002

Hear... Feel...

In a swirl of darkness and violet light I reappeared in Canterlot. The active Aetheryte I'd selected had spat me out in the middle of a giant hedge maze... and I wasn't calling it that just because I was height-impaired. Considering all of the Aetherytes that had mysteriously gone missing, I considered it a stroke of luck that there had been any available near Canterlot. Now the problem was finding out where Discord was and what he was up to... aside from the usual chaos, I mean. That much is a given when dealing with him.

I closed my eyes and spread out my Aetheric senses, spreading my range as far as possible. Most "normal" civilians wouldn't ping on my radar, but large or unique sources of magic stood out against the background. I quickly discovered Celestia and Luna's signatures, but no sign of Discord yet. That was odd, had he already moved on from Canterlot? If he did, there was little sign of his passing.

"So... what'cha doin'?" A familiar voice spoke in my ear. Oh Shi- I dove away from the source of the voice, tearing the Veil of Wiyu off of my belt and dropping as many spells on the surrounding area as I could. When the dust finally settled, I found Discord hovering in mid-air in front of me, reading a newspaper. Finally noticing that he had my attention, Discord folded his paper into a little airplane and threw it over his shoulder. It promptly started a strafing run on Canterlot Castle, dropping cherry bombs on anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way. Discord must have blinked out of range before any of my spells hit him, which meant I'd just burnt through half of my magical reserves for nothing.

"Are you just going to stand there glaring?" Discord asked, leaning forward and prodding me on the nose with his lion paw. "I mean, you do look cute when you're angry, but it's not exactly changing much, is it?"

"You're being awfully casual for a spirit of chaos," I stated plainly, "What's your game this time, Discord?"

"Oh, nothing too big. Just a scavenger hunt with all of Equestria as the prize. You won't be competing of course. That just wouldn't be fair," Discord chuckled and floated out of my reach, his serpentine body making nearly hypnotic patterns as he went.

"I can't let you get away with your plans, Discord," I said, flipping to the page where one of my strongest spells resided. I doubted it would work, but at least I could say I tried to take him down. The Draconequus seemed to deflate a little, dropping closer to the ground. For the first time since I'd met him, Discord actually had a serious expression on his face.

"We'll battle again, little Summoner," He said, "But not here and not now. Let's be honest with each other, it just wouldn't be fun."

"It's not about fun, Discord, it's about keeping your focus on a target that can actually take your chaos magic without breaking!" While he'd been talking, I'd been waiting to finish channeling my spell.

A swirl of dark magic centered on Discord's body and erupted outward into a dome of shadow, ripping away at the Draconequus' hide and leaving behind dark flames on every cut. Before he could escape, I activated Swiftcast and hit him with Tri-Disaster, watching with some satisfaction as he was hit with a combination of ice, fire and electricity that formed a binding seal on Discord's limbs. After that it was a simple matter to hit him with the usual trio of Bio II, Miasma and Bio. Each additional swirl of poisonous energy caused the Lord of Chaos more visible pain. I knew it wouldn't last for long. Tri-Disaster's bind had a best-case scenario of twenty seconds, but a stronger opponent like Discord would likely break out of it-

Discord burst out of Shadow Flare's dome in a blaze of fury, slamming headlong into my tiny body with enough force to lift me off my feet. No matter where you go, the ground is hard and unforgiving. I was fairly sure I skidded a meter or two before coming to a stop. It was hard to tell with the pain and possible concussion. Say what you will about Discord, but when he goes on the direct offensive, he can really pack a punch.

"You have such a high opinion of yourself," Discord chuckled, looming over me and looking more and more like a demon with the flames still lingering on his skin. "Just because you can cast a few fancy spells doesn't make you anything special. The only reason you haven't been broken is because I've enjoyed our little bouts so far. That last little... tantrum of yours nearly changed that. So unless if you'd like to spend the rest of your life as my personal plaything, I suggest you sit there and think about your life. Ta-Ta!"

Discord vanished in a dramatic cloud of pink smoke, leaving me dazed and confused. If my self-esteem wasn't in the dirt before, it certainly was now. I'd stacked my full roster of spells onto Discord and he shrugged them off easily. His words had no hint of deceit either. The Lord of Chaos was just playing with me when we fought the last time. Four Soul Crystals weren't even close to enough to take him down, especially not the four that I currently had. Ugh, I hadn't even considered Job Changing during that fight. My greatest ability and I'd completely ignored it just for the sake of familiarity through Summoner. Hell, I hadn't even been using my Summoner abilities correctly!

I sat up and scooted forward until I could grab the Veil of Wiyu from where it had fallen. I'd been making up for my deficiencies by researching and developing "cross-class" spells like Swiftcast for Summoner, but the truth was that the Summoner Soul Crystal was just incomplete. It was missing the three Summoning Spells that defined the Job and due to Equis' nature, it was impossible for me to replace or develop those spells myself. I flipped through the pages of my Grimoire and found the Physick spell, which was effectively a knock-off of the White Mage's abilities that allowed me to speed the recovery of minor injuries.

I let out a sigh of relief when the spell cast successfully and bathed me in soothing green light. It was good that the spell took care of headaches too, or the rest of my day would just be a miserable mess. Then again, considering that I just got curb-stomped by Discord it was likely to end poorly regardless of my headache's presence. With that in mind, I turned to one of the pages of my grimoire that often went unused. I wasn't sure why I subconsciously avoided it, considering there wasn't anything inherently wrong with the spell, but I could count the number of times I'd used it on one hand. Maybe once I'd learned that I would never be able to manifest the three 'Egi' the Summoner Job was known for I gave up on the Arcanist's weaker alternatives.

That ended now. I gathered magic from the atmosphere and sent it through my hands into the Veil of Wiyu, focusing on the geometric pattern that would determine how the magic would be used. A spell circle manifested underneath my feet, slowly spinning in time. Three emeralds suspended in magical bubbles spawned next, used to aid in giving the spell its final form. I could feel the ebb and flow of the magic as it worked, a little bit here and a little bit there.

At last, the spell erupted in brilliant green light and a small, furry form rolled out, landing lightly on four paws.

This was the Emerald Carbuncle. I honestly still couldn't decide whether it looked more like a pale green fox or cat with rabbit ears, but its overall appearance was hardly the Summon's key trait. No, the most notable feature was the shining ruby embedded in its forehead, which was the core of the Carbuncle's power.

The moment was lost when the Carbuncle immediately pounced on me, nuzzling and licking my face. I just laughed and hugged the squirming ball of fur and fluff, wondering why I had ignored her for so long before now. I could only imagine what the Carbuncle was feeling, having had little to no contact from me in so long. It made me feel guilty for ignoring my Summon for so long and I made a silent vow to call on her more often.

"So whilst Discord roams free, you sit here playing with pets," A familiar voice spoke, accompanied by a small gust of wind and the clink of horseshoes impacting the ground.

"I've already had my first round with Discord. Just getting ready for the second," I answered, not even bothering to see who it was. I had an idea of who it was and the tone they used had already hinted at a few previous suspicions.

"Nay. You will leave Discord alone. Our Sister already has a plan in motion to deal with the beast. Your interference is not wanted or needed."

I gently set Carbuncle on the ground before turning to face the second Alicorn from my past. Luna was just as I remembered, midnight blue with a star-filled mane to match. The hateful expression in her cyan eyes barely even fazed me after Celestia's betrayal.

"So I sacrifice myself to buy you two time to get the Elements... and this is how you repay me. I don't know what changed while I was imprisoned, but I've done nothing to deserve this treatment from you and your sister," I said, my grip on the Veil of Wiyu's spine tightening.

"Your presence was the reason Discord arrived in the first place!" Luna shouted, stomping her hoof in anger. "Your every action weakens Equestria's Harmony. The guild you founded, the changes you made to the Army, it only would have ended in the destruction and devastation of Our lands."

"And how did you find this out? What proof do you have? My goal was to put Equestria in a proper position of power, without the need to hide behind you and your sister's control of the sun and moon. When Discord arrived, we were at peace with every other nation on Equis! Tell me, Luna, how that ruins the Harmony of Equestria?" I demanded, taking a step toward the Princess of the Night. Her response was to flare her horn with an unknown spell.

"I see," I said, shaking my head sadly, "You can't even answer me. You just followed along with whatever Celestia said, again, without checking the facts for yourself. Remind me again just how many times doing that has lead to trouble? Trouble that I had to drop everything and bail you out of?"

"Enough! We will not be spoken to in this way, least of all by you!" Luna snapped, firing off her spell. It manifested as a horde of spinning crescents that flew toward my position with frightening speed. I dodged back and again as the crescents impacted where I'd been standing and rebounded to track me again. Luna wasn't messing around, which meant I needed to get serious too. As I landed from another dodge, I issued a mental command to Carbuncle. It unleashed a shaped gust of wind, blasting through and dispelling Luna's magical constructs.

"This is your one chance to stop, Luna. I'm only offering this to you out of our former friendship. If you keep attacking, I will not hesitate to end you," I growled, already flipping through pages and committing the patterns of several spells to short term memory. "You know what I can do when properly motivated and with how far Celestia's gone to scrub out my work, I doubt she's allowing White Magic to be taught anymore. That means no Raise or Resurrection spells except through me. Do you really want to risk it, Princess?"

Luna seemed torn between pushing her luck and retreating, before she at last let out a small sigh and took to the air. I tracked the Princess of the Night until she had vanished back into the castle, then let out a sigh of relief. Even though I'd sparred with Luna back in the old days, I doubted i could really take her down if she was really focused on the fight. Where Celestia had a habit of "Nuking" her enemies, Luna had always excelled at taking on single opponents.

I let out a long groan of annoyance and flopped down on my rear. I was burning bridges by the hour now and barely had any idea where Celestia got the idea that I was a massive threat to Equestria. It was even more odd that Celestia sent Luna after me, when she'd threatened my very existence for mentioning her sister. Unless, of course, Luna had acted alone.

"What am I going to do, Emmy?" I asked, pulling my Carbuncle over and hugging her like a stuffed animal. I couldn't face Discord with my magic as drained as it was, even if I drew in a few rounds from the atmosphere with Aetherflow. The Princesses had turned on me and already proven that they weren't above an outright duel if provoked. Almost every Aetheryte within Equestria's borders were offline and the ones outside were too far to reach without some form of relay. If nothing else, I could hide out in the Castle of Unity for a while and slowly build my resources back up.

For the time being, I scooted over to the hedge and leaned against it, leaving Carbuncle to stand guard while I took a nap to try and restore my magical reserves faster.

I awoke to the crackle of lightning overhead and Carbuncle growling up a storm of her own. I cracked open one eye and saw that the majority of the Hedge Maze had been replaced by an absolutely gigantic crater. From my place at the top edge I could see Discord rolling in the dirt laughing maniacally while five young mares looked on. Four of them had their colors washed out, marking them as under Discord's influence. I'd learned of that particular ability when he inverted the personalities of my comrades when we'd gone to fight him the first time. I was too far away to hear what was being said by the mares, but the Earth Pony with the poofy mane was quick to get in an argument with a pegasus... Shortly after that, another Earth Pony in a cowboy hat got into a small hoof-fight with a white unicorn over a small boulder. The only one that hadn't been corrupted, a purple unicorn, ran back and forth trying to restore order. It was all for naught though, I knew that from personal experience.

I've seen enough, I thought. I leapt down into the crater, rolling on impact to keep from breaking my ankles. The corrupted ponies didn't pay me any mind, but the same couldn't be said of the Purple Unicorn. She seemed to nearly go into a panic attack, looking back and forth between Discord and I at high speed.

"So this was Celestia's master plan for taking you down? Seems like it's working about as well as expected," I commented.

"Oh yes, she wagered her entire kingdom on 'the magic of friendship'," Discord replied, rolling his eyes. "At least I'm getting a show out of it. Popcorn?"

I accepted the offered treat, not having had any real junk food since before I came to Equestria. For conjured food, Discord got the balance of salt and butter just right. I let out a moan of pure unadulterated pleasure. The popcorn satisfied a craving I didn't even know I had in the best possible way. When I finally recovered from my foodgasm, I noticed a heavy blush on the cheeks of everyone in earshot, including my own Carbuncle.

"What? It's good freaking popcorn!" I snapped defensively, flopping down on the couch Discord had spawned earlier.

"Why are you just... sitting there?!" The purple mare demanded, "Aren't you and Discord supposed to be enemies?"

I looked at the Lord of Chaos with a raised eyebrow, then turned back to Celestia's lackey and shrugged.

"I had my go at him earlier. Obviously didn't work so I'm going to see how things play out from here," I replied. "Besides, if Discord can summon snacks that good, I might be up for a bit of Chaos. Maybe a month or two's worth. We'll play it by ear."

"But... but you're supposed to be a hero! The Warrior of Light! How can you just sit there?!" The purple mare demanded, gesturing vaguely in my direction.

"What makes a hero is a matter of perspective," I replied plainly. "A hero to one person is a war criminal to another. Your princesses have already set out to mark me as the next villain. The one thing that remains constant, however, is that the so-called heroes or villains have power. Power that generally makes others with power afraid."

"Ooh, getting all philosophical. This should be interesting," Discord commented, spawning a pair of large Colas and passing me one. I took a long sip through the straw while I waited for Celestia's lackey to recover enough to form a coherent sentence. When she failed to do so, I posed a very simple set of questions.

"Tell me, have you ever heard of Arcanima? Conjury? White Magic? How about the Adventurer's Guild? All of these were things I brought into Equestria, entire branches of previously undiscovered magic that could go so far as bring back the wrongfully deceased... All of them have been wiped from history by Celestia because she feared the power it would give anyone with the talent for it. She sabotaged her own military, reducing them to a bunch of bumbling fools just to avoid the lessons and tactics that I trained the United Armies in. If Celestia believed me a hero, would she do that to my legacy? No. If you need a bit more evidence, Luna even tried to kill me once she learned that I'd been freed."

"There has to be a logical reason-" She was just grasping at straws now and I'd heard enough.

"Take your fanaticism somewhere else. Celestia and Luna aren't gods, they aren't all-powerful. They can, have and will make mistakes just like you or I. The sooner you accept that, the happier the rest of your life will be," I said, then gave Discord a pointed glance. "Would you kindly-"

"Say no more," The Draconequus chuckled, snapping his fingers. All five mares vanished, leaving me alone with my... well, I wasn't entirely certain what Discord was to me anymore. He wasn't quite a friend or an enemy really. We both understood that we'd have to fight each other at some point down the line, but I don't think either of us were particularly looking forward to it. The entire situation, like many things since I'd woken up, was just weird.

"So... off to terrorize an innocent village?" I asked when Discord rose from the couch and stretched. His joints popped in the tones of a harpsichord, just compounding the oddity of my temporary couch-buddy.

"The innocence part is always debatable... but yes," Discord chuckled. "Anything you'd like before I go?"

"There's a lot of things I'd like, but I'm content for now. You mind if I kidnap the couch?"

When I received no direct response, I placed one hand firmly on the blue upholstery and focused on the Aetheryte in Unity Castle. As my body vanished from that plane of existence, I idly noticed that Carbuncle had somehow despawned. Oh well, I'd call her out again once I had some basic living quarters set up in the castle. On that note, I had to figure out just how I was going to lug the heavy couch all the way to the room I had in mind...

Author's Notes:

Don't shoot! I know this chapter wasn't too big in terms of progression, but it got a number of character appearances out of the way. Yes, Kikiru seems to be undergoing some personality shifts and there's a very good reason for that. Provided the story doesn't just tell itself without my active input like this chapter, the Discord opening arc should be wrapped up.
Useful Terms
Aetheryte: Aetherytes are magical crystals that act as a teleportation relay across Equestria and beyond. They were primarily invented for the purpose of fast travel, with an enchantment that allows an Aetheryte to automatically seek out the shortest path between two points by bouncing the user off other Aetherytes.
The Adventurer's Guild: A united force of explorers, peacekeepers and monster hunters wrapped into one. Whenever there was a job that required a more subtle touch than the United Armies or required a particular set of skills, a contract was sent to the Guild and an Adventurer dispatched. Before the battle with Discord there were over four hundred active Adventurers across Equis, coming from all Sapient races on the planet.
Summoner (Part II): As the name implies, Summoners are best known for their ability to Summon. Through rituals they can bind the essence of powerful elemental beings into a controllable form known as an 'Egi'.
Arcanist: Arcanists are a group of spellcasters that use geometric patterns called Arcanima to guide their magic. To make the casting of these patterns easier, they carry and use grimoires into battle. Arcanists are also notable for their ability to create and summon Carbuncles.
Carbuncle: Carbuncles are the latent power of gemstones given form and life through Arcanima. There are two notable versions of the Carbuncle, each based on a different gemstone. The Emerald Carbuncle is a powerful spellcaster in its own right, capable of manipulating the wind. The other version, the Topaz Carbuncle, forgoes spellcasting in favor of raw power and defensive capability.