The scent of smoke and decaying vegetation permeated the air. Slowly, Twilight Sparkle began to regain consciousness, although a splitting headache accompanied that consciousness. “Ugh, what happened?” Twilight groaned to herself as she tried to get a feel for her surroundings. Rising to her hooves, she found herself in a small, damp stone room with a single wooden door. The room was illuminated only by three torches affixed to the other three walls. Twilight emitted a warm violet glow from her horn to get a better view of the room than what the small torches would allow. Rather, Twilight attempted to emit a warm violet glow from her horn; her attempts produced no results. "What's going on?" Twilight shrieked when she noticed her lack of magical abilities. "My horn's gone!"
“So sorry, Twilight, but I couldn’t risk having you leave before we got a chance to catch up, now could I?” a sinister and quite familiar voice echoed through the room.
“Discord! Show yourself! Where have you taken me? How did you even get free? We turned you back into stone!” Twilight shouted, bracing her hooves against the cobblestone floor.
A blinding light filled the room. A fraction of a second later, it was gone, and in its place stood the chimeric draconequus that Twilight and her friends had defeated just months prior. “Twilight, my dear, for such an intelligent pony, you really can be quite dim sometimes,” Discord said as he began slowly to pace circles around the hornless unicorn. “I think it’s time that we had a nice chat, wouldn’t you agree?” Before Twilight was able to respond, Discord snapped his fingers. Another flash of light filled the room, leaving Twilight strapped tightly to a chair that was bolted into the floor.
“You won’t get away with this, Discord!” Twilight spat. “Once my friends realize that I’m missing, they’ll tell the princess, and you won’t stand a chance!”
“You don’t get it, Sparkle Butt. Nopony is going to realize you’re missing because as far as they know, you’re not.” Twilight gave Discord an angry but also slightly confused look. “Ugh,” Discord groaned. “I’m omnipotent! Why do you think Celestia and Luna just sealed me in stone a thousand years ago instead of just killing me outright? They couldn’t!” Discord practically spat. Taking a moment to compose himself, his voice returned to its normal volume and tone. “Now think about this for a moment, if you will. I turn clouds into cotton candy, rain into chocolate, and flip houses upside down and have them float in the air. I can overpower both Celestia and Luna to control the sun and moon however I please. I can change a pony’s body with a snap of a finger, and I can move the Elements of Harmony wherever I want, even through one of Celestia’s protection spells. What makes you think I can’t do something as simple as stopping time for a little while?”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Twilight rebutted, remembering the events of their last encounter. “Nopony is stronger than Princess Celestia.”
“Once upon a time, perhaps, that was true,” Discord said softly, “but your princess is old, Twilight Sparkle, much older than her years might suggest. Long ago, she defeated her sister single hoofedly, she did most of the work defeating me, and she defended Equestria from its every threat for ten centuries. Power is a finite thing, though, Twilight, and even an alicorn will grow weary and weak over time. You’ve seen it yourself. Don’t you remember, Twilight? How Celestia depended on you to stop Nightmare Moon upon her return? How she was powerless to stop me not long ago? How Chrysalis beat her in mere seconds? Your princess is weak.” His last sentence brought a malicious grin to Discord’s mouth.
“I don’t fool myself, however, Twilight Sparkle,” Discord said, hovering over to the restrained pony. “I did not return this time with some grand scheme to take back the throne from that nag princess and her shadow. For the time being, I, too, am weak. This time, I honestly did just want to have a chat. Tell me, faithful student of Celestia, what am I?”
Twilight looked truly bewildered by this question. “What are you getting at, Discord?”
“Twilight, my dear, it’s just a simple question. I just want to hear how you respond. Now, tell me; what am I?”
Twilight stared at Discord, her gaze never softening. “You’re a god of chaos and destruction, older than the princesses, and you're the antithesis of love and peace. You can only be defeated with the Elements of Harmony. Evidently, you can’t be killed, only imprisoned in stone.”
Discord chuckled. “Is that really what Sun Butt has been telling ponies about me? Let me be the first to tell you, Twilight; everything she's told you is a lie. Well, almost everything. I certainly am far, far older than Celestia and Luna. A god, though? Haha, not quite. I suspect that Celestia cooked up that little story to save face since it took her sister’s help to defeat me, and she knew that she wouldn’t have the strength to stop me again.”
“If you’re not a god, what are you?” Twilight asked.
Discord brought himself to her level so that they were face to face, looking each other in the eyes. “You still don’t get it, do you, Twilight Sparkle? I’m a part of you. I’m a part of you, and Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, and even Celestia herself. I’m a part of all ponies in this land, far and wide. Celestia knows this, and she is right about another thing, I certainly am antithetical to love and peace, to harmony. Why do you think she’s crafted this entire nation around the idea of harmony? She knows what I am. I am the embodiment of the chaos and dissonance that exists in all ponies’ hearts. It’s that chaos that gives me my strength, Twilight. I’ve escaped from that dreadfully cramped stone prison twice now in less than a year. Tell me, why was I able to do that?”
“I don’t know because that doesn’t make any sense! My friends and I bear the Elements of Harmony now! Between that and the united rule of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Equestria is the most peaceful and tranquil that it’s been in centuries,” Twilight said.
“Oh? Is it really, though? Let’s just look at the past two years. Nightmare Moon returned, threatening to plunge Equestra into eternal night once again, and Princess Celestia sent six young mares to save the kingdom in her place. Shortly after that, a parasprite infestation spread across the kingdom, causing destruction that would make even me proud. There was my return, which Celestia was powerless to stop. The kingdom’s western regions were nearly plunged into civil war with the native buffalo tribes. There was the changeling invasion and Celestia’s rather laughable failure to combat Chrysalis. There is increasingly widespread belief that Celestia is intentionally keeping Luna subordinate to her to maintain her autocracy and prevent the restoration of the diarchy. Need I go on, my dear? Equestria is not the harmonious land that Celestia wants you all to think it is. That, Twilight Sparkle, is the source of my power: the disharmony - the discord - in the hearts of ponies, and there has been quite a lot of discord in Equestria recently.”
“...you’re just going to keep coming back, no matter how many times we defeat you, aren’t you? We’ll never truly defeat you unless we can bring harmony to the chaos in ponies’ hearts, not just to the kingdom as a whole.” Twilight’s eyes widened at this realization, a realization that seemed to painfully obvious all of a sudden.
Discord grinned. “Bingo. And you’ll never completely stamp out all of the chaos in ponies’ hearts. It just isn’t possible. I do enjoy a good challenge, though, so I’ll give you a hint that might help make your life easier and mine more fun: plans are in motion that, if allowed to come to fruition, would cause enough chaos that I might just gain the power of a god.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? What’s going to happen?” Twilight asked, trying to keep a lid on her rising panic.
“Oh, skipping right to the end? Where’s the fun in that? No, Twilight, that’s all you’re getting, but let it suffice to say that Celestia will be confronted with quite the ultimatum in the near future. Now then, as charming a pony as you are, I grow weary of your company. No offense, of course, but you’re just not chaotic enough for my taste. Au revoir!” Discord snapped his fingers as a flash of white blinded Twilight for the third time.
Twilight awoke with a start in her bed, in the Ponyville library just where she’d been when she lay down to sleep the night before. Her sudden movement awoke Spike who rubbed his eyes lazily as he asked, “What’s up, Twilight? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost. Have a bad dream?”
Twilight looked down at her dragon assistant and then all around the room. “...I don’t know, Spike.” Was it really just a bad dream? Twilight asked herself. Spike was now giving her a concerned look. “Err, nevermind, Spike. Yeah, it was just a bad dream. Nothing to worry about. I think I’ll write a letter to the princess, though,” Twilight said while trying to plaster on her best fake smile. Even Twilight best fake smile wasn’t a very convincing effort, but Spike just shrugged and went downstairs to fetch a quill and a blank scroll.
Author's Note
I was listening to dBPony's Daddy Discord at work yesterday, and this just popped into my head. I don't know why, but I felt like writing a short one-shot out of it. Hope yall enjoy.
