Chapter 38 – Chaos Versus Chaos

“Well, it's about time somepony got me out of that prison block.” He said after bending back to the point that if he had a spine it would have snapped in half. After he straightened out he stretched his lion's paw and snapped his fingers causing a nearby squirrel to suddenly look like it was ripped out of the stone age for squirrels. I couldn't help but snort a little at this. I remembering seeing something like this from old Saturday morning cartoons. Of course, the girls decided to gasp at this.

“What do you think you're doing?” Twilight asked in a mixture of surprise and anger. Of course, Discord didn't give a care as he decided to float up in the air with his stretching now moving on to his cloven hoof.

“I'm stretching of course, when you're a creature of chaos. Stone bodysuits aren't your typical go-to fashion choice.” He said with a wave of his arms. He then proceeds to continue to stretch and snap his figures causing a bunny to join the stone age squirrel in appearance.

“Make that bunny cute again, now!” Pinkie said after she gasped at that. Honestly, you would think I would be flipping my shit at all this. Frankly, I was finding it a little amusing, to say the least. This was completely ripped from old Hanna Barbara and Tex Avery cartoons.

“Oh, please he's adorable the way he is.” Discord said rubbing the bunny under its chin before it decided to snap at his lion's paw. This caused Discord to recoil back and stick out his forked tongue at it. “You know what else is adorable, that you ponies truly think you can reform me and your putting your faith in this one here to make it happen.” He continued floating over Fluttershy with a magnifying glass stretching it beyond the lens to show massive yellow eyes with red dot pupils. That was before he disappeared and reappeared next to Fluttershy who tried to step back only to have her cheeks pinched by a granny garbed Discord. “It makes me want to pinch your horsey little cheeks.”

“How did you know about that?” Twilight asked stepping forward. The more that I watched this the more I noticed just how angry everypony was. That also didn't stop Discord getting into Twilight's face with a look of annoyance.

“Being turned to stone doesn't stop me from hearing every word Celestia says, although I will admit, it makes rolling my eyes a challenge.” He continued after pulling his eyes out of his sockets like it was a pair of dice. Even shook them in his paw that added to the effects. With a flick, he threw them and disappeared as the eye found themselves in two dark match holes that his head materialized out of with a big grin on his face.

“Well unless you want us to be turned back into stone. You will zap those animals back the way they were pronto.” Twilight commented using her hoof to point at said animals.

“Oh, you wouldn't dare turn me back to stone and risk disappointing your precious princess.” Discord shot back with the last two sound very sarcastically.

“Try us Dip cord,” Dash commented using a very lame pun for an insult.

“You think you could treat poor defenseless animals like that and get away with it?” Fluttershy commented showing a little backbone.

“You go Fluttershy!” Dash cheered as I was a little surprised that Fluttershy had that in her. She flew right up to Discord's face and tapped him on the nose.

“You best watch your step buster, or I will give you... the stare.” She said using a pause for dramatic effect. I blinked for a few moments. Did she just threaten the cartoon king of Saturday morning chaos with a stare of all things? I'm sorry did my brain check out without leaving a note or something? This was made worst by Discord's reaction as he reeled back in surprise.

“The stare! Oh no please, not that. Anything but your disapproving eyeballs.” He said coward-ling in fear which was an act as I could tell he was being a grade A sarcastic dick. Before he sprung up and hovered in a circle laughing. That didn't go too well with Fluttershy as she began to unleash 'the stare' on him. I simply facepalmed at this insanity. There is no way in hell this was supposed to be Fluttershy's secret weapon that makes animals submit. Even Discord played it up for laughs as he acted like it was choking it before it completely lost it and began to laugh. “Oh, you're hilarious.” Discord said in the middle of his laughing.

“If it turns out we have to use our elements against you, I'm sure we can convince Princess Celestia it was for a good reason.” Twilight tacked on to try and shut his tomfoolery down.

“I suppose that's correct.” He said using both his paw and his tail to snap causing both stone age animals to return back to normal.

“It's not like he's a real threat anyway.” I finally tapped into the conversation. This caused the girls to look at me like I was crazy. Finally, Discord turned to look directly at me.

“Oh my my my, what in all chaos are you?” Discord commented as he coiled himself around me.

“Well depends on who you ask. You could call me an ex-human, some would call me Ryhn, most know me as Firestorm. Some would say I'm under them and in this case, you can call me your better Discord.” I answered with a smirk.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked after the girls gasped at my comment. Oh, I was laying on the cocky card thick here, but I couldn't help myself.

“My better? Do you even know who I am? I'm Discord the lord of-” He continued to say sound more and more like Q from Star Trek before I cut him off.

“Of Saturday morning slapstick.” I finished before he paused to look at me. “Don't give me that look, you know just as much as I do that you are no lord of chaos.” I think I broke all of them as they looked at me with their mouths agape.

“Oh really? Then you know 'true chaos'?” Discord asked using his hands to air quote at me.

“Far better than you.”

“Prove it?” Discord asked smirking.

“See that's the kicker in all this. Knowing true chaos over your little cartoon antics and showing it are two different things. I mean I don't have the powers to show you it and I doubt you would just give me some. Out of fear of being proven wrong, of course.” I said before I reached up and patted him on the should. “Don't worry I understand you're afraid.” Oh, I was playing a dangerous game here and I fucking knew it. Teasing a guy that could literally turn me into stone to spite me, isn't a bright idea. I was just playing to my strength of doing something extremely stupid.

“Do I Discord, Lord of chaos look scared to you?” He asked appearing before me in an odd set of Spartan armor.

“Yeah, your even shaking in your little boots,” I said pointing down to them as they indeed shaking from being filled with ice.

“Why I never, fine you think you can out chaos the Lord of Chaos. Then let us see if you can handle the big boy britches.” He said as I looked down to find myself in a pair of overalls.

“Cheeky,” I commented taking them off with a claw snapping the suspenders on them. That was before Discord pulled out one of his eyes and ran his talons over it to turn it into a ball of weird colors and shapes. This must be chaos magic in it's purest form. He blinked the empty socket to have a new eye appear and than thrust-ed the ball of magic into my chest causing me to slide back a few feet. That's when I felt the magic course through me and for a moment, only a moment the world disappeared for me.

***---***

The element bearers and Discord watch as a blast of energy exploded from Firestorm's body that was a mixture of plaids, stripes, and zigzags clouds of smoke only to show Firestorm barely standing there.

“Firestorm?” Twilight said trying to take a step forward. She was dealing with a mixture of anger, confusion, and most importantly at this moment worry for Storm. Randomly colored sparks continued to arch over him as his body jerked a little with each one.

“Oh please, any chaos user could withstand that.” Discord said throwing his hands up into the air literally as they popped off his wrists before two more popped out.

“Firestorm?” Twilight tried again getting a little closer before she was only six or so feet away. Storm's hand made a gesture to have her stop. “Firestorm are you alri-” Was all Twilight could get out before his head shot up and the long in his eyes was enough to cause her to step back in a gasp. Instead of the red dragon-like eyes, he had before. His whole eyes were a pitch black beyond diamond-like red pupils one larger than the other floated in them.

“It's showtime.” He said as his head slowly turned sideways. In a split second, an odd track began to play. The only ones that would have been close to knowing what the track was, it would have been Twilight and Spike. However either one of them never gotten themselves familiar with a lot of movie themes and in this case, a metal version of the Beetlejuice theme began to play out of nowhere. As the music began to really kick it, the ground around Firestorm began to break apart and an almost perfect circle of ground that he was standing began to sink down beyond the side of any of them. All while he was grinning like a bad man having a field day with what was going on. Soon the area around him filled with an inky black mass that could be mistaken for water if it was solid.

“What did you do?” Twilight said as she turned and stared daggers at the tall figure looking at the void with interests.

“I would love to take credit for this if it was me. It's rather interesting, to say the least, but I don't see the chaos-” was what he got out before a hand began to appear out of the blackened mass. It looked like a massive golden metallic claw. That was followed by a large-scaled dragon claw a second later. Just like before two more hands appear and than another, leaving three gold claws and three red scaled claws holding onto the edge. With the movement of the hands, it could be told that it was preparing to come out, a massive orange and red mass flew out of the hole before it spread it's massive wings show a blacken upper half of a human body that had six limbs attached to it. Three of them red scaled that faded into blackness and the same for three golden mechanical arms that faded as well. In the center of it's chest had a massive symbol that looked like a very sharp stylized dark red M with matching color a diamonds atop and below the middle point of the M. To the left and right of the bottom diamond was two curved triangles that made the symbol look like a three toe claw with a back point to it. Its head looked like a solid black mass like a very geometry shaped draconic head. The only difference was that the area where the mouth was looked like it was torn open leaving a dripping read grin and the eyes where much like the two miss-sized diamonds from before. Its frontal horn was more like a tall pyramid that suddenly bent at a ninety-degree angle. The back horns curved down to match the angle of the skull before curving away to look like handlebars as horns shifted from the natural color to different darken hues at the tips. Where it's legs where was a blacken tail the faded into bright red scales with a black diamond tip with an extra curved up bit at the far end to make it look like a hook. Its massive wings that were almost three times the bodies size in full wingspan was a mixture of a red scale topped orange feathered wing and a membranous red scaled draconic wing.

It grinned as it hovered in the air above them massively before it's grin turned to surprise as the chest of the creature began to crack lightly with a heavy thud against it. It tried to hold the spot as more and more thuds rang against in a metallic tone. All heading up to a black metallic fist punching it's a way through the chest. In those seconds the cracks spread and riddled the creature's body till a figure broke out of it shattering the monstrosity into oddly shaped fragments as a figure landing on the ground. It looked like Firestorm if it wasn't for the now massive wings that matched the shattered creature. His horns, as well as his long tail, matched that of the creature as well. His right arm instead of being the metallic gold from before was blacken for only a moment before it began to shift hues much like the horns in the back of Firestorm's head. His tail was much longer than before as it gently whipped against the ground. His right arm was more draconic than before with an elbow spike. His teeth were much like fangs still as they curved to match his very Cheshire grin he was now sporting. He instead of wearing the garb from before he was now wearing an orange vest over a white shirt. Around his neck was a dark red tie that was tucked under the vest. He also had a rich blue set of dress pants that had a stylized maroon belt with golden buckle. If they saw on his back between his wings on the fest was a large golden crest that had the symbol that was one the shattered figure.

“Sorry about that everypony, sometimes my imagination runs a little wild.” He said fixing the rolled up cuffs on his white shirt.

“Oh darling if it wasn't for the garish display a moment ago, I would say that look is very fetching on you.” Rarity said looking over the outfit with a critical eye.

“Why thank you Rarity, one must be fashionable if he is to make a point. Can't go around in a clowns getup if you mean to school somepony.” Storm said as he grinned over to Discord who was currently in a full nine-yard clown costume with matching face paint.

“Oh, I see somepony has a sense of humor.” Discord said with a grin before snapping his fingers for the getup to disappear on him.

“Well, somepony has to bring the laughs. I can't expect somepony who thinks they know chaos to do it.” he shot back.

“All I've seen what your little 'display', what makes you think you know better than I the lord of chaos?” Discord said floating over to him. Storm grinned as his tail curved into a seat that he sat down on.

♫♪ Nightmares and Bloodshed and drug-induced horrors. ♪♫

♫♪ Carnage and soldiers with mental disorders. ♪♫

♫♪ Full on riots, stockers, and massive shootings. ♪♫

♫♪ These are a few chaotic things. ♪♫

He began to sing in the jazzy tune of 'my favorite things.' As he brought it up a magical window would show up around all of them a few at a time showing different things. Most of them being either old news or war time footage.

♫♪ Necromancer ponies with Frankenstein madness. ♪♫

♫♪ Rulers and soldiers marching on the land masses. ♪♫

♫♪ While machines crank out items for shopping, these are a few chaotic things. ♪♫

He continued as more screens surrounded them all as his already wild mane began to move like it was being blown by an ethereal wind. All while he stood up and began to move slowly closer to the group of them.

“Stop!” Twilight said standing between Firestorm and Discord. Storm stood there looking at her in a matter that sent chills down her spine. He remained silent for a moment before snapping his fingers to make the music stop. As the music slowed down the screens disappeared in puffs of smoke leaving one. It flew over past Storm and enlarged so everypony could see what was clearly on the screen.

“I'm not going to sugar coat the next bits that I say. So in laymen terms 'viewer desertion is advised.'” He said slowly kneeling down to Twilight and gently whispers into her ear. “I'm sorry what you are about to see.”

“So this is your chaos?” Discord said as he snaked around Firestorm. “While interesting and very delicious chaos, I don't see how it makes you my bet-” He was cut off as the screen showed an atomic explosion from old footage.

“About one hundred forty thousand...” He said grinning as Discord turned to look at the screen.

“One hundred forty thousand what?” Twilight asked as she slowly stepped away from her perspective the silhouette of Firestorm who looked like was staring directly into her soul or at least in her perspective. Most of the rest of them had looked away from the screen. Dash and Rarity being a few that continued to stare in shock. Applejack put her stetson down to cover her view when she was some of the most horrid things she thought she would ever saw. Pinkie's mane deflated as she hugged into the orange earth pony. Fluttershy, in this case, fainted after the first nightmare induced image appeared when Storm appeared from the hole.

“Estimated dead from one attack.” Storm said as the screen changed into a world map of earth before it zoomed in. “It was also a turning point in human history. Our first ever use of an atomic weapon call 'little boy'. With a payload the equivalent of eighteen thousand tons of dynamite, Little boy detonated in Hiroshima. Over half of the estimated dead was from the blast itself. Some leaving only scorch marks of where they were before it went off. The rest of them were from the fallout or radiation that was left in the blast's aftermath.”

“But... why?” Twilight asked as it was hard to come to terms with this information. Even with the evidence being shown to her of clips and news articles that were appearing on the screen behind Storm.

“War, more specifically World War Two. It was used as a measure to either end or shorten the at the time ongoing war and that wasn't the worst as of yet. I can go on and on about war after war. Far worse than anything any pony in Equestria had seen.” His cold nature was really getting to those watching and even Discord would say that some of the things were getting to him. If his pride wasn't a factor in this. He was about having fun, pain at another's expense is one thing, but death is never fun. “As I said, Little boy was a turning point as we learned to make worse and deadlier weapons. Shortly following Little boy the second use of an atomic bomb was used. 'Fat man', while not as deadly mostly due to the location to was detonated and being off target it helps cement the change. Both for the benefit of humans as well as a tool for war.” He explained as he snapped his fingers as to the left of them stood soldiers, tanks, weapons, and many other tools of war with clearly marked 'do not touch, especially you Pinkie'. To the right of him showed many different technologies from laptops from the beginning to modern, the same with computers, medications, cars, forms of entertainments from VCRs to DVDs. “We create and that's the biggest bit of chaos humans have on our side. We create weapons and recreate stories. Fiction and non-fiction alike, fantasy to science fiction. We never stopped their we take simple concepts and changed it. For the better-” He said starting with a fully grown bear before it turned into a stuffed teddy bear. “and for the worst.”

He said snapping his fingers as the bear began to morph into a towering figure who's claws ripped through the soft fabric with long blacken blades with hinged joins. The mouth of it ripped to show mangled steel fangs that were rusted at the tips and reached up to open up the right eye. All that could be seen as a glowing red dot as its feet got the same treatment as its hands. The last part was the torso of it ripped from the previous of it showing a twisted metal rib cage under it and a metallic spin with slight drips of ooze coming from inside of it. “This is where my expertise is, the chaotic nightmares. I'm aware of so many ways of how something innocent can be twisted by greed, lust, and wraith.”

“That is rather unsettling.” Rarity said as Storm waved his right arm and they all disappeared into smoke.

“That's the human race for you. We are unsettling in many aspects but not all of them. Just like how there is a dark side of everything. The truth can be said for the light.” He said snapping his finger as screen after screen showed up showing different cartoons that he grew up with, that was matched with news stories of acts of kindness, of people standing up for what they believe in, and much much more. “I can never fully express how humans work as we ourselves can answer that. Hell many of us spend lives trying to find that answer alone. Even to the point, we try to understand everything, how humans work, how nature works, how the fabric of reality dictates what has come and what's too come. With are imaginative and curious to a fault. That's not even going into beliefs which is a completely different can of worms.” He pulled the screens to his hand before flipping them over with all of them turning into playing cards. “But I believe the point has escaped me, so allow me to put it this way. Do you want to play a game?” With that question, he gave a grin to Discord, a grin that could silence angels.

“What kind of game?” Discord asked with a quizzed look upon his face as his talon scratched his chin.

“A game of One-up.” Storm said grinning as he pulled out a piece of chalk from one of the cards. With a flick behind him, the chalk landed on the grass and began to draw out what looked like a large rectangle evenly placed where Discord and Firestorm were in the direct center of it. It continued to draw as it placed a line down the center starting off the short side. Crossing that line was a circle where it looked like each square that center line made had a half circle in it.

“One-up?”

“Rules are simple enough we each take a turn to one-up the other in feats of chaos. All things we create must be made from the ether and not from something changed from already exciting items.” Storm said grinning up at the being towering over him.

“Sounds like fun, here let me get the judges.” Discord said as a box bouncing from the ground and three clones of himself popped up. One of them dressed like a clown, another like a scientist with a lab coat, and the last one wearing a butler's uniform.

“Nice try Discord, no the girls here will be the judges. Which means no mind effects Discord, this is going to be a fair and chaotic fight.” Storm said turned to walk into his square. “And since your the visitor, in this case, you may start this show.” Discord eyed him before grinning as his tail snapped like it was a hand and a buffalo in a tutu doing the dance from Swan Lake as it began to step into the air sideways.

“Top that Stormy.” Discord said as Storm just simply yawned and pulled out a toaster. With a flick, the Toaster landed so the slights to insert the toaster was pointed to the ground. “A toaster, really?” Discord said as he moved to snap his finger.

“It's not over yet.” Storm said as the Toaster began to shake before panels began to break apart till the whole thing turned into what was best described as a mechanical spider and it pointed it's abdomen at Firestorm before it fired a toasty warm blueberry bagel at him. Who caught it with ease and began to munch giving a gesture for Discord to proceed. He cocked an eyebrow at this. “What? I was hungry.” This only earned Storm a roll of Discords eyes as they fell out of his eye into his palms as pink smoke began to flow out of them into a fairly sized cloud that began to rain chocolate milk.

With a smirk, Discord turned to look at Storm as his eyes popped back in like two black balloons being popped. He noticed Storm having a top hat on his head before he removed it with his claw and shook it a bit. In a matter of seconds, a torrential downpour of marshmallows came out of the had as they all rolled off and fused together behind him. They came together in a large towering figure of a marshmallow man in a sailor's outfit with matching blue beret that had the worlds 'stay puff' on the brim of it.

Discord looked up the massive being before him before he snapped his fingers causing the stay puff creature to shrink down to a mouse-size a hole gulped the marshmallow man up with an audible 'ah.' He grabbed the ground around him and like pulling a tablecloth all the ground under the grass turned into a vibrant checkerboard pattern of purples and pinks. The sky followed turning the sky an off lavender. Some of the nearby trees were changed into large candy cane swirls of peppermint with playing card leaves. Floating in the sky were bits of land masses.

Storm yawned a little bit before pulling the top hat off his head again and reached into it. For a moment it looked like he was struggling with something as it pulled him closer up to his shoulder before he pulled out a large stylized paint brush with rapidly changing colored paint already slathered at the end. With a two-handed spinning toss, he threw it as it began to paint the landscape behind him in vibrant cartoonish colors. Popping out of the ground was a massive amount of building in various hues and colors each with a goofy face depicted on them as the land around him began nothing more than a cartoon town. That was before the inhabitants began to show up in masses. Twilight could pick out a few that she knew from Storm showing her some of the materials he grew up with. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Road Runner, and many more began to bouncing about the streets as they went on like nothing was wrong. Added to the complete chaos of the landscape behind Storm was cars stretching and contorting to turn around the corners of the road. All leading up to the brush flying back at Storm as it spun through the air. He grinned holding out his right metallic hand to catch it. Of course, he didn't as it collided with his head before it flipped into the air and landed in the overturned top hat that was sitting on the grass. In a flash of colors, the hand grew two large arms and flipped itself over to show a rather imposing face before it used it's arm to throw itself on top of Storm's head. Storm held out his hand as the hat gave him a high five.

Discord growled at this before snapping his fingers with Storm matching his snap with his hand behind his back. The three landscapes around them as the girls were standing on the only oval bit of untouched land began to glitch out. Bits of pixelated distortion and discolored squares littered everything around them. “What in Tartarus just happened?” Discord asked looking around.

“It looks like you broke the game.” Storm asked calmly with a smirk on his face and his eyes closed.

“Enough games.” Discord said as he was visibly turning red from anger.

“Oh yeah?” Storm answered as he continued to smirk and opened his eyes. With a step forward the world around them turned into a cosmos of stars in various colors as Storm and Discord stood on a free-floating piece of glass with the same markings as there area. The only other bit was the floating isle the girls all sat on watching this complete madness transpire. “I believe the stage is still yours.”

Discord looking angrier at Storm's little jabs as he pulled out a bright pink balloon and began to mold it. With a few more balloons of white and black, Discord turning it into a balloon pick with wings that he popped creating a literally flying pig. Storm only at there floating in what looked like a lazy boy style posture. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a sphere that was colored red, dark gray, and white with most of it taken up with the former and latter two colors. A flick of his wrist later the ball bounced on the field and broke open showing a large forming that looked like if someone took a steel ball and split it in half to add a darker metal with seven red circles groups in a two, three, two pattern like a set of eyes. Before they sat two more half spheres on each convex points of the first split sphere. From there two large dark metal arms come out with three red triangles on the knuckles before changing back into the steel metal with three fingers on each hand. The lower half of the being looks like the metal was melted down so it sat flat on top of a metal plate, till it was smoothed out to look like one piece and again on the other side to connect to two stump legs. The being bouncing up and down in a fluid motion all while gave out a cry of its name in a distorted computerized fashion.

Storm smiled as he dropped to the ground with his clothes changing in a flash. Upon his body, he was wearing a black shirt with a red overshirt wide open that had a trip of white at the caller and bottom of the shirt. Upon his legs were lighter blue pants than before and dawned upon his head was a large red cap with a white bit in the front like a panel compared to the rest of the hat with a pin showing his cutie mark on the bottom right corner.

“Registeel use Thunderbolt!” Storm ordered as the being now told to be the Pokemon Registeel's eyes began to flash before its hands came together to form lightning, only for it to leave its hands in a second striking the flying pig making it pop from existence in a cloud of smoke. This was followed by the words 'level up' appear above the Registeel's head. “That's enough of that.” Storm said throwing the ball back at Registeel as it disappears in a flash of energy.

“Are you done playing around?” Discord said snapping his fingers as he began to summon a timber wolf before pulling out giving it the old chrome dip. As the metal coating began to flow over it a second layer giving the metallic beast a hot rod paint job.

“I'm only getting started.” He said jumping up with a backflip showing that he is now in a large black trench coat with the same black undershirt. On his head setting above his angled horn was a pair of goggles that were mostly black except the sky blue lens. Around him, streams of zeros and ones began to appear from the arena as they swirl around him. They then force themselves into his body as a large blacken mass begins to form his back. It didn't take long for it to take shape as red lines began to spread over it in a circlet board like pattern. Behind him stood a massive cyberize werewolf with glowing red claws and eyes. Its long tail began to spark from the energy rushing through it.

Discord smirked as he snapped again as decided to go with the imposing route and darkened his fur, scales, and the rest of him as his mouth began to open wider. His body elongated till it looked like his body was straight out of a horror film Storm would have seen on earth. Storm looked unamused as some of the ponies watch stepped back in a small level of fear.

“Sorry Discord you have no chance now.” Storm said as he was bringing his arm across his chest. With a sweep of his hands, the cosmos around them all shattered into odd shapes as they fell and faded from existence. This was followed by Storm rising into the air now wearing a long sleeve blue karategi or gi for short with a large darker blue juttoku jacket from the Edo period in Japan over it. Out of the sleeves, a torrent of cards flew out behind him and sank into the ground. Spell circles began to litter the ground behind Storm as every creature from just about every game and movie Firestorm knew from earth appeared behind him. From the Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, Silent Hill, Final Fantasies, Phantasy Star, and countless other game series joined in before a void of black ink appeared in the distance as two large imposing green tentacles hands appeared with a silhouette of a massive indescribable creature appeared from it. The most they could see of its green slimy face was the tentacles where it's mouth would be and the large madness inducing white orbs that called its eyes. Above it, the moon appeared before a large blacken crack began to spread from the north pole to the southern. Until it shattered leaving another well of black in appearing in the moon itself. A large vertical eye appeared with a violet and red pupil in it. Storm just stood there as not only were the girls looking at the massive set of chaotic creatures behind him and the two larger monsters behind that towered above. Discord was in almost in complete shock as someone had bested him in his own game. Something he wouldn't admit too even if he was threatened with being turned to stone for the rest of his unnaturally long life. “Well, I believe that ends our little game.” Storm said with a smirk as he walked over to Discord and help him pick up his jaw that had literally hit the ground. “So girls, who won?” This was enough to shake Discord out of his shock. He turned to see that all of them but Fluttershy who was still out cold from before were all pointing at Storm. “Thank you thank you.” Storm said as he walked over to a stage appeared to the right of them. Now wearing a tuxedo with a black bow tie. All the creatures that Storm began to clap and applaud Storm as different color roses began to fall onto the stage. “You are all too kind. I would like to thank my mother, my father, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, my lovely marefriend Twilight Sparkle, and-”

“Enough!” Discord said as he wiped it all away leaving them back in the field just like before the game of one up began. “Fine I will admit you know chaos, have you experienced it yourself?”

“Yes.” Storm answered as he crossed his arms looking at Discord.

“Prove it.” Discord shot back with a grin. Storm went silent for a moment as his smirk slowly dipped into a frown as he snapped his fingers. With a flash of light everypony and Discord saw Storm how he was before coming to Equestria with a bright orange shirt, blue jeans, and orange solid shoes with a dark gray bottom. In his hand was an acoustic guitar and with a few steps, moved over to a stump in clear view of all of them. Behind him, a screen appeared as if it was mist. He began to play a few notes as the screen behind him began to show an almost average street from earth. It would have been completely average to all of them but one. Twilight was painfully familiar with this street as two figures walked on the screen. The camera panned with them as the two of them walked. One of them was Firestorm just as he was sitting on the stomp. The other one was a tall fair skinned woman with black hair, she wore a deep purple shirt with blue jeans and saddles. Firestorm began to sing that resonated with all of them including the now conscious Fluttershy, who only woke up right when the music started.

♫♪ Their love were proud, like a love burning without regret. ♪♫

♫♪ They held their hearts, with moments they won't ever forget. ♪♫

♫♪ They watched her take his pain away with every moment in time, but he could never forget the sorrow that swallowed him alive. ♪♫

♫♪ Until that night... ♪♫

♫♪ He walked out into the street and a car blared it's horn, and he froze in sight of it coming. ♪♫

♫♪ It was fast, but this time she was faster. ♪♫

♫♪ With the strength to him right knock off his feet. ♪♫

♫♪ He watched her as the life faded from her eyes. ♪♫

♫♪ With his love gone to the light beyond, and when they buried her beneath the willow. ♪♫

♫♪ The angels sang a lovely lullaby. ♪♫

The song continued as the screen showed that faithful night that never left Storm's memories. He continued to sing the lullaby part of the song. Storm's eyes where completely grayed out as if the life was drained from. He slowly opened his mouth to continue the song before a new female voice picked up the song.

♫♪ His darkness grew but nobody knew how much he blamed himself. ♪♫

♫♪ For years and years, he tried to hide the darkness on his mind. ♪♫

♫♪ He tried to do the right thing every single time, but he never could forgive himself for that one time. ♪♫

♫♪ Until that night... ♪♫

♫♪ He walked between the man before he pulled the trigger, and it sank right into his heart. ♪♫

♫♪ Life is short but this time it was bigger. ♪♫

♫♪ As the strength left had dropped him off his knees. ♪♫

♫♪ They found him with his face down on the concrete, clinging onto his heart for dear life. ♪♫

♫♪ They laid him next to her beneath the willow. ♪♫

♫♪ While the angels sang a lovely lullaby. ♪♫

The new voice made sure she was known as she had walked out of the screen herself wearing what she had on that fateful night. The only difference here was she had two large ethereal white wings. Storm got up and looked at her as the color returned to his eyes. All while she sang the screen showed the very day Storm died on earth. Some of them could only pay attention to the two of them before the screen. It was Twilight, Applejack, Dash, and Pinkie that noticed the events on the screen. Fluttershy and Rarity were too caught up with Jessica and Firestorm looking at each other. Storm let the guitar fade as the song did. His left hand was shaking a bit as she slowly stepped closer to Jessica. It was only a moment as she gently smiled to him that he rushed over and hugged her with all his might. She did the best she could to return it, but being picked up by a person several times bigger than you makes that a bit hard.

“I miss you Jessica” Storm said with tears in his eyes as she gently placed her forehead against his.

“I know Ryhn, so do I.” She said as faded away gently leaving Storm only a few moments before he fell to his knees. Twilight didn't stop a moment as she rushed over to hug her coltfriend as best she could.

“My, my, my, that is rather marvelous use of chaos.” Discord said walking over to the two of them. “Shame it was all for show and nothing else.”

“What do you mean Discord?!” Twilight said with a growl as her eyes showed daggers at the draconequus.

“He means that she wasn't really here Twilight.” Storm said as he looked over to her. “It was a little wish fulfillment on my part. If I wanted too I could have really brought her back, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.” He continued as he slowly got up before he turned to Discord. “You have your proof Discord.”

“Why yes I do, course I wouldn't have been all sappy about some mare for no reason.” Discord side with a shrug. He didn't watch Storm as his right claw began to clench into a ball.

“Hey, Discord?” Storm said as his form returned to the chaotic one from before.

“Yes Stormy?” Discord said as he had his back turned to him so he bent his spine ninety degrees to look at him in the face.

“Watch out for bats.” Storm said grinning as a shadow covered his face leaving it looking a Cheshire grin in a sea of black.

“What?” Was all Discord got out before Storm spun into a twister in a matter of seconds before coming out of it with a large metallic red baseball bat with hot rod flames painted on it, in a batters stances with the sound of a shotgun getting cocked. In only a second later his red eyes flashed and he nailed Discord right in the face with the bat as it sent him right into a tree. Unfortunately for the draconequus, he didn't have enough time to counter the attack that had now rendered him unconscious.

“Don't... piss off... the dragon.” Storm said breathing hard as his eyes looked like there was literal fire behind them.

***---***

“Storm!” Twilight yelled for not the first time as after all of us deposited Discord at Fluttershy's cottage.

“Yes, Twilight?” I said as the two of us walked down the street of Ponyville. She still had her element Tiara on her head while I was now sporting a full cloak that had most of my body hidden under it. The only thing that was visible was my tail that swished back and forth as I walked and my wings that were sticking out the back of the cloak.

“We really need to talk about what happened back there.” She said as she was trying to keep up with me. Which is the bad part of having shorter legs than I did currently.

“Why? Discord was hoisted by his own petard.” I answered as everypony else didn't really react to me walking around. Part of it must have been from them knowing who I was or they were jaded from everything that happens in this town.

“Why did you taught Discord like that?” She asked before she gave a huff. “And will you please slow down.” I gave only a sigh and took slower steps.

“For a few reasons.” I began as I kneeled down to be closer to her eye level. “One I needed to know how far Discord's level of knowledge went. Two, I wanted to see if I could goat him into lending me a bit of his magic. Oddly enough that worked a bit too well.” I said taking a moment to scratch the back of my head. “None the less, and three I have use of his magic after I had a quick study of it.”

“But what if Princess Celestia find out you did this?” She asked looking nerves at that thought alone.

“She already knows,” I answered and that got Twilight to look up at me in horror. “Let me explain, Celestia, Luna, and I talked about this. I wanted to see if I could do this and lucky enough it worked. I'm supposed to write a report about Chaotic magic and how it works. In turn, I'm allowed to use this to do a few things, one of them is to find some of the other books. The fact of the matter is that Chaotic magic is rather easy to understand once you can wrap your head.” I said as I held out my left hand creating a flame of chaos. Unlike normal fire and dragon fire, this fire changes from different patterns and colors at its own whim. With a flick of my harmonious magic, a magical flame appears in an equivalent size. “I have full control over both styles of magic, which granted it puts me in a unique position.”

“What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked looking up at me.

“Has any pony outside of Starswirl and Discord ever use Chaotic magic?” I asked.

“Not without destructive results.” She asked.

“Yet right here I'm showing you that I have a clam control of it.” I moved both flames together till they touched. As soon as they did they sucked into each other creating a unique ball of flames. They swirled around each other keeping them equal distance apart, but never completely either. “I've learned to balance the two, I can't say that I will still retain this balance once I give up the chaotic magic.”

“Than why give up the magic?” Twilight asked.

“Because I don't want it after I use it for what I need,” I answered as we continue on our way back to the library.

“That doesn't answer the question, why do you want to give up that power? From what I've seen of you, you would keep whatever power you could to keep those you care about safe. Why is this chaotic magic any different?” She asked.

“I would be too tempted to rely on it. Which would mean it could have the upper hand on me.” I answered as the ball of flames disappear into smoke.

“Explain.” She requested.

“Ever heard the saying 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'?” I asked as we made it to the door, I moved over to open the door for Twilight.

“Thank you, and yes I have. Are you afraid that if you may be corrupted by it?” She asked as she walked past me.

“There is no may about it, I know it will,” I answered with a matter of fact tone.

“How do you know?” She asked after I ducked to walk in.

“Besides human nature and history, I do have the personified version of my own self-hatred as an entity in my body. Gee, I wonder if someone who has shown no restraint trying to get what he wants is suddenly corrupted by chaotic magic. Kind of screams bad idea. No offense to you Shadow.” I said.

“None taken, I would worry about the same thing in your hooves,” Shadow answered.

“I see your point...” Twilight said as I snapped my fingers and my cloak disappeared.

“Mind if I use the lab downstairs?” I asked.

“Can... can I help?” She asked.

“I wouldn't mind but what about Discord?” I asked.

“Well... I can bring all the books with the reform spell and you can help me figure out which one you think may help.” She said with a small nervous smile. I could help but lean down and pick up Twilight gently.

“I would love too,” I said as her horn lit up. Quite a number of books floated out of the shelves and followed the two of us down into the lab. Twilight helped me clear off her center table so the both of us could work. The report was rather simple enough. Breaking chaotic magic down while seems rather hard to do with the unpredictable nature of it. That's the thing, there is no such thing as random and with that idea in mind I began to feel out the magic itself. Funny thing about how the two different magics work. Normal unicorn and alicorn magic are based on formulas and patterns. It was taking the spell and translating it into a form you could understand. Twilight has it in mathematical formulas, while I see them in shapes. Chaos magic at its core is like a random number generator and those I found how it works.

Well... it was more like a random shape generator for the most part but those shapes could be broken down into a number. Much like how Pluto theorized that the world was made with intelligence and purpose so everything could be broken down into numbers. Which while many believe that I hold part of that to be true. Magic from what I've seen of both sides of this scale can be broken down into base numbers. Which is how I can understand and balance the two. In the same way, I could make them cancel out the other, much like how Celestia prevented Discord from taking the Elements of Harmony she pretty much made the spell that would cancel out Discord's spell to take them. In my case, I could easily do what Discord can't, but I won't. More so because I have a moral ground on this and they aren't really mine, or I don't have a reason to really do it that I agree with. I'm getting a little off topic, as I was saying about chaotic magic. Once you understand that the magic itself is number based you can easily see how to manipulate it. In my case, I can change the numbers into shapes and colors that I want. Even to the point, I can do it to others. I mean right now I could turn Twilight a different color or into... a different... species... that's a thought.

“Storm why are you looking at me like that?” Twilight asked and I didn't notice I was staring at her as she was looking at me over from above the book that was floating in front of her face.

“Sorry... rouge thought popped into my head,” I said looking back down to my fifteen-page break down of chaotic magic.

“What is it?” She asked floating the books away from her for a moment.

“It's nothing important, just a silly thought.”

“It can't be that silly for you to give me that thousand-millimeter stare.” She said with her eyebrow-raising.

“Just... I guess I wondered what you would look like as a different species...” I said the end of that a timidly. She blinked for a moment before she magically set the books down into an ordered pile.

“Explain.” She requested, well it more sounded like an order if anything.

“Well... I mean look at me right now. I'm a chaotic satyr with drony as a base. I'm technically a different species than just a drony or human. I never thought I would be an orange dralicorn with a brunette mane and tail. I mean it's just a thought of what would myself or others look like in a different species. It's like an art idea where some artist would take an object or an animal and see what they would look differently. Some would anthropomorphic, others would make them living or another species. Some would blend the two of object and animal. Sometimes the idea leads off into other things. Like, say a human suddenly being turned into data. That launched into the Tron series and others just like that.” I explained.

“Tron?” Twilight asked.

“It was a movie, then it became two games and another movie. Not counting a television show and I think there were a few books. I'm not completely sure on that last part.” I explained.

“Books... like one's from... earth?” She asked.

“Eeyup,” I answered going back to finishing my report to Celestia. No offense to the regent of the sun, but I really never thought I would have to do another homework assignment as long as I lived. Okay granted, this is now my second life and I had died. So maybe this was the universes way of biting me for that comment... that jerk. “Honestly if I told you roughly how many different books we had and versions of the same book. You probably go into shock.” Once I had it done I magically placed it into a folder and with a clear label on it. With that, I began to go with one of my side projects before the main ones.

“Please tell me.” She begged.

“Why do you want to know?” I asked as the magic began to go to work.

“Because there is so much I could learn from them.”

“Even when you don't have access to any beyond what is on my tablet.” I shot back.

“You have some on your tablet!” She said with the biggest set of dawning notice eyes I've ever seen. Frankly, it was a little creepy to see this coming from my marefriend. How short-lived as it was before she popped from existence and popped back with my tablet in her magically grip. I reached over and grabbing it out of her magic.

“Twilight, remember you have to deal with Discord first,” I answered back returning the Tablet back into my bag with a flick of magic.

“But... the books.”

“Later,” I said feeling like I was scolding a child or something. This is going to be one of those days, isn't it?

“Alright...” Twilight said sounding a little dejected. Now I feel like a complete heel now, fuck...

“Twilight listen... I didn't mean to sound like I was scolding you. Just... look. I know you're worried about all this going on. Between Discord, Celestia, the worry about things getting out of hoof, and so forth. I get you need a distraction from those thoughts bouncing around into you reach madness.” I said sitting down on the floor so I could be closer to Twilight. She came over to me and sat down looking directly at me.

“I am worried about all this, and I admit I may have overdone it with the distractions. I just... if I don't. I get too absorbed into what I'm trying to do that I lose sight of important things. That and seeing what I did...” She let out a sigh. “Was... was that when you... died?” She asked.

“Oh... when I sang the second time?” I asked as I began to rub the prosthetic elbow with my left hand. It was something I use to do when I only had injured elbow as a human.

“Yeah...” She was rather lugubrious about this.

“Sorry, you saw that,” I said.

“What... what happened?”

“That day?” She only nodded this time as she looked up to me. “Not much to say really, I was just walking around waiting for my friends to come into town as it took them a few days to get there. So I ended up going to this store I normally did. Mostly because I knew the owner at the time and we were pretty good. That and he would pay me to help fix his computer when I could. Anyway, that day I went to pick up a pop from the back and right than someone decided to hold up the store.”

“Hold up?” She asked a little confused.

“Rob.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, anyway. The guy was rather built compared to me and he was threatening people with a gun. It was that thing he was holding. Think crossbow but a lot more powerful.” That got Twilight to shiver at the thought. “Well one woman or mare to scream in fear. He didn't like to hear that so he threatened her that he would fire if she didn't stop. I stepped in and said I would try to help. Mostly I did it as a rouse for him to drop his guard. When I thought it was dropped enough I went in to disarm him. As you can tell... didn't go as planned.”

“Than he...”

“Shot me... yeah. The truth was I only had maybe a few moments to feel the pain before the cold set in. I didn't see my life flash before my eyes or anything besides that. Just pain followed by crushing cold numbness.” I said remembering that day.

“I...” She was beginning to tear up a little. I gently brought her closer and held her as best I could.

“I know your sorry Twilight, and think about it this way. If that didn't happen... we would have never met.” I said as I gently rubbed her back.

“But... why did it have to be like that?” She asked looking up at me.

“Because that's just how the universe decided it to be,” I said gently smiled trying to help lighten the mood a little.

“Well, the universe is a jerk.” She said as she leaned up so we were eye to eye.

“I know,” I said gently resting my head against hers.

“That jerk.” We said at the same time and I couldn't help it. I began to giggle, and Twilight followed soon after.

***---***

“Do you this is wise?” Twilight asked.

“Honestly... that is a good question,” I said going over the floating form before us.

“That doesn't answer my question.” She shot back.

“I know, and I can't say if it was wise or not. I'm kind of fifty-fifty on it. I mean yeah it's made with both harmonious and chaotic magic. So... I can't really say.” I said looking over it.

“I still can't believe it worked.” She said looking up at it form the large green chair.

“Tell me about it, especially with all of the things we put into it. The spell lenses, the power supply-”

“That scanners and data storage drives-”

“Don't forget the sound system and displays. It's a work of art.” I said grinning up at it.

“What do we call it?” She asked looking over at me.

“Hmm... it can't be something tacky.”

“But it can't be verge either.” She said rubbing her chin with her hoof. “How about Pha?”

“Pha?”

“Personal Hovering Assistant?”

“Oh god no.”

“What's wrong with that?”

“Do you know how that sounds? Hey, Pha can you get me that book? Hey, Pha take a note. It sounds odd... What about Hermes?”

“Hermes?”

“Yeah, if my memory serves me. Hermes in Greek mythology was the god of commerce. Mostly known as the messenger of the gods to the mortal realm. So it kind of makes sense.” I said.

“While interesting, I don't see why we should call this Hermes?”

“Well... I thought it sounded cool having my assistant called Hermes.”

“Storm this is a breakthrough in magical technology. Not some toy.” She said scolding me now.

“But Twilight, I mean look at this face,” I said bring it down to look at her. “It's sleek round body with to matching chrome rectangular stabilizers that open up to a multiple of tools. Not counting the simplistic screen so it can show how it feels. I mean look it's giving you the puppy dog eyes.” I said and indeed it was given two white puppy dog eyes on its green screen. Twilight looked at the thing and I could tell she was losing to it. She tried to look away by looking up past at me. Only for me to return the favor with my own set of puppy dog eyes. She winced a little and tried to turn another way.

“Fine, we can all um... him Hermes.” She said and I couldn't help but act like a kid.

“Yay!” I said which was followed by a little victory tune from the newly named Hermes. “He even likes it, double yay.”

“What am I going to do with the two of you?” Twilight asked.

“Well... love me and enjoy Hermes' company?” I asked.

“Outside of the obvious” She commented with a smirk.

“Hmm... good question,” I said before snapping my finger. “I know, science!” I gave one of that little showmanship kind of stances as a neon sign appeared with the word 'science' above me. Twilight snorted a bit at that and then began to chuckle.

“You are a goofball, you know that?”

“That's lovable goofball,” I said with a smirk.

“Okay, I think somepony is pushing it.” She said and I couldn't help but smile. I sat back down quietly against the wall as that took a lot out of me blending two types of magic with a lot of techs. Honestly, I wasn't a hardware kind of pony, so I just let the chaotic magic take the rains on how its suppose to work. Lucky for both of us we made schematics of Hermes in case of being broken or needs general repairs. With a flick of magic, a napkin appeared out of the ether so I could wipe my brow. “Storm are you alright?” Twilight asked trotting over to me.

“Yeah, mixing three different mediums like that took a lot out of me magically. Especially to get it as perfect as we could get it.” I answered with a slight smile.

“Do you need me to get anything?”

“Not really, I just need a breather before I go about my main goal,” I said leaning my head against the cool wood behind me.

“What was your main goal?” She asked.

“It's those black books.” That got Twilight's ears to shot up before they flattened back.

“What do you plan to do with those?” She asked.

“I have to study them and I only have access to one of them,” I said looking at her as she gave a shiver.

“I don't like those books Storm.” She said.

“I know, after the translation spell mishap you didn't want to go near that book.”

“Yeah...” She said gently rubbing her right foreleg with her left.

“Something the matter Twilight?”

“Its... nothing big.” She said nervously.

“It is otherwise you wouldn't do what I normally do when I'm nervous.” I pointed out with my right claw. She noticed and placed her leg back down.

“That book... doesn't feel right.” She said.

“Honestly I would be surprised if you said otherwise,” I commented with a shrug.

“I'm serious Storm, something about those books done feels right.” She said looking at me seriously.

“Twilight are you familiar with the major arcana?” I asked.

“Do you mean the book Major Arcana and spells for the advance?” She asked.

“No, I mean the tarot cards set of major arcana,” I asked.

“No...” She asked looking at me.

“Well to give you a very basic version of this. They are part of a set of tarot cards from earth that was used to tells one future. It was split off into the major and minor sets. The minor having the Swords, Cups, Wands, and one other I'm blanking on. That is not important, the major arcana is the kicker here. They were the major tellers of what was going on. Depending on how the card was displayed. As upright and upside down had two different meanings.” I started to explain.

“I'm failing to see what this had to do with that book.” She asked looking at me.

“The black books are based off the major arcana set.”

“How do you know this?” She asked eyeing me as I snapped my finger. In a flash, both Twilight and I were back in the pyramid in Saddle Arabia. Specifically in front of the drawing showing the major arcana from the puzzle chamber surrounding a symbol that could roughly translate into The Dark One.

“This here is how I know. These twenty-two symbols all correspond with the major arcana. This one here.” I said pointing to the same one as the book I owned. “Is my book.”

“What does it mean?” She asked looking over it like she was trying to study it.

“My book?” I asked more to clarify and she nodded. “My book is the thirteenth book, Death.” She shivered at that.

“How do you know it's that book?”

“Mostly from context and content. The book itself mostly houses spells and spell fragments around death and the preventing of it. As the right side up death card means 'change, transformation, and transition.' The reverse means 'inertia, resistance to change, unable to move on.' Makes sense when you consider that I used a spell fragment to keep myself alive.” I said.

“What do you mean to keep yourself alive?” She asked looking at me.

“Remember when I was in a coma after the tunnel collapse?” She nodded as her ears flattened back again. “Grimwand was trying to kill me in my dreams, literally. It was only because I used the fragment to augment my shield spell into a soul shield spell. I was able to stay alive.”

“But what happened to Grimwand?” She asked.

“Captured and detained where he can't hurt anypony again,” I answered coldly as my right claw began to the creek a little from how hard I was gripping it

“I... does the princesses know?” She asked.

“Yes... all of them.” I took a few moments to calm down. “But as I was saying” I continued before with another snap brought us back to the library basement. “The other books are still out there and I'm going to try and bring them to me.”

“How?” She asked.

“I'm familiar with one book, so using both magics. I'm going to try and bring the books to me. I may fail, but there is no harm in trying right?” I asked with shrug.

“Well there could be a magical backlash and you've been speaking to Celestia knows what for weeks on end. Not counting that it is chaotic magic and is very unpredictable in nature, combined with a book that doesn't let any but those connected to them read it. It could lead to a completely massive creator where our home once was.” She counted.

“It's possible but unlikely. If it makes it feel better I will try it while you and Spike are out checking on Discord. Which speaking of that, he probably will be waking up soon since we've been here for a few hours at least.” I said pulling back my sleeve to show a Firestorm watch which has my right prosthetic claw as an hour hand and my hoof as a minute hand.

“Your right, and when we get back. I want to try and look for a reforming spell just in case. I rather have a fail-safe.” She said looking up at me.

“Hope for the best-”

“And plan for the worst.” She finished with a smirk.

“That's my smart unicorn,” I said gently reaching over and scratching behind her ear. She blushed for a moment before she melted in my claws at my scratching.

“I can't get enough of this.” She almost purred out.

“Well if you hurry up, I'll give you more,” I said stopping and slowly getting up.

“Aw, no fair.” She pouted.

“All's fair in love and war Twilight,” I said as I cracked my neck.

“I'll remember that.” She said with a smirk.

“I hope you do, but enough stalling. You have a 'lord of chaos' to check on. It wasn't much longer after that, for Twilight and Spike to leave. Mostly it took magically pulling Spike out of his bed to get him to leave. Seems he was pretty scared of Discord. Surprising enough that he wasn't freaked out at me or about the things I did. Maybe it's that whole brother aspect that I agreed too, or maybe he understands that I'm way too protective to go full on ham when showboating against Discord. Finally having the basement to myself, Hermes not counting of course as he floated in and out with books. It seems that some of Twilight's organization got into his programming. Which is fine with me, I watched him magically pick up books and such with the spell lenses we equipped him with. Only to set them in shelves or on tables where they go. With a flap of my wing, my book appeared out of the ether as it always did when I wanted it too. Much to Twilight's annoyance at the time.

I let my magic wash over it so I could get a feel of the books magic. More like trying to find a root word or phrase to do a search for on a computer. It took maybe a few minutes to find what I would count for it. That's when the fireworks began to go off. Not in the pyrotechnics kind of way, the more like the bells and whistles kind of way. While they all were annoying as all hell to hear, they did do what was needed. A sizable stack of black identical books appeared before me on the desk. The only noticeable difference from the cover was the symbol on the spine. It took a bit of focus to cut all sounds in the room so that damn annoying orchestra of noise in the room would stop.

***---***

Later that night in Canterlot, Princess Celestia slowly made her way to her private bedroom. From dealing with the now reformed Discord in Ponyville. All thanks to Fluttershy who used the aspects of his only friend against him, in a unique power play. Down to the nobles whining about safety in Canterlot for the hundredth time since the last noted Firestorm attacked event. She was rather tired of the day and wanted to let her mane down. She slowly entered the door that was embossed with her cutie-mark, into her rather spacious bedroom. The large purple walls the surrounded her reminded her of Luna, especially during that time when her sister was gone. With a flick of magic, the room began to glow with an orange hue as the fireplace began to light. Her door shut behind her as the guards posted at the entrance did for her every time. She gave a relaxed sigh as she began to float off her regalia and crown. She stopped with them in mid-air.

“Come out Discord.” She said with a serious tone.

“Not Discord Celestia.” A familiar voice said from the shadows in the far end of the room. She turned to see two red diamonds float in the darkness. One larger than the other.

“Who's there?” She asked as she let her crown and regalia drop to the float with a light thump against the velvet carpet.

“I will give you three guesses-” it began to say.

“Hello, Firestorm.” She said relaxing with a comforted sigh. “Don't scare me like that.” Silence followed that statement as the two diamonds didn't move, and almost looked like it didn't blink either. “What are you doing in my chambers at this hour?”

“I figured what I needed to say was something you rather have in a private setting.” He said as a snap could be heard and a ripple ran a crossed the room covering it in a thin layer of magic.

“What is that?” She asked as Firestorm still in his more chaotic form stepped out. Just like before Storm was in the long sleeve blue karategi with the large darker blue juttoku jacket again. She watched quietly as she tried to hide the tense shift in her body language. She saw the look on Storm's face and it told her that he was less than pleased at the moment.

“The black books.” He growled a bit.

“What about the... wait... books?” She asked in a cold shiver.

“Yes, as in multiple. As in the ones you've had for a while now.” He said as his wings seem a little tense.

“I do not know what you mean.” She said trying to stand the rapidly disappearing ground she had. He bore his teeth a little as they were more like fangs at this point. With a snap of his finger, fourteen books appeared, check as black bound as the last. All for them to open up to see a familiar marking to Celestia. The stylized sun and moon symbol of the Canterlot Private Archives. The very same ones that only a few have access too, either being the ruling alicorns or the highest ranking castle mages.

“Don't play dumb with me Celestia. You knew about these books for years. You had to have figured out about the black books while Grimwand was still in his original body. Which I could understand you tried to keep them hidden to the public. I would if I was in your hooves.” He said as the books floated over to him.

“Yes, I did do that.” She said eyeing him. “But why do you have them now?”

“Oh see since I have some of Discord's power after I had goat-ed him into giving it to me.” He said calming and that got Celestia's eyes to widen a bit. Truth be told she never thought that he would be able to get Discord to willingly give another his magic. It was the only reason she agreed to his idea in the first place. Storm pulled out a stack of twenty papers that he sat on her desk that laid against the far wall. “The report as I promised. As I was saying after I did it, I used it's power to find these books, the unattached books. Since the ones that are attached to another can't be summoned like that. They make a rather loud sound when you try to do that.”

She knew about that as she had tried to do the same thing hundreds of years before. “What have you found out.”

“Oh, plenty, especially a very interesting tidbit that I wasn't aware of.” He commented as he walked over to a very blank wall in the room. Which is in itself isn't strange, Celestia didn't want too many things on her walls as she kept most of her photos on shelves. With a flick of his wrist, the wall opened up to show an interesting little out cove. “Namely the fact that you are connected to a book as well.”

“How did you-”

“Another has paid my price.” He growled looking at the regent of the sun with a bit of anger.

“I...”

“This whole fucking time, you had these books. You played off the fact that you knew nothing about these books until I said something to you, Luna, and Cadence. All while you had theses fucking hidden from me.” His wings slightly flared from his anger as he had grabbed the black book that was sitting in the out cove. “I told you about what I found in Saddle Arabia. I told you what I suspected about their connection to 'The Dark One'. All the while you fucking had these things under my nose and didn't have the gall to fucking tell me you had them.”

“I forgot I had them.” She said trying to defend herself.

“Lying isn't going to save you on this one.” He said before turning towards the shadows again. “Come out.” He ordered and in a few moments, two unicorns came out of the shadows dawned in the crimson and gold accented robes of the Canterlot Mages.

“We're sorry Princess.” the elder of the two, one that was in the latter years of his life with his now dusty brown coat and graying mane said with a scared look upon his face.

“It's not your fault Wavered Cane.” She said looking at them before she turned to look at Firestorm.

“I already know that after Vermon's first attack you had them study the books.” He growled.

“Yes... yes I did. How did you get them to talk?” She asked.

“He showed us some unspeakable things.” the other one a mare with a cherry red coat with a velvet mane and tail done up into buns.

“I showed them The Dark One as it looked on that day.” He said growling.

“You didn't need to show my little-”

“Our little ponies Celestia.” Storm corrected. “They aren't just yours. While you may have the age on the rest of us. You don't get to play the almighty card here.”

“I wanted to protect my... our little ponies.” She said stopping to correct herself.

“By leaving the one whose destiny is to the fact this thing in the dark? Excuse me 'princess', but how's that going to save them?” He asked being rather sarcastic using her title.

“I...” She said before signing and dropping down to where she was sitting on the floor. “I just wanted to help.”

“Help? You wanted to fucking help by leaving me in the fucking dark?” He said as his fists were shaking as his anger began to rise. “Are you fucking stupid Celestia?! You could have avoided this by saying that you had a few of the books after the events with Grimwand. That would have been the end of this as I would have asked if I could look over them, but no. You had to think you knew what the fuck you were doing. You've had over a thousand years to rule, and what did you do? You fucking toyed with ponies. You did it to me, you did it with some of those under you, and you fucking did it to Twilight.” That got Celestia to look a little more surprised.

“I never-” She tried to say.

“Bullshit, the stars will aid her in her escape.” That got her to shut her mouth with a snap. “Oh didn't think I would have figured that out. It wasn't talking about star metal and Nightmare Moon. It was all about Twilight and Luna.”

“I... I never had.”

“Bullshit again Celestia. You fucking knew it, as you had known about that from Starswirl's little time travel prophesy. You know that Nightmare moon was coming back so you sent Twilight to free your sister as you knew she would. Kind of hard to miss the dots when they stare right at you in the face. Especially when you were there when she got her cutie-mark and everything. You may think your cleaver Celestia, but you aren't when you're pitted against someone who can make the same leaps in logic.” He turned to the two other ponies in the room who was both scared and confused. “You two can leave now. Speak nothing of this.” Storm ordered as the two nodded in fear and left in haste.

“What now?” Celestia asked as she stood back up.

“That's easy, I'm going to go back to Ponyville and I'm going to finish studying these books. Since I can't take yours with me I'm going to leave it here.” He said tossing it at her hooves.

“And as for... us.” She asked a little nervous.

“As for us.” He said with a pause staring directly into her eyes. “Don't try to contact me for a while. I'm rather pissed at this and if you wish to finally play ball. I will be with Twilight but don't expect me to forgive you easily, if at all. I may have forgiving you if I was on earth, but since I've gotten here. I'm not the same being as I was there.” He said with a growl as with a snap he was gone with the other books. Leaving the regent of the sun alone in her room. With a heavy sigh, she magically pulled up her black book from the ground and looked at it for a long time. Her thoughts weighed heavily on her mind before she went to set the book back in silence in its out cove. She was afraid of him figuring out that she help that from him, and what his reaction would be to it.

She never had expected the level of controlled anger that he presented to her. Even when he would have yelled at her, which she knew she deserved. She just wished that he had struck her for what she did wrong, even when she knew he wouldn't do that to her. Outside of sparing or self-defense, of course. She sat there lost in thought looking at the book before she closed the out cove and went to bed. She had stuff she needed to do now. To help protect her... their little ponies and to make amends for what she had done.

-End of Chapter-