Prologue P1- Freedom

Disclaimer: I do not own My little Pony

Prologue Part 1- Freedom

In hindsight, it had been a mistake to allow them to try.

He had won, it had seemed. He had split them apart. Their so called “Bonds of friendship” had been shattered like so much fine china dropped from a cliff. It made him wonder if there had truly been anything there to begin with.

Not that it mattered to him. With them apart, they had surely lost their ability to wield the elements, and without their connections to the elements, they became just like every other pony in the land. Boring and completely out of their tiny, insignificant minds.

Granted, they were crazy even before they had lost their connection to the elements, so that wasn’t their fault. All ponies were born crazy and remained so their entire life’s. It was one of the reasons that he partially pitied ponies.

Yes, Discord, the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony pitied ponies. He pitied their ignorance and denial to the way the world worked. The world was built on chaos and disharmony. It had been this way since his birth a little more than a millennium ago, and would remain so even when pony kind dissolved to dust. Why couldn’t they understand that?

But no. They clung to the idea of “Harmony and Friendship”. They clung to the idea that all things are possible through friendship. If that was so, then why had it been so incredibly easy to destroy the bonds between the element bearers?

He sat there, on his throne, reveling in his victory. Watching the world become what it truly was, Chaotic. He let loose a laugh as he watched pies fall from the sky. Summoning one of his cotton candy clouds, he magically created a glass and let it fill with the chocolate that rained down from the cloud.

He stared at the cup for a moment, pondering the chaos that had brought it forth. He had much work ahead of him, for enlightening the masses to the truth was never easy, and these ponies were so stubborn in their insanity. Still, he would find a way to save them from their ignorance. They would soon learn what he knew.

“Chaos,” He declared to himself. “Is a wonderful, Wonderful thing!” He made to take a sip from his drink but was stopped by another declaration.

“Not as wonderful as Friendship!”

He turned his head, finding the source. The 6 Former element wielders stood there, striking a pose. Applejack, the former element of Honesty. Rainbow Dash, the former element of Loyalty. Pinkie Pie, the former element of Laughter. Fluttershy, the former element of Kindness. Rarity, the former element of Generosity. And finally, the former element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle.

He had always been slightly curious on how magic fit into the formula of Friendship. The others had a personality type that seemed to make the masses flock to them, but magic? At best, it gave the bearer that magical potential that all Unicorns had once held before he had stolen most of their power.

Though from what he could gauge, this little mare held even more potential than the average unicorn, even from back then. Almost as much as… Clover.

Observing the gathered former elements, it seemed that they had freed from his magic. How curious. While the magic he had used to drive them apart had not been very strong, it was still strange that they been able to break his magic. Perhaps it had something to do with Magic’s former bearer.

Why did the thought of Twilight Sparkle breaking his magic spark excitement in him? Was it her potential? Perhaps it was. Had he found the basis for a follower, an apprentice? Perhaps unlike little Celestia and little Luna, who had spat in his face, even after everything he had done for them, she would grasp the true power he could offer her.

Come to think of it, why were the Former elements and Twilight Sparkle even here? And wearing the elements for that matter? Oh. Were they here to try and seal him away again?

He sighed in slight frustration. “This again?” He then proceeded to drink the glass around his drink, opting to save a perfectly good drink for later. Tossing his drink back into a safer place, with an explosion for style, he turned to face the former elements and Twilight Sparkle.

“That’s right!” The Former Element of Honesty foolishly declared. “You couldn’t break apart our friendship for long!”

Oh, is that why they were wearing those oversized trinkets? Discord silently chuckled to himself. Did the former elements think just because Twilight Sparkle had broken his minor piece of magic that they had fixed their bond of friendship? Oh, these poor crazy ponies. When something like a bond was broken, it could never be fixed. The simple truth of the matter was that they were no longer friends. Therefore, they could no longer wield the Elements of Harmony.

“Oh Applejack, don’t lie to me.” He ordered the foolish little mare, using his magic to drag her into the air over to him. “I’m the one who made you a liar!” Feeling slightly peeved that these mares refused to accept the truth, he used more of his magic to bring the rest of the former elements to him. He however left Twilight Sparkle on the ground, intending to extend an offer to her once the former elements were back to the way they were once they had left his little maze. “Will you ever learn?” He asked them.

The former elements floated in the air before him, struggling to break free from his hold. He glanced over them for a moment. Once he used a slightly stronger spell to change their personalities, he would send them away. Then, he would sit down with Twilight Sparkle and talk. He knew he could to do it. He would open her eyes to the true nature of chaos. She would learn that it wasn’t something to be feared but embraced. When she embraced it, her mind would throw away the insanity the plagued the minds of all ponies. In that moment, she would become like him, an avatar. An avatar that would dedicate themselves to awakening minds to the truth. Friendship was a lie, it didn’t mean squat. But first, he would deal with these foolish mares.

But before he could alter their personalities, Twilight Sparkle unexpectedly appeared, in a purple flash of magic, right between him and the former elements. She then created a bubble of pure magic around her and the mares cutting of the flow of his magic holding them up. An impressive feat of magic. He smiled slightly as he watched Twilight Sparkle and her former friends float to the ground. As the bubble touched the checkered landscape, a small circle of boring green grass appeared.

Had her magic just vaporized his own magic? True it was only a small circle that could barely contain her and the former elements, but still. It proved to him that there was more magic in her then he had thought. Was it the influence of her former element? He placed his manticore finger to his lip in consideration.

“I’ll tell you what we’ve learned Discord.” Twilight Sparkle said to him. “We’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy. But there’s no doubt it worth fighting for!”

What disgusting sentiment! These weren’t words that he wanted his potential apprentice to be going around frothing out of her mouth. Even from a purely academic point of view, these words degraded her, made her seem like less then she was. Although she wasn’t all that impressive yet, stuff like that would make it much harder for others to see her as a role model of chaos.

“Ugh, Gag!” Discord leaned forward and said, letting his tongue roll out of his mouth, fully expressing his disgust of the very idea.

This belief in the elements was what was causing all these twisted mutilation of the truth. It was the root of all the madness of pony kind. Perhaps an additional failure was what was needed to open Twilight's eyes.

He brought himself back to full height and placing his hands on his hips, he regarded the former elements and Twilight Sparkle with an annoyed expression. “Fine, go ahead, try and use your little elements, ‘frenemies.” He added the last part with a tone that screamed mockery.

“Just make it quick.” He ordered as he disappeared in a bright flash of light, only to reappear on his throne. “I’m missing some Excellent chaos here.” He then closed his eyes and waited.

They spoke, but he paid no attention to it. It was all white noise to him. All he really needed to hear were the cries of confusion that would come when the elements refused to activate. He stifled a yawn as he continued to wait. From the gasps that they were making it almost sounded like-

One of his eyes flew open as something flew by his face. He spotted something else flying towards him, and quickly ducked. Symbols flew through the air around him. Butterflies, apples, diamonds, thunderbolts, all seemingly made of magic. “What’s this?” He wondered aloud as he looked over at the former elements and Twilight Sparkle. There was an energy building around them, as more of the symbols flew from the trinkets on their chests. The energy was somewhat familiar to him. If he remembered correctly, he had felt this energy when Celestia and Luna had betrayed-

“No.”

The Elements! They were activating! But how!? ‘I tore their bonds apart!’ Once bonds were broken, they could never be fixed! When two friends fought, their bond broke. When lovers separated, their bond broke. When parents swear off their children, Their Bond Broke!

Yet here the elements stood, or floated now, Eyes aglow, wielding these artifacts older then himself. The energy that had been building exploded launching a rainbow of energy straight into the sky before flowing downwards towards him. He clenched his eyes closed for the painful impact.

A painful impact that never came. Where there was supposed to pain, a warm feeling enveloped his body, cradled him. He felt the sensation of soothing whispers that he couldn’t quite make out enter his ears. It was like when Auntie Hurricane would come into his room and hold him when he was but a child, frightened from his sleep by a nightmare.

Curious, he opened his eyes, and was met with a strange sight. The world around him was frozen. Even pies falling from the sky stood still in the air, giving no indication that they would continue their descent to the ground. That was not the only strange thing though. The world around him was brighter, more vibrant. Colors he never knew existed seemed to highlight the objects around him. It was… beautiful.

An almost fog like oddity approached him from the direction of the element bearers. It seemed like it was all the colors at once and yet none of them at the same time. It enveloped him, and he could feel that warm feeling increase tenfold. This felt... right. Like he could stand there forever, this odd fog covering his being, and he wouldn’t care. It was peaceful.

A part of his mind nagged him. Peace? No such thing. Fight this feeling.

He felt something like a hoof or a hand cup his cheek, and began to stroke. Pure love flooded his senses, acceptance.

Don’t listen to it! It lies!

Suddenly, very gently, he felt something begin to leave his stomach. It looked like dark smoke. It left him feeling slightly weaker. But the fog was there, stroking him and whispering words of comfort into his ear. ‘It’s alright. Let go.’ Let go? Let go of what?

‘MY POWER!’

Whatever this thing was, it was trying to take his power away from him. No! He wouldn’t become weak like the rest of pony kind. He grabbed hold of the black smoke still leaving his stomach and tried desperately to pull it back into himself.

The fog however grabbed his hand and pulled it away. Enveloping him in what he could only describe as a hug, it began to stroke his head comfortingly and images flooded his head. He saw himself, but not as himself. He was a pony again.

He was about the average size for a stallion, with palish brown fur and a black mane. A horn stood tall upon his head and wings hugged against his side. It appears he had inherited both of his parent’s unique features. He saw himself surrounded by other ponies, accepted and loved. And what was wrong with that? He looked happy, so happy.

Tears welled up in his eyes. The warm feeling came back to him. The fog held him closer and slightly tighter, but it didn’t feel oppressive. He wondered if this is what it would feel like if his mother had survived the birth.

The past is the past. It means nothing. THIS THING IS STILL STEALING OUR POWER!

His mind reeled. He didn’t want to be a pony again. He was Discord. He was chaos. This was all he was. He wouldn’t let this thing take that away from him. He pushed the fog like presence away and once again grabbed the black smoke that still poured out of him, pulling it back into him. He slowly felt his strength return.

Once again, the fog grabbed him, firmly this time and pulled him closer than before. The warm feeling was still there, but there was a sadness that seemed to permeate the air. Another series of image flooded his head.

He was himself, pulling his power towards himself. But something was wrong. The more power that came back to him, the more of him body transformed into stone. When he had pulled all of his power back into himself, he was completely made of stone.

Was that it? Allow his power to be stripped away and become a pony or keep his power and be trapped in stone again. Be free but weak or be imprisoned but strong. Were those his only two options? That wasn’t fair.

He felt the fog begin to stroke his head again. Discord could feel sorrow emanate from this oddity, almost like it was sorry to have to present this choice to him. Was it? Or was he giving this… thing too much credit.

He looked down at his stomach, feeling the black smoke that was his power begin to leave him again. What was he to do?

Why should we lose our power? It is ours! We earned it! It was our just reward for the suffering we endured! Why should we have to give it up?!

Discord reached out, taking hold of the black smoke. This power was his. He had tasted Harmony. It was a lie. A fairy tale. He was possibly the only one who knew the truth. It was his self proclaimed duty to make the rest of the world see the truth. He would not comprise, even if it meant his freedom. He was ageless, immortal. This would be a temporary inconvenience. He would break out again.

As he pulled his power back into himself, the fog entity withdrew from him. The warm feeling that had been present disappeared, leaving a feeling of regret and sorrow. A voice came out of nowhere. ‘Sorry’.

Then the pain hit.

His body became engulfed in the rainbow energy, leaving his skin feeling like it was burning. He opened his mouth and let loss a cry of agony. It felt like he had said something while he screamed, but the pain emanating from his body prevented his mind from telling what it was.

The pain became replaced with a freezing sensation as, from his legs up, he began to turn into stone. He tried in vain to spread his wings to fly away, but they were instantaneously turned to stone. He reached out for something to grasp, to pull himself away from his fate, but as he did, his arms became stone. He made to scream, leaving his face in a silent look of horror as his face transformed into stone.

He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t speak. Was it to be this way again? Was he to be like this for another thousand years?

He felt slight regret. He regretted not taking that …entity's offer.

No. We’ve made our choice. We shall wait until a time in which we shall break free of this prison. And when we do, we shall show this world the true nature of chaos.

Yes, what point was there in regretting what was already done? He would wait. He would plot. And eventually, he would shatter this prison.

Discord’s mind began to drift. He felt tired, so tired. He began to fall into a slumber, his last thoughts drifting to Twilight Sparkle. Would she still be alive when next he broke free? He hoped so. Like Celestia and Luna, she had rejected him. Yet despite this, he hadn’t given up hope on any of them, especially Celestia and Luna. After all, he had created them in the hopes of having followers who would help him spread the chaos that held this world in its grasp.

And with that last thought, Discord fell asleep.

Discord was unsure of how long he had been asleep when he was suddenly roused from the dream of his defeat. He felt something, a tingling sensation in the pit of his stomach. He attempted to look down to see if there was anything touching him, only to be swiftly reminded that he couldn’t move.

‘Well, that’s going to get annoying real fast.’ He thought to himself.

He began to concentrate on the tingling sensation, trying to figure out just what it was that he was feeling. Was he hungry? Unlikely. He never felt the need to eat even when he wasn’t sealed up. He did so regardless. Why? Who knows, but food was one of the many base instincts that he indulged in, even if he felt no drive to do so.

Was it arousal? No. If that was the case he would feel the sensation a little lower. Besides, he hadn’t been thinking of any attractive Stallions or mares moments ago.

Then what was this feeling? It was beginning to bug him. The feeling was steadily growing. As it did, he was surprised to find that the sensation was starting to feel pleasant.

Was he sure this wasn’t arousal?

He started to feel strength flow through him. He felt himself become more and more powerful by the second. What was happening to him? He suddenly could hear voices fill his head.

‘I WANT IT!’

‘I NEED IT!’

‘IT’S MINE! GIVE IT BACK!’

‘NEVER! ‘

Chaos. Glorious chaos. Somewhere in the world. Ponies, many ponies, a towns full at least, were all fighting over a simple object. It was chaos and disharmony in its rawest form. It made him strong, it filled him with power. After all he was the spirit of chaos. Whenever chaos occurred in the world, no matter how small, no matter what it was, it made him stronger. If this continued, if this power continued to flow into him, in less than an hour, he could break free of his prison.

He could feel the tightness that surrounded him beginning to loosen. ‘Yes! YES! By Gitche Manitou, I’ll be out of here in no time!’ He gleefully thought.

What was the first thing he would do when he broke out? He would hide for a week probably. When he had broken out the last time, he had been weak, barely able to access his power. He attributed that to being trapped for a thousand years. While he rested and recovered, he would find out how much time had passed.

That thought gave him pause. How much time had passed? Were the former…Were the element wielders dead by now? Did that in turn mean that Twilight Sparkle was dead? That would be highly unfortunate if it was true. She had so much potential. It would be a shame if such a powerful unicorn had ended up dying while he was away.

If she had died, how had it happened? Old age? An accident? Had she spent her life in ignorance to the truth that he could have provided her? Had a part of her mind always lingered on the thought that something was missing from her life?

He felt himself having more questions. Had she left behind a child? Had said child inherited her power? If so, would said child more open to the idea of Chaos and Disharmony?

Perhaps if the child was young enough, he could…

His mind was dragged back to reality, as the power that had been flowing into him was almost instantly cut off. There had been no warning, no sign, it just turned itself off.

‘NO! DON’T STOP!’ He mentally cried out in despair. It had been so glorious. For a brief moment, he had felt like for the first time, Ponies had accepted what he had to say. They had given into their basic instincts of greed, and had fought each other to claim ownership of a single object.

But then in a single moment they had stopped. Why? No, HOW!? No disagreement of the nature of greed, no matter how small it was, could be solved so quickly. Had someone magically dispelled those thoughts? But that was impossible. Only he had that much power, and he was sealed in here. Unless…

‘Celestia!’

Had she just used the gifts he had bestowed on her and Luna to solve a chaotic situation? If he could move, he would have ground his teeth until there was nothing left but bone dust. How dare she use her power like that! Was she trying to insult him?

Or was it something else? Another thought popped into his head. What if the chaotic situation had been magically induced in its self? Oh, how wonderful that would have been. But who could have done such a thing? It seems that when he got of here, he would have to investigate what had happened.

‘When I get out of here.’ He thought. This incident had provided him with strength, but not enough to break free. He had enough power to shave off a few years off of his sentence, however long that may be. Even he wasn’t completely sure.

He felt the droziness he constantly felt in this place begin to seep into his mind again. He was being magically forced to sleep, no doubt the element’s subtle way to make his imprisonment less cruel. He still didn’t like it. He hated when his mind was interfered with. It felt like control was being ripped away from him. He hated it when he lost control of anything.

Still, he knew there was no point in trying to resist. He would sleep, for now. But when he next woke, perhaps the little squabbles all around the world, big or small, would fuel enough of his power that he could break free of this cursed stone prison.

When he did, he would find the source of that wonderful chaos, whether it be an object, or (He severely hoped that this was the case.) a Pony.

And with that, Discord once again fell asleep.

Discord found himself, once again, roused from his slumber by a sensation in his stomach. Was there a source of chaos feeding him at the moment? This one was different than the last time that this had happened. The power felt different. There wasn’t much of it, but it was strong none the less.

Concentrating, he attempted to feel out the source, focusing his mind on the power currently flowing into him. It was strange. There was a feeling of hopelessness to it. Doubts spinning throughout. Immense sadness. And it was all coming from, if he could believe it, one pony.

He was taken aback by that slightly. ‘All this internal chaos is coming from one pony?’

What in the world could drive one pony to feel all this? He increased his focus on the power, trying to feel out the source of all this internal chaos. This pony, they had been… rejected somehow. Everyone they knew had abandoned them, left them alone. They were weeping considerably, whoever this lavender pony was.

Wait. Lavender?

It couldn’t be. But it was.

‘Twilight Sparkle!’

She was alive! Her image flooded his sense. She looked like she hadn’t aged a day. Did that mean that he hadn’t been trapped for very long? Where he once guessed how many years he had been sleeping, he now guessed how many months it had been.

But he was getting ahead of himself. Why was Twilight Sparkle in such a state of internal chaos? Why was she splayed out on the steps of what appeared to be the throne room? Why was she weeping? Why did she believe that her “friends” and family had abandoned her?

He dove more of his focus into the stream of strength that flowed into him. There wasn’t much more that he could get from this. Much of his power was sealed, even with the new power that he was getting from this. He eventually was able to grasp a single image from Twilight Sparkle’s memories. It showed a white alicorn that was both Discord’s greatest accomplishment and failure. She was walking away from the lavender pony whom she called her “Most faithful student.” There was already sadness and regret radiating off the smaller pony, but upon little Celestia’s next words, even Discord could feel Twilight Sparkle’s heart shatter.

“You have a lot to think about.”

Discord watched the image of Twilight Sparkle, weeping her little heart out. This…. This was good. No, good was too weak of a word to describe what this situation was. Wonderful, brilliant. He almost felt sorry for Celestia. For somepony who preached on and on about the so called “merits of friendship and harmony”, She had a knack for chasing those around her away and into his arms.

‘First Luna and now Twilight Sparkle? My poor little Celestia.’ Discord thought mirth ringing with every word. ‘How many more ponies do you plan to drive into my arms? Perhaps you weren’t as much of a disappointment as I thought you were.’

From the edges of his vision, an unfamiliar pink alicorn walked towards the emotional crushed lavender unicorn. Who was this? Was she one of Celestia’s children? She certainly wasn’t Luna’s. Too old.

The pink alicorn in question began to silently stroke Twilight Sparkle’s mane in a comforting fashion. After a few second, Twilight Sparkle looked up at the alicorn, tears streaming down her face. The alicorn smiled gently down at her, though there was a hint of smugness that coated her face.

“I’m sorry.” Twilight chocked out, obviously finding it hard to speak.

The pink alicorn continued to smile down at Twilight Sparkle. For the briefest of moments her purple eyes flashed green. Her expression evolved into one of anger, or perhaps disgust. “You will be.” She darkly declared as a sickly looking shade of green energy coated her horn.

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widen as she realized too late that this alicorn meant her harm. She tried to jump to her hoofs and react but it was too late. Magical green flames surrounded her in a circle, knocking her to her flank again. The alicorn smiled as a green sphere of energy surrounded Twilight, sending her sinking into the ground.

And just like that, Discord’s view of the events cut off, just like the flow of power he had been receiving. Had that pink alicorn just killed Twilight Sparkle? Unlikely. That spell the alicorn had been using looked very much like some kind of teleportation. Twilight Sparkle was very likely fine. She was probably sent to some kind of prison, of what kind, he could not guess.

Still, this raised the question of who that pink alicorn was. She could have been one of Celestia’s children, possibly even a grandchild. Still, something in his gut told him no. The magic she had been using didn’t look like anything he had ever seen pony kind use before. No, that wasn’t quite true. He had seen one pony use a magic similar to what he just witnessed, but after what Discord had done to her, she hadn’t exactly been a pony anymore.

Regardless, Twilight Sparkle’s mental state had been a complete and utter chaotic mess. Why did that pink alicorn have to come along and ruin it? Perhaps there was still hope. The seeds of doubt had been placed within her mind. Her faith in his little Celestia had been partially shattered.

‘Oh, what I would give just to talk to Twilight Sparkle for ten minutes.’ Discord mentally whined. ‘What I wouldn’t give just to nudge her in the right direction.’

Wait. Could he? Was he capable, as trapped as he was, able to speak to Twilight Sparkle? He stretched out his mind, searching for any sign of the little mare’s mind. It was difficult. His prison made every moment a struggle. He pushed against the restraints that his prison had surrounded him with.

He vaguely began to feel something. There were minds. There were hundreds of them. No, Thousands of them. But as many as there were, none of them processed the unique spark that resided in the lavender pony’s mind. She was either too far away to speak to, or dead. Disappointed at this failure, Discord began to pull his mind back into his prison, but was stopped as his mind brushed along a single pony’s mind.

This single brush caused him to take in a single thought coursing through hundreds of minds.

‘CONQUER!’

What was that? He struggled against his prison again, desperately trying to reach that single pony’s mind. But it was far too late. In his disappointment, he had failed to take in any details on this pony, and as a result, he was unsure which mind he had brushed against. To find a pony he knew nothing about would be like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

He took in what he had just overheard. ‘Is Canterlot in danger?’ He would normally be unconcerned with such things, as little Celestia and little Luna were more than capable of defending themselves against armies and such. But was Twilight Sparkle capable of doing the same? Was she even in danger for that matter? He couldn’t sense her in the city after all. For all he knew, she was hundreds of miles away by now.

But that still raised the question of who these mysterious invaders were. They hadn’t felt like ponies. His mind drifted back to the pink alicorn from a few minutes earlier. Was she their ruler?

He didn’t much care why she wanted Canterlot, as such conflict would give him strength. While he didn’t revel in the fighting of ponies in quite the same way as other’s of his “race”, he could become stronger from such things just like any other Wend-

Suddenly, he felt much energy flow into him. He would have gasped if he could speak. There was so much of it. It was panic, fear, anger, despair. It was glorious. He had thought that the greedy town had provided him with power, but this energy that currently flowed through him made it seem mundane in comparison.

He struggled in his prison, lashing out with all his power. How could he stay in here when there was so much glorious chaos out there? He needed to touch the sweet air, taste the ground beneath his feet. ‘Wait,’ He stopped momentarily in thought. ‘I think I got that statement a little mixed up there.’

He continued to blast his power at his prison. He could feel it breaking. In desperation he lashed out in all directions, not caring how taxing it was to him in his current state.

‘This’

‘Place’

‘Will’

‘Not’

‘Hold’

‘ME!’

With a final burst of magic, the stone that held Discord in place burst around him, granting him freedom.

He fell from the dais that held him, collapsing to his knees, gasping for air. He took a gulp of air, savoring the flavor. It was just as sweet as he remembered it. He shivered as a gust of wind blew against him. He was covered in sweat, No doubt an affect of him overexerting himself to gain his freedom.

He lifted his head from the ground, gazing up at the sky above him. He was in the gardens, where he had been placed the last time he had been imprisoned. The sun shone brightly, as it always had. His little Celestia had always done such a nice job with making the day beautiful. If a bit boring. He had always preferred little Luna’s night sky truth be told. The constantly changing moon cycles had always made her sky feel fresh and interesting.

Yes, the only unique thing in Celestia’s sky was the occasional rainbow and those black flying creatures…. Wait. What?

Yes, Flying everywhere around the sky were strange black creatures. They looked like ponies, but they had a more insectoid look to them. Wanting a closer look, he used what little magic he had left to grab one and brought it over to himself. As it struggled to get free from his grasp, Discord began to examine the strange creature.

The creature, upon closer examination, was not in fact black, but a dark shade of gray. Its eyes possessed no pupils, but were instead a lightish blue-green. Two small fangs hung from its mouth. A small sharp horn stood on its head, but whether it was capable of casting magic or not remained to be seen. On its back, there was a strange shell-like oddity incasing the creatures back all the way down to its flank. Its hoofs were riddled with holes. Insectoid wings fluttered on its back. Its body was completely vacant of hair

‘This creature,’ Discord thought to himself. ‘Could it be?’

Discord ran one of his fingers across the creature’s flesh. The skin had a rubbery feeling to it, yet it felt unusually solid. Using his griffon claw, he pressed his fingers against the skin, experiment with the pressure he applied. The creature began to hiss as, slowly, Discords finger began to break the skin. Seeing bright sickly yellow blood flow down the creature’s side, Discord forced his fingers beneath the creature’s skin. He began to stretch the wound he had made. It was difficult as the skin was quite strong, but he slowly managed to peel back the skin to see underneath.

The Creature squealed and squirmed harder, obviously in pain. Discord ignored the creature’s pleas, placing it on the ground, using his manticore paw to keep it from escaping. He looked at the inner workings of the strange being. The organs looked similar to a pony’s, but where as their organs were a mix of red and occasional blue, this creature’s organs were an even mix of green and blue.

‘There’s no doubt about it.’ Discord smiled down at the creature, though it was unable to see him. Its eyes were clenched shut and it was gritting its teeth. It was obviously in a large amount of pain, though it wasn’t crying. That was unsurprising really. Seeing as how these creatures seemed to be decedents of Azalea, they wouldn’t possess tear ducts. One of the many things that she lost when she transformed. Yet despite all that she had lost, she had gained so much.

This creature’s skin seemed to indicate that her children had evolved quite well. He wondered however if their bones were still as fragile as her children had been. Discord placed his finger gently one of the creature’s rib. He applied pressure.

The bone began to crack, much to the creature’s dismay. It squealed out in pain, but didn’t say a word. Was it in too much pain to form a coherent statement, or was it not sentient enough? Discord left this train of thoughts for the moment. Whether or not the creature was able to speak was irrelevant. What mattered was that Azalea’s descendents did indeed still possess a weak skeletal structure, but seemed to have evolved, developing a rather effective exoskeleton.

He pulled his hands away from the creature, letting it go, but it was unable to get up anyway, for it was in too much pain. His curiosity was satisfied, so he no longer was interested in it. He would let it do what it wanted. If there was something else he grew curious about, he would simple pick himself a fresh one. He looked up at the sky. There were plenty of them to choose from.

His thoughts were interrupted as a large wave of violet magic burst from the castle. It was not unlike the power that the elements gave off, but it was less powerful. The wave washed over Canterlot, catching anything that wasn’t a pony and pushing them along with it. As the wave approached Discord, only one thought went through his mind.

‘Oh horse apples.’

The wave of magic hit him square in the chest, knocking the air out of his lungs. He was in a large amount of pain for he was not only still recovering from his imprisonment, he had just been hit with a large amount of pure magic. He was unable to see, but he could tell by the feeling of air blowing through his coat that he was currently in the air and shooting at a high speed towards an unknown destination.

And after a few seconds, he reached it. He crashed into the ground, crying out, as there had been nothing to cushion his landing.

Groaning, he picked himself up out of the dirt. It took a few seconds for his vision to return. The landscape was orange and red, rocks were splayed out everywhere. He was in what appeared to be a mountainous region. The Badlands maybe? But that was several hundred miles away from Canterlot. How powerful had that wave been? He knew that it wasn’t from the elements, so what in the world had been powerful enough to not only expel himself from Canterlot but the entirety of the army of Azalea’s descendents?

He was in unfamiliar territory here. He didn’t like not knowing anything. It made him feel like he wasn’t in control. He needed to be in control of everything, to always have a plan of what came next. It was ironically funny if he really thought about it. He who represented chaos, the inherent lack of order and rules, always needed a plan.

‘Speaking of plans,’ Discord thought. ‘I’m in dire need of one.’ He needed somewhere safe to rest while he recovered enough of his power for him to spread chaos in order to throw ponies into a panic. From there, he could reap their emotions and make himself ever stronger. Unfortunately, there were few places that he could hide conspicuously. He hadn’t had time to place a fake statue of himself like last time he had escaped. Therefore, Celstia would notice within two days that he was missing. Three if he was lucky.

Would he have to leave Equestria for a little while he recovered? If he remembered correctly, the Badlands were very close to the border of the kingdom of the Dragons. He would no doubt be safe there, and out of little Celestia’s reach, for the duration of his recovery. On the other hand, leaving His kingdom felt like a defeat. He had been humiliated when he had been sealed away by the form- Current element bearers and Twilight Sparkle, and he was not willing to have the feeling of being beaten again.

He was brought out of his musing when one of Azalea’s decedents fell from the sky and crashed right at his feet. He watched the creature struggle to get up. Its eyes seemed to fall on Discords feet, before looking up and meeting his eyes. The two stared at each other for a moment, before a smile made its way across Discord’s muzzle.

Reaching down and grabbing the creature, Discord picked it up and held it at eye level.

“Can you understand me?” Discord asked the creature.

The creature snarled at Discord and began to squirm, attempting to wiggle free from its captor.

“Perhaps you didn’t hear me.” Discord said, keeping his face and voice even, without a trace of emotion. Adjusting his griffon claw’s grip on the creature, He brought his manticore paw around one of its front hoof. “Can you-“ He roughly twisted the hoof in his paw, not enough to break it, but enough to cause quite a bit of pain. “-Understand me?”

The creature yelped at the sudden pain, and tried to pull its hoof out of Discord’s grip. Having no success, it turned its head to Discord and began nodding furiously.

“Good.” Discord said, lightly smiling. He stopped twisting the creature’s hoof, but didn’t let go. “Can you speak?

The creature shook its head.

“I see.” Discord said. He lowered his head in thought for a moment. That was going to make getting information from this thing much harder. Suddenly, a thought popped into his head. An image of a pink alicorn wielding similar magic to Azalea floated through his thoughts.

He returned his gaze to the creature in his grasp. “Are you working for a pink alicorn?”

The creature shook its head twice and then nodded twice.

“Yes and no?”

Nod.

“Explain.”

The creature erupted in a green flash of light, replacing its insectoid form with a brown stallion.

“Your species can shapeshift?” Discord asked, lifting his eyebrows in surprise.

The creature nodded, dropping the disguise.

“So your leader was disguised as a pink alicorn?”

Nod.

“Can she speak? It is a she right?”

The creature nodded, paused, and nodded again.

Discord paused his interrogation briefly to ponder this new information. He wondered if the leader of Azalea’s descendents would prove helpful to him. They had managed to hide in Equestria seemingly for years undetected. In his time of studying when he had broken free last time, not once had he come across any information on these creatures. It might be worth it to at least meet her. If she proved useless, he could always just swallow his pride and leave Equestria, as much as he hated the idea.

Turning back to the creature, Discord asked, “Do you know where your leader is?”

The creature raised its head up in the air, closing its eyes, and remained motionless for a few seconds. It then opened its eyes and nodded.

“Good.” Discord dropped the creature and motioned it to begin walking. “Lead on.”

The creature hesitated, but reluctantly began walking to the north, Discord following close behind it.

A/N- S-K Of The Flame here. Dear readers, please, tell me what you think. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Let me know. And constructive critism is always welcome. I'm always willing to take advice on how to get better.

Prologue P2- Perfect

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A/N- S-K Of The Flame here. Dear readers. First of all, I wanted to take a moment and give you, the readers, an enormous thank you. Over the course of time that it took me to write this chapter, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the mostly positive reception this story has received. This being my first story, (On this site anyway.) I hadn’t expected it to receive much attention. I would have thought the story would have needed to have a few chapters to have the amount of faves and views that it currently has. So for that, I give you my wholehearted thanks. I hope I continue to impress.

Secondly, I have been mulling over an element of the third or the fourth chapter. I can’t for the life of me decide whether to have Twilight be kidnapped before or after the third season’s premiere. The Crystal Empire two parter introduced a lot of elements that I rather liked, (Dark magic, some nice character development for Spike and Twilight.) and I do love the idea of having all that be a part of the world while I’m writing this thing. On the other hand, at least two or three weeks would have had to have past at least between the events of the season two finale and the third premiere. Two or three week since Discord escaped and Celestia would have had to known. I kinda have trouble picturing her sending her student anywhere without the elements while Discord was out and about, and if Twilight was in possession of the elements during the Crystal Empire events, well couldn’t they just use the elements on Sombra. This has been giving me a lot of trouble trying to make up my mind on this, so I’m asking you, the reader, to give me your thoughts on this. I want, you, the reader,(Or at least the ones who didn’t give up on reading this ridiculously long authors note and jumped right down to the chapter) to tell me whether or not to have Twilight be kidnapped before the season three premiere.

Don’t be afraid to suggest things either. I want you, the reader, to be as satisfied with this story as I can possibly make you. While I realize that I’ll never be able to satisfy everyone, I want to make as many of you as I can happy, so if there's something that you think would be interesting to see, leave a comment. I can’t promise that it’ll make it into the story, but if enough people suggest the idea, I’ll give it fair consideration. Now, I’ll just shut up and let you read the next chapter before you all get too fed up with me. Thanks again and enjoy the chapter.

(A bit of a side note here. Changeling drones as I write them do not have genders. Only the queens have a sex, so that’s why the changeling who’s perspective we’ll follow for a little bit refers to itself as ‘It’ or ‘This one’.)

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony

Prologue Part 2- Perfect

{Menyanthes}

‘This one is unsure what it has done to deserve this.’ The changeling thought to itself as it continued to walk.

Several hours ago, it and its family had prepared for the invasion of the pony capital, Canterlot. It would have been the first of many invasions they would have performed in order to gain the love that they wanted. The queen had bolstered their numbers and sent many sleeper agents to many different cities and towns for this glorious day. They had been high in morale. They would no longer go hungry and unsatisfied with the meals they received. They would be as stuffed and as full as if they had perished and gone to the great hive below.

‘Instead,’ the changeling thought bitterly. ‘This one not only gets blasted with magic, it also gets thrown out into Azalea knows where!’ It almost instantly regretted sullying the goddess’s blessed name in the same thought as a curse. It closed its eyes and offered a prayer to the blessed mother, apologizing for its transgression.

Opening its eyes once again, the changeling took a quick look around its surroundings. About an hour ago, it and its unwanted companion had left the canyon that it had landed in about three hours before. The moon shined in the sky above. They were now walking along a dirt path towards a forest not far from there. The forest held the queen inside. The changeling was certain of it. It wasn’t within telepathic talking range, but they were close enough that it could feel her getting closer with every step.

“Menyanthes?”

Hopefully, the queen would be alright and unharmed. It was unsure what the Hive would do without one of the blessed daughters. They would be lost and would not be able to do anything without the guidance of the queen.

“Yoo Hoo? Hello, Menyanthes?”

Just the thought of the queen hurt in anyway was enough to quicken its steps. It may have only been a perioeci, but it would be among the stars before this one would allow anything to happen to its queen.

Without warning, the changeling was brought from its panicked thoughts, and was lifted into the air by the strange creature this one had been saddled with.

The strange creature apparently called Discord brought his face close to the changeling’s own face and asked, “Are you even listening Menyanthes?”

The changeling snarled at Discord, nodding its head. The creature had apparently decided that he had not done enough hurting this one. No, he had to go even further and had given it a name. It hated the very thought of being given a name. Names were rewards given to the spartiates. It was their reward for being acknowledged as the best warriors of the hive. They were supposed to be given by the queen herself. How dare this creature give it, a mere perioeci, a name!

“Now that I have your hopefully undivided attention,” Discord said to the changeling he had named Menyanthes, a light grin making its way onto his face. “Are we getting any closer to this ruler of yours? We’ve been walking for hours.

Giving one last snarl at Discord for good measure, Meyanthes nodded its head.

“Oh good. And here I was thinking you were being stupid, not to mention stubborn, and leading us in the completely wrong direction.” Discord smiled down at the changeling in his grasp, patting it roughly on the head. “Stubbornness, I must admit, is a quality I both like and despise. I mean, some ponies, they know how to make it work. They honestly can make it work. Like…oh for example, my Uncle Puddinghead! That stallion was more like a mule in how determined he was to have his way. But he had a certain charm about him, you couldn’t help but forgive him. The stuff he was able to get away with because of that. I mean, Auntie Hurricane would have had my hide if I had tried or said half the things he did.”

Discord suddenly stopped talking and briefly looked up in the air for a moment. “What was I talking about again?” He used his free hand to snap his fingers, waiting for the word to come out of his mouth. “STUBBORNESS!” Menyanthes flinched, being momentarily startled by the loud declaration. “I was talking about stubbornness. Sorry, I tend to get off topic when I talk. At least I think I do. Do I?”

“Bah, no matter” Discord said, waving his free hand in the air. “Anyway, whether or not stubbornness is a good trait or not is a discussion for another time. Well, a one sided conversation that is.” Discord pinched the skin of the changeling’s cheek and in a high pitched voice mocked, “After all, you can’t speak!”

Menyanthes snapped at Discord’s hand with its fangs, wanting to take a bit of the flesh off this arrogant creature. Discord pulled his hand back, chuckling despite having nearly lost a finger.

“Down Menyanthes, down.” Discord laughed out. “No need to get mad, it was just a joke.” He placed the changeling down back down on the ground. “Well that’s enough standing around twiddling our thumbs. Or at least I’m twiddling my thumbs. You though, you don’t have fingers.” He shook his head, drawing an end to his rather pointless analogy. “Lead on.”

With a shake of its head, Menyanthes led its unwanted companion into the forest.

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It had been twenty minutes since Discord and Menyanthes had entered the forest. The changeling headed the bizarre duo, leading Discord in the direction of the fourth blessed daughter.

They were getting closer. Within two minutes, Meyanthes would be back in the presence of its queen. It was excited at that prospect. It would be back where it belonged. At its queen’s side, serving her in whatever meager or important way that she needed it to.

It glanced back at its unwanted companion. It hoped that this creature would leave as soon as he had whatever it was that he wanted to see the queen for. This creature gave this one a chill. There was something unnatural about the creature (Asides his strange assortment of body parts). It was like he warped nature and reality just from being there. It was like all the rules that seemed to rule the natural world didn’t apply to this creature.

As Menyanthes and Discord passed another bush, they finally caught sight of what they had been looking for for the past several hours. The fourth blessed daughter of the Changeling Hive, Queen Chrysalis.

Menyanthes took a moment to admire its mother and leader. She was as tall as the pony’s leader, Celestia. But where Celestia was a hair covered beast with all the grace and beauty of a rat, Queen Chrysalis stood (Or rather sat, as she was seated for the moment) with an air of grace that only one of the blessed daughters could emit. Her near black skin shone as traces of moonlight danced upon her. When the moonlight touched her chitin, specks of blue and green lights were reflected unto the background. Her silk like hair was lightly frizzled but otherwise hung from her head in the same natural way that it had always done, for the queen lacked the incessant vanity of the ponies and did not place a mace like objects to the hair in an attempt to impose some kind of order to it. The crown of the goddess Azalea sat atop her head.

The queen seemed not to notice the two new arrivals, for she seemed to be lost in thought. Her hole ridden hoofs held the corpse of a changeling perioeci. Its head was twisted in an unnatural angle, a broken neck no doubt. As the Queen sat there, slowly stroking the dead changeling’s head, her thin transparent insectoid wings fluttered every few seconds.

Menyanthes shifted on its hoofs, a bit unsure as to what to do. This seemed like a private moment for the queen, one that it was quite uncomfortable with interrupting. Unfortunately, this one’s unwanted companion had no such qualms about interrupting.

{Queen Chrysalis}

‘How did this happen?’

Queen Chrysalis sat there in the dirt, holding one of her poor children that hadn’t survived their eviction from the city of Canterlot. She wasn’t sure how many of them had met the same fate, but it was at least over a hundred.

She looked down at her poor, dead child. When she and her children were purged from Canterlot by means of a large magical burst, many of them had been unable to land on the ground properly. Many of them had landed head first, twisting their necks, killing them almost instantly.

Well, most of them had died instantly. She had come across one Perioeci who’s neck had been broken, but had survived. She’d had to end her poor child’s life mercifully. The poor thing had been in terrible agony. She shuttered to think that any more of her children had suffered a similar fate, only they did not have her to ease their suffering.

‘It was all so perfect.’ And it had been. Almost nothing had been left to chance. This had been planned so carefully, ever since one of her scouts had reported that that stallion, Shining Armor had been courting that princess Cadence.

While other rulers of other species would have seen potential leverage with that particular piece of information, Chrysalis had seen even more potential. A princess. The very symbol of leadership in this land of ponies. Who would attract more love from so many then a princess. Just the very thought had been enough to make her drool.

She had personally overseen the advancement of the Captain of the guard and the princess of love’s budding relationship. Doing so without having her existence revealed had been exceedingly difficult, but it ultimately had been worth it.

Oh, how easy had it been to accelerate the growth of their relationship. She had left gifts and letters, claiming them to be from the other. They had never questioned it, the fools. They were too star struck with each other to even conceive of the idea that they were both being played. When on the rare occurrence that the two of them fought, she would use her illusions to make one believe that she was the other. She would whisper the sweetest words into theirs ear.

‘Oh, my love. I’m so sorry’

‘Dearest, it was all my fault. I was wrong.’

‘Sweetheart, how could I have been so blind?’

It was all too easy to make them look past their differences and cause them to fall deeper in love with one another. And she had watched it all from the shadows.

Eventually, Shining Armor finally proposed to Cadence. And it couldn’t have happened soon enough. Chrysalis had been getting fed up with the lack of rings between the two lovers. She had been on the verge as presenting herself as Shining Armor to the princess and popping the question herself. What had kept her from doing so were two facts. One: The Captain of the guard apparently possessed some kind of spell shield that he could use in the case of an emergency. If by some random chance that such an incident occurred before the planned invasion took place, her illusion magic would be useless in recreating the spell he used. And two: She planned to replace Cadence, not Shining Armor.

It was ironic really. On any other day in the kingdom of Canterlot, it would be neigh impossible to openly invade the city, even with her species’ strong affinity to illusion magic. But the wedding of a princess, that was a different story. The security in the castle would be bolstered, true. But, the wedding of a princess attracted too much attention for the guards to keep everypony out. She would send a few of her Spartiates into the crowd, disguised as nobodies. The kind of ponies you saw on the streets everyday, going about their life, but you would forget about them as soon as you saw them. You didn’t know them, therefore, they didn’t hold much priority in your thoughts.

She had waited to the last possible moment to replace the princess. She had had to watch her carefully, very discreetly replacing the princess’s guards with her own children. Eventually, she knew, the young princess would slip up and leave the queen with the ideal time to kill her and place her body somewhere no pony would ever hope to find it.

And slip up, Cadence did.

One night, four days before the wedding, the princess had decided to take a stroll through the gardens. Her “Guards” had insisted on accompanying her for her “Protection”. The isolation of the gardens had provided the cover needed for Chrysalis and her children to bludgeon the young princess into submission.

Although, to be fair, Chrysalis and her children had slipped up as well. In their eagerness, they had allowed their illusions to fall, allowing Cadence to see them in their true forms. Somehow she had immediately recognized what they were. Curious as to how she knew what they were, Chrysalis had altered her plans to simply murder the young princess and had instead sealed Cadence in the crystal mines below Canterlot. The crystals emitted a strange magic that prevented any from sensing anything within. It had been a useful place to hide the corpses of the guards that she had had her children replace.

No one had suspected a thing. Not even the being that the superstitious types called a goddess. They wrote off any out of character behavior as stress induced by the pressure of preparing her wedding.

It disgusted her. For a century now, Chrysalis had ruled over the hive. She took keeping their existence a secret seriously. Even if her subject were her beloved children, she didn’t tolerate foolish behavior. Even if she had laid the egg sacs that they all came from, she wouldn’t be forgiving if they screwed up and put the existence of the hive at risk.

Since the days of the so called ‘Blessed Mother’, they had only survived for so long because nopony knew of their existence. Secrecy had been, and always would, be their greatest weapon.

To see the capital of a civilization infiltrated so easily sickened her. To see a ruler so unconcerned with the upkeep of safety for her people disgusted her. It was true that Chrysalis looked down on ponies, but even she was shocked at the level of incompetence displayed by their ruler. A ruler was supposed to look out for the safety and happiness of their subjects. While it seemed Celestia had provided happiness for her subjects (After all, this land had more love then Chrysalis had ever seen before.), she had neglected to provide for the safety of her land.

That day before the wedding, Chrysalis made her second, and possibly, her most fatal mistake. The mistake had come in the form of a lavender little pony. Her so called husband’s little sister, Twilight Sparkle.

Admittedly, she had been caught off guard when Twilight Sparkle had first appeared before her. Chrysalis had been stunned into silence when the little pony had started singing and shaking her flank. Twilight then further stunned Chrysalis by pointing her flank at her face. Chrysalis had honestly thought for a moment that Twilight was offering herself to her.

She had barely held back a gag at the thought of herself laying with Twilight. Her fur covered body rubbing against hers. The very thought of it made Chrysalis shudder.

She had ignored Twilight for the most part. She had assumed that from what she had been able to gather from the various conversations between Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, that Twilight would be too busy preparing for her brother’s wedding to spend time with her. She had been spending most of her time avoiding any contact with anypony, even her “Aunts”. She would normally have no problem spending time with ponies, for she was quite the actor. However, when one of the ponies you were trying to fool was a so called goddess, one took extra precautions.

Even if Celestia wasn’t a goddess, she had still clearly been alive for a thousand years. A being that had existed for so long was bound to be powerful and have a high degree of intelligence. Despite the fact that Chrysalis had no respect whatsoever for Celestia’s policies when it came to ruling her subjects, even she would be foolish to underestimate the skills and smarts of a creature that had been supposedly around since the days of the so called ‘Blessed Mother’. She was doubtful that her magic with illusions and pheromones would last long around such a creature.

Where she mostly expected the largest threat to come from Celestia, she had been surprised to find that the one creature that suspected anything was Twilight. Somehow, Twilight was able to look past Chrysalis’s pheromones and illusions, and see that there was something off about her. If Twilight hadn’t shown her hoof early and blown up at the rehearsal, Chrysalis might not have made it as far as she had.

But that was the thing about spur of the moment plans. They were so easy to destroy.

Through the use of her acting skills that she had so carefully honed over one hundred and twenty six years of life, she managed to get Twilight’s brother, Twilight’s Teacher, and even Twilight’s friends on her side. Her brother defended Chrysalis’s out of character behavior, reducing Twilight’s accusations to dust. And consequently, reduced Twilight to tears. It had been beautiful to watch.

But nopony told Twilight to leave the city. That had been slightly annoying. If she had been out of the city, her plans would go so much smoother. But no, the one time that she needed these ponies to do something even remotely competent, they completely muck it up. And she couldn’t very well just kill her either. She was good, but she wasn’t ‘Kill somepony in the castle of the capital and completely get away with it’ good.

She approached the crying mare slowly. While she doubted Twilight would do anything to harm her in the state she was in, expressing caution when it came to such a powerful little creature was never a bad idea.

Twilight never even heard her coming. Putting on the face a caring parent would look at their child with, she gently turned the lavender mare’s head towards her. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked upon the changeling queen’s face. She almost felt sorry for this pathetic creature.

She tried to apologize for her actions, not that it mattered to Chrysalis. Whether or not Twilight was truly regretful was irrelevant to her, though she doubted it. Ponies would do or say anything if they thought it would strip them of any retribution or ill fate. She saw it so many times when she prepared ponies for their fate of becoming a helot.

But she had already made her decision. Since she couldn’t kill Twilight right now, she would place her in the mines, where she could do nothing to disrupt Chrysalis’s plans.

That had been her third mistake.

Chrysalis, in her rush to rid herself of Twilight had forgotten that she had also placed the young Princess Cadence in the mines as well. Obviously, without her knowledge, the princess and Twilight had joined forces and escaped the mines.

She had been surprised genuinely when Twilight had brazenly barged into the ceremony. That hadn’t stopped her from again trying to act like she was distressed at the accusations laid onto her by Twilight.

It might have worked too if the true Princess Cadence hadn’t walked in at that very moment.

Once again, Princess Cadence identified Chrysalis as a changeling. And again, Chrysalis found herself wondering how it was that the young princess knew of their species. Seeing that it was pointless to keep up the charade of Cadence, Chrysalis allowed her illusions to drop, revealing her true nature.

She saw throughout the crowd that many of the ponies seemed disgusted with her true form, as if she was some abomination. Hideous and ugly. Like they knew anything about what it was to be beautiful. These creatures whose bodies were covered with fur. These creatures who lacked the blessings of magic, lacked the blessing of flight, or in some case, lacked the blessing of both. Who were these inferior creatures to judge her and her children when they lacked the beauty that they possessed?

Dropping her act as the young princess, Chrysalis explained to them that their race would fuel her species hunger for love.

It was then that another revelation made itself known. She had completely forgotten that Princess Celestia was standing just a few feet from her.

She had to silently applaud the so called goddess for finally taking some initiative for the safety of her subjects as Celestia stepped forward with the intent to defend her people. Even if she was Chrysalis’s enemy, she was pleased to see that she wasn’t fleeing with her guards to save herself, like so many rulers would.

On the other hoof, a part of her had wished that the so called goddess had fled. She knew that Celestia was powerful. This wasn’t a fight that Chrysalis was sure that she could win. Here was a being that could raise the sun everyday. Even if she wasn’t a goddess, she was beyond what Chrysalis was sure that she could handle.

Still, this was for her children, her hive. She had planned this invasion solely for the purpose of securing sustenance for her species. She wasn’t about to throw that all away just because she wasn’t sure that she could win a fight.

Without hesitation, Chrysalis charged forward, her horn making contact with Celestia’s. Celestia then flew up in the air and shot a beam of magical energy at Chrysalis and she shot her own beam of magical energy in kind. At first, it seemed as if Celestia was too strong for her to handle. But as she began draw power from Shining Armor, her power began to grow in ways she could never have imagined. Her magical energy began to push Celestia’s magic back, until it made contact with her horn. Celestia fell to the ground, defeated.

Chrysalis had done it. She had single hoofed managed to defeat a so called goddess. She wished her subjects had been here. So that they could see that even if something called themselves a goddess, if you could gather enough power, nothing was invincible.

In her triumphant mindset, Chrysalis made her fourth and final mistake.

She allowed Twilight and her five friends to leave the hall. They were under the orders of the still barely conscious so called goddess to retrieve ‘The Elements of Harmony’. While this could have turned out to have been a mistake, it wasn’t that slip up that had been Chrysalis’s ultimate downfall. Call it a stroke of good fortune or luck.

No, what had ultimately been Chrysalis’s downfall had been how she had ignored the young Princess and her fiancé. The stallion who had spent the better part of the day a mindless husk that she had bent to her will, found Chrysalis control shattered by a spell administered by the mare that he loved. Chrysalis had been too enraptured with watching her beloved children tear the pony’s society to pieces and, as a result, hadn’t noticed the spell the two lovers had been charging until it was too late to stop them.

The wave of magic had hit her fast and hard. It took a moment for her mind to see through the haze of pain to even realize that she was flying through the air. She screamed out, her mind barreling in pain as she felt each of her children be slammed by the wave.

After what seemed like an eternity of never-ending pain, Chrysalis felt herself hit the ground. And then, through her mental connection to her children, felt them hit the ground as well.

Changelings were unique, to say the least, when it came to how they communed with one another. Since the dawn of their existence, the so called blessed daughters of Azalea had been the only ones born with the ability of speech. True, the queens of the Hive had the ability to gift this ability to their children, but really, what was the point? They were a race that feed off the emotions of others, what better way was there to communicate then emotion.

Changelings shared a hive mind unlike any other. Each of them could feel one another, and when they were within a mile of one another, could commune through feelings and images. It was perfect, flawless. Perfect understanding through hundreds of thousands of minds. There was no double meanings, no half truths. Just pure, unfiltered thoughts.

When one died, every member of the hive felt them disappear from the collective. The hive mind seemed to get just a little bit smaller. It was always horrible and sad. Here was a member of the family that they would never again share conscious with.

Until this day, Chrysalis could never have imagined the pain, the agony, and the despair of feeling hundreds of minds disappear.

‘How could this happen?’

Chrysalis sat there in the dirt, one of her poor dead children held tightly in her hoofs, pondering that question. Deep down, she knew the answer.

‘How could I have made so many mistakes? Why didn’t I just kill that princess and that lavender pony when I had the chance?’

The queen of the changelings looked down at the dead child in her hoofs. If a pony had looked at this child, they could never have discerned it from any of it’s siblings. But she, who gave birth to all changelings, could easily tell all of them apart.

She remembered this one. It had been unusually energetic and curious for a perioeci. She had been slightly worried that it would become a genetic anomaly, but as it had grown up, it showed less and less signs of being such. It had integrated into the hive mind, it had showed no interest in pony society, and it hadn’t tried to leave on its own to the outside world.

“Good bye my little perioeci.” She whispered into her dead child’s ear. She then paused. Should she say what came next? It went against all her beliefs. Still, this changeling had served the hive well. She supposed she could swallow her skepticism and at least give it this. She tenderly kissed the head of her poor dead child.

“May you rest peacefully in the hive below.”

She gently lowered her child’s body to the ground and stepped back a few steps, not once taking her eyes off of it. Lighting her horn with magic, she ignited a spark of flame on the changeling’s body.

She hated doing this, but it was the only way. There were who knows how many dead, and she wasn’t about to spend what could possibly been weeks sending her children to retrieve all the bodies. It was too much of a risk. They had already been exposed to the world in the largest, grandest possible way imaginable. They had no choice but to burn the bodies in the hopes that ponies didn’t stumble upon the corpses. If that happened, stallions and mares of science would dissect them in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of their species.

“Hello there, descendent of Azalea.”

Chrysalis was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of a male voice almost directly behind her. She spun around and was met with an unusual sight.

There was a strange creature standing a few feet from her. At the creature’s side was a changeling perioeci, gaping at the creature with a stunned expression on it’s face. No doubt that it was as surprised as she was to hear the so called blessed mother’s name.

“I hope you’re not too busy,” The strange creature spoke. “Well, you don’t seem to be busy, seeing as you just set that mess over there on fire.”

Chrysalis let out a snarl at the strange creature for that insult against her child. “What do you want….Whatever you are!?”

“Oh good!” The strange creature face lit up with a smile. “You can speak! I was slightly worried that Menyanthes here,” The creature inclined his head over to the still gaping changeling at his side. “Wasn’t being honest with me when he told me you could speak. Well, told as in he just kinda nodded when I asked him if you could speak or not.”

“But, no matter.” The creature took a step forward looking Chrysalis directly in the eye. “I’m hoping that we might have a word.”

What in Equestria had just been dropped in Chrysalis’s lap this time?

Prologue P3- Opportunity

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Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony

Prologue part 3- Opportunity

{Queen Chrysalis}

Not many creatures seemed able to stand the cold. Evolution had not allowed many species to be able to walk through it comfortably, let alone live in it.

For the life of her Chrysalis couldn’t imagine why.

Here in these misty, wet caves leading underground, the changeling race had made their hive. A series of tunnels stretching miles underground. All hidden by what the ponies called the Neighagra Falls.

Since the days of the so called Blessed Mother, these tunnels had been the changeling race’s home. These tunnels held so much of their species’ history. The walls were littered with paintings, depicting many key moments of their development.

The so called Blessed Mother’s deal with the so called demigod Dez’Cared, Azalea’s lost daughters following her to the great hive bellow, the reign of Queen Antirrhinum. Naturally, there were not many paintings of the time of the cursed Queen Oleander’s rule, as it should be. It was better if that failure of a queen be forgotten entirely.

Then there were depictions of Queen Metamorphis, the previous queen of the hive and Chrysalis’s own mother.

A wave of nostalgia hit Chrysalis as she glanced over at one such painting. She still remembered when her mother would hold her in her forearms while they both sat on the throne. All of her mother’s perioci and spartiates would come up to them and nuzzle their future queen. Many did not live to see her finally inherit the throne. By the time she had started giving birth to her own brood, many of her mother’s own children were already dead. While the queens of the hive were capable of living for three centuries at most, perioci and spartiates only lived about twenty five years give or take.

Looking over the paintings of her mother, Chrysalis could only wonder. Her mother was always depicted as being a good and beloved queen. It hadn’t ever mattered that Queen Metamorphis was the daughter of Queen Oleander. She had done well leading the hive and as such, was remembered fondly.

How would she be remembered though? Chrysalis closed her eyes in thought. Just two weeks ago, she not only exposed her race for all to see, she had also failed to lead her people to victory causing the deaths of five hundred and seventy eight of her children. Queen Oleander may have experimented on her subjects, but at least she never put their people in danger from outside sources. That and Oleander had been capable of giving the hive another queen when the time had come.

“Mother”?

Chrysalis opened her eyes to find several perioci and a spartiate nuzzling her legs. Apparently they had sensed her distress and were trying to comfort her. She smiled down at her children, lowering her head to their level. They immediately moved from her leg and pressed their faces to hers.

She and her children remained silent and just stood there. For a minute? Or for several? She did not know for how long. She just stood there, her precious children nuzzling her face, trying to chase the thoughts of her shortcomings from her.

Eventually, she rose her head. As tempting as it was to remain just a little longer, she still had to talk to their ‘guest’.

“Nexus” Chrysalis addressed the sole spariate of the group. “Come with me. The rest of you, go back to your duties.”

With her word given, her children dispersed, off to attend their various jobs to keep their hive running smoothly. Once she was alone with the spartiate she had named Nexus when it had been promoted four years ago, she began to walk towards her own destination.

As she walked through the misty tunnels, her wondering thoughts turned back to the legends of the so called Demigod. The legend went that a thousand years ago, the demigod Dez’Cared had come to the earth pony Azalea. He then offered her a deal. In exchange for her loyalty, he would grant her the power to transcend her race and become something great. Dez’Cared crafted her into the first of the changelings.

Chrysalis snorted to herself. When she had discovered her…. Inadequacies, she had lost all faith she had in any sort of Goddesses and such.

Meeting the real Dez’Cared had not proven that to be a mistake.

{Queen Chrysalis}-Two weeks prior

What did one say in this kind of situation?

What did one say when face to face with a creature whose appearance challenged all that one thought was possible?

Queen Chrysalis had never seen a creature like the one that stood before her. It was a mix and matched collection of various creatures and life form. Its main body was not dissimilar to that of a snake or other kind of serpent. That part of its body that was, had a brown colored coat. While its left arm looked to be from a different creature, the right arm seemed to be of the same kind of creature the body came from. Only it wasn’t. The arm seemed to be from a griffon. Its hand was very much talon like, but it arm seemed to match the color fur that its body had. Its other arm was that of a manticore, the yellow coat covering it starting from the shoulder.

The creature’s right leg was that of a minotaur, only much smaller. Its fur was a brighter shade of brown then its body. Like that leg, its left leg was that of a dragon, only smaller. The leg was covered in lime green scales. A red scaled tail swung back and forth behind it, a tassel of white hair adjourning the tip. On his back, there were two wings resting against his side. But, like everything else on his body, they were contradictory to one another. On the right, there was the wing of a Pegasus.

Its feathers were a beautiful shade of teal, very much like Chrysalis’s mother’s hair and eyes had been. She allowed herself a moment to admire the color before continuing her analysis of this strange creature.

Chrysalis wasn’t sure what kind of creature had wings like the one on this oddity’s left. The closest comparison she could come up with were the wings of a bat, but the look was slightly off. She wasn’t sure what was off, it was just a feeling in her gut. The wings were the color of a dull, gray shade of purple.

Then there was this creature’s head. The coat of it was a very light shade of brown. The head and neck were clearly ponylike but they possessed an odd shape. It resembled the ponies that lived in Saddle Arabia, but like this Creature’s left wing, there was something off about it.

If she had to put it into words, Chrysalis would have said that this creature’s head closely resembled the shape of a Wendigo’s head.

The creature’s eyes contained red pupils and yellow sclera. Oddly, the pupil in its left eye was twice the size of the one in the right eye. Above its eyes, there were two white eyebrows. A single fang hung from the smirk on the creature’s mouth. Under that mouth, on the chin, was a white beard. In contrast with this, from the back of its head to the bottom of its neck, the creature possessed a black mane.

On the top of its head, there were two oddities bursting out. On the left was some kind of antler. It resembled ones that you found on a long extinct race that the ponies called deer. On the right was a deformed looking unicorn horn. Chrysalis had seen deformed unicorns before. The helot’s that the hive raised occasionally gave birth to unicorns with deformities, not that it stopped then from placing them with the others. Love was love after all. But the deformities on this creature’s horn were mind boggling. It looked like there were pockets of air inside the horn itself, giving the horn the appearance of growing and shrinking as you went up the horn.

“If you are quite done admiring this wonderful horn of mine,” The creature brought Chrysalis out of her examination of the creature, an amused grin on its face. “Perhaps we might leave your fantasies for later and get down to business, yes?”

“Do not flatter yourself creature,” Chrysalis responded, a snarl making its way onto her face. She glared at the creature, wary of any sudden moves it might make. “I was merely wondering what parent may have the misfortune to carry such a deformed spawn of Oleander.”

“Deformed spawn of what?” The creature asked, the smile never leaving its face. “You know, it doesn’t do much if your insult isn’t understood by the one you’re insulting.”

“True, but it helps gauge the level of intelligence of the one you’re targeting.” Chrysalis shot back, a smirk now growing on her face. “My advice to you. Step it up a little.”

The creature frowned for a split second before it returned to smiling. “Good, good. I believe you and I will get along just fine, descendent of Azalea.”

There it was again. The so called goddess’s name. The changeling culture had been guarded closely. They almost never left any trace of themselves throughout history. So, how in the stars did this creature have that knowledge?

“Chrysalis. My name is Queen Chrysalis.” She said, not wanting to hear this creature lump her and the false goddess in the same sentence.

“Chrysalis, hmm?” The creature responded completely ignoring the Queen part of her name. “Chrysalis, Chrysalis,” The creature said her name a few times, apparently trying out the name. “I suppose that will do, for now. As for me,” It performed an over exaggerated bow towards her. “You may call me Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony.”

Chrysalis glared at this creature named Discord, the gears in her mind turning rapidly.

‘Discord’

‘Dizcord’

‘Dezcord’

‘Dez’Cord’

‘Dez’Cared’

Chrysalis was brought out of her revelation by a feeling of utter shock. Turning her head towards the source, she found the perioeci that had come here with Discord staring in utter reverence at him. Apparently it had come to the same conclusion she had. It slowly turned to her, its pupiless eyes shining with excitement.

‘Mother?’ It’s voice ringing through her head. ‘Is he… This one wonders….Dez’Cared?!’

Despite the difference in beliefs between the two of them, Chrysalis couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at her child’s excitement. “Possibly, my little perioeci. But don’t jump to conclusions.”

“Umm, what did you call me now?” Discord asked, his eyebrows raised in light confusion. “And what conclusions am I jumping to? Did I completely black out or something, because we’re clearly having a different conversation here.”

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Chrysalis snapped at Discord.

“You weren’t? Then who-“ Discord began to ask before his eyes fell on the perioeci at his side. He then quickly snapped his head back to Chrysalis, an annoyed expression on his face. “Wait a second, he said he couldn’t speak. Well said as in-“

“Not a he.” Chrysalis interjected.

Discord paused, and then looked at the perioeci for a long ten seconds. “You’re a girl?”

Before Chrysalis could respond, Discord grabbed the smaller changeling, turning it upside down. He then began to scrutinize the changeling’s underside.

“What are you-“ Chrysalis began to ask, only to be swiftly hushed by Discord.

“She’s a girl right? I’m looking for her- AHA!” Discord loudly declared. “So you are a girl. So sorry deary. Seriously it’s right there. How in Tarturaus did I miss that when I was questioning you?”

“How did you miss what?” Chrysalis asked, feeling annoyed at this bizarre creature’s behavior.

“You know, her girl part.” Discord answered. “True, it’s on her barrel, a little higher then it would normally be, but it’s still there.” As he spoke he began to lower one of his fingers towards towards the changeling in his grasp’s barrel.

“It’s barrel?” Chrysalis wondered aloud. “What did you find on its-“ Suddenly, as she thought of what Discord had been saying, she finally pieced together what it was that he had found. “Wait! Don’t touch that! That’s it’s-“

It was too late though. As Discord’s finger made contact with the small slit on the changeling’s stomach, a sharp stinger shot out of the slit, piercing the finger. Discord jumped back, dropping the changeling and sucking his finger.

“OW!” Discord cried out. “What was that?!”

“That was its stinger.” Chrysalis answered. “What you perceived as it’s ‘girl part’ as you so eliquitely put it was actually its venom sheath. It’s a chamber in our bodies that contains our stingers. The venom in our stingers is harmless to other changelings, although it does have an effect on me. However the venom is a powerful poison to any other species, so, unless you want to spend the next few hours in pain and unable to move, I suggest you suck the venom out quickly.”

“My my. That does sound quite unpleasant.” Discord responded, his voice very casual and unconcerned as he continued to suck on his finger. “It would quite the problem if I had any veins for blood to be flowing through.”

“What? You don’t have any veins?” Chrysalis asked, her eyes wide. “You’re lying. That’s impossible.”

“Heh he he he he.” Discord chuckled. He slowly turned towards Chrysalis. “I think you’ll find that as you get to know me, your view of what is and isn’t possible will change drastically.”

Chrysalis just stared at the draconequus for a few moments before asking, “And what makes you think that I’ll be getting to know you at all?”

“Wait, did I not tell you what I wanted?” Discord asked, chuckling to himself. “Where are my manners? Auntie Hurricane would have a fit if she was still around.” For the briefest of seconds, Discord’s face seemed to reflect melancholy before resuming the smirk that seemed to permantly grace his face.

“Well, allow me to elaborate. You see, I had just broken free from my prison of stone.” Discord then put his face less than an inch from Chrysalis’s own face. “Have you ever tried being encased in stone?”

Chrysalis shook her head. “No.”

“Well lucky you. Here’s a fabulous piece of advice. No, seriously. Burn these words of wisdom in your soul. You ready?” Discord, if it was possible, seemed to lean in closer.

“Don’t… ever… leave your sandwich unattended or somepony will eat it.”

A full three seconds passed before Chrysalis was able to respond. “What?”

“Never leave your sandwich unattended.” Discord repeated.

“What in the stars does that have to do with being encased in stone?” Chrysalis snapped, her annoyance at Discord’s mannerisms getting the better of her.

“My dear, I must admit that you lose me when you say strange things like that.” Discord said, completely ignoring the question. “Is there some kind of dictionary I can read to at least partially understand your langue.”

“Do not ignore my question, creature!” Chrysalis snapped, closing the distance between her and Discord’s face. “What relevance does a sandwich have with being encased in stone?”

“You mean other then the fact that I had a serious craving for one after being encased in stone for a thousand years? Absolutely none.” Discord answered. “Just seemed like good advice. I mean, what did you expect me to say? Don’t be encased in stone? My dear, if I have to tell you that, perhaps I would be better off looking to other sources to align with.”

“Then do so!” Chrysalis backed away, fury etched on her face. “Because frankly, you’ve wasted too much of my time already, and I don’t intend to waste one second longer on you. I don’t care if you are possibly Dez’Cared,” Discord’s eyes widened the second that name left her tongue. “You’ve evaded my questions, you borderline assaulted one of my children, and you’ve been nothing but an annoyance since you arrived! I see no reason that I should tolerate one more second of your presence.”

“Dez’Cared.” Discord muttered to himself. “Dez’Cared. Wow, it has been a long, long time since anypony has called me that. Azalea was the last one to call me that.” Discord closed his eyes in thought, a somber expression making its way onto his face. It was strange seeing such a look on a face that was almost always smiling.

“The fact that you know me by that name, probably means she told you about me, am I right?” He asked.

Chrysalis answered, “Yes, there are stories passed down, that you gave the so called Goddess-“ Chrysalis was stopped by a twinge of hurt coming from the perioeci. Looking over at it, she saw that sorrow was etched clearly on its face. It was upset and sad at her declaration of Azalea as a false god.

“Don’t look at me like at me like that child.” She said firmly, but her tone lacked any trace of anger. She then turned back to Discord, beginning her statement anew. “There are stories passed down, that you gave Azalea her power in exchange for her loyalty.”

At this, a smile returned to Discord’s face. “I’m sorry, did you say Goddess?” Discord tilted his head back in laugher. “Oh, she would have loved that. Azalea the Goddess.”

Discord’s smirk seemed to take a sinister undertone. “So, I guess from that little ‘don’t look at me’ bit just a second ago, you and your daughter have conflicting views on what Azalea was, hm?”

Chrysalis flinched at the word daughter, wondering if he had dropped the word on purpose. No, that was unlikely. There was no he knew that part about her already. “It isn’t a girl.”

Discord ignored her statement. “I’ll take that as a yes then.” Discord began examining his fingers. “You know, if it pleases you, I could tell you about her.”

That got both Chrysalis’s and the perioeci’s attention. “You would tell us of Azalea?”

“Well, that depends.” Discord said. “I’m feeling a little tired at the moment, and I need somewhere to rest and regain my power over the course of a few days. Somewhere far away from pony eyes.” Discord gazed over at her, the smirk never leaving his face. “Know of anyplace like that?”

Chrysalis snarled once, and turned her head away from Discord’s gaze. She had been trapped in a figurative corner. He wanted to come back with them to the hive. And she wasn’t in a very good position to refuse him.

This was without a doubt the so called demigod, Dez’Cared. He was something of a second minor deity to her children. There was less worship devoted to him then Azalea, but it was still there. If she refused him sanctuary in the Hive, her children would most likely see it as an affront to their so called gods. She was their mother and queen. They followed her faithfully despite her lack of faith in the so called gods. As long as she acted in the best interests of the hive and left them alone to their worship, there was almost nothing that they would not do for her.

This recent failure of an invasion would put the hive in a difficult spot. Her children would see the return of the demigod Dez’Cared during these troubled times as a sign from the so called goddess below that things would get better soon. If Chrysalis refused him however, they would feel as if she had spat in the face of their savior. This coupled with their failed invasion would lead to her likely death at their hoofs. Or at the very least, her expulsion from the hive.

She was trapped. How had she been outplayed like this? She snarled to herself before turning back to Discord. “I may have an ideal spot.”

“Oh, wonderful.” He said, his smirk growing into a wide grin. “And here I was worrying I might have to head to the Dragon’s Kingdom, and that wouldn’t have been a lot of fun for me.” He then turned to the smaller changeling who had been sitting on the sidelines for most of the verbal confrontation. “Hear that little Menyanthes. You and I will be staying together for a lot longer.

‘Menyanthes’ seemed torn between smiling at the fact that the Demigod Dez’Cared would be staying at the Hive and worrying about its mother, who looked about three seconds away from killing something

“Menyanthes?” Chrysalis questioned the draconequus.

“Her.” Discord answered, pointing at the changeling.

“It’s not a boy. It’s not a girl. And it does not have a name. It’s a perioeci.” Chrysalis snarled.

“Perioeci?” Discord raised an eyebrow. “Okay, is there some kinda translation book at…. Wherever it is that we’re going. Because quite frankly, I’m getting just a touch sick of you saying words, and me not understanding said words.” Discord said with a slight pout.

“Let’s clarify a few things shall we?” Chrysalis said, walking forward until she was face to face with Discord. “We’re going to My home, in which you’re a guest. Therefore, you are expected to follow a few rules.”

“Rules? Oh, are those really necessary?” Discord asked with a light mock whine.

“Rule number one,” Chrysalis said, taking a page from Discord’s book and ignoring his question. “Do not do anything that reveals anything about my people to the other species of the world. Do not do anything that draws attention to the hive.”

“Um, considering that you just launched an invasion against the capital of Equstia, Is there anything that I could do to draw more attention then you already have?”

“Do you think you’re a wise mule, creature?” Chrysalis questioned.

“Nah, I’m not all that wise. I’m more of a…. Smart cookie.” Discord replied, an unusual smirk adjourning his face. The smirk possessed a level of amusement that suggested he was making some kind of inside joke.

“Whatever you say, creature. Rule number two. Do not go bothering my children in the same manner that you treated that one.” Chrysalis continued, pointing her hoof at ‘Menyanthes’.

“Got it.” Discord answered, making a mock salute. “Find an entirely new way to bother your children. Easy.”

“Shut up!” Chrysalis ground out. “Rule number three. Do not bother Me in the same manner you bother that one.” Again, Chrysalis pointed at ‘Menyanthes’.

“As if I need to bother, my dear.” Discord said. “I’m quite confident that I can identify your sex without looking. You’re a guy, right?”

Resisting the urge to bash Discord’s head into the nearest rock solid surface, Chrysalis turned from him. “I am sure that I will add to this list as things come to me. But for now, we’ve wasted too much time already talking out in the open like this. I’m quite surprised we haven’t been discovered yet.” Chrysalis tilted her head to the northeast. “Come. I don’t want to waste this stroke of luck. We must head to the Hive immediately.” And with that, she began to walk.

She heard the sounds of her child and Discord following her. She wasn’t happy with the current situation. She didn’t like the idea of another creature worming its way into her hive. Particularly, one as annoying as Discord was.

And yet there was a flip side to it as well. If he knew as much about Azalea as claimed to, he no doubt possessed knowledge that would prove the she wasn’t a goddess. If he confirmed it, more of her children would see the truth as she did. While a few of her children had joined her in her beliefs when she first threw away her faith, they were only a few dozen at most.

This would prove to be an interesting few days.

Present
{Queen Chrysalis}

It seemed as though she had been too optimistic. Those few days had promptly become two weeks. They had been interesting, though not in the way that she had wanted them to be.

When they had arrived at the Hive, he had promptly requested somewhere that he could sleep and be to himself. It hadn’t been outside of her expectations of what he would want while he was in their home, so she had given him a small cavern, roughly the size of her chambers in the palace while she had pretended to be the princess of love.

He then spent the next three days sleeping. To her knowledge, he hadn’t woken up once in those three days. It had been frustrating to her. She had wanted to start questioning him about the so called goddess as soon as he was able.

Then, when he had woken up, he promptly left for another two days, saying that he would be back shortly. When he returned, he went to his chambers and slept for another two days. When he woke up, she demanded to know where he had been. The only thing he had said was that he had been in Canterlot erecting a statue, and that it had been more exhausting then he thought it was going to be.

Discord had then spent most of the next week, laying about, doing almost nothing. He claimed that he was waiting until a good chunk of his power to return until he made his next move, though he refused to clarify what that was. All he would say was that he would tell her when the time came.

He also refused to divulge the details of Azalea’s nature. That was the very reason that she had allowed him entrance into the Hive. Now he was refusing to keep his end of the bargain. He just said that he would tell her everything when the proper time came.

She was getting quite sick of having that sentence tossed in her face. She was also getting sick of the subtle implications that Discord seemed to have a plan for her. She was the Queen of this Hive and she would not be used in any matter.

“Mother?”

A voice brought Chrysalis out of her musing. Turning towards the source of the voice, she found that it had been the spariate that was accompanying her. When it had been promoted to the rank of spariate, she had given it the name, Nexus.

Physically, it looked like any other perioeci. The only difference was the dark blue armor that this child wore. The armor came in two pieces, a chest guard and a helmet. The armor wasn’t crafted through the crude methods that the ponies used. The weak minerals of iron or steel weren’t used in this armor. No, this armor was crafted from the chitins of the fallen.

It had been a tradition spanning back to the days of the cursed queen, Oleander. She had originally been experimenting to discover their race’s strengths and weaknesses. She'd apparently been interested in performing raids against ponies, to enslave them. A shiver ran through Chrysalis as she again realized how close her and Oleander’s motivations resembled each other.

Oleander had begun to study their species, particularly the chitins that had started to emerge on their backs, a result of evolution. The chitin was an armored shell that covered their backs all the way to their docks. Underneath was a large patch of exposed muscle. Nerves exited from the muscle and held the chitin down. Apparently, it was possible to rip the chitin away, but doing so would cause an enormous amount of pain for the victim. While Chrysalis didn’t understand the specifics, their species magic interacted with the love that they fed on and, somehow took physical shape.

When Oleander discovered the defensive properties of the shell, she ripped them from seven hundred of her children and crafted them through magic, into armor for herself and her loyalist warriors.

When Chrysalis had first heard that story from her mother, she had been livid. Chrysalis had just given birth to her first set of broods. She had just become a mother. She was horrified and sickened at the fact that a queen could use her children as sacrifices so casually. It was no wonder that the hive remembered her as the Cursed Queen.

After Oleander had died and Chrysalis’s mother, Queen Metamorphis had stepped up to take charge of the Hive. Most of the armor crafted in those cursed times were destroyed, though a few were kept in the hopes that if the Hive ever had to defend themselves, they could use the armor for the front line warriors.

There was no thought put forth as to destroy Queen Oleander’s armor or not. It was a symbol of Changeling suffering. It covered every inch of her body and was made from the chitins of one hundred and fifty changelings. A sick artifact like that shouldn’t even exist.

Over time however, Queen Metamorphis began granting strong warriors the ability to speak. These became the template of spariates, the strongest warriors. Eventually, it became a burden to tell which of her children were spariates and which were perioeci. This led to the tradition of gifting the spariates the armor, so that the Queen could tell them apart on sight.

Chrysalis was still not completely comfortable with the armor. Every time she looked at it, she was reminded of the story. The story of a queen that would willingly harm her subjects.

“Did you want something, Nexus?” Chrysalis questioned her companion.

“No, this one did not require anything, dear queen.” Nexus spoke, its tone carrying a touch of concern. “This one just thought that you seemed to be lost in thought, and was worried you were unwell.”

“Your concern is unneeded, but appreciated.” Chrysalis responded. “I was merely thinking about Dez’Cared.”

“The so called demigod?” Nexus asked. “He gives this one an uneasy feeling. How long is he staying here? Not that it is questioning your decision dear queen.”

“That… is one of the many things I intend to ask, dear Nexus.” Chrysalis said, looking up at the arch leading to the chambers that Chrysalis provided Discord.

As she entered the chambers, she was greeted by an unusual sight. Discord was sitting cross legged in the middle of the room, his eyes closed, and his arms holding each other in his lap.

She walked towards him warily, Nexus following, staying close to her, ready to jump forward to defend its queen if Discord made any threatening moves.

“Dez’Cared? I want to have a word with you.” Chrysalis sternly declared.

He didn’t respond. He just sat there, doing whatever it was that he was doing.

“Dez’Cared!” Chrysalis repeated.

Discord’s head seemed to twitch. Chrysalis took this as a sign that he was listening.

“You’ve been here two weeks now, Dez’Cared.” Chrysalis began. “In that time, you have refused to tell me anything about Azalea. I am here to tell you that that is no longer acceptable. I have been more then patient with you, but my patience has its limits. Now, I want to-“

Her words were cut short by Discord. He had lurched his head forward, grabbing his chest. He then started dry heaving. It had been so sudden that Chrysalis had been momentarily startled and had leaped back. After a few seconds, Discord raised his head again.

Chrysalis took a moment to observe his eyes. They were different then they had been before. His pupils were still the red that they had been, but his scleras were now a bright shade of green. A strange purple mist seemed to flow from his eyes.

“Dez’Cared?” Chrysalis asked apprehensively.

Discord held up a finger as he breathed heavily. His eyes began to lose the unnatural color they had momentarily possessed. His breathing began to slow, to the point where he stopped altogether.

After he seemed to regain his composure, he looked up to Chrysalis with a smile. “Ah, my dear Chrisy. I didn’t hear you come in.”

Chrysalis snarled at the nickname he had given her, but said nothing of it, knowing how well that argument would go. “I had only entered this place just moments before your…fit. What was that?”

“Oh, that? Nothing to worry about, I assure you.” Discord answered. “Seems that Sombra is no longer among the living. A shame, I had wanted to use him just a touch more. Bah, but no matter.”

“And just who is Sombra?” Chrysalis asked. “And what does he have to do with that fit of yours just now?”

“Sombra is someone I ‘helped’,” As he said the word helped, Discord starting poking his index and middle finger with his thumb. “Rise to power, though I doubt he saw it that way. Other than that, he was a worthless shell of a unicorn that the world is just better off forgetting. Put him out of your mind, my dear.”

“I am not your ‘dear’, Dez’Cared! And surely there’s more to this Sombra then that. You looked like you were in pain. If he really was so worthless, why did his death cause you pain.”

“He and I are connected in more ways than one might imagine, Chrisy. That is all I will say on the matter for now. I promise that once I get back, I will tell you more.”

“Do not change the subject on me Dez’Cared! I will have no more of this- Wait?” Chrysalis stopped. “When you get back? Are you going somewhere?”

“Oh my, yes.” Discord replied. “Sombra’s death gives me an opportunity, a light window if you would. You see,” Discord paused examining his hand. “My powers are returning at a slower rate than I thought, so I’m fairly limited in what I can do right now. Sombra, in his death, left behind something that might boost my recovery somewhat. It will also allow me to bring her in sooner than I thought.”

“Her? Are you planning on bringing somepony into my home? I will not allow this.” Chrysalis growled at Discord anger building. How long had he been planning on bringing others here?

“Well, to be honest, I’ve been planning on bring two ponies here.” Discord said, a smirk on his face, his tone clearly telling Chrysalis that he was amused with himself. “Don’t worry, the one I’m planning on bringing here right now won’t be a threat. She’s merely coming here because she’s too much of a wild card.”

“Dez’Cared, I don’t want more unpredictable things in my Hive.” Chrysalis ground out.

“Even if she’s someone I'm sure you want to hurt?” Discord asked.

Chrysalis looked him in the eye, a spark of curiosity flowing through her mind. “And just who am I so excited to see suffer, that I’m willing to let them into my Hive.”

“Why don’t we make that a surprise, my dear?” Discord answered. He began walking towards the exit to his chambers.

Chrysalis followed. “That’s not how this works, Dez’Cared. You don’t just bring strangers into my home, into my species home with no information on whom these strangers are.”

“My dear,” Discord turned back to Chrysalis. “You sound as if you don’t trust me.”

“I don’t!” Chrysalis yelled.

“Good. That’s good.” Discord answered. “For now, know that I’m not going to bring threats into this place. Considering I’m staying here at the moment, it wouldn’t benefit me in the slightest.”

Chrysalis was silent for a moment. “If you expose me-“

“Calm yourself Chrysalis.” Discord raised his hands. “Trust me, you’ll love who I’m bringing. I imagine you’ll just be dying to spend some private time together when she gets here.” And with that, Discord left her and Nexus standing alone in the chambers.

For the next few moments, everything was silent. It was Nexus that broke it. “Mother?”

“Nexus.” Chrysalis spoke with an air of authority about her. “Please go to the guards at the entrance to tell them that if they see a single pony, let me know. I don’t care who it is, or what they’re doing, they let me know immediately.

“Yes, dear queen.” Nexus bowed and exited the room quickly, sensing that the queen was angry.

Chrysalis stood there for a moment fuming. She was tired of this creature having the upper hoof here. She would have to do something about that soon.

Chapter 1- Preparation

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Disclaimer: I don’t own My Little Pony

Chapter 1- Preparation

{Discord}

Not many races seemed able to stand the cold. Evolution had not allowed many races to be able to walk through it comfortably, let alone live in it.

For the life of him, Discord couldn’t understand why.

Snowflakes landed on him, here in the cold plains of the Frozen North. Layers upon layers of snow lay there undisturbed on the ground. The white seemed to stretch on for miles in all directions.

Discord stood there, eyes closed and arms outstretched, enjoying the physical sensation of the snow landing upon him. Next to the feel of chocolate rain, there was no feeling in the world that could quite match the pleasure he felt, standing here in the snow. Not even sex could compare. There was just something about the chill that the frost and rain did to him that stirred something deep within him.

Perhaps it was in part to the Wendigo in him.

Reluctantly, Discord opened his eyes and put the feel of the snow out of his mind. As tempting as it was to stand there for a little longer, he was on a little bit of a time constrain. For every moment that Sombra’s horn remained hidden and unattained, it’s power dwindled, ever so slightly and Discord would need all the power that he could get from the horn to put the next step of his plans in motion. There had been enough setbacks as it was.

Chrysalis had been the largest of them. He had been hoping that she would come around and begin to trust him, allowing him to more easily sway the changeling race towards his leadership. However she was proving to be more stubborn and strong willed then he would have liked. She openly questioned his motives daily, and she had been little more than an annoying thorn in his side.

And there was no simple solution to her brand of annoyance, oh no. Normally he would have used his charms and mind magic to simply reorganize her mind into something easier to control, but he couldn’t do that here. Her children would sense the manipulation and would likely turn on him for trying to “harm” their mother. In the state of his being, that being that he was weaker then he would normally be, he would be taking fewer risks then he would be taking most of the time.

‘One must consider both rewards reaped and dangers risked before action is taken. When the reward outweighs the risk, action can and should be taken. If the risk outweighs the reward, it might be better to try and come up with alternatives.’

Discord closed his eyes and chuckled, shaking his head. That stupid proverb had been stomped into his head ever since she had begun the process of teaching him. It served him well on occasion, but he would very often choose to ignore it.

However, for the time being, he was going to choose to follow it more often, at least until a large chunk of his power returned. Perhaps that was her punishment to him for ignoring what she had taught him. If he believed in such a thing, he would have said that she was looking down on him, frowning, clearly disappointed.

“Bah, no matter.” Discord said to himself, shaking his head slightly. Thinking of her would only distract him from the task at hand.

He concentrated, searching the air for the feel of Sombra’s horn. When Discord had twisted him into what he had been as the king of the Crystal Empire, he had been sure to put the mass of power corrupting his mind into His horn. He screamed for days while the shadows eroded his mind.

It had been an impossible task not to enjoy every second of his screams.

He could feel it. It was close, so close. All he would have to do would be to reabsorb the shadow magic he had “Blessed” Sombra with and he would gain back some of what he had lost.

And even if Sombra hadn’t held Discord’s power within him, he would have been able to find him. After all, they shared the same flesh, didn’t they? The same blood? Even after these hundreds of years, Discord still questioned it. What connected those who called each other family?

Not that he considered Sombra family. He may have once, long ago. But no longer.

Discord’s gaze was drawn to the ground a dozen or so yards away. There, in a small puddle of melted snow, was Sombra’s horn.

With a sigh of relief, Discord began to walk towards the horn. There was more power holding onto it then he had expected. Finally, something unexpected but good. This would surely shave a few days off the time needed to gather power for his “Pep talk” with Luna.

As he approached, a warm air seemed to emanate from the horn. Unsurprising really. Considering how much power that he was sensing, a little heat was to be expected. It was going to burn his claw when he picked it up though. He wasn’t looking forward to that.

Discord reached his griffon claw towards the horn. He could feel the air around his claw become hotter as it got closer and closer to the horn. As his claw came in contact with the horn, he heard a sizzle, and a second later, the pain coursed through him.

His claw felt like it was holding pure Tartarus fire. Unrelenting fire with an unquenchable thirst to destroy everything that it came into contact with. He winced as he lifted the horn from the ground. The pain was flowing through his arm. A part of him knew that the pain was only coming from his claw, but the pain was so intense that it seemed to be flowing through him.

Doing his best to ignore the pain (Though this was very much a futile effort.), Discord brought the tip of Sombra’s horn towards his stomach. After taking a breath to steady himself, Discord roughly plunged the tip into his stomach, piercing his hide.

Without pausing, Discord used the horn to cut a larger line upwards. Once he was satisfied with the size of the wound, he brought the horn away. He then placed the fingers of his manticore paw inside the wound, pulling the wound wider, similar to what he had done to the changeling he had examined just weeks previous.

Where one might expect blood and bone to be, the inside of Discord was completely empty. There was nothing inside of him. Looking into him, one would see blackness, stretching on seemingly forever. It was like space, but without the stars.

Discord was a very unique creature (Obviously). Where most creature required blood, organs, food, even air to survive, he didn’t. He was a being made entirely of magic. Forged from the blood and flesh of many, held together by magic. He wasn’t quite sure how he was able to exist, nor did he care. He had life like any other creature and unlike all the others, didn’t require an answer to the rhyme or reason to the specifics of his existence. He existed and that was all that mattered to him.

Inside of him, it was like a void. Whether or not this was his nature or not, he had never really cared to know. All that really mattered was that his power seemed to emanate from this empty still void.

Discord Brought Sombra’s horn towards the open wound, placing it inside. With a gentle push, he released his grasp on the horn, and it began to gently float within the void.

Once he was sure that Sombra’s horn wasn’t just going to randomly float out of the gaping hole in his stomach, Discord called upon the magic he had at his command. The flesh (Or at least it looked like flesh. He wasn’t quite sure if it was or not.) Around the edges of his wound morphed into what looked like tiny brown claws that were no larger than one of his fingers.

The tiny appendages stretched toward the other side of Discords wound, grabbing hold of the flesh. Their fingers began to blend into his flesh. This continued until there was no trace that there had ever been a wound there in the first place.

And now, he would wait.

This inaction was almost intolerable. This world was vast and there was so much in it. So much to do. Discord hated having to wait for anything. It was so boring.

But it wasn’t safe to move. Not even for him. When Sombra’s horn was completely reabsorbed into himself, there would be a massive surge of power. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that his Celesta and his Luna would feel it, even from all the way out here. Whether or not they would know if it was him, he was unsure. His little girls possessed quite the unpredictable thought processes, even by his standards.

A physical sensation pulsed through Discord’s chest. It was about to happen. Sombra’s power was about to return to him. He braced himself.

This was, however, something that one could not prepare themselves for.

His eyes transformed into a sickly bright green with red pupils. Dark energy flowed from his eyes in the form of mist.

The effects weren’t just limited to his eyes. Black veins appeared on his skin, covering almost every portion of his body. As they spread, Discord grit his teeth. It felt like his body was on fire, both on his skin, and inside his body.

And then, the real pain began. An enormous amount of Dark energy blasted out of every inch of the veins. It spread in every direction, extending about thirty feet.

Discord let out of scream. The pain was intense. It felt like his insides (If he had any) were being ripped from his body only to be torn shred to shred.

He tried to endure, though the pain made it difficult to think. Once this pain subsided within the next minute or two, He would have the power he needed for the next phase of his plan. This pain was temporary. He was eternal. He would be here long after this snow had vanished. He would be here long after the stars burned out. He would be here long after everything ended, leaving him the only creature to exist.

The pain began to end somewhat. As the pain lessened, a feeling of power began to flow through him. Where he had felt pain, He know felt the dark magic he had “Gifted” Sombra.

This feeling. It was addicting. Unicorn felt a rush when magic flowed through their horns, but even they could not even imagine the ecstasy of pure power. The universe seemed to envelope you in a tight second lair of flesh. It was like having your body transform into another pleasure center.

It was… Intoxicating, but also, enlightening.

No other creature could match Discord in terms of power. He was unique and utterly powerful. There was no pony like him. Even using the same methods Sombra had, even he could not create another like him. And that was fine really. When 2 thing were exactly the same, they were incredibly boring.

It was why he had done nothing to change the pony’s physiology when he had taken over. Despite the fact that they were insane, each one was so utterly unique that it had seemed like a crime to change them really.

But this was where the likeability ended and their insanity began. They could change nothing about themselves. They remained the same beings they were when they were born until they day they ceased to exist. They were all bound by personality, gender, color; Things that they had no control over.

While Discord was bound by none of these. If he disliked the color of his fur, he would change (not that he would at this point. He found himself greatly fond of his current color scheme and it would probably be a few centuries before he would grow bored of it). If he disliked his gender, he could simply switch.

How terribly stale, he would think to himself. What must it be like to be the same thing everyday when you wake? What must it be like to never question your role in life? What was it like to be branded on your backside, displaying to everyone your role in the world?

It twisted feelings of pity within him. Why did no pony question it? Why did they all just blindly go with what their flank told them to do?

It was madness in its rawest form. To be unquestioning to unsensible nonsense. To be completely illogical in the face of reason.

This also gave birth to anger, in addition to the pity he felt for pony kind. There was ignorance, and then there was denial. There was no way in Equestria that none could see the truth of their insanity. Yet, despite, they denied it, ignored it. How could they do that to themselves?

That would all change very soon. A wicked smile spread across his face, as he felt this new power flow through his being. He….He was Discord. He was eternal. He was immortal. Unkillable. Powerful. Intelligent. Sane!

He would show them. He would show them all. He would show them the truth by stripping away the insanity that plagued them all. He would show them the one simple truth of this world, if there ever was one.

“Everything, comes from, creates, and becomes, Chaos!”

As the high the dark magic provided him began to fade, His love and chaos and disharmony stabilized, as the time constrain he was under came back into his mind.

He looked off in the distance to the south, the sickly green glow leaving his eyes. His little Celestia and Little Luna would have surely felt such a large burst of Dark magic. That meant either that they would be sending a squad or two of guards to investigate, or (If he was lucky) they would be coming here themselves personally to discover the source. As tempted as he was to stay and reunite with them (Particularly his little Luna. He hadn’t seen her in over a thousand years), he knew he couldn’t take the risk.

While he had recovered a good chunk of his power from Sombra’s horn, he was still severely underpowered (At least in his terms). He wasn’t ready for this confrontation just yet. His little girls were quite strong.

No, this reunion would have to wait, just a tad longer. It was more pressing that he fetch, the one thing he still needed from Canterlot.

This wouldn’t take long, now that he had more of his power. It would simply be a matter of teleporting to Canterlot (he hoped that the mere act wouldn’t deplete him too much, otherwise he would have to wait a few more days to pick up Twilight.), possess one of the guards, and take one of the Unicorn Restraining Ring.

They were a fascinating piece of magic. They hadn’t existed when he had reigned. He wondered if his little Celestia had helped in their creation. Probably not. They were a very fiendish device. He doubted she had the coldness of heart to commission them.

By placing these devices onto the horn of a unicorn, the device sent tiny sparks into the unicorn’s horn, traveling along the nerves into the brain. These sparks were relatively harmless, though headaches were common among subjects wearing the device. These sparks however nulled the part of the brain that controlled the process of gathering magic from your body to the horn. As a result, any unicorn wearing a Restraining Ring would be unable to access their magic.

It was said that alicorns could shake off the effects in a few minutes and remove the Ring themselves, but there was no proof of this to be found. Apparently none of the alicorns had submit themselves to test this fact.

Normally, Discord would have no need for such a device. After all, if he wanted to ensure that a unicorn wouldn’t be able to use their power, he would just take away their horns. His lack of power at the moment, as temporary as it would be, had led him to be unable to do so for an extended period of time. He could take Twilight Sparkle’s horn only for a day, maybe two.

He was confident in his abilities. He truly was. But he was no fool. Twilight, was a very smart mare. She had been raised by his little Celestia, entrenched in her philosophies, conditioned to see anything different as wrong. It would take a great deal of time and talk to convince her of anything otherwise. His little Celestia was a very manipulative teacher.

In that way, she was so like him. She understood. Expose a young one to your truth. Let them know nothing else except your truth, and they will die for your beliefs. It was a shame that Celestia had exposed Twilight to the wrong truth. This false belief in Harmony, in control, in sacrificing yourself for the supposed “Greater good”.

It sickened him, really. He felt shame that such an ideology could come from anything that had come from him. Though of course, the influence could have come from her. In fact, he was certain of it.

Shaking his head, Discord cleared his head of his thoughts as they began to slink back into his past, so long, long ago. He could not afford to fall into memories now, now that there was almost certainly somepony on their way.

His thoughts shifted to Canterlot. The closest thing he had to a real home. He had even lived there longer than Cloudsdale. It had been the seat of his kingdom. From there, the entire nation had bent to his will. It had been his ever changing paradise. Constantly changing building, shifting styles, and the spectrum of colors ever changing every moment. It had been his masterpiece.

The thought of seeing it as it currently was saddened him somewhat. His capital would no longer be the ever changing city he had left it as, but a boring, stale shadow of its former self.

With the image of Cantorlot in his head, Discord gathered his magic in his fingers, and snapped. And in a bright flash of light, he was gone.

There was no trace that had been there at all. Or if there was, though snow would soon consume any of the evidence left behind.

He hadn’t stood a chance. Even if he had seen Discord.

But he hadn’t. A pity. He would have liked to see the guard’s expression when he performed the possession. But sometimes, one didn’t get what they want.

Floating above his prey, Discord began to examine his target. He was a regular looking Pegasus guard, at least by his little Celestia’s standards. A white coat with a blue mane and tail. His half lidded eyes were a shade of teal. He wore the traditional armor of the Canterlot guard. A golden helmet with a crest, similarly colored to much his mane. He wore a chestpiece of gold that went from his chest to his flank, but with hole to allow his wings freedom of movement. On each of his hoofs was a golden slipper.

He was a grunt in every sense of the word. Not a trace of emotion crossed his face. If there even was emotion on his face, it was indistinguishable from the stoic look he presented the world with. It was the same as his features. He had none.

There was nothing to distinguish him from any other guard. Their coat was the same. Their mane was the same. Their Armor was the same.

It was a crime against their race. Every pony was born with a unique look. Yet these “guards” (He would never understand why Celestia kept guards. She didn’t need them. She was powerful enough to defend herself without the use of regular ponies.) seemed to throw away all of these unique features they possessed for the prospect of no identity.

Truly, these ponies were the very essence of the insanity plaguing the pony race.

Wasting no more time, pondering all this. Discord began the process. His claws took hold of the guard’s front hoofs. As he took hold of them, his claws and arms began to sink into his victim. He/the guard instantly cringed at the uncomfortable sensation of another lifeform entering them. As more of his form entered the Guard, he began to become ghostly in appearance. His form disappeared as he became one with this pony.

As Discord became just a floating head, one that could be seen right through and be thought of as a hallucination. He opened his mouth, wider than any mouth was supposed to able to. Positioning himself so that the guard’s head was inside his mouth, he snapped his mouth shut.

There many sensation as his head entered the head he now inhabited. He was afraid. Something was inside of him, something alien. It was amused. His fear was amusing this unknown force. He thrashed as best he could inside his own head. He thrashed in the vain hope that he could throw this thing out of him.

It took Discord a few moments to separate this guards thoughts from his own. Even though he was conscious in a sense of the word, he could no longer bother Discord with onslaught of fear and resistance. Granted, taking this route had ensured the pony would be brain dead when he left the body, but that was of little consequence. He wanted to dress and look like everypony, who was Discord to argue. Tarturaus, he would even help the guard. He would make it so that this guard looked and acted like any corpse in Equestria. What larger majority could one hope to imitate?

Discord took a moment to take in his surroundings. He was in a garden of some sorts. (He wasn’t familiar with the complete layout of the castle. He wasn’t really interested in what kind of mess that his little Celestia had made of His place.) Statues of ponies who had either lived long ago or never existed at all stood upon stone slabs on the grass. The body he inhabited was standing on a stone pathway, stretching out, turning and swirling, creating the road through this place.

Gingerly, he took a step forward with his new body. It felt slightly odd to be walking on all fours again, but there was nothing he could do about that. These bodies were not designed to walk on two hoofs. Still, it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant sensation.

He continued his pace with an air of purpose. Now that he had connected to this guard, their knowledge was now his to access. He now knew where he had to go. The armory near the barracks. There he would find the restraining ring that he desired. Once he had that, the cogs of his plan would begin to spin. Everything would come together as he had desired, baring small variations in other’s actions. Not that these variations would matter. Twilight and his little Luna would join him and stand by his side, the changeling hive would bow down and worship him properly as their God, and Chysalis would become his loyal follower. He was not sure though which role she would fulfill. His slave or his pet? Perhaps he would flip a bit.

As he walked down the path, he came across a familiar face. From down the path, he could see the statue he had left in place of his former prison, sitting atop a dais. Where once he sat atop it, stone covering the entirety of his form, draining him of his magic, now stood a stone copy of him, meticulously shaped down to the last detail. His little Celestia was a very sharp observer, and he had no desire to tip her off to the fact that he was no longer there, free to wreak untold havoc upon her so called kingdom. He still had so much to do before it became safe for her to discover his escape.

Discord had already decided that it would soon after, if not exactly after, he had brought his little Luna into the folds of his plans. Her corruption would be impossible to hide from little Celestia. And his involvement would also be impossible to hide, no matter how clever he was about it. It wasn’t a question of whether his weakened state prevented him from pulling the wool over her eyes, it was more a question of how much he would have to screw with her brain functions before she bought anything he could come up with.

He wouldn’t want to do that at all, not in a million years. A billion. Trillion! After all this time, watching her grow so smart, so strong, where would the challenge be in altering her state to bring her around to his way of thinking? Where would the fun be in watching her embracing the laws of chaos knowing that he had just snapped his fingers, bringing this change about by force? Where would his satisfaction be in taking the easy route?

Granted, he had no qualms about doing this to little Luna. In fact, taking the easy route was kind of what he was planning on doing to her. But, Luna was different. It wasn’t her fault, it was just the way things had shaped up. She had been up on the moon for a thousand years sleeping, like him. She hadn’t had the time to grow like little Celestia had. It wasn’t a matter that one was better than the other. It was simply a matter of circumstances.

Shaking the pony’s head, Discord brought himself out his thoughts. He found that he was having to do that more and more recently. He would need to work on that at some point. He would have time, he suspected, when he and Twilight Sparkle returned to the hive. For now however, his destination was the armory.

With his thoughts now turned towards his current goal, Discord turned away from his former prison’s dais and continued down the stone path.

Within a few minutes of walking, he found himself arriving at his destination. The Guard’s Pony Armory. It was a simple building. The standard gray brick ascending upwards creating three stories. The building had not windows. Its wall contained banners of the two princess. Some holding the sun of Celestia, some holding the moon of Luna. In front of the double doors leading into the building was one more of the guards who refused themselves any sort of individouality.

Walking up to this waste of sentient thought, Discord walked towards the door. He hadn’t intended to waste his words on this lost cause, but of course, the stoic guard decided that he wanted to be sociable.

“I thought you were supposed to be patrolling the gardens?”

Slightly wincing at the prospect of having to talk to anypony, Discord schooled his body’s expression into one of neutrality, and replied, “I was, but we’re getting reports of a possible domestic dispute, so, being the never ending pot of luck that I am, I get to grab a ring and check it out. Yay.”

A small, almost invisible smile graced the other guard’s face. “I didn’t hear anything about that. Then again, almost nopony comes here. And I am here by myself.” The guard almost turned away, but looked back at Discord. “By the way, you alright? You’re eyes are looking a little yellow.”

An unavoidable side effect of possession. The sclera of his victims would become the same shade of yellow as his own. “I don’t know. I guess I feel a little unwell, but hey. What are you going to do? Can’t exactly bail.”

“You know, there’s been this amazing development in the work place in the last couple of centuries.” The guard replied, a smirk making its way across his face. “It’s called sick leave.”

“Like I said, I don’t exactly feel ill. Just unwell.” Discord said. Wanting to end this conversation quickly, he began to turn the body and walk away. “Besides, who knows what’ll happen if I go up to resources and request leave because my eyes are changing color.”

“Last time I checked, they didn’t execute ponys for requesting sick leave! Not in this country!” The guard shouted to Discord, as he walked away. “And I’m pretty sure that eye colors changing is not something they’d scoff at! Just get yourself checked out! Please!”

He had barely even heard that last part. He was already trying to rush ahead to where the rings were held. He could barely hold in his excitement. A short jog away was the tool he needed to keep Twilight Sparkle contained. Once he had that, he could see her again.

Oh how he was looking forward to that. To once again take in her visage. To see her and imagine all the possibilities that could be. He had so much to ask her as well. How she had been, how life had been without him in it? All that and more he would learn as soon as he had this one object.

The object he could now see. A shelf several feet ahead of him held many of the Restraining Rings, along with a wide variety of things that he could not bring himself to care about. Bringing himself to a slow, before stopping completely, he took a moment to admiring the ring.

It was about the size of a normal ring, only pitch black. He had read that they were made from molten rock. The inside of the ring was smooth, but the outside was covered in archaic symbols that even he himself could not read. A part of his mind wondered what they were, while the other part told him that they weren’t important.

That part of his brain was correct. What mattered was that this object was the key to his reunion with his favorite lavender unicorn. Gingerly, he picked up the object with his hoofs. He wished he could use his fingers. How did ponies even hold things? Looking around for something to ease this burden, his eyes locked onto a small bag on a desk nearby. Awkwardly making his over to the desk while keeping the ring in his grasp. Placing the ring in the bag, he proceeded to tie the bag to the armor this guard word.

Making his way back out of the building, he could not help but feel his excitement building again.

Twilight Sparkle.

How would this time apart have changed her? Not a lot, he hoped. He liked her as she had been when she had sealed him up. He allowed a smile to stretch across his face.

“Hold on tight Twilight Sparkle.” He said to himself. “Your savior is on his way.”

Author's Notes:

After a longer time then really should have been necessary, this chapter finally is finished. I'm not going to make any promises about when the next chapter is going to be up, because at the current moment, I'm going to begin writing the first chapter or two to a new set of storys I've had in my head for a year now. Also, with the release of the new season, I feel it's the best time to say this. I will be trying to include as much as I can regarding revelations on the past and lore as they are revealed in the show. However, events will occur as I already have clearly in my head. For example, I will still be having Discord be sealed up, but it will be VERY different from how the episode Princess Twilight Sparkle says it happened. In addition, The new story I'm working on, Forged Through Fire, will have an almost completely different lore of how the world developed (Besides some ideas I'm copying and pasting from this story regarding Changeling lore). Thank you all for your continued support of this story.

A King, The Queens, and Their Games

by S-K Of The Flame

Prologue P1- Freedom

Prologue P2- Perfect

Prologue P3- Opportunity

Chapter 1- Preparation