Agents of Discord

by Scarlett Haze

Dreams of the Past

"I am getting sick of waiting!" I yelled out to the air. I felt like nothing was getting accomplished, and I was ready to just sleep. But I can't sleep, because I need to wait for Linda and get back inside our base. But if I don't sleep, I'll become paranoid. But I'm already paranoid from Discord constantly poking fun at me and taunting me at every turn-

"SHUT UP HEAD!" I finally screamed and beat it once with my hoof. I had been going down a spiral of madness since I came here. A slow, annoying, constantly sawing madness. I really needed to relax, and sadly, the moment that would happen is when I know that either Discord or this 'whatever-is-floating-around-in-my-head' named Luna would try and pull something. I could only do so much with faking that I wasn't getting sick of the constant pressure that was on me.

It didn't help either that I realized that I let in three dogs into the secret base that I had found, all three ready to slice my throat off the moment that they stopped being exhausted. All I could do was wait at the other edge of the bridge for Linda, and then, perhaps, have some sense of peace.

***

Discord, again.

Just letting you know.

At this point, I had my talon bit by Bait, and let me tell you, he bites hard. When I had gotten away, I had to restrain myself from bawling like a little child in front of Conquest and Messenger! Do you realize what would happen if your servants see you crying? Complete and hostile takeover, THAT'S WHAT! The night was still fresh, and with the threat of Luna being in the same town of the hospital that we were currently in, it would take a miracle for a distraction to take place.

"Hey! There's been a breakout at Ponyville Asylum!"

I felt my heart leap for joy as I heard all available hands begin to panic from the possibility of wackos escaping their cells and reeking untold havoc on the town. However, I had to remain focused, we had a castle to rebuild and a setting for when the end would finally start.

"Here's the plan, Conquest, you will be sent back to Canterlot so you can rebuild the castle. I want it put back together as if nothing happened to it, just so we can all enjoy the confusion of the ponies when they all wake up!" I watched Conquest as he slowly nodded. Putting the pony on my shoulder and sticking my head out the window, I took careful aim and threw the unicorn in the direction of Canterlot.

He'd be off by about... a lot, but I was sure he'd get back in time for my next step when I entered the castle itself. The next part was Messenger. The poor girl had no other mission, all she was designated towards was for sending the message out to the town, and it was already completed.

I leaned down to her and sighed, "Not much need for somepony to shout and holler, when the entire town is already abuzz. I do hope you understand, I can't let you go. It's not a personal thing, it's not like I like you, but you simply know too much."

I gave her a glance and shut one eye, using my imagination for a moment. "You talk a big talk, but what if you can write? No risk, no chance of capture, and the potential to make this a global news situation..."

While no light shown in her eyes, I could tell that I hit a trigger. That's good. I didn't want some simple little invitational thing to be sent out. I'd do it, but at the same time, you have to show that sometimes you're serious about something. I looked out the window, yet again, to see the gray mailmare again. Despite the order I gave her to convince those six annoying pests of Harmony, she seemed to still show signs of confusion. It was certainly interesting, having complete control over a pony, and still seeing it struggle with whatever brain cells they had.

"Wild Card... I guess I hit the nail on the head with that one. No idea what she's going to be doing..." I muttered to myself. Thankfully, I knew Plan B would at least know what she needed to do. When she was ready, she would bring back the girl. I could see the reaction on Bait's face, his heroics and snide attitude would be turned to despair and rage. It would be so delicious.

I looked back down at the talon he bit as I thought, and I flexed it. Something seemed off, as I had told Bait, no pony had even touched me. Celestia and Luna had to use magic in order to fight me, never had a chance to get close to me. I began to wonder, if I really was losing my touch. I joked in my head that I was getting old and decrepit before, but now... I began to worry. I couldn't shut off that feeling, as hard as I tried, it wouldn't leave. I clenched my talon and paw into fists and released them, I had so much power, and a simple boy that I had brought over was making me nervous? I could do so much to him in an instant, and I could do it so fast.

But where would the fun in that be?

***

From the other end, I saw Linda being followed by a large group of ponies. I gave a smile to them all before trying to walk with Linda to the entrance.

"Pretty neat bridge," Linda commented, looking at me with her green eyes.

"Yeah, the workers are resting inside. Hopefully, the ponies won't mind dogs," I sighed.

A presence split between Linda and myself, Trixie had made her way to the front with us. "Are you two crazy? Giving a town weapons?! These ponies were all locking themselves into their houses from an Ursa Minor, and you think that this group of rag-taggers can fight off the God of Chaos?"

I looked up at the moon, it was so full, so white, and oddly, very familiar to me. "You have us, and we have ourselves," I said, feeling everything finally catch-up to me as I passed out.

***

“Thank you for calling AT&T, can I get your name and account number for security purposes?” I droned out the opening line, the same line that had been beaten into my head since I began training for the job. It had already been a month of hell, between getting on phones and getting yelled at by people and going to training and getting pelted with having to learn what new offers we were going to start and why it was important.

It really wasn't.

“Greg Ashur, account number is... 985402389.” The person calling in sounded like a reasonable gentlemen, hopefully I wouldn't need to help him out too much. “I'm reading this advertisement that new customers get phone, internet, and TV for $69.99 a month for two years. And I'm getting the same products for $79.99, so I want you to move me into the advertised price, or I'm disconnecting.”

Of course. If they aren't yelling at you incoherently, they were calling in to get free things. I hate scum like them. I accessed his account information and looked over what he originally signed for. “Very well, let me see what is available for offering in re-enrollment of our services. According to this you have an older bundle, and a re-enrollment for keeping you at the lowest rate available to you, 79.99, I can increase the internet speed and update your TV package.”

“No, I want the package for 69.99.” Greg stubbornly responded, already giving me the sound of disappointment and frustration in his voice I had become too familiar with.

“Well, that's what I have in regards for re-enrollment as an already existing customer with AT&T.” I said as I readjusted my headset for a brief moment, “I can either give you the re-enrollment offer of 79.99 a month for two years, with the increase of internet speed and TV packaging, which will give you a better experience of our internet service by increasing the download and upload speeds to 15/5 and 25 more channels that will become available to you, or you can keep what you have, and still pay the 79.99 you've already been paying for.” I don't bend over easily, especially not for bullheaded morons that can't understand what 'New Customer Offer' meant.

“You're not even trying to get me that offer, I'd like to speak to your manager, right now.” The adrenaline shot of anger and madness went through me, I wanted to yell at this guy that he doesn't even deserve the prices he was getting, all of the notes saying he was mistreating representatives, the profane language he used on a constant basis, and now that he was speaking with me in a professional tone, he felt that he deserved a reward for doing nothing.

Assholes. All of them that call in.

“Alright, I do want you to be aware that my manager uses the same system and will see the same offers that I am looking at right now. The wait for a manger is just about five minutes if you are willing to wait.” I, however, am a gentlemen. I am the bigger man and am willing to let a manager give this prick whatever he damn well pleases.

“Yes, I will. Thank You.” Greg said, prompting my finger to place him on hold and put my hands in my face, moaning in frustration.

“Another sup call? Geez, are you insulting all the customers that call in, or are all of them managing just to get you?” Richard asked as he rolled from his hole to talk to me.

My fingers clacked on the phone pad as I opened the second line to be waiting for a supervisor to pick up, “I don't know, all of these people that have called in the past few days have all been asking for the same thing. 'I want a free DVR', 'I want you to waive these phone charges I made on purpose, I mean, accidentally to Italy', 'I want you to make my bill lower, but not remove anything because I don't know how economics works.' All of it the same fucking thing.”

Richard gave me a shrug and rolled back into his office compartment to handle a customer that called in. Leaving me to the elevator hold music and my slowly developing dementia.

“For the money, Quentin, for the money. You can't go postal yet until you have at least $50,000 dollars to your name and a fake ID.” I whispered to myself as I took a drink of 'Mr. Pibb' and let the caffeine try to keep me from losing my mind.

“This is Ripley.” A voice came on and I tried to recompose myself.

“Yes, this is Quentin, badge number 49874, I'm handling account number 985402389, under Greg Ashur.” I waited quietly as I heard the sound of a tacking keyboard and an annoyed sigh. Ripley and I were not in the best of work buddies, and it was only because he continually threatened to fire myself and Richard for any wrong that we have done.

Richard and myself are however the most notoriously clean workers in the building, with no late clock-ins, never being under goal for sales, and being the friendliest dudes with our other coworkers. We were both uncontrollable and unstoppable, something we would both remark to each other from time to time.

“Alright, and how can I assist Greg today?” Ripley asked, already letting out his disappointment seep through the phone.

“Greg has an advertisement for the new customer promotion for landline, internet, and TV for $69.99, and he wants that offer. I did attempt to inform him that for the same price he is paying for right now, he can get the 15/5 internet and 1st Tier TV with his current phone plan for $79.99 which is the same price for his 10/3, 2011 1st Tier TV, and phone. He refused the offer and is still wanting the new customer promotion, asked for a supervisor. I did inform him that you had access to the same offers and that I was giving him the best offer available to him.” I don't leave anything out in my details, much to the frustration and amazement of every supervisor in the building.

“Alright, you already left your notes as I see, go ahead and bring him over.” Ripley said, and without thought, I had already pressed the 'Xfr' button on the phone and leaned back in my chair. “Only twenty more people, and the day is over. Just hold on, Quentin.”

“Will the agents of segment 'B' please sign out for meeting? There is a meeting to be held in the Conner Conference room. Once you wrap up your calls, go to Conner Conference room!” A walker yelled out, giving me a hope of escape, as I went to sign out, the phone beeped at me, telling me another customer was calling in. I clenched a fist and tried not to swear as I went into my loop.

“Thank you for calling AT&T, can I get your name and account number for security purposes?” My computer pulled up an account and I paused for a moment. The account wasn't the normal white screen with words saying who the person was, showing what they had, and it wasn't the search screen that sometimes popped up when there wasn't any information that they gave when they repeatedly jammed on '0'.

The screen was the same format as an existing customer, but it had two ovals, yellow with red irises, the background color being an odd shade of brown, heavily grayed. The name read 'D. Chord', the billing information said that he owed '17,AP♫', and he only had internet services with us...

Someone was fucking with me on purpose and probably watching right now to see if I would slip up.

“Of course, I am Discord. My account number is...” A random set of sounds came blasting into my ears, ranging from cars starting up to cricket chirping. Yeah, I was getting screwed around with. However, I wasn't going to get mad, it had to be a test of my patience, that Ripley was trying to get me fired.

“Alright, and how may I be able to assist you today Mr. Chord?” My eyebrow rose up, my natural instinct whenever I was curious about something.

“Well, I'm actually conducting a social experiment on over-the-phone customer service representatives. I want you to answer a few questions for me.” This guys voice seemed to drip with confidence and ease, it was kinda relaxing for a moment. I kept my guard up, unsure about what was going to happen.

“All right, that's what I'm hired for, really, to answer questions.” I looked around briefly to see if I could see any telltale signs of someone watching me. “Lay 'em on me.”

“Good. Now, tell me, how happy are you with your work?” He hit the right question, I had to answer without sounding like I didn't need this job, because I did.

“I'm still getting used to the job, I've only been here for about a month, but I've been feeling good about it.” I wasn't lying, at least, not entirly. I don't like 98% of the people that call in, but the 2% that actually had a problem and was gracious enough to stay on the phone to say that I actually do a good job made the day of angry men and shrill women worth it. I had actually been working at the company for a good four months and the pay was exceptional for minimum wage plus concessions.

“Do you dislike any of your coworkers?” Something about the voice wanted me to release the call and not answer, something about this was fishy. I couldn't give up though, not if it was some sort of trap set for me.

“I've developed a good relationship with a lot of the workers here, some of them don't quite like me, but I don't let it disturb me.” I had to play carefully, whoever this guy was, he was planning something. It may actually be for a project, but paranoia hasn't failed me entirely.

“Would you rather go on vacation with your friends, or by yourself?” I noticed the screen was flickering slightly, the power cord had a bad time trying to stay in its place but the screen of the bright colors seemed to mesh and blend each flicker that happened. I could even swear that those ovals were blinking from time to time.

“I would like to go on vacation with a group rather than alone. Makes late night partying a blast.” The last sentence slipped out, my sarcasm was a very cruel one, only lashing out when I least expected it. The guy on the other end seemed to laugh it off, my eyes again whirling around the area to see if anyone was looking in at me or acting suspiciously.

“So you would say that you are honest, kind, loyal, generous, fun, or all of the above?” He was leading up to that question, the stress on it was heavier than the other ones he asked. I started thinking carefully about it. I didn't pull punches when telling my buddies if they were doing something stupid, so I checked honesty in the list. Kind? Well, I have had plenty of times that I had to boost moral in a group, that's similar to kindness, right? Loyal. Damn straight I am. In a bar fight, I wouldn't be afraid to step up against some beefed biker guy if he was hassling someone I knew. Generous... I'm a little hesitant on it, only because I'm debating whether or not making time in my schedule for hanging out at a friend's house counts. I'm the wild card when it comes to fun anywhere I go, so the answer ranges from yes to YES.

“All of the above would be the best answer.” I finally said, giving a good ten second debate into the generosity portion. If you'd like to see a report card, blow me.

“Excellent. Thank you very much for the talk.” The voice said, as my screen went black. The power button however still read that it was on. These computers didn't have a screen saver, so I was already believing that I had lost my mind. “And I will get to talk with you again, very soon.”

The computer and screen both blasted into a sparking mess in front of me, making me fall out of my chair and scream. The cord attached to the phone made the entire thing hit my knee, hitting it in the funny bone and almost bringing me to tears. “What the hell did you do, Quentin?!” Ripley was behind me already, this was his chance, I was so screwed.

“I didn't do jack!” I managed to get out from my clenched teeth, trying their best to keep myself from howling in agony. I got up and surveyed the damage, the screen had burst out, as if something punched a hole through the plastic of the flat screen. Thankfully no liquid acid junk got on my shirt, my pants however were less lucky and caught a fair amount of the black goo that leaked on the table. The computer was also destroyed, the front cover of it flew off and hit a wall, the side panel had a giant dent in it, and finally the inside of the computer was charred beyond any recognition.

“Get our security guys to check the cameras, we may be dealing with explosives.” Ripley whispered to a floor walker as he went out towards the security department. Ripley kept looking at me, upset because of the situation, but he believed me when I told him that I was an innocent victim. “I'm not going to be able to get you signed back into another computer in order to finish your work schedule. So, go to your meeting and then wait in the break room until it's time to clock out.” Ripley walked into the supervisor meeting room and shut the door, I wouldn't have blamed him for doing so. I'd be pissed if someone I wanted fired was part of an attack and didn't get hurt.

Going into the bathroom and shoving as much of my pant leg into the sink in order to get the crap off, I began to recollect the last sentence the guy said to me before the fireworks display of monitor and computer went off. He said that he was going to talk with me again, so could this have been done by someone I knew?

“Well done, damaging company equipment is more than enough to get you out of this place.” My eyebrows went down in anger automatically, the voice of Bradford Godwin, son of the building owner, can do that to anyone. I pulled my pant leg out of the sink and set it next to the drain on the floor so the water could run out.

“Do you honestly believe that I would rig my own monitor and computer to blow up and quite possibly kill me?” I asked as I tried to balance my other leg into the sink, “If I was mad enough to do such a crime, I'd have done it on your computer,” our eyes locked as I finished my sentence, “just enough to make you get your head out of your ass.”

He went to throw a punch, my right leg whipping up from the sink ready to meet him. I didn't take Tae Kwon Do lessons to be the cool kid that learned martial arts, I did it to show idiots like him that he didn't have power to take me down, physically or mentally. I held my leg next to Bradford's head before pulling it back to the ground and putting it next to the drain. “You will be removed from this building, I already have a good majority of the supervisors agreeing with me that you don't deserve to be here.” Here we go, old argument, same spiel.

I shook my legs out of any water as Bradford continued to menace and harass me, talking about how he was the most influential person in the building, how his father would do anything for him, what he would do to celebrate my day of being drummed out. All things I heard over and over again from other obnoxious rich pricks and privileged chumps that only managed to get where they were by being connected by someone else with influence.

“Great to hear,” I interrupted the drawn out speech of Bradford with an uninterested wave and began walking away, he grabbed me by the shoulder and spun me to face him again.

“Don't you dare go away from me while I'm talking to you!” He screamed, showing his childish whining at me, believing he could intimidate me. I only got closer at Bradford and tapped my teeth together in an unamused smile.

“Watch me, silver spoon ass.” I stepped back and exited the bathroom into an area that was not watched over by any cameras. If Bradford was going to try anything, it would be here, but I knew he was too scared to fight me, he would rather carry on with his scheme of trying to break me by throwing his power on managers to push me out of the way. And all because I made him look bad after he made a callous mistake when he mentioned to our class as a team leader that he didn't need to take any supervisor calls that was deemed unnecessary.

After I corrected him, he got defensive and started saying that I didn't know anything about the company or its policies. What was trained and what was agreed by everyone in attendance was that any time a customer requested a supervisor, they would not be denied, even if they could not secure their accounts. It caused a stir in the building, and it turned out that any supervisor call that Bradford took was dropped once they were transferred over. He got put down as a representative, only because his father still believed that his son could still be a quality worker for the company.

And I was the one that was being considered to be released?

I reached the Conner Conference room and set myself in the corner with Richard, looking down at my wet pants and then back up at me. “Did a toilet jump out and throw up on you?”

“Ha, ha, ha. No. A computer screen tried to make my skin melt off.” I was a bit upset still from Bradford and gave a half-growl and sigh. “Sorry, I just had a run-in with Daddy's boy, so forgive me if I'm not in the best of moods from nearly dying and then seeing him.”

We both looked over as Bradford entered the conference room with his normal group, each of them were slime in a different way. It didn't help that they were all managers or senior representatives that I wanted to strangle. We knew the meeting was about the immediate removal of unneeded workers, so this was going to be an interesting piece of debate. My eyes still locked on Bradford's as Ripley entered the room.

"Thank you all for coming to today's meeting. As you are aware, our company hasn't been receiving as many calls as they have and sales have also been extremely low." Ripley didn't have his usual 'oomph' of frustration that he carried with him everywhere, and that was enough to make me look in his direction and almost double take.

Ripley looked like shit. His hair was grey, his skin was pale, and the most noticeable thing was that he was wearing glasses. The only time I had ever seen Ripley wear glasses was when he was interviewing me before I got hired, and he gave away that it was only meant to look professional for those interviews and that was it. I had practically ignored everything else that he had said until I heard my name.

"E-excuse me, what?"

Bradford was grinning ear-to-ear. I looked at the room and all of them were staring at me. What did I miss?

"As I have stated before, Mr. Clemens, due to the situation that we need to follow on both work ethic and seniority, you, Richard, and a few more of our recent hires are to be released."

"Work ethic and seniority?!" I yelled, bashing my fist into the large table that we were all sitting around in. "How about you check it again, because I and Richard have been the leaders of sales for this month! If you want someone to fire, take Bradford out! He's been in the position that we've been in for just as long!"

"Quentin, please. I've been here for two years, stop acting like a child and get out," Bradford cockily chuckled.

I jumped on the table and tackled the son of a bitch into the wall and started punching his ribs and face, his friends were already there to try and fight me off, but I had given them a small piece of my fist to them as well before going for the door. I got to my car and started it up as I saw our residential fat man security officer try to drag himself to me before I escaped.

I peeled out of the parking lot and into the nearest highway. The radio blasting loudly and my speed at a consistent 66 miles an hour. I didn't care where I was going, just far enough away from those fucking bastards that didn't know how to keep a good worker with them. I had fucked up.

When I had enough sense, I made a turn in the direction of my house and stopped at the nearest bar. I never had alcohol before, in fact that was the only thing that was straight in my life. It didn't matter anymore. Now I had no job, and probably the company's personal police force out to arrest me and make my life a worse hell.

I just sat at a barstool and laid there for awhile until the bartender came up to me.

"Jesus, man, what'd you do, get hit with a rock?"

I sighed, I really didn't want to talk at all. "I've got twenty dollars and my adrenaline is running low, do your worst."

He just kept looking at me before he started to mix up something and setting a shot glass in front of me. It looked so beautiful.

"One .46 Magnum," he said with solace.

"Cool, I get the drink that wants me to commit suicide, fuckin' brilliant." I sat up and with no regard downed the sucker in one gulp. My head hit my arm on the bar and I started shaking, the universal sign of something bad that had or was going to happen. And, by God, this was it.

"Rough day?" A voice asked.

"Like none other in the world," I flatly responded. Still laying down in the comfort of my sheltered arm. Call me crazy, but I could feel a lot of weird energy as I could tell the guy I talked to sat down next to me.

"Listen, I'm only going to be in town for awhile. I've been meaning to giveaway a little something to someone like you. If you want it, I'll leave it here for you, otherwise, you can just let the next guy come in and take it." His voice sounded so elegant, so confident. I heard the crinkle of paper and the presence next to me leave as I looked up to see what he left. It was nothing more than a paper lunch sack.

Curiosity forced me to tilt the bag in my direction and then yank the bag closer from what I saw.

A lot of freaking money. I could read on some of the labels that it read out for $5,000 per roll and there had to at least be three of them in it!

I felt a lot of thoughts go at me. "Dump it out, count each bill, return it to the bank where this was stolen, keep it," all of those thoughts except to just leave the bag there. I gripped the bag tightly and then walked out of the bar and back into my car.

"-And by request, here is Manilla Road with 'Into The Courts Of Chaos'" The radio DJ spoke up as the song began to play. I felt a little better, ignoring all instinct to run, I was ready to go home and sleep. With this money I could actually hold out for awhile longer, and maybe... Maybe I will buy that ring I've been wanting to get for Linda.

Comments

[Paddec]

Nice new update

[Extremely boring name]

I like this, I like it alot.

it shall be compared with the next story to be posted in my group :D