> The Chaos Twins > by dzv13 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 1: Timberwolves > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Everfree Forest is a place every Ponyvillian knows not to enter. Well, unless they are visiting Zecora. Even then, all anypony needs to do is follow the path she cleared to get to her hut. However, there are other ponies living in the Everfree, who also own a small hut. There is no visible path to their house, so nopony knows how to get to their home. Not even their best (and only) neighbor/friend/mentor Zecora. “Well, hurry up,” stipulates the mare with an orange-red coat and a green volumetric flask in a purple {9/2} star polygon as a cutie mark. “Wait a bit I need to finish this,” pleads the busy colt with a light-yellow coat and a cutie mark of a burning blue gem behind a green pencil with a blue eraser. The colt is mixing potentially explosive chemicals together, the purpose not even this narrator knows. “You didn’t say please,” retorts the mare in a singsong voice, “didn’t Tia show you proper manners?” “Don’t start about Tia, you know how much I don’t like her. She’s lucky we are in here now because if I spent any more time there, I would have done something.” “Yeah, Yeah, I know. Just hurry up.” The mare walks to a corner to wait. Why is he taking so long? she asks mentally. Uggh! Whatever! Let him concentrate; the sooner he finishes, the sooner we can get to Zecora’s. She tries to find something interesting to do but ends up messing with her mane of black and brown highlights. “Aaaand done,” concludes the colt with green and blue highlights in his mane after a minute or three. He packs up his vials, beakers and test tubes into a small briefcase, a briefcase seemingly unsafe to harbor such dangerous chemicals. “Hey! I know what I’m doing,” exclaims the colt to nopony in particular. “Who are you talking to,” the sister inquires. “Oh…nopony. C’mon lets get to Zecora’s hut.” “Should we teleport or walk?” “What if Zecora is entertaining guests?” the male asks with wide eyes. “We might frighten them.” “Since when are you so conscientious of other’s Sol?” “See…Um…I…Let’s just go,” the brother stammers. Then he murmurs, “You win this round Bitty, you win this round.” Nopony can miss a giant tree in the middle of town, so nopony can miss the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville. The tree is a hollowed-out living space, but somehow still quite alive. There has to be some magic going on here. Inside, a purple unicorn speaks with her adopted son/slave dragon. “Actually, Spike, why don't you take the day off?” asks Twilight after receiving a dozen books from Celestia to read. “Really?” prompts Spike. “Why not?” Twilight answers his question with a question. “These books are gonna keep me busy for a while.” The Everfree is always dark, even when the sun is out, but Bitter Sweet and Solar Nuul know their way to Zecora's hut after being there so long (soon after Twilight defeated Trixie for the second time, if you need the information for some reason). I don’t do this often but since the two don’t seem to want to talk during this walk, I see nothing wrong with looking at what is in their minds, being an omniscient narrator allows me pleasure so you are very welcome dear readers. Bitter Sweet: hmm I wonder what Zecora is going to teach us today? Ooh I hope it’ll be more elemental magic. Solar Nuul: I bet I could make Zecora stop rhyming today. I know I can. Just as I thought, they think for the short-term not the future. Shame, somepony with their power should use their heads more. But as I am new to this narration game, I’ll give these ponies a chance. After some time walking, they arrive near Zecora’s tree hut. The hollowed out tree style seems to be popular; except unlike the Library, this tree is quite obviously dead. “Ah. Just the ponies I wanted to see; Come on in and have some tea.” They walk in, immediately noticing the welcoming masks from her native land. They chuckle, quite simultaneously, as they remember the song Pinkie Pie made about Zecora. Although they have not heard the song directly from Pinkie herself, they still know the lyrics. And they love laughing at Pinkie Pie’s shenanigans, even though they have not met her. The song makes Zecora seem evil, but they know Zecora is harmless from their multiple encounters with her and Celestia’s words about her: Zecora is a zebra, wise beyond her years. Ponies seek her out for cures, and to help allay their fears. “Are you two feeling okay, it seems your minds have gone astray,” questioningly rhymes Zecora. “We’re fine,” the twins respond. “We’re just looking at your masks and remembering some stuff,” adds Bitter Sweet. “Only good things I would hope, I don’t need you two to start to mope. Now drink your tea and lets get started, it'll be best if we soon departed.” “Where are we going today,” Bitter Sweet asks. “We aren’t going to the Everfree pool again are we? I had enough water magic,” Solar Nuul complains. Bitter Sweet gasped and exclaims, “Elemental magic’s the best!” Zecora stops them before they get into one of their epic fights over tripe, “Now, Now. No need to fight. Today’s lesson will be on flight.” Bitter Sweet sits down and sips her tea, pleased with the lesson for today; being a Pegasus, she’s a great flier. Sol, an earth pony, gives Zecora a nice, loud harrumph and a grumpy face. “I already know levitation and teleportation spells, so I don’t need flight. Not for hard to reach places nor transportation. Why do I need to learn how to fly?” questioningly whines Solar Nuul. “Celestia sent you both to learn all you could, so you will try to learn and make some good,” explains Zecora. “Make good?” both non-zebras ask, “We aren’t doing good.” “Ah. Soon you will,” Zecora started but stopped to take a sip of her tea, which had been neglected trying to explain things to these ponies. “But first one must gain skill. Now stop fussing and take my suggestions, drink your tea and stop asking questions.” “Celestia never made me learn how to fly,” murmurs Solar Nuul while drinking his tea. “Touch nose with tongue,” Spike reads aloud so the reader doesn’t get bored of my narrating voice. He extends his tongue and places it on his dragon nose. “Done!” he exclaims as he checks off the action on his list. “Play bongos on my belly.” “Done!” Spike says after making beautiful music on his gut. “Smell my dirty feet.” “Done!” He says yet again. Not sure how he enjoyed that but now he finished his list of stuff to do. “Huh, that didn’t take as long as I thought it would.” Spike decides to walk around town when he spots a big purple balloon, which we all know from the opening theme of the show. Maybe Twilight rents out her balloon when she doesn’t need it. Or maybe it doesn’t even belong to her! Eh, whatever, it is not important. “A hot air balloon ride,” he exclaims as he runs to the balloon. He, being a baby dragon, decides to bump into the post that the balloon was tied against, untying it with his big head and letting it fly away. Spike gives chase and finds himself jumping on crates and houses to reach the balloon’s flailing rope. He, being a clumsy baby, misses and lands in Big Mac’s apple cart. With the cart, he approaches the now low flying balloon at remarkable speed. He is about to catch it when he notices that the cart is heading straight for Granny Smith. Spike grabs the wheels of the cart with his flame resistant dragon hands to stop the collision, but his hands still seem to catch fire. Luckily, the cart suddenly decides to stop. It digs itself into the dirt but the forward momentum, not impeded by the digging process, flings the baby dragon forward as one might expect momentum to do. Learning how to fly is fun so Spike, now slowly approaching the dangling rope of the balloon, reaches out for it. After catching it, he lands the balloon in the middle of the Forbid…I mean, the Everfree Forest. Three equines stand in a clearing near the edge of the Everfree. “Hey! Was that Twilight’s hot air balloon,” asks Bitter Sweet. “First of all,” Solar Nuul lectured, “you have never seen Twilight’s balloon. Second, she is Celestia’s star pupil; everypony is always saying how she is more powerful than anypony. She could find her way out the problem if it was her balloon.” “No more stalling, bickering foals,” Zecora interrupted yet another forming argument between the two. She knew that Sol got into intense arguments about Twilight easily. “Now, take to the sky and show me some rolls,” “I can't fly remember,” Sol states, a knowing smile growing on his face. “You cannot fool me, I know you well,” Zecora said a smile also growing on her face, “Just use your hooves and cast the spell.” “It was worth a try,” he grumbles under his breath. He stomps his hooves on the ground and a crack appears in the grass near where he stomped. The crack shines bright yellow bordering on white and soon the crack expands to make a circle around Sol (well not a perfect circle but cracks around him). Once the crack finished its revolution around Sol, the yellowhite light blinds Zecora and Bitter Sweet (or it would have if they didn’t knowingly close their eyes first). I for one didn’t know it was going to be so blinding so I had to blink a couple of time to refocus. Nothing seems to have changed. Well except for the obvious Sol has wings now thing. Hmm, I guess he is a Pegasus too now. Wait, Bitty seems to have changed too. Her mane, previously Brown with Black highlights is now Gray with Purple highlights. And her coat is now more orange than red (with a bit of yellow mixed in). “Good job Sol, nice wings, but why so dramatic? Just clapping your hooves would be more pragmatic,” Zecora rhymes. “Also I closed my eyes during your show,” Bitty adds. “Can you change my colors back again? Thanks.” “Bitty you need to learn how not to blink,” Sol says, “or sneeze, or close your eyes in general. You know chaos ponies can't without something chaotic happening. You are lucky that it chose to just change your colors again. Next time you could hurt somepony.” “Well, it’s your fault,” counters Bitter Sweet. “You wanted to put on a light show and hurt my eyes.” “If you would just put on shades like me, things like that wouldn’t happen,” rebutted Solar Nuul and to add points to his side he re-arranged his green shades. “We all know the only reason you wear shades is so that ponies can't see your eyes.” “The only reason you keep your wings on is because you are compensating for your lack of powerful magic.” “I do too have powerful magic, you’re just jealous of my elemental skills.” “Nopony will ever need you to burn something up.” “Yeah you think so! How’s ‘bout we settle this right here.” “This is where I shall stop you both,” Zecora interrupts. She doesn’t even know why she let this one go so long. “How bout we settle this with a little oath.” “What’chu talking bout,” Sol asks warily. “You two are a brother and sister, but act as if you are a blister.” “Well, you see,” both start to explain but are quickly interrupted by Zecora again. “No more speaking that is what we’ll do; only open your mouth if you have something nice to spew.” “Okay neat and knowing Zecora,” both Pegasi say. “Okay both of you have wings now, get up there and don’t break your vow.” “Wait!” Bitter Sweet exclaims. “Sol needs to change my colors back.” “Okay give me a sec,” Sol responds as he looks up remembering the shade of red that his sister’s coat was and her previous mane color. Once he finished thinking, he plops on the ground, raises his two forehooves, and knocks them together instantly changing Bitty’s colors back. “Thanks Sol,” lovingly remarks Bitty. “I wuv you.” “T’was nothing milady,” says Sol with a dramatic bow. This received a giggle from Bitty. “You are done with fun and games, we should return to today’s aims,” interjects Zecora before this too spirals out of control. With that, Bitter Sweet and Solar Nuul took to the air. Well, mostly Bitter Sweet since she is the more experienced flier of the two. Soon after leaving the ground, he gives a flap in the wrong speed and direction and flies straight into the trees of the Everfree at amazing speed. Even after criticizing his sister for closing her eyes, he could not help but close his eyes. Well, mostly because he’s now unconscious. “Huh. That was a close one,” Spike says to himself. “I-If I didn’t know better, I would swear that I was on the middle of the dark and scary Everfree Forest.” Suddenly a twig cracks in the shrubbery darkness of the Everfree. “What was that?” A scared Spike asks. “C'mon, Spike. Just because this forest is full of wild dangerous animals, doesn't mean that you're gonna see one.” But Fate had a different idea up her sleeve. There were stink lines visible in the air. Spike sniffs the air and to his dismay, he smells the stink of Timberwolf breath. One would think that this would be fine (since this is the dragon that liked to smell his own feet) but these are dangerous Timberwolves; he didn’t want to stay and enjoy the smell. Spike running and the wolves giving chase, they suddenly arrive at a large rock formation, trapping Spike to be food for these wood-based beasts. The beasts slowly approach the defenseless Spike but a runaway pebble seems to be attacking the alpha wolf. To the right, we see Applejack saving a defenseless fire-breathing dragon. “Come 'n' get me, ya big goons!” she tells the Timberwolves. Then adds to Spike “Run!” She bucks another rock towards the wolves again to give Spike a chance to run, and the wolves now chase her. She grabs a tree branch while running and she quickly lets it go knocking a couple of Timberwolves into a pile of twigs and leaves. Killing innocent creatures with what they are made of is a new low; then again, they are chasing her. She throws a rock or three up in the air and bucks them in quick succession towards the wolves, breaking one’s face and another’s legs. One more wolf to go. She simply jumps through a hole in a tree and the wolf, being larger than a little pony, is shattered. Applejack wipes a sweat off her brow as she does after a long’s day work. “Wow, Applejack! That was amazing!” Spike exclaims. “I mean, you rocketed those boulders at them like they were... rockets! Pow, pow, pow pow pow! You saved my life!” “Aw, don't mention it, Spike. C'mon, we should be headin' on back, now.” While the two leave; however, a magical yellowish-green light recombines the pieces of the Timberwolves. > 2: Pile o' Wood > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight jumps up as she tastes magic in the air. Having a higher amount of raw power than any other unicorn in Equestria allows her to know things inherently that others practice for ages before mastering. Something is off about this magic. It tastes off. It’s similar to the “Come to Life” spell I used on the snowplow during Winter Wrap Up, but this is much more powerful. It’s also obviously non-unicorn magic. Wait! The only non-unicorn magic I know is Z-force, which ponies manifest on their hooves to pick things up as if they had fingers like dragons and minotaurs. I must investigate this newfound magic and report it to the Princess. Buuut I’m halfway through the book-project the Princess sent me, well actually 70.83% through. If I stopped now, I’ll…be…TARDY! She wasn’t going to let that happen. I’ll finish this first, and then I’ll investigate this new magic. Bitter Sweet continues her search for her brother with Zecora but all they know is he went that-a-way. That is not a specific enough direction to find an unconscious pegasus. “This is hopeless,” Bitter Sweet exclaims putting her han…I mean, hooves up in defeat. She would have loved to close her eyes and rest for a little but she can't do that outside her hut (chaos pony stuff). “Hope is not lost, for we know our way, if we continue in the direction, we’ll find the stray,” encourages Zecora. “What if we passed him? Or what if…” starts Bitter Sweet’s panic attack before Zecora clicks pause on her VCR, metaphorically I mean. “If you want you could try, something with a magical third eye,” Zecora rhymes. “I’m not good with astral magic, I am more physically oriented,” Bitter Sweet replies. “I am really bad with teleportation, astral projection, and the like. I am better with fire, wind, and water based magic; you know, elemental stuff.” “Well find something on the physical side, that will help be your guide,” Zecora says simply, as if thinking on your fee…hooves is easy. Hmm. What am I good at that will help find Sol? Shimmer ponders. I’m good with animals, I could probably see if some animals want to help. But the Everfree wouldn’t want to help. “I got nothing. Zecora, help me!” Bitter Sweet pleads. Before Zecora started rhyming, small spheres start to shine from the shrubbery darkness. Usually seeing shiny spheres in the trees meant eyes, which came with razor sharp teeth, but this time there was only shining colors with no teeth under them. One of the spheres approach Bitter Sweet and begins to speak. “We’re willing to help, if you like,” the tiny pegasus says. If her coat were shyellow instead of navy blue, I would have thought Fluttershy got shrunk. “Yes, please help us little fairies, we need to find somepony in these very trees,” Zecora tries to recruit the main fairy. “Yes please, thank you for helping us on such short notice,” Bitter Sweet says, using her etiquette training with the Princess. “Lemme show you what he looks like.” She hits the ground and a flame starts to grow. The flame begins to spew smoke and the smoke shapes itself until it reaches a pony shape…that looks identical to Solar Nuul; except, it is smaller than him. Wow, she even got the mane color right. I wonder how she made the highlights green. “Thank you for the wonderful picture miss,” the blue fairy tells Bitter Sweet. “Canyoumakeitgoawaynow?” “Sure,” Bitter Sweet says with a clap of her hooves. The flames decided to leave this party with a poof. Dang now she got me rhyming. It also seems fairies are scared of fire. “Now that we are all together, we can find Sol like change in weather,” Zecora concludes as they all go to find Sol. After a day of dealing with Spike the As You Wish Dragon, Applejack decides to go to the Golden Oaks Library to have a word with Twilight. “Twilight? Twilight, are ya there?” Applejack asks while going up the library steps. “Twilight!” She had found Twilight but that book had her absorbed. Suddenly, a wicked idea enters AJ’s mind. If I move one of these inkwells Twilight’s CDO will knock her to her senses. “Ahh!” Twilight exclaims as the Feng-Shui in the room is disturbed. “Mighty sorry, didn't mean to scare you, Twilight.” Twilight sighs. “No, it's okay, I need to take a break anyway.” “What's going on?” Twilight asks while rearranging her inkwells. “I know Spike told ya that he was gonna follow his dragon code, and serve me forever for savin' him from the Timberwolves, and that ya were okay with it, but…” “Wait, WHAT‽” Twilight Interrobangs. “He said he told ya all about it,” AJ explains as shame runs across Twilight’s face. “I'm guessin' maybe ya were a little distracted when he told ya.” “Um,” Twilight says, “maybe a little...” “I should've realized you wouldn't've let him go so easily,” AJ says not looking directly into Twi’s eyes. “Well, now that you know what's goin' on, maybe you could talk some sense into him.” “Oh, Applejack, I wish I could, but this is dragon code we're talking about. Surely you know how important the dragon code is to a dragon!” “I sure'm startin' to,” Applejack says remembering when Spike managed to build a giant rock tower when Dash asked him to earlier today. “There's only one other way Spike is gonna fulfill the debt he feels he owes you,” Twilight starts with a devilish grin emerging from the corners of her mouth. The princess of the night wakes up with her hooves clutching her ears shut. “Arg! What is that horrible noise‽” Luna Interrobangs. Wow. Two in one day. Kinda makes you want to look up what it is. ‘Tis the sound of chaos magic. Tralalalala-lala-lala. T’is can only mean one thing: Discord is back! Nananana. Celestia will need my help. Lalala-lalala-lalala. Sorry I couldn’t help myself. Ignore my singing. Luna quickly gets up and puts on her breastplate and shoes. She runs down the hall to where Celestia is holding Day Court. Egads! T’is be more crowded that seven Night Courts combined. And she was right. If you were to count the amount of ponies that went to Night Court and compared it to how many ponies are in Celestia’s Day Court, you would find that there are 7 to 8 times more ponies now. Either being an Alicorn enhances your counting skills or Luna had a lucky guess. Luna uses mind speak to get Celestia’s attention without bothering the petitioning ponies. It is super effective. What is it sister? Celestia think-asks. Discord is escaping! We heard him use his chaotic magic. It sounded like a “Come to Life” spell. He is turning inanimate objects into warriors again! What are you saying? Use your nose next time; it was only our chaos ponies. Do not worry; today was designed for them to let loose. Besides magic travels at a fourth of the speed of sound and taking into consideration the distance between here and Ponyville, it means it was more than 15 degrees of sun ago. Could thou not say an hour? Ignoring Luna, Celestia continues. Besides I know they need it. It must be difficult to keep your eyes open for your whole life. Luckily, they can relax in their hut. Either way, I ramble; I sent Twilight enough books to stay focused while they have fun in the Everfree. Oh, thou hath planned the whole day? Okay we shall be back in bed if thy needs us. “Ms. Sweet we found your brother,” the blue fairy whispers into Bitter Sweet’s ear. “Please, my friends call me Bitty,” Bitter Sweet replies modestly. “Just show me where. Zecora, stay back, his eyes are likely closed.” “You know what is best; I will try not to be a pest,” Zecora rhymes. Guided by the fairies, Bitter Sweet finds a small clearing. It was obviously not a clearing before Solar Nuul landed because everything is smoking with his magical touch. Unexpectedly, a bolt of yellow-green lightning strikes a tree and it turns into a zap apple tree. “Hmm. Usually subconscious chaos does something bad,” Bitty thinks aloud. “What’s so bad about a zap apple tree?” As if the tree heard her, it attacked her and her newfound fairy friends with a bolt of blue electricity. Luckily, Bitter Sweet, being the go-to-gal for elemental magic, knew what to do with electricity. Obviously, electric types have a weakness for ground type attacks. She taps the ground softly and rose vines wrap around the zap apple tree, rendering it harmless, except for the thorns that now cover the tree. “Wow! Fire and ground magic,” the tiny pegasi squeal. Now, if they were a lighter blue, I would say they are Rainbow Dash talking about the Wonderbolts. “Ah, sheesh t’anks,” Bitter Sweet blushes. “Now let me wake my brother up before something else happens.” After a Timberwolf-chop-busting-filled day, AJ and Spike run towards the rest of the mane 6. “What happened to you guys back there,” Twilight asks. “I thought you were right behind us.” “My hoof was stuck,” Applejack says lifting her back hoof, “and that Timberwolf was coming right at me!” “Wait,” Rarity interrupts, “you were actually stuck?” “But Spike picked up a pebble,” AJ said, “and rocketed that thing right at the huge Timberwolf's mouth, and saved my life!” “Aw,” Spike replied to the slightly exaggerated story, “it was nothing.” “It was somethin' alright!” Applejack rebuts, “Course, I wouldn't've needed help if I hadn't been tryin' to stage a fake Timberwolf attack in the first place.” “Yeah, what was that all about?” Spike says crossing his arms and staring at AJ’s soul with his eyes of blazing inferno. Applejack sighs, “I know this code thing's important to you, but if somethin' like this comes up in the future, think maybe we can go back to my code, say ‘that's what friends do’ and leave it at that? I promise I won't think of you as any less noble.” “Sounds good to me,” Spike concurs. “But, maybe let's just try to avoid situations where one of us actually needs the other one to save their life?” “You got yourself a deal.” AJ says while giving Spike a bro-hoof. “Well today was a quite the stressful day, lets hope my mane hasn’t turned more gray,” Zecora rhymes to herself. She is back in her hut after a day of the twin’s arguing and chaotic magic. The blue fairy princess finds her way into Zecora’s hut. “Thank you for your help my friend, but you did not need to go to such ends,” Zecora tells her. “It is fine, Zecora,” the fairy responds. “We can see that the orange pegasus is as trust-worthy as you.” “I hope you are right, even if Celestia trusts them does not mean they are not dangerous.” Hey Zecora didn’t rhyme that time. It looks like Sol has won that battle. “There are too fairies in the Everfree!” Bitter Sweet yells at her brother. “There aren’t! They are just a urban legend!” Solar Nuul fights back. “How are you going to deny the existence of something that helped find you?” “You and Zecora did that on your own!” “WE…HAD…HELP!!” Bitter Sweet says smoke coming out of her ears. “Woah, calm down, you’re smoking like a train,” Sol says to make Bitty chillax a bit. “Take a couple deep breaths. Close your eyes if you want; you can in the hut.” “I remember; how else do you think we sleep? With our eyes open?” Bitty says looking up to the narrator. Hey wait, that’s me, she’s not allowed to look at me! “Ah-ha! I knew it! You did notice that voice talking before!” Sol proclaims as he won the battle of getting his sister to notice the narrator. If I am the one narrating, why am I calling myself the narrator? What if there is another narrator? Ugh, Confound these ponies; they drive me to drink. Says the narrator grabbing a cup filled with with hot sauce. “Nuh-uh! I didn’t hear anything I just looked up to…um…fix that loose straw in the roof,” Bitty says sitting down to clap her hooves and fix said straw roof. “Riiiight,” Sol says with a wink. “Whatever you say.” > 3: Lord of Chaos > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s a lazy morning in Ponyville; it is also not shimmering, mostly because Celestia hasn’t made the sun rise yet. Well, right now, I can't say what it is in Ponyville because I am in a hut in the Everfree. From the enchanted straw ceiling that reflects the sky in real time, I can say with confidence I am in the chaos ponies’ hut. Was the ceiling always like that? Bitter Sweet wakes up to meditate under the rising sun. At this point, she has 45 minutes before that occurs, giving her plenty of time to complete her pre-morning rituals. She has done this plenty of times so she does the whole process of combing her hair, brushing her teeth, and preparing a light pre-breakfast with her orange magic. Actually having her eyes closed expedites the process since she has access to her subconscious reserves of energy. She finally opens her eyes to take the first bite of one of her homegrown apples, they would be sweeter than Sweet Apple Acres’ but the Everfree forest doesn’t really allow for edible plant growing (usually). If it were not for Bitty’s skills in natural magic, the apple seeds would grow into kumquats (not that there is anything wrong with kumquats). She lets her brother, Solar Nuul, sleep for some more time. As much as she would love to bounce on his bed and disturb his sleep cycle, or jump into his dream and annoy the buck out of him, he needs his sleep for whatever he’s planning to do with that mystery potion he’s been making recently. Even she knows not to mess with explosive chemicals, too bad her brother isn’t sensible enough to know logical things. With a final look at the snoozing Sol, she inhales to take in the angle of the sun to find out the time she has left. She might not be able to move the sun or the moon but she can sense where it is in the sky as accurately as a pegasus can predict the weather patterns necessary for balance. Well, she’s in pegasus form so she can do that too. “10 minutes to get to the clearing,” Bitty says to herself. “I can get there in time.” With that, she opens the hut’s door and walks outside. If she were more into abstract magic, like Sol, she would teleport, but being a pegasus comes with its advantages. She spreads her wings and takes off slowly, at first, to clear the tree canopy. Once she is in the air, she zooms to the clearing she goes to every morning since her arrival in the forest to meditate. “With all due respect, Princess Celestia,” Twilight says calmly before starting to use the Royal Canterlot Voice she perfected from hearing Luna use it on Nightmare Night, “HOW COULD YOU BRING DISCORD HERE?” (It’s all in the diaphragm). Then she returns her voice back to calm and adds a bow, “Your majesty.” “I'm fully aware that the last time Discord was here, he created serious havoc,” starts to explain Celestia. Rainbow Dash then takes control of the conversation between her princess and her friend, “If by ‘serious havoc’, you mean ‘turning Ponyville into the chaos capital of the world’…” “...and tricking us all into being the opposite of our true selves...” Rarity adds. “…And…making yummy delicious chocolate milk rain all over the place without a single dollop of whipped cream to go with it anywhere in sight!” adds Pinkie Pie. “Not a single dollop!” “Yes, I understand,” Celestia says in her number 2 tender voice (no need to make them melt into her control just yet). “But I have use for Discord's magic if it can be reformed to serve good instead of evil. This is why I've brought Discord here, because I believe that you are the ponies who can help him do just that.” Little baby Spike, having less vision and foresight than even the main characters of this story (obviously I mean Bitty and Sol) starts to flip out. “This will never work! This is a disaster! How will we ever control him‽ We're doomed!” Celestia, having more foresight than most would credit her, has already planned the rebuttal, “Need I remind you that you are the ponies who turned him back into stone like this in the first place?” Soon, with her prepared logic, wits, kindness, and assertiveness, she gets all those present to agree with her. Now she only needs to find Applejack and Fluttershy. Mostly Fluttershy since her kindness is the only pony that can rival her own. With that kindness, she can tame the beast that is Discord. Bitty returns to her Unplottable hut, Sol did the spell. No pony else knows how you can force an area in space to become unplottable on a map. Not even the best unicorns. Maybe Celestia told him how. Not that she cares about that kind of magic anyway. Sol has already started the breakfast of haycon, blueberry muffins, and strawberry milkshakes. Actually, he was done a couple minutes ago, since he knew when Bitty would return. “So did your milkshakes bring anypony to the yard?” Bitty asks her brother for the third time this month (she makes sure to say it once a week). “No,” responds Sol. “Not unless you count you. Even if there wasn’t a repulsive spell or if this place wasn’t unplottable or if this place wasn’t designed to absorb magic or…” “Okay!” Bitty interrupts. “Fine I get it. You don’t have to do that every time I say the joke.” “Well unless you stop saying it, I won’t stop explaining why it is not possible for my milkshakes to bring ponies to the yard…a yard we don’t even own.” This is going to be a long day thinks Bitter Sweet. She still has no clue what is waiting for them today. “I realize that this is a tall order, but I wouldn't ask if I weren't confident you could get him to use magic obediently of his own free will,” Celestia tells Fluttershy, making sure to step up her kind voice to level 1.5. Usually Celestia would only need to use level 2 or 3 but Fluttershy is impervious to kindness since she represents that element. She would never go to level 0 though. That would kill most immortals in an “hnng” attack. Luckily, she has Fluttershy to deliver non-lethal doses of kindness to Discord. “And…you really think I'll know best how to do that?” Fluttershy enquires, subconsciously resisting Celestia’s charm. Celestia initiates physical contact to increase the potency of her glare and says, “I do.” After she sees Fluttershy cheeks turn pink like her mane, she removes her hoof and starts to away, “Now, I must return to Canterlot for Equestria's royal summit. You may release Discord when ready.” Celestia gets into the carriage that she came in; the four guards flying her back to Canterlot feeling glad that they aren’t carrying the weight of the stone lord of chaos anymore (even though that happiness would never be allowed to pass their mask of apathy). “Actually,” Celestia tells the four flying guards, “We need to go to the Everfree forest first.” Dubious at first, the four guards look at each other with impassively expressive stares. It is like their faces never change but they can discern each other’s emotions. Must be some military training. Of course, they cannot go against the stronger half of the Diarchy of Equestria without being court martialed and exiled on the spot, so they change course to the Everfree forest. Neither Twilight nor the rest of the mane six notice this change in course because they are busy freeing Discord in a flash of rainbow magic. “So whatcha doing there,” Bitty finally asks Sol after he busted out his chemistry kit from a briefcase (which I still think shouldn’t have a chemistry kit inside). “I am making a potion,” Sol states matter-of-factly. “Well obviously,” Bitty remarks rolling her eyes. “I want to know what it is for.” “I can't tell you yet it is a surprise for Twilight when I finally meet her.” “Oh no.” Bitty says face palming with her eyes open. “Don’t tell me you are still planning her cold and precise execution.” “No, it is not a death potion. Actually, a draught of living death is many times easier than this thing. For that, all I would need is asphodel, sloth brain, sopophorous beans, valerian root, and wormwood.” “So…what is this?” “Like I said, it’s a surprise.” “It’s a surprise for Twilight, not me. Come on, you can tell me.” Suddenly, a wild knock appears to go through the air particles in the room at the speed of sound. Then, some make it to the twin ponies’ twin ears. “What‽” Solar Nuul Interrobangs. “That is impossible, no pony should be able to find this place except the residents, a.k.a. us two.” “Maybe you did one of the spells wrong?” Bitter Sweet questions. “No the spell was flawless.” He puts his hooves up to stroke his non-existent beard. “There is only one way to solve this,” Bitty says standing to open the door. “Wait I knew it,” Sol says with a stomp of his fore-hooves on the hut’s earthen ground. Bitty is levitated in a strong yellowhite aura, and to add salt in the metaphorical wound Sol levitated her upside down. “Hey what’s the big deal!” Bitty exclaims. “Like I said before, only two ponies can walk up to the hut,” Sol starts. “Obviously I am me, so that means the real Bitty’s outside which means you must be somepony else.” “Look, that doesn't even make sense. If I am not Bitter Sweet, then how am I inside the hut? Just put me down, I’m not going to get mad. Can you just open the door, and see if it is me out there?” “If it is the real Bitty out there, she will take great pride in destroying you with her bare hooves. Mostly because you ate her breakfast.” Keeping his grasp on the obvious changeling or extremely well disguised pegasus, he went to open the door to the real Bitter Sweet. It came to a great surprise that it was his and his sister’s mentor, Celestia, at the door. It was such a surprise that he dropped Bitty. She would have hit her head on the floor but she can fly extremely gracefully. Landing on her feet, she gives a short bow. Solar Nuul gives an exaggerated bow, mostly to show remorse for not opening the door sooner; it must be difficult for Celestia to just be standing outside the door with the strong repulsive spell-work on the surrounding area around the hut. “Good morning, my little ponies,” Celestia says in her regal voice. “Celestia what are you doing here?” Sol asks suspiciously. “Good morning, princess,” Bitter Sweet gleams trying to balance out the negative energy Sol is giving off. “Just wanted to know if you wanted to come to Canterlot, just for today of course,” Celestia says using her kindness on Sol mostly because she knew Bitty would jump at the opportunity to go back to Canterlot. “Hmm, that would be great,” Sol says. “I need some ingredients from Canterlot.” “Can we not, Celestia,” groans Bitty, “I need to stay near my plants to keep them thriving in the harsh Everfree.” Hmm. That was unexpected. thinks Celestia. To you maybe, Celestia. If you were keeping a better eye on the twins, you would be able to tell that the Everfree changed them in the months they have been here. True, Mr. narrator, but I cannot be in two places at once. And if I am to know your physical restrictions well enough, you cannot do that either. Wait Celestia can hear me too. What is the point of being a narrator, if the ponies I am narrating for can hear my narration? “Well somepony needs to tell the story to the readers.” Sol says. Okay this isn’t fun anymore. Why are ponies able to do this? I’m just going to skip ahead. Soon Sol and Celestia convince Bitter Sweet to go to Canterlot. Bitter Sweet walks around Canterlot (Celestia didn’t need them to stay with her at the royal summit) and Sol sits in the library with the chemicals he oh so loves. Lets follow Bitter Sweet since she is doing something more entertaining. I'm kind of hungry. Hmm. I wonder what Tia has in store for us today. And what the buck is Sol doing. I'm not going to bother him either way. I wonder what Loony is doing? Oooh… “Hello Donut Joe; Are you closing?” “Oh, Hullo! Long time since we seen each other last. But no, not closing yet, I have to run a quick errand. If it you want, you can stay and watch the store. Shouldn’ be too hard.” “I better wait, I'm not to good counting change; I have clumsy hooves.” “Well then, just sweep up or cook some donuts; I’ll lock up so nopony’ll disturbs you until I come back.” “All right then. How long will you take?” “About half an hour. If you need anything just press the big blue button next to the sink.” “ Alright I’ll take care of all your babies! Bye!...BYE!” I seriously hope Bitter Sweet knows what she is doing because this narrator doesn’t think she does. Also why does Donut Joe trust her in his shop all alone. Maybe she is the Pinkie Pie of donuts? > 4: No Smoking in the Library > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Celestia slowly massages her temples as she listens to the global representatives bicker. At least she can relax a bit since Summit is held in the Royal Garden. The blooming flowers can relax anypony, which is the main reason it’s held there in the first place. I doubt the characters here will be important but I’ll see whom I can describe for you. “Well, how do you account for the amount of threats that Equestria produces? How can the Griffins be assured that the renewal of this treaty is best, if you continually make power-hungry monsters?” the intimidatingly large griffin questions, mostly towards Celestia’s Pegasus General, Storm Breeze. “We’ve always dealt with those problems in a quick and efficient manner,” Storm Breeze retorts, trying to bring down the hardheaded griffin. “Yes, of course, quick and efficient,” the draconian representative adds. “Did Discord not last 3 days ruling the home of your precious Elements of Harmony? Did he not use Ponyville as a hub for chaos around the whole of…” “You were barely affected by that,” interrupts a unicorn from one of the highest family houses. “If you do not want us to continue protecting you under the treaty, we could let you handle the next ‘threat,’ as commander Hilda here so elegantly put it.” “Yes, Celestia runs a fine domain,” a crystal pony states. “She helped us go against Sombra when we were too afraid to even try to remember.” Now all start arguing over each other (well except Celestia and the crystal pony). Shouting about Discord and Sombra and rumors that Celestia is hogging the sun for her queendom. “ENOUGH!” Celestia Royal Canterlot invoices. “It is not up to us to demand that Hilda of Griffonia and Grimoire of Ashland reinstate the treaty every year. This is but a formality to ensure both parties want to extend to benefits shared through alliance. If they want to leave the alliance, it does not necessarily mean war; it merely entails a separation.” “Um, Princess,” a quiet earth pony sitting across from Celestia in the Summit Council barely says, “is the library supposed to be smoking?” Everypony looks behind the Monarch of the Day and sees that the library was indeed on fire. Earlier. Solar Nuul nearly completes the (not-so-secret) secret potion. “Now just a bit more Amomum Zingiber,” Sol says to himself while adding ginger to the green beaker thus turning it more to a yellow hue. “I already added the Powdered Moonstone Luna gave me and I added Vitamin M and F ages ago,” Sol thinks aloud. “Now where did I put that Jobberknoll feather,” Sol ponders as he looks through the suitcase that he uses to store his potions. “If I had the Jobberknoll feather, I could easily make a potion to help me remember where I put the darn thing.” “Ah, there it is,” Sol exclaims, putting the Jobberknoll feather near the base of the beaker, in other words, inside the flames of the Bunsen burner. “Perfect crispfection,” he says adding some of the ash to the near-bubbling beaker. The ashes turn the chemicals to turn into a sunburnt orange. “Now for the final ingredient. After weeks of making this thing, I will finally be done with it.” He holds the test tube filled with red fluid in his magic. “Some juice from Punica Granatum for strength.” The pomegranate blends with the orange concoction. The red, however, overpowers the blend and starts to bubble furiously. “I should have left the seeds in,” Sol says already accepting his permanent fate. He was almost certain that the furious bubbling meant an explosion, but it was seemingly bidding its time. The bubbling continues for some time but then the liquid calms down and its color changes into the light shade of sky purple of when it snows during a full moon. “That’s not right! It should be pink, not purple!” The beaker must’ve heard him because, out of spite, its color rapidly changes to black-sky-with-no-moon…oh yeah and it explodes. Bitter Sweet is expertly making donuts for Donut Joe. She has her magic working for her in an assembly line. Part of her magic mixes all the ingredients, other parts are kneading the dough, more are getting the dough that has risen and separating it into donut shapes, and a fourth part of her magic is used to take the donuts and fry them. She uses her hooves only to flip the donuts and apply the glaze, which is impressive considering she has to clap her hoofs every other second to get a continuous flow of magic. She is making good time, too, until as shiver runs up her spine and everything drops from lack of concentration. Luckily, she didn’t sneeze from the flour in the now in the air. If she did, it would cause more chaos on top of the mess she would need to clean up. Wait, it is not cold in here, and when I shiver it is usually from cold or… “Sol is in trouble!” Bitter Sweet exclaims running out of the donut shop. “It would be funny if I had to rescue him from some changelings again,” Bitty giggles as she exits Joe’s shop to see if the castle was being invaded again. “No,” she reprimands herself. “It is not time to make jokes, this could be serious.” And it’s obviously serious since there is smoke coming from the castle. “I can't really tell what room that is,” Bitty says squinting her eyes, being careful not to completely close them, “but I would bet anything to say that Sol is the cause of it.” “I’m not going to bet against you, if you are looking for bidders,” Donut Joe says appearing behind Bitty. “Where did you come from?” Bitter Sweet says out of habit but not truly surprised of Donut Joe’s sneaky spy powers. “I’m done with my errands, you can go save your brother.” “I’ll get right to that,” Bitty says raising her forehooves above her head. “You might want to stand back, I’m going to need to teleport and Celestia knows I’m not good at that,” she tells Joe whist standing on her back hooves. She somehow remembered that he is in the library making that potion…She also instantly noticed that if she flies there, it might be too late. She stomps her front hooves on the ground after Joe goes into his shop. Cracks appear around her similar to when we saw Sol turn into a Pegasus, but the cracks are a light orange instead of light yellow like Sol’s magic. Soon Bitter Sweet enters the sub-dimension between the three spacial dimensions. The black nothingness of the null-space devours the reality around her. She always hated how cold the space is, but she does like the silence. It always reminds her of the lazy mornings watching the sun rise. The bone-numbing cold seeps into her wings and legs, because null-space is not exactly like the sunrise. There was no sound except the beating of her heart, not even the small noises that seem to be in the air even when it was silent. This was just pure silence…and cold. Then, in a rush of heat and sound and light, reality returns. When she opened her eyes from the blinding light, she remembered she isn’t supposed to close her eyes. She looks around the smoking library to see what chaos she made happen this time. Nothing seems out of the ordinary other than Sol with a yellow shield trying to put the fire out with his ineffective non-physical magic. If only he paid more attention to his elemental magic teachers. SMH. Bitter Sweet knows just what to do. A water spell would be most effective, however libraries and water don’t really mix, so she quickly runs to open a window. “Bitty! Help put this fire out,” Sol begs. “This is why you need to pay more respect to the elements,” Bitty condescends. Bitty stomps on the floor next to the window and a golden sigil appears under her hoof. She then takes the runes out of the sigil and starts tossing them around the room. Sol opens his mouth to ask what she is doing. It is not everyone that takes runes out of a sigil. Usually someone makes runes to put into sigils. But just as he is about to say something, she stomps on the now empty sigil and isolated wind gusts from the runes all around the room snuff out the flames. “That was very impressive, sis,” Sol remarks. “Thanks,” Bitter Sweet blushes. “I’ve been perfecting my wind signs recently.” “If it wasn’t for you,” Sol says his eyes getting as wide as a baby dragon saved from Timberwolves by a orange earth pony, “I would have continued trying to smother the fire with the shield spell.” “Yeah I’m not going to bother telling you that was not effective,” Bitty states shaking her head. Suddenly a wild platoon of golden armor enters the room. “Who goes there‽” asks the middle guard who is also a unicorn. Silence. “It seems like the perpetrators have vacated the premises,” the earth pony guard states. “Then who put the fire out?” the pegasus guard queries. “The window is open,” middle guard reasons. “The wind must have knocked the fire out.” “Shouldn’t we search the room?” questions the earth pony. Instead of responding, the three split up and start combing the room for anypony left straggling about. Or perhaps survivors of the fire. You can't tell the motives of these guards sometimes. A flash of white discordant magic turns Sweet Apple Acres into a skating rink. “Discord!” Fluttershy yells bull air coming out of her nostrils. “That's not fixing it! Why, I oughta...” But before she can finish she slips pass Discord on the ice. “Where are you going?” Discord asks nonchalantly. “What's wrong, pal?” “Don't call me your pal!” “Oh, pfft,” says the lord of chaos wrapping around Fluttershy and magicking a set of skates, “come skating with me, and we'll let bygones be bygones.” Baby Spike gracefully skates over to Fluttershy with the element of harmony. “Here you go, Fluttershy! Game on!” “He fixes this or he goes back to being stone!” Twilight says from the safety of solid ground. “Princess Celestia will understand!” In the 6 seconds it takes Fluttershy to make up her mind, she looks back and forth between the ice skates and the helement. “I made a promise not to use my element against him, and I'm going to keep it.” She says taking the ice skates in her mouth. The mane 5, still on solid land, gasp and groan at the stubbornness of their yellow friend. “Hahah! You see?” Discord says appearing above Fluttershy. “She wants to have fun with me because we're friends. She can't use the elements against me because we're friends.” “I'm free forever!” he laughs. Fluttershy growls like the bear that she takes care of. “Not…Your…Friend!” she yells throwing the set of skates onto the ice and walking away. “Who cares?” Discord remarks. “I can do whatever I want, whenever I want.” “I'm Discord, the master of chaos!” he says appearing next to the ambulating pegasus. “You think you can boss Discord around? You think I'm just going to turn all this back because you say so? Because if I don't, I'll lose the one friend I ever had?” The word friend makes Discord have a sudden realization of the friendship he would be losing if he were to make Fluttershy mad. The words dug deeper when he saw the set of lonely skates on the ice. “Oh. Well played, Fluttershy. Well played.” Discord says turning everything back to the way it was by closing his eyes and joining his hands, instead of the regular snap of the fingers that he does. “I liked it better my way, but...” Discord admits, realizing the words he must say. “I guess when you're friends, you can't always have things exactly your way all the time?” Under the cover of a modified camouflage spell, two chaos twins hide. “Thank Sol,” Bitty whispers. “No problem,” Sol responds, “Can't let the guards find the pony that saved my life.” “How did you make this invisibility cloak so quickly?” inquires Bitty. “I don’t want to bog you down into the delicacies of turning my shield spell into a camouflage spell and then into an invisibity spell.” “Riiight, don’t do that.” “Who goes there‽” the pegasus guard asks towards an empty space in the library. “Did you find someone?” the earth pony guard asks walking around one of the charred bookshelf. “I thought I heard some talking over here,” the pegasus answers. “What is with the conversing?” the unicorn reprimands. “You cannot expect me to allow you two rookies to bring me down.” “No sir,” both non-unicorn guards salute. “Are you sure you heard someone speaking?” the unicorn asks the pegasus. “Pegasus have very good hearing,” the guard responds. “We need to be able to talk to each other in the clouds don’t we.” “So, that means the culprits have magic,” the unicorn reasons. The earth pony scoff. “Leave it to some unicorns to burn down the library.” The unicorn gives the earth pony guard a stare of a million icicle daggers, and his horn starts to turn azure with his magic. “Hey,” the earth pony says starting to step back, “I didn’t mean anything by it.” With that, the room turns blue with a cascade of magic. When everything is visible again, everything looks different. The bookcases are floating, some books are disappearing and reappearing, and the guards are now walking on the roof. “What did you do?” The earth pony asks dumfounded. “I didn’t do anything,” the unicorn responds, “I just used the element of surprise to knock out any visual spells in the area. Either the bookcases were always like this or somepony did this in response to knocking out their camouflage.” “Looks like I found them,” the pegasus says pointing up to the floor at two ponies trying to leave out the library door. “Halt!” the earth pony guard shouts. The twin chaos ponies freeze in place. “Did you do this?” the unicorn questions. “It was more your fault than ours,” Bitty responds still stuck on the spot. “Yeah you made her blink,” Sol adds. “What does have to do with anything?” the pegasus asks flying towards the frozen earth pony and pegasus. “If you could un-halt us, we could show you,” Bitter Sweet responds. “Oh Kay? You can un-halt now?” the earth pony commands from up-down there. The two ponies un-freeze. “Thanks,” Sol says. “Now lets get you two down from up there.” With that, Sol taps the wall next to the door, countering the chaotic magic that Bitty accidently used when the unicorn knocked out the invisibility spell and made her blink. The books stop popping in and out of existence, the shelves go back to their proper order and the guards not already on the floor float down. “Earth ponies can do magic!” the earth pony guard asks incredulously. “No,” Sol responds, “Its more like we aren’t bound by the rules of this universe.” “So you are the ones responsible for the fire?” the unicorn accuses. Sol lowers his snout down in a sign of remorse. Unable to resist the charms that Celestia taught Sol, the unicorn guard feels bad for the earth pony who didn’t ask to be born magical. It might even remind him of when he was younger and his parents threw him into military school because he couldn’t control his own magic. “Well as long as you clean this mess up,” The unicorn says with a single manly tear running down his face much to the surprise of his companions. “Yes, Princess, I'm ready to use my magic for good instead of evil.” Discord tells Princess Celestia. But away from any prying ears he adds, “Most of the time.” Addressing everyone Celestia says, “Congratulations on your success, ponies. I definitely sense a big change in Discord.” On the down-low to Twilight, however, she adds, “I'll leave the Elements of Harmony with you, Twilight. Just in case.” With a nod from Twilight (and a surprised look from Discord), Twilight says, “You were right when you said Fluttershy would be the one to find the way to reform Discord. By treating Discord as a friend, she got him to realize that friendship was actually important to him. And something that, once he had, he didn't want to lose.” With the end of the speech of friendship Fluttershy says to Discord “Go on. Say it...” “Alright” Discord says with a groan, and quickly adds, “Friendship is magic.” “See? He can be a real sweetheart once you get to know him.” Fluttershy concludes. “I heard my little ponies did something impressive,” Celestia says walking into the library. “I’ve never heard of such a physical use of a wind sigil.” “Celestia!” both twins exclaim dropping the cleansing process. Sol teleports in front of the Princess and Bitty flies and both bow extremely low, but if it is possible, Sol bows lower. “So it is to my understanding that somepony was making a potion,” Celestia says looking at Solar Nuul. “Princess, I am extremely sorry about the damages,” Solar Nuul pleads. “I can restore the books if you need me to.” “Do not worry, there are unicorns that can do time spells here,” Celestia assures. “So punishment-wise, what is going to happen to Sol?” Bitty asks excitedly. “No, other than to finish cleaning the soot, no punishment,” Celestia says, much to Sol’s relief and Bitty’s dismay. “I just want some of that potion you made.” “I don’t want to sound rude,” Sol starts. “Since when are you not rude to Celestia,” interrupts Bitter Sweet. “Like I said, I don’t want to be rude, but the potion is broken,” Sol says. “It exploded!” “Looks like you need to look at your little project again,” Celestia says pointing towards the table Solar Nuul was working on earlier that day. On top of the table was a beaker filled to the brim with a pink liquid. “Wow,” Sol monosyllabically reacts. All three move towards the table. “So it seems Celestia knows what this potion is for,” Bitty says. “Can you finally tell me what it is?” “No can do, sis, still a surprise,” Sol answers. “Besides I highly doubt that Celestia knows what this is, I just finished inventing and perfecting it. ” “There is only one possible potion that would require an explosion before completion,” Celestia simply states, “and only one potion that would need both Moonstone and Jobberknoll feathers.” “How do know the ingredients?” both twins inquire simultaneously, Bitty because she wants to learn that skill and Sol because he thinks Celestia is spying on him. “From the ashes of the feather and the stains on the floor,” Celestia smugly replies. Identical dumb-founded expressions get plastered on the twins’ faces. “What? It is a very distinctive stain.”