For want of a War, Ωmega
For Want of a War
Omega
The spirit of Disharmony and Chaos admired the sunny sky as fluffy pink clouds playfully chased pegasi to and fro. He stopped to smell some flowers, terrifying a pink and blonde mare who had hidden behind them. She swooned; Discord hadn't known ponies still did that. He felt like dancing, and summoned a line of buffalo from Apploosa to back him up. It was a great day to be alive, and with just a few artful adjustments he was able to help the citizens of Ponyville appreciate this fact as well, in his own special way.
The fact that everything was going according to his plans, more or less, certainly helped keep his mood buoyant. The draconequus added one or two more surprises to keep everyone on their hooves while he left town on a couple of errands – visiting old friends and making a new one. With a tug of his beard the draconequus vanished into a swirl of smoke that sped toward the Equestrian Capital.
Jackie spared a glance above and behind her. Yes, Rainbow Dash was still following her. She sighed, 'Figures. Might as well finish the task Rare gave us before I try to vamoose.'
Dash was just considering giving up the chase when the earth pony glanced up to see if she was still following. 'Ugh, I guess it's easier to just keep going than to try and outrun her...' At least now she could finally see what the wandering pony was after, halfway across town she spied Spike, 'huh, looks like he's headed to my workshop... whatever.' something about that idea filled her with a sense of dread. Best not to dwell on it, though, she already felt terrible, why borrow extra trouble?
Scootaloo double checked the bearings in her scooter's back wheels, feeling just a bit of pride. Having an engineer for a... whatever the hay Dash was to her, could really be a drag sometimes, especially when the older pegasus went on and on about keeping your stuff clean and maintained, but at times like this she had to admit – only to herself – that it was really good to have complete confidence in her stuff.
While she waited for the signal she considered all the lame stuff that had happened that day: blowing up a school field-trip by releasing an ancient spirit of chaos, having her first meeting of the Princess be overshadowed by that, and then being sent back to the shop to wait and see if everything turned out ok. She hated feeling useless, especially when the orange filly knew everything was kinda' her fault. And where was the big climactic fight with Discord happening? A library – what were they going to do, read the spirit of Disharmony into submission?
Light glimmered up at her – 'Oh! That's the signal.' She pushed off, heading down the steepest hill in Ponyville. She was on a collision course with a monster made of candy, Sweetie Bell was distracting it, while Apple Bloom and Twist threw water on it. Yeah, Twist – Scootaloo hadn't been expecting that when her CMC compatriots had shown up at the shop.
The pegasus buzzed her wings, trying to pick up as much speed as she could, and not think about how she'd complained about the cream furred filly tagging along. Luckily, she'd been outvoted – and then they'd discovered this gumdrop goblin; all of a sudden the candymaker went from being a fifth leg to Neighponyon's understudy. Scoots crouched, lowering her profile and consequently her air resistance, 'argh, stay outt'a my head, Dash!' Despite her tone of annoyance she grinned.
Rarity watched a half-tonne of buffalo turn en pointe, as she absently patted a pink maned panicking pegasus pony. The bull was actually doing a good job of keeping his hoof pointed correctly – She kept being distracted by the fact that all of the tribes bovine were wearing form-fitting leotards with pink ruffles. She shuddered, poor Little Strongheart looked like a potato in a knit sock, and it only got worse from there. The unicorn's left eye twitched occasionally as she tried to make casual conversation.
"S-so this … ah, Dream Serpent, Chief Thunderhooves has chosen to believe its words, and Little Strongheart has not... is, that is... what you're saying?" Sick fascination warred with a desire to move on before Diane burst into laughter as she so obviously wanted to. 'Fluttershy' kept asking if they could go home yet.
An adjacent buffalo nodded, "Yeah, she's challenging him for leadership of the tribe."
"But why are they performing … ah, interpretive dance?"
The bison shrugged, an action that took much longer to finish than one might expect, "Those are the new rules, the Chief's still the chief until he loses, so they do it his way." The buffalo seemed dazed and not altogether … there.
The Assistant Professor nodded mutely, recognizing bureaucracy when she heard it. 'Really, I'm sure she doesn't actually Want to take her father's position, but doesn't see how to convince him, otherwise, that this is the wrong thing for their people. I mean really, ballet? I could see them trying soft-hoof or riverprancing but this is – argh, "FOCUS!"
Rarity realized she had shouted aloud. "Eh, heh-heh, pardon me." she said, weakly smiling. Out of the corner of her eye she espied a gray pegasus chasing somepony on the ground.The flier had a tool-belt slung from her saddlebags, 'that is Rainbow Dash, no doubt about it.'
The white unicorn used a burst of magic to pick up her earth pony and pegasus companions, "Come along now, girls, this has to end soon – one way or another." The chase was on.
Diane crossed her forehooves, floating through the air apace with the town librarian, "Hay, it's about time."
Nearing her target, Scootaloo realized the monster had a filly clutched in one dissolving paw. It seemed to be Diamond Tiara, though it was hard to tell as the pony in question was half coated in solidified sugar. The athletic filly's anger surprised her. She was, in fact, worried about the bully's welfare. Buzzing her wings furiously, she coaxed every bit of speed she could manage.
The young pegasus modified her plan, performing an ollie at the last possible moment , leaping off the scooter, and tackling the earth filly out of the diabolical dessert demon's grasp – her scooter smacking central marshmallowwy mass, smashing through the confectionary creature... and regretted letting Sweetie Bell teach her how to use a thesaurus.
Finally rolling to a stop, she heard somepony screaming like a little colt. Luckily it was Tiara, and when the snob noticed that she was being watched, she shut up. Scootaloo patted her on the shoulder and trotted over to her friends, which, yeah... she guessed did include the candymakers' daughter.
***
Apple Bloom watched Scootaloo trot up, grinning from ear to ear. The orange filly tried to do a hoof-bump with Twist, and ended up having to teach her how to perform one. Bloom left them to their exercise, instead heading over to see how Tiara was doing. "Diamond, are ya ok?" the yellow filly asked, careful not to display any sign of either weakness or contempt.
The pink filly's muzzle crinkled as the moneyed filly sought some scathing reply. Apple Bloom held up a hoof to forestall whatever venom awaited, "Hold on, this ain't the Elementary. None'a the rules apply today. Ah'm not gonna pretend either of us can stand one another, but today Ponyville needs everypony."
Tiara took this in with a raised eyebrow, "And what does that mean?" one earth filly asked the other.
"It means we could really use yer help." Apple Bloom held her face neutral, 'don't tense too much or it looks like you're trying not to express nothing.'
"Really? You need my help?" the white and purple maned pony asked, skepticism warring with curiosity.
The Apple filly giggled, "Nope, but Ah'm asking for it just the same. Like ah said, there's nothin' says we gotta follow the rules today and frankly, our little war's gettin' kinda borin, don't ya think?" She didn't have to force the chagrined grimace that thought brought her.
Diamond Tiara violently stamped on the part of herself that jumped at the thought of being needed, "Alright, fine, I owe you losers something for the assist." she allowed, her countenance darkening for a moment, " But don't think this means anything is going to be different after today." Diamond glowered at the orchard filly before taking the offered hoof.
Apple Bloom grinned, "Ah wouldn't dream of it."
Celestia grinned the tenth time Luna came by to check on her. She knew from experience that when the positions were switched she had done the same thing... 'has it truly been a year? I have done everything possible to make these days last, and yet they still slip away so quickly.'
Luna caught the change in her little big sister's expression, "Sister, what troubles you?"
The filly shook her head, "Just thinking about –" out of the corner of her eye she saw "Discord!". Leaping off her bed, the Solar princess momentarily forgot her stature, rushing to stand between the spirit of disharmony and her sister.
The serpentine equinoid doubled over in laughter, legs kicking spasmodically in the air. Celestia was reminded of her diminution when a blazing orb of sunfire failed to materialize, her horn producing only the faintest of fizzling pops. Desperately swallowing her own snickers, Luna hugged the filly, taking a moment to nuzzle her before gently setting her behind the lunar princess.
A well aimed bolt of shadowstuff choked off the Chaos Spirit's mockery. Spitting a cloud of purple smoke, he rose to his feet, coughing. "Well, well, *caff* well," Discord chuckled, "looks like little Luna's all grown up now..."
The midnight blue alicorn regarded the patchwork creature tensely, ready for anything, "We suppose thou hast– you have not come here to surrender?" she said, speaking the question as a statement.
The draconequus snorted, "You always did have a sense of humor. Nooooo, I'm here to do..." everyone in the room tensed as he spoke, "This!" The figure lunged forward, the Alicorn of the Night tore it apart with a swarm of micro-meteors. At the same time a slap resounded in the room, followed by a high pitched yelp. Celestia landed sitting upright, but quickly sprung to a stand, glancing at her restored cutie mark, and the red paw impression over the same spot, before flushing bright red and glaring furiously at Discord.
Luna choked on her rage, crashing the draconequus into the palace wall. She snarled ferociously, "You go too far, I am going to–"
Discord groaned, "Oh please, you'll do nothing." The draconequus cut off the Night Princess's reply, "I still have all the power and time I took from Celestia. Fight me now and I'll expend it defending myself. Your only hope is that Uncommon and the Hair Bunch somehow beat me," he rolled his eyes, "Unless you want to be saddled with weak, widdle Celly for a few centuries." The beast of Disharmony became vaporous, slipping past and around Luna as he whispered in her ear, "your hope is my shield. That feeling of weakness? It's what happens when you let yourself care too much – your sister taught me that little lesson."
The dark alicorn smoldered, but made no move to stop the amalgamate as he walked to the balcony. One paw on the railing he turned to look at the sisters again, "Oh, I suppose I should remind you: kids her age can be subject to random magical surges–"
The Alicorn of the Moon snorted, "You are mistaken, monster, that is a problem suffered by much younger foals."
The chaos spirit shrugged, "Huh, my mistake. Well, she does now." The draconequus flung himself out the window, falling upward into the clear blue sky.
Luna watched, debating hitting him with a focused gravitic pulse. She turned to her sister to ask Celstia about Discord's last comment; the filly's eyes shone with a bright yellow light. All the shadows in the room began to sway and lurch, as though a candle were being swung around wildly. 'But hold, in the middle of the day 'tis no need for candles... oh dear,' The night princess ran to the balcony, where she behold the sun swooping madly about the sky and growing steadily larger...
Princess Luna sighed, closing her eyes. She couldn't hope to wrest control of the solar orb from her sister, Ruler of the Daystar. She could, however, banish the Sun below the horizon by calling forth her own namesake. And she did, Luna summoning Luna, made the sun drop below the mountains so suddenly one could almost imagine it making some sort of sound.
An elderly green pegasus stood in the doorway, unnoticed in the chaos. The Director of the Department of Inquiry dropped the scrolls he had been carrying, turned around, and began marching out of the castle. 'This is absolutely the last straw,' he groused, deciding to take the afternoon off and call on an old … associate of his.
The events all sort of squished in on each other, but Spike was sure he got to the workshop before Jackie and Rainbow Dash caught up with him. Specifically, he remembered asking Sweetie Bell about the huge crowd of ponies, "Whoa, where'd all the ponies come from?"
"We uh... ran into Ms. Doo and her friends, and then more ponies noticed us, and then more, and well..." Sweetie Bell gestured at the three score or more ponies gathered in front of Dash's workshop.
Spike had almost had enough time to ask "Have you heard anything from–"
When Apple Bloom jumped up, "Jackie!" she shouted, looking past the small dragon at something.
Spike frowned, "No, I was going to say–"
It was Scootaloo who interrupted him the second time, "Rainbow Dash?"
Spike stomped his foot, "No! … wait, what are you looking at..." Turning around, he beheld a gray earth pony and gray pegasus coming to a stop next to him. As his brain unfroze he recognized the elder Apple sister and Ponyville's resident designer. "Uh, hey." The young dragon fidgeted, "Where's Rarity, did you win, is it over?"
Jackie peered back at Rainbow Dash, waggling her eyebrows up and down, while gesturing at young Heathspike. The gray pegasus sighed, trotting forward, and pulled a scroll from her saddlebags, "Coming, no, and no... unfortunately." After a moment Spike took the hint and took the proffered scroll, reading it quickly. "Yeah, Rarity would like you to make several copies of that... of course that was before we knew you'd be gathering half the town in one place." Rainbow concluded. Spike nodded, getting to work.
Scootaloo jumped into the lull in conversation, "OK, what's the deal, Dash?"
The pegasus mare looked at the filly, nonplussed, "Huh?"
The orange pegasus groaned, "Wwwhyyy aarre you gray all of a sudden? What's next? Where are the elements? And yeah, nice to see you, too." Something was very wrong here, and nopony was bothering to explain.
Rainbow nodded, "Right, thanks for reminding me, kid, we need you to evacuate everypony – and that includes the three of you."
A chorus of complaints from the Crusaders greeted the order. Scootaloo glowered, "You're not answering my questions. What. Is. Happening?" she bit off the words, surprised at the lack of words from her guardian. Normally the athletic filly was wishing Rainbow Dash would just stop talking sometimes, but now that she had the experience she found the terse was far worse that the colorful pony's usual stream of words. "If you've got the elements then why do we need to run away. And if you don't have them, then why can't we help you look for them?"
For the first time since she'd shown up desaturated, Rainbow seemed to animate for a moment, "NO! I don't want you anywhere near that creep. If Discord got his claws in you I'd..." she shivered. 'What if... what if Scoot's parents lived, in the other timeline?'
The orange filly took a step back, "Y-you're afraid. This isn't about... you want to run away..." Her pupils shrank, "Oh no... no, nononono... you're giving up. That's it, isn't it? You're bucking giving up!" she backed away from the depressed pony, "You can't... you never … ugh" She felt sick to her stomach, her breath was shallow and rapid. A hitch in her breathing turned to laughter, "I.. hah, I thought you were different, *hih*, I thought you cared. But you don't, do you? I hate you." The words shocked her to silence, but they'd been said, "I HATE YOU! St-stupid, you stupid ...whatever!" Out, away, somewhere else, they all sounded like much better places to be than where she was right that moment. 'Time to scoot.'
Apple Newton's first law of motion tells us that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force. The force motivating Rainbow Dash up and after the rapidly fleeing filly was open to debate– the mare herself wasn't sure, all she knew was that she couldn't let Scootaloo leave, 'not like this,' and that had to be enough.
On the 23rd floor of a Manehattan apartment building, a fitful filly slept unsoundly, wrestling with nighttime interpretations of the difficulties of her day. Next to her bed a living nightmare took a moment to glance out the window and contemplate the nature of the city. In the abstract he had considered the place to be a bastion of order and structure, but this close he could feel the pulse of chaos underneath the infrastructure, the stress of competition turning pony against pony, the discarded and the unlawful skulking the darkened corners, and the buildings themselves rotting from the inside; desperate to crumble and fall. When he was done with Ponyville he was going to have to investigate this "Civilization" business further.
'That's enough idle speculation, back to the task at paw,' he reached up and plucked a single hair from his mane, watching it twist and writhe in his paw like a living thing. Twirling his digits he spun the fragment of his essence into a wisp of shimmering smoke, holding it under the filly's muzzle until she inhaled it with a gasp. As much as he despised backup plans as both a habit of Order, he reasoned that doing it just this once was an unpredictable act.
Discord paused as he made ready to return to Ponyville and his destiny. 'Maybe, just maybe, I won't reclaim that bit after I've won. Who knows what fruit a seed of chaos might grow? Could be entertaining to find out.' With a snort and a shake of his head he dismissed the speculation. He could do whatever he wanted to – after he had won. With a moment's thought he became a gray wind, rushing out the window and following a course to Ponyville that had been contemplated by another filly a decade past, but not taken.
Possibilities whirled in her mind as the white unicorn rounded the last corner to behold the crowd of ponies milling about. Her eyes immediately found Heathspike and she began trotting toward him, even as she noted Rainbow Dash's departure and the conversation Jackie and Apple Bloom were … trying to have. Neighbors, friends, coworkers, and random ponies off the street, her eyes kept picking out more and more members of the crowd as she approached her objective.
Fluttershy squealed quietly when she saw the huge crowd. The weather pony panicked, trying to run away, only to run into Diane who just happened to be walking right behind her. The earth mare stubbornly continued moving forward, the yellow pegasus's hooves leaving furrows in the dirt as the pair ground forward. Moments later the recalcitrant pony was recognized and then surrounded. As the weather captain was thronged by well-wishers Di slipped past, taking a moment to smirk at Rarity. Which reminded the white mare that the herbalist claimed to know where the elements had been taken, a fact she filed away for after she had made certain Heathspike was alright.
Finally reaching her adopted son, the scholarly mare was surprised to realize that Twilight was still following her, watching everything with bland curiosity. Ignoring that for a moment, Rarity watched the little dragon studiously copying text, a smile creeping over her lips for what felt like the first time all day. Before she could speak, Spike spotted the shadow that had fallen over him, glancing up with a look of hope that was rewarded as so few things had been in recent history.
That, of course, is when the sun unceremoniously dropped from the sky, plunging the city into darkness. Shrieks and shouts echoed, ponies stumbling as they tried to adjust to the wan moonlight so suddenly. Rarity sighed, knowing that somepony had to calm everypony down before they were done in by accidents. She felt a bittersweet pang, borrowing a little showmareship from an old friend, using a little magic to generate a sourceless seeming ambient light as she jumped onto a nearby crate.
Clearing her throat, Rarity addressed the assembled ponies. "Good day to you all, my friends, family, neighbors, ...and Cherry Berry. I know you have all seen strange and upsetting things around town, the Royal Sisters themselves have tasked my friends and myself with stopping the cause of this havok. And I'm here to tell you that the conflict is almost over. Discord is a being of chaos, and he thinks he's fighting the forces of order. But that is not who we are, and we do not have to accept his terms. A pony is a creature of HARMONY, we are balance, and as such the spirit of Disarray has only as much power over us as we allow him to have." She grinned, looking out over the crowd, "Personally, I am not about to cede my home to him. The more insane and outlandish his antics become, the more desperate I know he is. Come with me, because together we are unstoppable. If we hold together we will see this day through, we will see balance restored, and I promise you we will have the Return of Harmony!"
While the applause was by no means overwhelming, the scholar took her consolation where she could: they were with her, however dubiously. That hope would be what would see the plan through. For once Spike had no complaints about public affection when she hugged and nuzzled him to within an inch of his life. It took no time at all to find Diane, who nodded and began leading their fractured band to the fateful clearing past town.
Scootaloo squirmed in token protest. It wasn't that she was physically uncomfortable, but being cocooned in a full-wing hug in public, with her friends... and her enemies... watching felt embarrassing. At the same time she wasn't quite willing to break free. Every now and then the older pegasus would nuzzle the filly's mane or mumble some inaudible word of apology or affirmation. Together, they watched the naturally gray pegasus pick up the box.
The Doctor simply stared, a large goofy grin building on his muzzle. The orange filly had stumbled across the ... 'hiding place' of the elements. 'Can you really claim to have hidden something when you drop it in a box and plant a ruddy big billboard next to it, though?' he considered the matter, but it didn't really matter. The Draconequus had somehow enchanted the surrounding area with Zeno's paradox of motion or, really, the common misinterpretation people often have about it. '...wibbly wobbly.'
They'd tried everything to get to the box, magic – didn't work, the distance effectively became infinite; flight... did not work out well, one poor bloke tried diving straight down and ended up falling at an infinitely slow speed about ten strides out of reach; neither physical strength nor sheer willpower availed, either. No, in the end, poor depth perception won the day – Derpy started on one side and tried to walk to the other, she actually tripped over the box. Thankfully that ended the spell, which unfortunately meant that … er, 'Thunderlane, that's the chap's name, I'm sure of it.' Anyway, the charcoal pegasus came crashing down, just missing the box and the mailmare.
The zigzagging pink clouds diverged from their random paths, converging on the bowl-shaped indentation that was the final physical legacy of the cloudboom. Spiralling down, they formed a pink and brown striped funnel, whirling with furious energy and occasionally sparking off greenish white lightning and... peppermint sticks? A beast of many parts stepped forth, snake's tail lashing as he gestured for calmness with an eagle's claw and a lion's paw, "Now now, my little ponies, I know you're excited to see me, but the real show is just about to start." Discord chuckled. He raised the eagle claw skyward, suddenly every cloud, white, pink, black and all shades between began to rush toward the growing funnel. With a flourish the draconequus produced a silvered hourglass filled with fluorescent pastel sand.
Flipping open the top the spirit of disharmony pulled out a generous pinch, tossing it into the storm. For a moment the clouds shone with the light of the sun, then darkened to pitch black, picking up such speed that the howling winds made ponies flatten their ears. He carefully secured the top on the hourglass and screwed a wooden handle to its middle. The chaos spirit laughed, "Well, what do you think? I call it 'the Storm of Ages'. What's that I hear? You want an encore?" Glancing at the gathered equinity, he espied a blonde pegasus struggling against the wind, trying to drag the elements away. Somehow Discord's groan was perfectly audible, despite the growing cacophony.
The serpenine figure began stomping toward the retreating pegasus, his steps eating up the distance, behind him the storm continued to grow, threatening to devour the sky. "Ditzy," Stomp, "Derpy," stomp, "Dippity," stomp, "Doo..." stomp, "What am I to do with you?" He towered over the gray mare, seemingly a dozen pony lengths tall, and yet right next to her, "Why am I not surprised to find you here?" Discord paused, stroking his beard, "No, really, why not? I've never tried this before... and yet you being here seems sooo predictable, somehow."
Derpy shielded the box, glaring into the baleful regard of chaos. Moments earlier she had been terrified, horrified even. Now all she felt was anger, "What's your problem, mister? If you think I'm nothing, then why barter telling me that? I think Europe the one that's afraid. And, and, and... you should just stop... twisting things." She swallowed, determined not to give this creep even a single tear, "I can see through you, you know – somepony told you that you're no good, a loser, that you're hopeless. And you listened, even... even though you didn't want to, couldn't help yourself. So now that's all you can do, fail, flail, and fall." She bit the inside of her cheeks, but continued, "This can still end well, if you'll just let it–"
Discord swung the timepiece like a croquet mallet, snarling inarticulately. Derpy had just enough time to make a silent apology to her daughter that she wouldn't see her again – before she was shoved out of the way by a quick moving brown mass. The hourglass hammer struck the stallion's skull, making a deep *thock* noise and lifting the pony bodily into the air, spinning head over hooves before being sucked into the vortex. The draconequus watched, his chest heaving for a moment before he began laughing maniacally.
Six friends were there within moments, although their haste couldn't prevent what had already happened. Rarity gently removed the contents of the box, addressing each element to its bearer. As the other survivors of Omega flight came up to retrieve their grey friend, the yellow pegasus tucked the yellow doll under one of Derpy's hooves. As the band of pegasi retreated, the remaining ponies looked at each other. There really wasn't anything to say.
The spirit of Disharmony conjured a pocket watch and consulted it before glancing up at the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. "Let's get this little sham over with, shall we? You get one shot, and then I'm taking away all hope, it makes you ponies do some amazingly stupid things." He snarled, impatiently tossing away the pair of snazzy red shades he was inexplicably holding, and certainly not painting a target on his chest.
Ponies took formation, standing with varying expressions of determination as... absolutely nothing happened. No fireworks, no shimmering rainbows of light and friendship and puppies, no glowing levitation, nothing. Rainbow Dash poked her necklace, glancing at their fearless leader, "Uh, Rares, do you know what we're supposed to do now? Because I gotta tell you, there is no way in Tartarus that I'm hugging that." She deadpanned, jerking her head toward the patchwork monstrosity.
For his part, Discord counted to sixty under his breath before opening his eyes again. Then he let ten seconds go by, his left foot tapping impatiently, "Oh for Pete's–" Finally the Element of Chance began to emit a bright white glow, pulling all of the bearers aloft, Rarity's eyes glowed with the same intense illumination... until the light flickered and went out, unceremoniously dropping everypony back to the ground. The draconequus made a popping noise with his lips, "Yeahhh, I'm going to have to give you a 'D' for effort, but that counts." With a flick of his wrist Discord wrested the inert elements from their bearers, floating together and approaching the chaos spirit inside a sphere of energy. With one swing of his mallet, the serpentine figure knocked the enchanted jewelry into the raging storm cloud of warped space and time before the assembled six ponies could reach him.
The six skidded to a halt as the elements winked out of existence, the storm vanishing again. The gray pegasus looked around, and simply sat down, hooves over her face. The yellow one gasped and fled as fast as she could, seeking any sort of cover while she desperately searched to see where Derpy had gone, she needed to hide Fluttershy somewhere safe. The wayfarer nodded and simply began heading toward the nearest road. Both unicorns stood, mouths agape. The second earth pony simply glared at the draconequus, as if to say now what?
Discord let them do their things while he sauntered up to the assembled mass of pony. After a good thirty seconds he casually snapped his fingers, teleporting the distraught bearers before him. He winked at his audience, "You'll want to watch this part, folks, it has been a very, very long time since anyone has seen a bearer of the sixth element lose her faith."
"I do beg your pardon, but what exactly are you expecting here?" The ponies looked at her, really looked for perhaps the first time. Did her hooves look just the tiniest bit dull? "Even if you have managed to sway my confidence in these mares, it doesn't really matter. I've always known I was the one who would have to finish up." Despite the confidence in her voice, there was definitely a growing grayness to her coat, it was up past her knees now, and working faster through her tail and mane. "Most of my life I had nopony to rely on, certainly nopony who could understand what I felt, feared, and fought for." Up the withers and halfway across her barrel now... "And it seems like everytime I try to do something... 'nice' I'm punished for it somehow." The grayness began to climb her neck. "You know what? I'm tired of apologizing for being smarter than other ponies, I'm tired of being made to feel bad for knowing what I want and pursuing it. We can't all be humble, small, and shrinking – what a boring world that would be!" And it was over, the gray unicorn shed a single tear and fell silent.
Discord watched as quietly as the assembled Equestrians. After a moment he blinked. "That's it?" he asked nopony. "I won?" nopony contradicted him. Snap went his fingers, the storm vanished as though it had never been there, a brass band appeared and began to play a boisterous celebration. "I won," He waved a paw and the instruments exploded, he tried the words out again, "I won." He began warming to the concept, with gesture the sky exploded in fireworks, "I won," there might have been just a touch of hysteria to his voice. Another wave and the cascading sparks fizzled and went quiet. "I won." There was really only one way to celebrate, he wrapped his paws round his torso and began to laugh, deep and loud. "I WON!"
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So long!
Haven't read a story with long chapters in ages!
2963026
I posted this less than two minutes ago, you've already read it?
That's amazing.
I love this story! Though in earlier chapters of Discord shenanigans he seemed a little regretful of what he was doing. Am I just imagining that? Idk...
In other news: Discord is a bastard.
Well, Discord, you do know that winning all the time is boring, right?
You've going to figure it out real fast.
Wow... This continues to be the my favorite alt. universe story ever.
The crazed laughter echoed over the fields of chaos that were once Ponyville, and then there was silence. Discord started at the lack of noise and looked around; the ponies were all slowly walking away, heads low. A few just lay down where they stood, curled up and shook, sobbing. The spirit's face fell slightly.
"... I... won?"
2963177
Is he a Bastard, or a Bass Turd?
Seriously though
2963034
Thanks for this. I love this Alt. Verse almost as much as I love Sushi and Cake. I can't wait to see Discord's face when he gets pwned like a n00b. Also either Dashie needs to Adopt Scoots, or we need to learn about Scoots backstory [Her whole monologue before she bolted makes me intrigued into what she was talking about] than adopt her.
It would appear that I found this. Heavens, why haven't I before?
I have a small confession. I started following this story... a while ago, near the beginning of the Variant Season, I think, and it still kind of bothers me that the title isn't capitalized.
In other news, edits!
I think that should be "to," but I'm not sure
You dropped a space, and that comma should be a semicolon
The stuff that comes after a meal is spelled "dessert," with two s's (ostensibly because you always want seconds). What you have there is the dry, hot, sandy place
Neither of those should be capitalized
Comma, small s
That should be capitalized
Small s
2964541 Thanks again
Remind me why I haven't begged you to edit for me?
I'm caught up now
But everything is awesome!
I can't help but like feel that Discord will soon fall victim to the same thing Megamind did in Megamind
Now that he's won, what's he going to do?
Also, I very slightly suspect that Rarity just uncolored herself just to throw off Discord
So glad I randomly clicked on your story all those weeks ago.
Looking forward to more!
2963026
How dare you read his updates faster than me! That's my job! ARrrrrgh!
2964946 Wait...
Condition [Reading speed] > Seether00
if Seether00 [Reading speed] > Seether00
ERROR, does not compute 
then [Reading speed] == ???
.
2964757 Um... well it's definitely not because I've been subtly manipulating your thoughts to keep that exact request from occurring to you *shiftyeyes*
2965123
YOU MADE ME WASTE AN HOUR OF MY LIFE THERE
...now I really have to step away from Steam for a while and get to writing that Alt. Universe of my own...
2967361 I'll be watching
One of theses days I'll get around to reading the 6 or so chapters I'm behind. Still awesome to see that this is still updating. I look forward to reading it.
2964946 COMPETITION? PREPARE TO BE DEFEATED!
Did I mention yet that I love how this isn't just focused on the Mane Six? I think I did, but it bears repeating.
Right now, specifically, it's nice to see Twist making her way back into Apple Bloom's circle of friends. In the show, Twist is dropped for no apparent reason, even though it looks like she's going to be a regular supporting character. (I'm suspicious that it might have had to do with her lisp.)
Is Discord implying that Alicorns take centuries to mature? Or just that he made it so that Celestia won't age?
Will we hear about Rarity's problem with Cherry Berry, or was that just an aside?
Hmm... I think we might know an insecure filly living in Manehatten... Do I smell a sequel hook?
And the Doctor's timeline had better make sense by the end of this. I'm picky when it comes to time travel being internally consistent. (It often isn't.)
Finally, where might our nameless friend be at the moment? The one that arrived with a Trixie?
I felt like asking questions, okay? I know you can't go into most of them without spoilers, so just pretend I'm mumbling to myself for those, and that I don't expect an answer.
Great author's note.
I am in complete awe at how you managed to weave the Doctor's story through the whole story from the very first chapter on, almost a year ago, I think. Was it really planned out as a major plot point that far in advance, or was it just one of your less subtle references back then?
Anyway, for a moment I thought you had left us all with some serious cliffhanger there. I'm glad that awfully nice chaos spirit was around to clear things up for me. I wonder who he might be, though, I always only see the articles J. Jonah Jamesombra writes about him in the Daily Bucolt.
2964047
That would make sense, if Twi's Cutie Mark didn't look more like a shield to me.
2968688Oh, its fine.
I have to ask: Was that author's note inspired by me?
2995834 My original plan was for him to Discord the narrator, but you kinda' beat me to that. So, yeah, you definitely influenced what I wrote.
2996087 Well, it's nice to know that I'm becoming influential. Also, speaking of my work, I've realised that I haven't given you access to my latest draft yet. I'll fix that momentarily.
*at the authors' notes* *revs up minigun* yeahhh no. im not giving up discord.
Derpy saves the day; that is AWESOME how she accidentally did it.
So THAT'S how the Doctor ends up in the past!
--What.
Welp, after what I have read here I am sure you are going to be great for Millennium Wake. And I even got a great new story to follow from it. I do wish this one is going to continue as well. It can't end with Discord. I found all of the mane 6 in the story to be a quite refreshing take on themselves. Diane probably being the biggest stand out as she actively refused to be cannonical Pinkie. Thank you for giving me this most excellent read.
Will there be a continuation of this story, this is like the bestestestest story EVER!
Yeah he won, now what?
I
____________
Cap.
_______________
XD! Good bit with Discord giving the A/N.
I love how Rarity's Discording took place and the unique circumstances with Fluttershy
5298240
67.media.tumblr.com/8feef793add4cc826751d755754c4e2a/tumblr_nhimlbw5A61rxrsevo1_250.gif
Scratch that, new darkest timeline label.
Edit: Or not. Clever girl.