It had been about a week since the experiment happened. Events had unfortunately kept Twilight Sparkle busy, leaving her and everyone else to not know about the thing inside the castle walls.
It all started pretty mild. An occasional book would fall off of its shelf after being put away, doors randomly creaked open, and a very distant laugh that was commonly passed off as hearing things was heard.
But now, this was definitely abnormal. Books that no one had touched were disappearing, doors were slamming open and closed throughout the day, and the map room was constantly moving to other places! After the week had passed, in the morning, Twilight had finally gotten enough of it. “Discord!” Twilight called into the air, knowing that he could hear her.
“Yes, Twilight?” Discord’s voice came before the Spirit did, appearing in a flurry of rose petals whilst wearing a suit. Why was he wearing a suit? Twilight didn’t care and probably didn’t even notice.
At his appearance, the doors within view from the castle hallway all slammed open at once, eliciting a jump and the flaring of wings from Twilight. She pointed at one of the doors accusingly. “Is this your doing?”
“Hm…” Placing a monocle onto his snout, the draconequus flew toward the door and gave it a once over. “Nnnope.” He removed his monocle as it disappeared, placing his talon onto where one would assume his heart is as he continued. “I am completely innocent of this.”
“Well, I don’t see anyone else who could be doing it besides Pinkie, and I’m pretty sure she would’ve stopped by now if that was the case.” Twilight impatiently added. Spike and her had been losing precious hours of sleep because of this and she was getting snappier as a result.
“Well.~” Discord drew out. “Perhaps I should find out what’s causing this. I’d hate for one of my friends to be uncomfortable in their own home. Especially if I’m not responsible.” Switching out of his suit with a snap, Discord began to wear a much more detective based outfit, Sherlock Holmes style. Or, in pony terms, Sherlock Hooves.
With a magnifying glass in hand, Discord took a much more in-depth look on the door, giving a “Hmm” as he did. “Weird. This is chaos magic and yet I’m not the one that casted it,” he muttered to himself. “Twilight, when did this start and what were you doing beforehand?”
Twilight rolled her eyes before responding. “It started about a week ago, after a failed experiment with the Alicorn Amulet.”
The mention of the Amulet seemed to surprise Discord, making him drop the magnifying glass before it disappeared. Soon after, so did the outfit he wore. Slowly, ever so slowly, Discord turned toward Twilight, with quite possibly the most serious face he’s ever worn. “Where is it?” The seriousness in Discord’s voice unnerved Twilight, but she started toward the room that it was held in.
As they walked through the castle, more doors slammed open, some even flying off of their hinges with how much force was used into opening them. Weirdly enough, the door that led to the room with the Alicorn Amulet was the only one that never slammed open. In fact, it was locked. But, upon Discord’s approach, that door also slammed open. Unlike every other door, these double doors managed to make a crack in the crystal walls, which was quickly repaired by the castle’s magic.
Twilight gasped as what they saw in the room. Cracks of red covered the entirety of the room’s walls, floor and roof included. Although, the pedestal that held the Amulet was avoided by the cracks. And in the very back wall, the Symbol of Chaos was painted onto there with red. “What…What is this?”
Discord flew into the room, ignoring Twilight’s question as he picked up the Alicorn Amulet and looked it over. It was empty of magic, just as it was last time Twilight saw it. Placing the Amulet back on the pedestal, Discord looked around the room, inspecting all the cracks while avoiding touching them. He knew what these were. ’This can’t be true…Can it?’ he pondered to himself as he looked over everything, finally stopping in front of the Symbol.
The seriousness Discord gave was much more unnerving by now. Usually, he’d laugh upon seeing his symbol or simply think nothing of it. But this time, he was really looking at it, with a very curious but confused expression. “Discord, what is all of this?” Did he know something about the Alicorn Amulet? What was it? The Amulet may have died, but knowing more about it could still prove useful.
Once again, Discord ignored Twilight’s question. Instead, he placed his lion paw upon the Symbol. Instead of feeling crystal, he felt Chaos. Pure and utter Chaos Magic. It wasn’t the kind that he ruled over though. He may have been the Spirit of Chaos, but this wasn’t his. This was someone else’s. The feeling surprised him enough to remove the paw out of shock. That was, before he placed the paw back onto the symbol and pulled.
The effect was immediate, the cracks quickly began to recede into the symbol and, as Discord kept pulling, the Symbol of Chaos began to change shape. Instead of being the symbol, the shape changed into a vague blob of something else, but that was only once all the cracks had receded.
Even once the magic was all in one spot, Discord kept pulling. He had to know what this truly was. The mere presence of this magic gave him a hope he hadn’t felt in a long time. Instead of pulling on nothing, a talon had grabbed a hold of Discord’s paw. Now confident that this was what he hoped, Discord pulled with newfound strength that his body otherwise suggested he didn’t have. At least, that’s what he felt like.
Following the talon came a torso with wings, then a hoof, the base of a tail, a head, then finally a lizard leg and lion paw. After the whole body was pulled out, Discord fell to the floor with a stranger on top of him. Well, a stranger to everyone but him.
Eris put her talon to her head as she groaned. That was probably one of the worst experiences she’s ever had, right next to being trapped in the Alicorn Amulet. She wobbly tried to stand, but only fell onto her back and against the wall as a result. With a groan, she rubbed her eyes as they tried adjusting to the light of the room. ’Crystal is too darn reflective.’ she idly thought.
Twilight balked at the sight. ’By Celestia’s mane, please don’t tell me that there’s two of them and that Discord was just pulling a prank on me this whole time.’
Discord also got up, but didn’t stand. He was instead staring at Eris, complete and utter shock stopping him from doing anything else. Eris looked at him and smiled. “Hey bro, how’s it been?”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Twilight rubbed her face with her hooves in exasperation as she leaned onto the map table from her throne. “You’re telling me you’ve had a twin sister this whole time and didn’t think of telling anyone?”
Discord gave a shrug from his position in the air, as Eris hung off of one of the roots that hung from the ceiling. “Pretty much, yeah.” The three had moved from the Amulet room, as Eris will call it, and Discord explained just who Eris was once they were situated.
“Discord isn’t one to think and plan a whole ton…for the most part,” Eris idly said, looking into one of the crystals that were on the tree. It was the memory of Twilight and her friends defeating Nightmare Moon.
“Pfft, rude.” Discord crossed his arms and looked away from Eris. But his joking rage faded in mere seconds before bringing her into another hug.
“Anywho,” Eris looked to Twilight, returning the hug Discord gave as she spoke. “I’m Eris, second Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.”
Twilight heaved another sigh. “Just, stay here a bit please. I gotta have Spike inform the other princesses about this.” Twilight stood from her seat before leaving the twins in the map room, closing the double doors behind her.
“Finally! Thought she’d never leave,” Discord grumbled. “So, Eris.” He put his appendages together, a pair of crescent moon glasses appearing on his snout. “What would you say to see how much of the world has changed since you off and vanished?”
“Hmm,” Eris sported similar glasses, speaking with an overly posh accent as she spoke. “I think that would be delightful, brother of mine.” The two chuckled, before Discord gave a snap of his talon, making the two vanish in a puff of smoke.
They appeared in a flash of lightning above a cloud, binocular eyeglasses in a paw. Eris held up her pair and looked down to the streets of Ponyville. “Hm. Not too much of a difference in how buildings look,” she mused, turning her attention to the less average buildings. “At least they know how to make a place stand out now.”
“I know, right?! Everything was so terribly bland back then.”
“Mmm. True, but the grand situation of the world wasn’t the greatest, so I can see why the world was so ‘bland’, as you call it.” Eris lowered her eyeglasses, her eyes unmoving from the town below. “While a better world does give me less overall power, it is still much better seeing it happy rather than miserable.”
“Which means I’m not happy with those stunts you pulled when I disappeared.” Discord sputtered in surprise. “I had access to the memories of whoever wore the amulet, don’t try lying and saying you didn’t do anything. Otherwise, I’m not making you any of my special cakes.” Eris turned away with a frown, obviously being dramatic.
Discord gives a dramatic gasp. “Not the cakes!”
“What about the Cakes?” Eris made a jump at the new voice, turning to look at the newcomer on the cloud. The most memorable pink pony in Equestria, Pinkie Pie. She was laying on her back, staring at Eris and Discord with her usual smile.
“Oh, it’s just you.” Discord dusted off his chest. “It’s nothing, Pinkie Pie. My sister here was just being dramatic.”
Pinkie gasped, lifting into the air as she did. “You have a sister?!”
“Yes, she’s right here.” Discord pointed to the draconequus in question. Another gasp was made as Pinkie saw Eris.
And then, she was gone. A dust cloud appeared underneath before a pink blur flew into town and into the large building that looked like a gingerbread house. “That…was weird.” Eris looked at the building the pink one ran into with a raised brow.
“Even for Spirits of Chaos, that pony is weirder than anything,” Discord solemnly stated, before giving a clap of his hands. “No matter! I simply must introduce you to someone.”
“Who might that be?” Eris curiously asked. Discord was certainly excited about seeing whoever this was.
“It’s a surprise!~” He snapped his digits and the twins disappeared in another flash of lightning, which happened to turn the cloud below them into a cotton candy cloud.
The twins appeared in the middle of a living room. “Fluttershy, sorry for dropping in, but I’ve got someone you need to meet!” Eris looked around. Whatever building they were in was certainly one of those tree-based homes, based on the wood that made up the walls, roof, and floor.
Small bird houses were hanging off some parts of the roof and notable holes were in certain parts of the walls, leading Eris to conclude mice also lived here. In the center of the room was a coffee table and behind it was a green couch.
“Just a moment, please.” A soft voice called from a window that led to the back of the home. “I’m just finishing feeding all of my animal friends.”
“Who are we meeting, exactly?” Eris questioned with a cross of her arms.
“Just wait until she finishes up.” Discord replied, summoning a small throne made up of red velvet before taking a seat on it. At that, Eris took a seat on a blue and green rug on the floor and waited.
It was only about half a minute before the door at the front opened and hoof falls reached Eris’ ears. “Hello Discord.”
“Fluttershy! Always a pleasure to see you.” Discord stood from his seat and approached Fluttershy, giving her a hug while Eris turned around to get a look at the pony in question.
A bright yellow coat and a pink mane and tail. She had a type of blue eyes and her cutie mark was made up of three pink butterflies. She looked up at Discord with a small smile. “It’s great to see you too. Now, what was so urgent that you needed to show up so early in the morning?” Eris looked at a nearby clock and it showed that it was just past 7. She wouldn’t call such a time early by her standards but, considering a pony’s average sleep schedule a thousand years ago, she supposed that it somewhat was early. Just around the time everyone’s up and starting to get moving.
“So,” Discord drew out. “I may or may not have forgotten to mention two key things. First thing, I have a sister, who is currently seated in front of your little table.” He motioned to the mentioned sister with a talon.
“Hello.” Eris gave a wave.
“And the second thing, she’s been missing for the past thousand years and I honestly thought she was dead.”
“Wow, no faith in my abilities?” Eris put a paw to her chest with a shake of her head. “You wound me so.”
“Oh hush, you would’ve thought the same.” Discord hovered through the air and flew to the couch, taking a seat as the red throne appeared again.
Fluttershy was left speechless, staring blankly at the twins. Although, she wasn’t left in shock for long. With a shake of her head and a small smile, she started heading to an open archway while speaking. “Okay. I’ll get some tea ready and we can talk some more about this.”