//------------------------------// // Discord story arc ~ part 1 // Story: Deep Cover Confusion // by Zerodius //------------------------------// Celestia XXIII was in her study. It was far less serious a moment as one might expect. She was simply sitting by her desk, telekinesis moving quills as she did paperwork and thought about the next audience. Not a nobility meeting, just a bog standart senate meeting where she'd probably end up using an illusion to make it seem like she wasn't constantly about to fall asleep. Pony magic, no changeling, of course. The door was open and if anyone looked in, they'd the see the alicorn she claimed to be. Though, maybe she really was? Luna was currently sleeping in her room. Not Luna the third, the real Luna. Even now, it was still a shock as to how the millenia-dead embodiment of harmony had appeared from the ashes of Nightmare Moon. She guessed it had something to do with the Elements of Harmony but as much as she'd love to ask Twilight Sparkle and most of her researchers to embark on a great experiment to find out what had happened, it would unfortunately blow her cover and expose the truth about the royal family. Still, it did make her wonder. Especially regarding the existence of ponies capable of wielding the Elements of Harmony. What did it mean regarding herself and Luna? No, no... Luna had said very clearly when she had asked that the Elements having mortal bearers absolutely does not mean that the mark on her flank and her connection to the sun are fake. Though it was never truly used in the past, Luna did point out that it was perfectly possible to delegate the Elements of Harmony to mortals in a temporary manner. Given she was still young and unable to truly tap into them yet and that Luna had been... well, dead at the moment, it made sense that the Elements would incarnate through mortal bearers for now. The princess paused for a moment. She thought of the queendom of Equestria, of all her little ponies. And for a moment, she felt a chill. She looked to the door, smiled to herself as she dropped the twelve quills into their containers, and then trotted to the door. She closed the door only to feel the chill again, realizing it had nothing to do with it. She was halfway back to her desk, pondering what could have caused this feeling when she finally found a match for it in the mass of memories of her bloodline and froze in place as pure horror gripped her. "No, please don't. It's just a friend swinging by to say hello..." an oily, smug, falsely reassuring voice came to her, like a whisper but with the strength of a normal voice. "Discord..." she glanced back to see the serpent towering over her, his mismatched glowing eyes boring through her, a sadistic smile upon his face. The sheer chaotic aura... she could feel her stomach churning, all ambient love draining away from the room like a cold winter breeze chasing the heat out of the land. "But how? Can't be... it can't... be!" "Your eyes are not deceiving you, Celesfake. I admit it was a clever trick, channelling the love of all things and then banishing my soul through the void, petrifying my body to prevent me from recreating a new one. Clever indeed..." She thought of teleporting, of warning Luna, of warning Twilight. If Discord was out, they'd need the Elements of Harmony. Of course, she could not move a muscle as pure terror gripped her. The memories of the god of disharmony painted him as a being beyond horrifying, an entity whose shape drove mortals to madness. As the walls begun to melt and space begun to warp, she understood the memories had not been the result of shock. They had understated what it meant to be in the very presence of the god of chaos himself. Of course, she could not move a muscle. The floor was now made of what appeared to grape-colored jelly, her hooves having sunk in. No... not sunk in, she could see the floor... move, climb up her legs. She tried to cast a spell... SLAM! Only for a wall to appear behind her out of nowhere, Discord slamming his mismatched right hand into her neck, pinning her so solidly against it that she could not move at all. Sher could barely breathe as she felt his claws squeeze slightly, the dracoquecus bringing his face close enough that she could feel his breath on her face. "Thinking of leaving already? And how rude is it of you not to show me your face, Celesfake. You may fool your subjects... but you can't fool good ol' uncle Discord." He waved his free hand over her body and her disguise fell to dust, the magical energy somehow turned into small snowflakes of dirty, rotten materials. The desk and the nearby chair had merged together behind her before folding together into the back wall, the entire thing moving forward to press against Celestia's back as the god of chaos continued to pin her down by the throat. "The... the Elements of Harmony..." she managed to choke out. A cold, mirthless chuckle escaped the serpent. "Oh. Yes. Those things. I am afraid nobody will help you, Celesfake. I have... warped time around your sister. She will wake up by tomorrow morning to take with me. I just made it so that... well, since her dream is so nice, why should it end? Beside, she asked for an everlasting night. I gave it to her..." Seeing the changeling queen's horror grow. Discord continued. "As for your precious... so-called ponies... I am afraid that Ponyville will see chocolate rain precipitations and that the roads leading to Canterlot will be now nothing but a large swamp. Of course, by the time your little... bearers... come here, I'll just twist time and space and make them loop back home. You know, like a funny groundhog loop movie? Of course, I'm just messing with your subjects. Just a bunch of jokes. A thousand years was a long time and well, all I want is to have some fun. So all I'm doing is pranking them..." He pressed his face against her own, his mismatched eyes suddenly turning red before splitting into thousands, his eye sockets becoming vortexes through which hatred poured out. A hatred so great that Celestia XXIII suddenly felt like no love she'd ever eat would ever make a dent in the ocean of rage that washed over her. She would have gagged even if Discord's fingers hadn't suddenly squeezed her neck hard. "You, on another hand, will have the immense privilege of being subjected to my wrath, raw and unfettered. Because of your ancestor, I was forced to endure total immobility and to bathe in the void for more than a thousand years. If it wasn't from emptiness being primal chaos, my original form, I would have gone mad from the isolation and stagnation." The entire room was catching on fire, Discord's rage causing the ceiling to explode and revealing a vortex of chaotic energy. Unlike the same energies that surrounded most of Equestria as a whole, this one was flowing with black, red, and purple destructive colors, the suffering and hate that fueled the disharmony of all things gathering. "I wish I could have expressed my grievances with Celestia V for her... actions but you will have to do. After all, you were gracious enough to make yourself a repisotory of all your predecessors' minds. Maybe I can even use them to bring back Celestia V and have my way with her. But I am getting ahead of myself, right?" "You... you will be stopped." choked out Celestia XXIII in a way that contained far more terror than she would have liked. "Oh please. You may bear the memories, you may love your... 'little ponies'... but you are not Celestia V. Celestia V suffered for her subjects, she bled for them, she sacrificed everything for them including her body and soul. When she stood before me, she was not so much a fake as the reincarnation of my ancient special friend, an incarnation of hope and love in a changeling shell. You, on the other hand, are just like that disguise you put on every morning. A pale imitation of your ancestor, bearing the name Celestia but not truly understanding its significance. The Elements of Harmony are not just baubles for you or your 'ponies' to wave around like glowy sticks. They are the harmony, the friendship of this world. Effectively, they are what your ancestor was, what you claim to be... and obviously, are not. You are a shadow, a rip-off. But you'll do a nice stress relief ball. As for your little bearer friends... well, that's the drawback with mortal bearers." He had a smile, one with way too many teeth, all of them sharp and pointy. "You are protected by the memories of your ancestor and her blessing on your bloodline. I cannot make you cooler, unfortunately. But your... precious little element bearers... well, let's just say they're a bit uptight and lame. I'm sure uncle Discord can make them a bit more... how can I say it... interesting?" He paused to let the words sink in and though Celestia XXIII knew it was exactly what he wanted, she could not keep the fear and the despair from flowing into her. How could it have happened? Why is Discord free? Why is he here? But other questions tore into her mind and overwhelmed it. She can't call the Elements of Harmony, she isn't like her ancestor. She can't do anything about him ; she is too weak. And if he truly cursed Luna... and if the Elements truly cannot protect Twilight and her friends from being discorded... then... then... what will happen to her little ponies, to Twilight, to... to all that she love? Will... will he torture them, kill them, make them suffer like he did to them during his reign? "You hate me." His hand had pressed more lightly, allowing her to breathe and yet, she still choked, the changeling's eyes filling with tears. "Torture me, kill me if you must. But please... spare my little ponies. I will accept whatever anger you have for me..." "You know, that actually sound good. And well, with you pinned to this wall and with me feeling your body could use looking a bit cooler with, you know, a few organs removed and maybe a few extra limbs inserted by force all over your side... I could definitely do that... but well, that would be predictable and I don't do predictable. Now, I have an appointment with your... 'little ponies'. Ta-ta!" And with that said, he let go of her and with a snap of his fingers, he was gone. Celestia XXIII gasped as she tripped and collapsed, the wall bouncing back into its former position, the furniture uncurling and being sent flying back to their last positions, her hooves slipping out of a floor that was once more solid. Her thoughts swirled. She had to do something. Surely some memory could help her? She had to warn the bearers, she had to... to... A blank feeling overwhelmed her alongside with a stiff-like sensation on her head and her back. She looked to her wings, on her side... and realized they were drooping off her sides, as if broken. She tried to will them to move... and realized she couldn't. She then tried to cast a spell, to teleport but a blank feeling told her that she couldn't even feel her horn on her forehead. Panic begun to grip her as she approached the door and then tried to open it, only to realize it was now locked. She tried to bring her strength to bear... only to find the earth pony magic refused to come to her. And as she slammed both front hooves on the door, a metallic sound echoed, confirming that Discord had replaced it with a vault door. She was trapped, with no way of escaping, no magic, with Luna unable to help, with the bearers not warned. Her memories swirled and despite her best attempts, she could not prevent herself from accessing them. Confused images bubbled over, showing images of torn families, destroyed homes, of ponies desesperately trying to escape from rolling tidal waves of ground turned liquid, of rains of boiling substances, to try and hide as the very land itself became as a living thing, forests growing heads, claws, fangs, and devouring all things. Just this morning, Equestria and all of the world had been normal, with everyone just gearing up for another fine day. She had just wanted to do her duties as princess, maybe learn more about her ancestor's connection to harmony with the help of Luna by the evening. She... she had never thought she'd see the end of harmony in her lifetime, even less at the beginning of such a normal morning. Discord had chosen to spare her life, for some reason... but all she could think was of her ponies, of the suffering and death that would happen. Celestia XXIII wept and sobbed for her ponies. Invisible, Discord licked the tears off her cheeks, feeding on her suffering. Breaking their bodies is easy and boring. Breaking their souls, that's where the real fun is.