Four hours.

Four... hours...

It took every ounce of self control I had not to move an inch, but in the end, I did it. I ignored the itchy nose, I ignored the restlessness in my legs, I ignored that crick in my neck, I even managed not to fall asleep. Apparently blinking didn't count... thankfully.

The real problem was keeping my mind occupied just enough so that I could focus on not moving. In the end I just did what I normally do to keep my mind busy during the slower hours of work when I couldn't use my phone or really do anything else due to company policy.

I brainstormed random ideas for stories, both the ones I was currently in the middle of writing and possible ideas for more in the future. I thought of ideas for both My Little Pony fics and original ideas for stories I could write outside the fandom.

It was a bit more difficult to do without the sweet, soothing, calming sound of heavy metal blasting away in my ears, but I managed. That kept me busy for a good few two or three of those hours... at least I think it was a few hours. It wasn't like I could tell given my current position.

Still, I really wish my phone and headphones had carried over with me. Maybe I could get them back if Twilight actually manages to unlock this chaos magic.

In any case, I actually didn't spend too much time thinking about how to explain my story to Twilight. I decided it wouldn't really do me any good because the conversation probably wouldn't have gone as planned anyway.

So I decided to just say 'fuck it' and give her the story straight. If she had any questions I could either answer them or I couldn't, there wasn't really much more to it than that, so I didn't bother fretting over it.

Besides, she'd be able to confirm for herself afterwards so it was kind of a moot point to begin with.

"It's done," came Twilight's slightly shaky voice, "y-you can move now, Salvatore."

I was just about to get excited about the fact, but Twilight's tone had given me some pause. The first thing I did was turn to the lavender mare, my neck cracking loudly in the process.

Ow...

I had managed to tune Twilight's constant muttering and grumbling out entirely at some point, but it seems as though I should've been paying a bit more attention.

She looked just as much of a mess as she did when I first saw her. She sat slumped over the desk facing away from me as she ran a hoof through her long mane, which was somehow even messier than it had been before.

"Oh, wow," I muttered before stretching my legs and speaking a bit louder, "hey, you okay over there?"

She turned just enough to give me a look out of the corner of one eye and I frowned. That was not a look of accomplishment, that was the look you gave to the guy who was about to cut the wrong wire on a ticking time bomb.

"No, Salvatore," Twilight replied, turning back around and shuddering visibly, "no, I am not okay. I am currently sitting in a room with an unstable abomination of chaos magic with the potential power to destroy... everything."

I winced at that.

Ouch... but she's not wrong though.

"Would it help if I said that potential power only manifests if I die?"

A loud, slightly crazed bark of laughter was the response I got. I took a wary step back as the wide eyed mare spun around in her chair to fully face me.

"Well I guess that makes it all okay then!" she practically shouted with a wide manic grin, a grin that quickly fell into a hard scowl, "except it doesn't because, unless you decide to never leave this library again, there's a high possibility of death. Not to mention... if I hadn't saved you when I did..."

She trailed off and looked away, shuddering again.

"I wanted to end it, Salvatore," she whispered, "I wanted to end everything... but that was because I had no hope of ever getting out of here. I'd lost any hope of ever getting Spike back, and my friends weren't there to help me."

She looked back at me with an odd mix of hope and fear.

"But then you came along and gave me something to hope for," she continued, "I can't bring my friends back, but I thought that if I could unlock your ability to use chaos magic, I could get Spike back, and maybe even get out of here. I wanted to end everything, but now that I have that hope... I don't want to lose it by dying pointlessly."

She sniffed, wiped her eyes and hardened her gaze as she continued.

"The chaos magic inside of you is incredibly volatile, Salvatore," she explained, "it's not a stretch to say that you're a walking... what did you call it before? A nuclear warhead?" she shook her head, "I don't know what Discord did to you, but the chaos magic he fed into you is in constant flux behind whatever lock he implemented."

"So I'm guessing you release that lock and all that magic gets released at once," I surmised, not liking the way this was turning out, "then what... I explode? Everything explodes?"

Wouldn't be the first time...

"I don't know what would happen, but I know it wouldn't be good for anypony," Twilight replied with a heavy sigh, "chaos magic, by it's very nature, isn't something that has a predictable outcome. Yes there are certain patterns if you know where and how to look, but even those are subject to change on a whim with even the slightest shift in thaumic energy."

I hummed to myself in thought, glancing back towards the now inert magic circle and then back to Twilight. I frowned contemplatively for a moment, then walked over to where Twilight was sitting.

"So this lock," I began, "do you understand how it works? Can you do anything about it?"

Twilight, who had lowered her head into her hooves, looked back up at me with a wary frown, then turned towards the many, many notes on her desk. She was silent for another minute or so before finally replying.

"...With a bit more time, and a lot more work, I think it would be possible for me to remove the lock, yes," she said slowly. Her frown deepened, then turned to a scowl of frustration, "but with everything I've uncovered, I'm not so sure it's a good idea anymore."

It looked like it physically hurt her to say it, and I couldn't blame her. Here I was, with the power to potentially put an end to this mess, only for the two of us to find out the solution is nothing more than another problem—an arguably bigger problem at that.

In hindsight, I really should've expected that to be the case all along, and maybe I did.

Thankfully, I had a suggestion.

"Does this magical 'lock' have, I dunno, layers or anything like that?" I asked, "is there anyway you can maybe, unlock the chaos magic piece by piece rather than all at once?"

Twilight opened her mouth, closed it, and put a hoof to her chin in thought. She remained that way for a good few minutes or so, and I was about to say something else when she suddenly spun her chair back around and began magically flipping through her notes.

"It might be possible," Twilight answered after a few moments, her tone growing excited, "the chaos magic in your body is 'locked' behind a series of... well, I guess you could call them magical 'commands'," she paused her search, a thoughtful look crossing her face, "a rather odd implementation for a being like Discord now that I think about it."

With that, she shook her head and moved on.

"Anyway, these 'commands' are what's keeping your chaos magic in check, and what's important to understand, is that there's a lot more chaos magic inside of you than I initially thought."

"Wait, seriously?" I asked, raising my brows in surprise, "Discord said he was only giving me a super small amount of his power."

"That may be the case," Twilight replied with a knowing nod, "but what you have to understand, Salvatore, is that Discord is a being with nearly limitless power—as far as we know, I mean.

"Obtaining even a small fraction of his power would still be enough to most likely put you above even Princess Celestia in terms of magical strength... in theory."

I blinked.

"Oh," I replied intelligently, "well... damn."

"Exactly, but that would only be if the chaos magic was fully unleashed," Twilight answered, returning her attention to her notes, "now, if I could reverse-engineer what Discord has done, I could remove some of these commands and replace them with new ones," she slowly placed the notes she held in her magic back down on the desk, "...this could work. This could actually work."

She slowly turned back to me with an awed expression, as though she didn't quite believe what she was seeing. I just scratched my neck and glanced to the side uncomfortably.

"Well, your talent is magic, right?" I finally replied with a shrug and a half smile, "if anyone can do it..."

That seemed to snap her out of whatever stupor she'd been and she closed her slightly open mouth before giving a sharp nod.

"It'll be difficult," she said, wearing the first genuinely hopeful smile I'd seen since I came here, "it'll most likely be the most challenging thing I've ever done when it comes to research and implementation, but I'll make it work somehow. I promise."

I wanted to be happy that she'd gotten her smile back. I wanted to be excited that I might get to actually use magic, but the only thing I felt was worry. I realized we hadn't actually accomplished anything yet, but I couldn't shake the feeling that things were already going too well.

It was a similar feeling to what I experienced back on the ship.

I had no doubt Twilight would find a solution, that wasn't what was worrying me. What worried me, was what would come after she did what she needed to do. Even if I was able to fix Spike and get all of us out of here, what actually awaited us outside this barrier?

Yeah, we'd be free and Spike would be okay, but this universe's Discord was still out there doing who knows what. If Twilight managed to unlock the chaos magic so that I could actually use it, what would happen next?

Would the Discord that gave me this power in the first place know?

Of course he would, but what would he do about it? Could he just take it away?

I decided to ask Twilight as much, but before I could open my mouth, she opened hers.

"Speaking of promises," she began, "I believe you have a few things to tell me."

She gave me a pointed look and I let out a deep breath and shrugged carelessly.

"I never promised to actually tell you, only that I would," I replied before backstepping at her look, "whoa, hey, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna tell you, I'm just pointing out that I didn't promise anything."

"Just tell me, already," Twilight answered irritably, "what's going on with you and Discord, and how did you really get here? What are you actually trying to do here?"

"Whoa, hang on, one question at a time, please," I replied before looking around, "um, is there another chair somew—"

One of the wooden chairs from the dining room table appeared behind me in a flash of magenta light. I blinked and stared at it for a moment.

"...That'll work, I guess," I muttered before taking a seat opposite Twilight. I got comfortable for a second before turning to face Twilight, "alright, so I went to get something to eat at this fast food place..."

I paused.

"...ponies have those here, right?"

Sorry for the wait, guys. On top of working on some other things, I needed to work some things out in my head. Now that I have, I'm back on track with the story.