As it turned out, my fears of Twilight tirelessly searching for the universe destroying crystal were unfounded so far. Another week had passed by, and I'd been worried for the first few days, carefully watching the mare for any suspicious, searchy behavior, but nothing came of it.

After a week, it looked as though she'd really let the matter drop, so I did the same—albeit not completely. I'd decided to keep a bead on the crystal's general location within the library without Twilight knowing.

I didn't actively search for it, but from my weird chaotic senses, I'd managed to somewhat pinpoint its location as being somewhere in the kitchen oddly enough. I didn't quite understand how these crystals got to where they were, but that was one mystery I wasn't willing to chase after for now.

It didn't take very long to find out the crystal's general location, and once I had, that was good enough for me. I'd wait to see if Twilight started spending an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen, or if she made frequent trips there for seemingly no reason. If that pattern started, then I'd actively search for and move the crystal, but for now, I left the matter alone.

More pressing was the issue of the hallucinations I'd been having on and off. They'd gone from weird, superimposed images to full blown changes in the scenery. Some were horrifying like I'd predicted, things like blood and viscera plastered on the floors and walls and the like—though thankfully that wasn't often the case.

Some images were more mundane, like additions or changes to the furniture, and some of them were even hilariously out of place, like a massive toilet big enough for me to fall right in replacing the armchair I'd often sit in to read in the library. One thing all of these hallucinations had in common however, was that they'd all become horribly solid looking.

Thankfully they weren't getting any more frequent, just more powerful to the point that they seemed more like visions than hallucinations. I let it go on for the entirety of the week, seeing if I could find some sort of pattern or reasoning on my own, but there didn't seem to be any. It was all random and often times made no sense.

I thought about how and why this could've been happening—I mean, really thought about it. It was due to chaos magic obviously, but I thought about why the magic was manifesting as hallucinations and visions.

And that was when the answer hit me like a brick to the face, and boy did I feel stupid for not thinking of the possibility right from the get go. As soon as I realized what may have been going on, I set off to tell Twilight, dreading the conversation all the while.

I found her in the basement lab sitting at her overly cluttered desk and scanning a particularly thick tome. Even from behind, I could tell she was practically drinking in the words on the page. I sucked in a quiet breath and let it out in a soft, resigned sigh.

God dammit, I know she's gonna give me shit for this...

"So... Twilight," I began, moving over to, and placing my hands on one side of the desk. All I got in response was the annoyed flick of an ear and a slight frown from the mare, but I continued on anyway, "those hallucinations I've been having? They're getting worse... and I think I might know why they've been happening in the first place."

Twilight blinked at me silently for a moment before frowning in concern and closing the book she was pouring over at her desk. She carefully set it aside and turned her chair so that she was fully facing me.

"Hold on, back up a minute," Twilight replied, raising both hooves up, "you just... happened to find the answer? Just like that?"

"Well, actually," I replied, scratching the back of my head, "the thing is, the answer should've been extremely obvious—to me, I mean. You wouldn't have known because I never actually told you, but then again... wait..."

I paused and stared at Twilight for a minute before a smile crossed my face, much to Twilight's confusion. Her confusion turned to annoyance as I began chuckling at my sudden realization. After a moment Twilight groaned, rolled her eyes, pulled her book back open and began reading again.

"Look, Sal," she grumbled, "it's late, I'm busy, and I have to go out again tomorrow for more materials. If you don't have anything serious to say—"

"Nono, I'm sorry," I quickly replied, getting my laughter under control, "listen, I'm pretty sure it's my eyes that are causing the images."

"Your... eyes?" Twilight asked, turning back to me and raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, my vision used to be complete garbage before all of this," I explained, waiting for the moment when it sank in for Twilight. I really shouldn't have been joking around like this given what I suspected, but I couldn't help it, "eventually I figured since Discord was an all powerful god, the least he could do was fix my vision. See where I'm going with this?"

"Wait... you..." Twilight sputtered for a moment in disbelief, "you had Discord fix your eyes? Discord? The Lord of Chaos?" she blinked again, then frowned, then blushed slightly, no doubt remembering that she already knew that, "that... was an incredibly stupid move on your part," she finished lamely, "I can't believe you'd trust Discord to fix your vision without any repercussions."

"Eh, seemed like a good idea at the time," I replied with a shrug, "but yeah, I only just remembered that little detail, and judging by that blush, I'm guessing the only reason you're not chewing my head off about it is because you yourself didn't realize that was what it could be either, even though you were in my head and saw the whole thing go down."

"T-That doesn't make your decision any less boneheaded!" she cried angrily before letting out an oddly petulant huff, "and besides, that seemed like a small hoofnote compared to everything else I saw, so I didn't really pay it any mind at the time."

"Fair enough," I replied with a shrug, "if it makes you feel any better, I'd gotten used to not having to wear glasses by the time the hallucinations started, so I didn't really give it any thought either."

"That doesn't make me feel any better!" she snapped before letting out a small groan, "geez, now I feel like an idiot."

"Tell me about it," I agreed with a nod, "probably could've saved us both a headache if I'd thought about it sooner. Sorry about that, by the way."

"Oh please, from what I've found out about you, you don't even get headaches," she shot back icily. She sighed a second later and took a calming breath before looking back up at me, her frown less severe, "anyway, now that we know the most likely cause for these hallucinations, we—or rather I—can take steps towards fixing the issue."

"Really?" I asked, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow in mild surprise, "you already have a solution in mind?"

"I do," she replied with a nod and a proud smile, "I've gained a much better understanding of the effects of chaos magic on and within the body, your body to be specific. I've also managed to gain enough general knowledge on the subject of chaos magic to try and work with it on my own."

That raised a red flag somewhere in the back of my mind.

"So... what," I guessed, eyeing the mare warily, "you're saying you're ready to start actually casting chaotic spells?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Twilight replied confidently, "it wasn't easy. I basically had to unlearn everything I knew about how to properly use magic, and there's still a few... kinks to work out," at that she grimaced slightly, but her confident smile came back a second later, "but I'm fairly sure I have the methodology down."

"Twilight this isn't a good idea," I said flat out as I raised two fingers and ticked points off on each one, "you'd be using chaos magic to fix chaos magic, which doesn't make any goddamn sense to me, and you yourself said you were only fairly sure," I lowered my hand and crossed my arms, "have you even tested the magic out yet?"

"Well, no, not yet," Twilight admitted, "but I was actually planning to once I got back from my errand," she shook her head and when she next spoke, it was in a tone like that of a mother trying to explain something difficult to their five year old child, "and aside from that, we need chaos magic in order to fix chaos magic.

"I know you've been doing some reading on the subject, so you should know that chaos magic is nothing like the magic we unicorns use normally," she rose from her chair and began pacing around the lab as she spoke, "chaos magic is in fact, as different as you and me, with everything that implies."

"Meaning, what?" I surmised, "that if regular magic and chaos magic were lifeforms, they'd come from completely different universes?"

"Yes and no," Twilight cried excitedly as she jabbed a hoof in my direction, "regular magic—pony magic, that is—is normally bound to this world, but chaos magic doesn't have that limitation. It works anywhere and everywhere if you can tap into it. I found out that you don't even necessarily need a thaumic field to use it."

Well, someone's getting worked up...

It was true.

Twilight was grinning ear-to-ear and practically dancing on her hooves as she explained her discoveries to me. I could see some kind of manic glint in her eye and chalked it up to that scholarly zeal she was known for. It reminded me of why I loved her as a character, but at the same time, seeing this side of her up close and personal really was creeping me out a bit.

I guess the term I'd use is adorably terrifying.

"So I guess that's how Discord managed to nab me from my own world when there was no thaumic field," I concluded, "that's kinda scary when you think about it. I thought Earth would be safe from threats like Discord since it apparently doesn't have a thaumic field, but based on what you're saying, if the bastard wanted to, he could just pop in and wipe us all out."

Come to think of it, if that was the case, why hasn't the Discord of this universe just bypassed the barrier and popped right into the library?

I went to consult Twilight on the matter, wondering if she'd already thought about that, but the words died in my throat at the despondent look on her face.

"...Yeah," Twilight replied quietly after a moment, "I guess he could."

My musings on Discord's theoretically unstoppable rampage put a damper on Twilight's enthusiasm real fast, and I mentally slapped myself for saying anything about it. She fell into a melancholic and contemplative silence, but I wasn't having any of that, not when she was on a roll.

"Well, it isn't worth thinking about right now," I said, taking her place in the seat at the desk, "like I said before, we worry about the here and now, and then everything else afterwords," I leaned forward in the seat, "now where were you going with this whole 'fight chaos magic with chaos magic' thing?"

"Um... right, well..." Twilight shook her head, trying to get herself back on track, "chaos magic is in a class of its own, with its own rules to follow, contrary to what you or I would think. In order to solve the problem with your eyes and with the restrictions in general, I'll have to try and bend these rules, and in order to do that, I have to play by them first."

"I don't like the sound of that," I replied carefully, "Discord taught me a very painful lesson about what happens when chaos magic isn't done properly."

"Yeah, I know," Twilight replied with a wince, "trust me, I won't make the same mistake."

I stared at the mare for a good minute, probably making her nervous from the look on her face. Honestly I was thinking about letting her just cast whatever spell she was going to cast to fix my eyes.

"How confident are you that you can fix my eyes?" I asked bluntly, "what do you think the chances are that you'll succeed if I let you cast that spell right now?"

"What, now?" Twilight asked, looking at me with a mix of disbelief and incredulity, "as in, right now, without any preparation?"

"Of course I'd give you time to prepare, I'm not that stupid," I replied, waving a hand, "but let's say I want to get this over and done with tonight, how well do you think it'd go?"

Her look of surprise melted into one of uncertainty and she shuffled her hooves uncomfortably for another moment. I waited patiently as she gathered her wits and thoughts, and another moment later, she looked back up at me with a small, but confident smile.

"If you give me about half an hour, I can guarantee with an eighty-five percent certainty that I can at least stop the hallucinations," at my raised eyebrow she elaborated further, her smile turning apologetic, "I'm sorry, Salvatore, but with the way chaos magic works, there's only a minuscule chance that your vision would return to the way it was before. At most I can minimize the effects of whatever happens down to something manageable and non-intrusive for the most part, but that's it."

I frowned at that, not particularly happy with that outcome, but still willing to give it a shot depending on the answer to my next question.

"Okay, so how much longer would it take for you to be completely sure you could do it without risk," I asked instead, "how much longer would the research take do you think?"

"Well, there's always going to be a risk when it comes to casting any kind of magic, Sal," Twilight explained in a lecturing tone, complete with pompously raised hoof, "and that goes double—no, triple for chaos magic," she put the raised hoof to her chin and gazed up at the ceiling in thought, "as for how long it would take... I'd say... about two more weeks or so before I was completely comfortable in my ability."

Nope, call me a fool, but I am not willing to wait that long.

"The hallucinations are already getting ridiculous," I said aloud, "god knows how far things are gonna progress in the time it takes for you to finish," I shook my head, "I'd rather risk fixing it now, than risk finding out what other horrible wonders these eyes have in store for me."

"Salvatore, are you sure about this?" Twilight asked worriedly, "I mean, I do understand what needs to be done, and I have the ability to do it, but there's still a few details I'd like to look over first. If you would just wait a week, I could—"

"Twilight, no matter what happened in the past or what happens now, you're still the Element of Magic," I interjected, "your talent is the study and application of magic in all its forms," I looked her dead in the eye with as much seriousness as I could muster, "I don't normally say this because its sounds cheesy as fuck, but I have faith in you."

Twilight matched my stare with another look of disbelief, and after a few seconds of tense silence, the tears came. I hadn't meant to make her cry, but there it was, my speech having way more emotional impact than I intended. Thankfully they were silent tears and they ended rather quickly.

Rather than sob or even speak, she gave me the brightest goddamn smile I'd ever seen as she sniffed and wiped her eyes. I sat there contemplating how things had reversed themselves in that I was the one that was all for the chaos magic cure and she was the reluctant one, at least until now from the look of conviction in her eyes.

"Alright, then," she was saying with a nod, "I won't let you down. Like I said, just give me half an hour, and I'll be ready."

"I can hardly wait," I muttered, having second thoughts but keeping them to myself as I rose from the chair and headed for the stairs, "well, I'll leave you to it then. In the meantime, I found a deck of cards, so I'm gonna go play some solitaire while I wait."

"You do that," Twilight mumbled, already back in her chair and flipping through more tomes, "I'll let you know when I'm ready."

And just like that, things were set into motion. I headed back upstairs, broke out the cards, and played some solitaire for awhile. I didn't win of course—I never win at solitaire, but I didn't particularly care this time around because there were far more important things on my mind.

After roughly half an hour had passed, Twilight popped into the library to let me know she was good to go, and we both headed back downstairs into the basement lab. This time there were no fancy magic circles or huge blackboard with super complex formulae written down.

It was just me and Twilight standing in the middle of the room, the lavender mare looking nervous, and me feeling nervous but looking impassive for the most part. I'm fairly sure both of us were having second thoughts, but we were already committed and we'd both had that moment, and neither of us wanted to ruin it by chickening out now.

"Alright, Salvatore," Twilight began hesitantly, "now before we begin, I feel there's something I should explain," she took a calming breath and spoke again, this time with more confidence than she probably felt, "I'm not a creature of chaos, and outside of my magesight spell, I haven't learned how to completely modify chaos magic for pony use.

"I have enough control to change a few things here and there—enough to mitigate any unwanted effects like I said before, but more or less, all I can really do right now is give the chaotic mana a suggestion and guide it to where it needs to go within you."

"And what it does afterwards is anyone's guess, I'm guessing," I replied with a small frown, "we just have to hope that it listens to your 'suggestion' and does what it needs to do, that about right?"

"Pretty much," Twilight replied with a nervous chuckle, "thankfully, you humans seem to have a natural affinity for chaos magic, and you in particular have already been exposed to it, so that should help things go a little smoother," her ears flattened and she shifted from one hoof to another, "...all the same, it's still not too late to back out now, y'know."

"Twilight, I am officially in full on 'fuck it' mode right now," I replied, before spreading my arms out in a show of acceptance, "just cast the spell already and whatever happens, happens."

Twilight grimaced at the language, but it was soon replaced with a worried frown as she lit her horn and prepared the spell. Her horn was bathed in the natural magenta glow of her magical aura, and she closed her eyes in concentration. I watched intently as the aura suddenly grew brighter before winking out completely.

I blinked, but didn't dare say anything in the ominous silence. My heartbeat picked up and I swallowed nervously as I watched Twilight's face for any sign that something had gone awry. Apparently it hadn't because she was still just as focused as she was before.

A moment later Twilight inhaled and exhaled deeply, dropped to her haunches, raised her front legs up, and gave a loud, sharp clop of her hooves. An instant later I felt something in the air shift and I slammed my eyes shut as they started to itch, then burn.

I rubbed at them out of reflex, but I might as well have left them alone for all the good it did. I'd never been sprayed in the face with mace or pepper spray before, but I got the feeling this is what it might've felt like. I grunted and cursed and fell to my knees as I continued to scratch at my eyes in agony.

From somewhere in front of me, I heard Twilight give a pained grunt of her own. Then I heard her let out a panicked shriek, and my heart skipped a beat. I tried to open my eyes to see what was happening, but the attempt was far too much, and exposing my retinas to the open air made them feel like they were boiling in my head.

"S-Salvatore!" came Twilight's horrified scream, "I... I'm so sorry! I think... I had it! I had it, but something went wrong! Salvatore, something's not right! I... I'm—"

Everything went quiet.

The pained stopped as abruptly as it had come, and I blinked a few times before slowly, tentatively opening my watery eyes. I wiped at my eyes before looking up and around the lab. My vision seemed to be the same as it was before the spell hit, but as Twilight said, something definitely wasn't right.

She was gone.

"Twilight?" I called out as I slowly stood back up, "Twilight? You there? Twilight?" I continued to look around the lab, not quite panicking, but extremely worried and unnerved, "Twilight, where the hell did you go?!"

The only answer I received was deafening silence.

I shook my head and made for the stairs, bolting up each step two at a time and throwing the door open at the top. I stumbled out onto the first floor and frantically scanned the area around me, only to find nothing out of place or disturbed. I searched the main room, I searched the kitchen, I searched the library, the bathroom, the closets, Twilight's room upstairs, everywhere.

Twilight was nowhere to be found.

I stood in the middle of Twilight's room, dumbfounded and shivering. I looked at my hands, felt them shake uncontrollably and realized I was scared shitless. Twilight was gone, I was alone, and practically sick with terror, and I didn't know why. Then I heard a small click followed by a slow creak somewhere above me and looked up at where Twilight's bed was—specifically towards the window just above her bed.

It was open.

I swore I felt my heart stop for a few seconds as I stared at that open window. I heard something skitter past me in the darkness, and I whipped around to face whatever it was, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't move an inch for several seconds as I waited for whatever it was to show itself.

I knew what it was, but I didn't want to believe it. In the dragging silence, I tried to fool myself into thinking it had left. As the silence continued to linger, I almost believed it, but the fear didn't wane, it only grew—building in the horribly quiet night. Then I heard it, and my heart shot into my throat.

"M... Mommy?"

"Really now, falling asleep during tea time? Quite a rude thing to do, don't you think, Miss Sparkle?"

Twilight flicked an ear at the sound of the voice and she gave a dazed groan. Her eyes twitched open and she blinked a few times before slowly raising her head. It felt impossibly heavy, and opening her eyes had only revealed a world of blurred shapes and colors.

"W-Wha...?"

"Come now, Twilight," came the increasingly familiar voice, "am I really so boring that you can't stay awake for a simple conversation? That simply won't do. Not at all."

The only warning Twilight received was a loud snap before she found herself drenched in freezing cold water. She started up with a sharp gasp, her eyes snapping open, her body shivering, and her mind kicking into overdrive as she looked about, her sopping wet mane slapping against her face as she whipped her head left and right.

"W-Where?! What's... Salvatore?! Sal..."

Twilight called out for him, but the human was nowhere to be seen.

What met her eyes instead was what appeared to be the living room of a cottage with pale yellow walls, a lazily spinning ceiling fan, and several pieces of furniture, including a sofa, two armchairs, a large grandfather clock and some small dressers here and there.

This would've been perfectly acceptable had they not been dancing about the room in a conga line to the wild beat of bongos, trumpets, and acoustic guitar oddly enough. The music didn't seem to be coming from any one place and permeated the entire room with its chaotic cacophony.

Chaotic...

Twilight stared at the spectacle uncomprehendingly for a few moments before slowly turning her attention to where she was. She herself sat at a small white, circular, and thankfully, stationary table off to one side near a window. Placed before her was a small plate with a miniature cucumber sandwich, and next to that was a steaming cup of what smelled like earl grey tea.

Celestia's favorite...

The thought was strange and random, but Twilight couldn't bring herself to care in the face of everything else that was going on around her. A look out the window showed a landscape just as ridiculous and nonsensical as the madness surrounding her inside this place.

Little islands with colorful rivers and waterfalls dropping down into a black abyss and swirling purple shapes filling the sky above, which itself was just as black as the void below.

"Like what you see?"

And then there was him.

Twilight slowly turned to face the being sitting opposite her, calmly and quietly sipping his tea like any normal pony would. He seemed completely unfazed by the insanity around him, but then that was to be expected given who and what he was. Twilight, dazed, soaking wet, and freezing, uttered that being's name with a softness that belied a horribly violent rage that threatened to spill over.

"D... D-Discord."

"In the flesh!" the draconequus replied cheerfully, not noticing, or more likely, ignoring Twilight's growing fury, "I'm terribly sorry to drag you away from our mutual friend, but I had a good reason, honest."

"D-Discord," Twilight growled through chattering teeth, barely able to think. Her horn crackled and sparked with barely restrained magic, "you—"

"Ah, none of that now," Discord interjected, snapping his talons, "I didn't bring you here so you could futilely attempt to slaughter me in cold blood, Miss Sparkle. My unfortunate other might deserve it, but I am not he, so let's shelf the violent rage for a moment, shall we?"

Twilight blinked, unsure of what had happened. One moment she was seeing red, and the next, the fury had simply vanished, as though it had never existed. Something else felt off and she reached a hoof up to her forehead to find that her horn was gone.

"M-My... my horn," she muttered numbly. She lowered her hoof and looked at Discord blankly, "you t... t-took my horn. I can't c-cast spells... w-without my horn, D-Discord."

"Indeed, you won't be needing it, so I confiscated it for now," he chuckled and waved a dismissive paw, "you shouldn't be able to use magic here anyway, but that's neither here nor there. Don't worry though, I'll give it back when we're done here. More importantly, Miss Sparkle..."

His smile fell away and he frowned at the mare, his gaze suddenly intense and more serious than Twilight thought possible of the Lord of Chaos.

"...we need to have a little chat, you and I."

I think this might be the longest chapter yet...