The mana was silent. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to her, it was just that he couldn't think of anything to say. He was just to stunned by the appearance of another being like him. She looked at him weirdly before getting up and hitting him on the head with one of her hooves. "Helloooo? Are you in there?" The mana's attention was brought to the task at hand.
"Uhhhh...sorry for zoning out there. I'm just trying to process this." The mare's head nodded once before sitting back down in front of me.
"That's perfectly understandable. After all, you're probably new to the whole wandering around without a body thing. It's also probably not helping that you're stuck up there. Here..let me help you with that." The horn on the alicorn gained a misty look before whatever had put me up there vanished. Thus he fell unceremoniously to the ground. The alicorn giggled slightly at the sight before her. The mana got up and scowled at her before he brushed off his legs and sat down cross legged.
"So Harmony....what do you want to know?" The mare got a contemplative look on her face before answering him.
"What is your name? I'm actually pretty curious as to what your designation is. I can't possibly think of what you represent." The mana blinked its pale eyes.
"I don't have a name. I am simply the maintainer of my host's body." The alicorn gained a wistful look before going back to her regular smile.
"I remember when I used to do that....That was such a long time ago....Oh! If you don't have a name we're simply going to have to make one for you." With that determined face, the alicorn looked around until she found a piece of stone and began to write on the cave wall. Mumbling to herself all the while.
"Let's see....Apex..no....Borak..while it is tempting no... aha! How about Mystery? I think it describes you to a T!" With that final exclamation, the stone circled the final name. The alicorn figure looked expectantly towards the mana. The mana sighed.
"I appreciate your concern for getting me a name, but I don't really think I need one. Why would I even need one?" The alicorn gained a wistful look before turning her attention to him.
"You need one because I'm about to introduce you to other beings with immense magical capabilities, and I really don't want them to think of you as "the thing Harmony wasted our time with.'" The mana was swayed by the compelling argument. He was still ticked off about the whole thing though.
"Alright, but if I have to have a name then I will pick it myself." The alicorn nodded and waited for the mana's name.
"...Bob. Call me Bob. For now it's as good a name as any." The alicorn smiled and sat the mana down.
"Fine. Bob it is then. Now, before anyone gets here I'm going to give you a crash course in etiquette. First: Never interrupt anyone when they are talking. Second: You are only allowed to talk when they have asked you a question or nobody else is talking. Third: If anyone starts to ask anything about you just--" Her sentence cut short when a rippling black sphere formed at least four feet away from them. It wasn't long before the sphere disappeared and in its place was a mismatched being that Bob, and his host Mark, knew all too well.
"Hellooooo dear sister of mine!!! How are you today? I hope that you were at least happy when you had sentenced me to stone twice!!!" The alicorn sighed as she turned to face Discord.
"Brother....I know you're upset with me and I just want to say that I'm sorry about the past. I know that I don't even have the right to say that, but---"
"But nothing!!!" Discord yelled in Harmony's face. "If you hadn't sent the Elements of Harmony right to my buckin' door then I would have at least been happy for these past thousand years. Sure...your minions have converted me more towards the side of Good, but that doesn't mean my hatred has been stilled!" Bob was blown back by the sheer intensity of Discord's wrath. The alicorn just looked slightly ticked off by his antics.
"Discord. They are not my minions. They are my aspects and you shall treat them--"
"They aren't your aspects! I for one know that Fluttershy, bless her heart, went to me and befriended me upon her own accord. Celestia did have some involvement by telling that student of hers, but the point remains! It wasn't you who sent her to me! It wasn't you trying to rebuild the bridge!!" After a while, Bob just sort of drowned out the bothersome bickering between the two siblings. It just became a yelling match anyways. Pointless threats were thrown into each others way. Nothing really interesting happened until this one sentence that had been uttered by Harmony.
"Discord. I can see now that it was not right to try and bring you back into the light. Now I know that I must SLAY YOU!!!!" With those final words, the alicorn brought forth two misty halberds into existence.
"Alright sister! We must do what we were born to do. We fight to the death!!!!!" Discord brought forth a duck in one hand and a balloon animal in the other. Each a viscous cry before they ran towards each other, but before they could time seemed to stop. Nobody could move an inch before a fiery creature swooped in between them and vaulted them both back. Harmony recovered while Discord fell over his tail and rolled into the side of the cave. The fiery presence waned its magical energies and Bob could finally tell that this creature was in fact the mana essence of a phoenix.
"I'm here!!! Have I missed the fight?? Someone pleased tell me." The phoenix looked around wildly before noticing that Discord and Harmony both had weapons in their grasps.
"Oh. I'm early...That's great! Quick question before we fight. Who started it?" Discord and Harmony immediately pointed to each other leaving the phoenix confused. It looked between the both of them before displaying a happy look upon its face.
"Harmony's usually right when it comes to who started what so I'm going to side with her. Plus I don't really want to be on the losing side of this battle." Harmony smirked at Discord while he cursed under his breath.
"Thank you Agnida for picking my side. Now we will surely crush this fool." While Harmony thanked the phoenix spirit, Discord yelled assurances of her demise.
"It doesn't matter if you join Harmony, Old One. I will still crush your bones to dussssst." Discord's tongue snaked on the last of his sentence before he barreled over towards them both. Agnida summoned her wing blades and, with Harmony, proceeded into battle when two more beings began to enter the room at a leasiurely pace. One could've hear their conversation had it not been for the epitome of battle and magic.
"I'm sorry Namazu. I really want to help with your little problem, but I can't really do anything there. The most I could do is create a little typhoon above your kingdom. Wind and water don't really mix that well, you know." The voice had stated as he entered the room, silver tail barely touching the ground.
"It's alright Byakko. I know that you can't really do anything right now, but it doesn't hurt to ask." The great ,blue fish spirit 'said' as it swam through the air. Bob noticed that during the conversation, Namazu never even moved her mouth. However his thoughts were interrupted by the two finally noticing the ongoing fight. It had taken them a few seconds to actually comprehend the clashing of sharpened steel and balloon noises, but when they did, they unleashed their inner rage.
"Discord!!!! How dare you hurt the fine Harmony!!! I will make you pay!" With those words, Byakko the tiger jumped into the fray slashing at anything that came close to Harmony.
"Harmony...you are fighting!!!! While my kingdom is at the brink of destruction, you are fighting against an enemy that can easily be put down like a stray dog!!! That is the LAST straw!!!" Then Namazu swam to Discord's side and summoned a scimitar in one fin and a shield in the other.
"While I do appreciate you fighting against Harmony, I don't really like that comment that I'm akin to a stray dog." Discord stated while pouting. Namazu sighed as she turned her eye to Discord.
"Fine, but it's best to talk about later. We are in the middle of fighting after all." Discord nodded to Namazu's words and went back to paying attention to the fight only to discover that his arms were still swinging and landing blows on Byakko's claws. With the momentary confusion, Harmony was able to actually graze his shoulder. Discord's face was full of shock and pain. Thankfully, his arms had popped off his body, were still fighting off Byakko, and Namazu had started to beat Agnida, so all he had to do was face against Harmony. Without arms. Surprisingly, he did really well without them, since he did know how to do the worm.
The fighting went on for quite a bit and Bob was really starting to get bored of this. He had come here to study a mystical tree and was denied the chance due to these crazy spirits. He was about to stop this unnecessary fighting when he began to notice another change in the atmosphere. An underlying sound could barely be heard over the fight. None of the others had heard it yet due to their pre-occupancy with their dueling and being further back inside the cave, but they eventually did hear it as it had begun to grow. Boom after boom could be heard. Many of them were confused at to what the sound was until they hear the start of a merry little chant.
"Old Billy Riley was a dancing master.
Old Billy Riley Oh Old Billy Riley
Old Billy Riley's master of a drogher.
Old Billy Riley Oh Old Billy Riley
Master of a drogher bound for Neightigua
Old Billy Riley Oh Old Billy Riley
Old Billy Riley has a nice young daughter
Old Billy Riley Oh Old Billy Riley
Oh Missy Riley Little Missy Riley
Old Billy Riley Oh Old Billy Riley
Had a pretty daughter but we can't--Oh Hello there!!!"
The giant ceased singing and bellowed down bellow to the little group that was in the cave. The giant granite colored tarantula waved one of its many legs in greeting as its massive body was illuminated by the pale glow of the moon. Bob immediately retreated very fast towards the back of the cave and hid behind the ,once crystal, tree. The spider crawled down the crevice and towards the cave to only find that he couldn't fit his massive body inside. "Oh. Sorry everyone. Guess I'm going to have to use a little bit of magic for this."
All of its eyes closed for a brief second before its giant form began to shrink with the sound of crunching bone. Its ginormous form kept on shrinking until it was about the size of an average pony. Then it stopped and the spider opened its eyes up again as it walked into the cave.
"Hey guys. It's been a whi- Oh! You're fighting...I can just...Yeah, I'll just wait out front till this stops." The spider walked backwards slowly until it was out of the cave entirely. While Bob thanked God and stopped cowering in the corner, the other beings started to beseech the spider.
"Come on Anansi..If you help me I'll give you plenty of flies. Mmmmmm delicious bugs.." Discord snapped his fingers and instantly his whole form was made up of various beetles, flies, and cockroaches that were all swarming around each other. Namazu and Anansi both looked at Discord like he was the best cake in the world. Meanwhile, Bob was just trying not to throw up because of the disgusting scene as well as a memory of Mark's. 'Geez..' he thought, 'The Nightmare Before Christmas did not do justice when it comes to mister disgusting over here.'
Anansi eventually shook his head and got his thoughts together. "Alright Discord....I'll join your team, but at the end of all this I would also like a limited edition of 'The Understanding of Magic: Updated' in a hardback cover. I would also appreciate if you could just put the flies outside of my mountain once I wake up. I can't really eat them now." Discord nodded and poofed back to his normal self with a snap of his fingers.
"That is understandable. Welcome to Team Chaos." Discord lit a bunch of fireworks behind him and shook all 8 of Anansi's legs by duplicating his arms. Anansi laughed heartily and readied his stance. His mouth opened to let the whole world see his giant fangs. Bob once again hid behind the tree to be inconspicuous and to avoid the upcoming battle. Then the fray renewed.
Clashes of steel, fang, and balloon were heard all throughout the cave. Cries of anguish and pain were the most common noises that reached Bob's ears, and all the while, the 6 spirits were all having conversations.
"I will devour your--""Sister! You shall die tonight!!!""So....is anyone else bored...I was kind of expecting giant magical fights of epic proportions.""This is for my kingdom!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAA--" "*Wilhelm scream*" After about three minutes, Bob was more annoyed than he was scared by the whole group. He had been expecting people that they were strict with rules and wise beyond their years. He wasn't expecting a group of warrior animals that just fought it out whenever they see each other. Now that he thought about it however, Harmony seemed like the only one that cared about these rules and decorum. 'I should've never assumed. One's expectations almost never reveal people's true identity's.' thought Bob. At this moment in time, it seemed like truer words had never been spoken. Sick and tired of all the pointless fighting and the bigotry of the other spirits, Bob decided to do the one thing he should've done immediately when Discord had started fighting Harmony.
"SHHHHHUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Bob's voice cut through the sound of battle and everyone stopped. All eyes had turned towards the mana that stood next to the tree. No one spoke a word. That is until Agnida decided to break the silence.
"*sigh* Alright, who did this? Everyone knows the rules about our fight tournaments. Someone better take blame for the birth of a new
being to aid themselves in battle." Everyone else stared in confusion at the phoenix.
"This was a fight tournament? I thought Lady Harmony was in serious danger here. You all need to apologize in misleading me on this." Byakko frowned and glared daggers at Agnida.
"This wasn't a fight tournament. It was actually supposed to be a meeting of intellectuals, but Discord got it into his head that it was the perfect time to start an argument with me over something that I was forced to do." Harmony snapped at her brother and turned her head away from him to ignore his presence.
"Well, I'm sorry that I thought that you had wanted to finish me off for good in one final epic battle that would probably scar the ethereal plane." Discord turned his back on Harmony as well. Harmony gained a somber look to her face.
"I'm sorry. Okay....I didn't mean for all these things to happen...You know that all I want is for us to live like we did back then." Discord's shoulders slumped and his face lost its glare. In his most quite voice, Discord voiced his apology.
"....I'm sorry too okay." Meanwhile, away from the Discord and Harmony make-up session, Namazu, Anansi, and Agnida were studying Bob.
"Is this one of yours Anansi? It does seem very down to earth." The spider shook its head and came up close to the lying mana.
"Who are you and to whom do you belong?" Namazu's question inspired Bob to do the most used expression he had used when he thought of these beings. He sighed. This was the second time this question was asked. He was partially thankful that all of the beings were here though. That way he wouldn't have to answer the same question over and over again.
"My name is Bob and I....belong to no one." The three spirits looked at each other before they all simultaneously laughed their asses off.
"HAHAHAHAHAhahahhhahahaaaaaaaahhh. Oh that was a good one. Whoever made you surely has a sense of humor. Alright, now who did it. Who made this thing?" The question sparked no one's answer. The whole cavern was so silent that you could hear the water dripping from some of the stalactites. Bob noticed that Harmony, Discord, and Byakko had finally noticed that he was back here. 'They must've noticed me because of the laughter. Those three were laughing pretty hard.' Bob's thoughts were then interrupted by the movement of Harmony. She cantered slowly away from Discord and between Agnida and Anansi to stand right beside him.
"This is the real reason why I called everyone here. Now for proper introductions; Everyone...this is Bob and I believe he has joined our ranks." Silence once again reigned. Nobody moved from their positions. Each being stared at Bob in some sort of slack jawed manner. The first being to actually get out of their stupor was Discord. His open mouth, soon turned into a delightful smirk. Then he snapped his fingers and disappeared. Harmony and Bob looked around for two seconds before the draconequus put his claws upon Bob's shoulder. Startled, Bob whipped around and smacked the offending appendage. Discord looked offended.
"Come on..I try to be friendly and you just show violence. Is that any way for beings to act?" Bob stared at the impenetrable smirk on Discord's face. Bob sighed as he confronted him.
"Discord look I'm sorry for hurting you, but you have to know that I am slightly jumpy. You doing that does not help it." Discord's smirk turned into a slight frown as he floated away from Bob and started mumbling to himself.
"Huh...So he's not an embodiment of emotion or powerful force. Otherwise, I would've felt some of it while doing my little prank. I wonder what he could even represent if it isn't that Oh! Where are my manners? Hi! I'm Discord, although it seems that you've already heard of me. I'm the supreme ruler of anything that goes against Harmony's little realm. Hopefully we can be great allies in the future. Unless what you represent is super boring. Then I won't really be talking to you that much. Like those four old goats over there." Bob shook the offered appendage hesitantly until he noticed the silence that surrounded him. He looked around finally taking notice of the other gods. The slack-jawed expressions of Agnida, Anansi, and Byakko were torm asunder by the chaos god's statement. Namazu held the same expression since she was just a fish. However, all of their voices were heard in a single instant as, somehow, they each spoke the exact same sentence.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" The voices were calm, but anyone could hear that underlying tone of anger. Discord went from being at leisure to full blown terrified.
"Now now...I didn't mean anything by it. I was just referring to the wisdom that all of you have." The anger on all the faces seemed to dissipate. All except for Namazu, since she doesn't have any way of making facial expressions.
"You had better mean that Discord. Otherwise I will personally come for you when I get out." Byakko softly growled. Discord nodded his head so fast, it looked like he had turned into a bobble head. Byakko smiled slightly and laid back down on all fours. However Agnida was still angry.
"HOW DARE YOU CALL ME OLD!!!! I"M STILL BEAUTIFUL!!!!" With a huff, Agnida fluffed her feathers and brooded. Her anger, like a storm cloud, hung over her like a pox. Discord wisely said nothing towards her. However, with his attention solely focused on Agnida, he didn't even notice that Namazu had swam right into his face. Slightly startled, he turned blue and a clinking sound filled the air. Discord looked down to see hat he had literally shat bricks.
"Well....this is embarrassing." With a snap of his claws, Discord made the bricks go away and he had donned a face of innocence. Namazu sighed as she stared at the creature.
"Discord...could you go at least five minutes without conjuring up anything and have a nice, normal conversation without insulting anyone?" Discord smirked and did his signature chaos transforming the very rock that they stood on into chocolate. He was dressed in an old fox hunter's outfit sitting in a chair made from glass.
"I don't know whatever you mean old bean." Namazu just stared at him before floating off silently towards Agnida.
"I'm going over there to comfort Agnida. You better not do anything else." With that last note, Discord was left alone with Anansi and Bob. However that meant that he was alone with Anansi.
"So, you think I'm old do you? I won't hold that against you, since I am the oldest of all of them, but if I catch you disrespecting me again I will eat you." Bob stood there terrified as Anansi grew and grew until he filled the whole cavern. Discord slowly turned around to find that Anansi had his mandibles twitch menacingly in front of Discord. He slowly began to back away before he was blown asunder by the spider roaring in his face. After a while he began to put himself back together again, with his head finally resting between his shoulders once again.
"Okay. Okay. I get your point. Sorry. I was only having a bit of fun. Anyway, I think that I should probably go over there by Harmony. I want to get the farthest away from all this drama as soon as possible." With that Discord cha-chad on over to Harmony and began putting on the waterworks. However before Bob could hear what he had to say, Anansi walked right in front of him blocking his view. The familiar sound of crunching bone filled the air again as the spider became the size of a regular earth pony.
"Sorry about that. Had to get the point across. Anyway its nice to meet you, and I hope that we become good friends." He offered two of his hairy legs towards Bob. To not actually offend the spider, Bob took both of the appendages in his hands and shook vigorously, mostly out of fear. Anansi seemed to smile before he pulled his legs out from the firm hand/leg shake. Before he walked away however he stopped, turned around, and whispered to Bob.
"Meet me afterwards by the abandoned castle. I have much to talk to you about." With that Anansi quickly stalked away towards Byakko, and began to talk about their glory days of hunts and achievements. Thus Bob was left alone with his thoughts. Although there really wasn't much to actually think about. He already knew what most of them were like and where their loyalties could lie. 'Okay let's see.....Harmony is the best person that can help you as long as your nice to her or help her in some fashion...Discord is a great party guy that sounds a lot like Mark's college roommate, so all he cares about is fun, and his mare.....The other four are temporarily unknowns, but judging by their displays in combat they are each on par with both Harmony and Discord.......If I can play to their strengths I might survive this encounter of mine.'
During this self analysis that Bob had been performing, the four old elementals were having very heated discussion about the current state of affairs. "WWWWHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Suffice to say none of them could do anything to help the depressed warrior come out from underneath her feathers.
"Come on Agnida...You're not old, look at Anansi! He's older than you isn't he?" Namazu's words caused Agnida's head to briefly peek out of her enclave. Her eyes examined Anansi, who was currently shuffling about trying to get a reaction out of the darn cat, and then she began to cry out once more.
"BUTTT HE LOOOKSSS SO MUCH BETTER THAN I DOOOO!!!!!" Namazu looked helpless with what to do about her. After a few more tries, she began to hear a soft growl coming from further off in the cave. The fish looked over there, while Agnida moaned in self pity, and discovered that the lethargic being had finally stood up. Byakko walked straight past the spider and stalked towards the lone duo before stopping directly in front of Namazu.
"Get out of my way. Now." Shocked by the cat's words, Namazu levitated quickly to the left. Satisfied, Byakko walked straight towards Agnida before sitting down and staring straight at her. Agnida could feel the intense pressure and stopped her crying. She peeped out of her feathers and finally discovered the stewing tiger.
"Quit it. You're supposed to be a proud warrior that has a heart of steel, not this sniveling piece of crap! Now get up off the floor and fucking act like it!!!" The harsh words pierced through the sad emotions and stung her very core. Instantly you could feel a change in the atmosphere. Agnida stood on her legs and beat her fiery wings. She nodded towards Byakko in silent thanks and went over to Namazu and discussed world news. Byakko sighed as he went over to his napping spot.
"I swear..It's like she's a hormonal teenager. *sigh* And we're the semi-dysfunctional family." With those words, Namazu went back into his dreams. Meanwhile Anansi, Discord, and Harmony all just stared at the odd spectacle.
"Well," Anansi said, "glad that's over. I didn't really want to deal with this during the Council." Discord and Harmony hummed in approval.
"It definitely wouldn't do for the poor girl to just sit there bawling while the rest of us discussed official business. We wouldn't have even been able to schedule her for her release after all." Discord nodded quite vigorously.
'Yes. Indeed. It wouldn't really be that good if she wasn't allowed her own time in the sun, hmm Harmony.." At this he glared daggers at the alicorn spirit, but she paid him no heed.
"So should we get started or should we allow them to catch up some more. It has been a while since Namazu and Agnida have seen each other after all." At this the rock spider shook its head before twitching its mandibles.
"I think that that would be best. Harmony would you do the honors. I always like it when you do your fancy lightshows." Sighing, Harmony turned her head away from the arachnid.
"I'm sorry Anansi, I just can't do it today. I used a lot of magic after all to get out of my abode as well as to contact all of you. I'm afraid that Discord must take the floor. Your magic after all can't really be done in this environment can it." Anansi chuckled darkly before lying down.
"True, very true. If I were to even use my magic this whole forest probably would turn into a mountain that would even rival that Canterlot place you hold so dear. So, what do you think Discord, are you up to it?" Discord's melancholy mood turned cheery once again as his face adopted a Cheshire-like grin.
"Oh boy!! I can have so much fun with this. I'll turn the walls various shades of pink while the floor can stay that nice green color. Oh! I can even model it after my other place back in----" Discord raised his paws to begin the whole transformation until he was stopped by a certain busy body.
"Discord...Please control yourself. We have a beginner to the whole thing here after all." Discord paused mid-snap and reconsidered his whole project.
"Alright fine, you win. I'll not make anything too complicated. We wouldn't want to have another 'Bleeding Taco' incident. Do we?" Discord sneered and snapped his fingers. Instantly the whole room lit up gathering the attentions of the rest of the residents inside the cavern.
When the light died down everyone noticed that they were in entirely different places than where they were last. Namazu was situated inside of a globular aquarium set inside of a littler stand at the bottom, Byakko was laying down on a bed of clouds and leaves., Anansi was situated on top of a square piece of limestone, Harmony was on an elevated seat of alabaster, Agnida was inside of a nest of flames and ashen vines, Discord was situated on his trademark throne, and finally Bob was situated on a purple bean bag couch. All of them were arranged around a somewhat circular table that sometimes bent in and out every so often.
"Alright then everyone! Let's get started with the not-so-bi-centennially regulated meeting of the magical beings of a godly nature." And with those few words, Discord banged a magically crafted gavel on his throne.