluttershy, we all know what we’re going to be faced with, and I think that with our abilities combined, we’ll be well prepared for anything that the Nether Vale throws our way.”

“We’ll find the Covenant and put a stop to whatever they’re up to,” I added. “Meanwhile you three will…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow interrupted. “We go to Pivot and tell your friends about Cragsburg.”

“It’s for your benefit most of all Rainbow Dash,” I reminded her sternly. “You still have to meet with Maverick regarding the Dragoons; you might as well kill two birds with one stone.”

“Why would anypony do that?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes immediately welling with tears.

“I really need to sit down and explain that one to you sometime,” I mumbled before quickly changing the topic. “Besides, it’s incredibly important that Maverick knows what’s going on, particularly since… well, you know.”

There was an uncomfortable silence following my statement, I had of course admitted to telling Terra everything during my interrogation while we made our plans.

“Now Sugarcube,” Applejack began. “None of us are judgin’ you; ah reckon we all would have broken under those circumstances.”

“Yeah, and besides,” Pinkie added. “After the ruckus we caused, it’ll be a while before they’re ready to act on that information.”

“So we are all agreed then?” Twilight asked once more, bringing the conversation back on track. “Rarity, Pinkie Pie and I will travel to the Nether Vale and find the Covenant ponies Rarity encountered, while Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack travel south to Pivot to warn Maverick about the Children of the Earth.”

There was a series of responses, some confident and some reluctant, but all affirmative. With our plan decided, we all set about getting ready. I went to where I had left my clothes folded at the foot of the bed, and set about cleaning them and trying my best to repair them of all the damage they had suffered. I only had magic at my disposal, rather than the materials and thread I desperately needed, so I knew it would only be a temporary fix, and that if I didn’t sit down and do it properly, they wouldn’t last much longer.

Applejack had kindly tended to my weapons after they escaped Cragsburg, cleaning them down and sharpening them, I hadn’t even realised how dull they had become through all my use. Once I was set up and ready to go, Applejack offered to spar with me a little, while we waited for Twilight to finish preparing. While my last training session with Pinkie had seen me improving somewhat, I ended up doing incredibly poorly against Applejack, she assured me I was just lacking confidence in myself after everything that had happened.

Both her and Rainbow Dash took me through some of the most basic techniques, slowly so I could get back to grips with it, but for the most part I was content to take to the side-lines and observe as they duelled against one another, a considerably less gentle fight. I expected Rainbow Dash to have the clear advantage, while not possessing the same physical strength as Applejack, she was exceptionally quick, and her technique was more precise. But Applejack proved herself to be more capable than I predicted, while she was indeed slower, she definitely retained a lot of her training from her own brief time in the army.

“So something’s been bugging me,” Pinkie said from behind us, signalling for them to stop fighting and for us all to look around. “Rarity was… well, dead, but now she’s alive. Does that make her undead?”

“I don’t think so,” Fluttershy murmured beside her as the trio came to a stop beside me. “Undead have very specific traits, Rarity doesn’t share any of them… much like the creatures in Brine, only less… dead looking.”

“Do you think what happened in Brine could be similar to what happened to me?” I asked curiously. “We know the Covenant were involved at Brine, if not outright responsible, and I did see them snooping around the Demon Shaft.”

“I… hadn’t considered that possibility,” Fluttershy admitted. “Oh, I do hope everything is alright at Brine, and Squadron Leader Gale was able to keep the Dragoons safe.”

“I’m sure they’re okay,” Pinkie said, sounding only half interested before switching the conversation back. “But what does this mean for Rarity? Will she have super powers now that she’s come back from the dead?!”

“No, she shouldn’t,” Twilight replied with a deadpan look. “I spent years studying that stone before I finally passed it on to Rarity, she should be exactly as she once was… uh, although just to be absolutely safe, she should stay clear of Fluttershy’s mace from now on. The resurrection process might have had one little side effect… that is to say; she might have a slight vulnerability to holy magic.”

“Great,” I muttered, glancing warily at Fluttershy’s mace at her side. “I’ll have to make doubly sure not to annoy Fluttershy.”

“Well if that’s all, we need to get moving,” Twilight announced. “Rainbow Dash, can we leave you in charge…”

Twilight drifted off as Rainbow shot her a glare.

“I mean…” Twilight quickly rectified with a nervous laugh. “Applejack, you’ll take the lead, won’t you?”

“Ah sure can Sugarcube,” Applejack replied with a single nod. “Now you three be careful, you hear?”

“We will,” I promised her before giving her a quick hug. “Who knows, maybe this will all be over soon, and we can head back to Sweet Apple Acres and live like normal ponies.”

“Now you’re speakin’ mah language,” Applejack responded with a smirk.

With our farewells said, we all split off and began on our separate ways. Applejack leading Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash back towards Anchorage, where they would get a boat to Pivot, while Twilight led Pinkie Pie and myself back the way I had travelled to the Nether Vale. We journeyed through the forest in relative silence; we used my map and Pinkie’s knowledge of the area to take a quick detour to a clearing. It was nightfall before we reached it, so we decided to set up camp for the night, particularly since Twilight would need a few hours to work.

The clearing Pinkie had directed us to had an elder tree growing in the centre of it, it had a very thick, bulbous trunk, and twisting branches that bore no leaves, although the bark of the tree resonated with a pale green light. While Pinkie and I established our campsite, Twilight set about harvesting the elder tree for wood, a very delicate task that needed to be done with extreme care to avoid upsetting the tree and summoning angry dryads. As such, it was my job to keep Pinkie entertained so she wouldn’t disturb Twilight, which was apparently a big risk, as she had done it once before during one of their previous experiences together.

Once Twilight had all the necessary bits of wood, she joined us around our fire away from the tree and began crafting the charms. This is what Fluttershy, Pinkie and her had been discussing while I was outside with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, they were specially enchanted charms that all three of us would wear around our necks, to help ward off some of the threats we would otherwise encounter in the Nether Vale. As Twilight said, it was impossible to be completely prepared for a place like the Nether Vale, but we would do our best.

“So you’ve both been to the Nether vale before then,” I began, while Twilight busied herself with the charms and Pinkie and I made chords for hanging them around our neck. “Do either of you know what the deal is then? Like, what is the purpose of it and where did it all come from?”

“I’m afraid nopony knows that,” Twilight admitted without looking up. “Certainly not myself, and I believe Pinkie is no different.”

“You’ve got that right,” Pinkie agreed. “I couldn’t begin to wrap my head around what the point of it all is.”

“There are plenty of theories,” Twilight went on. “Either derived from legend, or from the scattered accounts of those who made it out alive. Some say a great war was once fought there, and it’s the spirits of those who died during that continue to haunt it. A popular theory is that the shaft itself is backdoor to Tartarus…”

“It’s not,” Pinkie cut in quickly. “I checked, and it’s not.”

“Is that why you came here?!” Twilight demanded angrily, suddenly looking up from her work to glare at Pinkie Pie. “You were looking for another way to break Discord out?!”

“Maybe,” Pinkie replied coolly.

Twilight and Pinkie stared at one another for a tense moment.

“You know,” Twilight began, her voice still cold. “You and I may be on the same side at the moment, but when this is all over, we’re enemies again. I might give you a head start as a thank you for helping us out, but believe me, if I catch you after all this, I will see you locked away where you can’t do anymore harm.”

Twilight returned to her work while Pinkie did the same, looking rather put off by Twilight’s sudden harshness. I was just left in the middle, feeling very uncomfortable at the sudden chilliness of the atmosphere. It didn’t surprise me that Pinkie would have come here looking for a way to break Discord out of Tartarus, if she really did worship him, it made perfect sense. Tartarus is another plane of existence, a truly nightmarish dimension, if the stories are to be believed. It serves as a prison for the most terrible threats this world has faced, Discord being only one of them. There were many stories of powerful ponies who tried to conquer the world and were sent to Tartarus for their crimes, there was even one obscure story that said one of the Six had been sent there.

Tartarus served as an ideal prison, as gates between there and here could only be opened by divine magic and artefacts, of which there are very few in existence. Even if one of the prisoners could escape, they would have to get past the demons that infested Tartarus. Demon was a special name given to monsters that were native to Tartarus, for they were leagues more terrifying and horrific than any other monster known to exist, even the abominations that we had been dealing with. Whatever called the Nether Vale their home, were bad enough to have them labelled as demons, hence the name ‘Demon Shaft’, that was most likely where the theory about it being a backdoor to Tartarus developed.

When Twilight finished the charms in sullen silence and passed them out to us, she muttered something about getting some sleep and we did just that, Pinkie didn’t utter a word to either of us. The next day we got back on track and made our way to the Nether Vale, stepping out of the safety of the forest around early afternoon. The vast grey plains were just as I remembered them; there was even the same sheet of cloud stretched across the sky, allowing only the smallest amounts of sunlight to shine through.

“Are you both ready?” Twilight asked in a low voice as we all stood at the edge, staring out over the desolate landscape. “There’s no saying what we might encounter once we move forward, we’ll need to have our guard up constantly.”

“And we’ll all need to work together as a team,” I added sternly, both Twilight and Pinkie looking down at their hooves awkwardly. “I’m ready if you are.”

They both nodded and I took the lead, stepping across the imaginary threshold from the safety of the Tranquil Forest into the dangers of the Nether Vale. The moment I did, I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck; it was if a thousand invisible eyes had just swivelled straight at me. Looking back, I saw the other two had felt it as well as they joined me. Twilight gave a firm nod and we started walking forward, our eyes set on the pale mound in the far distance. For a while we walked in silence, constantly aware that we weren’t alone, and waiting for the moment when whatever it was struck, but for the longest time nothing did.

After a while, Pinkie seemed to relax, a spring in her step as she talked about her own experiences in the Nether Vale.

“And it felt just like I was drowning,” she finished. “So keep your eyes peeled for those things, because it is not fun. Also, you know what I found was interesting? Directly beneath our hooves this very second, are thousands of different tunnel networks. They were even beneath us the moment we entered the Vale, they stretch out all the way from the Shaft to the furthest edges of the Vale, so really we could dig down right now and we’d eventually end up inside one of them.”

“I’d rather not get lost by going into the wrong tunnel,” I muttered. “I’m really glad I marked the one we have to go through.”

“What about you Twi?” Pinkie asked eagerly. “You know exactly why I came here, but you still haven’t told us what you were doing here, or how you ended up with that stone.”

I glanced over at Twilight, equally curious to hear this story. Twilight didn’t look eager to share though, glancing away initially and not meeting our gazes, but after a moment she gave a little sigh and decided to tell the tale.

“It was shortly after I became Princess Celestia’s student,” she began. “I heard the stories of the Nether Vale and the Demon Shaft, perhaps one of the greatest untapped wells of knowledge. I heard the terrible stories, but instead of being scared, I was… intrigued. I didn’t believe for a second it was as bad as everypony made it out to be, all I could think about, was how much there was to learn about it… and how much the Princess would be proud of me if I was the first one to do it.”

Twilight bowed her head, looking deeply ashamed, I started to feel bad for her even though I didn’t yet know why, even Pinkie had ceased her bouncing and was now watching Twilight with a concerned expression.

“I told the Princess how much I wanted to see the city of Arclight,” she continued as we walked on. “I told her all this nonsense about how it would be an excellent way of experiencing other cultures and getting a taste of different kinds of magic. She loved the idea, and arranged for me to travel over their immediately. I wasn’t really lying, I did want to see Arclight, but I wanted to come here even more. Once I arrived at the city, I created an illusionary clone of myself to keep my escort fooled while I sneaked out of Arclight and headed north.

“I don’t really want to go into all the details,” Twilight went on miserably. “I reached the Demon Shaft and started exploring… needless to say, I quickly learnt just how accurate the horror stories of this place were. Looking back, I know I only just made it out in one piece, the stone was the only thing I had managed to recover, the only thing I had to show for my efforts. By the time I had made it back to Arclight, I was exhausted and weak and… wounded, I tried to come up with a convincing excuse, but the moment I entered the city, I knew it was no use.

“Sometime while I was gone, my illusion had failed and my escort alerted the Princess to my disappearance,” Twilight continued, a pained expression on her face now. “She had just arrived before I did, I was brought straight to her and… and I couldn't lie, I told her the whole truth about what I had done, only just leaving out the part about the stone. I knew she would be disappointed in me for lying and running away… but I wasn't expecting her to be so angry. It was the only time in all our years together that she ever shouted at me… she was absolutely furious, and she made it perfectly clear.”

Twilight looked devastated just remembering it, I thought about the dull stone that had returned to its place in the back of my compass.

“She took me back to Equestria, and it was years before I was permitted to travel to Panchea without her supervision,” Twilight finished. “I would never have done it again; I never forgot her fury when I told her I had been here.”

“But you’re coming back now,” Pinkie pointed out warily. “Won’t she be angry with you again?”

Twilight swallowed noticeably.

“She will be,” Twilight admitted in a quiet voice. “But… but I have to do this, I hope she’ll understand that things are different this time.”

I frowned; something about Twilight’s story didn’t make an awful lot of sense. Why would Celestia get angry about her student travelling here? Was there something she knew about the Demon Shaft that she didn’t want Twilight knowing? And why for that matter, did Celestia’s anger affect Twilight so badly, even years later when she was simply recounting the story?

“Twilight…” I began, as a peculiar thought sprung to mind.

I didn’t get any further before an ear-splitting shriek filled my head and I was forced to clamp my hooves over my ears, collapsing to the ground in agony. All around me, my vision of the world began trembling violently and I felt as if my whole brain was threatening to explode. After what felt like hours of writhing on the ground, I felt something strike me squarely in the face. It felt like a small zap of lightning, and while it hurt briefly, the screaming stopped instantly and the world stopped shaking.

Pinkie helped me up quickly, and I saw the glow in Twilight’s horn fading. They both stared at me in shock, and I quickly noticed there was blood trickling down my cheeks from my eyes, which still felt like they might burst.

“What… what happened?” I asked in a weary voice.

“Some shadowy thing flew inside your ear while you were talking,” Pinkie explained, pointing to a scorch mark on the ground. “Twilight shocked it out of you and zapped it before it could escape.”

“It felt like it was eating my brain,” I mumbled as I rubbed my temples.

“We should keep moving,” Twilight declared, glancing around nervously. “We let our guard down too long, and it looks like they’re done watching us.”

We quickly continued forward, our journey no longer quite as peaceful. Very rarely were we attacked by anything real, while we always thought there was something there, more often than not, it would turn out that just one of us had been imagining it. I myself felt the ground open up beneath me and swallow me whole, it felt like I was being slowly buried alive beneath sand and gravel until Twilight and Pinkie managed to wake me up. However, occasionally they were made the victims of the Nether Vale’s illusions, where one of them would begin screaming or flailing about, and I would have to help snap them out of it.

Sometimes these effects were brought on by strange creatures made of living shadows, much like those I had seen inside the Demon Shaft that filled the rooms and corridors as I left them behind me. Other times we were attacked directly by the creatures themselves, they came in many shapes and sizes, all of them terrifying and deadly in their own way. Some darted about, staying out of sight as they slowly got closer and closer, we managed to deal with them by watching each other’s blind spots.

Some sank into the ground like they were liquid, and moved along beneath us, reaching out again with claws and tentacles that tried to drag us down into the inky black depths. While we couldn’t physically harm them in the ground, they were still vulnerable to some of Twilight’s spells. On one occasion they appeared as a swarm of crows that blotted out the sky as they descended upon us, pecking and scratching at our flesh, I made quick work of them by using my swinging sword technique, while Pinkie’s idle spinning of daggers around her hooves also proved useful in clearing them out.

All the while, the Nether Vale itself seemed out to get us, the whole environment changing and altering itself. Bolts of black lightning cut the sky in two, they turned rocks they struck to dust, and it was only Pinkie’s own lightning reflexes that managed to keep us out of harm’s way. The earth shifted and rolled beneath us, occasionally forming into some great hand that swept down upon us. Twilight used her sceptre to tame the ground, and force it to turn flat and peaceful no matter what it tossed our way. When the sun had set, the darkness rolled in all around us, even the light from Twilight’s or my own horn wouldn’t penetrate it.

As the darkness began closing in on us however, the small circle of light that kept us safe getting smaller and smaller, Pinkie and Twilight were quickly able to scribble a ring of protective runes around us, which kept the darkness at bay. After that, Twilight was able to conjure a fire and we were pretty much forced to stay put until the sun rose and the darkness receded. We knew there wouldn’t be any sleep that night, but we chatted casually to keep our spirits up, all the while shooing away long, shadowy hands with spider like digits, that crept along the ground towards the fire to the eerie sound of a phantom music box.

“Well this was considerably worse than I was expecting,” I muttered as I scraped the dried blood from my cheeks. “And to think these charms are actually protecting us, I’d hate to think how bad it would be if we didn’t have them.”

“It’s much worse,” Twilight replied. “It seems this place always throws something new at you, I didn’t recognise half the threats we encountered.”

“Same here,” Pinkie agreed. “Although I’m actually finding this time to be worse than the last time I was here… but then, I guess I wasn’t holding back as much.”

“Holding back?!” I repeated in disbelief. “What in Equestria are you holding back for?!”

“Hey now, chaos magic isn’t easy to use,” Pinkie informed me defensively. “It’s especially draining on a pony body; I always save my best tricks for when things are at their absolute worst.”

“Is that what you call our fight by the lake?” Twilight asked in a dull tone. “You weren’t holding back then?”

“True, but that’s just because I was so happy to see you again!” Pinkie declared. “And also because I wasn’t expecting things to get as serious as they did.”

I frowned, I was full of questions, and now that we had a moment to stop and talk, I wasn’t sure where to begin.

“Um… Twilight,” I decided to begin. “I was meaning to ask earlier, you said you became Princess Celestia’s student when you were just a filly, and… when we first captured Blueblood, you said that she practically raised you.”

Twilight’s mouth opened slightly as she seemed to realise where I was going.

“And earlier…” I continued carefully. “You seemed so… ashamed at having disappointed her, that the idea of her shouting at you, even once was such a terrible thing for you.”

Pinkie was now staring at Twilight as well, a curious expression on her face as she waited for Twilight to answer.

“Well… yes, I suppose you’ve guessed now,” Twilight mumbled quietly. “Before I came under Celestia’s wing… I was an orphan. I was found in the… um, I was found somewhere when I was just a foal, and delivered to an orphanage in Ponyville. I was quickly transferred to a different orphanage in Canterlot when my original one closed down, it was there I spent my childhood. My name used to be just Twilight, Twily for short, it wasn’t until the Princess took me as her student that I got my full name… um, she called me Sparkle herself.”

“I didn’t know that,” Pinkie muttered in an odd tone while she continued to stare at Twilight. “How come you never told me that?”

“Well we weren’t exactly friends all these years,” Twilight reminded her sternly before lightning up. “I wasn’t completely alone; there was a colt who looked out for me while I grew up. We pretty much became brother and sister in everything but blood, his name’s Shining Armour, he was the one who called me Twily. When I became the Princess’s student, he joined the Royal Guard and trained every day and rose up through the ranks until he became captain, all so he could continue looking out for me when I moved into the castle.”

“And how did you become her student?” I asked, oddly content learning so much about my friend.

“Discord,” Twilight stated simply, glancing at Pinkie briefly. “When I was living in Canterlot, a group of fanatic cultists tried to open a gate to Tartarus in the middle of the city, intent of releasing Discord. It was apparently the closest they came to succeeding in all the years since he had been first locked away; they even managed to subdue the Princess. He was almost out of the portal; everypony saw him in the flesh… until I stopped him. I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, I just panicked really, but I poured all my magic into shutting the portal and forcing Discord back in.

“I didn’t really think I could do it,” Twilight went on. “But somehow I did, Discord was stopped, his followers were arrested, and I got my cutie mark. Not long after, the Princess insisted that I become her personal student, she insisted that I possessed incredible power, that few ponies could have stopped him, even fully grown ponies who had spent years practising. Of course I never believed I was as good as she always made out… not until the day she gave me the sceptre. So to answer your question, I said she raised me, because she did. The Princess became like a mother to me, besides Shinning, she was the only family I ever knew.”

“I see,” I replied lamely, unsure how to respond to that kind of story.

I noticed Pinkie was still staring at Twilight, although she was too tied up in her own thoughts and memories to notice, but Pinkie’s look had grown increasingly odd.

“Pinkie,” I started once more, getting her attention. “I wanted to ask you something as well, something about what you just said regarding chaos magic.”

“Oh, go for it,” Pinkie welcomed, giving me a strained smile.

“Well, it’s just that you said…” I began slowly. “Chaos magic was especially draining on a ‘pony body’.”

I got a weird feeling of déjà vu as Pinkie opened her mouth just as Twilight had, her eyes betraying the fact she knew where I was going with this.

“You make it sound like you had experience as something other than a pony,” I said warily. “So I guess what I’m asking is… how did you get involved in chaos magic?”

Pinkie simply froze, glancing uncomfortably between myself and Twilight, who was now also looking at her with an interested expression. Finally Pinkie let out a long sigh as she closed her eyes, almost as if she was accepting her fate.

“I suppose I can’t keep it to myself forever…” she began in a light voice that sounded so different from her usual tone. “You’re my friend… and Twilight… you deserve to know now as well.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow as Pinkie began mumbling to herself, as if looking for the best way to begin explaining.

“Let me tell you a story!” she announced randomly, her voice returning briefly to its usual jubilance. “This is a story about a young filly called… Pinkamena.”

I couldn’t help but snort at that, Pinkie just shot me a cocky grim before going on.

“Pinkamena lived a simple life,” Pinkie went on. “She lived on a rock farm in Equestria, with her parents and her three sisters. Life was very boring for the longest time there; nothing interesting ever happened, little Pinkamena hated it. It was just so boring! She longed for something different to happen, to break up the monotony of her daily existence… unfortunately for her, that’s exactly what happened. One day, Pinkamena decided to play in the furthest fields while waiting for her dinner to be ready, her sisters were all still busy with their chores, so she went alone.

“While she was out playing,” Pinkie continued, her voicing lowering slightly. “A trio of stallions came wandering by, on a journey to find a new pub, after they had just been kicked out of the previous one for their disorderly behaviour. These three stallions came across Pinkamena, and poor little Pinkamena had so little experience with strangers, she didn’t know the first thing about how to stay safe around them or what dangers they posed.”

I could feel my mouth going dry as I listened; I was suddenly starting to regret asking my questions.

“Well these stallions were just so kind,” Pinkie went on, her voice now high pitched with exaggerated joy. “They decided to do the kind thing and teach little Pinkamena exactly why she should be wary around strangers.”

I glanced over at Twilight who was looking a little pale as she stared at Pinkie with an unreadable expression.

“Now Pinkamena had a sister,” Pinkie carried on quickly. “Her name was Maud, as the eldest sister, she took it upon herself to look out for her younger siblings. So when their mother said that dinner was ready and Pinkamena was nowhere to be seen, Maud volunteered to go look for her. Maud found her sister… Maud saw what the stallions had done… Maud saw how they had left her for dead!”

Pinkie’s voice had gone slightly hysterical for a moment, and I was started to feel just a little bit scared of her.

“Well Maud was devastated,” Pinkie said, calming down slightly. “And she was confused and conflicted. Her little sister needed help urgently, but they were too far from the house. If Maud left to get help, Pinkamena might not be alive when she got back. If she tried to move her, it only hurt her more, so carrying her back was not an option. If she stayed with her sister, help was not likely to come and Maud would be powerless to save her on her own. Well Maud stayed, unsure what to do, she cried and screamed for help, but nopony could hear her, they were so far from the house or any of their neighbours.”

I could feel my own eyes watering as I saw Pinkie began grinding her hooves into the ground in front of her, an angry expression on her face as she seemed to slip away from the present, back into her own memories.

“Nopony heard her…” Pinkie said darkly. “But someone did… a certain spirit of chaos, who just earlier that day had been thwarted in his attempt to escape his prison by a certain magical prodigy.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as Pinkie looked up at her and gave her an odd expression.

“This spirit failed to escape in his entirety,” Pinkie continued. “But before the prodigy had sealed him away, he was able to separate a part of himself, fleeing his prison while leaving his physical form trapped along with the majority of his power. Now this spirit was passing by, and he heard the cries for help and went to investigate. Normally Maud would have been shocked and perhaps a little scared to hear the spirit’s voice, but she was too scared for her sister to pass up his offer for help.

“And he did want to help!” Pinkie announced in a high pitched voice. “Because despite what everypony thought of him, he did not approve of three fully grown stallions doing awful things to a lone filly before leaving her for dead! He felt Maud’s pain, and he felt little Pinkamena’s pain, and so he told the older sister that he could save her. Of course Maud agreed instantly, but the spirit stopped her, she needed to know that there was a price to pay. Again she agreed, she offered the spirit anything, her life, her body, her soul, whatever he desired, but it was not something of hers that the spirit needed in order to save little Pinkamena.

“When the spirit explained exactly what it was he needed, Maud was hesitant,” Pinkie’s voice had grown incredibly low now; it almost sounded like a male speaking through her mouth. “Maud did agree however, anything to save her sister… even if the result would not completely be her sister. You see, the spirit had lost a great deal when he split himself, at his full power he could have had that filly up and about with her memory scrubbed clean with a snap of his claws, but he was severely weakened. However, while he lost his powers, he retained the majority of his soul, the very thing that made the spirit who he was.

“In order to save little Pinkamena,” Pinkie went on; it sounded like she was reaching the climax of her story. “The spirit had to bind himself with her.”

“What…” Twilight breathed, her face aghast as understanding dawned on her. “You mean…”

“The spirit merged with Pinkamena,” Pinkie cut in loudly. “As he did, the filly’s body was restored, and Maud’s dear sister was returned to her… mostly.”

There was a long silence, I could sort of understand what Pinkie was getting at, but it still came as a shock when Twilight announced it.

“All these years…” she muttered. “It was you all along… you’re Discord!”

Pinkie looked up at Twilight with a calm expression.

“Yes,” she said simply in her old voice. “And no.”

“Well you’d better start explaining!” Twilight snapped as she got to her hooves, her horn glowing slightly.

“I am Discord!” Pinkie declared flatly. “And I am not Discord, just like I am Pinkamena, and I am not Pinkamena. I have both their memories, their personalities… their souls. Granted, Discord’s is considerably bigger due to his age and his nature, but so much of what made up the original Discord, the true Discord, remains sealed away in Tartarus, including the bulk of his power and many of his memories. When Discord bonded with Pinkamena, he didn’t possess her; they became one and the same being. I was made, I am both Discord and Pinkamena, and yet I am neither of them, I’m something entirely new.”

Twilight’s stance became less aggressive as the glow around her horn dissipated; she was still breathing heavily and looking deeply torn.

“Then what are you?” she asked finally, in an almost desperate tone.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Pinkie asked as she stood up to eye level with Twilight, her voice returning to its usual cheeriness. “I’m Pinkie Pie!”

Comments

[Ixion]

Lol, if this was a table top RPG game and I was playing Rarity, I think I would have flipped the table and left after those two origin stories.