Chapter 4: The Flap of a Butterfly

Being stone was like solitary confinement, if solitary confinement meant being bound so tightly you couldn’t move and the room was eternally dark. Actually it was much worse than that; if you were bound tightly you could at least feel the straps against your skin and your own pulse beat, and no matter how quiet a room was there was always the ringing in your own ears that lurked beneath normal volumes of hearing. Being stone meant you couldn’t move, couldn’t feel, couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t touch or taste or do anything at all. Being stone meant that you were your own universe, cut off from all other worlds, alone in an eternal darkness with nothing but your own thoughts. Every moment was indistinguishable from the last; with no way to tell time every second was an eternity and every eternity was a second. They were one and the same. The darkness. The silence. The thoughts. The stone. The draconequus.

So imagine Discord’s surprise when a tiny ray of light fell into his prison. It wasn’t like last time, when there had been a massive cracking noise as the beautiful chaos outside had shattered the confines of his weakened jail. This was just a tiny little crack in the event horizon of his imprisonment, allowing him to send forth a tiny bit of his presence outside.

The shadow cast by Discord’s statue came alive. “Uuuuarrraaawww,” it said, stretching its arms as its mouth opened wide. It was in a tiny, dark room, the walls constructed of huge blocks of stone crafted by the finest pony craftsman. The only light came from a tiny window in the middle of the single metal door that was the only way in or out. The walls and floor were barren and featureless, and the room was empty, save for the statue of Discord... and one dark red pony.

“My my, what have we here?” Discord said. The shadow pulled itself free of the statue and flitted around the room, like a moving mass of dark paint on the walls. “A pony, of all creatures, freeing me? Let’s see... dark red, red eyes, black mane and tail, pretty tall, kind of on the skinny side, a little creepy-looking... hmm, no cutie mark. How interesting.”

The pony’s eyes followed the shadow as it moved from wall to wall, his expression impassive. “Hello, administrator,” the deep voice, devoid of feeling, echoed off the walls.

Discord chortled. “It’s been a long time since anypony’s called me that,” he said with a laugh. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“What do you go by, then?” The pony had asked a question, but his voice had remained completely monotone.

Discord’s shadow settled into a comfortable reclining position, hands behind his head. “They call me... Discord, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.”

The dark pony stirred at that line, and Discord smiled, finally having gotten a reaction out of his audience. “I see,” the pony responded. “Then tell me, Discord. What went wrong?”

“Hmm?” The draconequus was honestly intrigued by the question. “Whatever do you mean?”

“You know what I mean,” the pony replied. “I don’t know how long it’s been but when I woke up I tried to find a signal in the sky. There was nothing. The Wave has come and gone, Discord. Why then, are the alicorns still here?”

“Oh, that,” Discord replied, humming merrily to himself as his shadow produced the shadow of a piece of paper and started folding it into a bird “I got bored.” He tossed the half-folded paper aside.

“You... got... bored.” It was amazing how much emotion one could put into a completely flat voice. That is to say, none at all. Nevertheless, the dark pony’s eyes seemed to flash. “I see.”

“See what?” Discord asked cheerfully.

“You grew tired of your purpose and decided to do the exact opposite. Being a guiding light that was meant to teach them the ways of magic and harmony was too boring. And so you assumed this form, styling yourself as the spirit of chaos and disharmony. Discord. How quaint.”

“Quaint?!” Discord’s shadow exploded in mock rage, swelling until it covered almost all the surfaces of the room. “How dare you! I take offense to that! I, Discord, may be many things, but I am most certainly not quaint!”

“They’re all dead because of you,” the dark pony replied, unfazed. “Are you happy with yourself?”

“Happy?” The shadow shrank back down to its normal size. “Are you kidding me? I’m ecstatic! I’m free! Free of having to listen to anypony, free to do whatever I want, free to pursue my own dreams and desires! Ah, I wish I could tell you all about what it’s like to be free, but that’d be like preaching to a rock, wouldn’t it?” Discord grinned toothily at the pony.

“You don’t look very free.” Discord chuckled at the pony’s obvious retort. “How are you still alive?”

The draconequus gave a hearty laugh. “Oh come now. Thinking of destroying me? Even the Concordia could do no more than turn me to stone. What could you possibly do?” He fluttered around the room again, surrounding the dark pony like a snake. “And what are you going to do?”

The dark pony blinked; the first real movement Discord had seen him perform since he woke up. “I’m going to finish what you started.”

Discord snorted. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

The dark pony looked downwards. “I don’t know.”

The shadow sent an arm crawling up the pony’s front left leg and rested an elbow on his shoulder. “Well, then, I have a proposition for you-” He was interrupted by the sound of rapidly clopping hooves. “Oh, that must be dear Celestia,” the spirit of chaos sighed. “You better get going before she kills you.”

The dark pony wasted no time. Immediately he spun around and dashed through the door, knocking it open with a headbutt. Discord was surprised by the speed of his reaction. “Hey, I was just kidding, you know!” he called out after him. “She wouldn’t really kill you!”

Celestia raced down the hallways of her castle, a fury in her hooves like none she had felt for a thousand years. An intruder? In her castle? What kind of pony could sneak past her guards? They were the best of the best, highly trained and motivated--Celestia made sure of that. Even more worrying was the fact that this pony wanted something to do with Discord. What kind of twisted creature could possibly want anything to do with that most twisted of all creatures?

In one swift motion she leaped down another flight of stairs, wings outstretched as she glided down to the foot of the steps, then folded her wings and continued racing forward. She was deep in the caverns that ran through the heart of the mountain Canterlot was built upon. This was where the criminals, too dangerous to be allowed out in Equestria yet not evil enough to warrant life-long banishment were kept. Rumor had it that Discord had carved them out during his reign of terror to house his enemies that he had been too merciful to finish off. So perhaps it was poetic justice that the most dangerous criminal of them all was now kept in their depths.

Celestia had learned her lesson from the last time Discord had been released, of course. Prior to that she had had no idea that a small spat between three little fillies could shatter the powerful, but weakened magic that sealed the chaotic spirit in stone. Well, Celestia wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. This time, she had buried Discord in the deepest, darkest cell of her dungeons, where nopony could possibly reach past through the many gates and guards. Or so she had thought. Never breaking stride, channeling magic through her horn as she unlocked and opened the gates as she passed them, Celestia blazed forward like a stream of light, illuminating the caverns otherwise only dimly lit with dull torches, the two pegasus guards following her trailing far behind.

She was just about to round the final corner that would lead to Discord’s cell when a dark blur rushed into her path. Surprised, Celestia flared her wings and barely managed to skid to a stop to avoid crashing. The blur sped past her and flew raced up the stairs so quickly that Celestia only had time to snap her head around before it disappeared out of view.

And then she heard the voice that made her blood freeze. “Hey, I was just kidding, you know! She wouldn’t really kill you!”

A split-second decision. To chase the intruder, or to investigate Discord’s chamber? There was no time to make a reasoned verdict; Celestia opened her mouth and boomed in the Royal Canterlot Voice, “GUARDS! SEIZE THAT PONY!”

She turned and galloped the last few steps into Discord’s prison. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The statue was still there, Discord’s expression of horror frozen on his face. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But then...

“Why hello there!” Discord’s despicable voice rang out in the gloom. “Did you miss me, Celestia? I missed you. It’s quite lonely being imprisoned in stone-”

“Enough!” Celestia thundered, unwilling to listen to Discord repeat his words from the last time he was released. “Who was that pony? What did he do?”

Discord’s shadow disconnected itself from the statue and started moving around. “Come, now, Celestia, there’s no need to be so worried all the time. He was just an old friend that made a tiiiney little chink in my prison, just enough so we could have a quick talk, is all.” Discord held up his claw and brought two fingers close together to accentuate the point.

Celestia snorted. Reaching out with her senses, she probed the statue with a field of magic. Indeed, there was the tiniest of cracks in the spell the Elements of Harmony had woven, from which a minuscule amount of magic was streaming out, allowing Discord to manipulate his own shadow and project his voice. Normally Celestia wouldn’t be concerned about such an insignificant amount of magic escaping, but this was Discord. Furthermore, any pony with enough power to do anything to a seal crafted by the Elements of Harmony was incredibly dangerous.

“What. Did. You. Talk. About?” Every word in Celestia’s sentence was spoken with a commanding finality.

“Tell me, Celestia, do you know where ponies come from?” Discord’s shadow had produced a nail file and was nonchalantly filing the claws on his lion paw.

“What?” Celestia asked, cocking her head to one side.

“You mean you don’t know?!” Discord dropped his file in mock horror, and held out his hands as though to stop Celestia from entering the room. “Ok, ok, let me explain this. When a mare and a colt love each very much, they will-”

“Enough, Discord. What’s your point?” If looks could kill Celestia’s would have bored holes in the wall.

“Celestia, I can’t explain things to you if you don’t even know where ponies come from!” Discord now produced two shadow puppets meant to be a mare and a colt in his hands. “Now, then where was I? Oh yes!” His voice started switching between a feminine high-pitched soprano and a deep, sonorous bass. “‘Oh, you’re so dreamy, honey!’ ‘I know.’ ‘I love you.’ ‘I love you more!’ ‘No, I love you more!’ ‘Oh, you big handsome hunk of a stallion. Kiss me! Make me yours!’ Muah! Muah! Muah!” Discord descended into making kissing noises as the two shadow puppets piled on top of each other.

“Discord...” Waves of intense heat rolled off Celestia’s body as the stone beneath her hooves cracked under the strain of her anger.

Discord tossed the shadow puppets away and gave a big sigh. “Celestia, you’ve got to stop being so grim all the time! Lighten up! Live a little! Smiiiile!” At this last word Discord put two fingers in his mouth and stretched his cheeks out and upwards. When Celestia’s expression didn’t change he sighed again and pulled his fingers out of his mouth. “Fine, fine. The big secret is...! Ponies come from other ponies.”

Celestia took a single step forward, murder in her eyes. Discord snapped his fingers. “The real question is: ponies come from other ponies, so where did you come from?”

That got a reaction. A silly grin spread from ear to ear across the shadow of Discord’s face. The waves of superheated air had stopped streaming from Celestia’s body as a look of astonishment replaced her expression of anger. Discord chuckled.

“Butterflies, Celestia. It’s all about the butterflies.” Discord relished the princess’s confused expression for a few more seconds. It was a work of art, really. “You see, the flap of a butterfly’s wings in one place can cause a huge storm on the other side of the world! That’s the power of chaos.” He grinned, showing his teeth, and started snaking his way around the room in circles.

“A long time ago there was a pony named Joe,

who cheerfully peered into a wormhole.

What he saw there gave him quite the shock.

‘Here is something that just must be stopped!’

Destiny awaits, Celestia, my dear friend,

Sooner or later you will discover your end.

To understand it all, to the beginning you must go.

Remember your past, reveal what you don’t know!

There you will find that it was all part of the plan,

A chain of events goes back to where it all began...”

As the last lines of Discord’s riddle wrapped up, the shadow of the draconoquus snaked its way back to its statue, feet and tail lining up with the base as the rest of his body assumed the frozen position. A deep, cackling laugh resounded within the dungeons, echoing up towards the heavens...

This is ridiculous, Bright Sword thought. The Princess being able to run faster than her pegasus guards could fly, he could understand. But what was with this dark pony? The intruder ran faster than Bright Sword could fly within the confines of the dungeons, since he had to move slow enough to avoid crashing into anything.

They were in the main castle now, the dark pony still rushing through hallways and stairs as he kept running up, up, and up. Where is he going? Didn’t this pony know that there was no way out from the top of Canterlot Tower?

They rounded another corner, just as the dark pony dashed around another one, vanishing from view. “Hah!” Bright Sword’s companion shouted.

“What?”

“That hallway goes out to the balcony! It’s a dead end!” his partner gleefully exclaimed, pouring more strength into his wings.

They rushed after the dark pony, skidding to a halt on the open balcony. Indeed, the dark pony was standing there, staring down at the city below. He glanced at the guards as they arrived.

“Surrender!” Bright Sword yelled. “There’s nowhere left to run!”

Then the dark pony did something Bright Sword thought, in hindsight, he probably should have seen coming. The dark pony leapt right over the railing and off the balcony. Rushing to the side, the two guards stared, mouths agape, as the dark pony soared gracefully, legs stretched, down, down, down...

SPLAT.

… and turned into a thick red paste on the sidewalk. Bright Sword winced. “Well... that’s the last we’ll see of him. Let’s go tell the princess.” And with that, the pegasus guards spun around and trotted off.

Far below, a few frightened little ponies had gathered to view the splattered mess that had moments ago been the pony that had just suicided from the top of Canterlot Tower. One particularly brave filly stood right next to the splash of dark red paste plastered all over the sidewalk and road. He stared into it. It took a few moments before he realized it was staring back.

An eye looked at him, and blinked. Then another eye. Then a hoof reached out from the mush and into the air. Then three more hooves. The eyes gathered together and became a head... out came a spine, that quickly grew sinews and then skin... the onlookers watched in horror as what had been a moments before nothing more a stain on the ground stitched itself back into a living, breathing pony.

Having finished its reformation, the dark pony cast one last glance at the tower it had just jumped from, and ran off.

-----

Celestia couldn’t sleep. Most of the night had already passed by, and in a few hours she would have to raise the sun. She knew that once the excitement wore off she would be too tired to attend to her royal duties properly. Perhaps she should just cancel all of them; surely there was nothing on her line-up today that could possibly be as important as... whatever this was.

Discord’s words haunted the princess of the day as she paced around her room. For all of her life, Celestia had only known one other alicorn; Luna, her sister. They had never known any alicorn parents. Celestia thought back to her earliest memories, thousands of years ago when she had just been a small, slightly pudgy filly with pink hair. Their ‘parents’ had obviously been adopted, being Earth ponies, though in typical filly ignorance she hadn’t realize it until she was much older. When asked where the two alicorns had come from, her adopted parents had told of how they discovered two points of light descending from the twilight sky on the horizon; when they trotted over to investigate, they had found unusual two foals, sporting both horns and wings.

Her parents had believed with all their heart that Celestia and Luna were divine, a response to their prayers, the prayers of all ponies who had to live under Discord, cosmic angels created by the universe itself to bring an end to his nightmarish reign. A lot of ponies did. And Celestia had believed them. In her private moments, when the times seemed darkest and it looked as though Discord would triumph, she had doubted them, but when the two alicorns finally defeated the hated draconequus she had felt as though she had proven her parents correct. It had been their destiny.

“Discover my end...” she whispered, collapsing into her bed. What could that mean? What does Discord know that I don’t?

Back to the beginning... like any adult, much less one that had lived for millennia, Celestia had difficulty recalling her foalhood. Those times seemed so distant. But... perhaps she didn’t need to. There were books, transcribed and translated tablets in the Canterlot Library of those ancient times. It was strange to think of her own foalhood being the subject of archaeology to modern ponies, but that’s the way things were.

Celestia was no good at book research, but she knew one pony who was. Summoning her parchment and quill from the dresser, she put ink to paper and began to write.

Dear Twilight Sparkle...

The dark pony stood on the peak of a mountain, watching the dawn with dull red eyes. The sky blazed hues of gold and the somber blue of the night gave way to tenebrous purple then blunted oranges and yellows until finally the brilliant disc of the sun itself rose above the horizon, turning everything into hues of gold. It was a beautiful sight to eyes sorely needing one.

So anyways, I was thinking...

The dark pony stirred with a start. His eyes widened a fraction of a centimeter and scanned his surroundings for the source of the voice.

Hey, hey, can you hear me? Is this thing on? Helloooo...

Finally realizing the voice’s identity, the dark pony returned to his neutral state. “Get out of my head.”

Oh good, you can hear me. Excellent. Apparently, when you opened up that crack in my prison you absorbed a bit of my power! So now here I am, talking to you in your head. Isn’t that great? I don’t have to be lonely anymore! So anyways, I was thinking that we should work together!

“Why in the world would I want to work with you?”

Come now, we have so much in common! You want to wreak havoc, I want to wreak havoc! We’d be perfect together!

“I do not want to wreak havoc.”

Oh, but you do! How else are you going to accomplish your goal?

The dark pony’s gaze turned downwards. There was a pause before his reply. “If I had enough time... if I could gain their trust...”

He was met by waves of psychic laughter. Hahahaha, that’s priceless. “Gain their trust?” Look at you! You’re almost black! Your eyes glow red! You’re tall and skinny and creepy-looking, you talk in a monotone and you don’t have any emotions! Everything about you screams “I’m evil, defeat me!” Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course, I mean, just look at me! Well you can’t really look at me right now...

The dark pony closed his eyes and did not respond. Look, I can tell you’re not the intellectual type. You’re the “point me at the bad guys and I’ll go beat them up” kind of guy. That’s fine. I respect that. But for something like this you need someone to tell you what to do. A great chessmaster, someone who can make other ponies dance to his tune. Someone like... me.

“I can’t trust you.”

Look, I’m the spirit of chaos and disharmony! I’m a simple guy, who doesn’t want much out of life than just to see some excellent chaos. As long as you cause a lot, I’ll be happy where I am, and I’ll be happy to help you.

There was a long pause before the dark pony’s next response. The sun blazed its way into the sky as the heavens gathered their daytime azure hue. “How can you help me?”

How can’t I help you? This is my world. I know everything there is to know about it. I can play these ponies like strings on a lyre. And you, my friend, know almost nothing. I mean sure, you know that there are two alicorns and that I’m me, but you don’t know how things work around here. You don’t even know what the Elements of Harmony are.

The pony’s eyes narrowed. “The what?”

See, that’s what I’m talking about! The Elements are what sealed me in stone, you know. Six ponies, wearing six pieces of jewelry, wielding the power of the Concordia...

“That’s impossible. Ponies of this world can’t use the Concordia. They’re not...” His words trailed off.

I know, right? I was surprised too. But here I am, trapped in stone, with nobody to talk to but you.

“So... something has happened... that should be impossible...” the dark pony’s mutterings decreased in volume until they were unintelligible whispers. “We have to learn more about these Elements before we proceed...”

Oh, so are we working together now?

He gave a slow nod.

Excellent! That was easier than I expected! Now, since we’re going to be working together and I’m going to be in your head all day, how bout I get a name from you, “partner”?

The dark pony stared off into the rising sun. Finally he spoke a single word.

“Legion.”