Sand on the Doorstep

As the wizard entered the dark chamber beneath the castle, a sense of terrible dread washed over him, causing him to stop just beyond the threshold of the circular room. It was a fairly small study; dimly lit and and smelling of dust, it was unlikely that anyone had stepped through its door in decades. The high ceiling tapered into rounded dome in the center. There was little within the room itself but for an empty marble plinth directly beneath the center of the dome. Something wasn't right. He doubted that Luna would have, or even could have, lied to him, yet perhaps her sister had moved the statue without her knowing. The whole situation simply felt too much like one of his own traps for his taste. The fear in his heart grew as he heard the sound of hooves making their way down the hall, chain-mail of the royal guard clinking with each step. He was just about to make a run for it when he noticed something strange as he turned toward the door.

Set upon the stones to either side of the wooden door were a pair of oddly shaped runes, each glowing a dark red color. He soon realized that his own horn was glowing the same shade, a steady stream of magic leaving him and migrating toward the glyphs. Well well, it would seem I still have a few tricks left that even I don't know about. Looks like someone set these up to dissuade intruders. He looked directly at one of the glyphs and forcibly cut off the flow of magic he had been unknowingly directing at it. The moment he did a surge of shear terror filled him and, as he looked back into the room, the plinth in the center of the room disappeared completely. Quickly, he redirected his attention back to weakening the force of the glyph. Dissuade intruders indeed. Obviously someone forgot to inform these defense systems that I am an honored guest! His eyes began to glow as he sent a jolt of energy into the glyphs, causing them to grow in size and intensity, begin pulsing, and then fade completely.

As soon as the glyphs were gone his senses cleared, the hoofbeats in the hallway ceased, and the room became far more illuminated. Walter turned back toward the center of the room, began walking toward the marble stand, and closed the door behind him with a weak gust of magic. As the plinth came back into existence, the sorcerer noted that it appeared far different than it had a moment before. The expertly-cut marble had just been another part of the glyphs' illusion. What he was looking at now was a crudely shaped square of granite, likely dug directly from the mountain upon which his former employer had fallen. This was confirmed seconds later as the rest of the statue began to take shape as the illusions surrounding it slowly dispelled.

A pair of legs appeared first, with a tail curled behind them. Two legs only, though neither one seemed to fit with the other or the tail which was now connected to serpent-like body of some sort of ancient dragon. Two arms came next, each tipped with claws for rending, yet not at all the kinds one would expect a dragon to possess, and two wings of equally outlandish natures came after that. The neck was long and arching, but the head set upon it seemed to be that of some partially-fanged horse or goat, with a twisted horn and a pronged antler making up its crown. The creature's face was locked in an open-mouthed expression which, when combined with the position of his arms, made it look as if he were singing or proclaiming something to the nearly empty room around him. All of this was captured and eternally locked in time by solid, grey granite.

"Thanks again Luna, I'll be sure to remember this when the time comes to clear out the old monarchy. Celestia may not stand a chance in hell of garnering a pardon, but perhaps I'll be able to find a nice little servant's position for you to fill." The unicorn made his way to the statue, looking up at the expression on the creature's face with a slight hint of amusement. "Dusting the statue that was once your sister, for a start."

"Say, thats not a bad idea. Turn her to stone, now why didn't I think of that?" The sound of another voice was the last thing Walter had been expecting. He jumped back, scanning the room for any sign of an intruder. What he saw was an empty room with a petrified former tyrannical ruler planted in the middle of it. The voice was familiar, an echo from the past. It left a strange sensation of a both relief and utter fear in the back of his mind. It had seemed to come from every direction at once, and the volume was not hushed as his own voice had been. Its own clearly didn't care who heard what he was thinking.

Still, the room remained empty and the statue was just as lifeless as it had been prior to the second voice's appearance. Walter backed his way slowly to the door, all the while using his magic to search the room for invisible beings or more defense glyphs. He found neither and was turning to make his exit when his eyes connected with those of an apparition from centuries before. There, leaning against the door with his neck arched out and his face inches away from the wizard's, stood Discord, former ruler of Equestria and the very embodiment of chaos itself. His arms and legs were crossed in a nonchalant pose, as if it were a perfectly normal occurrence for someone who was turned to stone generations prior to suddenly be able to move around as he wished. "Yes, petrifying her would just be so ironically delightful. But don't you think its a bit predictable Marten? You need to think further outside the box." Discord pulled his head back, giving the sorcerer a bit more space in which he could continue to stand dumbstruck. "Still, you ARE thinking, can't deny that for a second now can we? Befriending the younger sister, now that is a stroke of genius! Younger siblings always harbor some form of jealousy toward the elder, you should have no trouble exploiting that, I'm sure."

"No, no trouble at all." Walter had finally been able to come to terms with the fact that his old employer was still very much alive, and realized that he had to say something or risk losing all credibility with the old abomination. "Luna seems sweet enough on the outside, but theres some real anger inside that pretty little creature just waiting to erupt. Besides, its not like this is the first time I've done this." He began to turn back toward the center of the room, expecting to see the plinth empty once more. Instead, he saw Discord again, two of him in fact. The one he had just been talking to was now hanging off the stone one with one reptilian claw and one lion-like paw clinging to the statue.

"You look different somehow, wizard. What is it: get a hair cut," a pair of scissors suddenly flashed into existence in Discord's taloned right hand, "different cloak, new boots?"

"New body, and I'll thank you not to toy with me like I'm just another one of your precious little puppets." Walter took a step forward. "How is it that we are even having this conversation? Your still imprisoned, I can still sense you inside the stone!"

Now Discord was behind him, head resting on Walter's right shoulder while his body was off to his left. "Well of course I'm still imprisoned, my newly-formed friend. And if you weren't a fan of my puppets you should have said so form the beginning. I'd be more than happy to play with some of yours instead." A sly grin appeared on Discord's face just as the strings to three marionettes appeared in his hands and tail. He gave them each a brief jerk upwards and began talking to Walter through the wooden puppets connected to them, his voice growing increasingly ridiculous as each one spoke.

"Best be careful who you speak to like that, Randy," said the puppet of a small boy wearing a crown too big for his head, "Some people don't like being given orders."

"Yeah," said a clock with a face on it which was being controlled by the strings Discord's tail was wrapped around, "and lets not forget how long some people in this room have been stuck without someone to toy around with. Cut the guy a little slack."

"Yeah Marten, listen to your toys. I think I deserve to have a little fun messing around with you, seeing as you seem to have gotten off free of punishment after our last little play-date." Discord turned his attention to the final puppet. "And what do you have to say on this matter, my pungent little friend?"

The wooden trash can being controlled by Discord's left hand looked around at the other puppets, its googly eyes bobbling around as it turned. Its gaze fell upon the wizard as it dutifully blurted out "My life for you!?!?" in its controller's own screechy falsetto.

Discord looked down at the puppet with an expression of severe disappointment. "Well thats just depressing, way to break the mood there garbage boy..." With a snap of his talons the puppets disappeared and he was once more sitting on the plinth next to his petrified self.

"You still didn't answer my question... friend. How is it that the two of us are even talking right now. I can just barely sense you inside that stone prison of yours, we shouldn't be able to hear each other much less put on entire puppet shows like that." The wizard took another step forward, closing the gap between him and his "friend."

"Ah Marty. Marty, Marty, Randy. When are you going to wake up and realize that I am discord itself? If I were truly locked away in a basement somewhere, completely powerless and entirely harmless, the world would be a perfect place. A perfect, predictable, boring place where nothing unexpected ever happened. Now tell me, is that how the world outside seems?"

"...No..."

"No! Of course not! That would be ridiculous, and not in a fun way. I can't be killed without that being the fate of this world. And even if I am imprisoned, I can still manipulate things directly within a certain proximity. You wouldn't even begin to imagine the kinds of pranks I can pull of from down here. And now that those glyphs of Celestia's are out of the picture, the range my magic can cover is even greater. I may not be able to do much from here, mind you, but its enough to keep things interesting. Spread a little dissent among the masses, move small objects, temporarily take away wings, horns, cutiemarks... That sort of thing, just enough to ensure that the world is never truly perfect. And of course the absence of the glyphs allows me to present myself as a mental image to those who were close enough to me to be able to recognize my power for what it truly is, rather than simply assuming its little more than a series of accidental, unexplainable occurrences."

The sorcerer stared at him, blankly. "Take away cutiemarks?"

"Ugh, fine, or alter them, whatever. Geez, its always specifics and reasons with you isn't it."

"I'm afraid I still don't see what point that any of that would serve. It doesn't make any sense."

Discord simply narrowed his gaze and smiled. The wizard knew there was no reason to argue the point any further so he simply allowed the subject to drop. "Fair enough... So those pathetic little glyphs were the only thing keeping your power contained this entire time?"

A look of shock flashed across Discord's face. "Contained? Who said my powers have been contained all these years? I've been able to cause plenty of chaos within Canterlot. Regardless of how small or insignificant my antics may seem to you, the shear number of pranks I've been able to pull from down here has been more than enough to keep me relatively sane these last few... How long have I been down here again?" He looked genuinely interested in learning just what sort of time span his imprisonment had covered, yet Walter had only the faintest idea himself.

"Time moves differently on my side of the door, I'm afraid. Of course, if I had to guess, I'd say its been the better part of a thousand years by now." The wizard had no way of knowing such a thing, but he felt it would be better to give a fabricated answer than none at all. "But really what does it matter. Let mortals worry about years and centuries, time should mean little to someone like you."

Discord's eyes narrowed as he took in the sorcerer's words. "Yes, well, as nice as its been having a house guest after all these unimportant measurements of time, I see no point in continuing our little conversation here. Now that the glyphs are gone I'll be able to contact you like this from anywhere in the castle. At any time. Completely unannounced. Potentially at the most inopportune moments... So we have those little meetings to look forward to if nothing else." The tyrant stood up and began observing his statue, taking note of the positioning of each limb and feature. Without looking away from it, he disinterestedly continued speaking to Walter. "I trust you haven't forgotten your part in the plan?"

Finally, its about time he got to this part. Trying to seem just as uninterested in the subject as Discord, Walter began to make his way toward the door. "I remember the important parts. Spread a little chaos within the court, turn the sisters against each other, divide the nation, and let the rest work itself out."

"Not bad, that covers the basics, but you forgot the most important part."

"And which part might that be?" Walter asked, beginning to feel genuinely aggravated. He had known what Discord wanted to hear, yet still he failed to see any possible reason why this old chimera was so hell-bent on ensuring it was done.

"The statues, Randal, duh! Am I going to need to remind you about that part of the plan every time we see each other from now on? Because honestly, if it comes down to that I think I'll just get to work on writing it down for you so that next time we meet like this I can just staple it to you or something." He paused to think for a moment. "...I wonder if I can do that without my body. Oh, this sounds like something that would be worth trying out on Celestia during her next big appearance at court! I can see it now, a phantom stapler reeking havoc in the crowd. So many possibilities for that one." He suddenly seemed to notice that Walter still remained in the room. "Ah, yes, so anyway like I said before, get the statues made and mixed in with the rest of the stock. Just make sure every detail is perfect, otherwise Celestia's bound to get suspicious; you know how she gets when things aren't specifically to her liking. Do that for me, and I can ensure that a certain magical artifact I believe you came back here for gets coincidentally misplaced."

That was all Walter needed to hear. "Discord, its always a pleasure working with you, my friend." He left the room and made his way back up to the dining hall. It wouldn't be proper to miss the meal he had promised to spend with his sweet, lonely new play-thing.