On the Road to Canterlot

by Knight of Lycaeus

Part VIII: Blindness of Arrogance

Part VIII: Blindness of Arrogance

Edited by Compact-Cassette Pony

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A few days ago I had the absolute pleasure of talking with Twilight about the upcoming meeting with the other Princesses…

Then I had to deal with Mr. Chaotic and the Rainbow One, although the second of the two required actions from the ‘living chaos’ himself for us to talk. Then, the dragon walked in! I knew he was about to yell at me like the rainbow one did but Twilight teleported him away with her magic before he could say anything.

Suffice to say, I was more impressed than before and I had a bit more respect for Twilight. A dragon, regardless of age, is very resistant to magic, and for her to teleport one took a lot of strength.

I almost wish I was dealing with the dragon, though, instead of the chaos devil lying on the ceiling above me. Patchwork — ehm — Discord, as he said his name was. He treated gravity as though it didn’t exist… This was brought about attention when I had been wandering the hallways and a cough, which seemed to resonate from above, drew my attention. That is when I found him using the ceiling as the floor for his lounge chair.

“Good day, Chrysalis,” Discord greeted. “What a pleasant afternoon, is it not?”

I swear he really was in a race with some of the ponies of this town to see who would drive me insane first… “Hello Discord,” I said curtly hoping not to deal with him for much longer.

Discord then floated down from the crystalline roof, in a form about half his usual size. “You know, you’re far too grim,” he said, a toothy-grin gracing his features once more. “Perhaps a little smile when you see ol’ Discord would be nice?”

I began rubbing my head with a forehoof knowing that dealing with him always ended in a headache. “If you’re looking for Twilight, she’s elsewhere in this palace maze.”

“Oh, I’m not looking for her,” he said coyly. “I am however, looking for you.”

“Me? Why?” I really had hoped my curt answers would have made him leave, but they didn;t appear to be working as such.

“Just checking that you’re learning the all-important friendship lessons…” He motioned with one of his claws in a circular motion. “You know, helping out a friend.”

“We’re not friends Discord.”

Discord then pulled out a black knitted pony (which looked like it was supposed to resemble me) and continued his ramblings. “You really are grumpy. Even moreso than Luna, and she can be quite grumpy.”

I stared at the pony in his talons furthermore. “Is that suppose to be me?”

“Perhaps...”

I groaned out, “Please get to the point.”

“Was the insect analogy I made not enough?”

“What insect analogy?”

“Oh, you know. All those times I spent with my friends, just around when you appeared,” Discord said as the black pony was put away in favour of a dish of pastries, to which he proceeded to eat the...plate

“Wait…. What did you do?” I growled as I turned to face him.

“Nothing harmful, I can assure you.”

“No. All you did was made me question why I thought surrendering to a mad town was a good idea. You showed up before with eggs, a purple thing you called a larva, and a few days ago with a cocoon —”

I stopped to think as some of the pieces clicked into place.

“You know...I’m actually surprised Twilight didn’t clue in sooner,” Discord said while sitting in a stiff, stone-like throne in front of me. The throne was adorn with many prismatic jewels which — to me anyways — I figured were falsified.

“You’ve been messing with me because of a ridiculous insect analogy?”

“Helping — not exactly messing. Well, messing, I suppose. But in a helpful way!”

“What? How?”

“A seed or rather an egg of doubt to shake your notion of the perfect infinite food source you saw ponies as. This pastel land is not utopia; Applejack understands that. And besides, nothing says bonding quite like shared misery, hm?”

Discord poofed and appeared on the floor which forced me to look down at my hooves just to keep eye contact.

“Rarity and Pinkie showed there are ways to co-exist: you have food, like larvae have food that allows them to live, to grow.”

Another enigmatic poof and Discord was on the wall beside me. “Cocoons. They slow things down, allow them develop — grow. Our mutual rainbow friend just needed to slow down and think for a moment, instead of being rash.”

“Then what’s the butterfly in your analogy?” I interjected.

“Me.”

One word said more softly and more sincerely than anything else I had heard thus far.

“What?”

“A butterfly showed me the path to friendship, and now... I guess I’m here to see that you don’t falter like I did.” Discord poofed and was back on the ceiling, “A butterfly. A more sentimental creature than me that would call them signs of new life.” Discord snapped and a detailed map of Equestria appeared between us, “This little town is where I fell and rose anew….” Discord paused before frowning. “Bah, too poetic for my taste. A new Discord was born here, if you want to even call it that. Once, I was the monster that everyone feared. You didn’t listen that first night but I was the Mad Tyrant, the Chaos King. I ruled the world and all the creatures in it. I ruled everyone and everything from gryphons, dragons, zebras, ponies, and many more. And when I used to rule, the world — everything changed at my whim. I was the stuff of nightmares, the great monster…. until I took some Princesses with magical harmony to the chest.”

“Wait! Then how have Changelings never heard of you?” I could not recall a single Changeling legend about Discord, or any other creature like him.

“That is a long story,” Discord said simply. “Twilight wanted to help you, so I’m helping her. Besides, you would have an easier time than I did at convincing the other three for freedom.”

“You sound confident that this will work out. I’m sure you know that a sizable portion of the Princesses and their Courts would be against me on principle.”

Discord snapped his talon once more and four ponies of yarn floated in front of him. He waved the larger white one. “Celestia doesn’t hate you in the same way she still hates me at times.” I saw him pick up the blue one next. “Luna has never met you but the populace sometimes still views her as Nightmare Moon, the monster who almost brought nighttime forever. You’re the monster that almost brought down Canterlot...so she’ll understand.” He raised a pink one. “Cadance. The empathy alone would likely help you.” The last pony of yarn he had was coloured purple. I knew who this one was supposed to represent the most. “Twilight… she helped saved me. I was ‘reformed’ until the promise of freedom was lain out before me. To be that monster again was too great to turn down. And it took the wrath of Tirek nearly destroying us all for me to reform for real...”

I just stared at the chaos devil floating there. It was true that I never heard of him, but if his claims were true, then something was off about Changeling history, something was missing. My thoughts were broken when I felt something placed on my head. Using my magic I lifted it off to find the purple pony, which in no doubt resembled Twilight. “What? Why would you give me a knitted Twilight? Actually...why do you even have one?” I questioned.

“Oh, just reasons. Have fun!” Discord said as he exited stage left, right through the wall. I swear he will be the one to drive me completely over the edge.

Comments

[Scorch215]

I am enjoying this story a lot, I can't wait till you upload more chapters.

and yes I did find a reason to comment on every chapter.

[OldMan]

You write a very good Discord.

[Knight of Lycaeus]

6840860
Thank you, Discord was a lot of fun to write.

[shinigamisparda]

Before, you had my attention. Now, you have my favorite.

[changlinggod45]

nice up dates

[Razzy]

Oooh, a mystery. Perhaps Discord had a hand in how changelings came to be.

Moaaaaaaaaar!

[erictheblue]

6843343
i've read several stories where Discord created the Changelings...
but my favorite Changeling origin story is in "the Celestia code", the chapter appropriately named "Metamorphosis".