Twilight and the other elements sat in mournful silence as they received the letter in the mail announcing Discord's death. Or rather, murder. The letter didn't state it blatantly, but how else would somepony die of decapitation? Fluttershy was first to break the silence with uncontrollable sobbing, soon followed by the consolation of rainbowdash.
Twilight was the only one not staring at fluttershy or the letter. She was looking past the group, at a black coated and red maned alicorn making its way to them.
"Girls," Twilight said warily "who is that?"
As one the elements turned toward the menacing alicorn almost upon them.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle the first" the stallion said in a mocking tone "I am Lord of Chaos, Xanth. Before you ask, I didn't kill discord, though it is my fault he's dead. But that's beside the point. I came here to tell you you have 13 more days to live. Before you try to get the princesses to come to your rescue, they're both sealed inside canterlot. Best of luck" he said before disintgrating into dust.
Three days later, twilight awoke to another grey sky. She knew the pegasi make cloudy days in the event of a funeral, huth the sky had been boring and dull since Discord's murder. She never knew why, but would have easily had she nothing better to think about.
The princess nudged spike from his sleep "Wake up, Spike" she moaned sleepily "we have to get our funeral clothes from Rarity, then go to Discord's funeral" Spike rolled slowly from his bed
"Come on, Twi, just five more..." The dragon stopped as he realised this wasn't the sort of occasion in which he should ask for more sleep.
The pair set off wordlessly towards Rarity's shop. Ponyville was almost deserted, aside from the few ponies who never trusted discord. Those selfish bastards. Look at them, just going about their day as if nothing's wrong Twilight thought hatefully.
When they had at last reached Rarity's shop, rarity as waiting for them in front of the circular building. "Oh, darling twilight, I was just told the funeral is an hour earlier than scheduled!" Rarity exclaimed in her usual tone "it's bad enough he's dead, but why arrange time to remind us of his greatest vice!?"
Twilight and spike quickly donned their plain black suit and dress, and hurried to Fluttershy's cottage, where the funeral was to be held. All the while, rarity ranted on about timing and scheduling, adding to Twilights internal sense of rage.
When they arrived at the site, ponies were already saying what a great person Discord could have been, had his life not been loyal to only chaos. When it was Pinkie Pie's turn to speak, she wasn't sad in the slightest.
"Discord, you were always evil and stuff, but when you turned good and all you were so cool and fun and awesome and great and fun!" Pinkie's heartless praise of discord seemed insane to twilight. Twilight finally let loose her pooling rage. With a style of combat magic preformed by utility magic, she slammed pinkie into a tree then tossed her into the air, watching her fall like a discarded doll. The sharp crack of her landing was almost drowned out by two grey ponies with red manes laughing hysterically.
As one the mare and stallion stopped laughing and gazed slowly at twilight. The crowd parted as they headed straight for the purple princess. The grey pair spoke at the same time the mare said "Ten days, Twilight". The stallion said "Twilight, days ten" when the mare swatted the stallion with a wing, she saw that the mare was a pegasus and the stallion an earth pony.
The pegasus spoke first "I am Princess of heartlessness, Heather. Discord hasn't been lord of chaos for thousands if years. His life was a lie, and what you knew of him was too" the cross-eyed earth pony was next " Norman, insa--" he was cut short by another swat "I am Lord of Insanity, norman. Discord doesn't even look like that. He's an alicorn similar in appearance to princess luna. Im sure he won't appreciate his only friends not knowing who he is" then, like the lord of chaos, they disintegrated into dust, though there was a banana amidst norman's dust pile.
Author's Note
The banana comes back later.
Another two days had passed, and Twilight and the rest of the elements were being trained in combat, preparing for whatever was going to happen in eight days. They, however, weren't alone in the small field. Everypony who could fight was out there, fine tuning their skills. The earth ponies had blages fitted to their hooves, and the pegasi with blades on their wings. The unicorns could, of course, carry the weapons with magic. Rainbow Dash and Twilight along with a few stallions were the only ones likely to live, as much as it pained them to think it.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle the First" Twilight spun around. before her was a grey unicorn with a dark green mane "I am Niitro. I came to tell you that i am going to die soon, and my death with release the rest of Lord Xanth's power. What he has been capable of so far, sealing two very accomplished alicorns in a bubble, is hardly half of his full ability. What you are doing now won't be enough, you must enlist the help of others beyond ponyville"
The purple mare was baffled for a moment, before coming to her senses and asking what she needed to know "Niitro, who is Xanth, and just what is he capable of?"
Niitro took a deep breath before answering her pressing question "Xanth is the Lord of Chaos following discord. When you fought discord, all the destruction he caused was the work of a simple drone. Xanth could turn a pony into a bomb, or infect them with a fatal disease that eats all your organs one by one slowly and painfully, and sustaining your life until you rot, all the while gaining power from any magic or medicines you try to use to cure it. It is time,"
Twilight took a step back, fearing the worst (a pony bomb), when Niitro burst into flames, lighting the sunrise they were all training in. Niitro screamed in agony, his mane and tail were gone, and his hide was melting away like cheese. His eyes popped, allowing the fire access into his eye sockets and eventually into the brain. He collapsed a smoldering heap, but still alive. "Until I rot, he said... he was right..."
There was nothing anypony could do. If they took him to the hospital, the disease would get stronger. If they left him there, nothing is made worse.
"Ahem" Everypony looked up and a pure black mare with a red mane "I am Princess of Carelessness, Blaze. Twilight, unless you surrender Equestria to us now, the agony you just witnessed and might still be witnessing will be nothing. Also, in case your wondering, we aren't stopping at equestria, we plan on taking over the world, then destroying it to our liking. Eight days, your highness" And with that, the earth pony burst into flames, then disintegrated.
Everypony was in shock. First a perfectly innocent pony was burnt to a crisp and left alive, then they had a disciple of chaos in their midst. They looked around at each other. They knew their lives were at stake here, but for the sheer agony they had just witnessed to be nothing, they were in way over their heads.
Many of the ponies took of or dropped their training weapons and returned home. Most of them without families commit suicide. Ditzy, who had been watching with one eye, zoomed off to a clearing by the everfree forest. Most likely to think through the situation.
Niitro stirred, and slowly got up. He had no ears, hair, eyes, lips or cheeks. But, horrifically, he was alive and awake. "Twilight Sparkle..." he said through a mouth full of blood "remember, the residents of this small town won't be enough. recruit help from the world, get everyone you know and everyone they know. Chances are there are some extraordinary ponies who can give you at least a sliver of hope against the blackness of chaos,"
"well... ummm" Twilight didn't know how to word her thoughts "everyone I know is in ponyville or Canterlot"
"there is one friend who you left alone. as of now he is in fillydelphia. if you find him, it will be fine"
The aura around Niitro's horn changed. Twilight knew what he was doing. ...gaining power from any magic or medicines you try to use to cure it. He preformed a miraculous age spell upon himself, causing him to wither age and rot right before everypony's eyes. With that, Niitro the lonely King was no more.
Author's Note
n-eye-eetro
Zanix prowled through the undergrowth in the Everfree Forest. He was excited, as always, to perform a kill.But this was a particularly special kill: he was going to kill Lord Xanth's puppet of seven thousand years.
He had at last spotted the upside-down shack that discord called home. A rare smile showed itself upon Zanix's face as a pure black blade soundlessly slid from Zanix's right wing. He already had a plan in his head: stun Discord with a few needles, the behead him with his best blade.
All sound seemed to have stopped below the new moon. The white assassin could hear discord's light breathing as he slept. In his minds eye, he imagined where the spinal cord was. He swung his right wing, and a needle zipped out of a miniscule tube next to the blade. Game set match Zanix thought, as he walked menacingly through Discords door, his red mane and white coat glowing in the oil lamp on discords bed stand. "You've had a good run discord," Zanix said softly but firmly "To think you were born a pony, and die a message"
Zanix strode out of the shack, holding discord's head as if it were a trophy. Which it was.
