Just can't wait to be Caesar!
Lyra kicked her legs hard against the tide, her magic helping her to shore slowly. Discord, on the other had, was floating by lazily with his oversized sunglasses on. The two had barely been inside the Time Vortex for a few seconds (at least it felt like seconds) before they fell through another thin wall in time, but this time the hole lead them right to a vast ocean.
“Hey,” Discord said as his mint colored companion crawled onto the sandy beach, “it could be worse... We could’ve landed in the Canterlot Dungeons.”
Lyra looked up at the draconequus, panting in frustration. “At least the dungeons are dry...” She popped open her saddle bags to check on her books, which where still dry as a bone.
“Well, last time I try and cheer you up.” the Chaos God crossed his arms, then looked around at the deserted sandy shores. “Any idea where we are?”
“No clue... And I thought you knew where we were going!” the musician pony at Discord angrily, “You said you’ld take me to find humans.”
“I didn’t say that, I said you should have a little bit of freedom before shackling yourself to miss 'prim and proper’.” Discord yawned, and snapped his fingers. A small, black device with a touch screen fell out of the sky and into his hand. “I’ll check our location with my DPS.”
“DPS?” Lyra shot the draconequus a confused look.
“Discord Positioning System, my little pony.” he pressed a few places on the screen and smiled, “Ah huh! We’re on the island of Muleta, birth place of Democracy.”
“Demo-what?” the mint pony continued to look confused, scratching her back with a stick she had found.
“Democracy, it’s where you vote for the person ruling you. It was very popular in Equestria, until the last person they elected made them so mad they revolted.” Discord tossed his DPS into the sea, where it morphed into a small shark.
“Who was that?” the unicorn asked, then regretted it as Discord pointed to himself, “Wait... Ponies voted for you to rule them?”
“You ever hear of anyponies from back then? No? That’s why.” The Chaos God cracked his neck and began walking towards what seemed like a small grey path. Suddenly, a chariot roared towards him and halted just inches from the draconequus’ feet. There where two earth ponies in silver armor pulling the cart, the tops of their helmets had what looked like push brooms on top. Standing on the cart was a young male foal, no more then ten, who wore a white toga over his grey coat.
“You there!” the foal called, “Dost thou know that trespassing upon my beach is a travesty punishable by death?!” The foal seemed to use the 'Royal Canterlot Voice’, but with a deep accent behind it.
“Nope,” Discord answered simply, then turned around to face his companion, “Lyra! Did you know that this beach belonged to tiny over here?!”
“No!” she answered, then teleported to her ally’s side.
“Ok, nope. Sorry mister...”
By this time, the foal was fuming with anger. His fiery red mane looked as if it had actually burst into flames. “Hooficus! My name is Hooficus the Second! Son of the great and powerful Hooficus Caesar, lord of all he sees. And you two, shall be locked in the dungeon till thy bones rot! Guards!”
Quickly, Discord tried to snap his fingers, but the two guards where fast. One of them head butted the Chaos God and then tackled him down, knocking the draconequus out. As Lyra rushed at that guard, the second one clobbered the mint unicorn on the back of the head to bring her down quick. The last sound the two heard was the snickering of Hooficus II, as he loomed over their bodies like a giant.
***
“Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar!” the crowd called as Discord opened his eyes, the draconequus felt the ropes that tied him to the column as he tried to walk away. He looked to his right and saw Lyra, already awake and with a strange blue goo covering her horn.
“Discord,” Lyra called, “You awake?”
“Yeah,” he replied, “I could’ve gone for five more minutes but I knew you wouldn’t just let me sleep.”
“Now really isn’t the time for jokes. Can’t you phase through these things or something? Turn them into taffy, or make them melt?”
“I would, If I could snap my fingers. Which is a bit hard to do when they tie this to your hands!” the Chaos God nodded to the two rocks which where secured to his palms. “What about your magic?”
“I tried that, then they put this weird paste on my horn.” Lyra looked up and winced, “It’s all tingly but it hurts like a mother bucker at the same time!” As soon as she finished, the sound of trumpets blazed across them. The crowd cheered as a red colt with bronze armor walked up the steps towards them. His mane was white, and his eyes showed that he had lived many years, but his steps where strong as he walked towards the two prisoners.
“I... Am Hooficus Caesar, lord of all I see.” the old colt began, “I work for the ponies, my ponies, and see that all laws are fair and just.” He paused, looking into Lyra’s eyes, “My son, Hooficus II, has told me that you two tried to attack him while he patrolled the eastern beach.”
“That’s a lie!” the mint colored unicorn yelled, “That little brat told us that beach was his, then he sent his goons on us!”
“Silence!” Hooficus called out, “I will not have my son’s name taken in vain... Especially by a mare.”
“Oh... Now I’m mad!” Lyra pulled on her bonds, growling at the emperor as she tried to bite his muzzle. “I don’t care if you’re Celestia herself! I’m kicking your flank, you old sack of manure!”
“Lyra! Calm down...” Discord said, his eyes on Hooficus, “he can have you be-headed just for that.”
The old colt walked toward the draconequus, a small smile on his face. “Well well... You must be the one the winged colt told us about.”
“Winged colt... With a green cape?” Discord asked.
“Yes, Lord Blackspine I believe he was called. He dined with me, told me of a creature from our legends being real. He even told me of the source of your powers, your 'magic fingers’. However, he wanted us to turn you over to him if we saw him... I think it would be better if we left you here, tied to this stone for all time.” Hooficus turned towards the crowd of earth ponies, “What say you, fine ponies of Muleta!?”
“Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar!” was their response, calling out the name of their lord and master.
Hooficus turned back towards the two prisoners. “You heard them, they wish for my will... And so, I shall fulfill their wishes. Guards!” More ponies in silver armor appeared from nowhere, small swords in their mouths aimed at Discord and Lyra. “Kill the mare... Leave the monster.” He then turned and began to walk away.
“What? No!” Discord called, “Kill me, I’m the bigger threat!”
This made Hooficus’ ears perk up. The old colt turned and eyed his prisoner suspiciously. “Why would you risk yourself for this... Cow? She has no value to you, so why?”
Discord sighed and glared at the emperor, “Because I wont let anypony get hurt, whether they have value or not.”
This just made the old colt laugh, “Yes, Lord Blackspine told us of this weakness... Fool... Kill them both then!”
Slowly, the guards edged closer to Discord and Lyra, their swords shining in the sun light. Inch by inch they moved, until finally one of their blades pressed softly against Lyra coat. The silver of it clashing with the minty color of the unicorn. Then, the group of silver clad earth ponies raised their sword and yelled, their weapons slicing through the air.
“Stop!” a voice from the crowd called, and the guards obeyed. Hooficus looked into the crowd with a grimace on his face, knowing which pony called for the halt in action. Slowly, a figure trotted to the top of the steps. This pony had a white toga on, but it clashed with the bright pink of her coat. Her mane was also pink, and was combed straight at an arrow, but what really brought attention to her where her big blue eyes.
“Sister!” Hooficus called out, “What is the meaning of this? How dare you use your privilege to halt the will of the people?”
“It isn’t their will, brother, but yours that I halt!” The pink pony called out, then turned to the crowd, “I ask only that these two are put on trial, what say you proud Muleta’s?”
The crowd was silent for a moment, then slowly but surely voices rang out calling the pony’s name. “Hail Pietus! Hail Pietus! Hail Pietus!”
***
Discord rubbed his eagle claw with his lion’s paw as he surveyed the room Pietus had brought him too. It was a large red room with a huge pool in the middle, and on the walls where torches with flames in every color of the rainbow. The draconequus turned just in time to see Lyra walking in, dressed in a toga to cover her saddle bags. Following her was their savior, Pietus Pinkamin, younger sister of Hooficus Caesar.
“How arth thou enjoying thy chambers, Discord of Equestria?” Pietus asked, smiling softly.
“Hmmm... could use a fridge.” he answered, then Lyra jammed her elbow into his ribs.
“It’s beautiful Pinkie... um... Pietus.” the mint pony blushed as she corrected herself.
“Pray tell, who is this Pinkie you continue to mistake me for?” the royal pony asked, “If she looks so similar to me, she must be of my blood.”
“Well... You wouldn’t believe us if we told you...” Lyra walked over to one of the torches and tilted her head, “How does it burn blue?”
“Oh, now that’s is very interesting,” Pietus began, “each of these torches burn for one of our gods. The blue one is for Draggle and Reeka, the goddesses of the sea, while the red one is for Ambrus, the god of the sun.”
“Cool... Our sun’s controlled by Cel...” Discord placed his paw over Lyra’s mouth quickly, and pulled her away with out Pietus noticing.
“Do you want to cause a time paradox?!” he whispered harshly, “If we mention Celestia, don’t you think that’ll mess us history even more then we already have? I mean, I’m all for causing a little chaos, but I’d rather not destroy time.”
Lyra nodded after a while, then slipped out of Discord’s grasp. “So, Pietus... Why did you save us?” Lyra asked, walking back toward the pink pony, “I get that your brother’s kind of a jerk, but it’s a little confusing why you’ld risk you neck for us.”
Pietus turned towards her new friend, a soft smile on her face. “It is actually very simple Miss Lyra. Over the past two year, my brother was a just ruler who put the ponies before himself. However, that changed last harvest season, when our island was visited by a strange colt. He claimed to have the powers of a god, yet he had no horn as our mages do. He did have wings and a strange look in his eyes...”
“Blackspine,” Discord said, his hands behind his head as he floated in the air, “he must’ve passed us by somehow and ended up here.”
“Indeed,” Pietus continued, “my brother and I dined with this Lord Blackspine, he seemed civil enough for some time. It was when my brother’s son, Hooficus the Second, joined us that thing became strange. After that dinner... My brother changed, he began to take orders from my nephew instead of the ponies.”
“So,” Lyra sat on one of the couches, “you saved us to help you stop your brother?”
“Yes,” Pietus nodded and smiled wide, “I know it’s presumptuous, but could you two please aid me? If you do, then I shall give you a full pardon of thy crimes, or at least what my brother called crimes.”
At this point, Discord had sneaked out of the room with nopony noticing his absence. The Chaos God slinked down the halls of the lage palace, his mind reaching out to try and find Emperor Hooficus’ room. Finally, he found the room of the Caesar at the end of the hall and phased in. The room was a dark blue color and small, nearly the opposite of Pietus’ room. However, Discord quickly noticed something that was out of place... A small, round, metal ear piece. It looked like an ordinary hearing aid from Equestria, but they wheren’t in Equestria. In fact, Equestria wouldn’t be discovered for another sixty thousand years!
“So, why are you here little ear piece...” Discord said to himself, “or should I ask you that, Hooficus Two?”The draconequus turned to face the grey foal, their eyes meeting in an angry stare. “Or am I asking the wrong person?”
Hooficus II started to laugh, a deep throated familiar laugh. Slowly, the torches in the room started to go out one by one, enveloping the chamber in complete darkness. It felt like hours before the touches re-lit themselves, but once they did Hooficus’ son was gone. In his place was the blood red colt with a green cape, Blackspine Mulecious.
“Hello... 'master’” the pegasus snorted at his former god, “I see you’ve found out my secret quiet fast, didn’t you?”
“After hearing Pietus’ story, it was pretty obvious that you took control of the kid’s body.” Discord smiled sinisterly, feeling Blackspine trying to drill into his mind and steal more of his power, “By the way, where is the little brat?”
“Oh, he’s safe... Unlike your new friends.” the blood red colt tapped his hoof on the marble floor, causing one of the walls to open. Behind it, Lyra and Pietus where hanging by a thin rope over a large cliff. Holding the rope was Hooficus and a few of his guards, their eyes pure white and pupil-less as they clenched the rope in their teeth.
Discord took a quick step towards his hanging allies, but was cut off when Blackspine teleported in front of the draconequus. Mulecious held a young grey foal by the scruff of his neck, the real Hooficus II. Near by was a levitating knife, slowly inching its way to the young child’s neck.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk Discord,” the blood red pegasus said, “you know better then that. You have to choose: the boy or your allies.” The two stared off at each other, Discord’s mind desperately trying to divulge a plan as he looked from the foal to Lyra and Pietus. “Of course, there is a way that you can avoid losing all of them... Just give me the power that I deserve!”
The Chaos God kept his defenses up, but he could feel the mental digging of Blackspine’s mind getting deeper and deeper into his own. He knew there was a way out, some how, some way... Then he saw Lyra’s horn glow. The mint colored unicorn nodded to him, and Discord turned to his former follower. “I could do that... But will you allow me one last request?”
“Of course, anything you want as long as it’s no ‘let everypony go.’” Blackspine mocked Discord’s voice perfectly, he had learned to use many of the Spirit of Chaos’ powers.
Quickly, Discord snapped his fingers and produced a glass of chocolate milk, and slowly started to drink the milk. He left the glass intact, and his eyes narrowed as he threw it at Blackspine. The blood red pony flinched, but as the glass was inches away from his face it shattered and turned into a tall apple tree.
“Blackspine, I’d like you to meet Bloomberg.” Discord said as one of the tree’s apples dropped. The apple, much like the last apples the Chaos God had contact with, where about the size of a medium sized colt’s head. The red fruit landed on the pegasus’ head hard, knocking him out, and giving Lyra enough time to finish her spell and teleport Pietus and herself into the room. The draconequus then snapped his fingers, and a small cage captured the knocked out Blackspine.
“Well,” Lyra said, turning to Discord, “took ya long enough.”
“Hey, I had to finish my drink.” he replied.
***
“...So that’s how I figured out Blackspine was brain washing you with some sort of sound from the ear piece.” Discord finished his story, he layed on a cloud and picked his teeth with his eagle claw. “Nothing too big.”
Hooficus, his son, and Lyra all had hats on and hid behind one of the many couches in Pietus’ room. The pink pony herself was out, Hooficus told her that she should take a walk on the beach to ease her nerves. “That’s all well and good Lord Discord,” Hooficus replied, “but I believe Miss Lyra said that everypony should be silent.”
“But I’m not a pony.” Discord quipped back, but lowered himself behind the couch anyway. The draconequus didn’t feel like arguing, not today at least. Suddenly, the small door to the room opened and Pietus walked in. “Hello? Brother? Lyra?”
“SURPRISE!!!”, everypony in the room called out as the torches all lit up brightly. The pinky pony looked around the room and saw her friend, her brother and nephew, even a lot of the royal guards had on strange party hats and plates with cake slices on them. Suddenly, Pietus felt something strange over come her, something warm filled her heart and slowly started to explode out of her. As soon as the party guests yelled surprise, Pietus Pinkamin’s mane became poofy like cotton candy and she started to bounce in place. Then, three balloons appeared on her flank, the pink pony had finally gotten her cutie mark.
***
Hour later, Lyra and Discord had sneaked away from the party and disappeared back into the Time Vortex. Blackspine had seen them from the window of is cell, but the blood red pony did not become enraged. Instead, he laughed as the door to his cell opened, a cloaked figure unlocking it with a key in it’s teeth.
“Very good my apprentice... very good.” Mulecious said, then he began to laugh. His laugh echoed through the dungeons of Muleta, until he and his follower disappeared into the Vortex themselves.
To be continued...