Whipstitch

by Pennington Inkwell

A Lesson in Chaos

After Luna left, there wasn't much to do except work. After laying out all of the pieces, including those that had been left hanging, she began matching up the halves of the tapestry, trying even to match every thread's end to the corresponding match on the other half. It was tedious work, and required a longer attention span than she usually devoted to a task, but it was the only way to determine which threads could be mended and which would have to be replaced.

Luckily, Whipstitch had more motivation than usual: she didn't want to let down the princesses. Meeting Luna had been an unexpected, if not foreboding, delight.

"She told me to keep an eye out for anything that looked like Discord..." She muttered as she joined two of the less singed thread endings with magic. "I always wanted to meet Discord..."

It was true, she had been one of the few ponies who enjoyed Discord's short reign. The chaos had been unpredictable, entertaining, and often hilarious, all of which Whipstitch loved. Anyone who could not only create chaos like that, but also enjoy it the way that she did, was definitely worth meeting! When the Elements of Harmony had returned Ponyville to "normal," she felt like the only one who had been disappointed, and had discretely been hoping that he escaped again ever since.

"You're sorely mistaken to want that..."

A low voice echoed through the room, making Whipstitch jump with surprise. "Hello? Is anypony there?" She had expected the voice to have come from one of the guards, who seemed to keep walking in in spite of her "Do not disturb!" sign on the doors. To her utter puzzlement, however, there was no guard in the room. She was still alone.

"Nope, no pony is here..." This time, when the voice spoke, the chandeliers that provided most of the light began to flicker. Every time they turned off and back on again, they would shine a different color, creating a semi-disco effect for about thirty seconds, when they all became dark, leaving her with only the torchlight and moonlight as darkness swept in where light had given way. "But that doesn't necessarily mean you're alone, now does it?"

This would have been enough to scare any other pony to pieces, but Whipstitch took it all in stride, acting as if nothing of importance had happened. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to scare me! I work in a shop with a demon living inside of the walls!" Her cry was rebellious and held no bluff, revealing her lack of fear to whatever this strange entity was.

There was a moment of silence before the voice returned. This time, it sounded less threatening and more surprised.

"...Really? A demon? I didn't know that those things existed."

"Neither did I, but Mephistopheles knew something I didn't..." As Whipstitch's eyes adjusted to the lower level of light, the torches quickly snuffed themselves out, leaving only the moonlight and stained glass to provide her with sight. Unwilling to be caught off-guard, her eyes flicked from side to side, and she quickly spun around for a 360 degree view. She was still the only one in the room.

"Well, I'm afraid that Discord would still not be very pleasant to meet. I'm afraid that he's gotten quite bitter in his old age..."

Finally, the voice was coming from a definite direction. Whipstitch spun around one more time, spinning to face the same corner that Luna had originally pulled the lollipops from. There, in the misty darkness, were a pair of blazing blue eyes. The whites seemed to glow from within, as well, creating a very cartoonish appearance of a pair of floating eyeballs. The irises were differently sized, creating an off-balance feeling that both chilled and intrigued the unicorn.

"Who are you?" Whipstitch asked, trying to use her horn to provide extra light. It didn't seem to help, though, as all of the energy seemed to bottle up at the tip, creating an uncomfortable pressure.

"Well, that depends on who you ask, I would suppose." The eyes rolled sarcastically, obviously playing some kind of game with her. "To a long-extinct race, I was known as first a savior, then a destroyer. To their neighboring country, I was known as an invader and a bringer of storms... Chocolate milk storms. I am known to some dragons as the summoner of chaos, and to others as the great coward who hides behind a cotton candy maelstrom." The eyes rolled again in a formless shrug. "I have a name, but it really doesn't matter in the long run, does it? We're all remembered for our actions over our names, in which case, I'm nobody."

Whipstitch had been trying hard to keep up with this sudden theology, and the small hints in his words all seemed to point to the same conclusion.

"Y-you're Discord?" She instinctively took a step back, surprised at how different the encounter was from how she had imagined it would be. He was surprisingly somber, and nothing seemed to have exploded... yet.

"Oh, no!" The eyes scrunched up as the creature behind them chuckled. The light from the eyes spread outward, revealing an entire head. He looked an awful lot like Discord, and obviously belonged to the same species, but the only similarities between them were obviously physical. "If I were Discord, you would already be inverted, distorted, or converted into something that he would consider far more entertaining!"

Whipstitch relaxed a little more, and she realized that she had braced herself for... anything.

"If you're not Discord, then who are you? No one is nobody, after all."

"If you're asking my name, then I'll tell you. I am Tumult. Eclipse Tumult, actually." A lion paw and arm materialized next to the head where the arm would normally have been and gave a flourish as if he were bowing with the introduction. "And if may be so bold as to ask your name?"

"Whipstitch..." The pink unicorn hesitated for a moment as she remembered the Princess's warning. "Luna told me that if I saw you, I shouldn't stare at, speak to, or touch you." She raised a curious eyebrow. "Now why would she tell me that?"

"Eclipse" as he called himself, didn't seem to understand for a moment, but a look of resolution quickly lit up his disembodied face. "Ah, Luna... She's actually trying to protect me, not you! I told her that I like my privacy, or more specifically, that I don't like ponies. She probably assumed that you might see me around here, so she tried to stop you from scaring me out of my wits..." A long neck and shoulders appeared as he spoke, allowing him to shrug again at the end of his statement and connecting the lion's paw to the rest of him.

Whipstitch, however, was more preoccupied with his words than his actions. He had stated his dislike for ponies as nonchalantly as if he were talking about the weather.

"Why don't you like ponies?" She was starting to feel a little frustrated with the draconequus, who seemed to be refusing to tell much of anything about himself.

"Did you see what they did to the last guy like me who showed up here?" He jabbed his thumb towards a nearby stained glass window. As Whipstitch shifted her gaze, she found herself staring at the stained-glass window that illustrated Discord's first defeat. Celestia and Luna arced around Discord, with the former above and the latter below. Both were glowing brightly with the power of the Elements of Harmony, a brightness that was shining onto the petrified Discord, who was frozen in stone.

As she watched, though, the scene began to move. Color returned to Discord's body, and he began to writhe in some kind of strange agony. The halos around Celestia and Luna's horns shimmered and shifted as they began to move in their orbit around him, the scene changing from day to night as they progressed.

"Chaos shall no longer live in our land!" A younger-sounding Celestia's voice cried through the air, making Whipstitch jump.

"The time has come for harmony to prevail!" Luna's voice called in return.

Discord was shaking his head in fearful denial, even as the color began to drain away from his feet. "No! You silly little ponies could never-"

"Silence, Discord! Your time has ended!" Celestia's voice thundered over Discord, drowning him out.

"The ponies of Equestria shall no longer be subject to you!" Luna cried as the greyness of his petrification spread. "Your rule is over!"

"No! NO! NOOO!" Discord began to struggle as the stone reached his waist, and soon returned to his first position in the window as his arms, then chest, and finally his neck and head froze in place. His final scream sent chills through Whipstitch's heart and echoed throughout the Grand Hall. Celestia and Luna continued to circle around until they had once again returned to their original positions, as well, leaving the stained glass unchanged from its original state.

Whipstitch's fixation on the window finally ended, allowing her to look back to the corner where Eclipse had been. He was more there than before, now featuring a torso beneath his shoulders. To her complete surprise, there was a wrapping of gauze around his chest.

"I watched it happen..." Eclipse whispered. "I knew Discord well, and he had lost himself in his desire to rule. It was not pleasant, but it was necessary."

"...What happened to you?" Whipstitch asked, taking a hesitant step forward towards what she now recognized as an injured creature.

"I ran. I ran and hid in Everfree-"

"No, to your chest!" Whipstitch shook her head. "How did you get hurt?" She continued to walk forward until the draconequus held his hand up, indicating for her to stop.

Eclipse raised a questioning eyebrow, then shook his head. "An unfortunate encounter with Princess Luna's favorite dessert. I'm highly allergic to zap apples." With a smile, he put his hand down again. "I'm just here trying to stretch my metaphorical legs now that my powers are coming back. So, why would you care enough to ask?"

That would explain the lack of apparent chaos... "Because you seem nice. Bitter about the past, but nice." Whipstitch shook her head and tried to walk forward again, choosing her words carefully. "You may not like ponies for what they did to Discord, but that doesn't mean that ponies won't like you for what Discord did to them! You need to give ponies a chance!"

As she drew closer, Whipstitch began to hear light beeping sounds, and vague, unfamiliar shapes began to appear in the darkness.

"I don't hate ponies." Eclipse seemed to be growing nervous as she continued walking, glancing from side to side. "They-they scare me, alright? But why do you think that I'm here?"

The statement made Whipstitch stop again. "Ponies... scare you?" Her hoof flew to her face was she realized the obvious. "You're the princesses' 'special visitor,' aren't you? The one who broke the book and tapestries?"

"Yes." Eclipse relaxed a little when she stopped coming towards him again. "I came at their request... they're taking the same opinion that you have: that I need to give ponies a chance..."

"Wait, so you're the reason that the Princess came to me for repairing their things?" Whipstitch thought for a moment, then smiled. "You really helped me out, you know. I've wanted to come here, to meet them, for a long time."

"Well, then perhaps chaos isn't all bad." Eclipse had stopped materializing at the waist, and one of his arms was still cut off at the shoulder. Somehow, though, the sounds were becoming louder, and Whipstitch could see definite shapes behind him. "I never really enjoyed being a creature of chaos. It's only brought pain."

"Are you joking?" Whipstitch almost laughed and slowly stepped forward, as if she were approaching an injured animal, trying not to scare him with her advancement. "Chocolate rain, a life of surprises, and even being stronger than the princesses is a curse to you? I would love to be able to do what you can do!"

Eclipse had obviously noticed that she was drawing closer, but seemed to be trying to cope with it. "Well, if we ever meet again, I could give you chaos tutoring, or something..." Whipstitch could tell that it was just nervous rambling to put off the tension, but the offer nearly blew her mind.

"Really? You mean, I could learn how to create chaos?" Subconsciously, her pace sped up. Eclipse looked as if he were about to say something in return when suddenly, the entire world changed.

It was as if she had been teleported, because the dark Great Hall that she had been standing in before had vanished. Now, she was standing in some kind of hospital room, with clean black and white tiles on the floor, windows with the curtains pulled, and several empty beds.

Even for Whipstitch, this was a bit too much.

"What- What's going on? Where am I?" She took a few scared steps back again, but this didn't change her new location.

"Well, I forgot to warn you not to come too close... You're just in the medical ward. Still in the castle." Eclipse was visible in his entirety, now, and his appearance was even more of a surprise. Now that she could see him entirely, it became apparent that he was sitting in a hospital bed, his lower half covered by thin sheets. His other arm, with an eagle claw, was hooked by a thin tube into a purple IV bag that slowly dripped fluid into his bloodstream.

"I was never really there, I was just talking to you from here. You walked straight through our connection." He shrugged. "It's really a simple spell for being in two places at once, but it's all that I can manage right now."

Whipstitch took a few seconds, trying to process what he was saying. "So... I'm still in the castle?"

"Yes." He nodded towards a large wooden door behind her, "There's even a pair of guards right outside of that door."

Whipstitch calmed herself again as she tried to get her bearings. "You really weren't kidding about that zap apple allergy, were you?"

Eclipse chuckled and nodded. "I've tried to convince them to let me out of here, but the Princesses are pretty insistent that I recover fully, first." He seemed to pause for a moment. "You know, they're surprisingly nice to me... And so are you."

Whipstitch smiled, in spite of the situation. "I'm just another pony. Most ponies would do the same thing." She slowly walked to the bed, placing her front hooves on the side so that she prop herself on her back legs and come a little closer to his height. "So, you would really teach me how to make chaos?" She felt like a foal in a candy shop at the thought of being able to summon the powers that she had seen Discord using.

The question seemed to stump Eclipse, who pondered it thoroughly. His eyes first rolled up towards the ceiling, then down to the bed sheets. They paused for a moment to look at her, then rolled back to the ceiling. Whipstitch laughed a little as one eye began to roll without the other, which seemed to hurry to catch up.

"Well, it's not going to be fun and games if that's what you want..." He finally looked back down to her with a tired-sounding sigh. "It's not going to be a piece of cake..."

On cue, a piece of chocolate cake on a plate appeared in his lap. He rolled his eyes again, this time out of frustration. "Of course, that power still works. I don't even like chocolate!"

Whipstitch tilted her head in confusion, but picked up the cake and began to eat. "What do you mean? Didn't you want that to happen?"

Eclipse shook his head. "Puns and figures of speech kind of just... Happen around me." He shrugged. "Just another part of the chaos."

"Which you're going to teach me?" Whipstitch still hadn't gotten a definite answer, and she was starting to worry.

"If you're really determined..." Eclipse looked down at her again, seeming very solemn. "Then, I suppose that it might be worth a shot..."

"YES!" Whipstitch jumped up and down with glee. "Yes, yes, yes!" In her glee, she jumped up and hugged the draconequus, ignoring his grunt of pain. "Thank you!"

"Well, I guess this means that I've made three pony friends..." Eclipse muttered with a smile. "Well, I hope that all ponies are as nice as you, Whipstitch, but it's getting late. We should both get to sleep."

Whipstitch stopped celebrating, though her grin remained plastered onto her face. "You're certainly different, Eclipse Tumult, but I think that Equestria is going to like you if you give it a chance. Goodnight!" She waved to him as she walked to the door.

"Well, I'll just focus on not being scared to death of it, for now..." He waved in return, then pulled shut the curtain around his bed.

When Whipstitch opened the door, she indeed met a pair of guards, and after stating that she had gotten lost looking for her room, they quickly took her there.

As she looked up at the ceiling from her bed, she couldn't sleep from the excitement coursing through her veins. I'm going to learn how to make chaos! How cool is that?

Author's Note:

This may make a lot more sense if you have read one of my previous stories, "Brothers." Though I can't be sure how this is all going to work out in the end, I'm going to do my level best to keep it within canon of my other stories!

Happy Adventuring!
-Pennington Inkwell

Comments

[-Brutus]

Already a odd and unique, possibly insane mare learning chaos. Freaking awesome.

[Spirit Shift]

Awww why can't i be in her position

[PC]

I wanna know how make pink cotton candy clouds that shoot rainbow lightning and rain chocolate milk!
They can be really useful, you know?
iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/tumblr_lrudwk0Xu81r0z1wao1_400.gif
Okay... not really.