“What? Hydra-Eyes?” an infuriated pegasus Canterlot guard roared, closely examining the unlucky dice roll. A unicorn guard opposite the pegasus chuckled and pulled the respectably-sized pile of bits between the two ponies towards him.
“Eh, maybe next time,” the winner chuckled, examining a bit.
The Canterlot Castle Gardens were normally quiet at this time of night; fireflies of blue and purple hues casting magnificent rays upon the paths and plantlife while Luna’s moon bathed the various sculptures dotted in the gardens in azure splendor. Under previous circumstances, Luna’s watch would have been suffice defense, but fear of Changeling retaliation caused an influx in the Canterlot Guard population, resulting in some of the “greener” recruits to be garrisoned in normally untended areas.
“Hey! You’ve got dust on your horn!” the pegasus declared, pointing a hoof at his partner’s instrument of magic.
“Psh, so?” the unicorn attempted to brush off his partner’s accusations.
“You’re the only unicorn that gets residue on his horn after casting a telepathy spell, you cheat!” the enraged guard flew a meter in the air and dove at the cheater. Nearby, a horrified-looking statue seemingly made of mismatched parts began to glow about the chest area. A dark chuckle echoed through the night, unheard by the two combatants. A sudden crack and a loud crash ended the fight and left the two guards looking on at the source of the noise in befuddlement.
“Ah, it feels great to be able to feel this fresh air once more!” a loud voice boomed behind the incompetent security. The guards turned to a character they had never wished to meet.
“D-Discord!” the unicorn gasped out, his horn sparkling, trying to fire a spell, any spell. The draconequus snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of light, leaving naught but a blanket, a fork, and an empty garden.
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“Alright Crusaders, here’s what I’ve been cooking up for us for the past week!” Scootaloo enthusiastically beamed, displaying a circus-cannon proudly to her two friends. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked at the mechanism in awe, their mouths agape and eyes plastered open. The three were atop a cliff overlooking Ponyville. A pony could see a lot from up there, Fluttershy’s house on the town border, the expansive Apple Family Orchard, the Everfree Forest, and with a squint even Canterlot Castle could be admired from such a height.
“This is so-” Sweetie Belle slowly started.
“AMAZIN’!” Applebloom yelled, bouncing in place. Scootaloo beamed.
“Thanks guys! Pinkie showed me where she got her party cannon and I found this gem for what we’re going to do today to get our Cutie Marks!” the pegasus explained, pulling out a few helmets for the trio, “We’re going to try hang-gliding again, this time using the propulsion of the cannon to go super-fast!”
Sweetie Belle began to drool in anticipation and Applebloom bounced some more.
“Oh please Scootaloo, can Ah go first?” the filly pleaded and held onto her helmet tightly. The pegasus filly smiled at her friend.
“Of course!” she said, helping the yellow pony into the barrel. Applebloom put on her helmet and grabbed at the hang-glider.
“Alright, bite that part there and stick your forelegs through that part there, yes right there,” Scootaloo prepped hastily, eager to start. Sweetie Belle started nibbling at her hooves in anticipation.
“Ready, Applebloom?” Scootaloo called out, the pressure-plate firing device primed for one most awesome a firing.
“Re’eh!” Applebloom called back, mouth full of steering. With that, Scootaloo jumped on the plate, and the yellow filly shot off into the great blue yonder.
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“Oh, did you miss me Celestia?” Discord asked, his long body hunched over forward, “I missed you,” he held a picture of the sun Princess in his hand and drew a talon across the smiling face of the benevolent ruler before the paper melted into butter, “NOT.”
Discord crossed his arms and sighed in thought. Too fidgety, he started pacing and surveying his surroundings. He was close to Canterlot, atop the mountain the alicorn’s crown jewel was built upon. He had conjured some thick clouds to stay somewhat incognito and turned all the snow beneath his feet into slick rubber. One’s ideas bouncing around one’s head could always be solved with more bouncing, so said the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.
“Alright there Discord, you’re out and surely there’s some Chaos to be had!” he declared happily, bouncing about on the rubber, “Those elements were a bother last time though… and gray does absolutely no justice for my complexion, it just doesn’t!” The draconequus started to float for a bit, digging deeper into thoughts of what to do now that the shackles of Order had fallen off of him, and were probably quick to extend their reach and find their millennium-old captive. Then it hit him. A cheese wheel that is, not a solution. Food always trumps solutions for Discord. And then in mid-bite, another thing hit him, this time a solution.
“Oh, how foolish I’ve been!” Discord declared, spreading his arms apart and throwing the cheese off the side of the mountain, “What’s the place where Chaos is the mainstay, where the clouds move on their own, the plants grow without being told, and the days roll on without a tyrant’s external magic organ?” Discord’s grin spread across his face and he rocketed into the air, fireworks following him.
“The Everfree Forest! I’ll camp out there, wait until things die down a bit, then return and seek revenge!” he yelled, snapping his fingers and disappearing in a flash of white.
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The ground and trees moved fast underneath the filly, and it truly was a spectacular feeling, to soar above everything else and to go so fast, Applebloom was taken aback by the speed of it all. There was the schoolhouse! And there it went! Cloudsdale, the once near-heavenly city of Applebloom’s speculations, was now an on-level metropolis. The fastest of falcons were put to shame by the determined earth pony! The best part of it all? No crash in sight!
“Thith mutht ‘ee mah spehul dalen’!” she squeed against the roaring wind. She swore she felt a tingle on her flank, and was too excited to think straight in anticipation to see a Cutie Mark donning her rump.
The movement of her head sharply turned the hang-glider to the right. Straining to see what was going on, Applebloom looked up at the glider, and found herself climbing higher and higher into the air. The propulsion was too great, she couldn’t turn her head anymore to steer the glider back on target. Higher and higher she went, until the glider gave way and succumbed to gravity, plummeting to the ground. The safety harnesses slid right off, and Applebloom followed the triangular mismatch of cloth and steel, screaming in terror.
Apple Bloom was falling, falling, falling, THUD. The earth pony filly was lucky, a few gusts of wind, strategically placed tree branches, and the fact she had landed in a soft bush cushioned her landing.
“And that is the last time I listen to Scootaloo about anythin’ flyin’,” she muttered, picking herself back up and looking around dizzily. The forest was dark, but a bit uncannily so. Strange noises surrounded the pony, and she swore there was something watching her.
“This place is too dark to be the orchard,” Applebloom noted as she started to trek forth towards a nearby clearing. She looked to her left, where disjointed sycamores shared space with golden-eyed ravens and the sounds of something enjoying a meal that had been running fifteen seconds prior. A head-turn to the left fared no better, draping green and purple vines looked as snakes in an omnipresent indigo fog that appeared to come out of the air itself.
“Wait… Ah’ve been here before,” the filly stopped in the dead center of the clearing, paralyzed from the neck down in fear.
“Ah’m in the Everfree Forest!” she cried out, frightened. A dark laugh climbed its way through the trees surrounding her, growing louder and louder in volume. Applebloom, glued to the spot, collapsed and bunched up as close as she could into herself, burying her face in her forehooves as the mocking laughter became louder and louder.
Applebloom had never heard such a horrible and piercing noise in her life. The laughter was one that mocked, one that was laced with insanity and coated with a kind of evil one could only find by taking a dip in the pits of malice. Her hooves could only block out so much before her dread began pouring out of her eyes and ripping out her mouth.
“APPLEJAAAACK!!” she screamed in terror as she sprinted ahead, eyes shut tight and full of tears. A large and thick obstruction halted the filly’s progress quite suddenly and knocked her back a few inches. Through her fuzzy vision and fearful tears, Applebloom’s gaze stuck on the massive figure not a foot from her nose.
Long and slender, the patchwork monster twiddled his beard with a lion paw while his other arm, a griffin’s foreleg, was clenched, ready to snap at a moment’s notice. Applebloom’s memory could only bring one word to mind to describe this creature, something Cheerilee had brought up one sunny day in the gardens…
“The dragonekuz…?” she barely peeped. The Spirit of Chaos roared in laughter.
“Oh, pardon me my dear, it would appear as if we haven’t met,” he started, his arms spread wide, “before you stands the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, the draconequus,” he glared at the small pony in disdain before returning to his ham, “Discord!” The hodgepodge spirit flew in the air, the technicolor lightning and thunder booming above his head barely a whisper against the evil cackle of the Chaos Spirit. Applebloom screamed in her head to tell her legs to move, but the stubborn things were cemented to the spot, too tied up by the fear this abomination of nature had slammed into her psyche. Discord descended to the ground and leaned his long head close to the frightened filly.
“Did you say, Applejack?” a thread of pink darted across his lips, leaving his fang glistening in the limited light of the forest, “Applejack, as in the pony who represents the Element of Honesty, as in one of the ponies that ruined my gloriously chaotic return?” Discord brought his fist into the air and gazed up into the sky philosophically, as if describing the arrival of The First Alicorn.
Applebloom squeaked again and hid her face in her hooves again, trying to make herself as small as possible. Discord eyed the small pony and couldn’t help but explore a question that kept poking him.
“Don’t I know you?”
Applebloom looked up at him, “N-n-no,” she stammered out. Discord’s ears perked and his eyes began to switch sizes.
“Ah, young Applebloom, one of the three fillies who’s fighting and disharmony freed me from Celestia’s stone grip the first time!” Discord grinned and snapped disappearing in a flash of light. Applebloom rose a bit and looked around for her sister’s past foe.
“How… do ya know me?” she asked the ether.
“Oh I know everypony in Equestria!” Discord was floating behind her and looked as if he was lying down on a floor of nothingness, his hands under his chin in a position a filly would take if there was something particularly interesting to watch, “A thousand-plus years of immobility doesn’t leave much to do but wait, watch, and take in,” Discord explained nonchalantly, examining his talons. Applebloom couldn’t help but lose herself staring at the intimidating creature before her. A long face swathed in a brownish-gray hue, sporting two massive yellow lenses that looked at the world with different-sized red beads; two decent-sized wings, one of a bird and one of a bat; arms built from the two regal halves of the griffin; a leg of a blunt, pure-muscle beast and another of a more stealthy, equally dangerous, creature; and the tail of the scariest monster in all Equestria, all these things brought together with their tropes and traits and attributes into a creature that not only lived for Chaos, but was baptized and created in its erratic tendrils.
“So what is the sister of Applejack doing deep in this most gilded of chaotic landscapes?” the draconequus asked, examining his talons in a bored fashion. Applebloom’s broken concentration made her jump for a moment before swallowing a few remaining bits of fear.
“Well, Ah was tryin’ to get mah Cutie Mark,” she started, trailing her hoof across the dirt. Discord’s ears perked up.
“Cutie Mark? I’ve always been fascinated by that phenomenon!” his head turned and contorted as he spoke with a dash of excitement, his upside-down eyes not a hair from hers. The filly’s eyes were plastered open, her mouth glued shut. Discord waved his talons a bit, gesturing her to continue her story while an intrigued grin cut across his face.
“Well, me and mah friends were gonna go hang-glidin’ usin’ a circus cannon,” Applebloom started, her eyes unable to meet the piercing gaze of Discord’s red irises.
“A circus cannon?!?” the draconequus shouted in awe, summoning a notepad and pen with a snap and scribbling some notes down, “Sweet Chaos, how did I never think of such a brilliant idea?” The powerful spirit before Applebloom seemed to be preoccupied in his own musings on how to manipulate a circus cannon into various absurd uses, so she began to trot off towards where she thought Zecora’s abode lay.
Not fifteen seconds after the cries of chaotic joy and aspiration began to fade from the filly’s ears had passed when Applebloom walked into a loud snap and a flash of white.
“So this Cutie Mark nonsense, what’s it all about anyway?” the draconequus asked as he followed the determined Earth Pony, lounging in the air.
“Miss Cheerilee says that ev’rypony gets a cutie mark on their flank when they discover their special talent, the one thing that they’re really, really good at,” Applebloom replied, a bit put off by the sudden confusion of the seemingly omniscient draconequus, of whom had disappeared suddenly.
“Like this?!?” Discord asked, flashing in front of the yellow filly, sticking his rump out and twisting his pipe-like body awkwardly to examine his work. Donning his flank was a golden apple, appearing to shimmer in the dim light of the forest. Applebloom looked on in confusion as Discord began to shake his rump a bit, examining his new decal from all angles.
“So what’s the deal with this thing? Is it supposed to change color?” the draconequus asked as his mark began to explore various visual hues, “And is it supposed to stay in one spot? Can it go everywhere? Maybe twist about? Can I get one in THREE-DEE?” As Discord rambled on, his golden apple changed to match his diction, until it finally settled back in its original spot, looking particularly three-dimensional.
“What’re ya’ doin’?” Applebloom yelled, in shock at the utter disrespect the King of Chaos was giving the one thing she always dreamt about, “A Cutie Mark is the one thing that makes everypony special! It’s what tells us what our special talent is and where everypony fits in the world! It’s what makes a pony...” she searched for the word, becoming a bit hysterical, “a pony!” she trotted off, steaming with anger. One of Discord’s eyebrows rose as he stroked his beard, a bit put off at this sudden outburst. He looked back at his rump.
“What a confining concept! A forced destiny for everypony, forever glaring them in the face!” he paused for a moment, “Well, glaring them in the flank,” Discord snapped and his gilded apple disappeared in a flash of white. He shook his head.
“So that’s how Celestia’s doing things nowadays,” he sighed, a few memories poking their heads into his mind. He shook them off and snapped his talons, teleporting above a departing Applebloom.
“What d’you want?” the filly asked, her voice carrying a grim overtone. Discord pantomimed swimming above the yellow pony, floating and whistling a merry tune that was quite out of place in the quickly darkening forest.
“I figure I’ll follow you for a bit, maybe hear some more stories about how Celestia’s changed things around since my imprisonment,” the draconequus scratched his beard, “Come to think of it, I didn’t get a good look at the place when I broke out of that statue the first time around, and there’s only so much pop culture a stone can gather when he’s rooted in place.”
Applebloom sighed and continued on into the forest, trying to find her way out of the labyrinth of trees while a rock formed in her gullet. Sure, Discord seemed harmless enough now, but this was the creature that broke apart the friendship of the Carriers of the Elements of Harmony! She needed to keep one eye on the road ahead of her, and one eye on her new travel companion.
“It is a shame she’ll never leave this place,” Discord thought to himself, looking about himself and examining the dark forest, “it’s got to be better than being confined to a destiny in a process you have absolutely no control over, though.”
And so the draconequus and the filly trudged on into the mist, what lay ahead of them, an unknown expanse.
