Road to Disharmony

by McStudz

Day Zero

CHAPTER ONE: DAY ZERO

"Hello, my little pawn. Allow me to introduce myself. My full name is Discord Q. Bonqueshia. Well, actually, that last name is fake. I don't need a last name. But the 'Q' is real. Just don't ask me what it stands for. It's so long, sometimes I can't even remember it!

"Anyways, I have summoned you to do some work with me. Note the 'with', not 'for'. You see, I have been stuck between a rock and... well, more rock. I was once the ruler of a whole country; the most powerful in this world. But two very powerful beings, almost as powerful as myself, wanted this country for themselves. So we sat over tea and discussed how well I was ruling the country-- No. They just took it from me. No questions asked. My guard was down, and they got lucky and imprisoned me in stone. You know what they say: 'Two heads are better than one.'

"So, these two beings took over, and left me as a tourist attraction. They thought the magical barrier would keep me forever. I couldn't use my powers to get out, since the spell can only be broken from the outside. But the spell is beginning to weaken. My guess as to how is that the spell is probably connected to whatever is going on outside. Certian events and reactions of the inhabitants of this world can make the barrier weaker. I've noticed that about a year ago, the strength of the spell took a serious drop. Obviously, something big happened. I tried to break free, but no dice.

"But, I found out that I could extend my consciousness to beyond this world. I'm completely powerless where I am right now, but I can use some of my powers in other worlds, to an extent. I can see into other people's minds. I can increase or decrease attributes of said people. I can give some of my powers to a person, but that takes up a lot of energy. On top of that, I can modify people's memories. The power of the barrier's spell has prevented me from doing this up until now. And even now, I only have the energy to summon one being into this world, and to give them some of my abilities. And that's where you come in. You have been chosen at random to help me out. You win the Discord Sweepstakes! All you have to do is find out where I am, release me, and help me reclaim what was once my country.

"I will give you all the powers you'll need to pull this off. You can teleport to places you've been to before at will, as long as it's in this world. You'll have some control over the elements of nature. You'll even be able to fly! On top of that, I'll give you a black coat that will act as armor. It can protect you from the elements; from fire, ice, lightning, etc. You can even breathe underwater when you have the hood up! You'll also need a weapon. You'll get a metallic teal sword to dispatch your foes, if the need arises. When you arrive in this world, you'll know how to handle this blade like an expert.

"The only catch is that I have to erase your memories prior to you ariving here. You'll only remember me speaking to you. Also, I'll have to make it off-limits for you to return home until the job's done. You'll also have to look like the inhabitants of this world when you're around them. I've already come up with a disguise and an alias for you. You can turn on this disguise as you see fit.

"If you succeed in freeing me, and we reclaim the country, I will make sure that we both rule over it. Just like those who imprisoned me rule it now. Now, you may be wondering why I'm bringing another player into the game. Let's just stick with what I said before: 'Two heads are better than one.' We'll be up against two beings who are almost as powerful as myself, and since I'm bringing someone else into the equation, I'm certian we will win.

"Now, don't let me down. I can't tell you where I am, because I'm not sure myself! But I will be able to see what you see. I'll tell you where to go, what to do, and who to see. I'll tell you where to go first once you're in this world. Good luck!"

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Falling... I think I'm almost at the atmosphere of this world. I can't even see any distinguishing landmarks below me. This is going to end well...

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It was about midnight. And that meant that Luna, the younger of the two Princess Alicorns that ruled Equestria, was keeping track of the night sky she created and maintained. It was a clear night, not a cloud in the sky, so she decided to make the stars appear more bright than usual, but not too bright to wake up everypony. Luna looked up at the sky, admiring her handiwork, when she noticed a shooting star. Of course, "shooting stars" are actually just meteorites that burn up into nothing as they enter the atmosphere, so Luna had no power over them, hence not expecting it.

Luna began to make a wish. "I wish that I would get over this feeling of being lesser than my sister. I know it isn't true, she forgave me after all, but..."

Then she noticed that the projectile wasn't a "shooting star." No, it was more than that. The unknown object wasn't burning up into nothing, and it was headed on a crash-course into the Everfree Forest, at about the location of the ruins of Celestia and Luna's previous castle, the one that held the Elements of Harmony up until about a year ago. Luna considered trying to stop the projectile, but it seemed that it was slowing down on it's own accord. Suprised and interested in how this happened, Luna decided to head towards the eventual crash site to investigate.

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I could still hear Discord. It was like he was right next to me, but not really. "Now, concentrate on pushing yourself away from the ground!" he instructed. Was this his idea of a joke? Well, it's not like I had any choice. I concentrated on pushing away from the ground. I could feel my descent getting slower, but not slow enough. I put all of my energy into slowing myself down enough to not end up as a crater. The least I could say is that it was working. By the time my feet hit the ground, I was slow enough to not break both of my legs, even though I still felt some pain from landing on both feet instead of rolling.

Mostly out of the shock of my landing, my knees buckled. I quickly got back on my feet and checked my surroundings. I was on one side of a ravine with a wooden bridge going across the gap. On the other side of the bridge, there were ruins of... was it a castle? I wasn't too sure.

"Looks like the princess is in another castle," Discord said. I guess that answered my question, although I wasn't so sure what he meant by that. "We might as well take a look around; see if we can figure out what happened."

I was about to cross the bridge--I had no intentions of flying at this time--when I heard someone approaching. I had a mental image of me pulling out a sword from out of nowhere. "Summon your blade." Discord hissed. I don't know why he was whispering now, since I'm probably the only being who can hear him. But I obeyed, chanelling some of my energy into the form of a sword. My weapon appeared in my hand, and I had more mental images of me using the sword. I now knew how to use my blade. I wasn't questioning how I just knew, because for all I know, pondering this when someone is drawing near to my location could end up with me being killed. I decided to reverse-handle my sword. It was light enough to do this, but still deadly to my potential foes.

I put up my hood and got ready for an attack from my possible adversary. I could now see some sort of heads-up-display of my surroundings from my hood. Sweet. That was when my target appeared. It was a horse--no, a unicorn, with wings???

"An alicorn," Discord said. "One of only two in existence. At least, last time I checked." Somehow, I knew that a fight would only end in disaster, so I jumped into a bush before the alicorn noticed me. That was a stroke of luck. Then again, it was dark, my coat was black and I had my hood up.

The alicorn was looking around, muttering about something falling from the sky and landing here. "She's probably talking about you, although she doesn't know it." Discord explained. "You didn't exactly make an inconspicuous entrance back there. Anyways, change your form. There aren't many humans in these parts." I closed my eyes and felt my form change. It wasn't a humanoid form, but I felt perfectly normal standing on all fours. That's when I opened my eyes. I looked down and saw that I looked like a horse--"Earth Pony." Discord corrected me. "The word 'horse' isn't used much here."--a blue Earth Pony with glasses and a two-toned grey mane and tail. I was still wearing the coat, but I didn't have the hood anymore. I waited until the alicorn wasn't looking in my direction and walked out of my hiding place.

The alicorn turned around at that moment. She yelped and jumped back in alarm. "Who are you!?!?" she exclaimed. obviously, the alicorn didn't expect anyone else to be here other than herself.

I cleared my throat. "Just a traveller," I explained, "looking for the nearest city."

"But, travelling through here???" She looked even more suprised.

"I wanted to take the scenic route." I retorted. "I heard that there were some ruins here, and I wanted to check it out. You wouldn't happen to know the history of this castle, would you?"

The alicorn turned around to look at the ruins. "Well, my sister and I once ruled Equestria from this castle. That is, until something terrible happened..."

I assumed that Equestria was the name of this land; probably the country Discord wants me to help reclaim. But I'm curious about what happened that caused this castle to become vacant and destroyed.

"So what happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

The alicorn looked at me, slightly suprised. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"Ahh, no." I hesitantly replied. "This is my first time in Equestria. In fact, you could almost say I'm from another world entirely!"

The alicorn chuckled. "Another world? I guess so."

"Well, not really from another world, of course. That's crazy. I'm just here to meet with somebody. It may sound crazy, but I don't even know who I'm looking for."

The alicorn looked at me quizzically. "'Somebody'? I haven't heard that word in... Years, to say the least. Where exactly are you from?"

Discord told me, "Say you're from the Northern Continent."

"I'm from the Northern Continent." I said. I hoped that this alicorn wouldn't ask me about this place, because I had no idea about it.

Fortunately, she didn't ask. "Wow, that's a long way to travel! That would explain your asking about what happened here. Well, a little over a thousand years ago, I... It's a long story..."

She proceeded to tell me about how she tried to wrest power from her older sister, whom she called Celestia. She talked about how she controls the night, while Celestia is the one who controls the day. While "everypony" was awake and basked in Celestia's sun, they were all asleep at night, leaving no one to enjoy the night the younger sister carefully crafted. She was jealous, and was taken over by darkness. She was then imprisoned in the moon for one thousand years--This made me think of Discord's fate. Celestia then took over maintaining the moon and the stars. After the thousand years were up, the younger alicorn broke free and attempted to cast the world into eternal night. She was defeaten by the "Elements of Harmony", which returned her to normal. Realizing the error of her ways, the younger alicorn was ashamed of what she bacame. Amazingly, Celestia forgave her, like nothing ever happened. Since then, the younger alicorn has resumed her original job. but even though she knew Celestia forgave her, she couldn't face confronting anyone else. She explained that she felt that "everypony" feared her. So she kept a low profile in the last year.

By the end of her story, the alicorn looked like she was about to cry. I was startled. How could a being like the one who stood before me be capable of something like that??? Neither of us said a word, unless you count Discord telling me that this probably happend after he was imprisoned himself. I also figured out that this alicorn and her sister are the ones who were responsible for Discord's defeat.

"Go ahead and be afraid, now that you know..." She finally said, looking at the ground. "Even run, if you want to. I deserve it. After all of the things I've done, I wouldn't be suprised to be considered a monster..."

"No." I replied. "I believe your story. But I'm not afraid. Of you; of what you're capable of; of what you've done... Celestia forgave you, and she's your sister. If any...pony... knows about you, it would be your flesh and blood. And that's good enough for me. I can tell that you're sorry for what you've done just by looking in your eyes. You're not a monster. If you were, you would have no regrets of what you've done." I looked up at the night sky for the first time. It was a clear night, and a full moon was out. The stars were shining brightly, like little diamonds in the sky... Where did I hear that before? I felt like I've always loved looking up at the stars; just thinking about life in general. Although no particular memories came to mind--I have Discord to blame for that.

"I always enjoyed admiring the stars." I told the alicorn. "The day may look nice, but the night... the night just has it's own brand of beauty. One could spend many nights, charting constellations, or just pondering what's out there... Basically, what I'm saying is that you've done a great job of bringing out the night sky."

The alicorn was looking at me now. "Really?? Nopony has said that to me in... Well, I don't even remember the last time." She was smiling now. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," I said. "It's true, you know..." That was when I realized that I didn't even know the alicorn's name.

"Say..." I began. "I don't think I got your name. What did you say it was?"

The alicorn raised her eyebrows. "Oh, how silly of me! I'm Luna... Princess Luna." She added.

"Oh, dear... I should have guessed you were royalty." I hastily kneeled--or, at least, whatever passed as kneeling in this equestrian form. "Forgive me, Highness."

"Oh, please don't!" Luna exclaimed. "I hate it when anypony tries to act all 'Your Highness' this and 'Her Majesty' that. It makes me feel awkward; and I can only guess how it makes others feel."

I got up. "As you wish. Sorry about that. You're right; it is awkward." We both laughed.

That's when Luna asked me, "So, what's your name? I've told you mine, so now it's your turn."

Uh, oh. In all honesty, I have no clue what my name is--or was. "Sterling Smoulder." Discord hissed.

"I'm... Sterling Smoulder." I replied.

"Well Sterling," Luna started. "The nearest town would be Ponyville, just down that path." She raised a hoof toward said path. "Although you won't be there for another couple hours. It's a winding road, and it's not the most even, either. Nopony really travels down here often. I'd give you a lift there, but it's almost time for me to get ready for the dawn." She was about to leave when she turned back to me. "Would it be too much trouble to see me tomorrow night? Say, about midnight at the outskirts of Ponyville? If you have any more questions about Equestria, I'd be happy to tell you. That is, if you're not too busy."

Completely forgetting about Discord and my mission, I replied, "No, I'm not busy! It would be my pleasure."

Luna brightened. "Great! If you need a place to stay, though... Ponyville doesn't have any hotels or the like. They tend to have lodging in libraries, gyms... You know, places like that. Try the museum. There's a foreigner who runs the place who calls himself 'The Doctor'. You can't miss it. Now, I have to go, or else it'll be a longer night than it should be!" Finally, Luna rose up in the air and headed toward the west; where the moon was about to disappear beyond the horizon.

"I'll do that." I called to her. "Thanks a lot! I'll see you tonight!" And with that, she was gone. Suprisingly, the both of us forgot about that "something falling from the sky". Good thing, too. It would have been hard to explain that was me...

That was when I was reminded of what I'm really here for. "Well done, my little paw--I mean, partner!" Discord exclaimed. "Befriending the enemy; I didn't even think of that! It'll give us the element of suprise. When we stike, they won't know what hit 'em! But, using your senses to observe the world around me is taxing. I'm running out of energy. You'll have to be on your own from here on. I might be able to help out if you need it. But for now... Good luck!" And with that, I felt a sudden weight I never noticed lighten. Discord was gone. For now, at least. I could have flown to Ponyville, but I decided against it after almost breaking my legs trying to decrease the speed of my descent earlier.

I didn't feel so good about eventually turning on Luna, but it was necessary if I was to break Discord out. She and Celestia were the enemy, and I had to deal with that, eventually. Perhaps I could just leave that to Discord--revenge on those who imprisoned him--while I do something else. Should I ask about Discord when I see Luna next? When will I meet Celestia? And what of these Elements of Harmony? Are they the key to releasing Discord, or are they what put him where he is in the first place? Perhaps the museum will hold some answers.

But one thing is certian: I won't figure out anything by just standing here. I turned toward the path Luna pointed out to me and headed to my destination, wondering what might happen when I show up...

Comments

[Captain_Savage]

Good read so far