Potion Panic

by gaitiem

10 A World on Fire

“Hey, here’s a real fat one! You been eatin’ one too many Red Delicious-us-es, ain’t ya?” Apple Bloom observed. The bat was red, hanging upside down in a state of rest and trying to ignore the fillies trampling all over the south fields and disturbing it’s friends and neighbors. “You find any of the rainbow one’s yet? There ain’t many, but Granny says finding one is good luck.”

“No,” Sweetie said bluntly.

“They get that way eating the zap-apples. I think that’s why they’re a li’l magic. You can find more of them in zap-apple season, especially if there’s a good yield, but there’s always one or two around if you look for ‘em.”

Sweetie played along silently, scanning the infested trees as they passed them by. She stopped, confused, and asked, “Aren’t these supposed to all be rainbow colors?”

“Yeah,” AB answered, “why?”

“This one is brown,” Sweetie pointed out, “with a gray cowl. Also, it has one blue wing, and one purple.”

“Very observant!” the bat responded. With a snap of its tiny bat fingers, the bat revealed itself to be nothing less than Discord, the spirit of chaos!

“What the hay are you doin’ in our field Discord?” Apple Boom demanded of him.
With another snap of his eagle claw, Apple Bloom was gone, leaving him and Sweetie Belle alone. “Now, young mare,” he addressed her, “you have some explaining to do.”

Anger momentarily won out over fear as Sweetie rashly responded “Oh, do I!? For what!?”

“Oooh, look at you!” Discord cooed. “So agressive for such a little pony. Thouh I think we both know what I mean.” He became a little more serious. “I was called because someone claimed to have seen Lord Tirek terrorizing ponyville again, and I’m the only tool in Celestia’s little bag of tricks that can track him. The only problem was, he’s still in Tartarus. I checked myself. So I had to do some petty detective work, ask around Ponyville, get to the bottom of who this pretender really was. Who would have guessed that the big, bad, conqueror of Equestria, back for revenge, was just a tiny little unicorn.”

“So you found me,” Sweetie interrupted. “What are you gonna do? Send me to Tartarus forever?” She was half daring him, half dreading the thought to herself.

“Let’s not lose our heads, now,” Discord said, removing his head to demonstrate. “All you did was make a little fuss and waste a little of my time, of which I have an endless supply. I suppose I’m expected to do something to keep you from acting out again and creating more havoc.” Discord seemed to cringe at the idea. However, as he summoned a coach for Sweetie, an arm chair for himself, and a pipe for symbolism, he took pleasure in assuming the role of a shrink. “So, then, let’s try to get to the source of these outbursts!”

Sweetie aquested, “If you insist...”

Apple Bloom, meanwhile, found herself with Princess Cadance in the Crystal Empire. “Oh, hello,” Princess Cadance greeted her politely. “How did you get in here?”

“Discord!” Apple Bloom fumed.

“Love poison!” Discord gasped, “Not even I would mess around with that stuff. Sure, I’m all about chaos, but I do have standards.”

“So, do you know any cures or anything?” Sweetie asked. “Something that can make all the lonely feelings go away?”

“You ask just a little too much of me. All I can do to ponies hearts is shuffle them around a little, usually to bring out the nastier side of themselves they don’t want to deal with. I can’t simply make a feeling go away. I’m not a shrink you know.” Suddenly the arm chair, the cigar, and the couch disappeared, and Sweetie fell flat on her back.

“There has to be something I can do to feel better,” Sweetie said.

“Well,” Discord began, “if you want advice, it’s a different story. You can control your own emotions, even under the effects of a spell. The best way I’ve always found to vent my feelings was to express myself through something constructive. When that doesn’t work, and, let’s be honest, it never does, I turn to the obviously better mode of expression: destructive!”

“You mean, if I destroy stuff, I’ll feel better?” Sweetie asked innocently.

“I know it can be hard, Sweetie, feeling like you can’t put out that great big flame down in your heart. So the only thing you can do with that flame, to make it feel small,-” he paused in the middle of his sentence to tap Sweetie Belle’s horn with his paw, “ -is set the world on fire!”

Sweetie’s horn began to glow a brilliant red, its aura encircling much more than the area of her horn. “It did feel good to trick all those ponies with the Tirek mask,” Sweetie admitted. Curious, Sweetie cast the spell at a nearby apple tree. From the roots to the crown, the tree lit up spectacularly with roaring flames. At first, Sweetie was happy to see that she could cast such powerful magic. Her mood quickly changed when she noticed that the flames were spreading into occupied trees, and the fruit bats were all beginning to fly away in fear of the forest fire she had started. “Oh no! Sweet Apple Acres…! How could-” when she turned back to see Discord, he was nowhere to be found. She was alone. A burning limb of a tree fell right next to Sweetie Belle and spooked her. Some of the charred remains had gotten on her cloak, so she threw it off quickly and stomped it out. She started to gallop through the orchard, hoping she could outrun the fire and find her way out safely. The flames couldn’t keep up with her, but when she looked back, she could see the smoke rising up above the orchard growing larger and larger, darker and darker. She was sure somepony would call the pegasus fire brigade soon at this point, so her main concern was making it out alive before they could show up.

Just as she was looking back at how bad the situation had become, she ran straight into a tree in front of her. When she finally got her bearings back, she saw flying figures in the sky and feared that she had been caught. In her confusion, she ran back the way she had come. Before long, she was right in the path of the flames she had started. Looking back, she discovered that it was simply fruit bats which she had seen flying above her, not pegasus fire-fighters. Feeling dumb, Sweetie set out again to run away from the flames, only for a much larger branch to fall directly on her, pinning her to the ground.

As the fires raged all around her, Sweetie realized that she might be thinking the very last conscious thoughts of her life, so she had to make them count. She thought about her parents, her friends, and the prospect of a pony afterlife. Finally, though her remaining time appeared scarce, Sweetie couldn’t help but wonder whether Scootaloo could see the smoke from up in Cloudsdale.

Author's Note:

Do you guys like the Ink Spots? How about cliff hangers?

I'll post again tonight if I can, but I might slow down later. A cliffhanger won't do any good if I don't give you a chance to feel suspense.

Comments

[GemstonexCherry4life]

Was not expecting to see discord