Those Forty Years

by Spell Writer

Unity 8 - Unheard

Unity grunts as the surge of magic comes out of her opponent. "What?! How?!" The sudden power-up Twilight got makes the spirit mortified! To her knowledge, things like this have to be approved. Events like this have to be influenced by Unity herself! They can't just spontaneously happen! Defeating Twilight's friend should have shattered her confidence, not made her get a power-up! No NO!

Unity quickly charges forward with her weapon. If she can catch Twilight off guard, she could end this in one strike! The larger alicorn may be stronger magically, but her physical strength should still be leagues below hers! Unity rushing in with extreme speed, striking towards Twilight!

The blow lands with a loud clunk, the blade getting stuck inside a barrier as the taller alicorn stares down at Unity. "I was talking to you," Twilight says with a glint in her eyes as sparks of magic surge over her body, reminiscent of when she contained the cumulative magic of all the alicorns in Equestria when she fought Tirek. That was ages ago, but the memory still burned bright in her head. It was her first and only real fight with something even slightly close to Unity's level. This time was different, though. Not only was the magic all hers, but she could easily manipulate and control it. Twilight felt at the peak of her life, but now wasn't the time to celebrate her newfound mastery of magic.

A flick of her horn causes the barrier to solidify, ripping the weapon out of Unity's magical grip. The blade clacks and clambers on the ground before skidding away, disappearing into a green light once it gets a distance away. Twilight's horn glows as another thin shield, this one with her brother's cutie mark, again blocks the blade. "You won't catch me off guard anymore, Unity." The shield moves rapidly as it easily blocks every attempt at hitting Twilight. Magic spells ricochet off it, blows bounce off with a loud TWANK, and the barrier shines after every flurry to taunt Unity.

"Stop it," Twilight says with a mumble. "Let's just stop, alright? There's been enough bloodshed for one lifetime." She says softly, Twilight wincing as she stands her ground. "Let's just. Talk." She says as she swings the floating shield at one of the blows, causing the weapon to fly again into the distance.

Unity snorts a little. "Talk then. You're just giving me more time to figure out a way around this anyway." She says with a smug expression. Internally, however, Unity's mind is racing for an opening or a method to get into Twilight's defense. It's clear to Unity that she cannot bait Twilight to continue fighting correctly, not with the defensive magic she has. No, Unity has to wait until the battlefield changes in some way.

Twilight sighs a little. "Why? Like really? Why? I get that your idea of harmony is what it is, but everyone thinks about taking over the world or doing something wrong! I've even thought, 'Hey, I can borrow this book from the library for an extra day. No one will miss it.' But my impulse control stops me from doing dumb stuff that will get me in trouble! So WHY?! You're supposed to be a force of good! You've told me stories about all the worlds you've helped all the people! You helped people get home when your brother's meddling stranded them out in the middle of nowhere! Where is that Unity?! The one that values balance, the one that did her job?! Where is that friend who shared long talks about nothing and who was by my side?! The one that helped me figure out my potential?!" She says with a glare.

Unity sighs a little. "Seriously? This again?" She shakes her head. "Twilight. I don't know when you thought I was your friend. I never was, though. Ever." She smiles, "After all, I've been working at this for a WHILE. Like long before I even met you." Unity grins at Twilight. "Think about it. Every single time something happened, every time we talked. It was constantly pushing you towards the actions you took. Going into the mountains to deal with the bandits? I unlocked a room for Celestia to explore that happened to have the book inside. Not to mention slowly pushing you away from your family? Making sure that Celestia and Luna never got all the attention they should from their dearest friend, their adoptive mother. Creating problems that forced you to take hours upon days upon years of work to fix? Can't forget the lovely whispers I sent into Celestia's mind, making her increasingly upset with her sister and you until she broke?" Unity says with a wave of a hoof. "Truly one of my better moments."

Twilight hoof twitches in anger for a moment. Those actions and their blatant pride almost made Twilight swing at Unity. But Twilight stays her hoof. She knows that if she tried to attack Unity, the fight would still not be in her favor. Not yet. She needed to play for time. At her current strength, she could pull off a miracle. But she needs her daughters with her. She needs her allies.

She needs her friends. Fighting alone was foolish. She let her worries and her insecurities win out, pushing away the ponies that could have helped her in the fight. The worst part was that she didn't even pay for it. Her best friend did. "That still doesn't explain the before," Twilight says through gritted teeth, eyes staring down at the spirit with a glare that just said, 'Watch what you say.'

Unity hums to herself. "Oh. OH the before?" She smiles as she giggles. "Sure. Why not. That sounds like a good waste of time. Besides, we can't beat each other, can we?" She says with a glint in her eyes. She's figured out Twilight now. "You don't know how powerful you are and don't want to... well, finish the job. You want me to 'see the light.' or something stupid. Right?"

Twilight sighs a little. "I don't think I could have made that any less obvious. After all, I said that the fight was over." She exhales a little, letting out a sigh. The puff of air full of magic sparkles as she takes a more relaxed stance. "I don't want to attack you because I'm sure it'd destroy more than just you. Besides, unlike Sombra, you aren't a being of pure darkness. You can still choose to be redeemed. You can still come back and become a good pony again. That's your choice, after all!" Twilight says with a smile as she quietly stands there.

"I feel like. In another world. Maybe even in another branch. We could have been excellent friends." Twilight says with a weak smile. "Hanging out, Chatting. Making Equestria a better place. Heck, Moondancer liked you for a while. Although she figured you out way before me. I guess that's why you always sent her away on those long, horrible tasks." She mumbles quietly to herself.

Unity blinks flatly at Twilight. "You too? Seriously. Maybe, sure, but we don't live there. We live here. You had just as much of a choice to help me willingly. You didn't have to oppose me. You didn't have to go out of your way to fight back against me. Heck. How about this? Let's stop fighting, and you can join my side? We can bring Equus to a new age of harmony, and you'll never have to worry about being the hero again." She says with a smirk. "See? That's what you sound like! From my side, you sound like the villain. Sure, my methods might not be the best, BUT they work. They bring the end result. They function well. They are proven to be 100% successful." Unity says as she starts to get heated. Glaring back at Twilight.

She then continues, "Meanwhile, you're relying on what? The goodwill of everything across Equss?! Do you know how many monsters are still out there, creatures that didn't even come from me? Things that Grogar, Tirek, and MY own brother created! Monsters they left out there that attack ponies, hurt griffons, and antagonize dragons?!" She grits her teeth, Unity glaring at Twilight. "Yet, you'd prefer to leave them alone! You're endangering your ponies with inaction! You have to DO something. My family is out there!" Unity stomps a hoof on the ground in anger.

Twilight blinks. "Wait. Is this seriously just because of your family? Like, I get it, it's scary, but-."'

Unity cuts Twilight off instantly, "I know what you're going to say. 'You can't live your life in fear!' Don't go there. It's terrifying to think that one of them could be hurt. It's scary to think that one day, they'll disappear. Do you know how long it took me to even have them?" She says as she looks up. "This is the first family I've ever been ALLOWED to have. The first creature I've fallen in love with that I could actually pursue. The first one that I've shared my immortality with! That's right! My husband is immortal, and he will be forever!" She shouts. "Every time I fell for someone before, every little time I've wanted something. I've done my best to get the smallest of rewards every time. Sure, I may not be as fancy as my brother at it, but I did MY JOB!" She yells out as an orb of white magic engulfs Twilight and Unity. Unity's words mash and sputter together into nonsensical sentences.

---

A black space of creatures stands together. Each one has technological modifications to their bodies. Aliens of different types, unknown to pony kind, show themselves, a memory from Unity's deepest recesses. Twilight and Unity watch from a floating bubble nearby, the pair's minds now within the memory spell.

The first spirit speaks as the memory twists into something Twilight can understand. Although she knows what humans are from her brief stint in Sunset's dimension, these ones looked far different from those. "You two are retiring?!" The spirit says to the two colorful spirits standing side by side. "You can't retire! You're the spirits of harmony and discord! Without you, the universe will be disorganized and impossible to manage!"

Unity mumbles. "That's my mom and dad. Ally and Enemy. The original spirits of harmony and discord. They're retired now. The rest... well, they aren't significant, honestly." She says with a grumble as the memory plays out. She didn't want this to happen this way, but stopping a memory spell is more annoying than letting it play out once it starts.

Ally sighs a little. "Well, we have a solution. Unity, Discord, come here, sweeties!" She says as the two spirits run in excitedly. Unity is a small filly, while Discord is an adorable little draconequus, no taller than half of Twilight's leg. "These two will be taking our places now that we are retiring. Look, aside from time and soul, we're older than almost all of you. We need this. Unlike time, we can't just flick ourselves to a younger state and soul... Well, soul is just weird, honestly." Enemy nods

"I have no idea how soul is so happy to be working the same job since before time was even a concept, but more power to them." He says with a sigh. "Still, I'm tired. Bringing chaos to those worlds and being the antagonist in everything is exhausting. Being hated... It's not fun anymore. It's just heartbreaking. Especially when the worlds lose." He mumbles as he gives the small Unity a pat on the head. "These two will do a better job than both of us.

---

The memory then shifts, Unity and Discord looking over some things on the center table of the dark room. "YOU SENT THEM WHERE?!" Unity yells out.

Discord blinks. "The Delta Quadrant. Duh. It was fun! You shoulda seen the chaos it wrought on their ship! It was like BOOM BANG POW!" He says as he picks up a weird-looking toy from the table, shifting it in the air as he makes the noises.

Unity groans a little. "Do you know HOW LONG this will take to fix?!" She groans out. "I'm gonna have to place so many technology upgrades, maybe even some temperamental ideas in some of the scientist's heads. Ughhh! Discord! Why?! You know I can't meddle directly in worlds like you can!" She says with a pouty face. The pair were barely older, at most maybe 10 years old each.

Discord waves his hand. "PAH! It'll be fine! Seven seasons with a couple of specials, and it'll be all done neatly wrapped up. Ooh, we could even try to convince time to do something about it. Break a rule or two along the way~!" He says as he nudges his sister, who glares at him with intense violence in her eyes. He rolls his eyes and sighs, "Whatever, while you're cleaning that mess up, I'm gonna go mess more with the other captain. It's more fun than being here." He then snaps his fingers and vanishes, leaving his sister alone in the dark space.

Unity screams into the table. Piles of papers surround her, thousands of worlds cycling through her head. All of which need her influence to give the heroes even the slightest chance.

---

The scene then shifts again. Unity sighed a little as she stood disguised, watching the ship finally return. Bags under her eyes as she sits on a bench in an unknown park. Everything seems so... different here. Twilight mumbled to herself as she was only able to watch.

"Told you it'd be fine! They're more resourceful than you give them credit," Discord chuckles in his disguised form, watching the celebration from their collective spot hidden away. "Shame you can't tell anyone about what you did for them. All that technology must have taken so much work to create."

Unity mumbles something into her hands. "Seventy-five thousand Years." She mumbles out. "It took. Seventy-five thousand years in whitespace to fix this."

Discord laughs. "BAHAHAHAAH. Incredible! Well, you win the pin for the most effort on this one, sister! The teleportation only took about thirty seconds to enact! Just a little error in some code, and that station went completely berzerk! These games we play are so much fun." He says with a bright smile as he pats Unity on the back. "I hope we have so many more!"

Discord then vanishes. Unity stumbles a little bit as she returns to black space. "Only seven hundred thirty-nine more cases to go."

---

The memory shifts yet again, Twilight stumbling a little. "Yeesh. Your job sucks."

Unity rolls her eyes. "Mn."

The memory begins as Twilight sees Unity and Discord in the black space room. The pile of papers surrounding Unity has gotten much taller. Meanwhile, Discord is just sitting in his designated chair, eating popcorn. "Come on, sister! I can only cause more chaos once you solve more of your cases! Like, balance is essential, but you'd think fifty thousand chaotic-infused worlds would be, like, the bare minimum to keep balance." He then munches on popcorn.

The memory Unity shakes a little in her chair. "Ugh. Discord, brother. Please. Lay off the chaos, just for a little bit. I haven't slept in, like... Ever, actually." She says dumbfounded. "I can't even remember the last time I had a break! Bro, please calm it back a little bit. Like some of these are easy. But did you really have to send someone into an alternate future of their world to test them?! Or this?! Starting a WAR?!"

Discord chuckles at the comments, clearly taking them as compliments. "Yeah, those two are great. My magnum opus, you could say." He laughs a little and leans back in his chair. "Pick up the pace 'hero'! We don't got all day! I don't wanna imbalance the multiverse, but I have SO many more good ideas!" He says as he bounces in place excitedly, clearly excited to spread more chaos.

Twilight mumbles, "Discord cares enough about balance to restrain himself? That's. Suprisingly mature of him."

Unity sighs as she waves a hoof. "He always cared about balance more than anyone in the spirit realm. Those rules he talked about were his. They became guidelines that all spirits across all multiverses use." She smiles a little at that memory, "I am a bit proud of him for that. He spent centuries in white space figuring it all out. When he came out of it, he was like."

The scene shifts as Unity and Memory Discord speak in tandem, Unity puffing out her chest and talking as if she were Discord: "I FIGURED it out! The maximum number of worlds that can be chaotic is fifty thousand! That's around the amount of planets that can be corrupted by chaos before collapse happens from imbalance!" She then makes a quick motion with her hoof to mimic snapping. "However, my studies also show that worlds can never be 100% harmonized. A fully harmonized planet could tilt the universe's balance irreversibly into the negatives! Although it is just a theory!" Then, the room applauded at Discord's discovery as spirits of all types ran to examine his findings.

Twilight sputters, "WAIT?! WHAT?! Wouldn't harmonizing Equestria ruin balance?!" She says with a crack in her voice. Unity wasn't so desperate that she'd risk the entire multiverse for her family, right?!

Unity blinks. "Eh. Small price to pay." She shrugs in a jaded fashion.

Twilight grits her teeth. "Reason. Now."

Unity sighs and mumbles. "Fine."

---

The memory changes one last time. Blackspace is looking quite different this time. The memory fades into view, revealing Unity standing inside a magical circle, looking distraught as Discord stands to the side. The rest of the elder spirits looked down at the pair.

"Explain." Time glares furiously at the young spirit, "We have given you MANY chances, Unity. But this. This is a new low."

Unity bangs on the sides of the sigil. "I didn't do anything wrong! So the hero saw me! It happens! I didn't. I didn't do anything wrong! I wasn't even doing my duties at the time!" She mumbles as she shyly says, "I just wanted to try some candy apples at a fair for once. It looked fun. I even brought some home!"

A bang on the desk rings out. "That would have been excusable, but then you made contact with the hero, did you not?" Time says with a glare. "Do not lie. Your permission to go to the mortal realm is a privilege, NOT a right." Unity's eyes open wide as sweat begins to bead on her head.

She opens her mouth and bites her lip a little. "I... I did. But I didn't say anything wrong. I think." She mumbles.

Time glares. "Unity Concord Chaos, do not lie to the council!" the spirit shouts, "You expressed interest. You expressed your adoration for the hero. You explicitly made yourself something memorable to the hero in question! Not only that, but you planned to revisit them, did you not?! Did you not think we wouldn't find out?!" Time says with fury in his voice.

Unity whimpers a little in reaction to the anger. "But Discord makes friends on the mortal side all the time! Why can't I? At one point, he even made friends with people and creatures that he was enemies with! Besides, the Hero WON! Their story was over! I couldn't ruin anything!"

Time sits back. "Discord is permitted to make relationships because relationships beget chaos and disharmony when appropriately used. You, however, do not. Your job is to HELP the heroes INDIRECTLY. You are NOT part of their stories. You are supposed to be insignificant. Your job is to make sure the heroes have a chance to win if THEY make the right choices. NOT to be the hero yourself, not to be their friend or part of their party, just because their world was saved now, doesn't mean it couldn't be in danger in the future! You have been sloppy for the past twenty thousand years." Time says with a glare. "You are the most powerful spirit among us, yet you are more immature than your brother." The elder spirit shifts and glares down at Unity. With a sigh, the spirit raises a gavel and brings it down.

Time puts on an official voice as they say, "As such, we have decided as your punishment for repeatedly failing your duties: The council shall seal the physical prowess, magic, and combat abilities you are proud of. Effective immediately. Perhaps with this, you'll stop going down to the mortal realm to train constantly, and you can focus on your duties instead."

Unity blinks "What?! NO! PLEASE! I didn't just give these to myself! I earned them! Each and every one! Don't, please! Brother, please! Please help me! Don't let them take it away! Say something, they'll listen to you! It's all I have!"

Discord winces as his sister pleads to him, about to speak up. However, he flinches, seeing something in the distance. Twilight cannot see what he saw, which makes him quiet down. But his actions spoke louder than words. He said nothing. He didn't even acknowledge his sister, walking away instead.

Unity's scream rang out across the dark, empty void as a flash of green light rose around her. "Please! NO!"

As the flash of green light fades. Unity mumbles on the floor, her energy drained, her color faded. "I just wanted to feel special. I just wanted to try some candy. Some food. Maybe make a memory or two." She says with a sniffle.

Several voices from out of view begin to whisper around Unity. "Heroes don't do what they do for recognition." "They do it because it's the right thing to do. That's like, Harmony 101." "I can't believe you're your mother's child." They say with disgust before Unity is left alone on the ground. The spirits were happy that Unity's 'rebellion' was stopped. If only they knew that this sparked the actual rebellion in her heart.

Author's Note:

It's really late. But here it is. Cosmic jobs have cosmic rules.

Comments

[Bruuuuuuuuh]

Who would've guessed that Discord was the one to make the rules and be mature and Unity was the one to break the rules and be immature

[Spell Writer]

11728619
Unity never had a chance to be better. Her job sucked.

[Bruuuuuuuuh]

11728838
Fair

[FridayPie]

11728619
Order is created from Chaos, but that's an open system