When Rarity woke up today she expected a perfectly normal day where she would finish a few dresses; help her sister Sweetiebelle practice her magic; and sample a tub of her favorite ice cream. However, the unicorn had instead found herself taking on an important and unforeseen task.
She and her five friends, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie had found themselves on the outskirts of Ponyville. Twilight had received a letter the week before from Princess Celestia, the alicorn diarch of the sun, requesting her to gather the six of them for an important task. The princess had informed them to meet her at the distant field that sat between Sweet Apple Acres and the Everfree Forest at noon. There, the six of them waited until the time had come. Soon they saw four lavish chariots drawn by two pegasi each descend from the sky. The moment they could make out the details of one of the passengers, they were shocked. It was not the princess nor any of the armored guards that had shaken them, but the statue of the Lord of Chaos Discord, alone in one of the chariots.
After touching down, Princess Celestia exited her chariot and interrupted their bewilderment, informing the six of their task. They were to reform the draconequus in the hopes of gaining a powerful ally for Equestria. Rarity had her doubts that a vile and heartless creature such as Discord could ever be reformed, however, she would never deny a request from her ruler. But that didn’t stop them from voicing their worries and concerns. Princess Celestia calmly assured the six of them that there was no doubt they could reform the villain. For Rarity, however, words alone did little to snuff her fears, and judging by how the princess left a dozen armed guards to watch over the mares she assumed the princess had her doubts as well.
Together the six mares and the princess formulated a plan to reform the chaos lord. Princess Celestia's student, Twilight Sparkle, would share all she had learned about friendship with Discord. Fluttershy would house the draconequus and get as close as possible to him. They had specifically chosen Fluttershy to house him due to a hunch the princess had. She believed that Fluttershy could be the key needed to reach the villain's heart and thus wanted the pegasus to be around him as much as possible. The other four were tasked with relating to Discord as best they could. Rarity was frankly offended by how played down her contributions were made to be, but she wouldn’t complain about an excuse to interact with the devil as little as possible.
And so Princess Celestia left them to their mission, leaving to continue day court in canterlot. The six mares were hesitant to release the lord of chaos from his stone prison, but with some encouragement from Twilight, they began undoing the spell utilizing the elements of harmony.
Today was the greatest day of Discord’s life. Upon being released, he immediately began spreading chaos around the surrounding area. With a few snaps of his eagle claw, he turned the ground they stood on into taffy; he transformed the nearby animals that were grazing into overly muscular bodybuilders, constantly flexing and showing off; and forced the birds to sing some tune about never giving someone up. However, the mares around him didn’t find his routine funny and demanded he cease his rampage, lest he gets resealed in stone.
Normally Discord would’ve ignored the boring “heroes”, but he thought to himself for a second, Hmm, I doubt these fools will let me have my fun no matter how small it is. They’ll eventually tire of me and have me resealed into that stony prison of theirs. So maybe I should play along with Princess Burning-Flank’s plan. Annoy them and have some fun before the inevitable happens.
A week had passed since Discord decided to play along. He kept his chaos to a minimum, using it mainly to annoy the six ponies who wanted to be his “friend”. However, a certain yellow-coated pegasus, Fluttershy, was worming her way into his heart. During his time living with her, she would speak of how she understood him and that it was fine to act upon his nature.
Discord wanted to believe that what she was saying was truthful, but there was always a seed of doubt in his mind. However, on a mid-day visit to Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy proved her commitment to not only her words, but also to her friendship with him. It was there that she promised she would never use her element of harmony against him to the ire of all her friends. Discord watched as she tossed away the necklace and he could only stare at her as he felt an onslaught of emotions. Discord could only do one thing in his mind: celebrate and gloat about the acquiring of his first friend. Within an instant, he went out and created a storm of chaos on the property, all of which he was sure Fluttershy would enjoy.
But as he was creating a wealth of entertainment, a white fuzzball attacked him. “Get off me you pest!” He grabbed and swatted away the bunny that had latched onto his face, “Now then back to what’s more important: applesauce or apple cider?” he purred eyeing the river that ran through the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres.
“Applesauce is more silly, but oh ho all the embarrassing moments that could happen because of a few tipsy ponies!” While contemplating his choices, he had failed to take notice of the mares readying their elements of harmony, including a crying Fluttershy. Within an instant, he felt the searing pain of his body turning to stone.
“OH SH-” Discord quickly snapped his fingers. Everything including himself stopped in an instant, even the air. Time was frozen, however, Discord could still feel the pain from the imprisonment spell that had consumed half his body.
He groaned internally as he attempted to focus through the pain. Th-That liar! She promised she wouldn’t use her element on me! He was seething with anger and hatred. His one friend had betrayed him, and now he was being returned to the stone prison he had called home for a thousand years. He couldn’t understand what had turned Fluttershy against him. He thought she understood him. He was only having a little fun, no harm done to anypony. But now it didn’t matter if Fluttershy understood him. His first and only friend betrayed him, confirming his beliefs. Friendship is a lie.
When I get free the things I will do to those fools will be indescribable! He yelled internally, But first I need to escape this fate of being turned to stone. I can’t teleport out, part of my soul is already bound to the spell. And I can’t counter it. Well, I can, but that’s another one thousand years down the drain. Discord thought through every way he could try to get himself out of the situation but came up empty.
The spell is a binding imprisonment specifically binding my soul…but what if I salvage what’s left of it; disconnect it from the half that’s already gone? But I can’t go on with just half a soul! Souls were like balloons, with an outer casing containing all the important bits inside. Take away half the rubber and nothing is holding in all the air. It was the nature of incomplete souls; they withered away quickly. He could persist so long as he kept time stopped, and could move that half of his soul around. But he couldn’t cause chaos in a world that didn’t move forward. Keeping time stopped was burning through his mana. Even with how large of a pool he had, it would eventually run out.
I need some way to make my soul whole again. But I don’t know any kind of magic that could do that, Chaos or Harmony! But what if I used something that was neither? Discord mentally sneered.
Looks like I’ve got a deal to make.
“Well guys…this is the last vlog,” Adam said gazing down at a small statuette of Zeus he held in his hands. He was sitting alone in his bedroom, recording the last video he’d ever make for his youtube channel. The sun was setting, giving a somber lighting to the room and giving his pale skin an orange tinge. He took a deep breath holding it in for just a second and then letting it out. He looked up through his long black hair at the camera which rested upon his expensive monitor, letting a weary smile form on his face, “I hope you guys can make” —He held the statuette in front of the camera— “statuettes as good as me. Let those tutorials I posted be the one impact I leave behind, you know?”
Adam turned off the camera and ended the recording. He browsed his way to the upload page of Youtube and began the process of uploading the video. He sat there resting his head on his clenched fist. I tried. I really tried. Adam thought back to the events of the past month.
He had barely been keeping his grades up in university. While normally he wouldn’t be too afraid of failing, he could always try again, as he did with everything else he failed at, but he couldn’t this time. If it were any normal university he would have his parents pay for the tuition to try again, however, this wasn’t any normal university. He had managed to get a fully funded 2 years at Hailborne University, the greatest university in not just the United States, but the entire world. It cost more money than what the average person made in their lives to go there. All he had to do was keep his grades up, the one thing he never failed at. And he did just fine the first quarter, but the second…he bombed it. Most grants would wait till the end of the year to determine eligibility for the next, but Hailborne did it quarterly for they demanded only the best.
It was the final for that quarter Adam was riding on. If he could get just a B, he would barely pass that quarter with a C. But what Adam got back broke him. When he took a look at the score he found the executioner of his scholarship, a D. To someone else this would be a terrible day in their lives for sure. They would feel awful, maybe even depressive, for a long while. But eventually, they would move on and try again. However, to Adam, this represented something far greater. To Adam, it was the symbol that he was a failure in life. He failed in creating art, he failed in sports, and he failed in keeping friends. The one thing he thought he could do right, the one that got him a free ticket to the greatest university on the planet…he failed that too.
Adam was on the brink of tears, but he refused to cry. He wouldn’t fail in keeping his masculinity from faltering. He needed to keep from breaking down to do what he was going to do next. Just then the video was done processing. Still resting his head on his fist he moused over the publish button and clicked. He then gazed down at the drawer underneath his computer desk and opened it. Inside was a token of family tradition; It was gifted as a signal for one's transition into adolescence. The small pistol had been laying inside the drawer gathering dust for years. A clip was sitting right next to it, doing the same. Adam picked up the gun and dusted it off. The gun was another example of his failures. He was supposed to care for the gun and maintain it. His father had told him that it was a show of respect for their ancestors; That he would be ready to fight for the country just as they did before. Grabbing the singular clip of ammo he had, he loaded the gun just as his father taught him and lifted the gun to his head. He rested his finger over the trigger. He tried to squeeze but…
Do it! Do something right for once you stupid piece of- Adam slammed the gun down onto the desk in a moment of frustration. A loud bang went off followed by a whizzing sound right under his chin. He could feel the vibration of the air across his neck. Within an instant, the bullet punched straight through the wall and the lights went out, somehow plunging the room into total darkness.
The darkened room shifted into a somber gray.
“Well, well, well, having fun are we?” mocked discord as he partially materialized in front of the human. If he’s willing to do that then this will be so much easier than I thought. The human sat there in shock gazing over his shoulder toward the chaos god. “No, you’re not going insane. You see the stars have aligned and you have been chosen for something very special.” A toothy grin formed on Discord's face.
“W-W-What the hell’s going on!” The human yelled, jumping out of his chair and running to the door of his room. Discord watched as the human jiggled the knob to no avail. The chaos god had frozen time, in a similar manner to what he did when he was blasted by the elements, but with more control now that he had mana to spare.
“I just told you, my friend,” Discord pulled off his goat horn and held the pointed end towards his mouth. Using the goat horn like a megaphone he repeated, “YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN FOR SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL!”
The weak creature was now holding his ears tight from the pain caused by the stunt. Discord placed back his goat horn, and gave him time to recuperate. The human, after a few seconds, allowed his hands to slowly fall to his sides. “I don’t understand,” he replied meekly.
Discord chuckled to himself before explaining, “I am Discord, the Lord of Chaos and Spirit of Disharmony; and I've been watching you for some time now. I have come to you with an offer. I know how lonely you are. How much of a worthless pile of trash you are.” He paused with a knowing glare to let the words sink in, “But I have an opportunity to allow yourself a chance at a better life. One where you can succeed and leave your failures behind. A world where you can fulfill a much-needed purpose.”
“What do you mean?” the human muttered under his breath, slowly calming down and regaining his composure.
“You see, I come from a land of friendship and -gag- harmony. And in that land there is a balance that must be maintained,” the draconequus summoned a scale with five marbles of his head on one side and five marbles of the tree of harmony on the other. “It is my job to sow bits of chaos across the land while my equal does the same with harmony,” marbles were now periodically dropping on each side, one at a time, but never enough to where one outweighed the other.
“However, a couple of misguided fools have put me on ‘death's row’, so to say. Luckily, if I die I will eventually be replaced. But it won’t be instant, and things could easily become out of balance,” the phrase “twenty years later” appeared above the scale with ten marbles being added immediately to the harmony side. The harmony side broke off, causing a small explosion when it landed on the floor.
“Okay, but what does that have to do with me?” he asked.
“My friend, I have chosen you to be the next” -fireworks went off behind the chaos god as he began to do jazz hands- “Lord of Chaos™.”
The human stared in confusion at the draconequus, “If you’re making me the next lord of chaos, that'll make me your heir or something, right?”
“Yes, exactly! And all you have to do is just sign this contract,” Discord snapped his fingers. In front of the human appeared an unfurled scroll.
The scroll was divided into three labeled sections: “The terms between Primum and Discord”, “the terms between Primum and the Client”, and “The terms between Discord and the Client.” The section about Primum and Discord was blurred out. At the bottom were two signatures, Discord’s and Primum’s, and a line for his.
“Hold up, I’m not signing this without reading over it!” the human blurted out.
“Go right ahead. I have no intentions of tricking you, for now,” the draconequus said, whispering the last part under his breath.
The human skimmed through the contract. It was mostly straightforward and didn’t feature any of the word salad used for underhanded tactics. When it came to what Primum wanted from the contract between the human and them, it was simple:
However, there was much more between Discord and the human:
The human stared at the scroll in thought for several minutes before speaking, “W-what if you’re tricking me?”
“As if you would say no,” Discord smirked. The human didn’t reply and proceeded to sign the scroll. Discord took the scroll and squinted at the human’s name, “Welcome to Equestria, Adam Merkur.” He snapped his finger and Adam collapsed in front of him.