“Luna?” Fluttershy called. “I think Twilight is crying.”

Luna turned sharply to the body that had just been loaded onto the chariot. Indeed, the purple alicorn was weeping softly, a steady stream of tears emanating from her eyes. “Yes, I see. That is unfortunate, yet good at the same time.”

“Good?” the pegasus squeaked.

“Yes,” said the princess, “because it means that her mind and body are still functioning correctly... relatively speaking. Nonetheless, we have no time to waste. Rarity?”

“Coming!” the unicorn sang, a barrel of supplies floating behind her. “We’ll have enough food for a week in here, but we’ll need to get water from time to time.”

Luna nodded. “Very good. We’ll be able to refill on water at the sea border with Gryphonia, as well as Felonia and Saddle Arabia.”

“Felonia?” Rarity squeaked. “I don’t follow politics, but aren’t the Felonians unfriendly with us?”

“Yes, they are actually quite xenophobic towards ponykind. Which is why we won’t be staying for more than hour in their territory.” Luna sighed at the nervous looks the two mares exchanged. “Look, Equestria and Felonia have a treaty of nonaggression, one that specifically provides for the safety of Princesses and their retinues. We’ll be safe, alright?”

The couple nodded, putting on their best brave smiles. “Good. We leave immediately.”

“Hold it!” Cadence trotted to the launch pad, the others in tow. “You didn’t think you’d get to leave without goodbye hugs, did you?”

“HUGS!” Pinkie shouted, hugging each of the three mares in a pink blur. “Hugshugshugshugshugs HUGS!”

Everypony giggled. “Thanks Pinkie,” Fluttershy said warmly. “I hope you’re able to feed everypony!”

“Eh, Ah’ll be there too to make sure of it,” Applejack replied with a wink. “Ah’ll rope Rainbow here into it if we still need help.”

“How about not?” Rainbow scoffed.

“Discord, did you steal Rainbow’s loyalty again?” the farmpony jabbed playfully.

“Don’t drag me into this,” the draconequus muttered halfheartedly.

Shining Armor stepped forward. “We’re marching to the battlefield the moment you leave. No way we can let Palderias set up a fortified position in the desert, or he could easily march on Ponyville and then Canterlot. We’ll stop his army there, no compromise!”

Luna nodded. “I knew there was a reason why my sister trusts you and your sister so deeply,” she stated. “Good luck and take care.”

“And you as well!” said Cadence with a bow, only to be stopped by Luna’s hooves.

The Princess of the Night smiled and pulled the Princess of Love into her embrace. “Please good Cadence, we are equals. Comrades, even!” she added, receiving a watery smile in return.

After a few more hugs and well-wishes, Rarity hopped onto the chariot while Fluttershy and Luna hitched themselves to the mounting rails. “Are you ready, fair Fluttershy?” the alicorn asked.

Fluttershy nodded swiftly. “Ready. That is, if you are….”

“Indeed we are. Hold on fair Rarity!”

The two flyers spread their wings and broke into a gallop, charging down the short runway until they glided effortlessly off into the air. Circling Canterlot once to gain altitude, they flew into the eastern sky, towards hostile nations and the promise of their friend’s salvation.

Standing with an almost preternatural stillness, Palderias gazed at the landscape before him. With the exception of the town of Appleloosa and the apple orchard planted by its inhabitants, the land was almost exactly as it was before he had claimed it some eleven hundred years prior. His factories had been wiped from existence, along with his residential districts and any signs of his mining operations. Now it was just empty countryside.

An unfortunate, but predictable setback. This time, there will be no further resistance. Not one shred of sentiment to prevent the optimization of existence. All variables will be accounted for and addressed.

The sound of clanking metal indicated the approach of one of his drones. The Being turned to face a machine only slightly shorter than himself, modified with a speaker in its “mouth” area.

Your report, Unit 01.

“All units have been repaired in fullness to their specification,” the drone stated. “Magic field residue scanned and factored into collective computations. Based on this new data and existing data from your allies, our calculations predict one hundred percent casualties of all drones, seventy eight percent casualties of all pony combatants, and zero casualties of yourself.”

Unacceptable, yet predictable. Begin strategic initiative 1-M.

There was a small ‘tick’ sound. “Begun. Estimated time to completion three hours, twenty minutes, five seconds.”

Dismissed. The drone spun around and marched off. Without any delay, Palderias clicked his right pincer and dematerialized in a column of green fire, reappearing a mile away with the same effect next to two unicorns sipping iced tea on lounge chairs.

Flim and Flam did a spit take and set down their drinks. “Your lordship!” Flim greeted hastily.

“What ever can we do for you?” Flam added.

Explain the nature of your recreation. This is a time of preparation before our critical battle with the monarchy of Equestria. All of our forces should be working towards maximum tactical and strategic effectiveness. Though the statement was not hostile, the unicorns immediately felt uneasy.

The two brothers glanced at each other and then laughed politely. “Lord Palerias, we already have done our work,” said Flam in an attempt at magnanimously behavior. “We are merely enjoying a moment of respite and celebration for our efforts.”

“Everything is in place,” Flim assured. “You were able to construct your current army with the first of four sets of raw metals we have acquired with our own funds. The next three sets are in a series of secure, secret locations on our warpath through Ponyville to Canterlot.”

“Our business associates have already prepared operatives in every major city in Equestria,” Flam continued, gesturing with a hoof. “Once your drones have eliminated the main Royal host, the operatives will immediately play on the news of that defeat and begin sowing dissent. Local Equestrian forces will be tied town containing rioters and panicking citizens, leaving us unhindered as we march on Canterlot and besiege Celestia’s personal domain.”

Palderias clicked a pincer. Satisfactory. We shall see if your operatives can indeed create sentiments beneficial to our grand strategy. If not, those resources will become vital to the basic preservation of our military, and an assault on Canterlot may have to be postponed.

“Caution befits a great mind as yours, your lordship,” Flim complemented, and took a sip of his tea. “However, I would not be too concerned. The Equestria of today is brittle compared to its prime many hundreds of years ago. Celestia has allowed this nation too many years of uninterrupted peace, and now she will pay the price.” Both unicorns could not help but smirk at his last statement.

Your hypothesis is noted, said the Being. Continue with your celebration if you wish. I will proceed to oversee the final modifications of our military force and the quantification of all variables that remain uncontrolled.

Another column of green fire left the two unicorns to their iced tea, and a grand view of Palderias’ massive drone army.

Though Twilight Sparkle had slept through the brunt of her horror and grief, waking brought her no joy. Rather, she returned to the hollowness of her memory, the knowledge that everything... everypony she had cared for had been destroyed forever. Her eyes had no tears, but the rest of her felt like crying.

Moved by the joined instincts of weariness and hunger, she glided off of the hill towards Ponyville, wearily flapping her wings just enough to keep her altitude. As she did, she looked up and saw that it was still night and the moon some over the land. It was true: Nightmare Moon had returned with a vengeance.

However, things only got weirder as she approached Ponyville, yet it was a familiar sight: Upside down floating buildings, roads made of soap, muscle-builder bunnies, pink checkerboard landscapes… Faust help me, Twilight silently groaned.

It wasn’t long before she reached the center of Ponyville. A soap road lead to a single hill with a high slope and a thin throne at the top. And on that throne was a familiar yet oddly bored-looking draconequus.

“Discord,” Twilight croaked. Quickly realizing that nopony could hear her, she coughed and repeated, “Discord. What happened here? You’re supposed to keep your power in check.”

Discord glanced over and blinked slowly. “Oh… you’re awake,” he drawled noncommittally. “No, I don’t think I’m supposed to do anything at this point. I’m the Master of Chaos after all.”

Twilight opened her mouth to retort, to say something about how Fluttershy would be displeased, and then stopped herself. “Yes, you’re starting to get it,” he observed, suddenly sporting a funeral veil. “Dear Fluttershy is mounted on a wall, and now my being reformed is meaningless because I don’t have any friends.”

“Whatever happened to me?” Twilight questioned reflexively.

At the gritting of Discord’s teeth, the throne glided down the soap road at a startling pace until the two were face-to-face. “And why would I want to be your friend anymore?” he snarled lowly, his pupils glowing faint yellow. “This is your fault, and Celestia’s too for that matter! My very first bonds have been torn from me just as they were formed. You should have never tried to teach me friendship.” He looked away bitterly. “I wish I had never become friends with her.”

Before hearing those words, Twilight had felt like she had been stabbed with a knife and was left with the weapon buried in her flesh. Now, she felt like the same thing had happened again and a second blade was stuck inside her. Rational thought, principles, bonds, these all took second place to the simple pain of existing in this state.

“I will kill him,” she muttered, then with growing volume and anger she repeated, “I will kill him! I will erase Palderias… no, I will cut his THROAT!” she shrieked, her eyes suddenly glowing red and green. “I WILL PUT HIS HEAD ON A STAKE AND MOUNT IT ON THE FRONT GATE OF CANTERLOT! AND THEN I WILL MARCH INTO THE PALACE AND BANISH NIGHTMARE MOON FOR ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS!!!” She stopped to catch her breath, then turned back to Discord with a glare that could have frozen a volcano. “And let me be clear, buddy, when I get back her you better be reformed again or you will be put back into stone for twice as long.”

After a pause, the draconequus shrugged disinterestedly. “Good luck with that. I won’t deny that you’ll put up a good fight with the former Princess Luna, but you’re not in the same league as Palderias and myself.” Before the alicorn could retort in her rage, he raised his claw and paw defensively, adding, “All I am saying is that maybe somepony needs a power boost?”

Twilight was half-way through rolling her eyes when the meaning of Discord’s words hit her. A wicked grin crept up her lips, the first smile she had experienced since what seemed to be forever. “I can think of something that will help.” And with this, she spun around into a gallop towards the library.

“Have fun!” Discord called out sarcastically.

Back in the material world, the real Discord floated alongside a marching army as it proceeded down the main highway from Canterlot to Ponyville. A steady column of unicorns and earth ponies on the ground, flanked by two straight lines of pegasii on each side in the sky. At the head was Prince-Consort Shining Armor, Acting Commander of the Equestrian Royal Army, and Princess Cadence, Empress of the Crystal Empire. They were surrounded by her Imperial Guard of Crystal Pegasii.

Behind Princess Cadence was General Broadsword, Vice Commander of the Equestrian Royal Army. He was an older, gruff earth pony with a pale light blue coat, violet eyes, a white crew-cut mane and less well-kept, color-matching beard. Next to him was Captain Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, as well as Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who had been made Acting Lieutenants, and Pinkie Pie, who was the Acting Senior Moral Officer.

The draconequus was bored out of his mind. Aside from the occasional side chatter, the army was silent and grim. News of their enemy’s nature had been spread quickly, and the royals were not the type to keep everything secret for the sake of “national security” purposes. The prospect of fighting thousands of soulless automatons and a Being about as powerful as and far more malicious than Discord did not do good things for the army’s morale. Everypony wanted to be at war with the Changelings instead, or perhaps even the Gryphons or Felonians if it didn’t mean a world war.

Still, Discord knew that this was not a cause for concern. The Equestrian Royal Army was tied with the Sacred Legions of Felonia for both the world’s most powerful and most disciplined military force (his own tyrannical rule and conflict with Palderias had a role in that). Furthermore, everypony would give their right hoof to fight alongside Prince Shining Armor, one of the most distinguished military ponies in the contemporary era, the brother of Princess Twilight and the husband of Princess Cadence…. No, they were not happy right now, but they would be later on.

Many tedious hours later into the evening, the army camped in the grassy expanse between Ponyville and Appleloosa. The central command tent was set up on a hill that overlooked all possible avenues of approach. Discord appreciated the idea of getting advance warning should they be approached, but it didn’t seem to ease his mind regarding the inevitable battle he was sure he would soon would face.

“Why are you looking like that?”

Discord twisted his head around twice to take in Rainbow Dash’s quixotic expression. “Oh, hello Rainbow Dash. Why? What do I look like?” he asked quietly.

Rainbow Dash paused to see if he would change shape to confuse the question, and blinked in confusion when he didn’t. She shrugged and sat down on a flat rock in front of the tent’s wall.

“Well, like... Fluttershy used to get whenever she had to go outside EVER,” she said with a brief eyeroll.

“Aw, I didn’t know you cared!” he giggled sarcastically, dabbing his eyes with a conjured handkerchief.

Rainbow rolled her eyes again. “Yeah, I totally can’t recognize the tough colt routine when I see it. C’mon Discord, why are you being a scaredy filly?”

“I am NOT being a scaredy filly!” Discord scoffed. “I’m just… working through my very reasonable fear of Palderias!”

Unable to keep the surprise off her face, Rainbow Dash eyed the draconequus with disbelief. “Why would you be afraid of Palderias?”

“Well, because he’s… evil!” Discord sputtered, waving paw and claw in the air.

“And so are you!” Rainbow retorted. “Or were,” she continued with a frown. “I’m still not clear about that point.”

Discord rolled his eyes and sat down on an adjacent rock. “Look, let me try to be more clear. He’s a whole magnitude more evil than I am. Or than I was.” He frowned mightily, his eyes flicking from side to side as he thought. “You know, I’m not clear about that either,” he muttered.

Shaking his head, he continued. “Never mind that. Do you know why anypony usually becomes evil?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Something tragic happened? I dunno, usually my friends and I just blast evil with a huge rainbow of Harmony or whatever and I don’t think about it again.”

“Well,” Discord declared in his best teaching voice, holding up a pipe in his claw and fingering the lapels of his tweed jacket. “There are basically two kinds of evil: inherent, which is very rare, and consequential.” He blew bubbles from his pipe and watched them float about for a moment. “We’ll discuss the second first and the first second,” he said, smirking at Rainbow’s brief look of confusion.

“Consequential evil happens when something leaves somepony’s heart empty,” Discord explained, leaving his pipe floating in the air as he stroked his beard. “One of the big things that causes this is a lack of genuine affection. Princess Luna turned into Nightmare Moon because nopony appreciated her nights and by extension her. I’ve been a sadistic manipulator because, well..." He paused and brought his claw to his chin, obviously reluctant to continue.

With a theatrical sigh he rolled his eyes, paw to forehead, and continued, “Oh, I may as well admit it: I’m lonely, and and nopony - well, hardly anypony,” he said with a grin as he remembered some moments with Pinkie Pie, “enjoys my twisted sense of humor. Sunset Shimmer thought that power would make her happy but only became, what did Celestia say… ‘cruel and dishonest,’ yes that’s right.”

Rainbow nodded slowly. “Okay, I get it. Some ponies are driven to become bad.”

Discord sighed and grabbed his pipe from the air, puffing furiously at it as he continued. "Now, inherent, or instinctive, evil, is a lot scarier. That changeling queen from a bit ago might have found ways to sate her needs without attacking other ponies, but I, for one, think she actually enjoys causing pain and havoc as a sort of spice to her meal."

Rainbow snorted briefly. "Kind of like you?"

Discord's head snapped toward Rainbow Dash, and he glared at her with such malevolence that she flitted back off the rock to hover in the air with a worried expression. "Maybe in the past, from time to time," he growled, "but I never made a habit of it. I was just having fun; she actually seems to enjoy pain!"

Forcing herself not to run off to report Discord for being too scary or something, Rainbow swallowed and nodded, saying nothing as she landed a few feet further away from him.

Discord sighed, his expression softening. “Now, Palderias is even worse. He doesn’t have a heart to be empty in the first place; he’s as far from circumstantial as you can get. In a way, he’s just as machine-like as the drones he’s created. He doesn’t seem to feel joy or misery from anything, not even the twisted things he gets up to.”

He turned and looked back toward Canterlot and its garden maze far in the distance. “I made you and your friends the opposite of your true selves because it fed into my manipulative tendencies and gave me a bit of a thrill. But in the end it was just a game, if a rather dark one.”

His gaze returned to Rainbow Dash, and she was tempted once more to take off at how haunted Discord looked. “Palderias purposefully turns ponies into greedy wastes of air and water, with no concern but continuing to build or dig or whatever he has them do. But he doesn’t get any pleasure from that, or from sucking all the natural resources out of the countryside. And yet… he still does it all anyway!”

“Why?” spat Rainbow, shaking her head and staring at Discord with wide eyes. “Why would… That just doesn’t make any sense!” she blurted, throwing her forehooves in the air.

“Yes, and in this one instance,” said Discord with an expression Rainbow had never before seen on his face: genuine fear. “That bothers me… a lot.”

After another heavy sigh, he looked back at Rainbow Dash, a measure of mischief returning to his expression. “And besides, his evil is destructive - it doesn’t leave anything or anypony to play with afterward. My eeee… um, playful machinations,” he said with a chuckle, “are at least fun!”

“Yeah, for you,” Rainbow grumbled, folding her forelegs and glaring at him. At his hurt expression she sighed and relented. “Okay, fine, I see your point. But weren’t you saying that you were some sort of awesome warleader?”

“I was also the untameable, ruthless Master of Chaos who never had a second thought about using anypony for my amusement.” He sighed sadly. “I’m not the draconequus that I used to be, Rainbow Dash.”

After a silent moment of staring at him, Rainbow Dash snorted. “No, you’re way more than that now. You’re… oh, how do I say it?” She grit her teeth slightly as Discord watched her in confusion.

“When I first met you, you were some sort of... character, like one of the villains in the Daring Do books. What was that thing Twilight would say… yeah, one-note character!” She spun her eyes and squeezed her cheeks with her hooves. “‘Hi, I’m Discord and I like to make everything super confusing and unrealistic!’”

“I get the point, Rainbow,” Discord grumbled.

"Heh... sorry," she answered with an apologetic grin. "Anyway, now you’re a person! You like things, dislike things, do things… you have friends! Now Palderias is the one-note character. Don’t you think he should be afraid of you?”

Touched by the remark, Discord met Rainbow’s passionate gaze with a sad smile. “I can only hope so.”

Author's Note

And yet another! Thankfully these past two chapters were some of the most polished pieces of the story from its rough draft. This one in particular benefited a lot from the work of SongCoyote. Please, do check out their work!

Chapter 5 coming out... maybe soon? We shall see.