The continuum and Equestria
By Majikkstar
Oh, the pain and misery that beseeches me, thousands of eons and now I’m doomed to spend 10,000 years of torment in this world, Equestria.
As a member of the ‘Q’ continuum I was revered as a saint amongst gods, then one little transgression – I turned all the species in one small universe into single cell plankton, it took the others millennia to fix it – and I’m here as punishment.
Oh, coming here was fine at first, I got to choose my form, as usual, for my non-corporeal self to be perceived by the locals. I chose to pick from the most sturdy of creatures this little world had to offer: then I found out the native life consisted almost 90% of sentient ponies. PONIES, oh, the indignity. I couldn’t have been banished to a world of semi-sentient horses, at least.
Well, arriving here was a shock, to say the least, and when I started to have fun in my usual way to test the determination of the locals, I was turned to stone for just over a thousand years. While I laughed for all those years, when I was freed by a laughing foal I was actually quite upset to be told that my time wasn’t shortened.
I quickly retorted that I am Discord, I am disorder, I am the only one who gives the universes fun and I will embody all that means! Using what limited powers I still possessed I went to the central most little city, Ponyville it’s called now. PONYVILLE. Can this world be any more cliché? Well, I turned the world they knew upside down, literally.
I went to Canterlot to visit my old friend Celestia and her sister Luna, and took the elements of harmony from their ‘safe’ box and hid them with quite a fun riddle. Finally I was able to meet the new holders of the elements, the mane six they were called, HA. Quickly they ran into a maze, thinking that the answer to my absurd riddle was at the center. I had to laugh as I came up with a marvelous plan.
Using their magic against them, I was able to hypnotize them all into becoming their own opposites, thus nullifying their powers and leaving them as powerless as I am. The only one who resisted me to the end was the purple one, Twinkle Sprinkles or something. She succumbed to my spells after quite the argument with her friends, then, just like that, she cures herself!
Using that little nub of a horn on her head she cancels my hypnosis and the six of them attack me, oh, what a laugh I had at first. They weren’t supposed to have their powers back, and how was I supposed to know that ‘friendship is magic’ on this world? When it was the celestial sisters it was the power of inner strength.
Being locked in stone again was a horrifying experience, however this time I was able to focus my powers and created a link to the celestial sisters, so I could hear every word they spoke and every plot they planned. How many more millennia would I be trapped in stone this time? These ponies, all of them would be long dead before I would hear another voice besides those two, and what would I do when they died? What if I had to wait until this world ended in a massive supernova?
Billions of years was no problem when I could do anything, but to stay in one spot, to not move a muscle in this body for several millennia at least. The thought not only terrified me, for one of only a few times in my eons of existence, I felt fear: True fear, of being alone, undying, in the dark of this cavern inside a cavern in this wasteland of a jungle in this miniscule equine world, then having to wait in the nothingness that remained for the rest of my 9,997 years.
I swore, after just a few months of contemplation on this thought, that if I were released I would change, again. This time I would focus on bettering myself and, maybe if I got around to it, this world too. It was at about time I heard the princesses talking about freeing me into the custody of the six ponies that sealed me away the first time.
Debating this for hours, my skin would have tingled if I still had skin, I heard them agree to that plan. To ‘reform’ me, ME, they sounded just like the continuum, ‘A reformed Discord is easier to manage,’ they would say, ‘and we can use his powers for the betterment of everypony in Equestria and beyond.’
If I could laugh I would have let out the heartiest of laughs and sent them to the ceiling in a twisted gravity room, but that wasn’t the case. I actually depended on them for once, and decided to play along, waiting for the opportune moment to trick the lot into setting me free. Friendship, magic, teamwork: What a joke. As a Discord, and as Q, I only need myself.
So, the six released me and immediately I thanked them and took account of my surroundings, noting that I no longer had omnipotence, I also felt my powers weaker than they were before. Punishment, no doubt, for using my powers to cause so much of my namesake my first week here.
I did everything I could to convince them I was unreformable, but I was housed with Fluttershy, the nature lover and pony with the warmest caring heart I’ve ever met in all my years. She openly and genuinely offered me friendship, in exchange for nothing. There was no need for me to need her or her friendship or the friendship of any of the others, but something happened inside me.
Something that I didn’t know had been done to me, I had been corrupted by this world, I thought. That had to be it. Then, as I had tricked Fluttershy into letting me go and have fun, I remembered my promise to be a better being. Her friendship made me feel happy, warm and wanted.
For the first time in a very long time, I realized I was actually missing something in all of my existences: friendship and trust. I realized that to keep the first true friend I had earned I chose to admit defeat, I was reformed in essence, by the attention of my little pony friend, Fluttershy.
So, here I am, sleeping just behind the paper Mache moon that Luna, ‘Princess’ of the night floats around this peach of a planet with her sister Celestia, her sister ‘Princess’ that controls the sun. Luna, Celestia; the humor is not lost on me. I visit with Fluttershy once every week, if not more. She is a true friend if ever I have met one: greeting me warmly and always smiling at me. Even the animals have warmed up to me.
I play with matter and the minds of lesser beings sometimes, but now I find myself doing what I can to slowly advance this world with science and inspiration and, dare I say it, love. I have plans to prove my worth to the continuum and to this world, but I think I’ll take my time.
I have 9,995 years to make that happen, and I am in no rush, not anymore.
