How could this have happened!? The thought echoed in Discord’s mind, quite literally in his case, since he had room to spare up there. How could I be rendered powerless? How is it possible? I was the most powerful being on the planet! Nothing could stop me. Discord flashbacked through the days events, trying to figure out where he had messed up. I was free. Free of rules, and free of consequences. I bowed to no one, and did as I pleased… and now I’m stuck here, completely helpless.
Discord was trapped in a bubble along with five ponies and a baby dragon, ponies who had once called him friend. They floated together as Tirek bargained with Twilight for their release. Discord gave her a sad glance, and clenched his talons into a fist. Then those princess came along, and locked me in stone. Discord remembered the horror of it. Despite what they might have thought, he was fully conscious the entire time, unable to sleep. That was a special kind of torture, the kind one of Tartarus's demons would find amusing.
Then came Celestia’s plan to 'reform' him, Mere months after Chrysalis defeated her. Celestia, she.... she wanted me as a pet? A thug at her beck and call? Somepony she could use whenever she felt threatened? But that means- Discord turned to Fluttershy and the others. They were never my friends, not for real..... and I can't believe I fell for it! They used me, every single one! The shock of realization quickly turned to doubt and despair. I’m alone, just like before. Is this my fate, to be the target of their hate, to be their slave? Liars, they’re nothing but liars...
Discord turned away as he started to cry. Friend or foe, he still didn’t want them to see. Once his tears had dried, he started to plot, although he kept his outward mannerisms pathetic. Friendless or not, I still have a job to do. And this time no little pony is going to stand in my way!
Deep Space, Sector 45679
“Green Lantern of Sector 45679 Deceased, Scanning. Scanning. New subject detected.”
In the depths of space a green ring coasted, searching for a new wielder. As it looked into the vastness of the galaxy, it felt a spike, the sign of one who could learn to wield it. It changed course, heading for a planet steeped in magic. The ring dove into the atmosphere, aimed right at its new bearer.
Gaia
Twilight felt her magic leave her as her friends fell to the ground and Tirek stomped off. Discord stood up, and approached her. "I thought I didn't need friendship," He started as he removed Tirek’s gift, looking down at the ground. "In a way I was wrong..... but," Discord’s head snapped up to meet her gaze, and she flinched away from the fury in his eyes. "You are not my friends," he snarled. Discord slammed the necklace onto a nearby rock, shattering it. As it broke, it shifted, turning into the last key for the magic chest, only mangled beyond use.
Discord turned his back on the ponies and stalked away. Twilight stared down at the broken key in disbelief as it crumbled to dust before her. "Discord, no." Fluttershy said. Discord spun on his heel and jumped directly into her face, eyes flashing.
"You weren't really my friends,” he roared as Fluttershy cowered, “It was all a lie, a lie conceived by your ‘benevolent Princess Celestia’” He spat on the ground. “This isn’t the first time she’s done something like this either. You’ve all been manipulated by her at some point. Remember the Changeling invasion, The Crystal Empire? Nightmare Moon? You’ve been doing her dirty work since before you were friends, been forced to clean up her messes because you wielded the Elements of Harmony. And even now that they’re gone, she’s still making you save the world!" Discord closed his talons. "Well I won’t stand for it! I refuse to live with a spear at my throat, I refuse to be her attack dog, and I refuse to fall for her ridiculous schemes!" He turned away from their pleading eyes, not giving a fuck what they thought one way or the other. "Without your magic and without your Elements I have nothing to fear. Good-bye and good riddance."
He stormed into the forest, punching anything that got in his way. After venting his anger on his surroundings, he sat on a log to brood. After an indeterminate amount of time had passed, a green light sailed by overhead. Confused, Discord looked up, watching as the beam of light solidified into green ring marked with a circle bordered at the top and bottom by two parallel lines. The ring levitated in from of him, and a recorded voice said, "New wielder found. Discord of Gaia." Discord stared at the surprise, wondering what it was blathering on about. "You have the power to overcome great fear." The ring moved onto one of his talons, and he felt a surge of power through his body. "Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps."
The Tree of Harmony
Twilight stared despondently at the box. She’d been so close to figuring out what had been inside, and stopping Tirek once and for all, but then... She shuddered, remembering the undiluted rage Discord had unleashed. He’d been the final key bearer all this time, but that hatred, it destroyed any chance of the key working, and with it, Tirek’s undoing.
“I failed you, girls,” Twilight said, turning to face her friends, who were all thinking along the same lines. “If I’d just been a bit nicer to him, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”
“It’s not your fault, Twilight,” soothed Rarity although inside she was fuming, “It’s Princess Celestia’s. Maybe if she’d let Discord befriend us normally, he wouldn’t have had reason to think our friendship was fake!”
“I agree with Rarity, here,” said Applejack, “It’s the darn Princess’s scheme blowin’ up in her face, not anythin’ you could have done. The same goes for you, Fluttershy,” she said to her weeping friend, “Just ‘cause Discord thinks you weren’t really his friend doesn’t mean you weren’t. He’s just a little dense, is all.”
“Ok, as nice as all the sappy talk is, guys,” Rainbow cut in, “We’ve still got a magic sucking demon to take down! How are we supposed to stop him without our magic, without the box, and without the Elements of harmony!?”
"Nothing can oppose me!" Screamed Tirek, helpfully driving in Rainbow’s point as he dropped into the clearing with a crash. “And now the Tree of Harmony will burn, and you along with it!”
The Mane Six flattened themselves against the ground as he conjured a massive fireball, and prepared for the end. However, just before Tirek could fire, a pillar of Green light appeared right behind him, and a familiar voice shouted.
"In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night"
The Main six turned to the pillar, staring in disbelief at the figure inside.
"No evil shall escape my sight"
Triek spun around and fired at the pillar, which had no effect what-so-ever.
"Let those who worship evils might,
beware my power."
The energy beam surged, becoming even brighter.
"Green Lanterns Light!"
The Pillar exploded, engulfing the entire forest in green energy, and blinding the main six for almost a solid minute. When they’re eyesight finally cleared, their magic was back, where was Tirek a soot stained patch of ground, and the pillar had vanished without a trace.
Twilight was reeling, trying to process what she had seen. Eventually, she said, “Was that DISCORD!?”
OA, sector 0
Discord was falling, falling through an endless void peppered with prismatic lights. Every color of the spectrum was present, but green was the most common. As he fell he heard whispers, voices just on the edge of his hearing. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they sounded angry, and one word in particular kept popping up: change. It repeated itself again and again, passing from voice to voice as they became more passionate. As the voices grew louder, the yellow light grew brighter, then purple, then red, then blue, then orange, then indigo. When the had all grown to match the strength of the green, the blackness surrounding them started to grow, eating the lights one by one. As it did, the voices became audible and they were screaming. Finally a blight white light was seen.
Discord awoke, disoriented and woozy. When his head finally cleared, he found he was lying in a bed in a clean, undecorated room. He shook his head, trying to shake the last remnants of sleep from it. It felt like that time he’d overdosed on cotton candy and tripped out for days. “Woah, that was a freaky dream.” He said. However one quick look at his talons confirmed the existence of the green ring. “If you’re referring to the ring, no it wasn’t, dunderhead.” Discord looked to his left, where a strange bird fish being was approaching him. Discord had never seen anything like him before, which was an unusual feeling for a Lord of Chaos.
“So that actually happened,” he said, “Huh.” Compared to everything he’d done this seemed a bit low key. “Where am I, anyway? And who are you?” Discord asked he looked out to see an unfamiliar planet with huge golden buildings. He could feel his magic as well meaning Tirek had been dealt with, somehow. As a quick test, he summoned some chocolate milk. The action was nowhere near as chaotic as it had been the first time he’d done it, but it still counted.
“You are on Oa, the planet at the center of the universe and the homeworld the Green Lantern Corps. Also, my name is Tomar.”
Discord turned to him. “ Nice to meet you Tomar, I’m Discord. And this is the homeworld of the what?” he asked, sipping at his milk. This was basically out of a fairytale for him. The Corps was some vague boogey man from his childhood all those thousands of years ago. He’d never expected to actually see it.
Tomar’s ring glowed. “It would seem the Guardians wish to speak with you.” Discord had no idea who those were.
With a sudden grinding noise, the window retracted into the wall, allowing Tomar to fly outside. Discord used his magic to join him, but it took more effort than it should have. “Excuse me, is there a reason I feel weaker than usual?” he asked.
Tomar looked at him in confusion before he asked, “Are you by any chance a magic user?”
“Yeah, I am. What’s that got to do with this?” Discord asked.
“Well, there have only been a handful of magic users in the Corps entire history but they all feel weakened on Oa. It is believed that places like Oa are antitheist to magic users such as yourself.” Discord had to bite back a curse. “Well that’s just peachy,” he grumbled, “Let’s get
going. Where are we supposed to go, anyway?”
‘Follow me, Tomar said, taking off across the sky towards a green beam of light far off in the distance. Discord followed him, equal parts nervous and excited. This was new, and new was good, but he didn’t like the sound of these Guardians. If they were anything like what the name entailed, they wouldn’t like him. At all.
Close Encounters of the Random Kind
Tomar and Discord soared over the city, one that seemingly had no edge. Discord was simply blown away by the sheer number of people. He’d spent his entire life on a sparsely populated world, and ever pony he’d ever seen could easily have fit into this massive metropolis. He kept spinning his head in (actual) circles, trying to figure out how such a dense city could exist. Tomar noticed, and shot him a funny look.
“Are you a shapeshifter?” he asked, “You should have broken at least a few bones by now.”
“Me, a shapeshifter?” Discord gasped, mock offended. “Pishaw. I’m just a little random.” his wings fell off as he spoke, only to grow back seconds later with the squeal of an inflatable pool toy.
Tomar gave him a very strange look. “I can tell the Guardians are going to love you,” he deadpanned as he dove towards the ground. “Follow me, the main meeting room is in here.”
Discord trailed after him through the massive golden double doors on the side of an enormous dome. Inside, the building thrummed with activity. Lanterns were flying in all directions while somehow not colliding with each other, and bizarre metallic contraptions scampered across the floor, sweeping up dust and the occasional scrap of garbage. The entrance hall stretched far over Discord’s head, large enough to hold the biggest of Manehattan’s skyscrapers, and the walls were covered in moving images depicting scenes from countless different worlds. Discord suddenly felt very small.
“Hurry up, Greenie,” Tomar called playfully, “You don’t want to keep them waiting.”
Discord picked his way across the room, carefully treading across the golden inlaid floors and doing his best to dodge the oncoming traffic. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite good enough. “Oof!” Discord went sprawling, all his limbs falling off along the way.
“Oh my gods, are you all right!?” shouted a female voice.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Discord said, summoning his appendages back to him. “But are you all…”
He trailed off as he got his first good look at who had run into him. The first thing that came to mind when he saw her was, How did a dragon get on this planet? However, when he inspected her more closely, he noticed she was much thinner and more serpentine than a dragon of similar size, with an extra pair of arms and wings to boot. Her eyes were green with silver pupils, her scales a pale lime green with blue stripes arching across her head and back. Her wings were feathered and seemed to shimmer like a rainbow, and she appeared to have a purple mane. She stood up slowly, cracking her spine as she did so. “I’m so sorry,” She said, “ I’ve only been a green lantern for a day now… well a day on this world anyway. Oh where are my manners, I’m Larus, Green Lantern of sector 45678.”
“Discord,” he replied, “Green Lantern of….” he trailed off, suddenly aware that he didn’t actually know where he was from. Fortunately, his ring did, although how it could possibly follow the conversation was a bit beyond him. “Sector 45679,” It chirped.
The dragoness blinked at it. “ Yeah, there, and I just got here. Nice to meet you, by the way. Do you know how sectors are organized? It sounds like we might be neighbors.”
“Yeah, we’re neighbors,” she confirmed with a chuckle, “And it sounds like you’re even greener than I am. Anyway, I’ve gotta fly, see you on the training field!” She flew off, quickly disappearing into the crowd. Discord realized a couple of Lanterns had stopped to stare at him, and he returned the favor until they got embarrassed enough to look away.
“I swear, it’s like they’ve never seen somepony fall to pieces before,” he griped to Tomar, who had doubled back to see what was taking him.
Tomar gave him a weird look upon hearing the word, ’everypony.’ “I know it was the first time for me. Now come on, they’re getting impatient.” He directed Discord down one of the halls, and through a circular door into a large, dark green meeting room. The Guardians hovered over several green pillars inside, waiting for him expectantly.
The Lord of Chaos had to stifle a chuckle as he saw the Guardians for the first time. They were these cute little blue bipeds, either completely bald or with short white hair, perfectly sized to be a foal’s plush companion. However, that laughter died in his throat as he got a good look at their faces. They were completely expressionless, and probably didn’t understand the concept of ‘funny ‘, let alone have a sense of humor. He sensed he’d have to watch himself, which was a weird feeling for someone used to near godlike levels of power and status.
As Discord stepped forward, the guardians looked him over without reaction. “I must say,” One of them finally said, “While the Corps does get the occasional magical recruit, we never thought a Isfetite would someday join our ranks.” Discord blinked at this. Truth be told, he knew next to nothing about what he was other an extensive self exploration session he’d performed during puberty.
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Discord asked. “I thought I was one of a kind.”
The Guardians noted his surprise. “I take it you know nothing of your race then?” Discord nodded, his confusion clear.
A image appear showing a creature that looked an awful lot like Discord, only a different color. “The Isfetites are a nomadic race. They left their homeworld 5 million years ago, with godlike powers that allow them to do as they please. While most are just pranksters,” The image flashed to a Guardian with pie on his face before cutting out for a moment, “A few have attempted to set themselves up as gods or conquers. Despite being as diverse as it is possible for a species to be, they all share one thing in common: total disregard for the law, social and natural.” Another scene played, showing an Isfetite cleaning his nails with a ‘no loitering’ sign, then turning it into a popsicle and eating it. “The Green Lantern Corps is the universe’s largest police force, defending and upholding the law across the known universe. The rings are programmed to seek out a suitable bearer after the previous wielder's demise. The fact it picked you is both intriguing and alarming.” Discord looked around at them, his confusion turning to disappointment.
“So your saying I can’t be a Green Lantern?” Discord asked, fiddling with the ring on his talon.
“We are not that blind,” one of the Guardians answered, “The ring chose you, so it must believe you are capable of becoming one of us. While they have been known to make mistakes, those errors are extremely rare.” Discord sighed in relief. He’d only had the ring for a few hours, but was already growing pretty attached to it. “In any case, that concludes our business with you. Lantern Tomar will guide you to your quarters, and you are expected to report for training at 3 Dodecas, six Scores.” Discord stared at them in confusion. “That’s 7:00 A.M. by your time measurements. We use a more practical system. Dismissed.”
Discord stumbled out into the hallway, his mind awhirl. He wasn’t alone. That was by far the most mind blowing thing he’d learned today, which especially impressive given the competition. “Discord,” Tomar waved his hand in front of Discord’s face, catching his attention. “Come on, Greenie, I’ll get you settled in.”
The apartment he was shown to was quite a bit bigger than his suite in the Canterlot Palace. The fixtures were recognizable, but only barely, since they’d been designed to work with as many body types as possible. The bed was a zero G platform with a self-contained temperature control system, and came with a few blankets and stuffed creatures, alongside other objects Discord didn’t recognize.The bathroom was spartan, basically just a toilet, sink and walk-in shower shoved into a corner. The only other objects in the room were a cabinet/dresser hybrid and a personal storage unit. “This’ll be your quarters on OA whenever you have to stay here. I know it’s a bit bare, but you’re allowed to customize.” Discord touched the storage unit, and with a little effort, made it glue itself to the ceiling.
He knew his magic was weaker here, but he didn’t think it was this bad. He should have been able to do that with a stray thought. “Well I guess I could finish the place up later. Besides I’ve been wondering: how am I supposed to use this thing?” He held up the ring. “Is there a button or a magic word, or do I have to do the chicken dance?”
Tomar laughed. “That’s what training is for Greenie. You’ll get the basics once I introduce you to Kilowog.” The training grounds were a couple of blocks to the south of the Guardians building, and the arrived just as the instructor walked up. Discord was impressed: this guy looked like he could take on Applejack in a hoofwrestling contest and win. The thought came with a pang of hurt, so he diminished it quickly.
“Tomar, good to see you!” The hulking alien said, “Last I heard you were dealing with the Barrion Raiders. And who’s this you brought with you?”. Discord felt like he was being sized up, and didn’t like the concept at all.
“This is Discord,” Tomar answered, “ He’s our newest recruit, an Isfetite from sector 45679.” he gave a gesture to the instructor. “Discord, this is Kilowog. As long as you’re a greenie, if he says jump, you’re in the air before you ask how high. Got it?” Discord nodded. While he loved playing pranks on those in authority, it was important where the lines were before you tried to toe them.
“So you’re an Isfetite, eh?” Kilowog growled. “I’ve heard stories about your kind, and I hope for your sake they’re exaggerated. Now, you said you wanted to learn the basics?” Discord nodded. “Right, I’m only going to say this once, so listen up! You ring is controlled by your mind. You picture what you want to happen and will it into existence. This is how it works for all species, and it’s no different for you. Now suit up!” Discord focused, remembering the sensation of the first time he used the ring, a river of power chained to his will. His uniform materialized around him. With another thought, he created an image of Celestia, one which blurred slightly before it became obese from stuffing its face with.
Kilowog grunted. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet, Greenie,” he said before he formed a green hammer and smashed the construct. “You’ve still a long way to go, however. And I’ll let you know,” Kilowog leaned in close enough Discord could smell his breath, “The last sapient to show up tomorrow gets 10 extra laps. Don’t be late.” Discord spoke an affirmative as he wondered just what he’d gotten himself into.
