“Why bother?” It asked again, more impatiently this time. “You’re just going to fail like every attempt before.”

The young student rolled his shoulders and flexed his wings, loosening his body up as if to prepare for a workout or a flight. He could feel the energy flowing through his body. It started subtle like a stream, but rapidly became a river that threatened to overwhelm him.

“Just give up,” it said. “This is far too difficult for you, a mere student studying under an obsolete order of fools.”

He slowly balled his paw into a fist and willed the energy to flow into it.

“Mortal fools,” the voice in his head scoffed.

He raised his clenched fist until it was high above his head, focusing on the energy-not the voice.

“You should quit while you still have at least a miniscule shred of dignity,” it paused for a moment. “And all of your limbs as well.”

The student smiled a little, his crooked tooth curling his lip. “Haven’t you learned anything about me yet M?” He asked, obviously amused. “You should know by now that I’m no quitter.”

“That may be,” the other said, its voice dripping with disdain. “Unfortunately for me that still leaves you. A worthless bag of meat too incompetent to perform this spell.”

He bent his knees a little and tensed his body, shaking slightly at the amount of energy flowing through him. “We’ll see about that,” he said with some confidence as the air around him began to shimmer, there appeared to be heat waves radiating from him.

“Indeed,” the voice said with a hint of sarcasm. “If it’s all the same to you I think I would much rather prefer to watch from someplace else. If it’s not too much trouble could you go drop me into someone who isn’t about to commit suicide?”

The heating air began to crackle and pop as large amounts of static energy built up in the air.

“Oh have a little faith M,” the student replied with a chuckle. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

There was no reply but he could sense the other shift uneasily.

“I could always put you back in that book where I found you. If it would make you feel better,” he teased with another little laugh.

The student felt anger filling his mind, only it wasn’t his own trying to manifest itself.

“I would like to see you try,” the voice said with an angry waver.

“Alright, suit yourself,” he said with that obnoxious playful tone still dominating his voice. “But I don’t know if I can sneak into that house again without getting caught.”

He felt an internal sigh from the other presence.

“Last time that old crazy mare almost caught me,” he reminded the other.

“If you hadn't decided to knock those cymbals over on your way out perhaps she wouldn’t have woken up. You would’ve had a clean getaway if you hadn’t been such a foolish oaf,” the voice sneered.

“Aww come on,” he pouted. “You saw her, she looked so... Bored, tired and just plain... Peaceful! She was clearly suffering from a major lack of chaos in her life!”

“Oh will someone please save me from this stupid child and his damned chaos!”

The student shrugged. “Sorry M, but it would seem we are stuck together for the foreseeable future.” His smile grew even wider as he announced the other’s imprisonment.

“Forgive my lack of enthusiasm,” the voice almost ordered. “Now are you going to release all of that energy, or do you plan on just charging up with it until you explode?!”

“Huh?” He started. “Oh right! Well here goes nothing!” The student had been engulfed in the discussion and hadn’t realized that the process had started without him. A blue aura had covered his body and every hair was standing on end.

The grass flattened and the ground cracked as the gravity in the immediate area increased by a factor of ten.

With a loud roar of effort he raised his arm as high as he could and released a massive column of blue fire-like energy.

The air crackled and sputtered as the column of blue fire lanced many thousands of feet into the sky where it fueled an ever growing sphere of multi-colored transdimensional energy a mile in diameter. At its center a pinpoint of blackness appeared and ever so slowly became the dominant feature of the sphere until the massive amounts of temporal magic had supercharged the local atmosphere. Wicked tendrils of lightning formed where the magic was most saturated and arced away in all directions.

A tremendous hurricane-like roar overtook the sound of thunder as all of the air in the valley rushed through the now open portal to points unknown.

For a moment in time it looked like he had finally done it. A smile began to creep across his face.

A sudden flash of bright, silvery light said otherwise. The moment of victory was lost as an onslaught of flashes threatened to blind anypony who might be watching the display.

“No! NO! Not again!” He screamed, his voice drowned out by the roar of air and the crackle of electricity.

In almost an instant the black portion of the sphere shrank to a pinprick at the center of the cacophony of whirling magical energy. The student could do nothing but stare and attempt to contain his mistake before it took half of the valley with it. With a final blinding flash the portal went critical.

Timing was crucial, if the energy stream was bent too little, boom. If it was bent too much, big boom. If nothing at all was done, well they wouldn’t need to set a place at the dinner table for you.

“Focus, it’s all about focus. Also not blowing up half of the kingdom while you’re at it would be nice,” the voice said with feigned boredom.

“Just shut up and let me do this,” he snapped.

“Fine, but let me say-”

“No! Shut up!” He demanded as he focused on bending the energy stream.

“You bent it too much again,” the voice didn’t sound surprised.

“Oh son of a windigo!”

The sphere detonated in a roiling cloud of blue fire and lightning. A shockwave spread out in every direction, knocking the student to his knees and stripping the valley of vegetation. Not a single tree was left standing after the deafening shockwave had run its course.

“Told you so,” for once the voice sounded amused.

He got to his feet with a groan. He was disoriented, but otherwise unharmed by the impressive blast. The idea of flying was immediately dismissed thanks to the fact that he could barely stand, let alone walk. “Why does this keep happening?! I followed the spell guide perfectly!”

“Perhaps it is because you are an idiot,” the voice said with a chuckle.

“Shut up!”

The silence came at his command, but was interrupted by a loud snap. The air filled with static as a powerful kinetic barrier was lowered.

“Now you’re gonna get it,” the voice teased.

“Shut. Up,” he said through gritted teeth.

Through the swirling dust a positively ancient unicorn approached. His head was hung low and his steps were heavy as if he bore the weight of the world on his back.

“He looks mad,” the voice said gleefully.

“No he doesn’t.”

“Are you sure?”

“He never gets mad.”

“Really?” The voice said with a hint of disappointment.

The withered pony stopped an arm’s length from his student and inspected the blast zone. “Well done my apprentice. You managed to leave no stone unturned,” he said with impossible calm.

“Please forgive me master! I... I don’t know what went wrong. I just can’t seem to instill balance in the column’s energy. The stream always moves away from me,” he said whilst scratching his side with a claw. “It just seems impossible. I’m sorry.”

“Nothing is impossible to a willing heart Discord,” the old pony said as he examined a rock that was still glowing. “To balance the column properly, you yourself must first be balanced. I am afraid that you are not.”

“I’m not entirely sure that I understand master.”

“That is why we are here is it not?” The old pony asked, sounding as if he expected Discord to answer. “Now do it again, this time do not focus so much on the spell’s guide or your form.”

“But without the guide or the forms how can I even begin to hope to find a suitable balance for the column?” Discord asked, getting more and more lost in his master’s words.

“First you must learn to clear your mind Discord. Only then will you be able to know balance and hear the world speaking to you.”

The draconequus slowly shook his head. “I still don’t understand.”

“I know,” the old pony said as he turned to walk back to his original standing point. “You will understand in time. Now again!”

Discord sighed to himself. “Yes master.”

“He is a foolish old man for believing in a waste of flesh like you! How pathetic,” the voice spat.

“This coming from the guy who’s literally just a bad memory,” Discord countered with a roll of his eyes.

“One day Discord... One day you will see just how bad of a memory I am,” the voice threatened.

“You’ve said that for years so if you’re done spouting empty threats I’d appreciate some effort on your part being put into this spell. Remember, if this thing blows, you go with me.”

“I suppose I could lend a few pointers... Firstly, your form was terrible,” The voice sneered.

“My form was fine!”

“Just shut up and get started, I don’t have all day,” the voice huffed, already bored with its own game.

“What’s your big hurry?”

“I have some serious loathing to do in Canterlot and I can’t be late AGAIN.”

“Ancients forbid,” Discord rolled his eyes for the second time in the brief conversation.

“Just shut up and get to casting.”

(One spectacular failure later)

“Hey idiot! Are you dead?” The voice cackled loudly.

“If I were dead you couldn’t ask.”

“Damn, I was hoping I’d finally be free of your incessant whimpering.”

Once more there was a loud pop and static filled the air. The same slow, deliberate hoofsteps approached.

“Better Discord, better.”

“But I didn’t even manage to condense the portal that time! How was that better?!” He gestured out to the destroyed landscape with a sweep of his paw.

“Not to mention your form was about as graceful as a drunken parasprite,” the voice sneered in the back of his head.

“It is true you did not reach your goal. However, you nearly reached mine,” the pony said with a cryptic tone.

“And that is?” Discord asked, crossing his arms and tapping a foot slowly.

“Balance of mind. You were so close. Could you not hear the whispers of the world?”

“No master, I’m afraid I could not.”

The master stared at his apprentice with dull milky eyes. “You shall in time,” he said with a sigh. “That is enough for today. You may return to the castle, I wish for you to meditate on today’s lesson.”

“Yes master, thank you.”

The two exchanged a deep bow.

Discord turned to leave but stopped. “Master I know it is not my place to ask about the princesses but...” He halted as the memory faded to red and a dull thudding sound filled his head.

“I thought I might find you in one of these worthless pieces of history.”

The only part of the memory left was his master standing in front of him. However the face was very wrong, it moved and contorted beyond natural limits before splitting down the middle. The body ripped in half, blood flowing everywhere as a much larger, angrier version of himself emerged from the carnage it wrought.

“I’ve always wanted to do that to him,” the voice purred softly.

“What do you want?! Can’t you just leave me alone?” Discord begged.

“Of course not! I can’t stand having nobody to talk to! Besides, I still have something to show you,” the voice said eagerly.

“If it’s another one of your twisted visions then forget it!”

“This is no vision, it is much more real!”

Discord was suddenly made aware of half a dozen royal guards moving through the Everfree Forest toward the Ancient Castle of The Royal Pony Sisters.

“What are they looking for?” Discord couldn’t make any sense of the vision or its relevance.

He felt the other become very pleased. “The one who will free me from this damned statue!”

Discord’s mind went cold. “NO!”

“Oh yes! This time there will be none that can stop me! MY time has come!”

The draconequus statue in the royal gardens seemed to shiver for just a moment, almost as if it were afraid of the coming storm.

Author's Notes:

Jake/Conrad: BAM! Got it out! To anyone who's confused about the memory, that's exactly what it is, Discord is trapped in stone and hiding in his pleasant memories. Wouldn't you if you were a statue and still conscious? Next update will probably be awhile, I'm getting shipped back to Mississippi and it'll be about a week and a half or so before I can come back to collaborate with Jason. (As long as I have the money for it.)

DOLLARS/JASON: "THE THREE PREQUEL CHAPTERS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN AND NOW THE REAL STORY CAN BEGIN."