Return to Disharmony

“Who is this?”

“Who?”

“The mare in the sculpture, who is she?”

Mr. Leo walked towards a clipboard hanging on the wall. After a brief moment, he answered Trixie with…

“Twilight Sparkle, according to the princess and the photograph she gave me the other day with the order. Why are you so interested in this mare though, it’s honestly a surprise to see you show in interest in someone other than yourself.”

Trixie growled before she took a deep breath and continued the conversation.

“The mare…Twilight I should say, was the one who ruined my career by showing me up and forced me to run out of Ponyville.”

“Oh yeah, I heard about that, something about your fans leading an Ursa…an Ursa…minor, yeah that was it, an Ursa minor into town before Twilight took it down singlehandedly. Yeah, I heard it took them weeks to repair the damage though…so she’s the reason you had to go on the road?”

“Yes Leo, after she vanquished the Ursa there was no way that could show my face around Equestria, especially after my name was tarnished by my failure to subdue the Ursa Minor myself. After everypony found out that I had never vanquished an Ursa Major on my own, everypony disregarded my amazing feats as more lies and I was forced to find work elsewhere.”

“Well that’s certainly a sad story Trixie,” Mr. Leo said as he put a hoof to his eyes and wiped away an imaginary tear, “really brings a tear to the eyes. Unfortunately for you though, you kinda deserved it.”

“Excuse me!?!”

“Yeah, the way I see it, if you don't have the power to back up your claims, you shouldn't have made them in the first place. Now I'm sorry that your fans brought a monster the size of a building into ponyville but they only did it because they believed in your outrageous claims. If you hadn't built yourself up like you were so amazing and powerful, the Ursa wouldn't have been brought in, you'd be on the road, and I'd have my shed. So as I said before, you deserved it and Twilight had nothing to do with your fall from grace. Stop shifting blame and take responsibility for your actions Trixie!”

Trixie’s anger boiled over inside her skull until she found herself lifting a chisel high into air. She launched the chisel towards the Twilight sculpture’s head when something slammed into her and sent her crashing to the floor behind the chisel. As she shook her head, she looked behind her to see Mr. Leo angrily staring at her as she slowly rose from the floor.

“Now Trixie, I’ve put up with a lot of your antics now, but I cannot allow you to ruin my latest piece just because of a grudge.”

Mr. Leo walked towards the door and opened it before lifting a hoof and pointing towards the outside.

“Get out!”

As Trixie walked out the door, she felt tears rolling down her face. As she walked towards her hut, she could hear Mr. Leo slamming the door behind her as he started to get back to work.

•••

Trixie walked into her hut near the outskirts of the sculpture garden and jump into her small, damaged cot in the corner of her suffocating little home. She was too angry and hurt to notice the smell of dust which filled the air and too tired to hear the creaks of the ancient mattress as she tossed and turned in a futile attempt at finding comfort. She was too tired to fight and for the first time in nearly two weeks, she had managed to go to sleep as soon as she laid her head down.

•••

In her dreams, Trixie was at her most vulnerable. While she dreamed, she lacked the bolstering attitude of a performer in her element. She lacked the will to continue even after the show was already over. She lacked the voice which chased away the feelings of self-doubt and inferiority, and she lacked the ability to forget how far she had fallen.
Trixie found herself running out of Ponyville as she was chased by the Ursa Minor. She felt the ground shaking beneath her hooves as the beast roared angrily in reply. The landscape faded to black around her, growing darker and darker with each step she took, until she was running in a faded void with the dreaded Ursa growing closer and closer. She tried to run faster but it seemed as if her legs grew heavier and heavier, her lungs growing more and more belabored until she could barely draw in the tiniest breath. The thumps grew more and more severe until she felt herself being thrust into the air nearly a foot at a time.

The Ursa was almost upon her but she couldn’t risk a peak to turn around. She felt the air itself bend around the Ursa’s claws as one was raised into the air around her. She couldn’t run anymore and resigned herself to her impending doom when suddenly; a purple light appeared around her.

Trixie turned to see the Ursa enveloped in a purple wave of energy. Between them, a purple unicorn who she recognized as Twilight Sparkle, was straining from effort before suddenly the Ursa disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Twilight turned around to face her but Trixie couldn’t help but back away. Twilight’s eyes were completely white, glowing with the power of magic as a dissonant grin was spreading across her face.

“What’s wrong Trixie?” Twilight said in a mocking tone, “you can’t take care of a little Ursa minor? Whatever happened to the great and powerful Trixie huh, I thought that you could take care of an Ursa Major single-handedly.”

“I could…it’s just…”

“It’s just what Trixie? It’s just that you’re not skilled enough, your magic not powerful enough? You’re just like me; we both had the same potential Trixie, what’s really keeping you from vanquishing the Ursa Minor besides ineptitude and inferiority.”

Trixie felt the anger in her flare.

“Stop it Twilight…or I’ll…”

“…run and hide while the real mares do your dirty work, because if that’s true then maybe your talent is running instead of magic.”

“No, you’re wrong; I’m the great and powerful Trixie. I vanquished an Ursa Major; I don’t have to take lip from an upstart who got lucky!”

Twilight’s eyes suddenly turned jet black as her face contorted to a visage of pure rage. Twilight enveloped Trixie in a black wave of energy before pulling her close to her face, so close in fact that Trixie could sense the rage boiling out of Twilight’s body.

“Lucky?!? If it wasn’t for me, Ponyville would be in ruins thanks to you and your fan club. If it’s anypony who should consider themselves luck, I’d say it’s the one who got out of her own mess with nothing more than a few broken knick-knacks and a damaged caravan.”

Trixie began to weep helplessly as Twilight’s words hit her in her soul, as she remembered how much she had lost when her broken promises came back to haunt her.

“Wh-what do you want me to admit…that I’m a failure, that I can’t live up to my own legacy, that I can’t ever hope to accomplish my own goals, or that I’m destined to die alone and forgotten like my father?”

“Actually my dear, I believe that what you just said will be enough.”

Twilight’s body suddenly began to change as Trixie witnessed the metamorphosis. Her snout extended itself until it was almost poking Trixie in her eye, her body straightened itself out to almost serpentine proportions, and her limbs each morphed into strange new forms vastly different from her formerly equine features.

Trixie looked on in horror as “Twilight’s” body changed into the Discord’s form. The black energy that had previously surrounded her was now replaced with a sharp talon which clamped uncomfortably around Trixie’s neck.

“Now I must say it really is quite rare to meet someone as unsure of themselves as you. I mean, I know that it’s in my job description to spread chaos and misery across Equestria but never before have I witnessed such sadness and self-hatred coming from any one pony.”

For once in her life, Trixie was speechless.

“I understand, it must be hard for you to meet someone at a higher wrung of the food chain. I personally felt the same way when I was bested by those little…but enough about me; tell me about you, my little pony.”

Still, Trixie was speechless but now it was from lack of oxygen instead of a lack of bravery.

“What’s wrong, cat’s got your tongue?” Discord said in an overly jovial tone as he tightened his grip and pulled Trixie closer to his face, as if she’d say something now that her oxygen was deprived.

“Oh right, I forgot you little one’s required air to live…” Discord said before loosening his grip and allowing her to fall onto the cold hard checkered floor which had suddenly materialized beneath them. “…my mistake, you see you tend to forget minor things like that after you’ve been imprisoned for a thousand years…twice!”

“O-okay, well what do you want with me?”

“My oh my, you certainly don’t waste time cutting to the chase huh sweetie?”

Discord suddenly materialized a black La-z-boy chair out of the ground as he took a seat and crossed his mismatched legs.

“Well you see my dear, the thing they forget to mention about prisons is that even the most secured prison can't prevent the imprisoned from communicating with the outside. You see, after I recovered from the prospect of spending the rest of my natural life in bondage, I had already begun to plan out my escape.”

“Your escape?”

“Why yes my little parrot, my escape. As wacky as I appear on the outside, the inside hides a mind much smarter than the average Equestrian. Y’see little one, before they sealed me away, I had already created contingency plans that would one day aid in my escape. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before the seal weakened and my reign could begin anew but I figured, why wait for another thousand years to pass when I can begin my new reign ahead of schedule. That’s where you come in great and powerful one.”

“Me?”

“Unless there’s another pony hidden in your subconscious, I’d say yes. Anyways, I want you to help me out with my plans of escape, since I believe that you’d be the perfect choice of aid in my escape.”

“But why me, aren’t you worried that I’d just go to the princesses. Wouldn’t you be weary of trusting anypony with such an important task, especially since they’d just go to the princesses or the keepers of harmony?”

Discord scratched his chin in thought for a moment. “Well my dear, you do raise some very good points about the flaws in my plans but all I have to offer is one startling rebuttal.”

“And what, pray tell would that be?”

“Well little Trixie, do you really want to give that Twilight Sparkle another reason to show you up? Another opportunity for her to show you just how out leagued you are compared to her, the pony who vanquished me, Ursa, and Nightmare Moon?”

Trixie looked down at the checkered floor and frowned.

“I’m not really as heartless as the rest of those ponies think I am Trixie.” He said as he lightly touched her cheek with his paw, “I can do anything I want honestly, I mean I can take powers away or…” Discord said as he wrapped himself around Trixie, “I could just give them away.”

In Discord’s hand, a white ball of light floated above his talon. As Trixie’s eyes glued themselves to its brilliance, she could hear the crackle of electricity surging just beneath the sphere’s surface.

“What is that?” Trixie asked dumbly.

“This dear is…a gift.”

Trixie could barely contain her excitement.

“Within this sphere is one tenth of my vast reservoirs of magic. For your services, I will give you a taste of my power as an incentive for you to do a really good job. What you do with this power, I honestly don’t care. How you use it is completely up to you. Lastly, but best of all, this power will allow you to show up anyone in Equestria, up to and including the princesses and the keepers of harmony.”

Trixie felt the allure of the power in Discord’s talon but still felt a part of herself becoming hesitant at the thought of accepting the gift.

“Don’t worry my dear, my gifts lack expiration dates so you can just accept it whenever you decide to take me up on my offer.”

Discord then arose from his seat, took three long strides away from Trixie and held out his paw as his fingers were poised to snap. The last thing Trixie heard in her dream was Discord saying “remember my dear; I’ll always be with you.” Before he snapped his fingers.

•••

Trixie found herself sitting upright in her cot as moonlight poured in from the cracks in the ceiling. She felt moisture all over her face as she found herself sweating in fear.

“Was that all a dream? “ Trixie thought to herself, “am I going insane?”

“Well they say that insanity it merely a sign of acute intelligence my dear.”

Trixie frantically looked around her ruddy shake as the voice of Discord appeared seemingly out of nowhere. As she looked from wall to wall, she didn’t find any sign of anypony else residing in her shack.

“Is anyone there?” Trixie asked hesitantly.

“Why of course I’m here, did you think that I’d desert you my dear?” Discord said mockingly.

Trixie looked around at the shack once more until she saw something strange. In the broken mirror across from her cot, she saw something strange in her eyes which instantly caught her attention. As Trixie slowly walked closer and closer to the mirror, she saw the object beginning to focus until she saw Discord’s face staring back at her with a demented grin on his face.

“As I always said, I’ll always be near, always!”