The Return of Harmony Redux

by paiohelohelo

Prologue- The Return of Chaos

The full moon was shining ever so brightly over a vast expanse of the Amazon River Basin. From afar, it appeared as if there was nothing but an endless canopy of trees, stretching as far as the eye could see. Unseen jungle birds squawked and hollered late into the night, and in the midst of all the dense, steamy fog in the air, a cacophony of mating insects let loose with the most lonely of songs, or perhaps a warning of things to come.

A lonely cricket, quite measly in size and ignored by all the others, sadly and softly rubbed it’s legs together on the rainforest floor far below, a quiet little chirp- chirp- chirp emitting from its body for nobody to hear but itself.

Suddenly, a large metal boot of some sort quickly and quietly ended the poor cricket’s life in the span of a heartbeat, squashing the little insect as it’s callous owner hurried along the rainforest floor, probably unaware and uncaring that he or she had just taken a life. Indeed, a small group of such figures dressed as the cricket murderer were running along the forest floor at top speed, each of them carrying a heavy payload of personal weaponry, including shiny rifle- like ones on their backs.

The figure in the lead, the cricket killer, who appeared to be a man possessing a large build and whose face was covered by a black balaclava matching his fatigues, suddenly ran behind a tree; his right hand came up, motioning for the others far behind him to stop, and with expert precision each and every one of the black clad figures following him disappeared into the dark green foliage. Right after they did so, a small patrol of heavily armed soldiers walked by where they all hid, seemingly unaware that the group was even there. After they were long gone, the cricket murderer signaled for the others to get moving, and the small team stealthily resumed their running through the mists of The Amazon Rainforest.

The ninja- attired team soon came upon a large rock cliff, covered over in millennia of vines and jungle overgrowth; the cricket killer scanned the top while the others waited behind him.

“Should be there,” the bane of all crickets simply and quietly spoke, pointing to an almost unnoticeable crevice in the cliff hundreds of feet above. “Alright, people, time to start climbing,”

The team of ninjas all took out a small black pistol with a wheel attached. They fired them together, and long ropes of steel shot out and firmly held onto the crevice’s ledge above. With a push of a button, the ropes started to retract and the ninjas plus their cricket- killing leader scaled the cliffs with seemingly much more ease and strength than one would expect from ordinary human beings.

After reaching and entering the tiny crevice one by one, the ninja team slowly began to slide through a very old, very twisted crack in the Earth; water began to seep more and more through the walls around them, and the sound of mating insects and birds began to be replaced by the steady, low rumbling of a running water source nearby. The ninja commandos continued scooting downwards until they at last came upon a large, cavernous opening, a limestone cave naturally carved out by the Amazon’s river waters. The inside of the cave was pitch black, and the ninjas could hardly see anything beyond their faces until they broke open long glow sticks that illuminated a small pool of water beneath them.

“Ok,” the leader spoke again, “this is where things get a little… wet. PALADIN helmets on, everybody,”

The other ninjas nodded, and then each of them began stripping off their black fatigues to reveal tight- fitting, armor- like suits of metal and plastic- like composition under them, all of them a uniform black as well.

The leader himself willed a segmented, black metallic helmet with a glowing visor to shutter over his balaclava like the others, and when everybody was suited up and ready, he nodded as they all began diving headfirst, through hundreds of feet, into the icy black freshwater pool below.

Underneath the surface, the ninjas began swimming in their PALADIN armor with ease through a narrow, twisted underwater cave, their visors glowing and some sort of holographic projectors on the leader’s wrist brilliantly guiding the way. After quite a long time, the leader was the first to emerge from the water’s surface, and he looked around at another, seemingly identical dark cave around him. The others resurfaced as well, and the leader raised his wrist as a line of light reached straight up through the waterfall feeding the pool and beeped as it arrived at what appeared to be rusty, crisscrossed metal bars blocking the waterfall’s flow.

“Up there,” the leader indicated, “should lead us straight to the ventilation core systems. Van Mara, is the ‘precious cargo’ secure?”

“Relax,” a feminine voice from a slender PALADIN- clad ninja scoffed, and then removed a small backpack she was carrying and knocked on it; the container inside the backpack made a distinct clanging sound. “It isn’t like I just stuffed it into some spare Tupperware, or anything.”

“Well then, miss genius, how about unlocking the gates for us, hmm?” the leader replied as if he was slightly incensed by this cocky young member of his team.

The female ninja simply saluted, although she might have been smirking in her helmet. She proceeded to open up another bag slung across her shoulder, inspecting its contents. When she was satisfied with what she saw, she lightly touched her left wrist and it beeped, emitting a long, mint green ribbon of light that wrapped around her right wrist like an elegant glove. She raised her hand and the bag she had just inspected started to glow green from within as a large number of black metallic balls began to lift up from inside and float in a ethereal, green- lit ring around the female ninja.

With a casual flick of her entwined wrist, the ninja sent the balls all flying towards the grill on the waterfall, and they all stuck in another ring around its edge. The ninja flicked her fingers, and the grill exploded in a bright flash, vaporizing almost entirely, sending a large gush of strengthened water flow and molten metal everywhere. This time, the ninja really did smile in her helmet, quite satisfactorily at the leader, who only shook his head.

“Alright, now let’s get up there. It’s a long way to the ventilation core,” he muttered.

After another long while, the ninja team emerged out of water yet again into a long, long room carved into the mountain itself. There were ancient canals of freshwater lining the walls, and what looked like an enormous, rusty old stovepipe sticking out from the middle of the floor up to the ceiling.

“There’s the old Equestrian ventilation core,” the leader turned to the cocky young ninja, “Van Mara, do your magic.”

The female ninja nodded as she removed a rather large canister from one of her satchels. She crossed the room and stuck the tip of the canister against the stovepipe like device; with another wave of her light glove, the tip activated and a drill- like protrusion penetrated the metal wall with ease; the ninja waited a while before a green light appeared on the container she was holding and beeped.

“Are you absolutely sure this is going to be effective?” a male ninja to her side asked her a bit nervously.

Van Mara sighed. “Yes, for the last friggin' time, this nerve agent is extremely effective at less than 100 parts per million, courtesy of your very dead but still very friendly neighborhood Equestrians,” the green light blinked twice and beeped, and Van Mara left the container sticking there, satisfied. “The base personnel should all wake up feeling rested and quite refreshed within 3 days.”

“Well, please try not to kill too many people tonight, alright Van Mara?” the leader responded. “We’ll be needing many of those valuable warm bodies inside of that outpost later.”

“Right away, sir, of course, sir,” Van Mara mocked saluted again as she brought her left wrist, and a small holographic display on it, to her helmeted face. “Alright, my EGO’s telling me that the gaseous mixture has just started to penetrate their retrofitted air vents… initiating lockdown procedures, oh, let’s say, right about… now.”

Van Mara pressed a finger on her EGO and it beeped once. Suddenly, though, the entire room started to go off in alarms and flashing lights, and any door in the immediate vicinity was suddenly sealed up by a second, heavier metal door over it.

Nearby, inside of an elaborate underground military base, soldiers and scientists looked up in surprise as the base sirens and alarm lights started to go off. A robotic voice soon began playing on a loop over the speaker system:

“Attention, attention all base personnel, quarantine protocols have been activated, quarantine protocols are now in effect… please stay in your designated work area, and remain calm until the quarantine has been lifted… attention, attention…”

Suddenly, the vents started to emit a funny smell that strongly resembled that of pomegranates, and the base personnel started to choke and reach for their throats, coughing. The soldiers and scientists started to panic and, gasping for air, they all ran towards the closed doors and bulkheads, pounding on them in a frenzy to open, all to no avail. Soon, all of the personnel throughout the entire base started to collapse to the ground, having been rendered unconscious by Van Mara’s potent nerve agent.

Near the ventilation core, Van Mara checked her EGO again. “Checking base personnel EGO vitals now… scrolling, scrolling… ok, that should be the last of them. Nobody’s home… well, so to speak...”

The leader also smiled within his helmet. “Good job, missy. Alright, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, go collect the unconscious base personnel and secure them. Looks like we got ourselves a whole lotta hostages here, people!”

The group of ninjas all whooped and cheered, patting themselves on the back. The cricket murderer smiled wider.

“Alpha team, you’re with me. Let’s finish what we came here to do…”

Van Mara and three of the other ninjas nodded before following the leader out of the ventilation core room. The five of them made their way through an endless grey and brown underground labyrinth, twisting and turning every which way; the entire time, however, their leader led them on without even glancing at his EGO, as if he knew the place by heart.

“Um, sir…” the nervous male ninja who had previously annoyed Van Mara started to speak up as they walked, “…is it safe to open up our pals yet? My mask and helmet are both really suffocating me…”

The leader rolled his eyes in his helmet. “Van Mara?”

The female ninja checked her EGO and nodded. “Yup, the gas has completely dispersed into the filtration system. Should be clear from here on out,”

The leader nodded to the nervous ninja. He willed his helmet open and took off his balaclava underneath, revealing his bare face; the cowardly ninja sighed happily. Suddenly, a bright spear of blinding blue light struck him in the chest, sending sparks and smoke flying outwards. The ninja screamed, falling backwards to the ground. Alpha team jerked their heads to see a group of olive green PALADIN- clad soldiers firing silver laser weapons at them on full automatic from the other end of the hall. The leader grabbed his fallen subordinate and Alpha team jumped behind a corner to hide.

“Goddammit, Van Mara!” he yelled as he pulled his comatose teammate out of harm’s way. “YOU SAID THEY WERE ALL KNOCKED OUT!!!”

Van Mara snatched her silver weapon, similar in design to the ones of their enemies, off her back and fired down the hall in return. “Well, I don’t know if you noticed, GI Joe, but there’s a WHOLE LOT OF FUCKING PEOPLE ON THIS GODDAMN BASE!!! Besides, you'd somehow forgot to tell me that they’d be armed with pals and FUCKING LIGHT RIFLES!!!”

The leader took a light bolt to the shoulder and screamed out in pain. “Well, missy, you’re the genius here… IMPROVISE!!!”

Van Mara fired a few more rounds before sighing. She calmly waved her glove of light and three more little black balls flew out. She flicked her hand towards the enemy soldiers and the balls all flew forward, exploding on contact. The armored soldiers all screamed as they were thrown about, exotic energy ripping through their pals and killing them. When all was still, Van Mara slowly got up, walked on over to the site of her massively destructive actions, and let out a long, low whistle.

“Sir, I'm not entirely sure, but... is this what you meant by improvisation, sir?” she mocked military respect, and her leader just shook his head and walked past her, followed by her other teammates, each giving her a wide berth of space, as well as the previously shot lackey, who was now struggling to walk properly without groaning and cursing.

“Goddamn, Van Mara… leave some for the rest of us, why don’tcha…” the leader of Alpha team muttered sarcastically and a bit morosely.

The cricket killer walked over to where a valiant soldier who had somehow managed to survive the bombs was struggling to reach his Light Rifle; it had been thrown clear away from him by the blast. The leader of Alpha Team simply and gently kicked the weapon further out of reach, and then bent down over the dying warrior; with his EGO- equipped hand, the cricket killer pressed the forehead area of his enemy’s helmet, shuttering it open. He came face- to- face with the twisted countenance of a bloodied officer, a man who was gasping for breath and staring daggers at the leader of Alpha team.

“You… you…” the officer grit his teeth, “…you won’t get away with this… I can promise you that…”

“Well, I’m sorry to inform you, Colonel Clarke…” the leader shuttered his own helmet open before pulling off his balaclava to finally reveal his face. “…but it seems as if I already have.”

Colonel Clarke, even as he began to get woozy from losing so much blood, turned even paler from surprise. “…Will? I- I- Iron Will Armstrong?” he shook his head. “N- no… it can’t be… You’re supposed to be d- dead…”

Iron Will sighed, his face seemingly contorted in mixed emotions and a lot of added wrinkles. “It didn’t have to be this way, Isaac. Now, you all put up a helluva good fight, but trust me, it’s over… I'm sorry,”

Colonel Clarke was still shaking his head. “No, no, no, you don’t understand, Will. I…” he started to cough up a prodigious amount of blood. “…I know why you’re here. I know what you came for.” He was staring at Iron Will with the most intense eyes, even as he drew in a death rattle. “Don’t do it, Will, don’t do it… you don’t know what you’re dealing with,” he turned to stare at Alpha team, “none of you do...”

Van Mara scoffed as Iron Will lowered his head and spoke in a softer tone. “Things’ve changed, Isaac… the world is… such a strange place now. Different than what you and I are used to,” He looked back at Colonel Clarke. “A man has got to survive, somehow… doesn’t he?”

“Don’t do it… don’t do it… don’t do it…” Colonel Clarke never stopped repeating, never took his gaze off of Iron Will, even as his heart finally became very still. Iron Will let out a very heavy sigh before he closed Clarke’s eyes for the last time with his hand.

“Sir?” one of Alpha team said after a silent moment, “we really need to secure the artifact now.”

Iron Will slowly sighed again, and then got up, nodding. “Alright. Let’s head to The Chamber.”

Alpha team swiftly made its way down the hall towards a large pair of thick, electronically padlocked vault doors. Iron Will simply nodded to Van Mara, who fiddled with her EGO before waving her light glove over the doors; they unlocked and opened up on their own. Alpha team strolled inside to find a bare marble chamber, empty of any artifact save one horrifying one: in the middle of the room stood a large statue made out of stone, depicting a horrendous serpentine creature- it appeared to be a mismatched hybrid of a dragon, a horse and many other different creatures, each of its limbs and body parts taken from a different animal. The horrible monster itself was frozen in a ferocious roar, its limbs stretching out in agony over some ghastly treatment. On it’s base was a single, simple sign: DANGER- LEVEL 1 ARTIFACT. UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL IN THE CHAMBER WILL BE REPORTED IMMEDIATELY AND WILL FACE THE APPROPRIATE CONSEQUENCES FOR ANY ACTIONS TAKEN WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL.

When the member of Alpha team who took a surprise Light Bolt saw the creature’s visage, he quaked in his PALADIN and gulped hard. “So… this is what we came for then, is it?”

“Aw, come on, he doesn’t bite,” Van Mara joked as she inspected the artifact. “Hmm, although, I do admit that my ancient Equestrian history is a little rusty…”

The cowardly member made an unconscious squeal, and Iron Will rolled his eyes again. “Van Mara, will you please just do your goddamn job?”

Van Mara smirked, and then took off the backpack containing the “precious cargo”; she opened it up and removed a silver suitcase. Opening that, she looked to find an extremely tiny glass vial, stopped with an ornate gold cap; what looked like a swirling miniature rainbow- colored galaxy rested within. Van Mara checked to make sure the vial was secure, with no leaks.

“Alright, General, one unit of pure, pharmaceutical grade Harmonic Energy, as per requested… wow, it still feels kinda warm, guess ‘cus it just came fresh from the factory in Equestria… hmm, kinda like the world’s most expensive organic milk,” Van Mara gazed thoughtfully at the little galaxy in a bottle.

“Just hurry up and activate the artifact, will ya?” Iron Will was getting more and more tired of the vicious genius’s breezy jokes by the second.

“Ok, geez, all work and no play… I get it, General,” Van Mara winked at him in her helmet (not that he noticed), before she stood in front of the statue with the vial in her hand. “Alright people, this is probably gonna get messy… I suggest that you all find some space and, if you feel so inclined, start saying some Hail Mary’s, too. Otherwise, everybody shut up the fuck up, starting right now.” She turned to the cowardly ninja, “Yeah, you’re probably gonna wanna shutter your helmet up there too, buckaroo...”

The member yelped in fear and took her advice. Alpha team held their breaths in as Van Mara took a step in front of the statue and a deep breath in as well. Winding her arm like a major league pitcher, she carefully cocked her hand back and threw the vial right at the artifact’s center. The tiny bottle flipped through the air in a graceful arc before smashing to bits on the stone surface of the monster, releasing all of its Harmonic Energy all at once.

Suddenly, the chamber was engulfed in a large, explosionless flash of bright rainbow light. Alpha team covered their pal visors as a nova right in front of their eyes began to expand outward, almost threatening to engulf the lot of them. It began to subside, however, as a fiery red energy at the nova’s core began to consume the initial blast and the rainbow star began to fade, feeding into what looked like a tiny sun before them all. The statue itself began to disintegrate into what looked like flying black ash until it formed a neat, compact cloud. The cloud then began to coalesce into a specific form, a human one: first, bones were formed, then the fleshy parts, and as skin began to coalesce a human figure became animated in the insidious looking nebula, one writhing in infinite pain and agony.

“Yeesh,” Van Mara muttered to herself in disgust as she watched a fully- grown man get put together in front of her, naked and screaming. “Mazel tov...”

The shrieking man was finally covered in the last bits of ash which formed a dark grey business suit, brown loafers, a yellow dress shirt and, finally, a red tie covered in tiny white polka dots; as the fiery energy around him faded right along with it’s whooshing and gusting, Alpha team was very awkwardly confronted by what looked like a middle- age Caucasian man screaming and hollering in great pain and suffering; his outline even seemed to be smoking a little bit. To be honest, nobody really knew exactly what to do at that point.

“AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” the newly formed man continued screaming in seemingly boundless misery, reaching with flailing hands for his neck, “AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGgggggggghhhhhhhh- oi!!!!” he cracked his spine with visible gusto, “hundreds of millennia will give you such a crick in the neck!!! WOOOO!!!!!”

Van Mara just turned and stared at Iron Will, who seemed just as confused as she and the rest of Alpha Team was.

“Oh my God…” suddenly, one of the two members of Alpha team who didn’t really say much until that point spoke up in reverent awe and confusion, “…oh my God, it’s… John de Lancie.”

The other, much bigger but also formerly silent member turned to him. “Who?”

The smaller ninja turned to him, a look of annoyance hidden by his helmet. “You serious? John de Lancie? You don’t know who he is?”

The bigger ninja just shook his head dumbly, provoking a scoff from his teammate.

“God, you are such a dumb shit… John de Lancie? He played Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation? The other Star Trek shows too? Stargate SG1???” the smaller ninja fruitlessly attempted to jumpstart a spark of memory in his comrade, but the bigger ninja merely continued to shake his head.

“Nope… never heard of him.”

“Aw, come on dude, the man’s like a genius or something!!!” the smaller ninja replied exasperatedly, but then snapped his fingers. “Oooh, oooh! I know! You’ve seen him on Breaking Bad… the junkie girl who the guy from Malcolm in The Middle lets choke on her own vomit… remember her father? The guy who caused those airplanes to crash?”

“Oh yeah, him!” The bigger ninja finally began to nod, and the two ninjas laughed together, nodding. “I remember that guy! Ooooh, he’s such a good actor-“

BLAM! BLAM!

Two gunshots rang out as two bullets struck the two ninjas in the chest; they gasped, their PALADIN armor fizzling, and they both fell to the floor, fearfully grasping at their bodies to make sure that they were indeed alive. Both of them looked up with trepidation to see Van Mara standing over them, holding a smoking pistol. She shuttered her helmet, whipped out her dirty red and blond hair, and playfully grinned at the two.

“Next time,” she coyly whispered, still smiling, “that’ll be two Light Bolts... capiche, assholes?”

“Yes, Ms. Shimmer,” the bigger asshole replied, scared out of his wits as he shuttered his helmet open.

“Of course, Ms. Shimmer,” the smaller asshole was shaking and sweating as he opened his helmet, too.

“Lucia, please refrain from killing any members of our own forces,” Iron Will stared venomously at the two idiots on the floor after shuttering his helmet open again, as well. “For now, at least.”

Ms. Shimmer just smiled sweetly at Iron Will, as if she had just been caught by her father stealing cookies from the cookie jar when he had specifically ordered her not to beforehand. “Oh, come on now, General… I’m not a monster…”

“Riiiiight…” Iron Will dismissed that, and immediately turned back to the two hapless henchmen on the floor. “Get up, now.”

The two idiots immediately followed suit, and all of Alpha team stood to face the newly constructed human being before them. Surprisingly, it seemed as if the man didn’t even notice them at all, expert mercenary strike force clad in black as they were, but was instead continuing to stretch and groan, his eyes closed, a soft mutter escaping his lips every few moments. Iron Will motioned to his team and they all genuflected before the strange newcomer who seemed to be ignoring them.

“Hail, Lord Discord! Archduke and Emperor of Ancient, August Equestria, Noble, Supreme Commander of The Forces of Chaos,” Iron Will bent his head down in a formal Equestrian gesture of respect, “we humbly and reverently bid you greetings, my lord.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lord Discord waved a hand, eyes still closed. “Be with you in a minute,”

Alpha team, still on their knees, turned to each other with renewed looks of confusion on their faces; Iron Will blinked rapidly a couple of times in response to Discord’s shooing, but then decided to press again. “Your Majesty, it has been a very, very long time since you were unjustly imprisoned by The Crown. Much has changed… allow us to introduce ourselves, we are-“

“Jesus Christ, would you just lay off a minute?” Discord frowned, eyes still closed. “I’m downloading every last bit of data from every last network, server and computer on the entire planet… like you said, I’ve been out for quite a while, so if you reeeaaally don’t mind… hmmm, ‘John de Lancie (born March 20, 1948) is an American actor… He has been active in screen and television roles since 1977, and has been featured for several recurring roles on American television series’… well, well, well, not a bad- looking stallion, if I do say so myself… you know, I must say, these Googles and Wikipediae you all have now are really just, well, fantastic,"

Alpha team just stared at each other again. Then they waited, still on their knees, in silence for Discord to finish downloading information on pretty much, well, everything that he had missed in the past hundreds hundreds of thousands of years.

“My lord…” Iron Will pressed again, growing more and more impatient by the minute.

“Shhh!! Shhh!!! I’m just about done learning everything I can about the modern world!” Discord tightly shut his eyes, as if he were in deep concentration. “Oh my… oh my, well, your pornography sure has advanced a lot over the years… well, oh my, what’s this now? Why, madam, whatever are you going to do with that now, I wonder?”

Iron Will sighed. “Your Majesty, there are many important matters for us to discuss, so if you’d please-“

“Wait!” Discord suddenly looked disturbed. “Now, wait just a minute… what is the deal with all this ‘spam’?”

Iron Will sighed again. “Lord Discord, please,”

“All done!” Discord’s eyes finally popped open and he smiled. He looked over Alpha team and chuckled, “well, well, well, aren’t we all looking very traditional this evening. So, what can I do ya for, hmmm?”

Van Mara glanced at Iron Will again; he pressed on, regardless. “My lord, as I’ve said, much has changed since you were imprisoned…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Discord snorted, “well, I can see that, Einstein. Equestria gone, then back again, 'ding- dong, the witch is dead'… soooo, what is it you want from me exactly, General Armstrong, is it? Or do you really prefer- hahaha- ‘Iron Will’, General?”

Iron Will blinked a couple of times, unnerved that Discord already knew who he was. “Well, my lord, as you now know, the remnant governments of Equestria have banded together to claim your land as their own…”

“Yes, yes, these United Nations I've heard so much about…” Discord smirked. “…And tell me, Big Willie Style, just why aren’t you feeling peachy keen about that then, hmmm?”

“Your Majesty, my people and I don’t believe in the United Nations,” Iron Will gestured to Alpha team, “a power as great as Equestria’s shouldn't be in the hands of those whom we believe to be unworthy of possessing it.”

Discord laughed heartily. “And of course, you’re the only ones worthy of possessing such a power, am I right?”

“No, my lord, you’re the only one," Iron Will bowed his head in reverence. "There can be no one else, surely...”

Discord cocked his head in amusement. “Really? So, My Travelling Wilbury, you came all the way out here to the desiccated remains of my once most glorious residence, risking life, limb and charges of treason against your country- why, exactly? The goodness of your great, big iron heart?"

Iron Will smirked as well, knowing full well what Discord was getting at. “No, Your Majesty, we just thought that a great and powerful leader, such as yourself, could use a little help with readjusting to life in Equestria… that you could use people whom you could trust and depend on to serve you admirably… people with a lot of resources and power in a brave new world, as it is,”

Discord smirked back, gesturing with a twirling motion. "And, of course, in exchange for this brave new world, as you put it, you and your little cheerleading squad would like me to give you..."

"Everything else," Iron Will locked eyes for the hard sell.

Discord started to ponder that over out loud as he paced the Chamber, not really caring in the slightest that the others could hear him:

“Well, with all that’s changed with the world, it’s good to know that some things haven’t… you know, I guess you never can have too many friends, or cronies for that matter… just look at all the countless Red Shirts that Star Trek went through in the span of a few decades…”

Discord turned back to Alpha team and grinned. “Sure, why not? Oh, what is it that a once very idealistic and now long dead princess kept on telling me? ‘Keep your heart open’ and whatnot… so that’s just what I intend to do, General.”

Iron Will smiled; he bowed as he got to his feet, and the others followed his example. “Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you, you surely won’t regret this.”

“Alright, great!” Discord clapped his hands together. “So where are we going, anyway?”

Van Mara turned to whisper in Iron Will’s ear: “Are you sure about this?”

Iron Will frowned at her, and Van Mara frowned right back. Suddenly, Discord literally appeared out of thin air between the two of them, leaning casually on Van Mara’s shoulder.

“You know, Miss ‘Shimmer’, they say that trust is the first foundation of a healthy relationship. The second is caring. I just learned that from a Kindle eBook written by a very distinguished pony living in a place called Los Angeles,”

Van Mara gently and respectfully dropped Discord’s arm from her shoulder before giving him her fakest smile. “I’ll try to keep that in mind, my lord,”

Discord smiled at her. “See that you do! Oh, also-“ he snapped his fingers and a beautiful, sparkly bouquet of exotic blue flowers appeared in his hand; he gave them to Van Mara. “-These, my dear, are Star Lilies, very rare... quite extinct now but a personal favorite of the old princesses. You know, there’s an old Equestrian saying: “give a Star Lily to a beautiful gal, give a whole bouquet to a beautiful lady”... since I really don’t see either anywhere in the immediate vicinity, I thought that maybe you should have them instead. You liiiiiike?”

Van Mara just took the flowers without saying anything. Discord smiled, clapped his hands again, and started walking out of the Chamber, humming a random song as he went. Alpha team followed closely behind him, still a little confused.

“Your Majesty, come with us, we have much to discuss…” Iron Will tried to explain, even though he was trying to keep pace with Discord.

“That we do, General, that we do… hmmm- hmmm- hmmm- hmmm- hmmmmmm, hmmm- hmmm- hmmm- hmmm- hmmmmmmm,”

Van Mara rolled her eyes, and Discord grinned toothily at her.

"Do you like it? I just learned that song a few minutes ago… truth be told, it really, really annoys me to no end, but for some reason I can’t explain, I just can’t seem to get it out of my head… hmmm- hmmm- hmmm- hmmm- hmmmmmmm, my little poooonyyyyyy, aaaaaah- aaaaaaah- aaaaaaah- aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah….”

Author's Note:

Aaaaaaaaand we're back!

Thank you to everybody who was so awesome to the first one, you really inspired me this time around. Thx!!! ^-^

EDIT: Fixed a minor chronological error in this chapter; as stated before, Equestria is less than half a miilion years old

Comments

[ibcrb]

Hahaha! What a great Intro! :)

[TheColorGreen]

hmmm- hmmm- hmmm- hmmm- hmmmmmmm, my little poooonyyyyyy, aaaaaah- aaaaaaah- aaaaaaah- aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah….

I love it. Great intro.