Celestia's Finest: Daydreams

[Miltonian]

Shadow accepts the hug with a smile. And then, as Love turns towards her work, the entire world grows distant, as if she's looking at it from the other end of a long tunnel. She hears herself humming happily and setting about hooking up the machinery, occasionally making a friendly comment to Shadow.

Right before panic sets in, a claw taps her on the shoulder and she finds herself staring into the mismatched eyes and crazed grin of Discord.

"Good morning, my favorite little gearhead," he says, putting her in a headlock and rubbing her mane, "How are you doing?"

[Elbeyon]

Love is more used to seeing herself from an outsiders perspective than most any other pony, but this is something different. She wasn't watching herself from another body. It felt like she was being pulled away from the present. She turns around as a claw taps on her shoulder.

She stares up at the two mismatched eyes. "Discord!" She squirms her forelegs against the headlock, not in resistance, so she can grab his arms in a hug. She nuzzles him. "Good morning, my favorite discord! I'm doing wonderful! I'm in a hugging mood! How are you doing? Well?"

[Miltonian]

He chuckles and releases her to float alongside him. "Me? Oh, I've been better. Much, much better. I fear my age is catching up with me." He pats her on the head. "But that's not important right now."

He gestures vaguely with one claw. "I hope you weren't expecting someone bluer and moonier. This is only a daydream after all."

[Elbeyon]

She gasps. "No! You should just make yourself young again."

Love tries to lay on her back and do backstrokes around him. "It's the middle of the day isn't it? I can't sleep in. The boss pony will yell at me. Anywho, I don't sleep much at all anymore. I guess that means I don't get too many chances to see the beautiful moon." Love pouts. "Too much work to do. So, what can the lovely Love do for you? To improve your day?"

[Miltonian]

"Pfft," he says, "Age is merely a matter of perspective." Love feels something poke her back and turns to see a spyglass looking at her.

"Weeeeell," he says with a grin, "There's a tiny little detail I remembered which I thought might help you on your...quest. Are you writing this down?"

[Elbeyon]

"Exactly! I don't even know how old I am. Am I 28 plus 5 hours or 64? Who knows? You know what they say about too much work. Ha, I'm daydreaming in the middle of it! You need more chaos in your life! Ouch." Love feels around her back and pulls the spyglass in front of her. "Heh. I get it."

She sits up and starts to write with the spyglass. "I spy my mental notes." She smiles big. "Which quest? I'm pulled twelve ways here."

"I always have an ear out for a friend."

[Miltonian]

"Hmm, maybe 'mission' is a better word," he says, momentarily donning the appearance of a certain character from a franchise known for their impossible missions. He chuckles and snaps his claw, returning to normal. He leans forward, resting his head on his mismatched paw and claw. "You see, I may have already tried to fight Andromeda. And while she will say she won, it was only a tactical retreat!"

He shudders. "The forces of Order are just so strong around her and her kind. They sap away my natural chaos and charisma! But before I made my tactical retreat, I left behind a little chink in her armor. A little seed of weakness that should be springing up right about now."

"I taught her cold, starry heart what it means to feel love. And from what I've gathered, it's wreaking havoc on her."

[Elbeyon]

Love nods to him. At the mention of his tactical retreat, she rests her chin on her forelegs and pouts.

"Discord... " A sad tale. "No one holds up on Discord for long! A bout is not the match!"

Love moves her hoof to rub the back of her mane. "You taught her love?" She tries to do an in place barrel roll. "That's quite the interesting weakness. Causing havoc, you say? That sounds like you." She smiles big. "What does she love? What does her heart desire?"

[Miltonian]

He leans in and whispers conspiratorially, a delighted smile on his face. "That's the kicker," he says with a snicker, "She's in love with Polaris himself! The Lord of Stars."

[Elbeyon]

Love gasps. "What!? No!"

"HR is going to have a huge issue with this. Office romances rarely go well!" She sits up again and enters a serious thinking pose. "She is in love with Polaris. I don't know much about her so I'm not sure how to apply that weakness yet." Love nods her head to him. "Thanks for the information! I won't let your efforts go to waste!"

"Lord of the Stars... Polaris..."

[Miltonian]

He scowls. "Before you ask, no. I don't know where he is. I kept tabs on him for years and then, a little over two decades ago, he pulls a 'me' and vanishes! Poof, gone!" He sighs. "Oh, Celly gave me grief for that one."

[Elbeyon]

Love sticks her tongue out. "I know better than to ask stuff like that!" Love tries to reach out and grab his larger hand. "You're doing what you can to help everypony. You'll tell me what I need to hear. I only need to listen." She pats his hand, lets go, and returns back to backstrokes.

A hint of remorse in her voice and a pout. "Andromeda has a lovely voice. I've heard her sing on the radio. It's shame that I have to grapple her."

[Miltonian]

Discord puts a paw to his chest and sniffs. “Why Love! I think you warmed my heart a little bit.” He opens his chest like an old boiler and she sees ice sloughing off a hearts-and-hooves style heart.

He chuckles. “Careful with that. She’s slippery, that one. And not above a few dirty tricks. Unusual for a creature of order. Maybe there was a little chaos in her all along.”

[Elbeyon]

Love chuckles at the magical display. "I'll warm you up anytime you need a defrosting!" She raises her eyebrows at the thought of all that ice. "You might need a little more than a defrosting after that display. I'll be your bondfire if you ever need a warm hug." She smiles and displays herself reaching out, her forelegs outstretched, in front of her toward empty space.

"Me be careful?" She lets out a strained elongated, "Hmm." "I'll try my best to be careful." She gives him a hoofs up. "I want everypony to go home happy. If she plays a dirty trick, I'll try my best not volunteer for the part of the victim. Heh. A little bit of harmony you'd say?" She chuckles.

[Miltonian]

"No," he says seriously, "There's nothing about her that is in..." Old habits die hard. He forces the next word out. "Harmony. The little bits of chaos are putting up a brave fight, but they're fighting with her boring, hum-drum orderly mind. Bringing a little light and creativity!" He cackles.

"Also, she doesn't write her own songs."

[Elbeyon]

Love tries to pat his back to help him get the word out.

She gasps at the reveal. "No!" "It must be very hard to write your own song without any chaos. That's where the magic happens. Random ideas, thoughts. They all get thrown out there to be crafted into a beautiful piece."

"I can imagine the struggle within her mind, but I don't know if that image is correct. Are chaos and order element-like in the sense that they are more tangible than an idea? It's a weird hypothetical to me. It makes me wonder if everything is tangible." Love puts her hoofs to her head. "I should have taken more magic courses!"

[Miltonian]

"Well, I'll try and come up with a metaphor for your more physics-oriented brain, hmm?" A classroom appears out of the aether, "Imagine Order and Chaos as two forces. Like gravity and magnetism." A spinning orb appears in front of Love's desk. "When they are in balance, you have har-- Harmony. But if they are not..." The orb begins to spin and wobble crazily. "Then everything goes berserk."

[Elbeyon]

"Heh. If I accept the premise, I can vaguely glimpse the idea." She pushes down the globe. "I just didn't know that's how the world worked. I didn't know that a pony could put chaos bits in a pony like you did. I need to find a teacher for all this meta stuff. I thought I knew how the world worked in theory, but you've done something that exists outside of my understanding. It has me all excited!"

She puts a hoof to her chin and starts speaking with a fiery passion. "I have to learn more about the world. I need to know how the world works. I need to know the rules to play the game." She raises a hoof to him. Without her noticing, a smile has started to creep upon her face. "I want to be able to do what you did. I want to be able to shape reality. I want magic, chaos, law, etc. to be at my hoof tips."

[Miltonian]

Discord cackles and pats Love on the head. "Oh you are adorable, my little pony. But I'm afraid that you can only harness order with science. It takes magic to work chaos!" At the word 'chaos', a ripple passes through the world. It is at once everything and nothing, with no discernible distinction between forms or substances.

[Elbeyon]

Love puts on a mock cute face as he pats her.

That distortion is beyond her mental bearing's capability, but she tries to tough it out in the name of good fun. Her head feels dizzy. Love stands on her back hoofs and curls her forelegs into a cliche mad laughing pose. "Mwhahaha."

"Order through science. Chaos through magic. Got it!" A pang hits Love right in the horn gut area, thing. Not that she fully remembers, she figures this is how it must have felt to lose her horn. It feels like she just lost something brand new for the first time. That chaos is getting further out of her reach. That magic may never be hers to claim again.

She covers with another mock laugh as she tries to calm herself. "Mwhahaha" She tries her hardest not to sadden into hopelessness. No! She can do it! She can grab chaos and magic for her own use! Nothing is out of reach! She tells herself that anyway.

She'll harness order and chaos in perfect harmony! Magic is never out of reach for a pony. Everything has magic in it! There is always a way! Love always finds a way!

[Miltonian]

"Well there may be soooome overlap," he says teasingly, "but science is about figuring out all the, ahem, ins and outs..." His eyes roll into his skull, switch places, and come back out, "Of how the world works. Magic is about imposing your will on it."

"But who am I to crush somepony's dreams?"

[Elbeyon]

Love puts a hoof on her waist and puts her other hoof up to wag at him. "Are you reading my mind!? Wait, are we inside my mind, right now?"

Love raises her forelegs in the air. "That settles it! I'm going to learn how to control magic! I'll will it to happen!"

She gives him a big old smile. "Ha! Crushing? I should be thanking you! A little of the fog surrounding my progress has cleared, and I've corrected my course!" She puts a hoof up to her mouth and laughs, "Mwhahaha!"

[Miltonian]

In a flash, Discord dons a suit and the attitude of a stuffy butler. He bows, bending his elongated body almost completely in half. "I live to serve, my dear." He can't keep a straight face and the suit disintegrates as he falls into a giggling fit.

"Well, I suppose I should send you back now," he says with a wink.

[Elbeyon]

Love giggles onto her back in laughter in a funny fit.

With some regret she says, "I suppose."

She straightens up in the void and puts her arms up into a V shaped, putting her body in a Y shaped, victory pose from one of his characters.

"Let's go create some chaos!"

[Miltonian]

Aaaaand Scene!