Oh. Hello there.
Beautiful day, isn’t it ? I mean, all these flames, all around us, dancing and burning the Everfree forest...this show is nice. Better than nice actually.
Gorgeous.
You’re frowning. You disagree with that ? Why ? Destruction, and especially fire, can be magnificent. You never put fire on something that you love to make it more handsome ?
No ? Really ?
I know, this can sound a little weird. But you should try it. Take your favorite hat, for example, and throw it in the chimney. You’ll see it changing as the fire devours it. And when it’s at the brink of complete destruction, pull it away and look at it again. It’s your favorite hat, right? You know everything about it, its color, its size, how good you feel when you have it on the top of your head. But now...now, it’s completely new. Its color is gone, its size changed and if you decide to wear it, you’ll discover incredible new sensations.
Do you know why ? It’s because fire modified your hat to create a new one. A better one. New is always better.
Let me ask you a question. A very simple question indeed: do you know why we, the draconequus, we love fire so much? It’s not just because fire is nice, hot, or can calm and warm you after a hard rainy day.
No. After all, we adore fire because it’s unpredictable, random and creative.
If I have to describe it in one word, it’ll be chaos. Fire is chaos. And we love chaos so much.
You know, everypony has always been mistaken about us. They believe that if we like disorder, it’s because we’re bad. That’s totally untrue as well as unfair.
We didn’t adore chaos because we’re evil. We aren’t. And chaos is not evil by the way.
It’s something above those qualifications.
Chaos is chaos. It’s just simple as that. You don’t have to think about its goodness or evilness. Chaos breaks all the rules to follow its own will. Chaos is freedom and entertainment.
On the other hand, order is just so...boring. Predictable. Annoying.
Everything can be guessed. There’s no surprise in order. Just a succession of events.
Can you tell me where the pleasure of life is, if you already know, in the morning when you wake up, what you will do in this day ?
You can see in your head all the things that you’ll do. After that, your life is just a repetition. A horrible and boring repetition.
But chaos breaks the circle. Because chaos is just not a part of it. Chaos takes everything you know, crushes it and sends it to the unknown.
And the journey can begin.
Believe me, every step in a chaotic world is a journey. Maybe in a few minutes, the sky will turn purple. Or the birds will cry tears of wind.
Chaos is just so funny.
Everything is new, all the time and everywhere.
Of course, many people are afraid of that situation. If they don’t know every single piece of their little world, there are frightened, afraid to live.
Their creed is simple: knowledge is power. And with this power, I can understand and enjoy life. In reality, masses don’t search order and knowledge for the good of ponykind. They just want to control it.
It’s the big secret of life: everybody is afraid of death and believe that if they take control over all they know, they will finally defeat death.
We, the draconequus, we’re not afraid of it. We don’t pray to keep it away from us. Maybe because we’re very old and powerful creatures. Or just because we consider it as the ultimate path of unknown; no one really knows what it’s like.
When I decided to bring chaos in Equestria, I was excited. I had won the right to rule this land after a game, played with my brothers. Hazard is the only law respected by draconequus.
A long story short: it was a double ace that brought me victory. I’m a lucky spirit with dice.
When I discovered Equestria, this land was nothing. The three tribes, the ponies, the unicorns and the pegasi, had decided to live together, rather than form their individual sides, but the country was small, weak, and administered by terribly boring rules: earth ponies cultivated ground, growing food for the unicorns, who raised the sun and the moon.
The pegasi took food too, in exchange of taking care of weather.
And when the three tribes decided to put their differences aside and rule together, as one nation, Equestria was created. The ground was for earth ponies, the sky for pegasi and magic was the preserve of unicorns.
No unicorn was a farmer or any pegasus worked as a magician. There was no surprise in this world.
So I decided to create one. Just one, to see the reaction of the ponies. I made a cotton candy cloud and blew it to the middle of Canterlot’s market place, the main city of Equestria. At the beginning, nopony noticed my cloud, until a pegasus crashed into it, by accident. The pegasus was surprised and intrigued. He had never seen something like that before.
So, he decided to touch it again; just a cuddle with his hoof. And when he chose to taste the cloud, with the tip of his tongue, he liked it.
In a few minutes, others ponies were around the cloud, trying to eat it too. Everypony was amused by this new distraction. Do you not take that as evidence of the power of chaos?
Cotton candy clouds are abnormal yet they’re lovely.
You don’t believe me, do you ? And if the cloud was also...a chocolate raining cloud ! Just like regular rain but instead of water, it’s chocolate, warm and yummy that pours down.
Don’t lie to me. I’m a draconeequus, I can read right into your mind as if it’s a open book.
Even you would like a cloud of that type. And it’s perfectly normal. Clouds are fun, chocolate is delicious so why should the fusion of these two awesome things be bad ?
The next day, above Canterlot, I made two clouds. The two were pouring chocolate, black and white, and the clouds themselves had the flavor of strawberries. Ponies liked them even more.
The third day, half of the city was together, on the market place waiting for my little clouds. Wasn’t that kind of them?
They had strangely appreciated it less when I summoned a huge twister and sent it on the houses.
The wind blew many places away and harmed many ponies.
Why did I do that ? Do you not listen when I’m speaking ? I said it before !
Because chaos is fun !
The logical way would be to make three candy clouds. But that would be predictable. See the evidence: an important crowd was on the market place this day, waiting for my clouds. The next event was discovered. A new candy cloud, and I would follow the order.
A tornado, and I created an unexpected surprise.
Do you finally get it ? The fun about chaos and unpredictable things ?
Still don’t ? What a shame...
They didn’t either. Those two sisters. Those alicorns, Celestia and Luna...
I hate alicorns. Please believe me when I say I’m a draconequus with good temper but I cannot stand alicorns. Those creatures make me sick.
They’re not as powerful as we are but they still can be dangerous. Especially when they’re two...but please excuse me, I’m digressing.
Let’s go back to where we were.
After the twister, I began to play for real in Equestria. New animals, sky on the ground and earth on the air...it was a great time.
Sure, some ponies tried to stop me...until I crushed them with no more than a wink. As the master of Equestria, I was feared by all and untouchable. Yes, I know, it could sound strange that I, a chaos master, decided to seize power. But you know, I was not really in charge of anything. I was not trying to rule the country, just having fun with my new toys. Nothing more.
When those two alicorn sisters rose up to fight me, I was not afraid. I could destroy the entire land in a few seconds if it was my desire.
They weren’t a threat. I was so powerful and they, so weak.
I was wrong. I underestimated this alicorns. Especially the elder, Celestia. She was much more clever than I guessed.
Pride always was my capital sin.
The first time me and the alicorns squared off, I almost killed them. Perhaps I should have done it.
They attacked me with their magical powers as I unleashed my own against them. The younger, Luna, was hit by a lightning, and Celestia was defeated by a giant rock thrown to her face.
One for me, zero for them.
I was waiting for the rematch but the sisters fled. Or at least, that was my opinion.
In reality, they didn’t give up. On the contrary, they searched for something to use against me.
Unfortunately, they found the Elements of Harmony.
The Elements are...well, let’s say the most powerful magic in all Equestria and even beyond. Those six elements: loyalty, laughter, generosity, kindness, honesty and eventually magic itself, are the most ancient artifacts known. Even we, the draconequus, considered the Elements as a tale.
We were wrong.
Even today, I don’t know why I didn’t kill those alicorns when I was able to do it. Without them, this entire story would have never happened.
The two sisters faced me again. But this time, with the Elements on their side. At the beginning of the fight, I felt the power of the Elements and for the first time in my very long existence, I’ve experienced fear.
I understood that if I did nothing, I would lose. And it’s exactly what happened.
My defeat, I mean. Not about doing nothing. Please believe me, I threw everything I could summon against the Elements. Fire balls, lighting, ice blocks...but the sisters were faster than me. And they were two: when I was focusing on Celestia, her sister activated the Elements and vice versa.
When the six Elements struck me at the same time, I was doomed. Cursed. Defeated.
Me, the great Discord, the spirit of disharmony, I was beaten. I was trapped in stone.
And do you know what’s painful ?
I was still alive.
Let me teach you something about that curse: when you’re trapped in stone, you’re not absolutely paralyzed. I mean, yes, your all body is like frozen, you cannot move a single claw, but your brain...your brain is just completely operational.
You can think. And please believe me, if one day, you will turn to stone, you shall think.
Think about your life, your friends, your family. The kind of person you were before your fall.
Think about your enemies and your future revenge.
So, after many years, I saw everything: the alicorns restored order and logic in my wonderful land. The dispersal of the candy clouds, the end of the chocolate rain. The healing of the hurting ponies, the establishment of rules, their pact of the sun and the moon.
I also saw the coronation of the two sisters as “Princesses of Equestria”. I witnessed the development of Canterlot, the restoration of friendship between the three tribes.
Disgusting.
But the alicorns forgot something. The biggest fire always starts with the smallest sparks. And as the spirit of chaos, I’m the master of all the sparks.
Just before I became trapped in stone, I had launched one final spell. It was one of my favorite curses. You see, the draconequus can change the personality of anypony, just by touching him. A kind pony will turn cruel, an honest one into a terrible liar. We can also do it without touching the victim but in this case, the spell is much slower.
Years can pass before it reaches its goal.
It’s a good thing: when you’re imprisoned in stone, you have all the time in the world.
Princess Luna was a perfect target. She was the younger of the alicorns, always in the shadow of the almighty Celestia.
And she was in charge of raising the moon and the stars. Wonderful.
Following this stupid life’s rules, ponies work during the day but sleep at night. And even the most beautiful nights can’t be seen by the ponies: they are asleep.
At the beginning, Luna was untouched with that. It was her royal duty, no matter if nopony was here to see her.
But slowly, bitterness invaded her heart. She was unhappy and even angry with her subjects. She tried to talk about it to her elder sister but Celestia was too taken by the Equestrian throne to look after her.
Luna was alone. Angry. And full of bitterness.
One night, she refused to lower the moon. She broke the harmony of Equestria.
If I could have laughed at this moment, I would have done it. Very, very loud.
Celestia confronted her sister. They argued. And now, that dispute continued here, at the Everfree forest, right under our eyes. Do you want to come closer ?
“How can you act like this, Luna!” yelled Celestia. “You’re the princess of Equestria, not a capricious filly !”
“Am I ?” asked Luna, raising her eyebrow. “I think I’m in charge of nothing more than a sleeping land, sis’. After all, it’s how Equestria works, doesn’t it? Ponies playing and enjoying your days and then spit on my nights !”
All under the princesses, the fire rose in intensity.
“Luna please,” requested her elder sister. “The forest is burning! Can we talk about our problem later ? We have a country to protec t! It’s our duty !”
“Don’t talk me about duty, Tia !” screamed Luna, feeding the blaze. “I know royal duty as much as you do.”
“Yes. Because we rule together. Remember ?”
“Hah !”
Luna’s voice took a mocking tone.
“Together ? We rule together ? That’s new ! We’re not co-rulers, Tia, we’re revolving princesses ! I have never seen one of our subjects! Never! You’re out all day, meeting ponies, being loved...me, at night, I stay in the castle and I see nopony ! Nopony ! Do you know why ? ‘Cause everypony is sleeping and nopony sees my gorgeous work !”
Tears flew out of the eyes of Luna but disappeared immediately, evaporated by the heat of fire.
“Luna...”
For the first time since the beginning of the argument, Celestia’s voice became sweeter, almost suppliant.
“Please calm down. It’s not too late to fix those mistakes. It’s never too late.”
A tree collapsed on itself with a terrible noise. But none of the sisters noticed that, each was focused on the other.
“So let this night be,” said Luna. “For one day, let the night be.”
“I can’t Luna. And you know it. A night can never be longer than it has to be. It’s the rules. Our rules.”
“I don’t give a damn about the rules!” yelled the alicorn of the night. “The choice is yours, sis’: you can let me hold this night for one complete day, or fight me.”
“I’m your elder sister. I would be happy to give you this present, Luna...but I’m also the ruler of Equestria, and the harmony of the ponydom is above all.”
As she was speaking, six colorful gems appeared around her. Luna easily recognized the Elements of Harmony. She understood as well that the time of the break-up between the two sisters had arrived.
No matter who won, Equestrian ponydom would lose a princess.
Luna’s coat turned black and her mane turned violet as she succumbed to anger and bitterness. Surprised by this transformation, Celestia didn’t react immediately when her sister attacked her.
Hooves raised, Luna jumped on her elder, only to be stopped by a shot from the Elements of Harmony.
Luna grunted before attacking again. Celestia dodged.
This game went on for a little while, until Luna decided to attack for good. Her jump was mixed with an offensive spell, forcing Celestia to defend herself.
She recognized Luna’s spell: it was one of destruction, one of the most powerful in the alicorns’ arcane. If she was unable to stop her sister right now, this spell could blow up a large part of Equestria. She was forced do to something.
Reluctantly, the elder unleashed the power of the Elements of Harmony against her own sister. Luna yelled a long and terrible scream when the rainbow hit her.
In a violent magic explosion, the Elements of Harmony neutralized Luna and teleported her far away from Equestria.
Alone in the burning forest, Celestia summoned large dark clouds and used their rain to stop the fire.
When the water hit the flames, the princess let her sorrow overcome her. She had lost Luna.
Her own little sister, becoming evil. It was unbelievable. She couldn’t defeat Discord without Luna and now...
Now, even the Elements of Harmony seemed to disapprove of her act. The gems lost their shine and their color slowly perished. In a few hours, the jewels would become rocks.
Celestia looked at the moon, crying when she realized that her little sister would be alone up there for a thousand years.
If she was only a big sister, she would have allowed the moon to stay up, to see Luna and apologize to her. But, like she had said a few minutes earlier, she had a royal duty...
Celestia lowered the moon and raised the sun. The sky was blue and the star shiny, but deep in the princess, her heart was as devastated as the ashes of the Everfree forest...