Chapter 2
The next day dawned bright and early, and before long I got myself up to enact the first step of my plan.
Dismissing the furniture, I grabbed the air around me and pulled a brown, hooded cloak from existence. It was long enough that it hovered about six inches off of the ground when I slung it around my shoulders, and was so well fitted that with my hood up and sides closed, you could barely see anything of me beneath.
Now with my extra protection from the elements in order, I set off from the throne room to see if I could find anything of further interest before I departed for good. There wasn’t anything of note in the kitchen, but that was to be expected. The same went for the armory as the few items that were left behind were little more than unrecognizable lumps of rust after being neglected for so long.
Going through the servant’s quarters actually yielded a few surprising finds in the form of two gold cloak pins and a silver hair broach with an emerald placed inside it. The cloak pins were in remarkable condition all things being considered, and the broach, although tarnished with the passage of time was still in good enough condition for me to take.
Finding nothing else, I stashed the items in my cloak and continued on. The treasury was empty, so I didn’t bother with it past giving a small, curious glance before moving on. The guard barracks were non-existent, and the courtyard may have yielded something if I was versed in botany or if Discords memories contained anything other than a blue flower he once made that he called Poison Joke.
I looped back to the throne room without much disappointment. If anything I got more than I believed I would have to begin with. But there was still one place I wanted to look over before I left for good: Celestia and Luna’s old rooms.
And the only reason I knew where those rooms were was because when Discord was trapped in stone, he still had the ability to listen in on conversations within a rather large range and through any barriers if he concentrated enough.
Turning to one of the exits behind the old dilapidated thrones, I made my way over to it, passing one of the entrances to the old library without a second glance. If there were any books or other manuscripts in there that had been left behind and hadn’t aged to dust, they would have most likely been worth a king’s ransom provided that they were still legible. I could have taken one or two, but selling them off would have raised red flags themselves, to say nothing of the fact that giving that amount of coin going to one recipient would have attracted far too much attention for someone who wanted to stay incognito for as long as possible.
The towers weren’t connected to each other, so when I was done in Celestia’s old room, I had to double back to Luna’s.
Where Celestia’s room was picked clean, Luna’s still had a few pieces of rotted, decayed furniture here and there. One of the items in the best shape were a dresser mirror that was too large to take with me and was too broken in several places to be of any worth. The dresser it had once stood on had long rotted away, not even leaving any mulch or dust behind. The other item was her old bed, the frame exposed and still standing, if only barely. The smallest touch and it would no doubt fall apart into its individual components. The blankets and mattress were little more than scraps of cloth, two more victims of time’s endless march.
Oddly enough, there was one other item that was in truly excellent condition considering that this place had been abandoned for at least a thousand years. Next to the bed frame, there was a small stuffed Alicorn doll with a red mane and a jet black coat. The only damage it seemed to have received was becoming threadbare and a little ragged where it had started to come apart at the seams, and the stuffing was still clean and white.
This warranted further investigation. Going over to the doll, I took a moment to look at it a bit more closely as if I could divine whatever secrets it held by just a glance. After that attempt failed to bear fruit, I decided to pick it up. Before that though, I scanned it to make sure it wasn’t a tripwire for something. After all, something in this good of a condition after all this time was more than slightly suspicious.
Thankfully, the only spell that was on it was a long-term anti-aging enchantment. Whatever or whoever this doll represented was obviously important enough for to Luna to place the enchantment on. Only thing is that without anyone to keep the enchantment maintained, it had been decaying over the years. That would explain how it looked and felt as I picked it up, studying it with a melancholy gaze.
Suddenly, and without warning, one of Discords memories sprang to the forefront of my mind. It was one where he was sitting on throne at the time, looking down on the current Diarchy of Equestria with the sort of sly sneer on his face that just made you want carve into his throat with a butchers knife and watch as his lifewater spilled out over his front.
There was a pause before the two parties started conversing with one another, but I couldn’t make out anything they were saying. Their voices were muted and almost static-like, but I could sense Discord’s general thoughts at the time. As they were continuing to monologue, I “felt” for lack of a better term Discord worming his way into Luna’s mind. It was subtle to the point where Luna couldn’t detect it, yet strong enough to set up a hair trigger for some unseen event.
Along with Discord’s invasion of Luna’s sanctuary of the mind, I could by extension feel what emotions she was experiencing at the time. There was burning love for her kinsman, determination to see justice befall the one she was facing, and a certain admiration for her sister Celestia for playing her part to get them this far.
Discord twisted this around. Not much, but enough to plant a seed that would grow in time when the trigger was activated. There were the beginnings of hatred for her kinsman, determination to make things as beautiful as she could, and the start of jealousy for her sister.
It was obvious that this was meant to be a failsafe in the event that he was defeated. Not a failsafe to ensure his return, but a way to get back at them should they succeed ending in his reign. In other words, a contingency plan designed to get the last laugh. And he did indeed laugh as he did this. It was Cold, grating, and sociopathic bordering on sadism. I couldn’t hear it, but I could sense it in that same omnipresent way one gets when they are underwater. It wasn’t so much of a crushing pressure, but enough of a feeling of wetness to let you know that breathing wasn’t an option at the time.
I stood corrected; apparently Discord could be subtle in at least some capacity. Still, the only reason he did that was because he was arrogant and overconfident enough to assume that the sisters were just blowing smoke. If he had known at the time of how wrong he was, then there was no way he would have gone for something that was, to him, so minor and effortless.
The trigger was set, primed and as he left Luna’s mind, he was struck down and imprisoned within stone. The memory dulled even more before it faded entirely. That was just fine. I already knew what the stone prison was the result of anyway.
My eyes were unfocused on the living world around me, a result of viewing that memory. Or any of Discord’s memories, now that I gave a passing thought to it.
Regardless, my gaze was still fixated on the little stuffed alicorn doll I had continued to hold onto throughout my episode. If I was holding it gently before, I was holding as if it was an egg with a paper-thin shell now. Slowly, gently, I ran what passes for a thumb on my bear paw over the side of the doll’s head. It was a reassuring touch, as if you were telling a child that everything was going to be okay in the end.
Because what I saw at that point in time wasn’t a doll, or any other type of toy you give to a young child. No, what I was holding in my talon at the time was more than that. It represented the dreams and hopes of two sisters. These were the same dreams and hopes that due to a single act of malice, and in the name of getting a laugh of all things, were torn asunder and crushed into dust in the single most sadistic way imaginable.
My vision grew blurry as my eyes misted over, and I felt my mouth twist into a snarl as I hugged the doll to my chest before the first of the hot tears began to soak into my fur. I felt my entire frame shaking as I drew in a ragged breath along with the tightness in my chest as I felt the burning coals of anger smolder in my heart.
I let my last breath out and drew in another as I whispered with pure demonic venom the only two words that summed up what I was feeling in full:
“You…Bastard.”
And that’s as far as I got before I broke down into quiet sobbing and tears. I was already on a hair trigger when it came to my emotions considering all that had occurred lately. Truth be told, I was actually thankful that I was crying like a complete wuss. It was better than doing something stupid like destroying the tower I was in or, even worse, tearing the doll I was still holding to shreds out of some misguided way of venting steam.
Yes, grown men cry sometimes. And I was no exception. Despite how I look now, I was still human.
The thing about weeping is that it tends to dilate your perception of time. By the time the last of my tears stopped, it felt as if a few hours had passed instead of only ten minutes. A false perception that I was quickly reminded of when I took note of the shadows cast due to the mid-morning to early-afternoon sunlight filtering in though the numerous cracks and holes that littered the stone walls and deteriorating roof.
Drying the remaining dampness out of my fur, I looked back down to the doll clutched to my chest in the same manner of a father comforting a newborn babe. Lifting it back up to eye level, I gently caressed it, and wherever I made contact all the damage time had done to it reversed. It was like watching a master seamstress patch up a superficial hole in a pair of jeans, as in that the thread that they used seemed to have a mind of its own.
In short order, it was back to being like nothing had ever had happened to it at all. In fact, and perhaps it was just my imagination, but it almost looked like it was a little happier than what it would have been back when it actually was new.
Sighing while running my bear paw through my hair to vent the last of my pent up emotion, I had a particularly brilliant thought strike me from out of nowhere.
Patting down my cloak, I located where I had stored my current gains and pulled out the silver hair brooch.
Looking it over for a moment, I willed the emerald out of its setting, and then got to work with the silver itself. By my estimates, there would be just enough for what I had planned. Levitating the silver and willing it to melt down, I created a small necklace with a pendant large enough to house the emerald, with a button was placed just above the recess and a small oblong hole on the bottom edge of the mounting.
Setting the emerald into the recess, I proceeded to enchant it and commit both the physical and magical construction to memory so that I could make more of them as needed.
But this first one was intended for a single recipient. Therefore, without ceremony but not lacking any true tenderness, I slid the necklace onto the little alicorn before I pocketed it as well.
Hopefully it will find its way back to Luna someday; perhaps it would serve her as a memory of a happier time.
“If nothing el-” My musing was immediately cut off by my hands clamping over my mouth and my eyes going wide along with it.
I probably didn’t notice it before due to my emotional breakdown, but that wasn’t my voice I had just spoken in. That was the voice of Discord, and there was no way in hell I was going to let that slide!
Thankfully, it was an easy fix. Placing my bear paw on my throat, I gave a flex of my will, and the voice I had before this whole fiasco started was retuned in short order.
With that settled, I just let my gaze travel over the remains of the room, soaking it all in before my journey truly started. I was about ready to turn and make my exit when I saw something form out of the corner of my eye.
I froze for a second out of instinct before I remembered that this place had long fallen into ruin. It couldn’t have been a pony, the tocking of hooves would have given them away, and unless they were unrealistically skilled fliers I would have heard the beating of wings and the disturbance of the air around me.
Relaxing my stance, I looked to where I had seen whatever it was, my curiosity now piqued. On closer inspection, it was just a length of shadow cast by the rays of the sun that streamed in through the window. Walking over to the corner where the shadows were housed, I peered deeper into it, hoping that whatever secret it held could be divined. It didn’t take long for me to realize that there was something else in those shadows, as was revealed to me by my piercing gaze.
It was darker than the rest of the shade that surrounded it. And it was thicker as well, made up of some sort of grainy mist-like substance that clung onto itself like a drowning man would with a bolder in an ultimately useless attempt to not be swept away by whatever current was trying to claim him.
And while I certainly believed that this did require further investigation, it did not merit throwing safety into the wind like a naive fool would.
Casting a small scanning spell and silently musing that I would most likely be heavily dependent on it from here on out, I found that whatever this thing was, it was nothing more than an echo. But if there is one thing I’ve learned about echoes is that if you take the time and make the effort to silence yourself and listen with due attention and respect to them, they can divulge all sorts of secrets and valuable information.
Deducing that the echo was safe to investigate further, I held out my talon and after a brief hesitation, placed it into the center of the mass. The physical sensation that came from doing this was not a pleasant one by any means. While it did not hurt in the slightest, it conjured the image of plunging your hand into the chest cavity of a cold, rotting corpse. But before I could pull my talon out as the result of instinctual revulsion, I felt something latch on. Not strongly or in any physical sense, but weak to the point where it almost felt like a few tendrils of an old cobweb.
With the last of its meager strength, the echo passed on an incomplete impression of what had happened to render it in this state before dissipating like the morning fog would on a swelteringly hot day and fading from existence altogether.
Then I was subjected to another vision. Only this time, instead of being visual in nature, it was completely within the confines of my own mind; playing back like a corrupted video feed. It didn’t take very long before the vision was over, leaving me with a slight headache and a small amount of dizziness.
It wasn’t enough to prevent me from pacing back and forth while I tried to make sense of the fragments that I had been shown.
Unlike last night, my pacing seemed to do little more than make my headache slightly worse, even if the dizziness had passed by now. So, switching tactics, I stopped and instead opted to just stand there with my eyes closed and my senses dulled enough to weed out any unnecessary background noise while still remaining sharp enough to pick up on anything that may prove to be a threat.
And while the likelihood of anything or anyone stumbling across me would virtually if not completely non-existent given my current location, I wouldn’t have been doing myself any favors by getting into the habit of completely lowering my guard whenever I thought I was safe.
At any rate, while I was standing there, my headache subsided and I began to piece together and hammer out the timeline and reasoning of what had occurred.
As an individual, I have always believed in separating the wheat from the chaff whenever I reasonably could. So it came to no surprise that the majority of what I had been shown was glanced over before being discarded as either to fragmented to make out, or serving no purpose due to the fact that it had no bearing on my current situation.
What was left was a gold mine. It was an incomplete goldmine perhaps, but one that held valuable information all the same.
Now that I had it all figured out, I flexed my will again without opening my eyes and watched the relevant events that I had pieced together as best as I could.
The first thing that I saw was the choppy, grainy grayscale images of six ponies. There were two of each species, although I couldn’t tell what their gender was or any identifiable marks beyond that. From my viewpoint, or rather the viewpoint of whomever the echo used to be at the time, one of the unicorns walked around the other five depositing stones at their hooves. All the while, they were monologuing, although I couldn’t make out anything that wasn’t static whenever they spoke.
There was a burst of static that blotted out my view for a moment before the scene shifted. Five of the ponies were now adorned with necklaces, while the sixth had a tiara of all things placed firmly atop their head. There was another quick burst of static and an equally quick scene where a gigantic rainbow came crashing down over me like a vengeful tsunami. Then there was another burst of static before a white flash filled my gaze before my vision faded to black and I saw no more.
I paused for a moment, taking a deep breath to take my will back to neutral before I reopened my eyes. It would appear that Celestia and Luna were no longer bound the Elements and they’ve chosen new Bearers as a result. And to make matters worse, I had no idea who they were, only what species they are. I could easily come across them, talk to them, eat a meal with them, hug them, and not even know that they were a Bearer all along.
So now I had to keep an eye and ear out for anyone who may have information pertaining to their identities, to say nothing of the actual bearers themselves.
I knew that Luna had been freed and cleansed, Discord had heard as much while he was still in the slammer, but what he didn’t hear was how that had occurred. It would make sense to keep a fact like that away from him. There is no need to let an imprisoned enemy in on your secrets after all.
Based on what I had already known and what I had gained now, it wasn’t much of a leap to assume how that happened.
At any rate, this complicated matters even if it did nothing to change the amount of danger and the overall situation I was currently in. Speaking of which, I had stayed in the ruins and the Everfree in general for longer than I had meant to. I needed to get moving. I had to move fast, I had to move as frequently and erratically as I could, as often as possible, and I needed to cover my tracks for as long as I was capable of doing so.
Not wasting any time, I moved beneath a stream of sunlight filtering through a hole in the roof. Taking a moment to look up at the blue sky, I idly thought for a moment on how before this had happened, it never in a million years would have occurred to me that something so warm and inviting could hold such a heavy presence as it did now.
Reactivating my active camo and having it encompass the cloak I was wearing as well as me, I crouched. Then I leaped, rocketing myself out of the tower before spreading my wings and flying off, leaving only a disturbed cloud dust to fill the room and mark my passing.
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Doll was a nice touch.
Yay update I really hope the sisters in time will be able to tell that he isn't discord
Hmm, interesting story. I look forward to seeing where it goes. I don't quite understand the protagonist not using Discord's powers to just make anything rather than searching for stuff though.
7241398
But he has all of Discord's memories, powers, and appearance. Not to mention he took his place. For all intents and purposes, he is Discord, just with a new leaf. Redeemed basically. So the question is, can he convince them that being in stone for so long has reformed him, and he seeks to right all the wrongs he hath wrought? It's not... unreasonable to make that assumption, that he could be reformed, is it?
I'm really liking this so far, especially Alexanders personality. Despite the fact that he's been so radically changed, he still refers to himself as human because he still has what makes him, Him, his mind and morals.
Looking forward to see where you take this.
Also somethings I noticed:
Should be:
Should be:
Should be:
Should all be:
I need more of this story! Is soooooo good!
7242636 Canon Celestia didn't seem to have any problem with Sombra getting blown up... and certainly didn't try to reform Tirek... and directly tried to blast Chrysalis to ash...
So, why is she soft on Discord?
The ONLY reason that makes sense is that despite his tricks, his form of 'cruelty' is actually very mild.
Considering his powers, he could be unstoppable and vicious beyond imagination if he simply chose to slaughter anything that stood up to him. For whatever reason, whether it's just because it's writing for a kids' show, or if there's a legitimate character-driven rationale, Discord never kills or even tortures ponies. This would suggest a hint of restrain and mercy within him, perhaps an aspect of his personality he'd been hiding the entire time. One could invent all manner of backstory reasons as to why that might be, but the fact that he's nowhere near as wicked as he could be remains as a pointed case upon which to base the decision to attempt reforming him.
I wish the episode KCaFO had gone into Celestia's reasoning even a little. Or at least follow up on it in subsequent episodes. As it is, it's one of several completely arbitrary events in the show without any reasoning still languishing in the overriding narrative.
Good. Good. Moar kind sir, Moar.
More please!