Transequine Dreams: Mark of Ages

"Discord? Discord! Show yourself, it's time."

The princess of the sun roamed the marble halls of Canterlot castle, her horn aglow with the pale yellow of a locating spell. The day was slow, and nary a pony could be found. Not even the royal guard was on duty, sent off instead to investigate a unicorn stallion rumored to possess many dangerous and illegal artifacts. Only Luna was there, fast asleep in her quarters. If anything of national significance were to transpire between Princess Celestia and the only living master of chaos magic, word of it would be well-contained, and that's the way she wanted it today.

Across the hall, the draconequus known as Discord walked down the stairs of his new private wing, a paw failing to stifle the huge yawn on his face.

"Geez, Celly, don't you expect me to be where I say I'll be? You've had me cooped up in there for, let's see, one, two, five, seven whole days! Without using chaos! Do you have any idea what kind of crick in the neck that gives me?"

He proceeded to crack his back in multiple places while twisting his head a full three-sixty. Every noise threatened to break Celestia's well-practiced stone face. Finally finished, another yawn escaped him.

"I'm sorry, Discord. I know this must be difficult for you, but I assure you that this is by far the most important act you could perform for Equestria right now. I promise never to ask so much of you again if you are truly as uncomfortable as you've said." Many times, every day.

Discord fixed a hard gaze back on Celestia, perhaps in defiance to his sudden need to sit down on the bottom step.

"If there's one thing I still have, it's my pride. I'll get over this in a snap - just tell me one thing..." He held up a finger, and would have teleported behind her if not for the situation at hand. His expression softened into one of childlike bewilderment as his finger went limp. "What exactly am I saving all of my wonderful chaos for again?"

The princess gave a brief smile. Good, he's still going along with this. Fluttershy really did touch his heart. "Do you recall the creature Luna told us about?"

"Ah, yes, the human. Pray tell, what do you want me to do with that one? How is a human important enough to charge my magic for a week? You aren't suggesting I bring it here?"

Celestia's somber look returned. "That is precisely the plan. But the hallway is not the place to discuss this." Her horn flashed, and an instant later, the two arrived in Discord's room with a pop. It was truly a Discordian sight to behold. The walls were of every color, material, and consistency, except marble. A swing-set and a disco ball hung where a chandelier should have been. Beach balls, paddle balls, and bobble-heads lined the shelves. A cotton candy waterfall fell up through the ceiling and back from the floor. The rest of the room contained a bed with a built-in toy racetrack, a huge aquarium with fish that appeared to come straight from a lava lamp, and a floating, swirling sphere of books that would make Twilight Sparkle's brain hurt as much as a Tetris player's. The last two bathed the room in a light that would seem ethereal...if not for the disco ball.

"If you could, make a small portal and send me a mind-link. I believe he should be asleep at this hour in the human timeline."

The draconequus's face instantly brightened as he shot up from the bed onto which he had been teleported. "Ah hah hah hah! Now we're talking! One teeny, tiny, telepathic portal coming right up! Now let's see what a week does for my chaos backup..."

A look of intense concentration overtook his bout of eager celebration. His eyebrows furrowed. His jaw clenched, snaggletooth visibly vibrating with the effort. His arms and fists began to tense and shake. Sweat, almost never witnessed on such a being, glistened at first before pouring down his forehead. Nearly a full minute passed, and Celestia began to wonder if this was such a good idea after all. However, only patience showed on the outside. A hole opened in one of the walls, and her horn alighted as her senses began to tell her more about this particular slumbering human.

"Interesting. Luna was indeed correct - he does dream of our world. His mind is, unfortunately, not the strongest, but his ideas...oh my!" Celestia took an involuntary step backward. Her eyes darted back and forth in their sockets, and a layer of overglow appeared over her aura. A few seconds passed. "I see what he means, and...does he always feel this alone? Discord, stop."

The magical flow to her horn and consciousness ceased. The portal shrunk to nothingness. Discord relaxed and let out a breath he wasn't aware of holding. "That was splendid! I could do this all day long." He flexed his arms until he caught Celestia's 'I-am-not-amused' face, at which point he raised them in defense. "I know, I know, I still have to bring him here. So tell me, Celly, what are we waiting for?"

"Before we, you, do this, I need to explain something. This human, like you used to, has a friendship problem. Unlike you, he has ideas but no magic with which to make them happen. To be honest, I'm still trying to figure out your place in Equestria, but this human is exactly what ponies need right now. With you, my sister and I, and the Elements of Harmony, he could be the key to a better future for this kingdom. I can explain later, but I need you to bring him here as a changeling, and with a cutie mark he cannot hide by shapeshifting."

Discord's expression had slowly fallen from inquisitiveness to skepticism, but at the princess's true request his eyebrows shot up, literally. "A-a changeling? You know I know next to nothing about those," he sputtered. "Or cutie marks, for that matter."

"Yes, but I know enough about you and your powers from...earlier years...that it will work anyway. I've trusted you, Discord. I believe you can do it, so please, go ahead."

He responded by pulling off a deadpan look to mark the ages. "Ugh, fine." Sitting down and assuming a meditative position, the ancient controller of chaos began his work. She is correct. Chaos magic responds to true will, but has its own will insofar as it intelligently renders results to maximally approximate expectations. Therefore, with her understanding of the necessary concepts and a greater sum of energy than I have ever found the self-control to collect in the past, her request is possible, and I foresee no danger if the results are partial. All right, here I go. Aiming for efficiency, the draconequus channeled everything to his mind this time. Sweat returned. Red tendrils of non-substance, dancing, arcing, and ending in extra-dimensional nothingness, sought pure meaning and desire in the layer of the magical field few aetherologists understood.

Step one: relocate the human's mind. By memory, instantly done. Step two: create a changeling body with a brain that will minimally affect the inner mental experience and aware and supra-aware processes of the human's when his consciousness is transferred. Location: er...Equestria. Force cutie mark formation-readiness and permanence. All together...qualia of completeness and coherence provide sufficient feedback to tell me it is done. Now - step four: transcortification.

The tentrils withdrew until Discord's fur and skin seemed to glow from within. In actuality, they were reaching out and grasping at all that defined and moved the human's mind. Discord's eyes luminesced a deep crimson, his awareness doubled, and his sense of self tangled and untangled in a turbulent battle won only by millenia of mastering mental intricacies. Once order was restored, he willed the command to push the human's core to the changeling body. All energy focused at that point in time, and Discord descended from his sudden state of flow, exhausted. Celestia looked on in suspense as he collapsed on the ground, anxious to know if such expenditure could still mean complete success. "Well?"

"It - heh, huh, hah - worked."

She looked on him, closing her eyes in a brief moment of relief, but realization that her part of the job was not yet complete led her to renew her anticipation. "That is extraordinary news, Discord. Where did your magic place him?"

Somehow pulling it off sheepishly and yet sarcastically, Discord responded, "Above Cloudsdale...by a couple miles?"

The princess's irises dilated completely. With complete calm, she said, "Excuse me while I send a letter faster than gravity." With that, she teleported away with a powerful blast that knocked the draconequus into a wall. "The things I do because 'friendship is magic,'" he muttered right before slumping unconscious.

It was a frantic day for the Ponyville weather team. Behind schedule for the second time that week, Rainbow Dash was pushing for larger thunderclouds to water the town's crops before the summer heat dried them up. Packs of pegasi were busy packing, shaping, moving, testing, and growing clouds as she relayed them from the Cloudsdale weather factory in great haste.

Panting from her feat of endurance, she arrived near Sweet Apple Acres to hoof one over to Thunderlane. "There's - the last one - for the southwest team. Make sure there's just the right coverage - especially over section four. The crosswinds will disperse them faster, but we don't want them growing out of control when Trottingham's warm front arrives tonight."

"Will do, Dash," he said with a mock salute.

"That's Captain Rainbow Dash to you, Thunderlane. I have to check up on the north team, so get your ponies working!" With that, she launched toward Whitetail Woods, but made less than ten meters before a scroll materialized in front of her face. Muzzle met manuscript.

"Ow! What the hay?" She stopped and grabbed it, already unrolled from the impact. It must be from the princess, but there's no seal... Her eyes skimmed the hasty scrawl. She gave a gasp, and her irises dilated completely. She turned and shouted, "Thunderlane, you're in charge. I'm on Element duty until further notice."

He threw up his forelegs in exasperation. "Not again!"

Sufficiently rested, the Element of Loyalty, fastest mortal in Equestria, shot up into the sky at full power, a rainbow and a bit of static electricity left in her wake. The surprise note floated down onto the grass:

Rainbow Dash,

A friendly changeling is plummeting toward the ground somewhere above Cloudsdale. Save him. Hide him. The Elements will convene shortly.

Celestia