We can only change so little

by vadram


Chapter 4 Playing with yourself

Playing with yourself


“So...”, Discord’s claw appeared in front of Luna holding a double cross bar (++ shape) with six string connected it to a puppet bellow.

“Oh, its so cute.” Luna said without realizing when she looked at the miniature version of herself. It was slightly more roundish than the pony but it still looked like her, even if it was a more adorable version of her.

A second claw appeared, this one with a puppet of Celestia. Luna’s puppet smiled at the sight of her sister.

“Oh look how much they love each other.” Discord said teasing Luna. She was not amused.

“Now let us begin. Long ago in the magical land of Equestria... wait, wrong story. Lets see how that went... I see...”

A third claw appeared this time with a miniature Discord waving at Luna, no strings connected him to his cross bar. The puppeteer moved the two alicorn puppets out of sight and replaced the table with a scene. Little Discord walked to the center of the scene and took a bow. Discord cleared his throat and started narrating again.

“So, once upon a time in the land of Equestria, long before the reign of order, chaos reign supreme.” Wooden cutouts of pink clouds and uprooted trees appeared in the background.

“It was glorious, and ruler of all of that was Discord, Living Embodiment of Chaos. ” Spark shot out of Little Discords hands as he rose his arms in the air.

“But all of this changed when two annoying little ponies decided to confront him.” The Celestia and Luna puppets returned to the scene.

“At first they stood no chance against the might and cunning tactics of lord Discord.” Witch was pretending to be a cowboy on the back of Celestia’s puppet.

“But then they discovered the pesky elements of harmony.” Two little crowns appeared on their heads and Little Discord started to run to the other side of the stage.

“The lord of chaos stood bravely against their new weapon.” Little Discord was still running.

“I said he stood bravely.” Nothing changed.

“Don’t make me get the box.” Discord yelled. Little Discord then stopped, slowly turned around and lowered his head in defeat.

“Better. So he stood bravely against the new weapon but sadly the monsters overpowered him and turned him to a statue.” Little Discord became gray and stood in a position of sheer terror.

“Really? Couldn't you pick a better pose?” Little Discord moved into another position, he was now standing tall, chest pushed out, his arms resting on his sides, one his head turned to the side looking up into the distance. A cool pair of shades appeared on his face.

“Much better. And the two sisters reign together happily for many years.” The props in the background were replaced with a cartoon version of Canterlot castle, the two puppets were moving one of their forelegs as if they were waving. Little Discord was moved to the side of the scene.

“But as the years went by the two sisters started fighting more and more.” He was hitting the two puppets against each other like a baby would hit two of his toys, and he was enjoying every moment.

“The little sister gather her armies and prepared to attack her older sister.” Wooden cutouts of ponies fighting appeared in the background in front of the castle, the drawing of the ponies wore the golden armors of the Day Guard and the purple armors of the Night Guard. In the foreground the two princess puppets now had pieces of cloth covering them resembling their armor.

“I will destroy you sister, because of whatever reasons I have right now.” Discord said wiggling Luna’s puppet. Doing a poor imitation of her voice.

“No sister I am sorry I something something... sister, something something friendship.” he said wiggling Celestia’s puppet, using a voice that sort of resembled Celestia's bust mostly mocked her.

“I do not care. I am going to make the night last forever killing all the plants and stuff.”

“I cannot let you do that.”

“Ha ha, you cannot stop me I am stronger and stuff.”

“Then i will use our magic macguffin that we had to be together the last time to use and I will use it now against you severing both our connection to it or something, making sure we can never defend our slaves from any sort of danger ever again.”

“Ha ha, I do not care, what are you going to do send me to the moon for a thousand years or something?”

“Sure why not.” And sparks came out of the crown on top of Celestia’s puppet. “To the mooooon.” And Luna's puppet disappeared in a puff a smoke.

“I am sorry sister and all the feels and stuff.” Then the curtains dropped.

“Well?” Discord giant head said looking at Luna.

“What?” Luna’s eyes were still fixated on the scene, it was surreal she saw her future there, a exaggerated and comical interpretation of her future, but still her future.

“What did you think?”

“Umm... it was... sad?”

“Yes it was.” The scene and the puppets disappeared. “What you saw is more or less your future. There are many things you can change tomorrow, but the events that you saw happen will come to pass. Regardless of what you do.”

Luna sighed in defeat.

“Unless...” Discord said intentionally pausing to allow Luna to focus her attention on him.

“What? Is there a way to change my fate. If you know please show me, Discord I am begging you.”

“Show you? Okay.” The stage reappeared. "Time for more puppets." This time it was of Luna’s chamber. In a window stood the Discord statue form earlier, Luna's bead took up most of the scene. The claw that holded the Luna puppet returned as well.

“It was the night before the battle,”
“And all through the castle not a creature was stirring”
“Not even a mouse...”
“The princess was worried...“
“Troubles clouded her mind...”
“The story doesn't rime.”

“So the princess walked into bed...” the statue of Little Discord moved and raised her glasses.

“And she went to sleep”, as he placed the puppet in the bead Little Discord’s mouth opened. The curtains surrounded the bed wrapped around it and the whole ensemble turned along with the background to reveal a scene painted all black. There Luna’s puppet sat at a table on which two miniature cups stood. Another Little Discord appeared on scene, waving and blowing kisses at an imaginary audience, as it walked and pulled an invisible chair from under the table and sat on it grabbing a cup.

After pretending to take a sip he pulled from under the table a miniature puppet set and two puppets one of Luna and one of Discord.

Luna looked closer at the puppets to see what it had in its hands. She saw that her puppet was imitating her gestures. If she moved her head back so did the puppet, if she moved her hoof it did the same. She turned to look up and saw a giant puppet looking up at her looking up at a puppet looking up at... A paw grabbed her head and turned it back towards the puppets below her nose.

“What... what just happened?”

“My apologies, this one is going in the box for sure after we are done.” Little Discord put his puppets and his scene back under the table, he turned his head upwards and smile widely, a halo appearing above his head.

“Maybe.”Discord said raising an eyebrow. The little one let out a sigh of relief and faced the Luna puppet, taking the cup in his claw,

“Now princess, we stand here as you can see, with Discord, your Discord still trapped in stone.” He said pointing to a stone statue of Little Discord now standing on a stone frowning and with his arms crossed.

“There are an infinite number of possibilities for tomorrow. But only two lead to victory.” Little Discord pulled a coin from under the table and was lifting it upwards towards Luna, as if saying ‘here take it’.

Luna lifted the coin with her magic and proceed to examine it. On one side there was an engraving of herself with Celestia bowing before her. On the other she saw herself covered in armor with fangs coming out of her mouth laughing as a maniac, beneath her hoof stood Celestia motionless. A blood stain covered this side of the coin.

The scene returned to that of her bedroom with a little discord statue in the window still looking angry. Luna’s puppet from the table was gone and was replaced with the one sleeping in the bead. Another Little Discord stood on the edge of the bead looking at Luna, he was playing with a miniature coin.

“Now here is the deal princess. I wish for you to win tomorrow. I can tell you how to win but I do not know what side the coin will land on.”

Luna was deep in thought.

“Of course you can decide to refuse and ask me to leave, but then your fate will be entirely in your hoofs.”

“Why?”

“Pardon?”

“Why would you help me win? What do you have to gain?”

“Well I promised not cause chaos where I come from, but... I said nothing about causing chaos in this reality. And what could be more chaotic than making that the most improbable thing in all of time and space happens.”

“So I’m guessing you already know what I am going to chose and how the events unfold.”

“I have no idea. The chances of you winning against your sister tomorrow are 2 out of infinity. The chances of chocolate rain falling from the sky without any magical intervention whatsoever are one out of one hundred, while the chances of something getting ahold of magical machine and messing with another timeline are one in ten. And for what’s in it for me... well bragging rights of course, I would be the talk of all other Discords, I made the most improbable thing happen. Every immortal time traveling reality changing creature will know of me. And let me tell you that was a rather select club, before time traveling became a thing.”

“So do we have a deal?”

“Deal.”

“Excellent. When you wake up you will flip the coin. Once it lands you will be given all the information you require to make this happen. But you will forget what face the coin landed on.”

“Alright.” Luna prepared to wake up when something caught her attention.

“But before I leave I have one question for you.”

“Ask away.”

“What is that?” she said pointing at Little Discord.

“Huh?” Discord look down at the miniature version of himself and his eyes grew in shock. With a snap of his claw the scene, the bed, Little Discord and the mysterious object vanished.

“Nothing” he said turning his head around so that Luna couldn't see his face.

“But it looked like he was...”

“He was not.”

“But that looked like a..”

“I SAID HE WAS NOT. Now good bye.” He snapped his claws again and Luna woke up in her bed. She looked around but there was no sign of Discord. She rushed to the balcony and looked at the garden. It took her a minute for her eyes to adjust to the light, but after they did she looked for the discord statue. It was exactly where it had always been.

“It was just a dream”, she said returning to her bed. As she passed her nightstand she noticed something shiny on it, the coin.

”It was not a dream. I really talked with Discord last night, well with a Discord at least.”

She picked the coin up and looked at it.

“One side a hero one side a monster.”

She threw the coin the air and followed it with her eyes, it fell to the ground and it bounced landing...

In a flash it all was gone from her memory. She now knew what she had to do. She knew why she would have failed. She finally knew how to defeat her sister. Victory was in sight,

One thing still bothered her. She tried to remember the details of what she saw Little Discord doing,

”It looked like... a doll. A doll of a pony... it did not resemble the rest of the puppets he used. It looked like he was... hugging it or snuggling with it?”" A chill went down her spine at the thought.

"I fear to ask what could go on in his twisted mind between him and that yellow pegasus."