With a distorted pop, Discord appeared. It was wrong. It was very wrong. It was wrong on levels even he didn't usually press against. Something was not only perverting reality, but attempting to make him look bad at it!

With a scowl, he looked around the non-euclidean mess that was the hallway he was in. An open door, if you looked at it from the right angle along the right dimension, was to his left/right/up. He re-oriented himself and stormed for it, throwing it wide to reveal the bloated mass of a squid.

"A squid, really? Playing with the classics?" asked Discord with a raised brow.

The creature turned a barred eye towards Discord. "Hello fellow being. Finally, something worth considering as a peer. What business brings you?"

Discord paused at that. It was rare anything outright called him a peer. It disarmed him a moment. "Hello yourself. You do realize you're making a mess in my turf, do you not?"

It squinted a little. "I did not detect your presence." Its voice fractured and became a chorus of people, male and female, large and small. "We were challenging the owner of this place. That owner is not you. Do you claim dominion?"

Curiosity welled within Discord. "Where, precisely, do you believe yourself to be?"

"A crossroads." In a small female voice, it spoke, "Raw opportunity." An elderly male voice continued, "A nexus, ripe with what I need."

Discord glanced around at the tortured mess, fairly sure that had been made by the creature before him. What exactly did a 'nexus' offer? He wanted to know very much. "Well, at least one of the 'roads' leads to my realm."

"A neighbor," spoke the creature in its original voice. "It is good to know a fine master rules beside. My name is--" The words that issued forth were too alien to be proper words, or be written properly. "Surrender your own and we will have an accord."

Discord rubbed his chin, he wasn't sure he wanted to be buddy buddies with the eldritch space squid. "Afraid to break this to you, but if you stay here, you're going to get beaten, eventually. This realm has powerful defenders, tied directly to the 'fate' of the world. If you are a peer, then you understand when the plot turns against you."

The rubbery hide of the squid trembled with obvious discomfort. "The constructs of the Second Order. Why do you not oppose this?"

The squid suddenly trembled with a new wave of pain and withdrew a tentacle from one of the many exits of the room. The end of it was a tortured mess of viscera and floating, hissing, blood.

Discord winced. "It looks like it's already starting. Peer to peer, it seemed fair to at least warn you."

"This was not the work of the Second Order." It narrowed its exposed eye. "The Green Order has entered the battle. The Green Order is fragile."

Discord hiked a thumb at the creature's damaged, though mending, part. "Even delicate glass can cut quite deep. Come on, there'll be other nexuses out there for a strapping--"

"--No. I am heavy with potential. It must be released in a safe place."

Discord blinked rapidly. "You're pregnant?"

"If that term pleases you. I must release an egg of possibility." Its tone turned to that of a maternal mother, though a bird's shrill cry echoed in it. "I must care for it until the time comes to hatch." The voice turned to a chorus once again. "A new universe will be born!"

Discord cocked an ear. He could hear the defenders of the land making progress slowly but surely. "I have a radical idea for you."

"Speak." The voice became small and infant-like, babbling between words. "They're coming. Combat will occur."

Discord shrugged a bit. "Have you asked?"

"What?"

"Asked, you know..." He rolled a paw through the air. "Just ask the bloke in charge if you can stay and let them worry about defending the place. That would be nice and safe, right?"

The creature went still and quiet. Could it really... "They will never accept. The war has been declared. The lines drawn. They come for battle."

Discord shrugged. "Little hint here, my world, which I can bet you most of those coming are from, likes things that say sorry. If you just want to stop fighting, they'll probably accept that."

"Your world is infested/corrupted/tainted with the Second Order. I thank you for your counsel. Will you not share your name?"

Discord offered a hand. "Promise to at least try playing nice and I will."

The creature hesitated a moment before it reached a tentacle, snaring Discord's paw and squeezing. "We will attempt, if only to see how foul this taint reaches. Perhaps a fitting place to brood, held to the bosom of a foul enemy, protected by its own power."

Discord returned the shake before drawing back his slimy paw. He conjured a towel to start wiping it clean on. "The name's Discord, bucko. If you don't become sushi, drop me a line. We could discuss some things I rarely get the chance to chit-chat about." He tipped a hat he didn't have moments before. "Ta ta!" He coiled up on himself and vanished from the room, and the story.

It would have to finish unfolding without him.

Dark was on her hooves in a flash. The psychic scream was audible, and she could feel it pressing, but there was something in the way. Paul was doing his part to shield her mind with his own.

Direct magic had little effect on creatures so far removed from the world she loved, so she turned it internal. She lunged forward on enhanced legs and propelled herself at the beast even as she spun in mid-air and came down with an extended hoof to drop kick it out of the air with a thunderous impact.

The eel gave a new sort of wail as it was slammed to the ground. "How?" it asked in that spoken voice that wasn't spoken. "Wither and die!" An angler-like growth wetly slid from its skull and let out a sickly purple-yellow light.

Dark felt Paul reaching into her memories for her, using her own magic to deflect the biological magic that aimed to decompose her while still living. She could leave him entirely to defense. It was her battle.

She was on the eel without hesitation, driving a hoof into one of its hollow eyes as ichor and slime sprayed from the impact sight. "Begone!" she shouted as she looked straight down and brought down her head in a cruel stab that pierced the creature where its brain should have been.

It twitched and thrashed on the end of her horn before pulling back powerfully, flipping Dark over with the force of the motion. It was hovering there in the air, bleeding and oozing, but not dead for the savage blow. It spoke, but they were not words. The time for words has passed. Each syllable was an attack on the fabric of reality itself and Dark could feel they were aimed directly at her.

She could feel Paul straining within her. The task of keeping them intact must have been incredible. She had to end it. She surged in a powerful leap knocking it upwards with a magically-reinforced kick that sent it crashing into the ceiling hard enough to daze it, and drive some of its wild teeth into the surface.

Dark heard a sound and saw Tabitha was recovering swiftly.

Tabitha grabbed her dropped spear and shook off from the top of her head down through her pony body. Without a word, she charged with all the lethal intent of a charging ancient knight, spear wielded as a lance, her lower half acting as her loyal steed.

The impact was brutal enough that the creature's body couldn't withstand it. It exploded in a shower of fish bones, bile, and other unwholesome fluids that rained on the defenders, victorious though they were.

Tabitha pumped a fist before leaning against the nearest wall, heaving for breath. "Is... everyone alright?"

"No," replied Dark as she quickly trotted over to them. "But none of us will be until this is settled. An excellent finish, Tabitha. You saved us."

Tabitha smiled at that. "I just... did what I could, but thank you."

Paul within her knew that Dark has just tossed away the credit they both could have gotten. No one was awake to see them have that battle. No one would ever even be told. Their satisfaction would have to be internal. Such is often the way with the Warlocks.

Horpip propped himself upright, drawing out a cloth to wipe the worst of the blood, his own included, away. "Was that the root of this madness? Are we done now?"

Spring rose more smoothly to her feet and offered a hand to Bubbles to get her up as well. "I find that unlikely. That tentacle didn't come from that little eel. Even madness has some rules to obey."

Bubbles shook herself out. "I feel like I just didn't know when to call it quits with some cider. One down, one to go, right? Tell me we're halfway at least."

Dark turned back down the hallway. "There could be countless more, but we are not being attacked this moment, let us take that as a good portent. Come, we advance."

As one, the group pushed forward through the shrieking hallway, pressing back the tide of corruption in their wake. The sounds of battle ahead had grown worryingly quiet. Had the yeti won? It felt unlikely. The other possibility was less pleasant to consider.

Spring shook her head as she went. "If he has met his end, we should honor him when this is done."

Horpip raised a brow. "You know how one of them would want to be honored?"

Bubbles flashed a grin. "Pfft, no, but if we're gonna do that, we should just do it our way. Funerals are for the living."

Spring shook her head a little. "Once in a while, great wisdom falls from your lips."

Tabitha raised a brow at the conversation. "Are we really planning funerals for someone we don't even know is dead yet? Let's try to be positive about this."

Dark nodded. "There is no reason to assume. We'll move as quickly as we can, and hopefully prevent such a thing from being required." There was a faint pause. "Should something occur to me, simply have my body returned to Canterlot, to the Warlocks. They will do what needs done." She could feel Paul shiver within her, not entirely comfortable with the idea.

Few were entirely comfortable with the idea of death.

"Enough," stated Tabitha firmly. "No more dying talk. We're going to do this smart and right, and nobody's kicking any buckets. Consider that an official order. You die, you're being evicted."

Bubbles snorted at that. "Now who's the one with the gallows humor?" She trotted along with Tabitha, tail swaying.

They may have been marching to their doom, but they were doing it together.

Author's Notes:

I rather liked significant bits of this chapter, but I'd love to hear what you all think. Your opinions do shape the story and mold my diseased mind (No, really, that's a thing). Besides that, I love hearing from you all and do read each and every single one, even the ones with typos.