> 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!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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...
> Arrival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna was headed to the spot where she would move aside the moon and the stars to make way for Celestia and her sun. She was pondering about telling her sister about the mysterious Earth Pony from the Northern Continent when Celestia approached her. 

"Sorry I'm late, Celestia," Luna began. "I was distracted by... some sort of comet that landed in the Everfree Forest, right by our old castle. It seemed to slow down as it approached the ground. I decided to investigate it, but I couldn't find anything. Although... There was this Earth Pony... He said he was from the Northern Continent."

Celestia was taken aback at this last statement. "The Northern Continent? Luna, the inhabitants of the Northern Continent had a civil war while you were imprisoned in the moon, and they completely destroyed themselves. Now it's a barren landscape, with very few beings other than the occasional gem dragon being able to live there. What did this pony say his name was?"

Luna was just as suprised at her sister's remark. "He said his name was Sterling Smoulder. He was wearing a black coat, unlike anything any Equestrian would wear. He said something about him being from another world entirely, but he was only joking... At least, that's what I thought. He was looking for the nearest city, so I showed him the path to Ponyville. He also spoke in a strange way, like saying 'anybody' instead of 'anypony'. I was going to meet him at midnight around the outskirts of Ponyville, to answer any questions he might have. Why, Celestia? Is he a threat to Equestria?"

"I'm not sure," Celestia admitted. "How an Earth Pony could even survive in the Norhern Continent is beyond me. He would have to be more than he's saying he is, or..." She paused. "Or he isn't from the Northern Continent at all. Luna, you remember Discord, correct?"

Luna cringed. "How could I forget?" she replied. "After all of the things he's done to Equestria before we arrived, I'm suprised nopony else remembers him. Why do you ask?"

"When we get back to Canterlot," Celestia told her younger sister, "You need to know some things about Discord, about the Elements of Harmony, and their connection to the fate of Equestria, and perhaps even the whole world. I have a feeling that this Sterling Smoulder also has something to do with Equestria's future..."

Luna had no idea what this might mean, but it all of a sudden occured to her--What of that unknown object that landed near the old castle? Maybe Sterling had something to do with it. Of course! Nopony else was anywhere near the castle at the time. Perhaps I should find out where Sterling is really from, Luna thought...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


After a couple hours, I finally exited the forest. It was mostly dark inside, due to the trees blocking out the sun. So I was temporarilly blinded when I got out. Once my eyes adjusted to the sudden daylight, I could see that it was about 8:30 in the morning. Ponyville was just ahead, and it looked like it was already bustling with activity. 

Well, time for me to find that museum, I thought as I walked towards the town.

I decided to ask the first person--I mean, pony--I met to show me where the museum was. My eyes fell on a pink Earth Pony. How am I not suprised? Anyways, I approached the Earth Pony.

I cleared my throat. "Excuse me," I began. "I was wondering if you could pont me to the museum--"

The Earth Pony then... I don't even know how to explain it. She jumped up, gasped, and bolted the opposite way. I don't know who was startled more--me, or the Earth Pony. 

"That went well," I muttered to myself. Now, to find someone else to point me in the right direction. I looked around and saw a lavender unicorn. I decided that she looked well informed. Let's hope that she won't freak out like the last one.

I walked up toward her. "Good morning," I started. "You wouldn't happen to know where the museum is, would you?"

"Of course I would!" she replied. "It's just down the street, to the left off of Sugarcube Corner, the bakery. You can't miss it. Are you new here?"

"Umm, yeah." I wondered if I should tell her what I told Luna. "I'm from the Northern Continent."

The unicorn's eyes widened. "Isn't the Northern Continent uninhabitable? From what I've heard, nopony can survive living there."

Lovely. Nice of Discord to leave that bit of info out. Did he even know? "Well, I'm actually from the land outside of the Northern Continent." Let's hope that's good enough.

The unicorn shrugged. "Whatever you say. Are you staying in Ponyville?"

"For the time being, yes." I answered.

"So that means I'll be seeing you a lot! I live at the library, and I try to visit the museum as often as I can. You will be staying at the museum, right?"

"Yeah, for now." I replied.

"Great! There isn't much known about the Northern Continent. My library doesn't have any books on it, and there's nothing in the museum either. Maybe you can tell me about it later, if you want. Oh, I haven't even told you my name. I'm Twilight Sparkle." the unicorn was acting like a kid in a candy store. I guess she enjoys learning about the unknown; or rather, about anything she doesn't know.

"The name's Smoulder." I told her. "Sterling Smoulder." Now where did I hear that before??? "I'd love to tell you about it, but maybe at a later time. It's been a long journey, and I need to get some rest first. Perhaps tomorrow we can talk."

Twilight sparkle nodded. "Alright. I have other things to do, too. Come to the library when you're moved in."

"Sure, I'll see you later!" I promised, and we both went our separate ways. 

Wonderful. How will I tell her about a continent even I didn't know about? Maybe Luna will know something. But she thinks I'm from the Northern Continent too! Twilight already said that neither the library nor the museum hold any answers, other than the fact that it's a barren wasteland. I'll figure something out. I'm just too tired to formulate a plan at the moment. After I get some sleep, I'll think of something. It's been a long night. I don't even care if it's still morning. I need to get some shut-eye.

I approached the museum, opened the door, and saw a light brown Earth Pony with a bowtie. That's right, I said a BOWTIE. Whatever. I'm too tired to ponder why. 

"Are you the one they call 'The Doctor'?" I inquired.

"Why yes," he replied with a foreign accent. Where was the last time I heard an accent like that? "Why do you ask?" 

"I'm just wondering if you have an empty room. You see, my name is Sterling Smoulder, and I'm from the Northern Continent. I'll be staying in Ponyville for a while. Somebody told me to come here and--"

The Doctor cut me off. "Wait, did you just say 'somebody', not 'somepony'?" He asked. 

Whoops. "No." I lied.

"Oh, don't kid me," The Doctor said sternly. "I know an outsider when I see one. The coat, the substitution for 'somepony'. Are you even from this world?"

Wow. That's suprising. I guess there's no point in lying anymore. "You've hit the nail on the mark, my friend. I must say, I'm impressed..." I was about to reveal my true identity when The Doctor's form changed. He was a human, like myself.

"Well, there's no point in disguising ourselves any further, now is there?" He admitted. I had to agree. I changed my appearance as well.

"Too true. I'm glad to see another human being here." I told The Doctor.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not a human, either." he told me. "I'm... much more than that. I've been stuck here for a while, something like a year. I was headed for another world when my time/space machine, the TARDIS, malfunctioned. I was dumped here, and I couldn't get my TARDIS to work properly after that. Fortunately, someone helped me assume a more equestrian form, so that I wouldn't startle the natives. How did you get here? Where did you come from?"

"Well," I began. "I was brought here by someone who needed my help. You see..." And I explained the whole situation about Discord, and my encounter with Luna. "...Although, I'm not too sure who to trust. Discord isn't tracking me right now, but I'll have to work for him when he is. In all honesty, I don't know who the real bad guys are. You're the only being other than Discord himself who knows this. Please don't tell anypony."

The Doctor was silent for a while. "Of course," he finally said. "You said it was Discord who brought you here?"

I nodded. "But I can't go back. I'm afraid we're both stuck here."

The Doctor started walking towards a corridor. "Follow me." he said in a low voice. "You need to see this."

The Doctor walked towards a door in the far corner of the lobby, and I followed obediently. He led me down a staircase which had a locked door at the end of the stairs. The Doctor got a strange gadget out of his pocket and stuck it in the lock. "Sonic screwdriver," he simply said. "So that no other being can enter this place without my knowing." The door unlocked, and we entered a dark room. The Doctor flicked on a light, and I saw a statue of some... mixed being. He had the body parts of various creatures. It looked both comical and menacing at the same time.

After a long stretch of silence, The Doctor suddenly spoke up. "Behold; Discord."

I was taken aback at this. "You mean, Discord is imprisoned here!?" I asked, with a bit of alarm in my voice.

"Oh, no, no, no!" The Doctor said hastily. "This is just a replica. The real Discord is in Canterlot; in Princess Celestia's courtyard. That particular area is usually open to the public; mostly for school field trips. But this is a pretty accurate copy, if I do say so myself."

"I wouldn't know," I admitted. "Discord never told me what he looked like. I thought he would look like an Alicorn, just darker. A lot darker." I added.

"Anyways," The Doctor continued. "These are what defeated Discord about a thousand years ago." He pointed toward the wall behind Discord's statue. There were five necklaces mounted on the wall, surrounding Discord. Each necklace was encased in some sort of orb, with a symbol engraved on each orb. Above Discord's head, there was some sort of crown, also inside an orb like the necklaces.

"What are these?" I asked.

The Doctor replied, "These, Sterling, are the Elements of Harmony, resembling Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, and Magic. Back in the day, the two Princess Alicorns controlled them. These Elements were used to unite Equestria, which was separated into six provinces before the Elements were discovered. Shortly after, they were used to defeat Discord, who somehow controlled Equestria for a brief time. The old records are a bit hazy on most of the details. Presently, very few ponies remember Discord. They all think he's just a fairy tale character, created to scare the young and naive. As far as I know, only the Alicorns know he is a real being.

"After Discord was gone, Luna somehow was able to become more powerful than her older sister in order to take over Equestria, and plunge the world into eternal night. Celestia used the Elements to imprison Luna in the moon for a thousand years--I believe you already know most of this story.

"But, due to this, Neither of the Alicorns could control the Elements any longer. It wasn't until about a year ago that someone, rather somepony, could control them again. Six ponies--Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle--were able to harness the Elements' power through... as corny as this might sound, the magic of friendship. All six of them now reside here in Pnonyville."

"Twilight Sparkle..." I repeated. "I think I already met her. Seemed really interested in knowing more about the Northern Continent. But, as I already told you, I know just as much about that place as she does. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, would you?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don't. There aren't any records of the Northern Continent, as far as I know. The only information anyone can get about it is through word of mouth."

"...And we all know how reliable that can be," I finished for him.

"Exactly. All I know for sure is that it's a barren wasteland now, due to some sort of cataclysm; and now gem dragons are the dominant species--if not the only species--that can live there. This is because the landscape has a remarkable amount of precious stones, which are the gem dragon's primary food source."

"Well, I guess that's all I'll be able to tell Twilight." I shrugged. "I'll probably tell her that there are things in the Northern Continent that would give ponies nightmares for months, and hope she buys it.

"Anyways," I stretched. "You do have a free room, right? I need to get some sleep; I've been up all night."

"Yes, of course!" The Doctor assured me. "It's up on the top floor. But first--" He turned back into an Earth Pony. "--you scould change back into an Equestrian. I think I heard some hoofsteps upstairs."

I agreed, changed my appearance, and we headed back upstairs. As soon as we opened the door, I had to thank my lucky stars that I disguised myself.

Apparantly, somepony got the BRILLIANT idea to set up a party in the lobby of the museum. They also invited everyone in town, by the looks of it, because there were ponies EVERYWHERE. Earth Ponies, unicorns, and flying ponies--the word Pegasus immediately enters my mind. 

"OI!" The Doctor bellowed. I almost jumped out of my coat from the shock of The Doctor yelling. "WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO THROW A PARTY IN MY MUSEUM WITHOUT MY SAY-SO?"

The lavender unicorn ran towards us. Surely this wasn't Twilight's idea? Then again, save for The Doctor, she's the only one who knows who I am. And I'm certian that Luna wasn't behind this. 

"I'm sorry, Doc!" Twilight exclaimed. "I tried to stop Pinkie, but she wouldn't budge. 'C'mon Twilight! Nopony's too tired for a party!' As soon as I turned my back, she was gone. You know how she is."

"No need to apologize, Twilight. We all know that Pinkie Pie can be... eccentric." The Doctor said, looking for the right word.

As if on cue, the pink Earth Pony I met before--clearly Pinkie Pie--came bouncing towards us. 

"Pinkie Pie, what is this for?" The Doctor demanded.

Pinkie Pie seemed to be shaking with excitement. "Oh, Doccie, what else would this party be for? As soon as I saw Sterling walk into Ponyville, I knew he wasn't from around here. I'd remember a coat like that." She said, pointing at my black coat. "So I ran off, trying to set up a welcome party for him. After I got his name from Twilight, and she told me where he was staying--" I could see Twilight, regretting that she told Pinkie Pie a little too early--"I invited everypony I could think of! As soon as you guys went downstairs, we got everything ready. 

"So what do you think, Sterling???" Pinkie Pie asked me eagerly. "I bet there aren't many parties in the Northern Continent."

"I... Umm..." I stammered. "I don't know what to say." And I truly didn't. I mean, someone who doesn't know me at all, never even heard of me until today, threw me a party.

"Uh, Pinkie?" Twilight said, breaking my train of thought. "I also told you that Sterling has had a long trip. He's way too tired for a party right now. I don't even think he'd enjoy it as much as he would if he got some rest first."

"Oh, PFFFFFT." Pinkie scoffed. "Like I always say; 'Nopony's too tired for a party!'"

"Well, actually..." I was starting to feel dizzy. "I am really tired. Like Twilight said, I've had a long journey. Maybe we should put a raincheck on that party. I can't even think straight right now. Maybe tomorrow we can have that party?"

Pinkie Pie was slightly discouraged, but quickly brightened up. "Okey dokey, lokey!" She piped. "But I can't do two parties in a row. I remember what happened last time I did that. Nopony showed up. How about the day after?"

"Sure, sure. Whatever works best for you." I said hastily. I was now having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

"Alrighty then!" Pinkie turned to all the guests. "Sterling needs to sleep, everypony! We'll finish the party at Twilight's!"

Twilight raised her eyes in shock. "Wait, WHAT?" She cried. "Well, it looks like I have to go. See you later Sterling!" And she was off at a gallop, making a beeline towards the library. I'm not sure, but I think she said something about the library being a mess.

I turned to The Doctor. "Now, where's that room you were going to show me, Doctor?" I asked, with more than a hint of fatigue in my voice.

"Right this way, Sterling. And please," he added. "Call me Doc. Everyone else here does."

"Alright, whatever you say." By now, everypony was moving all the party decorations out. The unicorns were doing most of the work, levitating the heavy objects.

We went upstairs to a room that had "GUEST" engraved on the door. "How long will you be staying?" Doc asked.

I shrugged. "I have no idea. I'm thinking a few months, until I can figure out this whole Discord situation."

"Then I'll get that sign changed." Doc promised. "I have a feeling you'll be here for a while."

"Great. Well, thanks for everything Doc. I'll have to get up at around midnight to see Luna, so don't think someone's breaking in or something." I explained.

"Alright. I'll keep a note on that." 

"One last thing," I said. "Why are you called 'The Doctor'? What's your name, 'Doctor' who?"

"Yes, exactly." Doc answered. And with that, I shrugged and said good night (although it was only about 2 O' Clock in the afternoon) and closed the door behind me. I fell on my bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The Doctor turned away from Sterling's door and walked back downstairs to the lobby. He was now thinking about how Sterling got here. If what he said was true, then how did Discord do it? Would he be able to send someone out of this world? As a Time Lord, The Doctor had no relatives, no friends. No one to miss him after he was missing for over a year. Even if anyone did miss him, once he got the TARDIS back up and running, he could go back in time, as if nothing ever happened. 

But Discord... This changes everything. Discord could quite possibly be able to repower the TARDIS, since it can use any form of energy as fuel, as long as it's powerful enough. Nothing else in this world is powerful enough to achieve trans-dimensional travel, but Discord was able to send a human into another world, even in his weakened state... Perhaps The Doctor could harness some of Discord's energy, just enough to get the TARDIS to a proper dimension.

Discord's due to break free any day now. After the Elements of Harmony were passed on to somepony else, the barrier has been slowly weakening. From what Sterling said, Discord thinks that it's due to reactions to certian events. That could be part of it. But once Discord was free, the current Element Bearers would easily defeat him again. Before that happened, The Doctor would have to absorb some of Discord's energies using the Sonic Screwdriver. 

Unfortunately, from what Princess Celestia told The Doctor, the Elements would have to be passed on to somepony else once the current Bearers died. This would be another cause of Discord breaking free again. As the Elements go from one pony to the next, Discord's prison will weaken once more. During the 1000 years where the Elements had no master, Discord was safely locked away in his stone prison. But once Nightmare Moon broke free, everything changed.

Since then, Celestia has searched most of the known world for something that would destroy Discord once and for all. So far, though, she has found nothing. Even worse, last time The Doctor was in Canterlot, checking up on how much longer it would be until Discord broke free again (using the Sonic Screwdriver), he discovered that Discord would break free sometime within this week. He had just enough power to bring someone over here to aid him, but no more. As of right now, Discord doesn't know this, which is why he sent Sterling here to break him out. Discord's prison is like a safe, locked from the inside. He has the 'key', but he can't use it. So he probably passed that 'key' to Sterling. 

Even worse, The Doctor can't do anything to stop him. This is how history in this world is supposed to run. Although Sterling is clearly an anomaly, such things can be permissable, as long as key events in history don't change; for example, Luna being released before her 1000 years in the moon were up. Fortunately, Sterling might hold the 'key' to Discord remaining in stone forever. There could be a way...

The Doctor's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a letter on his desk. The letter had Celestia's seal on it. What could this be for? He wondered.

The Doctor got out a knife, cut through the seal, and began to read:



Doctor Whooves,

It has come to my attention that there may be another one of your kind among us. From what my sister, Princess Luna, tells me, this being calls himself Sterling Smoulder, and he claims to be from the Northern Continent. We're not too sure where he is really from--since the Northern Continent was ravaged by civil war years ago. He's assuming the appearance of a dark blue Earth Pony with a grey mane and a black coat. Luna showed him the way to Ponyville from the Everfree Forest, so he's probably there by now. This Sterling Smoulder just happened to show up just before Discord is due to break free. Both Luna and myself have suspicions that the two of them may have something to do with each other.

We believe that Sterling Smoulder is indeed from another world because he used the word "somebody" instead of "somepony", like you did when you first arrived here. If you see him around Ponyville, keep a close eye on him. Report to me if you see or hear anything suspicious about him.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia


Of course, The Doctor already knew all of this, and it's quite clear that Sterling was not a Time Lord. If he was, Sterling would have killed him immediately. Or worse.

The Doctor got out some parchment and proceeded to reply to Celestia's letter.


Dear Princess Celestia,

No, this Sterling Smoulder is not one of my kind. I could clearly see that.

But, he is definately not who he says he is. He's here at my museum, as I am writing this. Sterling has told me a lot, more than I dare to write.

But he told me that he will be meeting Princess Luna at midnight tonight. I can go speak to you in person at that time. You need to know what Sterling has told me.


With all due respect,
The Doctor


The Doctor got out his Sonic Screwdriver and pressed a button. The end of the device lit up in a green flame. He brought the flame towards the letter, letting it burn into a green smoke, which disappeared immediately. Now it's only a matter of time, he thought, until we know what exactly Discord has planned. 

Celestia would be sending a chariot to pick him up when the time comes. In the meantime, The Doctor got out some more paper. On one sheet, he wrote that the museum will be closed for the rest of the day, and all of tomorrow. On the second sheet, for Sterling, he said that he'd be gone until tomorrow evening.  He gave instructions for Sterling while he was gone; keep the front door locked, only enter through the back door, etc.

The Doctor also left Sterling his extra keys to the front and back door. Everything else was locked up by the Sonic screwdriver. After all of that was done, he left Sterling's note on his desk, along with the keys. After a quick check to see if everything was locked properly (Can't be too sure what Sterling might do), The Doctor put the sign up on the front door and waited for the chariot to arrive.


> Hidden Truths
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had strange dreams. I was flying, using elemental powers to destroy shadows of strange creatures, teleporting... fighting a dark version of myself, with glowing white eyes... It felt so real; like I was learning how to use my powers that Discord gave me.

And then I saw him. 

"Don't forget what I brought you here for,
Set me free, and we'll settle the score.
The Sculpture Garden is where you must go,
I'll be back in power, and you'll rule also."

I suddenly woke up. I checked my watch--that's right, even as an Equestrian, I had a watch. 

11:46. Right on time. I quickly got up and ran downstairs. On my way out, I saw a note on The Doctor's desk, adressed to me. I opened it--even as an Equestrian, I could do things I thought only beings with opposable thumbs could do-- and started to read.


Sterling,

I apologize that I had to leave on such short notice. I have an important errand to attend to, and I had to leave immediately. I probably won't be back until tomorrow evening, so the museum will be closed until then. Since you need to go meet Luna at Midnight, you'll have to go out the back door. Use my spare key to lock the door behind you. I'll try to get back as soon as possible. 

The Doctor


I took the keys, put the note in my coat pocket, and headed out the back door. I had to meet Luna in less than fifteen minutes at the outskirts of Ponyville, so I'd better get going.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Luna was already at the edge of the Everfree Forest. It was almost midnight, but she had already been waiting for ten minutes. What if Sterling was early?

She waited, pacing nervously. Would Sterling actually come? What if he was still sleeping? Did he just say he'd come as to not hurt her feelings? It's been 1000 years since Luna had an opportunity to possibly have friends again. She remembered when Celestia told her about the magic of friendship; that with it, you could overcome anything. Maybe she and Sterling could become friends. Sure, customs and traditions have changed over the course of a millenia, but Luna had been watching others make friends in the past year; most notably, Twilight Sparkle. Every week, when Twilight would send Celestia her report on the magic of friendship, Luna would ask to read the report as well. Twilight knew this, and would constantly ask Celestia to get Luna to visit Ponyville, but she would always say that Luna didn't feel like she was ready. Not for big crowds that would indefinately follow her in Ponyville. 

But Sterling... A possible friendship with him could be a stepping stone towards being more confident around other ponies again. But am I ready? Luna thought. I mean, from what Celestia told me, Sterling might not even be a pony. He could be... Something more... Possibly a force for chaos like Discord was.

But it was too late to ponder that further. Celestia still wanted Luna to come and meet Sterling tonight. It would be like a reconnaisance mission: Find out as much about Sterling Smoulder as possible. If Sterling began to act hostile, possibly even attack her, Luna would teleport to Canterlot immediately, tell her sister, and the two of them would confront Sterling. 

Luna just hoped that Sterling wasn't here to take over Equestria, which was what her sister feared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was at the mouth of the forest now. I thought of what I might say to Luna, what I might ask about Equestria--the name of this forest, for starters--and whether or not I should tell her the truth about who I really was. I noticed that for some reason, my coat had disappeared. It probably materializes when I'm in danger, or when I need to put something in my pocket, I thought. Besides, it's not like anypony here wears a coat like myself.

But I felt that something was missing... Something everypony else had, but my Equestrian form lacked. Oh, well. It couldn't be that important if I couldn't figure it out. Besides, Luna's waiting for me.

I walked into the forest and looked around. I couldn't see her anywhere. Perhaps she was further down the path. I started walking when I heard hoofsteps from behind me.

"Oh, great! You actually came!" 

It was Luna. I turned around. "Oh, there you are! I thought you were one of the ponies from Ponyville, a pink one who seemed so eager to meet me earlier today." I said.

"No, it's me," Luna assured me. "Anyways, I'm glad that you actually showed up. I was afraid that you wouldn't come. After what I told you about who I was before..."

"Luna, I told you before," I said, "If your sister forgave you, that's good enough for me. I'm actually really interested in meeting Celestia. Perhaps you could...?"

"Actually, I already told her about you, and she would like to meet you as well." Luna told me. 

"Alright. But first, I have some questions about Equestria. This is the second time I've been in this forest, and I don't even know its name. What is this place?"

"This is the Everfree Forest," Luna explained. "Once, a very long time ago, it was the site of our first castle, as you already know, but something--rather someone--caused this place to become a forest that was different from the rest of Equestria. In case you haven't noticed, the Pegasi are mostly in charge of weather control. We always know when there will be a storm, or snow, or anything like that. As well, animals are usually passive, never attacking any of the other animals or ponies. But here in the Everfree Forest, the weather can't be controlled, and animals fend for themselves. Nopony can control anything here."

"Then how were you and Celestia able to build a castle here?" I asked.

"Well," Luna replied, "It wasn't always like this. Like I said, someone made the forest this way. He was a force of Chaos now known as Discord. He ruled Equestria as a bringer of unrest and disharmony. Just before I tried to wrest power from Celestia, the two of us were looking for the Elements of Harmony. You see Sterling, Equestria was once divided into six parts. We thought that the Elements would both unite this land and defeat Discord. It did do both, but not before Discord was able to cause the castle to become what is now the Everfree Forest. 

"Of course, it didn't happen all at once. At first, nothing happened. Celestia and I ruled the now-united Equestria from Everfree Castle. It wasn't until I became jealous of Celestia that things began to change. The more I turned against my sister, the more out of control the foilage around the castle became. Discord had put a spell on the area to start this, somehow knowing that I would rebel against Celestia. By the time I was imprisoned in the moon, the castle was falling apart. Celestia hid the Elements of Harmony in what was left of Everfree Castle, since she couldn't control them as she used to with me. She then started plans to make the new castle at her mountain retreat, Canterlot. 

"Oh, sorry Sterling..." Luna apologized. "I'm practically giving you a complete history of Equestria. You would probably be able to get that from the museum."

"No, it's okay!" I assured her. "I'm actually interested in this. You see, I was able to learn a bit about Discord from The Doctor. But even he didn't tell me much, other than the fact that he's now trapped in stone somewhere in Canterlot. I think he's in the Sculpture Garden."

"Alright then," Luna said. "Then I'll tell you about how he became ruler of Equestria before Celestia and I. I'm suprised you don't know much about him; he is from the Northern Continent, after all. Anyways, Discord wasn't always--wait a moment," Luna turned around to look at my rear end. "You don't have a Cutie Mark. I couldn't tell what kind of Cutie Mark you had with your coat on, but now..." 

"My what now?" I asked. "What are you talking about, Luna?"

She turned to look at me again. "Everypony has a Cutie Mark. It's something that appears when a pony discovers their special talent. Only the smallest fillies don't have one at first..." She backed away. "Even ponies from other lands have Cutie Marks. Who are you, really?"

"I..." I started to back away from Luna. Of course! Everypony I saw in Ponyville had what Luna called a Cutie Mark--even The Doctor. That's what was missing.

Well, there goes my cover.

Immediately, my coat materialized. I could see Luna was about to flee. 

"Luna, wait!" I pleaded. "I can explain everything." Luna paused. "Please don't run away from me. You owe me at least that much."

Luna cautiously came back. "You're right..." she said. "But who are you?"

"To be honest, I'm not so sure myself." I replied. "I can only show you, but please don't tell anypony. If you have to, you can tell Celestia, but The Doctor already knows this..." I then changed my form back into a human. "This is who I really am."

Luna's eyes widened. "How did you--?"

"Discord." I simply said. "He pulled me into this world. I don't know how he did it, in the position he's in now, but he did. He wants me to break him out. He gave me some abilities--changing my form, flying, teleporting, elemental power, etc.--in order to do this. But I'm not sure who to trust. Discord says that you and Celestia are the enemy, but I don't really think that's true anymore."

"Well, then where are you really from?" Luna asked.

"To be honest," I replied, "I have no idea. Discord wiped all of my memories when I arrived last night."

"So that thing that fell from the sky...?"

"That was me." I confirmed. "For some reason, Discord decided to dump me here from what I thought was the atmosphere of this world. I guess that was his idea of a joke."

"Probably," Luna agreed. "That would be like him. At least, from what I remember. I'm not sure; it's been so long..."

"Anyways," I continued, "That's what happened. I know I don't belong here, and I just want to go home and forget all of this. Maybe if The Doctor can get the TARDIS working again, I'll tag along with him for a bit."

"Well," Luna said. "The Doctor is in Canterlot right now, as we speak. He's talking to Celestia about you; that you might not be from this world. Of course, what you just said confirms that, though. They'll also be talking about how Discord will be able to break free. It's like he was anticipating this... His defeat, my rebellion... You showing up." She pointed at me. "This is bad, Sterling. He's been planning his return for over 1000 years. At least, that's what Celestia says. The Elements of Harmony were supposed to keep him trapped forever, but something was missing. Not only are Celestia and I no longer connected to the Elements, but that wasn't the only problem... There is another--"

All of a sudden, a bright light appeared, as radiant as the sun itself. I could see a figure emerge from the light... An Alicorn, much like Luna, but taller, and white with a flowing multicolored mane.

Celestia.

I was still in my human form, so I jumped into some bushes. Mostly out of instinct.

"Luna," Celestia said. "The Doctor and I have discovered something about Discord. Meet me back in Canterlot immediately. And bring Sterling as well. He needs to know this as well." And just as suddenly as she appeared, she was gone.

I walked out of my hiding place. "What do you think Celestia and The Doctor found out?" I asked Luna.

"Beats me," she replied. "Why did you hide?"

I shrugged. "Guilt, I guess. I'm still not entirely convinced that Discord is really the enemy. Although, I'm willing to listen to both sides. Let's go."

"You said you can teleport, right?" Luna asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "But only to places I've been to. Could you teleport me to Canterlot?"

"Alright." Luna walked up towards me. "Hold on..."

And with that, an indigo light surrounded us, and next thing I knew, we were standing before Celestia in Canterlot.

That's when I realized I was still in my human form. Immediately, I had about six guards surround me. I raised my hands, to show that I wasn't going to attack all of a sudden.

"Looks like the cat's out of the bag now," I muttered. Then again, Celestia probably already knew who I really was, after talking with The Doctor.

Celestia adressed the guards. "It's alright. I have been expecting him. Leave him be." 

They backed off, still wary of my appearance. I don't blame them; I mean, how many humans did you see in this world?

"This is it, Sterling," Discord was talking to me again. "Don't take anything Celestia says seriously, and don't do anything too brash. Save that for when you free me."

I knelt before Celestia, knowing that she was the one who was really ruling over Equestria. "You wanted us, Your Majesty?"

I looked up. I was suprised to see that Celestia looked like she didn't expect me to address her in this way.

"Yes, Sterling Smoulder," she said, "I had. I have been talking to The Doctor about the events of the past few days--Your arrival and the spell keeping Discord at bay starting to wear off, in particular. Is there anything you could tell us about Discord? What has he told you about Luna and I? You have to understand something, Sterling: Discord is a master of trickery. He could bend anyone to do his bidding. I have seen it with my own eyes, and believe me..." She looked at Luna. "...You don't want that to happen to the ones you love, let alone your subjects."

I could tell that Luna's rebellion against her sister probably had something to do with Discord, and she didn't tell me. She didn't try to blame anyone other than herself for her actions. 

I was about to tell Celestia everything Discord told me, when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, as if my mind was being reconfigured. I couldn't move at all, and it looked like nopony noticed that I was in excruciating pain because my muscles were still in a neutral position.

It felt like minutes passed, but only about two seconds elapsed before I was able to control my body again. But I didn't show any reaction. I had to remember, Celestia was the enemy. I mean, who would encase a being in stone?

"I don't know anything," I replied. "Other than the fact that neither of you are to be trusted. Looks like I'm stuck between choosing one side or the other, and I'm not too sure which one I'd choose."

Luna looked at me in surprise. Even The Doctor--Who was in his Equestrian form--looked taken aback.

"I just... find it confusing," I continued. "I mean, did you and Luna really turn Discord into stone?"

"We had no choice," Celestia replied. "I tried to reason with him, but to no avail. And I didn't want to kill him... I didn't even think it was possible, so--"

"So you petrified him," I interrupted. "Did he ever do that to your subjects?"

Luna was starting to back away from me, suprised at my sudden hostility. The guards began to draw near to me. 

"No, don't attack him," Celestia said to her guards. "Sterling deserves to know the truth. Luna, Doctor, stay here with Sterling and I; the rest of you, wait outside." The guards obeyed, leaving us alone in the chamber.

Celestia turned towards me. "I understand how you feel, Sterling Smoulder. I, too, once thought that Discord could be trusted. In fact, he was originally from the place you claimed to hail from--the Northern Continent." Of course, Luna already told me this, but I chose not to interrupt Celestia again.

She continued, "Discord wasn't always the force of Chaos he's known as now. In fact, he was quite the opposite. It was the place he came fron which was constantly in a state of unrest.

"You see, The Northern Continent was home to many who were like Discord before Luna and I defeated him. Each of them had a different appearance, as well as different ailities. Mind control. Elementals. Immortality. Reshaping the very environment itself. 

"This meant that some were more powerful than others; and the weaker Northerners would often be forced to do slave labor for the more powerful ones. None of them were able to control all the powers each of them had. But then there was Discord... From what I remember, he was able to harness god-like powers, making him the strongest of all the Northerners. 

While many Northerners wanted to make the weaker an official slave race, Discord was one of the very few--perhaps the only one--who was against it from the very beginning. He always said that 'freedom was the right of all sentient beings.' And since he was the most powerful of all Northerners, he was almost listened to.

"While some started to agree--mainly the weaker ones--others branded Discord as a traitor to the Northern Continent, and found a way to banish him. Not wanting to fight back, in fear that he would become like those who persecuted him, he didn't fight back. Instead, he searched most of the known world to find something that would unite his people. He knew not what exactly he was looking for, but he didn't find it... He found us, Luna and I.

"We, too, were looking for some arifact of power that would unite what would eventually become Equestria. We crossed paths one day, and he told me about his plight. Luna was too young to come along with us, and wouldn't remember what happened if she did.

"So, we had a lead that six relics, what are now known as the Elements of Harmony, were hidden in the six provinces of modern Equestria. Once we found the Elements--"

Suddenly I felt another sharp pain, more intense than the last. Except this time, I was able to react. I yelled from the sudden shock, knowing that Discord was behind it.

"Really, Celestia. Spare us the PBS special," Discord said, although I was the only one to hear it. "She's lying, Sterling. While she was taking care of her little sister, I alone found the elements. Although I didn't even know about the fact that my home was destroyed, I was never banished. But I was as powerful as she said I was."

I quickly recovered. "I know this story, Celestia." I lied. "In fact, Discord already told me everything, and what you've told me so far just doesn't add up." Discord was putting words in my mouth now. "You're the one who betrayed HIM, according to what I was told. Alright; so I lied that Discord didn't tell me much. But I knew that you were going to have a different story."

I clenched my fists. "I still don't understand why ANYONE would turn one into stone. I mean, why not just finish him off?"

"Sterling," Luna said, with more than a bit of alarm in her voice. "Why are you--"

I cut her off. "Discord said that you and Luna were responsible for his defeat. Looks like Luna wasn't too young to do that."

Now it was The Doctor's turn to speak up. "Sterling, don't you even know what the word 'Discord' means???"

"Of course!" I said--although I didn't feel like it was truly my words that were being said. "I also know that isn't his real name. It was a title Celestia gave him just before she did that inhumane thing to him. Although he never did give me his true name...

"But it doesn't matter!" I cried. "It was all a plan to cover up Celestia's tracks." I could now tell that everyone present weren't following me. That was their problem.

"It appears that I've baffled everyone here, so I won't waste your time any further..." I streched my hand towards an empty space in the chamber, summoning a portal to take me elsewhere. A Dark Corridor, I decided to call it.

I turned back to take one last glance at who I understood to be the enemy. The Doctor was completely speechless. Celestia just stodd there, neither shocked or passive. 

And Luna... She was the most affected. She looked crushed; almost to the point of tears. I quickly turned away. I completely betrayed her. But she has chosen her side. I guess everyone's entitled to their opinion, even if it's wrong.

I put up my hood and walked into the Dark Corridor, leaving my enemies behind. I had work to do , and It was almost dawn. I would wait a few hours, and return to the Sculpture Garden, which was just outside the castle. I'd look for Discord and release him. Somehow, I knew exactly how I'd do this: Plunge my blade into the statue's base.

But first, I would have to hide. My best bet would be in the Everfree Forest, so I emerged from the Dark Corridor there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, everyone was still recovering from Sterling Smoulder's sudden change of face.

Celestia walked up to her sister to comfort her. "This wasn't Sterling's idea, Luna." She said. "I could tell. Discord has been lying to him. Sterling hasn't been told everything about him. And even now, he wouldn't listen. Discord has confused him about whom he should be loyal to."

"...and you just let him go?" Luna asked.

"If I didn't," her sister replied, "I would have been no better than the one who is confusing Sterling. He has to discover the truth himself, I'm afraid. But, I think he'll figure it out soon, once he's no longer useful to Discord."

"I should get back to the museum," The Doctor decided, "In case Sterling shows up there."

"I'll take you there." Luna volunteered. "You'll probably need to get there quickly, in case he did return t othe museum."

Just before Luna teleported him back, Celestia warned them both: "Remember, whatever you do, do not force Sterling to see things our way, or else he'll never see the truth that's hidden right in front of him."

And with that, the two of them were gone, leaving Celestia alone. She recalled what Sterling said about Discord's real name--Did he know what it was? Shortly before Celestia and Luna defeated Discord, both of them forgot his real name, as if he didn't want anyone to remember it.

But one thing was certian: Celestia could have killed Discord. She could have killed her sister as well, after her transformation into Nightmare Moon, but Celestia loved her too much to destroy her. She wanted Luna to realize the errors of her ways.

And... Celestia almost regretted this... Discord was the same. They were friends, once upon a time, perhaps more. Once, Discord shared Celestia's ideas of peace.

But those days were long gone. Celestia knew something happened to Discord, but she couldn't figure it out. So she turned him into stone, to have time to think about how she could get Discord to see that "truth that's hidden right in front of him."

Maybe the Elements of Harmony would fix what was somehow broken inside Discord. But only time would tell...




AUTHOR'S NOTES: Alright, I've been getting a lot of feedback on other sites about how Luna doesn't speak in "THE TRADITIONAL ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE", but really; In the second episode of the first season, she didn't speak like that as Nightmare Moon. On top of that, after the Elements of Harmony were used on her, she still spoke regular English. Don't fret, Bronies, I still have a plan to have Luna speak a bit more... TRADITIONALLY. Just wait and see...

P.S. I wrote the last third of the story while I was sick... And as of this writing, I’m STILL sick. So please bear with me on any awkward phrasing or typos you may find.
> Return of Disharmony, Part One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equestria. Once, it was divided into six regions. One for each Element of Harmony, although nopony knew this at the time. These regions were what are now Ponyville, Appleloosa, Cloudsdale, Fillydelphia, Canterlot, and Manehattan. These places tolerated each other, but each region wouldn't want anything to do with the next.

And then the Alicorns and Draconiquis showed up. The Alicorns, known as Celestia and Luna, came from a country far to the south that was all but destroyed, while the Draconiquis, whose true name has been erased from all records known to ponykind, came from the north. One side seeked to prevent what happened to their home from ever happening again, while the other was seeking the unity of his home.

Both sides met each other not that far away from the border of modern Equestria. Both Celestia and the Draconiquis shared the same ideas of peace. Luna was still to young to understand such things entirely. Both the Draconiquis and Celestia had a feeling that what they were looking for was in these six regions they were close to. Each region would have one of these "Elements of Harmony", a title coined by the Draconiquis. After some time searching for these Elements, they would be found, almost as if they wanted to be found.

These Elements united the six regions into what is now Equestria. Eventually, a capital was built in the center of Equestria, where the Everfree Forest now stands. This was when things went awry...

The Draconiquis wanted to use the Elements of Harmony to unite his people, so he decided to go back to his homeland and use them. Shortly after he arrived back, the Elements magically reappeared back in Equestria, and there was no sign of the Draconiquis for a long time...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"STERLING, WAKE UP!!!"

I bolted awake in a cold sweat. I was in the Everfree Forest, just off the beaten path, enough to remain concealed. How long had I been asleep for?

I checked my watch. It was 9 AM. I had to get to Canterlot before I had Celestia or The Doctor go looking for me.

"Alright, Sterling," It was Discord again. He was the voice that woke me up. "It's showtime. Get to the Sculpture Garden, pronto; we've got work to do. We'll talk once you break me out, just don't screw this up."

Alright. It's time. I was going to be able to go home as soon as I break Discord out. Although... I still felt like I was doing the wrong thing, like I was being misled. Oh, well. It didn't matter. Like Discord said; I've got work to do.

I summoned a Dark Corridor and walked through. There was no turning back now. This would be a turning point in my life, even though I had no recollection of my past before I landed in Equestria. My life would never be the same again.

If only I knew how right I was going to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was so close. I was in the Canterlot Sculpture Garden now. There were ponies everywhere, so I used my invisibility, even though I looked like an Earth Pony. Wouldn't want anypony to see what I was about to do. While I was invisible, I turned back into my humanoid form. I followed a group of schoolfillies for a bit. 

I could hear what the teacher was saying... Talking about how each statue represented a certian trait, but none for the Elements of Harmony.

Friendship... Victory... Music... Intellect... Love... The list goes on and on. Finally, the teacher stopped at the statue I was looking for.

"Bingo." I muttered. 

"Now this is an interesting statue." She said as she pointed at my target. "What do you notice about it?"

The students answered, "It's got an eagle claw!"

"And a lion's paw!"

"And a snake tail!"

And there's a LIVING BEING inside! I wanted to yell.

"This creature is called a Draconiquis" the teacher explained. So that's what the Northerners were called. That would explain my weird dream. "The head of a pony, and a body made of all sorts of things! What do you suppose that represents?"

The pupils gave their different answers, and three of them got into an arguement about it. Time to spring into action.

I ran up behind Discord, drew my blade, and plunged it into the statue's pedestal. This is it.

"You're both wrong!" one of the fillies yelled. The three of them started beating each other up. I pushed the blade deeper into the pedestal. I could feel the statue beginning to move. The faint sound of a heartbeat. 

I could now hear the teacher breaking up the fight and explaining that all three of them were right; that the statue represents--IS, I added--Discord, which means, "a lack of harmony between ponies." I reminded myself that this was a title that Celestia gave him, to cover her tracks and make her look like the heroine.

The class started moving on, with the three fillies still arguing over what they thought Discord was. "You'll see," I whispered. "In time."

Now the statue was beginning to crack. I could hear a deep, menacing laugh. Soon, I thought. Soon, I will be back home. Soon, I'll have all of my memories back.

I then thought of all the events prior to this key moment. My arrival. Meeting Luna, Twilight, The Doctor. The audience with Celestia, and my sudden betrayal. She didn't even force me to see things her way. She knew what I was here for, but she didn't stop me. 

She should have. Wait, what am I thinking? Celestia was the enemy, and none of her subjects could be trusted.

I recalled the party Pinkie Pie had planned for me. The Doctor trusting me with the museum while he was out on an "important errand." Luna trusting me from the beginning.

It suddenly dawned on me. If Discord was defeaten again--and what would stop that from happening?--I could be in the same situation as Discord. Trapped in stone. I could quite possibly never see home again--not that I remember much about it--if this doesn't work out. Everypony trusted me to do the right thing, and I failed them. I betrayed them all.

That's when I realized the error of my ways. I was wrong. Discord was wrong. I have been lied to. And it was all because of the one I was releasing.

What have I done? 

I considered reversing the effects of my blade, but it was too late. There were too many cracks to count on Discord's shell of a prison.

I decided to run. Well, fly, really. I was still invisible, so Discord would never see me fly away from the the scene of the crime, away from the impact zone of the Weapon of Mass Disharmony I had just unleashed.

While I flew, I could still hear Discord, clear as day. 

"Now where do you think you're going, Sterling?" he demanded. "You aren't chickening out, are you?"

"Shut up, Discord!" I yelled. I flew faster. I think I even broke the sound barrier. Good thing I had my hood up. This coat is amazing for that.

"But Sterling," Discord said, soothingly. "You did free me, after all. We still have lots of work to do if we want to take over Equestria..."

"NO!" I bellowed. I couldn't even hear myself, over the wind. But I could still hear Discord. "I DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU! I REFUSE TO BE YOUR PUPPET! YOU MADE ME DO THIS! YOU NEVER LEFT ME, YOU CONTROLLED ME! I'M NOT STUPID!"

"I never thought you were stupid," Discord replied, with the same calm tone he's been using this whole time, while my rage, my hatred for him duping me increased. "That's why I picked you. While you were smart, you were also gullible. I could easily manipulate you to do my bidding, because you weren't sure who to trust yourself. 

"But, since you don't want anything to do with me anymore, fine. I'll let you in on a little secret, my little pawn..." He was now whispering. "...I never meant for you to live after you released me."

I turned my head, to see myself looking into his yellow eyes, with red, mismatched pupils. I maneuvered away from Discord, stopped suddenly, turned off my invisibility and hovered away from my real enemy.

"I know, Sterling... You want to destroy me. You want your life back. I'll tell you what: Defeat me, and I'll let you go, with all your memories. It's as simple as that." Discord beckoned me towards him. "So go ahead, hit me."

I drew my sword and charged at him. "Go on and hit me!" Discord yelled. "Hit me! HIT ME!" I flew towards him at top speed, blade ahead of me. I would cut him clear in two at the momentum I was at. That is, if he didn't move out of the way.

But he wasn't. He just hovered there, waiting for me. He was crazy. "HIIIT MEEE!!!" He roared. 

As I sailed towards my enemy, I realized something: This is all part of Discord's plan. If Celestia and Luna could have destroyed him, they would have. So what made me so sure that I could do it? I needed the Elements of Harmony. I had to warn the others. Attacking Discord would just kill me. But if I could teleport back to Ponyville...

I tried to focus my energies on getting back to the museum, to tell The Doctor, but I couldn't. I stopped mere feet away from Discord's position. Of course. My powers came from Discord; he can control them. I was a sitting duck now.

"Hmm," he shrugged. "Or not. You really thought I would just let you go back and warn all your little friends about the can of worms YOU yourself opened? Do you think I'm stupid? I knew you wouldn't kill me. You CAN'T kill me. Oh, well," Discord was looking into my eyes now. "It's my turn now..." His eyes flashed, and I could feel my form reverting back to an Equestrian. I then started to feel heavy. Discord was rising--No, I was falling!

"I no longer need you, Sterling Smoulder." He said menacingly. "So I'll be taking back all those powers, and let you die as one of them. I guess I'll see you in hell... Oh, wait. I'm IMMORTAL! Have a nice trip, my little pawn! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Discord did a little victory dance before he disappeared. The last thing I saw was a bunch of pink clouds materializing from nowhere, spewing out chocolate rain. 

I closed my eyes and thought of all those I betrayed... Those who called me their friend... And, deep down, I considered them my friends. I would die in an Equestrian form, but who would I really be?

Then I thought of Luna again. She trusted me completely, and I turned around and betrayed her. I never deserved such trust. Maybe it would be better that I die here. Perhaps Discord gave me a small mercy. I don't know.

I could feel a tug, like something breaking my fall. I felt the wind being knocked out of me.

I'm sorry, Luna.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By now, the Element Bearers were made aware of Discord's breakout. Celestia would never force anypony to do her bidding, so she asked them if they would weild the Elements of Harmony again, and defeat Discord.

That's when Pinkie Pie said something that took all of them aback.

"Hold on a second!" She interrupted. "Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain, you guys. CHOCOLATE RAIN!"

Twilight Sparkle just told Celestia to not listen to her, but why would Pinkie say something like that? Sure, Twilight knew that Pinkie Pie can be random at times, but this sounded like a warning. Did Pinkie know something nopony else did? It wouldn't be the first time, either. Twilight remembered that time where those Parasprites invaded Ponyville, and only Pinkie Pie knew how to get rid of them. Everypony else thought she was out of her mind. 

Celestia unlocked the room where the Elements were sealed away.

"Have no fear, ponies," Celestia assured them. "I have total confidence that you will be able to defeat Discord..." She levitated the chest towards the Element Bearers. "...With these." The case opened and out came...

Nothing.

Everypony--even Celestia herself--was shocked. Where were the Elements??? "That chamber was protected by a powerful spell that only I could break," Celestia explained. "This doesn't make sense..."

That's when Discord revealled himself to them all. "'Make sense'?" he mocked. "Oh, what fun is there in making sense??"

He revealled that he had the Elements, that he knew who they all were (he even said which Element was his favourite--Laughter), based on what Sterling knew, and some figuring out on Discord's part--for example, Sterling had only met Pinkie Pie and Twilight, but Discord figured out who the other Element Bearers were. After Celestia demended that Discord tell what he did with the Elements, he told them where he hid them...

"But I'll only tell you my way:" Discord insisted.

"To retrieve your missing Elements,
Just make sense of this change of events.
Twists and turns are my master plan;
Then find the Elements back where you began." And with that, he was gone.

Twilight was the first to figure out what he meant by "twists and turns"--the Palace Labyrinth, inside the Canterlot Sculpture Garden.

The Element Bearers were on their way to where they thought Discord would be hiding the Elements of Harmony. But none of them knew exactly how Discord broke free. All Celestia would tell them is that since the Elements of Harmony were no longer in her or Luna's control, Discord was able to break free. 

But that was only half the truth. Sterling Smoulder had released him. Celestia had sent Luna to go and watch Sterling, and if he fell, to bring him back to the castle. Celestia would make her next move from there.

But what was taking Luna so long?

Suddenly, Celestia heard Discord laugh. "What are you waiting for, Celestia?" he asked. "And where's your sister? She wouldn't be hiding, would she?"

"I won't say a word to you, Discord!" Celestia replied sternly. "All I will say is that you won't get away with this."

"Au contraire, my dear Celestia. As we speak, your little ponies will be pitted against each other, and Sterling is... gone, to say the least. And you thought that he could help in my defeat. Ha! I'm the one who brought him here in the first place!"

Celestia's eyes widened. "You killed him?"

"Of course I killed him." Discord scoffed. "Just because he was useful to me before doesn't mean that I'll keep him once I'm done with him. It's like a used tissue. No one wants to keep something like that; it'll just get in the way and make a mess."

Perhaps that's what's taking Luna so long, Celestia thought. She can't find Sterling because Discord destroyed him.

"Now, I can't have you go and do anything I don't want you to," Discord continued. "So I'll keep you locked in here. Don't want you helping your little ponies. Now, I must be off. I'm gonna wipe that smile off of Pinkie Pie's face, hopefully for good. I might as well finish off what I started with her; isn't fair to leave one of my pawns in the game and not the other. Ciao!" And with that, Discord was gone.

For the first time in over one thousand years, Celestia wasn't sure what she would--or could--do. If Sterling is dead, would Luna be next? Luna said that she knew something that would defeat Discord once and for all; that it had something to do with Sterling. The six Elements of Harmony would slow Discord, but not for long. He knew how to get out now.

Perhaps Sterling was gone, Celestia thought. And Luna was corrupted again...

If that were true, then not even the Elements of Harmony would stop Discord. 

"Sterling Smoulder, please don't be dead," Celestia pleaded. "The fate of not only Equestria, but all of reality lies in your..." Celestia was about to say "hooves", but she knew Sterling wasn't an Equestrian. What word did The Doctor use?

"...all of reality may be in your hands."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up in a completely white room. I was somehow a human again. Was I dead? Or is this a dream? I couldn't tell.

I got up on my feet and tried to find any distinguishable landmarks, or anybody who could tell me where I was. Nothing. Although my coat was now white instead of black.

"Welcome to the afterlife, Sterling. You're dead."

That would explain where I am. But where did the voice come from?

As if in answer, a bright-greenish light appeared, expanded, and out came Discord.

"Discord!" I cried in shock. "What is this? How did I get here?? How did you get here???"

"I told you, Sterling," Discord replied, "You're dead. This is the afterlife. And I'm God."

"What? You are NOT God!" I retorted.

"Oh, blasphemy!" Discord was mocking me. "You're lucky I don't cast you out or smite you or something. Don't you remember what I did?" He snapped his fingers, a screen appeared out of the floor, and I was treated to a play-by-play of my supposed last moments.

Discord appeared on the screen. "This is Sterling Smoulder's Last Failure, brought to you in part by Chaos!" he said. Great, I thought. He's treating this as a spectator sport.

I saw myself advance towards Discord. "As you can see here," he said, "Sterling was closing in waaaay beyond the speed of sound; I'll bet he'd give Rainbow Dash a run for her money! Perfect maneuver, going in for the kill... And oh, what's this? He's intercepted by Yours Truly! What would happen next? Of course, Sterling goes down!! And it's over, folks! Sterling Smoulder fell to his death!" The screen went back into the floor.

"You see, Sterling," Discord continued. "You never had a chance. You knew this. You can't kill me. It's impo--"

Suddenly, I could see a Dark Corridor appear, much like what I used to travel long distances. Although I didn't summon it. Someone, or rather somepony, walked out of the portal. It was Luna, but not quite. She was taller, leaner, and her mane flowed much like her sister's, only darker. Her eyes glowed a bright white. 

"Oh, bother," he scoffed. " In she comes, and ruins my fun. You're just like your sister, Luna. Why so serious? I was just getting started when you showed up. Oh, well..." Discord turned towards me. "You're living in a dream world, Sterling. None of this is real, it's all in your head..." His voice began to morph into Luna's. "Now wake up."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I opened my eyes. Instead of being in a white room, I was on a cloud; and instead of being a human, I was an Earth Pony again. I looked up and could see several clouds with a hole in the middle of each of them. These were probably used to slow my fall. 

But it couldn't be a mere coincidence that these clouds were in this exact position and saved me. Someone had to put them here. I tried standing up on the cloud. Thanks to my having four legs, I was able to balance easily on the uneven terrain of the cloud. Who put these clouds here? Somepony had to do it. Did they see me in my human form as well?

As if in answer, I heard a voice. It wasn't Discord. No, I knew he thought I was dead, and the Discord in my dream wasn't real. This voice wasn't one I had heard before.

"It's about time you woke up!" It was a cheery kind of voice. I turned my head towards where the voice was coming from. The voice's owner was a grey Pegasus with a blonde mane, and yellow eyes that were looking in different directions. She was adorable.

But that's not the point. I had to find out how much she knew about what led me to my current position.

"I was worried that you might've gotten brain damage from that fall," the Pegasus continued. "I was just in time with those clouds, too. Yep, that's being a mailmare for you; always right on time, no sooner, no later!"

I interrupted her. "Um, if you don't mind me asking," I began, "how did you know I was going to fall? And who exactly are you??"

The Pegasus hit her head as if she forgot something important. "Derp! Of course, you have no idea who I am, do you? Didn't The Doctor tall you about his assistant?"

"Assistant?" I repeated. "Who might that be?"

"Me, silly!" the Pegasus. "Wow, it's like all of you outsiders are slow. Are you sure you didn't get brain damage from that fall?"

"Yes, I'm certain." I assured her. "You still haven't answered my questions. Who are you, and how did you know what was going to happen?"

The Pegasus apologized. "Sorry. My friends always tell me about how absent-minded I can be sometimes. I'm Derpy Doo. The Doctor told me that you were going to be here, and that I should probably make sure that you didn't get hurt or anything. It's like he's always one step ahead of things! And it looks like he was right about you not having a Cutie Mark."

I winced at that. Looks like Luna told The Doctor about that, too. I just hope that Derpy here didn't know what happened to cause me to need her help.

She continued, "Even Princess Luna was worried about you." My eyes widened at this, but I let Derpy go on. "She said that you might the power to save Equestria. What power would that be?" It sounded like she already knew about Discord's release. The Doctor probably told Derpy everything, her being his assistant and all.

I shrugged. "To be honest, I have no idea. I was just a regular person who was pulled into Equestria. I was used, and then disposed of. I'm just an interloper. I shouldn't even be here right now, and I'm pretty sure that I have nothing to do with saving Equestria. Leave that to Twilight Sparkle and her friends. They have the Elements of Harmony, after all." How could Luna be so hopeful, even after I betrayed everyone?

That's when I heard another voice. "But the six Elements won't be enough, Sterling Smoulder."

I turned toward the voice. It was Luna. Derpy bowed in midair (Don't ask me how she did this), while I just stood there, not knowing whether to run or not.

"How could I have anything to do with restoring Equestria after what I've done?" I asked Luna. "I completely betrayed you all."

"That's because you were under Discord's control," Luna assured me. "Do you feel like my sister and I are the enemy now?"

I thought about it. Discord tried to get rid of me as soon as I got cold feet about taking over Equestria, while Celestia and Luna never lifted a hoof to stop me when I flat out told them that I thought they were wrong.

I shook my head. "No," I said weakly. "Now that I think of it, I should have trusted you and Celestia."

"It's alright, Sterling," Luna said. "Discord has a way of blinding others to the truth. Trust me, I know... But now's not the time to explain," She moved towards me. "I have to show you something. Not even my sister knew about this before Discord broke out." I noted that I always consider that I released Discord, while everypony else says that he broke out. "You see, Sterling, there is a seventh Element of Harmony, and I think that you might be able to weild it."

Next thing I knew, the three of us--Luna, Derpy and myself--were in the castle ruins within Everfree Forest. 

Looks like I was right about what I thought this morning. My life was about to change, and the tables would turn on Discord.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR'S NOTES: :gasp: PLOT TWIST!!! This is the starting point of changing the events after Discord's defeat. A seventh Element of Harmony has been revealled, but, to quote Discord, "These are only my first changes!" In time, you'll know why I've listed this fanfic under "Alternate Universe". Thank you for sticking with me through all the kind-of-boring parts that were so abundant in this first part of Road to Disharmony (at least, that's what I thought of it). I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because it only gets better after this! 

Also, A few notes on this chapter: In case you were wondering about that whole Star Trek-esque introduction (Think "Space. The Final Frontier... Blah-blah-blah... Boldly go where no man has ever gone before..." Do you see the similarities in how I wrote it?), that was indeed another strange dream that Sterling had. His subconsciousness was trying to piece together Equestria's history. And... I'll let you in on a little secret... Luna had a little bit to do with some of the details in Sterling's dreams in this chapter.

Now, as to why I chose to call Derpy Hooves/Ditzy Doo "Derpy Doo". Well, I really didn't know which name was her "official" name, so I decided to combine the two names.

Anyways, Please feel free to leave any feedback; positive, negative, suggestions, questions, I want to hear it all. I want to find out how I can improve my work. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated! Also, if you catch any of my references to other things scattered throughout my story, let me know you got them!

P.S. See what I did there with the title? ;)



Stan McStudz. We're done here.
> Return of Disharmony: Part Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Discord had already dubbed Ponyville the "Chaos Capital of the World" by the time Sterling was taken to the Everfree Forest. He would relish every moment that he had before the Elements would "defeat" him again.

Yes, Discord knew that the Elements of Harmony wouldn't hold him now. They were being individually controlled by different ponies. The Elements were weakened. The only thing that could stop Discord's tyranny would be the Seventh Element, and The One who would be able to use it to unite all of the Elements and completely destroy him. Discord feared that The One was Sterling Smoulder, but now he was gone. Now nothing would stand between Discord and total Chaos.

Now, at his "throne" in the Chaos-riddled Ponyville, he laughed at his pawn's fate, at what he was going to do later, and how he was going to destroy all who would stand in his way.

Summoning a glass to pick up some of the chocolate milk coming from a nearby pink cloud, Discord proclaimed, "Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing!" That was when the Element Bearers, now reunited after Discord tore them apart, showed up.

"Not a wonderful as friendship!" Twilight Sparkle retorted.

Discord groaned. His fun was over, for now. "This again?" he muttered, draining his chocolate milk. Only he drank the glass instead. Discord pretended to look suprised and threw the chocolate milk away, causing a small explosion.

His time was up for now. Discord would have to bide his time and use the element of suprise (NOT an Element of Harmony) on Equestria. Nopony, not even Celestia herself, would see it coming.

And Twilight Sparkle could make a great addition to the ones he would control...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Luna led me to a chamber deep underneath the castle. Derpy volunteered to stay behind, in case anypony showed up.

Luna and I were alone now. "You may not have known this, Sterling, but Discord was banished from his homeland when we found him. He and Celestia found the first six Elements without me, because I was too young. But I found a seventh--rather, it found me.

"I would keep this seventh Element a secret from everypony. It wasn't until Discord tried to return to his homeland with the first six Elements that he found out there was a seventh. The people of the Northern Continent weren't affected by the Elements; not without the Seventh. They arrested Discord and attempted to brainwash him into the spirit of Chaos he is now, and use him as a weapon against the rest of the world. During this brainwashing, some of Discord's powers were forgotten. For example, he used to be able to control time, but it would drain him in order to do that. So he would only use it in emergencies.

"Discord was gone for years before we decided to go to the Northern Continent and look for him. We had a fledgling country to watch over, so we couldn't do it sooner. Once we got to the Northern Continent, We found that it was completely destroyed. We looked for answers, but we had nothing, not even a clue toward Discord's whereabouts. Finally, we returned to Equestria to find out that Discord had returned before us, and was now in control. He had hidden the six Elements of Harmony, in case they would be used to stop him. 

"Once Celestia and I found the Elements, Discord was close to finding the Seventh Element, which I hid in a chamber deep underneath this castle...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO...

Luna was close to where she hid the Seventh Element of Harmony. Nopony else knew of its whereabouts other than herself. This was in case someone like Discord tried to take it. In fact, she had this tunnel dug specifically for the Seventh Element. Not even the workers who dug out this cavern were told what it was for, nor did they question it, which was a bonus for Luna.

Celestia had put the six Elements somewhere in Canterlot (the Alicorns' winter retreat), to be protected by a spell that only she could break. Luna decided to do the same--except closer to home--with her Element. 

As she descended the 777 stairs down to the main chamber, Luna thought about telling her sister about the Seventh Element. No, she thought. Now's not the time. She would know soon enough, anyways. Not even Discord knows about this new Element, so it's not like Celestia needs to know.

Celestia was in Canterlot right now, retrieving the Elements of Harmony that she hid there. Luna decided to stay behind, just in case Discord showed up.

Luna was at the bottom of the stairs now. She put her horn in the lock into the main chamber, and the doors swung open. She looked around, expecting somepony to show up and steal the Seventh Element. Finding no one, she hastened into the chamber and was about to take the Element when she heard a voice.

"I knew there was another Element of Harmony."

Luna turned around. It was Discord, except he looked a bit different. His eyes were once white, but now they were yellow, his pupils mismatched, and he just had a... mananical aura to him now. 

"It's been a while, Luna," Discord said. "and you sure have changed!"

"In a way," Luna replied, "so have you. What have they done to you?"

"My eyes have been opened, my dear," Discord explained. "Why should the weak be equal to the gifted? I was wrong all this time."

"It looks like your eyes have been more than opened," Luna retorted. "Whatever happened to 'freedom is the right of all sentient beings'?"

"It has been replaced with 'survival of the fittest'. Much more logical, in my opinion." Discord said. "Ah, well... Anyways, you won't be needing that little Element there--" Discord snapped his fingers and the Seventh Element was surrounded by thick walls of steel. "And to think that it was hidden right under my nose this whole time..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"...And he tricked me into working with him after he was defeaten." Luna concluded. "He used me, just like what he did to you. I was about to use the Seventh Element to free Discord, but Celestia used the other six on me before I could get down here, thankfully."

We were at the bottom of the stairs. Luna inserted her horn into the lock, and the doors of the chamber opened. It was dark, and I couldn't see what was within. Luna's horn lit up, and the chamber was bathed in what looked like moonlight.

There were cobwebs everywhere, as well as dust. Well, that was to be expected, considering that no one has set foot/hoof in this chamber for over a thousand years. In the middle of the chamber lay the Seventh Element of Harmony.

It was a white orb with a symbol engraved on it. Just like the replicas of the other Elements back at The Doctor's museum. 

"Is it booby trapped?" I asked. I suddenly remembered a story of some archaeologist taking a relic off of a pedestal that was set to trigger arrows and giant rolling boulders as soon as the weight was shifted. What was the story called...?

Luna shook her head. "No. I didn't think it was needed if I was the only one who could get in."

"Fair enough," I agreed. I casually walked up to the pedestal and was about to touch the orb when a bright light surrounded me. I don't know what's up with all the bright lights lately.

When the light cleared out, I could see that the orb was gone. I kind of panicked at first, but then Luna spoke up: "Sterling! you have a Cutie Mark now!"

I turned to look at my flank. She was right; now I had a circle divided into six sections, one color of the rainbow for each section, surrounded by a white border.

But where was the Seventh Element? The replicas of the other six Elements back at the museum took the form of necklaces and a giant crown thing, but those are too... feminine for me, to say the least.

That's when I looked down at my watch. It was now gold, with an outline of my Cutie Mark on the face, right underneath the hands. And... is that face made of platinum? No, I think it's sterling silver. Suiting, since that's part of my name.

I gave a low whistle. "Classy," I muttered. "Check that out, Luna!" I showed her my new watch. "I always did like watches. And this," I checked out my watch again, "THIS is a watch worthy of the name!"

"Looks great, Sterling." Luna said, "But we need to get to Ponyville right away."

I blinked. "Right, right. Let's just grab Derpy and get going." And with that, Luna teleported us back to the surface.

"Luna, why didn't you just teleport us down there in the first place?" I asked.

"It doesn't work that way," she replied. "I made sure of it. You can get out, but you can't go in."

"Uh, guys?" Derpy said. "You might wanna see this." Luna and I galloped out of the ruins. 

"I can't see anything," I called to Derpy. She was in the air above the forest. "And Discord took all of my abilities when he supposedly killed me."

"Then I'll pick you up."  Derpy said as she came back down.

"I'll help you," Luna offered, lifting me not with magic, but with her bare hooves.

"Oh, you don't have to do that, Your Majesty," the Pegasus told Luna. "I've carried heavier loads of mail and--"

The Alicorn cut her off. "Please, I insist." She paused. "As your princess, that's an order."

Derpy shrugged. "Okie doke, then." The two of them lifted me up.

I was lifted above the forest, and I could see Ponyville. It was a disaster. Floating buildings, pies... a house of cards...

...and pink clouds spewing chocolate milk. "Eterneal chaos comes with chocolate rain," I muttered. I was going to look for more anomalies when the sun suddenly cane down, replaced by the moon.

"Uh, Luna? This wouldn't be your work, would it?" I asked, expecting to already know the answer.

"No," she replied. She tried using her magic to move the moon out of the way. "I can't control the moon!" She said, with more than a little fear in her voice. "Discord must be--" And the sun came back up.

"Yeah," I replied, knowing what she was going to say. "We're gonna have to get moving to Ponyville if we want to get rid of Discord."

"Celestia told me that I was to bring you back to Canterlot," Luna told me. "But, I think we could be forgiven if we--" Before I could finish my sentence, I saw some sort of light show.

A rainbow beam launched into the sky, arced, and landed on the other side of Ponyville. The arc folded out into two, enclosing the entire town in a dome. Next thing I knew, the dome expanded, like a bomb.

"It's the other Elements of Harmony!" Luna cried. "We're too late!"

I was confused. "Wait, what? I thought that was a--" That was when the multicolored fallout reached us. The impact scattered the three of us, which left me to succumb to gravity once more.

"What's up with me and falling lately!?!?" I yelled. I hit a tree, and fell down. Fortunately, There was plenty of foilage to break my fall enough for me not to be injured much, save for a few scratches. I got up and tried to look around, Unfortunatley, all I could see was a bright light--AGAIN. But this light didn't cause me to cover my eyes.

Once the light dissipated, I tried looking for Luna and Derpy when I noticed something. I was walking on two legs. I looked down and could see that I was human again!

"Luna! Derpy!" I called. "Can you guys hear me? I'm human again!"

Derpy Doo appeared. "Is that you, Sterling?" she asked. I assured her that it was me. "I've never seen you as a human before. Have you seen the Princess anywhere?"

I looked at her. "Uh, no." I replied, a little confused. "LUNA!!" I called again, much louder this time. No reply.

I panicked. I mean, Luna probably didn't get knocked too far from where Derpy and I are now, so why didn't she respond? 

I told Derpy Doo to check the sky; maybe Luna had to head to Canterlot right away or something, and she didn't have time to tell us. The Pegasus checked, but she came back, saying that she couldn't find anypony in the sky.

"Alright," I said, panic in my voice. "Let's split up. You look for her that way, and I'll go the other way. If you see her, just holler for me. Got it?"

Derpy raised her hoof in a salute. "You can count on me, Mr. Smoulder!" She said, and ran off to look for Luna.

"And please," I called to Derpy. "Just call me Sterling!"

It didn't take us long to find Luna. Derpy found her and called me over. I came running full throttle. When I caught up with Derpy Doo, I could see why Luna didn't respond to me.

She was sprawled out on the ground, unconscious. she had quite a few major cuts, as well as a possible broken wing--I'm not too sure, since I'm not a doctor. I think she hit her head on a tree and that knocked her out. Needless to say, she was in bad condition. Really bad. Just because you were ageless didn't mean that can't get severely injured.

"C'mon, Luna. Wake up!" I cried, lightly shaking her. "C'mon, Luna!"

My eyes were filling with tears. I put my hand on Luna's head. "You trusted me from the very beginning..." I whispered. "And I betrayed you. Yet, you still trusted me. You came back for me..." I leaned closer to her. I wanted to say this t oher as soon as Discord tried to kill me. "...I'm sorry, Luna."

Suddenly, my watch started to glow. Next thing I knew, Luna's injuries were healing before my eyes. Remarkable. This Element of Harmony is giving me abilities. But what other abilities is it capable of?

Luna's eyes opened. "Sterling?" She said weakly. "We were too late. Discord's won this round."

"Luna, what do you mean?"  I asked. "Those were the Elements of Harmony that took care of him, right? They've done it before, without the Seventh Element, so why should we be worried?"

"Wow!" Derpy Doo exclaimed. "I've never seen the Elements of Harmony do something like that!"

"It's because this one is the most powerful of them all," Luna said. I helped her get up. "It's as powerful as the other six put together. While those six need each other to work like they just did with Discord, the Seventh Element can operate alone in order to do some small things, like healing me."

"So the other six Elements locked Discord up again, right?" I asked. "We don't have to worry about him anymore?"

Luna shook her head. "No, he's only been slowed down. Since the Elements of Harmony are being held by different ponies, the strength of Discord's prison is just a little stronger than it was when you arrived. We need something that would secure what the Elements have done. That's where you come in, Sterling."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I said. "Let's get to Ponyville and use the Seventh Element to defeat Discord for good!"

"It's not that easy, I'm afraid," Luna admitted. "You see, we would need all seven Elements of Harmony working together, at the same time. We can't just use the Seventh Element alone. It would have the same effect as the other six alone; ergo, nothing will happen. We're going to have to wait until Discord breaks out again. In the meantime, Sterling, you will have to create a friendship with the other Element Bearers, in order to strengthen the bond of the Elements, so that all seven will be united."

"You really thought all of this out, Princess," Derpy Doo said.

"I had to," Luna replied. "I was trapped in the moon for a thousand years. It was like a deep sleep, but my subconsciousness figured it all out. I didn't remember any of it until the six Elements were used on me."

"Well," I said, clapping my hands together,  "Looks like I've got some work to do. Pinkie Pie's throwing me a party soon, so that'll be a start. I can talk to the Doctor about what I could do after that."

"Great!" Luna said. "Sounds like we've got a plan! Celestia's bound to have some sort of celebration for what Twilight Sparkle and the others have done. We don't want anypony to know that Discord's only momentarily defeaten, other than Celestia and The Doctor, so don't say anything. I'll tell my sister everything. She's certain to agree with us."

"Got it!" Derpy saluted again.

"Don't worry, Luna," I assured her. "I'll keep it under my hood."

Luna blinked. "...What?"

"I--It's a figure of speech," I stammered. "You know, a variation of 'I'll keep it under my hat'?"

"Oh, right!" She exclaimed. "Well, if any of you need me, just talk to the moon; I'll be listening."

We were about to part ways when Luna remembered something. "Oh, yeah! Sterling, you can use all of your old powers now, with the Seventh Element in your control."

"Really? Sweet! What does this Element represent, anyways?" I asked.

"It's the Element of Imagination." Luna replied. "Kind of suiting, since it creates whatever you imagine--within reason, of course."

"Right," I agreed. "Well, I'll call you if anything turns up. And Derpy," I turned to the grey Pegasus, "I guess I'll be seeing you more often, with you being The Doctor's assistant and all."

"Yep!" she replied.

That was when we each went our separate ways. Derpy went to the Post Office to get today's mail to deliver, Luna headed for Canterlot...

And I took one last look at what remained of Everfree Castle. The last of Discord's destruction, for now. I wondered how he was able to pull something off like that; making sure that magic wouldn't fix anything here. I would have pondered it more, but I had work to do. I closed my eyes and focused on returning to the museum.

I opened my eyes and found that I was in the lobby. The Doctor wasn't there, so I checked downstairs. I knocked on the door, and he came running out with an old musket shotgun aimed at me.

I raised my hands. "Doc, it's me! I was brainwashed by Discord, and now I know what I'm doing."

The Doctor lowered his weapon. "I figured as much," he said. "I take it that you've met my assistant?"

"Yeah," I replied. "I think she was the one who saved me from falling to my death."

"What do you mean?" The Doctor asked. "Can't you fly?"

"Well, I could, but after Discord tried to dispose of me, he took away all of the powers he gave me... It's a long story, and I've got a lot to tell you.."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that day, everypony was gathered at Canterlot to honor Twilight Sparkle and friends for what they have done.

Celestia addressed all those who were present. "We are gathered here today to once again honor the heroism of these six friends,who stood up to the villain Discord, and saved Equestria from eternal chaos!"

There was a round of intense applause, and Celestia revealled a stained-glass portrait of the Element Bearers defeating Discord. Another round of applause, even stronger than the last.

It was over. Or so they all thought. After the celebration, Luna would tell her sister, in private, that this would only slow Discord down. He had planned it all from the very beginning, every possible outcome, and how to counter them. He did have over 1000 years to plan it out, after all. Sterling would have to befriend the other Element Bearers in order for all the Elements of Harmony to work.

It could be the greatest disaster since Discord took over Equestria, over 1000 years ago. That is, if he succeeded.

And that would not come to pass; not while Luna had anything to say about it. She had been fooled by Discord before, and she will not allow it to happen again. Not to herself; not to Sterling...

Not to anypony.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Discord was being taken back to the Canterlot Sculpture Garden; this time in the middle of the Palace Labyrinth. But unlike last time he was turned into stone, Discord was aware of all his surroundings. He could still summon beings into this world, but he decided to do something a little different. Discord would create his own assassin, someone similar to who Sterling Smoulder was. It would be perfect. Discord still had Sterling's memories, so he would use the more agressive ones to create the personality of this new Sterling. Nopony knew that he could do this, and they wouldn't know until it was too late.

Discord's new puppet would easily be able to gain the trust of the Element Bearers, since he would claim to have fled from Discord, knowing that he would easily have killed him. 

And then he would kill the Element Bearers.

"You think, my dear Celestia, that even without Sterling," the Spirit of Chaos thought, "you had me defeaten... But soon you'll see. And I'll take back Equestria once more, and that would only be a start!"

The gloves were off now. Discord was pulling all the stops with this plan. It would be foolproof.

And Equestria would never be the same again.


END OF BOOK ONE




AUTHOR'S NOTES: That's right, dear readers, this was BOOK ONE. I'm planning on writing two more "Books" for this saga. But what will be in those volumes? I'm just going to say "It's a secret to everybody". (See what I did there?)

Anyways, thanks again for reading this story! And stay tuned for Part Two! Feel free to drop your questions, comments, quibbles, and complaints below; I'm always open to feedback! In my opinion, I live in the biggest room in the world: The Room for Improvement.

And remember: Discord for Best Troll of 2011!
> 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."


> BOOK TWO: Mixed Feelings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up some time in the late morning. I checked my watch to see that it was almost 10:30. I quickly got up and got ready for the day. Perhaps I would pay Pinkie Pie a visit, in order to sort things out from last night. 

That's when I remembered that I didn't even know where Pinkie lived; and I didn't want to ask random ponies if they knew. Maybe I should go see Twilight Sparkle instead, since I did know where she would be.

I ate a couple brownies for beakfast (I was kind of in a rush), left the museum and headed for the library. On the way, I could see ponies greeting each other, talking about current events (no one mentioned that fight over some doll that Twilight charmed yesterday), and sometimes giving me looks. you know, like what others do to those who are new in town. I haven't exactly been out much since I got back to Ponyville.

I don't know what it is, but the general atmosphere of the town was... unheard of, in my opinion. How everypony knew everypony was baffling for me. I've never had that particular experience, but I always wanted to live in a place like that. Only with actual human beings.

Again with the unlocked memories that I don't quite remember. Maybe they have something to do with Discord trying to control me again, like what happened last night with Tarnished Sterling.

I decided to take my time getting to the library, and looked around at all of the stores and attractions that Ponyville had. I could see some boutique that I knew belonged to Rarity (she told me yesterday), Applejack's farm, Sugarcube Corner, and some other places that didn't quite pique my interest...

Well, there was one place that I was very interested in: A music shop. At first, I almost passed it without a second thought, but then I looked back at what they had in one of the windows.

A baritone sax. My first thought was "how in God's Name could a pony actually PLAY that thing??" You know, without opposable thumbs. I then had a sudden flashback.

I was in a jazz band, possibly at a school, playing a very old and beat-up bari. Not just as a background instrument, but performing a solo. I could remember almost everything. What song we played, how I did my solo, the roar of the crowd afterwards, applauding for myself as well as the whole band. I never felt more accomplished; more happy than I did that night. The only thing I couldn't remember were other people's faces.

My first true memory of home. I sensed that this particular memory was something really important to me; that music was very important to me. I wondered why I didn't have a saxophone for a Cutie Mark instead of what I did have. Oh, well.

I'd better keep track of that store, I thought. Maybe I'll check it out later. I knew that I couldn't create my own bari sax. I didn't even want to try; with all of the intricacies of the instrument, I know I would fail at making a sax that was in-tune.

By now, I was at Twilight's library. I knocked on the door and waited. I could hear someone's voice, followed by Twilight's (who sounded very irritated). I almost considered coming back some other time when the door opened. I had to look down to see who opened the door.

It was a dragon. A young one, by the looks of it; still a baby. How did I even know this? "Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Sterling Smoulder," I introduced myself. "Twilight Sparkle wanted to see me, but she never said when. I hope this isn't a bad time or anything..." I tried to act casual, like ponies saw baby dragons every day.

"Hold on a second," the dragon told me. He closed the door and I could hear voices again. Before I knew it, Twilight swung open the door.

"Oh, hey Sterling!" she said, without any of the annoyance I heard in her voice earlier. "What brings you here?"

"I have a few questions about the Elements of Harmony," I explained. It wasn't a lie; but it wasn't the only thing I was there for. "And I was wondering if you still wanted to know stuff about where I came from." I grudgingly added. I made sure that I didn't say the Northern Continent, because I hate it when I lie.

Twilight clapped her hooves together. "Great!" she said. "I was just talking to Spike about you, and how you came from the Northern Continent."

"Uh... Spike?" Who was Spike?

"Oh, he was the dragon who opened the door. He's a gem dragon, you know." Twilight showed me into a room in the library where she had a bunch of quills and parchment set up. 

"Uh..." I began. "Is it alright if we keep this off the record? I don't want everyone knowing about home."

Twilight looked slightly disappointed. "Alright then, if you insist. I do want to know more about the Northern Continent, though."

I sat down. "OK, but just don't tell anyone. I can't promise that I remember everything."

"What do you mean? You only just got here."

Part of me wanted to tell her the whole truth, but that would lead to more questions being asked. Possibly even the truth about Discord would be brought up; and now was not the time for that. I would only tell her part of the truth.

"When Discord was around, he hypnotized me into helping him. And by doing that, he blocked off most of my memories. I remember some of them, but not everything." There. That should cover it.

Twilight seemed to buy it, and I proceeded to tell her what I knew of "home". It was mostly trivial facts; things I knew that Equestria had but we didn't. 

This led to the inevitable question: "So why did you come here in the first place?"

For some reason, I didn't think of this. In all reality, I was forced here, but I told everypony else that I came here of my own accord. I had to think of something, and fast.

"I... I had no one else left back home," I found myself saying, right off the bat. "Nopony I could relate to, since they were all gem dragons. At first, everything was fine. But then I aged faster than the dragons, and I decided to leave for Equestria. I wanted to make a dent in the universe, so to speak. To be someone. I heard about the Elements of Harmony, and that Discord was able to break free. You see, Twilight, Discord was originally from the Northern Continent. I wanted to come here and stop him from breaking free. I had several reasons for coming here."

"So how did you get to the Northern Continent in the first place?" Twilight asked. 

"To be honest, I'm not sure," I admitted. "I was probably abandoned at birth. All I remember are the gem dragons raising me. I have no idea how I got there." Now I was lying; but I had to for the sake of privacy.

She then asked me how I knew about where Discord came from. I told her what I learned from the Alicorns, minus the fact that he was originally good. I explained that the dragons came to the Northern Continent right after the original inhabitants disappeared. 

"...And that's all I know," I said. "Some of it I just guessed, since I can't remember much. Sorry that I couldn't be more helpful."

Twilight seemed to understand. Then her eyes widened, as if she just realized something. "Wait a minute, you said that Discord hypnotized you into helping him... What did you mean by that?"

Oh no... I just blew my cover! Quick Sterling, think of something...

"I meant to say that he knew I was coming to warn you guys about him." I hastily explained. "I... I think I knew things that could probably stop him before he ever broke free. Discord knew this, and used whatever power he could muster to stop me. I was almost in Equestria at this time, and he teleported me to the Everfree Forest."

I knew that I would have to eventually have to bring up Luna finding me. At least I could do it in this way.

"When I came to, I had no idea where I was, how I got there... I didn't even know who I was. I wandered around the forest and found myself at the ruins of a castle in the forest. Apparently my arrival must have caused some sort of commotion; and next thing I knew, I saw Princess Luna. She helped me get here, and we've kept in touch eversince." I could feel my face going reddish--even though I was a blue Earth Pony. I Hoped that Twilight wouldn't notice.

Why was I reacting to Luna in this way? Perhaps it's because I'm her first friend, and vice versa (at least, my first friend in Equestria) No, it's much deeper than that, I believe. It's like... I LIKE her! No. It can't be. I don't have time for relationships. Not now. From everything I've heard about "love" (it's only a mental chain reaction, after all), it never lasts. Not at my age, at least. And she's over a thousand years old, and... We're not even the same species!

I didn't know how long I was thinking about this when Twilight interrupted my train of thought. 

"Sterling," she said, "Are you blushing?"

I pretended to act stupid. "No, why would I be?"

Twilight shrugged. "I don't know. It seems that you started to turn red when you mentioned Princess Luna."

"No, I don't like her," I blurted out. What the heck, mind? "I mean, not in a like-like kind of way. So, what do you know about the Elements of Harmony?"

Twilight said no more of my reaction to mentioning Luna. She instead proceeded to get Spike to grab the book she had about the Elements. She explained about how she and the other Element Bearers were able to defeat Luna--then known as Nightmare Moon--and change her back to who she was before. She moved on to how they were once again used to defeat Discord. "So you don't have to worry about him anymore," Twilight assured me.

If only she knew.

Twilight told me about how she thought that she didn't need friends to get things done. Personally, I agreed. Friends only seemed to weigh me down. I work best alone. Then she told me what she learned in the past year of being in Ponyville. I was astounded. I knew that I would have to befriend the other Element Bearers in order to finally defeat Discord, but I never knew how Twilight changed from an antisocial recluse--much like myself (More fragments of my past that just popped up)--into somepony who had some of the best friends anyone could ask for. 

Twilight also told me about how the Elements were actually stronger when together, and when the users have a strong friendship. I originally thought of this as getting the others to trust me, but now I understand that I actually have to be FRIENDS with them. Why didn't I think of that before? I remembered last night, when Pinkie Pie showed up and saved me. She was wearing her Element, and that seemed to make me stronger. Maybe she had some sort of connection with me that I don't know about.

After this, we had some random conversations, and I finally asked Twilight where Pinkie Pie lived; that she wanted to see me too.

"She lives above Sugarcube Corner, the candy shop." Twilight explained. "But she's usually all over town. She'd probably find you first."

With this, I thanked Twilight and headed off. "If you remember anything else about the Northern Continent, Sterling," she said, "Please let me know." I assured her that I would, and headed for the general direction of Sugarcube Corner.

Sure enough, Pinkie Pie caught up with me first. "Heya, Sterling!" She said in her usual happy tone. "Did you like the goodies?"

"Yeah, there was a lot of them," I replied. "What was up with the note you gave me--" Pinkie covered my mouth and dragged me into an alley.

"SHHHH!" She hushed me. "Do you want HIM to hear you?? Or anypony else??? We need to go somewhere safe: Everfree Forest. Let's go."

We headed off in that direction. Pinkie going from her cautious attitude to a cheery one, hopping instead of walking. This pony is nuts. I still had a bunch of questions that she might have answers to, though, so I had no choice but to trust Pinkie.

Once we arrived at the edge of the forest, Pinkie spoke. 

"Are you trying to get us both killed!?" She said irritably. "You don't say that kind of thing for all to hear! I thought you would know better than that."

Alright, that was pretty dumb. She told me not to tell anyone, and I didn't. Doc didn't know; Twilight didn't know... I didn't even plan on telling Luna.

I admitted that it was stupid of me. "But what's the harm?" I added. "It's not like anypony would pay attention."

"That's what you think!" Pinkie retorted. "He's got ears all over the place. He even has someone who looks like you running around. That was no dream, Sterling."

"Then what was it?" I asked. "Did Celestia actually tell me that she saw my evil twin roaming about Canterlot?"

Pinkie nodded. "She talked to you before she came to see us, so I guess."

My mind was going into overdrive now. Just how much did Pinkie know? "How much do you know? Are you a spy or something?"

"If I were a spy, why would I even be talking to you? I'm trying to save you. I know who you are, Sterling. YOU were the spy. And now you're with us. That watch you're wearing, it's no ordinary watch. It's an Element of Harmony. I don't know how you got a Seventh Element, but you've got it. I doubted it at first, but then I saw it in action. I took a risk there, saving you. I'm glad that I was right about you. You're one of them, aren't you?"

I was really confused now. "What do you mean, 'one of them'?"

"You know..." She leaned closer, "One of HIM. You looked a lot like one of him, you and your evil twin."

"So you know I'm a human," I said. "But I don't know how you got me mixed up with such a mixed-up creature like Discord. We look entirely different--" I turned into a human to prove it.

Pinkie Pie backed away. "Yeah..." She said. "You're one of him, alright. He just changed his form, that's all. Whenever I'm around you... I just know. Who you are, what you're doing here, how you got here..."

I was beginning to get irritated. "Pinkie, you need to be more clear on this," I demanded. "You're not making any sense. Is Discord a human, too? What do you know? Do you know anything about my past?"

"No. All I know is that you were his pawn, just like I was. Your memories were wiped out and you got abilities. I was supposed to help him, but the Princess knew already. She protected me. Sometimes, I lose track of how long it's been. A side effect of my protection from him. All I know is that I was spared. I still have some tricks up my sleeve, and he's still trying to use me."

I didn't understand why Pinkie was being so obscure. "So, what you're saying is that you were to help Discord break out, like I was? And Celestia somehow helped you? You're on Discord's most wanted list, just like me. I thought he could only had enough power to bring one being to him..."

"He did," Pinkie replied. "This was a long time ago. So long, I can't even remember."

My eyes widened. Was Pinkie Pie possibly over a thousand years old? What happened? "So, you've been alive for over 1000 years? How is that possible?"

"Was it that long?" She asked with a sad smile. "I don't remember. All I know is the past 20 years of my life. In another 40 years, my mind will be wiped clean again, and the Princess will take me somewhere else, where no one knows who I am. Nopony will remember me, and I won't remember them."

I usually have a good understanding of things, but Pinkie was running circles around me. "OK, let me get this straight," I began. "You're over 1000 years old, yet you forget almost everything every sixty years? Is this because of Discord?" Pinkie nodded. "So why does he want you alive?"

"He's able to use his pawns as his eyes whenever they show negative emotions: Fear, anger, sorrow. It's why I act the way I do. He almost did it a few months ago. Remember what I said about the time I threw two parties in a row? Well, nopony showed up, and I got all depressed, and I think he was able to see Equestria through my eyes for a bit. I don't really know. I think he can do the same to you, too."

"That's heavy,"  I muttered. "That still doesn't explain how you thought Discord looks like me."

"He DOES look like you!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I can see through his illusions. He looks like you, but he's not at all like you. Now I know that. You, Doc, and him... You all look like the same being, but you all come from different places. What was that big word that they used...? Oh, right! 'Anomaly.' You're all anomalies. But you and Doc are here to stop him, aren't you?"

"I don't know..."  I admitted. "Discord pulled me in this, Doc got here by accident and can't get out, and..." I realized that Discord was an anomaly too, according to Pinkie. "Where the heck did Discord come from?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. But we need to be on the right page here. He can work with negative feelings, and that'll bring up Tarnish or whatever his name is. As far as I know, only you and me can see him. We have to work together, Sterling. I'll try to get the others to see you more--"

"Uh, you don't have to do that--"

"If we want to get rid of HIM, you're gonna have to! You're just like Twilight before we found the Elements. She prefered books to friends. 'Every pony in this town is CRAZY!' she said." Pinkie Pie paused. "Do you think we're crazy???"

"In all honesty, I don't know what's crazy and what's normal," I said. "I just want the threat of eternal chaos gone, and I'll do everything in my power to do this. I'm sure you know that I helped Discord escape; and he's going to come back soon, whether I help him this time or not. If I have to, I'll kill him with my bare hands." I was starting to get very angry with how Discord duped me. 

"YOU HEAR THAT DISCORD, YOU COWARD!?" I suddenly bellowed. "I'LL FIGHT YOU WITH MY LAST BREATH!! I'LL--" That was when Pinkie Pie covered my mouth.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about," she whispered. "He's gonna use you again. Try finding something that you really like, and focus on that. I've seen you talking to Princess Luna a lot--"

"We're just friends," I hastily blurted out, feeling myself turn red. And since I was still a human, it was more clear that I was blushing. I switched forms to kind of cover it up.

"Suuuure you are," Pinkie retorted, winking. "I've seen how you're always talking to her."

I tried changing the subject. "I really like music," I said. "I even saw a Bari Sax at that little music shop in Ponyville."

"Then get it," Pinkie ordered. "You need to stay positive. In a few days, HE is going to break free again, and we'll need all the help we can get to stop him. And we can't do anything if he's got you working for him again. Just smile." She gave me one of the widest grins I have ever seen (At least, the widest I can remember). I couldn't help but stifle a laugh.

"See?" Pinkie said. "Just like that! Now, I've got some work to do around town, like getting you to know the others more. Remember: Don't tell anypony about any of this. So I'll see ya later!" And with that, she hopped off back into town.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An hour later,  I was back at the museum with that Bari Sax that I saw earlier. Turns out that nopony wants a saxophone; they all want string instruments. So they let me have it for dirt cheap. The Doctor told me that if I needed to buy anything to just put it on his account. Surely he wouldn't mind.

If Pinkie Pie wanted me to smile, I was beaming like a kid in a candy shop.

At first, The Doctor dropped everything he was doing. "What in blazes is that thing??" He demanded to know.

I closed the door and turned back into a human. "It's a Baritone Sax," I explained. "I used to play one back home. A wonderful instrument."

"So you remember some of your past now," The Doctor said. "Tell me Sterling, do you have any sense of how much one of those would cost?"

"The store practically gave it away to me," I explained. "Apparently, nopony's into jazz right now, and even less would actually know how to play one of these. This Bari is pretty much the only memory I have right now, so it must be very important to me."

"Perhaps..." The Doctor pondered for a moment. "Alright, you can keep it, as long as you actually know how to play it. I'm sure you need something to remind you of home."

I thanked him and carried my instrument upstairs into my room. I opened the case, set it up, and that's when I realized something: I didn't even remember how to play it.

I closed my eyes and tried to remember fingerings, notes, anything. I picked up my Bari and suddenly, I started remembering things. I started with a basic scale, then moved on to chromatic scale (Moving up and down the scale by semitones), and then I tried some songs that I remembered from my past. I didn't know where any of them came from, or who composed them, but I was so happy to have some piece of my old life back that I didn't really care.

I lost all track of time when I checked my watch. It was almost 8:00 at night. I should probably tell Luna about today's events, minus the whole secret of Pinkie Pie's life. I would have seen her later, but I have a couple questions to ask her...

I put my sax away and opened the door to see myself standing before Celestia. I kind of jumped back. You know, it's not everyday that you see the ruler of a whole country twice in as many days.

"Celestia, what are you doing here?" I asked. 

"I know about your discussion with Pinkie Pie earlier today," she replied. "And I know how confusing she can be. She's like that for a reason. Discord can still get to her if she mentions his name. He has more of a hoofhold on her than he ever did to you. That, and living for as long as Pinkie Pie has, losing all of your memories and friends after a regular lifetime... And Discord won't give her the mercy of death. I'm suprised that Pinkie Pie can still be as happy as she is."

"Wait, what's wrong with living forever?" I wondered. "If I were ageless, I could probably be wiser and learn more than I could in the few decades I've got left."

"Sterling, you're still too young to understand," Celestia told me. "If you were one of the few who are actually ageless--like Discord, Luna and myself--you would know how hard it is to lose someone you loved or were a mentor to. I may be Twilight Sparkle's teacher, but I dread the day that she too passes away.

"Anyways, I'm here to tell you about Pinkie Pie; to make what she has said to you more clear. When Discord 'disappeared', he tried to control some of the ponies in Equestria. He was trying to make this land ripe for the chaos he was going to unleash.

"Luna and I weren't sure what this was about at first. There were only a few that he could actually control, but he was able to get a few more to follow him, unknowingly. Pinkie Pie was always the happy-go-lucky pony that she is now, so it was obvious to see that Discord was trying to control her as well. She lived in Canterlot at this time, so almost everypony knew her. When she began to say confusing things, many feared that she had lost her mind. I learned later that Discord was trying to control Pinkie Pie, but for some reason, it wasn't working the way he expected. I realized what caused this about a year ago, when she was able to control the Element of Laughter. The Element was protecting her.

"Discord knew this too, so he cursed Pinkie Pie to live forever, so that he could figure out how to break the barrier the Element was using on her. Every sixty years since then, Pinkie Pie's mind was entirely wiped of all memories. Discord probably plans on either experimenting on her, or killing her off. And from what I saw last night--" I knew that Celestia was referring to Tarnish and I. "--I believe that Discord is going for the latter.

"I never told anypony about this, but it's important that some must learn the truth. You were the first to find out Sterling, but Now I have informed The Doctor and my sister about the matter."

Well, that's a load off my back. I was worried about not telling Luna.

Celestia continued, "You must protect the others. Luna has told me about the Seventh Element of Harmony that you now posess, and how it reacts to the other Elements. Even though I had all of them but yours locked up back in Canterlot, it seems that your Element can draw the others to their users whenever they are close by and in danger."

"That would explain how Pinkie had her Element..." I realized. "And how I was able to slow down time."

"Yes, it's possible," Celestia agreed. "So you have to defend Twilight and the others. I know that Discord is out to kill them all, as your dark side explained. He was once careless about his plans, but now Discord is doing everything in his power to destroy Equestria and all who stand in his way."

So I noticed. I've been having more and more nightmares about Discord and Tarnished Sterling. How I could be posessed by my darker self... and that the Elements of Harmony would be in Discord's hands. I knew that Discord was more of a joker than an organized criminal. But now I was seeing that he was becoming the face of pure chaos. 

I explained this to Celestia. "It's like before, he would toy around with his opponents. But now, he's trying hard to kill us all."

"I know," she replied. "And to think that he was once very different... Anyways, remember what Pinkie Pie told you: Stay positive. If you start to become depressed, an dyou have no friends to cheer you up, Discord will probably control you again. And it won't be just Equestria that will fall... All of reality may be his to control."

"Don't worry Celestia," I assured her. "I'll do everything I can to stop Discord."

Celestia said that she had some things to attend to back in Canterlot, so she had to leave. I showed her out, and she told me that Luna was waiting for me in Everfree Forest again. After Celestia left, I teleported to where I knew Luna would be: The castle in Everfree Forest.

She was right where I knew she would be. Luna heard me appear, and she came running up to me and hugged me. I was taken aback by this, because I didn't expect it. But I hugged her back all the same.

"I heard about everything," Luna told me. "About Pinkie Pie, about this Tarnished Sterling being... I was worried that Discord was going to kill you."

I was still recovering from Luna's reaction to my arrival. All I could think of was the fact that she was hugging me. Even though I was human and she wasn't, if felt normal. It made me feel like less of an outsider.

Finally, we pulled away and I was able to tell her about what happened today. I explained everything from my visit with Twilight to Celestia's suprise appearance.

I then brought up my rection to whenever I or somepony else mentioned Luna. "For some reason, I started to blush," I explained. I was fighting with myself over whether or not to ask her... "Luna, I was wondering..." Just say it Sterling, you moron! "This may sound like a random question, but..." I could feel the heat radiating from my face now. "Do you like me?" I asked at little more than a whisper.

Luna was suprised that I would ask something like that. But her reply was even more suprising.

"I don't know..." She replied. "You're the first to ever appreciate the evening sky I make every night. And what you've told me before... you're a great pon--I mean, person. You're smart, nice, and musical, too! My sister told me about what you were doing this afternoon!

Luna turned to me. "Do you like me, Sterling?"

I decided to be honest. "Yeah, I think so. so many have just taken you for granted. From what you told me, nopony has really appreciated your work. It's like Celestia gets all the credit, and you're looked at with fear, because of the whole Nightmare Moon incident. But I don't fear you. I'm not afraid of you at all. You're... Well..."

I could tell that Luna was beginning to feel awkward, and so was I. 

"Oy," I sighed. "This is pretty awkward. So, are you still coming to town for Nightmare Night? I think it would be the perfect time for your public debut! Well..." I caught Luna's glare. "Not in a bad way. You know, for how everyone else seems to be afraid of you."

Her glare softened. "You're right. Of course I'm still coming. If everypony wants a scare, I'll give them one!" She said with a sinister laugh. 

"So I'll see you then," I siad.

"Yes. I'll see you then." We looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity, then Luna kissed me on the cheek and teleported back to Canterlot.

Wait... She kissed me. What the heck? If my face could have got more red, it did at that moment. At least that confirmed that Luna liked me as well.

But... She's an Alicorn, and I'm a human... How is that going to work out? Even as an Earth Pony, it would be odd to like an Alicorn.

Oh, well. I need to get back to the museum and get some sleep. I'll bet that Pinkie will have plans for me to meet the other Element Bearers again tomorrow.