Twilight's Report
Dear Princess Celestia,
As you are aware, when I united my Element with the Diadem of Order, I developed a certain affinity for detecting fluctuations in the ambient entropic gradient. I had previously discussed with you my concern regarding the sudden and unexpected increase in the rate of entropy after Spike performed his misguided act. One would expect that the destruction of Discord would have resulted in a drop in the rate of entropy, but this was not the case. My speculation at the time was that Discord housed within his body a sufficient quantity of Chaotic energy that its sudden release upon his death was sufficient to be noticeable. According to my projections, this effect may have shortened the lifespan of everypony in Equestria by approximately 2.375804 hours, which I consider quite unacceptable.
The entropic gradient began to fluctuate with the reappearance of Discord. At the time I believed this indicated that he had survived Spike's destruction of his statue. The fluctuations represent currents of Chaotic energy, indicating to me that the existing supply of Chaos magic was being redirected, but when I performed multiple measurements and conducted statistical analysis, I have concluded that the entropic gradient has, in the main, dropped somewhat. Ironically, the presence of Discord, a sentient being who superconcentrates the Chaos of the natural universe, appears to reduce the incidence of ambient Chaos. In addition, Discord's large, localized spikes of Chaotic energy do not actually affect entropy; while undirected, diffuse Chaos is fundamentally indistinguishable from entropy, Discord's existence appears to generate a different effect. While obviously any great concentration of Chaos will result in destruction, the actual rate of entropy does not increase in response to Discord's actions; cold items warm and hot items cool at rates commeasurate with those found outside Discord's direct influence, unless Discord is directly impacting them. In fact, Discord has been known to invert entropy, causing objects that should grow warmer and enter equilibrium with the environment to become colder instead, and vice versa.
Of course, all magic has the potential to generate such effects, given that at its fundamental magic is chaos, harnessed to order. But Discord's activities appear to actually increase the ambient energy gradient of the magical field, in direct contradiction to the usual result of chaos. That being said, Discord's reappearance did not completely undo the general increase of the entropic gradient, which I would have expected given that his apparent death released so much entropy.
I have developed a theory to account for this discrepancy. My belief is that this entity is not the same Discord who died at Spike's paws; nor is he a reborn or reconstituted Discord. I believe he originates from a parallel timeline.
Evidence I have for this theory is presented below:
1.As mentioned. If Discord's discorporation released sufficient Chaos energy into the environment as to affect the entropic gradient, his re-corporation should have taken up the excess and restored the gradient to baseline levels. This has not happened to the expected extent. Entropy fluctuates in response to Discord's activities but the averages remain higher than prior to Spike's action
2.Discord did not, during the days he was free, express any interest in attacking Spike. This would seem to be out of character, given that Spike, by his own recollection, spent an hour explaining his motivations and intentions to Discord's statue before smashing it with the Hammer of Celestia. Surely Discord would want to take vengeance on the dragon who killed him, and yet he showed no interest in Spike of any nature whatsoever.
a.At some point in the future I would like to discuss with you the origins of the hammer and why your name is associated with it. If my theory is correct the multiverse is a wider and more accessible place than we had previously speculated and the fact that you successfully destroyed various malevolent gods in the past does not necessarily indicate that they will remain "dead" any more than Discord has. It may be in our interests to replicate the hammer, or transform it to a shape more useful in combat and less well suited to smashing statues.
3.When he took the Elements from us and placed them behind a force barrier at the heart of a perpetually shifting labyrinth, he appeared to believe that he could not physically touch them, although he demonstrated that he was, of course, as capable of taking them with his magic as he was the first time we fought him. Unless the destruction of his statue brought significant memory loss, Discord must remember that after he discorded the Elements themselves, he gained the ability to touch them safely without being damaged by a superconcentration of Harmony magic.
4.Most significantly, he mentioned "princesses", and at one point specifically referred to Luna as if she were still alive. Discord should certainly remember that you were forced to kill Luna after he discorded her into returning to Nightmare Moon.
5.He does not appear to remember the transformation we underwent. Given what a fundamental part of his original plan his discording the Elements into containing their elemental opposites was, I find this deeply implausible.
He is currently contained now with my Sweet Dreams spell. The spell is directly powered by Chaos, and it is unlikely Discord would have any more motivation for trying to break it than any of the other miscreants I've used it to control. It will, however, not last indefinitely, so some other means of containment is necessary. We would be capable of turning him to stone again, but I believe a different strategy is warranted.
If the loss of our native Chaos avatar caused an increase in the entropic gradient, it may be that a controllable avatar of Chaos could be made to re-uptake the remainder of the increased entropy, perhaps even to absorb sufficient entropy as to extend the potential lifespan of ponies and other living creatures. In addition, the year we spent fighting our Discord fruitlessly while also fending off Nightmare Moon has had significant deleterious side effects on Equestria's military readiness and civilian infrastructure. Without Princess Luna, you are once again forced to manage all of the duties of the sun and moon on your own; you are in a weakened condition, my Princess, and through no fault of your own you are no longer capable of protecting Equestria with the vigor you might have otherwise. Stirrings from the gryphons, dragons and buffalo suggest that we may be potentially faced with war, or at the least aggressive sorties for territory. Having an unstoppable weapon in our control would provide a strong deterrent effect which would save the lives of both ponies and the misguided creatures who might attack us if they perceive us to be weak.
These are three potential uses for Discord if he can be brought under our control. I believe I have a strategy for doing so.
According to the information you provided me, Discord is a biological entity who had a connection to Chaos in the way that we do to our Elements before something occurred that connected him to the fundamental force of Chaos itself; he is not that fundamental force incarnate, but merely wields and controls it. This comports with my theory that Discord's existence may cause large increases in local Chaos but overall actually reduces the ambient chaos in the world. A sentient being who filters Chaos through his mind cannot help but reduce the available Chaos in the universe because it is the function of sentience to produce order out of chaos; the fact that Discord can think at all makes him a paradox, a contradiction who can be better understood as more similar to an alicorn than a force of nature. His bond with that force is powerful and innate but he is not, in himself, Chaos, any more than you are, in yourself, the Sun, or I am, in myself, Magic incarnate.
If Discord is a biological entity, with a sentient mind, he can be controlled. The proof has been demonstrated by the effect my Sweet Dreams spell has had on him; he must be by nature a creature capable of dreaming and experiencing emotions such as happiness and pleasure for the spell to be capable of restraining him.
I propose to combine a cocktail of spells to ensure that we can control him, and infuse them through the Elements so they will create an absolute seal on him as powerful as turning him to stone was. By connecting a physical artifact, such as a collar, to the spells, we can restrain Discord's magic such that he may not use it except by our leave.
Of course, in the end, we will require the use of Discord's magic, in levels sufficient that his loyalty must be absolute by that time or he will have the opportunity to break the binding spells. To this end, I recommend the use of Fluttershy. This would serve a dual purpose. Fluttershy has the most experience in taming dangerous animals, and while I have been able to channel Pinkie's negative urges by providing to her criminals, dissidents and others who are a drain on society, thus keeping her from harming innocent, productive citizens, ethical constraints make it difficult to supply Fluttershy with her needs in a way that is just. Non-ponies are in the main not fully sentient and cannot be evildoers in the same sense as ponies can, and while it is certainly within possibility to acquire gryphon or dragon criminals, the effort in doing so is considerable. However, Discord is quite evil enough to make it acceptable for Fluttershy to satisfy her negative urges on him, thus sparing any innocent low-sentients she might otherwise be compelled to utilize, and Fluttershy's xenophilic requirements should be more than fulfilled by Discord's extremely unusual nature.
The rest of us may participate in his obedience training as well to lesser extents; if his survival is a priority allowing Pinkie to participate might be contraindicated, and I do not expect Rainbow Dash to be of any use whatsoever, as usual. However, I am quite certain that Applejack and Rarity would be willing to help with the project, if not with the enthusiasm that Fluttershy is likely to bring to her work.
I believe that, if we bind him with spells that ensure his unwilling obedience and deliver him to Fluttershy, her training methods should ensure willing obedience within the year, or less, at which point we would be able to use him to contain disasters, support you in the transition of sun and moon, and potentially threaten aggressor nations if needed. We may even be able to utilize him to extend the borders that Equestria controls, to bring our peace and harmony to the rest of the world.
I await your approval of my proposal, Your Majesty.
Your student, Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and Order
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Love the concept; it's a little dark for me, but intriguing enough that I might want to read the rest. What IS the opposite of Magic?
4334499
Order. Magic is a means of imposing the will of sentient beings on the universe to break the rules of the universe. When it is simply breaking the rules, magic is Chaos; when it is breaking the rules in a consistent and structured way that many magic users can participate in, magic is Harmony. Order, however, is science and logic and physics and the baseline rules by which the universe works; therefore Order is in opposition to Magic.
4334684 I thought that might have been it (or something like "Nature," the natural order of things), seeing as it's in Twilight's signature and all, but I wasn't sure. Thanks ^^ reading The Elements of Opposition now. Great concept.
Huh. You'd think she'd be wearing the Diadam of Order in the cover art.
4736087
You assume I can draw. :-) I composited that from several different screenshots, and there was no way I could also have worked in the Element of Magic (though if I could have, a simple color change would turn it into an Element of Opposition; half the gem looks like the Element of Magic and the other half is colorless.)
That's a pretty ominous formulation, when you consider that Pinkie horribly murders them.
1. Criminals - Sounds okay for a moment, until one remembers that (a) Equestria probably normally either has no capital punishment or capital punishment only for incredibly-severe crimes. So, who is Pinkie killing here? Murderers? Rapists? Armed robbers? Brawlers? Tax evaders? Violators of complex safety regulations? Relevant story here is Robert Silverberg's "Caught in the Organ Draft."
2. Dissidents - Was this originally even illegal, before Celestia went mad? Is it illegal, or is Twilight Sparkle simply kidnapping and having Pinkie kill Ponies with opinions of which she disapproves? Are we talking rebel conspirators? Political critics? Annoying gossip columnists?
3. Others Who Are A Drain On Society - Very open-ended, and very sinister. The indolent? The crippled? The terminally ill? The addicted? People who Twilight Sparkle just dislikes? I see somepony as harmless as Berryshine or who has specific handicaps, such as Derpy, possibly falling into this category.
Twilight has become a logical-positivist c. 1915 Progressive monster.
5384044
Jewel thieves, at least. (I forgot to put it in my notes, but the victim shown in EoO comes from the comics -- a jewel thief named Rough Diamond. Importantly, a non-violent, trickstery jewel thief.)
And I kinda worry about what may have happened to Flim and Flam.
I do feel like even evil Pinkie couldn't go through with murdering Derpy. But ponies she doesn't know personally, with the same condition, may be fair game. (Unlike Cupcakes Pinkie, EoO Pinkie does not harm ponies she cares about. She justifies her own acts to herself by convincing herself her victims are "mean" ponies, and if she knows otherwise because they're friends of hers, then she wouldn't kill them.) Things in this universe happened differently, so Lightning Dust may not have screwed up and endangered others, and Suri Polomare may never have had an opportunity to plagiarize from Rarity, and certainly Trixie never challenged Twilight to a magic duel (if she did, it would have been very, very short; the Diadem of Order is at least as powerful as the Alicorn Amulet if you know how to tap it properly. It doesn't actually grant Twilight any additional power, just gives her an insane amount of control over the raw forces of magic, allowing her to tap her own unicorn potential to its fullest and draw on external sources of magic. However, after a year of chaos it's unlikely that Trixie even cared about Twilight humiliating her anymore; I suspect pretty much everyone in Equestria divides their lives into Before Discord, During Discord and After Discord, where During falls into "let us never speak of this again" and Before is kind of irrelevant.) But any of them might have qualified if they did something like what they did in canon. And Gilda should probably stay out of Equestria. :-)
5384154
Oh, crap, her? That's cruel ...
Especially since in canon they personally tick off Applejack. Twice. Though that may have been butterflied away, as both take place after Discord's first appearance on the show.
Their cutie marks imply they may be renegade Apples.
I suspect that the madness of Celestia and the Element Bearers may be creating an awful lot of dissidents, too.
Ooooh, crap. They know . . .
They know. THEY KNOW. Internal screaming and maybe some external screaming.