Act 1 Prologue: Scatterbrained
Six Shallow Stallions
Act 1 Prologue: Statterbrained
A young man sat alone at his desk, the glow from his five-year-old laptop computer providing his office's only illumination. He yawned, sighed, and rubbed his face before returning his gaze to his late-night project. In an open window on the screen sat an unfinished document, a fan fiction story he'd been working on for fun. Tonight, however, he'd been plagued by the dreaded Writer's Block and could not figure out a way to finish it.
In tired frustration, he reread his latest scene:
Finally, face to face, the six strangers stood silent until the one of them removed his mask. Gasps resounded from all others present. The dawn of realization led the five remaining stallions to remove their own disguises.
The lover of fun had unhidden his rear legs.
The well read one unbound his wings.
The entrepreneur uncovered his tail.
The socialite showed his forelegs.
The competitor revealed his horns.
The shut-in looked upon the others, himself unmasked.
Their secrets had been brought to light before the seven mares. It was then clear that those hidden did not fully belong to them. Suddenly, the six became magnetized toward each other against their will. Though they did struggle, and though the mares with them did assist, their efforts were in vain.
This mismatched pieces touched, the puzzle was complete, and a massive flash of light consumed the shadows of the six. When the seven mares responsible for this meeting recovered their wits, they gazed upon what their work had yielded.
Six shallow stallions were gone, and in their place...
...was Discord.
The author groaned, "Ugh, I really like how I did this scene, but I've got no idea where I'm going from here. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can write some good dialogue between Discord, the Mane Six, and the Mayor of Las Pegasus, but then I'd still be in the same pickle. " another sigh, "How am I gonna piece together a happy ending out of all this? With everything I've already put in place against them, how do the Mane Six win?"
Here's an idea: they don't!
The weary writer rubbed his eyes. That last sentence had appeared on the screen without any input from him whatsoever.
As he sat in stunned silence, another message typed itself out:
All the way in fabulous Las Pegasus, the girls are just too far away from the Elements of Harmony to get back to them and use them before the whole world goes crazy, them and the princesses included! Discord is then free to rule forever and everypony lives madly ever after.
The End!
Surprised at the suggestion, the young man felt compelled to respond on the next line down.
That would be a horrible downer of an ending. Anyone who read that far would agree. Then there would be a flood of harsh comments, down-votes, and, worst case scenario, nobody would want to read my stories ever again!
So, no. I may not know yet how I want to end my story, but I know I don't want to end it like that!
Satisfied with what he'd typed, the storyteller crossed his arms and leaned back in his desk chair, waiting for a reply from this odd correspondent.
Sheesh! You didn't have to bite my head off! It was just a suggestion.
Besides, who cares what anyone else thinks? You're the author. This is your story. You can make it whatever you want it to be.
All I'm saying is that Discord has got to be the most popular villain the series has ever had, and if you bring him into your story just to blast him with the Elements later, then not only is that incredibly rude, it's also highly unoriginal.
He couldn't argue with that logic.
Well, that's the problem I'm having. I want to resolve this conflict in my own way. I want to do something that will set me apart as a writer. I do think that playing the Elements card is a little overdone, but it's the only established solution.
If, in that case, I decide not to take that option, then how do I finish the story? What happens next?!
The young man leaned in, eager to see what this mysterious writer had to say next.
Anything could happen in that case! Including, but definitely not limited to, my earlier suggestion. I'd be happy to give you a new perspective on the matter...on one condition.Oh? What's that?Nothing much, really. I just want you to declare, here and now, on this very page, that the Elements of Harmony won't work as a solution.
Without a second thought, the author wrote.
You're right. It's a tired plot device with a bunch of MacGuffins.
The Elements of Harmony won't work as a solution.
The Enter key was struck, and with that the deal was sealed. The screen turned black, plunging the young man's office into darkness. Confusion took hold of his mind, and he frantically searched for the source of the blackout. When, by chance, he turned his gaze back to his decrepit laptop, he beheld the new message that now sat in the center of the screen.
That's all I needed to know.
Then, as the man sat watching, the text began to shift. The characters cycled through various font styles and sizes. Then more and more letters and numbers appeared, rearranging themselves and those of the original sentence into seemingly random patterns. When every pixel had finally fallen into place, the young author suddenly recognized the shape of a very familiar, single-fanged, face.
The image smirked, and then the laptop speakers blared an equally familiar voice, "Welcome aboard, partner!"
"Discord!" the young man stumbled back into his desk chair, rolling it back against the wall in fear.
"Here, let me help you with that, " spoke the spirit of chaos, "you seem to have a real problem with shutting down whenever I make my grand entrances. Now, repeat after me, 'And then Discord pulled himself out of the screen.'"
And then Discord pulled himself out of the screen.
"W-What are you doing here!?" stuttered the story writer as Discord stood and stretched in the center of the young man's room.
"Well, you've been so cooperative, that I decided to come here to give you my half of our agreement in person! It's only fair."
The draconequus slid across the office floor and wrapped his hefty lion's-clawed arm around the worried writer's shoulder. The young man flinched at the close contact.
"As a matter of fact," the spirit of chaos continued, "I'm going to do better than just giving you a new perspective on your story!"
"H-How's that?" struggled the storyteller, feeling very much in need of an adult.
Discord wrapped himself around the young man from head to toe. Coils upon coils constricted the creator, and Discord looked him in the eyes and chuckled, "I'm going to give you six new perspectives! Isn't that just simply wonderful!?"
Laughter filled the room, and everything was spinning. All the colors the wordsmith could see began to blend together. In all the chaos, his eyes caught sight of a string of random posters he had upon the walls of his office.
Consciousness left him soon afterward as his world disappeared.
