There was a certain point in his life where Discord had wondered exactly what he had been going to do when he got bored of ruling Equestria. Granted, he knew it wouldn't happen for awhile, what with all the hilarious ponies around, but still, he knew it would deflate into boredom eventually. Unfortunately, he had gotten turned to stone before that could happen, then there was the thousands years, his release, yada, yada, yada, and finally here he was, floating under a cotton candy cloud, gobbling up milk chocolate, and yet even his favorite drink didn't help!

If this hell was what it was like to be bored, then he was kind've glad Celestia had defeated him. Crazy as it sounded, he could not even begin to imagine what might have happened had this fiendish feeling had hit him a thousand years ago. Being the way he'd been, he might have actually started down a much darker path of amusement. And when that had gotten boring, perhaps he would have...Uh, I need to find something to do, stat! But what fun can I have that won't-

Suddenly, his train of thought was interrupted by the sound of gleeful laughter. Turning his head towards the noise, he thought he spotted three shadows moving through the mist before disappearing again. Narrowing his eyes in curiosity, he slithered down the path that led to the secret portal of his home, which acted as one-way glass did: He could see out at the forest and its residents, but they could not see in.

Following the noise of hooves hitting dirt and rock, he watched from afar as the shadows continued their journey, deeper and deeper into the Everfree. He could tell by their general shapes that they were nothing but fillies. "Well, well, well," he whispered to himself, chuckling in amusement, "what have we here?"

Floating in to get a better look, he quickly realized who the three wanderers were and chuckled again. "Another cutie mark quest?" he mused to himself, keeping directly above them, making sure they didn't get into trouble. After all, it was the least he could do for them after what they did for him...Hmm, this gives me an idea..., he thought, a wicked grin appearing on his face. Yes, he could see it now. Imagine what chaos might be unleashed by granting a wish for three little and creative fillies.

Not even bothering to think it through, he flew down and hid among the bushes, watching their approach with a growing smirk. Of course, the Crusaders didn't really see the yellow eyes peering at them, for they were too lost in their own excitement about the recent search for cutie marks.

"Wow, I have to say this is the best idea we've ever had, and we've had quite a lot!" exclaimed Scootaloo, a grin from ear to ear stretched across her face.

"Yeah, and imagine how proud our sisters will be!" Apple Bloom beamed, her little red bow bouncing as she did a little skip of joy.

Suddenly, Sweetie Belle, who was in front, stopped. The other girls accidentally bumped into her, and they all ended up in a heap. Rubbing her sore jaw, which had hit a small rock when she fell, Scootaloo scowled. "Sweetie Belle, what the hay?"

Disentangling herself from Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle gave an apologetic look. "Sorry, it's just...does anyone else feel like we're being watched?" she questioned nervously.

It was like the unicorn had flipped a switch. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom seemed to see their surroundings for the first time, and the girls quickly huddled into a circle, fear finally creeping in.

"Dang it! We gone and dun it again! And after we promised our sisters too!" Apple Bloom said in a gloomy, yet irritated, voice. Slumping down, she hung her head in shame for breaking a promise, only to screech in fear as an explosion sounded nearby. She and the her friends tried to bolt away, but something seemed to be keeping them in place. In a panic, Apple Bloom looked down, only to see...was that taffy?

Before she had any real time to process the discovery, Apple Bloom was blinded by a momentary flash of light. When it was gone, she squinted in the direction of the light. She could faintly see a shape rolling on the ground, and laughter pierced her ears as she continued to stare.

It didn't click for a few seconds, but then, with the fury of an erupting volcano, Apple Bloom sucked in a huge gulp of air and yelled the prankster's name at the top of her lungs, "DISSSSSCCOOOORRRDDDDD!!!!"

That finally threw the Lord of Chaos out of his laughing fit. Standing up and wiping a few excess tears away, he snapped his finger, freeing the trio. As they collected themselves after the embarrassing display, Discord found his voice. "Oh Celestia, you should have seen the looks on your faces! Priceless!"

Having regained her composure, Sweetie Belle glared at him. "Yes, yes, very funny. Haha," she said sarcastically, her voice dripping venom. Choosing to ignore her sarcasm, Discord flew over and landed between the girls, putting on his innocent female eyelashes. "So little Crusaders," he started in an obscenely sweet voice, "what brings you to my humble part of the forest?"

The trio exchanged a look. "Your part of the forest?" they questioned. The Chaos Lord seemed a little surprised for a moment, just before he burst out laughing again. "Oh you fillies kill me! Everyone in town knows about the agreement by now. I haven't a clue how you three could be so dense!"

"Hey!" choroused the CMC's shrill voices.

Holding up his paw and talon in a gesture of surrender, he smirked down at them. "Well, doesn't matter anyway, considering that you're about to learn something no other pony knows." The three friends shared a look.

"What?" Again, all in unison. It made Discord want to laugh again.

"Oh, just a little piece of info about my escape and the help I got from three cutie-mark obsessed fillies."

"WHAT?!"

Chortling, he patted each of them on the head. "Oh, you simply must stop with the jinxing of each other! It's just too rich, even for my taste. Now, before you ask, yes, I am talking about you, oh precious little CMC. Think back. Remember a time, even if it was short, where you three were squabbling over petty things? Things you don't normally squabble over?"

Each of the trio had a look of utter concentration on their face. Suddenly, Scootaloo's head shot up. "Of course! The Canterlot Gardens trip! How could we have forgotten?! The funny statue, the fighting, Ms.Cheerilee's unexpectedly short temper...that was you, wasn't it?"

The draconequus gave an indulging smile. "Well, whata know, they do know something!" This comment quickly earned him three withering looks. He immediately stopped talking, giving the mini horses time to think.

It was Apple Bloom who realized it first. "Our fight gave ya....and then ya escaped...and now ya are where ya are right now...this means...ya owe us?!"

Silence had decided to grab hold of this entire part of the forest, its grip not loosening for quite some time. Then Discord sighed. "Yep, now, are we gonna stand here all day, or are you three gonna decide what your group wish is?"

"Our what?!" yelled Apple Bloom, shock as clear in her voice as on both her and her friends' faces. Growing slightly annoyed at the repetitive questioning, he snapped his fingers, and a dark grey bubble formed around them. "There, now the sounds of the forest no longer hinder your hearing. Now, I said, I will grant you three one wish, not individually, though. Oh, and it can't be for cutie marks. That would be spoiling your fun," he informed them with his usual smirk.

The Crusaders could not believe what they were hearing.

"CMC meeting!" called Sweetie Belle.

The young friends all huddled in a tight circle as far from Discord as they could get. A whisper battle ensued, with the Lord of Chaos watching in amusement. It did not take long for the fillies to decide. It was odd, really, considering how much imagination they had.

"We wish for you to bring the most exciting, interesting creature you have ever seen to Equestria!"

And as the mist of the Everfree began to close in around them, a deal was struck that would change not just Equestria, but two entire worlds.

¤¤¤

Xenia was not exactly the most popular of girls in school. At the young age of seven, she never understood it, but as her life progressed, she began to see that she and her family were simply cursed to be outcasts from society.

However, that is in the coming, chaos-filled future. At the moment, she was sitting on a bench several hundred feet away from the playground. Her slightly dark-skinned, copper haired head was resting on her little fist, watching as the other children of her class played together. This was just like every other day of her life. Which meant...three...two...one...

"Hey loser!"

Sighing, she turned to focus on the approaching figure. It was another girl, with dark brown hair and a fair complection. She was perhaps a couple years older than Xenia, and wasn't afraid to let the smaller child forget. Of course, it helped that she had backup in the forms of a boy and girl standing at the edge of the playground, watching in anticipation.

The brown haired girl pretended to roll back an imaginary sleeve and look at a watch. "Wow, would you look at that! We almost missed our little...conversation," she said, with a little snicker, which was quickly copied by her groupees.

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Xenia stood and faced the bully, already knowing what was about to happen, and well aware she had no way to stop it.

Bracing herself, Xenia waited for the shove. She saw her schoolyard bully glance at her friends with a devious smirk, then pushed the seven-year-old outcast to the ground. Standing over Xenia, she roughly smashed her foot down over the smaller child, holding her in place.

"Ah, look at that. Little freak still doesn't have any fight in her. You lose it when your daddy waddy left?" sneered the tormentor.

This got a bit of a rise from Xenia. She turned to face her bully, glaring as she shoved her off and stood, trying to look as threatening as possible. "You shut your fucking mouth!!" she screamed at her, fury blazing in her eyes.

At first, the antagonist and her minions were shocked. Then the tormentor smirked. "Oh, would you look at that! She does have some spirit! We'll just have to fix that, won't we?" she said with an evil grin.

Xenia's face paled. She had realized her mistake too late as the ten year old 4th grader pushed down the seven year old 1st grader again. She then proceeded to kick her repeatedly as Xenia curled up into a ball. While she attacked, the bully continued to throw jibes at her.

"Aw, Daddy's little girl is crying! What's wrong, sweety, you miss your dad? It's just so sad!" she said with mock symphany, placing a hand over her heart.

After a moment, however, the fake sadness dropped and she stopped kicking Xenia. Leaning down into the dirtied-up face of the poor girl beneath her, she practically snarled, "Did you really think I would fear you?"

"You should have, Abby."

The voice had them all immediately whipping their heads towards the field that stretched away from the playground. What they saw froze the blood in their veins.

Floating above them was the very meaning of terror. At least to their young minds it was. For flying above them was a human being cloaked in shadow. At least, they thought it was a human. They were unsure because of the...odd extremities on her, which consisted of a glowing, curved red horn, huge bat and bird wings folded on her back, an odd chest plating with a moon insignia over the unnaturally dark skin on her chest, horse hooves for legs that had holes in them, and then there was her red and black-striped hair, as well as the unusually long tail consisting of the same colors. If not for the human head, which all reminded them of the seven year old currently frozen in shock on the ground, they would have been sure she was an alien.

Her clothing only added to her menacing look. It consisted of a simple black robe that was untied and flapped around in an invisible wind, the ends curling back in on themselves and disappearing back into the swirling mass. As it continued to move about, the robe gave off a thick black smoke, enveloping her body, which they could barely see past, the only real things visible being the aforementioned armor and chest.

But for all the horror her mere appearance gave, it was her eyes and smile that made them feel like their souls were about to leave their bodies. The almost-human's eyes did not have white in the sclera, but red, almost as if blood had been spilled in them. They almost thought that was the case too, except the red glowed. However, it was the midnight blue irises and slitted, cat-like white pupils that frightened them more, for it seemed they were literally chilled over with ice formed from the darkest shadows of night.

All of it paled in comparison, though, to her dark, evil, terrifying, inhuman smile. It was like someone had taken all the evil in the world and had forced it into the shape of smiling lips, then had smacked it onto her face. All who saw it, adult or child, wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, never looking out at the world again.

Unfortunately, no one had real time to even move as the figure stretched out her arm, enveloping Abby in a dark green light and lifting her into the air before the woman swung her arm back, then flung the dark limb forward, chucking the bully toward the school building, making her fly through the playground and crash through a solid stone wall. No doubt she was dead.

Before Abby had gone sailing into the school, few had really seen what was occurring out in the field a short distance away. Now, the disfigured woman and the little girl had their undivided attention.

They watched in fascinated horror as the woman looked now to Xenia. "Ah, how little I was," she whispered, making Xenia shudder. Reaching forward, the woman commanded the smoke around her to surround Xenia. This immediately knocked the girl from her stupor. She tried to run, but the minute she touched the smoke, she recoiled back in pain, letting out a scream.

The woman smirked and floated closer. She stopped just before her feet touched the ground. Lifting her arm again, she pointed a finger a Xenia, the smirk melting from her face, replaced by a serious expression. As she began to speak, her eyes became as black as her robe, emitting a strange, unnatural glow, and the wind picked up, swirling the smoke around the two like a tornado.

"Xenia Mersla, you are hereby cursed to this fate. Dark or darker you will choose, two worlds in the palms of your hands. Through grace and deceit shall you carve your path, until all lay under your feet!"

The words inexplicably echoed throughout the deathly silent schoolyard, everyone stunned to silence by this strange apparent human and her words.

They were drawn from their stupor, however, from the tortured screams of little Xenia, who was clutching her head, eyes shut tightly, trying to curl up into a ball, but in such pain she could barely move.

Xenia was never sure what happened till she saw it later, but the only thing she could vaguely remember was her eyes bursting open, filled with same black as the woman and also emitting the glow, then there was an explosion of dark green, and complete, utter darkness.