//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: The Assembled Letters of Twilight Sparkle, Protégé of Emperor Discord // by Caligari87 //------------------------------// Twilight stepped into the office, leaving her bags outside in the hall. With luck, a palace assistant would take them to her room. Or some room. Or not. Any which way, she didn’t care. The interior of the office, such as it was, could only be described as schizophrenic. The pulsing surfaces of a tesseract swapped or changed themes and colors constantly, random objects either came to life or melded into furniture, bizarre animals galloped in nonsensical antigravity constructs. And sitting king over it all in a swivel chair mounted to one of the ceilings, blowing melted plastic bubbles from a panpipe, was Discord. Suddenly feeling very plainly, nakedly normal in the midst of such unbridled, almost incomprehensible Chaos, Twilight cleared her throat. “Um…. Your Highness?” The dragonequus glanced from his perch at her. “Ah, Twilight!” he exclaimed. His voice sounded excited, but his attention was obviously more engaged by a novelty toy that had replaced the panpipe. “I was wondering when you’d be arriving.” “You… you wanted to… see me?” Twilight’s mouth had difficulty forming the words. “As a matter of fact, yes,” Discord said, casually snapping his fingers. The pan-dimensional walls collapsed inward, animals stampeded to points of infinity, and the entire room reverted into a simple, tastefully designed, well-organized office. Twilight gasped. The shocking difference threw her completely off guard; such mundane normalcy was never found in the presence of the Emperor. It took every once of her self control to keep from hyperventilating in panic. “Please, sit.” Discord motioned from behind a large engraved oak desk to a simple leather chair opposite his own. Twilight, still reeling, did as instructed. “Your Highness, I—” She stopped as a clawed paw raise to silence her. “I know you want to explain, to defend yourself,” Discord stated calmly. “However, there is no need. “You see, Twilight, as I mentioned in my letter, I knew this would be a challenge, a crucible of sorts for you. You’ve always been fighting against your nature, becoming an Agent of Chaos. I can see it in everything you do. You’re innately organized, neat. You’ve been secretly making schedules and lists since you were a filly. And yet you couldn’t bring yourself to stand out or be singled from the thousands of others who accept their situation. I’d be willing to bet you chose this path not because you’re really in love with Chaos, but rather because you’re too scared to accept your own nature.” Discord sat back and twirled his beard absently. Twilight started trembling and sweating. “I know you crave acceptance. Despite your efforts to hide it, you want nothing more than to be loved and told that you’re fine the way you are. You know that can’t happen, so you try instead to change yourself, to be the best, but not break the mold, because then they’ll reject you and leave you alone. “That’s why I sent you to Ponyville. I wanted to see if you’d truly given yourself to entropy, or if you still harbored that desire to be yourself and be loved for it. Those five mares and their oh-so-boring Friendship gave you that. They accepted you for who you were, or at least who they thought you were. And when that happened, you started to think that maybe you could be Twilight Sparkle the Organized, instead of the Agent of Chaos you pretend to be, because you knew they’d love you either way.” Twilight felt tears pricking her eyes. In spite of herself, she was cowering before her mentor like a scolded filly. His words opened door after door she’d thought long-hidden and locked. She swallowed and tried to speak past the tightness in her throat. “So I... failed?” Discord nodded coldly. “And if it were up to me, you’d be banished to some distant corner of the continent, to a place where Harmonizers like you might still remember to call it ‘Equestria’.” Twilight shrank in her seat, her forehooves going numb. But a logical thinking part of her mind grasped at the tiniest straw in Discord’s words. “Is… is it not up to you?” The dragonequus sighed heavily, as if the question should be rhetorical. “If it was, I wouldn’t be any better than you or the rest of them. I live by entropy, Twilight Sparkle...” A small golden coin appeared on the desk. “...And I’m asking you to prove you do, too. You can accept my decision and cut your ties with Chaos forever, or we can trust it to chance.” He motioned to the coin. “Heads, you stay an Agent of Chaos, as my student. Tails, you’re banished.” Twilight began panting as the words crushed into her. Reject Chaos, be herself, and be banished, cast out like trash, rejected. Trust Chaos, forsake herself completely… and forever become something she wasn’t, or possibly be banished anyway with the knowledge she’d willingly betrayed her true nature. There was no pre-planned malice behind Discord’s torturous game; she knew him too well for that. He was ruled by the moment, just as likely to cause joy as suffering, and yet he’d managed to pick the ultimate, soul-destroying trap that would either make Twilight a perfect hollowed shell to do his bidding, or a broken outcast without an ounce of self-worth. She stared at the coin for a long time. Finally, standing at the peak of the shattered Friendships she’d destroyed, she looked desperately at the only being she knew that offered her acceptance. Even as a shadow of herself, it was better to have a chance at belonging. She pointed a hoof at the coin. “...chaos…” A clawed paw snatched the coin and snapped it into the air. It spun, dropped, bounced twice on the surface of the desk, and came to rest. “Heads!” Discord’s voice was back to its cheery, devil-may-care babble. “Congrats, Twilight Sparkle! You’ll remain an Agent of Chaos!” He bounded over the desk and shook her limp hoof enthusiastically. “All is forgiven and forgotten! Go unpack somewhere, and tomorrow we’ll get back to learning chaos! Woohoo!” The listless empty husk of Twilight Sparkle shambled toward the door of the office. Yes... unpack… “Oh Twilight! One more teensie, tiny thing before you go!” She turned to see Discord playing hacky sack with a small canvas bag. With a kick, he sent it flying toward her. Reflexively, she caught it in her magic and opened the drawstring. Inside was a loose bundle of black, shiny… seeds? Twilight’s brain refused to work for a few moments. “I… don’t…” “Remember how you wrote me that the Tree of Harmony needed to be destroyed?” Twilight nodded. That did seem to be an appropriate name for it, although she’d never heard the term before. “Well, the Tree of Harmony is elemental. It can’t be destroyed, or I would have done it myself a thousand years ago. It can, however, be neutralized for a time.” Discord strode over to Twilight and pointed into the bag. “These are the Seeds of Discord, pure distilled Chaos magic of the highest order. I cultivate them in my personal garden, but they take forever to grow, and I obviously didn’t use enough last time.” He placed a paw under Twilight’s chin and lifted her eyes to his. “These must be spread around the Tree of Harmony, where they will fester and grow, choking the ever-living normalcy out of it, until there’s nothing left but a tiny withered stem, bound for ten thousand years in endless, circling tendrils of glorious Chaos...” Twilight’s heart was practically exploding as Discord’s face came within inches of her own. “...and you’re going to plant them.” TO BE CONTINUED