The Disarray Trilogy Part 1: Of Harmony and Chaos

by Ink Blotch

Chapter 2: Discord's Legacy

The Disarray Trilogy

Part One: Of Harmony and Chaos

Written by Walker “Ink Blotch” Holden

Edited by Joe Huang

Chapter 2: Discord’s Legacy

After what seemed like a few minutes of nothing but free falling through space, Twilight finally summoned up the courage to open her eyes. Around her were all of her friends holding on to her for dear life, and beyond them Twilight could see the familiar visions of the void. She had always gone through the void for teleportation spells, but usually never got a good look at the… area, if that is what you would call it. The void was a tunnel, of sorts, with auroras of different colors covering the ceiling: pinks, oranges, greens, even some brown. As she shot through the void, it felt as if she was holding perfectly still, but the void was moving at great speed around her. Below was a bottomless pit, the reason that her friends had to hold so tightly together to her. Only Unicorns of great magic would be able to travel the void with company over such a long distance. The princess must really believe in me. Twilight thought to herself, but made sure to quickly retain her focus to the journey ahead. When she had journeyed the void before, she had only ever gone a few yards in distance, but now she was going hundreds of miles away.

“Eeep!”

Twilight shifted her eyes to see that the only other pony to open their eyes had been Fluttershy. The cake-batter-yellow Pegasus had tightened her grip on Twilight’s shoulder, but also moving around constantly to try and see everything around her, eyes bulging. The Pegasus’s grip loosened has she looked in awe at the void’s colors and shapes. Her hold on Twilight loosened more and she started to droop down her leg.

“NO! Just hold on Fluttershy!”

Twilight could not talk to warn her friend of her fall. If she did her focus would drop and they would all fall into the void’s depths.

“Just a little bit further. Just a little bit further!”

Fluttershy, hypnotized by the sights, failed to notice her dropping. She slipped by Twilight’s knee and was now hanging by her ankle. Staring up into the auroras, Fluttershy blinked her eyes twice. Her eyes turning back to normal, she realized that she was hanging on to her friend’s ankle.

"Don’t look down, for the love of Celestia don’t look down!"

Fluttershy looked to her left, to her right and finally down.

“AHHH!” Fluttershy screamed and Twilight felt her let go of her ankle.

“Fluttershy! NO!” Twilight instantly realized what she had done and felt herself and her friends fall down into the dark unknown. Time seemed to slow down, and all sound ceased for Twilight as she looked around she saw each of her friends scream in horror at what was happening. Rarity’s eyes bulged to the extreme as she fell face first; Rainbow Dash frantically flapped her wings to no avail; Apple Jack covered her face with her hat, awaiting the inevitable; Fluttershy flailed her body in all directions as she screamed and wept; Pinkie, in usual randomness, was in a canon ball position as she plunged down. Twilight felt tears run up her face. “Everypony… I'm sorry…” Twilight closed her eyes, not knowing what to expect. She had let down Celestia, Equestria and worst of all, her friends.

Moments passed and Twilight could feel her body continue to fall, but she also felt something new, something warm, beneath her. She slowly opened her eyes to look down, but still saw pitch black. She looked up to try to see if the auroras were still in sight, but they hadn’t gone any farther away from Twilight since she last checked. Twilight finally looked over to her friends and saw they were all in a line, enveloped in a dark blue aura that was barely visible to the background of the void. Rather than scared, they seemed in awe.

“B-but how are…”

“Twilight Sparkle, it is good to see you again. Although these are not the circumstances that I would have preferred.”

Surprised by the sudden new voice, Twilight twisted her head to the opposite direction and was met with blue eyes.
“Princess Luna? Is that you?” There was no mistaking it; Twilight was on the back of Princess Luna. Her friends must be held up by the alicorn’s magic. Twilight had not been able to see her because she blended in with the void so well.

“Yes, it is us— I mean… I, your princess and friend Luna.” Luna shouted and then gave Twilight an awkward smirk.

“But what are you doing here?”

Luna’s smirk disappeared. “Yes well, you see, Twilight Sparkle, when I heard that my sister had given you permission to use a Level Six transmission spell on yourself and your friends, I was worried that it would be too much for you, so I entered the void to watch you and to catch you if you fell. It would seem I was right.”

Twilight looked down at her hooves nervously and shuffled them together. Luna, sensing that she had hurt her friend’s feelings, quickly added.

“Forgive me Twilight Sparkle. I am not nearly as optimistic as my sister. Uh, I mean that I have a stronger sense of magic than most unicorns. No, that doesn’t sound right either.”
Luna franticly looked for the right words but was instead met with a pat on the back by Twilight.

“It’s okay Luna; I understand and thank you. If you hadn’t had been there, I-I don’t know what would have happened to us.”
Luna looked grimly at Twilight.

“I know what would have happened, and frankly, you don’t want to know.”

Twilight now felt that the conversation was getting very awkward.

“I am sorry once again, Twilight Sparkle. I am still not used to social interactions as of yet. But the only ponies I can practice on are my sister and the palace guards…I need to get out more.”

“Well you are more than welcome in Ponyville anytime. Pip would be happy to see you. You left quite the impression on him; he tried to become nocturnal after you left.”

At this Luna smiled.

“Ah yes, young Pipsqueak. I would very much like to see him again. I guess I could make an appearance in Ponyville, even for just one night. Just as long…” Her eyes shifted to Pinkie Pie still in a cannonball position. “She is told ahead of time so she can prepare herself.”

“Of course, Princess. I’m sure she would love to see you again too.”

“Well, we shall soon see. We have arrived.”

At long last, the end of the tunnel was visible, and rays of light could be seen. As they approached the source, voices could be heard on the other side. Twilight couldn’t understand any of them, but recognized the voice of Celestia and the voices she remembered as those of the Magician’s Court, Celestia’s most elite group of spell casters. The voices rose in volume and the lights shined brighter, causing Twilight to close her eyes in protection against going blind. When she opened her eyes, she was in the Vault Hall of Canterlot Castle, the place where the Elements of Harmony had once been kept in case of dire emergency. In the middle of the hall, the Magicians sat in a circle, hoof in hoof, chanting in what Twilight recognized as Ancient Unicorn.

“Luna!”

Luna and the Six looked over to see a very angry Princess Celestia.

“Luna, you deliberately disobeyed me! I told you to stay here and make sure that all went well. But when I return, I find the Magicians alone with him!” Celestia raised a wing to refer to the statue currently imprisoning Discord, wrapped in chains and wearing a frozen terrified expression upon his face. The draconequus let off an aura of danger.
Luna calmly approached her sister and replied.

“Please sister, I meant no ill will. I feared for the safety of OUR friends. You only make him stronger with your anger.”

Celestia still did not look convinced. Twilight quickly walked to Luna’s side.

“Princess, if it wasn’t for Luna, me and my friends would have been lost to the void.”

Celestia’s face softened. “Please, forgive me, all of you. I am just so worried. It is time that I told you, my faithful subjects, of what we face.”

Celestia’s horn glowed and eight large cushions appeared. Each pony took her seat as the princess laid her legs out and prepared to tell her story.

“As you all know, Discord once attempted to overthrow the Kingdom of Equestria thousands of years ago. He caused chaos and destruction in his wake. But… there is more to this story, for you see, Discord, before his rampage, worked under me, and before that my father, King Concentus, as a most honored advisor.”

All the ponies— hold Luna— gasped in disbelief, including Twilight, who stammered.
“Bu-but princess, all the books I have ever read on your father say that his most trusted advisor was a unicorn by the name of Rubik Cube.”

“My student, this is also true. Rubik was one of the wisest unicorns in all the land. He had memorized all of the scrolls written by Star Swirl the Bearded, translated the entire Griffon language and invented the nine uses of Pegasus feathers.”

Rainbow scrunched her face at this. “Gross…”

“Anyways, he had done all this before the age of twenty-five and was continuing to make discoveries. My father decided that Rubik was the most glorious mind of the millennia and wanted him to remain at his side for eons to come. So my father gave Rubik the order to put his current assignment on hold and to work on something new: to find out how to extend a pony’s life to Alicorn standards. By now, Rubik and I were at the same physical and mental age and we had become good friends. I was overjoyed to hear that he would be trying to live forever; this was before Luna was born, so I had few friends besides Rubik. He worked tirelessly to achieve his goal; I stood by his side the entire time.”
The princess stared off into space temporarily until Luna pulled her out.

“Sister, Sister!”

“Hm? Oh yes, sorry. Rubik tried many different solutions, each more far fetched than the last. Then one day, twenty years since he had begun, he did it. By unraveling his own DNA structure, he had lengthened his life span to that of an Alicorn, but the act of doing so had a negative side effect: splicing his DNA had caused him to go through horrid mutations.”

There was silence—there was nothing more to say. Apple Jack was the one to break the silence.
“So Rubik turned himself inta Discord, and y’all lived together fer years to come. Then what?”

Celestia breathed in deeply. “He changed his name to Discord to avoid trouble from the ponies of the land, and the notes on DNA modification were destroyed so nopony else could do the same. He continued his primary research and anything else my father gave him. He was worried about losing me as a friend for a while, but I made it clear that I was his friend to the end. Thousands of years later, Discord had made many revolutionary discoveries for pony kind, but still had not completed his one goal of finishing his primary research.”

“Sister, you must tell them what his research was; you cannot leave them in the dark much longer.”

Celestia paused for a hesitated moment, and then continued. “You are right. When he was still Rubik, my father had given him the project to create life.”

Everypony was utterly confused. Twilight asked, “Princess, what does that mean?”

“It means that my father wished to know how to create entire populations of ponies. I never did know why he had wished for this”

Everypony sensed that this part of the story was not entirely true, but kept quiet.

“Discord tried time and again, but it always ended up the same: soulless shells with no will to live. He could create a pony; he just could never give it what is most important: the spark, which gives a pony her personality, laughter, loyalty, honesty, generosity and kindness. Discord drove himself mad trying to copy this spark, but never discovered how. This may have added to the insanity that drove him to wreak havoc in Equestria. His reign of terror lasted over three hundred years before Luna and I found the Elements of Harmony and struck him down. During those three hundred years, Discord continued his research, and I believe he may have had a breakthrough before we stopped him. By then, Discord had moved his laboratory elsewhere, and although I searched for it tirelessly, my search came out fruitless. During his second coming, I feared that he may have finished his research, but when nothing out of the ordinary occurred immediately after Discord’s attack, I assumed he had not finished his final phase. But now it seems I was incorrect. Last time Discord was at large, he drained all six of you of your essence. This, combined with his own power has spawned a new threat to Equestria, and perhaps the world. It will have the power, abilities, and perhaps even memories of Discord and you, my little ponies.”
Celestia stopped, her story done, awaiting the reaction of everypony else. The six just sat with their eyes wide, waiting for somepony to break the silence. This pony was Pinkie pie.

“So this means that somewhere in all of Equestria there is a new pony who can make cotton candy clouds? And they will be just like us? Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go find him!”

Pinkie jumped up and started hopping up and down. Celestia slowly stood.

“Not yet, young one. First we must arm ourselves with one of the most powerful weapons known to ponykind: knowledge.”

“Princess?” It was the Head of the Magician’s Court. “It is done.”

“Thank you. You may leave now.”

The court bowed and left the hall, leaving the princesses and the Six to themselves. Celestia lead the ponies to the petrified Discord. Twilight then realized what the princess had meant by knowledge.

“Princess! You can’t be serious. You’re going to release Discord? But he won’t cooperate with us!”

“Twilight, you have noting to worry about. The Magician’s Court has enchanted the pane glass windows in this hall to contain Discord so we might negotiate.” Celestia smiled. “It was Discord who gave me the idea the last time he escaped. Luna, Twilight, if you would please help me transfer Discord to the glass, it would be highly appreciated. He shouldn’t struggle because he can hear and has been hearing us this entire time and knows that I have a deal for him.”

The two Alicorns and one unicorn gathered together around the statue and together fired their magic off at the statue, creating a swirl of purple, white and dark blue aura. Discord then began to fragment into the particles swirled in the air, and one by one transformed into colored shards of glass, which melded into the windows until they formed into a to scale Discord. With a flash, it was done. Everypony stared intently at the window for something to happen. The glass remained motionless for what seemed like minutes, but were only seconds. Dash, with impatience, finally yelled.
“Come on you stupid glass! Do something.”

“Well I'm not going to do a dance number, if that’s what you’re expecting.”

Caught off guard, Rainbow let a surprised squeak pass her lips. The glass monstrosity stretched and popped his joints. He opened his wings to their full span and closed them again. When he was done, he looked at the audience before him and said in that charismatic yet sinister voice.

“So, my little ponies, you all want to know about my little side project.”

Celestia walked up to the glass at her fullest height.
“That is correct, Discord. You are going to tell us about your creation and how to stop it.”

“Temper temper, Celestia. I am not going to hand over the fate of my life’s work quite so easily.”
Discord snapped his fingers and colors swirled in the glass, creating a large impressive throne, in which he sat. With a smug look on his face, he said, “What do you have to offer? My freedom, perchance?”

“Not on Equestria’s life, Discord.”

“Oh Celestia, please call me Rubik. You used to insist that you did even after my… accident, shall we call it?”

Ignoring this, Celestia continued.
“In exchange for the information on this monstrosity of yours, I shall allow you to live the remainder of your life in these windows. You will have complete power within them, but cannot influence anything outside of them.”

“Please Celestia don’t call them monsters. They are legitimate ponies, just as your little legion of yes-mares over there.”
Twilight was at first offended, by this but came to realize that there was some truth to this. By looking at her friends, she was able to see they had come to the same conclusion. Hold Pinkie Pie.

“Legitimate? You call these ‘ponies’ of yours legitimate? Born in a lab, created to do your bidding! You disgust me, Discord.”
Discord honestly looked surprised.

“Why Celestia! That’s grim, even for you. What makes you think that they are my slaves? Always jumping to conclusions… well how about I just spell it all out for you?”
At the snap of the fingers, his throne disappeared and was replaced by a blackboard. Discord, now wearing a scholar’s cap, addressed the ponies.
“Any questions?”

Pinkie, either playing along or taking him seriously, eagerly raised her hoof and waved it around.

“Yes, Ms. Pie?”

“Well… I wanna know what the princess meant when she said that you used our… what was it? Esses? Neses? Escargo? Oh I remember now. Our essence! Yeah um, what exactly does that mean?”

“A very good question! Ahem. As you remember in the maze, I tricked or magicked you all of you into acting as your opposite. There is more to it. You may or may not have noticed, but your complexion dimmed quite considerably. This was a direct side effect of my stealing just the smallest amount of your very being: thoughts, beliefs-- even magical abilities. When I worked on MY little ponies, I simply included bits of each of you in their being. Of course, this is not enough to substitute a complete soul, so I did the only logical thing: I cut out fragments of my soul. As it would turn out, souls are like starfish. As long as enough energy remained, fragments could grow into full specimens. My soul fragments fed on your essence and morphed themselves into different personality types. This process ate up a lot of my own self; I was only able to do it three times, sadly. I would have loved to make six.”

Discord, with an incredibly proud look on his face, looked on at his listeners to see their reactions. All except Celestia had looks of horror on their faces at the thought of what it must be like to divide one’s soul. Celestia, hiding her emotions, continued.

“So you made three ponies and used your own soul and the energy of my friends to finish them. You have given much information. Is it safe to assume that you are going to help us?”

Discord snapped his fingers, and the blackboard was gone and the throne was back.
“That, Celestia, was only a sample of what you could have. If you want the full package, here is what I want: first, I accept the window prepossession, but would like for myself to be portable in-- let’s say, a mirror-- in case I should need to travel.”

“Done.”

“Good. I would also like to have the hall remodeled so that more ponies will go through it so that I am not completely alone.

“I will consider it”

“Finally, before you do what you will to my creations, I wish to see them and get a chance to talk with them.
Celestia hesitated on this.

“Why?”

Discord answered. “They are the closest thing I have had to family in a long time.”

“Very well. Now talk.”

Twilight was amazed at how fierce the princess was being, but was more amazed at the hint of sorrow in Discord’s voice at his last few words.

“Celestia, the first thing you should know is that they will be fully grown physically, mentally and magically. Next, one is a pegasus, one an earth pony, and one a unicorn. Also, they are roughly just as, if not more, powerful in their respectful fields than the most powerful of the Elements of Harmony, meaning that Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash now have rivals for their ranks. In my laboratory, which I shall reveal the location shortly, I have a notebook that has a list of spells that can, for the most part, control the actions of the three—who, by the way, I like to call the Disarray Brothers. I still need to think of real names for them. Finally, they have knowledge of the world that have I left them myself, including maps, list of species to beware, guides on how to make food, and my previous orders to them should I not be in their presence.”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “They have orders!?”

Discord put on his Mischievous Face. “Oops, did I forget to mention that? Yes, in the case that I have been defeated, I left specific instructions for them to seek me out and free me. I left them to their own devices, but my guess would be that they would probably hold somepony ransom for me. Now then let’s see, who is important to you, Celestia? Hmm… sister would be too powerful to take on, father is dead, and so I guess that the next best candidate would be your personal protégé.”
Discord laughed manically as Twilight’s eyes widened in terror.

“B-But that would mean they would head for… home. Spike! Princess, we need to get back to Ponyville now!”

“Twilight Sparkle” Luna quickly came to her side. “I shall accompany you through the void. Sister, I shall return.”

Luna’s horn glowed, opening a rift in space that she and the Six leapt through. As she went, in Twilight could still hear Discords laugh.

Please, she thought. Please be okay Spike.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

“…And that’s how Rarity defeated the Diamond Dogs.”

Spike was met with applause from Bliss, the ever-smiling Pegasus.

“Yeah, Spike, little buddy, you sure know how to pick ‘em.”

Bliss continued to snicker, his puffy white mane getting in his brother’s tea.

“Damn it, Bliss!”

Rage lived up to his name, remaining grim and being constantly annoyed by his brother’s happy nature.

“What? It wasn’t like you were going to drink it.”
Rage continued to mutter under his breath, but stopped when he caught a glare from the eldest brother, Wisdom.

“Rage, manners. We do not swear at a friend’s house. My apologies, Spike: my brothers lack social grace.”

“Nah, its fine. I've definitely seen worse.” He thought back to his own lack of manners. “Anyway Twilight should be home soon. ‘Till then, tell me about yourselves.”

Spike took a sip of his tea. “For starters, where did you get this amazing blend of tea?”

Rage gave a rare wicked smile.
“Oh, it’s a family recipe.”

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