Chapter 4: Teach me Senpai
“What the hell happened?” Midnight said, barely able to hold his composure at the sight that laid before him. “I've seen some awful things but...”
Celestia could only nod in agreement.
Before them was what was once the town of Everstone, a town far to the west. Now, it was a graveyard. Every stallion, mare, and foal lay dead under the baking sun. That, however, was not what disturbed Midnight so. He had seen, and even caused death on larger scales than this.
“Any idea what could have caused this?” Midnight asked the princess.
“That is still being investigated, but it was nothing in the water or food.”
Midnight looked down at the remains of a young colt, no more than eight or nine years old, still grasping the knife he plunged into the mare's eye, even as he was pinned to her side by a hay fork.
It made him sick.
It was a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time.
Suddenly, a crash came from one of the houses moments before Sweetie Belle came out, dragging what Midnight at first thought was a wild animal. Animals, though, don't speak or have cutie marks.
“I'll rip your liver out, you bitch! You're dead! Dead!” the mare ranted, screeching like she was possessed.
“She was in a bedroom... eating somepony,” Sweetie blanched a little at the memory.
“And it's mine! You can't have it!” the mare wailed.
“What could have done something like this?” Midnight asked.
Despite the question being rhetorical, Celestia had a theory. “I have read of similar happenings. Though it was before even my time, there are stories of creatures that affect the minds of ponies, creating negativity so powerful, it would cause even the closest of friends to become bitter enemies.
“Entire towns would turn against each other, and in the worst cases, they would kill and even eat one another. That was where they got their name...
“Windigo.”
“But, princess,” Twilight said with confusion as she looked around at the devastation. “If it was Windigos, where's the ice?”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“Okay, it took nearly a month, but I think you got the basics down,” Rainbow said as she paced in front of Discord like a drill instructor before her recruits. “You know that you can't be mean to ponies and that having fun at there expense is a jerk move. Now that you understand that...” The colorful mare turned to the former spirit of chaos with a mischievous grin. “I can teach you how to properly prank.”
“Prank?” Discord parroted, face contorted in confusion. “But, I thought having fun a others expense was a 'jerk move'.”
“Yeah, but not all pranks are at others expense,” Rainbow countered. “This is why you needed to learn those first two before you learn pranking. If you know how to prank right, not only can you still mess with ponies, but they'll get a laugh out of it, too.”
Rainbow motioned for him to follow as they headed towards the middle of town. “We'll start with an easy one; Pinkie Pie. She loves pulling a good prank, and loves being pranked.”
The pair trotted/hovered down the street, returning a few nods and waves from passing ponies. “See, to pull a good prank, you have to understand how the pony feels about whatever you're using. With Pinkie, she takes her baking very seriously, so never do anything with that, unless it’s something that can be easily fixed. She love being surprised, though, so that's what we're going to do.”
Soon enough, the faux gingerbread house came into view. It was lunch time, so the place was bustling with activity. Ponies running in and out, trying to get a bite before returning to work. It was the perfect time to scout the place out.
“Alright, here's the deal,” Rainbow said, lowering her voice. “I'm going to lure Pinkie out here, and you're going to use your magic to drop this huge fake, roaring dragon head in front of her.”
“One problem,” Discord said with an irritated frown. “My magic was stolen.”
Rainbow Dash gave her accomplice a confused look. “I thought that was just your chaos magic.”
“That was my magic.”
“What about your unicorn magic?” Rainbow asked plainly.
“My uni...” Discord's eyes rolled up to glance at the tip of the spiraled spire of alicorn growing from his forehead. “Oh... That's right... I'm a unicorn.”
Rainbow Dash stifled a laugh. “I know you haven't been one for that long, but how do you forget you have a freaking horn?”
“Actually, I've always been a unicorn,” Discord corrected. “The Chaos Stone just warped my body... which I still honestly miss.”
“Whatever, so do you even know how to use that thing?”
Discord paused for a couple seconds. “I don't know. I've never used it, but...”
He glanced at a small branch that had fallen off a nearby tree. As he focused, he tried to channel magic through his horn. It felt quite different from his chaos magic, but luckily it was similar enough that soon, his horn was glowing with a yellow aura.
With his magic channeled, he focused on the branch, willing it to rise. The branch began to glow in a similar light as it obeyed his command.
“Alright, then,” Rainbow said with a smirk. “Let's do this.”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“Hey, Pinkie! How's it going?” Rainbow Dash called as she stood beside the register.
Pinkie poked her head out of the kitchen. “Oh, hi Dashie! One second.” A clatter rang out from the back, the sound of pots and pans being hurriedly put away.
Soon enough, the noise stopped and Pinkie reemerged. “What's up?”
“Oh, just figured, since the lunch rush is over, you'd wanna get a bite to eat,” Rainbow offered.
“I'd love to,” Pinkie replied with her usual enthusiasm before turning back and hollering, “Mister Cake! I'm going to lunch!”
Together, the pair made for the door.
“So, how was the rush?” Rainbow asked.
“Same old, same old,” Pinkie answered. “Though, we did have a bunch of changelings come in. That made a few ponies nervous, and a few even left.”
Rainbow scoffed at that. “Good, they don't deserve Sugarcube Corner if they wanna be tribalist jerks.”
“Dashie,” Pinkie said in a scolding tone. “You can't expect ponies to forget what the Queen's changelings did so soon. They'll come around, and when they do then we can say who's just being tribalist.”
Pinkie opened the door and stepped outside, followed closely by Rainbow.
“Fine, but don't expect me to like it,” Rainbow said.
Just as Pinkie was about to respond, a massive dragon landed with a powerful thud, roaring as it's mighty wings spread wide to blot out the sun.
“Aaahhhh!” Pinkie screamed, falling back as she fired off a bolt of light from her spirit seal. The bolt struck the dragon square in the mouth, causing its head to fly off as its body dissipated into nothingness.
Pinkie, slowly catching her breath and getting to her hooves, looked around, seeing Discord staring wide eyed and Rainbow rolling on the floor with laughter just before a charred, plastic dragon head landed in front of them.
Pinkie snorted, biting her lip until she couldn't hold it back any longer. She hit the floor again, but this time in laughter.
“That,” snirk, “was,” snicker, “amazing!” She struggled to say.
Eventually, Pinkie calmed down enough to ask, “Where did you get that?!”
“At the joke shop,” Rainbow replied.
“I didn't know they had stuff like that!”
A bit of confusion peaked through Rainbow's mirth. “What are you talking about? It's just a roaring dragon head. They've had these forever.”
“But not one that had a whole dragon attached to it,” Pinkie countered.
Rainbow's expression went full on confused at that. “What do-”
“That's impossible...” Discord muttered, causing the two mares to turn to him.
“What is, Dissy?” Pinkie asked.
Discord didn't even seem to notice them. “He took it... but...”
“Yo!” Rainbow shouted. “Equestria to Discord! What's wrong.”
“I need to talk to Twilight,” he said.
Pinkie and Rainbow winced, giving each other a sidelong glance.
Rainbow sighed. “We'll see if she can talk, but... there was an... incident and she's been kinda busy investigating it.”
“This is important,” Discord stated. “That was chaos magic I just used.”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“Go on in,” Rainbow said as she walked out of the Dawn Shield HQ's lab. “I'll be out in the training field when you're done.”
Discord nodded and stepped inside. He had never been in this place before, and he had to admit, it was intimidating. It was so alien and unlike anything else in Equestria.
Twilight smiled as she approached. “Rainbow tells me you believe you used chaos magic.”
“Oh, it was chaos magic, alright. I know how it feels,” Discord stated.
“Alright, do you mind if I do some scans?” Twilight asked.
“Be my guest.”
Twilight's horn glowed as a tingle shot through Discord's body.
“Hmm... Your magic does seem to have changed slightly,” Twilight observed. “Odd. It seems familiar, somehow.”
Discord gave her a deadpanned stare. “Perhaps that's because everything you knew was covered in it?”
“No, as much as I wanted to, the Elements of Harmony completely cleansed the world of your magic. I couldn't get a scan,,” Twilight explained.
“Then where did you find it?” Discord asked skeptically.
“I don't know,” Twilight answered, honestly. “Still, this isn't such a shock. You said you had that stone in you since you were a baby. Likely, your own magic simply aligned itself to match. How powerful was the spell you cast?”
“Only an illusion, and it only affected Pinkie, but I also didn't put much into it.”
Twilight thought on it for a moment. “Do you think you can keep it under control?”
“Hmm...” Discord pondered that before walking over to an unused workstation and pointing his horn at a test tube.
In a flash of light, the glass mouth moved as it sang, “~I'm a little test tube, long and thin~”
In another flash it was back to being a plain, mundane lab object.
Discord smirked at Twilight. “I think I can.”
“Alright then,” Twilight said, shaking herself out of the daze at the sudden show. “Since it doesn't seem to be a danger, we'll look into it later. Right now, I have research to do.”
“Oh? What are you researching?” Discord asked.
“That's classi...” Twilight trailed off as an idea took shape. “Actually, you might be able to offer some insight. There was an incident out near the badlands. At first, princess Celestia thought it was a windigo that had somehow survived, but there was no frost. Would you happen to know of a creature that causes effects like a windigo but without the ice and cold?”
Discord put a hoof to his chin, stroking his goatee. “Hmm... Well, there are my sisters, but they were banished long ago.”
“Sisters?!” Twilight's jaw dropped. “Y-you have sister?! What- how- When?!”
“Not 'what', 'who',” Discord corrected. “My father made them before I was born. He fused windigos with the spirits of three sea pony fillies.”
“That's... despicable,” Twilight said, anger building in her chest. “Why would he do something like that?”
“Well, it allowed them to channel the windigos' power through their voices, but without the whole 'aura of cold' thing.”
“Well, why haven't we heard of them before now?”
“Father banished them before I was born, after they betrayed him. I'm not sure of the details.”
“Wait, Starswirl banished seapony-like beings... the Sirens.” Twilight groaned. “So, we basically have corporeal windigos that don't give off their cold and can appear pony-like. Great. I need to speak to Midnight and the princess.”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“You stupid, foolish little wastes of flesh!” Bellowed Starswirl. “Are you trying to draw attention to us before we're ready?!”
The yellow mare that stood before him wore a look that betrayed the scowl she hid. “But father, we needed the power to help with yo-”
“Enough!” His horn lit up, and in a flash, the mare was gone, sentenced to the dungeons for however long Starswirl deemed.
He turned to the others. “And you...”
“Hey, we were just following Adagio.”
Starswirl turned his attention to the pink furred one. “Oh... And tell me, Aria, has your time in that barbaric monkey world rendered you incapable of thinking for yourself?”
“Uh...” Aria hesitated, realizing too late she should have kept her mouth shut.
“Then you are to blame for your own actions!” A beam of light shot from the unicorn, striking Aria in the chest.
She collapsed, writhing and screaming in pain as her sister watched in horror.
Starswirl ignored the suffering mare and moved to the blue-gray one. “And you, Sonata?”
Sonata looked up, tears in her eyes. “I... I... I just wanted to help,” she cried. “I'm sorry, daddy.”
Starswirl sighed. “Oh, Sonata. You are far too innocent for this. However, I can not just turn a blind eye to your part in this.
“No dessert for a week.”
As he left, ignoring the wails of pain and despair from his daughters, Starswirl muttered. “We shall have to accelerate our plans.”