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// Chaotic News 
// Story: The Champions of Equestria 
// by DrakoGlyph 
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The Eternal Spirit of Chaos paced in the Hall of Stained Glass, eyeing the four panels that bore his image and told his story. The first telling of the glorious time when he reigned, spreading the chaos and randomness that was true to his name; the second, the moment that those silly sisters thought it wise to imprison him in stone for a thousand years. Whatever did they like so much about a thousand years?  The third, his final moments with the Element of Harmony used against him. He shuddered as he thought of the ‘Magic of Friendship’ turning him to stone for the second time in his two thousand years of life. The fourth, and final, the day he swore off evil, mostly, to save his friendship with the Element of Kindness.
He dared to smile as he thought of the last time he had visited Fluttershy in her cottage. Angel Bunny still was displeased about him, but he was there to visit Fluttershy, and certainly had no tricks up his non-existent sleeves. Actually, that time he hadn’t. All the work that the Princesses had him doing was driving him mad, and he was the one who invented madness!
Though, today was too important to stand by the wayside. There was something big coming, something even he couldn’t hope to defeat with all his powers. This concerned him greatly. This feeling he got in the pit of his stomach when he first sensed the disturbance. That was enough to throw him off balance. He had to applaud whoever was doing it, since that was quite the feat. He was the Spirit of Chaos, for Celestia’s Sake. And since when was it ‘Celestia’s Sake,’ anyway? What made that white pony so special?
“Discord, what have you called us over for?” a familiar voice called out from across the length of the marble hall. The light that filtered in from the various stained glass depictions of the history of Celestia’s Reign gave shimmer and shine to the pony that Discord once considered his greatest rival, but in the days since Fluttershy’s Kindness, he had taken her as a friend.
“Dear Celestia,” he said, giving her a brief look before returning his gaze to the fourth scene of his, “since when did princesses not have patience?”
“The urgency in your voice seemed perfectly clear,” the Princess responded without humor.
“And did I not say that all four princesses must be present for this meeting?” With a flourish, he turned to the Princess of the Sun. “Have a seat,” he offered, summoning a sitting chair from the air. Four more chairs appeared, giving Discord a seat facing what would be his audience of four princesses.
“I do believe this is not a time for such activities, Discord.”
“Always with the business! Nothing changes when I meet you in this room.” With an air of disapproval, he snapped his fingers, and the four princesses all appeared in their chairs. Luna, Cadence, and Twilight all seemed genuinely surprised. Celestia, who promptly arose from the chair he implanted her in, was less than impressed.
“I need you to get to business, Discord. This is very serious!”
“I am getting there, perhaps you would like to let me take a breath,” he said with disdain for Celestia’s constant need to be immediately filled in. Where was the art of suspense with her? With a long inhale, he began:
“Back when I reigned, I controlled all of Chaos. It was a grand and glorious time. I do believe you remember it, Celestia, Luna. And when you two imprisoned me in stone, a piece of my chaos was left unchecked. You failed to detect it with all your magic.
“I suppose the one who would have detected it first of you hadn’t been born yet,” he said, looking at the startled Mi Amore Cadenza, who was apparently in the middle of having her headdress reset for the Equestrian Games, as various strands of sunset-colored hair were loose amid the grand design of her mane.
“What do you mean, Discord?” Cadence asked, her tone reflecting the level of discontent that displayed so prominently on her face.
“A piece of me had been loose for quite some time, Princesses,” Discord said, “a part of me that I was never very fond of, but still.” He opened his mouth wide. “I don’t suppose any of you ever happened to question why I only have one fang.”
“You don’t have symmetry anywhere else, so why would you have symmetric fangs?”
“Oh, they weren’t the same, dear Princess Luna,” Discord said, walking up to an effigy of himself in the fourth panel of glass that showed his left side. “No, you see, it wasn’t a fang like you would find on a dog, my dear little ponies, it was a basilisk fang.”
Twilight gasped first. “I knew there were cockatrices in the Everfree forest, but I didn’t bear to think that their evolutionary cousin would ever exist!”
“One of my finer creations,” Discord said. “Something that with a simple stare could turn ponies to stone. Though, I don’t suppose any of you ponies really needed a creature like that to do something so… so… disharmonious.”
The disgruntled looks on all four of his audience prompted him to continue. “In it was carried a venom so powerful that not even I could control it. I removed that fang because, though I do enjoy my chaos, I prefer to be able to control it when I need to, lest it destroy me and everything else in its path.
“I hid it away in a secluded part of my Chaos continuum that not even I could breach without it—“ Discord was interrupted by the deepest purple, and newest, of the princesses.
“But if only you could reach it, and only when you used that fang, then why would we need to worry about it.”
“I fear that there is something out there more powerful than I.”
The three elder princesses looked at the youngest of the court. Twilight blushed. “I’ll go get the Elements of Harmony immediately,” she said, turning to the entrance of the Glass Hall, when Discord appeared before her.
“That wouldn’t be a smart idea, Twilight Sparkle,” he said with a frown upon his chimerical face. 
“You said there was something more powerful than you, and there’s nothing I know more powerful than the Elements of Harmony.”
“Therein lies your error, Princess Twilight,” Discord pointed out, “Harmony and Chaos, they are pure opposites. Where the Fang lies is surely to be corrupted with pure chaos. What you saw when the fillies released me in the Canterlot Royal Garden was a piece of it—it was my controlled chaos.
“If you were to take the Elements of Harmony into the belly of the beast, as it were, then there is no doubt that you would be asking for trouble. They represent all that keeps friendship alive here in Equestria. Powerful though that is, Chaos is eternal and constant. If any one little bit is allowed to carry on without control—and there is absolutely no way that I can control that fang—then it will only repeat itself—“
Again, Twilight interrupted the Draconequus. “Then we’ll be sure to get all the chaos,” she tried to assure the Spirit. This did not raise his countenance, and that simple fact baffled Twilight. The Elements of Harmony had solved so much lately, and yes, there were more and more occasions where it wasn’t enough, like at the Wedding, and in the Crystal Empire, where Love and Hope shined stronger—but what were those in essence but expressions of a deeper friendship? Surely there was nothing the Magic of Friendship couldn’t solve.
“There are more reasons to not take the Elements into the realm I created to house the Left Fang. Surely, they would either become corrupted as you all were the first time—only this time I am certain it will be quicker and more,” Discord paused as he prepared a more dramatic voice, “permanent. Not even a simple Memory spell will re-harmonize your friends when my left fang is done with them.
“All I did was bring out the opposite of their element, the Fang will do much, much worse. No, to defeat it you will need someponies who are bound together by something much stronger than the Elements.”
“Then Shining Armor and I will go,” Cadence said, pulling herself out of the otherwise cozy chair and trotting in front of Discord. “Our love had overcome odds that not even the Elements of Harmony could. No offence, Twilight,” she added as an aside to her favorite protégé.
“None taken, Cadence,” she said with a smile. She had been there to witness both the power of their love as it banished Queen Chrysalis from Canterlot to regions unknown, and she was there as the Love and Hope of the Crystal Ponies defeated King Sombre and saved Equestria. She knew just as much as any other pony there what love could do.
“Blech,” Discord gagged. “This tomfoolery, still, Cadence? I thought you learned better than to use love against chaos when you tried to use your little heart spell on me when I broke out the first time.”
That, Cadence hated to remember, was true. Shining Armor and she had tried using their love magic on Discord when he was first freed from stone so many suns and moons ago. The magic had seemed to work, but Discord seemed almost immune to it.
“Perhaps I should explain why Friendship was more powerful than Love,” Discord admitted. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna vacated their chairs, joining the group of three at the door.
“This is a story we would like to hear,” Princess Luna said.
“Love is a multifaceted connection between two ponies,” he began, “as with anything with more than one piece, they all play and interact with each other.” As he spoke, two puppets appeared before him. He took to levitating to the ceiling as he animated his lecture. The two ponies were unicorns, horns touching. “In its purest and most becoming aspect, love is a deep compassion, a feeling that you must always do right by the ones you love, to protect them and make them happy.” The puppets’ expressions wore happiness and the light that radiated from between them was rosy and pink. “When one removes the compassion, it becomes lust. This lust is capable of tearing all things apart.” The color between the ponies changed from pink to green as their airs gave off an emotion that made Twilight and Cadence gasp. Their elders were obviously more trained to deal with such emotions and feelings. “And if you remove the romance,” he said, “it becomes pure friendship. True friendship cannot be corrupted nearly as easily as love can, since there are less… moving parts.”
“And how do you know so much about love, Discord?” Cadence asked, confusion spread across her face. The rest of the princesses present all carried similar expressions. This was the Eternal Spirit of Chaos, and Love—the most complex of all friendships, and therefore harmonies—was surely his opposite. It was certainly not something those ponies expected to hear from him.
“Suffice it to say that I have had my experiences,” he said, with a frown crawling across his face. “Either way, I only suppose I can summon enough power to open the gate to the end of the Chaos Continuum for perhaps four ponies. I suppose each of you will have to choose a champion.”
“I still believe that the Elements of Harmony can complete this task,” Twilight said, ever the stubborn one. She gave a determined expression before Discord appeared behind her in a flash.
“Dearest Twilight, I do believe that I explained that already. Powerful your friendship is, yes, but I can only send four ponies to the end of the Chaos Continuum. Besides, if we were to send you and your friends, the Chaos at the end of the Continuum would certainly corrupt you worse than I ever did.” He held a grim expression. “I was merely having fun with you, but that is the difference between my left fang and the rest of me, Twilight, I can stop when I need to.”
“You never stopped when you were taking over,” Twilight reminded him. That day was etched into her mind, clear as could be. It was something she would never forget, and certainly the Spirit of Chaos wouldn’t either. Though he had turned the other cheek, he still rued the day that he was defeated by that Rainbow Cannon they called Friendship.
He’d rather not think about it, but this persistent purple pony kept bringing up his memories. He tried to push the memories out of his mind, but they wouldn’t stay away. Perhaps this was a sign that he needed a little tea with his friend.
At least Twilight wasn’t trying to assault him with magic anymore. That was a plus, he supposed.
“I would give us a good week before this unknown force makes it to the end of the Chaos Continuum. We need to get to there promptly.”
“We need some time to consider who will be our champions, Discord,” Princess Celestia mentioned. “I suppose we will have until tomorrow to consider it, then we will begin preparations for sending them to the End of the Chaos Continuum.”
Discord had held his usual face when talking to the princesses, but it began to wear on him. This fang, this expression of the Chaos even he couldn’t control, was enough to disturb him endlessly. The princesses were sure to pick up on that, and of course, it was Twilight who did first. Oh, the Grand Princess of Friendship.
“Are you okay, Discord?”
“I’ll be fine. You run along now and choose your champions. I…” Discord said, the wary tone he was using was new to him. He never had to be wary or careful before. He was never once worried, well, maybe once. That was when Twilight and her merry band of stoning ponies were his enemies. They were worse than Cockatrices!
“You what?” Princess Cadence asked, with a look of concern stretched across her face.
“I need to prepare myself for the subtle possibility that whatever plan you concoct will fail. Of us all, I will be able to slow it the longest.” He gave a stern glance at the ponies before him. “But I remind you that not even I can control it.”
“Then we cannot fail,” Twilight said.
“I would advise not failing,” Discord said with a serious expression on his face, something that he had never really worn before. “Because as much as I hate to admit it, I’ve grown fond of you little ponies.”
“How sweet, Discord,” Cadence said as she gave the Draconequus a smile. His face reflected well the disgust he had with his sentiment, and how it was appreciated. He was the Spirit of Chaos, and this Harmony he was feeling… it was unnatural. Leave it to a bunch of ponies to make him so unlike himself.
Then a thought crossed his mind. That would have to wait, though, for the danger was very real. He had to express this to the eager-to-begin Twilight. “I will give you until the morning sun rises to choose your champions. Whatever you do, I do implore you, choose wisely. They are going to hold all of Equestria’s fate in their hooves.”
“Then I suppose we should start at the Library,” Twilight said, looking at Discord. “If you would be so kind as to put us there.”
“Very well, but I wish to spend some time with Fluttershy before you summon her. I really need some time away from this confounded castle.”
With a flash, the four princesses were in Twilight’s library in Ponyville. The familiar shelves gave some comfort to the Princess of Friendship as she began pacing around the center table. Her hoof steps awoke Spike from his sleeping in.
“I thought you said you were going to let Owlowiscious take care of things today,” Spike said groggily before rubbing his eyes and coming downstairs to find all four princesses in front of him. “Well… uh…”
“It’s fine, Spike, go back to bed,” Twilight tried to reassure her number one assistant, but Spike saw right through her ruse. He only stood there, arms crossed, staring at Twilight. She could feel the disbelief he had in her statement. “Well, if you must know, Spike, we’re trying to solve a little problem here.”
“A problem? Well, you got that covered, don’t you Twilight? There’s nothing the Elements of Harmony can’t solve!” He went back up the stairs and went back to bed with a loud yawn.
“I don’t know who we should send,” Twilight admitted. She gave a frown to the others. “Honestly, I haven’t had a problem that friendship didn’t solve since I came to Ponyville.”
“My dear Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, “Perhaps this can still be solved with Friendship.”
“You heard Discord, if we put the Elements of Harmony in the end of the Chaos Continuum, we will destroy Friendship forever.” The worry she had was definitely portrayed in her voice as she started hyperventilating. Cadence stepped over to the young princess and put a hoof to her own chest with a deep breath in, then exhaled slowly as she moved the hoof away. Twilight tried copying the motion and breathing several times until her hoof was moving as fast as her hyperventilation.
“Calm down, Twilight! This is just another bump in the road, like when we had to fight Chrysalis, or King Sombre,” Cadence said, worried about the one she used to foal sit. “You’ll figure this out like you figured everything else out, because you understand friendship and the magic that it creates.”
Twilight’s hyperventilating had turned to sobs of tears. The liquid coming out of her eyes dropped on the floor in little violent splashes. “I don’t even have a clue where to begin!” she said between heaves of her chest. “I’m going to fail everypony!”