//------------------------------// // A lack of chaotic potencial // Story: The Moon the Draconequus and the Sands of Saddle Arabia // by TheSexyMenhir //------------------------------// A heavy silence hung above the chamber. Every word seemed to be stifled by the last echoes of the changeling queen’s tale. Every gesture or sound seemed insignificant compared to the age old story. In this quiet, the only sound which could be heard seemed all the more jarring. “ZzzzZzzz,” echoed the snore. “DISCORD!” the annoyed voice of Celestia rang in my ears. I had to admit that it had been quite some time since I heard her use the Royal Canterlot Voice. Almost made one feel nostalgic. I stretched and yawned demonstratively, taking my time to pop ever joint along my spine. “So, you want us chasing after myths?” I asked raising an eyebrow. “NOT MYths.” Chrysalis replied, the last presence of the swarm vanishing from her eyes and mind, her voice slowly fading from a thousandfold echo, back to the normal doppler effect. “Changelings don’t forget, at least not in the way other races do. Some facts may be lost, some truths may change, but the essence stays the same. Somewhere in a desert there’s a powerful artifact.” “Many a desert spot the surface of Equus,” Luna interjected. “But only one which is big enough to be created by the wrath of a goddess, the Saddle Arabian Desert.” Chrysalis explained, or guessed. To be honest I thought she was grasping at straws and my face seemed to show it. “Please Discord. I know that it isn’t much, but at the moment it’s the only thing we got.” The tone of Celestia’s voice caught me off guard. Here she stood before me, the great eternal empress of the sun, one of a few who had ever stood up to me, kneeling at my feet and begging for my help; Oh boy was I going to abuse that. “Sooo,” I asked coyly,” what’s in it for me?” “Whatever you want.” The answer came quick and without hesitation, and once again caught me entirely off guard. “No, no, no. Celestia dear you can’t simply give in like that,” I explained patiently, donning a schoolmasters uniform which I pulled from nowhere. Pacing up and down in front of my audience, I continued to elaborate the finer points of a good dramatic dialogue,”You have to start out defiantly. Something along the lines of ‘You insufferable cur, you won’t get anything from me!’ always makes a good impression. Then we exchange a small series of insults until I finally reveal that you are at my mercy, when you reluctantly give in to my demands...” I took a short glance at Celestia. She wasn’t staring at my angrily or defiantly, instead her eyes were just filled with a tired sadness, her shoulders were drooped, and she looked like she would break down any minute from exhaustion. It was enough to sap a spirit of chaos of all of his motivation. “Urgh fine!” I relented. “But you better live up to that promise.” I grabbed a protesting Luna around her barrel and pulled her close. “I’ll be back in a minute or so,” I promised, before concentrating on the far away desert nation and snapping my talon. Nothing happened. --- “I... I …. that has never happened to me before.” I stuttered. Luna was lying on the floor laughing. While Celestia was looking at me with a pitiful expression. “Don’t worry Discord. Things like that are entirely natural and happen to the best of us,” she said while patting my paw. “No seriously, I usually have no problems!” I insisted. “Have you tried seeing a magician about it?” Chrysalis interjected unhelpfully. “I’m Discord the Spirit of Chaos! I don’t need no lousy magician to tell me how to use my magic!” I shouted the wrath of aeons echoing in my voice, but apparently the wrath of aeons only served to further Luna’s amusement. “Now calm down Discord, just because you have a slight problem right now, it doesn’t make you any less powerful,” Celestia tried to sooth my rage, while she more or less inconspicuously tried to stifle Luna’s laughter with a silence spell. “I told you, I don’t have a problem! I just don’t feel like doing any magic right now,” I replied, nose in the air. I have to admit that I very well deserved the sceptical look that this lie earned me. “It doesn’t matter either way,” Celly continued, seemingly willing to ignore what had just happened, even if her sister’s giggling was only held back by a field of silence. “Without using magic, the quickest way to Saddle Arabia is by boat.” “Ooh, I heard that one of those new magic powered boats is going to leave the Manehattan harbor soon. I always wanted to ride one of those.” Luna interjected, finally getting over her, I must say, pretty undignified fit of laughter. “Yes, I thought I would reserve places for you two on the ‘Spirit of Enterprise’,” Celestia elaborated. If the Universe had any sense for dramatics, thunderclouds would have formed around Cellie’s head at the exact moment she spoke those words to supply some appropriate atmosphere, but as it was, I and Luna were completely unprepared as we embarked the ferry at the base of the Canterlot Falls. Luna had hidden her wings and cutie mark between a simple longcoat, and whenever she remembered to not channel the night sky through her hair, she looked almost like an normal unicorn, albeit a tall one. I in turn used an age old tactic which is called ‘hiding in plain sight’. You don’t believe me? Then let me tell you about when we entered the ferry. As we approached the ferryman, he was absorbed in a magazine, and only noticed us when we I spoke up. “Two, up to Manehattan.” I requested. “That makes ten bits,” the ferryman replied still not looking up from his magazine. Only when I opened my bag of bits he bothered to look at us. What followed was a scream, that would have done most Girl Scouts proud. “OH CELESTIA, IT’S DISCORD!” “No it isn’t.” I replied matter of factly. This seemed to shut him up for a moment, while his brain tried to comprehend the lack of evil laughter and horrible maimings. “And frankly, I find it very insulting that you’d assume as much just because of my race!” I started to rant. I turned to Luna and in the most undignified voice I could muster I whispered (just loud enough for everybody on board to hear), “Can you believe the nerve of this guy!” “But... but... you look just like him,” the pony managed to stutter. “ARE YOU SAYING THAT ALL DRACONEQUII LOOK THE SAME?! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? I mean the people over there don’t have any problems telling my kind apart, do they?” I yelled, while turning to a small crowd of onlooker which had gathered on deck. A chorus of murmured ‘no’s, and just a tad too quick shaking heads followed, by the gathered ponies which wanted to avoid becoming the next target of my rant. Before we knew it, Luna and I had been offered a very generous discount, and one of the nicer seats, in return for promising not to sue the ferryman. Of course Luna wasn’t impressed with my little trick, and wouldn’t shut up about it, until I mentioned that she could leave money to compensate him for his troubles. Then again, once she actually did stop talking she made no effort to start again, and for the biggest part of our journey to Manehattan she seemed content with glaring at me silently. Once I grew tired of answering her vengeful gaze with grimaces, I used the time to inspect the lands which I had once ruled over. Much to my dismay, pretty much all of my work had been undone. Gone were the flowing fields of conveyor belts, gone the candy cane clouds, gone the walking mountains, in it’s place just plain old boring nature. It was enough to make a draconequus shed a tear. But there would be time enough to spice up the environment later (and after making sure that nobody would get hurt, I assured my conscience, which once again had reared it’s ugly head). After my observations proved fruitless, and because Luna was still playing the stoic, I found myself with a lack of entertainment, and since I can take boredom about as well as Celly criticism, I decided to test out my powers. As I’ve already mentioned, the recent failures were more than just a little bit shocking, which is to say they were utterly terrifying. Imagine that! Me, the Spirit of discord and strife, terrified. I, that had faced down things which were past the petty imagination of most mortals; I, who had single handedly stood toe to toe with the alicorn sisters; I, who had once held all of this world in his palm; was terrified. But panic was also something for other people, and so instead running around headlessly I sat down and searched for a solution. Finding a small niche where the rest of the passengers couldn’t watch me, I sat down to inspect what so far had been an integral part of my life, my powers. At first I was somewhat reluctant, not sure whether my ego would withstand another blow, but then I reprimanded myself, and snapped my fingers. The effect was immediate if small; a glass of chocolate milk materialized out of thin air. Once again I snapped my fingers letting a bit more the chaotic energies flow out into the world. A pink cloud that reeked of sugar and cacao formed over the palm of my paw. Yet another snap and a spool of rope that lay on deck turned into a creature which looked like a mix between a parasprite and a centipede, each segment colorful and ball like. So far so good. All of my minor cantrips seemed to work. But of course I had avoided the more sophisticated tricks as of yet. *Snap* I watched carefully as water began to flow up the prow of the ship, akin to a reverse waterfall. Before I could draw any attention I stopped the spell. Now this was more like it, making the laws of the world bend in such a way was by no stretch childsplay. Only one last test, to make sure that I was back to the heights of my powers. I snapped my claws once again, and watched as the world around me began to bend. The air glimmered like on a hot summers day, and slowly space began to curve in on itself, changing its form to suit my will. The checkerboard pattern which by now was almost something like a callsign, began to manifest itself in my little bubble of space time, and I nodded as I found myself in a pocket dimension of my own making. “Hah. Now who needs to go see a magician!” I announced proudly. You would think that being encased in stone twice would have taught me something about tempting fate. A weird tingle shot through my body, sort of like an electric charge but backwards, and with a wet popping noise my dimension burst apart. I could only sigh as I found myself several feet in the air, and of course a few feet sideways of the ferry. --- After being pulled out of the water, and drying in the sun for a bit, my motivation to experiment had dropped significantly and at the moment I had been all too happy to just let powers be powers. After all I was Discord, the lord of all things chaotic, I didn’t need those stupid powers to overcome anything in my way! Whatever else I had been thinking at the moment however got lost, because it was then that the city of Manehattan appeared on the horizon.