Gala with a Dash of Chaos

by Tower of 0

Down on the Farm

Another week and another Tuesday has rolled around. Justin finds himself in the library, sitting on rather comfortably on the stairs, and reading the astronomy book again. Twilight is still upstairs getting ready since he arrived way earlier than she thought he would. Not that he minds, it allows him to catch up on his reading. His own personal research so to say, not that he would admit to it, but he does enjoy the stargazing.

He hears hoof steps coming down the stairs a couple of minutes later. Justin looks up from the book and gazes over to the lavender mare descending the stairs. Twilight gives him a small smile, feeling rather refreshed and glad to see the human again. She continues down the stairs until she reaches Justin and takes a seat next to him, looing over to the book for a quick moment.

"Enjoying the book?" Twilight asks.

"Greatly, thank you again for lending it to me." Justin smiles back at the mare, marking the page and closing the book. "You still never told me where we're going today."

"Please, feel free to help yourself to any of the books here." Twilight lets out a small giggle, registering the second part of what he said. "As for the where, it's Sweet Apple Acres."

"Oh? Why there?" Justin asks, setting the book to his side.

"Well, I may have talked Applejack into letting us use one of the fields for what I have in mind." Twilight explains.

"This is going to be fun." Justin gives her a little smirk.

After a quick and easy breakfast, oatmeal with brown sugar hits something fierce here apparently, the two are off. The walk is at a deliberately slow pace mostly due to Justin wanting to enjoy the autumn morning. Twilight wasn't going to protest at the content walk through town. The walk is mostly quiet, the two staying side-by-side as they listen to the morning symphony of sounds throughout the town. Twilight gave his hand a slight nudge and he responds by resting his palm on the back of her neck. She can feel his calmness and content through the action and may have leaned a little to the touch.

It doesn't take them long to come across the dirt path that leads to the farm, flanked on both sides by rows and rows of apple trees. Their leaves were changing from the rich, bright green to shades of yellow, orange, and red. The colors made the path warm and inviting as the two continue their slow pace. Along the path, they both spot a certain yellow pegasus mare with a long pink mane headed their way.

"Oh, hey it's Flutters." Justin remarks, trying not to draw attention as it seems she hasn't spotted him yet. "Must've gotten some things for her animals by the looks of things."

Twilight trots a bit ahead to get her friend's attention. "Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy looks up to spot Twilight and gives her a small smile. Justin comes into her view and the smile is quickly replaced with fear. She lets out a small yelp and quickly takes off into the skies. Twilight is looking confused, and the human just grunts in frustration.

"Strange, I thought she liked you." Twilight remarks, looking at the human.

"She's been avoiding me since the nightmares." Justin admits. "It's gonna take a while for her to come around, again."

"That's silly." Twilight seems to scoff at the idea. "She knows you wouldn't hurt any of us, right?"

Justin didn't respond immediately, his face looks hurt as he just watches the mare fly off into the distance.

"Right?' Twilight asks again, a bit more worried.

Justin finally looks at her and shakes his head. "No, but I don't think she knows that."

"It's ridiculous that she would still think that." Twilight says as something crawls into her mind. "Although, this is Fluttershy we're talking about."

Justin just nods his head a little. "Flutters will come around in time. Pretty sure of it."

"Oooorr, not have to wait at all." Twilight says as a lightbulb seems to go off above her head that noone else sees, except the human.

"Twilight... what're you thinking." Justin says as he shoos away the lightbulb into a cloud of nothing.

"You'll find out." Twilight says with a grin as she turns around and starts trotting down the dirt path.

Justin gives chase after a small shake of his head and follows the lavender alicorn. From what little experiences he has with Twilight and her ideas, this would either go over well or snowball in to a disaster. Those thoughts leave his head after catching up with the librarian and replacing his hand where it was before. It wasn't long before they meet up with Applejack just outside her barn.

They all greet one another and chat for a little while. The they move on to the matter of their visit, the farm mare seems more than happy to lead the pair to a part of the orchard that they left unused. Twilight shows her eagerness for whatever she plans to have the human do next with his new power. She trots right into the orchard after thanking Applejack for guiding them and Justin is quick to follow after doing the same.

"All righty, Twi." Justin says after they come to a halt. "Why are we out here?"

"Well, according to my brief time with Discord..." Twilight starts, looking at each of the surrounding trees. "I know he can shapeshift his entire body or parts of it to meet whatever ends he needs. Pranking included."

"So... like.. what? You want me to transform into a pony or something like that?" Justin asks as he starts to stretch some.

"You could say something like that." Twilight muses as she approaches a tree and uses her magic to mark an 'X' on the trunk. "Here!"

Justin raises a brow as he stares at her. "Okay? Now what?"

"Transform a limb and kick it!" Twilight exclaims with some excitement and pulls out a notebook with a quill.

Justin just nods a little and shakes his legs one after the other. He finds some sort of concentration to form his focus around. Twilight watches with excitement, seeing the fledgling beginnings of something happening around his legs. Instead of transforming however, they seem to glow and form ethereal hind legs around his own, going all the way up to his knees. She takes down notes on what she's seeing.

"Interesting." Twilight mutters, a little too loud.

"What?" Justin asks, shifting his gaze to his legs and seeing exactly what's happening. "Oh, that's so cool."

Justin takes a moment to appreciate the ethereal look of the 'boots.' Twilight sort of coughs to get his attention back to the task she wanted him to perform. The human gives her a small a nod, walking up to the tree, and gives it a good kick. Their jaws dropped as they watched the tree splinter in two pieces and the top half flying off towards the distance at great speed. Maybe that kick was a little too good.

With the snap of some fingers, the tree is restored to before the kick. Twilight is still in a bit of a daze as she stares way off into the distance. It takes Justin tapping her on the shoulder to get her back to the present. The mare shakes her head and looks at the human with some surprise.

"What in Equestria was that?!" Twilight practically screams at him.

"A kick, maybe a little too strong of one." Justin sheepishly says as he rubs the back of his neck.

"A kick?! You snapped the tree like it was a twig!" Twilight exclaims.

"I know, I know. I'll go softer next time." Justin reassures her.

Before the two could continue on with their... discussion, a pink mass comes falling out of the tree and rolling it's way towards the human. Justin tries to take a step back but all too late as the mass of pink springs open to a pony and latches itself on his torso. Pinkie starts to squeeze the human in the tightest of tight bear hugs she can muster with her strength. Justin is powerless in his struggles to get some air in his lungs.

"Pink... air." Justin manages between gasps.

"Whoops! Sorry!" Pinkie apologizes and relents the hug of death.

Twilight seems to still be fixated on the sky, particularly in the direction the top half of the tree flew.

Justin continues to gasp for some air, getting his bearings again. "Pinkie... why're you here?"

"Oh, just checking up on the bestest chao-infused human in all of Equestria!" Pinkie beams with an unnaturally wide grin.

"Pretty sure I'm still the only one." Justin mumbles as he takes a knee to be eye level. "Whatchu want, Pink."

"Oh noooothing." Pinkie sings at him. "Exceptmaybejustasmallbitofcottoncandyraincould!"

Of course. Justin just smirks and rolls his eyes and with a swift snap of his fingers, a small morsel of cotton candy in the form of a cloud appears next to the pink party being. Yes, being. This man is still convinced some supernatural being shared the pony's body and caused their minds to meld to some capacity. Pinkie let out a good short squeal of excitement before grabbing the pink treat and trotting a short distance away.

Pinkie spits the cotton candy into her forehoof. "Thank you, Justin! See you at the gala!"

"Gala?" Out of all things, that snaps Twilight from her daze and turning her attention to the human. "You got a ticket this year?"

"Yeah, it was a bit last minute." Justin replies to her. "Mostly thanks to Luna, bless that soul."

"You know.. you could've come with me as a plus one." Twilight muses, albeit probably more sheepishly than she intended. "If you really had wanted to go."

"Thanks for the offer, Twi, but I never really did... large crowds." Justin mutters a little. "Especially the Canterlot crowd."

"Did... did something happen?" Twilight asked, taking a step closer.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." Justin says, getting ready for another kick. "Let's just get back to the test."

Wish you'd let me inside that head of yours sometimes. Twilight just gives him a small nod and readies her notepad. "Ready."

Justin lets out an exhale through his mouth. Twilight could swear she saw black smoke come out of him. He raises his leg and kicks the tree again. He puts less force into the kick but it's still strong enough to cause the tree to bend at the impact point. Twilight's eyes widen as she writes down their findings. Justin looks at the tree, snapping his fingers to return it back to normal.

"Ready to go again?" Twilight asks, feeling the slight tinge of anger somewhere. It's not hers though.

"Ready." Justin replies, readying himself again.

They spend several hours like this. Twilight observing the human while Justin experiments with varying how much power he puts behind each kick. Each one a varying degree of output from the tree being knocked clean out of the ground by the roots to kicking some bark clean off the tree. With each snap, the tree gets restored back to a state before the kick. Justin drawing some heavier breaths and wipes a bit of sweat from his brow.

"Seems like ya might be workin' up a sweat there, sugarcube." Applejack chimes in with a small smile.

"Oh hey, AJ. Didn't hear you come up." Justin comments, giving the farm mare a smile back.

"S'pose not with ya buckin' that tree like ya are." She smirks a little at him and walks up to the both of them. "Anyway, I brought y'all some lunch. Figured an appetite was worked up n' all." She gestures to the covered basket that's expertly balanced on her back.

"Thank you, Applejack." Twilight gives her friend a smile. "Call it a day after lunch, big man?"

Justin raises a brow at Twilight. "You takin' pages from Dash, are we?"

Twilight just giggles at his reaction and the three set up a picnic in the middle of the orchard. The three enjoying their lunch and company with chatter and some jokes sprinkled in. Twilight casts the occasional glance in his direction when he wasn't looking. Seeing his smile made her feel warm, like this was who he is. They all share laughs and cheers in good comraderies amongst each other.

---

Twilight and Justin return to the library for some light reading. The human taking up the stairs yet again since that's the only spot he can comfortably sit. In his hands is a book about magical artifacts, idly thumbing through the pages. The princess has one of her old spell books out, looking over a particular spell. She ponders about telling him about some of what she feels that isn't her own. Feelin the time isn't right and continues reading.

She does discover something interesting as she's reading over that familiar summoning spell she accidently casted a while back. One side effect of the spell being that master and familiar will share a bond, with some of what is cautioned at improper separation of said bond. An interesting note she found is that the familiar may resort to isolation in absence of the bond. The more important note that stands out is that sometimes the bond never severs and only falls dormant until achieved again. Twilight hums as she muses at the implecations.

"Hey, Twi." Justin's voice fishes her from her concentration.

"Yes?" Twilight looks over at him, to which he just waves her over.

"What exactly is an 'Alicorn Amulet?'" Justin asks as he flips the book over to show her the picture on the page.

"Well, it's right there. Why don't you read it?" Twilight looks at the human.

"I know." Justin replies and flips the book back to his side. "I want to hear it from you."

Twilight shakes her head a little bit and shakes her head. "It was an artifact that grants the wearer great magical power. Speculation points to it giving the bearer arcane potential to that of an actual alicorn but at t great price."

"Hm.." Justin muses as he is also reading the description himself. "That price being that it slowly corrupts whoever decided to wear it?"

"Correct." Twilight replies.

"Has anyone found it?" Justin asks.

Twilight pauses for the moment, taken back by the question. "Erm... yes... Trixie found it somehow in an antique shop and used it against me to take over Ponyville. My friends and i tricked her into taking it off then I gave it to Zecora to hide." Twilight finishes as he closes the book. "Why the sudden interest in that particular artifact?"

"What color was Trixie's magic while using it?" Justin leans forward a bit, a small smile creeping across his face.

"Re-" Twilight stops, realizing what he's implying. "You don't think He found one in his world, do you?"

Justin nods in the slightest as he gets up and walks over to the book cases. He replaces the book back in where he found, turning to face Twilight. His legs give him a stride back over to the mare and takes a knee in front of her. His hands find places on both of her shoulders. Her deep purple eyes peering back at his.

"I didn't forget the color of those lightning storms, Twi." Justin muses to her.

Twilight seems to nod a bit in understanding now, still not believing what he's implying. She didn't deny the possibility of it if he was on to something. From what they learned a while back, he does posses some magical ability but it never dawned on her her how he got it. Justin left shortly after, promising to come back next week.