“You’re supposed to be dead.” Celestia accused from behind her desk after the initial shock had worn off, glaring at the white-and-black-haired man. Discord, utterly unruffled by the claim, simply waved his hand in dismissal.
“Oh I was,” He replied, taking a step to place himself fully within the threshold of the office as he smirked with barely-contained mirth. “At least, until some bright spark decided to drag me back, literally even. Hellfire carpet burns are quite uncomfortable, let me tell you.” Celestia blinked, absorbing the explanation, before sighing and shaking her head.
“Of course they did,” She muttered. “None of us were very good at staying down when something managed to put us on the ground, were we?” For a brief, barely-lived moment the chromatic-haired woman’s eyes drifted shut, as if lost in memory, before snapping open to focus once again on Discord. “Never mind, that doesn’t matter. What are you here for, Discord? You’ve never been the type to visit old friends without a reason.” Discord raised an eyebrow in amusement, but said nothing to gainsay her. Instead the man simply shrugged, hands settling in his pockets as he moved to slouch against the doorjamb.
“Oh, nothing much Celestia,” he said, smirking slightly. “Just thought I’d roll through town, bag a monster or two, stop a couple apocalypses, the usual. Did you know there was an entire bevy of barely-sealed dimensional rifts on your front lawn? Not to mention the pseudo-Order energies everywhere. Quite irresponsible of you--”
“Discord.”
The word wasn’t spoken loudly, nor even harshly, and yet it was more than enough to stop the man’s rambling cold, and replace his smirk with a sharp frown. He glared at Celestia for a few seconds, before sighing and standing straight once again when her own gaze met his with all the strength of steel.
“Oh very well then, if you wish to be a spoilsport about it,” He lamented, but there was no serious complaint in his tone. Instead his voice had become something hard as stone, the amusement he had gained from poking his old friend dying with nary a whimper. “There’s a student of yours, Sunset Shimmer.” Discord did not smirk when he noticed Celestia stiffening, but the air of smugness around him was certainly palpable. Ah, she had an idea of what was going on. That was good.
“I know the name.” The Principal said carefully, eyes searching Discord with the same analytical gaze which had made her so dangerous for all the years he knew her, but there was little she would get off of him here and now. Discord had learned long ago that if you wanted to survive long in his business, you only ever showed your emotions by choice, and your deepest thoughts never. Right now Discord was thinking some very deep thoughts, and so he remained blank, with only the faintest frown lingering from his feigned disappointment at her interruption. “She was put into the hospital recently, in some sort of coma. Do you know what did it?”
“What, yes,” Discord confirmed, nodding his head slightly before shaking it. “How and why, on the other hand, escape me. What’s worse is that whatever she did has managed to draw quite a few powerful eyes, most of them very unfriendly. So, Celestia Empyris, I’d suggest you tell me what in all the hells has been going on in your school, and if you do I might not tear it down for being a monument to such utter hubris and foolishness.” A bet of silence passed, then another as the two held each other’s gazes, lavender eyes meeting with ruby red ones. Then, finally, celestia sighed, one hand coming up to pinch her nose.
“Alright Discord, I’ll tell you.” the Principal acquiesced. “But first let’s go somewhere more comfortable. This might take a while.”
XXX
“So,” Discord said after the story was finally done, sipping at the mug of coffee in his hand. They had retired to Celestia’s own personal office, which had quite the comfy chairs to stretch out in. He did so, staring over the rim of his cup at the chromatic-haired principal as she met his gaze steadily. “Not only did you not outright kill the girl after she brainwashed most of your students and put several holes through your precious school, but now you allow her to run rampant with not only unknown and powerful magic, but a cabal of friends who share in these powers, and have recently picked up even more abilities to boot. You’re losing your touch, Celestia.”
“We’re out of the game, Discord.” Celestia replied to his chastisement cooly, shaking her head with a sharp motion. “Luna and I retired years ago, we’re not about to start executing people without damn good reason.”
“And an attempt at world domination isn’t good reason?” Discord asked incredulously with one raised eyebrow. Celestia just shook her head again.
“She was a desperate girl looking for attention, for Order’s sake. Until that Element or whatever corrupted her, there was no real bloodlust to Sunset Shimmer, and after it was gone she became truly repentant. The school would be destroyed threefold as many times if we killed her then.” Discord frowned at that, but decided not to argue, even as he held back a clucking at her divine invocation. He knew very well it was no accident, but a message and sign of her annoyance both. Instead, the man decided to change tracks.
“And what of these Geodes? Do you have any idea what they are, or where they come from?” He asked, making Celestia pause in thought.
“No.” The woman said after a moment. “Miss Shimmer claimed they were Equestrian magic, but she couldn’t say how it came to our world or what they actually did. The last I heard she was going to conduct some experiments to find out before…” And here she trailed off, wincing. Discord, for his part, made a noise of understanding.
“The coma. There is no such thing as coincidences, I should know that better than anyone. What happened?” Celestia shrugged, a brief flicker of annoyance crossing her features.
“I don’t know. All her friends would tell me is she spent a good half an hour staring at one of the Geode’s before suddenly it turned to dust and she started screaming her head off. Before the paramedics could even arrive Shimmer was out cold and hasn’t woken up since. As I understand it her friends take it in turns to watch over her.” Silence descended as Discord absorbed the explanation, staring down at his cup of coffee. That… actually lined up with his own investigations, much as he hated to admit it. Doing what Sunset Shimmer had done would take either a great amount of skill, extraordinary power… or a great deal of luck. Given Discord’s personal belief system and experiences, he was was far more inclined to fall down on the side of the latter, especially given what Celestia had said about this pony-turned-girl.
“She stole a divine aspect.” Discord said suddenly, taking a small measure of amusement in the way Celestia spat out her own coffee, which she just happened to be drinking at the time.
“Sorry, she stole a What!?” Celestia asked in a voice just starting to edge on shouting even as she struggled to wipe herself off with some handy napkins from her desk. Discord,struggling not to cackle at the sight, shrugged.
“A divine aspect, one of the Seven Faces of Order. Surely as a devout Orderly you noticed the Seer’s Star missing from the sky.” He said, lips twisting into a sharp and sardonic grin. Not that she actually was all that devout, but if she wanted to throw the religion directly opposed to his own in his face, Discord would not hesitate to do the same.
“I’ve been busy with work,” Celestia snapped, finally managing to wipe up her mess. Her face was stormy with aggravation, and she didn’t hesitate to turn the full force of that on Discord. “And I wasn’t aware the Faces were real, tangible things beyond just being a series of stars. How would Sunset Shimmer, who isn’t even from this world, get her hands on one, and why?”
“That’s what I would like to know,” Discord answered with another shrug, taking a sip of his coffee to hide his smile. “And technically the Faces aren’t tangible, they’re shards of metaphysical and conceptual power so vast they are visible even through the skin of the physical realm. Your student somehow managed to forge a connection to one, likely by complete accident, and then use that connection to drag the entirety of it into her body and soul. To be honest, I’m quite surprised the girl managed to survive and wasn’t reduced to atomic ash.” Celestia stared at him, before quite visibly putting aside the likely many questions she wanted to ask and gritted her teeth while settling on the most important.
“And you know this how?” The woman asked, glaring at Discord whose smile grew even wider and, if it was possible, sharper.
“Celestia, celestia, Celestia, I am the High Priest of Chaos, you know. Aside from your newly divine student, I’m quite likely the most powerful being alive. Knowing these things is quite literally in the job description.” Celestia flinched, reminded of just who she was talking to. He didn’t blame her, most Chaotics tended to paint themselves in a very bad light, so those people who knew him beyond his faith usually forget from time to time, especially when it had been years since they last fought side by side.
“Right.” Celestia muttered, before taking a deep breath and shaking her head. “Okay, is there any way to reverse the change then? I’ve come to trust Sunset in the last year, but nobody should hold that much power, least of all a teenage girl who also happens to be a fugitive from another dimension. I know the sort of damage teenagers can do without phenomenal cosmic power, and shudder to think of what one would achieve with it.” Here Discord’s smile died a slow death, and after a moment’s thought he shook his head in denial.
“Alas but no, there is little I could do for Miss Shimmer that would not end in her death or worse. And that brings me to my next concern; keeping her safe.” He frowned, swirling his coffee cup aimlessly. “I have no need nor desire to kill her, but there are many who could make use of a living vessel to one of the Faces, none of whom would do so for good reason. Your student is in danger, Celestia.”
“What do you suggest?” Celestia asked, her own frown appearing. “Luna and I are retired, and even if we did dust off our old hunting boots, there’s only two of us. The sort of opposition you’re hinting at wouldn’t hesitate to mow right over any defenses we might try to put up.”
“Well I will certainly be sticking around for awhile, at least until the poor girl can wake up and get a handle on her new powers,” Discord offered, inclining his head to Celestia. “And there are a few favors I can call in in the meantime. But aside from fortifying the town and keeping a very close eye on Shimmer, our only other option would be to lock her in a heavily-enchanted metal box and drop it into the Pacific Ocean.” Celestia grimaced but accepted the point. Discord knew she was experienced enough to realize you could never really solve problems like that, no matter how hard you might try. All that was left was to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. With any luck, people would get the message after enough attacks failed.
“Well then,” Celestia said after a long moment, still grimacing. “I suppose we had better get started then. Go on, I have more than enough work without this mess added in. I need to get back to it.” Discord cocked an amused eyebrow, but smiled and nodded in acquiescence rising from his seat.
“Very well Celestia, it was lovely to see you again. Maybe next time, the world won’t be at risk of ending.”
“Right,” Celestia snorted, already waving dismissively. “Like that will ever happen.”