• Published 1st Apr 2015
  • 9,097 Views, 272 Comments

Trickster Priest - Fresnor



Equestria has to deal with monsters on a weekly basis but what happens when an actual monster shows up in the from as a once costumed human?

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Chapter 18

Author's Note:

Gore warning this chapter. Also adding the tag since there will be more scenes of horribleness later.

Xellos chuckled to himself as he went through the pile of photos he recently had developed after the recent Grand Galloping Gala event in Canterlot. He may not have been officially invited, but he still had a ticket if he wanted to be open about it but staying hidden to watch those six mares demolish the place was so much more entertaining. He only became visible long enough to take pictures of the various happenings that interested him before disappearing back into the astral plane once more. Of course that didn't mean he was completely unnoticed as Pinkie had brought him a snack or two when she had a moment between her attempts at livening the place up.

Pulling out the wonderful picture of Rarity being used as a shield, he pondered it for a moment before smiling as a twisted idea came to him. “Now all I need to do is convince her, and that shouldn't be all that hard if I just spin it right.” After putting most of the photos back into his bag the bipedal monster soon was off towards Carousel Boutique and the mare that resided there.

Inside he found Rarity in her sewing room as she attempted to work on some new dress. She wasn't getting very far though as she constantly kept glancing back at the ponyform with her Gala dress on it, that was still damaged from that night, before sighing and turning back to her work. After watching the unicorn do that a couple times Xellos decided to appear in the line of site and waited for her to look once again.

The next time Rarity looked up she was confused as the last thing she saw was no longer there and was instead replace by a dull red gem. Her gaze drifted upwards until she came face to face with Xellos, and the mask of a hissing snake he was wearing, causing her to recoil backwards in fright. “Wha-ha-ha-haaAAA!” Getting her bearings after putting a bit of distance between herself and the monster, she leveled a scowl at him before huffing and turning back to her work. “Oh it's you again. What do you want this time you brute? Can't you see I have work to do?”

In response the biped only chuckled as he slid the mask back into his satchel. “Oh don't be like that. I'm only here to check up on you after your magnificent showing at the Gala.” With a flourish he produces a set of pictures showing the indignities that the mare went through during the event causing her to blush in embarrassment before she shredded the objects with her magic.

“Hmph, I would rather forget that night, thank you very much. Now if you don't mind I'd like to get back to work without any interruptions.” She turned back to her work and proceeded to ignore the monster whether he left the room or not. Xellos just watched her work for a few more minutes before he grinned and leaned down to by her ear.

“Well what if I told you that I have an idea on how to get back at the so-called Prince and all it'll take is a little bit of your time.” Even though she tried to ignore him, Rarity's ear flicked as he whispered his plan to her. Ponies walking by the boutique shivered at the cackling laughter that soon floated out of the building.

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“I've been wondering when this event would get around to happening. At least now I know that all of that wasn't a dream though the reality isn't much better than fantasy.” Xellos poked at the cotton candy cloud that he found in front of himself before licking off the chocolate milk that dripped from it. Looking away from the cloud he watched as the multitude of pegasii tried to deal with with the odd weather while the rest of the ponies tried to tame the chaos on the ground.

He found it odd that none of the Elements of Harmony were in the area so he was guessing that they were either on the way to Canterlot or were already there. His curiosity about if things will play out like he remembered, he flew off in the direction of the city to watch and maybe take a few pictures. As he neared the city he froze as a beam of light flared away from near the castle followed by a multitude of explosions from the same area. “Now this is worrying. None of that happened in the show, yet it still seems oddly familiar.”

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Minutes Earlier

“Please Twilight, please be careful when you deal with him.” Princess Celestia watched as the six mares entered the maze in search of the Elements of Harmony. Discord was one of the greatest threats the she and her sister had to face and was in fact the only one they weren't able to handle with their own power in the past. True the sisters had grown in strength over the years, but Luna's powers had atrophied over the past thousand years and was still at only a fraction of her former glory.

“Now what's with the long face, Celly? I thought you would be happy to see me after all these years. Why else would you have kept me around in your personal garden instead of locking me away in your old castle?” The princess' head jerked around towards the draconequus who had appeared behind her while the pesasus guards in the room flared their wings at the figure.

“Intruder! Protect the Princess!” The dozen guards around the room charged at Discord in unison and tried to drive him away from the princess. Celestia tried to warn them all to stop but she froze as an odd feeling radiated off of the chimera causing her to only stare at him as a blue glow shone from his eyes. Before she could do anything or any of the guards could reach the two Discord brought up his claw and snapped it, bathing the room in a spray of red.

Celestia was in a state of paralyzed horror at what she witnessed as her hooves came up in front of her face as she stared at the crimson liquid dripping off of them. As her gaze surveyed the room and settled on the remains of her guards that lay whitely amongst all the red, there was only one thing that she could say. “What kind of horrible monster have you become Discord? You never would have stooped this low back then.”

Discord's only response was to burst out into the most malicious laughter that she had ever heard from him and never wanted to hear again. Slowly the draconequus advanced on her and the princess could do nothing as she was frozen by the look in his eyes. She could see death approaching her in his blueish eyes when a beam of energy impacted him in the side and sent him flying through the wall. “Stay away from my sister you monster!”

Standing in the doorway to the throne room stood Luna wearing a look of righteous anger that was directed at the draconequus. Held within her magic was a brown, curved stave with a diamond-shaped hole in the center while the ends emitted a light that formed the string connecting the two ends which gave off a glow much like that from the moon. Without sparing a glance towards her sister she advanced on the hole made by her attack while carrying another object which she lay at her sister's hooves. She gave a look towards the bones in the room, which caused her look of fury to break momentarily, before she glared outside towards where Discord was picking himself up off the ground. “He has gone too far this time Tia. We can't just let him do what he wants this time or else there may not be an Equestria left after he is defeated.”

Celestia looked down at the item that was dropped in front of her as her eyes trace along the black bone-like structure that had small three-pronged blade-like objects on each end. With another look at the blood and gore covering herself and the room her face hardened as she grasped the object in her magic and caused it to ignite from both ends with a golden light. “You're right, if we don't fight then those guards... Those guards would have died for nothing. We can't let him run rampant especially with my student searching for the Elements.”

With a flash of golden light, Celestia teleported the two princesses outside to face the murderous draconequus. The two put some distance between each other to give them room to move if they needed it while Discord finally rose to his feet while poking at his tooth. “That actually hurt a bit. I'd say being stuck in a giant rock for a thousand years hasn't hurt you any little Loony, but that little toy of yours is new. Much more violent than those pesky Elements of Harmony I must say. I think my tooth is actually a bit loose now.”

Princess Luna drew back the string of her bow while glaring at the chaotic being. “Greater beings than thou have fallen to the Great Weapons of Light. Years after we defeated thou the kingdoms united to face an even greater evil that threatened to destroy the world. Brave souls discovered these in temples of ancient deities and brought them to us in our time of need.”

Celestia started twirling her lance as she spread her wings out behind her. “I would offer you the chance to surrender Discord, but after what you did to my ponies you have shown that you are nothing but a heartless monster that needs to be stopped. You better be prepared as this fight will not be like our last.”

With a downward slash of her weapon, Celestia fired off a beam of golden energy from the lance at Discord's lower body while Luna fired high with her own. Discord reacted by opening up two holes in the air to intercept the beams of energy forcing the two princesses to dodge or be hit by their own attacks. The resulting explosions as they hit the ground was enough to alert the guards to the problem and they started swarming in before Princess Celestia stopped them. “Royal Guard, stand down! Do not engage Discord as you are no match for him, let us handle him while you evacuate the surrounding area.”

The guards were unsure of if they wanted to follow the order, but seeing the princesses being forced to dodge a flying elephant which exploded when it hit the ground made the rethink their plan and instead nod to their rulers. Discord watched as they ran off with a pout before turning a malicious grin on the two princesses. “Well that's no fun, and here I thought that I was going to have more toys to play with. Oh well, I guess my little friends will have to occupy their time until I'm through with you.”

With a snap of his claws bright flashes appeared all over the city before silence settled over Canterlot. It only lasted for moments before the screams started to sound out all over the city followed by the roaring of beasts. Throughout the city ponies were attacked by the large numbers of chimeras, imps, and rocs that had appeared as a result of Discord's magic. The two princesses watched all this through the viewing screen that the draconequus had summoned up as if to taunt them.

In the case of Luna it worked as she increased the rate of her attacks as she grew a bit more reckless while her sister did what she could to deflect the attacks sent at her. Discord was hard pressed to avoid the increased rate of attacks and the palace gardens had seen better days at it was filled with craters from the attacks by the princesses as well as the random objects conjured by Discord.

The fight was essentially a stalemate as neither side could get an advantage over the other as they traded attacks back and forth. Seeing that things weren't going anywhere will the smaller attacks, Celestia flew close to her sister to give her a message before breaking away. “Luna, keep his attention for a moment while I try something.” The ruler of the night just nods and steps up her attacks even more so as to keep Discord off-balance while Celestia landed behind a bit of cover and focused her magic on her weapon.

“Glorious light that guides us, strike down from the heavens upon-” She couldn't get any further than that as a shovel slammed down on her head from the other side of the cover she was hiding behind, dazing her heavily and sending her to the ground.

“Now now, none of that. Things are just starting to get interesting and we don't need you sneaking off and trying to hide.” Luna could only watch as she struggled to free herself from the cotton candy cloud she found herself stuck in the Discord materialized around her when her sister took cover. Seeing her sister brought down by the monster she started to struggle even harder to no avail.

As Discord brought up his paw for the final blow on the Princess the color of his eyes faded to yellow and red as he paused. “That should be enough for now, I have other ponies to deal with.” Raising his claw he snapped his talons causing him to vanish as he teleported away, leaving one princess confused while the other one rubbed her head as she tried to rise to her hooves.

“Oh dear. This is not good. Things weren't supposed to happen like this at all. I really hope this was all just a fluke and things turn out like they should.” Princess Celestia looked up to see Xellos standing in front of her looking in the direction of Ponyville. She leaned heavily on her weapon as she tried to clear her head and tried to make sense of the biped while her sister, not having heard him, took a different approach on seeing him.

“Now thou art here?! 'Tis bad enough that we had to deal with Discord's insanity, we do not need thou to make things worse!” Xellos ignored the dark princess for the most part except for a moment when he waved a finger back towards her causing a geyser of water to wash over her from below with enough force to clear away the cloud she was trapped in. Once the deluge ended, the princess sputtered in annoyance as she glared at the monster. “Really?!”

Celestia tried to ignore her sister's reaction to the monster's appearance as she instead tried to fathom the meaning of his words. “What do you mean by things turning out like they should? Don't tell me you have something to do with how Discord is acting.”

He only turned his head towards the solar princess before looking over the city and towards Ponyville. “I'd like to say that's a secret, but for once I have now clue why he is acting like that. He's not acting at all like I expected and the few texts I found also paint him in a different light.”

A trio of chimera that were summoned by Discord came into view but before either princess could react Xellos' eyes opened and they were rapidly shredded by innumerable small black streaks. Both alicorns looked on in shock at the brutality that he showed before he tosses a small smile back at them. “Well it looks like you two have your work cut out for you keeping things together here. Since you are going to be busy cleaning up I think I'll go and have a word with the so-called Lord of Chaos.”

The two watched as Xellos vanished from their view before Luna landed next to her sister. “As much as it hates us to admit it, he is right. Our subjects need help to handle this threat that they are unprepared for. We just hope that he doesn't make things worse.”

Celestia shook her head to clear the last of the effects of the blow to her head. “I have never been able to tell what he is thinking, but I believe that he, at least for now, is on our side. His true plans are still a mystery to me as all he'll ever say is that his goal is to bring about the end of the world. He has kept saying that whenever I asked while you were gone but he has never shown any sign of doing so but I expect that everything he has done has been to our benefit as well as his.”

Luna just stared at her sister before turning away with a 'hmph.' “We have not seen anything useful of his hassling of us. But 'tis a conversation for later, we have a city to retake.”

With a nod the two took off into the city, Luna towards the part of the city where her Lunar Guard were barracked to awaken them to reinforce the city. Celestia instead went to assist her own guard in driving the creatures out of the city. She quickly found a large group of her guards defending a large area where many of the city's citizens had evacuated to and landed next to a unicorn lieutenant that was shielding the area while issuing orders to his subordinates.

“Lieutenant! I need a status report on how the battle has been going while I was occupied by Discord.” The lieutenant looked over and saluted the princess before waving off the sergeant he was talking to to bring his last orders to the proper location.

“Ma'am! We have currently lost a quarter of the city but we are holding now that we have established a base camp and fortified what we had. We don't have a count of civilian casualties yet, but many good ponies have been lost protecting them, including the Captain of the Guard. We are currently trying to reach a pocket of resistance in the part of the city we have lost but the enemy has amassed heavily in that area.” With a nod the princess looked over the map that he had laid out on the table in front of him before she looked up as a scout came barreling up to them.

“Princess! Sir! The enemy has made it through the shield from below!” The unicorn looked up in shock while the princess just frowned before she tilted her head as she heard something. At the edge of the barrier one of the buildings fell apart as the creatures erupted outwards from within and started attacking the nearby guards. The pegasii guards couldn't take to the air effectively as the downdraft from the wings of the many rocs kept them grounded as those who attempted to take off were taken down rapidly.

“Lieutenant, drop the shield.” He and the scout looked over at Celestia in shock but seeing the look in her eyes the unicorn nodded. As soon as the bubble shield came down, beams of energy flew through the sky, vaporizing the rocs on contact. The sky was only clear momentarily as it was soon filled with bat-winged ponies as the Lunar Guard arrived. “No more. I won't lose any more ponies to these creatures. Captain, you stay here and continue coordinating the efforts to retake the city. SOLAR GUARD! TO BATTLE!”

With her shout using the Royal Canterlot Voice, the princess ignited her weapon once more and charged into the fray leaving the bewildered newly-made captain behind with the dazed scout. “The Solar Lance and Lunar Bow really existed? They were always legends, I never thought that I'd actually see them being used by the princesses.” The captain only responded with a shake of his head as he redoubled his efforts to save the city.

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“Now if I was a spirit of chaos, where would I be?” Xellos pondered as he looked around Ponyville as the sun and moon switched places at a steady rate. He had been extremely interested in what things would look like in person when Discord got loose but so far he was not impressed. He watched as the group of ballerina buffalo danced by while the various ponies that met with Discord acted out in ways outside of how they usually did.

“Honestly I expected more from him, though there still seems to be something off about him. Before he was acting nothing like everything I've found says him to be, yet now he is back to what I expected.” He shook his head while eyeing an odd pink filly that flew by using a propeller beanie.

When he first flew into the town he had found the bearers of harmony but had avoided them when he saw the state they were all in. So when he noticed Twilight running around and looking as colorful as she usually was he knew he didn't have much more time. He thought back on the knowledge that he had of what should have happened and he decided to check the very center of town as that was where he should have be waiting.

He was correct in his thoughts as he found the draconequus there, but unlike before he wasn't alone. Discord was holding in his talons by her neck a familiar cerise-coated mare while the foals of the town were huddled in terror at his feet. As he slowly choked the life out of her Xellos noted that Discord's eyes were starting to glow blue once again and, despite what his instincts were telling him, he decided to interfere.

Discord grinned maliciously as he watched the life slowly fade from the mare's eyes that he held in his grip. The thrill of having complete control of a pony like this was such a thrill and he had to wonder why he had never done this before. His enjoyment of the act was soon ended as a sharp pain shot through his arm forcing him to drop the mare and he was thrown back as a powerful barrier sprung up between him and the mare and foals that was centered around a staff in their midst. Narrowing his eyes, Discord scanned the area for his assailant but nothing was visible yet he could still hear something chuckling at him before it spoke.

“Now now Discord. What kind of being of chaos goes around killing innocents like that. Granted I haven't seen Ponyville be so orderly since you have taken over so I highly doubt that title of yours was well-earned.” Discord growled at the voice that he couldn't find the source of until he turned around to find a smiling face inches from his own causing him to jet backwards in surprise. Seeing who it was his eyes dimmed a bit to their natural colors but the glow didn't fade completely.

“You.” Discord's voice dripped with venom, but behind it there was still a hint of pain as he crossed his arms and turned away from the biped, only then noticing that his playthings had vanished along with the staff. “So you broke out as well? Well I have nothing to say to you after you ignored me for all those years while being right there with me.”

Xellos' face became blank for a moment before he burst out laughing which caused the draconequus to narrow his eyes and turn back to him. “Wait, you thought that I was sealed in stone along with you? What, you expected me to have been so boring and stupid to just stand there while the princesses charge up their toys? I would have thought you of all beings would have noticed that that thing was just an empty shell.”

Discord looked sheepish at hearing this before the glow started to grow stronger once again. “Oh you think you're so funny just leaving that there without saying anything. And what are you talking about my work being orderly?! Ponyville is now the Capitol of Chaos and shall be the gem of my new empire!”

Xellos just scoffs as he looks around at the mess the chimeric being had made before catching sight of Twilight out of the corner of his eye with her friends as the carefully advanced. Throwing a hand in the direction opposite the mares he started to distract him. “Oh really? All I see is a new kind of order that you've imposed on the town. I don't even think that you know what chaos is anymore what with you destroying more of it than you create. You might say you are rather... Predictable.”

The glow completely vanishes from Discord's eyes as his jaw dropped to the ground in shock at his words. After picking it up again and reattaching it he leveled a red-eyed glare at the monster. “Don't know what chaos is? You think I'm predictable!? You call this predictable!?”

“Alligators, yes I was thinking about those on my way over here.”

Discord froze a moment as he held up the giant-sized Gummy he had pulled from a nearby tree before tossing him to the side and produced a jack-in-the-box which popped open sending a ax wielding Mayor Mare to bounce around in front of Xellos. “What's this? Boom! In your face!”

“Cliche.”

“No look, watch!” Pulling out of his ear he waved around a q-tip with both ends being made from familiar silver and pink fillies.

“Juvenile.”

“Shock and Awe!” A conga line of stallions wearing lederhosen danced by.

“Oh it's so scary!” Snapping his claws an Ursa Minor with pony arms and a boar strapped to its head appeared.

“Seen it”

“What's this one do?!” From out of nowhere a pink flamingo in neon green lingerie landed on Discord's head.

“Garish.” Discord collapsed to the ground panting as his attempts to impress Xellos failed and he tried to come up with another idea before the monster's voice pulled him out of his introspection. “The rainbow is new.”

The draconequus was confused as he hadn't made one of those. “Rainbow?” Turning around he only now saw the Bearers of Harmony had once again united with their Elements and had managed to sneak up behind him to use them while he was distracted. Before the attack could hit Xellos disappeared leaving Discord time for only one last line before being returned to stone. “Oh, poop.”

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Back in Canterlot the garden had been cleaned up by the same wave of energy that had gone out when Discord was resealed reverting everything he changed back to normal. His statue was returned to where it originally was for the moment but a new place for him was being made elsewhere to contain him for if he ever escaped again. This placement was fine with Xellos as he examined the draconequus closely. “I wonder what happened to you to change you like that. Everything about you says you shouldn't be killing anything as it erases chaos but you did it constantly.”

Placing his right hand on the statue for a moment he was about to walk away when its eyes began to glow once again. Before he could react the glow started to expand around the statue before it drained away in a stream towards his wrist before finally cutting out. Looking at his wrist he noticed that the once dull gem of his talisman now had a blue glow deep within it. “Hello. What have we here?”

He wasn't fully sure what had just happened, but he had his suspicions as well as a new topic to bring up with the princesses sometime in the future.