//------------------------------// // Ch 1: Last Semblance of order // Story: Border Chronicles: Book 1 Friendship in Chaos // by Sirion123 //------------------------------// Location: R-13: Farway Caelum, Cygnus, Belfiore Academy 2037 P.C.E. (Post Creator era) Trevor sat relaxed, leaning back in his chair, legs propped on a support for the desk legs reading some Creator Era history textbook. History here in Farway, often seemed a fantasy, two god like beings forcing the populous of the whole planet into bloody tournaments for control of all. Several hundred million years of conflict only to be ended in a final tournament from which The Named came. Trevor always found himself fascinated by the tales of the royal houses and families. Tales that predated The Named, the appointed caretakers of the land after The Creators had been deposed of, so Farwayians could live their lives without fear of some grand scheme of terror from the Artist to remove all the humans or free willed and sentient life on the planet, or the Writer, whom delighted in, playing with the farwayians in a clinically detached way to find out their potential in sick experiments designed to test how far his creations could go. As to why Trevor was reading the large historical text, the reason was the summer stand down. As much as the academy was a military base, it was treated in much the same way as a college. So, between the last few weeks of the spring months, and the beginning of the fall months the academy was filled with a skeleton crew of maintenance workers and administration. Most cadets would head back to their respective homes to spend time with their families and loved ones, Trevor, however, did not. His mother, of which Trevor would call his guardian or by her actual name Tibbia Meadows, (Trevor had been adopted at the age of six) had tried to be loving and caring like his actual mother would have been, but Trevor had always remained distant from Tibbia. The house where he had spent most of his childhood and teenaged life had never felt like a home to Trevor, just a comfortable shelter from social pressures that stemmed from his father's legacy. At present Trevor had no need for shelter of that kind, so he decided to remain on the campus, much to the disappointment of his sister (Tibbia's daughter) and guardian. After reaching the chapter on the rise of the Heart family, who's destiny would lead them to be the royalty leading the desert country Terra, Trevor's stomach grumbled. In his quiet room the noise seemed to roar and echo like an illious Cat (a lion like species who's electric blue coat of fur was capable of snap freezing anything that touched it.) Trevor remembered he in fact, had nothing to eat the entirety of the morning and into the start of the afternoon. With a heavy sigh, trevor place a book mark in the tome of history, folded the book shut, and set it on his desk with a soft thump. Slowly Trevor stood up, arms raising higher and higher as he stretched his muscles from the atrophy of sitting for several hours. A loud throaty bellow that constituted his yawn sounded off before his arms returned to his sides. Properly stretched Trevor took stock in his room. Trevor stood nestled in a small alcove made from the arrangement of furniture in his room. His rack (bed) sat in the far corner of the room visible from the entrance to the room, his desk sat three feet or so away, parallel to Trevor's rack made the alcove. The desk was placed at the foot of the other rack, unmade as it was for Trevor had no roommate. The barracks room was just a box, thirty by thirty with a small hallway leading in to which the head (bathroom) and a small but modest fridge and microwave sat. Much like the racks every bit of furniture in the room came in sets of twos. Desks, a lockable wardrobe, three drawer dressers, all arranged to allow for maximum usable space in the room, not the privacy of the cadets that were living within. Dressing in simple civilian wear, uniforms wouldn't be required for another two weeks, of a simple blue trimmed white T-shirt and tan cargo pants. Walking toward the small cubby above the microwave for what little food stuffs Trevor had. Deciding nothing in his room would be Suitable enough to stave off the hunger pangs trevor resolved to leave for the galley. Meanwhile Location: ER-0: Equis Origin Canterlot, Castle of the Royal Sisters Year- 1003 C.E. (Or year 3 of the Reunion Era (R.E.)) Within the solid white marbled halls that was home to the two royal sisters, screams of anger, sounds of mayhem, and maniacal laughter filled the castle's normally quiet and serene halls. "DISCORD!!" Came an angry cry, sounding like a cross between a mother's scolding and a screeching sister, "What happened to my cake?" The screaming voice that asked the question was a white alicorn. In fact it was the white alicorn, princess Celestia diarch of Equestria. Her ivory white coat, regal blue, teal and pink main forever moving in some ethereal wind running down the halls in much to the shock of all the canterlot staff. Normally, she was a gentle ruler, often coaching her subjects with any and all disputes, subtly nudging them in the right direction, toward a greater harmony. However, ironically, she did find joy in creating some mischief with small pranks both giving and receiving. That said, Celestia did not like her confectionary delights being the subject of pranks. So naturally the living embodiment of chaos, Discord, delighted in pulling pranks on her innocent baked desserts. The cake that had caused Celestia's ire, was a magnificently crafted marbled cake made from chocolate and yellow cake batters with a nice strawberry icing covering the cake, turned into an almost inedible licorice and tapioca and miserable chalky sugar icing upon her first biting to her most favored delectable food stuffs. Discord was the only being in all of Equis that would be brazen enough to turn her cake into her most hated flavors. Very few of her royal staff have ever send Celestia truly angry, and today happened to be one of those times. It was almost law to ensure nothing happened to Celestia's cake. Barreling down the ivory hallways of the royal castle, Discord just kept out of Celestia's wrathful grasp. He had to be very careful and needed a distraction to help prevent a gruesome fate. It wasn't before too long that Discord's path forced him to make a choice. Ahead of him the hallway ended at a T. Should he choose left or right? On a whim he thought left, yet, before he committed to his course, he split himself into two, and sent his doppelgänger in the other direction. His on the spot planing (of which he had always thought was perfect despite failing him twice) did what it was intended to, confuse Celestia and by him a few precious seconds from the inevitable magic beat down surely to come from Celestia. His chosen path ended at a set of mahogany doors with a silver laid moon adorn them. Luna's, the night princess, bedroom and study. The recently returned mistress of the night had often been the patron of the arts. Music, paintings, poems, all manners of imaginative creative outlets. After all, artists taken in by their muses, often were big dreamers. So it would not be so surprising to find Luna partaking in creative endeavors to think or relax as she had been doing this particular morning. She was ever so critical of her art. Every brush stroke measured to bring forth the beauty that her mind's eye held. To say Luna was in her own little world while she painted would have been a great understatement. Said little world, however, was shattered completely when Discord came crashing through door, tripped into Luna, who do to the loss of concentration, lost her magical aura of her brush, causing it to drop leaving a blaring yellow streak across the six hours of painstaking work she had done. Recovering quickly, Discord took a quick gander at what Luna was working on. "I LIKE IT! But I don't get it...maybe if I do this," and with a snap of his lionlike paw Luna's carefully crafted midnight landscape was turned into a parody of itself, "ah, much better don't you think?" He turned toward Luna with one eyebrow raised. Luna recovered and gasped at her mutilated painting. Fury unlike any other, not even her jealous anger from before her banishment, directed itself at discord as her eyes shrank to pinpricks and eyelids to slits. "What hast thou done to our painting Discord" came the quiet icy venom that was Luna's voice. "Improved it I would say, it much less dull and dreary now." Replied the dragonequus not realizing that his impending death, at Luna's hoofs, was staring him right in the face. A blue aura glowed around her similarly colored yet darker horn as she charged and fired her spell, a blue bolt or pure energy designed to hurt. Discord narrowly managed to avoid. "FIEND!!" Luna fired another bolt, "THOU HAST RUINED OUR PAINTING! WE HAVE SPENT A MULTITUDE OF HOURS CAREFULLY CRAFTING," another bolt fired as the royal Canterlot voice alerted the sun princess of her missing quarry, " ONLY TO HAVE IT RUINED BY A FOUL BEAST OF WHIMSY. PREPARE THYSELF FOR PUNISHMENT!" After a few more narrowly missed bolts of pain, Discord caught out of the corner of his eye, the sun diarch galloping toward him with a sneer showing on her usually stoic face. One princess was more then enough, having two against him was more then he could handle. He should know after all, it was these two ponies that had cased him in stone in the first place. Not wishing to deal with the royal sisters at the same time Discord scanned the room for a hasty escape. A small circular window caught his eye. well, why not? It could be fun and leaving the royal staff to clean up this deliciously tasteful chaos would just be the cherry on top. After the thought Discord leaped toward the small window that held the promise of escape and continued existence. "FREEBORN!!!" He cried as the glass shattered. He had bought himself a temporary reprieve from death by sisterly fury. Summoning up base jumping gear after a snap, Discord pulled his chute cord, only to have an anvil pop out, and glided toward one of the towers lower then the previous one he had just occupied. Those who saw the crazy creature couldn't make sense of what they had seen. In one of the lower towers, Princess Cadence, as she had liked to be called for she didn't like her formal name, was on a sabbatical from her crystal empire duties. She was not alone either. Her "hubby" Shining Armor came along for the ride as well, both hoping to enjoy time together without interruptions. At this precise moment, both were sharing an intimate moment born of love, compassion, and harmony. So naturally, it subconsciously drew Discord to such a thing only to destroy it. It was the very thing Discord excelled at doing, you know, causing disharmony. So in their closest second of intimacy, Discord came crashing through the opening in the room both were occupying and he landed between the two, ending up in a compromising position with Cadence's "hubby". Completely stunned by the unwanted and sudden intrusion, Cadence stared dumbstruck for an instance, then asked... "What it in the wide world of Equis are you doing?" Discord couldn't help himself, couldn't even begin to fight his nature, and so he slowly turned toward cadence, rolling over to look at the princess of love. His face covered in makeup, a parody of a back alley mare's face. Teal eyeliner and shadow looked dead into her eyes and replied. "Why, making out with my colt toy" As if that wasn't enough to to prove his point and cross the line, quick as a blink he turned back to Shining and kissed him on the lips. The panicked stallion tried to fight the unwanted advance, failed, and passed out do to a combination of disgust and embarrassment. Purple lipstick imprinted on his muzzle. Knowing he had already crossed the line, Discord jumped from the bed clicked the heels of his mismatch feet twice, followed by a “beep, beep” and was gone before Cadence could blink. The only indication that Discord had in fact been in the room was a dust cloud in the shape of the dragonequus. With her eyes tinted red with rage, Cadence chased after, being the third princess this day Discord had managed to anger with his antics. Through twist, turns, stairs, and halls ending at the Royal Garden, specifically the garden's maze, Discord continued to outmaneuver and remain hidden. The garden, and parts of the maze, were filled with wondrous pieces of stone sculptures. Avatars of the virtues ponies should strive for, and dark warnings of vices one should avoid. At one point, Discord had been imprisoned in stone and was a warning of what lessons of the past pony kind should never forget. A punishment for the era on which the, now playful, dragonequus had brought the entirety of pony kind to the brink of endless madness, and constant misery. Reformed as he was, the only thing that really changed from then and now, was the fact he had no desire to disappoint a very close and newly developed friend by mean spirited mischief. Still running from the fury of three alicorns Discord’s disastrous detour of decadent disharmony would not be complete without the last princess had had yet to run into and frustrate. Fate, deemed this unacceptable, and to correct this grievous error, forced his sub-conscience down a path that ended with him tripping over the youngest princess of the four. Twilight Sparkle, having been brought to canterlot on royal business, had hoped to find peace and quiet. Truth be told, as much as she had loved Celestia, she rather not get involved with the fallout of Discord’s pranks. so, Twilight had slipped away from the commotion in the castle, into the Royal Garden. Her peaceful spot was carefully chosen, if Discord’s only purpose had been to antagonize every pony with harmless pranking, the Royal Garden where Discord’s sentence was served, would be quite the deterrent to any pranks played against her, the results of sensible reasoning. Who would want to return to were somepony was turned to stone? With that in her mind combined with the tranquil silence of the garden were a comfortable blanket to study with, Twilight had summoned her most prized book. Reading the journal, that detailing the life and spells of Starswirl the Beared hoof written by the famous pony himself, had consumed most of her morning, and made her oblivious of the coming storm of chaos bearing toward her. She was surprised when Discord had tripped over her. Confused when he had picked her up. Annoyed when she discovered the reason he did so was to act as a shield against Cadence’s attack spells. Terrified when she determined that the spells would hit her if she didn’t do something to protect herself, Awestruck when her instincts used her copy (in fact the ONLY copy) of Starswirl’s journal to protect her. And finally, absolutely livid when the book crumbled to ashes. The moment which felt a little like three lifetimes passing, was over in mere seconds followed by an almost but not quite sincere “oops” from Discord, before Twilight wrathful gaze bore into the spirit of chaos. Not wishing to let the lit powered keg being held in his paw and talon explode in his face, Discord unceremoniously dropped Twilight and started off again, any direction that was away. Only after just a few steps, however, was his progress halted by a violet bubble sheild. He had been caught, his merry making drawn to a close, time to face those which he had angered. Cadences moved in like a lion drawn in for the kill. Well, at least it's only the two of them. if princess Sunbutt and Luny were to show up...I'd really be in trouble… and if as he had just summoned them from thin air, both Celestia and Luna made their presences known to the trapped trickster. Horns blaring on all four alicorns, each their own respective colored auras, all pointed armed and at the ready at Discord. “MY CAKE!” “OUR PAINTING!” “MY HUSBAND!” the alicorns who were not Cadence shot her a questioning look, “you don’t want to know” answered Cadence to the unasked question. “THE ONE AND ONLY COPY OF STARSWIRL’S OWN PERSONAL JOURNAL DESTROYED BY A DEVIANT, DELINQUENT, DISHARMONIOUS, DRACONEQUUS!” “Why I’m flattered at the alliterated complement, Twilight.” Discord grinned his snaggled tooth and crooked smile. It broke the barrier holding her back, and set Twilight off a spell, soon followed by the other royals. The spell she casted, was just a simple teleport spell with an even simpler destination… Away from here. Several miles to the south, in the mostly rural town of ponyville, a peculiar pink pony mare with her signature frizzy and poofed up mane felt her knees pinch, her hair twist and her tongue go numb, a sign that something had been sent outside equestria, beyond the realm of Equis. The only thing that she thought was, it’s too soon… Location: R-13: Farway Caelum, Cygnus, Belfiore Academy 2034 P.C.E. (Post Creator era) A small pop was heard followed by a big thud. Inside one the student barracks, to which in the very room Trevor made his residence, came a slightly pained, but still whimsical voice from within the magically sealed and locked wardrobe. “Well, This is delightfully unexpected.” A snap of fingers, though muffled, could still be heard out side the wardrobe along with a small “huh” of disbelief. “Well, Here’s another fine mess I’ve gotten myself into…”