Gah... Damn, I was wrong. Discord, you bastard... How could you do something like this? This is too damn far, even for you!

5854796 I've now got into 14 chapters and I'm enjoying what im reading.

And I completely agree with you. I'm not sure why but there does seem to be alot of hate for HIE stories. It's sad that people can be so closed minded.

As for me I always keep an open mind and encourage others. I also treat them the way I wish to be treated. That's one of the reason I like James so much is because I have a very similar personality.

however instead of a mix between Fluttershy and Twilight, I have a personality that's mixed with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. I'm socially awkward but extremely goofy and random once you get to know me.

Where there is order, there will always be chaos...

5862649 That's exactly it. The James in this story is in fact myself, therefore his behavior is that of a real person. Maybe not necessarily a person everyone can relate to, but an actual person. Why people seem to adore and fangasm over stories with overdone inconsistent and unrelateable human character archetypes over characters that are actually believable and relateable is beyond me. This is why I cannot stand the likes of stories like that one by whatmustido.

Are so many people really just blind to the fact that just because you cannot imagine someone behaving in a way that you do not see yourself ever acting does not mean that it is impossible?

5861299 Look again, my good sir. Next chapter is up.

And believe me, I was getting sick of it myself. The way I see it was that it was necessary, but not something everyone will enjoy which is why it was so exhausting to me. Thank god I'm finally on my way out with it.

DAMN IT DISCORD!!! I KNEW IT WAS YOU!!!

5862672 Well said!

The problem in today's society is that people are quick to judge. This is extremely bad as they usually shun something permanently if it appears to go against anything they think or believe.

I for one have been a victim of this due to my disability. I was constantly picked on and made fun of in school. My grades suffered along with my social life. It got to a point where I said "Fuck it" and stopped socializing with people. Now that I'm out of school and attending college, I keep to myself. I literally have only four people I could call friends. And only my mom and grandparents that I would call true family.

Call me selfish but I would not shed a tear if I got transported to a place like Equestria. I would pretty much do what James did and make the best of the situation.

5862762 And Bronies wonder why people like us would prefer Equestria to Earth. Maybe if they did the math.

That cheeky, low-down, no-good-for-nothing, snake! I knew Discord wouldn't ever leave himself helpless! That bastard took James' "game" and turned the tables on him! And now he's trying to drag James into the grave with him!

Anyway, well done, Humanity. I gotta say, even I thought you accidently made those errors without intention. It struck me odd it was becoming constant. Cheeky...

5862792 Yeah, I was wondering how many would actually notice the pattern, let alone actually decode the messages. It was tedious finishing the chapters and then going back and ironing out every last typo before posting with the deliberate typos in so as to not get them confused. I was very relieved to get the previous chapter out.

I suppose she really is just a master of potions and not witchcraft...

I just want to remind you that Zecora IS a master of witchcraft: remember the episode where she helps Twilight Sparkle in her fight against an alicorn-amulet-empowered Trixie. More like a druidic kind of magic, but powerful magic nonetheless.

Respectfully yours,

A faithful reader.

5862635 I bet this is the part of Discord that he ate that put the curse on him. We'll see.

5862806 That felt more along the lines of knowledge of natural harmonious energies much like those used in yoga, not actual magics.

And besides, Zecora didn't really do anything that enhanced Twilight's magic at all. In the end, Twilight had to resort to some very entertaining and clever trickery with the aid of her friends to come out on top. Zecora just gave her a push in the right direction.

5862635
I dunno, too damn far to do to the person who brutally murdered you by hacking your body to bits while you screamed and begged for mercy?

Seriously, if this wasn't Sympathetic Character vs. Villain, but simply two generic characters where there was no strong emotional attachment to one or the other, everyone would be cheering for the guy who was brutally murdered to be taking horrible psychological revenge from the grave on his murderer. This is the kind of thing that when you see it in a horror story, you feel bad for the victim but you also feel like they totally have it coming.

James tortured someone to death for, basically, making his friends not like him anymore. I don't know about you but I think that when a person spreads rumors about you and poisons your friends against you in real life, that does not justify you hacking them to death with a sword. Admittedly he wasn't in his right mind and admittedly it was Discord's fault that he wasn't in his right mind, but it doesn't change the facts: he tortured someone to death slowly and horribly. Given a choice of dying slowly in a hospital bed, surrounded by my friends, fading away from exhaustion and depression, and being hacked to bits by a psychotic murderer, I'd take the way James is dying over the way Discord died any day.

Discord's revenge on James is well within the range of what's fair given what James did to him. The only reason to disagree is preferring James as a person... but objectively, if you torture someone to death horribly, you deserve to be punished for it. And no one was going to punish James for murdering Discord because James is their friend. So James was going to get away with murder. What he's suffering right now doesn't come close to what he put Discord through. What Discord did to him in the first place didn't come close to what he put Discord through. Ask yourself if you'd rather lose all your friends or be hacked to death slowly by a psycho killer.

5862839 What with the floating orbs of water and the walking on water things? But, if you say so, dear sir, I won't go against you. After all, when you write, you become the almighty God of your world.

TL;DR whatever floats your boat, dear sir.

Respectfully yours,

A faithful reader.

5862797 Must've been hard. But that was very clever. A code that was not obvious, and easy to pass it as a natural mistake was something I was not anticipating, let alone, thinking something was up. And I play the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney games for crying out loud, lol.

I am now 110% sure I am right but can help be found to get discord out of James head in time to save him.
Harts Fire

5862867 I strongly doubt Zecora actually knows how to do that. That was all Twilight's doing, using the levitation spell to hold the water up and likely using self levitation to 'stand' on the surface while Zecora was likely using vocal cues to help her induce a very minor state of hypnosis/relaxation not unlike recordings you would hear in some therapy classes. Self levitation is clearly trickier to do than normal levitation, so greater focus was necessary to perform it not only on herself, but several other objects of pure liquid. In other words, helping Twilight achieve greater focus for better results. Even when I watched this episode, I was never given the impression that Zecora knew anything about magic.

And besides, that was in Season 3. As I said in the story's description, events from beyond Season 2 may or may not be canon in this story.

good choice with the music. the chapter was really sad. Zecora is a Herbalist and a Shaman.I like how we got to see

I fucking knew it

Good work as always. Shit is still on the walls

I'm not saying anything like 'so it WAS Discord', despite the overwhelming evidence, because knowing you, you'll probably pull a strange surprise on us. If it does turn out to be him, though, I guess that proves that he's, thankfully, not the petty coward I thought he was.

5862864 Is this debate seriously still going on eight months after it began?

I guess it's time I make some things clear once and for all.

James tortured someone to death for, basically, making his friends not like him anymore.

It was never something that simple. Did you see what happened to Twilight in Return of Harmony? That was not a case of friends being made to not like her. That was turning her friends into the exact opposite of who they were, turning them into horrible people that Twilight wanted absolutely nothing to do with, but could not replace them. That was the horror that James was subjected to, only worse. For one, one of them happened to be his girlfriend for the last year and second, they were more than just his friends. They were the foundation of his very life in Equestria. Twilight at least had a home in Canterlot to return to. James, on the other hand, had nowhere else to go back to, especially considering what Discord might do to Equestria once his influence had spread. I know it is difficult to comprehend being taken out of your own world at the blink of an eye and I cannot possibly expect anyone to relate to that. But for some, when thrust into an alien world with nothing but the clothes on their back and some of the natives give that person a very warm welcome and show unconditional support, you can bet your life savings that the person will develop an immediate level of dependance and faith for those people. The first people who come into your life and stay in your life will definitely be the most important to you. So, no. Discord did not make his friends stop liking him. He basically erased the very foundation of his life in Equestria. And no matter how many other friends he had, he sure as hell would not be thinking about them during that time.

As for what James did to Discord, I'm going to let you in on a little something. Back when I first learned of what Discord did to Fluttershy, I truly and sincerely wanted to plunge a knife into his face and even had a moment where I vividly imagined it. Now, if that is how I would have reacted to that back then, just imagine how that feeling would have been compounded by what happened in Mortal Chaos. On a side note, the Mortal Chaos arc delves into the weaknesses of the human heart. This was to prove that even someone as genuinely gentle and kind as James is never infallible. And what he did to Discord was worse?

Here's a little surprise for you. That was intended. For that short time, James became worse than Discord ever was. But it was never by his will. Discord attempted to manipulate James like so many before him, but it massively backfired in what could be interpreted as an apocalyptic karmic backlash for doing god knows what to the people of the world for god knows how long before his defeat at the hooves of the royal sisters. Who really knows the extant of the chaos he subjected the people to. For all we know, there may have been fatalities. Which means Discord could have potentially more kills under his belt than James will ever have. Of course, I know that Discord has never been the killing type and the exact details of what happened during his reign have never been revealed, so we will never have an answer on that. Despite his goofy demeanor, Discord has never been innocent. While his fate may not have been deserved, he brought it upon himself by taking away that which is most precious from a human who actually had the power and guile to enact revenge. And when your heart is broken and empty and you find yourself having a massive advantage over that which has turned your life into hell, don't be surprised if your rage causes you to turn your morals off into having some fun with your enemy. When the human heart is shattered and power is thrown into the equation, dark stuff happens.

So, was what James did wrong? Of course. Was it entirely by his own will? Of course not. Discord more or less orchestrated his own demise. Tried to make a puppet dance only for the strings to break and have the puppet cut his head off. It was more or less the elaborate and brutal execution of a mad tyrant. No one's going to frown upon him in regards for what the result means for Equestria. As for the getting away with murder thing, you would think they would wait for this new crisis to pass before addressing that. This will be touched upon in a few more chapters. I have not forgotten about it.

Now, I think this debate has overstayed its welcome and I'd like to see it be put to bed.

Okay, it takes nothing short of artistic genius to seamlessly integrate typos into the story.

5863840
I agree all the way with this.
What discord did was and is unforgivable.

5864207 Definetly DISCORD!

Celestias response about the non use of the mElements, was purely because she still believed the medical problem was physical, magical or spiritual, and not actually actively malevolent intelligence. Even if it wasnt Discord, its still classed as something to be taken out with extreme prejudice. Extra on the juice.Roll on the random extreme death table.

Next time, petrify him in neutronium and banish him to the sun?

Or a nano pocket dimention with a billion to one time shift on it. commonly known as a black hole.

Or place him in a location, where you can cross the streams, bring all of his atoms to an instantaneous halt, convert to gamma photons, then allow them to expand outwards, away from each other, at the speed of light. that will given him a full time stop for possibly billions of years.

5862959 Where was it established that she's a shaman?

5864872 it does not but she has shaman mask in her house,her appearance, how she can live in the most dangerous in Equestria and not get eaten. If she is not then she is a monk

5865676 How did the Mane Six go through the Everfree Forest and back without getting eaten if they were not shamans or monks?

And by the way, those masks are closer to signs than arcane tools. She even said it herself, saying that her masks are just relics of her homeland with each design conveying a different phrase such as "welcome". Not everything in the show has a hidden meaning or function, just like her debut episode made clear. Zecora is an herbalist, not a shaman or witchdoctor like Pinkie Pie and the other girls were so certain she was. Don't let headcanon twist your mind into believing something that has not been established in the show. See things for what they are and not what your superstitions and imagination make them out to be.

5865893 in the first episode most likely Nightmare Moon scared everything the only reason the manticore attacked was because Nightmare Moon turned into a thorn.
The creature will not attack when they walk with a group. Twilight got petrified when she went in alone.

-roar of primal rage- DISCORD!
now that that's out of the way, well done on this chapter and I can't wait for the next. keep up the amazing work, you fantabulistic author you.

5865951 You'd think Zecora would live there without some knowledge of the place? Chances are she knows how to hide from and avoid the territory of potentially dangerous beasts. Not every herbivore uses combat to protect itself from a predator. If she really was a shaman who knows a thing or two about self defense or magic, the show would've displayed it by now. The most I can see her doing is using a wooden staff to ward off threats.

5866015 If I may ask, what really stood out in this one?

Awww. Well, it's no Nightmare parasite, but it works good enough!

5866029
the feeling of futility, panic and desperation. I felt that while reading this, I was desperate to help, silently begging for a solution and praying to Nightmare (best alicorns) that she found something to help and quick. it's the upward crawl from previous chapters, knowing that he's getting better at a slow rate, being all happy and then the last chapter sent us spiralling downwards with no foothold into this one. Having us begging and pleading that he gets well in the next few. like you've fallen into a spike trap that has serrated edges that are coated in poison, there is no escaping if you survive the fall because sooner or later you'll get a nick and get infected from the poison. the only way to survive is from a miracle helping hand that catches you before you hit the bottom. that's the best I can do to describe it. keep up the amazing work

Discord damn well got what was coming to him, and he's STILL trying to get back? Mentally and emotionally traumatized the girls, who knows how many other lives he's ruined, took over the country, probably caused plenty of ponies to die. Basically rapes ponies he greys out. He gets similar treatment for once and he feels like the score isn't settled? What a dick.

That said, it's fairly obvious that Zecora has some form of magic. Even if it's alchemical in nature that allows her to use spell-like effects, she is inherently magical in some way, and there are many signs pointing to her being a tribal medium/medicine woman/shaman. As for her magic, she did refill Twilight's spilled cup by passing her hoof over it. It was not prestidigitation.

5866230 She did? I'll have to rewatch that episode again. Zecora is a pretty mysterious one and I even think she gets a kick out of revealing as little about herself as possible.

5866481

They're in the tree-hut having tea in clay cups. Twilight knocks hers over, Zecora passes her hoof over it and suddenly more tea. Twilight then, in short order, knocks it over again and Zecora looks at her like "e.e damnit filly".

5868233 Yeah, just watched that scene again. Funny. Seems that zebra ponies do have access to some small forms of magic, though it seems that their magic mostly stems from natural energies instead of the arcane energies used by unicorns.

Guess it's true what they said at the start of the show. Equestria is a magical world, and thus everyone in it is too.

5869059

Yeah, figure so far that only unicorns can channel arcane energies blatantly. Unless we also count Tirek and G1's Grogar the Necromancer, being a ram. With her nod to traditional African tribal-craft, fandom's best approximation is that Zecora's an alchemist/herbalist and shamaness. Dealing with the natural energies of the world around her for conjuration and such. Perhaps also some medium ability with how often we see her nods to spiritual balance and understanding. She's best used as the sort of, mysterious "who knows the limits and exact nature of her magic?" type of character.

Originally, Lauren Faust planned for Zecora to be Twilight's mentor and magic teacher away from Celestia over the course of her stay in Ponyville. But that didn't pan out due to Hasbro and time constraints.

5869291 I all but forgot about that tidbit of info.

5865893

How'd they make it through the forest...

Plot Armor.

Not only is your writing awesome, you put work into yhe music as well. Not makong it necessarily but in the sense that it was just awesome how the evil menacing rock portion began to play right when twi deciphered the code. Bravo!

A state of emergency