Chaper Seven: Enter Chaos

It didn't take Twilight long to lead us to the structure that was Canterlot Castle. It was magnificent, with its great masonry and characteristic elegance. The entrance was guarded, but these guards let our ensemble through without comment. They obviously knew who Twilight Sparkle was, and had given her a slight nod in passing. The interior of the castle was as ornate as the rest of the city. It looked like a fairy tale, I thought. But this was a fairy tale of sorts, wasn't it? Another short venture later, we found ourselves in the great throne room of the Princess herself. She was there, reading a scroll. Her sister was there too, but on a throne smaller than Celestia's by a fair margin. The whole room was decorated with stained glass windows, sculptures, and paintings. As we got closer, Celestia noticed us, and set down the manuscript. I didn't have to be told to bow, and did so in sync with the ponies. Luna was left unnoticed, and stopped what she was doing to observe.

"Twilight Sparkle, you've arrived! How good it is to see you and your friends. Is this a new friend of yours?" Celestia was apparently oblivious of the situation, but obviously knew what I was, as she narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at me.

"Yes, Princess, It is good to see you. This is Zach. There is something important that we must discuss," Twilight said with urgency, but also great calm. Her mentor was there, after all, and her very presence was reassuring. I waved, and introduced myself nervously.

"Hello." She was a massive creature, larger than any other pony, and almost a head taller than me. Her presence was not intimidating as much as graceful, but intimidating nonetheless. I couldn't help but to think; benevolent dictator.

"Now that introductions are complete, we can begin with the issue detailed in my letter." Princess Celestia's tone became much more serious, and exemplified authority. She was ready to get down to buisness. I only got more nervous. The other ponies and Spike maintained their silence. They wouldn't dare speak out of turn to their deitized princess.

"Pardon my curiosity," Twilight began formally, "why did your letter say that these beings were dangerous?" She gestured to me with her hoof. "Zach hasn't hurt anypony."

"I'm sure he hasn't. The issue is, one of them has. Yesterday evening, one of these beings attacked Canterlot. A pony was badly hurt. We have detained the being for now." I built the courage to pipe up.

"How did he hurt a pony?" I asked. Celestia's attention turned to me.

"The guards told me that the creature was holding an object which made a loud noise when he pointed it at a mare outside Canterlot's gates. The mare fell, and the being moved toward the injured mare. The guards tried to restrain him with magic, and he collapsed." Celestia explained. I felt my mouth open in astonishment. A man had shot a pony? It was a wonder the barrier hadn't collapsed already.

"Is the pony alright?!" I asked. What if she was paralyzed or something? That would be tragic.

"She'll be fine. Our magic will have her healed soon," she answered. She didn't have much, if any, bias against humans, as far as I could tell, and treated me like somepony new instead of a monster that shot at ponies. Celestia then prompted Twilight to raise her issue.

"Twilight, there was something you wanted to discuss?"

"Yes Princess. I have found that Zach and the other being are not from this universe, and that if something isn't done, one of our universes will be destroyed." Twilight managed to maintain her calm. Celestia was there, and she could do something. Anything. Twilight opened my backpack, and produced the book.

"Oh? That sounds rather serious. Are you sure?" The Princess' tone remained serious, but now contained a hint of uncertainty. Twilight had been sure- and correct- last time she had brough to light a prophesy from a book. Luna could testify to that. Celestia should know that by now, Twilight was smart enough to determine a true threat from superstition.

"It says it all in this book! Starswirl The Bearded wrote it himself!" She levitated the book over to the princess of the sun. She seized it with her own magic, and opened the book, reading it very rapidly. Mere seconds later, she set the book down, and began.

"It is as I feared. Discord..." She trailed off heatedly.

"Yes. This is why I brought Zach along with us. He can help." Twilight sounded confident in my ability to help. I certainly wasn't. My thoughts turned to the other human.

"Please, let us speak to the other human." If I wanted to help, maybe I could start there.

"That's what your kind is called? My most sincere apologies. You may see him. My sister can lead you there." Celestia was now aware of the threat, but remained totally calm. I feared that she had the impression that she was in control. Luna rose from her sitting position, and trotted over to us. She was so cool when she did appear in the television show. I was excited to meet her in person. Other matters were more important, though.

"You may come with us," she said in her characteristic fashion. She led, we followed. We descended some stairs and went through a number of corridors before coming to what looked to be guest suites. These suites had no windows, and locked, sturdy doors with a small window on them. It came to me. This was a prison? Looked very nice to be a prison. There was only one guard patrolling the area, like all the other areas of the castle, and the cells were spacious, clean, and rather colorful. Of our group, none said a word. Indeed, only Twilight and I had done any talking since we got here. The situation was less than social. Luna called the guard, who came immediately and followed. We approached the cell and I peered inside. There was a man sitting on a bed, head in his hands. He was rather large, obviously athletic. He noticed the noise the ten of us made, and lifted his head. He looked very tired, and his eyes were wild. The guard opened the door, and most of us went in. Spike, Luna, and the guard remained outside. The man stared at me for a moment, shook his head, and began.

"That's great! Not only am I imagining talking horses, but I'm hallucinating about people too?" He sounded utterly insane. It hadn't occurred to the guard that he should close the door. I tried to calm him down.

"Easy. I'm as real as any other person. It's all okay."

"I havn't seen any other people! Only TALKING HORSES. I don't think you're real. None of this is real. I'm dreaming. I'm not here, imprisoned by little horses, no, I'm sleeping, at home, in my own bed." He stood up. "You know what's really weird about these hallucinations? It's really realistic! I shot at one of the horses and it fell over!" He was laughing, laughing hard. I looked about me. Rainbow Dash looked ready to pulp him, and was barely restraining herself. Applejack looked angry too, like she was about to give him a buck and a piece of her mind. Pinkie was confused by his laughter, Twilight looked very concerned, probably about his mental health. Rarity and Fluttershy were just stunned.

"He has not calmed overnight," Luna said from beyond the doorway. "We worry about his health."

"I can see why. Listen to me-" At that moment, Applejack stormed ahead, brushing me aside. She looked really, really angry.

"What the hay is wrong with you?! You're hurtin' ponies and you think it's funny!? You need to learn some manners, mister!" The man laughed hysterically. He thought that this was absolutely hilarious.

"This one. I like this one. It's got a southern accent! That's priceless!" he yelled between bouts of laughter. Applejack only got more angry, but then realized the futility of her actions, and backed down. This guy had completely lost it. Suddenly, he grinned evily. He pointed in the direction of the wall, and all of us looked but me. Uh oh. He bolted for the exit. He flew out of his cell. I followed immediately. He prepared a heavy tackle, and smashed into- and through- Princess Luna. The Princess of the Night recoiled heavily, and before she could regain her focus, the man had escaped the corridor. We rushed out to see Luna take off in his direction. She did not appreciate that, not one bit. The whole group followed at full speed. Spike and I fell behind. We just could not move nearly as fast as they could. I could hear the commotion. Chaos, absolute chaos, I thought. The two of us proceeded back toward the throne room.

We had no idea where the group had chased the man. Many of the guards, I noticed, were away from their posts. Evidently the guy had given them quite the chase. I felt a great responsibility to apprehend the man, bas I felt it was my fault he had gotten out. I decided to follow the paths that were missing their guards, hoping they'd lead me to wherever the man had lead my companions. Spike did not object to my guidance. We came across the castle's garden, and saw a croud of guards, the two princesses, and the others. I could not see the man. As I came closer, I knew what had them in a circle. In the circle, the man was standing, ready to fight, beside a statue of none other than Discord. Luna was negotiating with him in her intimidating Canterlot Voice.

"Please, come peacefully. Nothing has to become of this." The man did not respond. Instead, he decided to climb upon the statue. The statue was tall. Quite tall. He quickly reached the top, sitting upon Discord's head. He studdered as he spoke.

"I don't want to be here! This is madness! I can't take this anymore!" He was tired of running. He was tired of this place. All he wanted to do was go home. He prepared to jump.

"Don't do this. We can help you get home if you let us."

"You're lying. You aren't real. I'm going to jump, and when I land, I'll be out of here and back home." With that, he dove off the statue. Celestia tried to levitate him, but it was without discernable effect. He landed on his head with a sickening wet sound. I ran over now, the crowd parting as I came. His head had a depression in it, and his ears and nose were bleeding. I felt his pulse. He was, as I'd feared, dead. I'd never seen anyone die before. Especially not like this. The garden was silent. All eyes were on the now-deceased man when I heard an all too familiar voice. The one of John De Lancie. Or rather, Discord.

"Oh, someone's had a fall. How unfortunate, a tragedy, really." He sounded convincingly sincere. I turned around, finding myself standing face to face with Discord, the lord of Chaos.