This story is a sequel to A Mad Glimmer
The plan had been perfect, taking everything from Twilight Sparkle and trapping her in a no-win situation. Then Twilight showed Starlight the alleged consequences of her actions.
But there's a bit more to the story. Starlight Glimmer has paid a heavy price, but there's one more debt to call in.
After all, Discord doesn't make idle threats.
Story contains spoilers for the Season 5 finale, potentially disturbing imagery, and nuts. Story still does not contain Nikita Khrushchev or shoes.
Chapters (1)
who and wat
6706222
Cross-reference the description of the prequel.
Is this is what catharsis is like for you, F.O.M.E.?
Huh. You're almost as @#$%ed up in the head as I am.
6706282
I'm reverse messed up.
6706233
Yeesh. I admit, I wanted her to get some comeuppance, but that is a bit too dark. Also kinda matrix-y.
That is beautiful science fantasy. Well, beautifully-horrible science fantasy, anyway. I concur that this is what the Changeling-dominated world might have looked at after a couple centuries of biological and social development. Bigger things might have been going on, but Discord wasn't interested in talking about them, nor would I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream Starlight Glimmer. (Hey, she tried for a Kurt Vonnegut story and wound up in Harlan Ellison -- go fig!)
I like the way that Discord handled his revenge. He got to simultaneously fulfill his evil promise and make Twilight Sparkle happy and do it in such a way that the version of Starlight Glimmer who continued on in his timeline never figured out what he'd done. This was foreshadowed by what he had just done with Celestia and Luna -- of course he wasn't angry at them. Very well done!
Fun... and as 6706464 says, this lets Discord get revenge without letting anyone else know it.
But one thing's not quite clear - given how the Changeling cocoons create all sorts of illusions, why is Starlight Glimmer screaming? Shouldn't she be ruling over an Equalist Equestria with everypony happy and (for some reason) still productive? Or was that a feature of the cocoons that got removed for efficiency's sake with the new model of ponies?
Oh jeez. Welp, let's dive in.
6706492
Discord put her in there. He probably set things up so that she was perfectly aware of what was really being done to her.
She really pissed him off.
There should be an evil grin emote
6706282
There are many stories I discard the moment I conceive of them. I come with a lot of ideas far darker than I'm willing to develop. This is about on the edge of how dark I want to get. (This is part of why it's taking me so long to reboot Phthisis is Magic.)
6706331
I feel I'm missing some vital context here.
6706425
Yeah, I had a rather unpleasant moment after coming up with the idea where I realized just how Wachoskian the scenario is. Though, honestly, the machines could've gone a lot more extreme than the changelings did. It takes a lot more neural architecture to generate love than it does heat.
And I admit, this is rather extreme. Still, it was conceived by the same fellow who was going to throw a hippy into a sock puppet dimension for the crime of dividing his friend's attention.
6706464
And yeah, a fair amount of extraneous exposition ended up on the cutting room floor. Honestly, I think I could've gotten away with even less, but I felt the celestial mechanics of a world without Celestia or Luna needed to be addressed. Plus, showing off the literal Biological Clock was too good an opportunity to pass up. 
Thanks!
6706492
The pods were for unmodified ponies. The new models don't need illusions to keep them docile; their brains are literally incapable of feeling anything but love. Starlight's consciousness is running in parallel with that of her host body, retaining all of the capabilities of her unaltered brain, like fear and horror. Chaos magic allows for some incredible possibilities.
6706524
, 
, and 
also have their uses.
I find that one works well for most evil grin-appropriate situations.
Well,
That was horrifying.
When the previous story was posted, I remember saying that I enjoy stories where former villains demonstrate why they should not be fucked with, reformed or not. This is exactly the kind of thing I was referring to. Nicely done, FoME.
WELP. THAT FUCKED ME UP.
TOODLES.
Hmm, the changeling art reminded somewhat of a species of creature in Larry Niven's Known Space novels that make touch art, because they see in radar, not the visible spectrum.
So it's entrapment. What a dick. Why isn't this version of Discord constantly splintering off all of Equestria and torturing them in chaotic side-timelines?
Well, he delivered on a promise. That's something. Also, we need a word for something that's both satisfying and horrific.
6707122
No idea. What I do know is that I want to see him rot in some hell of his own.
Not forever, but long enough.
In fact, that's my own personal sequel to this story: Discord being slowly purified by Harmony Magic, screaming and everything. Yeah, I can make peace with it then. Watching him roast... Nah, that's too far. But some comeuppance would be nice for a Karma Houdini this egregious.
I never could get into the Dickish Omnipotent Discord Does Something Horrid And Gets Away With It genre. I can barely stand him on the show. ^_^
6706641
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is Still Dead
In other news, FanOfMostEverything continues his valiant fight against mentions of Nikita Khrushchev or shoes.
This is fantastic. You wrote Discord really well and the second half reminds me of the Tyranids from 40k.
6706464
Agreed! Very well written, brutally psychological and frightening in the same way that 'I Have No Mouth...' or 1984 are. What makes it for me in particular is the way Discord goes about explaining away Starlight Glimmer's utopian ideal. He's zany, yes, but the language he uses,- latinate, 'fungible', gentile, 'my dear', and occasionally alliterative, 'chaotic chronomancy',- and the pitiless logic he uses to demonstrate the futility of absolute equality is what elevates him from a puckish prankster to a fully fledged,- and in many ways recognizably human,- monster. Especially note how the transition is properly cemented in the shift from 'Discord' to 'this creature' in the paragraph just before he snaps his fingers. It's that moment of revelation on Starlight Glimmer's part that makes it so very effective.
I guess what I take away from this is "Discord desperately tries to make someone else look worse than himself, and fails".
6706853 6707515 6707540
Thanks!
6706927
I love experimenting with weird senses. It's just cool to imagine what the world would look like in infrared, or what different gems would taste like, or a purely psychic language that uses emotions in place of phonemes.
And yeah, this is pretty messed up.
6707122 6707426
Without all of the harmonious time magic to counterbalance his work, Discord plus timestream equals a bad time for everyone.
And yeah, I know this won't appeal to everyone. Honestly, it doesn't appeal to me all that much after the events of the finale; I was kind of hoping Starlight would get lost in the timestream. Still, I wanted to make the follow-through for A Mad Glimmer.
6707349
Satisfic? Emphasis on the first syllable, so you don't confuse it with sadistic.
6707491
Thank you for clarifying matters.
6707660
More or less. Anyone who essentially creates life specifically to torture it isn't going to come out as the good guy, nor do I think he does. Still, that wasn't Discord's goal. He wanted to get the revenge that he knew Twilight would never seek out. He was outraged on her behalf, and that rarely ends well.
6707426
A thousand years, maybe?
I tend to think Discord has already spent plenty of time rotting in a personal hell.
is all can be said
... wat?
Dammit man you PROMISED
Fun fact: This is the thirty-seventh such eternal torture that Discord has got away with scot free, thanks to convenient alternative universes.
Four of them were needed just to counterbalance the cucumber sandwiches. He quite enjoys those now.
6707843
Don't give Best Pony and the ETSAB ideas. Cleaning up her mess is going to bring out the Hybrid in somepony and I'd rather not see that. It'll be worse that what Discord did.
This means that the love being fed to the generator is Discord's doing, leaving Starlight Glimmer free to be horrified.
I have two word for stories like these.
Deliciously evil.
At first I thought this story was titled, "A Glazed Cream".
I blame ponuts.
Nice ending for Starlight
,
Channeling a bit of Brave New World, I see.
Hahahahahaha!
Delightful!
(No, I am absolutely not a very nice person.)
Nice. I concur, I concur. The ending of the finale didn't sit well with me, either.
This (and the prior story) is one of the very few times I am happy to see Discord win.
Why you did give her a "mouth"; how generous of you :)
--
Tiny typo
corridor
I think "sapience" is more fitting word if thinking/awareness is required and something only sentient like rat or dog is not enough.
6708243
If you specify what made you wat, I'll be happy to clarify matters.
6708259
Yes, I promised that it wouldn't.
6708383
Not in this universe, thankfully. There needs to be quite a lot of excess harmony in the timestream before Discord can safely strand time-slice clones in alternate futures. If there isn't, the side effects would make Starlight's misdeeds pale in comparison.
6708417
Hybrid?
6708756
Glad I could serve up something enjoyable.
6708782
No, the only assholes here are the two main characters.
6709201
Sort of. Ponies in the alternate future are more Zetas than Epsilons, if they can even be said to be using the same alphabet as their genetic baseline.
6709616
Typo fixed, but you've clearly never owned a dog if you don't think they can love.
6709817
Even beyond hypothetical scum of the earth? They might as well not exist at that point.
But I get ya.
Honestly, I fail to see how a story that does not contain at least trace amounts of Nikita Khrushchev could be worth anyone's time.
Read the first one, like the sequel. Good job.
Harsh.
Absolutely justified in ever sense of the word. Starlight Glimmer is perhaps one of the most monstrous characters I've ever seen. And that comes from a lifetime of dark and horror fantasy. Sad part is most people simply just aren't going to understand WHY she is, or know it but explain it away.
I love Changelings and would love to read more about the changeling future. I'm not a fan of insects and don't know much about them, so I can't write a well-thought out changeling society. If they'd dedicate at least one episode on the show to a changeling hive, that would be amazing. It could just be like Slice of Life, but with changelings. Maybe what the drones back at Chrysalis's hive were doing while their queen was attempting to take over Canterlot.
Good story. Discord + changelings + Starlight abuse = fun.
The following comes to mind with the changeling food factory.
Sick good.
Keep on the good work.
Well that was brutal.
I may or may not have read the title as "A Glazed Cream" when glancing over the feature box.
this offends me