Nightmare

by Blackdrag-rose

Eight-Discord

"Now let me tell you something," a man said to Discord, sitting across from him while sipping on some red liquid, "I'm all for the dilly dally hosposh of the war, but you could be a sport and at least try some of the cheese."

"Look Sheogorath," Discord said, waving a hand in front of the Mad God he had brought out of a different reality to chat with, "I know you have had your differences with your fellow, oh what was that word again?"

"Its daedra," Sheogorath snapped, his eyes widening slightly, "you filthy fox. This reminds me of the time I told that foolish adventurer about the marvelous time I had with the mad emperor Pelagius the Third. Ah the blood, a fox, a severed head, and the cheese! You could just die for the best of cheese!"

"Right," Discord sighed, wondering why he bothered bringing the man out for a visit, "As I was saying, I know you had differences with your fellow daedra, but you seriously need some time off to relax before you deal with them again. I mean look at me, I'm away from all the meddling ponies, mortal and immortal alike, and I'm having the time of my life at the moment. Tia hasn't arrived yet, Chrissy is bent on blowing everything up that doesn't please her, Sombra just wants to hang with his slaves, and Lulu's gone back over to the dark side. Plus all the meddlesome Elements of Harmony are nowhere to be seen, which means I'll be winning this war as soon as the other's dare to challenge me."

To most people they were just two men sitting down, sharing a couple of drinks while they talked like they were the Spirit of Disharmony and the Mad Daedra themselves. They would have thought the two of them were crazy, speaking like two of the craziest beings in existence like it didn't matter who overheard them at all. Discord was still dressed up in his urban uniform, the hood over his head and hiding the truth from everyone around him, while his friend was dressed in a suit that was split in two colors, the right being purple and the left being orange.

The two immortals figured they would have been left alone, until the tip of a spear erupted out of Sheogorath's chest with the handle intact.

"Oh look here," the mad god said, fingering the spear tip without a care or any blood on it, ""I've been impaled. Who would be so rude as to impale someone while he's trying to enjoy a simple conversation? I say WHO?"

Discord looked behind his friend, staring into the area that the weapon could have come from and was pleasantly surprised by what he saw approaching them. A group of seven came walking their way. Leading the group was the same woman he had seen earlier, the same one who had been following him around for the past week and never seemed to leave him alone. To her right walked Nightmare Moon and her ill tempered guard, the one named Tempest. On the woman's left walked Queen Chrysalis, flanked by two changelings that stared down whoever gave their queen a look that they didn't approve of. The seventh figure was Christan Miller, but this time he bore the white wings of a pegasus, the horn of a unicorn, and the golden armor of Celestia's guard.

"You know lad," Sheogorath said, looking back at the approaching group, "I think I may have overstayed my welcome. You seem to have some company, so I think I'll take my cheese and go back to New Sheoth. Feel free to pop in some time and we'll share a treat."

The mad god vanished from thin air, returning to his realm of madness and taking all the cheese from the table with him. Discord almost regretted making the crazy man leave his own reality, talk to him for what seemed like hours, and then make him return home without so much of a warning. But then again, he was very annoyed with the man he had summoned and wished he had brought something else to him, but now he had his rivals to deal with this time.

"Discord, I should have known that you were tearing innocent people out of their realities," the woman said, taking a seat across from him as the rest of the group surrounded the table, "You couldn't leave us alone in Equestria, to sort out our differences without interfering with the citizens of this world. Instead you unleashed the vile darkness of Sombra upon the unsuspecting people, allowing him to run amok and rip the very fabric of the world apart."

"Look, I don't care about what Sombra's doing," Discord snapped, not even caring whoever the woman was trying to be at the moment, "He can corrupt the entire city of Seattle for all I care, he's no threat to me at the moment. He's miles away, digging into the ground with his slaves while he searches for the riches he believes in located below the city. He won't be involved in a war until it is far too late for him to do anything."

"Are you that dull?" Chrysalis shouted, shacking him with her hoof and causing the hood to fall off at long last, "What in the name of the Swarm is wrong with you?"

She didn't mean the fact that he was willing to risk thousands of lives by allowing the Mad King Sombra to run around with his army of slaves, but the fact that his face wasn't exactly human. Sticking out of his mouth was the fang that had always hung there, while on the top of his head rested two different pointed horns and his ears were pointed. His eyes were bright red surrounded by yellow, but sticking out of the top of his jacket were what appeared to be the tips of his bat and pegasus wings. The hood must have been enchanted so he could hide the inhuman features of his draconequus body that the jacket wasn't covering, which was why he was constantly wearing it.

"He hasn't fully adapted to this world it seems," Nightmare remarked, the guards clearing the area so they could be as alone as possible, "So, Discord, let us inform you of the consequences of your inability to stop Sombra before any of this happened. He's found the Crystal Heart, taken over the area of his arrival in a shroud of darkness, corrupted the very heart of an artifact that's supposed to bring ponies together, and he's got an army heading this way. I don't care if you have a shred of compassion for the citizens you have put in harms way, but I hope you care that he's coming here to blow every single one of us into dust.

He's coming for you Discord. He knows that your the one responsible for bringing him and his enemies here, so he'll be looking to either enslave all of us or destroy us. We need to ban together and stand against the darkness that he is bringing with him, otherwise we'll all swallowed by the storm that's coming our way. A storm you could have left sealed away in Equestria, where the Crystal Empire would have left him buried until we could break the corruption holding him."

"He's getting closer," Chrysalis said, staring off to the north, "We don't have too much time before this city becomes a war zone and we clash with Sombra. Our army needs to gather before he arrives, but we have one thing to ask Discord. Will you join us?"

"Two things I want answered before I even consider joining forces with you all," Discord grinned, not believing his luck, "First off, whose the chick that's been following me for the last week? You, young miss, should count yourself lucky that I didn't turn you into a toad or something worse."

Celestia chuckled and, instead of answering Discord with words, she removed the illusion that kept her true form hidden and allowed her wings to stretch just a bit. Her jewelry appeared as her flowing mane returned, though she gave Discord a smile. The Spirit gave her a disapproving glare, telling her that he didn't approve of her stalling before revealing herself, but she was secretly glad to upset him. He would have attacked her before she was able to do anything, but at the moment they were on equal footing and were fully powered up in case one decided to attack the other.

"Ah Celestia my dear," he said, sipping from his wine as he stared at the royal mare, "I should have known you would have gone into hiding instead of revealing yourself like everypony else. Now the second thing, what's up with the new alicorn?"

"As far as we can tell Christan Miller has become his ponyself," Celestia answered, "and that pony happens to be an alicorn that fights in the Solar Guard. His name is Shimmering Glory, a master of defensive spells to aid his allies in escaping harm and an adept in war spells to inflict harm on those that threaten me. Do not be deceived Discord, he knows some spells that will, if necessary, put you in your place if you decide to turn on us."

"Fine, fine," Discord said, waving a hand around, "I will join your merry band of ponies and fight against Sombra, whenever he decides to get here. But after all that I expect there to be a small get together before we're at each others throats after he's dealt with."

What he didn't tell them was that they had fallen right into his trap, as he had been planning on joining an 'alliance' to deal with the 'threat' that Sombra posed. He had allowed the fallen king to do as he wanted, knowing full well that he would eventually turn his attention away from his empire and crush those that had defeated him once before. All the pawns, excluding the troublesome Elements, were all in place and laid out before him. All he had to do was let them weaken each other and then he would crush them, and their pitiful armies as well, into the ground they all walked on.

And once they were all taken care of he would reign as Supreme Overlord of two worlds, letting chaos rain for all eternity.