Second Sunrise

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 5 - The Sphinx, the Warlock, and the Treehouse

My name is Ibis, and I recount the following in the hope that it may prove useful to anyone else who seeks the deeper mysteries of the world. I believe I have seen further than any other mortal, and I write this in some fevered haste as I attempt to grapple the truth behind what I saw. I warn the reader that though I will attempt to be a reliable narrator of my own journey, the nature of my odyssey is such that I cannot be sure exactly how much of what I saw was true perception and how much was the work of a spirit no less chaotic than it is powerful.

It began midway through the school year. I was aware that Miss Fluttershy was away on a trip, though the nature of it eluded me. Most of Princess Twilight’s friends, the former Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, had canceled their classes and appointed substitutes. For the last two days, Miss Treehugger had been teaching… something. Anyone who has taken one of her classes will be familiar with the style of substitute teaching I mean, where it amounts to little more than a free period.

My classmates were surprised when we walked through the door and were transported to an open field under an orange sky.

“Welcome!” Discord called out, appearing in a burst of confetti that vanished before it hit the ground. “Look at those wonderful faces all ready to learn! And lucky you, you get to learn from me!”

“Neat!” Larrikin said.

“That’s a good attitude,” Discord said. “You get a gold star!” He reached up and plucked one from the sky, placing it on Larrikin’s chest. The words ‘Best Houseplant In Class’ appeared on it.

“So you’re the substitute today?” Luster asked, sounding exhausted. She hadn’t been sleeping well. There was a mystery afoot, and she was struggling to get a grip on it. I sympathized, but unlike her, I was content to wait for information rather than constantly seeking it out under every stone and around every corner.

“That’s right,” Discord said. “I was getting dreadfully bored, and I said to myself ‘Discord, you’re such a good, helpful friend, you should find a way to help out at the school and shape all those mushy young minds into something that doesn’t sit at a desk and scribble out math problems all day!’” A second Discord appeared as he spoke so he could make a point of literally telling himself, as was the norm with his sense of humor.

“Now he will turn the field into some kind of game board,” I mumbled under my breath. I saw Arteria’s ear twitch. A moment later, the ground shifted to a checkerboard pattern littered with a few squares of odd colors, a dozen or so snakes, and half as many ladders.

“Oy, that was a shockin’ good call,” Arteria said. “How’d you know he was gonna pull that down?”

“It was the natural next step,” I said. If I’d had a checklist with me, I’d have checked it off. “Now we’ll have a costume change.”

Just as I finished saying it, elaborate costumes appeared on all of us, a mix of playing cards and chess pieces. I looked down at myself. I appeared to be the Red Queen, since my costume had both hearts and diamonds. At least Discord thought well enough of me to make me a high-value piece.

“This is going to be delightful!” Discord crowed. “Of course, a game has to have stakes, and an opponent, so first…” He snapped a talon, and what I assumed were supposed to be evil duplicates of ourselves appeared opposite us on the game board.

I am not ashamed to admit that I looked rather good dressed all in black and with extra eyeliner. I nodded in approval.

“Next he’ll tell us that he wants to see if friendship and harmony can win in a game that demands sacrifice,” I said, just a little too loudly.

“We’re going to see if your friendship and harmony can win in a game where you have to sacrifice--” he stopped. “Okay, okay, I heard that! Which one of you was reading ahead?”

I raised a paw.

“You think you’re clever, huh?” Discord asked.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Well if you’re so smart, tell the whole class the rules of my little game. If you’re correct, I’ll even give you a special prize!” He smiled evilly.

I sighed. If I accurately described his plans, he was going to reward us by making his game harder in some way. If I was wrong, he’d punish me alone, but would leave my friends to their own devices. For me, it was a no-win scenario, or at least it appeared to be at first, and both he and I knew it.

The logical step would be to take the fall, such as it was, and allow my friends to continue without me. They would be at something of a disadvantage, but giving Discord an early ‘win’ would mean he would likely be more lenient later when he started getting bored.

However, that would mean being deliberately wrong. It went against my ethics to be challenged with a riddle and say the wrong thing on purpose. If friendship had taught me anything, it was that ethics had to trump cold logic.

“It’s going to start with chess, but every turn you’ll make more and more elaborate rulings,” I said. “I expect that you’ll begin by having your pieces move along the snakes in addition to their normal movement, while we can only use the ladders - which in this case only go up and don’t give us any advantage. You’ll engineer a situation to force one of us - probably Luster Dawn since she’s Princess Twilight’s student - to choose whom to sacrifice so she can get an opportunity to put the opponent in check. That will repeat one or two more times and then when you’re bored toying with us, you’ll pretend Luster Dawn found some combination of your arbitrary rules that gives her an advantage and allow her to win so you can end the class and move on to something more interesting.”

Discord stared at me for a few seconds.

“You are such a spoil-sport!” he huffed, after he’d recovered. “I was going to teach her a valuable lesson about how being ruthless could backfire when you run out of other ponies to use! Now I’m going to have to scrap everything!”

He snapped his talons, and my friends vanished.

“For the record, my lesson plan was approved by Princess Star-Butt herself,” Discord said, once we were alone. He waved a talon, and the evil duplicates he’d made blew away like ashes in the wind. He sighed. “It could have been fun!”

I shrugged.

“How did you even know what I was going to do?” Discord asked.

“You have habits,” I explained. “While minor variations might occur, statistically it’s quite easy to calculate the broad strokes, and then to add more detail to the prediction as more data becomes available. The same is true of most creatures. You’re simply predictable.”

“I. Am not. Predictable!” Discord snapped. The sky rumbled, the heavens wavering like the clouds and stars were set in firm jelly. I might have misstepped. I didn’t know he would react this way when challenged.

“I apologize if I offended you,” I said.

Discord glared at me for a few long seconds, the sky darkening further. “It’s about respect,” he said. “You don’t respect chaos. Statistics! Predictions! Habits!” He shook his head. “Here I am trying to be nice, and all it does is make you soft. You don’t know what real chaos is like, and that’s all my fault.”

He sighed, and the sky brightened, rays reaching down from somewhere up above as the heavens churned, breaking apart like the sky was painted on the underside of a massive cloud formation from horizon to horizon.

“Ponies used to consider chaos terrifying, because I wasn’t always so nice. It took me a long time to learn just how careful I had to be not to break my toys, and they remembered what it was like before I started playing nice. Even Princess Twilight and her friends didn’t get to see that.”

I watched him carefully as he paced, standing on nothing and thinking deeply. A lightbulb appeared next to his head and he smiled. I did not like the way it stretched halfway down his neck.

“I just had a brilliant idea!” he said. “In fact-” he unscrewed the lightbulb from the air and pulled a much larger one out of a pocket in his leg, screwing it in place and tapping it until it lit up with a blinding light. “-it’s the best idea I’ve had all day!”

He appeared in front of my face while I was dazzled and tapped me on the forehead.

I’d love to say some kind of cosmic awareness started flowing into me, or that I was filled with a sensation of ultimate and terrible power, but instead it just felt like my whole body needed to sneeze, and when I did, it came out as a spray of integers and loose papers.

Discord picked up a page, wiping stray numbers off of it to look.

“Dictionary pages?” he asked. “That’s an interesting reaction.” A white coat appeared, and he pulled it on. “Do you remember what the word ‘Polka’ means?”

“That’s not a word,” I said.

“Let’s just stuff these back in,” Discord said, gathering up most of the pages. A few blew away before he could nab them, but he shrugged indifferently before reaching up to my ear and stuffing them back into my head.

“Oh. That’s what a polka is,” I said, as I suddenly remembered.

“Losing a few marbles is a common side effect of suddenly getting vast and terrible chaotic power,” Discord said. “Contact a physician immediately if any other symptoms appear like growing new limbs, a sudden change of gender, or explosive blinking.”

“Explosive blinking?”

“You could put an eye out that way!” Discord warned.

“And what do you mean ‘vast and terrible chaotic power?’”

He smiled in a way I did not like. “You’ll find out.”

Everything vanished in a flash of light.

---

“Ibis? Are you okay?”

I blinked, trying to clear my vision. The flash had been brighter than usual. It took a few moments to spot the small pink shape trying to get my attention. Luster Dawn was looking up at me with obvious worry.

“I’m fine,” I assured her. As the spots in my vision faded, I could see we were in the lecture hall. Discord was absent, and Luster Dawn and Phantasma were the only other ones in the room.

“You didn’t come back at the same time as the rest of us, so I was worried Discord might have done something to you,” Phantasma said.

“Yes,” I said. I checked my limbs to make sure he hadn’t transformed me in some subtle way, but I counted four paws, two wings, and no extra scales or hooves. If nothing else, I was still myself. “I suppose whatever he was trying to do didn’t take.”

“Didn’t take?” Luster Dawn asked, still worried.

“It’s nothing to concern yourself over,” I assured her. “I’ll inform you if something does happen.”

“If you say so,” she said. “Just remember Fluttershy isn’t in town. If he really is up to something, we don’t have much of a safety net.”

“Maybe we should tell Principal Starlight to send her a message, just in case,” Phantasma suggested.

“Discord is relatively harmless,” I said. “I suspect he’ll attempt to prank me a few times until he gets bored of it. It might be best if you stay out of the way until then.”

“If you say so,” Phantasma said.

Luster nodded. “Just don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

“At worst I can admit defeat to him and allow him to gloat for a day,” I said.

“It might be a good idea to do that as soon as he pranks you,” Luster whispered. “Just to get it over with before he can do anything really over the top.”

“That is an excellent suggestion,” I said. “Conceding over a minor prank would allow him to save face.”

Luster nodded and smiled. Her idea was sound. It would minimize collateral damage. I just had to wait for Discord to spring his trap. Unfortunately, he’d already done so and I didn’t even realize it yet.

---

After class, we were free to do what we wanted. Normally I would spend the time watching ponies, reading books, or trying to find a riddle to finally stump Luster Dawn -- she was proving frustratingly difficult to defeat -- but instead I found myself walking through the Everfree forest, trying to find a pony who we’d once seen for a few moments.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure the pony existed. Yes, I’d seen it, but this was the Everfree, and it was worth considering other options. I recounted them as I walked slowly, keeping pace with the others as we swept through the brush looking for clues.

First, it could have been a member of the Royal Guard. We hadn’t seen armor, but we hadn’t seen much of anything. Luster Dawn was the Princess’ personal student, and it wouldn’t be unthinkable that there would be an official detachment keeping an eye on her. The fact a barricade had been placed just to keep her away was evidence that she was kept well in mind for special treatment.

Second, it could have been an innocent bystander whom we simply scared away. Luster Dawn had assured us they’d been a powerful caster, but I had only her word for that. I believed that she believed that, but it didn’t mean she was objectively correct. Even if she was, it wasn’t a crime to be a powerful spellcaster.

Third, and I considered this the least likely, they could have been involved in the admittedly strange behavior Luster Dawn had uncovered from members of the royal family and their friends. I suspected that the strange behavior was less a matter of national security and something closer to a personal embarrassment. There was no end of the possibilities there, and I had no data to even begin to form a hypothesis. Even so, going purely by statistics, it probably had something to do with romance. Ponies were hopeless about love and always acted illogically because of it.

I had plenty of time to think, as the search was relatively slow. It would be difficult enough to search an open field at night, and the Everfree was infinitely less friendly. The moon provided what light it could through the canopy overhead, but the crisscrossing shadows meant much of the search area was nearly pitch black. Our only real source of light was from Luster Dawn’s magic. It was hardly a problem for half of us, but I feel no shame in admitting my night vision was weaker than Arteria’s or Berlioz’s.

I stumbled into a thorn bush, which did little to improve my mood. I snarled at it and cursed it in a language that had been dead for longer than Princess Celestia had been alive.

There was a flash of light, and the bush tore itself up by the roots and started running away from me, making soft weeping sounds.

I blinked in surprise and stepped back, bumping into a tree. There was another flash of light, and it leaned over..

“Sorry there,” it said. “I didn’t see you all the way down there.”

“Discord…” I muttered.

“Where?” the tree asked, straightening up and looking around. “Pretend you didn’t see me, I don’t want to get involved with him!”

It froze up like it had never been speaking or moving at all. I stared at it.

“Hey, Ibis! Do you see Larrikin?” Luster called out. “I lost track of them!”

I looked to my left side, where the kelpie should have been almost within paw’s reach. “No,” I said, annoyed at myself. I should have been keeping an eye on them. I’d gotten more distracted than I’d thought by Discord’s antics. “They probably fell behind.”

Luster sighed. “Great. Okay, let’s head back the way we came. They can’t have gone far.”

I turned around and tried to spot the kelpie. It would be easier if they weren’t almost perfectly camouflaged against a forest. Luster Dawn started yelling for them, and I found myself wishing the sun was up just so I could see a little better.

The light shifted, and I was about to thank Luster for moving her magical light when I realized the source was above me.

The sky was brightening.

I looked up. The moon was still in the same place it had been, but it looked like it was twitching, as if it had seized up against something in its travels. It suddenly jerked forward a few degrees. At the same time, the horizon lit up.

“Sunrise?” Luster asked. “What’s happening?”

“Okay, Discord,” I said. “I will admit you win. Moving the sun and moon is too much. I just want to find my friend, I’m worried about them. You can play jokes on me all night, but please don’t get the others involved.”

It should have brought him out of wherever he was hiding. I’d been able to predict him before, why not now?

“He should have been out here like that!” I hissed, snapping my paw the same way he always did.

Something hit my head. I looked up to see pinatas growing from the trees above, swelling up like ripening fruit and cracking open, candy falling down around me.

“What?” I whispered. I snapped my paw again. The candy grew legs and fled away like a swarm of ants.

I stared at my paw in confusion. Was I doing this, somehow? Had I caused the commotion in the sky? I looked up and snapped my paw, hoping it’d fix things somehow. I could feel something that time, like I was trying to force gears to skip in some grand clockwork.

Abruptly, they spun free, and the moon and sun returned to their rightful place. It hadn’t felt like I’d been the one to do it, but I hadn’t felt myself doing any of the things I apparently had been.

“We found Larrikin!” Phantasma yelled, breaking me free of my thoughts. “They’re in a hole!”

---

I needed help.

I briefly considered going to Luster Dawn, but I could predict her advice. She would, correctly, tell me that she had no solution to my sudden problem and that I needed to talk to an adult. I still could have informed her out of courtesy, but I admit that I felt a certain reluctance to do so. There was an odd, primal fear there that I couldn’t place, like telling her about this problem that was beyond my control was exposing and embarrassing. Perhaps it was just my predatory instinct of wanting to appear strong in front of prey.

But, as I said, the advice I knew she would have given would be the correct advice, even if I was just giving it to myself. I needed to speak to an adult, and given the choices at the school, there was only one real adult that seemed equipped to deal with my current predicament.

“Excuse me, Principal Starlight?” I asked, knocking on the doorframe. There was a shuffling of papers and a lot of motion from inside before she answered.

“Come in!” she said. I pushed the door open, ducking to get through and looking around, expecting to see either Miss Trixie or Mister Sunburst, but she actually seemed alone in her office and I didn’t detect the trace ozone smell of unicorn teleportation.

“I apologize if I came at a bad time,” I said.

“It’s fine,” Starlight said. “I’m just dealing with some… minor paperwork,” she lied. I tilted my head and looked at her desk. She’d moved things around, but I could still get a sense of some of it.

“You have several scrolls with Princess Twilight’s royal seal on them, freshly opened, You’ve also been consulting books on magical artifacts and tomes of spells. Did something happen to the Crystal Heart? I’m given to understand that it was broken once before.”

I knew the Crystal Heart was a stab in the dark, but we’d just been in the Empire and it was the first thing to come to mind. More to the point, an incorrect guess was almost as valuable as a correct one, because it allowed me to see her reaction to the suggestion.

“No, no, it’s nothing important,” Starlight said. “I was just helping Princess Twilight with some minor research. Everything is fine!” She smiled nervously. “So how are you? I don’t see you in my office much.”

“I have a serious issue of a magical nature,” I said, cutting to the chase. “I need assistance from an expert.”

“Well you’ve come to the right place, especially if it’s some kind of mind control,” Starlight said, visibly relaxing. “It’s not mind control, is it? Because that’s technically illegal now even if it’s an accident and there’s a huge amount of paperwork involved because of the consent issues.”

“...No,” I said. “It might be easiest if I demonstrate?”

Starlight nodded. “Go for it.”

I snapped my paw, and one of her books started fluttering around the room like a bird. We watched it fly to the hanging light and perch on it, flapping its covers.

“So it’s that kind of problem,” Starlight said.

“You’ve seen this before?” I asked, hopeful.

“No, never once in my entire life.” Starlight said. She stood up and looked at my paw closely. “It almost looked like Discord’s power…”

“I think he did something to me to teach me a lesson,” I admitted. “I was somewhat rude to him and he didn’t take it well.”

“Yeah, he’s like that sometimes,” Starlight agreed. “Has anything else happened?”

“A number of odd events with plants, similar to what Discord might do,” I said. “And there was something with the sun, but--”

“The sun?!” Starlight asked, suddenly paying twice as much attention to what I was saying. “You’re the one who moved it?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “Evidence suggests it, but when I tried to fix it, I’m sure it was somepony else who--”

“Were you thinking about Princess Celestia at the time? How much do you know about the cycle of night and day? Like, on a state secrets level? I need you to be honest with me because this is really important!”

I blinked several times, trying to center myself. “Princess Celestia?”

“I’ll take that to mean you haven’t thought about her at all,” Starlight sighed.

“What happened?” I asked. I wasn’t a fool, she was clearly thinking of something specific, and suspected I was at fault.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Starlight said. Before I could protest, she held up a hoof. “The most important thing right now is getting that chaos magic under control, right? It’s what you came here for, and no matter what else might be going on, it’s something we don’t need as a wild card. It’s bad enough when Discord is deliberately throwing a wrench in the works, the last thing we want is an accident.”

“So what do you suggest?” I asked. “I’ve tried asking him to make it stop. I even admitted he won, and that his prank was too much for me -- all of which is true, if you’re still listening, Discord!”

Starlight and I waited a moment and looked around, waiting for a sign.

“Nevermore,” crowed the book perched above us.

“I don’t think he’s coming,” Starlight said. “Which is sort of weird. Usually he sticks around to see how his pranks play out.”

I sighed. “He’s probably waiting for me to do something publicly humiliating. It’s obvious he’s the one to blame, since this is clearly his magic. One wrong move and I might end up turning one of my friends into a potted plant, and while that might not bother Larrikin, it would be unfortunate for the others.”

“It’s no problem,” Starlight said. “Here’s what we’ll do -- I’ll cast a binding spell on you. It’ll restrict your new magic so you can’t use it, even on accident. I doubt you’re as powerful as Discord, so it should work.”

“That sounds like a temporary measure.”

“It isn’t a permanent fix, but it should prevent any accidents until we can figure something else out. This really couldn’t have happened at a worse time…” She sighed and shook her head. “Which Discord probably knew. I’ll send some letters, but it might take longer than usual to figure out a proper solution.”

“Because of the disaster you are carefully avoiding actually telling me about,” I said.

“I didn’t say anything about a disaster! Now hold still, because this spell might feel a little funny. And don’t distract me by talking about disasters that might not even exist and aren’t something you should worry about.”

---

I hiccuped.

I hadn’t been able to stop ever since Starlight had cast the spell. It wasn’t even regular. Sometimes I’d be able to go whole minutes without a single hiccup and I’d think it was finally over, and then they’d strike back with rapid-fire vengeance.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Luster Dawn whispered, trying not to disrupt the teacher at the head of the room. Mister Doodle was cranky enough when he wasn’t working a sixteen-hour day to cover the night classes. “You’ve been acting a little strange. Larrikin has too, but strange is pretty normal for them so I think I’d be more worried if they were acting perfectly normal.”

“I think it’s something I ate,” I lied. I hadn’t been able to actually eat much at all. Every time I tried my hiccups got so bad I was practically jumping out of my seat. Missing a meal had done little to improve my mood so far.

“Do you want to go see the school nurse?”

I frowned at that. “No. I assure you, I am fine,” I said. “I just need a little--” I hiccuped. “--time.”

“If you say so,” Luster said, obviously not convinced.

I fought the next hiccup down. I had to get control. I was an intelligent being, I was a predator, I was in control. There was nothing I couldn’t handle, not even side effects from one of Principal Starlight’s improvised spells. She’d warned me when I’d left her office that the seal wasn’t very elegant or clean, and I’d probably end up with something odd happening, but I hadn’t counted on it being so annoying and distracting.

It was a bit like Discord in that way.

I couldn’t hold the next one back, and hiccuped again. This time I caught a flash of light at the edge of my vision. I looked down at the floor in horror and saw a fallen pencil slithering away like a snake.

It couldn’t really have been me, could it? It had to be Discord, trying to make me think--

I hiccuped again and this time I felt it. A little burp of chaotic magic welling up inside me like indigestion. There was another soft flash of light, and this time it didn’t go unnoticed.

“Oy, is anypony else’s chair meltin’?” Arteria asked, as she slowly sank down to the ground, looking around herself at a woodgrain puddle.

“Oh no,” Phantasma said, getting up to check her own chair. “It’s going to be one of those days…”

“Hey!” our donkey teacher snapped. “You kids stop messing around!”

“I swear on me mum’s winged puddin’ that this ain’t on purpose!” Arteria said. She got up, dripping wood everywhere. The drops landed like marbles, clattering across the floor and rolling everywhere.

“That’s strange,” Luster said, ignoring the teacher’s complaints as she stood up and walked over to look. “Generally you don’t see this kind of behavior in mass-produced furniture.”

I covered my mouth in horror as I felt another surge of chaotic magic welling up inside me. It wasn’t like I was actually shooting beams of energy out of my mouth - though the moment I thought about that it immediately became a primary concern. I couldn’t stop the hiccup, no more than a pony could stop the sun from rising, and I use that comparison directly because if I had an alicorn helping I might have been able to stop what happened next.

The hiccup burst out of me so loudly it echoed. A flash of light surrounded Mister Doodle, and he froze in primal fear.

“What happened?” he asked. “I didn’t turn into a dragon or nothing, did I?”

Luster turned to look and gasped, pointing. “Your mane!”

“My what?” The donkey reached up and touched his head. A full, luxurious mane burst from his scalp as he did, the slow growth Luster had seen exploding into almost a full meter of silky blond.

“At least donkey is not dragon,” Berlioz said.

“Are you kidding? This is the best thing to happen to me since--” before the teacher could even finish tempting fate, I knew the other shoe was on its way down. The rest of his coat changed color and shot out to the same length as his mane, turning him to something like a walking haystack of golden hair. “--never mind. I should have known.”

“Okay, this has to be the work of Discord,” Luster said. “Discord, if you wanted to teach another lesson, we’d all be happy to let you! We like you as a teacher! And I’m sure Ibis will be polite this time!”

She paused, looking around.

When he didn’t appear, she turned to me. “You tell him, Ibis. Maybe he’s still upset.”

“Ah…” I hesitated. I looked around the classroom with her, as if I’d spot him doing what I was well aware was my fault. I hiccuped, and Berlioz disappeared.

“Oy! Where’s the shockin’ doggo gone?” Arteria gasped.

Phantasma trotted over to where he had been, and carefully prodded the air with her hoof.

“Berlioz is still here,” the thin air said, when Phantasma poked him in the stomach.

Arteria frowned and chirped, then tilted her head. “That’s blinkin’ weird. I can hear you fine, but I can’t see you.”

“It’s just invisibility,” Luster sighed. “At least he isn’t intangible or on another plane. Interplanar transport is a hassle. Okay, so, we just need some scissors to help Mister Doodle, and some paint for Berlioz so no one bumps into him.”

“I’ll--” I felt a surge of magic coming. “I’ll go get… paint!” I struggled to hold everything down. I felt like everything inside of me was going to come outside. I bolted out of the room. I needed to get distance from my friends before something worse happened than just invisibility or hair growth!

I turned the corner, saw ponies walking slowly towards me, and went the other way. I couldn't be around any of the students! I was a walking disaster, and the panic was getting even worse than the hot, sickly feeling of the magic starting to bubble up my metaphorical throat. I closed my eyes and ran. I had to get away. I had to get somewhere safe. Somewhere far away--

I felt the magic surge, and I dropped down onto a cold stone floor.

I recognized the crystals around me. I was in the caverns under the castle, somewhere sufficiently shielded that the rapidly-decaying binding spell holding back the chaotic magic inside me could let go and I would be the only victim. I could actually feel the sorcery breaking apart like Starlight had duct-taped a cover on a pressure cooker that was rattling and swelling and starting to rupture.

A hoof touched my shoulder.

It was like a pebble dropped in a calm pond. The swell stopped. The magic broke apart, but instead of an explosion reducing me to a swarm of frogs and cinders, it simply dissolved into nothing. I gasped, and a thin stream of smoke trickled out of my throat.

I looked down at my savior and saw a small, smiling pony. That wasn’t unusual. Ponies smiled a lot, and they were generally little. However, very few of them were alicorns, and even fewer were purple alicorns that looked exactly like a much younger version of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Who are you?” I asked. She wasn’t quite transparent, but she gave the impression that she could have been transparent if I looked at her in the right light, and she sparkled like mica or granite, like something just under her coat was catching the light at odd angles.

She tilted her head and winked, and I somehow understood what she was trying to tell me.

“You’re an incarnate manifestation of harmony magic in the same way Discord is a spirit of chaos?” I confirmed.

She nodded.

“And you kept me from exploding with your own harmony magic? Thank you very much.” I sighed. “I apologize if I’m making your life difficult. I assure you, this isn’t my magic, I’ve just unfortunately been gifted it rather against my will--”

She waved and tossed her head.

“Oh, I see. You already knew.”

She nodded and motioned for me to follow her. She was being a polite host despite my condition, and was probably the only being that could keep me from unintentionally causing all sorts of chaos, so I was not in a position to refuse, not that I wanted to. I followed along behind the spirit, who wasn’t quite touching the floor but was pretending to walk, probably for my benefit.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

The spirit of harmony took me into another cave, which was somewhat more nicely appointed than the last one. It reminded me of the inside of the Ponyville Castle, all crystal but purposefully made or grown into shape. Natural crystals rarely took up the shape of, as an easy example, a chaise lounge such as the one I was looking at. When I saw the being laying down on it, I ran over, going right past the spirit.

“Discord!” I snapped. “There you are! I demand you…” my anger cooled when I looked at him. He blinked up at me slowly, his entire body several shades more pale than usual.

“Oh,” he groaned. “You. Finally.”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Discord struggled and forced himself to sit up, obviously straining with the effort. “What’s going on is that I miscalculated slightly when I was trying to give you a tiny portion of my power as a joke. Oh, thank you.”

The spirit of harmony gave him a cup of tea. A blue blossom was still floating in it, one I recognized immediately.

“Are you drinking poison joke?” I asked, taking a step back.

“It has just a touch of chaotic energy to it,” Discord said. “So far it’s kept me from fading into nothing, so at least I’ve got that going for me.” He broke down coughing, and absolutely nothing punny or strange happened at all, which meant he really was in dire straits.

“Why are you helping him?” I asked the spirit of harmony. “Isn’t he your enemy?”

She motioned a few times, the tiny alicorn miming some things that made complete sense in context but that would be difficult to explain.

“I see,” I said. “So you’re more like… co-workers? And even if you don’t really get along, you still have some amount of respect for each other and you know the world would be worse off without him?”

She nodded, pleased that I understood her.

“Believe it or not, I dearly love Equestria and all you little mortal creatures,” Discord said, wiping his misshapen lips. “You’ve no idea how excited I was when I first found this realm. Of course I did break a few things, and they needed two alicorns just to put the sky back together again, but everyone makes mistakes when they’re young.”

The spirit of harmony nodded, confirming what he said.

“And I can’t enjoy it at all if the world ends! Or if I fade away, but I didn’t think that was likely to happen until I made my teensy-tiny little mistake and broke my connection to the Heart of Chaos entirely.”

“This seems like it should be easy to resolve,” I said. “Please take your power back. What do we need to do? Shake paws? Hug? Sing along during a montage?”

“At least the chaos seems to be improving your sense of humor,” Discord sighed. He forced himself to stand. “I wish it was that easy, but unfortunately, musical montages only seem to fix things when harmony magic is involved, and that’s entirely the wrong sort.”

The spirit shrugged. I understood, of course. It was a big fan of musicals, and the rhythm and structure of a montage just lended itself to harmony magic working sight unseen, which was how she preferred to tend to the world. It explained a little about why ponies seemed to break out into song so often, given their natural connection.

“I do have some excellent news,” Discord said, clapping his talons. “Since there’s no quick fix to our little… issue, you get to help with your favorite activity!”

“Research?” I guessed.

“Hard work!” Discord agreed as if I’d guessed correctly. “If you cause a little chaos in the right spots, it should give me just enough of a boost to undo this mess and take my power back.”

“In the right spots?” I asked, confused.

The spirit of harmony tugged at my wing and held up a scroll. I took it from her and found it to be a to-do list.

“Oh, I see. So even though it’s organized, it’s still organized chaos?” I asked, looking at her. She nodded. “But I can’t control this power, which is the real issue. Like this first item.” I pointed at the list. “How am I even supposed to get to Las Pegasus?”

“For chaos’ sake,” Discord groaned. “Just go there! You’re thinking about the details too much! You just use your power so when you step into the next room, the next room is in Las Pegasus, or at least Reno. The tables there are a little looser if you’re willing to put your knees on the line and count cards.”

The spirit of harmony rolled her eyes and sighed, then patted my paw and nodded reassuringly.

“You’ll come along to help keep it under control?” I asked.

“I suppose between the two of us you should at least be able to manage something,” Discord said. “Now, let’s get this show on the road!”

He paused.

“Neither of you are even going to attempt to apparate sunglasses and aloha shirts?” he asked. “This is why Equestria needs me around. No one else has a sense of timing and style!”

---

“Now this is your first chaotic deed, so it’s very important you get this right,” Discord whispered.

We were on top of a hotel, looking down at a massive swimming pool. It should have been packed, but instead there were only a few ponies splashing around, and the entire area was strewn with decorations, trash, and ponies talking to each other and drinking.

“It’s a foal’s birthday party,” Discord explained. He pointed to one end of the pool, where a lone foal was swimming around, ignored by all the adults. “The poor little colt had his party turned into the social event of the year by his mother, and she invited all her business associates. She’s currently trying to sell them all essential oils. He wasn’t allowed to invite any of his friends, because they weren’t the right sort of ponies.”

“That sounds awful,” I said.

The spirit of harmony nodded in glum agreement.

“Never say I don’t do anything to help the common pony,” Discord said. “The first thing to do is turn the water in the pool into jelly. I’d suggest grape. Grape is a classic.”

The spirit of harmony tilted her head.

“Lingonberry?” Discord scoffed. “Why, so he can grow up to be pretentious?”

“I prefer marmalade,” I noted.

Discord rolled his eyes. “I almost forgot that I did this in the first place because you were too sour and pithy. Thank you for reminding me.”

The spirit of harmony snorted a tiny laugh and nodded to me.

“Here goes nothing,” I whispered, snapping my paw. I could feel it start to well up out of control without Starlight’s spell holding it back. Discord put a talon on my shoulder, and the spirit of harmony watched the pool below, her expression deadly serious.

The water lit up, and suddenly gelled, turning a bright blue.

“What’s that?” Discord asked.

“I believe it’s blue raspberry,” I said.

The spirit of harmony nodded, then gave me a big smile. I’d done it correctly. The foal splashing around was now shouting, thankfully in excitement and not terror.

“Now that’s a birthday he’ll remember,” Discord grinned. “Low stakes, but a definite improvement, and nopony got hurt. Trust me, that part’s the most difficult. It took me ages to learn not to break my toys. Ponies are surprisingly fragile little creatures.”

The spirit nodded sadly in agreement.

“So!” Discord clapped his talons. “I can practically nearly feel myself recovering! A few more random acts of kindness and I might even be able to hedge slightly less than the Canterlot castle maze. What’s next on the list?”

I found myself holding the scroll and checked the next item.

---

“Oh yes, I remember this one,” Discord said. “Never let it be said I don’t put careful thought into how I spend my time. This, my dear Ibis, is the Mugwort School For The Gifted, a boarding school that turns exceptional, talented youths into dull adults by making sure they fit perfectly into narrow little boxes.”

He gestured grandly at what looked like a prison. It was one of the most imposing, humorless buildings I’d ever seen in Equestria. Something about it seemed to turn the earth and the sky grey around it, like all color and hope was being drained from the world.

“I was going to spend some time here,” Discord said. “You know, warming things up. Little things at first, maybe pretend to be a friendly little spirit and grant wishes to some of the foals that haven’t been entirely broken.”

“That sounds...nice,” I ventured.

“And eventually a total overthrow of authority, tribes of wild fillies and colts roaming the halls in acrylic warpaint, improvised spears made of rulers and safety scissors, the teachers fleeing for their lives, sort of a Lord of the Flies situation crossed with the Prench Revolution. You know, fun!”

“Less nice,” I corrected.

“Well, we don’t have time for the total overthrow plan,” Discord said. “Not without a little mind control--”

The spirit of harmony cleared her throat.

“--And apparently that’s not allowed today,” Discord sighed.

The spirit looked at him and then motioned to me.

“Yes, yes, I know, since she’d be using my powers she’d probably fumble around and break something permanently in their little heads,” Discord said. “You don’t need to shout! We’re all on the same team here. Well, we’re on opposite teams but we both want the big game to go on and not end in a massive firey disaster.”

“...Is that what will happen if you don’t get your magic back?” I asked, suddenly even more worried.

“You know I’m not sure if I should brag that I’m the only thing keeping Equestria from ruin or if I should pretend you’re likely to explode and take the rest of us with you,” Discord said. “Which one would make you panic more?”

“Are either of them true?”

“Very presumptuous, asking about the truth, of all things.” Discord shook his head and sighed. “If you do this right, maybe I’ll tell you the truth.” He scoffed and added air quotes to that last word after the fact. He was feeling so poorly even his sarcastic timing was off.

“So what should I do?” I asked.

“For one thing, following instructions to the letter isn’t very chaotic,” Discord said. “Improvise! Use your imagination!”

I closed my eyes and thought. I didn’t dare use the magic on ponies, but I could affect their environment, and that was all too easy. I could feel it, how fragile the world was when cause and effect were disjoined, when anything could happen for any reason or no reason at all. It was all about intent.

This time, I had to go big.

I snapped my paw, and the whole school lit up with a series of flashes. The ground rumbled, and the school started to twist and change, rooms unfolding and everything breaking up into cubes before reforming.

“Oh. Oh!” Discord clapped, as things fell into place, literally in the case of some rooms being quickly relocated to ground level. A Ferris wheel rose up, lights in every color of the rainbow coming to life, a rotating panopticon of fun in the center of a ring of barred cells, each one containing a single member of staff. Between them was a fairground, full of booths and games and treats for the foals, who found themselves wandering among the sights and sounds with no real supervision.

“The games are educational,” I said. “Which makes them even more fun.”

“We’ll agree to disagree on that,” Discord said. “I’m very impressed. That’s some quality world-warping! I could have done it better, but for someone as green as Lieutenant Broccoli and almost as bad with other people, I’m honestly taken by surprise, and at my age that doesn’t happen often.”

The spirit of harmony motioned to the cages.

“If I didn’t do something to contain the teachers, they’d never allow the students to explore and learn for themselves,” I said, trying to justify it. “They’ll be fine. I think I made it temporary.”

Discord confidently snapped his talons, and there was a tiny spark. He frowned and tried again. A few pathetic sparks were all he could manage.

“I don’t get it,” Discord mumbled. “Why isn’t it working?”

The spirit of harmony floated up and looked closely at his talon. He held it out for her, and she examined it from several angles before floating back to rub her chin. Then she tilted her head and shrugged, motioning her suggestion.

“Turn it off and back on again?!” Discord yelled. “What kind of advice is that?!”

“No, wait, she has a point,” I said. “I think we should try that.”

“And how, exactly, are we going to turn me off and then on again?” Discord asked.

The spirit grinned.

“No. No. Nonono--”

There was a burst of rainbow light. I looked at the statue, then at the spirit of harmony.

“So how long should we leave him like that?” I asked.

She shrugged and motioned towards the festival I’d created.

---

“Six hours!” Discord groaned. “I felt every moment like it was a million years!”

“We lost track of time,” I said, by way of an apology. “We didn’t mean to take you for granite.”

Discord paused in his grumbling and blinked before looking at me.

“Was that a joke?” he asked. “An actual pun?”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize! It’s the first sign that this experiment worked at all!” Discord crowed, grinning. “Maybe all this was worth it after all!”

The spirit of harmony nodded, still eating cotton candy. She motioned to the treat and the festival.

“Well of course it’s more fun than you’ve had in years,” Discord said. “You just… lurk around and vaguely offer advice and omens. You need to get out more.”

She paused and nodded slowly. Then she shrugged and motioned to me.

“Oh yes, I suppose i need to do something about her before she explodes.” Discord cracked his knuckles, warmed up by creating a pair of sunglasses out of nothing, and then gave me a very serious look. “Now, this is a very delicate operation. I need you to hold very still.”

I nodded.

Discord took a careful look at me and his expression fell with a dramatic gasp. “Oh, wait! We can’t get started yet, because what’s this behind your ear?”

He reached behind my ear and pulled out a tiny spark of light.

“Why, it’s my borrowed power! What else are you keeping back there?” he reached behind my other ear. “A quarter!” He held up the coin. “I’ll let you keep the cash, but I’ll need these powers back.”

“You’re welcome to them,” I assured him.

“Now, out of the kindness of my heart and, frankly, being bored with both of you…” he snatched his to-do list back. “I’ve got things to meet, places to do, people to be, that sort of thing.”

“Could you send me back to the school?” I asked. He raised his eyebrow, and I sighed. “Please?”

“Only because you asked nicely,” Discord said. “If Fluttershy can make me say please and thank you, the least you mortals can do is be polite in return.”

I bit my lip and just nodded. Discord snapped his talons, and the world vanished. I found myself floating in black, endless space, the void between worlds, and somewhere in the depths I could just see the terrible thing at the heart of the cosmos, a storm of random energy and matter swirling in turbulent purposeless--

“Whoops, wrong address! Sorry, I just get rusty so quickly when I’m almost killed by having my powers drained out of me.”

I felt a talon grab my tail and yank, and I fell through a hole in space back into the world of light and hope and sanity.

It was also the middle of the school cafeteria, and I’d landed on my back, in what had a moment ago been lunch for my classmates.

Luster Dawn stood up and looked at me.

“Rough day?” she asked.

I nodded, not getting up yet.

“You wanna talk about it?” Luster Dawn asked.

“I’d rather not, please,” I said. Berlioz helped me to my paws, then helped me get cleaned up a little bit.

“Is anypony else going to ask about the alicorn?” Phantasma Gloom stage-whispered, pointing to the other end of the table.

I turned to look.

The spirit of harmony waved to me, smiling.

“Oh, you’re sticking around for a while?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Should we be bowing?” Phantasma asked. “I haven’t had good experiences with alicorns lately and I don’t want to mess this up.”

“She’s just the incarnate spirit of harmony magic,” I assured her. “She doesn’t bite.”

The cafeteria doors burst open, and Larrikin strolled in.

“Okay everypony, don’t panic!” she yelled. “But I have amazing news! I met a new friend! Come on in, Booky.”

She motioned to the doors, and a second pony who looked very much like a younger Twilight Sparkle walked in, smirking right until she saw the spirit of harmony.

“What the buck is this?!” the little Twilight said. “Wait, I know you! You melted me!”

“Oh hey, twins!” Larrikin said.

The spirit of harmony floated over to the other apparent alicorn and booped her snoot, to use the technical term. The alicorn’s image flickered and I caught a glimpse of crystal and wood underneath a skin made of illusion magic. She swatted at the spirit of harmony, driving her off. The spirit looked amused but unconcerned.

“...I think I better write Princess Twilight an emergency letter,” Luster Dawn whispered.

Comments

[Thought Prism]

A little lacking compared to previous chapters, but the interplay between Ibis, Discord, and Harmony was still fun.

[Spamotron]

Why is Harmony pulling a Vinyl Scratch? She can talk just fine.

[redmar]

This was a fun chapter and it's totally in character for Discord to somthing this stupid when he's annoyed. Ibis should have realized that trying to use logic on Discord will end badly.

[Super Trampoline]

10601046
I agree. Did Ibis really learn much in the way of a lesson?

Still wonderful though.

[Undome Tinwe]

I love the Spirit so much in this. She was a lot of fun, and Ibis using chaos magic was great as well. Cannot wait to see how the Spirit and Booky interact.