Discord Rules

Chapter 6

King Stonebreaker

“Whee!” Luna cried as she slid across the pink ice. Discord had poured liquid nitrogen all over the throne room, which had then frozen completely smooth, creating a surprisingly pink ice skating rink. Celestia slid by her, the two of them only centimeters apart, before slamming into a wall that had suddenly sprung out of the ground. Luna began laughing, only to crash into a similar wall.

Discord, who had been checking the blue, ticking watch he had drawn on his arm with a pink shard of ice, began walking toward the sisters, while rotating in the air. Reaching Luna’s collapsed form, Discord grabbed a lever sticking out of his stomach and flipped it, causing Luna to rise up into the air, giggling. Walking over to Celestia, he pushed a button on her head that launched her up into the air, before settling back down at the same height as Luna, and they were set back down, on their hooves.

“Now, I think you two need to know this. You know your little ponies, the… what’s it called… the Helements of Armory? Something like that. Anyway, something’s happened to them. They tried to use their helements on moi, attempted to petrify this beautiful face in order to preserve it for all eternity. Unfortunately, it backfired and fused them together! They are now one big, ball of chaos, ripe for manipulation. And what’s more, they’re just about to meet your old father, King Stonebreaker!” he grinned as he relayed the awful news to them

Celestia and Luna took the news in silence, not responding at all. Minutes passed, and they still didn’t move. Discord was beginning to think that he had killed them with shock, when Celestia said, “That is how it is meant to be.”

“I’m sorry? Did you just say that this was how it is meant to be!?” Discord shouted in surprise. How could something done by him, the agent of chaos, have been predictable!?

A voice startlingly similar to his own came out of the shadows, “Yes, yes she did. And the reason why is because of me.” A mirror image of Discord slithered out of the shadows and stood upright, facing him. “I am Discord the Puppetmaster. I am the True Chaos, the one that worms into your heart and eats away at your soul. And I am not you.”

Harmonia was checking the throne room once again. It was the third time she had searched it, yet she still could not find anything. The throne room was as empty as the first time she had searched it. Harmonia was beginning to think that she had been deceived, that there was no secret passage through Stonebreaker Castle, when she heard a loud cracking behind her. Remembering the disappearance of King Stonebreaker, she was on the lookout for him. What she saw was not what she expected.

King Stonebreaker was still petrified, yet he was moving swiftly toward them. He was walking faster than any pony could move. His eyes were filled with hatred, paralyzing Harmonia, and he reached the alicorn quickly. His massive hoof slammed into their stomach and threw them across the room.

Individual thoughts were silenced as Harmonia began moving as if she were one creature, as if she were not six beings in one body. Magic flew from her horn, causing explosions where they struck. She flew directly at the stone king with magic streaming from her horn, and kicked him at near-sonic speeds, then flew away, nursing a sore hoof. Her eyes focused and expanded, her vision going red, as Fluttershy’s Stare activated inside them, aimed directly at the animated statue.

He emerged from the magical smoke, completely unharmed, and ignored the Stare, instead charging directly at Harmonia. She stopped Staring just in time, and jumped out of his path, causing him to slam into the wall. As he was stuck, dazed, Harmonia ran up to him and bucked him through the wall, causing pain to shoot through her hooves.

King Stonebreaker emerged from the rubble, again, completely unharmed. He stalked up to them and bucked Harmonia right in the face, throwing her across the room again, and through a wall. She lied there, dazed, waiting for the king to come through the smoke. He did, and he lifted up a hoof to crush them where they lay.

All of a sudden, all the creatures that Harmonia had ever known filled her mind, and she knew that all of them were hoping that she could bring an end to all the chaos. That she could survive. Rage filled every corner of Harmonia’s mind, removing the limits she had unconsciously kept upon her abilities, subconsciously fearing what she could do.

As the king’s hoof descended, Harmonia lashed out at it. As she struck, the entire statue shuddered, and the king was thrown across the room. No longer registering pain, Harmonia climbed out of the rubble and walked over to King Stonebreaker.

His hoof had been shattered, and the rest of his body was riddled with cracks, although they were slowly disappearing. The king rose back up and attempted to strike Harmonia again, which she blocked. She then lashed out, hitting him directly in the chest, shattering it.

King Stonebreaker stumbled backward, clutching at the gaping hole in his chest. Harmonia struck again, this time in his face, then followed it up with a massive blast of magic. His entire body crumbled and the magic kept going, shattering part of the wall behind the throne, revealing the secret passage.

With the destruction of the object of her rage, Harmonia calmed down, her multiple personalities separating once again.

What… what was that? Fluttershy’s thoughts asked, what happened to us?

None of them knew. Instead of waiting in the possibly unstable castle, Harmonia ventured through the secret passage, which widened into a long tunnel. Along the tunnel walls were paintings, ones of conflict. Every painting seemed to have the same figure in them, a mismatched creature that resembled Discord.

The very first painting was old, older than anything that Harmonia had ever seen. It was painted in very precise strokes, with infinitesimally small details all across it. It had a civilization of some sort of bipedal, hairless ape, with the Discord-like creature wreaking destruction upon it. The creature seemed to be Discord, only its body parts were different animals. A spider’s left arm, a gorilla’s right, a zebra’s hind legs, nine fox tails, the head of one of the hairless apes, four insect wings, and short, stubby horns sticking out of its head.

Moving on to the next painting, Harmonia noticed that it was less precise than the first, but no less detailed. It depicted a city of some sort of lizard-like bipedal creature. Again, a Discord-like creature was attacking it, only this time, it had the lizards’ head, one wing that seemed to be made out of light, one that was made of steel, yet resembled a dragon’s. It had no legs, and instead had a single limb that ended in a wheel. It’s arms were metal, one ending in a two-fingered claw, the other in a cylinder.

Again and again, the paintings showed civilizations being destroyed by a creature that was made up of many creatures from the same time. As the paintings kept going, the amount of civilizations per painting was slowly growing, and they seemed to be following a pattern of there being a group of technology focused ones, then a group of magically focused ones, then technologically, then magically, and so on. The level of technological or magical advancement seemed to be slowly decreasing, as well.

Hundreds, no, thousands of paintings lined the walls, showing a historical record going back more than billions of years. If each civilization had developed in the same amount of time Equestrian civilization had, and they no doubt had taken longer, due to their advancement, then this cave must be older than their planet is suspected to be.

After a while, the paintings seemed less and less detailed, eventually deteriorating into what looked like cave paintings. Harmonia began to sprint down the long cave. After a certain point, the paintings just… stopped. there were no more.

Harmonia looked at the very last painting. It was unfinished, and it depicted six ponies using the Elements of Harmony against Discord, then fusing, then fighting King Stonebreaker. The accuracy of the painting surprised her. She had expected it to be another cave painting, and only storing one frame of time. But it was just as detailed as the first few, and painted in multiple scenes.

The fur on the back of her neck stood up, and she turned around, but there was no one. The entire passage was empty. There was no one who could have drawn the paintings, and especially not captured such detail in the battle with King Stonebreaker, not after only a few minutes.

Harmonia sprinted toward the exit of the tunnel, the creepy feeling of being watched following her. However, there was no where to watch from. The entire tunnel was straight and lit, with no dark areas. There were no holes in the walls, and there were no alcoves to hide in. Continuing her mad dash, Harmonia reached the end of the tunnel, and heard a loud roar behind her. King Stonebreaker had survived, and he was angry.

With his occasional “encouragements” from behind, the alicorn managed to make it out of the mountain range and onto the low plain that stretched out before them. Taking one last glance behind them, and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Harmonia sprinted out onto the plain.

King Stonebreaker watched the alicorn go, angry that he could not pursue them. He retreated to his throne, and waited for his master, the one who had freed him from his stone prison, to return. The king knew that his master would be displeased that the alicorn had seen the past-paintings. Whatever his punishment would be, he would need to wait here to find out.

If he didn’t, it would draw his master’s attention to his daughters, and he didn’t want that. Despite his cruelty to other ponies, and despite their betrayal, he loved them more than himself. They were the only thing keeping him in this world.

He settle back in his throne, wondering when his master would return. However long, he would wait, and wait, and wait, until the end of the world, if need be. He would wait until the sun died and the earth burned if it would save his daughters. He would wait.

He would wait.

Author's Note

Whew! This chapter was fun to write. As you can probably tell. Anyway, sorry this one was late, I was grounded for a bit, blah, blah, blah, stuff. Anyway, that doesn't matter now.