//------------------------------//
// Conflicting Interests 
// Story: Agents of Discord 
// by Scarlett Haze 
//------------------------------//

	When we climbed out of the hole, I knew that if I'd see something like what we had done would happen on my street, I'd be a little confused too. We were a literal dirt parade as the long line of ponies continued on, all carrying weapons, shields, armor, caravans slowly filled the town square.

"We're baa-aack." I said to myself, taking in the afternoon sun and the sight of the residents coming out of their homes to look over some of their friends coming back. I couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride as fathers came to their families and telling them of what they were given. Mothers, friends, acquaintances, everypony had begun to surround the center of town. Figuring that the best opportunity could be made to make a statement on what needed to be done, I made way to an open porch and stood at it.

"To everypony here! What you see is that we have at least one-fourth of what has been found in the Everfree's secret cavern! You see the pikes, the spears, the armor, almost every need to protect ourselves and fight back, we've brought here!"

A roar of approval came out from many in the crowd. Zecora's eyes kept to me, encouraging me to continue.

"The reason we're here is to go to Canterlot. Look around! Many ponies that have lost homes are now here. From residents to business owners, we've all lost something. Let's make a stand, not later, NOW. Let's bring everything together here, the armor, the weapons, the necessary essentials such as food, water, and shelter! And once we're all here, we'll march to Canterlot and look at Discord in his beady eyes and yell out 'I want my life back!'"

The crowd had started going into 'Hip Hip Hoorays' momentarily before they all begun to grow silent. All of their eyes looked beyond me as a shadow lingered over myself. Turning around, I found myself face-to-face with Celestia, a bitter disappointment in her eyes as she looked down at me.

"Are you Quick Fix?" she asked.

My mouth went dry, the presence of this alicorn bearing down on me made it difficult not to continue standing in front of her. "Yeah."

She watched me for a few more moments before moving past me and directing her attention to the crowd. "I can understand your frustrations, and as your princess, I too want action to be taken. However, we can't lose sight of what makes us better than Discord."

As she spoke, she moved in the crowd, meeting eyes with everypony around her. "Our honesty. Keeping true to others and ourselves. Our kindness. Looking beyond the faults and offering a second chance. Our laughter. Because even when we get hurt, when others see our joy, they realize that we are stronger than they believe. Our generosity. Giving not only to ourselves but to everypony around us so that we can all work together. Our loyalty. Without it then what we are means nothing and the code that we all stand by is worthless."

She finished by going back on the porch and looking back out again. "Together we are more than ponies, we are all friends united to make the world as great of a place that we possibly can, even when the circumstances become difficult."

The crowd murmured their agreements, making me feel that Celestia was trying to ruin what needed to be done.

"Hang on a minute!" I yelled out, my eyes staring at Celestia's again.

"You want to talk about what makes US better? Let me tell you something! HONESTLY, there are so many hurt, lost, and needy looking for a sense of redemption! Don't take this opportunity away from them, encourage it! You believe in kindness, but from where I come from, kindness can easily be taken as a sign of weakness! What needs to be done is a different kind of kindness than you think, a kindness to the world at large by ridding Discord's evil forever!"

Celestia went to interrupt me, forcing me to flap up and put my hoof over her mouth, "Don't talk 'till I'm finished, Prissy Princess."

My hoof went off her mouth, but remained in the air as I yelled at her. "Generosity? What has Discord given them? Pain, Suffering, Loss. If you want generosity, then listen to these words, 'Eye for an eye, Tooth for a tooth.' With Discord gone, I'm sure many will be able to smile and laugh with less stress in their lives, I for one will be one of them. And as for loyalty? What do you mean by that? Loyal to a code, or loyal to your fat flank?"

We bore into each other with our stares, Celestia doing all she could to not hit me in front of her subjects.

"I'm warning you, right now. If you even dare attack, approach, or conspire to enter Canterlot, you'll find yourself in a very unpleasant position." She said, watching if I would react.

"What's the worst you can do? Kill me?" I responded. "Besides, look at them. They want to take back the town, and they also want to get Discord out of here!"

Turning from Celestia, I expected to hear a cheer of approval, but noticed many of the ponies looking away or at the ground. My heart sank quickly as Celestia motioned some white pegasi in armor to approach me. "G- guys! Say something!"

I could see Tyrone attempting to go forward, but he was being held back by the other Diamond Dogs as they began moving back to the hole they made. Zecora kept looking around, unsure of what to do. Trixie had leaned her hat forward, blocking her sight.

"For conspiring action against my request of peace," Celestia started as the guards slapped a pair of hoofcuffs on me. "You are going to be placed into a holding cell away from the public and under the observation of myself and Princess Luna."

My jaw dropped for a moment before I began to be pulled away by the guards. "H- hey! This isn't right! Discord's going to take over everything!" I struggled for a moment as the crowd watched on. "Why aren't any of you standing up for me?! Zecora! Trixie! DAMN IT, ANYONE!"

I unconsciously began tearing up, my sight blurring as I continued to be pulled away. "I trusted you! I trusted all of you! She's wrong! Discord's not going to be peaceful! You all know this! PLEASE!"

Celestia turned from me and continued addressing her subjects, but I had ceased listening.


***


"I can't believe they're using the asylum as a jail now," an angry voice yelled out.

I had already known it was one of the guards of the building and his complaining was the only thing that I could focus on. The room I had been left in was a simple room, bed, single window, and the walls had been padded. I had resigned myself to the bed, staring at the wall and wondering why no pony had bothered to stand with me.

"They haven't liked you," the inner voice of Solar Eclipse whispered. "All they wanted was to take away what you brought them."

My eyes wouldn't blink. They refused to. Not that I wanted them to shut, more like I had forced them open and everything else in my body was shut off. I could listen, but I didn't bother to hear. Probably how Discord was able to appear in the room without me noticing.

"Yoo-hoo..." Discord said, waving a talon in my face to see if I would react. "A- are you dead? Are you dead and not able to fight me anymore?"

"Say what the hell you want," I groaned out, unmoving from my lying position. "It It won't matter by the end of tomorrow since I'm now stuck in here."

Discord moved away from my sight, looking out the window from the sound of his walking. "You listen to Celestia? Psh, typical. Princess wants you to behave and you resign to it."

I let him ramble for a bit. It had something to do with me not being rebellious, against the system or some shit. He continued on for a moment before he just outright lifted me up and started shaking me.

"REACT TO ME, DAMN IT!" He yelled out.

I let my body slump, I didn't want to bother anymore. But I did ask one question that came to mind.

"What do you gain?" I dryly spoke.

Discord stopped his shaking and set me down on the bed before promptly going to the door. His hand moved to the knob and began locking locks that began to appear in sequential order before stopping at opening the door slightly and hanging a 'Do Not Disturb' sign. "Needed privacy in order to answer that one," he grinned.

He moved over to my bed, putting one leg up on it and leaning towards me. "What do you know about Harmony?"

"In general?" I responded.

He seemed to mull over the answer for a moment, "Let's go with that, sure."

Our eyes locked, though I felt no change in my facial expression, I let Discord know that I loathed him with everything I could portray with my eyes. "Harmony is order. A unity of all things working together and maintaining peace."

Discord gave a little nod, a little curl of his lip in a smile letting me know he was leading me somewhere. "So your definition of disharmony is that nothing works and peace cannot be made with it?"

I didn't respond.

"Those two definitions are so... black-white. But even here, in Equestria, the land of ponies, peace, and friendship, there is never true harmony." He said, moving away from my eyesight before being picked up and held towards the window.

"But think of it! If I, Discord, Demigod of all things chaotic, can make a world of PURE disharmony, then maybe from that there could in fact be PURE Harmony!" he spoke, letting the scenery of the town corrupt through the glass. "That's why I need you and your friends, Bait. It's not for taking over Equestria specifically, its for making it a better place. Through our actions we can force her to come out."

"Her?" I repeated, turning my head to Discord.

"Oh, good," Discord softly spoke. "You can move now, so I'll just carry on without holding on to you." With that, he let go and I plopped to the ground. He turned back to the window, his talon and paw behind his back. "Your earth doesn't call her by that name, it's so straightforward, strict, lacks a sense of mystery behind it." He turned slightly to look at me, "They call her God."

I just sat on the floor, staring up at the creature. His dark figure covering the sunset light from the window made me shiver in fear as his eyes gleamed red for the slightest moment. "And if Harmony is God, then you would know me by the antithesis of God. Even with your lack of religious ongoings, I'm sure you know of the many names that I also go by."

My face scrunched up, in anger and confusion. "But, how could you be known as Satan?"

Discord sat down on the bed and patted the side, motioning me to sit next to him. In caution, I did, wary of his touch. "There are few ponies that know of a war that happened many centuries ago. Slowly, the knowledge is getting leaked out, but its not enough. Humanity is mythology. And if Humanity and its race is mythology, so was the war that kick started Equestria to begin with."

A snap of his fingers, the wall in front of us fell off to reveal many armored humans rushing out in a field, cutting down ponies, griffons, manticores, and all kinds of beasts. "Look out there, Bait. Do you see anyone out there that resembles a leader?"

My eyes were drawn to a tall, skinny man. He held a golden pistol in one hand, a clawed gauntlet in the other. His armor was a patchwork of different things. His pants had scales on one leg and the other resembled fur. A simple piece of leather covered his chest and his head was covered by a metal helmet. Looking between Discord and the man, I easily made the connection.

"How young I was," Discord solemnly hummed. "With nothing but the scavenged pieces of clothing that I made, I was the one that brought a fight to Harmony."

As Discord mentioned Harmony, an echoing whinny came from the sky. The alicorn that made its cry was pure white, as if dirt or smoke could not affect her coat or color. I watched as the alicorn bore down on the soldiers with its magic, blowing lines of humans into the air, only to fall and break apart, bleeding to death as they were trampled on. It happened for a few moments before the alicorn turned to the human Discord. It looked to impale him on its horn, and Discord lifted his pistol up to the careening beast.

Time went slow as Discord focused the image of the horn entering the pistol and Discord pulling the trigger.

Discord snapped his talon again and the war image was gone, replaced by the asylum wall again. "Needless to say, I lived. Well, kind of. More importantly is that the war hasn't finished yet, not technically anyway." He got up and moved to the door, unlocking the locks.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "If I can recall, there aren't any humans in Equestria, and if they were, they're already dead by this point."

Discord gave a small laugh, "They would be, if they weren't relocated. And now its time to call them back. My agreement must be completed Bait. Which is why I'm going to get you a Get Out of Jail Free card, and even better, I'll personally welcome you when you arrive at the castle."

"You want me there, that's why you-?" I began.

Discord gave a wink at me, "It's either you come save your friends or let the world burn around you. Either way, this game we're playing will end with us." With that he vanished. No snap of fingers, no magic, nothing. It felt surreal, how I knew that he was there, but another part of me said that he couldn't have. As much as I tried to shake off the inevitable feeling growing in my stomach, it wouldn't let up.

I went back to the bed and lay on my side again, this time letting my eyes shut.