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Organised by
RogerDodger
Word limit
400–750
Horseshoe Theory
It was a new book. Well, new to her. In all other aspects, positively ancient. It may as well have been tossed to a horde of piranhas the way she tore into it. Such was the fate of any book that found itself in the hooves of Twilight Sparkle.
Her enthusiasm was short-lived. She stopped and carefully read the open pages again. Her brow furrowed; she read the pages again, face growing pale.
Twilight checked the title again: 'Treatise Concerning the Nature of Harmony,' no name. Yet again, she read the offending pages. It was no use: the arguments were airtight, logically leading to one inevitable conclusion.
Harmony, her beloved harmony, that she had spent so long and fought so hard to protect, to spread was at the center of it. Harmony, the centerpiece of Equestrian civilization, moving toward its final goal: a whole world moving in perfect unison, not a single hair out of place. But not with joy and life, like a machine.
Twilight saw a world of peace and friendship. Rather, a world where disagreement would not be tolerated, differences purged. An honest one, with language stripped of all expression, bloated to a dense legalese to remove any possibility of omission or inaccuracy. She saw loyal ponies, blindly and unquestioningly subservient to their designated superiors. Generosity, with no care or thought, nothing more than a reallocation of resources. Kindness, brutally enforced, and besides no care to make it meaningful. Even laughter, twisted in ways she never thought possible into a mechanistic gesture. Joke: laugh; stimulus: response. A world that was neat, deterministic, and utterly sterile.
Idea! She grimaced. There was one pony who might be able to help her, even if she still didn't trust him.
"Discord stop! This is serious," Twilight shouted toward the ceiling. He paused in his dancing on the ceiling arches.
"Oh, but I can celebrate can't I?" he leaned toward her until his face pressed against her muzzle. "You finally coming to me for advice." He conjured a long couch under her. Then, adjusting his glasses, he took a seat himself. "Now what seems to be the problem?"
"I called you here," Twilight said, as she got off the couch,"because..." she paused, "because I want you to teach me about chaos."
"Oh reeeally," Discord's eyes narrowed. "And just why is the perfect little princess asking about chaos?"--he gasped--"Do you want to join me in spreading chaos? Oh the adventures we'll have!"
"No Discord, that isn't what this is about.
"I have recently made some...disturbing discoveries about the power of harmony," she gestured at the book. "If that book is right--and I haven't been able to find any problems with it--then harmony will lead to-to something horrible. There will be no choices, no free will." She looked up at Discord. "But then I realized maybe that's why there is chaos. I've always wondered about that, but now I think I see it. Chaos exists so there can be freedom, so there can be real friendship instead of ponies just bumping into each other like automatons."
Discord laughed. Not his usual laugh of maniacal glee, but a softer chuckle, that had a chiding tone to it. "Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. You wouldn't know what chaos was like if it smacked you in the face." He flicked his tail in her face. "That's not how chaos works. Real chaos magic? You can't control it; not even I can.
"When you get down to they're really not so different, chaos and harmony--"
"What do you mean! That makes no sense!" Twilight stamped her hoof.
"Well, it's like this," he flipped through the book, "what's your problem with this kind of harmony? too restricting? The way you don't really have any choice one moment leading mathematically to the next? How what ever you did was always going to happen the way it did?
"It's so boring: too predictable. Now you know how I feel about harmony. But chaos really isn't much different. Pure randomness, you never know what you'll get. Don't you see? There's still no connection between what you want and what happens next.
"But with chaos at least you get variety. It'll come together and look like harmony for a while and then? Poof something completely different."
wadfsj sldfjl;'pj sdfj afoiwa;r ewo8lsdj oweif;;lskjva
lskdfj
sdflkjsadfl;jsdvlsjdvlsdv;sahn;v s wa;l jf;lasnv;wa
Her enthusiasm was short-lived. She stopped and carefully read the open pages again. Her brow furrowed; she read the pages again, face growing pale.
Twilight checked the title again: 'Treatise Concerning the Nature of Harmony,' no name. Yet again, she read the offending pages. It was no use: the arguments were airtight, logically leading to one inevitable conclusion.
Harmony, her beloved harmony, that she had spent so long and fought so hard to protect, to spread was at the center of it. Harmony, the centerpiece of Equestrian civilization, moving toward its final goal: a whole world moving in perfect unison, not a single hair out of place. But not with joy and life, like a machine.
Twilight saw a world of peace and friendship. Rather, a world where disagreement would not be tolerated, differences purged. An honest one, with language stripped of all expression, bloated to a dense legalese to remove any possibility of omission or inaccuracy. She saw loyal ponies, blindly and unquestioningly subservient to their designated superiors. Generosity, with no care or thought, nothing more than a reallocation of resources. Kindness, brutally enforced, and besides no care to make it meaningful. Even laughter, twisted in ways she never thought possible into a mechanistic gesture. Joke: laugh; stimulus: response. A world that was neat, deterministic, and utterly sterile.
Idea! She grimaced. There was one pony who might be able to help her, even if she still didn't trust him.
"Discord stop! This is serious," Twilight shouted toward the ceiling. He paused in his dancing on the ceiling arches.
"Oh, but I can celebrate can't I?" he leaned toward her until his face pressed against her muzzle. "You finally coming to me for advice." He conjured a long couch under her. Then, adjusting his glasses, he took a seat himself. "Now what seems to be the problem?"
"I called you here," Twilight said, as she got off the couch,"because..." she paused, "because I want you to teach me about chaos."
"Oh reeeally," Discord's eyes narrowed. "And just why is the perfect little princess asking about chaos?"--he gasped--"Do you want to join me in spreading chaos? Oh the adventures we'll have!"
"No Discord, that isn't what this is about.
"I have recently made some...disturbing discoveries about the power of harmony," she gestured at the book. "If that book is right--and I haven't been able to find any problems with it--then harmony will lead to-to something horrible. There will be no choices, no free will." She looked up at Discord. "But then I realized maybe that's why there is chaos. I've always wondered about that, but now I think I see it. Chaos exists so there can be freedom, so there can be real friendship instead of ponies just bumping into each other like automatons."
Discord laughed. Not his usual laugh of maniacal glee, but a softer chuckle, that had a chiding tone to it. "Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. You wouldn't know what chaos was like if it smacked you in the face." He flicked his tail in her face. "That's not how chaos works. Real chaos magic? You can't control it; not even I can.
"When you get down to they're really not so different, chaos and harmony--"
"What do you mean! That makes no sense!" Twilight stamped her hoof.
"Well, it's like this," he flipped through the book, "what's your problem with this kind of harmony? too restricting? The way you don't really have any choice one moment leading mathematically to the next? How what ever you did was always going to happen the way it did?
"It's so boring: too predictable. Now you know how I feel about harmony. But chaos really isn't much different. Pure randomness, you never know what you'll get. Don't you see? There's still no connection between what you want and what happens next.
"But with chaos at least you get variety. It'll come together and look like harmony for a while and then? Poof something completely different."
wadfsj sldfjl;'pj sdfj afoiwa;r ewo8lsdj oweif;;lskjva
lskdfj
sdflkjsadfl;jsdvlsjdvlsdv;sahn;v s wa;l jf;lasnv;wa