Prologue- New Player

Prologue: New Player

Why?

Why?

Wynaut?

Did I leave the curling iron on?

What is the question of life if 42 is the answer?

What is love, baby don’t hurt me?

Is it coincidence that ‘politics’ sound like ‘poly-ticks’, like poly as in many and ticks as in the wingless blood-sucking parasites?

These and other questions were in the merry-go-round mind of Discord, the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. Ever since his defeat at the hands of the ponies, he had been asking questions. Mainly resulting of his battle before he lost track and asked what ever popped into his mind.

Not much else you could do while being stuck in a petrified limbo.

He would sometimes give great thought to these questions, whether silly or important.  Discord felt unpredictable… well more than usual today.

He will do something spectacular! Magnificent! Uncharacteristic!

He will answer an important question.

Why did I lose?

Discord wished he had a glass of chocolate milk to help ponder this. He broke those brightly-colored ponies. He turned into their cutie marks and used their own element against, twisting them until they couldn’t bear it and decided to embrace the opposite. He even broke Twilight Sparkle when she realized that her friends as she knew them were gone.

He had won. Then the ponies came back and shot that freaking rainbow beam at him? He couldn’t believe it. He lost… again. To normal ponies no less! He sighed.

No, he was going to try and answer this question.

Discord does what he wants and he wants to solve this puzzle. No one will stop him, not even his impulsive whimsies.

He had replayed the events in his head. He had done everything he did last time and a bit more. Well, as much as he could.

I mean, what did I do the same? I got rid of the elements and broke the ponies so what went wrong?

The same.  He continued to compare what he did. The cotton candy clouds, the chocolate rain, checkerboard grounds…

Everything he did had a common theme. He did out of fun. Discord was the Spirit of Chaos. He did things because they were fun, even if he was the only one who thought it was fun. He was not one for… efficiency. Doing things precisely sounded like work…

Work was boring.

Discord doesn’t do boring.

And yet… he did. To him at least, he was using the same old tricks, the same old style of things. He loathed to admit, but his Chaos had Order.

His form of it anyway.

Discord was not dumb. He prided himself in being a mastermind. After all, learning how to listen to the outside and learn of Celestia’s precious little ponies helped last time.

He needed a new plan.

He needed to do new things.

He needed a vacation.

From the darkness Discord was floating, a light bulb showed up. Discord gleefully smiled before taking off his horns and used them as salt and pepper shakers and ate the bulb. Whoops, bulb must have been radioactive, because he was now glowing.

He spent the next half hour playing with shadow puppets until the glowing wore off.

Aww… now what did he have to do? What did the glowing stop? Why was he glowing?

Oh… duh.

Discord got back on track. His greatest game ever is about to unfold. He let his mind wander as he replayed countless events that helped form and create his most ingenious plan ever. The best part is that he has to do little. Everything else would fall into place and even if he ended up in stone in the end, he would still win.

Discord gave a hearty chuckle before realizing his plan needed something or rather… someone.

A new player. A wild card. His joker.

Who on Equestria could replace him though? He is diabolical, a genius, a mastermind, handsome, fun and not too bad at the shuffle…

…yet he still lost.

Twice.

Well, now he would even the playing field. He would get his own quirky unwilling/unwitting/un-third thing pawn to begin this game. Now, who?

Ponies were out of the question. None of them would be suited, because of how overwhelmed they would be. Well, in the sense that it wouldn’t be beneficial for him.

Furthermore, they would have to be in Canterlot or nearby so they could free him.

Hmm… what about creatures not of Equestria?

The only beings he knew were humans. Humanity was an ancient race, all but in myth and known to a few eccentric ponies and anypony who lived long enough to hear of them when they weren’t merely folklore.

A smirk got on Discord’s face.

Humans were a temperamental species. Paradoxical, flawed and vulnerable.

Eh, why not?

Discord may be trapped physically, but he could still affect the outside world. He decided he needed to do a dreadful thing.

Sleep.

He put himself in a nightcap and fell asleep, as boring as it would be. When he opened his eyes, he noticed he was in the Dream Realm, Luna’s territory. While he would love to mess around, that would make vulnerable.

He is crazy and goofy, but not stupid. It IS surprising though…

How much cohesive thought is going into this… then again, he DOES surprising, even to himself!

Discord vanished as he teleported across the Dream Realm. Dreams are illogical and worked under different rules, rules that Discord could manipulate so he may contact a human. Humans dreamed also and all he needed to do was to find one. He teleported across the dreamspace until he found it, a human! A whole bunch of them!

A whole world!

How to pick then…

“Eeny, meeny, miny moe…”

Meanwhile somewhere on Earth…

A boy was sleeping at his desk. Well, boy was a stretch. He was in his late teens. He had a pretty average look. Some dark brown/black colored hair and brown eyes. Besides the glasses, there was nothing special about him. He was an ordinary nameless guy. He was currently snoozing.

“And you tell me I need rest, roomie” the roommate said as he got some clothes from the drawer.

“Yeah, yeah, shut it,” The boy said as he got back to web-surfing.

“Well, I’ll be gone out for a night. Got a date so I’ll be showering and getting dressed in the bathroom before heading out. If I come back and I see you asleep again, I’ll place a blanket on ya,” the roommate said.

“…Thanks,” The boy said as he brushed off of the sarcastic quip, but appreciated the gesture nevertheless. He saw his roommate going into the shower. The boy was a brony, he will admit. Well, he had not seen many episodes, not getting many channels here on the cable at his university. His roommate poked fun at him occasionally though it is in good fun.

As he continued web-surfing, he felt tired once more. He decided to lay his head down and rest his eyes…

…which led to him taking a nap.

“...him! Discord said as he pointed at the dream of the sleeping teen. He made a peephole to look. The dream is still forming…

Perfect.

He stretched his arm and the boy realized something unusual happened as he felt himself exit the dreamscape…

And enter somewhere much more bizarre…

In the unknown limbo…

The boy found himself floating in the limbo. He began making sure everything was in place and that he could breathe. After making sure, he looked around, only to do a double take.

Uh oh indeed…

Floating in front of him was Discord.

The human grit his teeth as he clenched his fist. He was angry and scared. He saw what Discord did to the ponies and realized that the scope of reality warping was very dangerous, especially in the hands of someone who was out of his mind.

“Congratulations human! You win!” Discord said as he blew on a noisemaker and placed a party hat on the guy and he realized… he felt the pain.

He felt it.

This meant this wasn’t a dream…

The poor human began sweating bullets, but he took a deep breath as he realized he needed to approach this with caution.

Play along…

“Win what?” The boy asked him cautiously.

“I will have to inspect you first before I tell you,” Discord said before taking out a monocle and opened the boy’s head like it had a lid on it. He stretched the poor guy’s brain out before flipping through it and looking at the different components like a rubix cube.

This feels… wrong…

“Hmm… yes, yes, I see. Oh goody, you might be an orderly fellow, but you have a healthy yearning for chaos,” Discord said in his goofy pleased voice.

He would do nicely. He examined his strengths and weaknesses. From what he saw, either bribery or blackmail would work eitherway.

Better do both.

Discord then stretched the brain and watched it snap back into the guy’s head like it was a rubber band, much to his further pain. I

“You pass,” Discord said before picking up the boy and looked into his brown eyes with his own red.

“What did I pass?!  What is going on?! The human finally asked as he was sweating, but refusing to look away from Discord.

“Well, after a lot of thought, I realized that I’m too old for this,” Discord told him.

“…What?”

“Being the Spirit of Chaos is loads of fun, but losing isn’t. I figure if Celestia and Luna can have kids do their dirty work, I should have a successor of my own and I chose you, kiddo,” Discord said as he jabbed said ‘kiddo’ with his paw finger.

He couldn’t believe it. Was Discord really going to give him his power? What were his plans?

“You will be able to do anything you want. All you have to do is cause chaos. Well, whatever you consider chaos. As long as there is fun and exciting things, I’m flexible,” Discord said as he bended himself all the way.

He had to admit, he was tempted… After all, he was only human… when you’re good, sometimes the urge to be selfish is powerful, especially if bad luck tends to get ya often…

“Now… if ultimate power doesn’t please you. I could find… someone else. Maybe in a place called the… asylum? Or those places called prisons! That would be interesting!” Discord said with a mock wonder.

The human turned an impossible shade of white as his face twisted into one of sheer horror and shock.

Each possibility of how nightmarish the outcome could be made was expressed in the growing subtle twists and contortions his face made in horror. Discord watched the kid, impressed and amused. Impressed by the intellect and imagination and amused at his faces recoiling from horror.

“Since you’re too much of a good boy to let bad people get their hands on my power, you will take the deal,” Discord confirmed as he stifled a triumphant laughter before clearing his throat.

“All right, here’s what you gotta do. I will drop off you in the center of Celestia’s palace labyrinth. Your job is to find me and free me. Now, thanks to the Elements, I am bound here. Which is where you come in,” Discord said as he picked up the human and looked him in the eye.

“Now, if you can break the friendship of Twilight Sparkle and the others or even cause a fight with just one regarding the others, that should be enough. As for the chaos, don’t worry. Your mere presence is already a massive anomaly there,” Discord said.’

“…How do I get the Elements?” the human said in a resigned voice as his mind raced to formulate a counterplan.

“True. Well, consider this your employee benefit,” Discord said before jabbing the poor human in the heart with his eagle hand. The human shrieked before falling over, feeling the pain of being stabbed in the heart. He looked to see the wound, but there was none. He managed to get his bearings. He was gonna go nuts from all of this.

“I injected a bit of magic in you. You can now open Celestia’s vault as well as teleport. The best part is, the teleportation is special. Even when you turn on me,” Discord said. The boy wondered if Discord knew his plan or simply had trust issues. “The power is yours for you to keep,” Discord finished before realizing an issue.

“Oh yes. How to bring you to Equestria…” Discord wondered before he thought of something. “Jump out the window!” Discord said with a smile.

“What?!”

“Reality is perception. You are the dreamer of dreams. IIf you believe strong enough, reality mimics you. Close your eyes  and expect to land in my paw and let Discord take care of the rest,” Discord explained in a faux Hoofington accent.

“That’s crazy!”

“Crazy enough to work!” Discord announced he honked a horn. It sounded like the one from The Mask. The boy awoke somewhat. He could barely see or think. Discord had let him return to the real world enough to sense it and to follow his plan. He felt like in daze, his mind was being split and it took great effort to try and make his way to the window. He wondered if this what it was like to walk a line between life and death.

His senses dulled, the reluctant pawn lurched over before he closed his eyes and took a step. As he fell, he imagined to see the large and extended furry paw going closer…

The splitting pain and the lack of sensation ceased as he landed on the warm and fuzzy paw. He felt the fur which fully awoke him from the half-slumber.

Shocked, he looked up to the smiling Discord. He was afraid… terrified…

There truly was no going back… everything he saw, heard and felt was all real…

“You’re no longer in your world, kid… You have your job to do…” Discord said before he pulled the boy out of his dream and they flung across the Dream Realm before ending up where Discord’s dream is. Discord simply imagined a room in the castle. The janitor’s closet would do.

After all, they were magical… least if the Harry Trotter series is anything to go by…

“Now, get out there and make me proud!” Discord said as he pushed the guy out and he hit… a door?

The groggy pawn opened his eyes and realized he was in a dark closet. He opened the door and looked around. Nopony around.

“Welcome to Equestria, kid. I’ll be waiting…” Discord’s voice echoed in his head.