Chapter 3
Discord was walking down one of the museum east wing halls, going past various display cases, with Shining Armour's checklist floating in front of him.
“Take apart dragon skeleton.” Discord said to himself as he looked at the list. He made a check mark motion with his talon, and a green check mark appeared next to the job, “Check.”
“Move said skeleton into storage” Discord repeated the check motion.
“Count the bones of the skeleton to see if any of the 472 bones are missing”
Discord rolled his eyes at this one, and made a check mark. (442 bones is close enough right?) He thought to himself.
He continued reading the list.
“Clean all museum restrooms….thoroughly” this one sent shivers down Discord’s spine at the memory of what he did.
“Perhaps instead of teaching the power of friendship to their subjects, the princess could teach them all the power of flushing.” Discord muttered, and ticked off the job.
“I am starting to think that Shining gave me all the jobs no pony wanted, or outright refused, to do”.
After a few more motions with his talon, Discord inspected the to do list with its’ newly added checkmarks; “Well looks like I am halfway done,”
He conjured a clock, it read 11:30 “and it’s not even lunch yet. I don’t see why every pony is on my case about being late , I’ll get these done, just like that.” He clicked his fingers for emphasis as well as making the clock disappear.
He was about to go through a couple of double doors, that most likely lead to another corridor full of artifacts when he stopped.
He thought he heard voices. Ordinarily this would be normally Pony workers and museum staff came through the museum halls all the time; but it was the way the voices were speaking that caught Discord’s attention.
Usually when he heard ponies talking they were casual, moderate tones, not furious whispering. It was like the speakers were afraid that they would get caught doing something wrong.
Intrigued by the secrecy, Discord leaned forward placing his ear against the door to better hear the voices. With closer inspection it sounded like multiple voices talking, each one seeming to try to be the dominant voice, but he could not distinguish what they were saying. He pulled his ear back.
“This calls for specialist equiment” he mused and snapping his fingers causing a wine glass to appear in his paw. Placing the base against his ear and the glass top to the door, he listened once again.
Most of the conversation he couldn't distinguish and he was about to lose interest in the conversation when one word stood out to him “draconequus”.
Discord pulled back in shock, just as his magic caused the glass to disappear before it hit the ground. They were talking about him, Discord knew ponies would talk about him when he wasn't around, but to be present that was just..so..so… impertinent.
“Well time to break up this conversation,” he snorted, “and I know just the way.” he said to himself as a smirk began to curl Discord’s lips. Ordinarily Discord could hold his chaotic needs in check until the end of the day, but after performing these types of royal duties, emphasis on duties, he need to have little bit of chaos to vent himself . And besides, he thought to himself, it wasn’t anything really big or spectacular, just something to startle the ponies. They were talking about a draconquus after all;so why not give them one.
Discord slowly stood up, sucked in a deep breath so his cheeks were as big as watermelons and then exhaled , the double doors slammed open like a gale force wind had pushed them .
Discord stood in the doorway entrance smiling contentedly to himself imagining the ponies startled expressions .
But his grin slowly slipped into a frown when he saw what was in the corridor was,..... well... nothing.
There were display cases to the left and windows to his right, Discord looked up wondering if it was a group of pegasi that he heard whispering, and perhaps his little prank sent them flying to the ceiling, but there was nothing but a couple of chandeliers.
“Come on Discord! get a grip, you're starting to hear things”. He mumbled.
He summoned Shining Armor's checklist and a pair of triangular spectacles. “Lets see what’s left” he said, while adjusting the reading glasses.
He was about to read the next assignment on the list when he heard the whispering again, a little stronger this time , the voices then ceased as soon as they came.
Discord’s reading glasses vanished and he slowly lowered the checklist, placing it on top of one of the cases. He inspected his surroundings again; nothing, just the display cases to his left and the windows to his right.
An idea dawned on him as to where the sources of whispers might be. He walked over to the nearest window and looked out, expecting to see a pony cleaning the windows but nothing.
He then took his eagle talon and made a circular motion on the window and then pushed on the glass with his lion paw, a small circular window slid open.
Discord poked his head out of the new window to inspect the outside more, but there was nothing. Discord was on the 3rd floor of the museum and the only. sign of movement was a few ponies down on ground level .
Discord retracted his head and closed the window. which reverted back to its usual state, without even a scratch on the glass .
He then turned his attention back to the room. The whispers had ceased again.Cautiously he started to edge his way to the display case where he had left the check list.
“You're just hearing thing, Discord that’s all your doing.
Hearing things! Most likely because of the princess not given you enough time off.” Discord muttered to himself . He picked up the check list.“Which reminds me I should talk to princess about giving me ….more …..vacation ….ti-“ His words trailed of and died as the whispering returned .
But this time the whispers seemed closer, than the previously.
Discord could take a joke if it was funny. Heck, he got pranked by Rainbowdash and Pinkepie when he had chances to visit Ponyville. Of course, he always got them back, with one his own pranks, a harmless one of course. But this little game had lost its appeal now. Whoever was doing this was now just irritating him; and if Discord was going to be honest with himself, he was getting a little uneasy with the whispering .
“All right!” Discord called out. “Joke’s over; you got me! Now come on out so I can thank you personally.” By thank you personally , he really meant so he could summon a cotton candy cloud to pour chocolate rain on this mysterious prankster.
No pony came forth however, and the whispering continued. Well if this mysterious pony won’t come out, then I will drag him out of his hiding place, he thought.
All living beings have an aura around them which is usually invisible to the naked eye. However some beings, like unicorns and alicorns, can project an aura which reflects their magic’s colour.
Discord was going to use this aura to find this prankster.
Funny, Discord thought , why did I not think of this earlier?
He shrugged it off, the important thing was, he was thinking of it now.
Discord closed his eyes and clicked his fingers.
When Discord reopened his eyes, the room was the same, and the whispers had ceased again.
He turned around in a slow circle expecting to see a colour standing out behind a wall, or the far door in the room, but nothing.
Did the spell work? Discord thought.
He shook the thought out his head; of course the spell, worked, he was no colt unicorn learning how to use his magic, he was Discord, master of chaos and disharmony. He had brought Equestra to it’s knees twice; he could do things that most ponies would think impossible, so of course the spell worked! He should now be able to see any living thing.
Any living thing!any living thing!Discord thought again.
“What if the things that were whispering were not part of this world, were not living?”
This time Discord literally shook the thought out of his head, it fell to the floor with a squelch.
“That’s ridiculous” Discord laughed , “ There are no such things as ghosts.” He started walking to the door at the far end of the corridor. Discord’s thought slithered after him right on his mismatched heels, “And even if there were such things as ghosts” he continued, “you would have to be, in a graveyard, or a temple, or some place where the spirit would feel uneasy rest or disturbed” his pace slowly slowed and then stopped.
Discord’s thought slowly slithered up his goat leg. “ Some place where it would be disturbed, or at unrest...” the thought wound around Discord’s back and up into his shoulders. “Some place like…like”
The thought swiftly slithered up Discord long neck and onto to the tip of his ear “ like a museum” Discord finally said. The thought slithered into his ear.
But there could not be such thing as ghosts could there ? Then again, ponies said draconequus did not exist for years and here he stood, a creature ponies thought were a myth so what else could be true?
There was a brief moment of silence, and then the whispers returned, stronger, closer it seemed, than the previous times.
“You think you can scare me, I’m Discord the lord of chaos and spirt of disharmony, and you think that I will be frightened with just a couple of hushed voices!” Discord roared .
The whispering continued.
Well, Congratulations! mission accomplished! he thought to himself.
Discord shifted his attention to the left side of the room where the voice seemed the strongest at a display case. Curiosity overcame his fear and Discord nervously stepped to the left to the display case and then another.
It felt like miles seperated him from the case but in reality it was only a few feet , and with each step he took, the whispering got louder and louder.
He closed his eyes when he was two steps away from the display case. Scared at what he might find, he took another step, eyes closed and bumped into the case. He moved his head down so he would be looking down at the contents of the case if his eyes were not closed.
Discord’s imagination raced at what could be in the case. A voodoo head? a haunted sword? cursed pirate treasure? and as his thoughts ran on, the whispering seemed to grow.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw.
An old, tattered, blacked, slimy , mold eaten, worm chewed, ruined book.
Discord almost laughed, at what he was looking at. The fact that he was losing his cool over a book, that even Twilight wouldn't want, was simply hysterical. But something held him back from doing so.
Whether that was because of the whole ridiculousness of the fact that he was unnerved by a tattered book or another reason, one thing was certain; the whispers were more distinct.
At the first the whispers were just a mass of voices, all trying it seemed, to be heard above the rest, making them impossible to understand. But now he could start defining individual voices and even snippets of words.
“Run, coming, alone, hope, last” the whisper said .
Discord put his hands on the glass, and slowly brought his head down to catch more of the whisperers words.
“seventh, safe, son, order, chaos, ponies”
Discord was so caught up in the whispers from the book that he did not hear the corridor open.
“ extinct, can't, King, proud.”
“Discord.”
“ King , Dragons, Gryphons”
“Discord!”
“ Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth ponies, Alcorns,”
“Discord!!”
“DRACONEQUUS”
“DISCORD!!!!!”
The whispers vanished , and Discord was snapped out of his trance by a shake on his shoulder. He had not realised how close he had gotten to the case; now his muzzle was touching the glass and condensation had formed from his breath.
“Discord!”
Discord turned his attention to the familiar voice and was almost blinded by a pink light.
“AAAHHH!!!!” Discord cried as he fell on to his back, covering his eyes with his paw and talon.
“Discord, what’s wrong?” Prince Shining Armour asked.
“What’s wrong?!” Discord replied “ What's wrong is that you are destroying my retinas, put a lid on the magic, your Shiningness before you blind some pony.”
Shining armour face turned into one of confusion.
“Discord, what are you talking about I am not using an magic .”
“Of course you are, why else can I see… your ..aura”. Right!
the spell! Forgot about that! Discord thought to himself.
He removed his eagle talon from his eyes and snapped it.
He then removed his paw and looked up at the confused unicorn.
“What was the snapping for?” The prince asked.
“Just removing a spell.” Discord replied.
Shining Armour gave Discord a sceptical look.
“Anyway, what brings your princeliness to see little old me?” Discord enquired.
“I was going to see how things were going with the list I gave you?”
Shining Armour hesitated, “ and to see if everything is okay?”
There was an awkward silence between the unicorn and the draqonequus.
“ Is everything okay?” Shining Armour said. “ you seemed fixated with that case over there” he gestured his hoof to the case were the seven books were displayed.
In a flash of white light Discord was on his feet .
“Didn't you hear them?” Discord said. Shocked the prince
had not heard the whispers when he came in.
“Hear what exactly?”Shining Armour asked.
“The whisp-,“ Discord cut himself short, realising how crazy it would sound, if he told the prince he was hearing voices that no one else could hear. “ Nothing” he finally said.
“Nothing? “ Shining Armour repeated. “ You were hearing nothing.”
“Well, ah... yes, it’s quite eerie don't you think; it sounded way too orderly to me, not enough chaos. ” Discord quickly said.
The prince raised an eyebrow, and stared at the reformed lord of chaos. “I suppose.” he finally said.
The awkward silence fell on the two.
“What were you looking at anyway?” the prince said breaking the silence and walking to the display case.
“O, just a couple of tatty books” Discord replied.
Shining Armour inspected the books, “Weren’t getting hungry were you Discord?” the prince jokingly said.
“Shining Armor, you insult me” Discord said, placing his lion paw on his heart “I only eat the finest quality of parchment.”
“I’ll take your word for it” the prince said. Turning away from the case to look at Discord.
“Speaking of eating I was wondering if you wanted to take a break and get a bit to eat with us before you continued on with the assignments, unless they’re already finished ?.” Shining Armor responded.
Discord was about to reply , to say thanks but no thanks, he usually used his breaks to play some minor pranks on the ponies of Canterlot, but something in what the prince said stopped him.
“Who’s us?” Discord inquired nonchalantly, although in reality he was doing his best to hide his agitation.
“Well me and Cande, of course ” Shining Armur responded. “she just got here from the Crystal Em-“He was cut of by Discords array of questions.
“Cande, as in Candence? As in princes Candence? As in ruler of the Crystal Empire and the Princess of love? “
With each question Discord’s voice had risen excitedly and the distance closed between the two of them until they were almost touching muzzles.
“Ah yes?” the prince asked as he slowly back a way from the draconequus, to gain some personal space. “So what your answer?”
Discord stared up and stuttered, stroking his goat beard with his lions paw. Deep in thought. before replying.
“You know what Shining” Discord finally replied to the unicorn, “you talked me into it and not many ponies can do that!”
“O …..really ?” Shining Armor could not hide the shock from his voice he was expecting Discord to deline.
“Well, uhm, then come on I guess Cadne should be waiting outside” Shining Armor said walking to the end of the corridor.
“Lead on you.” Discord said
He may not be seeing a heart doctor, but he was seeing the next best thing he was seeing a love doctor, or more specifically princess of love.
As Discord followed Shining out of the corridor he gave one last look at the display case before he closed the door.