Chapters A glaring neon glow illuminates the streets of Manehatten. In the bright of the fancy light, high-class ponies strut along, ignoring or ignorant to the shadows of the alleys and the lost, crushed, cold and dying ponies within them. Muggings are common for those who stray too close to the darkness…
His house was a simple affair, again, a surprise for Manehatten. The two stories were neat and clean, Mandarin noticed, not counting the moments where the hallways were covered in cardboard boxes. “I’ve just moved in, you see. Moved in earlier today actually,” he commented. “My first day in my own house and I’ve brought in a mugger from the streets.” He began to laugh. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. C’mon, my room’s up here,” he called, trotting up the stairs. Mandarin followed uneasily.
This water is heavenly… just the right temperature… oh wow… Mandarin was so focused on the water and her own internal monologue that she slipped on the floor of the shower, falling to the floor with an almighty THUMP that startled Saph in the next room. He ran in quickly, averting his eyes just in case.
A glaring neon glow illuminated the streets of Canterlot. In the bright of the fancy light, high-class ponies strut along, ignoring or ignorant to the shadows of the alleys and the lost, crushed, cold and dying ponies within. Mugging was common for those who strayed too close to the darkness… A young, black unicorn colt watched from the shade. His eyes were a bright white, the only colours in them being the black of the pupil and the red of veins. His black fur was standing on end in an attempt to deal with the cold of winter. He glared as a gang of older stallions walked by, their high-class origins covered easily by their trashy clothes, hoodies and slacks. The colt’s horn began to glow and his pupils expanded to cover the whole of both eyes in black as his unique magic took hold. The leader of the group was named Fancypants; he was a unicorn stallion, only a few years older than the dark colt in the ally. His flank was bare as of yet, his talent undiscovered. Around family he was snooty and acted as one would expect from a high-class pony from a high-class family. Around his friends it was a completely different story, he was brash, arrogant, quickly dismissive and, above all, a pain in the flank. He was also a chronic arsonist, and always carried a lighter wherever he went. All this information flowed through the brain of the white-eyed colt as his pupils shrank to normal and the next stage of his magic began. After absorbing the knowledge and memories of Fancypants, the young colt’s body began to change. He grew in height and width, various bits of his body changed colour and texture until, finally, an exact replica of Fancypants stood in the ally, clothes and all. Now for the best part, thought the faux-Fancypants as he stepped out from the shadows and headed silently towards the gang. “Hey, Fancy, what do you think of going to that old abandoned factory?” asked one of his friends. Faux-Pants grinned. “Nah, boring,” he began. At once, everypony there jumped out of their skin and span around, ready to attack. That lasted a second before confusion set in and they glanced at their leader, then back at the other Fancypants. “The buck…?” murmured a mare. “I reckon you’re all wondering why there’re two of me,” growled Faux-Pants. He raised a hoof and pointed at the real Fancypants. “It’s ‘cause he’s a fraud!”
“Saph?” Mandarin’s voice broke Sapphire’s reverie. He blinked a few times, glaring at the annoying orange mare that had intruded in his flashback. His expression softened when he remembered where he was however, and he smiled. She was standing a little closer than he thought proper, but he didn’t really mind.Keep your tone soft Em-Saph, Saph, I’m Flaming Sapphire. I’m not who I was.
Mandarin groaned and turned over as light seeped through the blinds. She sighed, and tried to forget the nightmare she had been having. It was the same one as normal, a black, shadowy colt attacking Manehatten, about to attack her family, but spotting her and telling them to run. The dream always ended there, replaced by another vision, but the colt was always the same. Tall, dark, a Unicorn, its horn sharpened into a scythe-like weapon. And it always had the same mark next to its eye, a long, thin metal bar... A loud thud from downstairs jarred her awake, and she quickly leapt out of the bed and galloped down the stairs to find a dazed Flaming Sapphire, surrounded by bits of breakfast and a tea-tray.
“FOR CHAOS!” A resounding roar lashed across the Everfree Castle. The Draconequus stood upon a balcony, the following speech was too important for his usual trickery. “Fighters for Chaos! I am proud to announce that we need hide no longer!” Cheers drowned out Discord momentarily as the excitement spread like wildfire across the huge crowd of chaotic warriors. “Tonight, we welcome a new General into our ranks! My Little Ponies, I present to you…” Here, he stepped aside and allowed another figure to step up to the balcony. “… Myself!” Sure enough, the newcomer appeared to be Discord, smiling and waving at the crowd. The room was dead silent after that announcement. A pin dropped. Everypony heard it.
The figure laughed and twisted suddenly. It shrank and changed until, finally, a black unicorn colt, his horn sharpened and curved into a scythe-like blade, stood in front of the masses. “Greetings! I am Icy Emerald, a new General and Infiltrator for the Army of Discord. FOR CHAOS!” And with these roared words, he thrust his front left hoof into the air. The Army went wild, shouting and cheering for their new General. He waited for quiet before continuing. “As you have seen, I am able to transform, not unlike the Changelings. However, I am able to go much deeper than that! I can absorb memories, entire personalities, and create a perfect double of them, able to impersonate them better than they can themselves! I… I think that makes sense,” he joked, and a ripple of laughter spread through the crowd. “Nevertheless, as our leader has said, we need hide no longer!” He twisted his head to the side, revealing a long, thin metal bar, stretching from underneath his right eye, up to the top corner by the eyebrow. “This is a device that Discord has gifted to me. It is wired into my Central Nervous System, it allows me to ‘lock onto’ a pony, if you will, and keep track of them. Unfortunately for me, I need to see my target continuously to absorb their mind. From there, I can transform into their body and impersonate them from will, as the device stores their data in its memory banks,” a small screen shot out of the bar, covering Icy Emerald’s eye with a black lens, almost like sunglasses. The screen lit up with a display that only Icy Emerald could see, as he locked onto a target in the crowds, much to their delight as they tried to shake him off, the device turning Icy Emerald’s neck for him…
And the scene changed. He was on a train, now a leafy green Pegasus mare. The train was headed to Manehatten, where he would meet the rest of the army and start causing chaos in the name of Discord. A grey Earth colt trotted over and sat next to him, looking out of the window so his muzzle was near the disguised general’s ear. “Dark nights are unpleasant,” The stranger said, his right hoof touching his right eyebrow. “Yes, for strangers to travel,” replied the disguised Unicorn, raising her left hoof to touch her left eyebrow. “It is an honour to meet you General Icy Emerald. I am Captain Falling Tears, here to assist you in taking Manehatten in the name of Discord and Chaos.” “Not so loud you fool!” Emerald back-hoofed the captain across the face. “Do you want others to know of us?” “I apologise, my General. I merely assumed…”
And everything went black.
Author's Note
Thanks to AxtontheMechanist for editing this. Thanks bud, couldn't do without ya.
Requiescat in Pace
“He’s living here?”
Flaming Sapphire showed Mandarin to her room again and bid her goodnight before trotting quietly back downstairs. The candles and fireplace were dispatched quickly with a single flick of his horn. His horn… Oh Celestia, not now! He put his hoof up to the cone of bone protruding from his scalp. It was different, the horn suddenly a length to rival Celestia’s horn, curving in the middle to form a razor sharp scythe-like formation. Not good at all, why was his magic failing now? Only two ponies could control his magic, one was himself and the other was… not important, he reminded himself. His past was not here. No, his past was a long way away…
The blast sent him flying across the room. He stood once again, facing the other him. He didn’t like this, and he was chaos and trickery given form, how could a simple pony be manipulating him so much? He found himself smiling. The one opposite him would make an excellent general in his army. “Well done. You have fought well against Discord. I’d like to offer a position in my… army for you. A high-ranking Official position, if you were interested,” began the Draconequis. “General perhaps. It is up to you what you choose.” “Sounds delightful,” the Discord-That-Was-Not-Discord twisted and reshaped his entire body, a black stallion standing before Chaos Incarnate, eyes white, save for the dark blackness of the pupils. “I would be glad to join your forces, Discord, now that I know that Celestia has turned her back upon me,” The unicorn knelt before Discord. “I, Icy Emerald, pledge myself to your cause.”
Flaming Sapphire snapped back to the present, swiping at the insubstantial memories that clouded his mind. And body, he realised. His coat was black, his horn was curved and sharp, his Cutie Mark, what was once a sparkling blue gem surrounded in flames, was now a harsh green colour, encased in shards of ice. He caught a reflection of himself in a mirror, even in the minimalistic light he saw his eyes, perfect white orbs, broken by black circles. He growled and focused on what he was doing. Slowly, colour returned to his body, his horn shrank and twisted, his eyes bloomed into colour. Flaming Sapphire was back, for now.