//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: Equestria's New Regime // Story: The Kingdom of Discord // by The Pirate Prince //------------------------------// It was very late in the evening and Clover the Clever was almost finished with her interviews of Wonderbolt's soldiers about their 'battle' with Discord. "-and that's when the second dance number started." "Yes, Private Steel Wing already told me what happened." "Did he mention the-" "Yes, yes he did. In quite graphic detail actually. I don't think I want to hear it again." She shuddered briefly before wrote down another couple of notes. "Well I think that's everything corporal, you should go get some sleep." "Thank you ma'am." He gave her the best salute he could considering his injuries and exited the library for the Canterlot barracks. Clover began sorting through her notes; to her, this spirit of chaos was a fascinating mystery. She wished she could study it even closer, really test his limits. Clover started imaging herself interviewing the Draconequus, learning all about the world from a spirit's point of view. This being must know so much about the universe, maybe there could be some way to make it cooperate. Her daydreaming was cut short by an explosion that lit up the city and shook the castle. True to his word, Discord had refrained himself from truly spreading chaos across the country until the morning, and since it had just passed midnight, he decided to literally start things off with a bang. ----- Wonderbolt was washing away the paint covering his coat in the en suite next to Platinum's bedroom. Their bedroom. "Some honeymoon," he sighed. He climbed out of the bath and grabbed a towel from the rack on the wall. After drying himself off, he walked back into the bedroom. He glanced to the door. It didn't feel right, going to bed when a hostile entity had invaded the castle; but he wouldn't be able to be an effective commander by depriving himself of sleep, and Discord didn't seem to be causing trouble for the moment. He slipped under the sheets, careful not to wake his sleeping wife. In the dim light, he watched her sleep for a few moments before closing his eyes and clearing his mind from the endless strategies and counter-maneuvers he'd been formulating against the spirit. *BOOM* The two of them bolted upright, Wonderbolt leapt to his hooves and ran out of the room. "Stay here!" he shouted back to his wife; she was too disoriented to argue. In fact, it took her a few moments to remember they were married. Seeing Wonderbolt laying next to her was quite a shock. Commander Wonderbolt galloped down the corridors to the council room; he passed a couple of guards that followed him unenthusiastically, they'd seen what had happened to the men who had been with the Commander when he'd first confronted the spirit. When they pushed on the doors to the council room, they fell from their hinges into the room. Inside, Discord sat on his swivel chair, a remote control with a big red button was in his right paw and a big smile on his face. "Is there a problem?" "It is the middle of the night, ponies are trying to sleep," Wonderbolt spoke through gritted teeth. It was taking him a great deal of self restraint to not try attacking Discord again. "Oh come now, ponies sleeping through the whole night, every night. It's so boring, so orderly." Discord glanced out the window, the light from the explosion had faded. "Still we don't want everypony bumping into things," There was a flash of light and a giant monkey appeared on the roof of tallest tower. Above it, three large, glowing orbs lit up Canterlot and the surrounding countryside. The monkey grabbed them as the fell and began juggling. "Not bad, not bad," Discord said to himself. "A lot of the country is in darkness though." Inspiration struck and light enveloped the city. The city was now no longer at the bottom of the mountain, but half way up it, sticking out of the side. The entire city was kept from falling by a few rickety, wooden supports; a pegasus architect flew out to view what had happened and fainted in mid-air at how unsafe it all looked. "What was the point of that?" Wonderbolt asked. "Now the light is covering the whole of Equestria." "Why didn't you just have the monkey stand on the mountain rather than moving the whole damn city!" "Well that's no fun. Anyway, it's much better for bungee jumping now." "What's bungee jumping?" Discord's smile grew noticeably. Wonderbolt suddenly found himself falling through the air. He tried pulling his wings open, but he couldn't. He looked over his shoulder to see Canterlot far above him, the harness restricting his wings and the cord keeping him and his city attached. He strained against the equipment, moving his front hooves above his head to try and pull it off. As the ground came closer, he pulled his hooves to his eyes and screamed. He felt a pull on his stomach as he decelerated. He stopped centimeters from the ground. Wonderbolt opened his eyes in time to see a rabbit wearing a bowler hat, blowing on a bubble pipe, looking at him with an expression of puzzled amusement. Wonderbolt wasn't able to reflect on this unusual sight for very long because the bungee cord soon began pulling him back towards Canterlot; the bunny waved goodbye to the blue and yellow pony as he rocketed skyward. Again Wonderbolt tried to break free of his restraints to no avail. He was closing in on the underside of Canterlot now, the cord had gone slack but he was still falling upwards. He began slowing down, but he knew it would be too little too late, he was going to collide with the stone ceiling at a dangerous speed. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the impact. "Princess?" Clover peeked around the door. "Yes Clover, come in." She trotted into the room. "If your looking for my husband, he left a while ago. Probably gone to confront Discord again." Platinum was in the bedroom's walk in closet searching for something. "I doubt he'll be any more successful than last time; physical attack seem to do nothing to him and he just shrugs off any Unicorn magic thrown at him. I doubt anypony in Equetria could do anything against Discord " "Me too," Platinum agreed. She exited the closet levitating a saddlebag adorned with jewels. "That's why I have decided to request aid from the spirits Luna and Celestia." "What?!" A day ago such action was inconceivable. To stand before the gods of ponykind, it was an honor that was bestowed only on the few ponies they had requested through out history. To think that Platinum planned to enter their personal domain and request their assistance, it was almost blasphemous. "We are their people. They have a duty to protect us and only they have the power to stand against this threat." Princess Platinum stated with confidence. She turned from the saddlebag laying over the bed and saw Clover's expression. "Do not worry, they will not have forgotten the debt owed to Unicorn kind. When their magics weakened, the first Unicorn King offered his people's own to support the cycle of day and night." She levitated a note she had written from her dressing table and folded it over. Outside the bedroom door was a pegasus in the royal guard uniform. "Sergeant , take this to my husband. It is of the utmost urgency." The pegasus took the floating message in his mouth. "Come on Clover, we'd better get prepare for our journey." Once the two unicorns had left towards the kitchen, the pegasus took the letter from his mouth and held it to the window to read it by monkeylight. "Celestia and Luna?" 'Sergeant' Tonal Clash whispered to himself. He waited until the princess and her companion were out of earshot before disappearing from existence, his psyche returning to the mind that it had spawned from. The letter fluttered to the floor before bursting into flames. "That was bungee jumping," said Discord between chuckles. Wonderbolt found himself, not splattered along the bottom of Canterlot as he had expected, but hovering several inches above the throne room floor. Gravity, bitter after his elastic assisted escape from its grasp. was quick to rectify this error of physics by dropping Wonderbolt painfully on his rump. Wonderbolt breathed deeply, trying to calm his nerves. Falling from a great height without use of his wings, it was a common nightmare among pegasus children. He was embarrassed by how much the experience had shaken him, he was known as one of the best flyers in the military. He may not be as fast or as graceful as some, but he could avoid obstacles and do turns tighter than anypony alive. The two guards remembered they were in the room and rushed to help the commander to his hooves. Meanwhile, Discord walked to the largest window in the room. The outside windowsill unrolled into a red slide that left the castle grounds and ended in the city streets. Wonderbolt walked slowly towards Discord as he turned to picked up his swivel chair throne, lifted it over his head and threw it through the window. Shards of glass exploded outwards, into the castle grounds. Where they landed, large carnivorous plants grew from the ground almost instantly, their sharp teeth ready to chew the tail hairs off anypony who got too close. Wonderbolt watched the chair as it fell, its shape changing as it flew. It transformed into large custard pie and collided with the face of the memorial statue of Commander Hurricane. Infuriated by the desecration of the memory of his adoptive parent, Wonderbolt launched himself at the spirit. It was at this moment that the mind of 'Sargent' Tonal Clash merged with that of Discord's own. He was far to occupied with his new memories to notice the enraged pegasus until he had collided into his back. The two guards watched as the commander, entangled by the spirit's serpent like body, tumbled down the long slide. They looked nervously at each other before deciding back out the room, where they were chased down the corridor by a herd of stampeding chairs.