Chapter 2: The Message

All beings pursue a sense of completeness. A sense that life is completely fulfilling, that all our desires are being met, that things could not be better. Perfect contentment and happiness. Not a single hole or problem wearing us down from the inside, and no pressure pushing down and restricting us from the outside. A sense of soaring, the world below you, its many horrors unable to extend far enough to bring you down.

Discord's lack of this feeling weighed heavily on his mind. An echoing emptiness seemed to be resounding through him after the triumph of the night. He had succeeded in acquiring his first taste of revenge, a taste of sweet blood, and has greatly enjoyed his new abilities, but contentment was a bird constantly flying out of his reach.

Darth Discord pondered his lack of happiness as he watched his nightmares cart the horrified statue of Celestia out of the chaotic Everfree forest. Equestria's sun conquered by his chaos, wrapped in stone and under his complete control. To Discord, however, slaying the sun did not at all appease his doubts as he hoped it would.

“You have done well, my pupil,” said a voice, its power striking Discord like an impact with an iceberg. Always chilling, always filled with darkness and power. Power was what Discord felt eluded him; his new hunger for it not nearly satiated, which greatly frustrated the lord of chaos.

Discord turned to his right, where his master, Darth Renatus, appeared out of nowhere, still completely covered in a black cloak. What is he hiding? Discord asked himself. Darth Renatus kept himself constantly shrouded in shadow; speaking little about his own reasons or desires, always concealing his image, and rarely displaying any of his power. He did not seem to ever do anything for himself, always delegating Discord or others to do the work of the Chaos Alliance.

“You know, I am starting to seriously get annoyed,” Discord decided to say. He would not keep his growing uncertainty silent. He had agreed to be work with Renatus, and had given up many aspects of himself to do it. Concessions had to be made if he was to be Renatus' student. His tongue, however, was one thing Renatus would never take from him. Discord would always be a defiant speaker.

“Whatever for?” Renatus questioned, a laughing ghost haunting his tone.

“I thought I'd be more powerful than I was before. Before, I could unleash chaos over all of Equestria with ease; now, I can barely do that for a forest!” Discord complained, getting to the heart of his issue. No longer could he shape the world in his own image, and partake in the opportunities such an action would give him. Now, because of his lack of power, he had to work much harder to get anything done, and there was always something to be done now that he had people working under him. There were benefits, but in Discord's mind, they would never outweigh the negatives unless he got his power back, or obtain this power that would be greater than what he had previously.

“You must have patience, my apprentice. I'll remind you that I had to draw much of your former power to release you from your prison, and that your battle with the elements of harmony weakened you. Even though some time has passed, you will not see the full return of your powers of chaos for a while yet.”

“How long are we talking about?” Discord demanded to know.

“That is not for me to determine. As you obtain more agents to serve you, your power to spread chaos will increase. And as you did before, the elements of harmony must fall before you can cover the entire world in discord. When that happens, will be up to you and your men. Soon enough, you will be unstoppable,” Rentaus reassured his apprentice. His speech was again light and comforting, somehow able to freeze all of Discord's doubts and stoke the flames of his heart at the same time. A two-sided knife that drained the life from the rebellion within Discord.

“Well, I suppose that makes sense,” Discord said, concerned that somehow his protests were fading away after a few simple sentences from his master. “But it's just not as much fun as I thought it'd be without my full powers over chaos.”

“You will have more of “your fun” than ever once the Chaos Sphere is fully operational. Speaking of which, you should return there to oversee things, along with your latest catch,” Darth Renatus explained, gesturing his head to the stone Celestia.

“But, the plans haven't been recovered!” Discord managed to protest. Again, he was being delegated to do work he had little interest in, when he would rather be out on the hunt and having fun tormenting ponies on his way.

“We'll send nightmares to handle that. We have more pressing matters to attend to. The Chaos Sphere is more important, and your training with me must continue,” Renatus said, his tone becoming commanding. The lord of darkness grew weary of trying to keep Discord under his hoof, and in impatience turned to force of will to get the draconequus in line.
“I'm starting to get annoyed at your constant, cold, commanding of me,” Discord noted, eyes directing a glare at his master.

“Three days at the Chaos Sphere,” Renatus spoke softly, beginning a bargain. “I will have your nightmares prepare a special treat for Ponyville in the meantime. After three days, you'll be able to have all the fun you want in Ponyville; at the home of your hated foes, the foes that ripped your world from beneath you.” Renatus added the reminder to help him win Discord over to the idea.

“I thought that Ponyville was untouchable as long as the elements of harmony were active, and considered it their home?” Discord reminded, but amid the seas of his skepticism was a boat of hope at the prospect. He would like nothing more than to have free reign over Ponyville, the perfect place to extract his revenge on the six mares that had, with Celestia's guidance, sent him back to his stoney prison cell.

“The Chaos Sphere being fully operational would circumnavigate that,” Renatus mentioned, a not-so-subtle hint to Discord. “But, there are other methods that can be used to open up a foothold to that harmony protectorate, that coincide well with our next movements. All that I need is time, and all you need is patience. With that, we shall all be justly rewarded,” Renatus explained in vague terms, silver tongue working its magic.

“Oh, very well then,” Discord conceded. “But if Ponyville is not ready for the return of Discord in three days, I make sure the havoc I wreak ruins your precious schemes,” Discord threatened. Renatus' schemes had contributed to Discord's constraints as well, despite the previous promises to the contrary. The weapons that Discord had been given were a delight, but always held back by Renatus' various plans. Renatus had a desire to take the spread of chaos slowly, so that their foes could not well counter their movements, and so their strength could build up. Discord, in contrast, wanted to to start his fun quickly, and thus found himself constantly butting heads with his teacher when they outlined their next actions (something Discord also had a distaste for; he preferred improvisation).

“I will not fail you, if you did not fail me,” Renatus replied. “Now, go to the Chaos Sphere,” he ordered. Discord sighed and snapped his fingers, instantly teleporting to said location.

“As for the rest of you,” Renatus shouted to the the nightmares who had watched the converse in formation with stoic expressions. The nightmares tensed up, stomped their hooves in unison, and responded with a loud:

“Yes sir?”

“Head for Ponyville,” Renatus instructed. “Keep a perimeter and search the area outside of it. Celestia almost certainly sent the plans there, but the message may have failed to deliver. Keep an eye out for Twilight Sparkle and her friends, as well; do not attempt to fight them directly, but inform me of any of their movements. I will give further orders when you arrive there. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir!”

---

A world away, a busy happiness flowed through the home of Ponyville's resident librarian, Twilight Sparkle. Stress accompanied it, but with friends, as Twilight had learned, anything could be enjoyable. Thus, Twilight smiled as she flew across her home to make sure everything was in order, joy radiating from her.

The inside of Twilight's library home, a giant tree, was cleaner than it had been in months. The books had been put away neatly on the shelves, and the walls and floors sparkled and shined. Banners, ribbons, streamers, and other assorted decorations in a wide array of colors had been put up to make the tree look more vibrant. A soapy, clean smell wafted from every nook and cranny, also carrying a trace of the scent of the bark of the tree. Oddly, a number of birds and bunnies scampered about with tiny rags, tweeting and hopping, making the tree a flurry of movement. In addition to the woodland creatures and Twilight herself, were two other ponies and a baby dragon, also scurrying about to make the inside of the home the best it could be.

“Alright Spike, let's start that checklist,” spoke Twilight Sparkle, an uplifting note in her voice matching the spring in her step. She did not pause to delegate the checklist, still busying herself with dusting and organizing books on the shelves with her magic. “Decorations?”

Spike, the purple and green baby dragon, grabbed a quill and a clipboard with a small list on it, and surveyed the room. It was beautiful. The lengths of cloth that surrounded the inside of the tree filled the tree with a charming elegance, courtesy of one white unicorn named Rarity (who, Spike thought, had merely spread a fraction of her beauty throughout the tree). Rarity was still making slight adjustments around the room in her pursuit of perfection.

“Check,” Spike replied, punctuating his word with a check-mark on the sheet. He tried to give a heartfelt grin to Rarity, but she was turned away, seeming completely ignorant of him.

“All books put away?” Twilight went on, breaking Spike from the cage of his own love-struck heart to continue his work. Twilight shook her head at her assistant, still amazed that Spike could be so dedicated to his crush on Rarity, and further amazed that he was unable to voice that crush.

“Check,” Spike responded as he shook his head to reclaim his focus. Having done most of the book organizing himself, he knew instinctively that almost everything was in its proper place.

“Floors, walls, and ceiling clean?” Twilight pressed.

Spike gazed around again, noting the cleanliness of practically every corner of the tree. The floor was so shiny he could even see himself in it; how that was possible in a wooden tree was beyond him, though he suspected Twilight might have been experimenting with cleaning magic. The primary culprit of the cleaning, the pink-haired yellow pegasus named Fluttershy, was gently letting all of her friends leave the home with her sincerest thanks at a job well done.

“Check,” Spike answered happily, finding himself delighting in a clean home. Too often, he realized, he took for granted how nice it was to have a clean place to live.

“Food?” Twilight continued, a shade of hunger filling the question. She had forgone eating in the preparation of her home, but had stayed strong in resisting the baby-like moans and pleas of her stomach.

Spike turned his eyes to a long table filled with all sorts of treats, refreshments, and snacks; from apple cupcakes to zucchini muffins (Spike wasn't sure what “zucchini” was, but Rarity had insisted that it was a food craze that was sweeping through all of Canterlot). The delectable smells bombarded him every time he walked past it. There was even a bowl of gemstones just for him.

“Check,” Spike said, drooling at the enticing gems that unleashed a siren call to his mouth and belly. Spike tried to tip-toe over to the bowl, but Twilight Sparkle noticed this and intervened, halting his progress with a well placed hoof.

“Well, I guess that's everything then. Thanks for all your help you two,” Twilight Sparkle addressed Rarity and Fluttershy, as the trio moved to meet in the center of the room, Twilight dragging a hungry Spike along with her.

“Hey, what about me!” Spike complained from under Twilight's leg, not wanting to bee under-appreciated. Though he had learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of seeking too much affection, he had hoped Twilight had also learned to avoid such ignorance of his insecurities.

“And of course we wouldn't have been able to do it without my number one assistant,” Twilight said lovingly, affectionately rubbing Spike's head with her hoof. She knew she had to constantly appreciate her little dragon pal. Spike grinned, eating up the attention, and enjoying the sensation of Twilight rubbing his spines.

“It was my pleasure, darling. It is not everyday you get to decorate for royalty, after all,” Rarity responded with her usual tone filled with charm and grace. A lady both in appearance and voice.

“It was no trouble at all Twilight, me and my friends are always happy to help,” Fluttershy said softly, as usual, her voice barely above a whisper. Fluttershy bit her lip in nervousness as she struggled with her confidence issues in trying to ask a question she saw as slightly rude. Eventually, the more daring side won out, and she asked:

“But, why couldn't we get anyone else to come help us get the place ready? It was an awful lot of work, and I'm sure plenty of ponies would have been willing to help. Not that there's anything wrong with doing it on our own, but-”

“Celestia doesn't want anyone but us six to know about this, because she wants to talk to us about the elements of harmony. In fact she said she would just be teleporting straight into my room. Cleaning is not really Rainbow Dash's or Applejack's thing. And Pinkie Pie..well, you can tell her first thing tomorrow morning; any sooner and she'll turn this into a huge party before we can say anything,” Twilight responded logically, reciting the reasoning she had given herself earlier. She was always ready to explain her actions for any of her decisions, planned out as she was.

“I guess that makes sense. What time does Celestia want to see us here tomorrow?” Fluttershy asked, brightening now that she was past the awkward question. She dearly wished she didn't feel so shy when she asked such questions. But she didn't want to be too aggressive or pervasive even more.

“Bright and early in the morning; Eight o'clock, sharp. I'll see you guys then-” Twilight said, while escorting Fluttershy and Rarity to the door, who were leaving to attend to other matters. Her final words of farewell would be interrupted, however, by the loud belching of a baby dragon.

“BURP,” Spike croaked, as a magic trail of green flame left his lips, a message popping out of it. The message was fairly unusual in that it was unfurled, as well as worn and faded. Shortly afterward, Spike let our a bigger belch, and a large, gray, rolled-up scroll popped out as well. Spike stumbled around after the delivery was complete, stomach aching after processing such a large piece of mail.

“Hmm, I wonder what these could be. Could you two stay a minute? It might be from Celestia; she may be changing the time,” Twilight requested, walking towards the unfurled parchment and lifting it up with her telekinesis, as well as lifting the large scroll and placing it on a nearby unoccupied table. Rarity and Fluttershy followed in behind her, reading the letter over her shoulder.

The message was crumbling and illegible. Most of the words had faded out, making them impossible to decipher. Only a small scrawl at the bottom of the page could be made out, and even then only barely. This pleading scrawl read:

“Save me, Twilight Sparkle. You're my only hope.”

“What does this mean?” Twilight asked to nopony in particular. A shiver ran down her spine at reading the message. The joy that had filled her tree mere minutes ago now seemed a distant memory. “Who is it from? There's no name on this thing that I can see. Are you sure there isn't anything more, Spike?” Twilight inquired, turning towards her assistant. She was desperate for answers, and even though she knew deep down that Spike wasn't able to hold messages like that, her clouded thoughts prevented her from realizing it.

“No, I don't feel anything else at all,” Spike answered. Twilight gave him a disappointed look, and Spike couldn't help but feel guilty. He had never failed to deliver a full message before. What if his own dragon magic had failed, burning away most of the letter? It was the only thing that made sense; after all, who would send a message that they could not read? Sinister memories crawled upwards to his consciousness, increasing his guilt. All he was supposed to do, beside his assistant chores, was act as Twilight's messaging system. Apparently, he could not even do that right.

“This is bad. Well, let’s take a look at this scroll here then,” Twilight suggested, walking over to the table, the rest of the group following in behind her. She hoped that it would shed light on the other message; there were few things she hated more than being kept in the dark. She unfurled the scroll with her magic. The three ponies gasped at what was revealed. The scroll was completely blank.

“This must have been sent by accident,” Twilight figured, annoyance evident on her face. “As for the message, they must have been in a hurry and couldn't write it neat enough to make-out,” Twilight reasoned. “But it sounds like somepony must really be in trouble for that to happen.”

“What are we going to do?” Fluttershy inquired, highly concerned. Her fears took a backseat to her desire to help any creature in need, and she too had the sense that somepony was in desperate need of help. “Shouldn't we try and go look for whoever sent the message?” Fluttershy paused when she saw Twilight's frustrated face. Fluttershy recalled the visit that was to occur the next morning, and realized how the visit and the message were tearing apart Twilight's mind, and thus quickly tried to counteract her previous position

“But, it would be an awful lot of trouble,” Fluttershy began, “and we wouldn't know where to start. Besides, the Princess is coming tomorrow.” Fluttershy frowned as she spoke out against her own desire to go and help whoever was in trouble. But, she felt her friends' wishes had to come before hers in this case.

“Exactly,” Rarity added. “We have an important meeting with the Princess; We don't have time to go gallivanting off when we do not even have the slightest clue where to start looking for this pony. It would just be a waste of time,” Rarity explained. A part of her wanted to help whoever needed it, but she desired direction in where she was going. She didn't want to go out on an adventure if it would not lead anywhere. Besides that, a meeting with the most powerful and royal creature in Equestria overrode virtually everything else, in her mind.

“Rarity is right,” Twilight confirmed, deciding to choose her mind's choice over her heart's. “It's getting late, and we have an early rise tomorrow. I'll try and look into a spell that might make the message clearer. If I can't find anything, Celestia should be able to help us figure out what this means when she gets here tomorrow,” Twilight assured, both to her friends and to herself. If books did not have the answer she sought, then her teacher had to. She would just have to be patient. She had learned from Pinkie to be willing to accept that she could not explain everything, but her moral sense refused to do this when it could be a pony's life at stake.

Spike watched on as the ponies debated the issue, still feeling like the blame lay with him. He held his tongue, however, for fear of being scolded for his failure. He hated feeling like he was failing his friends, especially Twilight, who had raised him, and Rarity, who he adored. Failing both of them tore him apart.

After Fluttershy and Rarity had departed, Twilight ripped through book after book that dealt with writing and reading. The tree was thick with the sound of flipping pages and thumping tomes, strewn errantly across the floor when Twilight had finished with them. All the previous efforts to organize the library's vast collection would soon be destroyed by Twilight's drive to find the answers she sought.

While Twilight was doing this, Spike decided to try a bit of his own reading. He carefully sneaked behind a busy Twilight towards the “D” section of the library, and found the book he was looking for: “Dudley’s Dynamic Guide to Dragon Messages”.

Spike had seen the book before and was interested, but not being much of a reader, had ignored the heavy text. Reading big words or big books had always intimidated him, even after spending so many years living with Twilight Sparkle. He was, however, ready and willing to overcome his deficiencies to help Twilight and try to fix any inadvertent damage he may have caused to the message.

Spike opened up the book and scanned through the table of contents. 'Let's see.. “How to send a message”, “How to get a message”..no, none of those are any good,” Spike read, continuing down the page, before stopping at an interesting chapter titled: “How to trace a message”. Rather intrigued by the promise of that, Spike opened up the book to said chapter and began reading.

“Sometimes, junk mailers, often menacing monsters known as trolls (for more information on trolls, see chapter 13), will spam your stomach with a number of messages you do not want. Though there are ways to prevent these messages from getting through your system, sometimes the best method to stopping them is a more direct approach of finding out where these trolls live and flaming them.

Thus, the attention of this chapter focuses on tracing. Whenever a message travels by magic, a small magical residue is left. This is because instant-messaging is not a direct transfer from point A to point B. It is, instead, the message traveling at super-fast speeds through the air in a manner untraceable to the dragon eye. This is called “warping”. “Warping” leaves a distinct residue, or trace, in the air due to the power of the magic used. This magic is invisible to the eyes of most ponies; however, a dragon can easily follow this trace residue.

The reside can be seen by the green transportation flames of a dragon. Simply by spitting out flames on the residue, the trail will become visible for a few seconds. Alternatively, a dragon can trace the residue by its distinct scent, that of new parchment. By doing either of these things, a dragon can follow the trace all the way back to where the message was sent.”

Spike stopped reading at that point, too excited by the information he had just obtained to continue. He could just trace the message back to the sender! He had never realized such a thing was possible; as he lived with Twilight, a highly studious person, the scent of fresh parchment was always present in his home, overwhelming most other smells. In addition, he had always been careful about spitting out flames for fear of damaging the books or the tree itself, and thus had never seen the residue either.

Spike had been so engaged and lost in thought that he had not noticed a certain purple unicorn pop up behind him.

“What are you reading, Spike?”

“Aah!” Spike screamed out, jumping upward like a frightened rabbit. He turned to see Twilight Sparkle giving him a curious look. Spike took a deep breath, preparing to explain his findings. “Well, I wanted to help you out, and I think I found a way we can find out who the sender of that letter is!”

“Really? Great! What is it?”

“It's..well, uh...” Spike was flabbergasted as to how to explain this, or whether or not he should explain it. He wanted to be honest and open with Twilight, but a part of him wanted to find the sender on his own to try and make up for his previous failure of delivering the message intact.

Twilight, having been reading for hours, suddenly released a massive yawn, tiredness overcoming her. “It's getting late, and we should really have been to bed a while ago. Listen, why don't you just tell it to all of us tomorrow, and after Celestia comes by, we'll all go out and search together, okay?”

“That sounds great!” Spike answered with enthusiasm. Twilight turned to go to bed, and Spike let out a sigh of relief. He climbed up to his bed at the foot of Twilight's and crawled underneath the soft, warm covers.

“Good night Spike,” Twilight said before turning out the lights with her magic and closing her eyes.

“Good night, Twilight,” Spike replied. He waited for Twilight to fall asleep, in the meantime pondering his own position; a difficult ask as he had to fight against his own heavy eyelids, which were supported by his comforting bed. Should he just wait for tomorrow, as Twilight said? But the person seemed to be in real distress, and might not have much time left. And as the trail would only go to where the message was sent, the longer they waited, the less likely they'd be able to find the sender.

Spike figured it would be best to do this on his own, and do it now. Twilight needed her rest, and the rest of their friends would be entertaining Celestia tomorrow, likely for the “Elements of Harmony” stuff he had no part in (despite Twilight's half-hearted previous attempt to include him; he still had a lump from where Rainbow Dash hit him). He could do this on his own; his own adventure, his own chance to save the day.

Spike's imagination also got the better of him. He envisioned himself as a hero again: Sir Spike, the mighty warrior with muscles hard as rock, rushing off to save a beautiful damsel in distress. He would journey through freezing tundras, blistering deserts, monstrous forests, to eventually slay the monster guarding the message sender. The messenger would be Rarity’s long lost twin sister, and would be extremely thankful, kissing him in repayment. He would then take the damsel back home, where Rarity would be waiting, thoroughly impressed with his heroics, and insist on giving him a kiss to show her admiration for him.

“That does it. I'm going to do this!” Spike whispered with conviction, his imagination slipping into the realms of his reality. Very carefully, he got up and tip-toed down to the ground floor, not making a sound. Spike grabbed a piece of parchment and quill and wrote a hasty note for Twilight in case he did not get back by morning. He also grabbed a small saddlebag and put some food and the letter in it, as well as the large blank scroll, as he needed to ask the sender exactly what they meant. He then began searching for the trail; he let out tiny wisps of green flame from his mouth, hoping to illuminate the residue. Luckily, Twilight was soundly asleep and did not notice the flashes of green light or the sounds his flames made.

Eventually, Spike found the trail; it was a glittering, ghostly wisp hanging in the air. Spike continued puffing out green flame, following the trail right out the door (which he opened and closed with extreme caution), and onwards into the star-filled night, the tempting mistress of adventure leading his path.

A curious owl watched him depart, knowing he likely could not stop the dragon. He was thoroughly perplexed by Spike’s actions.