“Are you going to lie there all day?” The elder princess felt a sharp talon poke into her side. She had been having a terrible nightmare. Her sister had broken their sacred oath and her beautiful city had been destroyed. The worst part was that it had been all her fault. She lazily attempted to open her eyes. She found the left one would not cooperate at all, no matter how hard she tried, it refused to open. The right eye, however, did open and to a very unsettling sight. She was in a room in the castle. She was jolted awake and scrabbled to stand to her hooves. She could not help but unleash a rather animalistic growl of anger at the entity before her. She spit on the ground before whispering his name. A low laugh rumbled throughout the room. “There you go, sleepyhead. Glad to see you’re up and about again. It’s been almost a whole day since you were last awake. Not that anypony could tell with the way things are right now.”
“What do you want, Discord?”
“Oh it’s not about what I want but rather what I already have, Celestia. Oh wait, is it Helia now?”
“You’re here to gloat!”
“Oh you know me all too well, my sweet.” Discord chuckled. He pulled up a large trunk and sat down. “So! Shall we begin?” Discord crossed his legs and snapped his fingers. Nothing seemed to happen and Discord looked confused. He snapped his fingers again and waited for a moment. His expression had changed to something the Alicorn rarely saw, worry. His eyes rolled upwards to glance at his horns. “Hm…” He snapped his fingers again in rapid succession. Then he seemed to come to a sudden realization. “Oh! Right! The deal.” He said as he ran a paw down his face. He glanced around the room searching for something. Eventually he found a book and ripped a page out. He folded the page into a paper boat and placed it on top of his head. “You’ll have to excuse me. My portal to the hat-ether is currently out of commission.” The Alicorn attempted to stand up, but quickly fell back to the ground. “Careful now, you’ve just been hit with the power of the Elements of Harmony. This is the first time that’s happened to you hasn’t it?” Discord chuckled. “It’s about time you joined our little club! Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. It left a spicy taste in your mouth didn’t it? Never quiet understood why the elements did that. It must be the rainbow part of the spell.” Discord shook his head. “You should count yourself lucky really. You’re not made of negative magic like I am; you actually have a physical form. You have the luxury of only being depowered and not being turned to stone.”
“Enough. Spare me the feeble mind-games. Tell me your plan and be done with it.”
“Fine I’ll tell you, only because it was so ingenious and what fun is there in being clever if no pony can admire it? However, I can’t have you spoiling it so I’ll only tell you the parts up until now.” Discord snaked himself around the Alicorn. He placed his paw on her shoulder and stretched his claw out as if gesturing to the future. “Picture it only a few months ago… me… encased in STONE.” Discord gritted his teeth. “You know, because you had your student seal me in STONE.” He clenched his claw tightly. His arm trembled with anger. “Anyway while I was sitting in STONE, you know that thing you had me imprisoned in?”
“I get it.”
“Sorry, it’s a bit of a sore spot, if you didn’t know.” Discord exhaled to calm himself down. In less than a second he was smiling widely again. “Anyway, there I was, lost in thought on how I could possibly get my revenge for… well you know… that horrible thing you did….” Discord chuckled. “And I must admit I was stumped. You see, I wanted something that would really get at your very core, something that would bug you endlessly down to the soul. What could really get under your coat and twist the knife? Then it hit me. Two simple words: Role Reversal.” Discord laughed. “Oh yes. I thought to myself, what could be a more meandering way to get back at you than to have you cause the chaos and I cause the harmony. You would become that which you hate.” Discord swooned. “Oh it was just deliciously brilliant.”
The Alicon lowered her head and chuckled softly at the floor. “You? You create harmony? Impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible for me. I’m Discord!” Discord laughed. “Oh it was so terribly easy. You know creating harmony is just absolutely boring, uninteresting, tedious, dull, dreary, mind-numbing, unexciting, and most of all boring. However, I did manage to make some time for fun with your student. Your fair Lady Twilight! Although she has been most ungrateful for what I have granted her, I must say you have done a terribly poor job raising her.”
“Leave her out of this!”
“Once again, I didn’t bring her into this! You did when you instructed her to wield the Element of Magic against me!” Discord scoffed. “After all, when I was encased in… well… you know…” Discord let out a low growl. “When I was trapped, I had very little resources at my disposal. I had little more than the aura of dread and destruction I can emit at short distances and of course the tiny link to the Elements of Harmony.” He laughed. “Yes you better than most would know that when the Elements are used, a fraction of the target’s power is transferred into the wielders. Just a small bit of magic finds its way into their very spectral fibers. Now for someone who is literally made of negative magic, that means part of my consciousness gets to settle in inside their wee little minds.” Discord smiled devilishly. “But you already knew that from the last time you heralded their power.”
“Twilight’s dreams! My concern was not misplaced after all!”
“Oh yes, quite so. I didn’t start with her though. I went through each and every one of their minds looking for anything I could possibly use to carry out my plan. First I tried Rarity’s mind. She’s surprisingly intelligent for one that is so vain. Unfortunately not exactly what I was looking to use. Now Pinkie Pie’s seemed like an easy target but her brain is… how can I put this, tactfully? It’s soup. Just a sloshing stream of endless disconnected thoughts. And this is coming from me, mind you.” Discord tugged at his beard thoughtfully. “I surfed around for a bit trying to see if there was some possible inner consistency, perhaps a tide of truth that would explain how she manages to say anything intelligent, but I couldn’t find one. I honestly don’t know how she manages to breathe.” Discord seemed to go teary eyed for a moment. He let out a happy sigh. “When it came to chaos it was nirvana; I almost stayed in her soupy thoughts forever in endless bliss. But it was missing something: revenge.” Discord shook his head and stuck out his tongue. “The less time I spent in there the better. I was worried I was going to lose myself in its chaos and never want to leave. After all I needed to see your smiling face once more, my little pony.”
“Hmph.” The Alicorn said.
“So by then I decided to try poor innocent Fluttershy. And well…” Discord wrinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue again. “Yick and yuck! I’ll say this: that little pony needs to find herself a mate and soon. I have never seen thoughts so dirty. I was looking for something harmonious for my little role reversal project, but I wasn’t going to find in that pit of unrequited lust!” Discord shook his head as if he was trying to fling unpleasant images out though his ears. “Now Applejack and Rainbow Dash were reasonably interesting and I almost used them in my little plot. You see both of them harbored quite a bit of fancy for the other. I might have done more, but I had just taken a peek into Twilight Sparkle’s mind and I had found something much juicier. So I put an end to little Apple-Dash. It didn’t take much, just a few dreams in the farmer pony’s head. I showed her what married life with the flyer would be like and she rejected Rainbow faster than she could hogtie any bovine!”
“You are despicable.”
“That depends on your point of view. Now Twilight’s mind was perfect. What pony better to launch my attack from than your dear student? I won’t lie; the prospect of taunting her was a large factor as well.” He chuckled. “Lady Twilight was such a powerful mistress of magic with a lonely streak. Sound familiar? Oh yes, she is absolutely the perfect mate for that sister of yours. I’ll admit when I saw the faintest hint of a crush for Woona in little Twilight’s heart I was overjoyed. There’s a reason it’s called ‘falling in love’. You see, all it takes is a little push off the cliff and it’s as unstoppable as gravity.” Discord pantomimed a shove. “That push came from just a few simple dreams. I gave her mind such a show to watch! A dream or two with a romantic outing and one or more where she can heroically save the damsel in distress works wonders on nurturing affection. Just to be safe I even threw in a few more saucy sequences. Just to be safe, of course.” Discord spun in place on one hoof. “Then you went and threw that party. Finally I had them both in the same room! It took some work but I was able to use Twilight’s magic to jump my consciousness to Luna so I could start my work there.” Discord fell out of his spin and on the floor laughing hysterically. “But there was nothing to be done! You sister had such an unhealthy obsession with your student already!” He placed his head in his claws and looked up pensively at the Alicorn. “It is terribly sad what her banishment has done to her mind, actually. She’s so lonely and afraid of getting close to others. She latched on to Twilight far too quickly, all because Twilight was the first pony to show her compassion on Nightmare Night. It probably could have been anypony really.” Discord sighed. “You really should be ashamed of what you’ve done to her. That’s why I had no choice but to make her happy. She deserves it so much. I just had to nudge Twilight in the right direction.”
“Brainwashing is not harmony.” The Alicorn snarled.
“No, no. I simply gave them a little push, but it was they who made true love!” Discord laughed. “That’s the best part. They really do love each other with such innocence and passion! Then you tried to break them up. I guess that makes you the monster, huh?”
“I’m… I’m not… I’m not the monster here!” The Alicorn stuttered as the realization hit her.
“Oh but you are. That’s was the plan. You see, I knew you couldn’t help but try to control your sister’s actions, and when she defied you, you couldn’t help but try to punish her.” Discord pressed his face up against her snout. “Tell me, isn’t it fun to cause such chaos? Doesn’t it remind you of old times? All the destruction you wrought. It must have been thrilling to let all that beautiful entropic potential flow from your hooves. And how does it feel to know that all while trying to protect your beloved kingdom you were providing the fuel to set me free?”
The Alicorn fought back a tear. “I had to uphold the code…”
“See, that’s the problem with you and your precious rules… far too inflexible.” Discord pressed his cheek to hers. “Not like me. My plans can change any time. You need to learn to roll with the punches, my little saccharine princess.”
“I’m quite certain what I will punch next.”
“Oh that’s the best part! You see after I was freed, I was able to strike a deal of sorts.”
“What pony would be dumb enough to take a deal with you?”
Discord howled with laughter. “Why your prized student of course! You see the rules of the deal are such: In exchange for stopping your chaos, the Elements of Harmony cannot be used against me.”
The Alicorn gasped. “Then…!”
“Oh I thought you’d like that. And the cheery on top? I shook hooves with honest Applejack. Even if they wanted to, your little army cannot double-cross me. If they do then the element of Honesty won’t work. I’ve thought of everything.”
The Alicorn smiled coyly. “Not everything, Discord.”
“No I’m quite certain I have.” Discord returned the smile.
“You forget there are other powers in this world besides the Elements of Harmony.”
Discord patted the top of the chest he was sitting on. “Oh you mean these?” Discord opened the chest. “These little Centaurian toys you keep in your room?” Discord pulled out three necklaces from the chest. “I’ve taken the liberty of confiscating them while you were asleep. You know being in possession of a Centaurian artifact is illegal by order of Princess Celestia.” He twirled the necklaces around his talon. “While none rival them, I’m well aware that there were other Centaur artifacts other than those blasted Elements. I’ve made sure to dispose of the dangerous ones. The feather of Elysian? Burned to ash. Tirek’s drawstring pouch? Center of the planet. The ring of searing light? I ate that one. Face it, princess. You’re options are running slim. All that’s left from this trunk are these…” Discord dangled the three necklaces in the Alicorn’s face. “Two Amulets of Null and an Amulet of Silence. It’s true, if you somehow managed to get one around my neck, these Amulets of Null would turn me right back into stone, seeing as they are designed to neutralize both positive and negative magic. Too bad there are only three in existence.” Discord dropped two of the necklaces on the ground and stomped on them. “Woops! Well there’s still one more besides these two, right?” Discord laughed. “Oh wait! That’s right you shattered one of them earlier when you banished that Storm Dancer fellow.”
“I’m not going to give up! I still have my own magic!”
“Really?” Discord fell to the ground laughing; the remaining necklace was jostled around as he failed his limbs in a full guffaw. “Oh you’re serious? Just how exactly are you planning on doing so in your depowered state, pray tell?”
The Alicorn gritted her teeth. “I don’t care how weak I am right now… Discord! You’ll never claim my kingdom for your own!”
“Your kingdom?” Discord fell backwards in laughter. “Don’t you mean Twilight Sparkle’s kingdom?” The Alicorn’s eyes narrowed. “That’s right. While you were busy inflicting madness on yourself using forgotten magic, I was hard at work.” Discord examined his claw. “It was quite easy really. Poor little Wind Hiker… or was it Stalker? Anyway, that poor little pony was frightened out of his mind after seeing you banish that other Pegasus, you know the one with the thing for knives? Wind Whatever was all ready to invoke the right of emergency ruler once you went all ‘mad-goddess’ and destroyed the city. All I had to do was go down your list of successors and whisk them away until there was only one particular pony left.”
“Where are they?!”
“Not really sure on that one. Chaos doesn’t exactly work in a predictable manner.” Discord chuckled. The Alicorn stamped her hoof. “Oh, calm down now. I’m not like you, killer. They’re safe, wherever they are.” Discord scratched his chin. “Or at least I think they are… I’m having trouble remembering if I sent them to a place that had oxygen. No wait, it was the uninhabited island I sent them to. Hm… it was either that or the planet of smoke and mirrors. Anyway it’s really not important. What matters now is that you’re not in charge of your kingdom anymore.”
“You think you’ve won? I’m disappointed in you Discord. I honestly expected more. Twilight will make a fine ruler but it matters not, I’m up and I will take my throne back and then we will find a way to stop you!”
“We’ll see about that.” Discord chuckled. “I imagine that you’ll find it very hard to ask for your throne back soon.” Discord slammed the trunk shut and turned his back on the Alicorn. “I left the Dome of Vision in your room, just in case you think it’s a good idea to try that disaster again. Other than that, the only thing that could possibly get me out of your mane is the legendary Icosaflux. Too bad that’s hidden behind a door deep in the depths of Tartarus in a chamber that can only be accessed by the pure of heart.” Discord placed a talon underneath the Alicorn’s chin. “I don’t think we have to worry too much about you getting your hooves on it anytime soon.” Discord leaned in and dropped his voice to a seductive tone. “We both know it’s been a long time since either of us have been pure….”
“It matters not how pure I am. The Element Bearers are by definition able to access such a chamber.”
Discord giggled. “Are they? Are you sure your little Twilight’s not too selfish for such an honor?”
“My student is not selfish!”
“Oh but she is. And by the end of all this I intend to prove just how selfish she can be.” Discord twirled the necklace in his paw. “Oh, Princess! If you only knew what I have planned for us, you’d just be speechless!” Discord quickly turned around and clasped the necklace around the Alicorn’s neck. “Actually, why don’t you start practicing that right now?” Discord laughed as the Alicorn wheezed. “Don’t bother. That’s an Amulet of Silence. A bit of history for your little young mind: back during the start of the Great Centaur War, Amulets of Null hadn’t been invented yet. So the Centaurs had to come up with other ways to suppress the devastating magics of their enemies. Of course you know Centaurs invented magic and in their time it was such a young phenomenon. Believe it or not, there was a time early in the war where Centaurs actually had to chant to cast their spells. Thus the Amulet of Silence was born!” The Alicorn pulled at the necklace. “Silly filly. Just like the Amulet of Null, that thing can’t be removed by the wearer. You’ll have to have somepony else take that off for you. Good luck trying to tell them to do so without being able to talk.” Discord gave the Alicorn a pat on the head. “And don’t try anything clever. It works by disrupting the part of the mind that’s responsible for communication. You’ll find it quite impossible to write your little letters as well.” Discord laughed and held up his claw. “Well now. I’m going to go watch Twilight Sparkle make a mess of your kingdom.” Discord snapped his fingers and vanished with a flash of light. “Ciao!”