"Sister! Over here!"

Luna and Celestia currently stood in a vast clearing in the Everfree, a clear sight to Ponyville in front of their eyes. Luna was staring at the two deceased changelings, both mauled quite extensively. If the moon princess was anypony else, she would have vomited. But after years of seeing violent attrocities and being in a few wars herself, it didn't phase her as much as it should anymore. Celestia came trotting over in high speed, wincing when she saw the bodies.

"In the name of...even the Changelings don't deserve this fate."

She stared at the two heavily dismembered corpses, sighing. She looked towards Luna with a fearful scowl. "Chrysalis...she needs to be stopped. This could happen to our own ponies if we don't intervene, Luna. It could even happen to Twilight."

Luna nodded, flapping her wings. "Then let us not stay here any longer, sister. We have seen what we needed to see. Have you still got the trace of Twilight's magic that you picked up when we got here?"

Celestia nodded. "I have. And I know exactly where she went now because of it." She sighed.

"The wastelands."

Mercer was currently sat down, his eyes set on the lavender pony princess inside the cell. He had his arms draped over his legs. "Alright, so let's go over this again. You think your fellow princess's could have a reason as to why they may brought me here?"

Twilight coughed, being beaten too many times to remember by the changeling she now knew as Arisa and the being that was known as Mercer. She looked at him with her bloodshot eyes, tiredness seeping from them as she scowled.

"I already told you, I don't know why they would or even if they did. But they are the only ones who could be strong enough to do such a thing. At least, from what I know. Or...if it wasn't them..."

He snapped his attention back to her, eager to listen now. "Carry on."

"...It could have been a being that we call Discord, if it wasn't the princesses...he's the only other being apart from the princesses who I could imagine could bring you here..."

Mercer rolled his eyes, sighing in frustration. He was quickly getting tired of this wild goose chase. He got up and smashed his fist against one of the metal bars of the cell, bending it with the sheer impact. Twilight gasped and crawled as fast as she could to the back of the cell, shaking.

"Listen to me and listen to me good. I am getting really sick and tired of this wild fucking goose chase. Who has more a reason to bring me here? These so called princesses or this Discord character?"

Still shaking, Twilight looked up to him. "W-w-well...I would say D-discord...as he is a being of true chaos...but I don't know why he would...we reformed him..."

Mercer raised an eyebrow. "Reformed?"

She nodded. "Yes...we changed him for the better..."

He scoffed and waved his hand, sitting back down. "I couldn't care less if he's changed for the better. If he's the one who brought me here, for whatever reason, he'll pay."

Twilight shook. "Why are you s-so full of hate? The power of f-friendship sh..."

He laughed, causing her to look at him in confusion and slight fear. "Don't start spouting off about friendship and all that bollocks again. I don't want to hear it. Where is this Discord?"

Before Twilight could answer, a flash appeared behind Mercer. He turned around and spotted a new being. Some weird hybrid of creatures. A snake, a dragon and many other things. He raised an eyebrow yet again and scoffed. "I'm assuming you're Discord? What are you, the genie in the lamp?"

The creature, now known as Discord, smirked. "You could call me that, my dear boy. Say, why don't you do me a favour and hand me Twilight over there and we'll act as if this never happened. Deal?"

Mercer turned around to stare at Twilight, then back at Discord and laughed. "Sorry, she's my ticket out of here. And in fact, she tells me that YOU might be the reason as to why I've been sent here."

Discord raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Nothing to do with me, I'm afraid. Now, I suggest you hand over Twilight or we're going to..."

Before Discord could finish, Mercer punched him pull force, causing him to get knocked back into the wall with extreme force. Discord looked up and snarled. "Alright, if that's how you want to play..."

Discord teleported behind Mercer and snapped his fingers, causing Mercer to be held in place by some sort of magic. But for some reason, it immediately broke, releasing him with no side effect. Discord looked at him in confusion. "What? But how did you..."

Mercer grinned, grabbing discord. As he grabbed him, Discord felt his magic being...drained somehow. Like his very essence was being siphoned out of him. He tried to snap his fingers, teleport, anything...but he couldn't escape Mercer's grasp. He coughed and looked at him in confusion and fear. "What....are...you?"

He was thrown against the wall and heat repeatedly until blackness consumed him. The last thing that he heard was a name.

"Alex Mercer. And you've fucked with the wrong creature."

Arisa was currently rushing back to princess Twilight's cell. She had gone to get a drink and to update her queen when she had a loud crash coming from there.

And that's where Mercer was.

She crashed through the door, immediately scanning the room. What she saw confused her.

"Is...is that..."

Mercer, now sat back down on the chair in the middle of the room, looked at her and nodded, smirking.

"Yup. Long story. Sit down."

"So...you're telling me that you somehow drained Discord's magic out of him after he got in here somehow and demaded that we release the princess..."

"Seems so."

"Discord...the god of chaos..."

"Yup."

Arisa looked at him in mock amusement and slight concern. "Mercer...what in Chrysalis's name are you?"

He smirked. "Life and death."

She scoffed. "Alright, edgy boy. But seriously...how did you do that?"

He shrugged. "No idea. I guess I adapted to magic the more I was around it."

She shook her head. "But Discord uses chaos magic, which is highly different to other forms of magic commonly used. Even us Changelings know of that."

He shrugged once again. "Again, no idea. But damn did it feel good. I feel even more powerful than before. Did I ever tell you about how I feed?"

She shook her head. "I do not think so, no. And if you have, I've forgotten. Refresh my memory."

He scoffed, nodding. "I consume biological beings. I assimilate their DNA to my own to adapt. So I'm assuming I somehow managed to consume Discord's magic. I'm not sure how, but ever since I did, I feel a lot more powerful. I usually gain an ability once I consume something new, but I have not noticed any new physical power yet."

She nodded, confused but intruiged. "I see."

He raised an eyebrow. "Not concerned that I might eat you?"

Now it was her turn to scoff again as she rolled her eyes. "You don't scare me, Mercer. I trust you enough."

He somewhat smiled at that. He looked back at the now two prisoners, Discord being passed out for the past 3 hours and Twilight having passed out from exhaustion.

"So, what do we do with these two?"

She shrugged. "We wait until the queen sees them again and decides what to do with them."

He nodded. "Alright. I'm going to find out all I can from this Discord whenever he wakes up."

The door opened, causing them both to look at whoever had entered the room. Chrysalis now stood in front of them, looking towards the cell. She was confused at what she saw, but she smirked none the less. "My my...now it seems we have the god of chaos himself as a prisoner...who is responsible for this?"

Arisa pointed to Mercer, causing him to scoff. "Way to tattle."

Chrysalis grinned. "Well done, Mercer. Very well done indeed. Come with me, we need to discuss something. Arisa, stay here with the prisoners. Make sure they don't get any funny ideas. I'll put a magic dampener on the cell so that Discord can't use any of his chaos magic."

Arisa nodded. "As you wish, my queen."

Mercer scoffed. "Don't think he'll be using any of his magic anytime soon, anyway."

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow, staring at him. "Whatever do you mean?"

He grinned. "Long story. I can tell you when you've finished talking to me about whatever you want to see me about."

Chrysalis was wary at that answer, but decided to not think too deeply into it. She nodded. "Very well. This way."

Mercer scoffed. "This is getting really tiresome now."

Author's Note

Just a quick chapter to show you all that I'm not dead.