"Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge Outline" By Regidar (https://pastebin.com/u/Regidar) URL: https://pastebin.com/xTVJ8q51 Created on: Friday 21st of February 2020 05:28:19 PM CDT Retrieved on: Sunday 25 of October 2020 11:02:04 AM UTC so for the past 1000 years things have been going more or less fine, more or less the nightmare moon deal still happened more or less the same the end of Talons deals with how luna and celestia and andromeda are handling the artifacts so setting up luna and celestia controlling the sun and moon, and such (and andromeda and her daughter line protecting the crystal heart) luna still gets jealous, that deal goes down, and then equestria has a good couple of centuries mostly undisturbed settling the empty lands, expanding, wiping out the buffalo all that good stuff honestly, luna could still be around? to give more personality to the AU? but tbqf i think luna's nmm deal is a really important aspect of her and her character and aus that forgo it run the chance of losing that admittedly i had the nightmare moon thing happen for 1. the ability to use it as imagery and 2. to put luna on a bus which arent very super good reasons at this point i've come around to how integral the NMM shit is for luna so prolly keeping it that aside, for the past few centuries, things have been fine and dandy with minor interruptions from you guessed it discord after that whole deal that went down in Talons he ended up getting trapped in some far realm-type chaos limbo that just is sort of all around horrifying and awful to be in in order to break out of this plane of existence, he needs to be able to ground himself in a physical realm namely, equestria he can only anchor himself by sewing massive amounts of disharmony and chaos in equestria like in the s2 premier discord is always foiled when he attempts to do this, and generally sucks at it the first times around after a while discord wises up a bit and decides to be more "covert" most of his attempts to sew disharmony and dickishness were all either really petty personal swipes at the princesses or the Twilights or grandeous and ambitious but poorly executed fanfares that are easily unraveled by luna, celestia, or one of Andromeda's descendants so by the time we get to where our story begins with Twilight Velvet and Night Light the Twilight family has a long history of family folklore and histories about their deal with the crystal heart Discord hasnt shown up in Equestria for a while, though and this is because he's decided to go for the long con he's been riling up the griffons and ponies on the equestria/griffonstone border and generally creating tons of friction griffons are also in a world of resource shit so it wasn't difficult to just capitalize on that a few battles and such break out over the decades before the story takes place before there's an escalation into a full on war now, what's important to note before this is since discord hasn't been around and his new nature of covert operations and espionage has caused celestia to withdraw quite a bit for the past couple centuries and become very reclusive, albeit still a just and kind, leader however she has become increasingly paranoid when the full on war breaks out, it is mostly discord-manipulated griffon aggression however it is worth mentioning the mountains surrounding and contained within griffonstone and its territories are quite rich in minerals just none that the griffons really need since they have a surplus of them but can barely farm (and they're not allowed to capture and eat ponies anymore) ponies, however... Night Light and Velvet both enlisted in the war, in a manner of sorts Night Light enlisted properly as a combat medic, and Velvet was a war journalist the Twilights have also become estranged from celestia, beyond the princess checking to make sure the crystal heart is still okay but for the most part they trust the twilights not to have fucked things up and celestia is more concerned on her own theories about discord so discord, and the traditional activities of the Twilights have sort of faded to myth by the time Twilight Velvet is born and all Numb To NothingToday at 10:16 AM the story starts with the funeral of Velvet's grandmother, Twilight Helena the name of whom I'm flimsily justifying as such: helena is a mutation of helen, which is a greek name that could possibly linked to the word "torch" so whatever i'll bullshit the etymology (also u no) (Helena Blatavsky and all) she died while Velvet was at the warfront and she was the last one who ever really dealt with discord at all out of the family that's still alive thing is, it happened when she was a little filly the other caveat with Discord's deal is in his fractured dimension he perceives time far differently so while trying to ground himself he usually gets scrambled around the timeline out of what he's been able to tell the twilight family will specifically foil his plans entirely even more specifically, Twilight Sparkle roughly 1000 years after his original fracturing so usually he's trying to disrupt their lineage or wipe out the family entirely in his plans to return to physical form he fails, of course but when Helena was very small he figured to himself "well, best to just knock her out of the equation" that didnt work however he had been pretty far into his covert plan so the twilight family hadn't even interacted with him in living memory and by then their duties had branched out once discord slunk into the shadows and stopped being so obtuse with his efforts the twilights fanned out into a lot of different trades and crafts beyond just "guarding the crystal heart and cockblocking discord" lots of them are astronomers, cartographers, explorers, engineers, arcanists, aristocrats, and magistrates now basically the Kennedys of this VFD/SCP hybrid society that was set up by celestia shortly after the banishment of nightmare moon (Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops is also in this society, but those are for a different series) Velvet is still of the direct line from Andromeda as was helena but Helena talking about a random encounter with discord that she managed to foil one night was sort of just "oh, what an imagination on that one" she never gave up on that and she tried so hard to prove discord was real of course discord wouldnt have any of that and the princesses are so preoccupied, and the family estranged just enough and hooves full of their own affairs that celestia was never alerted or even realized that the twilights had produced an eccentric focused on finding discord helena died not disgraced, but not respected either and Velvet always sort of considered her to be a good, if strange, grandmother her own mother certainly spoke fondly of her Velvet met Night Light during her journal work on the frontline Velvet came with a partner, Stone Turner, and the two became quick friends with Night Light and his best friend in his squadron, Steadfast but stone turner died towards the end of the tour, and that sort of put a pall over velvet, night light, and steadfast velvet and night light develop a romantic relationship by the end of the tour as well and the whole deal with stone turner feels like a lot on velvet with the nascent relationship and all the shit she saw in the war then she find out helena passed and that just sets her over a tipping point where she plunges into isolated withdrawal from the world but night light isn't going to let her do that to herself even as velvet does her best to withdraw away, night light checks up on her keeps her company talks to her about it and despite what she initially anticipated she feels like this pressure, between her grandmother, the war, and stone turner and the fact that her war article compilation books are skyrocketing her into a newfound sort of stardom she never anticipated is actually bringing her and night light closer together Steadfast meanwhile leers over this entire situation sulkily he fell in love with Velvet during the war too, but Velvet went for Night Light he never admitted any of this, and just decided at first to try and suppress it that doesnt work at all so now he just seethes growing more mad in love with velvet and psychotically angrier at night light all while keeping up the facade of night light's best friend and most trusted confidant velvet manages to recover emotionally enough to go to the funeral for helena right as she's standing over the casket looking down at Helena's poised body, contemplating her grandmother's life and what it was in relation to hers (you can see where twilight gets it from) griffon guerrillas smash into the cathedral and start attacking twilight family is high profile Velvet also just published all those war article compilations so of course there were guards no one is sure, presently, how they got past them all but they cause a massive uproar as they start attacking guests attacking indiscriminately, or so it would seem this was a distraction so that one of them could get velvet isolated enough in a crowd to take a swipe at her and he gets her across the neck Steadfast mauls this griffon, while Night Light immediately drops in to give Velvet first aid as he's doing this, velvet says to him (griffon thankfully missed her throat proper) "if i don't die, we should get married" and then passes out from blood loss she doesnt die while recovering, we get a nice little bit of steadfast grumbling and fuming and mulling things over it's revealed he actually directed the griffons to attack the funeral during his solitary ramblings he is approached by a ghostly figure that is unlike anything he's ever seen Discord has taken notice of what Steadfast is doing and goes "hm yes, this is a good pawn" approaches him and offers a deal "i can get you with twilight velvet" "all you have to do is dispose of Night Light" steadfast just rolls his eyes "as if that wasn't the first thing that crossed my mind, obviously wouldnt work" discord then lets steadfast in on the addendum "well now, if you treat it with a bit of finesse, and maybe have someone to show you the ropes..." discord "possesses" steadfast steadfast is still mostly in control, and his appearance outward doesnt change but he now has a subtle, yet intense aura of menace to him and he has several new powers granted to him by discord namely a compulsion ability also, discord's insanity is infectious so they sort of merge into a new entity, greater than the sum of its parts Discord's maniac insanity and Steadfast's incel vengeance as night light and velvet are planning for the wedding (velvet's recovery occurred during steadfast's isolation and encounter with discord) things keep going... wrong guests are acting erratically there's a gas leak during a rehearsal that knocks a whole room out it finally culminates in one of the guests drowning in the pool at the canterlot hotel they're hosting the wedding at steadfast of course is orchestrating all this but his trail is covered pretty well since all he has to do is tell ponies what to do and they'll do it this chaos caused allows discord to sink a deeper and deeper hold in Steadfast's mind and get that much closer to achieving his dream of a physical form honestly, at this point, he's pretty sure he can just take this wild romp out to the end and succeed the griffon shit was fun for a while but that's old now steadfast will fuck things up enough for him to get what he wants, in the end with the addition of solving that nasty issue of twilight sparkle being born if night light is dealt with, she won't be born by his logic; additionally, he can see/predict that steadfast and velvet wont work out either more than likely end violently so all in all, he's pretty chuffed with this steadfast moves into his next phase: framing night light he originally thought of just having somepony compelled to kill him but even though steadfast may be insane he isn't stupid he knows he has to do this in a way that fully debases night light and portrays him as a sympathetic individual for velvet and of course he can't just compelled velvet to love him, that's just wrong night light and velvet have, this entire time, been trying to figure out what the fuck is going on the framing is fairly simple, in steadfast's eyes guided along by discord, he seeks out military officers he knows night light pissed off back during their tour and builds a pretty strong core of powerful ponies who will testify that he was a dangerous and unruly member of the army and exhibited questionable medical ethics which is topped off by steadfast compelling several ponies to plant evidence tying night light to the murder even though the trial is contested, and velvet writes furiously about the injustice of the trial it's rushed along and night light is sentenced to detention while awaiting further investigation steadfast meanwhile has been playing along on velvet and night light's side defending his innocence but subtly fucking up in ways that lead the mob against night light a lil compulsion on the judge to make sure it goes smooth and away Night Light goes Velvet is stricken and doubles down on trying to expose how this was character assassination and a gimp trial night light is thrown into prison, where he's roughed up by a lot of the ponies there, since he's in a military prison with a lot of actual war criminals in addition to him being painted as some psycho angel of death who used dying soldiers as a way to satisfying his sick morbid pleasures by the trial and his opponents steadfast meanwhile tries to creep in on velvet who mostly is completely oblique to it due to her attention being more rightly focused on trying to figure out how all this happened discord is rapturous he can almost feel the real world again just needs a little bit more of a push before he can break free steadfast isnt as happy he's growing increasingly frustrated with velvet's rebukes finally, at last much to discord's gleeful anticipation he compels velvet to "love" him it's a weird thing most of his compulsions have thusfar been specific instructions "you should put this here" "you should make this verdict" "you should say this claim" but to say "you should love me" is a bit more abstract he also doesn't feel entirely comfortable with compelling her to love him, either it doesnt feel genuine but he's desperate so he tries to reserve it the power he puts into the compulsion when usually he's going all out these factors, along with numerous other unknowable variables, cause the compulsion to sort of snap velvet a little bit she starts to regress in memory suddenly thrown into thinking she should still be in the war that night light isn't in prison that stone turner is still alive steadfast doesnt like this not only is she too erratic in what she remembers or where she is in her memory he also feels awful about the confused mess he's made her the whole time, however, she even if spouting about being with night light moments before finds a way to force in affection or attraction or lust, and whichever other litany of emotions and mannerisms that can be ascribed to love even if it's very hamfisted and unnatural this just confirms to steadfast that yeah this is super fucked he done fucked up he gets all mopey and miserable has a nice fat war flashback that details more between the dynamic of their friend group and reveals how stone turner died discord karate-chops his way into the flashback, utterly spoiling it as he is wont to do tells steadfast that he needs to get off his ass and get to work steadfast is a mix of shell-shocked and furious but discord just tells him that if he keeps velvet around with him goes on with his plan fakes it till he makes it she'll truly fall in love with him steadfast can kind of go along with this fuck it, he's already in too deep might as well go for it might as well go for it he books them a suite at the same hotel velvet and night light were to be wedded Hotel Bella Muerte (Marete? :bigthink: ) he plans to take her there for a night of uh "romantics" he hasnt really planned that out so much he'll think something up Night Light has not just been festering in prison with his hoof up his ass though after getting roughed up a few times, he makes tenuous friends with some of the more amicable inmates, and manages to formulate a fairly flimsy escape plan there's a drainage grate that can get him into the sewer system, but it's in an area that's under the watch of st least a single guard at all times usually two so he has to stage a distraction prison riots are cliche so i was trying to come up with something else here i could hang a lampshade on it but metahumor gets tiresome after too much so anyway he manages to slip into the drainage system makes his way through a lot of cramped ditches and tunnels finally manages to escape out in the bogs near the prison Whole time has been trying to get the manalock ring off To no avail He sets off to return to Canterlot proper, as the prison is on the outskirts in a more plateaued hinterlands area Finds velvet’s estate is trashed from her and steadfast And he starts to put little things together Nothing concrete But a suspicion is growing in his mind He finds where they’ve headed Just so happens steadfast booked the honeymoon suit, the fucker The very same night light had booked for his and velvet’s wedding so he books it off to the hotel bella but there's one little problem: they've noticed he's escaped by now as he's leaving the estate, he realizes that there's a hunt out for him so night light has to carefully dodge the authorities while making it to the hotel at the hotel, steadfast is trying to figure out what even to do with himself velvet is sort of just lapsing randomly about in memory and drinking lots of wine steadfast is arguing with discord who is slowly becoming more and more defined they've gone out of the synch they used to have haven't been a singular entity really since the war flashback but discord doesn't mind that he's ready to step out of this awful limbo and get on with his sweet revenge but steadfast is just all "look at her, she's a mess" "look what i did to her" discord is sort of feeling that steadfast is approaching the end of his shelf life and discord is growing powerful enough to start extending his reach, as it were he has more agency than ever before and he assumes direct control a point i glossed over because it's just minor foreshadowing earlier in the story hinted at because it's not pertinent until now is velvet has been taking an alchemical/herbal mix (medication) for her trauma from the warfront she's not supposed to take it with alcohol but in her fragmented state she hasnt really been remembering to take her medication half the time she's in the frame of mind where she doesnt even need it because she's regressed before the trauma occurred of course, this doesnt mitigate physical memory but she had taken her medication that night simply due to her memory lining up for it drinking with it causes dizziness, nausea, and in large quantities liver damage can cause rapid fainting spells however, the medication balances her out slightly for a moment for her to go "oh" "oh fuck" before the alcohol and its interaction with the medication both overtake her steadfast is arguing with discord when velvet collapses when he sees this, he rushes to her, tries to figure out what happened puts two and two together, tries to get her to vomit but discord aint having that priorities, man also, even better for him if she just dies here when steadfast sends a call through a concierge to get a doctor discord tries a new trick and fragments part of himself off into the concierge he leaves it there until the concierge gets to the doctor, upon which the fragment casts out into the doctor this shatters the concierge's mind, which discord notes for later "single use" but now the fragment is in the doctor, and he has enough ability to whisper and goad the doctor along to the hotel room despite the fact that he just watched the concierge have a fit once the doctor is in the room, discord hops himself over into him steadfast protests but it's too little too late night light, meanwhile, has been dodging the guard making his way to the hotel he gets there in time to see the concierge break down and the doctor act strangely following behind him carefully, night light watches in horror as he sees his best friend looming over the body of his wife to be a million frantic thoughts rushing through his head discord manages to split himself between steadfast and the doctor not without cost though both have a bit of a mind break steadfast already vulnerable especially due to recent events but being more used to discord in your mind is both a blessing and a curse steadfast is able to avoid having a mental breakdown well, mostly discord uses the doctor to deal with night light, who in his shock revealed himself to the room and uses steadfast to deal with velvet a little sadistic poetry for him the doctor easily bends to discord's will and goes in to attack night light who mostly just dodges and avoids him to get to velvet and steadfast steadfast is trying to resist discord's will, but discord is pretty powerful now night light tackles steadfast right before he slams his hoof down on velvet's throat the two wrestle on the bed (uwu) for a bit the doctor joins in, make it a threesome night light manages to dodge out of the way perfect for the doctor to land an vicious slice on steadfast while steadfast is reeling and bleeding on the sheets, night light scrambles towards the edge of the bed the doctor however is going in for another hit on him that's when the very beautiful, exceptionally ornate, beyond valuable, and excessively heavy vase from the nightstand flies forward and shatters against the doctor's muzzle caving it in like a sledgehammer through an overripe pumpkin and spraying bits of ceramic, glass, and gore everywhere Velvet's managed to regain consciousness she's slightly more lucid than before not very, but enough she knows night light is here, and that's enough for now Night Light tumbles over to her, helps her to her hooves And it's time to leave through the window Discord is furious that they escaped, and that he's now in the middle of an absolute slaughterhouse Steadfast is pretty fucked up bleeding from the belly and neck missing teeth broken foreleg by the sounds of his breathing, a collapsed lung too discord sighs and repossesses steadfast and forces him to perform first aid/self surgery they've got a job to do, after all Night Light and Velvet are bailing through the streets of Canterlot Night Light still has the hunt out for him, so he and Velvet have to keep to the shadows and alleys Velvet is slipping in and out of consciousness Night Light being there seems to help at least a little bit, though They head down to the station and hop on the first train that leaves unfortunately, they had to be there just long enough that somepony recognized night light and the do get on the train just not inside of it Steadfast and Discord have made it to the station just as the train is leaving and they see Night Light and Velvet climbing on so Steadfast follows after and as the train gathers speed, the three find themselves having a harder and harder time holding on Steadfast is increasingly reckless though goaded on by discord and adrenaline, he shambles and stumbles over to them and lunges for Night Light he doesnt really do any damage since discord is actively screaming at him to go for velvet but velvet decides to take things into her own hooves and grabs ahold of steadfast pops the rest of her medication into her mouth and presses her muzzle to his, and promptly vomits mostly wine and a sludge of her medication directly into his mouth this is enough to both repulse steadfast and discord and he stumbles back, losing his balance slightly Night Light and Velvet press flat against the train as they go under a bridge and Steadfast is promptly smacked by the advancing wall of rock Discord quickly slides himself into a passenger inside the train doing it so suddenly took a lot out of him, so he spends the rest of the ride recuperating in his newest victim Night Light and Velvet and Discord ride the train all the way to Apploosa and when night light and velvet climb off at the apploosa station the authorities are waiting there for them well, they didnt come this far just to give up now but maybe they can talk some sense into them before they can even attempt to approach the sheriff and co however discord hops into the sheriff he isnt fully recouperated, and even though this jump was more calculated it's still draining but he's determined to finish this night light and velvet bail, and start running out into the desert the law hot on their hooves one of them manages to place a crossbow bolt in Night Light's flank velvet manages to get him to limp to the opening of an abandoned mineshaft and night light instructs her how to do impromptu first aid or rather guides her through velvet already knows a lot of the basic concepts through osmosis once he's relatively patched up with their limited supplies, they notice they're near the traintracks and the train going the opposite direction is about to pass them Velvet musters up all her energy and even though she's only read about this spell in concept teleports them inside of the train inside the train is hardly safer though there's an off-duty member of the canterlot royal guard on the train who immediately detains night light and places him in the caboose velvet isn't detained but the royal guard does come back to question her she is his wife, after all and a prominent journalist velvet is too exhausted to even attempt to lie at this point she tells him the truth in the vain hopes she'll be put in with night light at the very least, she's put in the caboose with him and the two have a very long and heartfelt talk about everything that's happened when suddenly the back of the caboose is ripped open by a very powerful magical force oh boy! it's steadfast! and he's a fucking mess skull half caved in, limbs sticking at odd angles, middle split open the only reason he's still alive is discord had lingered in him so long he has a residual presence like a fragment from earlier but in reverse it synthesized with his obsession and rage and allowed him to keep going on a similar premise to discord in Talons as he advances towards them down the caboose, he starts to mutate and grow bits of a draconequus misshapen antlers and horns deformed and mismatched wings growling and sputtering about velvet and night light incoherently night light and velvet are reasonably terrified, but they use steadfast as a distraction when the guard comes to inspect what happens, he freaks the fuck out and night light and velvet dodge around steadfast as the guard engages it in combat Night Light and Velvet rush to the opening in the caboose and realize the train is moving way too fast to jump the guard at this point has been dispatched the rest of the train is beginning to catch on to what's happening Velvet makes one last final desperate bid Numb To NothingToday at 12:27 PM She teleports them a few feet to the right and forward hoping this cuts down the momentum somewhat this works to a degree but they still get pretty banged up from the fall at this point, they're just outside of a small town they've never been too limping, propping one another up they stumble to the cemetery on the outskirts of town and shambling through the graves they collapse in front of a mausoleum and give themselves a desperate laugh at how far they've gone and at this point there really is no point, is there? might as well give up but for one last night they'll have a bit of fun broken and bruised, they sneak into the town and wander around, enjoy the beauty of the serene village under the light of the moon they're especially fond of what appears to be a library built out of a tree velvet saying "I know when I was younger I would have loved to live in a place like this" before they move on morning comes as does the royal guard wasn't hard to figure out the most likely place they'd go they're taken back to canterlot and put on trial discord has been busy in the meantime he's been getting better at body hopping Numb To NothingToday at 12:51 PM he's managed to get himself onto the trial this time as the judge, jury, and executioner quite literally he's gotten very adept at body hopping to the point where he can just slide from pony to pony in a room and this of course makes him cocky as balls he wants this to be a whole affair a big display he doesnt even care if celestia notices at this point which he has been suspecting for some time now she still hasn't stepped in though whole big fancy execution discord goes for the dramatic center of canterlot, right in front of the palace basically taunting celestia to come out and fight him which he knows she knows she can't without risking a lot of lives velvet and night light are put up on the guillotine an address regarding their crimes is joyously read aloud by a discord possessed executioner celestia glowers from the balcony she DID catch wind of what discord was doing right around the time of night light's escape, and it was confirmed to her more or less when the hanged trial occurred unfortunately it was too little too late, and discord's influence became so vast (in addition to lingering for some time after in each pony he inhabited, his increase in ability to use this trick negated the "broken husk" aspect of leaving a possessee and more leaving them shaken and saturated in discord energy) that she really doesn't know what to do here there are members of previously mentioned secret society loyal to her that are attempting a possible operation but the plan is far fetched and desperate she doesnt want to admit it, but it looks like she, night light, and velvet are fucked what neither of them accounted for comes barreling into the crowd though a very deformed and frankly eviscerated Steadfast he'd barreled off the train after night light and velvet and fucked himself up even more couldnt really walk properly for a while has an eye hanging out more bones exposed honestly nightmarish he's very much a draconequus/unicorn hybrid now and barreling through the crowd, he claws his way onto the stage discord, who assumes steadfast is going for him attempts to just drop the blade and end this nonsense but steadfast demolishes the guillotines with a mixture of raw physical rage and chaotic bursts of magic and then he turns on discord steadfast casts some sort of spell at the same time he swipes at the pony executioner discord is inhabiting it seems like less of a spell and more like intensive mana discharge discord jumps to leave the body, and is caught by the mana discharge and he ends up jumping back into steadfast since he left some much residual energy of himself in steadfast, he was drawn right back in like a magnet and celestia doesn't hesitate at this point to descend and take both of them out night light and velvet shakily get to their hooves, and celestia apologizes profusely she had been so concerned with "personal matters" (not mentioned in story but explored in others that for the century preceeding nightmare moon returning, celestia was very mentally, magically, and emotionally impacted) that she'd literally ensconced herself away from the world long enough for discord to sneak back in the griffon issues were also a decent factor in this but they were more of a worry for celestia than a direct concern since she is rarely involved firsthand in military matters unless shit is going down the story ends with night light asking if velvet wants to try again on the wedding and velvet suggesting they plan it again from scratch, much smaller, and in that town they spent the night wandering around before they were caught for the final time sorry for the literal hundreds of messages i appreciate your patience <3 wishcometrueToday at 1:19 PM nah ur good i'll give u my thoughts once i like read all of this because Numb To NothingToday at 1:19 PM haha, fair wishcometrueToday at 1:19 PM holy shit Numb To NothingToday at 1:19 PM no for real i've gone overboard i'd ask someone to stop me but i kind of dont want anyone to wishcometrueToday at 1:20 PM lmao Numb To NothingToday at 1:21 PM i need to make daddy gerard proud