A Creator’s Gambit
Chapter 6
“Well…” Discord looked to the demolished building he had whipped the fake Faust into with his tail. “That was surprisingly easy. Honestly, even with her being a fake, I was expecting a bit more of a fight.” He turned to the foal he had been terrorizing just moments before the fake had intervened.
“Now, little one, about that fly thing,” Discord grinned, as he brought the thumb of his lion paw and middle claw together to snap.
But before he could do so, he was interrupted once more.
“Stop.” Discord growled at the sound of the voice, knowing who it was. He turned to the destroyed house as he watched a pile of rubble sift, disturbed by movement.
Emerging from the destruction, Faust stood, her once pure white coat now stained with blood and debris. The feathers of her wings ruffled, as she flared them out, making her appear larger then she already was.
“That frill-necked lizard thing you’re doing might work on ponies, fake, but it won’t work on me.” Discord stated, as Faust snorted, lowering her head and pawing the ground with her hoof. She lowered her head once more, brandishing her horn.
“I have told you Discord, I will not allow you to harm that child.” She stated, Discord narrowing his eyes to impossible amounts.
“You have more fight in you then I initially thought. Go, on then.”
Faust needed no more goading, she took off at a gallop that would have made the fastest pony in Equestria look like a sloth.
“Come on girls, we need to get the Elements and get back to Ponyville!” Twilight shouted as she galloped through the halls, ignoring the crowds of guards that flowed around them.
Four of the Elements raced behind her with Rainbow Dash flying ahead of the pack.
The rainbow maned pegasus paused mid-air, as she sucked in a breath, and then sneezed. Snot dripping out of her nose, she wiped it off with a hoof.
“S’cuse me.”
The charging alicorn continued gaining speed, but she soon found herself once more picked off the ground and slammed into a building.
“Do you want to try again?” She could hear the smug voice, as she gritted her teeth in anger, more cuts having appeared on her body, staining her once white coat even redder with dust and dirt sticking to the blood, causing her coat to appear to be a red-brown-white mix.
She once again righted herself, pulling her body from the rubble. She gave her body a shake. She lowered her head to angle her horn. She locked eyes with the manifestation of pure chaos.
“Until I die.” She spat.
Patient X sat in his room, undisturbed by the staff of the hospital. Staring at the TV. Had he been in his proper body, his snout would furrowed and he’d be shaking in anger. Well… more like vibrating at a million times a second, but close enough. He had to settle for shaking.
A white coated doctor walked in, a clipboard held in his hands while he looked at it. “Alrighty, sir, I’m here for a checku-” The doctor stopped at the sound of metal rattling, as he tore his gaze to observe his patient, he jumped back slightly, as he saw the bed his patient was in was shaking, though the body of the patient seemingly unmoving. He was about to call for some nurses to come and help, until the patient started speaking.
What language it was, the doctor had no idea, but something in his very soul told him he needed to get away.
So, he did the only reasonable thing…
“Oh… fuck this.” He muttered and with that, he twirled on his heels and raced out of the room, screaming.
Two nurses at a station watched in confusion as the young doctor sprinted down the hall, coming to an intersection as someone was pushing a patient-laden gurney across. Not stopping at all, the doctor dove over it and rolled on the floor, quickly getting back to his feet and screaming the entire time as he seemingly raced for his life to a stairwell, slamming past the door and out of the sight of the staff who were watching the doctor have what appeared to be a mental break-down.
“The fuck was that about?” One of the nurses asked her fellow, her Irish accent heavy.
“I’ve got no idea, I think he was supposed to check up on Mr. A-” The nurse stopped herself, as she caught a glass that had somehow magicked its way to the edge of the desk and had begun to fall as she began the patient’s name. “I mean, Patient X.”
Although her exterior demeanor didn’t show it, the Irish nurse blanched as she heard the patient’s name. She was still perturbed over the incident that had occurred the other day.
“I’ll uh, I’ll go check on him, then. Make sure the doctor didn’t do anything weird to him.” She stated, though if she was going to be honest with herself, if anyone was doing anything to anyone else, she was certain it was going to be the patient doing something to the doctor.
She walked the short distance to the patient’s room and knocked on the closed door. “Come in.” The voice she knew all too well sounded. She edged the door open and peered in.
“Is everything alright, sir? The doctor just…” The nurse cringed at the memory. “Stopped by real quick while rushing out of the building for some important business and let us know he wasn’t able to check up on you.”
The patient smiled. “I’m perfectly alright. Thanks for checking.” The nurse nodded and closed the door, hurrying away, thankful to be away from the weird patient.
The real Faust, though not in her proper body looked back to the TV, as she watched the replacement Faust battle Discord.
Well… “battle” is such a strong word… more like aid Discord in training by being his punching bag.
She had to admit, it was a pretty pathetic display of his ability to fight but she had to admire his spirit!
Not that spirit was going to help him much. She watched as he was thrown into a building once more, but unlike the last times, he didn’t immediately get back up.
Seconds passed, then minutes. Faust frowned.
Celestia and Luna shot through the air like a pair of bullets. The Elements trailing behind them on pegasi pulled carriages. They knew Discord was in Ponyville, why he chose there of all places to start, they had no idea. But the fact that he was in Ponyville was the only information the Diarchy had received. The report contained nothing about seeing their mother.
“Don’t worry, Luna. She’s more than capable of handling Discord by herself!” Celestia shouted to her sister.
“If she is, then why is Discord loose in Ponyville?”
Celestia bit her lower lip. “A test, she wants to make sure we’re still capable of protecting our ponies.”
“Then we’re not doing a very good job of it, are we?” She shot back.
Celestia stopped talking, as they continued to race towards Ponyville. As they reached it, they circled around, surveying. They saw several demolished buildings, no idea what had caused them, even the Mayor’s office was a pile of rubble.
And there, Discord sat in the middle of the town, in a throne. A bad parody of the general shape of his body, unnaturally long with gems imitating eyes at the top of the back of the seat.
The two sisters landed in front of him, noting the blue checkerboard road that collapsed under their hoofs, exactly like mud, staining their coats and hooves blue and black.
“Discord!” Luna roared, rearing up on her rear hooves.
“Ah, hello Luna. It’s very nice to see you once more. How long has it been? A thousand years, I seem to explicitly not remember seeing you the last time I escaped.”
“We do not have time for your games, where is mother!” She shouted.
“You mean that fake?” Discord gestured to various piles of destroyed buildings. “She’s in one of those, I’m not sure which one. I stopped paying attention after the seventieth time I swatted her away. But now, oh, happy joy! You all are here! And you’re much more fun to play with then someone like her!”
“Discord.” Celestia cut her enraged sister off, moving closer to the spirit of chaos. “We do not have time for your games. The Elements are nearly here and we’re here to stop you from wreaking anymore havoc.”
Discord guffawed at the implication. “My dear Celestia! I am Discord! You will find that Havoc is a very distant relative of mine who’s currently trapped in a Human’s brain! He’s a complete amateur, a new-born! He’s not even a year old, yet!”
Luna cocked an eyebrow. “What is a Human?”
“It doesn’t matter what is and isn’t a Human, my dear Luna! But what does matter is th- Ooh! Look, the Elements are here!” Discord cheered as he watched the chariot carrying the six mare set down, Luna and Celestia twisting their heads to watch.
Twilight was the first to jump from the carriage, racing to be by her mentor’s side.
“Princess, we’ve got the Elements. Come on, girls!” She shouted as she watched the others line up beside her, ready to blast Discord once more into stone. Discord snapped his claws, turning the chariot into a pumpkin and the pegasi who were carrying it into rodents of very unusual size. The former pegasi became spooked and raced off with the pumpkin in tow.
All of the Elements had lined up next to Twilight, all except one. The cerulean pegasus known as Rainbow Dash shot to Discord, pushing her face against Discord’s and locking eyes with him. The hybrid merely had a smug grin on his face.
“Yeah, and we’re gonna beat your sorry flank like we did last time! I ho- Hey! Put me down!” She shouted, as Discord picked her up by foreleg, easily holding on as she attempted to escape by flapping her wings harder. “Your mind control won’t work on us this time, Discord! You can’t stop us.”
The draconequus merely laughed. “Right you are! My dear pegasus, I can’t manipulate you any longer. However!” He raised his lion’s paw, a claw extending from it as Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “You’ll work just fine.” He stated with an evil grin.
He swiped, tearing a hole into the fabric of space and time. Without hesitation, he deposited the pegasus into the tear. A needle and thread appeared, stitching the tear closed.
“One of the greatest weaknesses of the Elements,” He spoke. “Is the fact that you need all six bearers to utilize them. They’re like a chain. And as soon as you break one link, what happens to the chain?”
He glared the shocked group. “The chain is useless.”
He clapped his hands, still seated on his throne. “What, you thought you could beat me three times using the same trick? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” He held his paw to his chest. “But fool me three times and I might as well not be a villain at all!”
He snapped his paw, as chocolate rain began to pour down harder, Discord slipped on a pair of sunglasses and pushed an earpiece into his ear. “Now, I do believe you said you all were here to stop me? Well, let’s begin.”
Luna was first to move, a brilliant blue beam shooting from her horn, Discord, never moved, a hole merely forming in his chest where the beam was going to hit, harmlessly passing through him.
A white button up shirt paired with a black tie with a silver tie clip, a black jacket covering the ensemble appeared on Discord’s torso.
“Let’s fight then.” With that Discord disappeared, By this time, Luna and Celestia both had their horns alit, scanning the area for any sign of Discord.
“Twilight, get the others out of here.” Celestia stated, Twilight gasping.
“But Princess Celestia, what about Rainb-”
“We’ll deal with her later, young Twilight.” Luna shot. “Just get the others out of here and to safety. We’ll deal with Discord.”
“But the Elem-”
“We’ll figure something out, Twilight, now go!” Celestia shouted, as the purple unicorn nodded, a bright light flashed as the teleported herself and the remaining Elements to safety.
However, as Twilight disappeared, Discord appeared, wrapping his arms around Luna’s barrel and lifting her into the air, causing her horn to discharge and her to let off a shout.
He threw her into a building, as Celestia let loose her magical charge, dodging it.
He reappeared to the newly destroyed building. “Wew! Alicorns make great bowling balls.”
Luna shot out of the pile of debris, letting loose a volley of magic, all of which Discord sidestepped.
Celestia ripped up the patch of earth he was standing on with her magic and immediately threw it, Discord merely popping out of existence and then reappearing once more on the ground.
“Oh come now. This is what you all call fighting? This is almost more pathetic then what that fake was doing, at least she was giving it her all.”
Another shot was loosed by Celestia, as Discord teleported, reappearing wrapped around Celestia’s barrel, as he rest his elbows on non-existent pillows. He looked Celestia in the eyes.
“The goddess of the sun!”
He disappeared as Celestia slammed herself into a building in an attempt to hit him.
Reappearing, grasping onto the Luna’s shoulders. “The goddess of the moon!”
He disappeared as Luna snapped at him, leaving a statue of sand in his place. Luna quickly spat it out, hacking the sand out.
He reappeared floating in mid-air. “Truly, if you two and that fake are all that Equestria has to defend itself, it’s a miracle you have lasted this long!”
He raised his arms into the air.
“Now! Smooze! To me!”
A green blob appeared out of thin air, and before the two sister’s could react, tentacle of slime wrapped around their barrel, pulling them to the mass of slime, and pulling them into the main body.
“It is good fortune for you two, as well as that rainbow one, that the author of this story has decided to keep it from requiring a mature tag!” Discord shouted. “In any case Equestria is now mine! And there is nothing that can stop me!”
By this point, the Faust currently in the patient’s body was seething mad.
Where was he. He had her body, he had her abilities. But he seemed unwilling to realize them.
And now Discord had captured her two daughters and one of the Elements.
She was going to have to deal with this personally.
Underneath a pile of rubble lay the body of Faust. Her once pure-white coat now almost entirely a brownish color due to the dried blood and dust. Her mane a tangled mess.
Blood leaked steadily out of her nose. The last time she had been flung, her head had directly impacted a support beam. While she may have won the fight against the support beam, her victory was pyrrhic, resulting in her being knocked unconscious.
Her chest rose and fell steadily as the sounds of battle had raged beyond her cage of debris, her eyes closed shut as her body desperately recuperated.
A clap of thunder roared, as lightning struck the ground near her, setting some of the debris on fire.
The closed eyes snapped open, revealing a pair of light blue eyes, raging with the fury of a god.
Discord had continued to laugh evilly for a good minute while the two sisters watched from their gooey prison, neither of them entirely sure how they were able to breath but thankful nonetheless for the good fortune.
However, a godly clap of thunder interrupted him, as lightning struck the ground.
“Hmm, odd. I don’t remember summoning any thunderstorms.” He stated, as he watched the roiling skies, clouds forming and overtaking his chocolate milk rainclouds.
He snapped his claws, willing the storm to go away. But it didn’t.
Frowning he did it once more. And again. And again. And again. But the storm refused to bow to his magic.
A pillar of pure white light shot from the pile of rubble that used to be the Mayor’s office.
“Discord.” A voice that made Discord quiver sounded. Speaking with a tone that seemed to chill and heat at the same time the very space Discord occupied.
He slowly turned around to face the pillar of light, now reaching the heavens, blanching as a pony form descended from it.
Faust, despite being dirtied, battered and bruised, her coat stained brown in contrast to its natural pure white color, landed gracefully in front of the Smooze and Discord. Standing tall and proud, wings unfurled to their full glory.
For a moment, Discord looked worried, but he shook his head.
“You think I’m falling for this, Fake? I know you’re trying to bluff your way out of this.” He bellowed, and whipped his tail out to send Faust flying once more.
But this was not to be, as his tail was caught in an aura of blue magic. And before the god of chaos could react, he soon found himself being dragged through the dirt and towards the very enraged alicorn.
She held up him by his tail, upside down, and locked her blue eyes with his red.
“You.” She growled through clenched teeth.
A sphere of blue magic was suspended through the air, as a tearing sound was heard and Faust opened the fabric of space and time. A quivering blue coated, rainbow-maned pegasus drenched in slime was pulled from the tear, enveloped in a blue aura, and gently deposited on the ground as the tear was instantly repaired.
“You and I have a lot to talk about.” She stated, as both she and Discord disappeared in a flash of light.
The Smooze also disappeared as the two sisters fell gracelessly to the ground with a synchronized “oomph”.
“Sister,” Luna spoke. “What just happened?”
Celestia merely shook her head. “Pity Discord, Luna. Pity him”
The two sisters watched as a blue wave of magic washed over the world, repairing the damage done by Discord and returning those transformed back into their proper forms.
Discord dropped to what appeared to be the ground in a white void, grunting.
Faust, meanwhile, dropped softly.
“Oh, ma’am! You’re back, it’s so nice to see you!” Discord nervously mumbled, as he tried to avoid the glare being shot his way by the discolored alicorn.
“You threaten my planet with never ending chaos.” She began.
“Ah, yes, well you see abo-” Discord’s explanation was cut off.
“You send one of my daughters to a pocket dimension inhabited by nothing more than a giant slime monster.” She closed the gap on the hybrid, pushing her face into his, her horn dangerously close to goring his skull.
“Then you have another slime monster capture my eldest daughters.” She shoved her hoof into his chest. “First of all, what is it with you and slime monsters.”
Before Discord could defend himself, she cut him off. “And then you go and ruin my vacation!” She snapped, pouting petulantly.
“Whu?” Was all Discord could manage.
“Yes, Discord, that “fake” you were tossing around wasn’t a fake… for the most part. The body was most certainly mine.” She gestured waving a hoof over her discolored coat. “But the person inhabiting was a local from another planet, a local I… may or may not have accidentally mutilated.”
She looked at the shocked look on Discord’s face. “Yes, Discord, I have been watching this entire time and I have seen everything.”
“That’s not fair!” Discord cried, pointing at her. “You’re a literal Deus Ex Machina!”
Faust raised a hoof. “I was hoping he would defeat you for himself, I only intervened when I realized you were going to interfere with my entertainment.”
“Your entertainment?”
“Yes, my entertainment. I gave him my body to run around in while I heal his body. I put some… restrictions on it to make it more entertaining.”
“So, what are you going to do now?”
Faust rubbed her chin with her hoof. “If you’re asking if I’m going to punish you, the answer is yes.” Before Discord could protest she raised her hoof once more. “By ordering you to return to Equestria and play nice.”
Discord crossed his arms. “And how do you know I won’t just spill your secrets to your daughters when I get back?”
Faust fixed him with a stare that only a god could muster. “Because, Discord, if you ruin my fun I will repossess this body and deal with you myself. Have you ever heard of a Human myth about a being called Prometheus?”
Discord shook his head.
“He was an immortal Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. As punishment for this, the gods chained him to the side of a mountain where every day an eagle would come and feast on his liver, forcing him to live in eternal torment.”
Faust’s face became like stone. “If you betray my secret, Discord, I will make Prometheus’ punishment look like utter bliss in comparison. Understand?”
Discord merely nodded.
“Good, now, we must be going. I have spent far too much time away from our friend’s body as is and I need to get him back into mine!”
Luna and Celestia were comforting the traumatized Rainbow Dash, their wings securely enveloping her.
“And then, the slime just… felt so gross! It doesn’t feel right in your mane or in your tail or in your coat, it’s horrible! And it gets everywhere! Everywhere!” Rainbow bawled out, as the two sister’s merely nodded in understanding.
A flash of light lit up the day, as Discord and Faust appeared.
“Discord!” The Two Sister shouted, raising and forming a protective wall in front of the still sobbing pegasus, theirs horns glowing with magic
“Mother!” Luna shouted, as she noticed the very discolored alicorn standing next to the draconequus.
The alicorn raised a hoof, causing the two sisters to look at her oddly, but clear the magic in their horns.
“Discord,” The queen spoke. “Don’t you have something to say to them?” Discord grumbled something, as Faust gave him a light push with a hind leg and stated. “Prometheus.”
Discord rubbed his paw, looking away from the two sisters. “I’m sorry for trying to overthrow you and take over the world and convert it into nothing but chaos, Lulu, Tia.”
“I believe you also have something to say to Rainbow Dash, dear.” Faust stated, as she gestured with her hoof for the two sisters to move aside, revealing the terrified pegasus.
“I’m sorry for sending you to a pocket dimension inhabited solely by a slime monster,” Faust gave him a light nudge at his pause. “Rainbow Dash.”
“Very good, now return to Canterlot and wait where I told you to wait. I’ll deal with you in just a little while.”
Without needing more prompting, Discord disappeared with a snap of his claws. Faust took a look around, looked at her daughters. Then her eyes closed as she fell forward.
“Mother!” Celestia shouted, as both she and Luna caught the collapsing queen in their magic. The two raced to her and were relieved upon seeing her chest rising and falling steadily.
“She’s okay.” Celestia spoke. “She just fainted. We need to get her back to Canterlot.
“Princess Celestia!” The Sovereign of the Sun looked to the skies to the skies, spotting a chariot carrying her student.
“Princess Celestia!” The unicorn shouted as the chariot landed once more. She jumped off it. “I brought reinforcements!” Indeed, several squads of pegasi landed right behind her.
“But, for some odd reason,” Twilight looked at the bloodied alicorn being held up by both Luna and Celestia. “I don’t think you’ll need them.”
“Guards, come! Help us put mother on the chariot! We need to get her back to Canterlot for rest.” Luna spoke, and several guards quickly moved to the assist the delicate operating of moving the unconscious queen.
It was going to be a long flight home.