Smiling broadly, Tech, a black Pegasus with neon green stripes, stepped down from the podium behind the large, glowing turntable.

The crowd behind him roared as he turned back, and, as a final bravado, allowed his power to surge through his body, and make himself glow a magnificent emerald, before turning to walk off stage.

"Ah, I'll never get tired of that," he chuckled to the pony that held the door open for him. "I could do that for another two hundred years, and I'd still get a bloody kick out of it..."

Smiling to himself, Tech walked into the small pod that waited behind the door, the cool metal immediately heating up as his power surged through it. With a jolt that he was rather used to at this point, the pod began to move up on its track, humming silently as he went from the concert hall - the only place anypony without official business was allowed - to his office.

As the doors slid open, Tech took a few relaxed steps onto the plush carpet, custom made from synthetic wool and polycarbonic fibers. As soon as his hooves made contact with the rug, a voice came from the walls themselves.

"Good evening, Sir. How was your concert?" The voice asked in a pleasant tone of voice.

"Wonderful," Tech responded, immediately taking a seat in one of his shapeless bubbles. The bubble molded to his shape, and cradled his body perfectly, allowing him to slouch back and relax...Again.

"May I interest you in a beverage?" The voice asked again.

"Ah, yes, that would be lovely," Tech responded with a smile, enjoying the feeling of being a king in his castle. "Perhaps some pomegranate lemonade? I've been craving it all morning..."

"Right away, sir."

Almost immediately, the floor next to Tech's bubble opened with a mechanical whir, and with a small hiss, a table was elevated to his side, a glass of pomegranate lemonade perched atop it.

"Your lemonade, sir."

"Thank you," Tech said with a smile as he used his wing to grasp the glass - an action he had perfected long ago.

"You have an urgent call coming in, sir," the voice immediately said.

"Oh, boy," Tech sighed heartily. "Probably just that damn pony in the asylum, needing more of my pills..."

"No, sir."

"Oh?" Tech sarcastically responded. "Then who, pray tell, is attempting to contact me?"

"Excuse me if I mispronounce his name, sir," the voice apologized in advance.

Immediately, time slowed down for Tech. It seemed like the split second between his computer servant apologizing, and then saying the pony's name was an eon long, for he knew that there was only one pony's name that his computer could mispronounce.

"A certain pony named...Metall Kant."

Tech jumped out of his bubble, allowing it to return to its normal state. His pomegranate lemonade was launched from his wing, and smashed against the wall.

"Oh, well, if you don't want to take the call," his computer said, obviously interpreting the smashed glass as a sign of annoyance, "you could've just said so."

"No!" Tech shouted, his wings extended as his muscles tensed and his power surged. "Put him on the main screen, now!"

"Of course, sir."

Tech swiveled around to view the large window that showed the whole of the Las Haygas skyline. Buildings half as tall as the Tower Tech was currently in spanned the horizon. One would think that ponies would try to compete with Tech's tower height-wise, but all ponies could see of it was the concert hall, as the tower itself was rendered invisible.

As Tech took a few nervous steps towards the windows, they flickered to life, and Metall Kant's black, hairless face was immediately put into view.

"Hello, Tech," Metall Kant said calmly.

"Metall!" Tech sputtered. "Why are you calling?"

Tech was near hyperventilation, remembering what Metall Kant had told him over a century ago...

It had been a black night, and Tech was running his first concert. Ponies all over Las Haygas had turned out to see his new technology: the turntable. Of course, it had been developed about two months beforehand, but he had spent those two months perfecting it, and testing it.

As Tech surveyed the crowd, he smiled nervously. He was getting a rush, and he could feel that same strange power he had discovered about ten years before seeping through his veins...

The black and green pony - who everyone believed was a Zebra - closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

He looked down at his turntable, and began, his stripes glowing as he pumped his power into the metallic musical station. The crowd released a gasp of excitement as his stripes began to expand, to envelope his entire body, the music enhanced with a technological beat. As the stripes fully enveloped his body, he reached his true form: A form covered with electronic essence, the essence that he had discovered within himself, and latched on to himself.

A millennium seemed to pass as Tech worked his electronic magic. He felt his body discharging power, and decided to end it with a final burst of electricity.

As the green essence of his electrical power burst out in a sea of green electricity, his body returned to its dark black state, his glowing, green stripes slowly settling down, he looked up to see none other than Princess Celestia.

Tech's eyes grew wide, and his legs began to tremble. His mouth grew dry, and he mumbled a "thank you" into the microphone - something that he felt he should do - and quickly bolted off stage, shuddering and taking deep breaths behind the curtain, his eyes wide, his chest heaving, wondering how long Celestia had been there for...

And then, she was beside him.

"That was amazing," Celestia whispered. "And there's somebody I'd like you to meet." The alicorn smiled at him, and Tech simply winced in fear. "Why do you fear me, Tech?" She whispered, frowning.

"I...I performed...In front of...The Princess..." He stuttered.

"Oh? And what's so wrong with that?" She asked, patiently waiting out his small breakdown.

"I, uh...That is, uhm...I, aaahhh...."

Celestia sighed, and sat down beside him, crossing her hooves in a very un-princess like manner. "Okay, listen. You've got to stallion-up," she grumbled. "I mean, seriously, why is it that every damn performer that sees me at their concert reacts like this? They freak out, they hyperventilate, what, do I have five heads or something?

Tech slowly calmed, as he was now more confused than mortified.

"But, you're the princess...It's kind of like if my parents were here. I would be freaking out..."

Celestia shrugged. "Yeah, I guess...But this isn't the point," she snapped, standing. "We need to go see someone."

Tech gulped, and took a deep breath. "Okay, let's go..."

He felt her hoof grasp his shoulder, and the world twist around him as he was dragged from the world.

He had been teleported before, by a friend of his to her house, so they could...'talk'. But it had never felt like this. He had never been turned inside out, rightside in, and sucked through a tube.

Finally, he took a shuddering gasp as he felt the blessing of solid ground underneath his hooves. He looked around, and saw several ponies, all staring at him.

"Tech," a black pony with a silver claw said. "We are the Elders."

Tech gulped, but stood his ground, intrigued.

"We have protected your world for eons," he continued. "From the darkness of Discord, and other such threats."

Tech frowned. "My world?"

"Yes, your world," Metall Kant responded. "We are not in the Realm of Reality. Rather, we are in the Hall of the Elders - a Realm separate from all others."

Tech nodded. "O...Okay..."

"It has been brought to our attention that you have...Stunning, powers."

Tech gulped. "Well, I can alter technology...And make electrical discharge..."

"And those stripes...You are not a Zebra, correct?"

"No, I...I got these stripes when I first released my power...I think they're made of electricity..."

Metall Kant nodded. "We want you to be part of a New Age of Elders."

Tech blinked in surprise. "What?"

"We will explain more in another time. Years from now. For now, you will be granted eternal life, so you may become a denizen like us. When it is time for you to take on the role of an Elder...We will call you."

Tech nodded. "Wait, how?" He immediately asked, nervous that this strange pony would teleport into a room full of spectators.

"Give Celestia the final form of your communication device. But remember these words, Tech:

"When we call you so you can take up your role...War will be on the horizon."

Back in the present time, and out of Tech's memory, Metall Kant smiled on the screen. "You should know why, Tech."

The black pony nodded. "The time has come, hasn't it?" Tech asked, praying that it was not so.

"Yes, Tech," Metall sighed gravely. "War is on the horizon."

Tech took a shuddering breath, and shut his eyes tight. "Well, what do you need me to do?"

"I need you here. In the Hall of the Elders."

Tech looked up in shock. "But I can't teleport! I'm not an alicorn!"

"You can't. But he can."

Tech instantly turned, to see a blue alicorn with black armor; leathery, blue wings; a blue horn, and icy blue hair that billowed like fire.

"Hey, Tech," the pony grumbled. "Nice to meet you. My name is Deajer den Trollmann."

Tech frowned in confusion. "When did you get here? And how come my computer didn't tell me you were here?"

"Well," 'Deajer' explained, "I've got no body heat."

Tech blinked in shock. "Uh...Okay."

"Anyway, let's go," he impatiently grumbled, his gravelly voice like sandpaper in Tech's ears. "We've got to get you to the Hall of the Elders, fast."

The blackened soul smiled in victory.

Discord wasn't present. His ever-bearing aura did not weigh down on the malevolent spirit's mind, and he no longer had to fear questioning on what he was about to do.

He raised his sword - which had previously been the mark of the Elder of Death - to the black, swirling sky, and commanded it to bring him to its home.

With a smirk, the spirit was slowly teleported from the Realm of Death...

To a darkened, circular room.

The black swordspony shuddered as he felt a dark aura settle across the Hall of Elders.

"Wait! Deajer, say there," he hurriedly spat into the large screen that spanned his office. "I feel a dark presence..."

Deajer blinked in surprise, and grimaced. "I'll be right there," he growled.

"No!" Metall Kant protested. "I can't risk it. Stay there with Tech and fill him in on the finer details, I'll go investigate. I can handle myself, I battled Discord in his stronger state and won."

Deajer sighed. "Fine. Go ahead. I'll stay here, like a trained rat."

Metall ignored his comment, and immediately ran out of the hidden room, forearm tensed to grasp his blade, which was firmly strapped to his hip.

"Show yourself, you coward," he muttered, looking from corner to corner. He took a few halting steps forward, and felt the presence grow closer. "Come on, come fight me, I dare you," he growled to the darkness.

Footsteps gave away the position of the dark spirit. Metall Kant twisted, and lunged out with his blade, only to have an all-too-familiar Sword of Souls stop it in its path.

"Hello," the dark Peter Roose grumbled, "Metall Kant."

Metall Kant jumped back, raising his sword in a ready stance.

"I'm not here to fight you," Peter Roose sighed. "I'm here to make a deal with you."

Metall frowned. "I don't make deals with the demons that kill my friends. I'm assuming that you've taken the role of the Elder of Death, after you murdered Gammel Hjerte?"

Roose smiled, and shook his head. "I didn't kill him," he muttered. "You know better than that. He's been sent into a parallel universe of this one."

Metall's frown spread into a grimace of hatred and anger. "And I will avenge his absence," he growled, "with your death."

Roose shook his head with a disapproving *tsk*. "Oh, Metall, you're so quick to jump to violence without even hearing my agreement."

"Then let's hear it," Metall sighed.

"I go into the Rift," Roose began, "and retrieve your Gammel Hjerte. He'll have been changed into a demon, but I can withstand that change, as I'm already a demon. And I can change him back."

"And what do you want in return?" Metall growled.

"I want your help to kill Discord," Roose said, his words spilling out of his mouth like a fine poison.

"Why?"

"I remember..." Roose muttered. "I remember each and every time he's put me under his control...Every time I've remembered that I came here to give myself a second chance, knowing the sacrifice...I remember each and every fucking time!" He began to shout, and a dark aura began to form around his body. "I remember each fucking time he's done that! Each fucking time I have to relive her death! It's fucking torture, and I want him dead!"

Metall took a halting step back, and Roose regained his composure. "I apologize, that was rude of me..." He whispered.

"Alright," Metall muttered. "You bring back Gammel Hjerte, and we help you kill Discord."

"No," Roose sighed. "Other way around. Discord has to be dead first, get it? Or else I can't go through the Rift without his interference."

"Fine, we kill Discord first," Metall Kant grunted. "What's the plan?"

"So eager," Roose chuckled. "Good. It won't be for a while. I'll come back when it's almost time to do it. Until then...Goodbye, Metall Kant."

With a vacuum of darkness, Roose returned to the Realm of Death, where Metall Kant believed he belonged.

Metall Kant sighed, and returned to his computer room, and looked down at Deajer.

"Come immediately," he grumbled, before shutting the computer down.

Alright, so...
Yeah, new chapter...
Yes, Chuckles, you said to get rid of repeating words. Well, the solution to that is:
I'm lazy.
Also, I should be doing my work on 1776 right now, so I'm trying to detach myself from this right now so I can get back to it.