Discord
Discord came shuffling out of his flash of light, heading for the kitchen.
Part of his depletion came from playing twister with Pinkie Pie – she sure knew how to bend her self, the other half came from the disappointment he would be alone tonight.
It was his first night separated from Fluttershy since the start of their relationship.
The only one with him at home was angel, Fluttershy's pet rabbit, who noticed right away he would spend the night alone with him and he didn't liked it at all.
The rabbit ran straight up to Discord and started to complain on him, waving his small paws and giving him a potion of his rabbit gibberish which only she seemed to understand.
He wasn't really in the mood to put up with the Rabbit, nagging and hammering on his leg, so he just snapped tired with his fingers – the Rabbit floated of a few meters and landed soft on the ground, but before he was able to charge on Discord once more, it got buried below a pile of giant carrots.
"That one should keep you busy" he mumbled, disappearing in the kitchen.
The fridge sure would have something to cheer him up – so he took a look inside to find nothing else than chocolate milk in all variations.
He took a moment to think about it and picked the extra strong one with full fat milk, shuffling back into the living room where the rabbit was about to crouch out below the carrot pile.
Angel was barely half way out of the pile when he started to nag at Discord again – as a shadow appeared right around him, making him look up on a even bigger stack of carrots that came crashing down on him.
Discord sat down on his favorite couch and zipped on milk.
Chocolate milk and cotton candy always make him feel better. His mother would always make him a glass of coco and his father would give him some cotton candy when he was sad, when he was a kid.
After his fourth glass he started to feel better already. Maybe it wasn't to bad to spend some time alone... he could make some chaos... or well... what more is there to do?
Most pony's would be asleep right now, his other friends are on this stupid slumber party of Twilight and his wife was with them.
What was the point in making chaos if nobody would be there to appreciate it?
"Well, i guess i had to bed soon today" he grumbled, teleporting him right into his bedroom, laying down.
Some rest would do wonders and first thing in the morning he would get over there and pick up Fluttershy. May go out with her or something... and zapping Twilight into a frog.
He found him self to have a hard time to sleep. This bed was so big all of a sudden.
Discord put his head to use what to do about it – making a plushie of Fluttershy appear in his arms.
"Not bad" he thought to him self, but it wasn't quite the same – so the small plushie vanished, making a live size one appear instead "much better".
A moment later a tape recorder appeared alongside on his desk, playing a recording of Fluttershy's voice "good night Discord" the record said "night dear" he replied and dozed off.
angel had watched the howl thing and couldn't help to be freaked out, shaking his head in disbelieve – so he decided to walk off to his own little room to get some distance between him and this maniac.
It was a silent night in all of Equestria, the fullmoon was high above, giving everything a shiver of silver. Luna sure had done a great job on this one, making it perfect for lovers all over the land to come together and enjoy this romantic view for hours to come.
Discord was sleeping well, holding tight to his wife and dreaming of things most pony's would find disturbing, when his slumber got interrupted – as his body started to shake for a moment.
"Who dares to wake me!" he grumbled, checking all around him in the dark room and clapping his hands in order to light it up.
His eyes wandered around some more but he could not find anything odd, besides all the odd things he had created himself - still he could not get rid of this wrong feeling inside.
This was the first time he felt disturbed by something being wrong, he was the Spirit of Chaos after all and making things wrong was his second nature.
So he got him self up and checked quickly the rest of the house.
Nothing was in the living room, nothing was in the kitchen and neither the fridge or the roof.
"Nobody would dare to get on my property" he thought to him self, holding his hand up to his chin.
It probably was nothing. Maybe he had caused some chaos while sleeping again? Who knew, who cares.
He was still tired and didn't really care what just had happened, so he decided to snapping himself back to bed again, over thinking once more the list of things to check. Only thing he didn't had checked was this darn rabbit, but he didn't even think about to get up again for this annoying rodent.
He grabbed onto his plushie again and cuddled up with it falling asleep again.
The sun was slowly crawling up to the firmament to bring a new morning to pony's all over the land, as the first beam of light came trough the window to wake up a snorling draconequus in his bedroom.
He stretched his legs and arms, kissing his wife as he would every morning as he noticed something was different. After he took a closer look on her, his memory came back and he realized he just had woke up a pretty good plushie imitation of his beloved wife.
He let disappear the plushie with a snarl, heading off to the shower.
When he passed by the mirror he could not help to admire himself "good morning pretty!" he said to his reflection which did wave him off and blush "oh, you charming little devil".
As he entered the shower, he grabbed the faucet to turn it a few times around, letting come out a steady flow of water. "Brrr... way to cold" he shivered and unleashed some magic to find him self standing under a lot more comfortable stream of water – in the far south of Equestria, below a small waterfall "... perfect" he said to himself, starting to hum one of his favorites songs "mmh mh cupcakes cupcakes mh mmh sweet, not sour mh mhh" making sure he was fresh and clean.
A door and a towel appeared next to him, he grabbed the floating towel out of the air and opened the door, as he walked trough he was back in his home drying him self off.
The last thing he done was brushing his teeth – a man with class never had bad breath, when kissing a lady – when he was done he picked out his fang and brushed it separately, gave it a close look and polished it one more time on his chest, before putting it back in.
"Who could resist this incredible looking beast" he said to him self as he checked once more the mirror – receiving cheers and whistling form a bunch of copy's on the other side.
He got down into the living room, the pile of carrots was still laying there untouched as he turned his heads to the clock hanging above his chimney. The clock was of course not an common one – showing himself in the center with a bright smile, his lion paw representing the hours, his griffon claw the minutes arrow.
"Looks almost as good as my lamp" he said to him self "... but now its time to pick up my wife!" he clapped his hands together in excitement and snapping him self to Twilight's home right away.
"Discord is here" he said with wide open arms, presenting him self to the crowd, waiting with closed eyes for comments, but they just didn't come. Not a single one.
As he blinked around himself with one eye, still holding his pose he noticed there was nopony in the room, so he let fall his arms with a sigh "once again a great entry wasted" he grumbled to himself, starting to walk around – but stopping just a few meters later dead in his tracks.
Something here was odd. Not just odd – wrong. Horrible wrong. More than that!
He turned back and forth and observed each centimeter of the room.
It was just like he has seen it the last time... before it was destroyed and replaced by the castle.
"Whats this all about!?" he asked out loud, starting to search the place for the others.
Zapping him self to the first floor he found only a closed door, which he started to push open slowly to take a look inside "helloooo?" - his eyes wandering trough the room, but still no one was in sigh.
There was just an room. Nopony was around anywhere. "Are you kidding me!?" he asked himself, waving his arms into the air "If that's some kind of joke, it ain't funny!" making sure he was heard in the howl house.
Now he was about to lose his temper, somepony tried to play him for a fool – nobody tempered with the Spirit of Chaos! When he would get his fingers on the joker who pulled this one of – ...oh he had so many ideas he had hold back for such a special occasion and trying out every singe one of them – might even twice!
Oh he would ... - but than his eyes started to catch on to something which his mind had not noticed before.
This wasn't a setup, this place was actually left. In fact, it looked like nopony was here for months. There was no bed to be found, the bookshelf's were empty and the dust – he took a finger and let it slide above a cupboard - was thick. He had to get a better angle on this howl thing, so he got him self outside the library, right above on a cloud of cotton candy, providing a sigh on everything and it turned out it was true – this was the library without a doubt.
Scratching his head he thought about it "...did i do this and forget about it?"
No... he was quite sure he didn't do it, he would remember – also he had more class than that, if he had done it, the castle probably would something like giant strawberry... and a flying one at that.
Discord used his magic often at random – doing things which seemed to most pony's impossible and nonsensical. This was the main reason nobody had ever questioned the way of his magic in detail. They toughed they had figured it out: it was like their magic, just a lot stronger...
This was not quite right of course.
To be fair, he had himself just little knowledge where he got all this power from in the first place – of course he had a vague idea- a feeling which was crawling up his spine when ever he used it... and to be honest, he felt better not to question it – and why should he? What he knew was assuring enough he could not ever lose them under almost all circumstances. Channeling this power was easier to him, than breathing or having a heartbeat – in fact he could stop both at will using them, without having any drawbacks to worry about.
Still there was one thing he had figured out on the very start, when it was about to channel his powers to his will: Creating objects just took a little of imagination to do so, but when it wa about living creatures and more important personality's... this was when it became complicated.
Making appear something like, lets say a bird – was still simple in itself, but it was more or less just a decoy without a will on its own and how could be other wise? It had no history, no experience to call his own and that for no desires which gone further than Discords.
Same thing was true for pony's. He could create a copy – and control it like a puppet master, but it would not be the same. So if he had to get a real pony he would reach out with his mind, expanding it along his powers all over the land till he could sense his presents – and grab it with his very though, to put it simple. It was similar to Twilight's teleportation spell, but combined with a kind of six sense... and there was the problem right now.
He could not sense his friends - neither his wife anywhere.
They used to be like bright flames in a ocean of candles in the back of his head – making out their presents was not to hard even before he knew them, since they was bound to the elements, which gave them a strong magic presents. This flames was gone and how could he tell them apart from all the other small lights? Not just that – their lights also seemed to have changed, what could had happened and even more important - why?
At this point he was more than worried. Where was Fluttershy and the others? Oh forget about the others! Where was my lovely Fluttershy!?
He sure had not a clue what to do next, so he sat on his cloud for a while trying to get a straight thought. "They was supposed to be here!" he grumbled "I bet this darn Twilight blew again one of her spells" starting once again his temper "i told this pony more than once she should quit this pesky bookmagic of hers! She just cant handle it!" the cotton candy cloud started all of a sudden to burst out in lightning and rain – chocolate one of course.
"Somepony will tell me whats going on!" he shouted to the sky – making most pony's in town aware to his appearance - as well his bad mood.
Most of them just starred at him, some scared - some confused, others just ran off home or into the next store - and a hand full brave ones dared to ignore him.
befor they could blink, he was right between them- levitating three of the ground, pointing his finger warning in front of their faces "You tell me right now, what happened to the Castle and where is Fluttershy!?"
The pony's whimpered and shivered in fear, more of the surrounding ones started to ran off when they saw what was going on.
His lionpaw reached out to the first stallion and grabbed it by his mouth "tell me", he said patiently.
"W-w-hhat?" the stallion replied paralyzed by the combination of fear and Discord powerful magic.
Discord snapped and the stallion flew right off – landing uncomfortable a few hundred meters away in a treetop.
Now it was time for the second candidate "Where is Fluttershy?" Discord said once again patiently with a snarl.
"Uhm uh i ... wh-o?" he said - just a moment before he also flew off into the tree, landing even harder than the first one.
"I was very patient..." said the kidnapper to the third one in the row, a mare that shivered all over her body "last try" he pointed on the Library "where ... is the castle and why is there an old library?" taking a deep breath, slowly raising his griffon paw.
"C-ca-stle?" she stuttered.
The draconequus face turned into a upset frown "well than..."
"W-ait!" she barely got out in time "i ...i don't know about any castle... but that l-library was always th..there".
His claw lowered himself slowly "go on..." his face drifting into curiosity.
"It i ... it was closed months ago... Mayor Mare bb-build a new one..."
"Months you say?" he though about this for a minute "Where does Twilight Sparkle life?"
The mare hesitated to answer "i....." preparing for the worst "i don't know who that is" closing her eyes and covering her fave with hooves, but instead of flying off and crashing into something, she got sat down slowly on the ground – she would not dare to look up on him till he said "you are useless, leave" so she dared to glance up from under her hooves.
He just stood there, giving his head a massage like he was stressed out.
The mare wanted to run off, but her body didn't obey, she never had been so frightened in her life – until he shouted at her "I said LEAVE!" with an earth shattering effect.
She jumped back on her hooves and ran off as fast they could carry her, heading back home ...leaving behind an angry god.
Discord knew what place to check next - and he found him self into an empty room the second time this day. Still, it was different from before- this place didn't look like it was left alone, everything was clean and tidy.
The chairs had been put up on the tables and everything had been cleaned carefully. There was no food in the display – neither anypony there who would be able to sell it.
Discord wandered around, taking a peek into the other rooms, the kitchen, the storage – only to find them in the same state: clean, but empty.
How could it? They just had celebrated here a few hours ago. To his left had been tables with food, a few steps away had to be the darn twister game he had lost against Pinkie Pie and right over there, this had been the place where everypony was busy chatting.
Everything here seemed quite unfamiliar now, like it just didn't had happened, he sure didn't had imagined it.
He snapped him self outside to the front door, finding a sign hanging on it "Closed", right next to it was a small note "Dear costumer, right now we are in holidays till tuesday, i hope you visit us then again – signed: Mr. And Mrs. Cake"
Sugarcube Corner was off the list. This was about to get more and more annoying by the minute.
What would be the next possible place? He had to rule out the city first, then he would expand it... if he had to: he would turn upside down all of Equestria.
Town by town, every single square meter and make everypony talk, if they wanted to or not. He would find out there was no doubt, it was just a matter of time and since he was immortal, he had plenty of that!
Discord picked a place right above the town middle, high enough so he could see the majority of it. He sat on the soft pink cloud of his, letting his eyes wander across the town.
The castle was gone and nopony knew about it – they truly believed it has always been like this, but how could it? The castle wasn't build yesterday!
Also, why was Sugarcube Corner closed? Pinkie usual jumped in for the holidays, when Mr. And Mrs. Cake used to be out of town. She never would let pass a chance to cheer up somepony else. This was not just a flew by chance. Everything and everypony was wrong and this feeling grabbed his guts and didn't let go.
Then his eye saw the next place he would investigate, but he had a bad feeling about it already.
Discord had pulled out a telescope out of the thin air and took a closer look; what he saw didn't get his hopes up by any means, but he had to get a look inside. He had to get sure and left no stone unturned, so he got himself right into Rarity´s Boutique.
The room he found him self in was almost completely dark, the windows had been shut close with wooden planks, almost like this building was part of a ghost town.
Since the warming sunbeams could barely find a way in the room also was surprisingly cold, almost chilly, adding even more to the impression this place was haunted.
He passed the small foyer and came to the main selling room, it was a lot bigger and several dresses was presented on mannequins. They just stood there lined up, waiting for a customer to walk up and decide which ones dress to chose, making somepony happy.
Right now they looked somehow creepy, partial hidden in the shadows... seeming to move in and out of them, when somepony walked past... waiting to get the attention they need, to be famous once more - just for this very moment they had been picked.
Discord didn't try to expect anything from this place, so why he felt so disappointed right now?
Could it been all his friends had been gone forever? He would never see the lovely face of his wife again? What would he do? Where should he go?
It was like a door in his mind had got kicked in, a door he was sure he had closed forever. It reminded him on the cold feeling and loneliness when he was turned to stone. He had listen to Celestia and so many others past the years, unable to be a part of the world around him, while time passed by.
Suddenly, he was shook out this dark thought's of his. There as a sound coming from upstairs, he almost didn't had noticed. It wasn't more than a whispering, hidden by his own footsteps before.
He hold on to his breath, trying to calm his heart, but still wasn't quite sure it was not just his imagination- playing a joke on his mind, but then there was the sound again.
It was not just a whispering, it almost sounds like somepony was sobbing.
A shiver ran down his spine, but what was he afraid of...?
This time he didn't just teleport himself up, he hadn't even though about it. The draconequus slowly sneaked trough the house like a predator, still listening to the sound coming from above.
As he was on the bottom of the stairs and about to put his hoof on the first step- he did hold in. Risking to scare of what ever was up there, was the last thing he wanted to do, so he used his magic to fly above the steps in a fast swift motion, without making a sound besides a draught, landing softly in front of the door.
Curiously his ear came close to the wooden barricade, listening in to the sound coming from behind.
Now he was sure, the sound was not just in his mind. How could it? It was so unbelievable sad to listen to. It was a slow convulsive sobbing, only stopping for a moment to whisper something he still couldn't understand.
His lionpaw slowly pushed open the door, his eye searching the room for the source of the noise, but like downstairs the room was dark and cold, so he could not see a thing in there, so he decided to get in.
As he was in the middle of the room he tried to listen in again, but the noise was now so quite he could not make out from which side it came, making him doubt he was in the right place.
He turned 360 degree all around, but there was just some unfinished dresses... an demolished bed and some more harlequins, partial laying on the ground besides stitching tools and broken glass.
Obviously somepony had cracked the big mirror and torn of the curtains. The more he looked around, the more it became obvious, that somepony had destroyed the howl first floor piece by piece.
The thin voice found his way to him "..w-why don't you leave me alohoo-one?".
Discord looked above his shoulder still not quite sure where the voice came from.
His eyes still tried to adjust to the darkness, he had narrowed it down to one corner of the room, starring on a silhouette which could been as well just another harlequin, except this one was shivering and obviously crying.
He just stood there and listen to her. He didn't enjoy it, but he wasn't sure what to say, so he stuck to a simply "Hello?".
"Le-heavee me alone" the corner pony blubbered out "i-i cant take it an-nymho -hoore", then the pony cried even louder, not able to hold her feelings.
A small shiver of light started growing in the room. Discord had used his fingertip like a match to enlighten a few candles near by he had summoned.
What the light gave away wasn't quite what he had expected... in fact, it was a lot worse. He had seen Rarity teared up once, but she had been overly dramatic back than, fetching her self in a minute, just to be confident as always.
This time it was different, you just had to see her to know she was a wreck. Her fur was rumpled from bottom to top like she had gotten her self into a fight - thinking of the appearance of the room, she probably had, but it didn't stopped there: also her mane, which was used to be styled perfect in long lures most pony's been envy about, now hung flat from her top with split ends, like it wasn't made in days or weeks.
The unicorns hooves looked also rough and she had some minor injurys all over her body, some of them seemed to came from glass cuts of some sort.
Last thing to notice was her face. Even he had to admit for a pony she usual looked quite good, showing pride and class in any situation, but right now it was quite the opposite, as she wore only some remains of make up. Black eyeliner was running down her eyes, above her cheeks, dripping down on the floor, mingling with her tears into a small puddle below her.
What miserable pile of a pony he had in front of him, that wasn't the Rarity he knew.
"What happened to you!?" he asked in disbelieve "you look horrible!".
Her sad blue eyes slowly got up and met his, but it seemed she could barely get a focus on him, leaving her head hanging again after a few attempts. This was some odd behavior for her standards, he would had expect some stinging response. Rarity never was short on words like this, but there was none, not even a small "pah" of indignation.
A small chair appear underneath him and he sat down, trying it once again in a more caring voice "Why don't you tell me what happened?".
The unicorn still did nothing else but shivering all over her body.
"You can tell me" he said calm "i'm your...... friend"- this last word almost getting stuck in his throat.
She sobbed one more time, her voice was thing and hoarse "i, i lost m ey..." starting to tear up again.
His lionpaw found carefully his way onto her back "there there... maybe we should uhmm" he tried to think of something she might liked, getting up and making a few steps trough the room "make you some... chocolate milk?" he suggested – summoning a pretty table with two cups on it.
Once again, not even reviving a comment.
Discord grumbled annoyed: why it had to be her- he barely knew anything about her!
If it had been somepony else he knew what to do... maybe he could use his mind control on her, so she would be a little more forthcoming?
Giving her a short glance he decided not to do so. Not just he had promised to never do this kinda thing again, but also she was more than emotional unstable... this could cause all kind of side-effects, might even lasting ones - which he could not risk.
"Come on, you are a genius" he said to himself "think of something classy".
The drinks on the table kept changing size, form and taste.
Chocolate milk, carrot juice, apple-tini... "no, no, no" ...hot tar... "mh, didn't had that in a while, but ...no" trying out a dozen more till he found it: tea "that should do!" being pride like he had thought of that marvelous idea on the first attempt.
"Soooo... care to join?" he asked once more, making a inviting gesture on the hot tea, which was ready to be enjoyed.
The unicorn gave the gesture a tired glance and took a deep breath, unable to resist this old habit, she was willing to join him for a glass.
Rarity had problems to get up on her hooves, her exhausted body barely able to hold her weight and as she tried to make her first step – she collapsed onto the ground and passed out.