Chapter Twenty-Two: Overthrow

Canterlot Castle

"Hello, Princess Celestia," Zach said, casually, moving through the throne room toward the spot in which the Princess sat.

"Zach. It is good to see you again. I've heard that you've succeeded in rescuing the last missing human. Congratulations, and I thank you for keeping your friends safe," Celestia replied. She squinted at him. Something was wrong. His posture was less formal than the last time she'd seen him, but that had been weeks ago. The next thing was his eyes. Celestia knew little of human anatomy, but she knew for sure that slightly glowing, orange eyes were not normal, especially considering he wasn't a magical creature. Could it be?

"Yes, yes, thank you. What I'm really here to-"

"I don't mean to offend, but if I may ask, why are your eyes orange?"

"You may not ask. As I was saying, I come to you with an ultimatum."

"An ultimatum?!"

"Yes. Relinquish control of your throne. Immediately."

"Why would I do that?" Celestia knew the answer all too well, but had to know how far Zach- if this was Zach- would go.

"Let's just say that a universe with me in charge is probably preferable to none at all." A wide, uncharacteristically large grin appeared on his face.

"You wouldn't dare! You have friends in this universe!"

"Friendship, dear Princess, is not the driving force of humanity. To be frank, it's greed. Isn't that what Twilight told you I'd said motivated some of us? And now, I want everything you and your little sister control, ceded to me, immediately." Celestia knew a lot of things by this point. This was not Zach, not the same Element of Order that had saved Equestria in its time of need. This was someone else, if the glowing orange eyes weren't enough of a giveaway. It was Discord.

"Discord! Relinquish control of Zach's body at once!" she demanded. The guards in the corners of the room responded, preparing to fight.

"What are you going to do? Destroy my statue? Go ahead, it won't solve anything," he said, plainly.

"What have you done to him?"

"Oh, I put him in a safe place," Discord said, idly inspecting his new body's fingered hands.

"Get him back here, right now." Celestia charged her horn. Zach didn't have any magical abilities, and Discord couldn't have all of his in this form. Though, if anything, it was a bluff. Zach was still alive in some way; Discord didn't kill, it was against his chaotic morality. Celestia couldn't fight Discord in this form, it was too fragile, whatever remained of Zach in that puppet controlled by Discord might die if she tried anything, but Discord would survive. Discord always survives.

"Now, dear Princess, do not forget who holds the cards here. I do. Anything I do that is chaotic might make things unpleasant for the parties involved. Now, do I have to start doing what I do best?" Discord's body glowed orange, as though preparing a spell. So the body was magical. At least, it was now. Nothing could be done now. Discord had won this time. He had all the cards, and he only needed one of the Elements this time. A thought occurred to her. The other Elements! Zach's Element isn't required to activate them!

"Very well, Discord," Celestia said, seething with rage, "you win. But if I may, can I send a letter?"

"No. You may not. Now, to do away with you." Discord glowed orange again, and Celestia was turned to stone before she could respond. The guards attempted to intervene, but they, too, were stoned. Discord could release them at any time as he wished. Maybe he'd play with them some more later.

"This is going well," Discord said, chuckling.

Canterlot gardens

Yeah, this was really boring. How dare he steal my body that way. That was mine. And he had to put me in a statue, to add the icing on the cake? Darn. I got tired of looking at the same scene after about twenty seconds. Then I began to ponder how I would get out of here. Would the Elements come save me? Nah, probably not. They couldn't know I was in here, after all. Discord had switched bodies with me. Yeah, that's what's happened. I couldn't wait for someone walking by to do something chaotic enough to make the statue come to life, because Discord wasn't in here. This was just getting worse.

Twilight Sparkle's library, Ponyville, one hour later

Twilight Sparkle was penning a report on recent events to send to Princess Celestia, summarizing all of the things she'd learned about friendship throughout her adventures with Zach. She wrote a section about leadership, and how leaders that worried about their comrades too much or too little were not good leaders, doomed either to be unable to take action or unable to value their friends' lives. Zach was more on the 'too worried' side, but when they weren't in a land of inherent danger, or when his authority wasn't threatened, he was capable, or so it seemed. He was a bit of a control freak. Admittedly, he was just like her in that respect. What else had she learned? She'd learned how to kill. She'd helped Zach kill mutated humans to save other humans from that fate. That wasn't a lesson in friendship, though. She set down the quill with her magic. She had to think about this more. Spike, who was arranging books nearby, belched forth a letter. Twilight retrieved and opened it.

'My Faithful Student,

This is a pre-written, automatically-sent message from Canterlot Castle. If you are recieving this, Equestria's throne has been overthrown by Zach or another being with similar properties. In fear of repercussions resulting in the endangerment of the universe should we resist, I, Princess Celestia, have ceded control of Equestria and all of its properties to this individual, legally making them the ruler of Equestria. You will follow their instructions when they give them, and will not take any hostile or disruptive actions against them, for everypony's sake. This being is the most dangerous creature in the universe, Twilight, do not make a mistake.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia.'

Twilight's jaw dropped as she lowered the letter to the desk with her telekinesis. Zach couldn't do such a thing. There had to be something very wrong with him to make him do that, she knew that much.

"What're we going to do?!" Spike asked.

"I have no idea, Spike. Let me think."

They couldn't just kill him. Or maybe they could. A human with the same universe-altering properties as Zach had been killed without the barrier collapsing, but Zach had been their friend merely a day earlier, he couldn't have changed overnight into a power-hungry monster. There had to be another way. Or, maybe Zach wasn't the culprit. It might be another human. After a pause of about thirty seconds, Twilight answered.

"Spike, we're gathering the Elements."