Crimson

Five wanted to beat the ever-loving shit out of whatever it was that had snuck up on him, and he could see it knew that it was outmatched. It cradled what was left of its horrid face, and held the Dog Tags in a clawed hand as Five charged at it. It snapped its fingers and disappeared in a flash, but trigger his motion tracker as it just moved a bit behind him, and slightly higher. Five turned on the spot to find it hiding atop a piece of machinery, and jumped up to reach it. When he grabbed at something, Five slammed it into the ground by the tail, making it drop the Tags onto the ground. Five approached its torso and stomped it in, hearing something crack as its chest caved in. The Spartan gave it another kick before going to the silver necklaces.

As he picked them up, he could hear a snap behind him and found that the thing had healed itself almost entirely. Luna ran between Five and the creature as she spoke.

"Stop it, right now!" she shouted. "What is wrong with you two!?"

"What's wrong?" Five responded, seething with rage. "What's wrong!?"

\\\//////

Chrysalis sniffed the air a bit as she felt a wave of rage wash over her. She could see the reaction of the rest of the Changelings near her as they smelled the pure fury.

"What is that?" she asked no one in particular.

\\\//////

"This fucking thing just committed an inexcusable breach of protocol!" Five yelled, pointing at the thing.

The thing cleared its throat as it backed up a bit.

"Excuse me, but I am Discord, Lord of Chaos. I had to prank a lot of Gods to get that title, thank you very much," it finished by raising its chin into the air.

"I don't care if you're mother-fucking Santa Claus! You do not touch these Tags, ever!"

"Stop shouting! Let's just try to calm down, alright!?" Luna interrupted.

"Discord" gave a puff to show its disregard while Five clenched his fists again.

"Five, what did Discord do that's so inexcusable?" Luna asked.

"He took. These Dog Tags," Five responded by holding up the chains.

"But what are they?"

Five looked down at her and then back to Discord, narrowing his eyes behind his visor.

"They're what's left of my friends," Five growled.

When he said this, both Luna and Discord widened their eyes and looked to the Tags.

"Wait... they're... I-I didn't-" Discord started.

"No, you didn't," Five interrupted.

"I'm so, so very sorry, Five," Luna spoke. "I'm sure that Discord only wanted to introduce himself, and tried to be playful with you."

"Then don't."

Discord looked to Five with slightly watery eyes as Five put the Dog Tags in a compartment on his torso armor.

"I'm... I'm sorry," Discord started. "If I had known-"

"Shut up. And get out," Five demanded.

Discord took one last pleading look at him before snapping his fingers and leaving in a flash of light.

"Five, I'm sorry he did that, but can't you just try to give us a chance?"

Five walked back to the equipment before loading one of the Magnums and holstering it on his hip.

"I'm giving you all one chance. I need off this world, and I'm not going to jeopardize my chances by holding a grudge against all of you. But if I see anyone touch these weapons, I have authorization to use force. And if I see anyone touch these Dog Tags again, I'll choose to use force, regardless of protocol. Understand?"

Luna nodded and have her confirmation before she walked back up to the door. As she did, Five took out the Dog Tags and placed them on the table again, laying them out to examine them. He shook his head slowly as he sighed deeply.

"I'm sorry, guys. I won't let that happen again."

\\\//////

Luna closed the door behind her as she looked into the main room of the Library, seeing it empty and dark, save for one certain Draconequus. The alicorn furrowed her brow as she approached him.

"Discord, what were you thinking!?" she hissed at him.

"I was thinking of just saying 'hi' in my personal fashion," he replied coyly.

"You should have known better than that! Honestly, what made you think that stealing something from an alien soldier would be a great way to say 'hi'?"

"Well, for starters, I thought it would have been a great way to see if Celestia was actually faking her injuries, for one. But after that assault-"

"Response to your theft," Luna corrected.

"- I can say, that he's definitely worth what Celestia was panicking about."

Luna blinked in confusion.

"Hmm, right, you weren't there for that. Well, luckily, I peered into what Celestia was thinking about during her fight with our guest, seeing as how they were causing some good-ol'-fashioned-chaos. Remember when she had that nightmare-vision-thing about me?"

The alicorn thought back to when she had seen her sister's first true experience with her "Divine Vision," as she called it. Her eyes widened when she thought about what that could mean.

"Wait... you don't think-"

"I'm simply saying," Discord interrupted, "that maybe she misinterpreted what she saw."

"And what did she see?"

Discord smirked as he turned away from her, and began moving towards the door.

"Oh, just something about that Five character, maybe some Changelings... but I think now she's seeing something that's going to confuse a lot of us."

\\\//////

Celestia paced through the halls of Canterlot Royal Medical as she ignored the few that tried to slow her approach.

'Why would I see that?' she constantly asked herself. 'Is that thing supposed to destroy us or help us? Why would I see one vision with it trying to kill me and assist the Changelings, and another with it destroying a Dragon Sky Fortress?'

A flash from her right drew her attention as Discord stood without a smile on his features.

"Hello, Princess," he spoke calmly.

"Where is it?" she demanded.

"If by 'it' you mean our new red guest-"

"Where is it!?"

"He's probably going to sleep, right around now. I had a few words with Five, which is his name, by the way, and found that he's simply lost on our world."

Celestia narrowed her eyes.

"I sincerely doubt that."

Discord sighed as his shoulders sagged slightly.

"Fine, you caught me. It turns out that I disrespected his dead friends and he proceeded to beat the ever-loving... something, out of me. It hurt, too. I actually learned about his dilemma after ease-dropping on him and Twilight."

"Twilight's still with that thing!?" Celestia panicked.

"Dear Celestia, calm down, would you? He's harmless, so long as you don't assault him or desecrate what remains of his friends."

"What do you mean, 'what's left of his friends'?"

"Well, turns out that there are a few metal necklaces that he keeps that had some names on it, and apparently they're the names of his friends. At least, that's what I got from what he said, as well as what I saw."

Celestia went silent as she tried to process the information.

"If you really want to know more, then wait until Luna comes back, then speak to her about it. She was there, after all."

Discord snapped away in a flash as another one came up behind Celestia. She turned around to find Luna looking at her.

"Sister, we need to talk."

"Yes we do, Luna. Yes we do."