Part 1
[6 months later]
“Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy was paying her monthly visit to Discord. It was a sunny day in Canterlot. Prince Vitam’s re-coronation was being arranged and all was well. However Prince Vitam had ordered not to tell Discord of his return.
“Hey Discord.” Fluttershy trotted briskly towards him, smiling. Discord beamed.
“You ready to go?” Fluttershy asked.
“Just let me get my things.” Discord replied, before clicking his talons and a small rucksack appeared. Discord put his arms and wings through the straps, “Ok I’m ready, let’s go!”
Discord thoroughly enjoyed his day with Fluttershy. They played in a field, went to a funfair, ate lunch in a café and even bumped into Gilda. Well, it wasn't really bumping into her, it was more seeing her from a distance, Fluttershy whispering to Discord that she once screamed at her, and then Discord telling Fluttershy to walk into her, resulting in her getting angry, and then Discord creeping up behind her, and then… well… The result was Gilda running home, screaming and crying.
“Just a moment, Fluttershy.” Discord said as the day drew to a close and Fluttershy was walking with Discord back to his quarters in the palace. He slipped into the stallion’s room, and Fluttershy politely waited, leaning against a wall. Then Prince Vitam walked around the Corner.
“Oh, hey Fluttershy.” He said, happily surprised.
“Oh, hi Prince Vitam, you need to go, Discord is” But before Fluttershy could finish Discord walked out of the stallion’s room.
Discord saw Vitam. Vitam saw Discord. Prince Vitam’s eye’s narrowed. Immediately he tensed up, and, entering attack position, his horn started glowing. However, when Discord saw Prince Vitam he nearly fainted. All the memories of the time before stone came flooding back. He remembered Vitam banishing him to stone, laughing while he did it. He remembered accepting his fate, and screaming in rage while he felt the concrete slither up his legs. He remembered looking into Prince Vitam’s eyes and seeing a hero, but then looking deeper and seeing a monster.
Part 2
Fluttershy could tell that there was an ancient feud between these two. She tried to lower the tenseness in the room,
“Shall we?” She whispered, even though she was trying to sound loud and confident. Despite the fact the question was aimed at Discord, Vitam responded,
“We shall.” On that Discord and Prince Vitam walked towards the throne room together. Fluttershy stood around awkwardly. As they walked away together she just mumbled,
“I’ll… Just… Go.” And she dashed off to her animals without another word.
Celestia was writing a letter, but then she heard a loud banging noise and looked up.
“Uh oh.” Is what she said when she saw Prince Vitam and Discord walking together, not talking, but watching each other.
“It’s been a while.” Prince Vitam said, passive aggressively.
“Too long.” Discord replied in the same tone of voice.
“Given up chaos then?” Vitam interrogated.
“I’ve just started again.” Discord grinned, menacingly.
“Since when?” Vitam seemed almost surprised at this new development.
“Since now.” Now Discord was really starting to sound evil. At this point however, Luna walked in.
“Brother, are you ready for the- oh gosh.” She sighed at the sight of Vitam and Discord.
“Really?” Prince Vitam asked in response to Discord, “Only, I can’t help but notice that you’re being remarkably un-chaotic.” He smiled meanly at Discord, almost like a playground bully.
“You want me to start?” Discord threatened.
“No!” Celestia and Luna cried at the same time, however Prince Vitam just smiled even wider and whispered,
“Be my guest.” Discord cracked a laugh and then smashed Vitam round the side of the head. Prince Vitam stumbled and span. Slowly, he looked round at Discord and growled, “Oh no you did just not…”
Rearing on his hind legs, he Discord square in the face. Discord grabbed Vitam by the horn, and tried to snap it, but couldn’t and he punched him in the chest, winding him. He then turned around and kicked Discord with his back legs, which sent him stumbling into the wall. Quickly, he got up as Vitam ran at him full speed. Discord got into a defensive position, but as they were about to collide Discord jumped out of the way. However, Vitam was ready for this and ran up the wall before jumping sideways so that he landed just in front of where Discord was standing, which happened to be in front of the window depicting how he was defeated by the Elements of Harmony. This surprised Discord and this gave Vitam the opportunity to pick Discord up using his magic and throw him at the window. Unfortunately, it sent Discord through the window, smashing it and raining shards of glass into the street. Discord looked up angrily before disappearing in a white flash.
Part 3
“Are you alright?” Celestia and Luna ran over to their beloved brother.
“I’m fine, I won.” He laughed, somewhat nervously.
“Brother!” Luna cried, “We have to be in Ponyville in twenty minutes!” She seemed less worried for Vitam than Celestia did, but Celestia knew why Luna was moving on so quickly, and understood.
“I know Lunee,” He smiled, “Just relax. Everything’s in place.” Kindly, he offered her a wing and she snuggled underneath it. Celestia welled up with pride looking at them both,
“Break a leg you two.” She beamed. They smiled back at her, before Prince Vitam teleported them to Ponyville.
“You guys ready?” Prince Vitam was pacing in front of a group of ponies. They were underneath a grand stage, but Prince Vitam had to lower his head a bit. Luna was up in the sky for her grand entrance. Nightmare Night was a big deal for her, after all. “Let’s just go through it once more.” The group groaned, “Shh! Right. Octavia, you start out on the piano. Then Tombstone and Vinyl and I join in on the track. Next it’s Mic the Microphone on the… Well, Microphone and Glaze on the chorus. Luna knows her queue. We got this?” The group mumbled a general yes and Vitam said, “Good, because we’re on now.”
A soft piano started playing on the stage and through the speakers. Everypony looked round to see the curtain of the stage drawing to reveal Octavia playing the soft melody. After a two bars Vinyl and The Living Tombstone appeared in the D-J booth in a swirling ball of blue magic. They switched on the wubs and the bass and they even had a pre-recorded choir on the track. Around forty seconds into the song Mic walked on with a Microphone he was holding with magic.
“Yeah, whatchu know ‘bout Nightmare Night son?
Welcome fillies and gentlecolts
No reason to scream
Your favourite princess in back…” At this point Princess Luna had swooped in on a chariot pulled by her guards.
“…She’s walking up on the scene
She has been stuck on the moon
But that’s no reason to fret
She’s not a nightmare no more
So buckle down and get set
She’s coming; gracing her subjects
She ain’t leaving no choice
She’s gonna blow you all back
With her Equestrian voice
So cover all of your fears
And stow away all your freight
The Lunar princess is back
To Bring the Nightmares tonight”
By now Glaze had flown in and had grabbed a microphone from Vinyl. For the chorus, in her robotic voice, Glaze sang,
“She’s living in the past
So you won’t last
Without the proper care
With a royal farewell
And an animate spell
You won’t have long to prepare.”
The lights swivelled round to the D-Js who were showing off various noises. All the while Princess Luna was scaring everypony. Eventually the second verse came,
“Now little fillies this is Nightmare Night
Your ruler Nightmare Moon is back
To come and fill you with freight
So hurry
Now get your goodies
And fill up all your bags
And go and leave a candy
Offering for that big ol’ hag
Get running
And pray above that she’s not coming back
To come and take away your soul
And eat you up for a snack
So run away and go hide
Just keep you head out of sight
The darkness is rising again
Cause this is Nightmare Night.”
Glaze sang the chorus once more, but before the song could end a white light appeared in the sky. It grew and grew and curled and swirled down to earth. On impact it caused a large crater in the ground to emerge through the smoke and lying, seething at the bottom of it was Discord.
Part 4
Discord was bigger: a lot bigger. Everything about him was bigger, but his wings especially. They looked like they were designed for actually flying, unlike his previous wings. They looked like they belonged on a deformed angel.
Everypony thought this was all part of the act. After all, they’d been told that Discord was reformed now. They were all running around, laughing.
“This isn’t part of the act everypony!” Luna tried to warn the crowd, but they all thought that saying it wasn’t part of the act was part of the act.
“This is the best Nightmare Night ever!” One colt cried in joy. Unfortunately Discord heard him and, with a click of his fingers, made his legs disappear. Then he looked around and destroyed the stage, with Princess Luna and the performers on it. This was when everypony started to realize it was more than a performance and started to panic. Discord then targeted a house; pointed on of his talons at it and suddenly, the house caught fire. Prince Vitam looked around at the chaos. He knew there was only one thing to do.
He stood in large field, surrounded in dead grass. Using magic, he teleported the main six in front of him. They all seemed dazed and confused,
“Whoa,” Twilight speculated, “How did you…”
“Is that top priority? Right now?” Prince Vitam seemed almost shocked that this was the first question that came to her mind. Twilight looked a little embarrassed. “Right,” He continued, “Unless you’ve been under a rock you’ll know that Discord has been terrorising Nightmare Night. Now, that may or may not be my fault, point is, we need to get Discord the heck out. Fluttershy, your in charge of getting the animals safe, Rarity and Rainbow Dash you make sure everypony gets somewhere safe, A-J and Pinkie, you gather up a load of food for those left homeless, and Twilight, you make sure all goes to plan. I’ll go fight him.” They all seemed to understand their task, except Twilight,
“No!” She started, but Vitam cut her off,
“Seriously, now is not the time for arguments. Go!” He ordered as he teleported them all away. Slowly he turned around, grumbling, “I knew my sarcasm would cause mass genocide one day.” before teleporting out of the field himself.
Part 5
Discord was swaggering down the ruined wreckage of the street, just as Vitam appeared behind him. He turned around, smiling with psychopathic glee, “Hello old friend!” He chuckled, with the same fake cheerfulness.
“You’re no friend of mine.” Vitam growled. Discord pulled an exaggerated frown,
“Oh don’t be like that,” He mocked, “Remember the good old days? You gave me all of Equestria to rule! We were friends!”
“And you screwed it all up!” Vitam shouted. He was trying to contain his rage, at Discord and at himself for sparking all this, but he was not doing a very good job of it. “You took your power,” He continued, “And you ruined everything. You took the promise you made to me, and spat on it and ripped it into a million pieces and threw the pieces into the dirt. So I turned you into the freak of nature you are now, and took away your name. I left it in a good light, and you should thank me for that!”
“Thank you?” Discord laughed, “Thank you?” He said more seriously, “Those I loved saw what you turned me into, and rejected me. I didn’t choose a life of Chaos, you forced it onto me!” Discord was now very angry, but wasn’t shouting. Prince Vitam on the other hand, was,
“What?” He yelled, “It’s your fault you are what you are! It’s your fault I refuse to call you your real name! You are a mere shred of the shadow of my friend!” Discord seemed a little taken aback by this, and Vitam saw this and decided to pull out the big guns.
“You were the one you let me down in my time of need! I let you rule for 10 years, while I was teaching the most powerful princesses there are today, and in that time you let Equestria crumble! Everything I’d worked on, succeeded on, failed on for the past three thousand years, gone! I had to institute my sisters as official rulers, because of you!” This definitely struck something deep inside Discord. He stumbled backwards and almost fell over. He looked around, before turning to Vitam,
“I’ll be back.” He spat with such loathing, and such hate that Vitam almost wanted to whisper sorry, but he didn’t because that would be stupid and would kill the mood, and Vitam didn’t want that to happen because he knew what Discord was about to do. Sure enough, he disappeared in a white flash.
Part 6
Discord paced around the cave he had renovated to suit holding him. This is it. This day. I will rule. Forever. Whatever remnant of the previous Discord was be dashed today. He was going to deal with Prince Vitam, and then the ponies, and then he would be crown God-King of Equestria. He shut his eyes, and when he opened a new level of the chaotic flame danced behind them,
“Nothing will prepare you for
The chaos I will bring upon you
You can try to run and hide
But you can't escape the things that I'll do
Don't even try to run away
It's my world you live in now
Now watch everything you know fade
As I turn your life upside-down
I'm the spirit of chaos
The image of evil, don't deny
I'm gonna turn your world around and then I'll watch you cry
Don't fight it
Just look at the chaos rising everywhere
Game over
I'm plunging your world into everlasting despair
I'm building my empire today
On the land you all once called home
I'll strike fear in all of your hearts
As I watch cities burn from my throne
Looking back will only
Remind you of the order you once knew
Get used to the way things are now
Your world is under my rule
It's all over now
Don't try to put me down
It's better off this way
Chaos is rising and
You and your little friends
Won't stop me today
Don't resist me 'cuz
You're not strong enough
To break me down
Don't try
To deny
I'm the king from here on out
I'm the spirit of chaos
The image of evil, don't deny
I'm gonna turn your world around and then I'll watch you cry
Don't fight it
Just look at the chaos rising everywhere
Game over
I'm plunging your world into everlasting despair.”
Part 7
Twilight Sparkle paced. She was taking a break from visiting the victims of the Discord attack. Suddenly Prince Vitam appeared behind her, running at full speed and hitting a wall.
“Where is my room?” He mumbled, as he stumbled backwards,
“Where it’s been since you put it there… Why?” Twilight was very confused, and wondering why in Equestria Vitam would forget where his room was,
“What?” He looked at Twilight, and almost wondered what she was talking about, but then he came to his senses, “Oh. No, I mean my old one that I used when I was staying in Canterlot, back in the day.”
“How should I know?” Twilight asked, annoyed, as it seemed like an unreasonable question. Vitam looked at Twilight like she should know,
“Well, you were Celestia’s star pupil. When you were a filly, were there any rooms in the castle she didn’t let you go in?” He asked. Twilight was confused,
“Don’t you know?” She wondered, “Didn’t you read the memories of everypony (presumably including Celestia or Luna) as soon as you returned?”
“She’s moved it.” Vitam grumbled, disgruntled, before continuing, “When I returned Celestia saw no nostalgic merit in preserving a room that could be used for more important things. So she moved all my stuff.” This made Twilight even more annoyed,
“Well there was one room I was forbidden to go into, but if it’s been moved how should I know where it is?”
“I dunno!” Prince Vitam complained, “I thought maybe she’d told you or something.” With that he teleported to where Celestia was, leaving Twilight annoyed and confused.
“Sister!” He called to Celestia,
“What is it my brother?” She asked politely,
“Where’d you put my stuff?” He demanded, not as politely.
“Oh,” Celestia was a little surprised, “I put them second floor, third block, twenty second… You know what, I’ll just take you there.” She sighed, before she grew curious, “Why?”
“Discord is a thing.” He replied simply, yet Celestia knew what he was talking about, and started jogging towards the room where Vitam’s things from his past life were being kept.
Their destination was a small room, with boxes piled around on the floor. Prince Vitam made noise of complaint before using his magic to pick out a small greyish crystal from a small box in the corner. He clasped it in his hoof before turning to Celestia. Not taking his eyes off the crystal he muttered to Celestia,
“Fortify Canterlot.”
Part 8
The royal guards lined Canterlot. Flash Century was put in charge of the patrols, and Celestia and Luna sat each side of him, in the humble Canterlot military base. A message had been sent to Shining Armour and Princess Cadence, but so far they had not showed up to offer their support, or even replied. Nopony went out of their way for leisure. Canterlot was on lockdown.
A grey Earth Pony walked out of his home and set of towards Canterlot Castle. Then a grey Unicorn joined him; then a grey Pegasus. One by one grey ponies started walking towards the palace. Even the royal guards left their position. Celestia had noticed that when Flash Century came into work that day he appeared a little bit less saturated than normal. She knew as soon as he left his post without a word something was wrong. She and Luna rushed to the window to see every pony in Canterlot walking towards the palace. They looked at each other and gulped. Discord was making an army out of civilians.
Prince Vitam woke up in Twilight’s library in the room he’d crafted for himself. The lighting system had turned red. Something was wrong. He grabbed he’d retrieved the day before and ran into Twilight’s room. She was already awake and reading,
“It’s called knocking.” She said, not looking up from her book. Vitam’s mouth fell open in shock,
“Discord.” He spluttered, “Canterlot. Get out of bed!” Twilight recoiled in shock, but then came to her senses, grabbed Spike and got under Vitam’s wing.
Celestia and Luna turned round to see Vitam, Twilight and Spike.
“Have you got the Crystal?” Luna asked, and Vitam nodded, before asking his own question,
“How do you get Discord to show his face?” They all looked at each other. None of them knew what to do, but then Celestia turned around and left. Everypony’s heart’s dropped, but then she came back in and said,
“Don’t worry, I’m not discorded.”
She simply stood there, in the middle of the mob. Not moving, just standing. Eventually a white bolt of lightning dropped from the sky and Discord landed with a thud. As soon as Vitam clapped eyes on Discord he silently teleported behind him. They both looked at Celestia, but Celestia’s eyes remained fixated on Discord, as she knew he was not aware of the presence of Vitam.
“So,” Discord began in a low, menacing voice, “Where’s that beloved brother of yours?” Celestia grinned,
“Closer than you might realize.” She purred in response. This did not impress Discord,
“I’ll take it you mean that metaphorically.” He snarled. Celestia simply smiled.
“You know,” She started, “Ever since I turned you away, you seemed…” She paused, “Watered down. However, ever since the return of my brother, you have hardened up. More like a God of Chaos, while before you were a king of chaos.” This made Discord smile perversely, but what Celestia said next wiped the grin right off his face, “It’s disgusting.” Discord was taken aback at first, but then pulled himself together, and roared,
“You think I care? I have an entire army! You have nothing!” He then called to his army of the possessed, “Destroy the castle.”
Everypony started marching forward. They were silent: not talking, not giving any expressions at all. Discord turned around to see Vitam. He was hiding the crystal. Discord smiled, almost pleased,
“So she wasn’t lying…” He speculated, but then he turned angry again, “You can’t stop this! There’s too many of them!” He yelled. Prince Vitam snorted,
“Trust me I could stop all of them right now. However, I’m not going to.” He smiled. Discord almost lost it,
“You won’t change me back!” He screamed, “I like this me! He has God like powers!”
“You speak of yourself,” Vitam was keeping his cool very well, “In the third person. It’s like you know what is about to happen.” He was grinning like a little boy on Christmas now. It was like he was excited about permanently altering the fate of Equestria.
“Except you won’t,” Discord lowered his voice suddenly, like he was plotting something, “I’m your villain. You need me, we’re opposites.” Discord was now the one grinning wildly,
“No, no, no,” Vitam corrected, “I’m the Prince of Life, and you’re the God of Chaos. The opposite of life is death, and I’ve got that covered.” Discord seemed confused, “That’s right old friend,” He continued, “I can raise the dead.” Discord gasped, but Vitam just laughed, “Oh, I never told you that did I? I can also make ponies immortal, like I did with Celestia and Luna, and will do with Twily and Cadence.” The main six gasped in shock. Vitam continued, “But I digress. The opposite of life is death, but the opposite of chaos. Do you want to know what that is?”
“What?” Discord spat. Vitam lowered his head, but didn’t take his eyes off Discord. His horn started glowing blue; the bluest blue there could ever be. He whispered, quite simply, “Harmony.”
Part 9
Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity appeared in the air above Vitam. Their Element’s of Harmony appeared round their necks and Twilight’s crown on her head. They all knew what they had to do, but as they were about to turn him into stone, Vitam threw up the greyish crystal into the middle of them. It floated in the air, and rainbows pulsated threw it, abolishing the grey. The rainbow shot into the air, and arched back down again. The rainbow wrapped itself around Discord and as he slowly turned into stone, another body started crawling out of Discord. Slowly, the rainbow faded away and the grander body of Discord stood in stone, screaming, his lion paw grabbing his chest and one of his talons pointing at Vitam.
Lying in front of Discord was a brownish Alicorn. He was the height of Luna, and about as stocky too. His mane was white and hung down at the side and back of his head and neck. His tale was also white, and it was proportionately as long as his mane. A great long wispy beard protruded out of his chin. His cutie mark was a black star, surrounded in a swirl of all the colours of the rainbow.
“Who is that?” Twilight gasped in astonishment. Everypony gathered round the corpse.
“A chance to show off.” Vitam grinned in response. Luna looked at him curiously,
“And why, exactly, is that?” She enquired.
“He is not currently joining us in the living world,” He started, “I’m going to make him.”
With that, a blue glow started forming around his horn. The glow reached beyond his horn and it began to slither and snake it’s way towards the body. Slowly, it coiled itself around and around, like a boa constrictor. Suddenly, sparks started flying out from the glow, which had now almost completely cocooned the body. Then more colours joined the blue; red, green, yellow, etc until the entire rainbow was swirling around the body. Slowly, it detached itself from Vitam’s horn and started to lift into the air. It was dazzling. The swirl persisted with constant lurches and jerks. Suddenly, it all stopped, and out dropped the same brown Alicorn, only this time he was alive.
Part 10
The pony that dropped out of the resurrection swirl was taller than the one that entered it. Also, he was more slender and his wings had changed; they were longer, but thinner, like Nightmare Moon’s, only brown. His eyes opened, they were gold. Gold as the sun is.
“Hello old friend.” Vitam said, nearly welling up. He embraced his friend that used to be Discord, and they hugged for a very long while. Celestia and Luna recoiled and pure and absolute shock. Simultaneously, they gasped,
“Star Swirl the Bearded?”
This seemed to trigger a chain reaction with Twilight, who almost couldn’t believe it,
“Star Swirl the Bearded?” Star Swirl looked around, rather dazed. He then turned around and saw the stone Discord,
“That’s me,” He replied, not taking his eyes off the statue, “And that’s him…” He added. Celestia went up to join him. She knew this situation had to be handled delicately, but was just too curious,
“Do you remember?” She asked softly, “Being… Him, that is.” Star Swirl gazed at Celestia, with longing in his eyes,
“Yes,” He whispered, “Every second.” Luna and Vitam went to join him. They all had a group hug for a few seconds, before Prince Vitam cleared his throat and announce,
“I here by declare you, Prince Star Swirl the Bearded.”
Epilogue
Twilight Sparkle, Spike and Prince Vitam all collapsed on the floor of Twilight’s library. Twilight looked into the eyes of the Prince and thought of all the things they’d seen. All the many years they’d been working, and all the many years they hadn’t. However, one thing was eating away at her,
“So you can raise the dead?” She breathed heavily. It had been a long day, after all. Vitam gestured towards his cutie mark,
“Life is my talent,” He replied, “It’s what I do. If I can’t bring life, it’s like, what’s the point?” Twilight wondered whether that meant he’d raised the dead many times, or whether it meant he’d made new life, as opposed to bringing back new life. The likelihood was that he hadn’t, as he never mentioned any kind of offspring, and if he had, surely he would of made them immortal. She wondered how powerful the foal of she and Vitam would be, but quickly purged those thoughts from her mind.
Quickly, she changed the subject,
“So that entire time Discord was Star Swirl the Bearded?” She asked. Vitam looked at her and nodded, as he was too tired to talk. Raising the dead was very tiresome. Twilight looked at the Star Swirl the Bearded Nightmare Night costume, “I dressed up as him.” She muttered, before coming to her senses, “Wait, you knew that entire time?” She squawked. Vitam looked at her smugly,
“You know,” He sniggered, “I’m surprised you didn’t realise. You saw some of the magic he was using. Most magical unicorn that’s not you… Somehow being Celestia’s pupil, yet being the teacher of clover the Clever who was around before Celestia… By the way, both Star Swirl the bearded and Clover the Clever were my pupils (just saying)…”
“Yeah, okay, I get it, there’s a bunch of hole in the history of Equestria, blah blah, it all sucks without you.” Twilight snapped irritably. Vitam barked a smug laugh.
“You know what’s been eating at me?” Spike cut in, “Why Princess Cadence and Shining Armour didn’t even reply to the letter we sent them, let alone come down to protect Equestria.” They both looked at Spike. Vitam, who had taken a big liking to Spike, replied,
“I’m heading up to the Crystal Empire in a few weeks time to check on the castle building, how about I ask them then, seeing as I haven’t met either of them yet.” Twilight was befuddled; this hadn’t crossed her mind,
“You do that.” She said firmly, as she was now rather peeved at her brother. Prince Vitam sensed this,
“Hey,” He said softly, “I’m sure your brother and Cadence had plenty of reason to not show up. Hey! I could even bring our new Prince of Wisdom, Star Swirl!”
Twilight smiled. Vitam was right, she shouldn’t have been angry without hearing both sides of the story. Vitam sighed and said,
“And so the prophecy is a sixth fulfilled.” Twilight looked at Vitam inquisitively. Knowing Twilight didn’t know what he was talking about, he explained, “The prophecy is that one day, 10 princes and princess will rule over Equestria. That prophecy has now been a sixth fulfilled.” Twilight nodded and smiled, too tired to be amazed and intrigued by this new information. She looked around; at he library, at her crown, at the pictures of all her friends. She thought of all there was left to see, all there was left to accomplish. Four more were to join the ranks she had been honoured to be a part of. She thought about life. Life was good.