Set in Stone

by Listener

Salvation and Damnation Mean The Same Thing

“So, Celestia. I could speak circles upon circles around what I’m going at. But for once, I’m going to get right to the point.”

Celestia had no choice but to stay where she was, her body petrified in the chaos lord’s magic as he paced in front of her. The throne room was deserted, Discord had made sure of that with a sweep of his hand just a few moments before.

She couldn’t even open her mouth to retort to him.

It didn’t matter, as Discord continued with his monologue. “We both know why I’m here, but we both have different reasoning.” He said, stopping in his pacing as he came to rest right in front of Celestia. “I’m here for chaos, yes. But, as always, you’re missing a few pieces.”

“Why.” He said, getting close to her, Celestia’s instincts telling her she would’ve flinched if she was able to.

“Why do I do this, Celestia?” He asked, pausing as he waited for an answer. “Oh, nevermind, you can’t answer. Sound familiar?” He asked bitterly, before moving on. “Let me look at it from your point of view. I show up, cause chaos, then go to stone. Then it’s lather, rinse, repeat. That’s all you think of me. Just a nuisance that likes to play his little games.” He said, the last word rolling off of his tongue as if it were a poison.

“Well, let me tell you something Celestia, something that quite frankly I’m surprised that you didn’t figure out a long time ago. But I suppose it’s all that thought of harmony that’s led to that mindset. While I do enjoy what I do most of the time, there is a reasoning behind it.”

“Chaos isn’t meant to be restrained, it never was. It was also never meant to be controlled. But you’ve managed to do that somehow. Somehow you’ve stopped chaos from happening, slowed it down to a point where it’s almost nill save for a few... key points of history.”

Celestia merely looked on, her stoic expression sealed there, but inside she was confused, and angry at him for daring to come straight to her and then give her a lecture? That was unacceptable. Her horn glowed slightly.

Discord noticed. “Celestia, tsk tsk. I’m afraid that won’t work.” He said, smiling, before it was back to business.

“Now to the real reason why I do this. The real reason why I call myself a chaos lord. I am not it’s master, but I do guide it. Whenever I choose to break out of my prison, Celestia, it’s because I can sense the balance of Chaos to Harmony. There must be a balance for your precious society to survive. But with you damming it up? I’m afraid that without my interceding, Equestria would have crumbled long ago.” He said, snapping his fingers, freeing Celestia’s head from the strange paralysis.

She immediately spoke angry. “If that is so Discord, why do you come here and wreak havoc, endangering lives and our way of life?” She snapped, her mental struggles continuing in her quest to break free.

He suddenly got very quiet, very serious in an angry manner, silencing Celestia with a glare. “And why is it that whenever your Elements of Harmony put me back, everyone is okay? Tell me Celestia, in all of your aftermath damage reports, how many did I kill?” He said, before waiting. “Well? How. Many.” He said, spitting the words out.

Celestia was silent.

“I thought so. Now, on to my second to last order of business. Let me tell you how useless those elements are. They may put me into stone, but only because I allow it.” He said, giving her a look. “Not before.”

“Then how have they worked against you time and time again?” She argued, her horn flaring brightly as she tried to teleport herself out of the spell, only to have it backlash. Her head whipped back, and she stood there, breathing heavily.

“Look at it this way, Celestia. Think of how easy it would be for me to just... snap the elements away. I’ve done it before, but I allow them to be found. I allowed the chaos just enough time for it to balance out with harmony before letting your little playthings get them back.”

Celestia stared, her eyes wide as she thought about what he had just said. “That would mean...” She whispered.

“What I do, I do for my home. Or, rather, what used to be my home.” He said, looking at her with a soft expression for once. “Rather than let the dam break on its own, I unleash it all at once, under my careful guidance to make sure that in the end, everyone is okay.”

Celestia looked at him, disbelief in her eyes as he looked at her, all the anger gone from his face as he sighed and looked down, head sagging.

“And that’s why I’m so sorry for what I need to say.”

He was silent for a few minutes, before looking at her again.

“I have seen what you have planned for Twilight. All the great things that she will do under your careful guidance. I know you plan on giving her Starswirl’s unfinished spell. And we both know what that will cause, success or failure.” He said.

“I can’t allow that to happen. That would tip the scales of balance too far into harmony, one that chaos would have to destroy to achieve balance. I know, I know... It would be amazing to see, if only for the first hundred years or so.”

He sighed. “But things go stagnant. Stale. Progress would die, and slowly but surely you would see your great empire crumble around you and your sister, Celestia.”

“Discord, you’re seeing enemies where there are none! Please! Stop this madness now!” She said, finally having ceased her attempted to break free.

“Do you ever wonder what happened to my people, Celestia? Why I’m the only one?” He said suddenly, glaring at her for a moment, before once again sighing. “Let’s say that I’ve learned my lesson the hard way, and I’m sure as hell not about to let you make the same one.”

“So, I’ve come to offer you a choice, Celestia, with the new knowledge that I’ve given you. I may have said that I’m not going to let you make the same mistake, but it is your choice. Choose wisely.” He said, a sad smile playing on his lips as he looked at her with something that surprised Celestia. He had a hint of compassion hidden behind his smile.

Celestia looked at him for a long while. “What is your... offer, Discord?” She asked slowly, softly.

“There are two options Celestia. Either I stay here for next hundred years to make sure that the reality I’ve seen never happens,” He offered, before pausing for a moment. “Or whenever I go back to stone, Twilight Sparkle comes with me.” He said as he looked at her, frowning.

Celestia looked at him in shock. “You are asking me to choose between two impossibles.” She said, reeling from the offer.

He laughs softly, looking at her. “No Celestia. I am letting you choose your salvation.”

With those final words, he quickly snapped his fingers as Celestia felt the magic that had encased her disappear as she quickly regained her balance.

“You have a day Celestia. Then I’m coming back.” He said, disappearing without another word.

Comments

[Mossflower]

This looks very interesting; how far are you going to take this?

[Cold Spike]

Interesting... why can't the choice just be Twilight never gets the spell?

[Smirkythread]

“I can’t allow that to happen. That would tip the scales of balance too far into harmony, one that chaos would have to destroy to achieve balance. I know, I know... It would be amazing to see, if only for the first hundred years or so.”

I've never bought into the idea of balance; light and dark, chaos and order, and so on. I mean how does it even work? Does the universe itself enforce it, because that sounds like a hunk of junk. Why on earth would the universe itself care that one little society on one teeny tiny planet in one small solar system is living one way rather than another. Is it some god or other such entity? Because then that wouldn't really be Balance, merely just it's idea of balance, however advanced that idea may be.

I mean.......damn I suck at explaining what I'm thinking so here's an example. One species in a forest is thriving, another species comes in and kills them off somehow. Takes over nesting spots or whatever. No cosmic forces or any kind of karma goes "hey, that not right" and corrects it.

He sighed. “But things go stagnant. Stale. Progress would die, and slowly but surely you would see your great empire crumble around you and your sister, Celestia.”

It's going to happen anyway one day. Maybe it'll it be a different path than the one he's describing but in the end the country Equestria will one cease to exist.

[blazeofheat]

This could actually be a good explanation for why Celestia released Discord in the show, which would also point out the ignorance of him putting so much effort into tipping the scales of Chaos and Harmony that he didn't realize the scales honestly wouldn't be to concerned with whether his chaos was causing sorrow or happiness.

[Doctor Derpin]

5278529 You're right. Our universe lacks that kind of balance. Entropy, also known as chaos, WILL win out in the end. Not random chaos as most think of it, but disorder. It's only a matter of time. All things are moving away from each other. They have been since the big bang, this is the ultimate entropy. In the end everything will have drifted so far apart all that remains will simply be the frozen husks of planets. There is nothing we can do to stop this, and every time you use energy, you bring us closer to that ultimate fate.

[Listener]

5278529
You're absolutely right in saying that why would the universe care about a little event when itself is large? Why would it care? But, on the flip side, why wouldn't it care? And, yes, all things must come to an end. It's the natural cycle of things. But, if you knew the end was coming and you could put it off for a while longer, would you? And, please don't look at this as me arguing with you, I just wanted to show my side of things, and maybe have a bit of an intellectual debate. I compltely get what you mean.

[Smirkythread]

5278981

I want to debate this as well, but for me it's actually a bad time. Making pies. Talk to you tomorrow if you don't mind postponing?

[Listener]

5279066
Absolutely~ ^^

[Daniel-Gleebits]

5278981 Why wouldn't the universe care? The question isn't whether the universe does or does not care. The question is, does the universe have the capacity to care? Caring is typically something thinking beings do.

[ponyqqqq]

i agree with the crazy dragon gout known has discord there must be a ballens if not then by by world.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

5280135 Thats to say if the universe is not the creator of everything.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

5278507 LoL! Let just not write a pretty damn good story and say did.

[Daniel-Gleebits]

5281176 The universe is the sum total of everything. "To create" implies intent. Intent requires a mind. Therefore before we can puzzle whether the universe created itself, we have to puzzle whether the universe has a mind.

[Luna Secret Stallion]

5281229 That a paradox or sounds like one. So you say universe is everything but that don't imply that it intended for it to be everything?

[Smirkythread]

5278981
What you say about the universe is true, if the universe was truly everything then wouldn't it care about everything? Well obviously that would require it being aware and/or sentient on some level, probably beyond ours but that's really a moot point.

I guess I'm just confused on why it matters that the ponies live one way rather than another way. It's not that the universe can't care, but more like why would it?

Also there's the whole thing where we have no idea why or how their society will go to hell if Twilight becomes an alicorn. Discord just says things will stagnate, become unchanging essentially and that Chaos will no choice but to force it to change.......but doesn't that disprove itself. How can something truly unchanging change? For that to happen it will have to be able to change and therefore it isn't unchanging.

Unless of course Discord was talking about complete annihilation.

[Daniel-Gleebits]

5281263 The universe is, by definition, the name we give for all of reality. Anything that exists fits within the label "the universe", because that's what the word means.
What I said is that we can't assume that the universe is conscious. We can't assume it did or does anything with intent, because intention requires cognitive processes, which we only find in minds. We can't assume that the universe has a mind.

[Listener]

5281292
Well, Discord's really trying to change the future before it ever even starts. I'll be honest here, I'm going into my own personal headcanon here about time. Time is always in flux. Whatever we do, we can change the outcome. But, we can never know the results, never know what other possibilities existed. Discord was worried about one particular outcome, and he sought to prevent it.

And, I guess I should've thought of saying this before, but I didn't. It doesn't matter if the universe cares. Discord is the one that apparently cares, and he has the power to change it. He's using his own personal concept of how the world should work and is trying to achieve it for better or worse. If that makes any sense?

[Smirkythread]

5281365

Yeah that makes sense, though I do believe Celestia will challenge him on those things.

[Wroth]

5281365 So basically, he believes something will happen so he's forcing an issue to it to stop it, but the reality is he's preaching nothing but his beliefs rather then any sort of whole, which would mean he's spouting a bunch of phooey justifications for something he's forcing.

[Divine Path]

This is a rather interesting take on Discord's purpose. Celestia actions come into play here; the perpetual conflict for maintaining the balance.

To remain blind of the consequence,
for total domination,
to the lies woven this night;
into a darkness far bleaker
than which you can believe you know.
Forgive then yourselves for that sin,
and let only the bonds of this world judge
what can be just
and what cannot this cold night.

Awaiting further releases.

[silverfangia]

I agree with Discord. To be in perfect Harmony, is to be content. To be content, will cause stagnation. Stagnation will inevitably lead to death. Harmony is stasis, Chaos is change. In any world, change is necessary to survive, because no matter what, the world will change around you, and if you stagnate, you will die. If you are content with your current life, you will die. That is one of the truths of the world. Nothing you can do will change that. Ironic, ain't it?

[Starscribe]

An excellent start! Solid writing, solid storytelling, solid everything really!

Now to see where this ride takes us...

[Nerfyy]

please continue :(

[Weird Dragon]

More please

[The Book]

Is it ever going to be continued?

[Listener]

6600345
Yes

[Neece]

6710393 Could it please be soon? I like this premise.

[Blaze rod]

It's obvious what was chosen in canon.

This universe however? I worry for Twilight.

[Dark-Aii]

Is this ever going to continue ?

[PixelMoon]

So... Next chapter any time soon?