No Easy Victory

by Omare Bradley

Discord Proudly Presents, The AK-47!

Discord was feeling quite content. Tirek was strong, but messing with him had been all too easy. He wasn’t able to corrupt him as effectively as he had Twilight when he first broke out his stone imprisonment, but he had managed to mess with Tirek’s emotions a little. Dialing up Tirek’s feelings of paranoia was quite useful for his cause. If Tirek started to panic the fragile bonds that held his army together would fracture.

Discord began to laugh when he thought of the other trick he had pulled. Sound was easy for him to manipulate and, it was quite amusing to start laughing in a pitch that only Tirek could hear. The look on General Specters face had been priceless! To make Tirek look insane in front of his top commander had been one of the few things he had genuinely enjoyed doing in these past months.

He sighed all he had been doing was transporting mass amounts of ponies that were willing to fight against Tirek’s tyranny. He had gathered up quite a mighty force and he and General Stalwart were going have a very important meeting with the various commanders that had been brought here.

Discord had given a little demonstration to General Stalwart and his most trusted officers. He had certainly impressed them with the human rifles. Today he would give a similar presentation, except this time he would be disguised as an earth pony scientist.

Discord and Stalwart had taken great lengths to keep the majority of the army from knowing that many of the new innovations came from Discord. The mass teleportation’s had been described as a mass recall spell invented from by Starswirl the Bearded.

They were actually located on a completely different planet, after all a lot space was needed to hold so many ponies. The ponies that had been brought here had been told that this new location was reachable due to a contingency spell that the army had invented in case of a disaster.

The ponies had seemed fairly satisfied with this explanation, if not a little curious to why they’d had been brought here. General Stalwart planned on addressing several officers who would then tell their soldiers what Stalwart had said.

The whole atmosphere here was hopeful. Civilians had been being put in units and trained to fight in squads. Soon they would be given new weapons that would hopefully come as a shock to Tirek and Specter.

Discord was actually sitting down on a chair in his earthpony disguise. General Stalwart had started to give his address. He yawned, sitting still was boring, but it was a necessary sacrifice.

General Stalwart began to speak and his voice rang out strong and proud.

“I’ve been waiting for this meeting for some time,” The General began. “Stallions and mares we are here to implement the first stages of retaking our homeland. Now before we began how many of you here have heard of an AK-47?”

Not a single hoof was raised; Stalwart smiled and then looked at Discord who now appeared to be a rather dorky looking earth pony. Discord chuckled and raised his hoof, a few high ranking officers near him did the same thing.

General Stalwart nodded, “Those few officers and scientists, are the only ones in here who actually know what I’m talking about. We’ve kept the AK-47 secret as we wish to surprise Tirek and his forces.”

General Stalwart then beckoned Discord to come over to the stage. He began to speak again, “For now I’d like to turn the stage over to Kalashnikhoove, who invented the weapon that might just win us the war.”

Discord rose up and began to walk to the stage. The officers that were attending the meeting all stared at him with keen interest. Discord smiled he could feel the hope in the air, it was much better the despair he had grown accustomed to feeling.

Discord strode up to the stage and began to talk loudly, “Greetings friends! Today I’m going to show you a weapon that can make a magicless pony as deadly as your most trained warrior!”

This statement was met with skeptic murmurs, but the officers were still regarding Discord intently as he talked.

Discord grinned and pulled out an AK-47 that had been modified for pony use. Still grinning he held up the weapon for all the ponies to see. Suffice to say they weren’t impressed and that was fine, Discord had been prepared for this. Looking at the crowd he spoke, “Perhaps a demonstration is an order. I want the best archer and the best spell caster here to come up to this stage.”

The officers began to talk amongst themselves before coming to an agreement. A tough looking Pegasus and an equally capable looking unicorn appeared from the crowd and began to walk towards the stage.

Discord in the meantime had set up three targets on the far end of the stage. General Stalwart in the mean time cast a shield around the stage.

The pegasus sneered, “You intend to try and defeat us in a target shooting contest, with that little toy.”

Discord chuckled, “That my friend is exactly what I propose, when I count to three you and your spellcaster buddy can shoot at the target.”

The unicorn and the pegasus nodded while Discord mounted the AK-47 on his shoulder and began to count.

When he finished counting down, the unicorn began to charge up a spell while the pegasus quickly sighted up her target. Discord meanwhile looked down the sight and then quickly fired off several rounds, making sure to hit his two opponent’s targets as well.

The two ponies looked shock as Discord calmly reloaded his rifle. The crowd meanwhile began to cheer. Discord dismissed the two ponies who had risen to meet his challenge and then turned back to the crowd.

“So you see, this weapon is superior, too many of our conventional ways of fighting. It’s deadly, efficient, and best of all requires no magic to be effective!”

The crowd was now very excited and Discord made his exit as General Stalwart took the stage and began to address his now captivated audience.

“In a month we’re going to take back our nation from tyranny. I sincerely believe these new weapons will be crucial to our success. When we strike we’re going to distribute these weapons to anyone willing to join us. I want you all to start training your soldiers how to use these new weapons. Soon we’re going to throw all our resources at our enemies. Science has given us the means to win this war. My question to you all gathered here is do you have the will to take back your pride?”

This statement was met with thundering applause and a thundering of the word “Yes.”

General Stalwart smiled, “Good, now I want you to go back to your units, training is going to began immediately. We’re organized and dangerous now, and we have a deadly surprise for our enemies. I want to hit Tirek hard, and avenge the deaths of so many. In a month’s time Equestria will be ours again!”

The crowd began to disperse all the while talking excitedly. General Stalwart nodded and walked up to Discord who was still wearing his disguise.

“That went well didn’t it?”

Discord smiled, “Indeed it did, and a month’s time is perfect. That gives me plenty of opportunities to slip rifles to citizens who I know to be loyal. I also have a few other things I need to arrange so that our victory is all but guaranteed.”

General Stalwart dropped his smile, “Yes victory, and tell me what happens to Equestria after the wars been won?”

Discord looked back at the General, “The princesses will be freed and put back in power of course!”

The General regarded him wearily, “That better be what happens.”

Discord smiled, “General I have no desire to seize power for myself. I’m a creature of chaos not a ruler. Drafting laws and managing cities is so boring, so orderly. I promise you, you’ll have your old leaders back once this is done.”

General Stalwart nodded, “And what about you?”

Discord sighed, “I’ve committed treason, and my actions have caused several ponies to be killed. When the princesses are free, I’m going to leave this world and start a new adventure somewhere faraway.”

With that Discord made his exit disappearing in a bright flash of light, his intended destination a mystery to General Stalwart.

Discord had been up to some things. For one he had been able to alter the plans of some of Equestria’s rival nations. He had used his powers to make the leaders of the Griffin Empire and the Zebra Republic much more aggressive. The two nations had been very worried about Tirek and were building up defenses. It had been a simple matter to exploit that fear and make the leaders feel the only option they had was a preemptive strike on Equestria.

Discord grinned, the two nations leaders had met with General Stalwart. The leaders had all agreed to attack on the date that Stalwart had desired. Mass uprisings along with a two front invasion, would cause a lot of chaos and certainly overwhelm, Equestria’s new army. To make things even better Tirek would be far too busy fighting Discord to interfere with the coming fight.

That was very good for Discord who believed that the great amount of chaos that was coming would give him a temporary boost of power that would allow him to easily defeat Tirek. Discord had nearly everything arranged and there was really only one thing he had left to do before the final fight.

He had managed to develop a spell that would bypass Tirek’s protective spells that encased Tartarus. He needed to write a letter and have it arrive to Princess Celestias cage. Once that was done, there was nothing left to do but rally the resistance and defeat Tirek for good. Discord calmly began to write Dear Princess Celestia…

For the first time in what had to have been months, Celestia had something to concentrate on. She had been sitting here in her cage alone just staring off into nothingness for what had seemed so long. Tirek had eventually split her up with her fellow princesses, and had left her to rot in her own hell that she had created. But there had been a flash and a glowing letter had appeared in her cage. She had taken it quickly, eager to have something to do. She settled in and began to read.

Dear Princess Celestia

I would like you to know how very sorry I am for betraying you in such a fashion. I practically handed Equestria to a monster. I had just been feeling so lonely at the time. All you seemed to do was send me out to do boring work. Anytime I tried to introduce an element of harmless chaos to this otherwise static world I was threatened to be turned to stone again.

You see you changed me with this whole reforming thing. You made me dependent on friendships with other beings. I came to crave being able to interact with others. But unfortunately while ponies like Fluttershy are nice and all, they still wouldn’t allow me to be, well me. I could not create chaos or else. I would lose the friendships I had come to depend on.

Tirek was able to take advantage of this fact, and he was able to manipulate me quite easily I’m afraid. The idea that I could have chaos and friendship was just too appealing for me to decline. I understand that this does not make the treacherous acts I have committed any better. I just believe you deserve an explanation to why I failed you.

Ponies have died because of my actions. Many more are going to die in the coming fight, and it’s all because of me. There is no redemption from that; there is no apology good enough to the mother who lost her filly, or the soldier who lost his friends.

But it’s okay because I have a plan to make everything right again. The plan involves me dying, but if all goes well, you and every being that had magic taken from them should get there’s back. I’m sorry and I hope that when I’m gone the land will know harmony again.

Celestia read the last few lines again and sat back and calmly began to assess the letter and its meaning. She was not sad, she had endured great loss and a thousand years of ruling with the knowledge that she had banished her sister, had turned her mind to steel. She was however sorry, her actions had caused these dark times. Perhaps If I had just given him more freedom…

She shook her head, the past could be learned from but it was wise not to fixate upon it. This place was designed so that its denizens would torment themselves over and over with their past mistakes. She would not wallow in self pity for an eternity. She calmly looked around in the darkness and settled in for another night of soul crushing boredom.