Book 2: To Bring About Chaos

by Medley of MLP

What Once Was Wrong Is Now Left, Right?

Author's Note:

Heya there everypony! I'm back and swinging in with a hot new chapter in the next book! It took me a bit, and the week off really did help me recollect myself and get my creative juices flowing again. All I can say now is that I hope you enjoy the chapter!

To Bring About Chaos

What Once Was Wrong Is Now Left, Right?

I knew something strange was going to go on today. For once, when I woke up, I got out of bed and started my day as normal as anypony else’s. Nothing tripping me up out of bed, no rudely timed alarms, not even a crashing visitor. Nothing in the slightest stopped me from doing my morning routine. It got me so much on edge I decided to go out and actually figure out what the heck was going on. While it may have been something I was not fond of, it was still a daily routine that kept me at least intrigued or helped move along the day. To suddenly not have it felt like something was slightly off.

Nevertheless, due to how many times I had to not teach a class because of one problem or another affecting Ponyville, I, alongside Cheerilee, had to do a class field trip all the way to Canterlot. The reason was for a visit to the Canterlot Sculpture Garden, among other attractions in Canterlot, since the school also needed a bit of a touch-up.

The second red flag of the day came in the form of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, also known as Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle being the sister to Rares, Apple Bloom to AJ, and Scootaloo… taking on after Dash. In any event, what was one of the stranger occasions was their near constant sniping and bickering at one another over the most minute of things. Glares would often be traded as well, making me both want to step in, but not since they weren’t technically fighting, even if a few bumps against one another seemed more on purpose than accidental.

Soon enough, all of us were at the gardens, observing the statues. Cheerilee pointed out a few interesting examples, like the one with Friendship and Victory. But the CMC, as they’re often known as, were still being a bit more than bitter towards one another, making snide comments and snarky remarks. Then it came to the highlight of the tour itself.

“Now this, is a really interesting statue.” Cheerilee pointed a hoof up at the bizarre chimera that looked like he was ready to start singing a tune. “What do you notice about it?”

“It’s got an eagle claw!” Apple Bloom called out immediately.

“And a lion paw!” Scootaloo chimed in quickly after Apple Bloom.

“And a snake tail!” Sweetie Belle finished rapidly.

“While that is correct… there’s a little more to it than that.” I stepped in, paraphrasing what I read in the guide to this garden. “This creature is called a draconequus. He has the head of a pony, but other than that, he has a body made up of a lot of other creatures. Now, what do you suppose that represents?”

“Confusion!” Apple Bloom spoke up before being pushed aside by Sweetie Belle for spotlight.

“Evil!” Sweetie Belle answered quick-fire before meeting the same fate as Apple Bloom by Scootaloo.

“Chaos!” Scootaloo announced boldly.

Soon enough, the three of them started to bicker hard over the meaning, which then erupted into a full on three way brawl between the three. I quickly came over and forcibly separated the three fillies before any major damage could be done. As it was, they just had some scuffle marks.

“Actually… in a way, you three are all right.” Cheerilee came up to them, making them look up at her in confusion, which lead to further explaining. “This statue represents Discord, which means, a lack of harmony between ponies. In fact, since you three demonstrated Discord so well, that you’re each going to write me an essay explaining it.”

Normally I would feel bad about something like this, but in this case, I was with Cheerilee all the way on this. Plus, it was pretty fitting, even if the class had a small laugh at their expense. Yet even as we moved on, I could still hear the three bickering about what Discord meant, which meant they weren’t listening to a word Cheerilee had said. So much so that I could only hear the faint noise of stone cracking. But I chalked it up to one of the statues getting a small fracture.

The field trip was cut rather short though, was two of Celestia’s guards came galloping towards our group, only stopping once they reached me. “Medley Royalwind, the Princess… er, I mean, both Princess request your presence at the castle, effective immediately.”

I was rather confused by this, but gave a small nod as I headed over as quick as I could. As I flew over, I could start to see the weather looking awfully strange. Who ever could say they saw what looked like cotton candy clouds pouring brown rain, which assuming there was a theme at all I’d have to say chocolate of some kind, down. Seeing that only hastened my flight to a time that would make Dash a little proud of me.

“Ah, there you are, Medley. You are the first to arrive, but we thought it best if we collected you first. We had heard of your travels to Canterlot today, and have sent word to Twilight Sparkle.” Luna spoke as I tried to recover from my speed burst.

“Thank you… Princess Luna… I’ll just wait for them…” I panted, laying next to a nice, cold column to cool off a bit.

It wasn’t that long of a wait before Twily and everyone else came in through the door. I immediately joined them, giving Twily a quick, happy nuzzle before looking up at both Princesses.

“Princesses! We came as fast as we could!” Twily announced as we all stood before them.

“Thank you Twilight. Thank you all.” Princess Celestia responded.

“Is this about the weather, and the animals’ weird behavior? What’s happening out there? Why isn’t my magic working??” Twily all but demanded.

There would’ve been more questions, but Luna cut off Twily before it would be a half an hour after all the questions were asked. “Follow us.”

With no other viable alternative, the Princesses led us through a hallway, and took turns explaining the situation. At least, I think that’s what they were doing.

“We have called you all here for a matter of grave importance. It seems an old foe of ours, someone thought to have been defeated long ago, has returned.” Celestia started out.

“His name… is Discord.” Luna spoke with such an ominous tone, that it made Shy bolt right into the middle of our group, while Luna pressed on. “Discord is the mischievous spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. Before we stood up to him, he ruled all of Equestria in an eternal state of unrest, and unhappiness.”

“Luna and I saw how miserable life was, not only for the earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns of our lands, but for everyone else on this continent as well. It was fortunate that we had discovered the Elements of Harmony. Those had allowed us to combine our powers and stand up against him, once and for all, turning him into stone.” Celestia remarked.

“Alright Princesses!” Dash cheered, clearly loving this story a ton.

“We thought the spell we had cast would keep him contained forever. That is why we also put him in the Canterlot Statue Garden, to make sure nopony would try and find him. But since my sister and I are no longer connected to the Elements, especially since a new one has been discovered, the spell has been broken.” Luna sadly spoke.

“No longer connected?” Twily queried.

“This, is Canterlot Tower. The Elements are kept inside here since all 7 of you recovered them. We need you to wield the Elements of Harmony once again, and stop Discord! Before he plunges Equestria into eternal chaos!” Celestia gave our mission.

“No offense, Princesses… but why us? You both have defeated him before with ease, and now you have another alicorn to call on for aid. Or is there something we’re missing here?” I responded.

“Hey, lookie here! We’re famous!” Pinkie called out, making us all look over at the stained glass window.

“You 7 have shown the full potential of the Elements, by harnessing the Magic of your Friendship, to beat a mighty foe.” Celestia nodded to the window, which looked like all 7 of us defeating Nightmare Moon.

“Although Celestia and I once wielded the Elements, it is you who now control their power.” Luna looked to all 7 of us. “And it is you who must defeat Discord!”

We all took a moment to look at one another. Another dangerous mission involving all 7 of us, not to mention putting ourselves in grave and maddening danger. Then again, we had done it once before, and that was when we all started to become a close group of friends. Now that we knew each other a lot more, we felt like we could take it on. Which was why we had Twily give the final verdict to the Princesses.

“Princess Celestia… Princess Luna…” Twily began, looking determined. “You can count on us!”

Before the Princess could even begin to respond, Pinkie butted in. “Wait a second! Eternal chaos, comes with chocolate rain, you gals. Chocolate. Rain!”

Twily rolled her eyes a little with a small smile as she looked up at both Princesses. “Ignore her, Princesses. We’d be honored to use the Elements of Harmony again.”

Both Princesses gave a small nod before turning to the door, which looked like it had two holes. The reason became clear, as both of them inserted their horns at the same time, turning them to make the door open up. I have to say, that was smart planning, so now someone would either have to kidnap two princesses, which was pretty hard to do. They couldn’t even somehow steal the horns themselves, since it required a short burst of a blue magic that looked unfamiliar to me.

After a slightly dramatic opening of the door, which to be fair was pretty cool, we could all see the box that held our Elements inside them. But when Celestia levitated the box out and opened them, we were all somewhat horrified, giving a collective gasp. Celestia quickly dropped the box, making her and Luna rear back a bit in horror.

Pinkie was the first… and probably only pony to recover first. “Welp, if anybody needs me, I’ll be outside in the chocolate rain puddles. With a GIANT swizzle straw!”

Once Pinkie had gone back, that was about the time we all started to move and talk again, which was probably a long while. Twily was the first to speak up as we gathered around the now empty box slightly.

“The Elements! They’re gone!” Twily panicked a little as I tried to help soothe her, even while I was freaking out a ton myself.

“Sister, we had put every defensive enchantment we could into this, correct?” Luna quickly asked Celestia, who was pacing nervously.

“We did! And we even had the door specifically made so that this sort of scenario wouldn’t happen! This just doesn’t make sense.” Celestia rambled back.

Now we could hear a jolly chuckle, as though someone played a pretty good prank on us. It was kinda hard to tell who was doing it, but it was definitely a male voice, if the quick looks of confusion my way were anything to go by. When the voice actually talked though, we all stood frozen for a brief moment. It sounded a lot like a conniving trickster, one who would have his fun no matter what happened, and would even make you believe for a short while that it would be fun for you as well.

“Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?” The voice echoed throughout the hallway.

“Discord!” Both Princesses recognized the voice immediately, now giving the rest of us a name to go with… well, for now a voice. “Show yourself!”

Discord gave a small laugh, his voice finally concentrated on one area. It looked like it was coming from the window itself, a small flash animating the painted Discord. And if painted Discord was anything to go by, along with the statue I saw not a couple hours earlier, then this would be the very, very bad kind of interesting.

“It seems you both missed me so very much. Well, I missed you both as well. It gets so lonely being trapped in stone. But you wouldn’t know about that, would you?” Discord snarked as he flew and sat on a different painting. “Because I don’t turn ponies into stone.”

“Enough!” Celestia looked royally ticked off, no pun intended.

“What has thine self done with the Elements of Harmony?” Luna demanded, starting to slip back into an older form of speech.

“Oh, I just borrowed them for a teensy little while.” Discord casually mentioned, snapping his talons to make the Elements of Harmony on the glass disappear.

“You’ll never get away with this, Discord!” Celestia challenged.

“Oh, I had forgotten how grim you could be, Celestia. All that Order is truly making you dull. Overall, it’s really quite… boring.” Discord shivered a bit as though it was a dirty word.

“Hey! No pony insults the princesses!” Dash yelled as she flew right at Discord.

Right before impact, Discord poofed himself onto another painting, leaving Dash to crash right into the window. It was both a good thing and a bad thing that the glass was too thick for her to break without meaning to. As it was, she slid down the window like a bug splattering a windshield. Wow… I actually used a human simile there. But hey, it was kinda accurate.

“Oh! You must be Rainbow Dash! Famed for her loyalty, also known as the Element you represent.” Discord appeared right in front of Dash in the window after she backed up a bit.

“That’s right! I’ll always be loyal to the Princesses!” Dash confirmed as she glared at him.

“We’ll see about that.” Discord ominously stated as he appeared… right behind me. “And look what we have here. I know I saw you earlier today with those sickeningly sweet school fillies. Medley Royalwind, known as a great musician and as an extra Element of Understanding.”

“Indeed, Discord. I didn’t realize you had such big ears to hear all that.” I grinned at him.

“Oh I wouldn’t try that with me, showman.” Discord grinned before looking over at the next pony on his apparent list.

“I can’t believe we’re wasting our time talking with a tacky window.” Rarity scoffed.

“The beautiful Rarity, representing the Element of Generosity, if I recall right.” Discord looked down at Rarity smugly as AJ came over.

“Yeah, yeah, so ya know who we are. Big deal.” AJ gave him a cross look.

“Oh, I know more much more than that, Honest Applejack.” Discord grew in the window to completely cover it up with himself.

“You seem to know our strengths too.” Twily deduced as she looked up at Discord with a piercing look.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle.” Discord sounded like he was praising a little foal. “And yours is the most powerful and elusive of the Elements, even more than lost ones like Understanding: Magic.”

He continued on the same vein. “Fluttershy’s is Kindness, and Pinkie Pie’s is a personal favorite of mine: Laughter.“

Both he and Pinkie started to snicker, and I already feared he was getting into her head quickly. But looking back at him, I could see him doing the Standing Shuffle on Twily’s head. I found that less than amusing, and wanted to shatter the glass into a thousand pieces and hope that he couldn’t recover from that. Twily didn’t find it funny either.

“Stop stalling, Discord! What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?” Luna commanded.

“Oh, not you too, Luna. You were always a little more interesting than your sister.” Discord looked slightly disgruntled before he spilled the beans. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But I’m only telling it to you, in my own way.”

He started appearing all around us now as he spoke. “To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this chain of events. Twist and turns are my master plan, then find the Elements, back where it all began.” On the last line, the windows returned to normal with Discord leaving on an echoing chuckle.

“Can we go home now?” Shy timidly asked as we all reconvened.

“What do you reckon he meant? Twists and turns and where it all started?” AJ looked to Twily for the answer.

“Twist and turns… twists and turns.” Twily thought out loud as she paced to the window, looking out.

“I think I might have an idea… but let’s hear yours first Twily.” I smiled lightly as she gave a light blush before telling her idea.

“I think I got it everyone! I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace Labyrinth!”

It seems the Princesses thought so as well, as they gave a nod and spoke in unison. “Fare well, our little ponies! The fate of Equestria is now in your hooves!”

We nodded and gave a small bow towards them, Twily speaking for all of us. “Thanks, Princesses. We won’t let either of you down.”

It was then a mad dash towards the maze, with Discord’s laugh ringing lightly in our ears. As we ran, I was wondering what would await us inside the maze. After all, Discord looked like he would do something like set traps, and wouldn’t care how lethal it got, so long as it was funny to him. I also worried about Twily and the her safety as well, but since she was a very strong unicorn, I thought I was just idly worrying over nothing.

We all slowed down as we reached the entrance, with Shy giving a small squeak of fear. “W-We have to g-go in… there?”

“Nope!” Dash strode confidently up to the maze, giving her wings a small flap for show. “Dopey Discord forgot about these awesome parts! I’ll just do a quick flyover and we’ll get those Elements in no time!”

As soon as she was finished speaking, she tore off into the sky in a breeze. Unfortunately, she didn’t get very far before her wings… disappeared? Which, without wings meant no flying… well… she made a spectacular landing back onto the ground.

“My wings!” Dash bemoaned as she looked at herself.

I could see a small flash nearby me out of the corner of my eye. When I went to look down to see what it was about, I gave a very high yelp as I saw my wings disappeared as well. Fluttershy did something similar when she noticed her own missing wings. Even Rare’s and Twily’s horns both disappeared, making them both freak out, for an admittedly good reason. After all, I was born with these wings, it felt so unnatural to be without them. I wouldn’t know what it was like to have the source of your magic just up and flash away.

We all then looked in terrified fascination at a glowing, green orb that slowly got brighter and brighter. Eventually, it flashed a blinding white, and with it… came a figure. A being with the head of a pony, and a body of mixed and matched body parts. It was the one and only… Discord. He made a somewhat dramatic evil laugh before just going into regular laughter, looking down at us with a toothy grin.

“You- You should see the lokos on your faces! Priceless!” Discord chuckled.

“Give us our wings and horns back!” Twily ordered Discord while the rest of us stood behind her in silent and firm agreement.

“You’ll get them back in good time.” Discord nonchalantly waved a paw as he spoke on. “I simply took them to ensure no cheating. You see, this is the first rule of our game.”

He slithered over to Dash and Shy, who looked angry and afraid in that order. “No flying…”

He then leaned over, staring very close and deep into Twily’s eyes. “And nooo magic.”

I growled a little, making myself speak up. “The first rule? Really? I thought you didn’t DO rules?”

“Now now, no need to be so harsh there.” Discord smugly told me as he slid in mid-air onto a nearby hedge. “The second rule is, everypony has to play, or the game is over. And I win.”

“Good luck, everypony!” Discord jeered with a laugh before flashing off to who knows where.

We all took a moment to recover from that before Twily comforted us, sounding very determined. “Don’t worry ladies… and stallion. We have each other!”

“Yeah! Like Twilight said, there’s nothing we can’t overcome if we all stick together!” Dash added in, making us all feel pretty pumped to enter.

“Alright everyone.” We all lined up at the entrance, ready to face this head on, staying by each other’s sides. “Let’s do this!”

“Together!” We all cried in unison, taking our first step in.

It seemed like Discord had thought of that, as hedges quickly sprouted, cutting us off from one another. Without a way to break through the hedges, now we were stuck on our own paths. This is what started making me freak out a lot more, since hedges also sprouted behind all of us, locking us into the maze.

“Calm down everypony!” Twily called out through her section of the maze. “Just get to the middle as fast as you can! We’ll regroup there!”

Now with a different plan, we all gave our affirmations and started galloping off towards what we felt like was the quickest way to the center. I was feeling pretty confident in everypony to make their own way there.

After a few minutes running though, I slowed down to a very steady trot, panting slightly as I did. Why oh why did I not try and improve any sort of muscle? That would be something I’d have to fix pronto. Eventually, I just stopped altogether to get my breath back properly. While I did so, I heard a very faint, yet catchy tune. Curious, I tried to follow the sound of the music. It was irritating a few times, since it’d be in forte in some directions, yet would quickly decrescendo to a more piano.

When I finally found the source of it, I was very confused by the scene set out in front of me. It looked like a circle of stools were set up, and on each stool sat a different instrument. When taking a closer look, I found that they were all instruments I frequently used in my songs. A violin, a saxophone, and a very small version of a piano.

“Charming, isn’t it?” Discord appeared at the conductor’s stand, keeping the instruments playing. “I couldn’t help but sneak a few peaks into you. And might I say… what an interesting little pony you are.”

I steeled myself, looking up at Discord with a hard face. “What do you mean, Discord?”

“Oh, feigning ignorance I see. How unbecoming of someone with Understanding as their Element.” Discord smirked as he explained. “Your recent past with family. Your deeper past with your own voice. And little slivers of what looked like a previous life even.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I bluffed, even if I was nervously sweating.

His paw continued to lead the instruments as he slowly approached me. “Oh no need for lies with me, Medley. Throughout your whole lives, you claimed you were lesser than you really were. You thought you could help anybody out with their problems as long as you listened hard enough. And what did that get you in the end? A broken voice, a dead family, and a past that can never come back.”

As he spoke, I could feel the music seeping into me, making me more and more angry. In a way, Discord was right. No one ever really cared to hear about my problems. And sometimes, I just didn’t care about their own problems, or didn’t want to try and understand them at all. All it would bring me was more trouble and more headaches.

“I see you’re taking it quite well. Do you understand my situation though?” Discord smirked down at me.

I growled up at him, forcing the instruments to stop with a kick to one of the stools, making it crash into the others. “Fucking hell no. And I don’t care either. You’re not my damn problem. Now go away, you’re bothering me too much.”

Discord shrugged as the hedge came down, showing Twilight there. Oh great, now she’s worried about me. Where was she when I actually needed her? As far as I was concerned, she could very well skip off.

“Oh Med! I was getting worried about you? Are you alright?” Twilight asked, too sweetly in my opinion.

“Of course I’m fine. Now shut up about it.” I shot back, walking ahead of her.

At this point, I chose to just tune out Twilight and all of her drivel. It’s not like it was important anyways. After all, I was the more important person. If anything, I should’ve told her about my problems and see how well SHE would’ve liked it. You know what, screw this, you don’t get to listen to me anymore.

End of Chapter 1

Comments

[Skye787]

O.O so it begins. Can't wait.

[KaylaCautio]

Oh my god, Medley. So that's how you mess with the element of Understanding... you've got me intrigued, buddy, I can say that much.