//------------------------------// // Prologue: Dash of Chaos // Story: The Troubles of Changing Times // by TeaPartyCannon //------------------------------// “Hello Chryssy; long time no see. Did you miss me?” Discord resisted the urge to laugh out loud as the changeling queen visibly tensed and spun around, her eyes wide with terror and panicked cry caught in her throat. He popped a chair into existence and sat down, watching with a cocky smile as the fear quickly faded and was replaced with glowering hatred. Queen Chrysalis glared at the draconequus, fangs bared and horn glowing threateningly. “Discord!” Chrysalis finally spat, “What are you doing here?! You should still be-” “I know, I should still be stone. But a thousand years is quite a long time for a seal to last,” Discord interrupted, “A bit of chaos here, a banishment of a moon princess there, and bam! Free to sow chaos as I please!” Discord leaned further into his chair, his smirk growing wider as he surveyed the changeling. “Though I must say, Chrysalis, you’re looking lovely today. You’ve certainly aged well, haven’t you? I had no idea flutterpony royal- oh, sorry, changeling royalty lived so long.” “How dare you-!” Chrysalis began again, only to cut off as Discord raised a claw in the air. “Yes yes, how dare I make light of your species’ plight, especially when I was the one who caused it.” Discord continued for her in a bored tone of voice. “Speaking of which, how’s dear ol’ Mummy doing?” Chrysalis’s glare narrowed further at this. After a moment of silence, she spoke in a soft, just audible tone that dripped with venom. “She’s dead.” Discord’s eyes widened and his grin fell in a look of mock surprise. “Oh? I’m sorry to hear that. That must have been very tough on you. I hope you’re not still feeling down about it; after all, it’s not like you had anything to do with-” The draconequus deliberately broke off, his malicious smile returning. “Oh, that’s right; you did. You killed her, after all.” Discord clasped his claw and paw together and leaned forward. “I must congratulate you; that was quite an ingenious idea, using a spell to gain eternal life at the cost of a loved one’s soul. How far does that immortality extend? Are you just unaging, or are you literally incapable of dying now?” Chrysalis refused to dignify him with an answer, and Discord continued as though he didn’t notice or just didn’t care about the growing aura of hate and fury radiating from the changeling. “How do you think she felt in her last moments, seeing her own daughter planning her death? Do you think she felt betrayed? Maybe she didn’t feel anything at all, being so broken. Maybe she was actually grateful, happy that somepony was going to put her out of her misery at long last-” “SHUT UP!” Chrysalis screeched, her horn igniting in a dangerous green blaze. A jet of flame burst forth, smashing into the chair that Discord had been sitting in just a second earlier and blasting it to pieces. Discord manifested a pink umbrella and opened it normally, hovering nonchalantly as the smoldering fragments rained down around him. He smiled at Chrysalis’s livid expression. “Don’t you… don’t you dare talk about her like that!” Chrysalis growled. The changeling queen was shaking with rage; he had clearly struck a nerve. “I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done!” Discord continued to smile and closed his umbrella, holding it out like a sword. “Now that’ll be interesting to see. Well, if you want to fight me, go ahead. I’ll even let you have the first move. Or is this the second, counting that impromptu spell of your’s? Eh, doesn’t matter.” He said with a shrug, then went back to his previous pose. “En garde!” Chrysalis shrieked in fury and fired another powerful burst of fire at Discord. The draconequus swung his umbrella like a bat, striking the blast and dispelling it. “Oh come now, Chryssy, you’re going to have to do much better than that if you want to hurt me.” The queen responded with another beam, which Discord easily swatted out of the way. Whatever nerve he struck, he must have hit it harder than he thought, because the enraged changeling was making no effort to change her strategy despite the ease in which Discord ducked, dodged, rolled, and deflected her attacks. The draconequus frowned, quickly growing bored doing the same thing over and over, and decided that now was as good a time as any to end this one-sided fight. “How like you, Chrysalis. All business, no play.” Discord sighed, sounding disappointed. He held his lion arm out and caught one of her beams in his paw, condensing it into a ball. He spun around and launched the burning orb at Chrysalis’s hooves, shocking the changeling out of her blind rage. Her eyes widened as, with a snap of Discord’s talons, dozens upon dozens of glowing energy balls of all sizes and colors appeared in the air around her, too close together to allow any kind of escape. Discord’s smile was one of triumph as he pointed a talon down at her. “Dodge this.” A flick of his umbrella, and the orbs shot down at once, converging upon the changeling queen. She hastily brought up a shield to defend herself, but it shattered under the barrage of the first few waves, leaving the rest to crash down on top of her. Chrysalis disappeared under the light and smoke of the exploding orbs, and when Discord waved his umbrella again to disperse the smoke, the changeling laid beaten in a large crater, groaning in pain and barely conscious. Discord fluttered down into the crater and stood before the queen, his umbrella vanishing in a puff of smoke. He bent down and traced a talon gently along Chrysalis’s crooked horn. At his touch, a green spark traveled between his talon and her horn, and the changeling queen’s body drained of color, becoming a dull, lifeless grey. Chrysalis slowly opened her eyes and stared up at him, her gaze defeated but still full of loathing, for both him and for herself. “It must be so hard on you, Chrysalis,” Discord said with mocking sympathy. “A thousand years of caring for your swarm, and a thousand more to come, with no way out because you’re the only thing standing between the changelings’ survival and their total extinction.” The look in Chrysalis’s eyes never changed as she spoke. “It… it’s not my fault the changelings can’t reproduce, that I’m the only one that can lay eggs or create conversion chrysalises. It’s not my fault I’ll never have an heir…” “Oh, is that what you think?” Discord asked, looking surprised. “Hah! You really don’t know anything, do you?” “…What?” Chrysalis said, confusion sparking in her eyes. “The reason why you can’t have an heir? Why, it’s your own fault, of course!” Discord said cheerfully, “You see, there’s a difference between a changeling drone and a changeling princess. Drones are born from eggs the normal way, but a princess requires an enormous amount of energy to be able to do all the things a queen can do, energy she can get only from the queen!” “You mean…?” Chrysalis trailed off. “Precisely! A changeling princess needs to absorb the life energy given up by her mother to be born, therefore becoming the new queen!” Discord declared. His smile briefly dropped as he looked at Chrysalis for confirmation. “Er, that is what you were going to say, correct?” The queen stayed silent, and his smug grin soon returned. “But of course, you can’t do that, can you? I still don’t know the full extents of your immortality, but I’m willing to bet you can’t just give up your life force for a child. So in a way, your swarm’s complete dependence on you for survival… it’s all your fault, isn’t it?” Chrysalis’s eyes widened, horror managing to cross her face despite her discorded state of mind. “You’re lying… YOU’RE LYING!” Discord laughed as her voice reached a hysterical pitch. “You’re free to think that if you want to, but we both know the truth. It’s a shame, really; if you hadn’t been so impulsive, if you hadn’t decided to become the eternal queen of the changelings, this never would have happened, would it? You could have had an heir to take over as queen, and you could have been reunited with dear ol’ Mummy. But that’ll never happen now, will it?” Discord leaned in close to her face, eyes narrowed and voice low and malicious. “This is what comes of a child trying to play god…” Discord stood up straight and closed his eyes, smiling triumphantly as the changeling queen broke. Chrysalis threw her hooves over her face and cried, sobbing tearless apologies to her swarm, mother, and nonexistent child and begging hysterically for their forgiveness. Discord would have stayed to listen to her laments over her failures longer, but the sound of buzzing and cracking outside the door to the throne chamber drew his attention. “Ah, looks like those changelings are about done breaking through that wall of marble chocolate I made.” Discord observed. He looked back down at the guilt-stricken changeling before him, so like the naive and desperate princess she was a thousand years ago. “Well, Chryssey, I’d love to stay, but I have chaos to wreak and a purple unicorn to break. Ta ta!” Discord snapped his talons and disappeared just as the chamber doors burst open. Discord sighed and snuggled into his hammock, floating within the dark abyss that was the inside of his stone prison. He snapped his fingers, producing a glass of strawberry milk, and drunk the glass before biting into the crunchy milk left behind. A smirk crossed his face as he reflected on his memories of the changeling queen he had visited the last time he had been free. It was funny, really; how she had believed everything he had said, most of which was a lie. Oh no, he hadn’t lied about her not being able to have an heir, but it had nothing to do with the immortality stolen from her mother. In actuality, any common changeling that could kill the queen and take her power would be able to become the new changeling king or queen, but given how Chrysalis had built herself up as what was essentially a god to the changelings, that wasn’t going to happen. So it was still all her fault. Poor, naive Chrysalis… Discord mused, chuckling softly, the sound reverberating in the endless abyss. He let out a long sigh and willed his hammock away, flapping his wings to stay aloft even though he had no real need to. Trifle things such as gravity did not exist in his prison; it was just another thing that made his incarceration an utter bore for the spirit of chaos. Focusing the little power he retained in his current state, Discord closed his eyes and willed his mind and spirit past the black abyss, past the stone sealing his body, and out into the world beyond. When he opened his eyes, Discord found himself staring out at the Canterlot gardens, his stone body still in its frozen position behind him. The draconequus’s spirit spun around and stared at the horrified expression on the statue’s face. “Shame I didn’t see this coming. I would have made sure I looked more dignified if I had,” He muttered. The draconequus shrugged and turned around, flying up to the tops of Canterlot Castle and settling down on the tip of its tallest tower. Discord stared out over the city of Canterlot, his powerless spirit invisible to the ponies below, who went about their daily lives without a care in the world. Here and there, Discord could see areas of construction, where ponies were hard at work repairing streets and buildings that had been damaged in the changeling invasion scarcely a week ago. Discord chuckled as he thought about the event and how much chaos it had caused, returning just the slightest bit of his power. At least Chrysalis had done something useful before being blasted who-knows-where by that barrier… “Oh, what I wouldn’t give for another invasion of Canterlot…” Discord sighed as he settled down against the tower’s tip. “Then again, it’s not good to do the same thing twice. It’s not chaos if it’s expected, after all.” After a few more boring minutes of watching the city life of Canterlot, something off in the distance caught Discord’s eye. He looked up and squinted, a pair of theatre glasses held up to his eyes to better observe the strange sight. “A rainbow… tornado. While I appreciate the oddity, I wonder what’s going on over there?” Discord continued to watch the strange twister of color swirling around what he believed was the area around Ponyville. A small smirk crossed his face as he realized the Elements of Harmony had to be in use. “Curiouser and curiouser…” The smirk fell away, however, after a few more seconds of observation, in which he realized that the tornado was growing quickly. Very quickly. Fear striking and instincts kicking in at the sight of the rainbow of harmony sweeping across the land toward Canterlot, Discord leapt off the tower and dove back down toward his statue. The spirit returned to the safety of his petrified body seconds before a whirlwind of color rushed over it. Back in the black abyss, Discord created a screen projecting the scene outside of his statue. The clear blue sky was blocked out by the swirling, twisting storm of light, and Discord was glad that, in his frozen state, he could not feel the mass amounts of harmony that the rainbow was certainly exuding. But what for? That’s the question. No more than a minute later, though, the wondrous show came to an end. The massive rainbow faded away, and the cloudless blue sky was soon visible once more. Discord stared out through the screen, taking note of the silence now that the roar of the twister had died down. A few more moments of staring was all it took for him to grow thoroughly bored of the sight. “Well, as fun as it is being a lifeless stone statue, I think I’ll go out for a fly and see what that was all about.” Discord muttered to himself. No sooner, however, had he stuck his spirit out of his body that a painful shock ran through him. The spirit recoiled into the safety of his prison, away from the huge amounts of harmony still hanging in the air. “On second thought, I’ll think I’ll stay a lifeless stone statue for a couple more hours,” Discord said quickly, shuddering. “I’m sure I can find something to entertain myself until then.” And so, after several hours of crossword puzzles, rubix cube solving, and losing against himself in a game of Monopoly, the sound of hooves finally broke the monotony of his imprisonment. Pulling up the screen, Discord looked out and stared in surprise as Queen Chrysalis, of all ponies, slowly approached his statue. Looking past her, Discord could see Shining Armor and Cadance, along with several guards, standing tensely behind and glaring at the changeling queen. A smile crossed Discord’s face as he flew closer to the screen. “Chryssy! I’m so happy to see you again! How are you doing? You didn’t get taken prisoner by Celestia, did you?” Of course, he knew she couldn’t hear him, but he still felt like trying to talk to her in an effort to relieve his boredom. “Hello Discord, it’s so good to see you again.” Chrysalis started. Discord could practically feel the venom hidden in her voice. “How are you doing? Stone again, I see.” Discord chuckled and tried to push down his embarrassment. “Well, we all make mistakes…” Not hearing him, Chrysalis continued on. “I’m doing very well, thanks for asking. In fact, I’m doing better than I have in a long time. Perhaps you’d like to see how well?” Discord raised a spiritual eyebrow at the queen’s words, watching as she engulfed herself in her changing flames. When the flames cleared, however, Discord’s jaw dropped five feet at the sight of a beautiful flutterpony standing in the changeling’s place. “H-H-how did you?!” Discord stuttered angrily, unable to believe what he was seeing. “I got rid of that form! I made you unable to change into that form! How are you in it right now?!” “Do you see this, Discord? You must have thought you were so clever, preventing us from taking our flutterpony forms.” Chrysalis smirked at the petrified draconequus, “Well, the joke’s on you now. The Elements of Harmony have restored our love, and we have made peace with the ponies. It will take time, but eventually, the changelings will live in harmony with the ponies, and the both of us, immortal and eternal, will be there to see it.” “The Elements?” Discord repeated before realization struck, “Hmm, so that’s what that rainbow was for…” he muttered to himself. Chrysalis stepped closer to the statue, her smug smile widening. “I don’t forgive you, you know. You turned us into the changelings, after all. You destroyed mother’s will to live and forced me to take over as the swarm’s queen. I lost many good friends: Morning Glory, Forget-Me-Not, Honeysuckle, all long gone thanks to you. Celestia and Luna abandoned us to our fate, but you gave us that fate in the first place. I will never forgive you for that.” Discord rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, pouting. “Oh, don’t act all high and mighty. I broke you the last time we met, remember? Besides, you should be thanking me; changelings are so much better than flutterponies.” Of course, Chrysalis still didn’t hear him as she went on, “And so, I’ll give you the only punishment I can. I’ll leave you here, frozen in stone, and you can watch as your last bit of influence on this world melts away and is replaced by harmony.” Now it was Discord’s turn to be stopped cold by her words. Horror filled the draconequus as she spelled out this second realization, “The changelings will thrive, we’ll never have to hurt or steal for our love again, we’ll make peace, and you can watch as it all happens.” And with that, Chrysalis returned to her changeling form and turned away, walking back towards the waiting ponies and conversing for a few moments before teleporting away. All the while Discord stared after her, frozen at the thought of his greatest creations becoming creatures of harmony instead of the chaos they were meant to be. “Wha…but..I…” Slowly, the numb shock gave way to indignant anger. “Oh, you did not just give me the “reason-I-lose” speech! No one gives Discord the “reason-I-lose” speech! I won’t stand for this!” Discord materialized a chair and sat down to fume. “Peace, huh? Harmony between ponies and changelings? That’s a laugh!” A malicious grin crossed the draconequus’s face as he spoke, “We’ll just see about your precious peace, Chryssy! Because if there’s one thing I know, it’s disharmony, and by the time I’m done, you’ll be lucky if war’s all you get!” The draconequus reclined in his chair and rocked back and forth slowly, deep in thought. “Now, how to go about this? I certainly can’t do anything from inside this statue…!” A lit candle suddenly appeared above his head, and Discord sat up straight as he put on a devious smile. “Or can I…?” Discord concentrated for a few moments, and a small green flame appeared in the palm of his talon. He stared down with growing excitement at the flickering light as it morphed into the form of a hissing changeling. “Add a dash of chaos, and it all falls apart…” He snuffed out the little flame in his talon. “This is going to be fun…”