"So, If I'm getting this correctly, this juvenile Draconequus has been staying with you for the past week?"
"Correcto!"
"And, he crash-landed into your dimension right?"
"Yes. I must say, I've never seen someone quite as disoriented as he was back then!"
"Uh-huh...and you chose not to tell a single soul you were housing another reality-bending entity under your roof? Not even Fluttershy?"
"Correct."
"...May I ask why?"
"Celestia, let's drop the formalities and be real here. You know why."
Celestia groaned, wondering why she expected anything less of the King Of Madness.
The news that the Chancellor of the EEA had been assaulted by what appeared to be another member of the draconequus species spread around like wildfire. Ponies were in a panic at the idea of another Discord-like entity deciding to plunge Equestria into Chaos, the Nobility demanded answers, and Chancellor Neighsay was attempting to use the event to forward his own agenda. (Luckily, the people's faith in Twilight was strong enough for them to ignore him.)
What's worse, even the other nations were somewhat wary. It turns out that the young draconequus had attempted to play a very mean-spirited prank on the six missing Students, and the other nations were not happy when they found out. Not in the slightest.
Luckily, it seems fate had decided to finally show mercy, and Aster freely gave an open and sincere apology for his actions, and even conjured sweets (and in the Dragon's case, gems), as a token of apology. The other nations decided to let bygones be bygones, however, it was clear that they would be extra careful from here on out.
All of this, because Discord felt like playing an elaborate prank.
"Discord, believe me, it's nice you chose to provide a child a roof to live under, but wouldn't telling someone have been the best possible choice?"
Discord rolled his eyes, "Celestia, he was fine. A bit disoriented, but fine."
Celestia glanced at the boy himself, Aster, who was sitting next to Luna, the two of them watching the conversation intently. Normally, she wouldn't have brought a child into a meeting like this, especially if it were about him. But this time, she had to make an exception.
For as long as she's known him, Discord has been two things.
One: Unpredictable.
Two: Immature.
As much as she wants to trust that other than the whole surprise of their being another draconequus, Discord was genuinely doing this out of the kindness of his heart, vigilance never hurt. Not even she knew the full extent, or limits to Discord's power if there were any. And as such, she needed to make darn sure there was no foul play going on behind the scenes.
Aster himself seems to be perfectly healthy, despite the fright of his initial appearance. After a few health check-ups, it was determined his appearance had nothing to do with injuries or biology but was a physical manifestation of the nature of his spirit. Mayhem.
After that, was the mental check-up. He was brought into a room with psychiatrists, (and Luna, since she has a sharper eye for emotion), and was asked a few questions. Mostly about the nature of his relationship with Discord, and after confirming that Discord hadn't kidnapped or forced him into anything, Celestia finally decided to call this meeting.
The meetings had two purposes, one was to interrogate Discord himself about his relationship, and intentions with the child. And the other, to figure out how to successfully integrate the Spirit Of Mayhem into Equestrian society. Preferably without causing much widespread panic.
Sighing, Celestia continued. "Disord, as much I appreciate that you've done something kind without some hidden intent, I implore you to consider the consequences of what you've just done."
"In case you haven't got the idea, causing widespread Mayhem was a part of my plan." Discord replied dryly.
"Not that, as annoying as it is to deal with, it is still manageable." Celestia replied evenly, "What I'm asking you to realize, is that you now have the responsibility of a child on your shoulders. Do you even have any plans?"
"Plans? What for?" Discord asked.
"His future, his education. All of those extremely important factors that every caretaker must consider. Let's start with education for now, how exactly is he going to get the education he needs?"
"Twilight's School. I thought the answer would've been obvious." When Celestia sighed for what was the hundredth time during this conversation, Discord gave her a questioning look. "What? Would you rather I admit him to Canterlot's School for the gifted?"
"No, it's just..." Celestia had to keep herself from physically groaning, "The existence of Aster hasn't even been confirmed to the Equestrian public, some still believe the draconequus that assaulted Chancellor Neighsay was you," She ignored Discord scoffing at the idea, "Revealing Aster will be effectively admitting that there is indeed now two beings in Equestria with power capable of distorting reality. Do you have any idea how ponies reacted to you after your initial defeat at the hands of Twilight?"
"Oh quite so!" Discord responded cheerfully, "The chaos was so delicious! It was truly a shame I was in stone at the time and couldn't tase most of it."
Celestia rolled her eyes, "Moving on, how do you expect them to react to Aster?"
"Probably with fear and panic."
"Precisely. And while Twilight would most certainly welcome Aster into the School Of Friendship with open arms, the other ponies would be scrambling to pull their foals out of the school. And, with how high our tensions are with other nations, they'd certainly not feel comfortable with their representative children being in the same location as Aster."
"But," Aster spoke up, for the first time during the meeting. "Couldn't they just give me like, an Anti-Magic bracelet?"
"Anti-Magic is a very...controversial thing." Luna replied gently, "The only use of Anti-Magic unanimously agreed upon is its use on prisoners. Twilight would never resort to using Anti-Magic on a student, no matter how powerful their magic is. Also, not many Anti-Magic items are capable of truly preventing the use of magic as powerful as yours. The only one I can think of is Chrysalis's Throne, and that was carved out of extremely powerful absorbent, not suppressant. "
Celestia shot her sister a grateful look, Luna had been a massive help when dealing with Aster and she honestly didn't think this would've gone as smoothly without her active involvement. Turning back to Discord, she continued.
"Simply put, I cannot allow a project that Twilight has worked so hard on, one that also factors in with our relationship with other nations, to meet unfavorable results because of an unknown variable like this."
"Well then," Discord retorted, folding his arms, "What do you suggest? That I find a school in another dimension willing to take him?"
"No, of course not." She placed a hoof firmly on the table. "I'd never had a child go through so much trouble just for education's sake!"
"Then what do you suggest? Because in case it hasn't occurred to you, we're sort of going around a merry-go-round here!"
"Sister, If I may add my own suggestion," Luna rose, "Perhaps we could place Aster on an observation period, where he'd be under the surveillance of the Elements Of Harmony. After making sure that what happened on the re-opening day of the School Of Friendship was an isolated incident, instead of a pattern of behavior, we could perhaps advocate for him to be added into the School ourselves."
"That...may as well work." Celestia mused, before turning to The Spirit Of Mayhem. "What do you think, Aster, do you like that plan?"
Aster shrugged, "Sure! It seems fine to me."
She smiled a little, relieved that they were coming to find common ground. "And you Discord?"
"If he's fine with it, I'm fine as well." He waved it off, "As a creature of Chaos, I have no right to make decisions for others."
"Well then," Celestia felt a genuine, relieved smile forming, feeling a weight be lifted off her shoulders. "Shall we go get the papers to finalize the agreement?"
"Ya know, I sorta feel bad," Aster murmured, entering the House Of Madness (the name Discord gave to his residence). "Celestia seemed really stressed."
"Oh please," Discord replied, reading a newspaper in reverse. "She's like that all the time, she just doesn't let it show."
"You seem to be taking enjoyment in her stress," Aster noted.
"Of course I am! Only rarely do I feel such a chaotic swirl of emotions from Celestia of all people!"
"You're mean."
"I'm The Spirit Of Chaos, what did you expect?"
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It was mostly likely a unintentional retcon on the writer's part. Tirek controls the bubbles the exact same way Discord does (via snapping his fingers).
Plus the same flash of light appears between Tirek's fingers when he is snapping, that usually covers the screen when Discord is using his magic.
More then likely, the writers either didn't see the episode, or failed to pick up on these (admittedly subtle) details.
He probably knew how to utilize some aspects and not others. Discord's magic isn't really well explained or defined in terms of it's limitations. Plus Tirek only obtained it pretty recently.
Not completely. Twilight had a bit of room to move around, and he drains magic from a distance (on accident no less).
The real problem is that we don't know what the staff is actually capable of, had it been wielded by someone who knew how to use it.
Maybe it did have telekinesis, and the Storm King just didn't know about it, or how to use it.
I mean, Alicorns strike me as being no more powerful magically then they were originally, just able to access different forms of magic. Else Twilight should have faired better in her fight against Starlight.
And I can't remember seeing anyone break out of telekinesis before, so who knows if it's possible? Regardless I can't even remember if Temepst could use telekinesis with her broken horn, so it's kind of a moot point for me anyways.
Dude moves pretty fast for a guy his size, plus he is massive. There's one scene where he pick up Twilight and Tempest and pins them to his side with almost no effort. It really shows the difference in size, and how they are basically children, compared to him.
If the writers hadn't stopped using physical fights with direct contact after the whole Angle Bunny slapping Fluttershy controversy, then they could have made the Storm King terrifying (magic or not). It's only the writing and action direction that keeps him from being truly scary.
Yeah, I don't disagree he could've been smatter about the whole thing. Then again, not many villains come even close to that kind of consistent intelligence throughout their run, so it kind feels weird to single out the Storm King for making the same mistakes that most MLP villains made.
I mean the Student Six were in constant danger for a lot of Season Eight (largely due to their teachers incompetence), so it does make me question what qualifies as harmless.
Although it does make sense he'd be scared of the thing that turned Discord into stone twice. Plus he doesn't strike me as being confident in his ability to outlast and outmaneuver it, given all the others who've failed to overcome it.
My point was more the fact that Mayhem (in general) usually strives to make things worse. As a given name it could be seen as Ironic, but as a chosen one, it feels a little bit misleading.
In fairness, unless you count all the times they were put in mortal peril by the goings on at the school, the only real character development the Student Six have, comes about through their interactions with the Tree. They don't have a whole lot in the way of explained character development.
And if you do count the whole being in mortal peril thing, then pretty much everything that happens in the show could be considered fair game.
Sure Discord's plan to improve Twilight's confidence was a bust, but it ultimately brought everyone together in a way that might not have happened had the Trio not been unleashed to run wild.
I'd argue there were better ways to pull it off (there usually are) but it still technically counts as character growth, just not the type that everyone thinks about when watching that scene.
Also it makes it all the more glaring that the tree didn't actually go that far when it came to the Trio. It was some seriously horrible writing on the part of the writers to do that to them in that way.
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Aster's title has a lot to do with the Spirit ranking system in this AU. I might create a post on it later, but the fundamental idea of the Dracenquii species is that they are supposed manifestations of chaos. Sure some like Cosmos (who arguably is more of Chimera than a Draconequus, but still), are pure evil with no redeeming qualities, due to the element they are born of, in her case it was malice.
Others are on the more good side of the spectrum, embodying elements like fun. The chaos that society actively accepts.
But the most powerful spirits are the ones who are neither good nor bad by nature. Mayhem certainly has a negative use, but ultimately it's not evil. Someone could describe a birthday party as pure and utter Mayhem, but that doesn't mean anything bad happened at the party itself. (I know this has a plothole on how Cosmos is stronger than Discord, trust me, I have plans for that.)
So the mayhem I'm thinking of is more or less another word for chaos sure, but more focused on the social aspects of chaos.
The reason he is the Spirit Of Mayhem and not Chaos, is because of the general limits of Will Magic. The Will magic can't create something on par with Discord, who by multiverse standards is one of the strongest beings to ever exist, surpassed only by the Spirit Of Harmony. So, it tries to get as close as it could. Thus, the title of Spirit Of Mayhem and Havoc were bestowed.
Like where this story is going
Really fun story especially loved how he played meeting elwith young six. It will be fun to see what he does to gain Cozy trust
Great story keep it up!!!
Only 2 reality warpers?; Shouldn't that be 3? Or do Pink Eldritch Horrors not count?