//------------------------------// // Chapter TwentyTwo: The Origins of Discord // Story: The World is my Sandbox // by PoniesMine //------------------------------// “We are all creatures of the stars.” —Doris Lessing —— Chapter TwentyTwo: The origins of Discord —— [20th of November, 989. 9:56pm] My eyes peaked from under the coverings as I fasted them from their closed states, I yet again, found myself in the same hospital room as I was previously placed in, milk-white sheets —slightly brown due to the dirt on my fur— rested bellow me. I soon found myself peeking under the blankets to find myself not naked, which in turn induced me to expel a fortunate sigh in the process, last time, I practically scowled the doctor when I had found myself unclothed. I would not allow that atrocious act of indecency to occur again! The window to the outside world presented me with dark grey over covers, no doubt the clouds were going to perform precipitin sooner or later. It was just a matter of time. My important belongings, along with my musket was clearly in sight, situated on the small table located to the right side of the bed I lay upon. There was no point in staying in my current position, I may as well wait and get back to my duties as soon as possible. With that small thought procedure, I pushed with my two front legs on the white fabric, and hauled myself over the edge….only to completely fall off the bed, and provoke a loud sound THUMP to eco throughout the space. “FUCK!” The prospect may not have hurt, really, at all. But, the annoying realisation that this action was the result of still not maintaining the motor functions of my back legs. Which in layman's terms, for you simple-minded idiots, my lower body was still paralysed, and the only way I could possibly fix it, would be to somehow kill myself and respawn from a biological fabricator, something that these birdbrains would defiantly prevent me from accomplishing. Well, this took an interesting turn of events. Now I’m at a slightly lower disadvantage in compassion to previously, the power scale, however, is still at manageable levels, around 1.74x10^9 to 1 ratio. Nothing too bad, if I’m totally honest. Due to the overloading abundance of sound amplitude, as a result from me harassing the floor, a griffon nurse spirited into my room, and saw the state of which my body was suited in, a tangled mess on the ground. I glanced up and was able to easily discover her facial expression with my overwhelmingly superior intellect, she was giving me the ‘Are you fucking serious?’ look. Nevertheless, I ignored that discouraging facade and proceeded to pull, slowly but surely, my limp body toward the entrance with my front hooves. I could easily imagine her rolling her eyes at this predicament, as in the next second, she wrapped her talons around my mid-section, so I did anything any other person would do in a situation similar to this. “Piss off!” This seemed to surprise her, and as a result, she accidentally let go of go, and so, I continued on my merry way. Well, that was until she collected her thoughts and decided to question my intelligent actions, “You know, you could hurt herself doing that.” “I am aware of that.” She clicked her tongue, “I could strap some wheels to your back legs if that would make moving easier.” “Shut up, I don’t need your pity.” The nurse in response just shrugged and walked out of the room, no doubt to return to her duties…or retrieving more griffons to help subdue me. Either way, I’ve got about three minutes before anyone can hinder my current mission to escape, may as well use that time to it’s fullest extent. And so, I attempted to haul myself over the grotty ground as fast a physically possible, speeding up the process. That was until another voice disturbed my enterprise, causing me to momentarily pause, a male voice to be definitive, “Does this have a purpose?” “No.” There was a brief pause, as I continued to shuffle towards the exit. “You can stop that now,” vocalised the voice. “No thanks.” I could imagine the being performing a shrug, “Whatever, I’ll just sit here then.” This statement was followed up by the scuffling of a paper bag, and the definitive crush of something being eaten, this annoying sound persisted, irritating me, similar to the buzzing of a mosquito in an ear. Of course, I attempted to outsource this noise by manufacturing much heavier thumps from pulling myself across the floor, but every time I performed this, the being in question, would purposely make even louder crunching noises. Eventually, I couldn’t take it, so I took a crack at glancing over my shoulder, to perceive just who would dare to annoy me to this extent and hopefully give them a persuasive scolding. This expression was, nevertheless, pushed in prospect, as the being that was speaking to me wasn’t another nurse like I assumed, but an entirely different creature. He (what I am concluding at least) was a mildly strange organism, with mixed matched body parts from other animals, a snake and eagle just to name a few, although his appearance wasn’t strange to any extent, the fact he was floating in the corner of the room, with a bag of sweets next to him, certainly was. This new prospect only slightly surprised me, I honestly wasn’t expecting anything like this to be bothering me today. My brain fortuitously expressed this by momentarily widening my eyes very slightly. However, this extra width was quickly dispelled and transformed back to normal. Wait a second…the description of this guy sounds familiar…Wasn’t a creature like this briefly mentioned in one of the many experiments hosted on this planet? This guy has gotta be one of those dark energy experiments the scientists nearly 2000 years ago preformed. I honestly don’t think I need to contend with an accident made by people who have probably outsourced their use by now, there’s no point dealing with something that had long ago dissipated into history. And so, I continued to shuffle forward, in the meantime, I pretended that this being wasn’t even there in the first place. I think he was honestly surprised I disregarded his appearance so quickly, “I’ve been waiting to talk to humans for a very long time now.” I ignored him. He shrugged, “I guess you’re wondering how I knew you were a human?” If I could stab him right now, I would, “Not really.” I guess that reply did surprise him, as for the first time in the last session, he had remained quiet for an extended period of time, perhaps attempting to formulate a response to my answer, “I had always thought humans as being more curious, with them poking a prodding me on numerous occasions.” He paused. “Aren't you at least a little curious?” “No.” The creature sighed, seemingly halting any small chit chat, for the time being, I could hear him moving around and muttering in small bursts underneath his breath, “Stupid humans, always so ignorant and prideful…” He sighed once again, boldly expelling his annoyance to nobody but himself, “You do realise you have left your stuff here, I mean,” repeated shambling could be apprehended, “What is this small back box anyway? A computer?” Recurrent metallic rumblings continued to reverberate within the room, until, he started mumble underneath his breath once again, “If it is, it’s certainly the most advantaged computer I’ve ever seen, I mean, where’s even the on switch?” “Don’t touch my stuff,” I grunted. It was at this point I was practically in the hallway, so I continued to crawl down the new space directly towards what would hopefully be my immediate death. Sadly, It would’ve been, if I weren’t for three nurses, including one from earlier, standing in my way, “Where do you think you’re going?” I chose to ignore them. That appeared to be the only answer they needed, as I could feel a multitude of talons grabbing hold of me in different areas, and to slowly haul me upwards into the air. I was not feeling comfortable. Evidently, they all marched back toward my bed, and placed me gently on top, as to apparently not hurt my wellbeing. These actions were followed up by slowly sliding the milk coloured sheets over my apprehended body. When I’m out of here, those griffons will pay for taking my own self-control from me, nobody ever does that, individualism and freedom are two of the most important aspects of society, and forcibly chosen to perform a certain action, no matter if the people think ‘it’s for your own good’ limits the options available to the individual, and thus, to an extent, free will. I hate this society’s ethics. By the time I had run that notion through my cerebrum, the nurses had already left the space, along with that being that was annoying me previously. Unquestionably, I thought he had departed, but apparently, the creature just reappeared in the corner again, the same spot where he had appeared initially. He gave the impression of attempting to hold in a laugh, his chest was moving up and down at an abnormal rate, and he held a paw over his muzzle to cover his struggling expression. My scowl fixed that issue for him. “Oh, sorry,” he patted himself quickly, “I was just….thinking of a really funny joke! Wanna hear it?” I honestly don’t have the patience to deal with this guy’s antics, “No.” He visibly deflated, and crossed his arms, “For the first time in over 2000 years, I finally have the ability to talk to a human, something that I had been looking forward to for my entire life, and this is how I am treated? It’s disgraceful.” In your opinion, it is, “What do you want?” “What I want?” He placed a talon to his chest, “What I want, is to go with you. To get off this stupid planet and fly with the stars. To see what is essentially unseeable, and to experience something that I have never had the pleasure of attaining, to be overwhelmed with curiosity. I have already observed everything that this planet has to offer; I want something new, something that is completely untainted by the love of Celestia and her ponies.” He floated there as if waiting for a response. However, this hopeful facade was instantaneously shattered as I reposed with a disconnected attitude, “No, that’s defiantly not going to happen.” “Please! I beg you!” He shook his talons together and landed on the floor with a thump, tantamount to in prayer, his lip trembled like an earthquake. I just raised a singular eyebrow, I was not expecting the situation to transform into something of this regard, in the end, nevertheless, my curiosity got the better of me, not to mention I was stuck in bed so there wasn’t much else I could do for the time being, and so, I sighed, "Why the fuck would you want something like that?” The creature in question wiped his eyes of the surprising quantity of moisture, “For me to answer the question, I’m going to have to tell you a story. Now, around 2000 years ago when hu—“ “I’m going to have to stop you right there,” I interrupted him, “if this is going to be one of those stupid stories with a cheesy ending, I’m not intre—“ The being shook his head, “I guarantee you, it’s nothing of the sorts.” I suppose I could withstand this story for a short period of time, but if it goes beyond five minutes, or this story contains any hugging or love bullshit, I will literally punch him in the face, or stab him, whichever one I feel is most appropriate at the time. “Whatever,” I said. The creature cleared his throat, “Alright then, around 2000 years ago when humans were experimenting on this planet, I wa—“ Name: Fevour 1267 or ‘Harmony.’ GPS Coordinate: 25° 16' 27.8364'' S 133° 46' 30.4716'' E Time: 2979 AC Two thousand years previously. “Positions people, initiation of Experiment 144 will begin in one minute,” a white middle-aged women spoke into a microphone, it’s data transmitted to speakers throughout the facility, this allowed all personal concerning her area to hear the precautions. “Dr Anderson,” She asked the man next to her, “have the preparations been completed?” “Yes ma’am,” he replied, “all animal species are located within the chamber.” She observed at him, “Could you please update that list to contain a Visapin? I had the liberty of placing it in there with the others.” The other scientist simply stared at her, “Are you crazy??! Why the fuck would you put a sapient creature with the other animals in the testing chamber??! I thought we both agreed on that anything that can literally speak, should not be tested on in hazardous situations!” “Times change,” she shrugged, “besides, we don’t know if this is experiment is dangerous or not, so we can’t classify it as such, I’m standing within the required parameters, Dr.” “You still can’t be serious!” “Dr Anderson,” she scowled, “I'm doing this in the name of science, to better humanity, no experiment can ever go too far.” The other man was speechless. The unnamed lady leaned into the microphone, “Begin testing, set dark energy frequency parameters mentioned in stage one, fix amplitude at level two, increase by 0.05-metre intervals every two seconds.” A small holographic projection appeared in the air in front of them, it detailing a light hue blue, presenting the aforementioned testing chamber clearly, and several different species of animals, along with a strangely shaped bipedal creature, were all strapped together using graphene constitute. Nothing would be able to escape for the time being. The first few seconds, nothing seemed to happen, nothing changed, even the animals were quiet, there was absolutely no struggling, even from the bipedal Visapin, it was as though each individual creature knew that this would eventually be their ultimate demise. However, as time went on, each creature expressed a clear amount of uncomfortableness, this uncomfortableness eventually transformed into pain, and the pain turned into agony. Each expression with the chamber was screaming. Skin, scales and fur appeared to have been merging together. On the microscopic level, cells combined, DNA was damaged, and cancerous cells were literally sprouting from left and right, at this level, the animals within wouldn’t even last for three minutes longer. The scientist leaned into the microphone once again, “Jump to level one-hundred meters in amplitude immediately.” The other man in the room asked in a somewhat shaky voice, “Don’t you think you’ve gone far enough?” “No,” she replied, “enough is never enough.” This short but sweet vocalisation was followed by a blinding white light within the chamber, levels of screaming somehow increased tenfold, however, all of this somehow stopped in just two seconds. All noise within the camber suddenly…vanished. Without a trace to be seen. To the scientists viewing the hologram, the obvious conclusion was that they all probably died. This idea was imminently put to a halt, however, when the light cleared. What stood in its place clear stumped both occupants. “What the fuck is that!?” “As it turns out,” the being in the corner of the room continued, “it was me.” I just withheld an irritated expression, “How does this have anything to do with why you’d want to go to space?” He just stated back, annoyed, “I’m getting to that.” “What the fuck it that!?” “How am I supposed to know?” Dr Anderson bewilderedly replied. The lady pointed at him, “Your the biologist!” “Well, I’ve never seen anything like that! How can you expect me to??!” He smacked his clipboard, “I don’t think there are any natural creatures out there that are comprised of multiple different body parts!” This harsh conversation was immediately interrupted when the creature in the centre of the testing chamber, began to literally float off the ground, surrounding objects with the room, like the graphene restraints and metal cages, also started to levitate. “What the fuck?!” The women shouted, and leaned into the microphone, “Shut it down! Turn off the dark energy output!” She waited several seconds, still, the creature continued to float there, “Turn it off you idiots!” Only this time, she received a response from a small speaker implanted into the wall, “Ma’am, we already have, it was turned off since the white flash. We’re sensing dark energy signatures coming from within the room.” The room was imbedded by silence. “Did we just create a creature that can use dark energy??!” One hour Later “Ma’am, we’ve been able to subdue the creature, and confine it into a cage with temporary anti-dark energy suppressers, we had to take them out of some our emergency protection plating.” “That’s good to hear,” she replied, ”any other developments?” “Ah, yes,” the unnamed man replied, “the creature seems to exhibit early signs of adolescent intelligence. Hypotheses have been thrown around that it’s actually sapient.” This day just could not get even more surprising. Disregard that last statement, because apparently, it can. The water bowl given to the creature was transformed into carrots. Three hours Later “We’ve been forced to feed its food through some sort of liquid admission, the creature won’t accept solid foods.” The women sarcastically replied, ”Why don’t you give it a bottle while you're at it?” The scientist didn't understand sarcasm. Fourteen days Later “Ma’am, we've got a problem.” She gazed at him, “Spit it out then!” “Due to the increasing degree of whimpering from the creature, scientists studying it, have started to take it out of its cage to calm it.” “What??!” “And bottle feed it.” “WHAT!!?” “Now it’s been given stuffed animals.” “WHAT??!” “Did you fire the scientists?” “I couldn’t, they are protected under PPR law.” The female scientist simply stared, “…” “And none of our agreement mentions any creatures incorporating dark energy, so technically, they’ve done nothing wrong in accordance with laboratory guidelines.” Her stare turned into a glare. “Also, did I mention that sometimes, some of the scientists let the thing run around their lab?” She was literally gritting her teeth. “With no dark energy suppressers.” I literally can not describe her expression right now, but the best course of action would be to look away before things turned ugly. Eight years Later “Why is Discord playing your holographic phone? I thought we agreed that electronics are bad for adolescents,” a white breaded male with a lab coat said. “Hey, don’t look at me,” a short brown-haired female scientist replied, “It’s an educational game, you know, teaching English and all that stuff,” she shrugged, “I think the positives outweigh the negatives in this regard.” “Papa!” A small mismatched creature sitting on a dirty couch shouted, “What is ‘Cho-oc-laet’?” The white breaded man rotated his head to look at the creature, “Stop calling me that, it’s Mr Hidrew, or John, not 'Papa',” his annoyed expression dissipated, “First, it’s pronounced ‘chocolate’, and it’s an unhealthy food with lots of unnecessary sugar.” “Thanks!” This happy atmosphere was quickly interrupted by a knock on the door, “I’ll be back,” Hidrew stated. Once arriving at the entrance, he casually opened it, on the other side were two men, of which appeared quite important, in accordance to the way they looked, and the ranks located on their shoulders. “Dr Hidrew, can we have a word?” He did not have a good feeling. Nonetheless, he still nodded. “Follow us.” Down the hallway, they travelled, and eventually, the three individuals arrived at a door, one man presented the side of his palm to a small screen on the side. This was accompanied by a beep, and green light, allowing the door to disappear, and for then men to walk through. In the room were two other members, one said mentioned person, Dr Hidrew was instantly able to recognise, the lead scientist in charge of the entirety of the scientific endeavours on planet Harmony, while the other person, not so much. He shook hands with them, and eventually, all sat down at their respective seats, noticeably, a bit further away from Dr Hidrew. “Not a word from our conversation is to leave this room,” one person said, “are we clear?” He nodded. The aforementioned human leaned back in his chair, he clearly had contributed his part to the meeting. “We have yet to alert the rest of the facilities,” the other person, the lead female researcher started, “but the scientific board has decided to initiate a new experiment, the biggest one yet.” She leaned closer, “It encompasses an entire planet.” John silently gasped at this prospect, nothing this big had ever been attempted. “Thanks to your research with dark energy in living orgasms, we have been able to create several different animals that would be able to easily control it, all of which will be sapient.” She licked her lips, “We want to examine how dark energy will impact societies and evolution. Hopefully, the information gathered will be able to determine if we should release the availability of dark energy biological fabricators for the public, and if not, what precautions we could possibly make.” “Dr Hidrew, we want to release a couple thousand different dark energy compatible animals, made of a multitude of different species, onto this planet, and see what happens.” John was confused, “But, how does this impact me?” “It’s simple, your subject will be one of them.” “I’m sorry, what?” “You know, the creature you study? What do you call it…” She tapped her chin, “discord wasn’t it?” “What? Why?!” “It’s obvious you can’t gain any more data from it any longer, so we're going to dispose of it,” she leaned back in her chair, “But instead of placing it in the incinerator, the scientific board has decided the best source of action would be to see what impacts it could potentially cause on this planet. Call it…possible limitations of dark energy, if you will.” John was speechless. “It’s happening in three weeks, Dr Hidrew, pack your things because we’re also moving you to the manipulation of DNA with dark energy sector, on the planet Umen 67.” “We’re picking up the subject in one minute, Dr Hidrew, make sure you have all preparations ready for departure,” a speaker located in the lab vocalised. John and his scientific companion were squatting down next to a small portable cage, which had numerous dark energy suppresses located within. The creature in question, the subject, was the mismatched creature of different parts, Discord. “Don’t worry, you’ll do fine,” John sniffled, “Just remember what we told you in the last few weeks.” He whipped his nose wit the back of his hand, “Here, I wanted to give you something.” Dr Hidrew's right appendage opened to present a tiny, copper coin. John was a coin collecting enthusiast, he loved collecting all types of currency before the transaction era, of which all money was transformed into being withheld on electronic devices. The small piece John gave to Discord was one of his most prized collection, a year 2000 American penny, a clear picture of Abraham Lincoln was located on the back. “Take this,” he put his hands through the bars and presented it to Discord, slowly, with tear strained eyes, the mismatched creature took his talon and grabbed the coin shown. Discord flipped it over, gazing woefully at both sides, his eyes landed on the phrase imposed on the back, although difficult to read, it said, ‘In God we trust.’ The door leading to the laboratory opened, marching could be herd. “I want you to protect that, to remember us.” Steps grew closer. “When you can.” Several people stopped beside the cage, preparing to lift it up. “I want you to find us.” “Annnnnd, there you go,” the self-referred being known as ‘Discord’ stated, he wiped growing tears from his eyes, “You know, I had made one, singular promise, and I ended up breaking that,” his expression turned into one of anger, “Celestia took that coin off me the first time she put me to prison, I haven’t seen it since.” “It’s an…enlightening story,” I indicated. “So…” Discord’s expression gained one of hope again, “What do you say?” His story is in check, all the names he used of institutions was correct. Even for the description on this particular planet, it also did mention Dr Hidrew as one of the main scientific contributors... Though, I honestly don’t want to. I would have to fill out countless forms, and documents in order for him to even gain a one week visa. It would be even more notoriously difficult to actually make him a citizen. But at the same time…I don’t know. I can feel a tugging sensation, it just repeatedly says ‘Help him’. But here’s the thing, I’m a lazy basted. “I’ll see what I can do, but there are no guarantees.” He clapped his claws together, and flew up to my face “Really??!” “Just don’t annoy me.” He drifted away slowly and nodded repeatedly in an overly exaggerated matter, “Absolutely!” However, his face shifted into an inquisitive state, “How’d I know if you'd be ready to take me?” “You’ll know.” He nodded again. “Now go away.” He disappeared in a flash. Heh, I like telling people what to do, it’s exhilarating. Wait a second... Did that Discord guy, just manipulate me with a sob story? That cheeky little bastard. A knock on the frame on the door threw me out of my thinking process, the disruptive nurse from the begging withheld a primitive two-wheel contraption. It looked like the kind of thing you’d strap to a dog that had lost its legs, or been paralysed so that they could move again. Wait…. That’s for me, isn’t it?