Chapter 5
BBBRREEEPPP! BBBRREEEPPP! BBBRREEEPPP!
The fillies jumped out of their skins. They hadn’t thought that the fire escape would set off an alarm. For a second they were stunned.
Then they heard footsteps pounding up the stairs.
“Go! Go, go, go! Move!” Scootaloo pushed her friends out the window. A great thumping and clatter was heard as they tumbled down the stairs. Scootaloo grimaced then poked her head inside Rarity’s room. The diva was a perfect Sleeping Beauty with cotton in her ears.
She sighed with relief then jumped out the window, sliding down the rail to the ground below. She grimaced when she saw her friends at the bottom.
“What was that all about?” Apple Bloom rubbed her leg.
Sweetie Belle rubbed her horn and moaned. “That really hurt.”
“Sorry.” She apologized. “We had to move. And we have to keep moving, the fire truck will be here soon.” She felt a twinge of guilt for the extra trouble she was about to give Rarity.
Apple Bloom stood up and tested her legs. “Aagh!” She collapsed. “I can’t keep moving, I think my leg is broken.”
A siren blared in the distance. Scootaloo frantically looked around the ally. Under a pile of ashes, an old, rusty wagon was abandoned. In another corner sat a damp, wooden scooter next to a coiled up rope. That was lucky.
She threw the ashes over her friends and tied the scooter and wagon together, taking time to roll in the ash herself. “Hop on.” She jumped onto the scooter.
Sweetie Belle looked at the contraption. “Are you sure about this?”
“No.” Scootaloo confessed. “But it’s the only way. So please, just get on.”
Reluctantly, Sweetie Belle complied, followed by Apple Bloom. The sirens grew ever closer and Scootaloo buzzed her wings. The scooter moved forward and pulled the wagon behind her. She pressed on an extra spurt of speed to get a good start, then sped through the night, leaving the wailing sirens and panic behind.
“We’re here.” Scootaloo stopped the scooter for a moment. The hedge of the Canterlot Gardens loomed in front of her, its leaves seeming to reach up and scratch the cloudless skies. During the day it had seemed cheerful, but now only harsh and forbidding. Three grey fillies stared up at it, filled with uncertainty for a moment.
The sound of hooves crunching against gravel was just audible over the howling wind. Scootaloo gasped. The sound was coming closer. She tugged Apple Bloom out of the wagon and laid her on a pedestal. “Lay perfectly still.” She whispered. She motioned to Sweetie Belle, who took a dancing position next to Apple Bloom. Satisfied, Scootaloo hid the wagon inside a bush and struck a candid pose next to her friends.
Two guards walked past. They paid no notice to the statues, but then a third came up behind them.
“I don’t remember this statue being here.” He grunted.
One of the guards probably rolled her eyes. “Don’t you ever read the newsletter, Thunder Storm? The garden’s getting another statue. It probably just came early.”
The stallion scuffed his hooves in the gravel. “I... Yeah, I knew that.”
“Whatever.” The mare laughed. “Come on, we have five minutes in this shift. If we hurry we can get out a few minutes early.”
They doubled their pace and raced away, much like the fillies had earlier. Scootaloo sighed with relief. “You can move now.”
Sweetie Belle gasped. “I couldn’t breathe back there. I was so scared they’d see me.”
Scootaloo wiped her forehead. “We got lucky. If we– Waugh!” She jumped. “How’d he get here?” She checked behind her back to make sure Pinkie hadn’t materialized behind her.
“I don’t believe it.” Apple Bloom hobbled towards the statue. “I could have sworn he was further in the maze.”
“It’s like he’s drawn to us.” Sweetie Belle stood in awe of the massive statue.
Discord stood before them in all his gnarled glory. Surely he had not been so close the last time they had been to the gardens. Yet there he stood.
Apple Bloom nudged Sweetie Belle in the ribs. “Ready?” Apple Bloom whispered.
Sweetie Belle took a deep breath. “Ready.” At least now she knew what she was doing. She turned back to her friends. “You might want to stand back. I don’t know what will happen.”
The pegasus and earth pony readily complied.
The unicorn closed her eyes. Last time all she had to do was to get angry and the lock had disappeared. So the only key she needed was anger and Discord would be unlocked.
This is ridiculous. Why would her sister, the Element of Generosity, lock him away? He was obviously the only way to the most important part of pony’s life. Why? Why...
“This isn’t working.” She mumbled. Her friends crept out of the bushes. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. Last time I got angry at the lock and it just disappeared. But– I’m not mad at Discord. And I don’t want him to disappear. Maybe if I could be angry at somepony else and channel the energy to the spell it would work better. But I can’t think about anyone besides Rarity and I can’t get mad at her.”
Scootaloo sat silent for a moment. “What about Diamond Tiara?”
“What do you mean?” Sweetie Belle shuffled her foot in the gravel. “I don’t hate her. She annoys me, and I don’t really like her, but I don’t think I hate her.”
“Think about it.” Scootaloo walked back into the hedge. “Try to hate her.”
Sweetie Belle frowned and turned back to the statue. She thought of all the things about Diamond Tiara that she didn’t like. She was an annoying brat. She didn’t care what happened to anypony but herself. Her talent was useless, she didn’t even know what it was. All that mattered was that she was now “cool” because she had a stupid tiara on her flank.
And worst, she never left Sweetie Belle and her friends alone! It was so stupid, the way she lorded it over them. A pony without a point, thinking that she had a right to pick on her superiors. They were superior because unlike her they had a purpose. They had something to fight for, all she did was allow herself to be pampered.
Sweetie Belle began probing the darkest corners of her mind, finding more than she had known existed. Anger is strong, and it leads toward hate.
And hate is a very strong poison.
And that was all she felt now, hatred towards Diamond Tiara. The transformation took form in her body. Her eyes were pure poison green, the centers redder than fire rubies. A veritable storm of dark energy poured out the corners of her eyes, swirling in a hurricane of hate that only she could feel. Her horn was coated in purple blots and stains, sweat pouring down her forehead. Her face, normally composed of a cheerful smile, was contorted in a scowl of pure hate.
Apple Bloom’s eyes widened, and an icy claw of fear gripped her heart. Perhaps this wasn’t the way. There had to be other things to try! But... There wasn’t anything she could do right now. If she interrupted the spell, who knew what would happen?
Sweetie Belle’s head began to spin wildly, and her strength began to fade. Her legs grew wobbly, so she allowed herself to sit to complete the spell. From their corner in the hedge, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo watched, horrified and fascinated by their friend’s newfound power. They too began to feel weak. A curtain fell over their minds, mercifully allowing them escape from the horrors they would have witnessed.
Sweetie Belle’s mind began shutting down and she fell into a trance. Finally she flopped down on the ground, worn out by her struggles.
The moon shone down on a peculiar scene that night. Three fillies, two hiding in a bush, lay in a deep sleep. One of them, an earth pony, was injured. Next to her a pegasus laid unknowing of the guards outside the gates. A small unicorn lay before a grotesque statue, her body covered in small scrapes and a few bad bruises.
A lifelike statue sat, the moon gently illuminating his cold face. Nobody knew how close the unicorn had come to releasing utter chaos into the world. Nobody knew anything about what had happened the night before.
Then a whisper sounded. It wasn’t much, little more than a breath. It said one word: “Free.” Then the silence was left undisturbed. Or the silence of the physical world at least. The unicorn stirred a little as a voice inside her mind told her strange things.
“It was you, wasn’t it? The small ones always carry the greatest surprises, now, don’t they?” The voice was light, teasing, and yet malicious at the same time.
Sweetie Belle looked around. She was in a black void, face to face with a being of unknown, possibly unlimited power. “I’m not all that little.” She complained.
The being materialized so that he could roll his eyes. “Oh, please. Don’t make me laugh.” He cackled anyway. “You’re not even half your full size. You’re like a little powerhouse.”
Sweetie Belle looked into Discord’s mis-matched eyes. “I can send you right back to the gardens in a second.”
Discord hesitated for a moment. Sweetie Belle smirked. “That’s right, you owe me something and I’m going to collect my dues. I have a little bargain, if you’re interested that is.”
The draconequus crossed his arms and glared at the filly. “Who’s the all-powerful being here? You or me?”
Sweetie Belle thought for a moment. “I’d say it’s me.”
“And just what, little miss, makes you say that?” Discord scoffed.
“Well, I just did what the Elements of Harmony can all by myself. I just changed you back from stone-”
“I beg to differ.” Discord interrupted. “I’m still a statue, you just set my spirit free. But now I’m interested. What could interest a little filly as yourself so much that she would generate so much hate from your tiny heart?” He tapped his claw against her chest. His tail coiled and uncoiled with a life of its own and he draped an oversized paw over her shoulder.
Sweetie Belle tried to scuff the ground with her foot, but in the void there was no ground. Hate. It really was strong. The word almost sounded as if it had claws and a life of its own. A strong word for a strong poison. “My cutie mark.” She mumbled.
Discord nodded understandingly. “Ah, yes. I can remember the time when I was searching for mine. I can do that. Tell you what, I’ll offer the bargain and you will be the one to accept.”
“But what if I don’t want to accept?”
Discord extended his neck so his head was at eye level. “Believe me, you won’t be able to resist.”
Sweetie Belle looked down (if it could be called that. In this shadow world there was no direction). “What’s your offer?”
“If I give you your cutie mark, would you be willing to give me a piece of your soul?”
“What!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “What do you want that for?”
Discord stood up again. “That’s my business. I’m not asking for much, really. Just a small, tiny bit of your self. Think for a moment. Isn’t a cutie mark worth the loss of a little personality? Isn’t the gain so much more than your loss?”
“I guess...” Sweetie Belle consented.
“So you agree?” Discord began to grow in size.
Sweetie Belle nodded.
“Excellent.” He stepped back and shrank down to the size of the filly. “Look into my eyes.” He commanded.
Reluctantly, Sweetie Belle stared into the creature’s strange, yellow eyes. They seemed to stare into her soul, which, in fact, they did. Within a second she was snared in their deadly trance, allowing him do do whatever he pleased.
She felt a stirring in her heart as Discord rummaged through its contents like a child deciding which toy to play with. “Fascinating.” The child became a scientist dissecting an animal to find how it worked. “A humble heart, full of talent waiting to shine into the dark world we live in. You could do the world a lot of good, you know. But why waste it on the world? It is your talent, so why not use it to your advantage? You only have two friends. If you’d allow yourself to be the star you can be, you would have so, so many more.”
A tugging sensation, then her flank began to hurt. It felt as though it was about to go up in flames, and then a symbol was forced onto her flank.
Discord snapped his claws. “You can look now.”
Sweetie Belle shook her head vigorously, then looked on her flank. A simple, black music note had appeared. “Are you serious?” She complained. “I thought it would have looked better.”
Discord lazily played with a cat’s cradle made of pink and purple yarn. “Oh, quit whining. It’s there, isn’t it. Maybe you’ll be noticed for your talent. Better friends than a simple farm girl and a pegasus who can’t even fly. They’re beneath you now that you’ve found your destiny.” He put a special emphasis on the last word. “You have an entire life of happiness in front of you. Don’t bother thanking me.” Then he disappeared.