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Prologue150 words
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Traveller963 words
Chapter 2: Dr. Drake994 words
Chapter 3: The Sons of Chaos775 words
Chapter 4: A Brief History487 words
Chapter 5: A Stunning Encounter574 words
Chapter 6: Perytonic Ambush712 words
Chapter 7: Melodious Harmony, Realistic Fiction, and Orderly Chaos1,427 words
Chapter 8: A Meeting with Royalty754 words
Chapter 9: Rescue Raid872 words
Chapter 10: Destruction, Ascendent448 words
Chapter 11: Meanwhile, Elsewhere470 words
Chapter 12: Stay Awhile -or- God Out of the Machine1,171 words
Chapter 13: Axel Smith876 words

Chapter 7: Melodious Harmony, Realistic Fiction, and Orderly Chaos

Chapter 7

Melodious Harmony, Realistic Fiction, and Orderly Chaos

As the great, glowing orb of Celestia’s power descended further in the sky, Dr. Drake waited. Twilight, having recovered somewhat from both the attacks of the Sons of Chaos and the perytons, had managed to get a letter written to the princess, and a royal escort directly to the palace was on its way in order to discuss possible courses of action.

In the meantime, Dr. Drake played. As his bow flew across the strings of his aged violin, the idle tune that flowed forth spoke of spring nights spent gazing at the stars. It was a not-very-well-known movement of a famous piece from Earth, but went unknown in the land of Equestria. It made him feel at peace every time he played it.

The soft, sharp sound of hooves on cobblestone caught his attention, and he paused momentarily. “Now, what would a pony such as yourself be doing this far from town on a fabulous spring evening?”

He turned around to see a startled grey mare with a black mane pulled out of her face and violet eyes. She had a treble clef cutie mark. She looked simultaneously frightened and awed by him. He already knew her name; he’d been doing his research over the past couple weeks.

“Octavia, I presume?”

“You…how…?”

“Never mind that. I must ask, though, what could have possibly brought you out here on such a fine evening?”

“Your music…I’ve never heard that piece before.”

He chuckled. “I’m not surprised; it’s not Equestrian in origin. It’s not even from this world.” To her perplexed expression, the physicist continued. “That was the violin solo from the second movement of La Primavera, ‘Largo’, by a composer named Antonio Vivaldi.”

“Who is that?” Octavia queried.

“Oh, he was just one of the most famous composers of the Baroque time period on Earth. La Primavera, or ‘Spring’, as is its translation from Italian, was—is—the first piece in his most famous suite, ‘The Four Seasons’. He also wrote more than 100 violin concerti, including the twelve found within ‘The Four Seasons’, and at least fifty bassoon concerti.” A sigh of nostalgia left Dr. Drake, and then he continued, “I used to play bassoon. What with my doctorate and my line of work, though, I could only keep playing one instrument.”

“Well…I play cello,” Octavia remarked in a passing tone.

“Oh, do you now?” the doctor said with intrigue. “We simply must play a duet together sometime, you and I. You know, I tried cello once. God, that was fun! Played it for a whole month! That, I guess, is one of only a handful of happy memories from eighth-grade orchestra. Tell me, Octavia, do you know of any other musicians living in Ponyville?”

“Well, there’s Lyra Heartstrings, she plays lyre. And my roommate, Vinyl—”

“Vinyl? Your roommate is the Vinyl Scratch?”

Octavia looked taken aback. “You know her?”

“Of course! She’s DJ-P0N3, isn’t she? Of all the background ponies, she and Derpy are the only ones who actually interact with the main characters! Someday, I will have to go to your house and meet her in person!” He then sighed inwardly. “Of course, if all goes well with the Princesses, I will be busy for the next several weeks.”

“Background…character…what?!?” Octavia exclaimed incredulously.

Dr. Drake suddenly jumped up. “Oh dear God, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Dr. Drake, but you can call me Pascal.”

She shook his greeting off. “What, in the name of Celestia, are you going on about?”

“The short story is that I discovered a formula for fiction-travel, and I came here.”

“So…,” Octavia began to say uncertainly, “you’re saying that me, Ponyville, the princesses…all of this…isn’t real?”

“On the contrary, my dear Octavia,” Dr. Drake explained. “This world, and its inhabitants, is as real as the person who first imagined it. It is as if the idea caused a seed to be planted in another dimension, which then grew into this. Many similarities exist, and yet this place also dreamed up its own unseen characters, people and ponies that wouldn’t exist if this was mere fiction.”

“So…what exactly are you saying?”

“Let me see here….” the physicist said thoughtfully. “Do you arrange, Octavia?”

Octavia looked taken aback. “Arrange?”

“Yes. Do you arrange musical pieces to fit unusual ensembles? If I was talking to Vinyl, a better term would be ‘remix’, but somehow I doubt you remix music.”

“Uh…well, Vinyl has done several remixes.”

“Well, this would be like that, then. She finds someone else’s musical work, and adapts it to fit a different format. At its core, the piece isn’t hers, but everything built up around that core is. This world, at its very core, is the concept of itself; everything else is reality.”

“Okay…I guess that makes sense.”

Dr. Drake sat back and inhaled deeply. “These sensations…the vibrant color, crisp sound, all of it…it’s almost too real to be real, though. I must say, for having sprung from the imagination of a person, this place is breathtakingly…well, for lack of a less repetitive word, real. Minus the magic, the mythical creatures, and ‘good trumps evil’ mentality, of course.”

“Sorry?” Octavia asked, but Dr. Drake didn’t hear her, for suddenly a pegasus-drawn carriage descended from the sky, landing directly in front of the pair of musicians.

“Oh, look at that, my ride’s here!” the doctor exclaimed, hastily putting his violin away. “It was nice meeting you, Octavia. May you have good fortune in your music!”

He swiftly clambered into the carriage, coming face-to-face with a white, blue-maned unicorn and a pink, pink-and-purple-maned alicorn. He chuckled aloud.

“I knew I was important, but royalty are escorting me to the palace?” He dipped his head in respect. “Princess Cadence, Prince Shining Armor, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Doctor,” Cadence said in pretend exasperation, “there’s no need for formalities.”

“On the contrary, Prince and Princess, there is every need for formalities; why else call me by my title?”

It was Shining Armor who responded this time. “When Princess Celestia sent us to deliver you to the palace, she only said you were a doctor of some sort.”

The middle-aged physicist smiled at this. “Fair enough; I am Dr. Pascal Drake, but please, call me Pascal, Pr—Cadence and Shining Armor.”

“Thank you,” Cadence replied. “Now, if I may ask, what brings you to seek an audience with the Princess—and to have it granted?”

“You may. Now, Shining Armor, is it that you remain the captain of the Royal Guard?”

“It is.”

“Then, surely, you must know that the ancient Sons of Chaos, Destruction and Despair, once more walk this earth?”

“Of course, but how could you know that? That’s highly confidential information!”

“It was I who reported their reappearance to the Princesses, but that is neither here nor there; I have discovered an exploitable weakness.”

Shining Armor’s jaw dropped and Cadence had to ask the question burning through his mind. “How?”

“Even though my doctorate is in nuclear physics, I have been fascinated with electricity since I was—well, younger than our Cutie Mark Crusaders, actually. One of my greatest historical heroes was a man who revolutionized electricity, and could have done so even further. I essentially continued his work where he left off, and took a weaponized version of his greatest invention with me—after all, I could have been entering the middle of a battlefield.

“After Twilight and I fought with the Sons of Chaos—long story, I might tell you on the way back—we were attacked by a small flock of perytons, which are creatures of chaos, just like the draconequi, albeit less powerful. I took this weapon and fired full-power at one of them, and it disintegrated. I know it doesn’t—well, didn’t; it’s currently out of power—have the amperage to do something like that to a creature of chaotic origins, so it must be something else. Then it hit me: of course, it must be ionization! As the blaster supercharged the air around it, the ions polarized, becoming immaculately orderly on a molecular level.

“And although this prototype doesn't have the amperage to turn full-fledged draconequi to ash, what if I could build a version that did? That is why I’m seeing the Princesses.”

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