Twilight's read stories about an ancient library deep in the Everfree Forest and sets out to find it
Twilight Sparkle has read about about what she believes may be an ancient library deep within the Everfree Forest called Ravenspire and, friends in tow, she heads out to find it. However what she finds inside this place is a creature, ancient beyond reckoning, desperately clinging to memories of a time long past when the kingdoms of Chaos ruled and all paid homage to the Ruinous Powers.
Added the human tag for way later. Like around the end, for like a thousand words.
Down voted by Commander Ponysun, so you know it's good!
It was a beautiful summer day in Equestria, Celestia's sun was high in the sky and there was barely a cloud to be seen. The citizens of the small rural town of Ponyville went merrily about their lives as they savored one of the last days they had before summer gave way to fall. Pegasi lounged in what few clouds there were, little fillies played games in the parks, mares and colts trotted through the streets going about their business. It was an all around perfect day in Ponyville. Unfortunately six fillies weren't around to enjoy it, their plans took them down a somewhat less enjoyable road.
"Remind me again why you're dragging us along with you." said Rainbow Dash as she and her friends made their way through the perpetual twilight of the Everfree Forest.
"Because the last time I tried to travel through here by myself a cockatrice turned me to stone." Twilight replied. "That's something I'd like to avoid going through again."
"You coulda just brought Fluttershy along with you if that's what you're scared of, she's the one with The Stare."
"Well nopony's forcing you to go with us, you can always fly back to Ponyville if you don't feel like joining us."
Rainbow Dash was about to respond when the howling of distant timber wolves cut her off.
"Ya know, on second thought, maybe I should stick around. Somepony's gotta make sure you guys are safe after all, hehe." she said rather unconvincingly while Twilight rolled her eyes and laughed.
"So what exactly is this place y'all seemed so darn interested in findin'?" Applejack inquired.
"It's a place I used to read about when I lived back in Canterlot called Ravenspire. It's a huge tower deep in the Everfree Forest that supposedly contains hundreds of books about ancient magic."
"If you wanted to go there so much how come you waited this long?" Pinkie Pie questioned as she hopped happily along.
"Well it was just so far from Canterlot, traveling that far would have interrupted my studies too much. But now that I live in Ponyville and we're right on the edge of the forest it was just a matter of time before I finally found the time to go find it."
"W-wait, d-did you say it was called R-r-ravenspire?" Fluttershy asked nervously.
"Yeah, have you heard of it?" Twilight asked.
"Twilight, darling, absolutely everypony in Ponyville knows about that horrid place. It's something of a local legend." Rarity explained.
"W-well because it's h-haunted!" Fluttershy squeaked out.
"Haunted? Please, there's no such thing as ghosts, Fluttershy." Twilight scoffed.
"You don't know that for sure, though. What if there are!" Fluttershy whimpered.
"Ghosts just aren't logical, though. There's never been any evidence to suggest that they really exist."
"Well ah guess we'll find out when we get there now, wont we." Applejack said.
"Bah, ghosts don't scare me! If they tried anything I'd show 'em who should be scared of who." Rainbow Dash boasted.
"So tell me, Twilight, however did you hear about Ravenspire all the way up in Canterlot?" Rarity asked.
"The Princess mentioned it to me during one of our lessons and it sounded interesting so I looked it up. It's actually a pretty interesting place." She explained.
"Oh yeah? What's so great about it? I'll bet it's something awesome like super amazing parties or maybe its got tons of candy!" Pinkie Pie said, still hopping enthusiastically along.
"Sorry Pinkie, I'm afraid that it's nothing like that." Twilight said. "Nopony knows what's in it for sure, but a lot of what I've read suggests that it might be some kind of ancient library. And when the Princess told me about it she said that it had been around for as long as she could remember, imagine what kind knowledge might be hidden away in such an old place!"
"Dang, as long as she can remember? But she's over a thousand years old! That place must be totally ancient if even she can't remember it not being around." Rainbow Dash commented.
"I know, I can't wait to get there and see what kind of books might be waiting!"
"Ya know Twi, ah hate to be a downer, but don't ya think that in a place that old any books mighta turned ta dust by now?" Applejack commented.
"You never know, it's possible that the books were enchanted to prevent damage from aging like books in Canterlot Library. The fact that the tower has been around this long without crumbling suggests that it's enchanted somehow." Twilight theorized.
"Well ya don't hafta wonder much longer, looks like we're here." Announced Rainbow Dash as the group emerged from the brush into a clearing.
Before the six ponies loomed the imposing figure of Ravenspire. It seemed to be carved out of a single titanic piece of black rock and it rose up into the sky for hundreds of feet, terminating at the top in a crude pair of wings that gave it its name. For a hundred feet in every direction nothing grew around the tower, as though the forest itself wanted nothing to do with it, and considering the forest they were in that was saying something.
"Okay, we found it, that sure was fun girls, we'll have to do it again sometime, but I think I hear Angel Bunny calling me. Coming Angel!" Fluttershy said as she made to bolt back towards Ponyville.
"Oh no you don't!" Rainbow said, chomping down on her tail and keeping her from leaving.
"B-b-b-but what if-" Fluttershy stammered out.
"Oh don't worry," Rainbow interrupted as she dragged Fluttershy by the tail, "nothing's gonna happen to you, especially with me here to protect everypony!"
"Well if there's nothing else then perhaps we can actually go inside." Twilight said trotting towards the tower.
After crossing the empty stretch of land separating them from the tower, they circled around it and came across a massive stone gate that evidently served as the front entrance.
"So how exactly are we s'posed to get inside?" Applejack questioned, eying the massive gate.
"Let me try a little something." Twilight said as she began channeling magic for a spell. She aimed her horn at the gate and let loose her spell. The spell struck the gate but, aside from quite a spectacular light show, there was no visible effect.
"So uh, is that all ya got there, sugar-cube?" asked Applejack.
"I don't understand, that should have opened it! There must be some kind of magic protecting the gate."
"Don't worry darling, I'm sure we'll think of another-" Rarity started, but was interrupted as the gate began to slowly and rather loudly grind open, startling the six ponies. Once they were open and the ponies had gotten over their shock, they started towards the entrance.
"I guess it just needed a moment to work through the old enchantments protecting the doors." Twilight ventured.
"Well whatever it is it looks like it worked." Rainbow stated.
Upon entering the doors they were faced with six separate stone stairways leading off to various parts of the tower which Twilight paused to consider. Rainbow Dash saw Twilight thinking this over and wasted no time expressing what was on her mind.
"No. No. We are not all going to split up in this dark, creepy tower."
"I didn't say-"
"You were thinking it, I know you were thinking it."
"Alright, well I guess we're not really in any kind of a hurry, we can search in pairs and search the other three directions later if that sounds better." Twilight suggested.
"That still sounds like a really bad idea." said Rainbow.
"Oh don't be silly Dashie, this is gonna be so much fun! We're like adventurers! Come on Rarity, let's go!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, grabbing hold of Rarity and dragging her up the nearest stairway.
"Well that just leaves two more pairs." Twilight said.
"I guess I'll take AJ with me, she's the only one of you that at least has a chance of keeping up." commented Rainbow.
"Well ah reckon that sounds like a challenge." Applejack said.
"That it is, AJ. Whoever finds Twilight some books first wins?" Rainbow suggested.
"You got yerself a bet, lil' missy!" yelled Applejack as she bolted up the stairs ahead of Rainbow Dash.
"Well it looks like that just leaves us Flutter... shy?" Twilight said looking around for the yellow mare. "Where'd you go, Fluttershy?"
"O-over h-here." Fluttershy squeaked from the dark corner she was cowering in.
"Well come on over here and we'll get searching." Twilight said, totally oblivious to the other mare's terror.
"If you say so, Twilight." She said, falling in behind Twilight as they began up one of the stairways.
The stairway proved to be much longer than it looked and eventually lead out into large, dark hallway.
"H-hey Twilight? Do you think maybe you could make us some light?" Fluttershy asked.
"Sure, just give me a second." Twilight said as she began to channel magic into her horn. In a few seconds she managed to cast an illumination spell and her horn began to glow. The illumination from her horn lit up the hallway they had emerged into, but something seemed amiss about it. The hallway was large, too large it seemed.
"Um, Twilight? This doesn't seem right, the tower didn't look nearly this big from the outside." Fluttershy said.
"You're right," the purple unicorn agreed, "this hallway alone looks like it's twice the width of the entire tower."
"Do you think maybe it's some kind of magic?" Fluttershy suggested as they started down it.
"Definitely, I've read about stuff like this, it's called 'compressed spatiality'. It's a really complicated kind of magic and requires the caster to be able to think in some really complex ways. I've seen examples of it back in the Canterlot Palace like in Princess Celestia's study, but never anything on this scale. If the entire tower is like this then it's possible that the inside of this tower might be as big Ponyville." explained Twilight.
The two ponies continued down the immense hallway peering through archways as they passed by, but not seeing much worth investigating. Eventually after what seemed like ages of walking, the two ponies came to the end of the hallway and were faced with another stone door.
"Stand back, Fluttershy. I'm gonna try my unlocking spell again and I'm not sure what kind of magic might be protecting this door."
"If you say so." Fluttershy said, backing away to a safe distance.
Twilight readied the spell she had used on the front gate and prepared to cast it again, but before she finished casting it the door swung open.
"Well that's weird." Twilight said, letting the magic dissipate.
"I t-t-told you, T-twilight. This p-place is h-h-haunted!" Fluttershy squeaked, terrified.
"I told you, Fluttershy, there's no such thing as ghosts. It's probably just the remnants of an old spell we activated."
"I-if you s-say so, Twilight." the frightened pegasus said.
The two walked through the door and even with Twilight's illumination spell they couldn't see the walls of the room. Twilight began to channel magic with which to supercharge her spell, but again the tower's magic beat her to it and rows of magically suspended torches lit themselves and bathed the room in light. What Twilight saw made her jaw drop.
It was a library, but like nothing she had ever seen before. The room went on for miles, with walls reaching up for hundreds of feet. But the sheer immensity of the room was not what enthralled her, rather it was what lined them. The walls were lined with books, standing book shelves formed a maze of knowledge, even the ceiling was one massive book shelf and was peppered with what looked like doors. If she was the type of pony to believe in heaven, this was what she would have believed it to look like.
There were even small booths dotting the room which, upon inspection, contained house sized rooms of yet more books and even more of the booths. Twilight's breath caught in her throat and her heart rate doubled at the prospect of what she was seeing, there were hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of books within this series of rooms. Her mind froze up trying to calculate the time it would take to read each of these books.
"Fluttershy, just look at this place! Compressed spatialities within compressed spatialities! This is magic unlike anything I've ever dreamed of! Whoever built this place had to have been some kind of genius!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Um, th-that's g-great T-twilight, b-but-." the yellow pegasus stuttered out.
"And just look at all these books!" she continued as she raced over to the nearest bookshelf and took down some books. "I've never seen any of these titles before 'The Ninth Canticle of Tzeentch', 'Machinations of the Deceiver', 'The Lords of Change', these must be absolutely ancient! I can't wait to read these!" she continued to rant.
"T-twilight, I r-really th-think y-you sh-should-" Fluttershy persisted, slowly backing up towards Twilight.
"Just imagine what could be learned from these! These books could show us what life used to be like before ponies settled in Eques-" Twilight was interrupted by a shadow blocking out the torchlight that was far too large to belong to her diminutive mare companion.
"Ah, visitors. It has been so very long since anyone interesting has visited my library. How may I be of assistance?"
Twilight slowly turned to face the speaker. What she saw was what seemed to be a very elderly raven. Dull black, and evidently moth-eaten, robes adorned with faded gold jewelry shrouded most of his body, but where his feathers were visible they were dull and graying. A pair of massive wings were folded upon his back which would have been quite impressive had they not been missing more than half of their feathers and what feathers remained were in desperate need of preening.
The staff he carried in his right hand was totally at odds with the rest of his appearance. The midnight blue shaft looked meticulously polished and was ringed with the most brilliant gold and studded with turquoise. At the top rested what appeared to be a stylized snake with a single large turquoise eye.
"Y-your... library?" Twilight managed to squeak out.
"Well seeing as I am currently the only resident of this tower, yes. I would say that this library is mine. I see you have 'The Ninth Canticle of Tzeentch' there." said the raven, motioning towards the book Twilight was holding suspended in the air with her magic, "I applaud your choice, it really is a classic. It happens to be my favorite book, as a matter of fact." he said conversationally.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know there was anypony living here, I would have asked permission if I had known!" Twilight stammered out, placing the book back where she found it.
She was about to continue with her apology but was interrupted by a soft chuckle from the raven.
"It is fine, young pony. All who desire knowledge are welcome within the walls of the Black Library."
"The Black Library? I thought this place was called Ravenspire." Twilight said, confused.
At this the raven chuckled again. "Is that what they're calling it these days? Ravenspire? I suppose it is a fitting name, I doubt anyone besides myself lives who still remembers the original name."
"What do you mean? What is this place? And who are you?" she asked, while the raven sat patiently listening to her rapid-fire line of questioning.
"Ah, yes," he said when she had finally run out of breath, "where are my manners? How rude of me to not introduce myself. I am Ar'Karaleth'Kar'Abosh, Lord of Change, the last of the Daemon Princes, and loyal disciple of the Great Changer, Tzeentch. You may call me Fate Weaver."
"Um, hello then, uh, Mr. Weaver. I'm-"
"Twilight Sparkle, yes, I do believe I've heard all about you. As well as your demure companion, Fluttershy, here. And the other four ponies who entered the tower with you, the pegasus, Rainbow Dash, the unicorn, Rarity, and the earth ponies Applejack and Pinkie Pie."
Twilight blinked in surprise. "How did you know that?"
Fate Weaver furrowed his brow in slight irritation at the question. "For the last decade, every time that brat Celestia came to visit me she simply would not stop talking about her "most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle" and her companions. Oh how her stories of love and tolerance just drive me up the wall."
"Celestia? As in the Princess? Princess Celestia comes here? Wait... brat? You can't call her a brat! She's the ruler of all of Equestria!" Twilight exclaimed, rushing to the defense of her mentor.
Fate Weaver just sighed and shook his head. "You are young, you've only known her for perhaps a decade and only ever as your ruler and teacher. I, however, have known her for much, much longer and as a peer rather than a superior. To me she is a naive, overly optimistic child."
Forgetting her intimidation of the elderly raven, Twilight rushed to defend her mentor from the judgment of this ignorant feather-head. "She's not a naive child! She's an amazing leader and the wisest pony in all of Equestria! She-"
She paused mid-rant when she realized that Weaver was counting backwards.
"Nine, eight, seven." he counted.
"Why are you counting?" Twilight asked, her previous animosity temporarily forgotten.
"Six, five, four."
"Um, Twilight?" Fluttershy said, finally having overcome the terror Weaver instilled in her. "I think I hear something."
"Three, two."
And sure enough there was something, was that... shouting?
"One, and enter stage left." Weaver said, pointing off to one of the booths on the right, the door of which immediately burst open as Rainbow Dash and Applejack tumbled through it, shouting at each other.
"I found it first!"
"Are ya blind? Ah got through that there door first n' you know it!"
"And stage right." Weaver continued, pointing off to the upper left as Pinkie Pie and Rarity tumbled through one of the ceiling doors.
"Wheeeeeeee!" Pinkie Pie squealed as they sailed through the air while Rarity clung to Pinkie for dear life, screeching at the top of her lungs.
With a gesture of his hand Weaver conjured a mattress under the two plummeting ponies so they could land safely, whereupon Rainbow Dash and Applejack promptly collided with them. The four ponies were then unceremoniously deposited on the floor before Twilight.
"And so arrive the last of our guests." Weaver said. "Just as planned."
"Ugh, what th' hay just happened?" Applejack groaned.
"Rarity? I think we're safe now, silly." Pinkie Pie giggled as it became apparent Rarity wasn't slackening her screaming death grip on her. Rarity tentatively opened one of her eyes and, upon realizing she was no longer plummeting towards certain doom, rapidly disentangled herself from Pinkie.
"Oh boy, am I glad to see you girls again!" Twilight said.
"There you are Twilight!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, "So I totally found you a ton of books!" the declaration earning her a dirty look from Applejack.
"I don't think we need to worry about books at this point." Twilight said, indicating the room Rainbow seemed to not have noticed.
"What do you... oh." Rainbow said as she finally took notice of the amount of literature surrounding them.
They were all interrupted by a polite cough. "Well, Miss Sparkle, aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"
The four ponies finally took notice of the avian librarian waiting patiently a short distance behind Twilight.
"Woah, who's the feather-head?" Rainbow asked, eloquent as always.
"Hi there, Mister Feather-Face! I'm Pinkie Pie, it's a pleasure to meet you, do you wanna be friends?" Pinkie chirped happily.
"Good gracious! What is that travesty you're wearing?" Rarity exclaimed, aghast at Weaver's apparel.
Twilight cleared her throat to get everypony's attention. "Girls, allow me to introduce Ar'Kala... err, Al'Kara... um... Fate Weaver. He lives here in Raven- err, The Black Library."
"Welcome to the Black Library, all. So glad you could join me today. I was starting to wonder if you'd ever get here." Weaver said.
"Hang on now, d'you mean ta say y'all were expectin' us?" Applejack questioned.
"Of course, Miss Applejack." Weaver said, "I've been expecting you for some time. It was only a mater of time before Miss Sparkle's curiosity finally got the best of her and she came in search of my tower."
"But how did you know I was curious about this place?" Twilight asked.
"The last time she visited me, Celestia told me you had been asking questions about the tower and that I should be expecting a visit from you and your friends sometime soon." he explained.
"Hang on a minute." Rainbow interrupted, "You mean the Princess visits you?"
"She does indeed." Weaver confirmed, "She's been visiting me for ages now. One might call us friends if she didn't annoy me so much."
"Oh come now, Weaver. Surely after all this time you must have warmed up to me at least a little." came a teasing voice from behind.
"Celestia, so good of you to join us, your student was just introducing me to her lovely friends." Weaver drawled.
Twilight was shocked, Celestia was here? She hadn't prepared for a meeting with her at all! Surely this had to be some kind of trick. But sure enough, stepping out from within the maze of books was indeed the ruler of Equestria herself causing all present, sans Weaver, to drop to their knees in respect.
"Princess! What are you doing here?" Twilight exclaimed.
"Hello, my little ponies." Celestia greeted them. "I just thought I'd stop by to visit my old friend, Weaver. This is a surprise, I wasn't expecting that I'd run into you here for a while."
"So yer really friends with 'im? He keeps insistin' that yer not." Applejack said.
"Oh don't listen to him, he's just a grumpy old bird in need of a few friends. If I didn't visit him regularly he'd just sit here with nopony for company but his books." she went on.
"And by the Great Schemer I'd be grateful for it." Weaver quipped, inciting a giggle from Celestia.
"Oh come now, Weaver. I happen to know you love my company." she said, playfully bumping him as she came along side him. "Why else would you go to the trouble of looking so nice when I come to visit you?"
"My dearest princess," Rarity began, "I'm not sure if you're seeing the same thing we are - he is a multitude of things, to be sure, but good looking simply is not one of them."
"Ah, once again I neglect my manners, I've yet to change out of my lounging attire." Weaver lifted his staff and banged it against the floor and with a crackling magical discharge he was enveloped in a writhing violet energy. Once the energy dissipated and the ponies were able to see again they gasped at what they saw.
Gone was the old Weaver, hunched under the weight of countless ages. In his place stood a proud young raven clad in a magnificent robe of the deepest blue, with glossy feathers the color of midnight. His wings were stretched to their full span and were once again fully covered in feathers. His robe was adorned with golden ornaments, he wore gleaming bracers studded with nine sapphires each, and a golden crown embedded with a single sapphire carved in the likeness of a staring eye.
"Ah, much better." he said in a rejuvenated, youthful voice.
"Much better, indeed." Celestia agreed, playfully bumping him again. "I'll never understand why you insist on reverting to an ancient chicken the instant I leave."
"Petulant child." muttered the now youthful raven. Celestia simply responded by sticking her tongue out at him.
Twilight was puzzled by informal and decidedly unprincess-like behavior which Celestia was currently engaged in. She was acting like a school filly around a crush... or a student playfully harassing an old teacher.
Twilight's eyes went wide.
"Um, princess? Exactly how long have you known Weaver?"
"Well I couldn't tell you exactly, it's been too long to keep track of, but I've known Weaver here for almost my entire life."
"Your entire life?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, "So this bird-brain is almost as old as you are?"
"Oh heavens, no." Celestia said, "He's far older than I am. Weaver here was ancient even when Luna and I met him first."
The six ponies felt their jaws drop at Celestia's statement. He was that much older than the princesses? It was an almost inconceivable notion to the ponies.
"Just how old are you? Where did you come from?" Twilight asked in awe.
Celestia sighed at her student's question. "Luna and I have been trying to get him to tell us that story for as long as we've known him, but he seems to take some kind of enjoyment in keeping us in the dark. I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you."
"Just because I'm sure it will irritate you to no end, I think I'll tell them." Weaver said, smirking. "Little ponies, I was ancient before Equestria was young. I am roughly ten thousand years old. As to where I am from, I'm from the Inevitable City."
The six ponies gasped, even Celestia looked taken aback by his revelation.
"Oh wow! You must have had more parties than anyone else ever!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Ten thousand years?" Twilight asked in disbelief. "So... that means you're even older than Equestria. What was it like before the land was settled?"
Weaver laughed at her question. "Miss Sparkle, do you truly believe that Equestria is the first kingdom to rule these lands?"
"What do you mean? There were others?" she asked.
"Of course. Long before the settling of this land by the ponies, this land was ruled by the Four Kingdoms of Chaos. I daresay it was quite a different place from this land of peace and tolerance. We had no singular ruler, instead we were ruled by The Ruinous Powers. They were the four Gods of Chaos who ruled from their kingdoms in The Warp, an immaterial plane that exists parallel to ours from where we drew our great power.
"First and oldest of the gods was the War God, Khorne. He was the god of conflict, martial prowess, honor, and competition."
At this Rainbow Dash and Applejack both perked up.
"Of his subjects he demanded that they be strong, honest, loyal, competitive, and above all, that they win."
Rainbow Dash and Applejack were totally enthralled by this point.
"His kingdom was the largest and boasted the most powerful military in the entire world. The capital of his kingdom was a city called Citadel that was host to great games where the world's greatest warriors and athletes came to compete with one another for honor, glory, and the favor of their god.
"While the kingdom was united in its dedication to Khorne, it was directly ruled by his personal champion whom he chose from the best of the best of his subjects. His champion became his avatar, his voice in this world and was elevated above his mortal existence and remade in Khorne's image. Reborn as a mighty Daemon Prince called a Bloodthirster he would shed all remnants of his former life and take up the name Skull Taker, and he would rule as Khorne's will until another came along and either slew him in battle or beat him in competition."
Applejack and Rainbow Dash sat in rapt fascination, fantasizing about such wonderful paradise where they would surely be respected for their great skill.
"Second of the gods was Nurgle. He was the god of the downtrodden, the sick, and the unloved. He thrived on the despair of those who had given up in this world."
"Oh my, how terrible!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
"Ah, but let me finish, Miss Fluttershy, you may yet find him to be your favorite of the four. As I said, he thrived and fed off of the despair and suffering of the sick, the downtrodden, and the unloved. He fed upon it and then repaid their helplessness tenfold with unconditional and incomparable love.
"You see, Nurgle cared not for your past deeds, your appearance, or your imperfections for he loved everything and everyone equally and without judgment. He was often referred to by his followers as Grandfather Nurgle for his paternal manner."
At this Fluttershy herself perked up, finding that Weaver's words had rung true: this surely would be her favorite.
"He and his servants in the Warp took on the appearance of bloated, sickly, and misshapen beings to symbolize for his subjects in the material world that he loved all regardless. And while his servants may have been the most terrible and frightening to behold, kinder and more loving creatures one could not find in this world or in the Warp.
"The capital of his kingdom was simply The Garden of Nurgle, a large shantytown in the marshlands where the downtrodden of the world came to live in a paradise of love and tolerance."
"The representative of Nurgle's will in our world was the most generous and loving soul in his kingdom, like Khorne he bestowed upon his champion the gift of daemonhood, remaking them as Daemon Prince called a Great Unclean One, and he would take up the name of Tallyman and rule from The Garden until he passed on his mantle and went to join Grandfather Nurgle in The Warp."
Fluttershy became lost in this tale of love and kindness, she believed she would have fit right in with this deity.
"Third and youngest of the Pantheon was Slaanesh, who was neither male nor female, but rather the essence of beauty, perfection, and joy."
Pinkie Pie and Rarity paid extra attention as the story piqued their interests.
"Slaanesh cared nothing for Khorne's silly competitions or of Nurgle's blind love, for only those who truly knew how to enjoy the pleasures life has to offer were allowed within the kingdom of excess. Those who populated the kingdom of Slaanesh were truly the most diverse of all of the kingdoms, while they were united in a purpose, the way they went about it took on many forms.
"All throughout the kingdom one would find the restaurants were of a quality that would make even the finest eatery in Canterlot appear as little more than a cockroach infested dump. Stores would sell dresses that would make even the most fashionable mare at the Grand Galloping Gala feel as though she were wearing little more than rags in comparison. And celebrations would go on for weeks at a time and it was not uncommon to wake up with several days of memory loss."
Rarity was absolutely enchanted by such a paradise and even Pinkie Pie silently hung on every word with rapt attention.
"The capital of Slaanesh's paradise was known as the Crown of the World, for the entire city was made entirely from the most perfectly cut gemstones. The very streets themselves were paved with diamonds. And the ruler of the kingdom was the one who most embodied Slaanesh's ideals of excess, they would have the finest taste, be the most beautiful of all Slaanesh's subjects, and could enjoy the kingdom's revelries for longer than any other.
"Slaanesh would reward such beings with the gift of unrivaled perfection, they would be remade into the most beautiful being in all of the material world. To look upon such perfection would enthrall one to the point of blindness. This champion of excess was called a Keeper of Secrets, and unlike the champions of other gods who took up the name of their predecessor, the Keepers of Secrets abandoned their names altogether, for no word would ever possibly be sufficient to name a being of such perfection. And there they ruled from The Crown of the World until such a time came as they tired of mortal delights and ascended to The Warp to see what new things there may be to experience.
"And finally, last and greatest of the gods was my own master, the Raven God, Tzeentch. The Changer of Ways and the Master of Magic. He was the greatest by far for without him magic would never have existed."
Here Weaver looked pointedly at Twilight.
"Tzeentch's was a kingdom of knowledge. He required that his subjects be scholars beyond compare, masters of the scientific and the arcane. His was a paradise for the learned of the world. The cities of his kingdom were universities that stretched for miles, the quality of which would put any university in Canterlot to shame."
Twilight's eyes widened as she imagined an entire kingdom of people who shared her ideals, intellectuals she could actually hold intelligent conversations with. She loved her friends dearly, but sometimes wished there were more ponies like her around.
"The capital of Tzeentch's kingdom was the Inevitable City. It was built in an area where the veil between the Materium and the Warp was at it's thinnest and was a perfect blend of architecture and magic. The city itself lived, it changed its own layout constantly, never content with a singular form. And the master of this place was the greatest scholar and the most powerful magician. He was bestowed daemonhood and given a mind that could perceive the universe in ways that would drive a mortal to madness."
Twilight suspected where Weaver was going with this, and his next words confirmed it for her.
"The Changer of Ways made his champion into a being of pure magic and intellect, a Lord of Change who was allowed to keep their previous name, but would officially take up the name of Fate Weaver. The mantle of champion was passed on not when he was surpassed in intellect, for as a daemon that could never happen, nor even at the discretion of the champion, but rather according to Tzeentch's passing whims. It was not unknown for Tzeentch to pull a Lord of Change into the warp to join him the instant he was conceived."
When Fate Weaver ceased speaking the assembled ponies looked at him in awe.
"Mr. Weaver? You said that without Tzeentch magic wouldn't exist, what do you mean?" Twilight asked. Weaver smiled and continued his tale.
"A tale was told of a time long before I was born when Tzeentch ruled all the Warp and the Materium unopposed with his great crystal staff. The other gods cowered in their corners of the Immaterium as Tzeentch used all of creation as his plaything. But a time came when the gods banded together in opposition of my master and together waged war upon Tzeentch. The very essence of the Warp shook with their fury as eventually the three gods battled Tzeentch to a stalemate which was quickly tipping in favor of the three.
"Tzeentch, seeing his impending defeat, hatched a great scheme. He appeared before the three other gods and, in an act of surrender, shattered his crystal staff, the source of his great power. The pieces of his staff diffused into the currents of the Warp and each shard became a spell.
"Shortly after the truce between the gods, my master sent out a minion to catalogue all of the new spells so that in the future he might call the shards back to him and reform his crystal staff for the final battle."
"Wait, so you mean to say that if somepony knew all the spells in the world, they'd have this bird guy's staff?" Rainbow Dash interjected.
"That is the theory, yes." confirmed Weaver, "The only problem with that is that there are an infinite number of spells, it would be impossible for a mortal to know all of them."
"And what was that about a final battle?" Twilight asked.
"Well you see, the gods of Chaos were exactly that, Chaos. They could never coexist with one another and so were constantly moving against each other, trying to gain dominance. It was something called The Great Game, and the beauty was that one god could never win, and so it would go on for eternity. Or so we all thought.
"There were no more bitter rivals to be found than Khorne and Slaanesh. Khorne despised Slaanesh's pointless decadence and Slaanesh likewise hated Khorne's unrefined brutality. As such it was not uncommon for the two to personally fight. Their brawls would shake the foundations of the Warp, occasionally driving some warp attuned mortals insane.
"It was one such battle that set in motion the end of everything I knew. Tzeentch would take to whispering in Slaanesh's ear, riling it up and enflaming its hatred of the War God while at the same time inflating its ego, making it overestimate itself. It wasn't long before the two did battle once again.
"This battle was unlike any other before it. The battle tore open innumerable warp rifts and the raw stuff of the Warp bled into our world, corrupting and twisting the landscape and the wildlife. Soon the battle reached its climax and Khorne readied his great axe for his mightiest blow yet. Tzeentch had been whispering in Slaanesh's ear for so long that the god fervently believed that destiny itself was on its side and did not worry as the axe began to fall, believing some event would occur that would perhaps deflect the blow and ensure its victory.
"Such was the confidence with which Slaanesh faced the falling axe that even Khorne himself believed his blow would not fell his fellow god. Hoping to lessen the effect of whatever trick Slaanesh had in store, Khorne poured his very essence into his blow.
"The blow connected and the confidence of Slaanesh proved unfounded as the axe of the War god tore Slaanesh asunder and scattered him to the ends of the Warp."
At this Rarity and Pinkie Pie looked aghast, as though their favorite character in a novel had just been killed off.
"The death scream of Slaanesh echoed throughout the Warp and, thanks to the multitude of rifts caused by the battle, poured into the Materium. When The Keeper of Secrets, the being in the Materium most closely attuned with Slaanesh, was struck by the scream it detonated with a force nearly equivalent to that of the sun. The Crown of the World shattered in the explosion."
"Oh how horrible!" Rarity cried, "Such a magnificent creation destroyed without so much as a thought!"
"It's not as bad as you might think, Miss Rarity." Weaver said, "Why do you think it is that whenever you search for gems they come out of the ground already perfectly cut?"
Rarity was taken aback by the implication. "Do you mean to tell me that the gems I use in my dresses are..."
"Fragments of the Crown of the World, yes." Weaver finished. "But now where was I? Ah yes. The death scream of Slaanesh shattered The Crown of the World and killed every being who followed Slaanesh. Millions died in an instant, an entire culture dedicated to perfection wiped out in the time it took to blink.
"The debris from the city rained down for hundreds of miles in all directions, some pieces the size of buildings. Unfortunately, the marshland making up The Garden of Nurgle was only about a hundred miles from the city, debris fell down on it like hail, destroying most of it and killing a huge percentage of the population.
"Nurgle felt the deaths of each of his children acutely and knew who was to blame for every death. He directed his fury towards the still shocked Khorne and the Warp echoed with fury as the Master of Death marched on the God of War.
"In the Materium the followers of Nurgle did likewise. The charismatic and widely loved Tallyman gathered up a following and marched on Citadel. The military of Khorne was the most well trained in the world, but the almost zealous fervor Tallyman instilled in his followers more than made up for any difference in skill. Eventually Tallyman and Skull Taker faced each other in battle in a mimicry of their masters within the Warp.
"In the Warp Nurgle rained blow after blow upon Khorne's brass armor, each with a force to shatter stars. Khorne gave back as good as he got, but the pestilent mound of flesh that was Nurgle refused to be destroyed.
"Meanwhile my master observed, looking for the perfect opportunity, waiting for all eyes to be on the cataclysmic battle taking place. And as he foresaw, after an eternity of work his minion returned.
"Tzeentch called to him all the fragments of his crystal staff and reformed it. Once again The Changer of Ways held creation in the palm of his hand, and with the only ones that could stop him dead or at each other's throats, he would finally be the victor in The Great Game. Tzeentch used his staff to obliterate the warring gods.
"As with Slaanesh, the death screams of the two gods killed off their followers and poured into reality. Though the world was already weakened from the aftermath of Slaanesh's defeat, it managed to just barely hold together under the assault of the death rattles of two gods.
"With my daemon eyes I had stared into the Warp as my master used his staff to obliterate Khorne and Nurgle, it was the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed. I was filled with such pride when he won I didn't even care that my powers had gone when he reformed his staff, I would have given them a thousand times over to help him achieve his goals, after all it was my master that had been victorious, my master who now held all of creation in his hands, my master who's scheme had finally culminated in victory.
"I felt my master's pride, I felt his elation, but I felt something else, something I had not expected. Fear, sorrow, regret... hope for the future. I had no idea what to make of it, but then it all made sense.
"My master had won. It had worked. It was done. His ultimate scheme was finished and his goal was accomplished. He no longer had purpose, for what is a god of scheming without anything to scheme? Soon he would cease to exist and everything I had ever known would end. But he had not died yet, that meant there was a plan yet unfinished, my hope was renewed.
"But while I looked on with my daemonic eyes I saw what his last plan was. For as long as he held his crystal staff the world would forever be without magic. I watched in horror as he gripped his staff in his hands and waited. He looked upon his staff for just a moment and he looked upon it forever, for time flows strangely in the Warp, and I experienced the whole of eternity with him as he held it.
"Then I felt his presence within me, he was going to speak to me, I was honored that I was the one he deemed worthy of his last words, but instead of waiting for him to speak I begged him not to do it, I could endure without magic so long as he existed. He would have none of it though. He instructed me to return to my library and guard over the knowledge it contained. He told me to endure, to survive, to keep the knowledge alive, saying that as long as the knowledge lived on there would be hope for the world. I was confused but obeyed and returned home to my library and waited for the inevitable.
"Once again Tzeentch shattered his crystal staff, and the rifts caused by the earlier battle between Khorne and Slaanesh allowed the fragments to enter the Materium and take root here rather than dissolving back into the warp.
"And with that Tzeentch no longer had a purpose, there was a brilliant flash in the Warp and he was gone. The aftermath of his death caused the already paper thin veil between the Inevitable City and the Warp to disintegrate. With a brilliant explosion of Warp energy the Inevitable City was dragged screaming into the Warp. The distance between my library and the city spared me the worst of it, but the surrounding land was flooded with the raw stuff of the Warp. The death of yet another god, regardless of how peaceful it was, was too taxing on the world and the rifts tore open yet wider and the Warp poured into reality.
"As I watched the results of my master's final plan taking shape, I pondered on how I could still exist without my god, the nearest I could guess was that his death had been willing, so there had been no death scream to obliterate me. Then I looked to the future. The Lords of Change were blessed by Tzeentch with prophetic sight and what I saw both frightened and pleased me. Such beautiful change, yet I feared it. With so much of the warp bleeding into the Materium, this world would gain the magical qualities of the Warp, but retain the stability of the material world. Mortal races would no longer need to reach into the Warp for power, it was likely the Warp would be forgotten altogether.
"And so I endure, I stand vigil over the knowledge of my time and I teach those who come seeking knowledge. Just as my master intended. Just as planned."
The ponies sat in silence as Weaver finished his tale, none of them knew what to say to such an incredible story. It was Celestia who finally broke the silence.
"Weaver... without that conflict it's likely that Equestria wouldn't even exist. We'd never have the magical ability we have today."
Weaver's appearance was still that of a young raven, but his bearing was that of his ancient self after his telling of the story. "Yes, the independence of this world from the Warp was my master's ultimate goal."
"Why they hay would he want that?" Rainbow said, "Didn't he know he'd bite it too?"
"What greater victory could there be?" Weaver sighed, "Victory over all of Chaos. In the end he was responsible for the defeat of the four most powerful beings that ever did and ever will exist. And by severing the connection of the two worlds he ensured that none could ever gain enough power to match his feat ever again. It really was the ultimate victory."
"But if he wanted to destroy all of Chaos how come he left you?" Rainbow asked.
"To ensure the continuation of his legacy, so that knowledge of his great victory would never fade. What good is winning if none remember it? Imagine you won your Iron Pony competition but your victory was entirely forgotten the next day."
Rainbow was horrified at the thought.
Celestia noticed her friend's impending melancholy and decided it was time to give him some space.
"I think that's enough story time for today, my little ponies. We've imposed on Weaver's hospitality enough for one day." she said, earning a groan from the assembled ponies.
"But Weavie has the best stories!" Pinkie Pie said, pouting.
"Well perhaps he might lend you some of his books in the meantime." she said, looking suggestively at Weaver.
"Oh that would be just wonderful! I mean, if it's not too much, of course." Fluttershy said.
"Of course, young ponies. Take any books you want, so long as they're returned in the condition you found them in." Weaver said looking pointedly at Pinkie Pie when he said the last part.
The six ponies gasped in excitement and bolted off to search for books. Celestia took advantage of their privacy and turned to the raven.
"Weaver, I had no idea you'd gone through so much. You've been alone in this tower for ten thousand years?" she asked.
"Oh my, no. I ruled the Inevitable City for about a thousand years before the great cataclysm, and then counting the years I've known you, I'd say it's been just me and my books for only about six thousand years." Weaver said, as though it was much different.
Celestia sighed at how nonchalantly he said it. "You really should get out and get to know the world your master created for you. The Grand Galloping Gala is coming up, I'd really like it if you would come as my personal guest of honor."
"My dear, you've been inviting me to that little soiree of yours every year for the last thousand years. What makes you think I'll go this time?"
"Thousandth time's the charm." Celestia said with a wink. With a small pop, Celestia materialized a golden ticket and hovered it over to Weaver, who snatched it out of the air with a grunt.
"Yes, yes, we'll see. I'll have to check my schedule." he said.
Celestia rolled her eyes at the comment. "Yes, I'm sure your schedule is absolutely crammed. Anyways I'd really love to see you there, it'll do you some good to get out of this stuffy old tower."
"Like I said, we'll see." he said, noticing the ponies returning from their various quests for literature. Twilight in particular had an air of absolute euphoria about her as she trotted over, saddlebags stuffed to capacity.
"Is everypony ready to go?" Celestia asked.
"Absolutely! I can't wait to get home and read all of these books! There's so much I- mmf!" Twilight was interrupted as Applejack jammed a hoof in front of her mouth.
"That there'd be a yes, yer majesty." she said.
"Alright then, you ponies head back home. It was a pleasure seeing you all again."
The ponies waved goodbye to the princess and the librarian and began the journey home. Likewise, Celestia said her goodbyes to Weaver before she departed for Canterlot.
"Promise me you'll think about it." she insisted.
"Of course, it always takes a fair amount of consideration as to how I dispose of the tickets. This year I'm thinking dragons."
Celestia shook her head. Then she surprised him by wrapping her front legs around him in a hug.
"Goodbye Weaver, I'll visit you again soon. Try not to forget about your most faithful student, you senile old chicken." She ended the hug and teleported back to Canterlot, once again leaving Weaver to his books.
"You were my only student, damnit!" he yelled at nothing. Then he looked at the ticket in his hand for a few moments and sighed, reverting to his elderly form.
"Thousandth time's the charm." he muttered to himself.
Twilight and her friends had finally returned home to Ponyville, saddlebags full of books, and after a few goodbyes returned to their respective homes, eager to plunder the wealth of knowledge they had returned with.
Pinkie Pie was not normally one to read books, but the stories she'd found about the celebrations and culinary mastery of the kingdom of excess were simply worth the torture of remaining stationary long enough to read. By the time she was done, none would doubt Pinkie's position as Equestria's premier party mare.
Rarity had also returned with books about Slaanesh's kingdom, but nothing like the ones Pinkie Pie had seen fit to take. What she took were books describing the dress making techniques used by the master artisans of that glorious time. With the help of these books her name would be known by all of Equestria's elite, every mare and stallion would be clambering for garments hoof-made by the mistress of fashion herself.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash didn't take anything instructional like Pinkie or Rarity, but instead took epics, stories of Khorne's greatest heroes and athletes. They read stories of great battles waged against impossible odds, of feats of strength that would put any of Equestria's greatest athletes to shame. They read of Skull Taker's uncountable victories over the most powerful enemies the world could throw at him. The stories inspired them to their own feats of greatness and for the days following their trip into the forest they could always be found together, participating in some challenge or another.
Fluttershy took some of the well known folk tales from Nurgle's kingdom. She spent her spare time buried in heart warming stories of down on their luck unfortunates getting a leg up in life. She even read some confidence boosting speeches by the charismatic Tallyman.
Twilight Sparkle, upon her return from the tower, locked her door, closed her blinds, and interred herself in her room for the next several days, content to leave Spike in charge while she read. As she had gone about Weaver's library gathering books she at first had tried to restrict herself to books pertaining to Tzeentch's knowledge of magic, but by the end she had simply ended up grabbing every book within reach until her bags could hold no more.
A week had now passed and Twilight finally emerged from her house, blinking in the harsh light of day, her dragon assistant in tow.
"Oh man, I can't believe I finished those books already. I thought those would last me for way longer than they did." she complained.
"I know," Spike agreed, "I thought it'd take you way longer than a week to read that pile of books you came home with."
Twilight froze mid-stride. "What did you say?"
"What? I just said I thought those books would have lasted you longer than a week-"
"Oh my gosh, a week?! I've been reading for a whole week?" she exclaimed.
"Well yeah, what's the problem? You've gone on reading binges like that before."
"The Gala!" she exclaimed, "It's tonight!"
"Oh no! I'm not ready! Are my spines straight? Oh jeez, my scales look terrible! What will Rarity think?" Spike ranted.
"Spike, I need you to go see Applejack and Fluttershy for me. Tell Applejack to bring me an apple and Fluttershy to bring me four field mice. Hurry!" she yelled, making to sprint back to her house.
"What are you gonna do?" Spike asked.
"I need to go get a spell book from the house, come meet me at Rarity's when you're done!"
"Alright, I'll see you there!" Spike yelled after her as he ran off to find his friends, spit shining his scales as he went.
"And we'll have the best night ever!" sang all the ponies while a fantastic fireworks display took place over Canterlot Castle. "At the Gala!"
Standing on a hill on approach to the castle, clad in his finest gold adorned robe that seemed woven from a piece of starlit midnight, a figure gazed down at the area where the spontaneous musical display had just concluded, eyes wide and mouth agape.
"What in the name of the Ruinous Powers was that?!" Fate Weaver exclaimed, horrified.
Within the castle, after her friends rushed off to their respective destinations, Twilight found the princess in the main hall greeting guests.
"Princess Celestia!" she exclaimed in delight.
"Twilight!" Celestia said happily, "It is so lovely to see my star student."
"I'm so excited to be here! We have so much to catch up on!"
"Well I want you right by my side the entire evening, so we'll have plenty of time together." the princess said, making Twilight's evening.
Twilight sprinted to her mentor's side, taking her place next to her. "That's just what I was hoping you'd say!" she said.
Out of the corner of her eye Twilight caught sight of Rarity attempting to elegantly sprint after Prince Blueblood. "Aww, good luck to her." she said to herself.
Suddenly the hall was filled with the gasps of startled ponies, she even heard Celestia gasp in surprise. Twilight looked up to see a familiar avian figure striding through the gate, staff in hand, head held high. He walked straight through the main hall giving no thought to the crowd of staring ponies and climbed the stairs where Celestia and Twilight stood.
"Miss Sparkle," he said nonchalantly, "it's so wonderful to see you again. Have you been enjoying the books you borrowed?"
"Um, I actually just finished them today." she said, still somewhat shocked to see him.
"My, my, what a voracious reader, make sure you stop by soon and exchange those books for some new ones." he said conversationally.
Twilight just nodded mutely while Weaver turned to address Celestia.
"Hello, my dear, I hope this evening finds you well."
His words seemed to shake her out of her stupor. "Weaver, you actually came?" she said in disbelief.
Weaver just shrugged and said, "Thousandth time's the charm, I suppose."
Laughing, Celestia pressed on. "So would you like to stay and talk a while?"
"Ha ha, oh my no, not at all." he said bluntly, "You've been inviting me to this party for a thousand years, I want to go see what exactly is so great about it."
"Well I hope you enjoy yourself, old friend." Celestia said as Weaver walked off in search of entertainment.
"Princess, I don't mean to question your judgment, but are you sure it was a good idea inviting him to the Gala?" Twilight asked.
"Not at all." Celestia replied, shocking her student.
"Then why invite him?" Twilight replied.
"For as long as I've known him, Luna and I have been his only friends, I want to try and get him to open up a little, to make a few friends. Who knows? Perhaps tonight will go off without a hitch."
"Well if you think it's for the best." Twilight said.
"Don't worry, Twilight, I'm sure- oh look, here come more guests now, I'm sorry but we'll have to continue this conversation later." Celestia said. Twilight looked at the immense line of ponies coming in to be greeted and felt her heart sink.
"Oh my." she muttered to herself.
Fate Weaver wandered through the halls of castle, earning himself a multitude of stares from the posh ponies gathered at the party.
"My word, you'd think they'd never seen a daemon prince before." he said to himself, chuckling.
Eventually he came to a large ball room where a band was playing some boring classical music while ponies chatted. He looked around and spotted a familiar pink mare standing alone by a table.
"Ah, finally. The fun one, if I remember correctly. But then why is she moping?" he wondered aloud as he walked over.
Pinkie noticed a shadow fall over her table and looked up. "Weavie!" she shouted, ecstatic.
"Hello Miss Pie, why so glum? I thought you were energetic one."
"Well I thought the Gala was supposed to be the greatest party ever but it's soooooo boring! Nopony here wants to party!" she explained glumly.
Weaver grinned as he saw an opportunity for some fun. "Well perhaps they just need to be shown how to have a good time. I'm sure you of all ponies could demonstrate what a party should really be like."
Pinkie gasped dramatically as what he said sunk in. "You're right! I just need to show them a good time! Oh you're the best Weavie!" she said as she bounced away happily.
"Don't mention it." he said, a huge grin forming on his face. "That should liven things up. Now let's see what else there is to do." he said, walking off.
Outside in the gardens, Fluttershy's attempts to search for new animal friends had met with failure after failure. She had been about to give up and return to the party when she noticed a familiar figure wandering the gardens as well.
"Mr. Weaver?" she called quietly. The figure turned and revealed that it was indeed Fate Weaver.
"Miss Fluttershy! I was hoping I'd run into you out here, how have you been, my dear?" he asked.
"Oh, I've been fine." she said.
"You seem upset, is everything alright?" Weaver asked.
"Oh it's nothing, you don't have to worry about it."
"Come now my dear, you can tell me. I'm sure if there was anyone in the world who could assist it would be me." he insisted.
"Well... it's just that I've been waiting so long to see the royal gardens and meet all the animal here, but now that I'm actually here they're all too afraid of me. I just don't know what to do." she explained. Fortunately she was looking at the ground and didn't notice the excited glint in the raven's eye.
"Well my dear, the solution is simple. Instead of waiting for them to come to you of their own accord, you should take the initiative and make them come to you. You can't just sit around waiting for good things to happen, sometimes you have to make them happen yourself. I'm sure you've read something along those lines in old Tallyman's books." he said
"You know, you're right. I need to take some initiative take things into my own hooves!" she said, her quite voice filled with determination. "Thank you so much, Mr. Weaver."
"Always happy to help, my dear. Always happy to help." he said, walking back towards the palace, delighted grin once again upon his face.
Rainbow Dash was miserable. The opportunity she had finally been waiting for, a chance to hang out with her idols, The Wonderbolts, had finally come and she was stuck in a crowed of overly posh ponies all clambering for her new friends' attention. Sitting at a table alone, she just waited for the night to be over. But she perked up as she saw a familiar bird-brain enter the V.I.P. section.
Immediately she bolted over to him. "Hey feather-head!" she called.
"Ah, Miss Dash." he said, greeting her.
"Just call me Rainbow." she said as she came along side her friend. "So what're you doin' here in the V.I.P. section?
"I'm the princess's personal guest of honor, if that doesn't qualify me for V.I.P. then I'm not sure what does. But I think the real question to be asked is what are you doing here?" he said.
When Rainbow took a deep breath Weaver didn't need his powers of prophecy to see that he would regret this.
"Well I've always dreamed of flying with the Wonderbolts and I finally got a chance to hang out with them tonight when I saved Soarin's apple pie from being ruined and they asked me to hang out with them but when I got in here everypony else wanted to hang out with them too and I've barely gotten to say a word to them and it's totally not what I've been imagining."
Rainbow finally ran out of breath and Weaver hesitantly attempted to insert his two bits.
"Well you got their attention by impressing them, did you not?"
"Yeah." Rainbow confirmed.
"Well then it's obvious, you simply need to keep impressing them. You've read of the heroes of Khorne, you should know that they all gained their great honor and recognition through their impressive feats."
"You're right!" Rainbow exclaimed, "If I keep impressing them they'll have no choice but to see how cool I am! That's such a great idea, I'm so glad I thought of it!"
"You'd put the scholars of the Inevitable City to shame, my dear." Weaver said.
"Well see ya later, bird-brain, I'm gonna go impress the Wonderbolts!" she exclaimed before rushing off.
"I swear, that was far too easy." Weaver said as he exited the V.I.P. section.
The raven wandered around the outside of the castle in search of the remaining two ponies and eventually caught sight of Rarity. He was about to approach her and work his magic when he noticed her company. Celestia had told him of her stuck up nephew, Blueblood, and seeing how he sat on a plush cushion while she sat grumpily on the grass he figured he probably wasn't needed here and just moved on.
"Just one more to go." he mused and began to wander the grounds for the better part of an hour. Eventually he came across the industrious Applejack standing at a food stand she appeared to have set up.
"There you are, Miss Applejack. How's business this fine evening?"
"Plumb awful." she said, dejectedly. "Ah've only made one sale and ah've been out here fer ages. Rarity 'n her new coltfriend came by 'n bought some fritters but Blueblood hated em 'n went inside ta get somma that fancy party food. I'm thinkin' 'bout just closin' up shop."
"Giving up isn't the answer. The champions of Khorne never admitted defeat no matter what the odds. Surely there's something you can do."
"Ah just don't know, they'd all rather eat those dang fancy snacks inside than some proper down home apple snacks."
"Well maybe you just need to dress them up a little. Make them more appealing to these proper ponies." he suggested.
"Ya know somethin'," she said, fire in her eyes, "yer right! Ah'll show 'em that even apples can be as fancy as they are."
"That's the spirit, I'll leave you to your work. I wish you the best of luck, Miss Applejack." Weaver said as the earth pony set to work.
"Now all that's left is to wait as everything comes together." Weaver said as he walked back to the main hall to join Celestia.
Entering the main hall, Weaver saw that the line of ponies waiting to enter the Gala had shrunk dramatically. Walking past them and up the stairs once again he took up a spot next to a dejected looking Twilight.
"Bad evening?" he asked.
"Ugh, you don't know the half of it." she complained, "These ponies just keep coming, I'm barely going to have any time at all to talk to the princess.
"I wouldn't worry too much, dear. I get the feeling that tonight's going to get much better." he said, chuckling to himself.
"What makes you say that?" Twilight asked, interest piqued.
"Call it an educated guess." he replied. Twilight was still curious but didn't push him on it.
Soon the last of the ponies had been greeted and it was time to go join the festivities. Weaver could hardly contain his excitement.
"I thought that would never end!" Twilight exclaimed as the three made their way towards the ball room.
"Don't worry, Twilight. Now that that's over we can finally have some time to catch up. And Weaver, how did you enjoy the party?" she inquired.
"Oh I had a wonderful time. But I imagine it will only get better as the night goes on." he said.
"I'm so glad to hear that, Weaver. I told you you'd have a good time if you just left that dusty old tower."
"I don't know why I ever doubted you." he said, smirking.
The three companions entered the ball room to a scene of complete disaster. The statue of Celestia was broken in half and the surrounding columns had been demolished. There was cake covering everything and Twilight's friends were right in the middle of it.
Twilight took it all in and, against her better judgment, said "Well, it can't get any worse." hoping that by saying it it would become true.
Then she noticed Fate Weaver counting down.
"Oh no." she groaned.
"Three, two, one, enter stage left." he said, nonchalantly.
The door to the gardens burst open and animals poured into the room followed by a very angry Fluttershy.
"You're. Going. To. LOVE ME!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
The ball room became a scene of total anarchy with guests running in fear of the animals and the animals running in terror of Fluttershy.
"You know, Celestia, you were absolutely right. I think this little excursion out of my tower has done me wonders. But it's getting late and I think I should get back to my books. See you soon!" Weaver said, as he banged his staff against the ground and vanished in a swirl of violet energy.
Celestia and Twilight stared at the scene for a few moments before Twilight spoke up.
"Do you think someone sabotaged the Gala?" Twilight asked.
"But who would be capable of doing that? It would have taken some kind of tactical geniu-" Celestia froze as the realization hit her.
"WEAVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" she screamed.
The scream carried all the way to the Everfree Forest where it was heard by Weaver, who had the biggest and most obnoxious grin plastered to his face.
Fate Weaver sat in his tower musing on his little adventure to Canterlot a few days past. He chuckled as he remembered the events of that night, he hadn't had that much fun in decades. No feeling in the world could compare to that of watching a masterfully wrought scheme come to fruition.
Celestia had not yet visited him since the Gala and he took that as a sign that she was angry with him. At least he hoped that's what it meant, it would add some much needed variety to her next visit. Normally she just came to talk and keep him company, occasionally to ask for advice, sometimes to vent about the pressures of leadership, always it was dull.
He missed the old days when two little fillies would bound into his tower so full of energy and eager to learn. But those days were long past, thousands of years past in fact. His little fillies had grown up into powerful and loved leaders. Well at least one of them had. He wasn't really sure what had become of little Luna after the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco had been resolved. She hadn't visited him since she was freed from the moon, perhaps he should go out and visit her for a change.
His thoughts eventually wandered to the six ponies who had visited him not so long ago. He thought of the looks on their faces as he gave them permission to borrow books from the library and smiled. Perhaps he could recapture that feeling again if they decided to stick around. He thought of one in particular; the unicorn, Twilight. She would make a fine student, it was almost a shame she already belonged to Celestia.
The only other magic user in the group was Rarity and she had very little interest in magic beyond what was required for her dress making. But it mattered little to him, so long as they wanted to learn he would teach them, magic or mundane. Anything to break up the monotony of eternity. Only one being since the great cataclysm had ever truly engendered any feeling of companionship within the ancient raven, but he was long gone. Celestia never did like sharing the spotlight.
As his mind wandered he expanded his perception beyond himself and idly grasped for the familiar sensation of the Immaterium, it was a reflexive and almost unconscious action. As always it was just beyond his reach, oh what he would give to once more feel the embrace of the Sea of Souls. His master had done quite the job of severing the two worlds. In truth, though, the bond between the Warp and reality could never truly be broken, but the Materium was now so saturated in Warp energy that it was nearly impossible to feel the boundaries.
It was a sobering thought to know that he was the only remaining being in existence that remembered how it felt to feel those otherworldly currents. And as such he was the only being in existence who had even the smallest of chances of reaching into the Immaterium again. It was an impossible feat to touch the Warp without having first been touched by it, one could more quickly expect a blind man to envision the color red. And gone were the days where the Warp would reach out and gift mortals with sight beyond sight. He mused on how even he with his great power could not reach far enough to pass through the barrier anymore. When he met his end, and he had no doubts that one day he would, the Warp would be lost forever. As would any chance of bringing back The Inevitable City.
He ended his train of thought there and quickly withdrew his mind back into himself. Down that path lay a melancholy he didn't feel like sinking into at this time. Perhaps he would read a book. Decision made he walked off to see if perhaps there was a book in his library that yet remained new to him. But before he could go far he felt the discharge of a teleportation spell.
"Oh dear, it looks like the jig is up." he said as he turned to face his guest, "Celestia, how are you my dear? I must say I'm surprised you didn't come sooner. How was the rest of the Gala?"
"Hello Weaver," Celestia said pleasantly, "despite your best efforts it was the most fun I've ever had at the Gala."
"Oh? I had been under the impression that chaos wasn't really your thing."
"Well yes but the Gala is always so dreadfully boring. I've been inviting you all these years in the hopes that you'd come and do exactly what you did, it really livened the night up. Even Twilight and her friends loved it. She told me they were having a horrible time up until you showed up and worked your magic."
"Well, well, well." he chuckled, "That certainly wasn't what I'd intended, but I'll take it. It's always good to show young ponies the practical application of a little chaos."
"Yes, you always did have a talent for demonstrating the value of what it was you wanted to teach." Celestia agreed.
"Luna didn't think so." he muttered.
"Don't take it personally, Weaver, you were an excellent teacher. She just wasn't the best student."
As Luna had grown older she had become less and less interested in the lessons he had to teach. She withdrew more and more until all she ever did was obsess over her night sky. He had suspected that she was feeling underappreciated and overshadowed by her older sister, though he never acted upon it, content to let things play out as they would. He often regretted that decision.
Weaver sighed, "Where did I go wrong with her? She used to be such a happy little filly."
"It wasn't your fault." Celestia insisted, "If anyone is to blame it's myself. I should have seen what I was doing to her."
"How has little Luna been since she got back from the moon? I heard she went straight back to her old antics."
"I'm afraid so." Celestia sighed, "But Twilight and her friends managed to use the Elements of Harmony to stop her."
"Oh dear." he said quietly, "They didn't... she's not...?"
"Don't worry," Celestia assured him, "she doesn't share his fate. The Elements managed to redeem her, they turned her back into her old self, back before she became Nightmare Moon."
Weaver sighed with relief. "That's wonderful news, the last thing I need is to lose another one of you."
"Weaver, is something on your mind?" Celestia asked.
"What ever do you mean, my dear?" Weaver replied.
"You've been like this for months. You don't usually express things like... well, regret or concern."
"Ah yes, I've just been thinking about home a lot lately. I suppose you could say I've come down with a spell of homesickness."
"Oh Weaver, I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?" Celestia asked, concerned for her friend.
"Not unless you know of a way to drag The Inevitable City back out of he Warp." he said.
"Well then I'm afraid I won't be of much use to you in that respect." she said, "And I don't think your master would approve of that."
"We're all allowed our little irrational desires. I seem to recall a little filly who wanted to learn magic so she could make cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate milk." he said smirking as Celestia blushed at the embarrassing memory, "Though I suppose that's a tad less threatening to existence than my one."
"Well if there's anything I can do please don't hesitate to ask. You gave me the world when I was young, I'll do whatever I can to repay you."
"Well if you're offering I think I'd fancy a stroll around the Canterlot Sculpture Garden."
Celestia frowned. "Weaver, you know I can't let you in there. Your presence alone could upset everything."
"Ah, well it was worth a try, I suppose." he sighed, "Well I dearly wish to see little Luna again, do you think you could have her come visit me some time?"
"Of course, Weaver. As soon as I return to Canterlot I'll pass on the message."
"You have my gratitude, my dear. I suppose I'll see you later then?"
"Oh no, you're not going to be free of me that quickly." she said with a wink.
"Oh really? Well don't make me guess, my dear, I'll just win." he said with a chuckle.
"Well... " she said, a blush coming to her cheeks, "I was wondering if perhaps you would tell me a story."
Weaver let out a long laugh. "A story, is it? You haven't come asking for story time since you were just a filly."
"I was feeling nostalgic." she said, "And since you seem to be feeling nostalgic too, I thought we could be nostalgic together."
"My dear, you certainly know how to make an old raven feel slightly less old."
Weaver banged his staff against the floor and teleported the two to a study deep within the tower containing a plush armchair and a fireplace complete with a roaring fire. Celestia curled up on the floor by the fire while Weaver sat in the chair and summoned a book.
"So what story will you be treating me to?" Celestia asked, so much like the filly Weaver remembered.
"Just an old story, a favorite of yours if I recall correctly. This is the tale of a man named Horus."
At Canterlot Palace a group of young and excited school ponies was led through the magnificent Canterlot Sculpture Garden. It was a beautiful day for a field trip and all the ponies were ecstatic about getting to spend the day outside. The teacher, Cheerilee, led them through the garden, pointing out different sculptures and explaining their meanings to her class, though not all paid much attention to her lengthy explanations.
Three such ponies were Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo, the self-proclaimed Cutie Mark Crusaders. Their attention span lasted only as long as the statues' meanings before the small group dissolved into conversations about how each statue could pertain to a way to acquire their cutie marks.
Soon the group reached the center-piece of the garden, whereupon Cheerilee asked the students what they thought the statue symbolized. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were unsurprisingly the first to throw in their two bits.
"Confusion!" Applebloom exclaimed.
"Evil!" Sweetie Belle yelled, pushing aside Applebloom.
"Chaos!" Scootaloo said, shoving Sweetie Bell out of the way.
Naturally, neither of the three liked the idea of being wrong, and so set out to disprove the others in the only definitive way. Namely fighting and name calling.
Cheerilee shook her head as the three fillies once again broke into a maelstrom of hooves and harsh words. Attention diverted by the brawl going on, none of them noticed the gentle pulsing coming from within the statue that began the moment of the fight. Meanwhile Cheerilee moved to diffuse the situation.
"Actually, in a way you're all right." she began, causing the three fillies to settle down, "This statue represents Discord, which means 'a lack of harmony between ponies.' In fact, you three have demonstrated Discord so well that you're each going to write me an essay explaining it"
The three fillies' hearts sank at her words and the other students giggled at their misfortune.
"Now let's go," Cheerilee said, leading the ponies away from the statue, "and I don't want anymore fighting."
The Crusaders fell in with the crowd, but continued to argue amongst themselves in loud whispers.
"I still say it's confusion!"
"No, it's evil!"
"It's so totally chaos!"
As the ponies walked away the pulsing within the statue increased and a crack began to form running the length of a statue. As the crack forked out around the statue a malevolent laughter began to emanate from within it.
"Oh Applejack, don't lie to me. I'm the one that made you a liar." Discord said, using his magic to drag Twilight's friends through the air. "Will you ever learn?"
Twilight teleported herself to her friends and shielded them in a magical barrier, breaking Discord's hold on them. She then used her bubble to safely lower them all, its power driving back Discord's chaos where it touched the ground.
"I'll tell you what we've learned, Discord." Twilight defiantly proclaimed. "We've learned that friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for!"
"Eugh, gag! Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements. Just make it quick." Discord said, teleporting back to his throne, "I'm missing some excellent chaos here!"
Twilight needed no further prompting. "Alright ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!"
The six ponies gathered around Twilight, summoning the power of the Elements once again as Discord relaxed in his chair staring smugly down at them. The gems in the ponies' necklaces soon began to glow and emit bolts of energy at Discord.
"What's this?" Discord said no nobody in particular, having fully expected the ponies to fail. "Oh no." Discord's eyes went wide in shock. At the same time the ponies opened their eyes, they shined white with the power they were channeling.
"No!" Discord yelled, too late realizing the danger he was in. "NOOOOO!"
Suddenly a blast reminiscent of a sonic rainboom erupted from the gathered ponies and sent a beam of rainbow energy racing toward the draconequus. The beam struck its mark but encountered unexpected resistance, evidently Discord wasn't going down without a fight. Twilight and her friends poured as much energy as they could into the rainbow beam, saturating it with the power of their friendship, but still the resistance remained. To Twilight's dismay the beam began to refract at the point of impact, sending single colored beams in all directions. Suddenly a voice rang out from Discord's end of the beam, every syllable dripping with power.
"That." Twilight couldn't believe it, it wasn't working.
"Is." Despite her growing horror, she couldn't help but feel curious, the voice was familiar, but it didn't sound like Discord. It almost sounded like...
"ENOUGH!" the voice roared. Violet energy erupted from Discord's end and shot up the beam, splitting it right down its entire length. When it impacted the ponies the magical backlash caused a massive explosion, tossing Twilight and her friends through the air like rag dolls.
Twilight hit the ground and skidded several feet before finally coming to a stop when she bumped against a taloned claw. She could see her crown laying barely a foot away, if she could just get to it...
"Discord..." she growled weakly, trying to crawl forward, "I d-don't care... h-how strong you a-are... we'll stop you."
Discord offered no response but to watch her inch her way towards her crown. As she made to reach out for it he reached down with his bird claw and snatched it away from her. She growled weakly again in frustration but suddenly froze, Discord's bird claw wasn't black.
Twilight looked up at what she had thought was Discord, only to see Fate Weaver looking down at her with a contemptuous scowl.
"W-Weaver? What...?" she asked, confused.
"Always so quick to blindly follow." he said, his words full of contempt, "Is this what Celestia has planned for me when she no longer needs me? A nice place in her garden?"
Twilight rose unsteadily to her feet. "What are... are you talking about?" she said, breathing heavily.
Weaver sneered at her, idly twirling her crown in his hand, but before he could comment he was interrupted.
"Weaver? Fate Weaver, is that you? What happened to your other head? Oh dear, time... time has not been kind to you." Discord laughed, flying over to Weaver. His words seemed to shake him out of whatever mood he'd gotten into and, much to the pony's surprise, the two embraced as old friends.
"I wouldn't be criticizing the appearances of others if I were you," Weaver laughed, tossing Twilight's crown back at her, "As for the other head, well... let's just not talk about that, it was a phase that I'm not really proud of."
"I can't imagine why you'd want to get rid of it, I can only imagine how fun it would be to have someone else to talk to that's just as smart as I am. Oh! Where are my manners, you just saved me from being turned back into a tacky garden ornament, here, have a drink on me!" he said, offering Weaver a glass of chocolate milk.
"Why thank you, Discord, don't mind if I..." Weaver squinted at the glass and promptly tossed it over his shoulder where it detonated upon hitting the ground.
"Oh you know me so well." Discord said, chuckling.
They were suddenly interrupted by the rest of the ponies making their ways over.
"Anypony mind explaining to me what the hay the bird-brain is doing here?" Rainbow Dash loudly asked.
"It was him..." Twilight said, still stunned, "Weaver's the reason we couldn't stop Discord."
"Weavie?" Pinkie Pie said, confused, "There's no way it could've been Weavie, he's our friend, he'd never help a meanie like Discord!"
"Alas, Pinkie, Miss Sparkle is telling the truth. It was I who put a stop to your ill-fated attempt to imprison Discord again."
"But why?" Fluttershy said meekly, "He's evil, he tried to destroy our friendship!"
"What else could I do, Fluttershy?" Discord said, "Don't get me wrong, it's not like I didn't enjoy it every second of it, but even if I didn't it was the best way of making sure I didn't get turned back into stone. You may not know this, but it is very, very lonely being a statue for thousands of years."
"Well what I'd like to know is how you could have possibly repelled the Elements of Harmony." Rarity said.
"That there's a darn good question, there ain't nothin' stronger'n friendship." agreed Applejack.
Weaver scowled at that. "That applies to everyone, you know. Not just ponies."
The ponies looked at him is disbelief.
"W-what?" Twilight asked.
"Your so-called 'power of friendship' works both ways. Discord is my friend and I was protecting him." Weaver explained.
"You two are friends?" Fluttershy asked in disbelief.
"Well of course!" Discord said, "Weaver's the only one who's ever appreciated my beautiful chaos."
"But he's evil!" Twilight insisted.
"Why? Because Celestia says he is? If she said I was evil would you turn the Elements against me on just her word?"
"But you're not evil, you don't go around making ponies miserable. You were nice to us, the princess would never ask us to do that." Fluttershy said.
"It's only a matter of time," he spat, "eventually Celestia will have no further use for me. Eventually I'll become an inconvenience to her and she'll do to me what she did to Discord and Luna."
"Well now you're just being paranoid," scoffed Rarity, "the princess would never do that to you. You're her friend, after all."
"Perhaps I am being paranoid, but paranoia has saved my feathers more times than I care to count." he said, "Now as I said, you will not be imprisoning Discord again, go back to Celestia and tell her you failed. And tell her that if she really wants to go down this path then she should come do it herself."
"Weavie, please don't do this, we're friends!" Pinkie implored.
"If you're really my friends then you wont listen to her lies." said Weaver with finality.
"Arrivederci, little ponies! I do so hope we meet again!" Discord called out.
With that Weaver slammed the haft of his staff against the ground and suddenly he and Discord were enveloped by a violet explosion. When the light faded the two were gone.
"Ah'd never'a believed it, the princess's own friend just saved Discord." Applejack said, stunned.
"Difficult to believe, to be sure, but... he did raise an interesting point. If the princess told us he was evil, would we have just taken her word on it and used the Elements on him?" Rarity asked.
"She wouldn't do that unless she had a good reason to though... right?" Fluttershy asked meekly.
"Of course, Fluttershy." Twilight said, full of confidence, "Princess Celestia would never do anything without a good reason, especially something like using the Elements of Harmony on someone so close to her."
"So it's a yes then?" Pinkie asked, her voice strangely subdued, "We'd take the princess's word and hurt Weavie and just hope she had a good reason for it?"
"Well... yeah." Twilight said, "But she would, she always does."
"I can't believe you guys are falling for this!" Rainbow Dash finally shouted, "Weaver is just as bad as Discord! The only difference is that instead of destroying our friendship he's trying to destroy our trust in Celestia! Just listen to yourselves!"
"Oh my gosh, Rainbow Dash is right!" Twilight gasped.
"Hold yer horses there, girls, why would he go doin' that?" Applejack asked.
"What does it matter? He just saved Discord and tried to turn us against the princess! And counting right now, we've met this guy all of three times, we've got no reason to trust him other than that he's the princess's friend and it looks like right now he doesn't even have that going for him anymore!
"And remember the story he told us back in his library? He's some kinda champion for a guy who used to run around calling himself things like 'The Deceiver' and 'The Great Schemer' and he's proud of it! The princess might be smart but this guy's entire life is all about lying and cheating, I wouldn't be surprised if he's been tricking her for the whole time he's known her!"
"Unpleasant as it is, I think Rainbow Dash has a point." Twilight said, "We need to go see the princess right away and tell her about what's going on. If Discord and Fate Weaver are working together then we're going to need all the help we can get."
Minds made up, the six ponies gathered together in a small circle and Twilight teleported them all to Canterlot.
Deep in the Everfree Forest, hidden away within the bowels of Ravenspire, Discord and Fate Weaver were deep in conversation.
"Oh this is so exciting!" Discord said, "Just the two of us on the run from the law, partners in crime!"
"We're not running from anyone." Weaver snapped.
"Jeez, when did you get so serious?" Discord asked.
"Around the time you were turned into a statue."
"Eugh, that long? That's just depressing." said Discord, grimacing.
"Well you were always the fun one." Weaver said, "When you were imprisoned it was just Princess Responsibility and Princess Antisocial for company. And soon after that it was just Princess Responsibility."
"Ah yes, I can see how a few thousand years with those two might make you a little dull."
"Not as dull as you might think." he replied, absently tapping his staff against a nearby book case. The case proved to be a convincingly painted plywood cutout and toppled over, striking the one behind it and setting off an amusing domino effect of fake book cases throughout the library. Discord burst out laughing at the display.
"Oh my, it seems I'm really going to have to up my game around you. You always were the hardest one to prank."
"Well your unfaltering reliability doesn't really help you all that much either." Weaver chuckled.
"Reliable? I've been called a lot of things in my time but that's certainly a new one. What could possibly be reliable about me?" Discord said.
"I can always rely upon you to be dishonest, my friend. It's just one more example of how chaos is the only thing that you can really trust." explained the ancient raven.
"Oh I don't know about that. What about Celestia and Luna? Surely they're more trustworthy than I am, I don't think I could stand the idea of being more reliable than they are." Discord said with an exaggerated gag.
"They're far too honest for my tastes. You see, a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. It's the honest ones that you need to look out for, because you can never really tell when they're going to try to pull the wool over your eyes." Weaver explained.
"Is that why you had your little tantrum back in Ponyville? You think Celestia's planning something?" the draconequus asked.
"I started having my suspicions a while after she first turned you into stone." Weaver admitted.
"Thanks for that, by the way." Discord quipped.
"Well I agreed with her at the time," Weaver said, "you'd gone completely out of your skull. But I swear by The Changer that I had no idea it was supposed to be permanent. I thought she was going to imprison you for a while to give you some time to calm down and think about what you'd done, I assumed it would only be for a few centuries, a millennium tops. Never did I think she meant to do away with you permanently."
"So that was when you went nuts, when did you go completely bonkers?" Discord inquired.
"Nightmare Moon," Weaver sighed, "Celestia kept Luna around so long as she didn't get in the way, but the instant that little filly grew a backbone and became a nuisance, Celestia banished her to the moon and usurped her power. Then once Luna got free, Celestia had her zapped back into little Princess Antisocial and I haven't seen her since."
"Have you considered that you may be overreacting a little?" Discord chuckled, "As entertaining as it would be, Celestia's the last pony in the world that would turn into a mad tyrant."
"There used to be a saying: 'Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Do you really expect me to believe that any being could be in possession of such unquestioned power for so long and not succumb to the power of the position?"
"Well didn't you rule that one place for something like a thousand years? You seemed to handle that pretty well." Discord remarked, conjuring a throne to lounge in.
"When did I tell you about that?" Weaver asked, startled that he could have forgotten such a detail.
"You going senile or something, you old chicken? You told me not too long before Celestia turned me into a statue."
Weaver narrowed his eyes. "Liar." he said, simply.
"You got me, I confess, you never told me about it." Discord confessed dramatically, "But in all honesty I stole your books. Like all the time. I don't think there was a single time I visited you that I didn't steal one of your books."
"Well I knew that," Weaver said, rolling his eyes, "though I didn't think you'd stolen anything of historical significance. My congratulations on sneaking that by me."
"Oh excellent, I fooled you! This calls for a victory drink!" he said, conjuring one of his pink rain clouds and a glass.
"Not in my library!" Weaver shouted at him, "I'd rather nothing exploded in here today."
"Fine, fine." Discord said and summoned a paper cone instead which he used to spear the cotton candy cloud. "But back to my point, you did pretty well for a guy in a position of absolute power for quite a while." He then tossed his unused glass behind him which, to Weaver's dismay but not surprise, exploded.
"I wasn't the one in charge, my master was. I simply carried out his will." the raven explained.
"Well you must have used that for personal gain at some point." Discord insisted, munching on his wad of cotton candy.
"One of the perks of being a Chaos god's personal champion is that said god's gaze is always upon you, it's rather difficult to misrepresent their will for personal gain when they're always watching your every move."
"Ah, yes that would make it difficult. But there must have been some sweet perks that came with the job."
"I didn't have much time to enjoy the power, what time I didn't spend ruling was spent looking over my shoulder and watching out for usurpers."
"Wow, who in their right mind would ever want a job like that?" Discord asked, confounded that any being could find such a position to their liking.
"Only those who truly embodied the ideals of their gods were chosen as champions and elevated to daemonhood. The challenge presented by the constant scheming and counter-scheming was what I lived for. It was an eternal dance of deception and lies. The rush I felt when I outmaneuvered a would-be usurper or successfully eliminated a powerful rival was incredible." Weaver explained, voice filled with passion.
"Mhm, mhm." Discord hummed, nodding to himself, "I think we may have found your problem."
Weaver's only response was to drive his palm into his forehead.
Celestia had been pacing her chambers anxiously ever since she'd sent the last of her letters to Twilight. She hadn't yet received word back from her student about her confrontation with Discord and feared the worst. She didn't have to worry much longer as she was suddenly pulled out of thoughts by a guard pony entering her chambers.
"Your highness, we were told you wanted to be informed of any news regarding to the situation in Ponyville the instant we got any word."
"That is correct, please tell me you have good news." she said, doing her best to hide the nervousness she felt.
"Your student and the other Element bearers have just arrived in Canterlot and wished to update you personally, shall I send them in?" he asked.
"Of course." she replied, her apprehension increasing. If they were here in person that meant they had either met with resounding success or terrible defeat. She was about to find out.
Six very beat up fillies entered her chambers, heads hung low. Celestia's heart sunk as she took in their expressions. Twilight was the first to speak up.
"Princess Celestia... " she began. Celestia's heart broke at the shame she heard in the young pony's voice. "We couldn't do it. Discord managed to escape."
"What happened, my little ponies? How did Discord resist the Elements?" she asked, dreading the answer. Twilight's next words only solidified that dread.
"Fate Weaver." she said, "I don't know how, but he managed to shield Discord from the power of the Elements of Harmony. When we asked him about it, all he said that the power of friendship works both ways."
"I should have expected this." Celestia said, "Fate Weaver and Discord were very close friends before Luna and I imprisoned him and the Elements pass judgment based on the target's intentions. When Weaver put himself between you and Discord the Elements must have felt a dedication to his friend so strong that they didn't deem him worthy of punishment. That combined with his already incredible magical ability must have given him what he needed to push back their power."
"So he really did use the power of friendship to beat us?" Twilight asked, shocked.
"From what you said, it seems as though it definitely played a role. Though I believe that his own power also had a great deal to do with it." Celestia said.
"That's not all," Rainbow Dash interjected, "that stupid feather-head also started bad mouthing you too!"
"What?" Celestia asked, seeming almost hurt by this news.
"Yeah, he was sayin' things like 'Is this what she has planned for me too?' and that we were blindly following you just 'cause you told us that Discord was evil!" Rainbow Dash yelled.
"Oh no," Celestia said, "I was afraid of this too. Weaver's been acting strangely for a long time now, and when he told us all the story about his home it all started to make sense. Weaver was the champion of a god of scheming and his home must have been rife with jealous rivals. It's very likely that in the thousand years he spent ruling his city he developed a kind of incurable paranoia from always having to look over his shoulder. I'm willing to bet that he never let that paranoia go and can't stop seeing hidden agendas and secret plots around every corner."
"It certainly seemed like it." commented Rarity, "He seemed to have it in his head that since you had imprisoned Discord and banished Luna to the moon that you would go after him next."
"Then it's exactly as I've feared, he just can't seem to accept that everyone isn't out to get him and I think that his friendship with Discord only exacerbated the problem. It's my theory that they're such good friends because Discord was always up to something and this made Fate Weaver feel justified about his paranoia. I think it also may have reminded him of the home he missed so much.
"Luna and I were never really ones for those games and so we never did anything to him, but in the end I think it made him even more suspicious, made him think we were involved in some kind of long term plan. It was probably my banishing of Luna to the moon that finally tipped him over the edge into full blown paranoia. It was around that time that everything he said and did just began to seem a little less genuine, like he was only going through the motions. I thought nothing of it at the time, but since I last visited him I became convinced that it was true. All he could talk about was how much he missed The Inevitable City and how he regretted not stopping Luna from turning into Nightmare Moon. The combination of homesickness and the hundreds of years of paranoia must have finally gotten to him."
"What should we do?" Twilight asked.
"It breaks my heart to say this," Celestia said softly, "but we need to stop him. He's become a danger to himself and everypony in the world. Now that he and Discord have been reunited there's no telling what havoc the two of them could cause, their combined power might even be enough to break the barrier between our world and the Warp. If that were to happen..." Celestia didn't need to finish, the ponies all remembered Weaver's tale.
Pinkie was the next to speak up. "So now we have to use the Elements to hurt Weavie just because the princess says he's evil? This is exactly what Weavie said would happen."
Celestia was unnerved, it seemed the doubt Fate Weaver had sown within the ponies was starting to take hold. It made sense that it would take hold strongest in Pinkie Pie, having to hurt a friend was nearly unthinkable to her, no matter what the reason.
"Don't tell me you actually believe that ancient chicken over the princess, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash yelled.
"Please, girls, this is what he wants, he wants you divided so you can't bring the power of the Elements of Harmony to bear against him. And I never said he was evil, I don't think he ever was evil, just confused. He was brought up to believe that everyone was out to get him, he's just reacting in the only way he knows how. I want you to understand why this has to be done, both for Equestria's sake and for his own."
"I'm sorry, Princess." Pinkie Pie said.
"I can understand that it might be hard for you all," Celestia sighed, "You never had any connection to Nightmare Moon or Discord so it wasn't hard for you. But you have to put aside your personal feelings and do what's right for the world. Me and Luna did it with Discord, then I had to do it again with Luna, it was hard and it broke my heart to do it, but it needed to be done for the good of Equestria."
Celestia could tell her speech had worked, slowly confidence and determination returned to the six ponies. She looked at each of them in turn and received a determined nod from each.
"Alright Princess, we'll do it." Twilight said, "Let's go save Equestria."
"But that's cheating!" Weaver exclaimed. "You can't just take away her loyalty and then throw her wings at her, there's no way she'd be able to resist that! Where's the challenge? Where's the fun?"
"The fun is in winning, my dear Weaver. Where else would it be?" Discord said.
"But winning is only fun if there's a possibility of losing, outmaneuvering a powerful opponent is what's fun. If they never have a chance then what's the point?" the ancient raven ranted.
"You're just over thinking it, if it's fun then it's fun, simple as that. What do I care if it's unfair so long as I'm enjoying myself," Discord sighed.
Weaver seemed on the verge of tearing his feathers out. "But the challenge!"
"You really do need to relax, not everything needs to be so serious. You know what you need? You need to go out there and whip up a little chaos, that always makes me happy." Discord suggested.
Letting go of a clump of feathers on his head, Weaver began to mull over what the draconequus had said. His suggestion actually had quite a bit of merit to it, he should just go out and cause some chaos. But no, not just any chaos, what he needed was to cause some Chaos. A smirk crept across his face.
"You know, my old friend, I think you may actually be right." Weaver said.
Surprised, Discord spat out the chocolate milk he'd been drinking and tossed his glass up into the air. "That's wonderful! I never thought I'd live to see the day you'd say that! This calls for some more chocolate mi-"
"No it doesn't!" Weaver yelled as he deftly plucked Discord's glass out of the air before anymore of his library was blown up.
"Now, there's something I've been planning but have been as of yet unable to accomplish. I simply don't possess the power required to perform such a feat. But if you would be so kind as to lend me some of yours..."
"Now that's something else I never thought I'd live to hear you say. The great Fate Weaver, almighty Lord of Change and the master of magic, isn't powerful enough to do something? And coming to me for help to top it all off?" Discord said in faux astonishment.
"Yes, yes, I understand you're taking immeasurable pleasure in my predicament, but I assure you that you will benefit quite handsomely from this." Weaver continued.
"Alright, you have my attention, not necessarily my cooperation, but you have gotten me quite intrigued. Though forgive me if I remain skeptical of the fellow who calls himself a master of deception."
"Your skepticism is well understood old friend, frankly I'd be insulted if you didn't know me well enough to mistrust every word I say," Weaver smirked. "But my plan is a rather straightforward one. The Inevitable City, my home, was not destroyed in the sundering of this world, but rather dragged screaming into the maw of Warp. In those days following the collapse of my world, the Materium was so saturated by Warp energy that the boundary between this world and the next became nearly impossible to feel.
"Even I with my great power cannot reach far enough to grasp it. But if you were to add your power to my own it would give me the boost I require to reach and penetrate the barrier and drag my home back out of the Warp and into this reality."
"An interesting proposition, but I'm not really seeing the part where I benefit from this little arrangement." Discord said.
"I'm coming to that now." the raven replied. "Pulling something so large out of the Warp would damage the barrier nearly irreparably and would result in the formation of a self sustaining warp storm around the city. The warp storm would act as a permanent gateway into the Warp, a realm of infinite power and possibility. This would be your reward; with the Chaos Gods dead, the Warp would be yours to command as you see fit, you could leave behind this dull, unchanging world of love and harmony and become the god of your own personal kingdom of eternal chaos."
"Now that definitely sounds like something I could get behind!" Discord exclaimed. "The only problem I see is that I benefit far more than you do, what would be the catch to this little deal?"
"The 'catch', as you so eloquently put it, is that I benefit from your victory. My master, Tzeentch, sealed off the Warp to ensure that none could ever again match his greatest feat. By defying him and reopening the Warp, and creating a new Chaos god on top of that, I will have effectively bested the being that single handedly destroyed all of Chaos. I will have succeeded in out scheming the God of Scheming. And of course I will bring about a new era of Chaos in this world from my throne within The Inevitable City as well."
"Well when you put it like that I suppose I don't really have much of a choice in the matter. I simply can't afford to pass up an opportunity to become a god," Discord laughed. "Of course I'll help you with this most noble of endeavors, my old friend! How do we begin?"
"The city used to stand a few miles from the tower, the crater it left when it disappeared is where we must go to perform the ritual." Weaver explained.
"Excellent! Let's get to work then, I've always wondered what it would be like to be a god." Discord said.
"Well there's no time like the present. Let's begin, shall we?" Weaver rapped his staff against the ground and the two vanished in a burst of writhing violet.
Once the two were gone, a shadow detached itself from a book case, pausing for a brief moment before departing.
"It would seem we are not the only ones who have not been ourselves as of late."
"So how exactly are we gonna go about puttin' a stop to whatever it is Weaver 'n Discord are plannin'?" Applejack asked.
"Before we can even begin forming a plan we must locate my sister, Luna. We are going to need her help if we are to have any hope of putting a stop to them." explained the princess.
"Are you sure you aren't overestimating the challenge posed by these two?" Rarity questioned. "Surely the combined power of the Elements of Harmony and yourself will be more than a match for Discord and Fate Weaver. Doesn't adding Princess Luna to the mix seem a bit like overkill?"
"It took the power of both Luna and I along with the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord alone." Celestia said, gravely. "Fate Weaver is easily Discord's better, even with both myself and Luna I fear we may not be able to stop them. And the situation is made all the more problematic by Fate Weaver's prophetic sight, he will be ready for us no matter what we do. From what little he told me of his brethren, the Lords of Change, it was impossible to defeat them because of this gift. The only way they could be bested was if Tzeentch himself wished for a Lord's defeat and sent them false visions of the future."
"So what? All that means is that we just need a plan so good that it'll work whether he sees it coming or not, simple as that!" Rainbow Dash said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I do suppose that's one way of looking at it." Celestia said. "However we need to know what they're planning before we can move against them, in the meantime we have to find my sister."
"We believe that we can save you some time with both of these matters, dearest Tia." a voice rang out from behind the group.
The assembled ponies turned to face this newest arrival and came face to face with Celestia's own sister, Princess Luna. Twilight and her friends bowed respectfully to her as she walked over to join them.
"Sister! It is good you are here, there is much to be discussed." Celestia said.
"We fear there is little time for discussion, sister." Luna began. "We come bearing very grave news. Our beloved teacher is not himself, he plots treachery and evil with the hated villain, Discord, we must bring him back to his senses!"
"Yes, my student, Twilight Sparkle, has just brought me news of the situation." Celestia said. "We need to work quickly to discover their plans."
"Hold on a second." interjected Rainbow Dash. "How do you know what those two are planning?"
"Tia told us of Weaver's desire for an audience with us so we went to visit him, but we hid ourselves when we noticed the presence of the draconequus." explained the princess. "We overheard their plans but we did not understand much of what was said, he spoke of a great cataclysm and of dead gods. But he spoke of his home and his master, he told us a little of these things when we were young. He plans to merge his powers with Discord's to defy his master's last wishes and pull The Inevitable City from its resting place within the Sea of Souls.
"When the city is recovered, Discord will pass through the hole in the barrier into the Great Ocean and use the power of that place to become a god. He will rule for eternity, untouchable within that realm while Weaver brings about a new age of Chaos from his throne in The Inevitable City."
The ponies felt their hearts sink at Luna's words. There could be no worse scenario than the one they now faced.
"Sister, if what you say is true then we have precious little time to act!" Celestia exclaimed.
"Fate Weaver is no fool, he will likely have put defenses in place by now. He will be ready for us." Luna said.
Celestia's gaze wandered over the ponies assembled before her, feeling her confidence rise with each determined face she looked upon. Finally she looked back at Luna, the fire of determination burning within her.
"Then we'll just have to make sure that we will succeed even if they see us coming." she declared, earning a few smiles from the ponies.
With that, Celestia teleported them to the Everfree Forest.
Deep in the Everfree Forest, Discord and Fate Weaver were going about the preparations for their ritual. Before the crater that used to be his home, Fate Weaver stood with Discord at the center of a massive eight pointed star he had carved into the ground.
"So how's this going to work?" the draconequus asked.
"Just stand here at the center of the Pantheon Star and no matter what happens do not leave. I shall take care of the rest." Weaver explained.
"Sounds easy enough." Discord said. "Now what do you plan to do about Celestia? I must say that I can't really see her just sitting idly by and letting us destroy the world."
"Don't worry yourself about that, my friend. Neither she nor her ponies can stop us." Weaver said.
"You seem awfully sure of that." Discord remarked.
Fate Weaver chuckled darkly at Discord's comment. "We shall succeed, my friend. I have foreseen it."
Discord rolled his eyes at the raven. "As if I've never heard that one before. I suppose I'll just follow your lead."
"Then let us begin!" Weaver exclaimed, jovially. He drove the haft of his staff into the ground at the very center of the star they stood in and left it there. The turquoise eye embedded within the staff began to glow with a familiar violet light that traveled down the staff and seeped into the star on the ground, lighting it up like a beacon.
Tendrils of light began to creep up Discord's feet and quickly he was covered in glowing veins of violet.
"Weaver..." he said, hesitantly.
"Do not worry, my friend, it's all part of the process. Now you may feel a slight tingling, but don't worry, this won't hurt much."
The veins covering Discord flared harshly and energy began to crackle along the length of his body, making him cry out in shock and pain.
"You lied, Weaver!" he yelled.
"Yes, well I suppose you could call it revenge for all the chocolate milk you've detonated in my library over the years." he replied, smugly.
Discord writhed in pain while the ritual siphoned his power and transferred it into the star at their feet. Then as quickly as they came, the tendrils retreated from Discord's form and the light from the star retreated back into Fate Weaver's staff.
Discord slumped to the ground in relief as the ritual ended, panting heavily. Rising to his feat, he weakly waved his eagle claw through the air. Nothing happened.
"Ugh, make this quick, Weaver. I do not enjoy being like this." he said with a grimace.
"It will be over before you know it." Weaver said, eyes riveted to his staff still embedded within the ground. "I would also advise that you stay within the radius of the Pantheon Star throughout the ritual. I cannot guarantee your safety otherwise."
"Yes yes, just get on with it." Discord replied, uncharacteristically irritable.
"Here goes nothing." Weaver said, reaching for his staff. As his hand closed around the staff, the power it contained shot up his arm and into his body, wreathing him in a violet lightning storm. Eyes wide and mouth opened in a silent scream, he endured the pain as he felt his power increase by leaps and bounds. When the light faded and Weaver's senses returned to him, he gazed upon Discord in astonishment.
"Discord," he gasped. "I never knew you possessed such power. If I didn't know any better I'd think you were some kind of long lost brother."
"I'm flattered." the draconequus said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Now now, don't be like that. Here, have a drink on me," Weaver chuckled as he conjured a glass of chocolate milk. Discord glared at him.
"Or don't," Weaver shrugged, tossing the glass over his shoulder. An explosion rocked the forest behind him as the glass impacted. "You know, that really is quite fun. But enough fooling around, on to the main event!"
The ancient raven closed his eyes and began to muster his power, the addition of Discord's magical might sending shivers down his spine. As he summoned the power to him, the very air around him became suffused with magic. A violet mist permeated the air and bolts of energy crackled into existence all around him, the feeling was indescribable.
Weaver expanded his consciousness and reached out into the ether as he so often did in his quiet moments. This time, however, he felt resistance. A grin broke out across his face as he pushed on it, testing its strength. With his new power it felt almost like tissue paper.
Discord became aware of a low mumbling and realized Fate Weaver was counting backwards. From his experience that rarely ever signified anything good. As the raven reached "zero" a voice carried through the air.
"Fate Weaver!"
Discord turned to see not only Celestia, but Luna and the six ponies that had almost defeated him.
"Well lookie here, Weaver. We seem to have guests."
Opening his eyes, Weaver turned to face the group.
"Well hello, my little ponies." he said, jovially. "What brings you here to my neck of the woods?"
"Don't play dumb with us, bird-brain!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "We know you're trying to bring back The Inevitable City!"
"Oh dear me, I've been found out!" he replied. "Whatever shall I do?"
Rainbow Dash growled, but Celestia cut her off.
"Weaver, please don't do this!" she implored. "I don't know what you must be thinking, but I never intended to do anything to you!"
"Liar," he spat. "I knew what you had planned the moment you banished Luna! First you imprisoned Discord and usurped his throne, then you banished Luna to the moon and claimed sole leadership of the kingdom. You could have been a little more subtle about it, if you ask me."
"Fate Weaver, this is insanity! Just listen to yourself!" Luna cried. "Celestia was right to banish us, we could not control ourselves. And Discord had gone mad with power, she had no choice in the matter."
Fate Weaver stared at her as though just noticing her presence.
"Ah, hello little Luna, it's so good to see you again." he said, his expression softening. "I had hoped our reunion would be under... well, different circumstances."
Luna returned his smile. "It is good to see you too. But please, listen to my sister, she never bore you any ill will. This is simply a misunderstanding."
The raven sighed. "Perhaps an apology was enough for you, but it will take more than a few honeyed words to sway me from my path. I do hope you don't take offense, my dear Luna. After all," he said, glaring at Celestia. "you always were my favorite."
Celestia appeared genuinely hurt by his words and when she offered no response, Weaver turned back to face the crater.
"Now if that's all, I have a destiny to fulfill."
"Weaver!"
Once again, the raven sighed. "Yes, Miss Sparkle?"
"I don't care what you thought the princess had planned for you, she would never use the Elements against anyone without good cause." Twilight said. "If you're too stubborn to understand that all she ever wanted was to be your friend then you never deserved her friendship in the first place! Believe it or not, it is possible for others to be nice to you without having some kind of hidden agenda."
"You are young and naive." he said, his back still to her. "One must always be on their guard for the world is a dark place. The world will use you, the world will betray you and when your usefulness has come to an end, the world will cast you aside."
"No Weaver!" Twilight yelled. "Your world was dark! Your world used people! Your world betrayed people! Your world is dead! It's time that you accepted that and moved on with your life. There's a reason your world died, Weaver. Chaos isn't the answer, it could never be the answer. A world built upon the foundations of chaos could never survive."
Weaver whirled on the unicorn. "Insolent child! Chaos is mighty! Chaos culled weak from strong so that only those worthy of the world would rule it! The gods picked those that were strong and raised them up to glory!"
"And where did that get you?" Twilight shouted back. "Your gods destroyed your world and themselves with their childish bids for power! What kind of world is that to live in? Only a world built upon the foundations of peace and tolerance could ever work. You may think friendship is something to be laughed at, but never underestimate its power. With the power of friendship Equestria has not only survived but thrived!"
"Do not think to preach to me, little unicorn!" Weaver yelled, anger rising. "I am a living testament to the might of Chaos! I alone survived the cataclysm that ended my world, not because of your 'magic of friendship' but because I was powerful! So do not think to lecture me on what power is, I, who was ancient when your world was young, know better than you ever could about true strength!"
Twilight sighed. "I pity you for your beliefs, Weaver. True strength comes from those around you, from their love for you, and from within yourself, from your love of them. Chaos may be strong, but it's strong in all the wrong ways. The strength that comes from the magic of friendship is so much more. It's not even about raw power, real strength is the conviction to help, protect, and love those close to you. Friendship is true strength, friendship is what makes life worth living, friendship is..." she struggled for the right word. "Righteous."
The raven clenched his fists in fury at the unicorn's words. Her words aggravated him in more ways than he thought possible. How dare this creature think to lecture him, HIM, about power. So blind was she in her conviction, but if she wanted to contest him then he would not deny her the chance to pit her power against his. He would show them the folly of their ways.
He plunged his mind through the barrier between worlds and felt the familiar sensation of the Sea of Souls. He drank deep of the Warp's power and felt his might grow far beyond anything these pathetic creatures could ever hope to match. How he had longed to once again feel the glorious madness of the Warp. Bloated with the power of the Immaterium, he cast his gaze upon the ponies before him.
"You proclaim yourselves righteous and righteous your souls will most certainly be." the daemon roared. "Glory to Chaos! Death to Harmony! Once this world burns, I shall define RIGHTEOUSNESS!"
Fate Weaver turned back to the crater and grabbed hold of The Inevitable City within the Warp. Sinking the claws of his mind deep into the city, he began to pull. All over the crater unnatural Warp lightning began to strike the ground and a rumbling filled the air.
"Hey Weaver, I could probably lend a hand if you'd care to share some of that power you've got." Discord said.
Weaver looked at Discord. "Discord, my most steadfast ally. I return to you the power I borrowed and grant you a small taste of the Warp. Serve me well."
Weaver returned the power he had taken from Discord and then poured the might of the Warp into him. Discord gasped as he felt the surge of power that came with Warp exposure. Magical energy danced along his body as he felt his power nearly double itself.
"Oh my." was all he could think to say.
"Quickly! Use the Elements to stop him!" he heard Celestia cry.
"Oh no, we simply can't have that, can we," Discord chuckled.
Before the ponies could begin channeling the power of the Elements, Discord conjured six magical bubbles and launched them at each of the ponies. Before any of them could react they were impacted and imprisoned by the bubbles, separating them and preventing them from calling upon the power of the Elements.
Fate Weaver laughed at the display. "So you see the folly of relying on others. You are only strong together and are powerless when separated. I, however, rely solely upon my self for my power and cannot be divided and conquered like you."
"Now then, ladies." Discord said, addressing Celestia and Luna. "Shall we pick up where we left off all those years ago?"
"We defeated you then and we shall defeat you now." Luna declared.
"Well then let's see what you've got!" Discord exclaimed, happily.
Light enveloped Celestia's horn as points of light winked into existence all around her. One broke away from her and launched itself at Discord. With a snap of his fingers he teleported away, the star passing harmlessly through the space he had just occupied and detonating in a brilliant magical explosion as it impacted the ground.
Laughing, he conjured a swarm of paper airplanes and sent them flying at Luna. She nimbly dodged each one, hearing them explode as they passed by her. After the barrage ended, tendrils of darkness sprung from her shadow and ensnared Discord.
"Oh, Luna. I didn't know you were into this sort of thing," Discord laughed.
Celestia took advantage of his immobility and launched the rest of her stars at him. Each one of them found their mark, their combined energy resulting in a massive explosion. When the dust cleared a pink mass became visible where the draconequus had been. He had shielded himself in one of his cotton candy clouds which promptly spewed a jet of chocolate milk at Celestia. She responded by shooting a beam of light from her horn to meet it. The two attacks collided with Celestia's beam vaporizing the jet of chocolate milk and continuing down the stream until it impacted the pink cloud.
The pink cloud exploded when Celestia's beam hit it, sending Discord sailing through the air, laughing. His laughter ended abruptly, however, when Luna's shadow tendrils grabbed him at the peak of his flight and slammed him down into the ground. After a few tense moments Discord finally pulled himself from the small crater his impact made, his body crackling with magic.
"I suppose it's about time I took off the kid gloves, then." he said, cracking his fingers. "I think I'll try out some of these new powers ol' Weaver gave me."
With a snap of his fingers a bolt of violet lightning struck the ground near the two alicorns. Standing right where the lightning had hit was a strange and horrifying creature. It had a short, stubby body perched atop two long, spidery legs. Four arms ending in wicked claws jutted from its sides and a long tongue lolled from its fang lined maw. The most notable feature about the monster, though, was that it was a bright, uniformed pink all over its body.
The monster glared at the princesses with two beady yellow eyes as crackling balls of fire blazed to life in each of its hands. Before it had the chance to act, however, Celestia hurled another of her stars at the creature, obliterating it.
"Well that certainly was anticlimactic." grumbled Discord.
A cackling sound interrupted his thoughts as he brought his gaze to rest back on the area of the explosion. Shapes became visible as the dust cleared from the area. Where there was once one creature there now stood two, each slightly smaller in build than the original, but for the most part still the same, except that they were both blue instead of pink.
"Oh my, what a pleasant surprise," Discord chuckled.
The warp-spawn rushed at the two princesses, nimbly dodging every magic missile or shadow tendril the alicorns sent their way. Before the monsters got too close the princesses took off into the air to put more distance between themselves and the blue horrors. Seeing this, one horror knocked the other one over, grabbed its feet, and began to rapidly swing it in a circle. The horror let go of its counterpart, sending it sailing through the air after the princesses.
The horror crashed right into Luna, disrupting her flight and sending her and itself spiraling back to the ground. The two hit the ground and rolled a short distance before Luna managed to buck the monster from her back, sending it tumbling to the ground. Dazed, the creature was unable to resist as Luna ensnared it with her magical tendrils. Once the creature was completely entangled by them she squeezed, destroying the warp-spawn and sending it back to its realm in a burst of blue fire.
Enraged at the destruction of its twin, the remaining monster charged Luna only to be obliterated as Celestia caught it with another barrage of magical missiles.
"Sister, are you alright?" Celestia asked as she landed next to Luna.
"Of course, sister." Luna replied. "We are not so easily bested."
Looking past Discord, the princesses saw the progress Fate Weaver was beginning to make. The entire crater was wreathed in a psychic lightning storm and the rumbling had intensified, accompanied by a low tearing sound. The most disconcerting sight, however was a ghostly, insubstantial image of a city that flickered in and out of existence within the crater.
"Sister, we must dispose of Discord quickly, we do not have much time before Fate Weaver succeeds!" Luna said urgently.
"Aww, what's the matter?" Discord said with a pout. "Don't want to play with old Discord anymore?" With another snap of his fingers, dozens more bolts of violet lightning struck the ground, bringing with them the pink horrors from before.
Fires blazed to life in their hands which they wasted no time hurling at Luna and Celestia. Luna summoned a magical barrier around them, shielding them from the onslaught of fire balls. When the barrage ended, the barrier shattered into thousands of shards which Luna then hurled into the mass of daemons. The pink horrors were shredded to ribbons by the attack, but did not stay down for long. The remains of each pink horror reformed into two blue horrors just like the first one they fought.
The mass of gibbering warp-spawn charged at the two princesses, falling over each other trying to get to them first. The alicorn sisters devastated the daemons' ranks with a hail of magical projectiles and a flurry razor sharp shadow tendrils. But still the monsters came, constantly reinforced by storm of violet lightning conjured by a cackling Discord. On the verge of being overwhelmed, Celestia gathered her magic into her horn and let loose a destructive beam of sunlight. Likewise, Luna let loose with her own devastating midnight beam.
When the dust cleared from the assault, they were greeted by the sight of a still smiling Discord.
"Bravo ladies. What a show!" he called, clapping. "I wonder if you could pull that off again."
Raising his hands to the sky, he prepared to summon another wave of horrors from the Warp. In a slightly more serious tone, he added, "I do hope you see the futility of your actions, you'll never be able to overcome the power of Chaos."
"No Discord, it is Chaos that will fail!" Luna replied.
"Chaos will never triumph over Harmony." Celestia added. "And we will show you why!"
The two alicorns closed their eyes and began to summon their power. Humoring them, Discord watched the two condescendingly from a throne he conjured. An unnatural wind began to kick up around the two sisters and a further magical discharge was added to the air. Suddenly a great shadow was cast over the area and Discord began to feel uneasy. Looking up at the sky, he saw a sight that made the blood freeze in his veins. The moon had moved in front of the sun in a magnificent solar eclipse, casting the whole land in shadow.
The princesses opened their eyes and Discord felt a horrible sense of deja vu. Eyes glowing white with power, the alicorns spoke in unison.
"This is the power of our friendship."
Discord could only watch in terror as they brought their celestial bodies to bear as weapons against him. A beam of destructive energy erupted from the eclipse, lancing down from the sky like a spear thrown to the earth by a god. The beam struck Discord and devastated the land for almost a hundred yards in every direction around him.
Fate Weaver glanced over his shoulder at the commotion, worry seeming to creep into his features. "Discord!" he yelled.
The magical bubbles imprisoning Twilight and her friends destabilized and disappeared in the wake of Luna and Celestia's final attack on Discord.
"Quickly, my little ponies!" Celestia cried. "Stop Weaver!"
They needed no further prompting, they could see the city becoming more substantial by the second. They made their way over to Fate Weaver and began to channel the Elements against him.
"No!" he cried. "Stay back!"
The familiar magical light began to envelope the ponies and their jewelry began to glow with power. Wreathed by the power of the Elements, the ponies were lifted into the air.
"NO!" Weaver cried. "This isn't how it happened! This is not the way it was meant to be!"
A wave of light erupted from the ponies as a rainbow colored beam flew through the air towards the Lord of Change. In desperation, Weaver threw up innumerable magical barriers around himself, but it made little difference. The beam cast by the ponies passes through his defenses with no difficulty and hit its mark with unerring accuracy.
"NOOOOOOO!" Weaver yelled. He couldn't believe it, this was not what he had seen when he had gazed into the future. He had seen victory, a world in flames, he had seen himself sitting atop his throne within the city once again.
Eventually shock gave way to agony. It felt as if his very being was being torn apart by the power engulfing him. This was not at all what he had expected being turned to stone would feel like. Soon he realized that it was because he wasn't being turned to stone, but rather because he was indeed being torn apart.
Of course the Elements would see nothing worth redeeming in him, his escape was a risk that simply could not be taken. The only appropriate course of action was to annihilate him, tear him apart and scatter him to the winds of magic.
He felt his connection to the Warp fade and then vanish altogether. He watched as, once again, his home slid back into the Warp, torn to pieces by the sudden shattering of the bridge between worlds. He watched in despair as everything he had ever known was once again obliterated, the wound in his heart he had thought long healed reopened as he finally realized that Chaos was now and forever dead.
He watched in detached amusement as his feathers tore from his body and felt his wings disintegrate. He became confused as the pale skin of his arms became visible as his feathers disappeared. His confusion turned to panic as the plumage upon his head gave way to hair and his beak dissolved, making way for a nose and a lips, and his talons gave way to fingers. It was worse than he had imagined, he was not being destroyed, he was becoming mortal.
As quickly as it began, the process ended. Where once an avatar of the Raven God stood, there was now but a man of a little over two decades clad in a dull black robe. What once was Fate Weaver stared at his hands in horror, they looked exactly as they did the day of his ascension over ten thousand years ago. He looked up as he heard the sound of chuckling.
There before him stood his old form, the elderly raven librarian he used to be, staring down at him with a paternal smile.
"My most faithful servant." the raven spoke.
Fate Weaver said nothing, but stared in astonishment at the being before him.
"Do you not recognize me, my servant?" the being asked.
He did, but he did not want to speak the word. He did anyways.
"Tzeentch." he said. It answered the question he had about why he had not foreseen his defeat. His master had hidden the future from him.
"It's good to see you still remember me after so long." the Chaos God said. "It's also good to see that you're still sharp as ever. You set your sights quite high this time, didn't you? Though I suppose I should have expected you to try and one up me some day. In fact, that's exactly what I did."
"You knew this would happen?" Fate Weaver asked.
"Of course I did, I am The Great Schemer, after all. And I simply couldn't have you trouncing my greatest victory, now, could I?"
"How are you even here?" Weaver asked. "I saw you die."
"You saw most of me die." Tzeentch corrected him. "But as long as you lived a part of me still lived on within you. When I lifted you up to daemonhood I imbued you with a part of myself, that is where your power came from."
"And so you waited for me to make my move then sent me a false vision of the future." Fate Weaver surmised.
"Exactly. The rest took care of itself. Though most of the credit goes to your wonderful friends here." Tzeentch said, indicating the approaching ponies.
"Fate Weaver?" Celestia asked, looking between the man and the raven.
"That would be this one." the raven said, indicating Fate Weaver. "Though I dare say he won't be needing that name anymore."
"What do you mean?" asked Twilight.
"When your Elements of Harmony separated him from his power, he ceased to be Fate Weaver, for that is a name born only by my personal champion in this world." Tzeentch explained.
"Do you mean to say that you are..." Luna hesitated.
"Tzeentch, The Great Deceiver, The Changer of Ways, The Master of Magic, and whatever else you feel like, at your service," he bowed. "And since your friend here is no longer my champion, he will no longer be able to carry that name."
"So does that mean we gotta use that really long name he's got now?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Ar'Karaleth'Kar'Abosh." Tzeentch said. "A fine name, but it was also his daemon name. No, you will simply have to use the one his mother gave him those many years ago."
"So what would that be?" Applejack inquired.
The man looked once more at his hands and then at each of the ponies arrayed before him. Thoughts no longer clouded by the madness of daemonkind, his mind was free to realize the atrocities he had been about to commit on this world. And still, knowing what he had been about to do, here these ponies stood, ready to forgive him. For the first time in ten thousand years, The Weaver of Mortals' Fates felt tears in his eyes.
Celestia looked up at the tower before her. Ravenspire, it was called, or The Black Library, it depended on who you asked. As she entered the tower she pondered on the events of the past few days. His ultimate scheme complete, Tzeentch had departed the world, never to return. Discord had not been destroyed by Celestia and Luna's attack, bloated by the power of the Warp, he had only been knocked out. He was now safely imprisoned within the walls of Canterlot Palace, but he would not be returned to stone. The princesses had decided to give him a chance to redeem himself.
Her thoughts wandered to her friend, Fate Weaver. No, she corrected herself, not Fate Weaver anymore. Kairos. She liked his mortal name. Following the events of that day he had asked their forgiveness and then retreated to his library to think. Several days had passed since then and Celestia had decided to pay him a visit.
She walked through the impossible architecture of the tower, up staircases and through hallways, until she finally found herself before the door to the great library. Opening it, she looked inside for any sign of the tower's sole inhabitant. She spotted him sitting atop a book case.
He was once again clad in his usual robes and holding his staff. The turquoise eye of the staff had a spider web of cracks running all throughout it, its power having been broken when Tzeentch died. He held a glass of chocolate milk is his other hand, sipping on the drink every so often and attempting to maintain a cluster of weak sparks floating in the air before him.
"Hello Kairos." Celestia said. "How are you feeling?"
Kairos didn't say anything as she approached him. She sat down before the book case he was perched on and waited. The young man gulped down the last of his chocolate milk and wiped away the mustache it left behind with the sleeve of his robe.
"It's as though I've gone deaf, blind, and numb," he grumbled.
"I'm sure you'll get used to being mortal again soon enough." Celestia assured him.
"I don't doubt it." he agreed, sliding down off the book case. "But it's really going to suck."
Celestia smiled and bumped against him. "Well Luna and I are here if you ever need anything. And don't forget about Twilight and her friends in Ponyville, I'm sure they'd love for you to visit them sometime soon."
"Twilight was here the other day." Kairos said. "She's a nice girl. We talked for a while, I apologized for making such an arse of myself back in the forest. I even offered to donate some of my books to her library."
"Well that was nice of you." Celestia said with a smile.
Kairos chuckled. "Poor lass nearly fainted. But the way I see it, I've got a lot to do to start making up for, well, nearly destroying the world and all that."
"Kairos, you don't have to do anything other than be their friend." the alicorn said.
He fell silent after she said that. He rapped his staff against the ground and scowled when nothing happened. He concentrated hard on the empty glass he still held and eventually it refilled itself with chocolate milk. He took a sip.
"He loves you, you know."
"What?" Celestia asked, confused.
"Discord. He's had a thing for you for ages now."
Celestia blushed. "Well clearly the Elements did more to you than I thought, there's no way that could be true."
Kairos laughed and took another sip of his chocolate milk. "Did the cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain not give it away? Wasn't that what you begged me to teach you to make when you were just a little filly?"
Celestia's blush deepened and Kairos laughed at her expense. "I'm not telling you to do anything about it, my dear, I'm just throwing it out there, is all."
Celestia huffed. "I liked you better when you kept your thoughts to yourself."
"Would you like to stay for a while, Celestia?" he said suddenly. "I've only just realized how dreadfully boring this library can be."
"Of course." she answered with a smile. "But only on one condition."
"And what would that be, my dear?" Kairos asked, already knowing her answer.
"You have to tell me a story." she said.
Kairos chuckled warmly at her request. "Anything in particular?"
"Surprise me." she responded.
Kairos sat down with his back against the book case and Celestia laid down in front of him.
"It is the forty-first millennium." he began. "For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth..."
Kairos idly swept his gaze across the library, everything seemed so lusterless with mortal eyes. His library, which once seemed to his daemonic eyes to be a radiant beacon of knowledge, just looked so dull and mundane now. A light breathing caught his attention and he glanced to his side where Celestia slept. She had opted to stay the night after he had finished his story, they hadn't even moved from the book case he leaned against.
It didn't matter what kind of eyes he looked at her with, his old student would never look mundane. Even with his magical senses hopelessly mangled, looking at her was like gazing into the heart of a star and he felt proud that he was at least partially responsible for that.
His mind kept wandering back to the events following the loss of his powers. He could only wonder in amazement how the ponies could have found it in their hearts to forgive him after what he'd tried to do. Truly they were better beings than he. He had knelt at the feet of the sisters and begged that they forgive him his transgressions. Celestia had responded with that kind smile he loved her for and merely asked a question of him.
"Will you accept our friendship?"
He took a moment to think of a fitting response, a simple "yes" could not do the situation justice. He had remembered a dead language he had long ago fallen in love with and formed what he believed would be the most appropriate response.
"Ave Imperatrix Celestialis." he had said to her. "Ave Domina Nox." he said to Luna.
Twilght and her friends did not understand him, but he had taught the alicorn sisters the language long ago and the smiles they offered in response warmed his heart.
His thoughts then turned to little Twilight. Celestia had chosen her student well, this one as well as her friends were powerful. He marveled how even with all the power of the Warp at his disposal he still couldn't best a couple of determined ponies. It seemed that Twilight had been right to lecture him that day, she knew what she was talking about when she said that there was nothing stronger than friendship. The irony of a being a fraction of his age knowing more about true power than him was not lost on him. There would always be another lesson to learn it seemed, no matter how old he got that truth only grew truer.
Regrettably, he likely wouldn't be getting much older. Now that he was mortal time was once again his enemy. It felt so strange, for as long as he could remember years, decades, even centuries felt like mere swings of the pendulum, but now every second was precious. In all likeliness he would probably only live another century at most, provided he could gain a modicum of his magical competence back. It did not mean he would not try to regain his timelessness, but as it was he was having far too much trouble even refilling a glass of chocolate milk. How Discord managed it with such ease was beyond him.
He smiled as he thought of the draconequus. He had managed to persuade the alicorn sisters to give his old friend a chance at redemption instead of turning him to stone again. It was the least he could do for dragging him into his ill fated scheme. He recalled the terror he had felt when he looked upon Discord's unmoving form lying in the crater caused by the princesses' attack. That he might have been responsible for his friend's death nearly drove him to tears for the second time that day. The first had been as his master died for the last time.
"If there was one thing I would ask of you," Tzeentch had said, "it would be to embrace this change, not to rebel against it." After those words his purpose was fulfilled and he finally left for wherever it was gods went when they died.
He would obey his master's last words till his dying breath. He had lost sight of his master's will over the years, he had pined after his glory days instead of embracing the wondrous change around him. But no more, eyes opened to the truth of this new world, he decided that he would no longer hide away within his tower. He would venture out and he would look for purpose.
Perhaps in the morning he would go with Celestia back to Canterlot and try to find himself a new purpose there, surely she could find something for him to occupy himself with. Or maybe he would go to Ponyville and... oh what the devil was it those ponies did there? Frolic through meadows? Chase after butterflies?
Kairos frowned. "This is going to be harder than I thought."
Walked through forest, idly hoped Applejack was right about directions. Had been walking for better part of day and still did not feel like I was getting closer. I look up through trees, catch brief glimpse of tower in distance, not much further now.
Finally broke through forest into massive clearing of fallow land. In middle of clearing sits the tower, just as Applejack said. Tower is massive, black, pair of wings at top, this was it. Wonder briefly how to get inside. Scale side? No, sides were smooth, as if tower was carved from single piece of rock, no windows either.
Walk around tower for a while, finally find entrance. No idea how to go about opening it though. Remembered Applejack's words, if what she said was true then he already knew I was here. For lack of better idea, I approach the doors. As I draw near a loud rumbling sounds from tower and doors begin to open. Pony was right, he knew I was here.
I enter through front and find six separate staircases leading off throughout the tower. Before I can pick one, a torch flares to life above one. I pick that one. Climb stairs for what feels like hours, no way tower was really this high. Staircase finally ends and leads into a large hall, far too large. Dimly recall pony's words about impossible architecture. Follow hallway to the end, faced with final door. I approach it and hear what sounds like someone counting on the other side. Once again door opens before I reach it, was beginning to irritate me.
Enter room and walk into what can only be some kind of M.C. Escher painting. Impossible maze of books and stairs, doors and what look like telephone booths. Room is lit by hundreds of floating torches, room looks like it goes on for miles. Finally gaze is drawn to a rather unimpressive man leaning against a nearby bookcase. Mid to late twenties, but leans on a staff as though hunched under the weight of years. Messy black hair, midnight blue robe, ice blue eyes, pale skin. In right hand he holds a staff, in left a glass of chocolate milk. Appearance makes me think of a crow or other carrion bird.
"And enter." he says, chuckling to himself. "I still got it."
"You are Fate Weaver?" I ask him.
He chuckles again. "No, I am not. I haven't been for several years. My name is Kairos. And if I'm not mistaken you are Rorschach."
I nod in response.
"So, what brings you to my humble library?" he asks, taking a sip from his drink. "From what I have heard about you I can only assume you're here to enact some manner of punishment upon me for the stories I'm sure you've heard?"
I shake my head. "Not my concern. Heard you opposed tyrannical princess, came to find an ally."
"Ah, you've got something of a bee in your bonnet about her haven't you? Unfortunately you came here in vain, I've long since given up any grudge I've held towards her."
I stay silent. He sighs.
"The likes of us should not meddle in this world. Our time is long past." he says.
"How did you get here?" I ask him. "Did the indestructible man send you here too?"
"Unlike you I am not a foreigner to this world, though these days I certainly do feel like one. No, Equestria is where I was born." he explains.
"So humans do exist here?" I ask him.
"They did, once." he says, wistfully.
"What happened to them?"
"Much the same as what I'm sure will happen to your world." he replies.
"Dead?" I ask.
"Very." he says. I feel a pang of disappointment.
"What were they like? How did they die? Why are you still alive?"
"Well they were just like the humans from your world." he says. "Except we had the courtesy to not proclaim to be virtuous while we took the world to pieces around us."
I nod, he was right.
"All humans are the same, world to world, some just go about it differently. We knew what we were, a pox, a plague, a cancer upon the world, and we reveled in it. We knew our faults and we celebrated them, for why would one not take joy in what defines them? Mankind is orderless anarchy and that is how we lived. Eventually our chaotic nature gave birth to the Gods of Chaos, whom we worshipped as the paragons of our anarchistic ways. But eventually the Gods of Chaos did what they did best and we were consumed in the fire of our own making."
"They deserved it." I state. The man looked at me funny for a moment.
"I agree. And if you'd asked any one of the humans from that time you would be hard pressed to find one who disagreed." he said, taking a draught of his drink.
"If man is dead why do you live?" I ask.
"Oh, well I was an immortal daemon prince of the winning god at the time." he said as though commenting on the weather.
"Ah." I say. "So if your god won why is he dead too?"
"Funny story, that." the librarian replies. "Mine was the god of scheming, betrayal, and deceit. When everyone else was dead there was no one for him to scheme against, deceive, or betray, and he ceased to exist once he was without purpose."
"Fate is not without irony." I say.
"Speaking of which, I'm sure the irony of a utopia born from humanity's destruction is not lost upon you." he remarks.
"Not at all." I reply. "Utopia can exist, so long as there are no humans to ruin it."
"How are you faring in this world?" he inquires.
"I survive. Have a small cave in the forest. Kill the predators in spare time." I explain.
"You hate them." It was not a question.
I nod. "They are soft, weak, naive. They have no idea what hardship is like."
He sighs and shakes his head. "Because they can afford to be. This is a utopia, why should they need to know of hardships. Just because humanity is doomed to death does not mean they should suffer with us."
"It is a dictatorship. They have no free will." I persist.
"Yet they are happy."
"It is not fair."
"An old friend of mine once said 'What does it matter if it's not fair as long as it's fun?' There is some truth to it, they are happy, they are content." the librarian explains.
"It's not real, their lives are lies."
"You hate it because it is order. These creatures crave order, it is their way. We despise it, humanity is inherently chaotic, we cannot stand to be bound in such a manner."
"Why do you allow it?" I ask. "Why do you let her tyranny stand? Has she taken your will too?"
"My will is as free and chaotic as ever. I may be the last son of Chaos, but I will sow my Chaos in service to Harmony. It is by my own choice, I will never be bound."
"So says the slave to the free man." I reply.
He takes a step forward and locks his gaze with mine, eyes easily finding mine, even through my face.
"And what does it mean to be free? Even now, you, an agent of order, are still a slave to the Chaos within your heart. You rebel and lash out against the order of this world simply because there is no other conflict for you to strive against. Is that freedom? To endlessly struggle with no hope of winning?
"There is no release from the Chaos, not for the likes of us. We are humans and as such are doomed to our fate. But while we can never escape it, we can still compromise. To put the Chaos within us in service to Harmony, it is the best we can hope for."
I growl. "Never compromise, even in the face of Armageddon."
"And what will you do?" he asks. "Take it from one who has been down that path before. Do not make an enemy of the princess. Do not spurn her friendship."
"Why would I want to be friends with that false princess?"
"Because there is much she can teach you. There is much they can all teach you. Do not push them away, do not hate them for their softness. Instead envy them for it, for they can live in a world where they can afford to be soft. We had no such luxury, our worlds were grim and dark, and they are both dead. Maybe yours yet lives, but in truth it is dead, it has been dead since it was born. And it is with good reason they died.
"A world built upon the foundations of chaos could never survive, only through Harmony can there be hope. So do not push them away, let them in, let them help you. They will not succeed, but they can at least help."
I think on what he said. I do not respond.
"Go back to your cave, rest and think. Then make your choice. Will you allow the Chaos in your heart to rule you, or will you be its master instead and accept their friendship?"
I nod to him and turn to leave.
"Wait." he says. I turn back to him and he holds out a glass of hot chocolate. I can smell it, it's warm Ovaltine. It smells like a cold winter night, wrapped up in a blanket, sitting comfortably by a roaring fire with family. I take the proffered drink, it's as though everyone in this world knows of weakness for idealistic American staples.
Without another word I take my leave, gingerly sipping the steaming drink all the way back down through the tower. It tastes good.
Kairos stared at the empty doorway for some time. He was soon interrupted by the soft clopping of hooves coming out from the maze of books.
"Hello, Kairos." a familiar voice says.
"Hello Celestia." he replies. "How are you this fine day?"
"Well, anxious, but well. How about you?"
"Very well." he replies. "I just had a very engaging conversation with a very nice young lad."
Celestia stiffens.
"A friend of yours, if I do recall. A nice boy by the name of Rorschach?"
"He was here?" she asked, her voice nervous.
"He was indeed, but I gave him a good talking to. Don't you worry your pretty little head, my dear."
"What was your opinion of him?" she asked.
"Honestly?" he sighed. "He's beyond redemption. He's set in his ways and nothing you do will change it."
Celestia looked worried. "What should I do?"
"Be his friend. He'll never come all the way around, but with a few friends he should change for the better. If you managed to change me then I'm sure he'll be a walk in the park."
Celestia grinned and nuzzled her old teacher's shoulder. "So you're saying I should just hit him with the Elements of Harmony?" she said with a laugh.
"Maybe not that. But a little kindness goes a long way. Even with monsters like us."
"Oh you were never a monster." Celestia insisted.
"Except for that time that I was." Kairos replied. "I think you should go talk to him again. And this time be nice."
"I was never anything but!" she said, indignantly.
"Well then be nicer."
"Yes daddy." Celestia droned.
"You kids play nice now, I don't want to have to come out of this tower," he chuckled.
"Alright, I'll go talk to him." she said. "Goodbye Weaver."
Kairos shook his head at the pet name. "Goodbye Celestia, visit me again soon."
With that, Celestia teleported away and Kairos was once again left to his books.
"I wonder how I'd look with a hat like his." he mused.
