Humans in Equestria

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 5

Discord

A day after Zeos funeral

Celestia stood in front of the statue of her ancient foe. It had been over a thousand years, since Luna and she had used the elements of harmony to defeat him. The incarnation of chaos itself, Discord. Beside her stood the new bearers of the elements, whom she had summoned here. All six of them looked worried, but determined to go through with the Princesses plan.

Twilight Sparkle had tried to talk her out of it, remembering the tales her mentor had told her about the spirit of chaos. Celestia however, would have none of it. She had lost her brother in law, her niece was inconsolable and her pregnant sister was not waking up, even though she was physically fine. The Princesse of the sun was determined to find out if Discord knew something about the intruder, that had caused all of this.

“Are you ready girls?”, she asked, never looking away from the statue. After a short pause, Twilight confirmed that they were. A moment later, Celestias horn flashed in a brilliant golden light, as she dispelled the prison that she and Luna had cast on Discord. As soon as the last piece of stone had fallen away from the former statue, the Draqonecus  that had been trapped within wrapped himself around Celestias midrift. At first, she thought that he was attacking her, until she felt him trembling. There was also none of his trademark laughter, which disturbed her even more. Before she could speak, Discord broke the silence.

“Hide me! For everything that's holy Celestia, HIDE ME!”, Discord pleaded, and Celestia could not detect any trickery.

“What? What should I hide you from Discord?”, Celestia asked, completely caught off guard.

“HER! JANE! HIDE ME! SHE'LL KILL ME IF SHE FINDS ME!”, Discord wailed, now shifting his attention to the bearers of the elements of harmony.

“Oh? The elements? Good thinking, but they won't work against her.”, he added, scratching his chin with his talon.

“So you know who attacked us then?”

After some small talk, Celestia decided that Discord was no threat to Equestria right now. He was too frightened to even use his magic for fear of being detected by this “Jane”. She was not foolish enough to let him roam about freely. The bearers of the elements were to stay in the palace for now, just in case they would be needed after all. Celestia and Discord retired to the Princesses private study to talk more privately.

“So... Who is she? What does she look like exactly? I only have a vague description of a human woman. I hope you can give me a little more.”, she demanded once they had settled onto sofas on opposite sides of a small table.

“Jane... is not really a human. How do you know about humans anyway Celestia? I thought I was the only one who liked to travel between dimensions for some fun.”, Discord replied, helping himself to a slice of cake from the table. Celestia eyed this critically. She did not trust Discord yet, and had only agreed to talk to him in private, because she knew she was immune to his magic.

“Shortly after we turned you into stone, a human came to Equestria by accident. We are currently housing his family as well. And even though I noticed you did not answer my question, it would be helpful if you could send them home. They have expressed that wish since... well since the first human that came here died.”, Celestia explained, wary not to reveal to much to the master of chaos.

“Killed you say? That's not good....”, Discord looked even more frightened then he had when Celestia had released him from his prison, and appeared to loose himself in his thoughts. The Princess let him do so for a few minutes, before clearing her throat to regain his attention.

“It is oddly out of character for you to be so serious Discord.”, she mused as his gaze fell on her again.

“Well excuse me Celestia, but my own life is on the line. I find it hard to stay serious, but I can't joke around, or spread chaos when it is in my best interest that Equestrias defenses are at their best!”

“You still haven't answered my questions.”, Celsetia stated blantly. Discord began to fidget a little, but started talking eventually.

“You see.... Jane is my daughter. I transformed her body into that of a human, before she was even born. Her mother was a human, so I thought it would make it easier for her to live among her mothers kin. The only problem were her eyes. They resisted my magic vehemently. After she was born, she grew up quite normally and no one suspected that anything was wrong with her. Then, one day, she started to develop her magical potential. She was almost twenty at the time, so I had almost given up on the possibility that she had any....”, Discord trailed off, grimacing as if remembering something very unpleasant.

“She was out with a few of her human friends when it happened. Jane suddenly became violent and ended up killing her friends. I stopped her in the end, but before I could, she had laid waste to the village that she and her mother were living in. My daughter killed every single one of the villagers, but they did not stay dead. She has a very unique talent for magic that involves souls...”

“You don't mean to say that she resurrects them?”, Celestia interrupted aghast.

“In a way, yes. But it's certainly not what you have in mind Celestia. As an Alicorn you should be familiar with souls. You are a Demigod after all.”

“I have never really looked into the matter. Luna is the one who has a connection to Tarterus, not me.”

“That's a shame then. I hate to explain things, but I will if I have to... You see, it is like this. Imagine a ball that is made purely out of gold. That is the core of the soul. But you can rarely see it, even if you look into the soul of somepony, because it is surrounded by other balls that are completely black. The golden core, harbors all that is good in a being. The others house all the negative emotions, desires and the like. My daughter takes all of these into herself when she kills someone and creates a body for them. The result is an exact copy of the one she killed. There will only be a few minor differences. The first is, that this “copy” is utterly loyal to Jane. The second is, that it is also completely evil. A good person, that has violent fantasies, but would never give in to them, will be a murderer for example. The saddest thing however, is that a soul that has been cripled like this will be unable to move on. Tartarus only accepts souls which are whole. Those who are incomplete, are doomed to wander the world in search for their lost pieces until they find them, or their souls energy runs out. If that happens, they simply vanish.”, Discord explained, a sad expression on his face.

“...so.... What... What did you do with her? You seem pretty sure that she will kill you, if she is given the chance, so you surely did something to protect yourself.”, Celestia stuttered, hard pressed to take it all in.

“I did take precautions. I took Jane to Equestria, and she was furious about it. The more magical energy she absorbed, the crazier she got. I believe that this may also be the reason for her insanity. However, once we were here she started to wreck the place. Since this was aeon's before the first Pony ever crawled out of the seas, there were no casualties. After a while she decided to go after me. That's when I.... I banished her. I used my magic of creation to create a barren planet in a dimension that was uninhabited otherwise. After a long struggle, in which I got badly injured, I managed to seal her in that dimension. She was still my daughter however, so I did not want her to be all alone. After I had recovered a bit, I took her favorite toy when she was a child, and gave it life and awareness. It was to keep her company. I didn't dare to open a portal to her world that was big enough for her to step through, so I just kinda tossed it through a small one. Some years later, I took another look and found that the “toy” had created a whole civilization of machines. Their sole purpose was to destroy Jane, but she plowed through their ranks like they were mere flies. It was.... horrifying what that cute little girl had become... Somehow the seal I put on her world must have been broken, or she wouldn't be here right now. I sensed her, the moment she came through. You are  quite lucky that she was weakened when she did, or Canterlot would not be standing anymore.”

“Weakened? What do you mean? She defeated Luna, escaped several royal guards with a long range teleportation spell and killed my brother in law, who was more then capable to look after himself! Are you saying she did that while she was tired?”, Celestia burst out, and Discord nodded.

“She is a powerful little chap. Wait... don't tell me... your brother in law? So sweet little Luna finally found a stallion she fancied?”, Discord grinned.

“Not so much a stallion, I admit. It was the first human who came to Equestria.”, Celestia sighed. Now that she had slipped, she might as well tell Discord everything.

“A HUMAN? That is interesting. I hope she doesn't take his loss to badly. The worst is still to come after all. Once Jane has recovered, she will form his bad side a body and sent him to do her bidding. Luna might have to face him.”

“She... She hasn't woken up since the encounter with your daughter.”

“She hasn't? Oh... I think I know what happened. Jane has a habit that has always kind of annoyed me. If she is not strong enough to win a fight, but is sure that a fight with her full power would be fun for her, she puts her victim into a coma until she has recovered enough to be at her best. Luna can consider herself lucky that Jane sees her as a worthy opponent, or she would b dead by now. I can break her spell pretty easily. We will need every Alicorn we can get to fight Jane off. I just hope you two are enough to deal with her.....”, that was when someone interrupted the master of chaos, by clearing her throat.

“Make that three.”, Silk Light said, as she entered her aunts private study.

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

He felt cold. Every inch of his body felt as if he was standing in the middle of a snowstorm in the dead of night. He did not know where he was. When he opened his eyes, he found that he was surrounded by darkness. Only a small red light blinked in and out of existence a few feet away from him.

He tried to move, but couldn't. His body seemed to be encased in a block of solid stone. The only things he could move were his neck and his.... ears? He felt strange for some reason. He could feel magical energy all around him, but it refused to come to him. There was no magic whatsoever in his body to cast an illumination spell, or to break free from whatever it was that was holding him. When he started to move his head around, to see if he could make anything out in the darkness, the red light started to flash more rapidly, and a low buzzing sound could be heard.

This was quickly followed by the hissing of something next to his head. Before he could make out what it was however, he fainted again....

*~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~*

“Oh? And who might you be? My my, you are quite the cute one. Do you have any plans for tonight already?”, Discord asked, eying the newcomer with interest.

“My name is Silk Light, and your “daughter”, killed my father.”, Silk said coldly. Discord recoiled, looking from Silk to Celestia and then to Silk again.

“Your father is the human that was killed? As in... Lunas lover? Now that is certainly interesting. I did miss some fun stuff while I was decorating your garden Celestia.”, Discord tried to joke, but failed. Even the spirit of chaos had noticed that he had been a tad tactless.

“Yes. My father is.... was Princess Lunas husband, and I will do everything in my power to bring his murderer to justice.”, she answered with more determination then Celestia had ever seen in her.

“Think it through Silk. Your father was a skilled fighter, and he was killed. You lost all your knowledge about combat magic when you were freed of Nightmare Moon. You wouldn't stand a chance if you....”, but Celestia got interrupted by a fireball that flew past her, and into the fireplace.

“I did loose all the knowledge Nightmare Moon had, yes... But you forget that I spent quite some time in my fathers mind. I just didn't want you to worry about me.”, Silk admitted.

“So...”, Discord began. “You think you can fight Jane on equal footing?”

“I don't think so. I know so. I have memorized each and every spell my father had in his minds library while I was looking for what I needed at the time. If these are not enough, then I don't know what is.”

“But Silk... you have never been in a fight since you were freed. You have never actually used these spells in a combat situation.”, Celestia tried to reason with her niece, but she would have none of it.

“I can fight. I might have lost all magical knowledge that Nightmare Moon had, but I still remember my fight with dad in old Canterlot quite well. I know how to look for an opening in my opponents defense, and when to strike. Aunt Celestia, if you won't let me fight, then I will go out alone and hunt that witch down myself.”, Silk said, with more then a bit of steel in her voice.

Celestia sighed. She knew what drove her niece. It was the grief for her dead father, whom she had loved dearly, that drove her forward. If she forbade her to participate in this, she was sure that her niece would make good on her words and go alone.

“Very well... I don't know what's gotten into me, but I suppose it is better then having you wander around Equestria alone, without a clue on where to look. Not to mention taking on an enemy, that I am not sure you can take on alone. I'm quite certain that Luna will be mad at me for this....”

“I most certainly will not sister, for I understand my daughters reasoning.”, Lunas voice came from the shadows of the room, shortly before she stepped out of them.

“Luna!”, Celestia exclaimed, jumping up and hugging her sister.

“It is good to be back... again. Sister, Silk has told me everything, and I can assure you that Zeos soul has not moved on. His soul got nowhere near Tartarus. I will set out and try to find what is left of it, before it is too late. I may be able to conserve it, until we can get the rest of his soul back where it belongs.”, Luna said while nuzzling her sister affectionately.

“I don't want to interrupt the heartwarming reunion, but you do realize what this means, don't you?”, Discord interjected.

“That she is ready to fight me again. Let her come. She caught me by surprise last time. This time, I will be prepared for her.”, Luna hissed in Discords direction

“I meant, that you might have to face your husband, before Jane shows herself. She's sure to send him first, just to see how you react.”, the spirit of chaos sighed. It became harder and harder for him to stay this serious. It was just not in his nature.

“I....”, Luna began, but was interrupted by a munching sound that came from the half open door of Celestias study. As the four of them turned to look for the source of the noise, Zeo stood in the half open doorway. He looked exactly as Celestia and Silk remembered him, just before he had flown head first to his death. His face was split by a feral grin, while fat glistened around his mouth. A terrible smell wafted into the room, that made Luna gag. Celestia knew the smell however. As she looked down on her brother in law, she saw what looked like the roasted remains of a Pegasus wing. There were teeth marks in it, where he had taken a bite out of it.

“You know....”, he began after he swallowed the bite he had been chewing. “These Pegasi taste almost exactly like chicken.”