Sheogorath gave a toothy grin as he stared down at the large group. They glared back at him, as he hopped off of the statue and walked over to Celestia. She tensed and took an offensive stance, but the Daedric Prince only laughed.
"Ha! What is it Princess? Don't ya recognize little ol' 'Swiss'? What's wrong everypony? Why all the straight faces? We're having fun, aren't we!?" Sheogorath nearly yelled in a cheerful tone, as he skipped around the Princess.
Celestia, on the other hand, wore a very stern face. "What do you want with us, Prince? Why are you here?"
"Oh, come now, Celestia! What fun is there in questions like that? Why don't we spice things up around here, hmm?" With that, Sheogorath stopped directly in front of the Princess, and turned to face Ra'zaan. "...And how about you, Khajiit? Should we have you relive a moment of your life?" A mischievous grin spread across his face as he turned his gaze once again, this time resting on the statue that represented Ra'zaan defeating Golam.
Ra'zaan glared icy daggers at the Daedra. "You wouldn't dare..."
"Oh, but I would! With pleasure, too! Come on, boys, let's see what this Khajiit looks like inside-out!" Sheogorath jumped away from Celestia, and motioned a hand towards the statue. Within seconds of said motion, both figures that the stone fixture represented began moving, and walked to either side of Sheogorath. "Khajiit, I'd like you, to meet you! I believe you are already acquainted with the nice Dark Elf to my left as well!" A twisted smile appeared on the Daedra's face, as he pointed the stone Ra'zaan towards Ra'zaan, and the stone Golam Faram towards Nadene Faram. "Go ahead! Have some fun my stone friends! Be sure to surprise them!"
Ra'zaan moved in front of Celestia along with Captain Pride and Nadene. They took offensive stances, even though the only one of the three that was armed was Iron. The stone figures advanced on the group and... did something none of them had thought possible...
Tossing down their weapons, the statues began to prance around the trio of fighters like a little girl would skip through daisies in a field.The group completely dropped their guard, and exchanged confused glances. Iron was the first to speak.
"U-Um... either of you two know what is going on...?" He asked.
"...Not in the slightest..." Nadene answered.
Ra'zaan seemed to recover from his stupor, and gave a smirk. "Isn't it obvious? This is just another of Sheogorath's ridiculous games." The Khajiit then turned back to Sheogorath. "Is this really all you have? Do you think I'm really afraid of a couple of stone puppets?"
The Daedra gave another hearty laugh. "Of course not, silly mortal! It did, however, give me enough time to get rid of the guards!" He pointed all around him to where the guards had been standing, and Ra'zaan's expression stayed stone, as he saw all of the guards laying on the ground, sleeping like they were in a trance.
"So what if they've been dealt with? You still have us, you know." The ex-warrior grinned.
*Harumph* "You're no fun, you know that?" The Prince of Madness vanished and reappeared next to Ra'zaan within a fraction of a second. "You want to keep up your stone-walled act? Fine! Do it, boys!" The Daedra's smile returned, as he teleported back next to the statue of Discord, leaning against it.
As soon as his hand touched the statue, the unconscious guards rose from their slumber and chucked their armor into the air, screaming 'Areeeba!', much like a Mexican fiesta. Seconds later, they charged towards the group, all ten of them howling with laughter. The trio attempted to move from their path, but the two statues stopped them from moving backwards. Instead, they braced for impact.
...Such an impact never came...
Before the trio knew what was happening, Princess Celestia, Twilight and Rarity moved in front of them, and put up a barrier, blocking the brainwashed charging stallions. Without giving the rampaging group a chance to regroup, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash got on the left, right, and above them, boxing them into a tighter area. Applejack tossed a rope in front of the group to Pinkie, who then stopped dead in her tracks and pulled with all of her might along with the orange farm pony. At this point, the brainwashed ponies were in a trap; a rope holding them firmly against the barrier that the three unicorns had created. The stallions yelled and struggled with all of the strength they had left.
Sheogorath sat back, and watched all of this go down with a huge smile on his face. "Good...just a little more, and then Discord should be free once again... Why am I doing this again... hmm... oh, yes! Because this will be more fun than I've had in a long time! HA!" He thought to himself, as a rather chaotic scene played out in front of him.
"That's ENOUGH!" Celestia's normally calm voice gave way to one of irritation and anger.
The white alicorn's horn glowed a bright yellow, and all the guards and the two statues were lifted into the air and teleported somewhere else entirely.
"Now, you never answered my question. What is your purpose here?" The Princess asked, her stern demeanor returning. "Why must you make this difficult?"
Sheogorath did a double take. Sure enough, his chaotic minions had been done away with in one swift move. "Why do I make it difficult? Because, easy things are boring! What's life without a little chaos now and again?"
Celestia's face contorted into an angry scowl, and she stepped forward to face the demented Daedra. “You sound just like Discord! Chaos is one thing, but going as far as Discord with it, is another thing entirely! I will not allow you to mess with my little ponies lives!”
With that, the solar princess fired a condensed beam of magic towards a very confused-looking Sheogorath. The Prince of Madness fired his own beam from the Wabbajack, holding both his attack and Celestia’s in a standstill.
“What do you mean? Am I not doing the same thing Discord does? Creating a bit of corruption and fun here and there? What is so different from what I am doing to what he does?” He asked with a bewildered look on his face, showing that he had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Celestia only got angrier with this new information. “You don’t even know what Discord is CAPABLE OF, and yet you are trying to release him?! Are you insane?!”
“Well... yes actually. But enough about me! Let’s talk about clowns... wait, scratch that, let’s talk some more about Discord!” Sheogorath said, still holding the beam of magic between himself and the princess carefully.
Ra’zaan, Nadene and Iron, free of the controlled guards, took their places around Celestia, and got into fighting stances once again.
Celestia only briefly glanced to either side of her, before locking her gaze onto the man in front of her again. “Discord is the total embodiment of chaos. When he is free, he doesn’t just spread chaos ‘here and there’! He takes over everywhere he can, and creates a world devoid of ANY order. He ruins lives with his ‘harmless fun’! From what I’ve seen, you have no idea what you are getting into, no matter how much you are like him!”
“...Wait... taking over? That’s not what I had in mind... that’s not good... but I talked to him about it, and he said he wasn’t doing that again...” Sheogorath said, confusion laid heavily upon his face.
Celestia just shook her head at the Daedra’s stupidity. “You are about to unleash an ancient creature that has the power, and will, to make everypony’s lives miserable, and you think he’s just going to be all cheerful after being locked away for so long... I’m losing faith in this world of yours, Ra’zaan. Everypo--, I mean, everyone from your world, save the two of you...” She nodded to Ra’zaan and Nadene, “...are complete foals. This is going to be problematic for all of us...”
Sheogorath stared blankly at the Princess. “Um... My bad?”
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“Yes... Everything is coming together rather nicely... That foal Sheo’ is going to have me out of here in no time!”
Discord’s mind wandered, as he thought of all the havoc he could wreak once he was free from this awful place once again. He sat in the emptiness that was his prison, arms behind his head, rocking his feet up and down. He had such a large grin plastered onto his face, that it rivalled even Pinkie’s biggest smile. This was it. He was finally going to be free, and the blame would be on this new creature.
“This couldn’t have possibly gone any better! I can already see the cracks forming in this place! ‘Tia herself is causing much of the chaos that is helping to free me! Wait... what’s this? NO! Don’t stop now, you idiot!”
Discord’s smile immediately changed to a frown as he saw that Celestia’s words were actually having an effect on the Daedra.
“Don’t stop! Just a little more... you can’t stop this now! I’ll finally have my way! The Elements won’t stop me again!”
A look of worry now rested on Discord’s face. He couldn’t wait any longer... this place was unbearable enough...
“Finish the job, Sheo’! Hurry! If you don’t finish it, I’ll never get out!”
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Sheogorath blinked a few times, before addressing the Princess again, of whom he still had locked in a battle of magics. “So... maybe we should stop this little fight before it releases him, huh?” He asked nonchalantly. “That is, unless you don’t want to. Come on now! Before I change my mind! Or my mind changes me...”
“I-I suppose you are right...” Celestia slowly began stopping the stream of magic from her horn, and Sheogorath did the same. “Now, what are you going to do? Will you leave?”
“Well, you did kinda erase any plans I had for what to do next while I’m here... Do I HAVE to leave?” The Daedra asked.
Celestia looked to Ra’zaan and Nadene. “What do you two say?”
“I believe he should leave; He’ll only cause problems here.” Ra’zaan said bluntly.
Nadene had a very serious look on her face. “He’ll most likely only cause more trouble while he’s here. Better send him home.”
The Prince of Madness’s expression went from suprised to a sarcastic hurt. “Aww, well at least I know how I’m thought about here! Fine! Good day to you, ponies! I say, GOOD DAY!” Sheogorath said, as he leaned back onto Discord’s statue...
...Which was cracked and damaged from all the chaos that had filled the area...
...Said statue fell over and smashed on the ground...
Sheogorath did another double-take. “Uh-oh... oops... that’s not supposed to happen, is it...?
A collective of ‘YOU DON’T SAY?’ and 'for the love of Celestia...' and even a few facehoofs were heard from all of the ponies and humanoids behind him (excluding the ever-present, but useless scamps).
"Well, what's wrong? It's just his statue. It's broken now, so he shouldn't be able to get out, right? The Daedra asked.
Celestia had a look of horror on her face. "No... that statue was enchanted so it WOULDN'T break... this is bad... very bad."
Sheogorath just stood for a second before saying anything else. "Hmm... this day has been about as interesting as getting your head pulled off by a runaway horse... and it's about to get even more interesting... now all I'm missing is the cheese..."
"You have absolutely no idea what you have done! This is bad... very bad... Twilight said with fear evident in her voice.
"Ah don't know what's worse, the fact that ya just did that, or the fact that ya ain't got a care in the world about it..." Applejack growled.
Rainbow Dash snorted in anger. "Why I oughta...!" She lunged towards the again-bewildered Prince, but Applejack grabbed her by the tail.
"Everypony just calm down!" Celestia nearly shouted, breaking her royal visage. "We need to keep ourselves level headed here..."
All of the sudden, a maniacal laughter sounded from the smoke cloud that used to be a statue.
"Bwahahahahahahaha! Free once again! How does it feel to see me again so soon, 'Tia? Bearers?"
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: I don't even know what to do anymore. I feel so bad that I haven't gotten these out as fast as I should... this collab has been taking a lot of time. Sorry, everypony. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!