"..."
Legion cautiously made his way out of the cave, the entirety of Tartarus grown silent with Discord's sudden appearance and leaving with one of its should-be prisoners in one of the easiest jailbreaks ever. He padded softly through the tunnels, his white eyes never blinking from their target: forward and upward. If this was his chance to escape, he was going to take it now. Several of the voices inside his head disagreed with the course of action, they said it would be much safer underground than above with the Chaotic One now free, but many others, along with the Beta of the pack, agreed that now was the time for them to be free after so many years.
The vessel of a thousand diamond dogs entered the cavern he had just been in nary an hour earlier, his senses perking up to take stock of the situation. His nose picked up fear and a hint of blood, his ears the sound of whining. To the far wall, Cerberus laid chained and with a strange, restricting cone around each head. Legion slowly walked on all fours towards the exit, each step feeling as if it would alert the beast and send him back down to the prison so far below.
But, Cerberus seemed far too disabled to even deal with the white diamond dog. It only sat there, ears tuckered down and its tail between its legs in defeat, ignoring Legion.
With all the confidence in the world, Legion broke into a run, each leg a pumping piston that jolted adrenaline through his veins and into a speedy gallop that rushed him through the cavern. With each step, he could feel the grip of Tartarus slowly leaving, the dead air giving way to something alive and free and wonderful. Legion suddenly found himself immersed in dazzling sunlight, blinding him momentarily.
He fell back on his haunches, stunned at the world around him, a plethora of immersions washing over him, every last instinct and voice within him in a euphoria of ecstasy.
He was free.
"Free..." He allowed the sweet word to roll around on his lolling tongue, giving him shivers that bristled his fur happily. Every last bit of the world around him gave him no end to joy. The trees and the flowers smelled of the sweetest nectar, every last sound was harmonic music to his perked ears, and the air...oh the air! It met his lungs with a vigor he had not tasted in centuries.
"We...are free." Every voice said these three words with absolute wonder at the sound rolling off their lips. A tentative paw reached out into the grass, each gentle blade bending underneath the weight set down. Legion began walking through the green ground beneath, each step a step away from Tartarus and towards freedom.
Legion looked up to see an odd sight, a tree turned upside down with the roots shooting up into the air, clumps of falling dirt occasionally crumbling through the air. Legion went to confer with the voices inside.
"I don't exactly remember trees being like that." Fenrir stated.
"They aren't." A deep if not feminine voice replied, Siria, the pack Beta.
"...Do we even remember what a tree is?" One of the lower grunt soldiers inferred. Even after all these centuries with him, Fenrir could still not remember his name. He rolled his metaphorical eyes.
"Of course we do! It...grows from the ground, it's green, and sometimes stuff grows from it too."
"Oh."
A consensus had been made that that was not a normal tree, seeing as how there were many others around that didn't even look like it.
"A work of the Chaotic One?" Legion mused, touching a paw to the bark of the upturned tree, patting the claws against it playfully. A sudden thunderstrike broke his attention. Legion turned to the horizon just past the break in the forest, a massive wall of black swallowing up the blue sky around it.
"Captain Shining Armor reporting, your majesty!"
"At ease, Captain. What do you have to report?"
"Our fears have come to pass...our weather teams couldn't break up the storm or even move it...it collided with Cloudsdale and made it...bigger."
"Send out a disaster alert to every town in its direct path, warn them to take shelter and stay indoors at all times."
"That's just the thing, your majesty..."
"Hmm?"
"The storm is changing paths...it's heading right for..."
"What in tarnation is that?!"
"A storm rather large, perhaps it would be safe to give it a name? Maybe 'Hurricane Marge'?"
"Ain't no time fer yer jokes, Zola. That storms headin' fer..."
"Canterlot."
Legion breathed the great capital's name in a mix of worry and relief. With enough time, he would outrun the disaster and leave Equestria behind, possibly head towards more suitable digging terrains, maybe join up with another pack, if they would allow him to. Hopefully, the thousand souls and pure white form wouldn't deter that, and he could easily reduce his speech mannerisms to that of an imbecile.
As he turned around and prepared for a sprint in the opposite direction of the oncoming storm, a tug of guilt pulled at his stomach. He paused and went back into his head for another conference.
"Why are we doubting our actions to leave Equestria?" Fenrir demanded, his Beta taking up the mantle of a reply.
"There is a debt to be repaid, Fenrir. A blood debt."
"...I do not know what you are talking about." The other voices had grown quiet, the two strong ones of the Alpha and the Beta now loud and dominant within the mind. In a past life, they had been mates, but ever since the banishment, their relationship had grown into a cold husk of what they used to be, now only speaking when an action had to be made by the body.
"You know exactly what I mean." Siria's tone took on a sharper edge at the end of her words.
"..."
"You told the tainted jabberwocky that you wished to be freed of this curse."
"It was a lie for sympathy. It would have kept him around longer."
"You haven't changed a bit, have you? Still the power-hungry, self-satisfying, terrible pack leader you've always been."
"TERRIBLE pack leader?! I lead us all to fame and glory!"
"Glory that got us all killed and shoved into your head."
"I cannot be blamed for that..."
"Yes you can. Celestia trusted you, and in return, you KILL some more of her subjects."
"I said I learned my lesson!"
"You just said you lied about that.
"..."
"Face it, Fenrir. We all have moved on, and you have not. You are holding the pack behind."
"How dare you-"
Siria's voice silenced his own, something that had not happened in a very long time.
"How DARE YOU subject us to this torment for years and still not feel regret?! I say we finish this blood feud and turn our heels towards Canterlot! The Princess will need every aid possible to combat this threat! Maybe then, she will free us of this curse."
"Help her?! This 'threat' is the Chaotic One! There is no stopping him!"
"It has been done before."
"And I highly doubt it will happen again."
"What happened to Fenrir the Fearless?"
"He died when a god decided to cut down his pack, and I'm not going to do it again by facing down another god, this one much more evil."
"You owe it."
The sounds of mumbling could be heard from the other voices. If they wanted to, they could rush in and overcome his command, the body under the control of the multitude instead of the one.
"..."
"Fenrir..." Siria's voice softened ever so slightly.
The body of Legion opened his eyes and gave out a little huff before turning around on his backlegs, unleashing a victorious howl, and running towards the direction of Canterlot.
"...Think this has anythin' ta do with Oddjob?"
Alamo stood up from the bar, trotting over to the window and gazing out to the sky, a roiling sky of black and flashing lightning overcoming the blue that once reigned dominant.
"Possibly, knowing his luck." Zola stood up and trotted over beside the cowpony. "...Buck." She muttered at the sheer size of the weather phenomenon, the storm's mass that of two pegasus cities.
Alamo reach out with his magic and found his jar of whiskey, taking a deep chug of it before tossing it aside. "Well, C'mon." He headed for the exit, Zola following behind with a curious expression.
"What are we doing?"
"Goin' ta Canterlot."
"...Are you fooling?"
"Eenope." Alamo shook his head, the Appleloosa train station straight ahead.
"Everypony present?"
Ten individuals of varying form stood before the draconequus, myself included, each one a mad grin on their face that matched our master's. We stood upon solid black cloud in the center of the biggest storm Equestria had ever seen, but this was no regular storm. It was infused with chaos magic, and when it hit Canterlot, oh they'd be in for a big ol' storm of chaos.
"Good!" Discord chuckled before turning around. All he had to do was reach down into the cloud and pull up a steering wheel like you find in a car, sitting down in a seat that had appeared out of nowhere. He snapped his fingers, and we all found ourselves in car seats as well, seat belts buckling over us for whatever safety reasons the spirit could come up with.
"Now, has everyone used the bathroom?" Discord turned around in his seat with a squinted glance of his red eyes. "Because once we get on the road, I am not turning this storm around or stopping at a gas station!"
We all shook our heads along with his joke.
"Good!" He cackled as he turned a key, a roar of thunder echoing across the storm as he, somehow, began driving the massive hurricane towards Canterlot.
Guards scrambled in every direction to take their orders where needed. Most were stationed out to warn the citizens of Canterlot to take shelter in their homes or in a refuse home, others prepared emeregency supplies, while others were simply panicking at the sight of such a storm.
Princess Celestia calmly walked out onto the terrace of a balcony overlooking the castle, her eyes never leaving the storm ahead.
"Is there something the matter, princess?" One of her servants nearby asked nervously.
"Yes." She said with great steel in her voice.
"I always love to make an entrance." Discord laughed maniacally in a villainous way that would make any evil-doer jealous of its gusto.
The storm collided into Canterlot mountain with no warning. Rain bore down upon the architectural wonders of the buildings, flooding the streets almost immediately. Lightning and thunder bellowed through the air, except wherever the lightning struck, something strange would happen. Stone would transform to cheesecake, a pony would find that they had eight limbs instead of four, and the air oddly hung with the scent of pumpernickel.
"Get ready," Discord motioned to us, snapping his fingers to free us from the restraining seatbelts. We all stood up, ready, on edge, for whatever would happen. Oh, it was gonna be chaotic!
"Now!"
The ground beneath my feet gave way, and I felt a familiar sensation of falling. Around me, the others Discord had brought floated through the air, and I was floating as well, each one of us settling down to the ground below. We were in the courtyard of Canterlot castle.
Discord himself landed in front of us gracefully in a perfect ballerina pose, receiving a chuckle.
"Give it a moment..." He spoke, looking at his wrist, a watch suddenly there. "Three...two...one..."
On the dot at his words, guards bursted from every corner available, weapons drawn and pointed at us. A sound of hooves could be heard, and we all turned to see Princess Celestia herself and Princess Luna striding side-by-side to stand before such a gaggle of freaks and weirdos.
I should be feeling something, shouldn't I? It was a feeling of...happiness? A term came to mind...'fan-boying' over something, but the term was ridiculous. Why would I do that? Besides, Celestia's harsh glare only spoiled the moment.
"Celly!" Discord chuckled, walking over to her without a care in the world. "It's been far too long!"
"Oh, and little Lulu!" His attention turned to the night alicorn who recoiled at his stare. "My, you've grown!"
"Begone from our presence, foul beast." She hissed at him.
"Ah, Luna, why so serious?" He cackled before putting an lion's arm around Celestia's neck, the alicorn not even shivering at his touch, instead, she was stoic. "You two need to turn your frowns upside-down! This is a momentous occasion!"
"Like you escaping from your prison again?" Celestia's words cut colder and sharper than the rain pouring down.
"Your guards really need to learn NOT to argue around me." The spirit of disharmony chuckled before poofing away and reappearing back in his original spot in front of us.
"You have your own little posse, right? Your guards...the bearers of harmony...so, I decided to rouse up my own little rabble!" He swept out his bird's arm towards us, and I had never felt more proud despite the damnable cold aching away inside me. Why wouldn't it go away?!
"Spoiler alert, they're here to help me!" Discord whispered in the direction of the princesses.
"Help you do what? Your reign will not come this time, Discord. Twilight Sparkle will be here soon, as will the others. You will be turned to stone before the afternoon's over." The white alicorn said with a certain hint of smugness in her voice.
"Ah, why do have to go and ruin the fun like that! We could catch up, have a little tea party. Here, I'll start by clearing away some of your staff, they seem awfully overworked." He snapped his fingers, and in an instant, every last guard vanished into thin air. Where they were sent, I did not know.
"You all get the day off!" Discord called out.
Celestia only narrowed her eyes.
"Now we get to have that alone time together!"
"Luna..." Celestia nodded at her sister beside her.
"We am more than ready, sister." Luna bent low into a combative stance, stamping her hoof on the ground. Celestia bent low as well, each of their horns pointed dangerously at Discord. They charged, the sound of their thundering stomps mingling with the natural booms overhead.
Discord only yawned before holding his mismatched arms out, a sort of green energy building up in the palms of his hands.
Right before he was struck by the two, he pushed his hands forward, and a mockery of a rainbow shot out from each, a distorted burst of grey hitting the two alicorns directly in the chest. They stopped dead in their tracks, their bodies turning to stone inch by inch.
When he was done, two statues of the sisters fell to the ground before him. He turned around and bowed, standing back up with a most wicked smirk upon his discordant features." Canterlot is ours, dear children. Chaos rules, order is banished!"