Poker Night

by SvenFoxx

9. Order and Chaos

“WHAT?!”

Discord breathed in the confusion and inner turmoil that roiled from Twilight. ‘Definitely a potential Alicorn. Only they could give off such lovely chaos.’

He raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Hey, it’s not like I’m the one who hid it from you.”

Twilight paused, blinking. Twilight would freely admit she was a smart pony, smarter than average at least, though she didn’t make a habit of boasting about it. She also admitted freely that she had something of a blind spot in regards to books and Princess Celestia.

But even she understood what Discord was trying to say. She slowly, almost hesitatingly, looked at her mentor. “You knew?”

Celestia nodded. “I suspected. I knew that the Element of Magic bonded to ponies that had the potential, but unlike Discord I didn’t know whether or not that was just a coincidence. So I started making plans for if you ever did ascend.” She narrowed her eyes at Discord. “He also failed to mention that just because you have the potential, that doesn’t mean you will ascend. It won’t be forced on you. I know one particular Pegasus that had been in the middle of ascending. She panicked, realized she didn’t want it, and rejected it. She never became an Alicorn. The act of nearly ascending marked her magic somewhat, leading to an interesting ability to bend space, but she was still recognizably a Pegasus, one who died to old age after a happy life.”

Discord kept to himself how the very weft of both Chaos seemed to be tightly wound around Twilight, to the point of turning her into a ball of yarn if it was a physical thing. He severely doubted this mare had any choice whatsoever in whether or not she became an Alicorn.

“All that said, I’ve trailed off from the story pretty far,” Discord said, getting everyone’s attention again. “As I said, Majesty did not originally exist. Her existence came about when my counterpart, the Spirit of Order, created her in response to my success in generating change. The more change I promoted, the more I pushed back Order’s timetable, and that made her furious. So in comes Majesty… also known as Mad Queen Majesty.”

Celestia frowned. “If she was the creation of Order, how did she come to be known as Mad Queen? The history texts are unclear and incomplete regarding her, especially after you had your merry way with them.” She glared at the unrepentant Draconequus.

Discord visibly gave that question consideration before he answered. “Majesty was gifted with a power that, at the time, Order believed would aid her in bringing her plan to fruition. It was the power of Wishes.”

Twilight blinked. “Wishes?” she asked, confused.

Discord nodded. “Or, to be more exact, wish fulfilment. Her every want, desire, and need was met with nary a thought. It actually caused a delicious amount of chaos at first as she was learning how to keep a lid on the power.”

Applejack frowned. “Ah gotta admit, that’s a mighty tempting power. But power like that has to come with a price of some kind.”

Discord pointed at her. “Bingo! The walking stereotype got it.” Discord clapped for a second. “As I said, Majesty had trouble controlling this power at first, and she would end up making things happen around her as she subconsciously wanted it. It was actually causing too much chaos, threatening the fabric of reality itself. I confronted Order and reminded her that while her ultimate plan may have been some kind of enlightenment, said enlightenment won’t happen if her pet accidentally zero-summed reality. That was one of the very few times Order and I agreed on something.”

“Question!”

Discord looked at Pinkie Pie. “Yes?”

“How come we’ve never heard of the Spirit of Order, like we have you?”

Discord smiled at how animatedly Pinkie talked. “That actually ties in to this story, but, the long and short of it is because Order is powerful and stable enough that she rarely needs to manifest in the physical aspect of reality. Unlike Chaos, which is so unstable that it uses me as a sort of focus. If I vanished from reality I’m not entirely sure what would happen to Chaos. It may vanish with me, completely unbalancing reality and making it implode, or it may just make or choose another Spirit to channel itself through.” He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You say she. Order manifests as a female?” Luna asked curiously.

Discord smirked. “Yep. Not sure why she picked a female, but yeah. She usually pops in as a female, though the species tends to vary. Last I saw her she had manifested as an Abyssinian. That was…” Discord tappen his chin in thought. “I think… yeah, I think that was back when her pet Wendigos first slipped their leash. Shortly before you lot came here to this continent I believe.”

Celestia blinked. “The Wendigos weren’t one of your creations? We had always assumed…”

Discord smirked. “A creature that drains the positivity right out of you, leaving nothing but hatred, depression, and apathy, which then leads easily to mass genocide? Yeah. Definitely one of Order’s pets. Her ultimate goal is the lack of free will. She prefers that comes about through enlightenment, but she’s willing to call a lack of life the same thing.

Celestia shivered. “How can the cosmic concept of Order be that… callous about life?”

Discord frowned at her. “If there’s one thing that will never even remotely be tied to Order, it’s life. Life does what it wants, how it wants, when it wants. And damn any one or thing that tries to say otherwise. Life is the largest obstacle between Order and her goal of a perfect reality.” He paused. “When I say Order, I’m not speaking of justice, or neatness. I’m talking about the absolute. Order taken to its most extreme. A pure. White. Void. Nothingness. Equality through a lack of variables.” He shrugged at their growing looks of unease. “Like I said, Order’s not evil… but then even evil has standards.”

Everyone could only shudder in agreement.

Author's Note:

Discord continues his story, but oh no! He keeps getting interrupted.

Comments

[MyLittleBronyDude]

There has been a few chapters without money loss. Strange.

[badninja]

Unfortunately this is exactly why Order is usually depicted as bad as Chaos. Celestia never likes the answer, hence why Harmony is so sought by the ponies subconsciously. Now this little revelation is probably why she will be at the table next.

[Comickook]

Excellent job on this latest chapter. I LOVED Celestia reassuring Twilight after Discord's revelation as well as giving an example of a Pegasus that had the potential, but did NOT ascend (so we're NOT talking about Cadance, but COULD be Surprise - who might be one of Pinkie Pie's ancestors). And, yeah, Discord's account of Order is both appropriately unnerving AND makes A LOT of sense. Indeed, Discord has a point about how life itself is, in many ways (though NOT necessarily BAD ways), the opposite of pure order (which, as badninja already pointed out, is why ponies in general seek harmony instead of order).

All in all, really good job on the exchange, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places.

[Dirty Bit]

Got some Radiant Dawn vibes from the story

[Flame1hedgehog]

Why does Order remind me of? Hm oh yeah they remind me of Yaldabaoth from persona 5 which makes sense both were all about control and no free will. Anyways nice chapter hope to see the next game soon after the story.