//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Discorded Body // Story: Empress Cozy Glow part 2: The Reckoning // by Betty_Starlight //------------------------------// I smile up at the serpent, “Why don’t we play chess?” His brow furrows again, “Oh, I’m sure you’d love that! A game you’re already very good at! Unless” before bringing his lion paw and eagle talon together to twiddle the appendages and grin wickedly as he gazes at me with his two different eyes, “you’d be willing to make it more interesting?” I blink, “Oh, golly! Do you mean, up the ante interesting, or weird new game with weird new rules interesting?” and lean forward, “And why are we doing this again?” His eyes widen, “Because you need to be tested to see if you’re truly reformed!” I raise my head, “Yeah, but who decided that? I mean, who really wants to test me?” He frowns and flips his paw to his chest, “Why, me of course!” I lower my view at him, “Okay, but who are you to decide these things, anyway?” He points his eagle talon at me and bellows, “I am the Lord of Chaos!” “Is that an official title or self-proclaimed?” He lowers his appendage and widens his eyes, “What?” I smile, “Did you just declare yourself the Lord of Chaos one day or did somepony or somebody actually bestow that title on you!” He throws his upper appendages in the air, “Well, what difference does it make?” I nod my head and smile up to him, “Oh, golly! It sure makes a world of difference Mr. Discord! You see, if the title is bestowed upon you, that makes it official and real! But if you just went around saying your the Lord of Chaos, well you know, anybody could go around doing that! It doesn’t mean anything!” He lowers his view and furrows his differently shaped brows before slyly retorting, “Oh, like you just declared yourself the Empress of Friendship one day?” I keep the grin on my muzzle, “Well, golly yeah, I did do that!” and nod. “This is true! But you know, Celestia herself gave me that title after I released everypony and now, it’s official! While you’re officially just a guy calling himself the Lord of Chaos!” Discord throws his appendages to his sides, “FINE! We forget titles!” before pointing at me with his talon, “But that doesn’t change the fact that you need to be tested!” “Why?” “To make sure you’re truly good!” I raise my gaze and frown, “I already proved I’m good Discord! Lets cut the crap! You and I both know this is really about you and your ego!” He widens his eyes, “Why, whatever do you mean?” I smile again and lower my view, “Well, let’s see now, everything is fine and dandy, and I’ve become a Cutie Mark Crusader again and everypony is happy! You’re the self-proclaimed ‘Lord of Chaos’ and so of course, you have to mess things up! Especially since, as I already plainly stated, we really don’t need you here!” and widen my eyes. “You just need to feel important, huh?” Suddenly, I hear a musical voice from my right squeak up, “She’s kinda right Discord! There would be no other reason for you to come in here!” His eyes narrow and brow furrows once more, “I’m starting to believe your mother told you more than you’re letting on?” I giggle, “Oh, please Discord! The way you act tells me everything I need to know about you!” I nod again. “You need to feel needed and this whole testing me thing is really just a way to do it!” He silently keeps his gaze on me… I smile again and continue, “Think about it! This constant obsession with me! The need for power and control! The way you keep shifting things, because you can’t decide how this should work! The only thing this is really about is your ego and sense of importance, huh?” I widen my smile… “You need to feel important don’t you?” He crosses his upper appendages and turns his body to the side to pout, “And what if I do?” I widen my eyes, “So there’s the admission! You do need to feel important! And because you’re all mega-powerful, you also feel that authority is rightfully yours, don’t you?” He throws his talon from left to right, causing a small rift of blackness in the air that follows his talon, before he stops it and the blackness disappears, “I can rip reality apart, Cozy Glow! It’s a bit of a misnomer to say that I don’t matter!” A new idea strikes me and I ask, “But what if you couldn’t?” His eyes widen again as he lowers his appendages, “What?” I smile, “We play a game as equals, you and I!” “Not chess!” I giggle, “Oh, you silly Discord! Do you really think chess is the only thing I’m good at?” and nod again. “Now, think Discord! The end goal here is to prove that I’m reformed, right?” He frowns, “This is true!” I nod again, “Right! So what better way to prove that I’m reformed than by demonstrating that I can work with and get along with my fellow pony!” “You wish for Sweetie Belle to join you in your trial, don’t you?” The same musical voice chirps up, “You’re not alone Cozy!” Discord smiles and silently, but visibly chuckles to himself, “Granted! But I choose the game!” “Bring it on Mr. Self-Proclaimed Lord of Chaos!” And that’s when Discord snapped his talon and we all vanished in a bright flash flash of light! <*****> “Oh, golly! Where are we?” I ask as I look around the forest road I suddenly find myself standing in… I see a brown dirt path leading further into the woods and I see a treeline on either side of the road, casting it’s dark shadows on the path ahead… Also, I can’t help but notice that my throat feels weird for some reason… I see a serpent floating in the air 20 feet in front of me, further down the path as he says, “Congratulations! You’re the new Scootaloo!” and throws his motley appendages to the sides! I widen my eyes and say, “What?” in my suddenly hoarse voice before looking behind me to see that my body is now orange and my wings are really small! Suddenly, we both hear a high pitched screaming in the air! “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!” before I see a small pink body smack into the road behind me, maybe 10 feet away! I turn to face the body and say in my raspy voice, “Oh, golly! Are you okay?” “OW!” The pink pegasus filly exclaims before she gets up with her now disheveled, curly mane and I notice her shield emblem with multi-colored vertical stripes on her sides… This makes me gaze back to my own flanks and I see the familiar red rook symbol I’ve always seen when I looked there, only now it’s on an orange background! “Our cutie marks are as they should be, but we’re not in the right bodies!” I say in my gruff voice. Discord chimes in, “Funny? I thought Scootaloo, of all ponies would enjoy being in the air with working wings?” Then, I heard something coming from the edge of the meadow… Something peculiar… I hear a musical voice say with a country drawl, “This ain’t right! I’m not tha right color and my hair is all different!” I turn my gaze towards the right and I see Sweetie Belle there trotting my direction among the shaded tree cover and raise my neck to scream at her, “Over here!” “Scootaloo!” She yells while widening her eyes and galloping towards me! I frown and say, “Um, not exactly!” to her before she stops at the edge… Discord then says, “I don’t understand? Why isn’t Sweetie Belle here?” I widen my eyes when staring at the white unicorn before darting my view to her flanks and I notice the shield emblem there contains an apple and not a musical note! “You switched Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle too, huh?” I hear a masculine smarmy voice from my front say, “Of course! What better way to prove that you all act as a unit than by literally, putting you in each other’s hooves so to speak!” I turn to face Discord and begin to speak when I hear a voice screaming from the other side of the meadow in the woods that direction, “Help! I don’t have magick!” I say, “I think I know where Sweetie Belle is!” Suddenly, the white unicorn raises her head and shouts, “Calm down Sweetie Belle! Yer strong now!” You know, I can’t put my hoof on it, but the musical voice and country speak thing just werks, for some reason!” I stare at… Apple Bloom, “Does this mean you’re going to try to speak more musically when you get back into the right body?” Her cerulean eyes widen at me, “Uh, n-no! Maybe?” she smiles nervously. “Uh, ah’m not sure? Heh heh!” I hear Discord slyly reply, “Well, if she wants Sweetie Belle’s voice, then she shall certainly have it for the time being!” I see a yellow earth filly with a large disheveled pink bow on the back of her head emerge from the brush to my right as she trudges two paces out of the bushes and grumpily says, “I don’t like this voice!” Discord cackles as he throws his upper appendages in the air and exclaims, “My, what a neat way of talking you have, Apple Bloom!” The yellow filly turns her head right to stare at Discord, “I’m not Apple Bloom!” Discord widens his oddly shaped eyes at her, “Oh, but you are now!” I affix my gaze and body to the serpent, “And I’m not Scootaloo either!! Change us back!” He turns his gaze right towards me and smiles his odd grin, “Oh, but the fun is just beginning, my sweet Scootaloo!” and giggles while his body becomes clear and slowly disappears… “Oh, golly! I need to talk to mom about this, don’t I?” Sweetie Belle calls out from 15 feet away from me, “Yeah, probably!” Golly, it’s so weird to remember she’s in that body! “Uh, Cozy?” I turn my body and widen my eyes at the other pegasus currently in my body, “Yes Scootaloo?” She smiles nervously and says in a squeaky voice, “I uh, I don’t think I’ll ever get this chance again and um, w-well, your wings work and m-mine don’t and… “… You know, I don’t think I sound that squeaky though, so she must be changing it from the way I normally talk? I stare at her, “You want to fly with my wings and body, huh?” She giggles anxiously, “Um, y-yeah! Kinda!” My eyes widen, “Well, since mom won’t be back from the delegation until this evening and since we literally have nothing better to do, I guess you can try out my body if you really want to?” I smile at the scared looking pegasus, “Just uh, don’t hurt me!” She smiles back, “You got it Cozy!” I sigh, “Well, right…” and stare at her carefully, “Your wings don’t work, but tell me Scootaloo… What can you do?” I hear the yellow filly on my right chime in, “Uh, does this mean I need to start talking all country, like Apple Bloom?” The white filly adds, “Do I have to learn how to sing now?” I close my eyes, “Oh, golly! Nopony has to do something they’re not comfortable with!” before opening them and adjusting my gaze to the pink filly before me, “But yes Scoots…” I smile, “Since you got this chance now, go ahead and try out my wings!” Her eyes widen and I can already tell she has a lot of different thoughts on her mind… “Oh, golly!” (To be continued… )