Chapter 1 - The Return of Harmony
Discord took a deep breath, smiling as he took in the fresh air of the Everfree Forest. “Ah… Breathe in that fresh air, Screwball.” He said to the pink filly next to him, the small earth pony tripping over a stray root. “Tell me, what does it smell like to you?”
The pink filly frowned, sniffing the air around her. Her nose scrunched up as a foul scent invaded her senses. Grimacing, she answered the draconequus besides her. “Dirt, wood, and animal dung?” She said, feeling a bit unsure of her answer.
Discord sighed, shaking his head sadly. “My little pony, you’re missing the point.” He then hummed, pulling on his goatee as he tried to think of a way to make her see what he was trying to show her. Picking up the filly, he brought her closer to him, holding her tightly. “Just look around you, what is it that you see?”
Screwball tried to worm away from his grasp, after a few seconds, she slumped against his chest, giving up on escaping. Looking around the forest, Screwball tried to find whatever it was that he was trying to show her. “Trees, grass, a ton of plant life.” She then narrowed her eyes, seemingly glaring at the woods. “Some dirt too… I think I see the dung I smelled earlier.”
Discord groaned, letting go of the earth pony, and causing her to fall onto the ground with a yelp. “No no no! You’re just not getting it, Screwball!” The draconequus took a few steps forwards before spreading his arms wide, gesturing at the woods surrounding them. “Just look around you, can’t you see?” He didn’t bother waiting for the filly’s response and just continued talking. “The clouds, they move by themselves! The plant life here, it grows on its own accord! And the animals, they don’t need anypony around to take care of them!” He laughed. “This place is completely untouched by pony kind, and is just full of chaos!”
Picking herself up from the ground, she patted on her green shorts, trying to get rid of the dirt that clung onto them. Raising her head, she raised an eyebrow at him. “I guess I can feel the chaos… But it's just a boring forest, nothing really interesting happens here, and the energy here is nothing compared to the energy that you give off sir!” Screwball said cheerfully, smiling at him.
Discord rolled his eyes. “I know that. Nothing can create more chaos than I can.” Snapping his fingers, he forced the trees to open up a path for them, and casually walked through. “But something out here seems to be trying their best to match up to my skill level.”
Screwball’s swirling eyes widened in shock. “Something here close to your level? But what could possibly have that much control over chaos?!” She asked, turning towards her creator with worry.
“That is what we’re here to find out.” Discord answered, snapping his fingers to get rid of the obstacles in his way.
Screwball did her best to keep up with Discord’s speed, jumping over a stray log, she began thinking about her father’s enemies. “Ummm… Sir?” She said, nervously calling out to him. “Do you think it might be that Sparkle unicorn and her friends?”
Discord scoffed, dismissing the possibility. “Impossible. Don’t you remember the last time we saw each other?” He let out a laugh. “Twilight had completely given up on trying to stop us, and her friends have all split up.”
Screwball frowned as she shuffled forwards. “But sir, don’t you think it's a bit unwise to dismiss her? I mean, what else can be causing all that disturbance? Maybe she’s trying to fight fire with fire?”
Discord rolled his eyes. “Oh please. A pony can't use chaos magic.” He then chuckled. “The very thought makes me laugh.”
The filly frowned harder, her eyes narrowing. “You mean, besides me right?”
Using his lion paw, Discord patted the little filly’s head. “Of course my little assistant, besides you.” Just as Screwball opened her mouth, Discord covered her mouth with his paw. “Now now, little filly, that's enough thinking for one day. Honestly you sound just like that Twilight, you worry too much.”
Pulling herself away from him, she sighed dejectedly. “One of us has to worry, isn’t that why you made me? So I can worry about everything while you have fun?”
“Come now Screwball! No need to be so stiff! Be more excited, more enthusiastic!” Discord cried out. “Where’s your sense of adventure?” Noticing that there was no more ground in front of him, he snapped his claws and created a bridge on the edge of the cliff. The two walked towards the other side of the cliff, noticing the large abandoned castle in front of them. “Just look at this Screwy! How can you not be excited? We’re about to raid Sunbutt’s old castle! Just like old times!”
“Old times for you, I wasn’t even born yet.” She muttered, staring nervously at the large imposing castle. “Besides, I don’t think you even gave me a sense of adventure.” Screwball gulped, grabbing the edges of her beanie and pulling it down so it would cover her eyes.
“Have you found anything yet?” Discord shouted, wearing a grey bushy beard, and an explorer's outfit.
Screwball sighed, turning towards her father. “Nothing yet!” She yelled, closing the book in her hands.
“Well, keep looking!” The draconequus yelled back as he started walking towards the next aisle in the old castle’s library. “One of these shelves must lead to a secret room.”
Rolling her eyes, Screwball placed the book she was reading back into the same spot she grabbed it from. The pink filly continued to look around, not really looking for any secret lever. Stopping suddenly on the third shelf, she picked up a large, thick book in front of her. Blowing on the dust that obscured the cover, she read the title out loud to herself. “The Complete Collection of Pomany FairyTales.” Flipping over to a random page, she sat down. “Rapunzel.” Whispering the title of the story to herself, she glanced at the illustration of the character. “She’s pretty.”
“Screwball!” Discord shouted, the shout echoing throughout the library, startling the filly.
Jumping up from the ground, she began panicking. Looking down at the book, she quickly picked it up and stuffed it into her backpack. “Coming!” Screwball ran towards the direction of the shouting, spotting her father tapping his hoof impatiently. “Sorry sir! I was busy looking for that secret lever!”
Discord rolled his eyes. “Nevermind that, this is taking too long.” He snapped his claws, making all of his explorer gear disappear. Grabbing the grey beard, he threw it to the side. “We don’t have all day, after all, we’re missing all of the fun in Ponyville!” Snapping his claw, he got rid of all of the books and bookshelves, causing Screwball to try to hide a grimace at the books’ disappearance. Once the room was clear, he began turning his head, scanning the entire room for any hidden passages. His eyes lit up, spotting a single staircase going downwards where a bookshelf used to be. “Ah that was much faster! I should’ve done this from the very beginning.” He then began walking towards the staircase, waving his paw over to Screwball. “Come on now Screwy! Chaos waits for nopony!”
Looking around the now empty room, the filly sighed, her shoulder’s sagging. “Yes, sir.” As the two walked down the steps, Screwball couldn’t help but shiver, feeling the chaotic energy around the air grow more intensely with each step they took. Glancing at her father, she couldn’t help but notice the confused, and slightly serious look on his face.
“Well now isn’t this interesting.” Discord muttered to himself, pulling on his goatee as his mind started to wonder. Once the pair reached the bottom of the staircase, their eyes landed on the many pedestals around the room, most of them were empty, but the one that really caught their attention was the one in the middle of the room. In the middle of the room was a large golden ring, on the head of the ring was a large green diamond cut emerald.
Screwball couldn’t help but gape at the amount of chaos energy pouring out of the diamond on the ring. “W-what is that?”
“That my little assistant is a good question.” Discord said, floating over and picking up the ring from the pedestal, narrowing his eyes as he glared at the diamond. “Whatever it is, it's leaking a tremendous amount of chaos energy.” As he stared at the ring, he started to subconsciously put the ring on, ignoring the cries from his assistant. Instantly, Discord’s eyes snapped wide open, a scream forcing its way out of his mouth as he was flooded with newfound power.
“Dad!” Screwball yelled, discarding the formalities as she stared at him with worry and fear.
His knees buckled from the strain of the energy, causing him to go down on all fours as his screams slowly stopped. Raising his claw, he stared at the ring with wonder in his eyes.
Screwball ran up to his side, hugging him. “Dad! Dad are you okay?”
Discord nodded, absent-mindedly patting the filly on her head. “Of course I am Screwball.” Getting up, he continued to stare at the ring, a smile forming on his face. “Screwball do you know what this is?!” He asked, startling the filly with his manic expression. The filly slowly shook her head, not being able to respond. “This is the answer to our problems! It was just like you said Screwy, even with their friendship destroyed Twilight could still find some way to stop us that I was previously unaware of!”
He chuckled, raising the claw that held the ring. “But with this, I just know I can stop any sort of harm that tries to get me! I can stop it all before it hits me!” Discord let out a booming laugh. “With this ring, nopony can ever stop my reign of chaos ever again!”
As Discord continued to laugh, the filly couldn’t help but worry. Screwball shook her head, not wanting to spoil her father’s fun only joined him in his celebration.
As the duo made their way out of the Everfree, Screwball made sure to keep an eye on her father the entire way, something about seeing him so fixated with the gem just unnerved her.
As soon as they exited the forest, Discord stopped, raising a paw to signal her to stop walking as well. Turning around, the draconequus frowned, staring at the woods they just came out of. “You know Screwball, you were right. These woods are rather dull, besides its independence, there’s nothing really special about this place.” A wicked grin then spread across his snout. “Why don’t we change that.” Raising his claw, the gem on his ring started glowing brightly, the entire forest was also covered in the same glow.
Screwball took a step back as she witnessed the landscape change before her. The entire dirt road leading up to the forest became a dark brown and orange checkerboard pattern, sections of the ground rose to the air and floated up a few feet off the ground. All of the trees in the area shot up, becoming taller and losing branches, at the end appearing to resemble palm trees. Deeper into the woods, she could see hills rising, and even several loop-shaped hills. Scattered around the forest were red totem poles, all of them bearing a design that resembles her father. Bright patches of flowers grew around the area, with the flowers bobbing up and down every so often.
“Say goodbye to the Everfree Forest, and say hello to…” Discord began, catching her attention. Tapping his chin, a literal lightbulb appeared above his head. “Green Hills Zone.” He said, smiling as he mentally congratulated himself.
“It looks so colorful… so pretty.” Screwball said, gaping at the sudden change.
Discord nodded, smirking at the filly. “Certainly much better than that old dark, spooky forest isn’t it?” Not waiting for a response, the draconequus turned around, walking back towards his chaos capital. “Come along now Screwy, our subjects are waiting for us!” The two didn’t take another step before they were interrupted by someone yelling Discord’s name.
“Discord!”
The two chaotic creatures turned around, spotting the group of six mares running towards them. Screwball’s eyes widened in panic when she spotted the elements around their necks, she quickly ran behind the draconequus and hid from their view.
Discord couldn’t help but smirk. “Really? This again?” He laughed.
“That’s right!” Applejack yelled, clenching her first. “You couldn’t break apart our friendship for long!”
He rolled his eyes, scoffing at the pony’s words. “Oh spare me the friendship speech.” He said, gagging. “I have much better things to do than to listen to you ponies drone on and on about friendship.” The ring around his claw began to glow. “So why don’t we skip the pleasantries. After all I have a date with chaos!” Pointing the ring towards the six mares, all of them couldn’t help but panic as they were picked up by the elements on them. Turning towards his assistant, he smiled. “Take notes Screwy, when dealing with annoying pests, it's best to identify the weakness first, and strike it with extreme prejudice.”
Twilight’s eyes widened when she felt the raw amount of power pour out of the ring, the artifact itself seemed to be on par with Discord in terms of sheer power. “The ring! Where did you get that?!”
Discord scoffed, rolling his eyes. “As if I would tell you, I wasn’t born yesterday Sparkle.” His eyes narrowed as he then smirked at the six helpless ponies. “Now why don’t we have some fun?” The ring began to glow brightly as it prepared his spell.
Thinking quickly, Twilight’s horn began to glow. Just as a beam of energy was fired out of the ring, the lavender unicorn quickly teleported them all away from the incoming beam. Appearing just a few feet away from the draconequus, Twilight quickly got up and pointed at him. “Rainbow Dash, get that ring away from him!”
“Leave it to me!” The pegasus called out, speeding towards him. "I'll get that ring off of him in no time!" She confidently boasted, giving them all a smirk.
Discord frowned, snapping his claw and poofing away the pegasus’ wings. He smirked when he saw her crash onto the ground, an inch away from him. Leaning down, he patted the pony on the head. “Too bad, you were so close!”
“You stay away from her!” Raising his head, Discord was pulled forward by Applejack’s lasso, the rope tying itself onto his horns.
Discord growled, snapping his claws and turning the rope into a bunch of bubbles. “No roughhousing! Were you raised in a barn?”
“Well I was!” Discord jumped in surprise, not expecting the pink party mare to appear behind him. Not giving the draconequus any time to react, Pinkie Pie pulled on the string connected to her party cannon, blasting the chaotic being with confetti.
As Discord coughed and gagged on the confetti that got inside his mouth. He didn’t notice the ring on his claw being pulled out by Rarity’s magic until it was too late.
“I got it!” Rarity cried out in delight, levitating the ring towards them.
Discord’s eyes snapped wide open as he turned towards her with a glare. “Oh no, you don’t!” Just as he was about to snap his claw, he let out a pained yelp when he felt the pink party pony pull on his wings. “Argh! Stop that!” Discord turned towards his assistant and scowled. “Screwball! I could use some help here!”
Screwball looked around in panic, her fear keeping her rooted in place. Noticing the yellow pegasus shyly walking towards her, she jumped back and cowered, pulling down on her beanie to cover her eyes. “G-go away!”
Fluttershy pulled back in surprise at the response before slowly walking forwards. “Umm, please don’t be scared, I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to talk.”
The two of them took a step back in surprise when the golden ring was tossed between them. Looking up, both Fluttershy and Screwball saw the white unicorn screaming as her fur and mane were ruined by a cotton candy cloud’s chocolate rain.
Noticing his protege standing near the ring, Discord smiled. “Screwy! Grab the ring quickly! Use it to get these crazy ponies off of me.” He yelped when Pinkie Pie bit down on his lion paw, causing him to shake his arm in an attempt to get her off of him.
“Fluttershy, get the ring quickly before Discord’s minion grabs it!” Twilight shouted from the sidelines of the fight.
The two ponies looked around in fright, neither of them liking the sudden attention they gained. Looking down the two of them reached for the ring at the same time, their hands briefly touching, causing Screwball to pull her arm back and cling onto it as if it was burned.
Fluttershy leaned back in surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I startle you? You don’t have to do this, you know?”
Screwball took a step back, not being able to form a response as fear gripped her. She was startled once again when she spotted the rainbow-haired mare run towards them, an angry expression on her face. Being startled by the expression, the chaotic filly’s body flashed in a bright light before disappearing, teleporting away from the area.
“Screwball come back here!” Discord yelled, throwing the party mare off of him. His eyes widened when he saw Rainbow Dash grab the ring. Being fueled with frustration and anger, the draconequus leaped towards the pegasus, tackling her to the ground and causing the ring to fall into the bushes next to them. “That's mine!”
Before either of the two mares could respond, they were suddenly teleported away, the two reappearing by Twilight’s side. Before they could speak, Twilight quickly cut them off. “Quickly! We have to use the Elements before he puts on that ring!” The two pegasi nodded, understanding and agreeing with the plan.
As Discord continued to look for the ring, the group of mares activated their elements, causing them to start floating up in the air. Symbols of their elements began flying over the area as the spell was charging up.
Leaping off the ground, Discord laughed, the ring on his hand. The draconequus’ back was to the mares as he continued laughing. “You lose ponies! Chaos will reign forever!” He turned around with a wide smile, only for the smile to die as the symbol of kindness flew by him. “What?” He looked up and paled at the sight of the elements at work. “Oh no…” Before he could react a rainbow beam was shot towards him, not giving him enough time to escape. Discord screamed, losing all feeling on his feet, looking down only confirmed his worst fears, he was turning back into stone. “No. NO!” He screamed, looking down at the palm of his paw, he gave a shaky smile. “The ring, the ring can save me!” Laughing, he put the ring on his claw, ignoring the cold sensation that was going through his arms. Just as he was about to snap his claw, his smile died, as horror replaced it. Both his claw and the ring had already turned into stone. Turning towards the sky, he let out one last scream in defiance as his head was quickly surrounded by stone, his scream stopped abruptly once the petrification spell was completed, leaving behind a stone statue where the once-living draconequus was.
All around them, all of the damage caused by the chaotic being was being reversed. The cotton candy clouds were changed back into normal clouds, the pink skies were blue once more, all around Equestria Discord’s changes were being reverted to normal. The six mares couldn’t help but cheer as they witnessed everything going back to normal.
As soon as the rainbow effect faded, Fluttershy frowned. Turning towards Twilight, she tapped her on the shoulder. “Umm, Twilight?”
Twilight turned towards her friend with a smile. “What is it Fluttershy?”
“Everything was supposed to turn to normal right?” She asked.
Twilight nodded. “That's right! All of Discord’s chaos should be gone!”
Fluttershy’s frown only deepened, as she turned around and pointed at the forest. “Then what about the Everfree?” The rest of the mares couldn’t help but gape as the chaos infected forest remained unchanged, not a single part of the forest had reverted back to its original state.
Twilight took a step back and worryingly looked between her friends. “We need to find the princess.”
Author's Note
Hello everyone, I just want to thank you all for taking the time to read my story. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and you did or didn't, please tell me why so I can improve! I also want to thank my friends, Wayward Shadow and Kye Belmont for helping me by catching my mistakes, fixing my errors, and keeping me on track.
These past few years I haven't been active on the site, and while my profile says I'm online every day, really I just never log off and only occasionally check-in. The most I did here was help my friends write their fics, and after spending time as the Co-Author for my good friend DarkSpider for so long, I got inspired to write my own fanfic once again! And for those who follow me, I'm sorry to say but I don't think my other fics will be continued. The reason for this is simple, I started them years ago, and I had a plan for them back then that I no longer have. Heck, a lot of the ideas I had for some of those fics I just don't simply agree with anymore. Maybe one day I'll go back to finish one of them, A Koopa's Story I've been meaning to go back to, though the problem with that is that I wish I started it differently.
Once again, please tell me what you think, and I hope you all have a good rest of the day!
Chapter 2 - The Super Special Stone Statue Search & Save Squad!
Emma smiled, leaning back as an explosion echoed off the TV. The young girl couldn't help but laugh at the antics of the robots on screen as they were all blown up by their machine. On the screen parts of a tall chicken robot and a short, green mole robot rained down, all of them forming into a neat pile next to the show’s hero. The short blue hedgehog then winked at the viewers and sped off, leaving behind a large dust cloud that covered the two robotic henchmen.
Suddenly, before the episode could continue, the young girl’s mother had stepped in front of the TV, blocking her view. “Sorry Emma, but it's already late.” She said apologetically. “You know the rules, no TV after 9.”
The brown-haired girl groaned, pouting at her mother. “But mom, can’t I just stay up a little longer?”
Her mother shook her head, turning off the TV and putting away the control. “Sorry, but it's already past your curfew. Besides, you have your online classes tomorrow, and I don’t want to hear you complaining in the morning just because you didn’t get enough sleep.” She pointed at the stairs, gesturing for her daughter to go up to her room.
The young girl groaned, getting up from the sofa and walking up the stairs. Once inside her room, she turned on the lights to it, immediately noticing all of the comic books, TV shows and video game posters around the room. At first glance, the room seemed like it belonged to a boy instead of a young girl, something which the girl’s mother and friends seemed to tease her a lot about.
As she walked towards her bed, she quickly made sure to pick up all of her discarded games and comics off the floor. Many of the comic’s covers featured famous villains like Joker, Magneto, and even Dr. Eggman in the IDW comics. Taking one last look at the IDW issue, she couldn’t but feel a bit excited, noticing all of the zombots surrounding the series’ heroes. She couldn’t wait to see what Eggman would think of next after the zombot arc was over. Though she doubts that anything he thinks up of next will trump the literal robot zombie virus he created.
Setting down the comics on top of her desk, she pulled up the covers of her bed and laid down. She stared at the ceiling of her room for minutes, her mind occupied with guesses of the doctor’s next scheme, with just who else would get infected before the arc ends.
Emma sighed, glancing to where her comics were. “Zombots are impressive and all, but what's even the point of them? Once everything is done, who are you going to rule over when everyone is just a zombie.” She looked away and closed her eyes. “I bet I can do better than that, I bet I could conquer the world… and not lose it after six months.” She muttered, opening her eyes for a bit, as she turned towards her nightstand, raising an arm to turn off her lamp. She stopped, her eyes narrowing as she glared at an oddly shaped shadow at the corner of her room. Trying to focus on the shadow, she could just barely see the shape resemble a snake or dragon, one that had a deer antler and a bumpy, goat horn. Rubbing her eyes, she looked back at the corner and noticed it was gone.
She blinked a few more times at the corner, trying to see if it would come back before a yawn reminded her of her drowsiness. “Was probably just my imagination anyways.” Emma turned off her lamp and laid back on her bed, pulling the covers to wrap herself up. Her mind drifted back to the comics. She yawned and snuggled deeper into the covers. “I bet I could do better… as long as I had his smarts… I bet I could conquer the world.” Her mutters stopped, being replaced by light snoring as she drifted to sleep.
From under her bed, a large shadow slithered out, looming over the sleeping young girl. A pair of mismatched horns grew out of the shadow, as it gave a deep chuckle. A shadowy pair of claws pushed out of the flat surface, reaching down towards the sleeping girl, the claws quickly snatched her up from her bed and pulled her into the shadow, causing her to disappear into its body. Quickly, the shadow sank towards the bed, disappearing from view and returning to its home. Leaving no trace of its existence behind, besides it's fading laughter.
Discord looked down on his catch, staring at her as he slowly walked around her. Humming in thought, he pulled down on his goatee. “Well she’s not my first pick, but unfortunately beggars can’t be choosers.” He grumbled, crossing his arms in disappointment. After the elements had petrified him, he had come close to giving up on all hope of ever escaping again, he certainly didn’t think that Screwball would be able to save him, especially not after she had abandoned him to the mercy of those ponies. But fortunately for him, he didn’t need to place all of his hope onto the pink filly, for even though the ring was stoned with him, it still had enough power to allow him to do one thing. He couldn’t free himself with the power he had, but he did have enough power to find someone who could free him, and then some.
He glanced down again at the child and grimaced. “This is my last hope for freedom huh.” He groaned. “If only the ring had enough power to pull someone older, and bigger.” While the ring could pull someone older, it would drain too much of the energy and he would be left with a powerless minion with no hope in accomplishing their mission.
Sighing, the draconequus decided to stop stalling, and snapped his claws, summoning a bucket of water and emptying it on top of the girl. Causing the young human to bolt straight up cough. “Rise and shine champ, for a brand new day awaits you!”
Emma looked around the area she was in, her eyes wide with shock. “What… where am I?” She asked, nervousness and fear slowly enveloping her. “This doesn’t feel like a dream…” Turning around, her mouth dropped in shock when she spotted the draconequus. The young girl took a few steps back, tears threatening to escape. “A-a-a monster?!”
Discord smiled, revealing his sharp teeth to the scared girl. “Now now, calm down. I’m not going to eat you. I just want to talk to you.” He leaned down, his head at the same level as her’s.
“Stay back!” She yelped, throwing a punch at the creature in pure instinct. Discord’s eyes widened in surprise as he yelped, pulling his head back and grabbing his snout. Emma’s eyes widened further as she stared down at her first in surprise.
Discord growled, rubbing his nose as he glared at her. “At least you’re a fighter.” Clearing his throat, he took a step back to give her space in the empty void they were in. “Please calm down little Emma, I am here to offer you a job.”
“How do you know my name?” She said fearfully.
Discord smirked, looking down at the small child. “Simple, I heard your mother say it when she was sending you off to bed.” The girl’s expression suddenly turned fierce, as if angered by what she had heard. Discord chuckled, raising his hands in the air. “Now, now. As I said before, I just want to talk.”
Gaining a little confidence from her defiance earlier, she gave the monster a small glare. “My mom said I shouldn’t talk to strangers. And movies taught me that I shouldn’t make deals with demons.”
Discord chuckled. “Oh you are a feisty one aren’t you?” He leaned back, pulling on his goatee. “First off, I’m not a demon, I’m a draconequus.” He clarified. “Second of all, are you going to do everything your momma says? Aren’t you already a teenager? You should be allowed to do whatever you want, be allowed to stay up late, and talk to whoever you want!”
Emma hummed, liking what the draconequus was saying. “Yeah, I’m 14 now! I should be allowed to talk to whoever I want!”
“That’s right!” Discord nodded, clasping his hands.
“Which is why I don’t want to talk to you!”
He facepalmed, dragging his paw down. “Fine, you don’t have to talk to me, but can you at least listen?” At her silence, he continued. “You see, I am looking for members to join a special team I am putting together. And I chose you to be a part of it!” Discord paused, waiting for the sound of the girl’s dramatic gasp, or excited squee, but was only met with silence. Glaring at her, he crossed his arms. “Okay, what gives? You should be excited!”
Emma glared, crossing her arms as well as she met Discord’s eyes. “This whole thing sounds fishy, why would you want a little girl to be a part of this special team?” She asked. “And second of all, what do you even want a team for?”
Discord sighed, rolling his eyes. “You are a cautious one.” He commented, placing his hands on his hips. “Look, I chose you at random okay? I didn’t have any control over who I summoned.” Discord lied, really it was because of all of his options, she was the most appealing one. A child with a natural leaning towards evil, that wasn’t psychotic, trigger happy, sociopathic, or needlessly edgy. “And as for the team… well I’m glad you asked!” He said, finally glad that they were moving along.
Snapping his claws, he created a large red curtain behind him, covering whatever was behind it. “I am putting together a special team, of which you are the second member! I am going to send you to a world full of magic, and harmony.” He said, pulling the curtains open to reveal a large tv screen showing off Equestria’s beautiful landscape. “A land in which friendship is magic.” The screen zoomed in to a random field, showing off some of the pony-like inhabitants smiling and playing together. “This team is dedicated to doing one thing!” He paused for the dramatic effect before yelling. “To spread as much chaos and disharmony as possible!” Discord laughed, changing the image on the screen to show it's previous chaos-filled state. “All of this chaos will spread across the land, creating enough chaos energy for me to break free from my stone prison! And have chaos reign forever!”
As Discord laughed, Emma couldn’t help but gape at him. “You’re a bad guy.” She then pointed at herself. “And you want me to be your minion?”
Picking himself up from the floor, he nodded. “To simplify it, yes.” Snapping his claws, he magicked the large screen and curtains away. “But I know how much of a free spirit you are, so you don’t have to worry about taking orders from me. All I want you to do is to cause chaos. The how and what are all up to you.” Teleported to her side, causing her to jump away from him in fright, only for her to be pulled back to his side. “So do we have a deal?”
Emma glared at the spirit. While the offer was extremely tempting, the offer allowed her to fulfill her greatest wish of being a supervillain, she however didn’t want to leave her family, nor her world. Letting out a sigh, she hesitantly shook her head. “I can’t take it, what about my family?”
Discord scoffed, waving his hand dismissively. “Well you don’t have to worry about a thing! Tell you what, once you fulfill your end of the bargain, I’ll take you back to your family. Better yet, I’ll take you back to the exact point in which you left your world. Time and space are nothing compared to me.” He then offered her his claw, giving Emma a fanged smile. “So do we have a deal?”
Seeing her still be conflicted, Discord decided to continue. “Just think about, this is your chance to live out your fantasy. Weren’t you talking about earlier how if you had the chance you would conquer the entire world? That as long as you had the smarts of a certain mad genius, you wouldn’t lose control of the planet after six months?”
Emma’s eyes widened as she thought back to a certain individual from her favorite series. “You could make me as smart as Dr. Eggman?”
Discord smirked, leaning back and spreading his arms out. “Why of course! Didn’t you see what I did with my magic? I can make you as smart as you want to be.” Discord couldn’t help but chuckle, while it was true that a feat like that was simple, he was by no means going to just give her what she wanted. No, he was going to have fun with it.
Emma glanced down at the white floor below her and sighed. “And after this is done, you’ll send me back home? And at the exact moment you took me?” Discord nodded, continuing to give her a smug grin. Emma let out a heavy sigh and nodded, reaching out and shaking Discord’s paw.
The draconequus grinned, “Excellent! Congratulations!” Around them party poppers popped and confetti rained down on the two of them, startling the young girl. “Allow me to welcome you to the Super Special Stone Statue Search and Save Squad! Or the S.S.S.S.S.S.S. for short!” He said, giving her a wink.
Emma blinked at the name, finding the name too familiar. Her eyes narrowed when she remembered just why it sounded familiar to her. “Hey wait a minute, isn’t that the name of Scra-” She was cut off when a green portal appeared under her, causing her to fall through and scream.
Discord waved at the girl as she fell, before his eyes widened as something came to mind. “Oh! And before I forget!” Discord picked up a gift-wrapped box and dropped it onto the portal. “A little gift to welcome you to Equestria!”
Emma screamed in terror as she continued to fall through the multicolored wormhole, while the changing colors would’ve normally served to awe the girl, right now all it did was further scare her. She paused in her screams, letting out a shocked gasp when she saw her body be enveloped by a bright light. When the light faded away, she noticed that all of the clothing she was wearing disappeared, being replaced by a new dress.
Looking around herself, she couldn’t help but notice the top half of the dress was colored red, with yellow lines spanning up and down the upper half of her body, a black dot at the middle where the yellow lines crossed. The skirt of the dress was black and went down to her knees. On the upper half of the dress was a pair of sharp shoulder pads. A yellow cape tied around her neck, and finally a pair of grey gloves and boots.
Before Emma could say anything regarding the new costume, a cold gust of wind hit her, causing her to look around her once more. Her eyes widened as fear gripped her heart, all around her was the night skies, clouds, and a few birds flying around, looking down she saw a lush green forest, water, and hills. Emma flailed around the air, trying to reach for something that would break her fall or save her.
Emma screwed her eyes shut, her body smacking the lake’s surface, creating a tall wave of water to briefly rise into the air before falling back into the water. Emma’s eyes widened as she breathed in the water, the pain from the impact causing her to lose all the air she had in her. Panicking, the young girl flailed around in the water, trying to swim up to the surface and failing.
Her eyes flared up in fear when she spotted a black and white creature swimming towards her. Trying to swim away, she gagged, feeling the water around her fill up her lungs, leaving her without any air. Clawing at her throat, she didn’t resist when the black and white creature grabbed her and pulled her out of the water. As the creature swam towards the end of the lake, Emma continued to spit out the water that invaded her body, at one point even spitting out a small goldfish.
Finally reaching land, Emma pushed her rescuer away, getting down on all fours and emptying out the rest of the water in her lungs. Taking one deep breath, she collapsed on the small puddle she made, not having any energy to even be grossed out by resting on it. Taking a few more shallow breaths, she turned towards her rescuer, intending to thank her before her eyes widened in shock.
Standing in front of Emma was a bipedal zebra-like woman, similar to the creatures that Discord showed her, the woman wore a grey tube top covering her upper body, she also wore a brown-furred skirt that was tied around her with what seemed to be rope. Covering her hooved feet were a pair of grey-furred boots. The zebra woman knelt in front of her, placing her palm on her back. “That’s quite a sight. Prey tell, are you alright?”
Emma gaped at the alien woman in front of her, realizing that she was being asked a question, she nodded slowly, and answered. “I’m fine. Thank you for rescuing me.”
The zebra woman smiled softly, “That's good to hear. I was worried that I wasn’t going to make it on time.” Offering the small girl a hand, she helped Emma get back to her feet. “I have to ask, how and why were you falling from the sky?”
“Ummm....” Unsure as to how to answer that, Emma weakly smiled. “Magic?”
Giving her an unamused look, the woman sighed, shaking her head. “You should be careful when practicing your spells. I won’t always be there to save you.” The zebra then offered her hand, giving her a small smile. “Why don’t you come with me for now? I can make you some warm soup while you wait for your clothes to dry, don’t want to get sick now do you?”
Emma frowned, feeling unsure about the offer. “I don’t know… I’m not supposed to follow strangers.”
She grinned. “Well then why don’t I introduce myself? My name is Zecora, my hut isn’t too far from here, and it has remained unchanged from Discord’s magic.”
Emma’s eyes widened at the mention of her new boss’ name. Shaking her head, she hesitantly answered her. “My name’s Emma.”
“Emma, that’s a very nice name.” She turned around, waving at her to follow. “Come along now, you don’t want to be caught by one of the forest’s monsters. Ever since Discord changed the land, they’ve been getting even more vicious than before.”
Hesitantly Emma followed, being motivated by not just the promise of a meal, but also by her fear of the mentioned monsters.
Emma stared at the mirror in front of her, her face was pale and her eyes were wide in surprise. While she knew that Discord’s magic had changed her clothes, she didn’t think that he would change her appearance as well. Pulling down on her eyelid, she wasn’t able to see any hint of white in her eye, the entire sclera of her eyes were completely black. Both of her irises were red, the two of them giving off a soft glow. While her eyes did scare her a bit, she was mostly worried about her mother’s reaction to them once she returned home. “She’d be terrified of me.” She whispered, ruffling her new orange hair.
“Emma! Soup’s ready!” Zecora called out from the living room.
“I’m coming!” She replied, giving her reflection one last look before she left the restroom. She looked around the house she was in, noticing all of the tribal masks around the walls and various vases on the shelves. Seeing the large cauldron in the middle of the room, she sat down near it, waiting patiently for the zebra to hand her a bowl.
Upon receiving her bowl, she began eating, happily digging in. Zecora sat down beside her, a bowl of soup on her hands. “Don’t eat too fast, you’ll choke if you do.”
Slowing down, she nodded, being more mindful of how fast she was eating. Putting down her spoon, she turned towards Zecora. “Where am I anyway?”
Swallowing the food in her mouth, Zecora put the bowl down before answering. “You’re in what was formerly the Everfree Forest.”
“Formerly?” She asked, tilting her head.
Zecora nodded, looking out the hut’s window. “Ever since Discord used his magic to change the forest, calling it the Everfree Forest just doesn’t feel right anymore. The layout of the land, and much of the plant life has changed so much.” She answered, sighing as she recalled the panic the change had caused to the animals. “I was just exploring the forest when I found you.” Zecora then started staring at her more closely, frowning as a thought just came to mind. “You’re not from Ponyville are you?”
Emma shook her head, suddenly becoming much more interested in her bowl of soup. “I’m not from anywhere around here really.” She answered, grabbing a spoonful of the soup and slowly eating.
Zecora frowned at the answer, her chest tightening from worry. “And what about your parents? Do you have anyone nearby waiting for you?”
Emma grimaced, having a feeling of where exactly this conversation was heading. Wanting to delay answering, she raised the bowl to her mouth and tilted her head back, quickly finishing the rest of the soup. Sighing, she placed the bowl down next to her and shook her head. “Not exactly…”
Zecora got up from her seat, shaking her head at the answer. “I had a feeling that was the case.” She set down her bowl next to the cauldron, and walked out of the living room, only pausing for a second to gesture Emma to follow her. The two walked for a few seconds in silence, before stopping in front of another door. Opening the door, Zecora moved aside, allowing Emma to enter the room. “For now, you can stay with me. I can’t in good conscience allow you to fend for yourself in these woods. Will this be okay with you?”
Truthfully, Emma simply wanted to go back home, she had just begun her adventure and she already felt like she was over her head. But she didn’t want to risk going out in the woods alone, especially not this late. Emma took a deep breath and sighed. “Thank you Zecora for letting me stay with you. I’ll try not to be a burden.”
Zecora smiled. “You don’t have to worry about burdening me, with how well behaved you are, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine. Would you like to head to Ponyville with me tomorrow? We can find some new clothing for you, and some other things that might help make your stay more pleasant.”
She shyly nodded, looking around the large empty room, already missing her old things.
Seeing her nod, Zecora turned away, closing the door behind her. “Goodnight then Emma, we’ll head out to Ponyville first thing in the morning.”
Hearing the door close behind her, Emma let out a shaky sigh, tears threatening to burst free. Rubbing her eyes, she made her way towards the plain wooden bed and sat down. As Emma pulled the covers over her, she didn’t notice the small gift-wrapped present appear just at the side of her bed.
Author's Note
Hello everyone, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to read this chapter! I hope you've all enjoyed it, and if you did or didn't, please tell me why in the comments so that I may improve. Special thanks to Kye and Way for once again catching my mistakes, and keeping me on track. As you may have noticed Zecora doesn't rhyme, that's because I've decided to just not have her rhyme at all, since it would be too frustrating to make sure she rhymes every time she speaks.
Thanks again for reading, hope you all have a good rest of the day.
