//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 – Got Herself a Brand New Reality // Story: Being Chaos Malcontent // by Digodragon //------------------------------// Vertigo swam in Celestia's head for a few seconds as the monarch opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that her left eye felt painfully sore for some reason. Second, the magical light she had actively sustained was gone. Celestia was left in the dark, although she was able to make out walls and objects among the shadows. It appeared that the princess was laying on her back, somewhere within in a very cluttered room. Celestia tried to recast her light spell, but it refused to return. She shifted in place, but her body moved in skewed ways that the princess was not used to. Curious about her physical state, she slowly moved her hooves in front of her face, but what she saw that entered her vision was a lion’s paw and an eagle’s claw. Celestia was back in Discord’s body. The princess rolled over to stand up. Halfway through the motion, she realized that she was laying in a hammock that was suspended in the air. Celestia stopped rotating, but the now unbalanced hammock swung away from her. The Alicorn tumbled a short distance to the hard wood floor. The draconequus was likely asleep when Celestia possessed his body. The princess carefully stood up on all fours. She looked around intently at Discord's dark room for a lamp or a jar of fireflies. Discord's room was a mess and Celestia was only able to stumble around in it. She crept carefully around in this foreign body as she slowly made her way to the window. This body gave Celestia new sensations she never had before, such as fingers. Fragile little things they were. What prevented them from breaking so readily? Celestia reached out to the window sill for a brace as she attempted to stand up on two hind legs. She was able to stand with minimal support, but once she took a step forward, her foreign body stumbled and lost its balance. Celestia caught herself against the wall, or some object that was as hard as a wall, she wasn't able to see it well enough to know for sure. Celestia concluded that walking on two legs was just too strange a concept for her right now. That is, not counting the fact this entire situation was one jumbled foreign concept. How was it even possible to possess Discord’s body from a mere trap door in the second basement? Celestia wasn’t able to think of a reason why Discord would have created that trap door, so it was not likely the chaos spirit’s doing. Celestia also was unable to think of how she would return back to her own body. Was it after a specific amount of time had passed? Was the effect on until a mental command was given? She recalled that she had left Discord’s body at the moment Luna threw a sofa at her. Perhaps pain was the key? Celestia wasn’t keen on the idea to have another couch thrown at her by Luna. The soreness of Discord’s left eye was a testament that the injury remained with the body, particularly when the source of the pain was a high velocity sofa. Celestia decided to wait on testing pain until later. Right now this was an interesting opportunity to better understand the draconequus. As the old saying went, ‘Walk a mile in another pony’s shoes’, except that Discord wasn’t a pony, nor had he ever owned any shoes. Apparently the metaphor had broken down before it even started, much like Celestia’s day had. The Alicorn shrugged off the metaphoric thought and returned to her studies of movement. Since walking was going to take a lot of time to master, she instead decided to attempt something easier like flight with this body. Discord was a master of teleportation and merging into his surrounding so flight was a cakewalk for the draconequus, right? Okay, the idea sounded a lot better in Celestia's mind. She concentrated on flapping her foreign body’s tiny wings, but they appeared not to work properly. The monarch pondered this problem for a moment, but then she realized that Discord didn’t fly, he levitated. Celestia tried to focus her mind on hovering magically. She imagined Discord’s body as a weightless cloud and that gravity was no master to her. It paid off when she felt herself levitate off the ground. “Ah, so this is how he does it,” Celestia commented to herself. Discord's body slowly hovered around the room in circles. The princess tried to get used to the sensation of this kind of flying, but she constantly bumped into several objects that sat on crooked shelves and knocked them all over to the floor. Just how much stuff had Discord crammed into this bedroom? After a few minutes she no longer felt any objects brushing into her. Celestia either mastered hovering or there were no more objects perched on shelves to knock over. The princess felt she was ready for the next step. She pushed Discord’s window open and slowly levitated out into the night sky. The air was cool and clear tonight, which gave Celestia a clear view of the full moon above. The large, white sphere in the sky reminded her to keep an eye out for Luna and avoid contact in case the younger sister was still angry at Discord. Celestia caused the earlier incident between the two and Discord didn’t deserve the pain that resulted from that assault. The princess flew Discord's body to the far end of the castle gardens and landed gently on top of a tree. It was a secluded spot away from anyone at the castle who might have noticed the draconequus acting... well not chaotic. Celestia sat there and pondered what else she could do in this body. Well, Discord was primarily known for his powerful chaotic magic, but was Celestia able to use that? She thought about the implications of the idea. Discord’s magic was unpredictable, but on the other hoof he always appeared to have full control over his powers. Celestia herself was capable of several powerful abilities; the most notable was the capacity to raise the sun. “Perhaps if I only perform a few ‘simple’ tricks?” Celestia thought. The first issue the Alicorn had to overcome was that the spirit of chaos snapped his fingers when he wanted to create an effect. Celestia looked at Discord’s fingers before her and flexed them. Yeah, that just felt too weird for her and likely required hours of practice just like walking on one’s hind legs was. Two-legged creatures were so unbalanced. Instead, Celestia meditated once more. Perhaps she was able to will his powers to work. She focused her mind on the creation of a small rain cloud. Something that wasn’t too big or conspicuous. She concentrated on the formation of a little cloud that was soft and harmless, but ensuring that 'harmless' was an important detail not to be overlooked. A cold, wet drop landed on Celestia’s nose. It had a milky scent to it. She blinked with confusion. Another drop fell on her nose, followed by one on top of her head. Celestia looked up and saw a small, pink, pillow-sized cloud above her. The drops exponentially increased and within seconds she was showered with chocolate rain. “I did it!” Celestia squealed with delight. The owls in the tree underneath her began to hoot angrily at the cold, brown rain. Celestia continued to cheer underneath the chocolate downpour, laughing like a silly filly. “I made it rain!” she said happily. “This is actually quite amusing!” Celestia clapped her paws together in applause, but Discord’s strange magic sparked between his body’s strange fingers. The owls screeched as their bodies shifted and stretched. A moment later, the owls had turned into flamingoes. Blue flamingoes. “Eek!” Celestia blurted out in a panic. She tried to end the rain and the transformative effect on the owls with mental willpower. Discord’s magic refused to listen and the pink rain cloud continued to pour down upon the princess. She tried harder to concentrate, but the flamingo-owls began to now bark their annoyed demeanor loudly. “I’m trying!” Celestia angrily shouted. The small raincloud growled with rage and shot a bolt of lightning down at the tree beneath it. Unfortunately, discord's body was the highest point under the chaotic weather system. The electrical bolt shot the princess hard and clawed at her head with searing pain. Celestia cried out as she fell from her perch and down toward the ground. “Curse you chocolate rain!” ~ ~ ~ Celestia hit a freezing cold body of water at high speed. The impact stung like a bee, but the chilly liquid was cold enough to burn through her fur coat immediately after. She flailed to sit up and found herself only waist deep in the lake behind the castle again. Celestia was once more confused, but this feeling lasted only a minute as several very angry ducks quacked threats to peck at her from their nests nearby. The princess swiftly stumbled out of the lake before the ducks attracted unwanted attention from the castle. Celestia shivered from the sudden nip of cold air against her body. She struggled to cast her drying spell again, but her body rattled so badly that Celestia was unable to concentrate on her spell. The wind picked up and cut into her body like a knife. The wet princess forced herself into a trot for warmth. She jogged her way back to the castle. Celestia reached the rear castle entrance, still wet and freezing. The two guards on duty at the rear entrance witnessed the sight of their beloved ruler with all the glory and majesty of a soaked Collie. The sentries gave their majesty an inquisitive look. “Out for an evening… swim, your highness?” one guard asked curiously. “O-oh y-yes,” Celestia stuttered bashfully from the cold. “The water is q-quite brisk t-tonight.” Celestia opened the large door and entered the castle before the guards questioned her further. She trotted quickly toward the stairwell that led to her chambers as water still dripped carelessly upon the clean red carpets. However, at this point Celestia didn’t care who saw her. The princess passed a maid who stopped dusting the hallway statues. Celestia did not stop to entertain any questions, but instead cut off the young maid in mid-sentence. “J-just had a b-brisk swim, thank you!” Celestia blurted out as she raced on by. The princess continued to jog through the quiet halls and gave the same ‘brisk swim’ excuse to the night shift butler, two guards, and a cook that she passed by. Every retelling she gave felt a little more convincing than the last one. She was starting to believe the little white lie herself after the last iteration. Discord would have been proud of her. Celestia wondered if she was supposed to happy or horrified about that thought. The princess reached the grand steps of the central tower, but before she ascended the stairs, she heard an argumentative shout from her sister. Luna’s unmistakable booming voice came from the throne room. Curiosity piqued, Celestia changed her direction and trotted to the throne room. The twin gilded doors of the throne room were left wide open. Within the grand marble hall, Celestia saw that her sister Luna stood a generous distance away from a very charred and tree sap covered Discord. Behind the draconequus stood two palace guards at attention, and a page colt that had just picked up the leaves Discord left on the carpet. The princess of the night saw Celestia appear at the doorway, mysteriously soaked to the bone. “Dear sister, why in Equestria are you drenched?” Luna asked with great concern. “Luna, y-you won’t b-believe it!” Celestia stuttered, but she stopped herself from continuing her explanation. She realized that she was still quite cold from the lake water. Furthermore, Discord was right there in the throne room. An explanation of recent events right now in front of an annoyed draconequus was most definitely something in the ‘bad idea’ category. “W-wait, perhaps it would be s-silly of me to explain,” Celestia corrected as she continued to shiver. Luna hushed her elder sister. “Servant,” Luna commanded, “Bring us some towels for my moistened sister.” She clapped her hooves together and the page colt bowed in compliance. The young servant galloped out into the hallway and toward the nearest linen closet. “T-Thank you sister,” Celestia said calmly. She turned to the disheveled Discord. “Are y-you alright?” The draconequus sighed. “I’m having a bad night,” Discord answered. “However, I was not aware there was a competition for the title of ‘worst night ever’ here. I would have gladly thrown the game if given the choice. The wet mane is a nice touch, Celestia. You should try chocolate milk next time.” “Thanks,” Celestia said, unsure if that was supposed to be a compliment. “You look… q-quite tanned.” Luna cleared her throat to explain. “Sister, he came into the castle just moments before you did, covered in burn marks and chocolate milk. I haven’t a clue what he was up to.” “I was up to nothing,” Discord said defensively. “In fact, I was quite down on the ground when I awoke like this.” The chaos spirit snapped his fingers. The chocolate milk vanished from his body, but he still retained the burn marks. Discord now smelled slightly smoky without the chocolate scent to mask the charred spots. The page colt returned with towels balanced on his back. Celestia levitated a warm towel magically and began to pat herself dry. Warmth steadily returned to her. The page offered a towel to Discord, but he waved the little colt away. “By the way,” Discord added nonchalantly, “There’s a flock of angry, blue flamingoes stuck in a tree by the garden. Also, a group of garden owls have been turned into blue flamingoes. I'm pretty sure those things are related.” Luna was about to berate the draconequus, but Celestia interjected first. “Discord, could you please return the owls to normal? You were probably sleepwalking and accidentally changed the owls before… whatever happened after that.” Celestia tried hard not to let on that she knew exactly what happened. “Me? Sleepwalk?” Discord said disbelievingly, “I, the prince of chaos, do not sleepwalk! I am fully in control of my powers and I just wanted to make sense of what just happened to me! Wait, did I just use ‘sense’ in the same sentence as myself?” Celestia nodded with a slight smirk as she dried her tail, but Luna remained stoic. “Gah!” Discord snarled with frustration. He stomped his foot and vanished in a flash of white light. “I think he took it well,” Celestia said aloud as she wrapped the moist towel around her shoulders. “Now then, dear sister,” Luna said as she redirected the conversation. “Pray tell me what strange thought appealed to your senses that swimming in the lake at this hour was a good idea?” Celestia shook her head. “Guards, servant, please excuse yourselves from the throne room,” She gently commanded. “I wish a moment of privacy with my sister.” The two guards and the page colt left the room without question, but Luna’s expression held enough inquiry for every pony twice over. Celestia waited until the doors closed shut before she answered her sister. “Luna, Discord didn’t transform the owls or cause the chocolate rain,” Celestia said. “I did.” Luna gave her sister the most deadpan look of disbelief possible. “You have lost me, dear sister.” Celestia raised a hoof to interrupt. “Luna, I found a strange trap door in the castle’s second basement,” the monarch explained with renewed excitement. “I have entered it twice now, and both times I have possessed Discord’s body for several minutes. I don’t know how it works, but it does!” “Yes, and the moon is made of cheese,” Luna mocked. “How wonderful for you.” “I speak the truth!” Celestia countered. “Somehow this door leads into Discord's mind!” Luna raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t dive head first into that shallow pond, did you?” she asked incredulously. “Your story sounds so incredibly daft that I most sincerely hope it’s due to some menial reason such as brain trauma.” Now it was Celestia’s turn to be on the defensive. “Alright, I admit that my story is a little far-fetched,” Celestia conceded, “But I can prove it! Meet me at the entrance to the castle basement at dawn.” “This should prove to be an interesting little excursion,” Luna remarked. Celestia leaned in closer to her sister. “Oh, it will be interesting,” she warned. “Dun, dun, dun!” clucked Philomena from under her tarp-covered cage. Luna flinched at the bird’s unexpected outburst before she looked back at her sister with concern. “Melodramatic bird, remember?” Celestia said.