Chapter Twenty-Six: Chaos Theory

I awoke at the crack of dawn. I hadn't slept too well, as, just like the first time I'd stayed at Canterlot Castle, I was extremely worried. Now I'd have to defeat Discord more than twenty times in a possibly small time frame. Even with help, that would take a long time, and these missions could be extremely difficult, especially if each manifestation of Discord was as powerful as the primary one. Discord had taken us on a very interesting and lengthy ride, and it wasn't even nearly over yet. I got out of the pony-sized bed, stretching. I went into the main hall of the castle. Princess Luna and a slew of unicorns were talking about something.

"Uh, hello?" All of them turned to me.

"Zach, you are awake early. Were you having trouble sleeping?"

"Yes, yes I was. What have you found out?"

"We have reached several consensuses on numerous subjects regarding your impending task. The first is that each barrier has roughly a week and a half before de-stabilization resulting in events similar to your coming here in the first place occur, then, if the barriers are left alone, several more days will cause failure."

"Two weeks... How many barriers are we talking about?"

"Twenty-three. The second-"

"Wait, Twenty-three? Princess, I think we may need to field some sort of larger force if we want to solve this crisis in time."

"I am getting to that. The second one is that Discord is likely to be mortal in his weakened, split state. he may be susceptible to conventional attacks. However, the only way we see that can fully stop Discord is to kill him or convince him to leave. This leads to our next point. We have determined that, judging by how the barriers appear to be behaving, Discord might be controlling the decay, and if he is removed, the decay may cease."

"So we've got to go convince Discord to leave these universes, or kill him?"

"If our hypotheses are correct. However, these are optimistic educated guesses, do not take them as law. Our fourth and fifth consensuses, are that individuals that have travelled to other universes from Equestria for a significant period of time may have similar effects on universal barriers as you do, and that only groups of four individuals can traverse the universal barrier without damaging it. Now, we should wait for the rest of the Elements so I can brief them further." Luna turned back to her associates. "Dismissed, all of you, go get some sleep." The unicorns sitting around the room each got up and rather sluggishly left the castle. Luna must have kept them up all night doing this. After the last of them left the room, Luna turned to me again.

"Zach, can you still open portals?"

I conjured a portal to my universe, then poked my head through it. I was surprised by what I saw.

"Chaotic magic..." Luna muttered. "Why do you suppose Discord left you with this power when it was obviously in his interest to take it away?"

"Luna, Discord has linked my portals to specific locations. This portal leads directly into my house. He's got control over where my portals end up now."

"This does not bode well for us. We have determined some details about many of these afflicted universes. Some of them are far from inviting, and if Discord could place you wherever he wished, this could be extremely perilous." Luna hovered a piece of paper over to me from a table in the center of the room. It contained somewhat vague descriptions of the universes involved. I recognized a few too many of the elements for it to be coincidence.

"He's sending us to human fictional universes, again," I stated, pointing to several of the descriptions. "Some of these I can't identify right now, but I know this; this is definitely another game." If Discord had control of what time my portal came out at, he might put anyone going through my portals into the stories or major events of these universes. This was not good.

"I'll try to figure out what these all are. Thanks, Luna."

"Do not thank me. We are the ones in your debt. Everything we have is at your disposal."

Luna left the room. I pulled a pencil from my pocket and continued to look through the list. There were a lot of familiar ones, and some unfamiliar ones. Maybe if I had access to a computer I could research them, learn more about them. Regardless of what the situation called for, I'd just have to continue to sift through these descriptions. Maybe he would pick ones I did not like as well as those I did. All of this was not to be taken lightly, now twenty-four universes were in danger, total, and we had merely a few weeks to save them all.

Some time later, I'd identified at least six of the universes, and guessed at many of them. It was a good start, but I'd need a computer to do much more.

"Hey, Zach, there you are. It's time for breakfast." I hadn't heard Rainbow enter the room. She flew over to me. "What are you doin'?"

"Luna's found out which universes Discord's gone to, but she can't really identify them. Discord's gone to universes I know about, and some I don't. I'm trying to figure them out."

"We're going to talk about that. Come on."

I followed Rainbow to the dining hall, where the Mane Six and both Princesses could be found. Rainbow and I both took our places.

"Now that we have all assembled, we shall discuss what Luna and her associates have discovered, and from there, determine what we shall do to stop Discord and save Equestria," Celestia said, and nodded at her sister.

"We have reached some conclusions about Discord's actions which resulted in twenty-three other universes' barriers being damaged. Firstly, we have little time to waste. We have but one and a half weeks before the barriers decay badly enough that individuals from these universes will fall into Equestria, and another several days before it fails completely. Second, Discord is likely to be weakened in his current state, and is probably vulnerable to conventional attacks. Third, any individual that has left this universe for a significant amount of time will, if our hypothesis is correct, have a similar effect as Zach's on any universal barrier, including those afflicted. Fourth, Discord's presence is, again, if our hypothesis is correct, accelerating the decay of these barriers. If he is removed, decay will slow to a manageable rate or stop. Fifth, only four individuals can safely cross into any one of the other universes, as allowing any more through will cause damage and hasten the decay. Finally, Zach has determined that his portal spell has been altered, and his portals are now linked to specific locations in each universe. What have you found out so far, Zach?" Luna's lengthy speech had each of the ponies thinking.

"Discord is leading us on another one of his games. The barriers he's disrupted seem to all be fictional universes from my universe, and many of them are dangerous. And since he can direct my portals wherever he wants, Discord is likely to be making the portal destinations rather interesting, if not dangerous as well. Since there are twenty-two different universes we must travel to in order to stop this decay, we don't have enough time for just one team to do it all."

"You're suggesting that we-" Twilight began.

"I am. We're going to have to form a number of different teams, each led by someone that has left this universe for an extended period. There are a number of legible team leaders, that is, all of those that had travelled with me, including you, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Trixie, Time Piece, Spike, Derpy, Elise, if we can get her here, and myself."

"Who else is going to be in these teams?" Rainbow asked. "I mean, no single one of us can do this alone."

"We should call for volunteers," I suggested.

"What about the Royal Guard? I'm certain they would be willing to accompany your teams," Celestia said.

"We'll need ponies with diverse skillsets. I think your guards are little... specialized."

"Good point. I shall make a public announcement at noon for volunteers. In the meantime, I'll send messengers to fetch those legible to lead one of these teams. But for now, we should eat," Celestia said, informally adjourning the meeting for the moment.

As we ate, I found myself thinking about my own team's composition. I couldn't bring along Twilight and Rainbow like the last few times, I'd have to recruit others, and since my own team was probably going to have to go through the most complex universes, as I was one of only two humans available, I'd need some resourceful teammates. Meanwhile, the doomsday clock was ticking, and it was going to have to be soon that we acted, and fast. First, I'd have to identify and research each universe, and make sure each team was assembled. Second, I'd have to brief each team on said universe, and what they could expect from Discord's plans. Third, we'd have to gear up, and I'd have to set up portals for each team, go on my own mission, and be back in time to make the exit portal for them as well. This was going to be an interesting two weeks.