1: Discorded Dreams
Twilight Sparkle awoke to a mess of purple and pink swirls. At first she thought there was something wrong with her eyes, as if the psychedelic display was the leftover residue from a blinding flash. But as time passed she became horrifically aware that the shifting visual before her was a reality. Vague shapes of stars and sparkles assaulted her senses, pulsing and swimming around her frantically. The room she was in, if it could be called a room, seemed to not really have walls, a ceiling, or even a floor, but it definitely seemed to be inside. The striking similarity these shapes had to her cutie mark did not go unnoticed. After what seemed like hours or perhaps maybe only a few seconds, it was hard to tell time in this environment, Twilight noticed that there was a pattern to the random shapes. The shapes had begun to form the faintest outline of a face. At least it looked like a face. Not a face of anypony she knew; in fact it probably wasn’t the face of a pony at all. It had what appeared to be eyes and a mouth. A scraggly beard perhaps? It was hard to tell with all the activity around here. “Wake-y wake-y my little pony!” She did not recognize the face but she recognized the voice it spoke with immediately. It was a sultry smooth male voice. Only one being she had ever crossed paths with could sound so much like a mad-clown and a mastermind at the same time.
“Discord!” She shouted at the face; her horn glowing with magical might.
“Oh, I’m impressed my dear Twilight Sparkle. You remember my name.” The face replied. “It’s been a while, right?”
“A year.” Twilight said with a snort.
“Really, a whole year ago? How little do you mortals understand time. Must you be so linear, Twilight?” Suddenly, while her attention was focused on the face on the wall, the familiar form of the draconequus slithered around Twilight’s neck. “A year to this very day. That’s a long time for you mortals, isn’t it?” Twilight hurriedly bucked Discord off of her back he landed gracefully on his hooves and stared back at the mare with an eerie smile.
“You were encased in stone by the elements of harmony, there’s no way you could have escaped!”
“Thank you, miss exposition pony.” Discord put on a subtle pout to his expression.
“But you can’t be here! It doesn’t make…” She went to finish her sentence but the sheer look of glee on Discord’s face stopped her. He was brimming with excitement, frantically gesturing with his claw to get her to finish. “… sense.” Discord jumped ten feet in the air with joy. He reached his claw out and took one of Twilight’s fore-hooves and gave it a shake.
“Oh, hello! Have we met before?” He crossed his paw over his other arm and lifted up Twilight’s other hoof, bringing it into the shake as well. “I’m Discord! Master of chaos and disharmony? Ring any bells?” Twilight’s head jerked back as her rear hoof was lifted off by another claw. She found herself balancing on one leg as Discord continued his introduction, “I don’t need or like to make sense! That’s what makes me fun.” Twilight’s final hoof was picked up by what appeared to be a second lion’s paw. She found herself being jostled in the air quite violently. “After all, what’s life without a little chaos?” At once the appendages she was shaking hooves with vanished, leaving her suspended in the air, limbs outstretched. She stayed there floating for a moment until her brain registered that gravity should be getting the best of her. It was at that time that she fell up and hit the ceiling forcefully. Discord’s laughter rang out in annoying echoes as the room’s chromatic visual faded to darkness. Twilight shook her head and tried to peer through the blackness of the area. The percussive laugh faded in and out as she twisted her head around, desperately trying to find the source.
“Show yourself!” She shouted. Discord only chuckled in return.
“Now what good will it do you to see me? Though I can understand wanting to see my beautiful face.”
“What do you want with me?”
“Now, Twilight, think for a moment why does it always have to be about you? Did you ever stop to consider that it might just be about me? Or perhaps your friend, Rainbow Dash. It might just be the Rainbow Dash show, did you think of that?” Twilight winced at the mention of the Rainbow Dash show. How did Discord know about her friends’ little inside jokes? Was he watching them? With a flash of light, Discord appeared in front of the pony with a sinister grin on his face and a pair of oversized sunglasses resting atop his horns. “Now, if you are considering that it might not be about you, stop considering that right now, because this is all about you.” He leaned over and wrapped his arm around her neck, “It’s the Twilight Sparkle one hour special. And why? Well you see, you and I share a special bond. We’re smarter than everypony else around here and I think it’s high time we proved it.” Discord snapped his fingers and with another flash of light, he vanished from view. Stain glass windows rose up out of the blackness of the ground. The windows depicted the events of Discord’s second imprisonment surrounded by pink clouds of chocolate rain. Twilight blew a strand her mane out of her eyes.
“I already know this, I was there, remember?”
“Oh yes,” said the disembodied voice, “I know you were there. I just felt like reminiscing. Isn’t that what good friends do?”
“You’re not my friend.”
“Oh, now is that how the very embodiment of friendship is supposed to act? Very callous, Twilight, very callous. Of course just like your dear mentor, your penchant for statue-based forms of punishment does reek of callousness. Let’s cut to the chase, my dear friend.” The booming voice echoed as images of red velvet curtains draped down in the stained glass, covering the previous images. “We’re going to play a little game!” Discord had chortled more than spoke that last sentence. Spotlights from the floor illuminated the windows. Twilight certainly did not want to play one of his games, if they could be called that. Sure there were rules, but he played so close to the exact words of them that he could find any loophole to win. She still had nightmares about his last game, the horrors of the hedge maze and how it had claimed all her friends’ minds. Twilight shook her head. “Now this really is a great game, Twilight Sparkle. This game is called Choice. It’s where I give you the illusion of choice and then I tell you why you chose wrong.” With a flash of blinding light, Discord appeared on top of one of the windows, lounging in a nonchalant manner. “Choices, choices are yours to make, choose carefully for there are lives at stake. If correctly you pick and swift, their salvation to them I’ll gift. But let your indecision paralyze, your friends will all pay with their lives. So hurry swiftly my pony friend, before their lives come to a sudden end.” The curtains of one of the windows flicked off to the side, ripping out from the glass and splashing as a liquid upon contact with the floor. Behind the window a familiar and completely scared witless orange Earth pony was beating on the glass. “Now here is your dear friend Applejack, always working without slack. Captured in my trap she’s now, but you can save her, listen how…” Another curtain fell off another window. A Pegasus with a chromatic mane furiously was head-butting the glass to no avail. “Now here’s Rainbow Dash all loyal and true; she’s just waiting to be saved by you.” The last curtain fell and Discord snickered; “Now for this final one, we have quite the treat! A bit of royalty for you to greet! Yes, Princess Luna is here as well. What’s her fate? Only time can tell.”
“Let them go!” Twilight yelled. She was finding it hard to glance at each of her friends’ faces as they were silently pleading for her.
“‘Help me, help me’, your friends all cry. Now you chose which one lives and which ones die. The game is simple so here are the rules: Choose one to live. The others forever become my fools. Take too long to decide, and for all their deaths you will abide.” Discord gestured with his hands over each window. Water appeared to flood over the creatures behind the windows. Applejack, perhaps her closest friend, pleaded silently for Twilight’s help. Rainbow Dash seemed to assume that she could break herself out of the trap, but watching her was just painful as Twilight knew she would not make an escape anytime soon. Then there was Princess Luna. Twilight could not figure out why Discord had chosen to use her as a hostage. Twilight hardly knew Luna. Her only extended interaction with the alicorn princess of the moon was during last year’s Nightmare Night. True, she would probably consider Luna a friend and the same for her after that night, but still why Discord think it was possible to threaten Twilight with Luna’s life when there were so many others he could have used. Still the look of anger on Luna’s face was enough to elicit something in Twilight. “What’s the matter Twilight Sparkle? Somepony caught your eye?” As the water level behind the windows reached their necks, the ponies in the windows began crying out for Twilight to save them. Twilight pressed her hooves against her ears.
“I don’t know who to choose!”
“You better choose soon, my little pony, otherwise they all are forfeit.” Discord goaded. His laugh echoed as the world seemed to spin around the young pony. “Hurry up, drowning is such a way to go, don’t you think? Very messy! And all that splashing and thrashing. Very… chaotic.” Discord wiped a single tear from his eye. He flicked the tear off his hand and watched as it exploded on the ground into floating pieces of candy.
“I don’t know!”
“Choose! Look at them Twilight, they are crying out for you! If you don’t hurry they might all die, and I don’t want that on your conscious.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know…! L-Luna, save Princess Luna!”
“Interesting! I had a suspicion. As you wish, my dear Miss Sparkle,” Discord snapped his fingers and laughed; the window with Luna shattered and the Princess of the Night fell on to the ground. “But what happens to your other friends? The ones that you choose not to help?” The other ponies were screaming silently behind the glass. He threw his head back and held his sides in laughter, “Help! Help, Twilight! Twilight, help!” The world spun faster and the darkness seemed to close in, crushing her. “Twilight, help! Come on, get up and help me!” She clenched her eyes shut as Discord’s laughter grew to an excruciatingly high volume. “Get up and help, Twilight! We need you! Get up Twilight!” The laughter stopped abruptly.
As her eyes opened, Spike was snapping his fingers in front of her face, “Get up and help, Twilight!”
“Applejack, Rainbow… Princess Luna,” she mumbled. Twilight awoke to an irritated baby dragon, her adopted brother Spike. The rhythmic rattle of the wheels against the tracks on the Friendship Express was complemented by Spike’s tapping foot. Twilight suddenly remembered where she was. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Spike, and she were taking the train from Ponyville to Canterlot to attend a party hosted by Princess Celestia in their honor. It had been exactly one year since her and her friends, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, had imprisoned Discord in stone and restored order to Equestira. To honor their triumph, Princess Celestia had declared that that the anniversary of that event would he a grand celebration, centered in Canterlot Castle. Unlike the Grand Galloping Gala however, the guest list was more open and did not consist of just the richer Unicorns from the upper levels of the city. The idyllic train ride from Ponyville to Canterlot usually took a full day and Twilight had decided to take a quick nap during the trip. If only she had known she would have had such a nightmare, she would have skipped the nap. Spike was snapping his claw in front of her face.
“Come on Twilight, we’re pulling into Canterlot already. We need help with Rarity’s bags.” Spike lead Twilight out of the train car and with her magic she helped unload the eight or so full suitcases that Rarity had brought for a single overnight trip. The train was pulling into the station with a startlingly loud hiss. Twilight levitated the bags down next to the door of the passenger car. Rarity was whining about something involving the lack of delicately in which Twilight had handled the bags. Had Twilight gotten more sleep in the past week, she probably would have apologized, but instead she simply rolled her eyes at the unicorn with the purple mane. Twilight made her way down the aisle in the passenger car, brushing past a series of ponies that were confused as to why she was walking away from the door that led to the exit. She made it to the end of the car where her saddle bags were waiting for her. Her saddle bags were all she brought with her on this trip, and in truth it was perhaps more than she needed to take. They contained a few sundries for the next morning and a pair of books, one on ancient history and another on the complexities of alteration magic when magical interference patterns were present. Light reading to a bookworm such as herself, but they were the newest set of books she had procured for her library back in Ponyville and she was determined to read each book personally before releasing it to the public.
She levitated the saddle bags on to her back and turned around to make her way back to the door of the passenger car. She glanced out of the window at the marvelous streets of Canterlot, her fillyhood home. She could see her reflection in the window as the train passed under a tunnel. She had to admit, she did not like what she saw. Her eyes were slightly red and it was clear she had not been sleeping well. Lately sleep came easy to start but would be interrupted with nightmares if she was lucky and just particularly odd and unsettling dreams if she was not. The only constant between all the dreams was the presence of the smug draconequus. It was not hard to explain why Discord had been on her mind lately, the anniversary of his imprisonment had been coming up, or rather it was today now that she thought about it. In honor of the occasion, Princess Celestia dubbed day the Celebration of Harmony, the first ongoing recognition for her friends’ and her self’s accomplishments at striving off evil. While the recognition was nice and deserved, indeed Rainbow Dash had been non-stop talking about the party so much she could have been mistaken for Pinkie Pie, Twilight would have rather skipped the reminder of Discord. The reminder of the what she had considered one of the darkest moments in her life. As such, she blamed Discord for her lack of sleep.
“It can’t be my fault, I’m incased in stone, remember?” Twilight jumped back in fright as she saw her reflection in the window replaced with the stained-glass caricature of Discord. “Daydreaming again, Twilight? You really need to stop that.” Discord snapped his fingers and the train came to a sudden jolt.
“Attention all passengers, we have arrived in Canterlot. Please watch your hooves as you disembark the cars.” Twilight found herself on the ground with several other ponies eyeing her. She must have drifted off to sleep while standing. She made a mental note to add a generous naptime to her schedule when she reached her suite at the castle. “All passengers must disembark here as Canterlot is the end of the line, folks. So, get off my train.” She made her way out of the car and on to the station platform. After a few minutes of the group trying to get Pinkie to stop bouncing around the area randomly, the six ponies and one small dragon made their way out to street, where a carriage was waiting for them.
Two royal guards stood on either side of the carriage and one of them was wearing a distinctly recognizable helmet. Twilight trotted over happily to the guard and wrapped her front legs around the stallion. “Shining Armor!”
“Twily, the Princess sends her regrets that she couldn’t be here to great you face to face. But she seemed confident that you would enjoy the escort service she sent in her place.” The stallion ruffled Twilight’s hair in a loving way that only a sibling could manage. As her friends all loaded into the carriage one by one, each passing a greeting to the captain of the guard, Twilight gave her brother a playful shove.
“How’s the misses?” Twilight said with a goofy smile on her face. She may wholeheartedly have approved of her brother’s choice in his bride, but that did not mean she did not enjoy teasing him about the fact he was tied down.
“She’s doing great. We’re doing great. She’s out in the commercial district right now, buried in paperwork for Celestia, but she’ll be at the party. Anyway, we’ve got you set up in the Sundancer suites on the north wing, only the best for the guests of honor. I may have pulled a little of my ‘Captain of the Royal Guard’ weight to get you some nice amenities.” He said as he climbed into the carriage.
“You mean Celestia wanted only the best for her favorite faithful student?”
“Laugh it up. You may the Princess’s forever favorite, but at least I have a formal title to recognize my great work. All you’ve got is a tree full of books.”
“And a royal, city-wide party being thrown in my honor.”
“You and your five friends,” he corrected. “But speaking of the party, it’s looking like it’s going to be great. Too bad I’ll be on security detail during it.” He nodded to the guard standing by the carriage door. The guard closed the door and signaled the carriage pullers to being walking. “We’ll have plenty of time to catch up though tomorrow after the party.” The carriage rocked side to side as it approached the grand royal castle of Canterlot. Twilight’s neck cracked as she stared up at its wonder. She had lived half her life either in the shadow of the marvel or during her studies, inside its magnificent gilded walls. It was a sight that amazed her every time she saw it. She watched as groups of pegasi were hanging colorful banners from the sky-piercing turrets and a cavalcade of unicorns where casting fireworks in the air, practicing for the night. On the ground, earth ponies were placing candles in small ice-lanterns around the gardens. Somewhere in the background, a beautiful serenade of music rose up from one of the castle balconies. Twilight leaned back on the cushy backing of the carriage interior. Her friends were by her side, her brother was smiling at her contently, and she be reunited with the Princesses soon enough. This was shaping up to be the best night ever, she thought to herself. Now if only I can get a good stretch of naptime in before.
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Discord is just delightfully devious in this. I like it. Tracking.
I can hear John de Lancie's voice whenever Discord's dialogue comes up. This is excellent!
I agree with Wolf; Discord is deliciously cruel here. You write him well, good sir.
Discord ropes Twilight and Luna together and takes Nightmare for himself ...
images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/30700000/Discord-reading-Fan-Fiction-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-30724477-500-413.jpg
I swear I thought he was gonna say wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. Doctor Who and My Little Pony... Y U INFECT MY BRAIN!?
At the v8ry least, this sentence needs a 8it more punctu8tion.
There is one too many words here.
a8ide is similar to accept.
This should 8e conscience.
This should 8e she. A good rule of thum8 is delete all 8ut one su8ject, and see if it still sounds right.
8e.
Possi8ly "We need to help with R8rity's 8ags."
delicacy with
"...her and her friends'..."
`had 8een talking non-stop a8out the party' or `had 8een talking a8out the party non-stop'
Either `The tr8n g8ve a sudden jolt' or `The tr8n c8me to a sudden halt'
Perhaps ch8nge this to `personally'
misses is plural of miss; missus is the correct word here.
These two words should 8e switched
Shouldn't this 8e `Canterlot Castle'?
You need a comma 8etween these words
`she would 8e'
You need a few more words at the end of this sentence. Additionally, nap time is two words
Ridiculously cool, if in need of some more editing.
I have now found the new story that will be keeping me awake until Celestia's sun greets the new day. YAY I AM SO HAPPY!
