The Royal Canterlot Gardens were quite a sight, especially in summer. Many ponies came to see the gorgeous flowers, to try to navigate their way through the Castle labyrinth, and admire the lovely lake right near the back of the gardens. Most ponies, however, went to the gardens to see the sculptures there. The number of artists who tried to recreate the statues was immeasurable, just as the number of sight-seers.
Some ponies believed that some were real ponies, that had been turned to stone by a cockatrice. Others believed that they were just plain old statues. Everyone believed that until Discord broke free of his stone imprisonment. He brought chaos to Equestria, ruining pony's lives, changing them for the better, and making the whole of Equestria a mad-house.
But some of the sculptures had fallen apart, or simply disappeared. As time went on, the Princess had many ponies re-sculpt the statues, but they were never quite as good as the first ones. Finally, only three remained; the statue representing Victory, the statue of the Draconequus Discord, and the statue representing Cunning. They were placed where nopony could damage them, but were still view able to the public.
Everyday, Celestia would send down elite guards to patrol around the gardens, but specifically the original Statue garden. One pair would guard the statues, and the other pair would patrol through all of the Royal Gardens. Many ponies had wondered why such careful measures needed to be taken; after all, the only ponies capable of harm there were the local teenage gang! The same had been relayed to Princess Celestia, but the princess had responded calmly, "My little ponies, I only post guards there for concern that the Statues might be vandalised." Most inquiries had stopped after that.
Our story begins with those statues. Well, not specifically the statues themselves, but what was inside the statues.
This, is Cunning, Victory, and Discord.
The Collective Consciousness was a big place. So big, that if you lost your car keys in it, they would be almost impossible to find. At the very most, it could fit a trillion ponies in. But only one pony was occupying the grand space, a small being. It was an earth pony, her eyes closed as she dozed through the aeons. Never exactly falling asleep- never exactly awake. Dozing for centuries... She knew what had been happening on the world outside, but had not been able to contact anypony. Not that she had cared much. Not after the first century, anyway.
The Consciousness, now, was just a big white void. It normally took the shape of whatever the main controller wanted it to look like. But since no-one had it in their control, it just took the default background of white. The mare stood out easily, her bright aqua blue mane laid atop a light green coat.
Suddenly, a large *POP* echoed somehow through the great expansive plane as a being popped into existence. It had it's arms outstretched, with an expression of horror etched on it's face. As soon as it had materialized, it promptly fell over onto the earth pony. The earth pony screamed as loud as anypony could, and flung the creature off her back, glaring in it's direction. It hit the ground with a thump, making it groan.
"DISCORD, THOU BASTARD!" The earth pony bellowed, her face colouring red with anger. She marched right up to the mismatched creature and slapped him across the face. "HOW DARE THOU LAND UPON ME?" She kicked him, and, just for good measure, hit him on the face one more time. The Draconequus groaned again, and opened his eyes to see a very angry earth pony above him, her hoof raised high.
"Hey, Victory," He chuckled weakly, rubbing his nose to check if it was broken. "How's it going?" He tried to get up, but the earth mare, Victory, had her hoof on his chest.
"What exactly do thou think thou art doing, beast?" She hissed, spitting in his face. Discord winced, and wiped the saliva off. He grinned sheepishly up at Victory, raising his claw and scratching his head.
"I was just turned into stone, Vicki. Gimme a break, okay?"
"Discord, I told thou not to call me Vicki, or I would, how do thou say it, 'Kick thy butt?'"
The Draconequus' eyes opened wide as he realised what would happen. As Victory brought her hoof down, he teleported out of the way, appearing a few feet away. Victory snarled, and leapt after him, barely hitting him before he teleported away again. This time, he fell to the floor, being very weak from the amount of magic being drained from his body. Victory was about to leap on him when there was a second flash of light.
A petite, white pegasus with a light yellow mane had teleported right in front of them. She opened her light grey eyes and glared at the earth pony.
"Vicki, what's going on?" She asked, her voice as smooth as glass.
Victory shot a look at her, but held her head high. "I was simply trying to knock some sense into Discord- surely thou would do the same, Cunning?" She spat the last word out like it was venom upon her tongue. Cunning raised an eyebrow.
"Knock some sense into him? More like beat him till he's barely conscious, then tie him up with a rope..." She muttered. Victory stared at her.
"Cunning, thou surely know that that was self-defence? Thou assaulted me, and left thy doppelgangers to misuse my mind!"
The pegasus rolled her eyes, and sighed. "I wish we weren't stuck in here. The rest have been released or have been carried away in the wind. We're the only ones left in this stone gaol."
Silence reigned all throughout The Consciousness. It'd now turned into a country-side setting; green grass, blue skies, wheat, potatoes, carrots.... There was also a slight breeze flowing through the area. It cooled down Victory's angry face and made her brain relax. An idea sprang to her mind, like so many idea's she'd had before. But this one stuck.
"What if... we didn't need to break free ourselves?" She stammered. The others looked at her in surprise. "What- What if we had others to do it?"
"What, influence ponies?" Discord asked. Victory shook her head.
"No, create our own, and use them to break free!"
The two other beings pondered this for a second. A wide grin spread about Discord's face, and he rubbed is eagle claw and lion paw together. Cunning zoomed off into the distance, muttering to herself. Victory, annoyed that they were already thinking and creating, decided to make a good one. Let's see. Pegasus mare- Dark Blue, Purple and pink mane. Mis-matched coloured eyes- flag of victory for a cutie mark. Pleased with her choice, she knelt down and thought her into real life.
A few miles away, three cries could be heard coming from the Everfree forest.
There was the Darkness. It was crushing, folding, bending in ways impossible to imagine. It weighed a million kilograms; and just one gram at the same time. Whomever bore this darkness would've been turned crazy by then, their mind being suppressed by one trillion molecules, making them snap like a rubber band.
The pony suffering the dreadful weight was not insane, though. It's mind was already buzzing with hundreds of voices, some shouting, some whispering, making the pony teeter on the brink of it's sanity. They each gave their own opinion, making it so the pony couldn't hear it's own thoughts. Crawling along, the pony cried, the pain upon it's mind and body to much to bear. But the voices inside it's head urged it on, making it shuffle slowly forward.
After what seemed like hours, the pony could see a flicker of light in the distance. It was only a small dot, but it was there. The Darkness let up a bit, clearing the pony's head by a little. The voices started up louder, though it was less pressure then when the pony was in the Dark. After crawling along, standing a bit then promptly falling over, for what seemed like hours the light speck was now closer to the pony, revealing it to be quite tall. The unknown pony put a hoof up to touch it, taking care not to fall over.
The hoof went straight through the light and into another place. It felt less scary than the Dark, and the pony pushed through to the other side. Immediately, it was greeted by the cool breeze that wafted through the area. The sense was amazing, and the pony lay down for a minute to take it all in. It could smell strange scents; herbs and different flowers.Opening it's eyes, the pony looked round, trying to see where it was.
Huge trees dominated the pony's vision, only leaving room for small plants that were scattered across a worn, dirt path. There were little stones digging into it's body, making it highly uncomfortable to be lying there. Grey thunderclouds blocked out the sun, and making the place very cold. Many animals cried out, calling for their mate or family. Suddenly, a drip of water splashed down on the pony's nose, surprising it.
A few minutes later, the rain was hurtling down from the grey clouds, and the pony stood up to go. Every step it took made it step in mud or a deep puddle, making the pony's mane, tail and fur wet. This slowed it down greatly, making it more slower and more carefully. Soon, the rain turned to hail and started pounding the pony on the back. It shivered, but continued walking down the path, slipping once or twice, but generally staying upright.
Finally, the exit to the forest was insight. The pony smiled, and raced towards it, desperate to get out of the storm. Near the exit, the sky was blue, with no rain clouds nearby whatsoever. It was only the forest that had the awful weather over it. After getting to the exit, the pony walked forward, then keeled over in pain. The voices were all screaming at it, telling it to go in different directions, making it's head hurt really badly. The pain was so much, that the pony passed out, just after hearing, "Oh mah Goodness!"
ERIS
I woke up, clutching my head in my hooves wearily. It felt as if I'd been hit by a cart in the brain, and everything was hurting. My eyes slowly opened to see I was in an unfamiliar room. The walls were bare white, with little pictures hanging up on the walls. A window was opened, and the sunshine came streaming through, giving the room a light look. I was lying in a comfortable bed, my head propped up by two pillows. Across from where I was, a light grey earth pony was reading a paper, glancing up at me every now and again. Next to her was a dark blue pegasus, who was asleep and had her wings flared open and flopping down the sides of the bed.
"Oh, good!" A cheery voice called. I turned to my left and saw a white unicorn in a Nurse uniform with half-moon glasses walking in through the metal door. "You're awake." She sat down on a wicker chair that was next to my bed. Then she levitated a clipboard and a ballpoint pen towards her from her front left pocket.
"Just a few legal difficulties," she smiled, setting the pen to the paper. "Now deary, what's your name?"
I rubbed my head. My name... my name... did I have a name? My memory was blurry and I couldn't remember anything from before the Dark. It was as if I never existed. Suddenly, I heard voices in my head, whispering to me. Telling me to lie, to not say the truth... There was one that was more significant than the others, one that stood out in my head and was more important. It said Eris... Cord.... It said something in between those two words, but I couldn't quite make it out.
"Eris!" I cried out, then immediately clutching my throat. My voice sounded strange, as if I had a cold or a sore throat. "My name... Is Eris Cord."
The nurse nodded, scribbling down on the paper. "I am Nurse Sweetheart, and I need to ask you a couple of questions. First though, how are you feeling?"
I lay there for a minute. How was I feeling? Confused? Angry? I felt confused with all the voice in my head, and i felt angry with all those voice in my head. Or did she mean physical feelings?
"I feel like I banged my head on a steel bar," I replied, looking at Nurse Sweetheart. She looked at me, checking on the beeping equipment and wrote it down.
"Well, you've just undergone CPR, Miss Cord. A mare by the name of Applejack found you and the other two ponies here," she gestured to the grey earth pony and the pegasus, "Outside the Everfree forest, but not grouped together. She brought you to the hospital as fast as she could." Nurse Sweetheart lowered her glasses and looked at me. "None of you had heartbeats, but you were still warm and we saved your lives."
I was quiet for a moment. "Anything else?"
The white unicorn nodded. "Do you remember what happened before we found you, Miss. Cord?"
"....No. I think I have amnesia."
Nurse Sweetheart raised an eyebrow, but wrote it down on the board.
Oh, smooth move, Eris.
Flinching, I looked around. It was the main voice again, echoing around the room., giving the effect of a double-layer tone.
What? You think I'm from the room? No, I'm from your head.
You're from my head? I thought. Then I shook my head, rubbing my ear. I was probably just hearing things, or hallucinating. No need to worry.
"Miss. Cord?" Nurse Sweetheart asked. She continued as my head jerked upwards to meet her blue-eyed gaze. She smiled wanly at me, her white teeth peeking out from her lips. She put the pen down to the paper and said. "Do you think you can remember where you came from?"
Coltrincham The voice replied, saying it loudly. I almost tried to hit it, but then realised that I would just be hitting myself, and that wouldn't help much in my predicament.
"I- I'm from Coltrincham," I stammered out, hoping she wouldn't see through my blatant lie. She looked surprised, probably as I said I had amnesia, but still wrote it down on the paper.
"I must be leaving now. If you want anything, ring the bell. If the pegasus wakes up," She said, motioning to the unconscious dark blue pony, "Please use intercom."
And with that, she was nearly out the door before I stupidly said, "Wait!"
She slowly turned, still edging towards the metal door.
"Don't leave me alone with him. He's... scary."
Really, now. That wasn't the way to talk about your creator, was it?
Oh shut up, whomever you are I hissed to my mind. I could hear a faint chuckling, but nothing else.
Deciding to ignore that last detail, my eyes captured the nurse's gaze, pleading silently with them. She stared back, her peaceful facade breaking as slight fear, confusion and a concerned look shone through her face. She lowered her head, avoiding eye contact, her magical aura quickly surrounding the clipboard and pencil.
"I'm sorry, Miss. Cord, but I really must be going. Remember what I said before! And Miss. Quill," She added, turning to the gray earth pony, "Please do not have a panic attack when the other mare wakes up." Miss. Quill, whom had laid down her Equestria Daily glared at her coldly, her brown eyes piercing into the Nurse's. Nurse Sweetheart nodded once again, and then left the room, closing the door carefully, the locks clicking shut.
"Nice going, Miss. Cord," Miss. Quill sneered. She had a slight Neighppon accent, which framed her cold, haughty voice. The newspaper slipped off the duvet cover as she shifted slightly in her bed. "Now you've got a one-way ticket to the psycho ward. Just don't drag me along with you."
If glares could kill, she would've been six feet under. But in fact, Miss. Quill didn't look at all perturbed by the mean look I was throwing at her right then. In fact, she looked slightly amused.
"Let me introduce myself," She said, sliding out of her bed. She had a light gray body, with brown hair so dark it looked almost black. She had little scratches on her face, just above her small muzzle. Her hazel eyes were framed by thick lashes, and she focused on me as if she couldn't see properly. She was also quite tall, probably a tiny bit bigger than the average mare, and gold horseshoes adorned her hooves. A cyan quill which looked like it was made out of a pegasus feather cutie mark was placed upon her flank, stating her special ability had something to do with writing.
"I am Jynx Quill, and I have no idea how the buck I got here. Pardon for the language, but I feel it's necessary in times like this. I hail from Neighppon, (I think), but I am not up to date with Equestrian times. I hear you have amnesia. That is very unlikely, but...."
Her eyes glinted a sudden gold in the sunlight coming in from the window. At that moment, things got very strange. We both tensed, as if we'd heard something behind us, then glared at eachover with such loathing that I don't think I could've torn my gaze away. I stumbled out of my soft bed, still quite tired from before, and trotted up to where she was standing. I was surprised to see that I was taller than her, if only by a smidge. It unnerved Jynx a bit, and I was happy to see she was scared of me a bit.
After all Eris, when you watch the world drown in Chaos, you'll want all the ponies to be afraid of you, wont't you?
I ignored him again, an stumbled to the side. Jynx rushed and grabbed me, keeping me upright, and I could tell by the look on her face that she was surprised she'd done so. Letting me rest on the wicker chair by my bed, she turned to look out of the window. There wasn't much to see, except the grass and the winding path that led to the town. The sun was setting, falling down to the horizon, but Jynx had a look of concentration on her face. Finally she looked by at me, her emotions unreadable. She was like an oyster shell that was closed tightly shut and wouldn't open.
"You are very strange, Miss. Cord. Not just in your physical appearance, but your mental state. Who is... he?" Her voice was relatively emotionless, but I could hear a tiny bit of concern slip through. I placed my hooves on my thighs, and put my head on one of the armrests.
"I... have voices in my head," I mumbled, turning away from her, not wanting her to think I was mad. Though, looking back on it now, I probably was.
"Well, you're in Ponyville," Jynx replied, smiling. "Everypony's crazy here."
At that moment when they both stood, facing each other, the last pony in bed chose to wake up screaming.
TO BE CONTINUED.....
