Agents of Discord

by KittyrinnAiko

Chapter 1: Let the chaos begin.

The place, a back access road at the London Zoo. Sitting on a bench sat a girl with black hair dressed in what could only be the worst thrift store clothing available. She seemed unremarkable save for the purple and vermilion stripes in her hair, below which was a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt, and looked to be around eleven years of age. Or just shy of eleven. She was also very much asleep… or at least she was for at that very moment she awoke and clutched at her forehead. A moment later after much frantic clawing at her forehead, she’d ripped the offending thing from her head, flung it at the pavement, and proceeded to stomp on it, blue fire and mist erupting as she did so along with a spurt of black smoke which billowed into the air.

“What the shell?!” She gasped and then froze in place. She slowly looked up, and then around. A moment later she was looking at her hands. Her eyes then sought out the place she’d just come from. A bench, on which was sitting an old reel-to-reel tape recorder and a large manila envelope. The kind one ships documents in.

Quickly she sprang back over to the bench checking it as though to find something, but there was nothing to be found save the tape recorder and envelope.

With a sigh of resignation, she turned around and sat with a plop. At first, she just sat there. Her eyes wandered over to the spot where she had stomped the thing that had been on her forehead. An odd little scorch mark could be seen on the very spot.

“Moonie?”

“Yes?” offered a small black cat with a crescent-shaped white patch on her forehead as it jumped up onto the bench. It went over to her and climbed onto Nova’s lap and lay down.

“So you are a cat now?”

“Technically I can be anything I want. And as we are in a human world, I thought I’d be a cat."

"And you've styled yourself after an animated cat named Luna. Should I call you Luna from now on?"

"How do you know the animated cat wasn't modeled after me? I am after all the avatar of Princess Luna - So, are you going to press the play button?”

“Looks like I haven't much choice,” she replied while giving Luna the cat an odd look. Her hand sought the recorder, she cast her eyes towards it, and then pressed down on the play button.”

“Good morning Mrs Arthol...” It was Discord’s voice.

Of course, it was Discord. How he’d known about Nova’s married name from the human world that she’d lived in she couldn't even guess, short of her world’s Discord had learned from Prometheus who had been Discord in his world.

She opened the envelope and pulled out the contents even as Discord’s voice was saying, “..the man you are looking at is Tom Riddle Junior.” The image was that of a typical lean Englishman complete with a little wave in his forelock. Save for a hardness in his eyes he wasn’t exactly unpleasant to look at.

The next picture could hardly be thought of as the same man. A man Nova surmised to be Lord Voldemort. Voldemort was larger in the shoulders, bald as a billiard ball, and had the look of a certain celebrity after one too many plastic surgeries.

“Our intelligence has shown that if we do nothing, Riddle will succeed in his plans.”

“And why would you even care?” Nova muttered as she pulled out a picture of a young Harry Potter minus his glasses labeled Aerie Potter.

“Our concern is that he may find his way to Equestria.”

Now, this was news that did concern Nova.

“Should he find any of the portals, it matters not which, he will import his brand of order causing stagnation and societal collapse worse than the Dark Ages.”

The next image was an adult version of her human self with white hair and purple and vermilion stripes in her hair.

“Your counterpart, one Kitsumi Nova Nightfoal Moon has removed the true Potter child and arranged for the local English Changelings to impersonate the boy so as to prevent one Mr Dumbledore from realizing he no longer had young Mr Potter in his clutches.”

Out came pictures of the Dursleys

“The changelings tasked with this detail, despite having a picture of James and Lily Potter, have rather fortuitously modeled themselves after your counterpart leaving the Dursleys to think that Harry had been a girl all along. In case you're wondering, Lily Potter and Nova Nightfoal Moon's human form was very similar. In fact, the two looked very much like sisters save in that Princess Nova has white hair. Your mission, if you should choose to take it, is to step in, relieve the changeling Aerie, and take her place.”

“Why me? I was perfectly happy being a pony.”

“You were chosen because you lived in a world where the Potter Story was just that, a story. In this world, certain things did indeed come to pass including a number of Horcrux created by Mr Riddle. And you already know what they are and where they are to be found. Aren’t parallel worlds fun?” His tone was completely deadpan. “Find them, destroy them, thwart Dumbledore's plans to build himself up at the expense of others, and then contact your counterpart for a ride home. Oh and don’t worry about how much time it takes. You’ll hardly be gone long enough for any pony to notice that you are missing. That is once they’ve locked me back in stone. The Dursleys will be at the zoo by now. Locate them, and take your place with them.

“If you or any member of your team should be caught, I, of course, will deny any knowledge of your whereabouts.

“This tape will self-destruct in five seconds, oh, and good luck.”

Far as Nova was concerned five seconds was way too fast. She snatched up the envelope and contents, Dumped Moonie from her lap, and quickly retreated further down the path where she quickly found herself behind the exhibits. Once there, she slowed her pace and took another look at the contents of the envelope. She was not too surprised to find a small shoulder bag inside the envelope. It’d been placed in there by Discord. Nor would Nova have been surprised to find all manner of things within. After all, this was Discord. A pair of heavy black-rimmed glasses taped together in the middle was also in the envelope.

“Well, Moonie, I guess he’s serious. Zoo tickets, muggle money, identification identifying me as Aerie Lily Potter, Muggle money,” English pounds, Euros, American dollars, and pesos for some odd reason. “..A vault key, and a credit card… oooh, and a Military Intelligence Section six identification. Discord, you do know how to please a girl.” There were a few other things as well. Such as safety pins, a small packet of band-aids, a packet of tissues, a mass transit card, a protein bar, hair bands, a pen, a cell phone that was decades ahead of its time along with a charger for the phone, and a small makeup bag. Granted that it was Discord who’d packed the bag she wouldn't be too surprised to find just about anything in it. What’s more, is that the bag held far more than a bag its size should have been able to. Not like that was a surprise given the bag was larger than the envelope it came out of.

Only now did she think to check for her pendant, which was Moonie’s true form. Sure enough, it was still hanging from her neck. Of course, she still had it. If she hadn’t there’d have been no Moonie. She’d also had a small coin purse on her full of Equestrian gold and silver.

Nearby was a dumpster. Nova put on the glasses which thankfully reduced the spectrum that she could normally see, went over to the dumpster, and dumped the envelope and photos while keeping a folded-up letter addressed to Severus Snape. That went into her bag as she was sure it just had to contain something really juicy. As for the shoulder bag, that she decided to wear under the raggedy sweat jacket she had on despite the hot day. No point in advertising she had it. Not that she was afraid of being mugged, oh no, it was more likely Dudley would take it the moment he saw it. Bad enough she was wearing his old clothes by the looks of things. Baggy blue jeans and an old grungy plaid shirt were hardly her ideal of things she wanted to wear.

“You there, what are you doing back here?” Called a man in a zoo maintenance uniform. "And who's cat is that?"

“I’m so terribly sorry, I seem to have gotten turned around.” Nova offered as she faced him. Nor was she going to acknowledge ownership of Luna the cat. She looked through the glasses, and over the glasses to discover that without the glasses his skin and hair were pastel colors but with the glasses, the man looked just like any other human. She’d also managed what she hoped was a fairly decent English accent. Based on old World War Two movies and she probably sounded more like an American trying to fake an accent. Which she technically was.

They gave her a funny look and told her to just turn around and go back the way “he’d” come.

“I’m a girl.” Nova protested, and then cast a glance towards where she’d come from. Black smoke could be seen billowing upwards. “And there seems to be a fire in that direction.”

The man swore and rushed off in the direction of the smoke. Nova, on the other hand, rushed off in the direction she’d been heading in with a dutiful little black cat on her heels. As luck would have it placed her back in the zoo proper at an intersection marked by the aquarium and its kiosk. The kiosk had food, and as she’d not had breakfast, this looked as likely as any other location. An added benefit was the presence of several school groups so that when security came rushing into the intersection they completely missed her. She bought a couple of sandwiches, and iced sweet tea, and decided to recon her immediate area. Across the intersection, there was another kiosk and a map board. Here too there was security, police even, and directly opposite the map was the main entrance. Nova quickly located the reptile building which turned out to be the structure the Aquarium kiosk was attached to and spotted the location of the Gorilla habitat. Right across from the Reptile building. Why it was like a certain author had gone to the zoo, walked in a short way, and walked out. But never mind that.

Nova knew the Dursleys weren’t scheduled to be at the Reptile building until after lunch, so she decided to have a look at the gorillas. A short blond-headed gorilla mimicking the actual apes made her laugh until she realized that it was Dudley. A boy she assumed was Piers stood nearby, Mr and Mrs Dursley were just a ways off. There was no sign of Aerie just yet.

Nova decided she’d best finish off her sandwiches and find her double.

She’d spotted the ling just as she was taking her last bite. The ling, true to the book, was keeping their distance from Dudley and his pal Piers.

Slowly, carefully she made her way over to Ling Aerie stood right next to them, and placed some muggle money in their palm. “Go have some fun, I’m taking over.” Nova had whispered and wondered if they’d not heard by the look they were giving her.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” They hissed.

“Change of plans.”

“Password?”

“I’m an alicorn, I don’t need no stinking password. Now git before Dudley-kins sees that there are two of us. Look, I don’t want to be here, it was Discord’s Idea. We can discuss it later.”

Their answer was to back up until they were behind the crowd and transform into someone else. Though to be true aside from transforming her clothing it wasn’t a huge change. They did not leave.

“Suit yer-self,” Nova offered, turned back to keep an eye on the Dursleys only to find that Mr Dursley had seen the whole exchange.

Of course, he’d been keeping an eye on Aerie. Why wouldn't he?

He said nothing. Nor did he say anything as the small group followed after Dudley and Piers. They exited the Gorilla habitat, turned to the left, and proceeded to a place called the Terrace Restaurant. Dudley had decided it was now lunchtime.

Nova was presented with another sandwich and a cup of water. Dudley, well, Dudley was provided with a veritable smorgasbord. If it was on the menu, he wanted it. If it wasn’t on the menu, he still wanted it. And of course, he threw a tantrum. A tall ice cream treat he’d wanted, called a Knickerbocker Glory, didn’t seem to have enough ice cream in it to suit Dudley.

Moments later the offending treat was presented to Nova and Dudley was provided with a new one with more ice cream.

The whole incident had been little more than a power play on Dudley’s part.

Nova had looked at the ice cream with mild disgust at first, but damn that Alicorn appetite and she’d not likely to get much more from the Dursleys. Just briefly the idea of going fox mode and eating one of Mrs Fig’s cats crossed her mind. But then again, those things were supposed to be half Kneazle. Probably tough, stringy, and more than capable of defending themselves.

When Dudley had finally sated himself, the group got up and made their way back to the Reptile exhibit. Naturally, the two boys wanted to see the biggest snakes. Nor was it just out of some morbid fascination on their part as it quickly became all too apparent the boys wanted to harass Aerie. To this end, they made a point of pointing out every exhibit and even shoved her up against the glass on several occasions.

Nova had had enough. Once more the two boys tried to slam her into a glass partition only to find themselves inexplicably tripping and going face first into the glass. The boys staggered back, the large snake raised up its head, a Burmese Python according to the sign, and the glass cracked.

“Aw, cool!” Piers said as he and Dudley became captivated by the snake now ready to strike. They were also quite oblivious.

Nova quietly backed away as the two boys proceeded to pound on the glass and taunt the snake like it was another school boy they could bully.

“Better you than me,” Whispered the ling in Nova’s ear once she’d reached the other side of the passageway. “I hate snakes.”

“Ya, well try not to panic,” Nova offered, snapping her finger, which was followed by the two boys screaming like girls as the glass partition fell into a crack between the hall and the exhibit.

“What the hell?!” The ling protested even as the snake lunged past the boys. Dudley fainted, the snake looked right at Nova, and then darted down the hall in search of an exit.

“Sorry, it’s in the script,” Nova supplied to a background of screaming and panicked running.

“In the script?” Hissed the ling.

“I’m to go to Hogwarts, and thwart Dumbledore's plans to build himself up at the expense of others.”

“Fine then, you’ll need this,” The ling offered as they pulled a necklace off of their neck. Black twine with a small clear crystal pendant. White quartzite by the looks of it. “Dumbledore’s tracking spells are on this. Keep it with you, or near your body at all times. Just one thing, who’s giving the orders here?”

“Discord,” Nova supplied as she took the pendant. “He doesn’t want Tom Riddle finding his way to Equestria.”

“But he’s dead, isn’t he? Riddle, he’s dead?”

“Not exactly. He’s not exactly alive either. There in lays the problem.”

“Security is here.”

“Well then, best make yourself scarce,” Nova offered and then took up the demeanor of a frightened girl.

Comments

[badninja]

Not a bad nod to Mission: Impossible. However this mission is probably just a Tuesday for our heroine.

[KittyrinnAiko]

11315370
There is definitely an annoyance factor. And it's going to take time.

[harts fire]

Oh this is going to be soo good and i can tell this is going to be a long one.
this is a awesome start to a amazing story.

[KittyrinnAiko]

11315639
I've 30 posts more or less ready to go and the story has only progressed to the winter break.

I kind of hit a brick wall with my muse but figured I've more than enough of a buffer built up. The main idea on this was the long haul that would be necessary to accomplish the task given to her. Dealing with the Horcrux is the easy part. I really wanted to show her having to deal with living the life of Harry Potter and how her knowledge and resourcefulness make it possible for her to make big changes. And of course, Dumbledore is still a manipulative SOB.

[harts fire]

11315925
if you have hit a wall slow down your post to one a week and walk away from righting for a bit. give your muse a rest it will let you know when it is time.

and one of the reasons i really love your story's is that you show the real Dumbledore and just how much of a plot hole he really is.

[KittyrinnAiko]

11316164
I've actually been sitting on this one for a while. Part of my motivation for posting it now is because it's so F'ing hot out. I'd started the current document last February, but I'd migrated material over from an older document that's at least a year older. It also helps me to have it loaded so that I can go back and listen to it. Let's face it, I tend to gloss over after reading the same thing over, and over, and over, and...

[Goose600]

You Live ...glad to see another Kitsumi story.

[RDDash]

Liar. You are going to give someone a silver millennium moon crystal and going to tell them they are a moon princess or something.