Life's Annoying Paradox: Perception is Reality

by CDR

Ch.2 Unexpected Inspiration

Entry #4
-Date of entry; December 19th, 2011
-Date of event(s); 1,500-ish years before Nightmare Moon's banishment

Harmonous walked through the winding halls of the castle only slightly aware of the passage of time. His mind was struggling with a particularly frustrating question: Would he live as long as Celestia? The question had arisen while they were discussing the lifespans of the other species that resided within equestria.

He assumed the answer was yes, but the oddity of his existence denied him certainty on that account. Where as he might live forever as himself, doing so would deprive his friends of living each of their own lives; none of them were alicorns, meaning they would probably live mortal lives - possibly a little longer than most, but not eternal like he could.

Harmonous stopped for a second and sighed.

"How old are we all again?" he wondered out loud.

A few of the ponies walking by him flicked their eyes towards him as they passed, momentarily interested before they continued on their ways.

Let's see now... Fin is thirty, Hal is thirty-eight, that leaves Tom who's forty-six. Now, add those altogether... carry the one... giving me a combined age of... one-hundred and fourteen? he figured, remembering not to voice his thoughts this time.

Harmonous stopped again, this time the thought of his age causing him to cringe. Losing his concentration for a second, he felt himself begin to drift apart.

No! he thought, quickly regaining his composure and concentration. They'd think something was wrong if I allowed myself to split now. Not to mention it would scare the hell out of everypony in sight.

He started on his way again, mentally berating himself for slipping up over such a small thing.

---

Harmonous wandered through the castle gardens, before sitting down on a nearby bench. Looking around, he sighed - this time thankfully. There was nopony around here, which meant he could think out loud without worry.

After a moment, he spoke, "Of course there's nopony around here, I'm one of the few who dare to come near this statue."

Nearby sat the statue in question. It was quite tall, perhaps four times his height, but relatively thin. It’s form was lithe. Some ponies would think it odd that others would be afraid of such a statue, but then they would usually pale when the rest of the description was given.

Though there wasn't a pony alive today other than the Royal Sisters that knew what had happened, rumors and stories about the statue were still floating around. Originally he hadn't given the statue a second though the first time he had seen it. While incredibly detailed and life-like, he had never considered that such a creature might actually exist.

Stopping his mind from wandering for a moment, he thought back. No, he hadn't seen it himself. It had been Fin, Hal, and Tom that had seen it. Each had more or less the same thought regarding the statue, but those thoughts combined where his memory.

After seeing the looks and mannerisms of those ponies that had to pass by the statue, even going so far as to ask one of them what they seemed afraid of, he went and asked the sisters about the statue. At first they had given him a roundabout answer that would have normally been used in calming the occasional inquisitive pony.

But Harmonous knew better: just by standing near the cold stone figure he could feel that the statue was different. He had interrupted them as they spoke and told them what he had felt. They had both paled slightly with shocked looks upon their faces.

Turning to each other, they conversed in whispers before turning back to their friend. “I supposed there is no real harm in it then,” Spoke Celestia, before they divulged the statue’s true origins.

Thinking back on it some more, Harmonous chuckled. Before him was the petrified form of a being that could do anything that came to mind, but yet had still been imprisoned for his actions. This statue was all that remained of what had once been Discord, the very spirit of chaos and disharmony.

Harmonous did not fear him like most ponies did, nor did he fear him like the sisters did. He had realized rather quickly that even though Discord was inherintly evil, he still served a purpose. Whether or not Discord agreed with the purpose Harmonous thought he served was of little importance to the alicorn. Discord existed to balance out part of the world. Just as day and night balanced each other out, so to must their order be balanced by chaos.

Discord was necessary, of this Harmonous was sure. To kill him might very well have destroyed the world. The more he thought on it, the more he realized that everything that had happened, happened as it needed to. Even when something seemed horribly wrong, it was always just the way it needed to be. He stopped for a second and thought harder.

"Without sadness, how would we know what happiness is?"

Without anypony to answer his question, his mind returned to the original dilemma. He could try living on as if nothing was out of place, hoping that nothing bad would happen. But then what?

His friends would have to watch as everyone they knew died. Could he condemn them to a life like that just so that he could continue to exist? There had to be a better way.

Suddenly, Harmonous shuddered violently. [color#=4A2323]"The hay?" he exclaimed as he looked around. Freezing up, he turned slowly towards the statue of Discord. He scrutinized the surface. There was a crack in the tail, one that had not been there before.

"Oh horseapples!"

The alicorn rose to his hooves and cautiously trotted over to the statue. Leaning his horn in close to the crack, he began to focus his magic.

"You're not getting out of your prison that easily, Discord," he remarked as he calmed his mind.

Slowly the crack began to shrink, his magic working the split stone whole again. As quickly as it had appeared, the fracture was gone. Harmonous sighed.

"I really need to be more careful with my thoughts and emotions," he said as he continued to inspect the statue. He had to ensure that no other fractures had appeared.

As he was looking the statue over, an idea flashed through his mind. "I'm sure Celestia won't mind," he said, smirking. Again he focused his magic on the statue, this time doing his best to understand the spell that held Discord. He was slightly disappointed at what he found.

The sisters must not have thought to check and see how strong the spell was or how long it would last.

The spell essentially sealed Discord within a second of time, coated him in stone, and made him neigh indestructible for all intensive purposes. But it had nothing to deal with the magic that the spirit of chaos seemed to generate simply by existing. Nor did it have anything to keep outside magic from interfering or modifying the spell.

Well I can fix that, he thought.

Turning his magic on the statue for a third time, he began to weave the magic that was building up inside the stone into the spell itself. He hummed to himself while he worked, the seconds passing a little easier. Stepping back he examined his spellcraft three times over before finally settling back down on the bench.

"That should hold you for a couple hundred more years...oh horseapples," his elation suddenly turning to dread as he felt first burning then freezing hatred nearby. Turning around slowly, he found himself flanked by both Celestia & Luna. Celestia was the first to speak.

"Harmonous, please stand back," she stated while staring straight at the statue.

"Princess I can assure you-"

"I said: Stand back."

This time he moved without a word, watching as both sisters advanced to the statue, flanking it. Quickly their horns flared and engulfed Discord with magic. The resolute looks on their faces flashed to fear, then confusion, and finally to relief as they both took a step back.

In unison the sisters looked back at the slightly nervous pony, themselves slightly confused.

"Harmonous?" asked Luna, perplexed.

"I'm sorry if I scared you both,” he apologized, “I was mulling over something troubling and it apparently had an adverse affect on the spell holding Discord. So I took the liberty of repairing the damage. I even modified the spell so that it would use his own chaotic power against him to reinforce & refresh itself. It can now only be modified by either of you, or myself,” Harmonous beamed at the two sisters for his handiwork.

"Thank you Harmonous, but is the spell still linked to the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia asked.

"Yes, of course it is! Letting the spell run on only chaos would have been rather ignorant wouldn't you agree?" he returned, slightly unnerved.

Both Princesses visibly relaxed, looking at each other, then back at him.

"Thank you again, Harmonous. I hope you understand our apprehension regarding Discord," it was Luna that thanked him.

"Of course, I'm sorry to have disturbed you both with this," he said as he knelt before them.

"Well we'd best be off then," both sisters spoke in unison. They blinked, quickly looking at each other, then chuckling a bit as they made their way back into the castle.

"Now where was I?"

Harmonous turned to face the statue again. Suddenly his eyes lit up as an idea formed within his mind. He looked up, straight at the frozen form of Discord's face.

"Thank you Discord, I do believe you have solved my problem."

Harmonous got up and trotted back into the castle, making his way towards his room. He mulled the idea over in his head on the way, noting any preparations that would need to be made, and any other spells that might be required.

*.....*.....*.....*.....*.....

"Entries will usually be displayed in the order their events occurred, not in which they were written. Entry one is an exception to this because it has happened twice. I'd go farther into the details of this, but just trying to think of a way to explain it quickly is giving me a headache."

"Basically, we had the dream, went back in time, lived for about two-thousand five-hundred years, and then had the dream again, on the exact same day, in another world/universe/dimension/etc."

"I don't know if I should throttle you or thank you for that."

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