Thaddeus "Vin" Vincent lounged in his bean bag chair. His eyes concentrating on the screen in front of him. His small hands flew over the controllers buttons. His green eyes were focused on the task at hand. A phone lay on a table in front of him.
"So, How far are you?" A gravelly voice came from the phone.
"First phase of the Saren fight." A surprisingly deep voice came from the surprisingly small man in the bean bag chair. "How far are you, Lucas?"
"Her Heh, nice." I just got to a Canterlot Wedding Part Two. Those Changelings though." Lucas chuckled.
"Mmmmm," Vin hummed, a smile crossing his face. "Love me some Chrysi."
"But Vin, she's a heartless bitch! I prefer Lyra, best background pony." Lucas replied sounding confused. Thaddeus could almost feel his brother's frown.
"I reject your canon and substitute my own. Also, somewhere out there is a Lyra just for you." Vin shot a glance down at the table the phone sat on. Neck to it wa a steaming cup of coffee, the liquid inside was more of a dark cream color however. Surrounding the phone and coffee cup were game boxes that spanned decades. Chrono Trigger for the NES, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy VI, the Devil May Cry HD Collection, Dynasty Warriors 7, the Mass Effect Trilogy for the PS4. A cutscene drew the small man's eyes back to the TV. Chills ran down his spine as the saw the Normandy fly into the Citadel towards Sovereign.
"So, how are things over there?" Vin asked, shaking himself a bit to prepare himself for the coming fight with the reanimated Saren.
"You know I can't officially say anything Vin." Lucas grumbled. "Off the record however, in short. It's terrible." Vin herad Lucas sigh. "Thanks for this. MLP is refreshing. It's nice to have something so... pure..."
"Clearly you haven't been on the weird side of FimFiction." Vin raised a brow at the phone.
"I meant the original show! I have browsed FimFiction, a bit..." Lucas almost sounded ashamed.
"There there bro, nobody likes to admit they read clop." Vin hummed, then a wicked smile crosses his face. "Actually screw that! I fully admit I read clop."
"I.... I did not need to know that." Lucas said with an audible shiver.
"Love you bro." Vin said snarkily. "Let me know if there's anything else I can send you or refer you too."
"I think MLP, Steven Universe, and Star vs The Forces of Evil is enough thanks." Lucas chuckled. "Oh last time we talked you mentioned that Bioware offered you a job?"
"Fuck Bioware and Fuck EA!" Vin snapped at the phone.
"That answers that question." Lucas said sounding a tad shocked.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm joining your heartwarming conversation." A voice spoke up in the apartment.
There was silence from the phone as Vin blinked. He briefly paused the game, grabbed the cup of coffee, took a drink, set the cup back down, rolled his neck, then flopped back down into the bean bag chair.
"Vin... tell me you have John De Lancie in your apartment, else I may have to fly home and start shooting." Lucas said with a hint of worry in his voice.
"Oh yeah, John's been here the whole time. He's just been sitting here quietly watching me play Mass Effect." Vin responded.
"Really?...." Lucas asked, sounding oddly hopeful.
"No." Came Vin's flat reply. "I think I've got Discord's in my apartment. Either that or Alaraks... or Q's."
"Oof, you're going to have to get that looked at. Exterminator's require quite a bit of bits to get rid of those." The voice said with an audible wince.
"See?" Vin asked, eyes never leaving the TV. "Discord."
"How do you know I'm Discord?" The voice asked.
"Alarak would have probably killed me for giggles. And You're not Q because I'm not Jean Luc Picard." Vin explained with a small yawn.
"Soooo...... You've got Discord in your apartment." Lucas said, sounding like he was still processing.
"Well in voice chat at least. " Vin shrugged as Shepherd repeatedly shot Saren Sovereign-Zombie in the face.
"You know what this calls for right?" Vin asked, glancing at the phone.
"Why am I suddenly worried that I've made an unwise decision?" Discord asked no one in particular.
"Discord!" Lucas's voice yelled over the phone.
"Gah!" Discord yelped.
"I'm howling at the moon, and sleeping in the middle of a summer afternoon!" Vin continued as he and his brother sang in unison.
"And my fears were unwarranted! I have made a fabulous choice with you, Thaddeus!" Discord cackled.
"Call him Vin, he hates his first name." Lucas chukled. His chuckle died suddenly, and his voice grew suspicious, edging on hostile. "Wait.... Choice? What do you mean, choice?"
"Lucas, don't aggro the Lord of Chaos. You shoot guns at people. Guns don't do jack to something like that." Vin glanced back down at the phone with a chuckle. He ran a hand through his short ginger hair and groaned a little as he stretched.
"Umm, I take offense at being called something." Discord said clearing his throat.
"Deal with it." Vin said as a grin grew on his face. "What are you going to do, change me into something horrible?"
"Now who's pulling Discord aggro?!" Lucas snapped.
"Oh please, I don't do that anymore." Discord scoffed.
"What, turn over a new leaf because Fluttershy?" Vin asked.
"No, got stoned." Discord responded.
"Then how are you here... so to speak." Lucas asked.
"Please, getting turned to stone limits how much I can effect my own Universe. I still have free reign everywhere else." Discord responded then let out an audible shiver. "Some places I do not want to go back to however."
"What, you tick off the Imperium?" Vin asked with a raised brow.
"No...... Maybe..... A little bit..." Discord said defensively. "I like fucking with Inquisitors okay? Is that so bad?"
"No, fuck those guys. Except Eisenhorn. Eisenhorn is cool." Lucas responded.
"So, out of everywhere in all existence, you enter my apartment." Vin said, watching the closing cutscene of Mass Effect, but only half-focusing on it. "What brings something as powerful as you, to a midget like me? Boredom? Curiosity?"
"Vin, you mouth is going to get you shot someday." Lucas groaned.
"What, how often do you see a midget in bean bag chair playing video games?" Vin asked with a shit-eating grin.
"That's racist.... Wait... No, that's sizest... heightest?" Discord mused out loud. "No matter. I found you because you interest me, Vin."
"That's a great sign!" Lucas cried, the sarcasm dripping of his voice could have filled a small pond.
"You had my curiosity, now you have my undivided attention." Vin adjusted in his seat and folded his hands in his lap. "Go on."
Well, I have an idea. A stupid idea." Discord began. "In short terms-"
"I see what you did there." Vin raised a brow.
"In short terms I want to cause chaos indirectly, preferably without actually hurting anyone." Discord continued though he sounded a tad irritated.
"Okay." Vin nodded.
"An Agent of Chaos." Lucas spoke up.
"Yes exactly. I also want to shove pony kind's racism and bigotry in their face." Discord laughed.
"I support this, continue." Vin made a go on gesture.
"So! The idea! What if there was a hero that looked, sounded, and had the powers of, a villain, but inside was... well.... a good person? The Natural Order would be shaken by their presence alone." Discord said with a chuckle.
"'You there, stop!' 'Why? What did I do?' 'You're evil!' 'Prove it.' '.....You look evil?' 'That's racist.'" Vin rambled out the faux-conversation with a grin.
"Exactly!" Discord laughed.
"Hey Vin, you know that game you've wanted to make? I found your protagonist and your writer." Lucas chuckled, though a hint of suspiciousness was still there.
"You have a point." Vin nodded at the phone.
"However, there's a problem." Discord spoke up once again. "I think you, Vin, would make a great candidate."
"I sense a but coming." Vin raised a brow.
"But, I don't know if I want to go through with it." Discord sounded unsure of himself. "It's not exactly a nice process."
"This sounds like an intro to a bad Human in Equestria fic." Vin grinned. "I'm down."
"Vin, what are you doing?" Lucas asked immediately, more than a hint of worry in his voice.
"No, see, I don't think you know what this would mean." Discord tried to explain.
"I believe he does Spirit of Chaos." A deep masculine voice reverberated through the apartment.
"Okay, Vin, the fuck was that?" Lucas asked, now sounding legitimately scared.
"Adam?! What are you doing here-" Discord snapped and Vin suddenly felt very, very small. He felt like a cell under a microscope, being looked at by a two pairs of impossibly huge eyes. "No!" Discord cried. "No don't you dare Adam!"
"The others and I agree with your idea. We plan to improve on it." Adam's voice rumbled Vin's apartment.
"Adam, this is something I'd in my younger days! You can't just warp a person-" Discord's rant was cut off.
"Do not think you can order me Spirit of Chaos! I am not some child playing at Creation! My Sons are proof of that!" Adam responded.
Vin shook. Frightened and confused, he looked down at the phone. "Lucas, this was nicer in theory."
Lucas had to yell over the arguing beings. "Vin? It's going to be okay. You're going to be alright!"
"I don't care Adam! You can't do this!" Discord roared. "You know how wrong this is!"
"I will no longer listen to your ramblings Spirit of Chaos." The voice stated, silencing Discord.
Vin suddenly felt a pressure around him. Like he was being gripped by some colossal hand.
"Thaddeus Vincent, you have been chosen."
Vin didn't have time to get a word out. He exploded in a roar of crimson flames.
Princess Celestia, Diarch of Equestria and Ruler of the Sun, couldn't sleep. She sat on her haunches on her balcony in hopes that the cool night air would help her relax.
"Nightmare Night's in a few weeks, Luna should get out of the castle, she might enjoy that. Ponyville would accept her, right?" She grumbled to herself as she rubbed her temples wit hehr forehooves. "A week after that is the wedding. I may need Twilight and her friends to come work on it with how things have been going lately. Why are the castle staff nervous all of a sudden?" She sighed, trying to mitigate the growing headache. "Then there's the Gala and Hearth's Warming a couple months after that...." She groaned. "Dammit Tia, why must you overthink everything? You know that that's where Twilight gets it from."
"T-Tia..." The quiet voice of Discord spoke up.
"What Discord?!" She snapped. However on noting the sound of his voice, she softened. Something was wrong. "What happened?"
"I literally have no time to explain.." The Spirit of Chaos sounded fragile, hurt. "I.... I need you to get to you old castle immediately."
"Discord, tell me what's going on." Celestia brow furrowed, her mind a whirl of confusion and worry.
"There's no time! Just go! I will explain eventually, I- Just go!" Discord sounded on verge of panic. "You don't know what's coming!"
"Just tell me-" Celestia was cut off.
"BY THE ELDER ONES, CELESTIA ASTRA CONSTELLAS GET TO YOUR OLD CASTLE NOW!" The air around Celestia vibrated with the power of his words, only for it all to die down almost immediately. "Please Tia..." He sounded broken. "Just... Just trust me and go...."
Celestia shivered and shook away the shock of the outburst. She lit her horn.
"No! Don't teleport! There's interference, who knows where it'd send you!" Discord cried. "You have to fly."
Shakilly, Celestia nodded. She took a breath, spread her wings, and leapt off the balcony. "I should have told the guards."
Discord's voice was barely a whisper. "No time." She heard him take a breath. "Vin... What did they do to you?"
Author's Note
Prologue done. Completed Chapters left to convert and tweak: 15.
