10 days before the defeat of Discord. 100 years before the banishment of Nightmare Moon.
“We have found them, Sister.” A dark blue winged unicorn known as an Alicorn cried out in both relief and joy. She was known as Luna and next to her stood her white furred and older sister, Celestia. Before them stood the Tree of Harmony and upon its branches hung the Elements of Harmony.
“Yes, we have Luna. Come we must hurry and stop Discord. Much of the damage he has caused will take decades to heal from.” Celestia said as the two walked up to the tree.
She and Luna held up their hands as their horns began to glow. Their magic surrounded the Tree of Harmony; soon their magic had connected three of the Elements to each of them. The Elements of Magic, Loyalty, and Kindness floated towards Celestia and the Elements of Generosity, Laughter, and Honesty floated towards Luna.
As the Elements broke away from the Tree of Harmony, a small flash of light blinked in and out of existence so fast that one could argue that the even never occurred. However, at that exact moment over two hundred thousand miles away, on the surface of the moon there stood a temple and deep within that temple on the floor of its deepest chamber there was a large circular stone. On the surface of the stone, etched into it, was an image of the Tree of Harmony with small glowing jeweled representations of the Elements of Harmony. The moment the Elements broke away from the tree, the jewels stopped glowing and a small crack thinner than the width of a hair appeared in the middle of the surface of the stone.
5 years before the founding of Ponyville. 78 years before the return of Nightmare Moon.
What a week it had been for Celestia. Her nation of Equestria had just been visited by not just an alien species, but an inter-dimensional one at that. The visitor came from another universe and was part of a species known as humans. It had been quite an enjoyable experience for Celestia. Although there were many similarities in appearances between the two races, there were also vast differences between them too. While both races stood on two legs, had hands, two eyes, ate with their mouths, and spoke with their mouth; that is where the changes started to differ. While they both stood on two legs, the human’s legs ended in what he called feet instead of hooves. And, humans were not born with horns or wings. He had also never heard of a Cutie Mark before as well. He had also said that while humans were born in a wide variety of colors, it wasn’t nearly as varied as the colors of Celestia’s little ponies. None from his race had been born purple, orange, green, or blue.
What fascinated Celestia the most about this human was two things. First, it was the human’s height. While Celestia herself stood at a regal seven feet and six inches without the inclusion of her horn. She had always been used to nearly everypony standing much shorter than her. This human however stood at impressive height of six feet and two inches. The second thing that fascinated her was hearing about the technology from the human’s world. Very few know this about her, but Celestia loved technology. If something was the best it could be then that was fine, but if there was a way to make it better why not seek to make it better?
After many days of talking the human had returned to his world with plans to set up a form of information trading and possibly even traveling to Equestria for his race. At this, Celestia didn’t mind as it would mean an eventual boost in technology for first her nation and then the world, but also increased revenue from tourist. The problem, were the nobles. If word reached them, about this it would be one long drawn out debate after another and once all the debating had been settled the first debater would have been dead. Also, the sudden appearance of an alien race more technologically able then her ponies might cause mass hysteria in the streets and Celestia did not want to deal with that. So, Celestia had sworn everypony who know of the human to secrecy. Threatening that if the secret was revealed to the nobles that they would be banished and imprisoned in the place they were banished to. To make things go smoother between the two worlds, Celestia would be starting a secret agency within her kingdom. This agency would be the best kept secret in all of Equestria. It would be their job to monitor all human activity. They would be the first, last, and best line of defense should any humans have less than peaceful means for her people. They would be the P.I.B.: Ponies in Black. Now, if only the pony she was appointing to be the P.I.B.’s first director would show up, so Celestia could inform her of her new position.
At that moment a knock came from the door of her office. “Enter,” called out Celestia from her desk. The door opened to reveal a blue mare with light blue hair. She wore a long black skirt, white blouse with a black suit jacket over it, and had her hair done up in a bun. “Ah, Secret Note, I’m glad you could make it.” She said as the mare walked up to her desk.
“The letter you sent made it sound very urgent,” replied Secret. “It isn’t often I’m told to burn a letter after reading it and bury the letter’s ashes,” the mare continued.
“Very true,” Celestia agreed before continuing on, “However with what we’re about to do it needs to be kept secret for as long as it possibly can. I am here by appointing you as acting director of a new agency I am establishing. You will report directly to me and take orders only from me, nopony else. As you know our world was recently visited by an alien being from another world, and while it is my hope that our people can trade and eventually travel between the worlds peacefully. I am not naïve enough to think that all humans will be as peaceful as the one we met, was. It will be the job of this new agency to make sure any humans who are harmful to the peace and prosperity to the subjects of Equestria be dealt with. This agency is going to help, slowly, bring about much change in the world…
3 days after the Changeling Invasion of Canterlot
Celestia sat in her office looking over the damage reports for Canterlot. In some ways they were lucky and in others, not so much. They were lucky in the fact that Chrysalis was the only Changeling who was an actual threat. They weren’t lucky that Chrysalis’s forces outnumbered them five to one. They were lucky that Canterlot was the only city attacked. They weren’t lucky, that no one saw over a thousand Changelings cross the border. They were also lucky for the new weapons that had been reversed engineered from human technology from the past seventy years. However, they weren’t lucky in the fact that guns barely had any effect of the Changelings due to their chitlin body armor.
When the technology of the gun was introduced it was truly a marvel of technology and power. The gun had a small built in generator that would power up the shot, which humans called phasers, and the shot could be set to different levels of strength. The first setting gave a very light electrical shock. The next setting gave a bit of a stronger shock. The third setting produced a shock strong enough to knock a pony clean out. It was the final setting that was the most dangerous. The final setting was strong enough to burn a hole through a body. It was due to this setting that Celestia had a minor change added to the gun. When the fourth setting was used a loud noise like thunder accompanied it, the generator was fried, and the barrel of the gun was warped just enough to make future shots difficult. Due to this one shot one kill option it made death by gun shots very low and those few who had killed with the gun’s fourth setting received the maximum sentence, death. Celestia loved all her subjects and always did everything she could to make she they were happy, but the taking of another’s life, while not protecting a life, was something that she could not excuse. Luckily, not too many embraced the technology of the gun. Ponies really embraced the technology of computers, motorcycles, and television.
Celestia knew that the city was lucky that Cadance was able to break Shining Armor out of Queen Chrysalis’s control and that together they were able to cast such a powerful shield spell. The Changelings took everything the Royal Guards could through at them. Even Celestia herself was bested by Chrysalis own love-powered magic. During all of this the Elements of Harmony had stayed locked away safely in the vault. It was after the fight, that Celestia realized how stupid it was to send Twilight and the others to get the Elements when they never would have even been able to open the vault. This however, made the white alicorn realize something else. What if the Elements were ever gone? It took Celestia only a moment to see that if the Elements were ever lost, then Equestria would be in trouble as there was no backup plan.
A sudden knock at her office door broke Celestia away from her thoughts. “Enter,” she called out as she looked towards the door. Door opened to reveal a dark blue skinned alicorn with a starry mane. This alicorn was Celestia’s younger sister who had been the force known as Nightmare Moon. Thanks to the Elements of Harmony, Luna had been restored and the darkness had been pushed back.
“You wished to speak with us, Sister?” Luna asked as she approached Celestia’s desk.
“Yes, I did Luna. Remember just after we had defeated Discord, you wanted to see if it was possible to other things with the Elements; maybe even draw power from them? However, I insisted we focus our efforts in fixing Equestria. Then we were made rulers of Equestria and there was the war with the Gryphon Empire. Finally, a few decades after the war, your banishment happened.” Upon seeing her sister nod at each of them and grimace a little at the mention of her banishment, Celestia continued, “It has come to my attention that if the Elements were ever lost that we don’t have a back-up plan. After your return there was an Ursa Minor rampage, Cerberus's escape, parasprites, my student’s moment of insanity, Discord’s escape, and everything else leading up to the Changeling attack on Canterlot. So, due to all of this I think it’s long past time we look for alternate options. I have stayed up the past two nights following the attack and these are what I’ve come up with.” Celestia then handed Luna a small stack of five folders.
Luna took the folders and looked at the title of each one. Operation: Ranger, Operation: Reform, Operation: Suicide, Operation: Armor, and Operation: Impossible. The Princess of the Moon carefully looked at the contents of each folder. Once she was done she looked back up at her sister and said, “which one of these options will we be going with?”
“All of them, Luna,” replied Celesta as she braced her ears for Luna’s rejection.
“ALL OF THEM!!” Luna yelled out, in her Royal Canterlot voice. Luckily Celestia had the foresight to put a barrier of silence around her office. Luna grabbed the folder labeled Operation: Reform and slammed it down on the desk. “Do you really think this one would even work?” Luna asked her voice returning to normal.
“I’m not saying that all of them will be easy or that they’ll all bear fruit, but we need more than one option,” replied Celestia. “We have to face facts sister more and more danger is coming to Equestria. How soon until we meet a force we aren’t prepared for?”
“Fine,” Luna replied with a huff. She knew her sister was right, but she didn’t have to like it.
“We’ll start the ground work for Ranger, Armor, and Impossible now as they will take the longest. I was thinking we’d use the Canterlot Cavern’s for our base of operations. It’s close enough to the city while still being outside the city. Next, we will start with Operation: Reform. I firmly believe that Fluttershy will have the best chance in reforming Discord. However, I think it’s too soon for us to start on that with the attack having just ended.”
“Very well,” replied Luna before asking, “Now, how do you propose we make the Rangers?”
“I was thinking we could go with your idea of using the Elements as a power source. For that reason, I want you to head up the research department to look for a way to tap into them. Once we’re able to do that, then we will start Operation: Reform.” Celestia replied, answering her sister’s question.
“And what of Armor and Impossible?” Luna continued in her questioning.
“Armor will take some time, but not as much time as Rangers will. And, let’s face it Luna, the guards really do need an update. They may have new weapons, but they are still using the same armor for the past thousand years. As for Impossible, that is a little trickier. We need a small group of ponies who can move about and not been seen. I already have a field agent in mind. The Apple family has been closely connected to us for a number of years. There connection was one of the reasons I gave them the land next to the Everfree Forest to start up their farm. Of the current members available, Mr. McIntosh is the only one who completed both guard and defender training. Even though, he didn’t join the Royal Guards or the National Defense Force. He is also one of the closest.”
“And what of the last one Operation: Suicide? I don’t see much promise there.”
“I’ll admit, at the moment, I don’t see much promise there as there simply are so few criminals in Equestria who would have the skills we need. So for the moment we’ll but that one for last. Now for everything else, here’s what we shall do.”
For hours the sisters talked on the contents of the folders and how it would lead to a change in Equestria’s defense. At the moment, they still had the Elements, but how long would that last?
One week after the Apple Family Reunion
The train sped along the tracks towards the capital of Equestria, the majestic city of Canterlot. In the early morning there, were only a few passengers on the train during the early morning ride. One passenger in particular stood out amongst the rest. In fact, when he stands he really stands out; as very few reach a height of seven feet three inches. But, ponies quickly took a look at his appearance, as he wore his ol’ blue jeans and simple flannel shirt, and many quickly dismissed him as no one of any importance. What many of them didn’t know was that this red furred stallion was McIntosh Apple, known to many as Big Mac, and he was one of Equestria’s deadliest fighters.
Years ago when his younger sister, Applejack, had left to go stay with their Aunt and Uncle Orange in Manehattan, he was feeling both sad and angry that she had left. Because to Big Mac you didn’t abandon family, you stuck with them through thick and thin no matter what, and Applejack’s leaving felt to him as though she was abandoning the family. So, over the next few days he began to get angrier and angrier. Now, he never said a harsh word to anyone or tried to start any fights with anyone, but it was the tail end of Applebuck Season and his parents and Granny Smith could tell he was bucking the trees to hard. The trees were suppose to be bucked enough to cause the apples to fall; not bucked hard enough that he left half inch deep hoofprints on the tree.
It finally happened three days after Applejack had left; Big Mac bucked a tree so hard it fell over. After that, his Pa tore into him and told him that if he was going to have such anger he was going to learn to control it and he would learn in boot camp. Still being respective of his parents, Big Mac agreed. He took a quick shower and then headed into town to take the recruitment test at the local recruiter’s office in Ponyville.
To the surprise of many, Big Mac passed the test with flying colors. Big Mac quickly got his shots and paperwork in order and the next day he was on the train heading for boot camp. Over the course of sixteen weeks, Big Mac was dragged through the mud, had his strength pushed to the max, and more than once tasted defeat in sparing training. The first twelve weeks were to get recruits used to boot camp life, working together, pushing beyond the limits of your strength, and becoming disciplined in the use of their strength. The remaining four weeks was specialized training. Despite Big Mac’s large size is was very quiet and easily overlooked as unimportant, so McIntosh decided to use this to his advantage and selected the Ghost training. Over the course of training he learned to you the environment to his advantage, see without being seen, and strike those in the light from the darkness without ever leaving the darkness.
Once boot camp was over, Big Mac decided to return to Sweet Apple Acers. Most of the recruits joined the National Defense Force, some even joined the Royal Guards, but a few did like Big Mac and went back to their regular lives only having gone through boot camp for the experience. A month later Applejack returned to the farm bawling her eyes out about how much she missed the farm, her granny, her parents, and her brother; and surprisingly Big Mac wasn’t angry with her. He just hugged her close and let her cry her eyes out; happy that his little sister was home.
The train’s sudden shaking from its breaks being applied brought Big Mac out of his thoughts. He looked up to see that he had finally arrived in Canterlot. ‘Time to see what this letter is about,’ Big Mac thought to himself. The previous day’s mail came with a letter from Princess Celestia requesting his presence in Canterlot the next day. 'I hope this isn’t about the carnival,’ he continued thinking as he stepped towards the royal guards waiting to escort him to the castle.
An hour later he was sitting in Princess Celestia’s office, sitting across from the Sun Princess. Big Mac would have to be out of his mind to say that Princess Celestia wasn’t beautiful. She was very beautiful and the tightness of her gown left little to the imagination of her body’s figure. However, Big Mac would also have to be completely insane to not admit that Princess Celestia scared the Apple Cider out of him.
“Thank you for arriving so quickly McIntosh,” began Celestia. “Equestria needs your help.”
Well that through him for a loop, but he left his face remain calm and collected. “What’s going on?”
“Since the Changeling attack all those months ago, my sister and I have been developing ways to defend Equestria should the Elements of Harmony ever be lost to us. Part of that defense involves this,” Celestia spoke as she handed him a slightly thick folder titled Operation: Impossible on the tab and blazoned across it in red were the words, CLASSIFIED. Celestia then continued speaking saying, “Understand McIntosh that if you open that file, you are agreeing to this. You can put the file down and walk away. However, I wasn’t joking when I said, ‘Equestria needs your help.’ The reason you are being asked to do this is because when you went through the final stage of your Ghost training, The Terminator, even though you didn’t have the fastest time you did have something unique. Two minutes into the training house and you disappeared from sight. Eight minutes later, you eliminated all seven of your targets and rescued the hostage. It wasn’t until you asked the time keeper your time, that anyone realized you had left the training house. You were given the time from your asking which put you at twelve minutes and forty-eight seconds. Over these past nine years you have steadily gotten better you last time from two months ago was five minutes flat. To many ponies you may just be a simple farmer, to your family you may just be Big Mac the dependable brother, and to the agricultural world you may just be Mr. McIntosh Central Branch CEO of Sweet Apple Inc.”
Big Mac’s eyebrow twitched at that. Very few knew that he and several of his cousins and joined their farms together to form a corporation. In fact, not even his sisters know that. AJ was always running around hanging out with her friends, helping them and other ponies, or saving Equestria. And Apple Bloom’s whole world revolved around school and crusading. Applejack was always there for Applebucking and she did a fairly good job in town when it was her days to man the apple cart. However, when it came to the finances she was always stumped, she left it to Big Mac and his ‘fancy mathematics’ as she called it. Well, with his fancy mathematics he was to discover that by joining several of the family farms together they could make a ton more bits. He brought this up with several of his cousins who checked the math and checked the situations with their own farms and agreed to join him. They then spoke to a lawyer and a month before Nightmare Moon’s return Sweet Apple Inc. was born.
“I and many others who don’t even know it however,” Celestia continued on. “Need you to do this. I know I’m asking a lot from you and you haven’t even asked for this or accepted it, but Equestria needs protecting and I can no longer rely on the old ways being enough to protect this country. I need ponies who are willing to go beyond, to do what is necessary.
After a moment of looking at the Princess, Big Mac finally spoke. “I’ll do it,” he replied. He had no idea what he was agreeing to but he had a lot in Equestria that he wanted to keep safe. There were his family, friends, the farm, and five very special someponies he wanted to keep safe. So, he would do what need to be done so they could have peace.
Big Mac opened the folder and began to carefully look over the contents of the folder. It didn’t take long for him to look back up and ask, “Is this even fucking legal?”
“For you, it will be. You will be granted the Fifth Freedom, the right to kill,” replied Celestia.
“You do realize that if anyone were to ever find out about this that we would lose our allies and the treaties would be broken resulting in war.”
“That’s why if you and your team are ever captured, I will disavow all knowledge of you.” Celestia answered. “I know it’s harsh, but none of this can be linked back to Equestria.”
“And who exactly is my ‘team’,” asked Big Mac.
“They are listed on the fifth page.”
‘Let’s see…’ Big Mac thought to himself as he turned to the said page. ‘Including me there’s of seven of us. We’ve got Milano Mash for hacking and computer diagnostics. Nurse Coldheart, as medical head. Heavy Lift as loadmaster and for weapons. Know All for data mining and intelligence analyst. And finally, Soarin and Surprise as pilot and co-pilot. Wait a minute, pilot and co-pilot?’ “Excuse me; Princess, but why would my team need a pilot and co-pilot?” Big Mac asked as he looked up from the page.
“The answer to that is on page ten,” the princess replied.
McIntosh turned to the directed page and stopped. The thing before him was a blueprint; a blueprint of a plane and a really big plane at that. When planes had first come out so many years ago they didn’t really take off. In fact, to this day most planes only carried a limit of 20 passengers and Equestria only had five airports as most still preferred to travel by balloon, boat, or just plain walk. But this plane was different; if Big Mac’s guess was right close to a hundred ponies could fit inside this plane. “What is this?” Big Mac asked aloud.
“That is the E-187J Pelican,” replied Princess Celestia. “It is the first and only plane of its kind. Once it is finished, this aerial fortress will be your base of operations, Director.”
“Director?”
“Yes. By agreeing to this as you have, Mr. McIntosh. You have now become the Head of Echelon; thus making you the director of Equestria’s smallest military department and also it’s deadliest. The six ponies on that list report to you and you report directly to Luna and I.”
Big Mac’s eyes widened at this. He had just become head of a newly formed military department. “I gotta say Princess, this is one heck of a plane,” Big Mac commented aloud.
“It should be,” replied Princess Celestia. “You will be going to missions so heavily classified that they will never be written down. I want this plane to be ready to handle anything; including being able to get you out of anything. After all, Luna would be devastated if anything happened to you.”
Big Mac’s head suddenly snapped up and he stared wide-eyed at Princess Celestia. “You know about that?” He asked as he thanked the Great Maker Faust above for giving him a red coat to hide much of his blushing face.
“She eventually broke down and told me what happed. It wasn’t too hard to figure out what had happened as it’s not often the Moon will stay in the same place for four and a half hours. Add to that seeing Luna grin like a manic for two days straight and I could piece it together. Once I called her on it, she caved and told me what had happened and whom it had happened with.” Answered Celestia.
“Oh… Um….”
“Don’t worry about anything from me, Mr. McIntosh,” Princess Celestia assured him. “Luna is plenty old enough to be making this decision on her own without my input.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks?” Big Mac replied in a confused tone.
“You’re welcome,” the princess replied. “Anyway, I should probably let you go; as you’ve got a lot of preparing to do before the plane is finished and before your first assignment. Oh and I nearly forgot, here.” Celestia said as she handed him a slip of paper.
Big Mac looked at the paper and saw that it was a bank voucher. When he saw how much it was for eyes widened slightly. “Not bad for a year’s pay. Thank you kindly Princess.”
“Mr. McIntosh that isn’t a year’s pay. That’s your pay for this month,” replied the princess.
Upon hearing this Big Mac’s mouth dropped open. ‘A month’s pay,’ he thought to himself. ‘Even after a great harvest year and everything being sold we only ever managed to come up just a thousand bits short of this. So, if this is what I’ll make per-month; then in a year, I’ll make over five million bits!’
“Well, I’ll let you go as I’m sure you’d like to talk to Luna before you go and also help your family in selecting some farm hands before your training begins,” continued Celestia ignoring the look on Big Mac’s face.
“Training?” asked Big Mac is he snapped out of his stupor.
“Yes, training,” replied the princess. “It will be at least nine months before the plane is completed in both its construction and test runs. In fact you won’t even have your pilots for another three months or your nurse for another 4 months. In that time you need to refresh yourself with everything you’ve learned and learn as much new stuff as you can. Such as using a wingsuit, HALO jumping, scuba diving, and a few new things that will just be for you. I expect you to report to Camp Hood in three weeks; I shall be sending them a letter telling them to expect you.”
“Thank you Princess Celestia,” replied Big Mac as he headed for the door to leave the office. ‘Great, I get to go back to boot camp,’ he thought with a slight grumble as he opened the door. As he stepped through the door he saw the Princess Luna was standing on the other side waiting. Upon seeing her, he asked, “Here to see your sister, Princess Luna?”
“No. I’m actually, here to talk to you Big Mac,” replied Princess Luna. “And how many times have I told you, just call me Luna. Shall we talk as we head to the train for your return to Ponyville?”
“Sure, Pri- …I mean Luna,” replied Big Mac.
For a while the two walked together in a comfortable silence until Luna asked, “How are the others?”
“Zecora, Lotus, Aloe, and Pinkie are all doing fine. They hope you’re doing well too and are looking forward to the next night,” replied Big Mac.
“Tell them I’m doing very well; even though I couldn’t walk for a couple of days after that romp in the spa’s sauna. Then again how often is it that a stallion can take on 5 mares and still be good to go after vigorously rutting each of them?” As Luna spoke her face stayed the same as though she was talking about the weather; Big Mac’s face of the other hand was redder than the apples his family was famous for.
“Um… Ah… I… Er…” McIntosh sputtered trying to come up with a proper response.
“Worry not, Big Mac,” replied Luna as she grasped his arm and leaned in close to him. “I rather enjoyed that night after the carnival.” Placing her lips next to his ear she continued in a low sensual voice, “Especially, Pinkie’s ‘Apple Cream Pie’!”
As Luna began to move away from him, McIntosh suddenly felt a sharp smack on his rear. Luna than began to walk again as she whistled innocently. ‘Of all the mares in Equestria I had to fall in love with the five most perverted and kinky of them,’ thought Big Mac to himself. ‘Lucky me,’ he thought in monotone.
5 hours after Discord’s reformation.
The room was silent. So silent that if a pin were to be dropped one would hear it land anywhere in the room. The said room was Princess Celestia’s office. To her left side was her younger sister Princess Luna. And before them both was a being of immeasurable power, insanity made to be sane, chaos made flesh. In short, the ancient being known as Discord was sitting before them sipping on some tea. And by sitting, he upside down on his head and by sipping tea, he was drinking the tea cup.
“So Celly, Lulu. What plans do the two of you have for little ol’ me?” Discord asked in a cheery tone.
“Well, Discord we were planning to have you help protect Equestria,” replied Celestia.
“Ah, because the Elements aren’t doing a very good job of it?” asked Discord. He then flipped himself right side up and continued. “Not really surprising, considering that most of the time you keep them locked up and the best they can do is weaken me.”
“They stopped you and they can do so again,” blurted out Luna. Her sister may hold her tongue but she would not.
Discord turned his head to the Princess of the Moon and said, “Oh is that what you think? Tell me, Lulu, what exactly am I?”
“You are, Discord the being of chaos and disharmony,” replied Luna.
“Yes, yes. Now what are the Elements of Harmony?” He asked.
“The Elements of Harmony are powerful pre-equestrian artifacts that help to preserve and protect this land,” replied Luna. “They are of ancient magic that dispels disorder in the land.”
“Ah, so close and yet so far,” replied Discord with a mocking smile. “While it is true that the Elements are ancient; they are not meant to protect this land. Well, that isn’t their main task. Their true purpose is in keeping dark forces sealed. Being able to dispel disorder is an extra feature that was unplanned in their creation. However, when they come across something, or some being rather, that is their polar opposite there effects are negated.”
“Meaning what and how do you know about the Elements creation?” asked Luna while her sister asked, “What dark forces, Discord?”
“To answer your first question, Luna, the Elements never turned me into stone. I did that myself. See?” With a wave of his hand Discord’s body began to turn into stone once more as though he had just been struck by the Elements of Harmony themselves. To the great surprise of both princesses once he was completely stone, Discord spoke once more. “While the Elements didn’t really turn me into stone, they did however hurt. Badly. So, I kept up this little disguise for a while to heal and to have a little break. If you had kept a constant vigil, on my statue you might have noticed a few times when I wasn’t there or that I was facing different directions. That whole ‘Discord has been freed’ thing a while back was cause I wanted to test the newbies on the block.”
“What a minute, you were free this whole time?” asked Luna. “Why didn’t you do anything?”
“I didn’t do anything because I wanted to see what would happen if I wasn’t there,” replied Discord. “And of course I was free. How else would I have Screwball?”
“And who’s Screwball?” asked Luna.
“My daughter,” replied Discord simply.
“WHAT!?” both princesses asked aloud.
“Girls I may be the lord of chaos, but that don’t mean that I don’t get lonely from time to time,” replied Discord. “I wanted to settle down and start a little family. Anyway we’ve been getting off topic. Now, to answer your second question Lulu, I was there at the Elements creation. The two of you don’t seem to realize this, but I’m old. I existed before your reign, before ponies found this land, before Starswirl even had a beard, and before ponies even possessed enough thought to join together in groups to better protect themselves instead of just staying in family groups. I know spells and magic that has been loosed to the sands of time. Magic that makes yours seem weak and childish. Many of your subjects may think your rule is long and your magic powerful, but to one as old as me; your reign is barely even out of its diapers and you know less magic then what I have forgotten about magic.”
“Now see here Discord,” Princess Luna shouted.
With a snap of his hand Princess Luna’s horn and wings disappeared and she shrunk down to the size of a new born foal. “No. You listen; I’m doing what I do because I feel like it. I will not be spoken down to by somepony like you. So I suggest you back off unless you want to see what happens when chaos stops being fun. Everything I’ve done was to give myself a good laugh or chuckle. Do you really want to see what happens when I do something because I’m mad, Little Moon?” As he asked his question Discord’s red eyes began to glow red.
For a moment Luna felt truly afraid. Not only was her magic and flying taken from her, but she was now a foal; barely even capable of walking.
“Discord,” Celestia’s voice cut through the tension. “Please return my sister to normal. I’m sure she did not mean to be rude, but Luna has always spoken what’s immediately on her mind and not considering the repercussions of her words.”
“Fine,” Discord said after a moment. With a snap of his fingers Luna returned to normal.
“Thank you,” replied sincerely. “Luna apologize.”
“Sorry,” replied Luna still slightly shaken at having her magic and taken from her and being changed into a foal.
“Now, Discord, about the last question,” spoke Princess Celestia.
“Ah, yes, your question Celly,” replied Discord. “To many of you ponies I may appear evil. However, I am not evil.” With a wave of his hand Discord’s bright red ruby studded sunglasses appeared in his hand and as he put them on he continued. “I’m just looking for a good time. In fact the only evil you’ve ever really come up against was Sombra.”
“What about Queen Chrysalis?” asked Celestia.
“What about her,” replied Discord. “She was despite to feed her subjects. The fact is Celestia you wouldn’t know evil if came in here and raped your guards. Ten thousand years ago this place was vastly different. Dark forces of such unimaginable power roamed the land. They eventually quarreled with each other and it was during this fighting that a group of powerful sorcerers was able to seal them far away. In order to keep them sealed the sorcerers made the Elements of Harmony and sealed the Elements into what you know as the Tree of Harmony.”
“And where were these forces sealed?” asked Celestia.
“It’s funny you should ask that,” replied Discord. “They were sealed in the moon.”
“What can we do to stop their return?” Celestia asked the Draconequus.
“Well, the first option would be to return the Elements to the Tree of Harmony. However, that isn’t a viable option at this point,” he replied.
“Why is that?” Luna asked speaking for the first time since she apologized.
“In order for the tree to accept the Elements, they must be freely and willingly returned. You’re student Twilight may indeed be bright and intelligent, but if she was to learn of this then she would insist that the Elements of Harmony to used to stop the forces. You would tell her to place them back on the Tree and while she would listen to you; she would have a small touch of doubt in the back of her mind. It would be this doubt that would cause the Elements to not be fully accepted back by the Tree of Harmony. For now, you’re actually doing the right thing by building up your forces with the reversed engineered human technology.”
“What are you talking about, Discord?” Celestia asked with confusion.
“Don’t try to play me for a fool, Celly. I may have been out in the gardens, but I can hear every conversation in this castle.”
“Very well, Discord,” replied Celestia. “So, how will you help us prepare Equestria?”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that and I’ve decided to do this.” As he spoke a file appeared in his hand, a file that was clearly labeled Operation: Suicide.
“That is not for you.” Celestia stated firmly.
“Oh, come now Celly. Think about it, what better way to show I’ve reformed? Then helping others reform?” Discord asked. “Besides, I’ve got a few candidates in mind. I’ll head up this department my way and have them help protect Equestria. They’ll be able to do the jobs that are too dirty for your precious student and her friends. We both know, that if Equestria is to keep its peace sometimes not so peaceful actions must be done.”
Time seemed to stop as Celestia stared at Discord. After several moments she finally spoke, “Fine, Discord. You got your shot.”
Discord stood up wearing a black hoofball jersey with a purple infinity symbol on it and said, “Thanks coach, I won’t let you and the team down.” Then with a snap of his fingers he disappeared in a flash of light.
The two alicorn sisters stayed silent for a moment before Luna spoke asking, “Are you really sure this is a good idea?”
“Honestly? No, I’m not that sure,” replied Celestia. “However we need help and we cannot be to overly picky about or allies at the moment.”
“You’re right, sister.” Luna said in slight reluctance. “It would have been nice though if Discord had told us where he’s going.”
At that moment a scroll appeared before the two of them. Celestia could already tell this wasn’t one of the scrolls Spike would usually send, as the scroll wasn’t wrapped and was written in a clearly different penmanship.
‘Not that it is any of your business, but I’ll be in Ponyville with my wife and daughter. And just to show that I’m such a good Draconequus and totally committed to helping, I’ll only use my powers when doing Suicide work. (After I help my wife, of course.) At all other times, I’ll look like a normal pony. In fact, that’s what you may call me, Professor Poni.’ The scroll read.
“He has a wife?” The sisters asked at the same time after rereading the letter.
“What kind of name is Professor Poni?” Luna asked as she looked at the odd name.
“A name that I really don’t feel like debating over,” replied Celestia as she leaned back and began to massage her temples. ‘Well, things have certainly gotten interesting,’ Celestia thought to herself. ‘I can only hope that Equestria isn’t destroyed in the process of trying to protect it.’
An unknown cavern
Pain. Dear sweet creator above, the pain. She had always heard that it would be painful but this was something else. If she ever saw him again, she would make him pay. Right then, the biggest wave of pain hit her. With a savage yell, she tightened her grip on the stalagmites with enough force that the rock formations were beginning to crack. Then, the pain was over and she collapsed onto her back with her swamp green hair cascading around her.
She breathed heavily for a couple of moments before sitting up. Lying in the dirt, between her legs, was the cause of her pain; an egg, her egg. Unlike regular eggs of her race, which were green, this one was vastly different; it was snow white with flakes of blue sprinkled about the egg. 'Well, it's obvious you've got your father in you,' she thought to herself. 'Let's hope you also got plenty of me.'
She then picked up the egg and held it close as she stood and walked out of the cavern. With the way things were now, it would be stupid up her to leave the egg in anyone's care, but her own and maybe the egg's aunt. 'But, I'm not on speaking terms with that bitch. Besides, I doubt she would even listen. Don't worry little one. Momma won't let anything happen to you.'