Road to Disharmony

by McStudz

BOOK TWO: Calm Before The Storm

BOOK TWO: HARMONY REVISITED

CALM BEFORE THE STORM

It's been two days since Discord was defeaten. Everything was more or less back to normal. I had told The Doctor everything that happened, as well as the abilities I now had, like creating anything I want, as long as it's not too complicated. When The Doctor heard this, he asked if I could try powering up the TARDIS.

After a few tries, it was evident that we couldn't get it working again. I guessed that, even though I could travel small distances instantly, I didn't have the power to travel through other dimensions. Which meant that we were still stuck here.

"But," The Doctor added. "There might be another way. Discord was capable of pulling other beings out of other dimensions--You're proof of that. So if what you're telling me is true, and Discord escapes again, then we could possibly absorb some of his power and use it to recharge the TARDIS. Of course, only my Sonic Screwdriver can do such a thing..."

"Could I see it for a second?" I asked. The Doctor handed it to me. I drew my teal sword and concentrated on the Screwdriver's absorbing ability. I could feel that power being copied into my blade.

"Done." I said, handing the Sonic Screwdriver back to it's owner.

"Remarkable..." he whispered. "Imagine what we could do with your new abilities..."

"I can create whatever I want, as long as it isn't too outrageous; like a make-everything-perfect machine." I joked. "...Or a power supply for the TARDIS, I'm afraid."

"Don't worry about that, Sterling," The Doctor told me. "We'll cross that bridge when Discord breaks out again, in a couple of weeks if I'm not mistaken.

"Anyways, you should get going to that party Pinkie Pie prepared for you." He reminded me.

"Actually," I corrected him, "It's just a small picnic with the other Element Bearers. Everypony in town is still in no condition to have a full-out party after the whole Discord incident, and Pinkie told me that if we waited too long, there wouldn't be any point of having any celebration of me coming to Ponyville." I left out the fact that I tried to tell her that she didn't need to do anything for me, but she insisted that she had to do something.

"It just wouldn't be fair!" She said. "I've done something for everypony who came to this town for... For as long as I can remember! and I want you to meet my best friends--Well, everypony in town is my friend, but I want you to meet my BEST best friends and..." She went on and on until I finally agreed.

I changed my form into an Earth Pony and told The Doctor that I'd be back in a couple hours. I then headed out to where Pinkie Pie told me that she and the others would be waiting for me.

That's when I remembered that I'm never comfortable with meeting new people/ponies. I was fine with meeting Luna and The Doctor, as well as Derpy Doo. But that was because I was in a desperate situation. I had to befriend someone in this new scenario. Now that I had a couple of friends, I didn't feel the need to interact with others so much.

But I knew I had to. Luna told me that I had to form a friendship with the other Element Bearers in order for Discord's true defeat to occur.

"No pressure," I muttered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost all of the Element Bearers were there by the time I was. I recognized Pinkie Pie--How could I not?--but the others were new to me: A white Unicorn who actually looked very attractive, by Equestrian standards; a rainbow-maned Pegasus who donned sunglasses; an orange Earth Pony who was wearing a cowboy hat; and a light-yellow Pegasus who seemed to have an aura of shyness to her.

Glad I'm not the only one.

"Oh, great; there you are, Sterling!" Pinkie Pie bounced up to me. "Hey girls! Here's the stallion I was telling you about! This is Sterling Smoulder." She introduced me to the others--Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy.

"Uh... Hi." I stammered. No one told me that ALL of the Element Bearers were female. But, now that I thought of it, there weren't many males in Ponyville, as far as I could tell. There was The Doctor, and myself, and I think there was a red Earth Pony who I saw the other day.

That was when Rarity realized that she had forgotten the plates. She started to have a dramatic meltdown.

"Of all the worst things that could happen," She said, "this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!" Rarity then summoned a large sofa using her magic and fell onto it, weeping bitterly.

Yikes, I thought. "Wait, where's Twilight? Wasn't she--"

That was when she appeared, looking very worse for wear. I knew that look... The look of someone who had a deadline and was about to miss it. I was more than familiar with that experience, although I still couldn't remember a thing about specific events in my past.

Twilight Sparkle told us about how she had to report to Princess Celestia about friendship by sundown, but she had nothing. She acted as if her entire life depended on it.

It blew Rarity's act right out of the water.

Twilight began to beg everypony if there was some problem we had, when she came up to me.

"What about you, Sterling???" She goaded. "You must have some big problem, since you left the Northern Continent."

"I--Well, it's--" I was shocked. I couldn't tell her about our problem with Discord. Not yet.

"UGH!" Twilight groaned. She was about to run off when
I stopped her. Frustration is an effective way for me to talk to others, and that's just what happened.

"Twilight," I said, "You're overreacting. Why would that weekly report be a matter of life and death? That's just redic--"

"No, YOU'RE underreacting!" Twilight retorted. "Is 'underreacting' a word? Of course it is. Why else would I say it? You may not know this, Sterling, but I HAVE NEVER BEEN LATE. What could happen if I'm late now???"

"I think the Princess would let it slide." I assured her, "considering what happened with Discord and all of that."

"And that's why I SHOULD do it. The Princess would be suprised that I sent a report!"

"Fine," I conceded. "Whatever floats your boat. Why don't you write about what happened with Discord, then?"

"Nononono..." Twilight argued. "That's too easy. Princess Celestia would know I've been slacking off..."

My turn to groan now. "Fine, then. I tried to help, but I can't figure it out for you. Celestia would be SURE to say something about THAT. I still think you're overreacting."

"That's probably because you've never had a proper education where you come from!" the lavender Unicorn snapped. "I'd be suprised if you even knew what a real deadline is!" And she ran off, looking for some other solution.

"Hey, that was uncalled for!" I called back to her. "If you must know, I write in my--" Twilight teleported off to somewhere else. "...spare time..." I let my sentence trail off.

Perhaps I should show her some of my work that I've done since I got here. I've got a little bit about my adventures in Equestria so far written down somewhere. Well, actually, I've been using The Doctor's typewriter. I have terrible handwriting.

What's been up with me lately? I keep remembering shreds of who I really am, but I still have no actual memories of my life before I came here. I should talk to The Doctor about that.

Pinkie Pie broke my train of thought. "Man," she said, "I have no idea what goes through that pony's mind sometimes!"

I shrugged, and we all sat down without Twilight. "I'll talk to her later," I told the others, "She invited me over to her place, anyways."

Over supper, since the afternoon was slowly waning, we talked about weather control in Equestria. I told them that we never could control the weather where I came from (making sure that I didn't say the Northern Continent, because that would be lying), but we could predict the weather.

Pinkie Pie spoke up. "You mean like predicting the FUTURE?" she asked.

"Ahh, not quite." I replied. She looked disappointed. "Nopony can predict the future with 100% accuracy. They could make educated guesses, though. No, we tend to check the sky and some would be able to figure out the weather for the next few days. But they wouldn't always be right." Another nugget of knowledge of where I came from.

"Then why not use Pegasi to make the weather?" Rarity asked. "It would be much easier than guessing like that."

"Well, to be honest," I answered, "we don't have Pegasi where I come from. Or Unicorns, for that matter." It wasn't a lie. We don't have anything like that where I come from. We had some form of Earth Ponies, but not like they do here.

That was when the ponies asked me more questions about where I came from. I would have answered them, but I wanted to save that for Twilight, if/when she came back. That's what she wanted, anyways.

As if on cue, an old stuffed animal fell on the ground by where we were. Rainbow Dash was about to turn around and look at it when Twilight Sparkle appeared and turned Dash's head the other way. She explained that she charmed the doll for material to report to Celestia about the "magic of friendship", but it went out of hand. Now everypony in town was fighting over it and she STILL didn't have anything to report. Even worse, the day was almost over.

"Not almost," Applejack corrected her, pointing at the setting sun. The orb of light disappeared behind the mountains, and Twilight looked like she had been given a life sentence.

Suddenly, Celestia appeared and undid whatever spell Twilight had put on that doll. "Meet me at the library," she said to Twilight. "I'll be there in a moment; I need to speak to Sterling Smoulder first."

"Goodbye girls," Twilight said. "Be sure to visit me. I'll be in Magic Kindergarten, in Canterlot...

"And Sterling," she turned to me, "I hope you're right about me overreacting."

The others followed Twilight to the Library, while I stayed behind. Everypony else in town were on their way home, clearly embarassed over fighting for that doll. But I thought I saw that red Earth Pony run off with it... And I'm almost certain now that he was a dude.

Anyways, I knelt before the Princess. "You wanted to speak to me, Celestia?"

She nodded. "Yes, Sterling. I just have a couple of questions about what abilities you have now. As I was flying over Equestria today, I could have sworn that I saw you in Canterlot earlier this afternoon, by the Sculpture Gardens."

"That's wierd," I said. "I haven't been to Canterlot since that night where I was being controlled by Discord. And I certainly can't be in two places at once, if that's what you're about to ask. Are you sure that it was me you saw?"

"Yes, I'm absolutely sure," she replied. "Nopony else wears a black coat like yours."

I thought about who it might be that Celestia saw. "Do you think it might have something to do with Discord?"

Celestia shook her head. "Discord had to save power over the course of 1000 years to have enough to get you here, Sterling." She explained. "That, and he can't control time anymore; not since he tried to take over Equestria the first time."

"Still," I said, "we should keep an eye out for any trouble. If you see me in Canterlot again, let me know."

"I will," Celestia assured me. "Maybe it was just me."

"Don't count on it," I warned her. "Thanks for letting me know."

The two of us went our separate ways. Celestia teleported to Twilight's house, and I was on my way back to the museum to tell The Doctor about Celestia seeing me in Canterlot when I felt a sharp pain that was so intense that I passed out.

When I woke up, it was well into the night. I wondered why nopony woke me up--I was in the middle of a park, after all--When I heard hoofsteps approach me. I looked up and saw that it was me. But "I" looked a bit different. "My" coat had slightly darker patches; same with "my" hair.

"Sterling Smoulder," my duplicate said. "I thought you were dead. Well, this complicates things."

He thought I was dead? Only one being would assume that; everyone else knew that I survived my encounter with Discord. Everyone except the one who tried to kill me...

"I should have known you had something to do with this," I told "myself". "How did you do it, Discord? Aren't you still in Canterlot, trapped in stone again?"

"I'm not Discord, Sterling," he corrected me. "I'm the embodiment of your memories. The darker ones, that is. Let's just call me 'Tarnished Sterling', or just 'Tarnish' to clear things out."

"Well, Tarnish," I said, "What do you want? Who sent you?"

"Think about it for a second, Smoulder..." Tarnished Sterling replied. "Who else in the multiverse would be able to create a being out of sheer memory alone? Even with your limited knowledge of the outside, you should figure that out."

My eyes widened in comprehension. "Discord..." So I wasn't entirely wrong.

"Exactly! He created me out of your darkest memories. And I must say..." he turned into a human, "They're pretty dark." Again, Tarnished Sterling looked a lot like me as a human, but he had tanned skin, longer hair (compared to my usual short cut as a human), and amber eyes instead of my grey.

I thought about this for a moment. Who was I before? Was I at all like Tarnish, who seemed to be like a proper maniac? What kind of memories did I have?

"Now, I don't really reflect who you were," he continued. "I'm just all of your bitterness and jealousy, given form. Every curse, every bitter word, every death wish... That made me."

"So you're just Discord's puppet?" I realized.

"I guess you could say that," Tarnish replied. "Although, unlike you, I have the upper hand. While you had some abilities..." he summoned a force field around the park. "...I have them all."

That's when I gave out a low chuckle. "There's only one problem in your statement: I'm in control of the Seventh Element of Harmony!" That was when I turned into a human, drew my blade, and lunged at Tarnish.

He quickly dodged my attack and summoned a revolver. I darted away, never taking my eyes off of Tarnish's weapon. He fired, and I summoned my own force field to block the bullets.

"That's a nice gun you've got there..." I commented.

"I thought you'd like it," Tarnish replied. "You always were fascinated by revolvers; their shape, their difference from the modern firearms back at home... I just changed a few things with this one--" He fired some more at me, and I realized that the projectiles were made from pure energy. "--I never run out of ammo. Oh, I do have bullets, but those are reserved for the Element Bearers."

I was stalling for time. With my barrier up, Tarnish couldn't get to me and he knew it. Might as well get some information out of him.

He continued: "One bullet for each of them, allowing me to control the Elements after I do go in for the kill. As for you, Smoulder... I didn't even know you were still alive, so give me some time to figure out a fitting death for you. Let's see... Flash-frozen? Sucked into the void of space? And since I'm really you, I don't have to worry about a bullet for your Element, because it'll just pass over to me."

I let Tarnish continue on with his increasingly extravagant plans to kill me when I saw a pink messy mane coming up behind a hill. It was Pinkie Pie.

I tried to not look too suprised, fearing that Tarnish would notice. I just hoped that Pinkie Pie would find me and possibly get The Doctor or someone else to help me.

Astonishingly, she came right up towards us. She was still far enough to not quite see me, so I reverted back to my Earth Pony form. Dumb move on my part. Now Tarnished Sterling knew that something was up.

Pinkie Pie just walked through the barrier that Tarnish had put up and I suddenly felt a surge of power. Pinkie was wearing her Element, so perhaps that was what gave me this sudden strength.

I could see that Tarnish was a little taken aback. "I would have thought that all of the Element Bearers would be back at the library. What brought you here to your doom, Pinkie Pie?"

Before she could reply, Tarnish already had his revolver out and was ready to shoot. "NO!" I cried, about to jump between the two of them as he pulled the trigger. Suddenly, the bullet slowed down. Actually everything slowed down.

I had slowed down time.

I wasn't going to waste this sudden window of opportunity, though. I ran up towards the bullet's line of fire, deflected the projectile with my blade, and plunged it into Tarnish.

That was when time returned to normal. Tarnish looked down at his wound, darkness seeping out of him like smoke.

"This isn't over, Smoulder..." he muttered as he disappeared in a black smoke.

That was when I realized that I was completely drained from slowing down time. I had just done what Discord used to be able to do, and now I know why he rarely ever used it. Just slowing it down is taxing on every part of your being.

I almost collapsed when Pinkie Pie came and helped me back up. "How...?" was all I could say. I was still wondering how I could slow down time and still keep my weapon (I can't summon it as an Earth Pony). Maybe when my Element is close to another, it triggers stuff like this.

Our eyes met, and I could feel her boring into my very soul. "I know who you are, Sterling," she revealled. "You're not really from this world, are you? That jokey jerk Discord forced you to play his little game, and now you're stuck here... Just like me."

I was about to ask what she meant by that when I suddenly got this rising feeling.

That was when I realized it was all a dream. I was back at the museum, with The Doctor, Derpy Doo, and...

I could see the moon shining directly through my window. "Luna," I whispered. I was aware that she wasn't quite ready to reveal herself in Ponyville, but I knew that she was still watching me.

I turned to The Doctor. "Princess Celestia saw that you had passed out in the middle of the park and let me know," he explained to me. "That was when Derpy and I carried you back here. What happened?"

I explained my dream, which felt so real that I couldn't tell when it actually began. So I started with when Celestia told me about supposedly seeing me in Canterlot.

"From what I gathered, Celestia didn't even speak to you," The Doctor replied. "Maybe it was all in your head? Your mind can do that sometimes."

"Probably," I muttered. "But what about the whole thing with Pinkie Pie? That I'm stuck here, just like her?"

"As a matter of fact, Pinkie did help us carry you here. Then she had to run back to the library to help Twilight with her report."

"So she didn't get in trouble," I said. I knew she was overreacting.

"Yes, now all the Element Bearers help in writing a report to the Princess whenever the subject comes up; not just every week." The Doctor then explained to me that after Celestia had all of that sorted out, she was about to leave for Canterlot when she saw me. She teleported to the museum and let The Doctor and Derpy know. Celestia couldn't come along because she had to get to Canterlot soon. Pinkie Pie was also on her way to the park when Derpy and The Doctor came out of the museum.

"It's like she knew what happened..." he said. "She helped us get you back inside, but she seemed to disappear shortly after we got back."

Derpy spoke up. "You know that pony; here one minute and gone the next!"

"So," I began, "everything that happened was all in my head? There was no Tarnished Sterling, no fight, no Pinkie Pie coming unexpectedly?"

The Doctor just shook his head. "No, Sterling. Perhaps you haven't been getting enough sleep lately. I've seen you outside well after midnight, talking to Luna via the moon." He was right, I was talking to Luna a lot since I got back to Ponyville.

"Well, she must be pretty lonely at night, with everypony else asleep." I retorted.

"True enough," The Doctor admitted, "But you'll be able to see her in a few days, at Nightmare Night. Didn't you tell me that she was planning on coming to Ponyville then?"

I forgot all about that. She told me that the other evening, after I begged her to come. It would be suiting, since she was in control of the night.

After all of this was sorted out, Derpy and The Doctor left me to get some rest. The only problem was, I couldn't sleep. I was busy thinking about my dream. Why would Pinkie Pie be there? What of this Tarnished Smoulder guy? And what did Pinkie know about being pulled from another dimension? Was the dream a warning? I knew that Discord would probably try and attack the Element Bearers when he breaks out again. But how would he do it? Discord probably still has my memories somewhere. Maybe my dream wasn't so far-fetched after all.

That was when I heard a tapping noise against my balcony door. I got up to see who was doing this when I saw Pinkie Pie. I kind of jumped back, since there was no way of getting up here and Pinkie did scare the hay out of me.

I opened the balcony door and came outside, silently closing the door behind me.

"What are you doing here, Pinkie Pie?" I whispered. "And how did you even get up here??"

"I was worried about you, Sterling," she replied. "Not everypony just passes out for no reason. Unless they have a low blood sugar level, which is why I brought these!" She seemed to pull out a box from out of nowhere. "I made a bunch of cupcakes for you, since there's probably not a lot of sugary stuff back where you come from."

"Uhh... Thanks." I said awkwardly. This pony never ceases to amaze me.

"Just don't open the box when anyone else is around," Pinkie warned me. "I don't want you sharing these cupcakes! I made them just for you; think of it as a welcome gift."

I told her that I wouldn't, and that she should probably get home, since it's really late. I was about to let her through my room to exit through the museum when she just climbed over the balcony rail and back down to the ground.

"Don't tell anyone that I was here, either," she said. "It's a secret to everypony!" And with that, she was off.

I walked back into my room and put the box of cupcakes on my endtable. I wondered what kind of cupcakes were in it and opened the box. There was more than just cupcakes in there. All sorts of candies, sweets, baked goods, and yes, cupcakes.

There was also a letter under the lid of the box. I pulled it out and started to read. What I saw completely blew my mind afresh on the personality of Pinkie Pie:

Sterling,

You may not remember this, but you almost had a brush with death tonight. If you remember anything about a dark clone of you and dismissed it as just a dream, DON'T DO IT. He does exist, and he's extremely dangerous. This dark being was born from your locked away memories, the ones you never wanted to think of again. Discord was in control of this; I know it. He's done it before, but that's a story for another time.

Anyways, you passed out shortly after Twilight and the rest of us headed for the library. That was when Discord created that dark version of yourself. He would have killed you and used your body as a puppet. I know; gross, right?

Of course, Discord probably thought you were already dead and gone, so it would have been a piece of cake to take control of your body. What he didn't count on was you surviving. How do I know all of this? Well, you'll have to talk to me in person for that.

So, I just want to warn you about what that jester of a jerk Discord can do to you. He knows now that you still live, and he'll stop at nothing to destroy you, and eventually the rest of us. Your survival put a kink in his plans, but he'll soon be able to fix it.

Just remember: Always smile. Your darker self thrives with negative emotions, and you might not be able to take a second beating like what happened tonight. Fortunately, nopony was there to see it, so we don't have to think of another explanation for it.

I also know that you have an Element of Harmony. Nopony could use magic to move that fast, not even the Princess. No one else should know about it yet, though. In order to stop Discord for good, we'll need all of the Elements of Harmony working together, which means you'll have to get to know the rest of us a little more; just so that your seventh Element will work properly. It's the bond between the Elements and their users that increases their power. That's what Twilight told me, anyways, and what I saw tonight was proof of that. With the Seventh Element, we could stop Discord for good.

Again, remember to keep positive, even when you feel like your problems will never end. If I have to, I'll come over to your place and MAKE you smile. :)

I know you have more questions, but just wait a while. I don't want anypony else to know that I have secrets that I have to tell you. And trust me, I know how it feels to be used like you were by Discord.

Enjoy the sweets!
Pinkie

I finished reading the letter, completely astonished at what I now know. Only, with every question that Pinkie Pie answered, another took its place (if not two!). How does Pinkie know what will help me counter Tarnished Sterling's future attacks? How long will this last? Did Discord really have something to do with this? I'll have to talk to Pinkie tomorrow.

I got back into bed, wondering just what the next day will bring...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Spirit of Chaos was beside himself back in Canterlot. Turns out that his little pawn was still in the game, and now Pinkie Pie knew about Sterling Smoulder and his evil "twin". Two pieces of his foolproof plan, ruined. Sterling should have been dead, and Pinkie Pie shouldn't have remembered anything about what Discord was capable of.

He should have finished the two of them when he had the chance. Now they know too much, and one will probably tell the other what they know, leading to Discord's defeat, for real this time.

"I hate friendship," he said to himself, knowing full well that nopony could hear him. "if it doesn't hinder you, it'll make your enemies stronger. Fortunately, Sterling's as antisocial as they come. He probably already knows that he'll need to make more friends in order to really stop me. Hold on... 'Make more friends'? How sappy! HAHAHAHA!" Discord laughed, knowing that his little pawn will most likely fail in befriending the little ponies, resulting in his depression, and then...

"BAM!" Discord exclaimed. "He'll fall right back into my hands. I swear, humans can be so weak-willed sometimes... Then again, sometimes you get a really stubborn one who will pull all of those around him through to victory." He was referring to one man who was a captain of a spaceship, in another part of the multiverse.

"I really should pay Jean-Luc a visit someday... That is, after I take over this world."

Comments

[Captain_Savage]

mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw752_dashtwist.gif

[Meta Knight]

♫♥I look forward to reading what happens next in your story♥

[McStudz]

171189

Which part?

[Captain_Savage]

...... >_>

[McStudz]

LOL, I know. It was about Pinkie, right?

[TenshuraX]

ooookay, that was a strange story, but good, i like the pinkie pie plot twist, (heh, you can always expect the unexpected, yet you never expect what she does)