Chapter 3

Her changelings bristled at the sight of this pony who so boldly stepped into their prison alone. Only the sharp command from their queen kept them from attacking him in their desperation to escape. The queen looked again at this pony, he stood tall, nearly the same height as she. His amber colored eyes had a haunting arrogance behind them and his smirk spoke of extreme confidence in himself.

Remembering who she was, she finally spoke to his question. "Just who are you to demand anything of me?"

His smirk widened only slightly. "Who I am is not important at this moment, but what I have to offer you and your…" He paused a moment to glance at the collected changelings…. "brood."

She scowled at his choice of word. "You don't have anything I want, and now that the annoying costume is gone, we can finally leave!"

Before Chrysalis or her changelings could move, the stallion's eyes flashed an evil color and a solid wall of amethyst appeared at the doorway. The one changeling to touch it was thrown across the room to land heavily against the opposite wall.

"You will find that impossible to pass through." His tone changing none. "If you so wish it, I can restore the automation, and see to it that it is truly indestructible."

The threat alone stopped them all dead in their tracks.

"Now that the foolishness is done, are you willing to hear my offer?"

The Queen narrowed her eyes at the stallion. "What do you want?"

"A simple arrangement, I require you and your changelings for a foray along Equestria's borders, and in return; I offer you and yours a small section of it for yourselves once I make Equestria my own."

She scoffed. "You intend to challenge Celestia for her throne? You are a fool then. You have no idea the power she has at her disposal."

"To which you will inform me of. I offer you and your changelings freedom from your imprisonment and a small kingdom of your own. All you need to give in return is to swear fealty to me and follow my orders to the letter. I will not make this offer again."

She furrowed her brow at the finality in his tone, and mulled over his offer. Freedom from her tormenting imprisonment and a kingdom of her own, and all she need do was swear loyalty to this stallion? A fool who still favors spoken oath as some sort of binding agreement, it was almost laughable. Still, if this stallion succeeded her and her kin would be free and with a kingdom of their own; and if not, they would still be free.

"Fine you have a deal." She said, the beginnings of a plan forming in her mind.

"Good." He said and something in his expression made her suddenly feel ill at ease. "But first, I require your oath and some information."

"You will have it, but I want to know who you are first." She said.

His grin widened. "Has history forgotten me?" He chuckled snidely. "No matter, the world will soon know my name once more. And let it tremble at my coming."

It was two days after their day at the watering hole that Twilight and her friends stepped off the train at the Canterlot train station. Having lived there for years before moving to Ponyville, Twilight knew the fastest way to the castle. The six friends made their way through the city at a leisurely pace.

"What do you think the princess wants to tell us so badly?" Rainbow Dash asked as she hovered above the others.

"I don't know Rainbow Dash; all her letter said was for the six of us to come see her as soon as we could. I'm sure whatever she has to say will be important." Twilight said as they wound their way through the streets of the unicorn city. The upper class citizens of the city, who usually just snubbed the ponies from Ponyville, genuflected or whispered amongst themselves as their newest princess passed by.

"I still don't know how you do it Twilight." Fluttershy said quietly.

"What is that?" Twilight asked her.

"All the attention you get." She nodded towards a small group of ponies who bowed as they saw Twilight. "I don't think I could ever get used to something like that. I'm not sure I'd want to."

"There are times." Twilight said dryly. "I know that being a princess would garner respect out of other ponies, but there are times I wish they would treat me like everypony else again."

"Oh darling, you are looking at it the wrong way. You shouldn't look at the looks and bowing as cause for embarrassment. Rather look at them as signs of respect of your station. You are royalty now dear, and awe and respect are all part of it." Rarity sighed dramatically. "Ahh, what I wouldn't give to have the adoration and admiration of the ponies as they give to royalty."

"I would give it to you if I could." Twilight said dryly.

"You mean that?" Rarity asked loudly, hopefully.

"No." Twilight said deadpan,

Rarity's shocked expression could not hold up to Twilight's disarming smile, and the girls all shared a laugh. All of them except for Applejack, whose expression, was one of disapproval.

"Well, ah think it's a bunch of bologna." She said firmly. "All them ponies used to not even give ya the time'a day, but now that ya is a princess, they're falling all over themselves to give ya respect. They ain't doing it because of who ya are, but what ya are. It's as dishonest as ya can get."

Twilight considered that and found that she could not argue the point. She also considered that she had earned her title of Princess, as Princess Celestia had told her that fateful day of her transformation. She also had many other questions but Celestia promised that all would be clear in time. Perhaps all of her effort had led to this newfound attention. Applejack knew the value of hard earned rewards better than most other ponies, perhaps she hadn't considered that. She was about to say as such before Pinkie Pie chimed in.

"If you want to know what I think, I think you shouldn't let it bother you too much." She said as she hopped along. "Yeah sure, other ponies are acting different around you, but does it hurt to have them bow or whatever? If anything they're the ones getting their knees all dust doing it, and I don't think dusty knees are anything to worry over, so why worry? If it makes them happy, let them do it I say."

"It's just plain dishonest though Pinkie." Applejack said stubbornly.

"Yeah." She agreed easily. "But is it hurting anyone?"

"No…" The orange earth mare said grudgingly.

"Then let them worry over dirty knees." She smiled.

This time all the girls shared a laugh and soon made their way to the castle.

The girls soon found themselves in Celestia's throne room. The princess of the sun smiled warmly as Twilight and her friends arrived. Her sister, Princess Luna, stood next to her; a warm but restrained smile on her face.

"Princess Twilight, everypony, I am so pleased to see you all." Princess Celestia said as they approached. She shared a quick embrace with her former student.

"We came after we got your letter Princess, is there some emergency we need to know about?" Twilight asked.

"When is there not some emergency?" Rainbow Dash muttered dryly.

Twilight glared at her friend, but the princess only smiled. "It does seem that I call you all often with warnings of danger, and I promise that I do not do so purposefully. I called you all here to make you aware of a possible threat; although it is not one we believe that presents so any time soon."

"So what is the trouble then, Princess?" Applejack asked respectfully.

The princess of the sun did not immediately respond.

"A brief explanation first. As you all are aware, our world exists by a balance of the forces that make up our world; such as good and evil, love and hatred, and order and chaos. As much as we might wish it otherwise, we need the negative aspects to balance out our world to maintain harmony."

"Wait, how could too much good, love and order possibly be a bad thing?" Rarity asked, somewhat taken aback by the thought.

Luna spoke up. "Have you ever heard of the old saying? 'Too much of anything is a bad thing'? If we were to have too much of any emotion, harmony would be out of balance and the opposing emotion would swell to balance out the imbalance."

"So too many parties are a bad thing? Cake too?! What of chocolate candy?!" Pinkie said with growing pitch to her voice.

Celestia smiled gently. "Does eating too much cake or chocolate not cause you to have an upset stomach?"

"It takes –a lot- of cake and candy to do that to Pinkie Pie." Rainbow Dash said.

"Indeedy!" The pink mare agreed.

Luna continued. "Regardless, it is because of this that we need to inform you of the possible shift in the balance."

"Well what could'a thrown the balance out'a whack?" Applejack asked.

"An accidental discovery." Celestia said. "A small group of adventurer ponies discovered a long lost ruin far to the south of Equestria. One I had hoped would not ever be found. Unknowingly, they released a long sealed spirit."

"Oh dearest Celestia, would you please get to the point? Much more of this and I'm likely to fall over from boredom." Came a voice that originated from above them. It was a male's voice that all of them knew all too well.

"Discord!" Fluttershy said happily, with the others all saying the same, but with much less enthusiasm.

"So good to see you Fluttershy, and you as well you other grumbling ponies." The spirit of chaos said as he appeared as part of a nearby stained glass window; reclining against an image of Celestia. "Now if good Celestia would kindly move this along, we'd all not be moved to bored tears." He stretched and a glass of tea appeared in one hand which he took a noisy sip from.

The princess sighed at the antics of the spirit of chaos. "Very well then, the spirit they released was the spirit of order. He is Discord's polar opposite."

"And an even more dreadful bore than Celestia." Discord said airily.

"His name is Tyranny, and he represents the aspect of complete order and control." Celestia's horn glowed a moment and an image of Tyranny appeared before them, the same pony that Wanderer had become.

All the girls flinched at the image, his expression and gaze alone was intimidating.

"He is ugly enough to frighten isn't he? Though I guess not everypony can be as good as looking as me." The draconiques gestured to his patchwork face.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie giggled, though the others all groaned in pain.

"Is there anything useful you could tell us about this guy?" Rainbow Dash asked the stain glass window where Discord still idly sipped on his cup of tea.

"I see patience is still not your strong point Rainbow Dash." Discord said dryly. With a snap of his fingers, the draconiques appeared in the throne room, dressed in formal attire, monocle, top hat, and cane. (The head of the cane was of Discord's face but with its tongue sticking out at someone.) "To put it bluntly, Tyranny likes things neat and orderly. Structured with little deviation from what he considers right and proper." He said speaking in a fancy accent. With a disgusted snort, the outfit and all disappeared. With another snap of his hand, a cone of chocolate filed cotton candy appeared in his hand which he took a generous bite of. "Far too controlling for me. I prefer things nice and random with some unpredictability thrown into the mix."

"Don't we know." Came many sarcastic remarks all around.

"Surely you wound me." He said, placing his free hand over his heart dramatically. "But there is one thing you can expect from Tyranny, predictability. He cannot help but follow set patterns and plans. It is a weakness of the excessively orderly." Giving Twilight a sly glance. Unbeknownst to the spirit of chaos, Pinkie Pie had snuck up and helped herself to his conjured snack.

Twilight glared at him then turned to back to Celestia. "If he has been released, how come we have not seen any trouble from him? If he is anything like this guy." Nodding towards Discord. "He should have caused some trouble by now."

"That, we do not know. It could be that his power has weakened from his imprisonment, but we truly do not know. That is why I wished to inform you of the development, so that you are aware should he strike." Celestia glanced out the nearby bay window for a moment. "Aside from the unfortunate happenings of the adventuring troop that released him, we have seen nothing of his presence. It is worrisome."

"What happened to the adventurer ponies, Princess?" Twilight asked.

Celestia closed her eyes a moment, in sadness. "Their leader was possessed by the spirit of order. The moment he laid hoof on his scepter, Tyranny took control of his body so that he could influence this world."

"You mean, like a Nightmare?" Twilight asked, casting an apologetic look towards Princess Luna.

Luna closed her eyes a moment, but did not appear truly bothered by the mention. "Not quite, at the time of his imprisonment, his power was so great that we could not seal it all away in stone. So we used the elements to divide his essence and sealed it separately. His physical form was destroyed in the process. Something we did not intentionally mean to do."

Celestia moved the conversation along. "When Luna went to investigate the temple, she found one of the adventurer ponies and with her help guided my sister to it. That is where they found the third of their troop turned to stone by Tyranny."

There was a collective gasp, though a snort from Discord. "With Discord's help, we have been able to undo what was done to him, but it will be a while before he can move about again. The return from stone is a taxing process on ponies."

"It is one to everypony, Celestia." Discord said dryly. "If I might add one more thing." He paused and looked to his nearly devoured treat; he pulled it away at the last second before Pinkie Pie could take another generous bite, causing the pink mare to crash heavily to the ground. "As much as I find Tyranny to be an insufferable bore, I will admit that he is clever. He won't do anything rash or stupid or completely random." With a snap of his fingers, he and his treat disappeared, then reappeared above them all relaxing in a hammock, sipping from a coconut drink and wearing attire as if at the beach.

"In the end Twilight, I just want you and your friends to be ready if and when he makes his appearance. Which I hope is not any time soon." Celestia said.

Just then the doors of the throne room flew open and in rushed one of the royal guards.

"You majesty, majesties." He stammered to Celestia and the other two princesses, kneeling before them. "There is news from our eastern border. One of our outposts was attacked."

"Attacked by whom?" The sun princess asked.

"Guess who?" Came Discord's snide comment from above.