The Host of Insanity

I turned around, and sure enough, Discord was standing in the doorway, though he looked human and not anthropomorphic, which I found weird. He was wearing a brown leather jacket and pants, and no shirt under his jacket, which was left open on the front. The right arm of his jacket was torn off and a orange sleeve was sewn in it's place. The left sleeve was replaced by a yellow and black striped fabric, and each was frayed at the end. The designs on his pants stopped abruptly in the middle, each design had nothing to do with the other. On the left they were green with black arrows crossing in every which way, curling around each other. On the right they were orange with a stripe down the middle of the leg, which in itself was stripped white and black. It vaguely reminded me of a tiger’s fur. Across his bare chest was a series of scars that criss-crossed any way they chose. Under the mismatch of white tissue was a faded tattoo that, after taking a minute to decypher the sporadic shapes and symbols, spelled CHAOS in big letters. On his head, where I expected to see two proud spires of horns, were remnants of an encounter with some kind of beast, they were now only two shattered stumps. The hair on his head was a mat of white with streaks of black and grey in various places that matched his equally disorganized gotee. His face held no joy or mischief, only despair and sorrow, with a hint of hope, his golden eyes reflecting the same feelings.

“Are you coming?” He asked, annoyance in his tone.

“Yeah...I’m just surprised to find out that you were the one that helped me, well us.” I replied.

“Yeah, well, I had help.” He nearly growled.

“Wha-” Was all I got out before he turned and left me in the room.

“Hey wait come back! What do you mean...you...had...help...” I began to say, before I was rudely interrupted by my amazement at what I was seeing.

We had left my room and entered a hallway, that immediately lead to a rather large, wooden kitchen where King Sombra was currently making Queen Chrysalis try his newest creation, some kind of casserole made of various plants.

I did a double take as the both of them stopped their arguing and looked over to me and Discord and they both nodded at me with...was that respect? Next to the kitchen was an open room, an entire wall was made out of glass, that showed the landscape through it.

We were in a tall building of sorts that overlooked a forest. The Everfree Forest was the only one that I remembered from the show, but this one seemed different somehow. I almost overlooked the dark blue mare that was currently sitting on a couch reading a book with thin glasses upon her muzzle.

And even Nightmare Moon. This is certainly a strange occurrence. I thought that the evils of the show couldn’t even stand each other, let alone live with each other...

“Find something you like?” Asked the Mare in the Moon, interrupting my thoughts.

I hadn’t even noticed that I was staring at her in awe, “No mam! I-I was just...admiring the view.” I said, I almost expected her to hit me with a beam of magic right there an end my existence in Equestria.

“Right,” She said slowly, almost mockingly, “so you’re the new recruit right?”

I looked to Discord, who had somehow gotten behind me, for confirmation, “Yes, yes he is.”

“Huh...I thought he would be... I dunno, better?”

“Whoa there Nightmare, that was a low blow!” I heard Sombra say from the kitchen, I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but apparently Nightmare could.

“Shut up Sombra, or I will show you how vivid a nightmare can be!” She yelled at nearly the volume of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

As the two continued their shouting match, Discord dragged me into a separate room, where my double was already digging into a plate of green eggs and toast.

He looked up and said with a full mouth, “Oh hey! Good to see that you are up! I heard you scream and I came in to check on you and saw that you had a horn! How did that happen?”

“Its called the Chameleon Effect, Darkside.” Said Discord as he sat down in one of the mahogany chairs that surrounded the matching table.

“Darkside huh? I see you finally found a name for yourself, although it's a bit...dark.” I said to the stallion as he was stuffing his face with another peculiarly colored egg.

“Yeah, but it’s true isn’t it? I was your dark side when we were in the same body. I was your evil half.” He said through slurps.

“Well then, that just leaves me...hmm...” I said.

“You don’t have a name?” Asked Discord.

“Well I did, but that was before I was brought over here by Celestia. That reminds me, why the heck are you guys helping us when you are evil, AND Celestia brought me here in the first place?” I inquired.

“Well, technically I brought you here.” Said a deep gravely voice from behind me.

I turned to see Sombra in his black ‘Kiss the Cook...Or Else’ apron, coffee in hand. “And we aren’t the evil ones! It's that bitch Celestia that’s evil!” Said Chrysalis from behind him, with as much venom in her words as possible without it leaking onto the floor.

“Uh...elaborate please?” I said, dazed by what I had just heard.

“Ugh, we are seriously gonna have to tell them this from the beginning aren’t we? Fine whatever, NIGHTMARE! GET IN HERE AND TELL THE STORY!! AND BRING A COFFEE FOR OUR GUESTS!” Chrysalis yelled to the other room.

“ALRIGHT I’M COMING!!” We heard footsteps, as well as the pouring of coffee.

Suddenly she was in the doorway, two steaming mugs in hand, “Here you go recruit, and company.” She said, giving cups to me and my twin respectively.

“Now y’all had better take a seat, this is gonna take awhile.” She continued.

Everypony did as they were instructed, allowing me to see them more clearly. Sombra was wearing dark blue jeans, with various patches of what appeared to be flour. Under his...unusual apron was a black wife-beater that showed off his grey fur covering his shoulders. His eyes were a bright green, while where I expected to find purple smoke leaking from their corners, I found none. I found this peculiar, but didn’t address it. His mane was in dreads that were tied together in the back. His deep voice had a tinge of a Jamaican accent to it. As he sat down, he brought out a bottle of...was that Red Stripe? He then poured some into his coffee.

Stereotypical much? I thought with a slight chuckle.

My eyes moved on to look at Chrysalis, who was wearing basically the same thing Sombra was, but her wife-beater was a deep green that matched her eyes. And her jeans were torn in many places to reveal the holes in her legs beneath. Matching holes could also be found on her arms and hands where she currently held a mug that had a picture of a caterpillar’s metamorphosis on the side. As she took a sip of the black liquid, I noticed that her mouth contained fangs just before her mane fell down and covered her face. Her mane matched her shirt in color.

Nightmare had taken off her cute little glasses, much to my dismay. She had on light blue shorts and a loose shirt. Her mane flowed in an imaginary wind, while familiar white specks shimmered and shined on it. She cleared her throat and took a seat at the head of the table.

“Once upon a time, there was balance. Not harmony mind you, but complete balance in the world. Equal amounts of chaos and harmony. Back then, us immortals lived in peace with one another. Celestia controlled the day, Luna the night, same as usual." She began.

"I controlled dreams and Discord controlled, well chaos. Chrysalis monitored the relationships between countries, causing a war when it was needed with her spies, or making sure a peace treaty went along without a hitch. Sombra here was in control over the flow of magic throughout the world. We all made sure that the world was in balance, and we were worshipped for it." She continued, each pony nodding at their name.

"None of us ruled a country, we were always thought of more as gods than actual beings. They erected shrined in our honor, where we would go and collect the gifts given to us. We were worshipped, given gifts, and lived in eternal bliss, that was until the sisters got greedy. They wanted more, they wanted to rule. They literally shot us in the backs, imprisoning us in the Everfree before we could stop them. They eventually came to rule over the country now known as Equestria through the slavery of it's original inhabitants and the destruction of it's civilizations." She hung her head slightly.

"They even went as far as to make nearly all life on the planet extinct so they could monitor and re-write the evolutionary process, so only certain species would exist. When we finally broke out of our prison, it was too late. We fought back anyways, and managed to put Discord in charge, seeing as he was the only one that could bring back the planet’s natives. But we underestimated the sisters and they managed to not only take him off the throne, but turn him to stone and take away most of his magic, as well as destroy his horns and wings. He miraculously became reborn, while Chrysalis kept tabs on the sisters from the inside with her spies, I managed to possess Luna, but was banished for a thousand years and when I came back, I was forcefully removed from her mind. Luckily, before I was destroyed, Sombra managed to make me a body and bind my soul to it. I still ended up losing my magic though.” She finished.

“Hey don’t forget the part about me becoming a king!” Noted Sombra as he took a long swig of his beer laced coffee.

“Oh right, in the time when Discord got turned to stone, before I got banished, Sombra decided to try and balance the world by taking over the most peaceful city and basically making it's citizen’s lives hell. It worked for awhile until the sisters banished him too.” Nightmare finished.

“But before they managed to do that, I cast a spell on them so they would be in a time loop for one thousand years. It managed to slow down the destruction of the world, but it wasn’t enough to stop it.” Sombra continued.

“Wait, destruction of the world? Why haven’t I been told of this yet?” I asked, losing my normally cool composure.

“Because mister...uh-”

“Sureshot, his name is Sureshot.” Interrupted my twin, who finally managed to clear his plate.

“Ok, because Mr. Sureshot, we weren’t sure if we could trust you, but seeing as how you are not running away screaming and yelling that you are going to report us to the royal guard, we think that you can handle the mission.”

“Mission? What mission? I need to be better informed than this if I am going to help you guys!” I said matter-of-factly

“We can worry about that later, for now we need to start the induction process.” Said Chrysalis.

“Wait, what? What are you going to do to me? S-stay away!” I yelled while they backed me into a corner.

“Just relax.” Said Nightmare.

“It will all be over soon.” Continued Chrysalis.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in the center of my skull. I clenched my head in my hands and slowly got down to my knees. The last thing I saw, was the dark wooden floor approaching my face.