Chapter 16: An Unconventional Ally
Once again, Twilight sat in the gardens after a nice breakfast. They were waiting for one more pony before Twilight continued the story. Luckily they didn't have to wait long. Rarity came cantering up, levitating a package in front of her.
“Sorry I'm late,” She apologized, “I had to get a little late welcome home gift I threw together yesterday while you were... away.” She involuntarily rubbed her horn with a hoof making Twilight cringe a little.
“Thank you, Rarity,” Twilight accepted the gift. The lavender unicorn opened the box and levitated a furry, purple... “What is it?”
“Let me show you. Lift your right leg,” Rarity took the thing from her and slipped it around the metal hoof. It fit snugly around Twilight's prosthetic, the color and texture blended perfectly with her natural coat. Twilight looked at her leg as tears started to form at the corners of her eyes. She wrapped her friend in a hug.
“Thank you,” Twilight said with a huge smile, “It's almost like I have my leg back. It looks so real.”
“What are friends for,” Rarity returned the hug, “Now, I believe you were going to tell us about that town.”
“Right, of course,” Twilight released her friend and cleared her throat, “Now I had been training for about two weeks. My mana control was improving. I still wasn't even close to Rarity's level, but I didn't really need to be...”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Twilight moved the three flames, each in a different pattern. The focus it took was extreme as evident in the beads of sweat rolling down her face. Has-Ka watched his student with pride. So few adepts could improve so fast.
“Okay, that's enough for now,” He said. Twilight let the flames die and looked up at the Dratali. “Let's start improving your casting speed.” With a wave of his hand, a tall, flat screen floated over to him and was set about ten inches from Twilight's face, “As quickly as you can, gather as much energy as possible.”
Twilight nodded and started charging her horn. After about ten seconds of that Has-Ka stopped her and stared at the screen with a frown.
“What's wrong with this thing?” he asked out loud, “Watch this end while I try.”
He and Twilight switched places. With his hand held palm up he began drawing mana in. Twilight looked at the opposite end with confusion.
“What's that going into your hands?” she asked.
Has-Ka stopped suddenly, shocked by the question, “It's mana, why?”
“Wait, when you say “draw in mana” you mean draw it in from around you?” Twilight gave an inquisitive look, “Why don't you just use the magic inside you?”
“I don't have magic inside,” he replied, giving the mare a smile, “It's not supposed to be possible to keep that much magic inside of you. Just like it's not supposed to be possible to see a spell's matrix. You're just full of surprises, Twilight Sparkle. You truly have magic inside you?”
“I didn't think it was possible to draw in magic from around you,” Twilight returned the smile.
“Well, that makes things a little different,” the adept placed his hand to his chin for a moment, “Let's take the rest of the day off and go into town. I'll treat you to dinner.”
“That sounds great,” Twilight cheered, “I could use a break from your cooking.”
“At least I can make more than pancakes and sandwiches.” replied Has-Ka.
“Fair enough,” The two shared a little laugh before getting ready to head out the door.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Twilight was pleasantly surprised by the sight. She expected a massive metropolis, but found a quaint little town not too different from Ponyville (though not as colorful). The homes and buildings all had painted wood paneling, and most had flower beds in front and gardens in back. The shops had goods on display in front with no fear of thieves. Twilight learned soon after she moved to Ponyville that small towns usually trusted each other with these things. One would never be so trusting in Canterlot. The only building that clashed with the natural setting was a large concrete building on the north-eastern edge. Has-Ka said it was the Terraforming Center. It's the reason this once barren moon has life. The town was comprised of people working on stabilizing the new ecosystem. Twilight was still asking many, many, many questions when the first inhabitant walked up and greeted them.
“How are you Hoss?” said an older gentleman if the gray streaks in hair meant anything, “And who might this be? Your eyes are too intelligent to be just some animal. A new race to our little galactic community perhaps?”
“Just a lost soul in need of guidance,” replied Has-Ka.
“Well, my name is Victor Chance, Mayor of this fine community.”
“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight replied, “I'm a unicorn pony from the planet Avol.”
“A unicorn?” the mayor's eyebrow arched, “Humans have myths about unicorns.”
“So I've read,” Twilight replied, “My theory is that one of my kind developed some kind of spell that allowed contact between our races long ago.”
“Spell? As in magic?” Victor smiled, “Ha! Looks like you’re not the only ones with magic anymore, eh Hoss?”
“That's why she's here,” answered the Dratali mage, “Her people are peaceful and have few combat spells. As she is alone out here with no way home to learn what they do have, I'm teaching her.”
“Oh? I'm sorry to hear about that. Was it some magic accident?” The mayor asked. At Twilight's surprised expression he laughed, “Hoss here once tried to teleport some building supplies from town to his home. About a month later, we found them stuck in a tree about fifteen miles to the south.”
“It would have worked if not for that kid's ball hitting me in the head,” Has-Ka defended.
“We know,” Victor gave the Dratali a rap on the back and turned back to Twilight, “Well then, my little pony, I'll give you the grand tour.”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Has-Ka went off to do his own thing while Victor showed Twilight around. He showed her to the town hall, the theater, the pub, the restaurants, and ended in the market.
“That's about all there is,” Victor stated, “I'm sure you'd like to pick up a few things, so I’ll leave you be. If anyone gives you a hard time, come see me. If I’m not in my office, my secretary will know how to contact me.”
“Thanks Victor. I'll see you later then,” Twilight bid him farewell.
“And the same to you, Twilight,” Victor returned.
The two parted and Twilight made her way into the hustle and bustle of the market. It was surprisingly familiar and made her quite homesick. She halfway expected to see Applejack with her cart of apples, two bits apiece. Perhaps even Fluttershy purchasing some carrots for little Angel Jr. Perhaps even the Crusaders shopping for some candy. Heck, she could almost hear Pinkie singing... her ears swiveled around. There was someone singing. It wasn't Pinkie but...
Come on every-pony smile, smile, smi-le.
Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine.
All I really need's a smile, smile, smi-le,
from these happy friends of mi-ine.
“What the...?” Twilight tried to locate the source of the singing. There! She ran toward the origin of the impossible music. It was coming from an alley between two shops. She caught a brief glimpse of a figure turning a corner, and went after it. A dead end. There was nothing there but a wall. Twilight turned to try to find another way only to find the way she just came was blocked by a wall.
“What the hell?” Twilight exclaimed.
The first stages of panic were just about to set in before a section of wall opened. Left with little choice and the need to know what was going on, Twilight entered the mysterious door and found herself in...
“My library?” Twilight gasped at the sight of her beloved books, tomes, and scrolls, “This is an illusion. There's no way I’m home. Has-Ka, if this is some joke I’m going to strangle you!”
“Oh my,” said a voice from some unknown source, “That's rather violent for a pony.”
“Who's there?” Twilight charged a lightning spell.
“You don't remember me?” the voice came from behind her.
Twilight jumped around a gasped, “You? You're that weird merchant from Placid Harbor!” She recognized the half black, half white hair. Of course the matching suit was new.
“I'm touched, really,” he wiped a fake tear from his eye.
“Who are you? Do you work for the Dratali? How are you doing this? How did you know that song?” Twilight interrogated.
“Okay, in order. You can call me James for now. No. It's called magic. I know far more about you, your friends and even Equestria that you, Celestia or Luna could ever hope to know.”
Twilight stared at him with a touch of fear, “What are you?”
“I,” he gave a toothy grin, “Am a Chaos Lord.”
“A Chaos Lord?” Twilight took a step back, “What... like Discord?”
“Oh,” James said with mirth in his voice, “You do know what he is. I'm surprised. Do you know what our purpose is?” Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly interrupted, “Wrong! We don't live to disrupt harmony, we are harmony. When light and dark are in harmony, chaos is born. Discord just went mad with power and forgot his purpose.”
“What do you want?” Twilight asked nervously.
James chuckled, “Simple, I want you to do what you're doing. All I want to do is give you some advice and an incentive. My advice; when you get back, open the box, and have a chat about what you find with the good Admiral. I'll tell you what to do after that. As for incentive, well,” He came in close to her ear and gestured to Twilight's home, “I know where this is.”
Twilight's eyes widened, “You mean...?”
He nodded, “I can tell you how to get home.”
Just like that, he and the library were gone, leaving Twilight alone in the alley. She stood there for several moments trying to make sense of everything. With a new purpose, and renewed hope, Twilight ran back to town. She was as determined as ever to finish her training and go back to her new friends, and then find her old friends.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“That's the last of it,” Victor said as he shut the storage compartment on Twilight's Ax.
“Thanks, Victor,” Twilight gave the man a hug, “I'll visit you guys some time.”
“You better,” Has-Ka said, “You still need to teach me that mustache spell. I've never learned a completely useless spell before.”
“It's not completely useless, just mostly useless,” Twilight chuckled, “Maybe I can bring my friends next time.”
Twilight climbed into the pilot's seat and gave one last wave to the other friends she made in her two months training under Has-Ka. It was returned with waves and smiles from the small crowd as the canopy closed.
Twilight waited for everyone to get to a safe distance before bringing the engines up. The spacecraft began its slow ascent above the trees. Angling the nose of the fighter in the direction of the beacon, Twilight hit the throttle and shot off out of the atmosphere. Anchored on a nearby piece of debris was the FTL sled left by the White Wolf. She only ever docked with one three times in the simulator, but that was because it was an easy maneuver. Within five minutes, she was hooked up and ready to head to New Aroth to await transport back to her friends.
“Hello again,” came a familiar voice.
“James, is that you?” Twilight wasn't expecting to hear from him again so soon.
“I just thought I'd let you know I changed the destination of the sled.” said the Chaos Lord, “It'll take you straight to the White Wolf. Good thing, too. Ciao.”
“Uh, okay then. Thank you,” Twilight said, happy that she was going to be reunited with her friends sooner than anticipated.
Twilight activated the FTL sled and felt the ship shudder. Debby warned her that large ships like the White Wolf have dampeners that reduce the effects of FTL travel, but smaller craft, like her fighter, didn't.
Twilight would never have to wonder what spaghetti feels like.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Celestia looked at Twilight with concern, “I'm not sure how to take the news of a third Chaos Lord existing. I've only ever heard of two but, they were both evil.”
The other ponies nodded in agreement, except for Pinkie who was preoccupied with a butterfly at the time.
“Actually there are twenty four, as well as other Chaos beings, but we'll get into that later,” Twilight lectured, “Plus Discord wasn't really evil, just crazy. He was just trying to have fun.”
“Still, are you sure he is good?” Celestia asked.
Twilight chuckled “Good? No. He's a being of balance. He's not good or evil. At the time, though, he was a great ally.”
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Something's about to go down if a Chaos Lord is going to help Twilight go home.
Great story mate - deserves to be on the featured box!
SOmething bad is gonna happen.
Chaos Lords? ME GUSTA
Woo, I knew it!
Eh, still equestria is up to a big change. I doubt that the whole world is going to miss an opportunity to be integrated into the intergalactic society - with all its good sides and even more bad sides. There are lots of ponies who saw the Ax, and there are already several technicians trying to learn from the "future" technology. While twilight is still the only way of contact it is realistic to remain an unspoiled closed corner, however something tells me that it's not for long.The fruits of knowledge, Twilight brought are very very poisonous to equestrian society.
Chaos which is NOT evil?
Finaly!
As a discordain, you have no idea how happy this makes me.
1892289 You'd like my last story Chaotic Harmony. The main character is a chaos mage.
1892306
I have it on my read later list. Along with 81 other stories. And 42 unread chapter updates. And I am trying to write about 5 stories at once as well. And a dissertation in a pear tree.
Whats it a crossover with, by the way?
1892331 Several different fics on this site. There's cameos galore
1892344
Ah okay. Thats part of the reason I havn't read it yet—I wasn't sure what it was a crossover with and I didn't want to go into it ignorant. But if its only other fanfics, then that will be fine.
So James is basically Q, even more so than Discord? I'm liking this story more and more!
Cough...
Did someone say Q?
Well, Q might be like Discord... Just crazy. But it sounds actually like a similar being as Qs race.
AND well, Are you sure that there are only 24? I think there are 25. The last one would be none other than Pinkie herself, right?
As for Chaos and not evil.... It is esentially the same as the force. To quote Kyle Katarn. You can learn either the light or the dark side of the force. The powers alone are neither good or evil. How you use them will make the difference.
Hmm. Inside that box.... Could be an old artifact or something like that. Maybe it is a tool granting a human limited magical powers? Okay, that was just wild guessing, but more seriously maybe it is somekind of ancient Star Map with hidden Jumppoints or something like that.
As for the chapter itself. Raritys gesture was just AHHH, how nice. But that what you would expect from the Element of generosity. The training of Twi itself was interesting, since it showed the difference between the two mages power origin, but it also generates another question. If Twi has magic within her AND can now also draw eventually from magic outside of her, I think there are chances for some really bada.... sorry badflank spells ahead.
Also questions is now even more what is Twilight holding backhere. Maybe it isn't the Alliance here who want's to visit, but Q.. Sorry James himself
Keep up the very good work.
Ally aahhh sheiiiit
1892395 What's in the box? Why, Twilight's light sabre of course
.
P.S. Pinkie is number 24!
Wait a moment here..... Ok. James is sending her straight to the White Wolf.... (Nice Name though, I suppose it is not based somehow on the WC Vessels Tiger's Claw or Wolfhound? Both Carriers of the Bengal class).
Why do I have the bad feeling suddenly that, if twilight get's back to the ship, some serious BS is going to happen. Wouldn't be the first time you would return to your carrier where it is attacked. Maybe we see the firest Space battle here?
1892432
Nah. That one would be too obvious for you. I expect serious surprises from you
As on Pinkie. AH yes that makes sense now.
Hmm, nice idea with chaos. It also fits my personal view of how the world works (without conflict there is no progress).
While I found this statement funny, I didn't quite caught the point. Would you please enlighten me:
Also, we know now Discord is a Chaos Lord a few fries short of a happy meal, but who is the other one Celestia mentioned? As far as I followed Discord was nomber one, then the second one and of course James, number three. Is it someone we know already?
1892474
Spaghettification, it's a speculated effect of being dragged into the event horizon of a black hole.
Ever watch the after-image left when the U.S.S. Enterprise jumps to warp speed. how it stretches out into the distance?
Kind of like that.
1892474 She felt like she was being stretched, like spaghetti.
The second Chaos lord was mentioned when Twilight was talking about Avol. She mentioned it was Teleported to the middle of nowhere by a draconequus named Mayhem.
Hooray I'm a Chaos Lord!
<My name's James> Does that mean I get free chocolate milk whenever I want? And dancing buffalo?! 
In all honesty I thought the shop keep WAS Discord, or at least his spiritual projection or something. Nice touch with the 'spell gets messed up and teleport goes wrong' thing.
1892432 Darn and I was hoping Pinkie was number 25.
HOW DARE HE CALL THE MOUSTACHE SPELL USELESS!
1892587
I agree. It is not totally useless. But I could also think of better means to distract an opponent.
1892474 I'm guessing that the third Chaos Lord is Tirek, a major villain form the first generation of MLP. Or perhaps Sombra... or one of the other baddies we only got a vague idea about.
I have a bad feeling about this...
Now that I've made that obligatory statement, I can comment for real.
So judging by the not-so-subtle hints of James, we're about to see our first space battle. Either that, or the crew of the White Wolf is preparing to launch some sort of mission, but that seems less likely.
Also, I get the impression that 'James' is not his real name. Or maybe it is, who knows how chaos lord naming schemes work?
"I am the chaos lord, Bob! Fear me!"
right now my Star Wars memories are firing off the FTL sled looking like a Syluire-31 hyperspace docking ring the Jedi delta fighters use
dl.dropbox.com/u/95402669/Obi-Wan_hyperdrive_ring.png
CHAOS LORD?!?
t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSE6yY5yu8ItviyPrgMxbLI58s849CHX-yZ4pvQFAs8a0Y3TC3ijaRlBkcI
HAIL THE DARK GODS!
my guess is that if her sled went to New Aroth like it was supposed to she would have been subjected to a multitude of experiments to determine better ways to defend against the dratalli, possibly even disected and would never be able to go home
I wonder if the Dratali home planet was destroyed by a Chaos Lord. The probability of the chain of events leading to it's destruction naturally is astronomical, but if it was helped along...
1892516 Ah, now I get it.
Deam, i used to be a hobby phsicist. I should have known about that. 
1892521 Ah, Mayhem, I think I remmember now. What chapter was that again?
1892644 Actually, I just got it cleared, number one was Discord, number two was Mayham and number three is our mysterious helper. I dont really think Tirek fits into the description, he's pure evil afterall.
Thank you all for your replys!
So, James is Chaotic Neutral, with a slight inclination towards Chaotic Good. That's what I'm getting from this.
1893475 Ok... Who is Mayham?
1893475 Chapter 3
1893681 As stated in Chapter 3, Mayhem is the reason Avol doesn't have a natural sun and moon. He transported the planet to deep space.
1893572>>1892644 All Chaos lords are completely neutral (True Neutral for you D&D players). Discord isn't evil either, just crazy (even in the show all he did were some elaborate pranks). The reason he's crazy may or may not be mentioned later.
1892905 That's the inspiration for it. It just made sense for a ship that would rarely use an FTL drive to have an external option.
1892595>>1892587 I agree, he just doesn't understand the sheer awesomeness that is the mustache spell.
1893861 Ah.. Thanks
1892119 It actually has reached the feature box a couple of times, if on the low end.
1894196 The low end of the feature box is still the feature box to me. I'm just happy it made it at all.
1894215 and that is an awesome feat!
1894215 And I'm not saying it isn't a feat! Was more sort of saying it isn't surprising they hadn't seen it there before since it usually doesn't stay there long, regardless of how badly I/we all
think it deserves to.
trolling. u mad twi?
Awesome!
Keep up the good work! 
A Chaos Lord eh. The plot thickens.
Ooh I love the idea of James being like John de Lancie.
I love (and posess a bit of) that derranged mentality
Yay update!!!
Chaos Lords kind of sound similar to Time Lords, I wonder if they're related somehow!
1895957 Time lords aren't god-like beings that can literally move worlds.
1895975
Good point but then again I've never really watched Doctor Who so I wouldn't know!
1896118
What?! you need to watch it. It's awesome.
1895975 wait wasn't there an episode where the 10th doctor used the TARDIS to pull the earth to its correct place in it's solar system? I think it was the last episode before the special where he regenerated but if so does it mean Timelords can move planets?
1896269 I'm not that far in the series yet
1896136 I concur.
Also (probably already asked, but ah well), are Has-Ka and Victor based off Harry Dresden and Ebenezer McCoy from the Dresden Files series?
1896412 Nope, never read them.