Unforeseen Consequences - Chapter 37

“No way, dude. There’s no frickin’ way this is real!”
>An explosion went off a couple miles away, followed by a purple pillar of smoke that rose beyond the clouds. There was no hear though, just an ice cold shockwave that threw me to the ground.
“Gosh darn it! I gotta do… something? Hey, what the heck happened now?”
>I think… Discord broke the sky with that explosion? Like one minute it was all sunny, and the next you’d have the moon bouncing all over the place, sending the world into a starry night with nothing but constellations showing Discord’s face.
>Speaking of him, that guy looked like he was having the time of his life. The old man laughed and clapped as he used his magic to continue transforming this little comfy town into basically another version of the Void.
>That didn’t last forever, though. When Discord finally got finished transforming every farm land into a collection of porcelain teacups, he shifted focus to basically everyone who tryed to escape his craziness.
>Of course I thought on helping, I might not be the biggest fan of ponies but that doesn’t mean I liked seeing them suffer like this. It didn’t took long for one of them to gallop right through me to remind me that I couldn’t do anything but to see how Discord started to collect ponies left and right.

>Sometimes he would capture them with some crazy trap like a living circus tent, others he would simply let one of the Void creatures to bring him every single sucker it could find. It didn’t matter how they got busted, they all ended up being turned into whatever Discord would come up with.
>There was a point where, as the chaos raged on and more ponies screamed for help, my senses simply went numb. Like, there was this ringing on my ear and vision went hazy for a bit. I ended up falling on my knees and slammed the ground with my talons.
“Darn it, old man! Why do you have to show me this?!”
>A paw rested on my shoulder as a familiar voice replied, “Would you have believed me if I had just told you?”
>I got hella startled by Discord suddenly appearing behind me, but hey at least it worked to snap me outta… whatever that was.
“Gah! How can you be here if…? Wait, don’t tell me… gosh darn it! I hate this whole memory business!”
>Discord let out a chuckle and helped me to get back up, “Understandable, but I don’t think there was a better way to illustrate my point”.
“What do you mean?”
>He let out a tired sigh as his gaze became fixated on his past version, “Let me ask you again, my dear. Would you have believed me if I had just came to you and said that I tried to take over Equestria?”

“Oh come on, I totally would have! Kinda… I mean, it’d have been one heck of a shock but… I just… I just don’t get it! Why even bother with Equestria when you just went and conquered it!”
>Discord slowly shook his head and patted me on the back, “There’s so much more left to this story, my dear. With that in mind, make sure to remember the question that I asked you. It’ll sort of become relevant later on”.
“Huh? Now what the heck are you on about?”
>“Ah, ah! No spoilers for you, my dear”. He snapped his talons, making two seats to appear. He sat on one, while motioning me to sit at the other, “Now, you look a bit tired. Why don’t you take a seat to replenish all of that teen angst?”
>Was that weird? Sure, but that was basically part of the course with Discord. Besides, it ain't like I could do much else in this place.
“A’ight… whatever!”
>Just when I planted my butt on that super comfy seat, a thunderous bang roared across the land and the sky broke again. Like, I dunno how to explain it in a fancy way, but the sun and moon got stuck at opposite sides of the horizon. Now half of the sky was day and the other was pure night. It looked so cool, but also… what’s the word? Omnious.

>It certainly didn’t help that everything went silent, like if the world itself was expecting something. Finally, my Discord pointed at the sky as a depressed smile appeared on his face, “Ah, our two heroines are about to enter the scene”.
>Suddenly, the sun became red, but not like the red you’d see in a sunset, it was more like seeing a gigantic ball of fire. At the same time, the moon and all of the stars in the sky started to shine with this creepy pale light that somehow rivaled the sun itself.
>The biggest surprise to me came from the ponies themselves. Like, I thought that they would be burying underground or something like that by this point, but sorta the opposite happened. Like, they either started to bow, cheer and hug each other.
>Luckily for me, I didn’t have to break my head trying to figure out what the heck was going on. No, I just had to worry about not dislocating my jaw, because what happened next made it fall to the ground: Covered by all the lights in the sky, two mares with horn and wings, descended from the moon and sun.
>The one that came from the sun was tall heck, like almost as big as Discord. She looked so cool too! Like, her coat was pure white which is nothing really outta this world, but her mane and tail? Those were made of frickin’ flames!

>As for the mare from the moon, she was actually smaller, like just a bit taller than a stallion, but gosh darn she had one heck of a sleek figure. Her coat was of this sick dark blue color and, like she had the frickin’ night sky inside her main and tail
>The moment the sun mare touched the ground her flames just went out. I’d have been disappointed if it wasn’t for the fact she was now rocking this sparkly pink mane that I was totally gonna steal. The same thing actually happened with the other one, like suddenly her mane adopted this neat short style and got this super cute cyan color.
>Something I noticed about these two awesome gals is that they had tattoos on her flanks depicting their own celestial thing. Like, the moon mare had a crescent moon over a night sky while the other had… well, the sun. It wasn’t just them though, like every single pony had these tattoos about all sort of random stuff.
> I ain’t really sure why I didn’t notice that before, but I wasn’t gonna break my head over it either. I immediately turned to Discord and started nudging him. For some reason he now looked a bit… depressed, but I didn’t stop. Like, come on he couldn’t keep me in the dark about these two gals.
“Dude, you gotta tell me who these two are! Like, they are so frickin’ awesome, dude!”


>He didn’t say anything, which to be fair was worrying considering he never shut up about anything. Instead, he pointed at the giant version of him, who by this point was tapping his talons and paw together like a slimy real state agent.
>The giant Discord grinned maliciously as his body started to coil and serpentine through miles and miles in the distance, “Aaah, Celestia and Luna! I was actually wondering when you two would show up! I suppose that my little trials were a bit too much for a couple of fillies”.
>Completely unfazed by Discord's words, the moon mare simply rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Do you hear that, Celestia? This foul beast believes that his simplistic riddles could be considered a trial”.
>The sun mare, or Celestia I guess was her name, combed her mane and smirked with this aura of pure smugness, “Don’t be so mean, Luna. Were they brain-dead easy? Sure, it was nothing short of a cake walk, but is clear Discord had a lot of creativity going on with his puzzles. That’s way more than we can say about the other fools we’ve grinded to dust”.
 >“Hmm…” Luna tapped her chin and raised an eyebrow before shrugging it off, “I suppose that I can agree with that statement. Having to solve riddles and puzzles was indeed a nice breathe of fresh air considering we always deal with idiotic fools whose only talent is to destroy… besides, I did have fun with that labyrinth, so I shall give Discord that”.

>“See? That’s what I was talking about! P-O-S-I-T-I-V-I-T-Y! It’s all you need to win the hearts of everypony!”
>That Luna rolled her eyes and groaned, “Why don’t we focus on the bigger picture for now?”
>Celestia giggled and did a cutesy wink, “Alright, we can continue with our coaching later!” She then got back to her smug self and turned at the giant version of the old man, “Well Discord, we beat your pu- I mean, we conquered your trials or whatever. Hand over the elements and I promise we won’t beat you to a pulp… well, not too hard at least”.
>I jumped outta my seat, my heart was beating so hard that it felt like it was gonna explode. Like, she couldn’t be talking about THOSE elements, right? The frickin’ company with all their resources got blown up by them, no one in their right mind should even touch those things.
>My Discord noticed my huge distress, and after placing the memory “on pause”, he spoke with an eerily calm and firm voice, at least for someone like him, “You can relax, my dear. Everything will be fine, that I promise”.
“Hnng… alright, but I don’t like where this is going”.
>He gave me a soft smile and patted my seat, “Neither do I, but that’s life for you, my dear”. Once I sat at my chair, he snapped his talons and the memory resumed sorta like an old tape.
>The giant Discord tapped his cheek and raised an eyebrow “Oh, so you finally remembered that I’m here! Good, good! I was starting to believe that taking over the world wasn’t enough to get the attention of the all-mighty princesses”.
>Luna scowled and barked back at Discord with an amazingly thunderous voice “Keep quiet and return what you have stolen!”

>Discord simply shrugged and laughed at the whole thing, “Why should I? My trials gave you every opportunity in the world to get them back yourselves and still failed. So guess what, my little princesses? You’re not getting those pesky gemstones back! But is not all doom and gloom, far from it! Just look at how I redecorated my new kingdom. I call it: “Eternal chaos” Has a lovely ring to it, don’t you think?”
>Luna let out a groan as she slapped her forehead, “The only lovely thing I can think about this situation is if you kept that foul mouth of yours quiet!”
>Celestia covered her muzzle with a hoof and frowned with what I can only call ironic disgust, “Woo! Tell me about, Luna! It’s always a hassle to deal with Discord’s eternal bad breathe”. She then turned to the giant Discord and simply yelled at him like if he was just a random dude on the street, “Hey, big brows, I have an idea! Why don’t you use those talons of yours to brush your teeth instead of making everything look like a cheap circus?

 >I actually tried my best to not laugh at this part, because while the giant Discord was absolutely salty by these comments, he tried to pass it off with a laugh that caused a small tremor, “It’s nice to see that you keep your sense of humor in the face of doom”.
>The guy snapped his talons, and in the blink of an eye he went from the size of a mountain to, well regular Discord size. With another snap he made a simple throne made outta stone and sat on it, “Let’s get straight to business, shall we?”
>A business suit suddenly appeared on Discord as he started going over a massive pile of papers of all colors, “Since Equestria is now under a new administration, that is to say mine, we have to discuss your new roles in the grand scheme of things. Based on your curriculum, and experience as princesses, I’d say the best prospect for you two is to be my personal poodles! It’s a pretty good deal if you ask me!”
>Luna let out an exasperated sigh, which I totally understand considering who they were dealing with, and rubbed her temples, “Oh for all of the stars in the sky, why does he keep speaking?! Celestia, we have to defeat this beast as soon as possible. I will simply go mad if he decides to go on a monologue”.
>Celestia combed her mane again and just pulled the smuggest grin I’ve ever seen, “Is not like I was planning on goofing around this time. I have more than enough with walking joke over there”.
>Dang dude, the old man was getting roasted here! On paper, I’d be laughing like crazy, but in reality I was starting to get pretty annoyed by them. So I turned to my old and oddly silent Discord and nudged his shoulder.

“Know what? At first I thought these two were cool, but now they’re just starting to get on my frickin’ nerves. Seriously, dude! Please tell me you curb stomped their smug butts”.
>My old man let out a deep and tired sigh, then he leaned back on his seat and simply said, “Just keep watching, my dear. We’re about to reach the finale, anyway”.
>The old Discord’s left eye started twitching as he threw the papers away and evaporated the business suit, “Very well then, I see that we need to have a personalized introductory course to chaos. So sit down, open your mind, and enjoy the music!”
>What followed after was… how do I even put it? Well it was something, that’s for sure. Discord jumped out of his throne, and prepared to sing a frickin’ song. Now, I thought this would give way to, y’know, some kinda crazy musical about chaos that would end with those two mares being transformed into rabbits or some stuff like that.
>Well, there was a transformation alright. Y’see, the moment Discord got in position to start the song, the two mares blasted off into the sky and started shining with all the colors of the rainbow as 6 familiar stones spun around them.
“Dude, those are the elements! Why the heck are those crazy mares using them?! Dude, the world is gonna blow up again!”
>My Discord sunk on his seat and replied with all the indifference in the world, “Are you sure about that?”
“Huh?”

>The elements shot a gigantic rainbow beam at Discord, turning him into a stone in an instant. I couldn’t believe it, the mighty spirit of chaos, my sorta mentor was now a funny looking statue.
“No…!”
>That’s when I finally jumped out of my seat and dashed towards the statue. The world around me faded to black, leaving only me, Discord and his statue standing in a vast landscape of nothingness.
>I extended my paw to touch the statue, but it just ended up phasing through it. Discord then stood beside me and with a distant look on his eyes asked me, “So my dear, what did you think?”
“Dude, what kinda question is that? I-I dunno where the heck to start. Like… why would you ever do something this stupid?”
>For a couple seconds he watched the statue without saying a single word. Then, he let out a tired sigh and turned to me with the most depressed expression I’ve seen outta him, “Chaos is a very powerful thing, my dear. It allows you to do things that you never imagined, however it can also be dangerous. Power can get over one’s head, and before you know it, you’re blinded with jealousy, hatred and greed. Learn from my mistakes, and don’t ever let that happen to you, my dear”.
>How could I even reply to that? Like, the same stupid thing crossed my mind the minute I got my magic. I guess Discord wasn’t so different to me back then… that’s sorta reassuring.

“So… what happened after you became a statue?”
>“Well, I had to move out for a while.” With a snap of his talons, the nothingness shifted to a gigantic and beautiful garden, “I couldn’t complain much about the view, and besides I made for a rather fantastic garden gnome, if your ask me”.
“Dude, what the heck is this place?”
>It was more than beautiful, this place felt like outta a dream. Lots of waterfalls surrounding the place, little rivers passing through, and all over looked by this gigantic white castle on the distance. That said, I couldn’t just drool at this place all day, there were things I needed to know.
“Wait a second, this ain’t what I meant! It’s like… you broke outta this, right? Like, don’t tell me I have been hanging out with some kinda ghost all this time”.
>Discord let out a genuine laughter and tapped my chin, “You have quite the imagination, my dear. To put your mind at ease, yes I managed to escape from my… forced vacations. It took me a little bit longer than what I expected, though”.
“…How long are we talking here? Like, a month or something like that?”
> “More like a thousand years”.
> Dude, screw those hags so much! How could they do this to anyone?! That’s as bad as the frickin’ company! While I felt enraged and all that, I still had to take a minute to regain my breath. Like, I think one of my eyes almost popped out from the shock of hearing that.
“WHAT?! Dude, how did you manage to not go mad?”
>“Who says that I didn’t?” Discord replied with a toothy grin before adopting a more somber attitude, “In all seriousness, I don’t know how to describe the whole experience. It is maddening at first, insanely so”.

>The sky started to shift between day and night at this insanely fast pace while we went through winter to fall and then back in seconds, “Time just seems to break apart. Days feel like seconds, years like minutes. Memories just blend together or are immediately discarded. Before long I just didn’t know who or what I was… until I managed to get my freedom back”.
“And lemme guess, you escaped back to the Void, right?”
>Discord cleaned some of the dust off the statue and with a little shrug he happily replied, “No, I actually tried to take over the world again”
>Okay, maybe those two hags had a point. Still hate them, though.
“…You’re kidding, right? You just went and did the same stupid thing all over again!”
>“With the same result too! This time I was imprisoned like a few months, though. I guess Celestia grew softer over the centuries, and granted me a pardon”.
>I kinda had to ignore the fact the hags managed to live that long, or the fact that they still were strong enough to mop the floor with Discord after all those years. There was a question that popped in my head, and I really had to throw it before the old guy shifted the topic.
“You’re so frickin’ stupid, dude. Wait… why are you telling me all of this? What does this has to do with me or Resonance?”

>Discord snapped his talons to summon a very puffy looking armchair and just plummeted on it. He then scratched his head and gave me this apologetic look, “Well, it was to give you context on my current situation. I’m no exactly the most beloved draconequus in Equestria, you know?”
“Or the smarter one”
>He let out a small annoyed groan and waved his talons in a dismissive way, “My point is, if I’m already disliked by most of the citizens in Equestria, then what you think would be the general reaction about a second draconequus?”
>I immediately got the point he was making… and it was frickin’ frustrating. Like, the moment I showed my face in the open, every single sucker in Equestria would then immediately try to bash my teeth in, and it was all thanks to the stunts Discord tried to pull off.
“Aw man, come on!”
>Discord shrugged before creating a glass filled with chocolate milk, “It is how it is, my dear”. He then tossed the glass into his mouth and munched it like if it was a buncha chips, “That’s why I came up with the whole idea for the chaos carnival. It’s my own way to make up for my past mistakes, and is also the best shot to ensure you don’t have to relive the hatred you suffered in that old world of yours”.
>Gosh darn it, dude! Let me stay angry at you for more than a second, will ya?! Ugh, truth is I just felt like the biggest tool in the world. Like, sure it was annoying how sleazy he acted about the whole thing, but now that I heard why he wanted to do the carnival… I was disarmed.

“…I see”.
>Discord walked up to me, and after gently tugging my shoulder with his paw, he finally threw the question, “So, now you know everything, I have to ask again, what are your thoughts, my dear?”
>Still wasn’t something easy to decide. I mean, he did try and fail to take over the world… twice, and I still had no clue about my dork, not to say his breath did smell like rotten fish. That said, I couldn’t turn my back on the old man, guess I grew too fond on the old guy.
>So I took a deep breathe, looked at Discord right in the eye, and basically did my best to be a tough cookie.
“Well… I don’t like those two mares or those frickin’ elements. Like, I know you did some stupid stuff, and that you are sorta stupid too but… a thousand years? That’s brutal, dude!”
>“Sure, but…”
>I cut him off, I might feel super bad about everything that happened to him, and I might also be completely moved by the actual reason he wanted to do carnival, and sure I might be fond of him… but gosh I also had to let everything out.
“Listen, you’re hella stupid, and also creepy, and annoying and sneaky as all heck… but I owe you, dude. Like, I dunno where I would be if you never stepped up, and I wanna believe Rez feels the same. So yeah, you were evil and all that but I ain’t gonna ditch you”.
>“That’s…”
>I raised my voice and started poking his chest a little harder than necessary, but what can I say? I was starting to get into the moment.

“Shut up, ‘cuz I ain’t over yet! I ain’t gonna ditch you, but I ain’t gonna let things go back to how they were. Do I still want to go through your training? Heck yeah! But I can’t just ignore this whole carnival thing. So guess what, dude? Starting now, your carnival is also MY carnival. Every single idea, event and whatever else has to be approved by me, ‘cuz I ain’t gonna let you screw this up. Deal?”
>I extended my talons at him. With a little smirk on his face, Discord returned the gesture, “You’re one tough negotiator, my dear. I can’t wait to see the expression on our lovely princesses’ faces when they see what we will create!”
>I squeezed his talons before immediately moving on to hug him. Was it cheesy? Sure, but what can I say? He’s my old man after all.
“We’ll rock those celestial hags outta their socks, dude!”
>… … ….
“And that my little frogger friend, is the whole story”.
>I probably spent all night doing this whole play to my frog buddy, my room was a mess beyond belief, and my stomach just begged for some for food, but gosh darn it I felt so good after letting all out!
>I picked up my little friend from the bed, brought it close to my face and booped its little, slimy head.
“So, what did ya think? Pretty frickin’ awesome, huh?”
>The frog croaked twice before shooting its tongue at my eye, and jumping off to who knows where.
“A’IGHT, YOU ASKED FOR IT! I’ll MAKE YOU WEAR SOME DUMB DRESS NEXT TIME I SEE YA!”
>I let out a little sigh and laid on my bed. Dude, if everything goes smoothly then the carnival should happen in a month tops. That means I’ll have my sick entrance to Equestria, and get to see my dork again at the same time. Tee-hee! I’m gonna blow his mind next time I see him!
>… … …
>… …
>…

>It was dead in the night, probably past midnight but you couldn’t sleep even if you tried to. There simply were too many things in your head, like the fact you discovered that electricity works in Equestria making you have the great idea to tell Cherrywood to work on one of her masks right after Luna and Celestia wished you a good night.
>You actually came across her by mere chance when you decided to grab a glass of water. As Cherrywood explained, she sometimes gets to stay in the castle whenever her mom has a lot of work. She just happened to be roaming the hallway that led to your room in hopes to get a good scare out of a maid or guard doing night shifts.
>Even if that filly was an absolute lunatic, you had, on paper, everything set up to have a relatively good time. Too bad that your stomach decided to just go haywire. So much in fact that you were forced to spent a good amount of time puking your guts out and resting on the bathroom floor.
>You heard frantic knockings on the door followed by the annoyed, squeaky voice of Cherrywood, “Hey, dumblord! It has been like twenty minutes now, are you doing alright in there?”
>The answer was kinda obvious, you felt like someone had replaced your guts with an amusement park, however you simply refused to show any signal of weakness against Cherrywood. Who knows how she’d exploit it if you did.
“I’ve been through a lot worse, this is… nothing”.

>You weren’t lying about that. Besides all the street fighting you had to do in the slums, you also had to endure the collateral damage caused by having to eat all sort of garbage. Expired company rations, moss ridden oatmeal, you even ate a rubber duck once. You felt like a walking dead the next day, but it was way better than dying from starvation.
>Cherrywood clicked her tongue and raised an eyebrow at you, “Yeah… I don’t know about that”. She poked your stomach, making you flinch in pain to which she simply furrowed her brows, and started rotating her ears like a radar, “Maybe we should call it off, I can hear your stomach, and it sounds like a strangled cat!”
“C’mon, fluffbrain! It ain’t that bad… that sick as heck mask you made is gonna look even sicker after we put those glowing eyes… I just… I just need a couple more minutes”.
>“As cool as it sounds, you’re being dumb and I’m going to get the Princesses now. Don’t die while I’m gone, okay? I don’t want to get grounded” Cherrywood tapped her chin before exploding into laughter, “Kekeke! Imagine if you came back as a ghost, tho. You’d haunt the castle with your ghostly barf!”
“S-Shut up, fluffbrain! You don’t have to bother the ladies about me. I’m okay, see?”
>The horrible sensation of nausea came back stronger than ever. It was probably worse than the time you had to eat those cans of spam for a week straight.
“On a second thought, yeah go tell the ladies. If you excuse me, I’m just gonna puke my guts off”.
>“You did that like five minutes ago, tho. What do you even have left to barf?”
“Heck if I know, but I’m about to find out”