The Elements of Turmoil

By RadaVonVon

Chapter 12: The True Dystopia

Thank you, Starshine_Swirl for the fanart!

She hadn’t wanted to come. She had insisted she was fine.

Twilight had to be sure. The earth pony wasn’t exactly complacent, but Twilight Sparkle had somehow managed to accompany Pinkamena to Canterlot to see the Princess. The Princess was the only person Twilight knew for sure knew exactly what was going on with Pinkamena Diane Pie. It was a last-ditch attempt. Her nightmares didn’t stop. She only knew they involved Discord, and the pink earth pony would awaken trying to bash her ears into her skull.

Twilight shuddered at the thought. Now, she was leading Pinkamena down the cobblestone road through Canterlot gardens. The grass was peeking through from between the grey stones, struggling to grow under Celestia’s bright summer sun. The rays from the sun poked through the hedges lining either side, casting a very slight green glow on the flowers on either side of the cobblestone path.

Pinkamena was dragging her hooves around audibly. The top half of her head was bandaged. Fluttershy had confirmed she wasn’t trying to hurt herself; she had more or less been thrashing around in her nightmare without realizing what she had been doing, bashing her hooves against her ears in a vain attempt to make whatever had been taunting her stop. But, between that and her normal behavior, the earth pony had managed to tear Twilight’s focus off of Clockwork’s safety and entrust him (In spite of the fact that she was powerless, anyway.) in the care of her friends in the library.

She hoped he was going to be okay. She knew that he could handle himself. He was smart, and he was resourceful. And, yet… She couldn’t help but worry about him. Why Soarin’s main concern when it came to his daughter right now was the fact that she was crushing on Clockwork eluded her. There are far more important things to worry about. Like, if they get back alive.

With the recent events regarding Candied Chaos now somewhat resembling a draconequus, Twilight hadn’t allowed Pinkamena to see the sphere to avoid her panicking even further. She was hoping that the Princess could explain her transformation when they sent the pink mare off to take a walk or something of the sort.

Twilight’s main concern now was that Discord had assaulted Pinkie in some way several years ago to result in Candied Chaos. It certainly would explain a lot, as the filly never had resembled Braeburn Apple at any point in time.  She sighed at the memory of Braeburn’s death. Pinkamena hadn’t even gotten to a state like this. What could shake her up this badly?

Twilight Sparkle also felt rather bad for Candied Chaos, if her father actually was Discord and she was the product of, well, rape. Twilight shuddered at the thought. If she found out that her parents were all lies, or if Clockwork was the outcome of something so malicious… She felt herself shiver from the core.

This was also part of the reason Twilight Sparkle was so desperate to get Pinkamena to at least talk to the Princess. If that had gone on, the Princess could do something. Right? Discord was already imprisoned, but surely if he had hurt Pinkamena, they could do something else so that he really got the idea. They could find a worse punishment, of course. Send him to the sun or something.

‘If I had the Harnis, I’d send him to a fire dimension.’ She growled in her head, imagining Whooves dropping him off, calling, “Toodloo!  Cheerio!” In Discord’s wake while he burned, crying and screaming and flailing for some kind of relief while his fur singed. Immediately, she was filled with a sense of grim satisfaction and a sense of longing.

She still missed him.

It was pathetic, sad, wretched, miserable, morose, lugubrious, lamentable, harrowing, and disconsolate. And, yet, it was true.

In a sense, she understood where Solar Flare was coming from when she nervously chattered in front of Clockwork. He looked just like his father. Big, deep blue eyes, reminiscent of a summer sky in the middle of noon. His hair resembled hers more, but it had retained the soft texture the Doctor’s had had. She recalled just after Whooves had appeared in her library, he had asked for food. An apple, specifically. He loved apples, evidently.

She had send Spike to go get the apple, still befuddled as to the strange stallion standing in the middle of her library. When he had taken a bite, he had spit it out nearly immediately. “Augh, Celestia!” He had groaned. “No, never mind, I do not like apples! Those are rubbish! I hate apples! Ah, I like… I like carrots! Carrots are my favourite! You have carrots?”

“You just said you liked ap-“

“No, no!” The Doctor had insisted. “I don’t like apples, never mind. I want a carrot!”

She had begrudgingly sent Spike to get him a carrot, which he also spat out in shock.

"What's wrong with you? Twilight had asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You're a unicorn, why can't you magic me up decent food?"                 

They went through at least fifteen different foods, from daisies to cupcakes. Finally, finally, he had snatched something random from her cabinet, food and wrappers littering her counters and half-eaten snacks filling her trashcan to the brim.

For some peculiar reason, the stallion had his fill of cheese sticks dipped in yoghurt. The mere suggestion made her shudder. She didn’t know everything about the Time Ponies, but she knew now it had something to do with that.

She shook her head of the memory, frowning. He was gone, now. No point in busying herself with the quandaries of the past. She was now leading Pinkamena into the castle. The guards nodded in her general direction in recognition as she nudged the massive door open, bringing the baker straight into the throne room, where Celestia sat at the end of the room. Twilight saw Celestia smile.

“Hello, my faithful student.” Celestia stood up. “I did receive your letter.” She nodded to Twilight, beckoning over the two ponies.

Pinkamena followed without a word, staring blankly at her hooves, just as she always did. Celestia bowed her head. “Hello, Pinkamena Diane.” She smiled, and Pinkie looked up slowly, her expression flat. “Your friends are concerned for you.” Celestia continued. “And wanted me to speak with you to make sure everything is okay. You’ve been having night terrors, correct? I have to make sure it’s nothing magic-related, and then we may solve your problem. Is that okay?”

Twilight never failed to be amazed by the tenderness Celestia used to speak to someone who was emotionally damaged. She anxiously watched Pinkie’s dead eyes turn up to stare at Celestia and murmur, “Okay.”

Celestia nodded to her guards, who promptly lined up and exited, and then she turned her pink eyes back on Pinkie. “Is there anything in particular you’d like for me to call you, Miss Pie?”

“Pinkamena is fine.” Twilight heard the pink mare mumble.

“Okay.” Celestia smiled tenderly and smiled briefly at Twilight. “So, is there anything in particular you want to talk about? Braeburn Apple?”

When she saw Pinkamena’s eyes immediately go moist, Twilight blinked in surprise. She couldn’t even remember Pinkie crying at his funeral. It was a celebration of a great life and a great pony to her. “There is nothing in particular.” Pinkamena replied vacantly.

“Okay, that’s fine, too. Tell me, Pinkamena, do you miss Braeburn?”

“… He was a good pony and I loved him.”

“Yes, we all do. But, do you miss him?”

“Of course I do.”

“Initially, when you began to feel a sense of unease, what caused it?”

Pinkamena paused, staring blankly at the floor and slowly looking up. “I have no idea.”

“There must have been something.”

“Something’s missing. There’s a puzzle piece gone.”

“So you feel something’s missing from your life?”

“No.” Pinkamena responded immediately, making Twilight jump. “The universe. Something’s missing from…” She gazed vacuously into the distance at nothing in particular. “Everything.” She murmured. She was speaking softer than Fluttershy.

“I understand you had a nightmare.” The Princess murmured, her eyes scanning over the bandages on the baker’s head.

“Yes.”

“Would you like to speak about it?”

“It was very real.”

“Okay. Was anypony else there?”

“Just Discord.”

“Really?” Celestia seemed somewhat genuinely surprised. “What was he doing?”

A visible shiver ran throughout the length of Pinkamena’s body and she swallowed. “Trying to… Trying to convince me it wasn’t real.”

“Convince you what wasn’t real?” Celestia cooed softly, as though she were speaking to a child.

“Braeburn. That we never got married or fell in love.

Celestia furrowed her brow. “Okay.” She inhaled, relaxing slightly. “Twilight, you mentioned there was something else you had to discuss, did you not?” She asked, swinging her head toward Twilight Sparkle.

“Yes,” Twilight bit her lip tentatively, using her horn to cast a scrying spell. An image of Candied Chaos in her current form popped up. Pinkie’s eyes grew massive and the colour drained from her face. The same happened to Celestia. “We were watching the orb you gave us, Princess. Candied Chaos got very sick out of nowhere, and after a day, she looked like this and said she felt better.”

“Had they entered Dystopia?!” Celestia snapped, snarling.

Twilight was taken aback by the Princess’ sudden rage. “Yes. Once they entered, she said she didn’t feel well, so they took a day off for her to get better, and this happened.” She swallowed. “No doubt, Chaos now bears a striking resemblance to Discord the draconequus in some respects. We got worried that…” She bit her lip. “That Pinkie- I-I mean, Pinkamena,” She mumbled, nodding. “Was perhaps, uhm…”

“Violated.” Celestia finished flatly. “And that Candied Chaos is perhaps, the foal of Discord and not Braeburn Apple?”

Pinkie sat, eyes huge, scanning the ground, her pupils moving at thousands of miles an hour, face frozen in a form of stagnant repulsion. Her breaths were arduous.

“Yes.” Twilight answered mournfully. “Unfortunately.”

“Well, Pinkamena,” Celestia addressed tenderly, looking over at the party pony and swallowing briefly. “Please tell us if we are correct. No one is going to blame you.”

Pinkie looked up slowly, trembling, squeaking an answer. Twilight had never heard Fluttershy speak so quietly.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.” Celestia murmured, resting an elegant jeweled hoof on Pinkamena’s dull pink one.

“Yes.” Pinkie whispered, swallowing. Celestia nodded.

“Okay. Twilight and I are going to discuss the best course of action right now. Would you like to take a walk in the garden?”

Pinkie barely nodded, stiffly walking up as she stared at the ground and nudged the door to the outside open, leaving Twilight with Celestia in a state of shock. “Princess,” She murmured, unsure of what to say and not even considering the words coming from her mouth. “I know when I first moved to Ponyville you wanted me to make friends and learn as much about friendship as I could. I now understand that it was more out of personal concern for me and less a studying thing. I made those friends. We had a falling out. Now we’re coming back together once we realize that almost nothing has changed. Our foals are friends, or acquaintances, at least, more or less. I learned about what it means to love someone more than you love yourself, then to lose them, and what it is to be a mother and how no one writes books or manuals on these things. You can’t study it. You just have to guess through. But what am I supposed to do here?” She looked up slowly, creasing her eyebrows. “Pinkie Pie is the one who cheers us up. She acts like a total dope, but she’s much more intelligent than she lets off. She’s the happy one. She makes us smile. Even if it hadn’t been her. If It’d been Applejack, what would I say? Why didn’t she tell us?

“I mean, I wish it had been me, by far. Pinkie’s happiness touches so many ponies every day. But, as a friend, what do I do? I can sit there and listen, but I can’t make it all better. She doesn’t want to talk about it. What do I do? Watch her wallow in her own misery? It took me forever to get her to come out here. I’m still not sure that Discord is even the underlying reason she’s really like this. It may still be on some stupid hunch she has.” Twilight reasoned with a sigh. “I don’t know what to do.”

Celestia had her head bowed; hanging on every word Twilight spoke. “Twilight Sparkle, I think that you have grown into a wonderful mother and friend. You are correct in saying no one writes books or manuals on how to be either of those.” The sun goddess murmured thoughtfully. “And yet, we are born with instincts. In cases like this, there’s no right answer. You have to go with your instincts and what you think is best and follow through. This is why all friendships are different. Everypony is different. It is what makes friendship special. There’s no right answer.” Celestia smiled sadly. “As for Pinkie Pie, have her stay with your friend Fluttershy during the night. She does well, aside from that incident at the Gala.”

Twilight smiled weakly and nodded, before Celestia blinked. “Ah! Twilight, I also have these.” The solar alicorn leaned over and picked up a stack of envelopes. “The Grand Galloping Gala is coming up.” Celestia smiled, handing the stack to Twilight, who, purely out of habit from years of organizing books, counted ten. “These are for you, your friends, and Spike, Soarin, MacIntosh, and Prince Blueblood.”

The lavender Unicorn nodded. “Thank you.” She murmured. “So what do we do now? About Pinkie?”

Celestia paused. “I have to think about this a bit. If I kill Discord entirely, as opposed to turning him to stone, there will be a severe imbalance in the world. Right now, Twilight, be a good friend.” She bowed her head, resting her magnificent, fluted horn on top of Twilight’s head. “You’ll know what to do.”

Twilight smiled, nodding and turning to leave. She pushed the royal door open and exited into the garden.

Unfortunately, she had failed to notice the faint glowing of Celestia’s horn whenever Pinkamena had been speaking.

She realized Pinkie had actually walked around and yawned. They were in no rush to get back. She took the time to admire the breeze. As Ponyville was at sea level and Canterlot was elevated, Canterlot had a thinner atmosphere and was far less humid than Ponyville was, it even received a nice breeze in spite of the fact that they were in the boiling late summer. Luckily, Twilight knew that they would be transitioning into fall soon enough.

She was aware, by the foals’ various laments, that the desert they had previously been traveling through was sweltering. Though she felt lucky to be in Ponyville where there was at least water available, she mostly felt concern for them. They were adolescents. Their bodies would get dehydrated easily.

She rounded a corner where she knew she’d find the statue of Discord, though she was initially thrown off. The statue’s pose was different than she remembered. Her brow creased. As opposed to fear and horror, he looked… desperate. Mournful.

She blinked it off. Perhaps she’d only imagined it. What surprised her more was the pink baker pony laying at its feet, curled up and in a peaceful slumber, judging by the small smile she was wearing. Twilight tilted her head. Why would Pinkie ever want to sleep here, of all places?

In general, it was a strange thing to do. But, Discord had tried to ruin the lives of everypony in Equestria. On top of that, Pinkamena had just admitted the horrors that had happened. Why would this even cross her mind?

Twilight paused, sitting down to look at the pink mare. According to Fluttershy, she had barely been sleeping, if at all, for fear of more nightmares. Wouldn’t the statue just make it worse? Twilight paused. She had been having strange dreams as well, though upon waking, she wouldn’t remember them. Evidently, most of the foals had been experiencing it as well. Almost everypony was. This would unsettle her more.

An idea crossed her mind. “Hey,” Twilight chuckled. “So, I may be going crazy, I mean, I’m talking to a statue, but I just want to let you know that I loathe you more than anything else that has ever walked the earth.” She turned, staring directly into his grey eyes. “I can’t believe you’d do something like this.” She snarled. Her chuckle had dissolved several seconds ago. “You. Are. Disgusting. I want you to burn eternally.” She growled. “I hope you understand that to the fullest extent of which I can express my utter ABHORRENCE of you.” With that, she gathered saliva into her mouth and spit at the statue’s feet.

Feeling marginally better, Twilight settled down on her haunches to look at Pinkie’s expression. What could she be dreaming about? She shivered to even imagine the details of her dream to make her damage her head like so.

The pink pony sighed contentedly, curling up into a ball under Discord’s gaze. Twilight, feeling entirely unnerved by Discord’s constant stare, decided to wake Pinkamena up so that they could go. She stood up and quietly walked over, gently poking Pinkamena in the back.

“Hey,” Twilight whispered, nudging her quietly. “Listen, we have to go soon.” She mumbled.

The pony opened her eyes. The smile she had had on her lips just moments ago dissipated into her neutral, blank expression as she got to her feet, looking nervously up at the statue and stepping behind Twilight.

“Alright,” Twilight Sparkle sighed, carrying the invitations. “Let’s go.”

“Pssst… Psst!” Sir Prize had been trying to get Solar Flare’s attention for the past hour, now. “Solar Flare!” He finally hissed, trying not to get the attention of anypony but his target. It was evening. They’d be stopping in just a few hours.

The weather in Dystopia had been significantly less intense than the Equestrian deserts. It was the same badlands as they had been traveling through. It looked like it had been once-occupied, but they’d yet to come across any ruins, so it was rather difficult to say who this land had belonged to. Not even Clockwork had any speculation on the matter. If asked, he would just shrug and say he couldn’t tell without seeing architecture. So far, either it had all been mashed into the dust and ash that covered the ground, or they simply hadn’t come across it yet. The sun was blotted out by the perpetual greyness of the ash, leaving them in a strange twilight phase during the day.

Candied Chaos had been odd since Clockwork had suggested the possibility that she was half-draconequus. Her new legs and tail had rendered her slightly awkward when she walked, though at this point, she seemed fine. She was nearly silent, teetering around the edges of the group and not really socializing.

Solar Flare finally turned around after Sir Prize had smacked her in the back. “What?” She asked, rolling her eyes and falling back in step with him.

“Apple Core told me you like Clockwork.” He smirked, waggling his eyebrows.

He watched the colour drain from the Pegasus’ faces, and snickered. “So it is true.”

“What? No!” Flare barked. “I would never, I mean, he’s just an acquaintance and it’s not that he’s not nice and all but I do-“ She shifted and smiled, snapping her mouth shut when everypony, including the purple-maned unicorn was looking at her. Clockwork had an eyebrow cocked in genuine confusion.

Solar Flare lowered her voice to a mutter, leaning into Sir Prize, who was smirking in coy satisfaction. “Shut up, it’s not true.”

“It is.”

“No, it’s really not. I really don’t feel like talking about this with you right now.” Solar Flare retorted, clearly nervous and stamping her hooves in distaste.

“I could talk to him, for you, y’know.” Sir Prize smirked, and Solar Flare stared back at him in a mixture of shock and what seemed like horror.

“About what?” Solar Flare stared, eyes wide. “What could you possibly talk to him about? There’s nothing to talk about!”

“To go out with you, duh.” Sir Prize rolled his eyes, and watched the colour drain from her face as she laughed nervously and a bit too loudly for his liking, or too seem natural.

“G-go out with m-me? We don’t even have our cutie marks!” She snapped. It took Sir Prize a moment to recognize this. Why was that? They were all adolescent ponies, even if their ages varied slightly, they all fell into that category. So, why was that the case? Most ponies had their cutie marks at slightly younger than this, so they were each abnormally late. He shook his head clear of the musings and smirked.

“Suit yourseeeelfff.” He grinned, trotting ahead of her and kicking up small portions of the grey and white ash in her direction.

Solar Flare coughed, staring at him while he got ahead and shook her head. Sir Prize heard Apple Core came up behind her, mumbling. “Pay him no mind.”

“Why’d you tell him? Why do you think that?” Solar Flare fretted, staring at her. “It’s not true, I swear!” She stamped a hoof in protest as she walked.

Sir Prize was about to swing his head around to retort, when Clockwork suddenly stopped. He swung his head around. “What’s up?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow and going up beside the unicorn.

“There’s a city…” He murmured, squinting on the horizon. “Guys! There’s a city up there!” Clockwork called, only briefly glancing behind him. Everypony stopped. “I can’t tell if it’s ruins or a living city, but…” He squinted further. “Yeah, there’s something.”

Sir Prize blinked, leaning forward as though it would help and squinting as well. The misty outline of… something, lay on the horizon. He rubbed his eyes, it was no more than a foggy blur on the edge of his vision. As a matter of fact, he wondered if his eyes were simply playing tricks on him.

As Clockwork had seen it as well, he must be right.

“It’s a few miles off,” Clockwork turned to the group. “But we should be there in a couple hours!” He turned back.

Aside from Apple Core and Solar Flare bickering about nonsense, Sir Prize walked calmly beside Clockwork. It crossed his mind to ask him about Flare, but he shrugged it off, thinking better of it, and watched Candied Chaos walk several feet away, isolated. He felt bad. Did this perhaps mean that they weren’t blood relatives after all?

Hours passed. A thick fog began to encompass the ground, starting off as a thin whiteness Sir Prize assumed that it was simply an illusion of the sorts. As they walked, however, the mist grew thicker, concentrated around their hooves, moistening the white coat that covered his legs.

The blur gradually became more meticulous, and larger, as the group approached until Sir Prize could make out some of the details.

From the gaps in the mist, they could see the twisted buildings of a once-magnificent city. Some floated, mid-air, some appeared to be melting, only to reform themselves in new ways and resume dripping towards the ground. Cracks in the earth revealed giant gears and cogs beneath the surface, as though the planet had once been some immense mechanical ball. The overgrown streets flowed like rivers, undulating and oscillating with every tiny vibration the foal’s hooves made, shuddering like a cobblestone tide. The constant cloud coverage and ashy winds did not allow much sunlight to get through, casting a creeping darkness over the entire city.

The breath had left Sir Prize entirely, but he finally managed to gasp out, “What… is this place?” Looking to his sides, pillars spiraled boundlessly into the wide, dull sky.

He heard Clockwork swallow audibly and turned to his left. The colt was sitting back on his haunches, gaping as though a tide of winds had come through and blown him back. “I-I’ve only… read about places like this.” He murmured, slowly getting to his hooves and circling. His expression was that of astonishment and incredulity. “It’s…” He managed to sigh out. He was breathless. “I think we were right in thinking that this was a wasteland, guys. We’re looking at the capital of a city. Not of ponies. This isn’t…” He bit his lip, circling the large white pillar to Sir Prize’s right. “This isn’t pony architecture. This is something else entirely. It looks like it dates back to the Victrotian era, but… This isn’t like anything I’ve certainly ever seen or heard of.”

“Let’s explore!” Apple Core suggested.

Then, Prize heard Gem speak for the first time in several days.  “It looks dragon, sort of.”

The unicorn colt turned around, surprised. The hybrid was examining a building that was floating at a twenty degree angle.

“Yes, but it’s not! There are some similarities, but it’s certainly closer to dragon than any pony architecture I’ve ever seen…” Clockwork mumbled. “It doesn’t explain this fog.” He muttered, holding up a damp foreleg and shaking the gathered droplets of water on his leg. “Or the ground; or the drastic weather change depending on which side of the border you’re standing on, for that matter. Naturally, it shouldn’t be this obvious to tell the difference of the border.” He mumbled, both puzzled and intrigued. He walked slightly ahead, and then Sir Prize heard him gasp and swallow audibly.

“Everypony, there’s a castle here.” He beckoned them over, and Sir Prize was shocked to see a crumbling marble mammoth of a building emerge from the fog, with a single spire swirling into the sky. “Okay,” Clockwork began shakily. “Everypony needs to remember we don’t know what we’re dealing with, here. What’s in here, what knowledge could be held within, and who, or what, is gonna be in there. So be carefu-“

“OKAY!” Apple Core squealed, flapping her wings and soaring in, only a foot from the ground. There was no door, only a large gaping hole. It looked as though something had torn through.

It was definitely a castle of some sort. The dust from the shredded, faded red carpet drifted up with each step, tickling his sinuses as he walked through the area. It looked like a disheveled throne room of sorts. The floor was a checkerboard pattern, though plain black and white. This was more like modern tile as opposed to the mysterious ground material outside.

It seemed as though something had come through and sucked the colour out of the entire building. He heard Clockwork gasp. “Books!” He announced jubilantly, pulling out a bookcase and yanking out various books with his hooves.

“Why don’t you use your horn?” Sir Prize suggested, pulling out the books and laying them out for Clockwork. This action was met with severe disappointment.

“This is in another language.” Clockwork said flatly, flipping through one and sighing. “Damnit! I should have known.” Sir Prize’s question was left unanswered, but it allowed it to roll off his shoulder. In spite of his earlier lamentations, Clockwork still grabbed an official-looking tome and stuffed it into his purple saddlebag.

“Let’s scope out the place. Stay close to me, guys. There could be traps.” Clockwork called.

Apple Core blinked, cocking her head. “Why’re you the boss of us?” She asked curiously.

Sir Prize snorted. “Just, come on, AC.” He rolled his eyes, though still trotted slightly ahead of the group. Clockwork couldn’t show him up or anything.

It wasn’t that he had to win all the time. No, it wasn’t that.

He just couldn’t fail. So, that left one viable option. Win. Win, win, win, win. No matter what the cost. He didn’t really find any problem with it, though he understood how somepony might.

Clockwork and Sir Prize led them down a staircase to the left of what seemed to have once been a throne that seemed to go underground. It was more of a tunnel, spiraling patterns painted along the walls and loosening more and more the further you went down until it ended in straight lines.

If the dust was thick in the throne room, it was profusely impenetrable here. Simply walking in and placing their hooves on the rug had sent up massive plumes of the stuff. Everypony coughed violently, their bodies shuddering with spasms in attempts to clear their lungs. Sir Prize heard Candied Chaos sneeze.

He felt his hoof land on something slightly raised, and the loud noise of some sort of… grinding noise, like stone rubbing against stone reverberated as the walls of the room lurched and shuddered with the unseen force.

Sir Prize heard several screams from the fillies and a grunt from Gem as the dust filled the room. He held his hoof in front of his face. He couldn’t even see its rough outline through the grey-brown haze. His stomach pitched.

As the dust settled, he realized Clockwork had gone from next to him. Momentarily confused, he turned to his other side, seeing the colt shuddering in fear underneath a small end table. His glanced caught the gaze of the four other ponies, who were gazing in shock in front of him. Brow creasing in confusion, he swung his head to the direction he had been facing.

Nonchalantly standing there was a creature he had vaguely remembered, but the only emotion he was experiencing was fear. He flashed back to his nightmare several nights ago. Taunting him that he wasn’t good enough. Grating.

He shuttered, and realization came to him when he heard Clockwork scream, “Di-Discord!”

It flooded back to him. The creature from the book. He took several hoof steps backward, tripping over the dull carpet, crying out and blocking his face.

“Now, now, my little ponies, though I’m sure you’re wailing in fear-“ He paused. “Particularly you, Clockwork.” He interjected, and then continued as Clockwork whimpered in the mention of his name. “I suppose I should spoil my fun since I’ll not be there to witness it, and tell you that this is just a magical record of me.”

Upon further examination, Sir Prize realized that the chimera was, in fact, somewhat transparent and relaxed slightly. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he still saw Clockwork shaking even more violently then before. The unicorn watched Discord hold out an eagle hand, an ornate ivory pipe materializing in his palm. He stroked a similarly produced match on the tip of his scaly tale that sickening resembled Chaos’. Disconcertingly, the tip of the match became coated in frost.

Nonetheless, he watched Discord light the pipe all the same and take a puff on it. A series of bubbles were produced, dropping to the floor immediately like weights and imploding into nothingness upon themselves.

“Now, hopefully you’re all getting this, or the entire world is going to be lost in a boring existence of perpetual symmetricality.” Discord murmured absentmindedly whilst examining his nails. “I’m unsure where to start. An odd experience for me, as you may or may not know.” He hesitated, puffing once more on his impromptu pipe. “I’ll start by saying that I created all of you, more or less. Princess Celestia? Yeah? She despises that. She hates you six as much as she hates me, if not more. Now, now,” He stopped, holding his hands up defensively. “I know, I know, I’m telling you your matriarch, the one who defended you or whatever and that you’ve heard so many stories about and the one who’s so fantastic despises you.” The chimera floated into the air, putting on a pair of shades he had summoned out of nothing and laying on an invisible hammock.

“But, let me finish. You are my own little personal creation for keeping Equestria in balance. I suppose I’ll call you the Elements of Turmoil.” He mused, then turned and smiled. “Now, now.” The prince of chaos chuckled. “I’m not about to tell you I took your parents ribs and fused them together or something. They took care of that. I simply added my own little touches to your personalities to create, ah, well.” He paused. “We may as well make it official. The Elements of Turmoil.” He shrugged. “Clockwork, you’re the Element of Fear. If that wasn’t obvious enough. Apple Core, the Element of Rebellion. Gem, you’re the Element of Spite. Sir Prize, you are the Element of Ambition. Solar Flare, the Element of Failure.” He explained to no one in particular.

“And, Candied Chaos. You’re one of my personal favourites. Peculiarity. Now, I don’t have long, because I have to get back. It’s in my greatest hopes that you never see this, but I had to take every precaution I could. If you’re watching this, I can tell you with almost utmost certainty that you’re walking directly into Celestia’s hooves, where she’ll proceed to mince you nicely and throw you into her big pot of superiority complex. I can only tell you what I’m assuming. Princess Luna? On the moon. Me? Turned to stone. Celestia? Drawing power from the both of us so that she can turn all of Equestria into whatever she seems fit. You? Walking into a trap hundreds of miles away from Equestria, where she’ll do whatever she pleases after she destroys you. Equestria? Being prepped to have all variety eliminated. Harmony is almost synonymous with tedious. Variety is simply a form of chaos.

“I could not stop her myself.” Sir Prize saw Discord cringe. “I’m not powerful enough. Of all the paths or traps she could send you down, I can only hope it was not this one. I suppose the only thing I can tell you is the truth. You won’t believe me, but I may as well. I know you all have the attention spans equivalent in length to the time Applejack spent in school, so I’ll be quick. You are in a region called Discordia. The home of the draconequi, of which, I am the last. I was royalty here, believe it or not. They don’t call me the Prince of Chaos for nothing, kids.” He rolled his eyes. “Five-thousand  years or so ago, some dragons came through and killed most of us. There were sixteen left. Me, and fifteen others. I took them to the closest empire I knew that was nearby. As you could guess, it was Equestria. I went to Celestia and Luna, asking that we have a small section of territory to rebuild on. Land that was fertile.

“She gave it to us, just a little plot. Nothing special. But, we made do with what we had. I spent a lot of time in Canterlot. Specifically, in the castle. I spent a lot of time with Celestia. We go way back. Anyway, I fell in love with her and decided to confess my love. She kind of freaked the Hell out, insulted me a couple of times, and ran off.” Discord paused, smirking as he took another puff of his pipe. “Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy. I came back home, and…” His yellow and red eyes darkened significantly. “They were all dead. Killed by Celestia and Luna. Murdered in cold blood.

“So, she turned me to stone. I sat there for five thousand years before I broke free when those three fillies came along. What were their names? Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applebloom?” Discord paused and smiled. “You know the rest, I’m sure.” He shrugged.

“I’m sure you’ve been having nightmares. Sorry about that. It’s a side effect. While I’m in stone, the only thing I can do is give everypony dreams. It’s the only time worlds follow my logic. Entire universes bend to my will and understanding. In truth, it’s the only thing that kept variety in Ponyville. There were no dreams, before I came along. I’m doing it to prolong the normality in Ponyville for as long as I can.

“I can only hope that you believe me, and will turn back.” He nonchalantly puffed on his pipe. “If you don’t, I know Celestia’s been messing with your memories.” He snapped his head in another direction. “Chaos, if you’ve been in Discordia for a day or so, I’m sure your blood has shown itself and made itself prominent. This is an enchantment we put on this area thousands of years ago, to make draconequi stronger. Unfortunately, I’m sure it’s shown its side effects on you.” He paused hesitantly. “Never forget that, no matter what falsifications have been planted in your mind… I’m your father. And I still care about you and Pinkie Pie. I… I love you.”

With that, the shudders inside the walls of the room stopped, and Discord’s translucent form flicked into nonexistence. Clockwork had stopped shaking, but everypony in the room was still. Sir Prize finally, after gathering himself somewhat, murmured, “He’s lying.”

Candied Chaos slowly looked up. “He’s lying. I’m not one of… One of those things! I’m not ‘peculiar!’ I’m an earth pony! He’s not my father!” She barked, snapping her head toward the door. “I don’t believe any of this. He’s not related to me, I’m not half-draconewhatever-the-hell-that-is!” She gritted her teeth, stomping out. “It’s a trick and an illusion or something!”

Apple Core agonized after her, mumbling quiet swears under her breath, and Gem stomped out, leaving Solar Flare, Clockwork, and Sir Prize. Solar Flare slowly stood up. “F-Failure? Am I… Am I this way…” she flapped her wings slowly. “Be-Because he made me this way?” Rage flooded her eyes as tears streamed down her face, and she darted out of the room, sobbing loudly.

Sir Prize and Clockwork were left in utter shock. They turned to each other in silence, exchanging glances before Clockwork seemed to gather himself and crawled out from under the end table. “I, for one, don’t believe him. There may be a grain of truth to his lies, but… Discord is the master of blurring reality with fantasy.” He shook his head. “It’s… It’s probably night, now. We’ll have to stay here.” He inhaled deeply. “I think we all need some rest. As of right now, we’re still going to continue with the mission Princess Celestia laid out for us.” He nodded to Sir Prize, who blinked and tipped his head in acknowledgement.

The two colts left together, now entering the throne room as the spirals up the sides of the tunnel grew tighter. Candied Chaos was sitting in the corner, insipidly staring at the floor, with Apple Core making a feeble attempt to comfort the disconcerted earth pony, and potential hybrid.

“Guys!” Clockwork called. “Get out your blankets.” He mumbled, as the ponies were scattered around the room. “We’re staying in here tonight. It’s too dark outside.” He murmured, leaning his head out of the giant hole that was a doorway. It was raining.

“But-“ He heard Gem snap, and Sir Prize watched Clockwork hold up a hoof.

“It’s raining anyway.” He cut off the hybrid harshly.

Sir Prize leaned out as well, sticking out an ashen foreleg and bringing it back to discover it was covered in a brown substance. Blinking, he tentatively tasted it. “Chocolate… milk?” He mused for a moment before sighing and planting his hoof back on the ground. His father would be ashamed that he was walking around with a dirty leg, though that didn’t concern Sir Prize all that much. He had nothing to wash it with.

He took his blanket out of his saddlebag so that he was near enough to Apple Core and Candied Chaos to hear their conversation as he gave up, lying down and succumbing to his body’s demands of a restful night of sleep.

He heard Apple Core mutter something about Candied Chaos having a fever and ask, “Clockwork, d’ya still have those berries?”

“Yes,” Clockwork mumbled. The sound of fidgeting and rustling.

“Ah think these are the same kind yer book talked about, the ones that can cure fevers. Here, eat these.” Apple Core mumbled.

Several seconds passed, and Sir Prize heard a collective gasp. He opened his eyes. First, he wondered what was wrong, and then his eyes fell upon Apple Core’s flank.

In almost stunning clarity, there sat a red Rod of Caduceus.

He decided to attempt to lighten the mood further, turning to Solar Flare. “So, we don’t even have our cutie marks yet, eh?” Next Chapter: Chapter 13: The Filly Who Waited Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes