Chapter 16
Discord would find me wherever I was. It wasn’t like we had an assigned meeting place, and I didn’t really feel like waiting around my castle for him to show up. So after waking the next morning and doing my normal washing rituals and filling Starlight in on my encounter with Fluttershy (minus a few details), I put on my blindfold and shades and hat and went to the Ponyville Starbucks.
It was still crowded, despite everything going on in Ponyville. The barista, a fuschia earth pony with a trendy, daring mane style that I could only dream of wearing, seemed as at-home behind the counter as she ever was. Perhaps she dreamed of serving ponies coffee while looking cool? An oddity to ponder.
Who was I to judge, though. Everypony’s dreams were weird.
I took a seat out on the patio. Each of the little tables had a large sunshade overhead; I lowered mine to let Celestia’s rays wash over me like rain. The light seeped through all the layers covering my eyes, blinding me with its glare, but I didn’t care. I didn’t need to see at the moment.
I was almost done with my first latte, and weighing the benefits of getting another, when the air across from me imploded with a quiet pomph. I heard ponies gasp and start to chatter.
“Discord.” I set my cup down and rotated it so the seapony logo was perpendicular to us. “You’re in trouble.”
“Do you have to say it like that?” He crossed his arms and scowled at me. “Are you sure you weren’t supposed to be a school marm, instead of a librarian? You have the perfect disposition for it.”
“I’m not that good with foals.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. Foals are good with everything, especially if you add a bit of cinnamon.” Discord picked something out of his teeth with a claw and flicked it away. “Anyway, Fluttershy said it was oh so important that I find you. Well, here I am.”
I considered the draconequus. I couldn’t see him in the traditional sense, not with the blindfold and smoked lenses, but I could still sense everything about him. His form was as clear to me as ever, every twisted scale and matted hair. I breathed in through my nose and caught his scent, of starlight and liquorice. And sweat.
And fear. The realization shocked me cold. He was afraid of something, and it wasn’t me.
“Well?” he asked. I’d been gawping long enough to make even him uncomfortable, apparently. “Cat got your tongue? That’s not just an expression with me, by the way, so you better say something quick.”
I swallowed. Tongue was still there, for now. “You’re afraid.”
He flinched. I felt it through the table. I tasted it. Lemons flooded my mouth, enough to make me gag. We each recoiled from the table.
He recovered first. “Me? Afraid? You—you’re not as smart as ponies think, are you, Sparky? Imagining something silly like that.”
“It’s true, though, isn’t it?” My hooves shook as I picked up my latte and took a sip, washing away the taste of his shock. “What did you do, Discord? What did you do to us?”
His lips peeled back, revealing row after row of dragons teeth. More seemed to sprout with every passing second, until his mouth grew so full of them that they dribbled out like drool, landing with an ivory windchime clatter on the table. He snapped his jaws shut and the extraneous teeth vanished, leaving only scratches on the wood. He leaned forward to loom over me, swallowing me with his shadow.
“I,” he hissed, “am a god, little pony. I am not afraid of you or Celestia or Luna or those silly little jewels you and your friends run around with. Long after you are all dust and harmony is a bad memory the universe will still be chock full of chaos because chaos is its natural state. What could I possibly be afraid of?”
Not our punishments. We could petrify him, sure, but he’d broken free once and could do so again. We could not harm him in any other way – I’d seen him cut in half, melted, pureed, eaten and crushed, and he always popped right back into existence with a laugh. Unlike every other sentient being I could hold a conversation with, he was not his body but a concept, and concepts were invincible. What could such a being fear?
I wracked my mind, sitting in his shadow. The other tables had retreated, leaving an empty space in the Starbucks for the first time since the store opened. It seemed nopony wanted to be front-row witnesses to a fight between an alicorn and a god. He was so close I could hear him breathing, hear the blood (or whatever ichor draconequuses had) flowing through his veins. How odd, it struck me out of nowhere, that a being with no need for a mortal form had bothered to imitate one so precisely.
Perhaps he was not as different from us as I thought.
Perhaps he feared the same things I did.
“You’re afraid of losing us.” I didn’t think – I just let the words spill out as they came. “You finally have a friend, and now you’re losing her. She’s changing into something you don’t know anymore, and that terrifies you, doesn’t it?”
Silence, except for his breath and the faint song of the sun. I could see it even through his looming body, shining through his skull. I let it distract me while he grappled for an answer.
Finally: “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I just wanted to make your dreams more interesting. That’s all. Was that so wrong?”
“What did you do, though?” I leaned forward. “You failed that first day. What did you do the second time?”
“The archetypes, Sparky. Those boring stories you ponies keep dreaming about. You just needed a little nudge to dream about something new, so I cut them loose. That’s all! You were supposed to dream of new and wonderful and terrifying things and wake up the next day and be oh-so exhilarated that I had made your dreary lives just a little bit more interesting! You weren’t supposed to… to do this.” He flicked my shades with the tip of his claw.
I recoiled. It hadn’t hurt, but it let in enough glare to sear my eyes for a moment, even through the blindfold. It felt wonderful.
“Can you change us back? Put everything back the way it was?” I asked.
He grimaced. The stench of brimstone filled my muzzle. “My power doesn’t work that way, Sparky. I’m not meant to… to re-order things. I might dissipate entirely if I tried! I’ll need help.”
Help. “The Elements of Harmony?”
The very name seemed to hurt him. He shrank back into his seat, away from me. “I never thought I would say it, but yes. Their power is to bring order, to harmonize things. If any power can undo this mess, it’s them.”
That wasn’t exactly what I’d wanted. I wanted him to snap his fingers, like he had in my library, and suddenly make everything right again. Just a poof of smoke, maybe a flash of light, and all my friends they way they were before. Applejack selling apples everyday with a smile, Fluttershy timid and quiet and kind, Starlight contrite and helpful. I’d even settle for the old Trixie if that was part of the deal. Sometimes you had to take the bad with the good.
But if he couldn’t do all that himself, then I could help him. We could help him. And if my friends disagreed, well, sometimes it took a bit of effort to achieve harmony. We would all have to surrender something. I stared up at the sun.
“Come by my castle this evening,” I said. “We will put this right.”
He slumped in his chair, softening like pudding left out in the sun. His relief tasted sweet and tart on my tongue.
Progress. One piece of the puzzle. And the others were nearly in my grasp. I reached out to the sun with my magic. Already blinding in intensity, it grew and grew. It burned me, flayed me, tore me apart, and beautiful darkness took me elsewhere.
* * *
My thoughts took me to Rarity’s boutique. I appeared with a flash in her showroom and spent a moment orienting myself. The curtains were all drawn, cosseting the room with shadows that smelled of cotton and jasmine. Despite the summer heat Rarity’s home never seemed to reek of sweat; some secret she’d kept through all the years I’d lived in Ponyville. Maybe she just took frequent cold showers.
Dozens of new projects surrounded me, extraordinary scaled creations that hung from wires and spun in mobiles. Tunics and hats and saddles and dresses, stitched so seamlessly together that they seemed to be grown more than crafted. Prismatic tiles adorned them, filled the room with scattered reflections. I stared, awed all over again. Amazed that a clumsy, fleshy mortal pony could create such beautiful things.
“Hello? Is somepony there?” Rarity’s voice came from the deeper within the boutique. A simple curtain divider separated divided it from the showroom. Flickers of light danced around its margins.
“Just me,” I called. I nudged the curtain aside and walked through. It was her workroom, where the actual sewing was done, and far brighter as a result. I had to shield my bandaged eyes with my wing. “Sorry to barge in. I spoke with Discord, and...” I trailed off as I finally saw her.
Rarity hung suspended over one of her tables. Below her on the workspace lay bolts of fabric and shears and tape measures and pincushions and a dozen different pencils and a hundred other tools of the seamstress’s trade that I couldn’t hope to identify. But I ignored them, my gaze drawn upward to behold my friend.
An enormous web stretched across the room, centered above the table. Cables of silk thinner than the hairs of my tail came together in twined, gossamer lines that reflected sparkles of light like diamonds. They anchored in every surface of the room. And in the middle, lording over it all, Rarity perched in the air, her eight long, spindly legs ending in curved claws that hooked the web’s strands effortlessly. She turned to me as I entered. Her beautiful amethyst mane hung like a curtain across half her face, concealing half her multitude of segmented eyes.
“Hello darling.” She smiled. Her mouth hadn’t changed, at least – no fangs or, I guess, chelicerae. “Sorry you had to catch me like this. I’m almost done with Trixie’s order.”
I stared up at her. I think I started to cry. The blindfold wicked away the tears as soon as they formed.
“Not a butterfly,” I mumbled.
“Sorry?” Her legs stretched out, snagging new strands and pulling her a bit closer to me.
“Nothing.” I swallowed. “How, uh, how are you? How do you feel?”
“Oh, just wonderful!” She smiled, and a flash of unalloyed joy radiated from her. “I know I must look a fright, but that’s how fashion goes sometimes. And I think it won’t be long before ponies come to appreciate such daring choices! Oh, but how are you? Are your eyes still bothering you?”
“No. They’re just a little sensitive.” I stepped around the room as best I could, ducking beneath the silk cables and dangling sheets of webs. My horn caught on one strand and snapped it, setting the whole room vibrating. Rarity adjusted her legs easily. Her body remained motionless in space.
“You said you saw Discord?” Rarity asked. One of her long legs reached down, plucking up a set of fabric shears from her table, and she began cutting from a bolt of midnight blue silk. Her horn glowed as she levitated away little strips of the cloth and stacked them for later use. “Did you get what you needed from him?”
“I did. He’s going to help us fix everything. We’re going to put everything back the way it was.”
She froze. “Fix? Nothing is broken, darling.”
“No, everything is broken!” My wings extended, agitated, and the tips of my primary feathers caught in the web. I tried to pull them back, but the motion simply tangled them more, and before I knew it half my wing was caught. The image of a fly enwreathed in a spider’s web flashed through my mind, and panic burst in my heart. It chased away reason and friendship and for a moment only fear remained as I struggled to free myself. A hard, chitinous claw touched my shoulder, and I screamed.
“Shhh, shhhh.” Rarity’s muzzle pressed against my mane. Her scent, unchanged, of cotton and jasmine, filled my head, calming me. I closed my eyes and just tried to breathe. I felt her legs picking at my wing, cleaning off the webs and stroking the feathers gently back into order. “There, all better. You’re a little jumpy today, aren’t you?”
My body still shook with each heartbeat. I only had breath for a few words. “Everything is broken, Rarity. I’m the only pony who sees it. Discord does too, but he can’t fix it alone.”
“Ponies change.” Rarity stroked my mane with a fibrous limb, then retreated back up to her web. She reached down with a pair of legs to her lower stomach, and I saw that her teats were gone, replaced with a pair of pointed spinnerets. She carefully drew out a length of silk from them, spun the gauzy strands into a thread, and began winding it onto a spool. It sparkled like a chain of gems.
“Ponies change,” she said again. “We grow, we learn, and eventually we become who we are. Is it so wrong that Discord helped us? To change a bit more, and become a bit more of who we want to be?”
“There’s change and there’s chaos. You heard what Applejack did?”
“The whole town heard what Applejack did.” Rarity’s claws never slowed, working the silk into thread for her spool. “Planning to arrest her?”
“Well… maybe I should! Is arson still a crime or not?”
“And how many homes have you destroyed, hm? Didn’t you used to live in a tree?”
“That…” I had to stop. A hot flush of anger worked up my neck to my cheeks. “That was Tirek, not me! I was trying to save the world! To save all of you! He destroyed my tree!”
“An inapt comparison, perhaps. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Rarity reached out to stroke my cheek with a claw. “But consider how Applejack felt? Perhaps she thought she was burning down her prison.”
“Well, her family was still using it.” I stepped back, out of her reach. Of course, the whole room was her lair now. I was only safe for as long as she allowed—
I almost finished the thought. For a moment I almost believed that one of my best friends, one of the only ponies in the world who I felt close enough to bare the deepest part of my soul to, might harm me. Might do to me what Fluttershy did to her raven friend. For the second time that day I was nearly sick. I covered my head with my wings and just breathed.
The web hummed as Rarity moved across it – the strands were large enough to resonate like violin strings, filling the room with a quiet harmony. A spider’s concerto. I would have called it beautiful if I didn’t know what it was.
Rarity’s claws clicked on the wood floor as she descended from her web. Her forelegs, still like a pony’s, still with hooves, wrapped around me in a hug. We sat there, unmoving, while I cried.
When my tears finally ran dry, and the hiccups stopped, I spoke. “I’m sorry. It’s… things have been rough the past few days. Weeks.”
“Change is always rough.” She smoothed out my disheveled mane. “You know I’ll always be here for you, right? No matter what else changes, we’ll always be friends.”
“Yeah?” I swallowed. “Will you do something for a friend? Something you don’t want to do?”
“Of course.” She answered instantly. Like it never occurred to her to say no. “What do you need?”
“Come to my castle tonight. Help me use the Elements to undo all of this. Even Discord thinks it’s gone too far. Afterward, we can… we can talk about some changes, maybe. Help ponies realize their dreams in a healthy way. But still stay ponies.”
She stared at me. I realized she couldn’t blink anymore. “I…”
“Please, Rarity… If our friendship means anything, help me.”
“Well.” She looked away. “You don’t ask for small things, do you?”
“If there were another way, I’d take it.”
She stepped back and hauled herself up into the web again, retreating to the center of the room and her table. “Perhaps all this was our dream. How sad it will be to wake.”
Sad, maybe. But ponies could not live in dreams. “You’ll do it?”
“For you, yes.” She sighed, and the web hummed in sympathy. She reached down and plucked a garment box from beneath the table. “Would you mind delivering this to Trixie?”
I took it with my magic. It was heavier than it looked, far heavier than cloth should’ve been. I resisted the urge to open it and see why. Gemstones and gold thread, probably. “You said it wasn’t done yet?”
Rarity waved a leg. “It doesn’t matter now. Give it to her before we do this, though. She’ll want to have it.”
Alright. I could do that. I set the package on my back. “Thank you, Rarity. For everything. When this is over, I promise I’ll be a better friend.”
She smiled down at me. “You sell yourself short, darling. Now, go home and get some sleep, hm? You look exhausted.”
Fair enough. I felt more than exhausted – actually drained, as though there were less of me to go around. “Long story. If you… if you see the others, can you tell them to come by tonight too? I think we’ll need as many Elements as we can gather, and I doubt Applejack will be there.”
“I’ll do what I can.” She picked up a set of shears and a spool of her own thread and a tape measure and a bolt of fabric all at once with her legs. “And don’t discount Applejack just yet. She’s still your friend too.”
I wasn’t sure about that. But who was I to judge? Just the Princess of Friendship.
I wondered, as I walked back out into the blinding sun, how much that was worth anymore.
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I wonder how Pinkie and Dash changed through this. I don't recall them being mentioned much, honestly.
I hope Applejack will not take it too badly that she is still one of the EoH. I also hope she doesn't do something drastic if she does.
Just as a spider spins webs to snare her prey, so does this seamstress spin dresses to snare hers...for money at least lol
I don't know how you have managed to produce so much of such a quality story so quickly. Methinks you dreamed yourself into a massive spider with ink for venom?
Pinkie and Rainbow still haven’t achieved their Final Forms. I have no idea what that would look like for Pinkie: would she actually *become* the fourth wall or something? Rainbow is already as awesome as it’s possible to be, where is there even to go from that? I’m sure we’ll find out shortly. The tone of the story is so atmospheric, so poetic, it’s a privilege to read it.
9566069
I frowned at the pink mare. "And what happened to—"
"Chocolate."
"..I'm sorry?"
Pinkie turned to look at me with the eyes of one who has found a region. "Everything tastes like chocolate now. The chocolate is never ending. I can't not taste chocolate, and yet a part of me remembers, almost craves the vegetables that I once reviled so." She shuddered. "What is happening to us?"
I believe that it might be too late to use the EoH. I think that all of them are too far gone. I think there might be some deep chaotic corruption in them now that makes them unable to use them. Plus, Twilight is losing faith in Applejack. I think Twilight doesn't see her friends as her friends anymore, but as strangers who used to be friends. She won't be able to use them, as they might not really care about each other.
9566141
Sad but true. Even with Rarity's words of encouragement, if Twilight doesn't believe it then it won't come to past. Pretty much how the elements work.
Still even if she did believe it, would the others? Rarity herself said she liked what she has become.
Hmm. Harmonize -- not reset. That's... probably a relevant distinction here.
I mean, if an orchestra goes from playing one song to playing a completely different one, it would be perfectly harmonious afterwards. Just... with a different harmony.
9564951
Three it is.
And it makes sense that Discord has no power here. He can't undo a more chaotic state. Thing is, whenever he wins he loses.
Interesting how despite the change, Rarity is still herself, and still values her friendship with Twilight.
In regards to Applejack, I don't think she will abandon Twilight or the rest of her friends. She's free now to do whatever she wants, her friendship never got in the way of what she wanted before, that hasn't changed.
I don't think the elements will be able to "fix" things in the traditional sense. They've already experienced too much. They might do something more unique however.
The patterns continue, this is a fascinating contemplation. You've a great understanding of the characters, I'm impressed.
So the question to honestly ask is if the rest of the world is not only content, but happy and in many ways thriving, is it right to take that for the sake of one's own perception of structure?
Ponies are living their best lives, their literal dreams. Is it right to take that? From everyone?
Starlight is in the box? Or is she not does she live or die? Pony in a box shrouded like night
Also Fluttershy was the tipping point. Amazing really.
Ooh, Spiderity. Able to make her own silk, even! So convenient.
This can still lead to a kind of positive closure... but maybe only out the other side now. If reality's entirely a dream, there's space for friendships again even when nobody's really sane by waking standards. Fluttershy won't be losing her animal friends; we don't call it the "circle of nature" because it's supposed to have an endpoint. Or a top and bottom. Applejack wouldn't have had to evacuate her family first because the flames couldn't touch them and losing their house wouldn't deprive them of it; she does love them, she just doesn't want their health or welfare to be affected by her actions or lack of them.
Oh, there'd be a vast amount of adjustment, and everybody would be walking alone for a good while getting past those first points of fixation into the rest of themselves. But there'd be all the room everyone needs to do it in, and all of sidereal, subjective time to meet up again in. ...Can you really die in a dream?
(Okay, yes, you can, and not just when it happens in real life. I've had memorable dreams which started that way. Claiming license to use that figure of speech, though.)
I imagine that if the elements do work, and that’s a big if, they won’t undo what has already occurred but it may end the dream and bring ponies back to reality. Though I’d imagine it will take some time before things settle. The elements cleanse and harmonize but they do not undo, Luna was still Nightmare moon, the elements merely cleared her mind of its madness. You could argue they undid Sombra but that may have been the result of Sombra having a soul so foul that to cleanse him was to essentially kill him.
For example Applejack will remain a Pegasus but will return to her family and her duties, Fluttershy will probably crave meat but stop hunting and Rarity, well, she’ll still be a spider so that may take some adjustment haha
9566841
~/o
Spider-Rarity,
Spider-Rarity!
Does the things a spider... uh...
crap what rhymes with Rarity?
Uh, parity? Yeah that'll work
She does things with spider parity!
0/~
9566069
You'll find out in a little over twelve hours!
9567076 Ohoho! I'll look forward to it~
Yeah, I think we're past the point of no return. Even if the Elements do something, it may not be what Twilight has in mind.
And that's before asking a vital question: Does the Tree of Harmony dream?
9567074
Spider-Mare, Spider-Mare
Sews whatever a spider dares
Spins a frock, any size
Customers clump like flies
Hey look!
New duds from Spider-Mare!
9561879 He wasn't really the lynch pin.
He gave a cliché speech, he even later openly stated was cliché so they could have their hero moment.
Discord was winking to the audience the whole time, almost in on the joke of how 'standard' the events played out.
It was the sole bright spot for me.
9563567
I will give you exactly one day to realize how stupid this sounds before I unload on you. No one was hurt except for the people who are being hurt... that's basically what you just said.
Stop apologizing for Discord's mind-rape blunder/deliberate return to evil/whatever. This promises to end very badly.
9563218 I dreamed last night that I crapped out a huge hookworm.
I really hope that doesn't happen in real life.
(Likely a direct result of some intestinal upset annoying Alondro all day yesterday)
9563141 It's a mental snare. They became trapped in the allure or curiosity of one particular dream, and now can't escape it.
They've simply because MORE archetypal. They're now living tropes.
Congrats, Discord. You made the ponies more one-dimensional than ever!
9543709
Trolls don't have kings. They have people who sit on slightly taller piles of useless garbage.
Aww crap. He knows he screwed up and can't fix it.
Surprise!
The Element Bearers may be too broken at this point to harmonize themselves, let alone all of Equestria.
Huh, so Spidarity. The butterfly misdirection got me too.
Hey, maybe it'll work out.
9566099
It hasn't been a short amount of time, that's why. Gardez's newest blog describes how he first wrote this as a one-shot for a WriteOff before expanding it. I'm assuming they're just publishing a few chapters at a time, and have written this all well beforehand.
Discord suddenly feels a tap on his back. He turns and beholds... ALONDRO!! "Boo."
Discord's bladder fails and a new sea is created. And Kyle Broflovski has to drink a jar of it to pull the release valve at Pi Pi's water park.
Your arrogance leading you to do something you will regret and can't undo. Remember Tirek?
Or... you know, what's happening right now.
I love butterflies. They're my favorite spider.
-Discord.
So ponies are reality warpers. All of them. They just are perfectly centered on one, consistent reality. Once you break that, reality itself is sent careening in a thousand different directions. Truly bizarre.