He knocked at the door patiently; the door to Twilight's castle.
Somehow, someway, here he was again; wanting to talk to the alicorn about a problem that involved himself and Fluttershy.
It felt all too familiar.
Even as the door opened, there was Spike, just like before, gazing up at him with a confused look.
"Uh, hey, Discord," he greeted, locking eyes with the draconequus as if he was trying to discern what the problem was beforehand.
Discord got straight to the point. "Is Twilight here? It's of the utmost important that I talk to her, you know."
Spike blinked, somewhat surprised at the seriousness he was seeing. "Why? Did something happen to Fluttershy?" he guessed.
Discord's gaze sharpened. "I don't know yet."
The dragon tilted his head, a claw on his hip. "Urr... well, I guess you can see her if it's super important like you're sayin'. She's probably in the library section again. I can lead you there if you--"
Discord was already moving past him. "I remember the way."
"Wha--hey!"
Spike's shouts were ignored as the draconequus moved down the hallways, replaying the path he had taken with Spike only days ago in his head.
He was suspicious, and he had a right to be. First the voices in his head, and then Fluttershy having a nightmare like that specifically on the same day; one about 'him' no less? She had nightmares before, but they were never about him. He knew there was the obvious chance that he was wrong, but he wouldn't allow any suspicions go unchecked.
Especially not now; not when Fluttershy had become involved.
Lucky for him, he remembered the path perfected, arriving in the library section in only a few minutes.
Twilight sat there as usual, absorbed in a book. Discord tilted his head, somewhat amused, then walked up to her.
The sound of his footsteps seemed to get her attention, and she looked up at him with a puzzled expression. Slowly though, her frown twisted into a smile.
"Well. Doesn't this feel familiar?"
She chuckled, her book slowly floating to the floor as the magic aura around her horn dissipated, letting Discord know that he had her full attention.
"So? What cha need?" she asked.
Discord gazed around the room, as if searching for something. He pat his chest, then looked back to Twilight.
"Do you still have it?" he questioned.
"It?" she asked in reply, tilting her head.
He snapped his fingers for emphasis. "My chaotic powers."
Twilight's eyes lit up in acknowledgement. "Oh!" She nodded her head, then gazed at a table nearby. "It's over there, in the right drawer."
Discord glanced over to the table, eyeing the drawer as Twilight directed a hoof towards it. He paused at first, almost glaring at it, then walked over and opened the drawer, pulling out the jar.
"D-Discord, what are you doing?" Twilight asked, standing up and walking towards him.
The draconequus shook the jar uncaringly, watching the energy swirl around, then turned to Twilight and pointed at the container with his free hand.
"If I release this energy, can you contain it for a few minutes?" he questioned.
Twilight blinked, not understanding him. "So, you're not trying to get your powers back? Then--"
"--I have a sneaking suspicion that simply must be quelled," he explained with a shrug.
Twilight raised a brow. "Um... I mean, if you really think so, I don't see why not..."
The alicorn stepped back, focusing her magic on the energy as Discord pulled the lid off.
Before it could cause any damage, Twilight quickly shot it with a beam of light, keeping it in place as the draconequus stared at it intensely.
Suddenly, the room around him faded, and he found himself in an area made up of only white. The energy in front of him slowly transformed until it was a perfect likeness of himself.
"I was dreaming... of you, but not you."
Discord didn't hesitate to glare at the figure in front of him.
"So, it was you then, hm?"
The imposter tilted his head, pouting.
"She's quite the difficult one; had so much faith in you. It was rather annoying really. It's no wonder we couldn't corrupt her with mere words," he said, lazily leaning to his side.
Discord growled. "So you grew a personality and decided to go after her?"
"Grew a personality, huh?" The fake shrugged. "Maybe I did. Maybe I didn't. Maybe I've been a part of you all along and you just tore me out of you along with your powers. Maybe I was just a big ball of energy before we separated, and I grew my own mind. That doesn't really matter though, does it?"
Discord crossed his arms, not even bothering to answer the question. "So you don't have a body and want me back, hm? You decided to go after Fluttershy's mind while she was asleep."
He gestured his arms out to the whiteness around him.
"This is some sort of mind dimension, isn't it? The only way you can interact besides poking at me with negative emotions?"
The imitation put on a wide smirk. "Why, yes. And you went through the trouble of coming here to get me! Isn't that just the sweetest thing?"
"I'm not here to take you back," Discord said with a huff, insulted at the idea.
The fake gasped audibly and immediately pouted, though Discord didn't take it very seriously.
"You've become so boring, my physically-stable-pal," the phony-draconequus stated, turning around and throwing his hands into the air.
"You have no idea what you have, do you?"
Discord didn't respond, slightly irking the fake, who continued anyway.
"You've got a body perfect enough to contain all this power. So much chaos! We could go back to the way that things were before; back to when we ruled the world with a chaotic-fist! We could reclaim our role as the spirit of chaos and create masterpieces of nonsensicalness!"
"That's not a word," Discord interjected with a glare.
"Oh, you've been hanging around that library-pony far too often! Why do you insist on making friends with such creatures? You even got rid of me... ME; Your best pal for thousands of years! We flipped buildings, bent space, and distorted reality in all kinds of ways! Turn your back on those dumb ponies and we can return to that! We can enslave every pony in the world and enjoy every wonderful moment of it!"
Discord's eyes widened slightly at his last line. How he said it; his tone when he spoke him.
This...this wasn't him. This wasn't Discord. This had never been him. There was a malicious gaze in his energy's eyes; one that he had never owned himself. It was sadistic in a way, and it made the draconequus uneasy.
Taking what the fake had said into account, he could only assume that, when they separated, Discord had taken away every last bit of his sanity, leaving none for his chaotic energy to hold onto.
"You've become cruel and unfeeling from our time away," he said, placing a hand to his heart. "I'd never take you back, knowing what you'd do to the world with my body. You'd only try to burn me out and leave yourself remaining as the dominant personality."
The imitation faked a frown, walking in a circle around Discord as his tail swished back and forth.
"Ahh, that's too bad, you know," he said. "...But thanks for leaving the door open for me."
Discord instantly flinched, the meaning clicking with him as he reached out towards his double in a panic. Instantly, he was knocked to the ground, the whiteness fading as he suddenly found himself back in the library.
He grunted, looking next to him to see Twilight laying there, barely conscious as her horn flickered with magic.
"Twilight!" he shouted, rushing over to her and shaking her body in hopes that it'd stir her.
She groaned, slowly opening her eyes and gazing at him. "D-Discord, what happened? I was just focusing on containing it, and suddenly..." Her voice faded, her mind not seeming to comprehend the events that occurred afterwards.
Discord looked over to the door next, being just in time to see a fleeing ball of energy.
"I...I need to go," he told Twilight, standing up and rushing towards the door as fast as he could.
"Discord! Discord, wait! What's going on!?"
Fluttershy... be safe, Fluttershy!
Awww. I broke my streak.
4428436 What streak?
Ahhhh! So intense! Can't wait for the next chapter ^_^
S'right?
S'right.
S'right?
S'right, close the box.
Honestly, this is bad magemanship by Twilight here. Who keeps the chaos powers of a GOD in a glass jar and doesn't plan contingencies for leakage.
I mean the ghost busters had an electricity powered positive energy matrix REACTOR to handle just GHOSTS. I think a god's might needs more than a empty pickle jar for a prison!
Oh dear. It looks like Chaos itself is loose. Hope everything works out.
4428528
My streak of every chapter being longer and longer; this chapter was shorter than all the others. TwT
4428686
Thanks! >w<
4428734
The jar worked; it's just that the energy had a connection to Discord from originally being a part of him, and it 'rubbed off' on Fluttershy in a way because she's always close to him.
Besides, Twilight never imagined that magic had a mind of its own.
oh no!
4428864
If evil twisted chaos is transmissible through proximity like static electricity this would explain my love life a great deal.
And all of my Exes. . .
4428851 Profanity fixed.
Sorry for coming across as very harsh, but after three years of watching the show and the fans leave him out of things over and over again while remembering to include all. Six. ponies...it gets very exasperating. Even people who like him forget him. The Elements of Harmony do not make them an exclusive club. They never even introduced us when I visited Pinkie Pie.
I skimmed some of your other fics, and it's clear you do respect the guy, but I hope you can see why I would jump to the conclusion I did.
4428996
I kinda see your point, but at the same time, I don't.
If you read the whole of More Than Trust in addition to Less Than Chaotic, you'll know that Spike appears in two chapters total. Not long, granted, but he does appear.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack appeared for one chapter. Pinkie Pie was in two as well, sharing Spike's 'glory'.
I know he doesn't do much here, but neither did Rainbow Dash or Applejack at the picnic.
Rainbow Dash is my FAVORITE pony, but I'm not going to give her more screentime just for that reason.
Vice versa, just because I hate a character doesn't mean I'm going to leave them out as much as I can.
Spike was at Twilight's house 'protecting' the fort. That's what he does. I didn't believe he'd want to go to some picnic, hence why I didn't include him. In addition to that, I actually thought about people like you who would probably say these things.
However, I still decided to leave him out because a lot of the picnic dialogue revolved around Discord and Fluttershy's relationship, and while Spike understands that, I don't think he has much to say besides staring at Rarity and thinking about how the species-gap is totally ignored here.
Do I like Spike? Mmmm, not really. BUT, I don't hate him either. He's okay, but he's a very unpredictable character and I find it frustrating to write him.
So for that reason, I had him answer the door in this chapter but didn't have him say much, just because I don't want Spike fans on my flank telling me that I'm doing it wrong. Even if I did have him say more, it wouldn't have been much anyway.
4429042 You never need to give him dialogue. He wasn't there, and no explanation was given for his absence. Makes it look like none of his friends cared. All that was really needed was for Twilight to mention why he was absent and nothing more.
4429059
Realistically speaking, if this was real-life, I wouldn't feel the need to mention my assistant if I was out on my regular picnic with my friends. I mean, if it was the first picnic, I'd be like "Oh, Spike didn't want to come because blah blah blah", but there'd be no need to mention him after that because everyone already knows where he is and what he's doing.
But sure, okay. I'm sorry. I'm an idiot for not remembering my mental note about "OMG REMEMBER TO MAKE THEM MENTION SPIKE OR PEOPLE ARE GONNA BE ANGRY" and I deserve to get my flank sent to the moon.
I didn't mean to... h-honest...
Damn!
4429059 Implying this doesn't happen in the show. There are several occasions that the girls go to picnics and stuff without him (e.g., where was he when Maud Pie came over? "Daring Don't"? Unless I missed something entirely, to which I apologize if that's the case!). I mean, I totally get it; I feel bad for Spike all the time, when he gets left out, but no need to lash out on someone for doing something even the show people do plenty of times.
But seriously, I'm upset the update has stopped here for now. It's getting fairly intense; I love it!
4430051 It happens in the show because there are limits on what the staff is able to work into each episode. It takes fanfic writers a tiny fraction of the work.
Shiz just got real!
That explains the cover art now!
Please moar!
4431825
It's aaaaall comin' full circle.
4430136 I'm sure that when you go out with a group of your friends, and one or two of them can't make it. You don't spend too long on the fact that they're not there. Especially if it's somewhat obvious why. If everyone knows that Joey works at the time. Very few people are going to say "Where's Joey?"
Besides, maybe they mentioned Spike staying home when Twilight first arrived at the picnic, seeing as she arrrived before Fluttershy and Discord. Maybe, like Talentless said, it's just assumed. Either way, you can't get upset because an author doen't include a certain character that you wanted to see. Especially if they would only have like two lines.
Don't misinterpret, I love Spike. But I'd rather he's not included and the flow of the story stays consistent, then have him there and it just feeling forced.
Anyway,
This was another awesome chapter. And I'm anxiously awaiting the conclusion. Can you give a hint to how long until we get there?
4432318
According to my Plot Outline (which I made thanks to a user who messaged me suggesting it <3), there should be eight chapters total, soooo three to go!
Hopefully, I won't disappoint you!
4432595 Disappointment?
1.bp.blogspot.com/-pPqmVgrWlvE/U3lVYXkcGmI/AAAAAAABx3M/zCeNmfGgnis/s1600/Pinkie_Pie_calls_Cheese_Sandwich_boneless_S4E12.png
Are you... Talentless?
4432748
Nopony calls me "Talentless."
Right, username?
4432842 Lol
Now awaiting the next three chapters.
Hurry! The anticipation is tearing me apart.
4433144
"You're tearing me apart, anticipation!"
4433734 You've seen The Room, haven't you?
4522652
No, but I know of it.
Did you mean to say “importance” instead of “important”?