Lacewing recoiled with a frightened yelp from the unexpected voice emanating from the shard, so suddenly was her reflexive withdrawal that she immediately lost her balance and fell backward from her perch onto the cavern floor, stunning herself momentarily.
“Dear me, I hope I didn’t break her already,” floated the otherworldly worlds into her ears as the stone ceiling wobbled in front of her eyes. “Yoo-hoo! Anyone there? You didn’t crack your kumquat, did you? Scuttle your skull? Noodle your noggin? Sprain your brain?” the voice called again after a few seconds of silence Lacewing would later find blessed.
She considered not answering, but something compelled her to peer across the mats piled upon the slab to the shard whereupon the red-centered eye was searching about from facet to facet, internal curiosity or a subliminal command she could not tell. Suffice to say, she yielded to the urging rather swiftly, for when there is already no hope, there is little purpose to hesitation. “What… who are you?” she finally said as the garish gaze found her again.
The eye brightened as it set upon her and regarded her curiously, “Ah, there you are! I say, do you always looks like a tattered, miserable wreck of wrath and self-loathing, or am I catching you on a good day?”
Lacewing’s concern quickly became subsumed by consternation and she frowned. “Perhaps I should just smash what’s left and be done with it.”
“Now now! Let’s not be hasty!” quickly piped up the voice. “I think a talking tree thing said that once to a couple of little fellows. It’s good advice, at any rate. Especially when you’re deeply upset by something! Rash action can lead to amusing outcomes in most cases, but here we have a rather unique situation; a set of marvelously coincidental opportunities where we must both mind our P’s and Q’s for the time being. Especially mind the Q’s, my dear. They’re a rather tough lot to deal with. I speak from personal experience on the issue!”
“You have not answered my question, Creature,” Lacewing spoke cautiously, wary of this being which stared up at her from an unknowable space. “Who are you and what are you, and why are you here? And how can you speak through the fragment of our Sun Stone?”
The eye half-lidded with what might be termed mild amusement. “So interrogative for such a young one. I’d expect a severe interrogation from ancient sages, withered wizards, and certain ship captains, but not from one of so few years. Usually your sorts asks how many wishes I’m willing to grant and leaves it at that. You interest me. I’m glad I heeded this particular call!”
Lacewing found this declaration not the least reassuring. “I want you to answer at least one of my questions when next you speak, or this conversation ends.”
The eye rolled, “Interesting, but VERY demanding you are, right up front!” The voice sighed exaggeratedly, “Very well… I’ll answer your last question first. I’m not actually ‘here’… or ‘there’… that’s where you are relative to me. Do directions even have relatives? I once knew a curve who was an awfully straight fellow. Regardless, I’m ‘here’ of course, but it’s MY ‘here’ and not YOUR ‘here’… or is that your ‘there’? Or is it that you’re there already? Well that’s neither here nor there. As for who I am, I am… DISCORD!”
Lacewing blinked. The eye stared.
“You know, Discord? Spirit of Chaos and other stuff? Phenomenal cosmic powers? Render of reality and reason? Master of madness and mayhem?” the voice chirped hopefully.
“I’ve never heard of you.”
“Oh, right! I’m getting ahead of myself. That’s not for quite a while yet. Sorry about that, temporal linearity and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms. I see bits and pieces of everywhere as well as every-WHEN. It gets quite confusing!” Discord chuckled, “Never mind all that then. Let me put it simply. I can tell you’re in need of powerful assistance, and I’m willing to deliver in exchange for a very simple favor on your part.”
“A favor?” Lacewing spoke with suspicion. “I am Queen Lacewing, creature called Discord, leader of my people the Flutterponies, and we are in grave peril, indeed. I am young, as you say, and not experienced in or familiar with all the strange things of this world, and we are desperate for salvation… but not so desperate that I would make deals with a thing that speaks to me in careless jests and half-formed riddles from a piece of shattered stone!”
Laughter, the last thing Lacewing expected in response to her rebuke, rose from the shard, the eye was closed momentarily in mirth, “Wonderful! Such passion and determination! Ah, but I sense so much more lurking beneath the surface. Your emotions are roiling like a seething cauldron, ready to burst out at any moment! What form will they take when they’ve finished cooking, eh? You’re a template I simply must work my pallet upon! A substrate simply awaiting a master’s touch to reveal the hidden masterpiece within!” Discord laughed again and then the eye opened and beheld her with a cunning stare, “Very well, you wish to know how I found you? As a small token of gratitude for this delightful chat, I’ll speak straightly, just for a short time. It’s tiring for one such as I, for my kind see the humor in all that moves and we can scarcely refrain from hitting the punchlines. I felt the destruction of your Artifact of Order. Its cracking resonated through many boundaries, for it was used for a purpose outside of its created intent and so it wailed as it died to its Makers, though they passed by all ways long ago and were gone from simple realities nigh your world even bore a finished shape. It strained the boundaries of the world in its death-throes and left a tiny chink in the boundaries keeping apart that which is and that which has no substance yet, where I and others of my kindred wander until fortune provides us a vehicle. And I, floating as I had for untold ages in a place without a location, where everything was nothing and I was everything, perceived the Order object’s cry. I peered through the miniscule gap; that bright, beautiful little pinprick in the walls of the worlds. And it was enough of a view to know your world was exactly what I’d been looking for, a world of life and variety and, most importantly, POTENTIAL! I can work with that! And then I beheld more. I know the danger you face. I know what you used the shard for. I saw and felt your anguish and pain. And the breach grew wider, so temptingly it called to me, and so I called to you. And you heard me.”
Lacewing trembled, for she knew she was doubtless in the presence of something both ancient and terrible, powerful beyond any measure she could comprehend. To dally with such a being could endanger her soul as surely as the windigoes… And yet, in spite of herself, a spark of hope kindled unbidden. Such power this being claimed it would wield for her benefit, and for something little in return. It was a Chance. Should it be taken?
As the young Queen debated within her heart, the voice carried on, “Normally, we of the In-Between can only ever see the tangible worlds thinly, as through a clouded looking glass lit by a candle. We see so many shadows of wondrous places and events we’d love to experience and act upon, to write the scripts for the stories in those worlds ourselves, and yet we can’t touch anything of them without just the right set of coincidences. And only one can go through any particular crack, then it’s closed off to the rest of us. Oh, it’s all so cruelly tantalizing! So ALIVE and flowing and changing and shifting, always faintly in view and eternally out of reach.” The voice grew sad, almost pleading. “In this non-place, it’s always so dark and empty. I’m all there is. I am the universe here, and there’s only so much internal exploration I can perform. I haven’t been able to use my talents for such an impossibly long time. The little mote of light I can see of your world is only a teasing glimpse. There are Rules related to the rifts between worlds which even I wouldn’t dare break; conditions and ceremony for entry of any like myself.”
“And this is why you had not simply entered when you found the opening?” Lacewing inquired politely.
“Exactly! My kind tend to be an anathema to most universes since we don’t tend to obey any of the local laws and quantum uncertainty principles. And FORGET conserving momentum! I waste that by the truckload! What I need to really get a foot in the door is that tiny favor from you. An invitation, to be precise. I must be wanted in the world I wish to enter, or the very fabric of reality will form a barrier against me!” Discord’s voice took on an accent similar to one Lacewing had heard years ago as a foal when she had visited distant desert lands, “Command me to enter; rub the lamp and call upon the djinn, as some legends call the deed, in return for allowing me into your world where things happen, all manner of shapes and noises and colors are endlessly in motion and just waiting to perform for me, I will grant you whatever you wish of me, Master!”
Lacewing thought for a moment and opened her mouth to answer, but the Spirit interrupted before she could get a word out, “Oh, except for a few little provisos I simply refuse to do!”
“What might those be?” she asked, finding herself curious as to what a creature of such age and power who appeared to transcend reality itself might find objectionable.
“Simple things, really. I don’t believe you’d ask me for any of them, but I would like to be clear on it just in case you suddenly go all morbid on me all of a sudden and then try to claim I haven’t fulfilled my obligations. Stranger things have happened, and you can take my word on that! I won’t kill anything. I don’t like it. Death is…” Discord’s voice paused, his eye searching to put the right words together. “An ending. I’m not fond of endings. It means someone can’t change anymore, can't be toyed with and all their potential just ceases to exist. It flat out stops and disappears. It takes a cheerful light I can play with and puts it out. It’s like a piece of this darkness I’m in right now. And it happens to be one of the VERY few things I can’t undo. I REALLY don’t like it. I won’t stop you if you decide to kill on your own, but don’t even think of asking me to do it! That’s the big personal issue. The other is a practical no-no. I can’t give you power equal to my own. That’s absolutely forbidden. I’m sure it has something to do with the overwhelming majority of you fleshy beings having nothing remotely close to the capacity to contain my power and you would rather sorta kinda blow up instantaneously and take a couple star systems out with yourselves in the process.”
Lacewing swallowed nervously, “Ah, then I do not believe I shall request that. But the first part, you would not destroy the windigoes if I asked?”
Regarding her curiously, “Oh those ice horse-ghost things that’ve been hounding you. I did get a glimpse of them through the shard. Well I’m not really sure they’re alive in the traditional sense to begin with… but wouldn’t you like to take care of that yourself? That’s the reason you want my help, isn’t it? It’s the primary reason you’re still talking to me, I’d be willing to wager.”
She looked outward to the opening of the cave, beholding her people gathered together in the snow, some heads bowed together and some looking anxiously into the swirling winds, their ears turning this way and that to catch the first sounds of the approaching enemy. “You seem to know me well already, Discord, for you are quite correct. I wouldn’t be satisfied if I allowed anyone else to have my revenge for me.”
The voice from the crystal grew eager, hungry with anticipation, “Then there’s no need to waste time waiting any longer, is there? You know what I want and you know what you want and I know what you want and we know what we want! No more hesitation, what do you say? Wouldn’t want those pesky windigoes showing up before…” A faint ghastly wail filtered through the winds and the herd outside quickly leapt up. “Oh now I should have known that would happen. Good going, Discord! I really should be more genre savvy than this!”
One of the Flutters rushed in and cried to Lacewing, in his frantic terror of the windigoes noticing neither the eerie light nor the eye within the crystal shard, “They’re coming, my Queen! We must either flee or die! I won’t be taken by them! I WON’T!” His voice rose to a scream, but Lacewing swiftly raised a hoof before his face and silenced him with a cold, furious glance. “They will not take us. Not now. And never again.” She looked down at the shard once more and the stallion followed her view until with a gasp of shock he too saw what looked upon them both.
“Discord, spirit of Chaos,” she spoke firmly while the Flutterpony beside her shrank away, muttering fearfully. “I call you into our world. In exchange, I demand the power to avenge my people.”
A deep and resonant tone tolled from the shard and its light stuttered, strobing ever faster until at last a singular narrow ray shot forth from the shard it began to rattle and deform, appearing to soften and run as butter in a hot pan. The beam was unlike any light Lacewing had ever seen or even dreamed in her nightmares, for it gave no light to anything it touch, casting no shadows, and it chilled her with its fay tones. Where it touched the stone ceiling it simply ceased, casting Discord’s laughter began again, sly and sinister now, growing swiftly louder and higher until it echoed within the chamber, the pitch rising to an almost manic cackle of pure uncontrolled glee.
The Flutterponies all turned in shock and terror toward to cavern and beheld a sight which rivaled the Windigoes for sheer horror. A great lion’s forepaw burst forth from the blinding beam of cold light, wicked claws flexing and seeking followed swiftly by the cruel talons as it were of a huge eagle. Both appendages grasped the edges of the cold beam and spread it apart, as though the creature within was rending a veil. Between the seams of light a void of utter blackness lay, and from it came a head gaunt and misshapen, a mockery of equine form with a ragged tuft of a beard dangling from its chin. Upon the head arose a twisted blue horn on one side while the other bore a jagged, branched antler. A sharply defined mane of jet black jutted back between the creature’s ears and sliced down the long, sinuous neck. Yet what held all breathless were the disquieting eyes of sickly yellow, sulfurous in hue with burning red coals shining forth with a malevolent mirth in their depths. The creature withdrew more of its misshapen form from the rift, glancing about with a fearsome grin which displayed a set of crocodile’s teeth save for one gigantic sabertooth which jutted downward from the beast’s upper lip. A draconic leg and a hoofed one set foot upon the cave floor, a crimson serpent’s tail was whipped through the breach of the world and the paw and talon released the edges of light which slammed shut with a thunderous crash. The lights faded and the puddle formed by the melting shard smoked and swiftly vanished with a hiss.
The creature’s smile grew even wider, more sinister, a forked tongue licked at the long jutting fang as if in anticipation of feasting upon the herd of helpless prey before it. And then the mood was broken as the beast’s expression changed as once to joviality and it soared over them laughing merrily as two wings, one feathered with sapphire and the other leathery as a bat’s flitted spastically upon its back. “Here I am all you lucky Flutterponies, you! The one and only Discord, draconequus supreme!” he declared as he swept toward the cave entrance, unfurling a banner which read 'Discord For Princess!' as horns and trumpets and even a piano dangling from it played a merry marching tune. “I’m free at last! Glory Hallelujah!” Once at the entrance, the chimeric creature looked out upon the lifeless land of unfeeling rock and ice and beheld the in the distance the searching hoard of windigoes creeping through the mountains, drawn by the traces of anger and awaiting the terror of night to attack. It’s expression fell to dismay and the instruments groaned down to silence. “Well what a miserable welcome this is! Everything’s so dreary and dire around here! I can practically taste the bleak melodrama! (And it also smells awfully of teen spirit…) Not even a cheery welcome banner with my name misspelled on it or anything!"
Discord soared up into the clouds and grabbed one, then dragged it down to the Flutter Ponies who’d numbly followed it out in their completely baffled state of mind. He gave it a squeeze, and a soft frozen confection of deep brown flowed in a waving cylinder, coiling upon the ground. "No no no! It's even too cold for chocolate soft serve! I was hoping for hot chocolate! Ugh! CLEARLY this place is crying for a woman's touch! But since we don't seem to have any of those here, I suppose I can fill in." He twisted himself into a knot and sprang back into shape with a snap, now wearing a shapely elegant dress replete with frilling and bobbins, as two windigoes suddenly broached the vale and swept into the cavern, whinnying triumphantly and sweeping down upon the screaming Flutters who crowded against the back wall. But before they could so much as touch a single Flutter Pony, the outlandish chimeric creature grabbed them in his tail. “Dahlings,” he said to the struggling, snarling winigoes. “I vant to be alone. Ve’ll always have Paris Hilton!” He gave each a long, sloppy kiss on their frozen cheeks while an expression sprang upon their fearsome face the Flutterponies had never before seen upon a windigo before: utter bafflement. With a flick of the snake tail, the windigoes were flung out of the cavern and their confused wails faded into the distance. With a snap of his talon, the creature vanished the dress and sprayed its mouth with a bottle of breath freshener it conjured in that same instant, “Ugh, rather nasty things those windigoes are. A foul taste from feeding upon souls. What a dismal and uncouth tactic! No self-respecting higher-class entity would ever resort to such low-level means of survival! Clearly, these things emanated from the shallow end of the ectoplasmic pool! Little demon kids piddle in that end too. It’s disgusting!”
It was then that Lacewing pushed her way forward through her frightened people and looked calmly into the bizarre creature’s face, “You must be Discord.”
It chuckled and regarded her with a bemused grin, “Why whatever gave it away? Was it the dress? The chiffon was too much, wasn’t it? Be brutally honest with me!”
“I will admit,” Lacewing muttered while looking over her new benefactor with an uncertain eye. “You are not… anything I could have expected.”
Discord snorted, “I take pride in being unpredictable, you know! Comes with the name and purpose! Now, to business matters, because I feel like skipping all the pointless formalities and I’ve got lots to see and do. People to bother, places to rearrange.” He waved his paw in a circular motion, trotting along with his eagle talon held behind his back, surveying the Flutterponies discriminately. “Yes, far too feeble as you are. You’re clearly going to want quite a bit more power to stop those nasty winter horse thingies, as well as be immune from their abilities, and I suppose a requirement for something other than physical food will be helpful help, what with everything being in a deep-freeze,” said Discord, whipping out an abacus and flicking the beads back and forth in apparent random fashion, while a ticker tape inexplicably flowed from a slit in one side, covered with indecipherable numerals from a hundred languages simultaneously. “Ah, and of course you’ll require a sufficient source of energy… should tie that into what you eat, more convenient that way. I hear renewables are really in vogue these days, and I have just the thing! I adopted the idea from this film called I spotted from shadows of another world’s future… or past? Oh I have no idea! Time is so hard to keep track of when you’re somewhere it doesn’t exist! “The Matrix”… though I suppose I should call it the “Maretrix” to cover myself with fair use parody clauses. But then again, none of you have any idea what that is or access to lawyers, or any other forms of jurisprudence for that matter, so I’m no danger of being sued.”
“Y-yes,” said Lacewing, incapable of comprehending the kaleidescopic creature's limitless capacity for warbling seemingly endless streams of random nonsense. “I suppose you’ll know best how to grant my wish.”
“Of that, you can be certain! Though I suspect that, like myself, it’ll end up being unlike anything you can anticipate.”
Lacewing nodded, though a bit more tight-lipped, and added, “But it is not merely the windigoes who we must be avenged of. I want to punish the ponies as well. None of them would come to aid us when we begged for their help.”
Discord raised a shaggy eyebrow, “Oh really? Well well, getting a taste for vengeance are we? Dear dear, you might want to think about that a little more.” Adding a touchpad to the abacus, Discord hummed a carefree little ditty while fiddling with the seemingly meaningless figures, “May all your dreams come truuuuuuue… And carry the sloth… to the square root of an octahedron… raised to the power level of over 9,000, and there we have it!” Discord dramatically slammed a talon upon a giant ‘ENTER’ key and the whole apparatus shook and smoked; gears, widgets, and asparagus shooting out impossibly from everywhere. “She canna take much more o’ this, Captain!” Discord exclaimed, diving behind Lacewing. “She’s gonna-!” A tiny bell rang, and final string of paper slid out of the slot and slithered snake-like into Discord’s swiftly outstretched lion’s paw. “Oh, never mind then,” he shrugged and read. His bent mouth twisted into a sly grin, “Oh my… are you really sure about this? I’ve calculated the price you’re going to have to pay… and it’s quite a steep one. Lots of zeroes, figuratively speaking.” The paper hissed and bit Discord’s eagle talon, “Ow! A paper cut!” He shook it the receipt off and it slithered away into the darkness, doubtless to seek another victim to sink its fibrous fangs into.
Lacewing’s eyes narrowed, “What is this about a price we must pay? You promised I only had to let you into the world and you’d grant my desire.” Many of the Flutterponies edged away, slowly making for the cave’s entrance, fearful to have anything to do with a creature both so obviously powerful and insane. One of Lacewing’s advisers slunk over to her and whispered, “My Queen, why would you deal with this… this thing?” She merely glowered at the elder Flutterpony, “If I had not, we’d be dead. Be still and thank me that we still draw breath!”
Discord pretended not to notice a thing and slunk toward her, embracing her barrel in a loose coil of his serpentine body, “It’s not MY price you’ll have to pay,” he said, poking her nose with one of his lion paw pads. “It’s the one your world itself will exact as toll over time. Actions have consequences. It’s that whole cliché ripples in a pond thing; cause and effect. I can see quite a way down the line from here, and though you certainly will have great success, there will also be pain. Are you sure you want to bear it?” His face had fallen into an expression of mild annoyance at next glance, “You see, even if I wanted to completely exempt you from any negative effects, there is one annoying ‘rule’ I must abide by; one of those little quid pro quos to which all us wish-fulfillment sort are bound.”
“A rule?”
“Indeed,” sighed Discord again, wrenching an absurdly large tome from a tiny crack in the wall where Lacewing was certain it couldn’t possibly have fit. “A tiresome clause which I doubt will have any bearing whatsoever upon the outcome of our little deal at this point. But, there we are. I hear the Big Bosses get quite huffy whenever we violate certain precepts and the paperwork can last a LITERAL eternity.” Affixing a monocle to the tip of his tongue, where, to Lacewing’s shock a third eye opened, the spirit of chaos recited, “As to the recipient of the aforementioned bequest so described in Article 32,948; Section 268b: sub-clause ‘Hubris is bad, m-kay’ attained from the cosigned cosmic entity so indentured by promissory contractual obligation upon release from lamp, bottle, can (aluminum, steel, or other), magic mirror, Mafuba, black hole, or inconvenient parallel dimension, blah blah blah…” He flipped several hundred pages rapidly, “Wherefore the aforementioned subclause pertaining to the unintended consequences is rendered moot by conditional recusal of the petitioner should one of the listed line axillaries be enacted by same. Cross-reference with ‘Darby O’Gill and the Little People’ for the instant erasure clause of four wishes upon a single pot of gold by single supplicant… Ugh, so much red tape!” He shook the book upside down and spools of red tape unwound upon the cave floor. “Too long, didn’t read… I don’t feel like spending the next half century reciting all the rigmarole and you certainly don’t have the time! Let’s put this in a nutshell we’ll both understand.” Tossing aside the book, he suddenly winked into appearance a small folded wafer of some sort Lacewing had never seen and cracked it open, pulling from it a small strip of paper which he read in a solemn voice with his lion’s paw held aloft, index finger jutting upward judiciously, “Confused and Bewildered say, ‘Be careful what one wish for, or may get it’.”
While Lacewing was taken aback and rather insulted by the flippant antics this strange creature displayed, an urgent instinct in her heart warned her not to directly insult him; for with powers clearly vast, unknown and ominous, Discord was nothing to trifle with or make mockery of. Uncertain what to say or think in reaction to the strange spirit’s bewildering words, Lacewing only mumbled in confusion, “I don’t understand.”
“I know, right!” Discord huffed, tossing the pastry shell and paper behind him, where it promptly screamed “INCOMING!” and exploded into a chorus line of dancing minnows, trout, and various other aquatic denizens singing “Shoo-bee-doo, bop bop!” repeatedly. “That’s advice, not a fortune! These things are a gyp, I tell you! Anyway, basically it’s a reiteration of that little ‘pricetag’ I made mention of earlier. It means I can give you whatever you wish for. ANYTHING at all, but if you’re not very specific I can fulfil it in any way I choose so long as it meets your stated conditions. And I’m VERY creative with interpretations…”, his head popped into a strange shape of oval golden metal, with naught but a rectangular slit for a mouth, his voice mechanical as he stated, “…as I am fluent in over six million forms of communication.” In flash he was back to what passed for normal, and continued, “So there’s almost certain to be some unpleasant side effects of whatever I do to you. It’s just the nature of the beast at work, so to speak. The whole ‘law of unintended consequences’ and Murphy’s Law and a bunch of other such hyperbolic cliché provisos authors love to bombard characters with in stories. But it boils down to two things: a) the universe won’t be too pleased with you for letting me in and breaking its rules to help you, and b) I can’t help myself because of my own inherent nature to be mischievous.” He snapped the fishy parade away and reached behind him as he prepared to sit, a stone throne crowned with antlers swiftly sprouting from the slabs beneath him, complete with a brightly-colored patchwork cushion.
Stunned by the random displays of the twisted creature’s unnerving powers, Lacewing entertained for a brief moment the voice of reason advising her to break off contact with him at once. But the memory of her mother’s blood staining the snow and her empty eyes once more flared into an inferno within and swiftly scorched to ash this last desperate gasp of reason away and left in its place only the festering anguish and rage. “Whatever comes, I will take the worst of it on myself, if that must be the case,” she growled. “Just get on with it and grant us power to avenge ourselves, I don’t care how you do it or what form it takes!”
The image of her mother’s once proud, lovely eyes lined with sorrow and despair as the light of life slowly left them seared Lacewing’s thoughts with grief and rage. She spat vengefully, “I’ve already paid a price far greater than you can imagine. Every bit of it will be paid in full by everything that’s hurt us… and the be-damned ponies who threw us away like refuse when they couldn’t use us anymore!”
She continued, the hurt and tears flowing freely from her, “We battled the horror of the Smooze with those cursed cowards, salvaged victory when they had no hope; but they left us behind without a thought in this endless winter their own petty fighting helped bring upon us all!” Lacewing shouted to Discord who had unwound himself from her and now drifted carelessly above, somehow pressing a small cloud between two graham crackers and a square of chocolate he’d had apparently conjured while his tail’s tuft screeched out a mournfully tune upon a very small violin. Her slender emerald chest heaved with the weight of bitter wrath. “They left my mother to die and me… the rest of us… to freeze after her in anguish as those demons feasted on our souls! Curse them all. Do whatever seems good or amusing to you, Discord; so long as you give us the power to have our revenge on them.”
Grinning a smile that would have curdled cream for all the sinister intent contained in the curled lips and single gleaming fang, the cruel spirit beamed triumphantly and then laughed mirthfully in the wintry air above the shivering remnant. “You’re giving me that much freedom in this request? Wonderful! I didn’t expect to be permitted to exercise my creative genius to such a complete extent! I shall make you all truly works of art, my dear!” he exclaimed in delight. Too little time did the new Queen have to consider what sly wickedness Discord might intend in that smile.
“Just do it and get it over with,” Lacewing growled.
Rolling his eyes, Discord threw up his paw and talon, “Sheesh! So serious all the time! You could crack a joke now and then.”
“I’m so very sorry the threat the vile winter demons who promise imminent eternal death of mine and my remaining people’s bodies and souls doesn’t lighten my mood!” Lacewing snarled, now becoming fed up with the spirit’s casual attitude toward their dire plight.
Discord chuckled, “Well, sarcasm’s a teensy bit of an improvement, at least.” He cracked his knuckles, then his neck, and then his snout, which remained bent to the side when he spoke next, “But! As you’ve so kindly given me absolutely free range within the conditions of fulfillment of my contractual obligations, I’m going to make this worth it for you in gratitude for granting me the chance to be truly exercise my imagination! And since you’ve put me in such a good mood, I’ll even throw in an escape clause if perchance you foster second thoughts after a time. It will be perfectly simple if you decide to take it and leave off the whole endless revenge thing you’ve got going.”
Lacewing sneered, growing impatient with Discord’s babbling, “I need to such clauses. I want the power and I want vengeance.”
“Well, I’m leaving it in anyway. Use it or not, it’s up to you. You may surprise yourselves by how much you’ll change in time…” he winked slyly. “And not just on the outside. I’ll also try keep the unintended consequences to as much a minimum as I can, considering I’m a sucker for irony and I love manipulating hubris. Restraint isn’t a strong suit of mine, however, so you might want to brace yourselves! Now let’s get this show on the high-speed monorail to Weirdsburgh, population: Soon-to-be-you-guys!” With a guffaw he rose into the air and hovered over the mountain cleft. The constant gales instantly ceased and an eerie silence took hold while the sunset’s gleam unnaturally dimmed into surreal pale pastels. The eerie pall of Discord's otherworldly power stretched forth and was perceived by the swarm of searching windigoes who abruptly fled the mountain, for they sensed what seemed a demonic predator far greater than themselves and, as a jackal might upon the approach of a lion, felt it wise to keep their distance until the great beast's hunger was sated. A lone, terrible brightness leapt in crimson and gold flames gleaming vividly in Discord’s wild eyes as he began to intone in a voice which seemed to ooze from the everywhere around the Flutters and pierce their very bodies with its irresistible and unearthly power.
“Oh Flutter Ponies once bright and gay; glory of your equine world;
Shall you one day rue this day, when away your dainty forms you hurled?
Loveliness lost, now shall they see, what was hatching deep inside;
At once glance, all shall flee; unless in stolen lives you hide;
Of this fearful form you’ll bear, I serve simply as the guide!
Once for good, twice for ill, I bid the power, do as you will!
Let it wind and twist and tear, shape the hatred and despair!”
Lacewing heard loud whimpers behind her as Discord chanted, his eyes alight with savage delight and flashing with otherworldly fire. Whipping her head around, she beheld her small herd, many having tried to flee the frightening Spirit of Chaos before being fallen to the frigid rock clenching their teeth which in several individuals had already wrenched forward in their mouths and fused with their hardening lips into horrid, dark fangs. The colors of her subjects faded before her eyes and she beheld a glittering brightness stream from their bodies into the snow-flecked wind. Their beautiful fur was falling out, revealing a glossy black surface beneath. Sizzling sounds filled the air along with choking cries, bubbles in random places across all the bodies and limbs of the transforming Flutterponies swelled and burth, spilling frothy garishly green ooze as though acid were eating through them from within. A stab of searing pain shot through Lacewing’s chest and she crumpled with them, gasping out, “What… have you… done to us?!”
Discord barely regarded her with a smirk and darkly chuckled, "Exactly what you asked me to do", as he continued, dancing about above them as the sky warped and flickered between colors both garish and surreal.
“Sweet flowers’ nectar once did sate, fulfilling all your daily needs;
Now thy hunger shan’t abate, unless upon other’s love you feed.
The emptiness within your souls, with which you are doomed to live;
Manifest in these many holes, to close only when you can forgive.”
A haggard scream cut through the air above the moans and cries of the tortured Flutters. Lacewing had staggered back to her feet, only to throw her head back in agony as her forehead split open and a pitch-colored finger of ichor reached skyward, curving and recurving, tapering to a jagged point. Teetering, she listed to the side as her limbs cracked and stretched, growing angular and insectile while similar changes took place in all her remaining people.
Above, his own form momentarily distorting into a thing unspeakable in appearance as he delved into the utmost depths of the terrible power his fractious aspects could wield, revealing his true nature as a form without form that would drive most mortals mad if they dared stare into its existential nonbeing, Discord completed his spell.
“The lust for love will drive your thirst, a rift never to be sealed;
For unless the greatest hole you fill, never shall your heart be healed.”
The cries swiftly decreased in number and volume with these final lines, consciousness fleeing the tormented souls for a few blessed moments while their abominable benefactor completed their alterations. Save for the mournful wind again whipping through the pass, silence fell as the last echo of the demonic beast’s spell slipped from his forked tongue and finished his dire work, regaining the far more pleasing form of the chimeric assemblage of animal parts.
Nothing moved as Discord drifted downward and, unsteadily settling upon his feet, appearing momentarily weary himself, gazed upon the results his completed bargain with satisfaction as the former Flutters lay sprawled in their hideous new bodies. “I hope you appreciate the work I’ve put into you all. It’s been an unthinkably long time since I expended myself to such an extent. Weaving so deep and intricate an enchantment isn’t for the faint-hearted, you know! Oh, but yes! I’ve really outdone even myself with this! Of course, I daren’t take all the credit. Such LOATHING and MISERY inside you, along with all that bitter hopelessness! All I really had to do was give those seedlings an avenues for their own wickedness and the shape practically took itself, nothing any average devil worth his salt couldn’t do, honestly. I can’t wait to see how you put your new talents to work. THAT’S where the fun will really be! Oh, such chaos you’ll be capable of causing! Such disharmony you could sow!” He regarded Lacewing with a critical eye, peering through the creosote casement into the venomous magical fires swiftly kindling deep within the hollow of her breast. “And ohhhhhh boy! You’ll grow powerful too. Yes yes YES! You could become SOOOO fiendishly powerful if you play your cards right.” He flipped a figure-eight in the chilly air and then, spotting something, floated down wearing a beret and carrying an easel upon which he lifted a dollop of glossy tar with a paintbrush and dabbed it upon a lone spot of stubborn fur left on Lacewing’s grotesque new form while squinting this way and that. “Missed a tad… juuuuuuust… there! Finished! What a masterpiece of mayhem! Ta ta, for now dear mantis mares… hmm, preying ponies?” He tapped his chin thoughtfully before shrugging, “I’ll leave the official designation to your own imaginations. Erase those miserable winter demons at your leisure, I have no interest in them at all. Have fun and get those nasty ponies back! And above all else… “ he leaned over his surreal works of art with a savage grin, “…be sure to entertain me.”
With a snap of his lion’s paw and a brief crackling flash, Discord vanished with an echoing laugh, leaving the deformed and defiled shapes of the former Flutterponies to be hidden beneath shadows in the fading twilight.