My Little Clony

by therealfeedback

Act V, Chapter XII

“How long has he been in there?” Trixie asked worriedly.

“’Bout an hour.” Promontory answered.

“Should it be taking this long?”

“Ain’t never known nopony that needed somethin’ like this, yer’ askin’ the wrong pony, Miss Trixie.”

The other five members of the group were sitting in a waiting room. It was like that of any doctor’s office, small but not quite cramped, drab beige walls, vinyl flooring, and a ceiling that’s way too low. There was a small TV in the corner, playing the Hoofball championship between the San Franciscolt 94ers and the Baltimare Griffons.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Vinyl said. She was watching the game, but it was clear to anyone who knew her that she was just as much worried as she was enjoying the game. “The princess wouldn’t have recommended this Coppercog guy if he didn’t know what he was doing.”

“Of course she would.” Trixie snapped. “You remember why we were there, right?”

“I do.” Came the reply. “I don’t think she would’ve teleported us out of there if she still felt that way about us. Caesar’s going to be fine. …At least, as much as he can after that.”

“Your friend’s right.” A female voice off to the side said to Trixie. “Coppercog is one of the best in Equestria, he’ll fix your friend up just fine.”

“See?” Vinyl said. “I told you. Thanks for the supp—gaah!” She jumped out of her chair as she turned to face the voice, seeing a creature of sickly green with an unnerving resemblance to the clone that had attacked Caesar. “Get back! I’m warning you!” She waved a hoof at the creature in a combination of fear and anger.

“Oh will you calm down, Vinyl Scratch?” Another voice said to her. This time it was a unicorn stallion; a brown coat, goatee, and mane, with streaks of grey throughout, and a diploma on his flank. He wore a blue suit, with a green bowtie around his neck. “Terribly sorry Miss…Yhsrettulf, isn’t it? She’s had bad experiences with changelings before. Try not to worry about it too much.”

“Oh, alright then…” With a bit of a sad look on her face, the changeling shuffled off to check on the progress with the surgery.

“That’s Coppercog’s assistant, genius.” The brown stallion scolded.

“Who the hell are you? Vinyl demanded. “And how do you know my name?”

“My voice doesn’t ring a bell?” He asked in a mockingly hurt tone. “Not my pretty little eyes? Well now I’m just crushed. Completely, utterly crushed.”

“Get to the point.”

“It’s me, Discord. Being the dashing, handsome thing that I normally am isn’t very subtle when you just feigned a world takeover, so I decided I’d try a more…equestrian look to get to all of you unnoticed. Apparently it’s better than expected if you can’t recognize me.”

“And why should we believe you?” Trixie asked, to which the stallion simply rolled his eyes. He hopped up, clicked his hooves together, and in a puff of pink smoke, was gone. In his place, Discord.

“There. Believe me now?”

“But Celestia said her students defeated you?”

“Yes, well, her death threw the whole ‘elements of harmony’ thing out of order, which set me free again.” He stopped for a moment, noticing the shocked look on the faces around him. “Oh, right, she teleported you all out before all that. Sad news, everyone. Celestia is dead. She died fighting those three ponies that betrayed her and buying time for you all.”

“She’s…dead?” Vinyl asked in disbelief.

“Yes. That’s what you were planning on doing too, wasn’t it? Did you think you could just talk her down? It was going to be you or them.”

“I guess, but…she’s basically a goddess or something, right? That three ponies were able to kill her…doesn’t bode well for us.”

“Those were far from average ponies. You’ll learn more later.”

“So what are you doing here then?” The Doctor asked. “Even chaos has some reason to it.”

“Perceptive as ever, Mr. Smith.”

“Mr Smith?” Trixie asked.

“Yes Matthew, Mr. Smith?” Discord echoed mockingly.

“Matt Smith?” Trixie asked again. “What a boring name…”

“Another name I’m called somewhere else. Long story. Not relevant. Why are you here again, Discord?”

“To relay the news and make sure things are going not-dead with all of you. After all, it’d be a shame for me to be free only to see the best thing to happen for chaos in centuries die. Also, to give you these.” He snapped his fingers, a set of tickets appearing in them.

“For a ferry from the Baltimare Inner Harbor to Stalliongrad. ‘Lesty wanted you to go there, she thought it’d be your best chance of getting a force big enough to fight her betrayers. I took the liberty of alerting your daughters, Derpy. They packed everyone’s things, and are waiting for you all right outside the stadiums.”

“Why should we believe you?” Vinyl asked.

“Because if it weren’t for me, you’d still be back in that school of theirs, waiting for either a much less useful opportunity to strike, or for ‘Lesty to get bored and kill you all. I’d say that’s worth trusting me because of.”

“How are we supposed to get there?” She asked again. “By the time we’d get to the harbor, the championship will be over. This whole town’s wrapped up watching their Griffons in the championship, if they win there’ll be happy rioting, and if they lose there’ll be angry rioting. Neither is very easy to navigate.”

“Leave that to me.” At that, Discord snapped his fingers. On the broadcast of the championship, the lights in the stadium suddenly died. “Lights dying in the middle of a championship, don’t think that one’s been done before…It’ll be a half hour before they can resume play. I’ll make sure it’s a close finish too. Nobody will be out there to get in your way.”

“Wait, so you decide games?” Vinyl demanded.

“When I’m bored.” He replied.

“I knew Baltimare couldn’t have gotten this far without divine favor or something! You’re helping your team!”

“Oh come now. If I played favorites, I wouldn’t be very chaotic. Besides, if I always pick Baltimare, why’d I help Neighmath all those years ago?”

“Enough of this though, I’m bored, and a princess of the moon needs consoling. Stay safe, you’re the best hope I have for chaos, and I don’t want to have to find new candidates.” At that, he snapped his fingers, and was gone.

Arpeggio gasped, lifting his head out of the incubation fluid and breathing in air for the first time in hours. He patted his stomach, feeling the newly formed flesh over where the hole had been. Healing magic normally can’t fix something like that, but the incubation fluid and the electronics of the stasis pod made tissue generation much easier, to the point two unicorns like Noble and Apple could do it. It would take time for the coat to grow back, but it was nothing he couldn’t cover with a suit.

“Alright, I’ll put it quick for you two.” He said to the newly formed Noble and Apple. “Discord got out somehow, and while he was out, those rebels managed to get in here. They know about everything. Celestia got here first, then we did. When she learned what was going on, she teleported them away. We don’t know where because they crippled our surveillance systems. Once they left, we fought her. We won, she’s dead, but you two died, and I almost did.”

“I assume you have a plan?” Apple asked.

“Do I ever not?” Arpeggio shot back. “First off, we go public with Celestia’s death. We can blame the six of them for it. Make them public enemy #1, at least in Amareica. Avoids it blowing up in our face, too. Second, we promote Luna.”

“She doesn’t like what we’re doing though, if Celestia is to be believed. If she finds out about this, it could cause a problem.” Noble added.

“She won’t. We were able to hide our plan from Celestia, we can hide this from Luna, especially a grief-stricken Luna.”

“Why not Sparkle? Celestia’s student?”

“Promote her from a commoner to supreme ruler? Too hasty, it’ll set off alarms in the public’s mind.”

“Okay, is that all?” Noble asked.

“Not quite.” Arpeggio added. “We’re going to need a more easily controlled force to hunt for them now. I think we can make some alterations to the clones; make them look more robotic, convince the princess they’re not real.”

“And make a clone army? What is this, Stare Wars?” Apple sighed.

“Tell me it’s not practical. An infinite army of identical puppets with little resource drain? We don’t even need to give them rations or medics, just make new ones. They’ll need a leader though…a master puppet…I’ll take care of that myself.”

“Luna?” Discord asked. He looked around the chamber. It was a large, dark room, on the highest tower in the castle. It served as an observatory until the princess of the night had taken it over, turning it into her bedroom and study until a new one was constructed. The only light in it was from the half moon shining in the night sky through the gigantic glass doors on the outer wall. Past the doors was a small balcony, on which a telescope sat. “Luna, where are you?”

“What dost thou want, Discord?” The princess asked, clearly not in a very good mood. “To throw Equestria unto more chaos?”

“Still using the royal voice…look, I…sorry about that whole…completely messing up the entire world thing. I got kind of…pent up after a thousand years.”

“A feeling We know all too well.”

“Right, the moon, I heard about that…well, listen, Luna. I hate to be the baron of bad news, but you should hear it from someone you consider a friend. …Or at least considered a friend at some point.”

“We know already.”

“What?”

“Our own sister. We could sense her pain, yet We were…We…We were powerless.” Her voice shook as she spoke. She turned to face Discord, tears running down her face glinting in the moonlight. “If thou art freed, then the only explanation…” She trailed off, either unable or unwilling to finish as more tears fell from her eyes. Discord knelt down, wrapping his arms around the dark blue Alicorn in a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Luna. I know how much she meant to you, and how happy you were to be with her again.”

“Tis’ not fair!” She cried, her tears staining Discord’s shoulder. “We arrive back, and…and…We lose our sister within a cycle!”

“We may have had disagreements in the past, but I’m free now, and I’m clearheaded after getting that whole outburst earlier out. You were always nice to me, even when ‘Lesty and I had…heated disagreements. Whatever you need, I’m here for.”

“Discord, We…We thank thee. Thou…had been a good friend before…before ‘Tia sealed thee.”

“Thank you. And I plan to be a good friend again. But first, you have to listen to me.” In an instant, Discord’s tone changed from consoling to foreboding.

“D…Discord?” She started, dabbing her eyes with a stroke of her wings, the tears running off her feathers and shattering on the stone floor. “Never serious…thou art never serious…what has thou so troubled?”

“I can’t tell you right now. There’s not enough time. But you have to trust me. There will be three unicorns who will come to you within the hour. A flamboyant blue stallion with a yellow mane, a terse, tan mare with a brown mane and a foul temper, and a grey stallion with a very ominous air about him. Listen to them and go along with every word they say. Make no mention of my speaking to you, and do as they tell you. Give them an impression of control. But do not trust them. Every word they will tell you is a lie. You will want to, and they will give you ample reason, but you must never take them on their word, under no circumstance. They are not your friends, they are not my friends, they were not ‘Lesty’s friends, and they’re liars. You cannot confront them now though. For now you need to play along. I can explain everything later, but they’ll be here before I have a chance. Do you trust me?”

“We…Discord, We…I…” She tried to speak, but was clearly still upset over the loss. Discord put a finger to her lips, silencing her.

“You don’t need to trouble yourself with an answer. Just nod yes or no. Do you trust me?” There was a moment of silence, after which Luna nodded. “Alright then. You remember how to contact me?” Another nod. “Good. Whenever you’re alone and certain you won’t be interrupted, call on me and I’ll explain what I can. Until then, I’ll be hiding in plain sight, as always.” At that, Discord tugged at Luna one more time before getting up, opening the glass doors, and walking out onto the balcony.

“And Luna? Remember that no matter what, she’s with you. Ponies may have a set life span, but spirits like you, me, and ‘Lesty? We’re not so easy to kill. Even if you can’t see her physically, even if she’s gone from the physical world, your sister’s still with you, and she still loves you.” With those words, he snapped his fingers, disappearing in a cloud of pink smoke.