The God Of Breaking Rules in the Land of the Dead

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9

Chapter 1

Once upon a time the god of breaking rules walked the earth in the form of a handsome alicorn stallion, for his love was a mortal mare.

His love was kind, beautiful, noble and heroic. In those days the unicorns and the pegasi did not exist, and only gods walked in the form of alicorns, so she was an earth pony, but she was a princess and had a noble heart. One day she died protecting Harmony and the kingdom. She was still very young, and all the ponies mourned their princess.

The god of breaking rules was heartbroken. And then, because he was the god of breaking rules, he decided he would break the rule of life and death and return his love to life.

This was the most sacred law of the gods. Thus, when he asked the council of the gods for leave to do this thing, as he was the god of breaking rules and therefore breaking this rule should be his right, they told him no. The law of life and death was a law that even the god of breaking rules could not be permitted to break, for it governed the natural order of things, and breaking it would bring chaos and disharmony to the world.

So the god of breaking rules thought and thought about how he could enact his plan anyway.

***

First he went to the sky. "Hello, sky, how are you on this fine day?"

"I am lonely," the sky sighed. "My only friends are the Sun and the Moon. Will you spend some time with me?"

"Of course!" the god said. "I'm lonely too. The mare that I loved is dead; only spending time with my friends can soothe my heart."

"You are my friend?" the sky asked.

"Of course we are friends. Just because you are the sky, and I break the rules, doesn't mean we can't be friends, right? Who wouldn't want to befriend somepony as beautiful as you?" He sighed. "My lost love was beautiful, but even her radiance couldn't compare to your loveliness, sky. Many times she would look up at you and rejoice in your beauty. I only wish..."

"What do you wish, god of breaking rules?"

"Your dresses are so beautiful and she would have looked so lovely in a dress like that. But now she is dead. I wish I had a scarf made from the fabric of your dress, that I could lay it on my love's tomb so she could wear it in the land of the dead, and remind herself of your beauty."

"That's so sweet," said the sky. "I think I have just the thing."

The sky drew forth two scarves, one from the fabric of her sundress, and one from the fabric of her nightgown. "You can have these, my friend. Lay them on the tomb of your love so she can remember me, in day and in night."

"Thank you, sky. Let me give you a gift in return."

The god of breaking rules lifted two ponies into the sky, a mare and a stallion. He blew on their backs and wings sprouted there, like the wings of birds. For in those days it was a rule, that only birds should have wings with feathers, and he was the god of breaking rules. "Here, sky. Here are two ponies with wings to be your friends. They will fly within you, and catch your clouds for you, and love you, and their children and their children's children as well."

"I love them!" sky said. "What a thoughtful present. I will call them pegasus!"

"You're welcome, sky," said the god. "It was no trouble at all."

Now the sky wanted to play with her new friends, so the god took his leave and went to visit the Sun.

***

"Oh, Sun," the god of breaking rules said. "You are so beautiful, it soothes my heart. For I have lost my mortal love, and the only thing that will ease my pain is if I can bask in your radiance."

"I am pleased to have you for a guest, o god of breaking rules," said the Sun. "I am very lonely too. I never have a chance to see my sister, for we can never spend time together in the sky. When I am awake she must sleep, and when I sleep she must awake."

"That's very sad," the god of breaking rules said. "And really quite unfortunate. Your sister has grown into quite a fantastic beauty! I believe you would be impressed."

Now the Sun was very vain. She loved her little sister, but it was important to her that everypony see her as the more beautiful of the sisters. So she said, "She isn't more beautiful than me, is she?"

"Who could think so! Although... well..." The god of breaking rules took a good long look at the Sun. "Now that you mention it..."

"She cannot be! How could anypony think my sister is more beautiful than me?"

"Oh, I'm sure nopony does," the god assured her. "She is very beautiful, but not quite as beautiful as you. It's just that she has so many lovely gems!"

"My sister has lovely gems?"

"Yes, all sorts of sparkling gems all about her. Of course she cannot match your radiance, but her gems do give her a subtle and startling beauty that... well, my dear, of course your unadorned beauty is far greater than hers, but..."

"I must see my sister's gems!" the Sun said. "Why can I not have gems of my own?"

"Perhaps you can," the god said. "I know a way you may be able to borrow your sister's gems, but I will need to talk to your sister on your behalf."

"Oh, if only I could talk to my sister myself!"

"Oh, there is nothing easier, Sun," the god said. "I know exactly the way to do that."

"You do?"

"Yes. Give me a piece of your heart. I will find a beautiful pony, worthy of you, and give her that piece, and you will be born within her. As a pony you will be able to look at your sister and her gems whenever you wish to stay up at night, and you will be able to speak to her."

"Oh, god of breaking rules, that sounds like a wonderful idea. I will give you a piece of my heart. Go forth and talk to my sister about my borrowing her gems, and when you find a worthy mare, give her my heart and let me be born in a pony."

"I shall go right away," the god said, and went to visit the Moon.

"Oh, Moon! I have just come from your sister the sun. She misses you dearly!" the god said.

"And I miss her," Moon said softly. "But we can never share the sky together, so we can never see each other."

"It's too bad; you missed some wonderful stories," the god said. "She was telling me all about the things she sees the ponies doing as she watches them in the day."

The Moon felt jealous. "I never get to see ponies," she whispered. "They're always sleeping when I'm out. I wish I could watch the ponies too."

"I know a way you can do that, Moon."

"You do?"

"Yes. I am the god of breaking rules. I can break the rule of night and day for you and allow you to come out in the day. Then you would be able to see all the ponies!"

"That would be marvelous! I would love that!"

"But I would ask of you only one small favor in return. My heart is broken, for my beloved is dead. She loved to look up at the night sky and see your beauteous face, and whenever I see you, I remember the times my love was happy. Please give me a small piece of your heart, Moon, to carry with me so that I may remember my love's happiness, and I will show you the way to see ponies who are awake."

"That seems a small price," Moon said, and gave the god of breaking rules a small piece of her heart.

Then the god of breaking rules broke the rule of day and night. Moon came out during the day and saw the ponies of the world at their daily business. As she moved to get a better look, she saw her sister. "Sister! Sister Sun! It has been so long!" she said, and ran to give her sister a hug.

When Moon hugged her sister, she blocked her sister's light from the world. Sun disappeared, only visible as a brilliant corona of light around Moon's edges, and Moon's gems, the stars of the sky, appeared all around Sun. So Moon was able to see the ponies, and Sun was able to borrow her sister's gems, and both were able to meet each other for the first time in many years. This was the first eclipse. And that is why you should not fear an eclipse, for it is only the sisters embracing each other.

Chapter 2

Next the god of breaking rules went to the home of the weavers of Fate, the three sisters, Spinner, Weaver, and Sealer. Spinner was a filly with the cutie mark of a spindle; Weaver was a mare of mature years with the cutie mark of a loom; and Sealer was an elderly mare with the cutie mark of a scissor. They directed the fates of all living things, for when Spinner spun out a new thread, a new life would be born; Weaver would weave that thread into her loom, the tapestry of life; and when the pattern was done, Sealer would snip off the thread and seal it into the pattern. Thus happens the fate of all things, ponies and gods alike.

"Good day to you, little Spinner," the god of breaking rules said. "You look adorable today!"

"Thank you," Spinner giggled.

"I've come to ask a favor of you. I have these –" He offered up Spinner the beautiful scarves of the sky –"for you to wear. It is so sad that you spin all day and yet never can you wear any of the beautiful cloth that you and your sisters make. "

"They're beautiful!" Spinner said. "So you must want something."

"I only want a small thing. A single spool of thread, that's all."

Spinner seemed to consider it. But Weaver and Sealer heard all that the god had said. "No," Sealer said. "The thread of life is only to be wielded by the Fates. No other god may have our thread. Now go, god of breaking rules."

"But I just got here," the god said.

"And therefore you have been here too long. You are a god of trickery and chaos and we are gods of order and control."

"Now how can that be?" the god asked. "Everyone knows the twists and turns of Fate are wilder and more chaotic than I could ever be. All I do is break a few rules."

Weaver glared at him. "Like the law of sun and moon, night and day. Ponies run in terror to see the moon cover the sun."

"It's not my fault ponies don't appreciate a touching family reunion."

"Like the law of birds and wings," Spinner said.

"Oh, yes, it's a great tragedy for ponies that now they can fly, I'm sure they're crying about it right now. Wait, no, they're not. They're flying in the sky, who by the way is very happy with the gift I gave her." He huffed and stood on his hind legs. "But since you are going to be rude and inhospitable, I'll go."

He spun on his hind legs to turn and walk away, but his back leg gave out under him and he slipped. Wildly he waved his forelimbs and twisted his body so he would fall face first, and he staggered into the loom and then fell.

"Oh no!"

"The tapestry!"

"You've torn it, stupid god of breaking rules! Now we must reweave, quickly, or there will be catastrophe!"

"Go from this place or I will cut your thread," Sealer said menacingly.

"Fine. So sorry I tripped. This is the last time I bring any of you gifts," the god said, and stomped away. When he was no longer in the Fates' home, he grinned broadly, and spat out the spool of thread he'd grabbed with his mouth while he was falling into the loom. The Fates had been too upset by the damage he was causing to notice him stealing the thing he had come for.

Next he went to the god of Love. "Ho, brother! Get drunk with me! My mortal love is dead and I want to mourn her with the god that let me have her for as long as I did."

"That is a delicious-looking wine you've brought," Love said. "It has been some time since I've had a friend to drink with. I will mourn with you, brother."

"This is the best wine I have. Only the best for you, who gave me the time I did have with my love, so I shall be grateful to you forever."

"It is delicious," Love said.

They set to drinking. Now, there are many rules about when you should and should not drink, and the god of breaking rules had broken them all, so he was very experienced with drink. Love made use of drink at times to bring ponies together and make them lose their fear of admitting their love, but rarely did Love drink himself. So it wasn't long before Love was very drunk.

"Oh, brother," the god of breaking rules said. "I will never again love another mortal. From now on I shall love only goddesses."

"Thassh a fine idea," Love said. "Fine idea. Goddeshesh."

"I am very attracted to Nature," the god of breaking rules admitted. "She is so wild. And she breaks many rules, as I do. But she is so beautiful, how would she ever be willing to love me?"

"Yer right, brozzer. Shesh outta yer league," Love said.

"Dear brother, I don't suppose you’d be able to help me with that?"

"Well. Nature. She doeshn't do love. Nopony tiesh her down, you know? Free... free shpirit. But she likes shex. Lotsh of it. Sho I could give you a lusht potion and at leasht you could have her for a night, you know?"

"Thank you brother, that will help me greatly. I'm sure with my charm and my skill in bed, I can win Nature's love, so long as she desires me."

So Love gave the god of breaking rules a potion to seduce Nature with.

When the god of breaking rules went to see Nature, he brought more wine. "Nature! My beloved sister! Please walk with me. My heart is broken and I am lonely, for my mortal love is dead. Only time spent in your beautiful company will ease me!"

"You silly flatterer," Nature said, laughing, for she liked the god of breaking rules. She had allowed him to make some of her creatures and break the rules she had created, for Nature creates rules only to break them. "I see you've brought wine."

"Only the finest for my most beautiful sister!"

Before long, Nature had drunk the wine with the potion in it. "Oh god of breaking rules, I never noticed before how handsome you are," she said. "I enjoy pleasure very much. Would it please you to spend this night with me?"

"Nothing would please me more," the god of breaking rules said.

Now, if there is anything that has more rules than pleasuring, it must be on a far away world. The god of breaking rules was very, very experienced, because of all the rules to be broken in bedrooms. Of course Nature was experienced and lusty as well. They enjoyed each other for hours and hours. But the god of breaking rules took care to spend most of his time pleasing his partner rather than taking pleasure for himself. And thus, when their pleasuring was done, Nature fell asleep, exhausted by all her enjoyment. But the god of breaking rules did not. He rolled out of bed as the Dark Lady of Dreams approached, so she found only Nature in the bed. And as the Lady of Dreams brought dreams to Nature, the god of breaking rules left Nature's boudoir to find her workroom, where she kept the clay of life, the substance she makes all living creatures from. He stole a large blob, the size of a muzzle, but because he was the god of breaking rules it was enough clay to make a pony. Then he crept out, careful not to wake Nature from her dreams.

Now he went to his final stop, the Goddess of Wisdom. As she sat in her library, penning a tome of magic, he entered. "Lovely goddess! What a beautiful morning this is!"

"I haven't been out of my library yet, so I wouldn't know." She looked up. "God of breaking rules, I am busy. Stop trying to flatter me and get to the point."

"I have come again to ask if I may free my mortal love from the land of the dead and make her immortal. I cannot go on without my love. Day and night all I can think of is my broken heart and my grief for her."

The Goddess of Wisdom said, "You should have thought of that before you fell in love with a mortal."

"We don't choose who we love!" the god of breaking rules said. "And she died so young! It wasn't even her time!"

"Listen well, god of breaking rules," the Goddess of Wisdom said. "The law of life and death exists for a reason, and you may not gainsay it. To violate that law would shatter the harmony of the world, and bring nothing but chaos. I am sorry, but you will get over your grief, in time."

Angrily the god grabbed a book off the Goddess' shelf and swallowed it. The Goddess was angered. "You are destroying my book!"

"It needed some salt," the god of breaking rules said, and ran from the Goddess of Wisdom's wrath. The book that he ate was the dictionary that translates between the words of mares and the words of stallions, and that is why mares and stallions have such a hard time understanding each other.

When he had left the Goddess of Wisdom, he spit the book back out, well chewed, and pulled out its bone-white pages from within. He chewed the pages some more until they were a pulp, and then twisted them into the shape of a horn, and blew on the shape to make it solid and dry. Then he removed his own horn for safekeeping and swallowed it, and placed the fake horn on his head. He bundled all the things he had gathered – the clay, the hearts of the sun and the moon, and the spool of thread – into the scarves, and he swallowed them too.

And then the god of breaking rules went to the gate blocking the Land of the Dead.

Chapter 3

The guardian of the gate blocking the Land of the Dead was a giant rock. "Hello, rock, how are you on this fine day?" the god of breaking rules said. "I have come to perform a surprise inspection of the land of the dead on behalf of the other gods, so if you would move aside for me, I would appreciate it."

"I will not move aside," rock said. "I am obstinate. I am unyielding. And I am charged with guarding this door."

"Well, rock, if you won't move, I'll have to move you," the god of breaking rules said.

"I will hold to my post. I will not move. I will uphold the law. The living may not enter the land of the dead."

"You know who you're talking to, right? The god of breaking rules? I don't care about your law, and now I am going to move you." The god of breaking rules attempted to move the rock, but he wasn't strong enough.

"I am strength. I am foundation. I am all that is unchanging. I will not move for you," rock said.

"Well, I am the master of all that changes. So we shall see which of us is the stronger," the god of breaking rules said.

First he sent fire against rock. Rock did not change and it did not move. "Fire cannot burn rock," rock said. "Rock is forever, unchanging. I will not move."

Then he sent air against rock. A hurricane gale lashed against rock, but rock did not change and it did not move. "Air cannot push rock," rock said. "Rock is forever, unchanging. I will not move."

Finally the god sent water against rock. A river poured against rock, but rock did not change and it did not move. "Water cannot change rock," rock said.

"Wait for it," the god said.

And then rock cried out in horror as it realized that river was wearing it away. Bit by bit the rushing water took away pieces of rock until there was a huge hole in rock's center, large enough for the god of breaking rules to slip through.

"Change is forever," the god mocked. "And nothing ever lasts. In the end, I will always win."

"I am forever," rock said, "and I will have my revenge. Someday, god of breaking rules, someday I will have you."

"You just go on telling yourself that," the god of breaking rules said, and entered the land of the dead.

***

The god expected to meet a gate in the tunnel, and he was not disappointed. The gate was made of iron, and guarded by minotaurs. "Halt!" they said. "You may not pass through here."

"I am the god of breaking rules, and thus I have special dispensation to go anywhere I want," the god of breaking rules said. "I will go through your gate and you cannot stop me."

"Then we require that you pay a price. You may give up your memories of life, or you may give up your horn."

"I will give up my horn," the god said, broke off his papier-mache horn, and gave it to them. They were fooled by his magic, and let him pass through the gate, believing that his magic was taken from him.

He whistled cheerfully as he walked down the tunnel until he reached the next gate, the gate of bronze. "Oh come on now!"

"Halt," said the griffins guarding the gate. "You may not pass through here."

"I am the god of breaking rules, and can someone explain to me where the river went? There was supposed to be a river here! Not another gate! This is completely unfair!"

"You came in through the opening to the world of the living," the griffins said, "which was sealed by the Lord of the Dead a thousand years ago. There are seven gates on this path. To reach the path with the river, you would have to die, for only the dead can find their way."

The god of breaking rules did not want to die; he wanted to find his beautiful mare and bring her out of the land of the dead. "Very well. Tell me what price I must pay to pass these gates."

"You may give up your memories, or you may give up your wings."

The god winced, because he loved his wings, but he loved his beautiful mare more. "Very well, I will give you my wings."

With their beaks the griffins tore the wings from the god's back. He gritted his teeth and did not cry out from the pain, because he was doing this for his love. Then they let him pass through the gate.

Bleeding and in pain from his wounds where the wings had been torn from him, the god stumbled down the tunnel, until he encountered the gate of brass. "Third gate. Only seven total. I can do this."

"Halt," the manticores guarding the gate said. "You may not pass through here."

"Look, just tell me what I'm supposed to pay so I can get this over with, all right? I'm the god of breaking rules, I can go anywhere. Just tell me the price."

"You may give us your memories, or you may give us your tongue."

The god reeled back in shock. Without his tongue, he would be unable to speak. Without speaking, how could he perform his tricks? How could he persuade and cajole and deceive others in the course of breaking the rules?

But his memories of his love were all that gave him strength. He would not yield them at any cost. "Take my tongue, then."

They pulled his tongue from his mouth. He screamed, but had no more ability to plead with them as they ripped it from him, for without his tongue he could not speak.

I still have my horn in my belly, he thought. I can still use magic. I can endure this.

At the fourth gate, the gate of copper, the guards were tigers, and the price they demanded was his left foreleg.

At the fifth gate, the gate of silver, the guards were harpies, and the price they demanded was his right foreleg.

He stood on two legs, staggering, knowing that if he fell he would never get up again, not without forelimbs, and continued down the tunnel.

At the sixth gate, the gate of gold, the guards were centaurs. And they took his left hind leg.

Although it was dangerous to reveal that he still had his magic, he could not go forward on one leg without it, so he used his magic to balance himself and hopped on his one remaining leg to the final gate, the gate of obsidian. There, the guards were windigos.

The god of breaking rules expected them to take his final leg, and that he would have to use his magic to enter the kingdom of the dead. Instead, the windigo cut off his entire lower body, including his leg. The god screamed, and fell to the ground, unable to move.

Because he had earned the passage, the windigos dragged his bloody body through the gate of obsidian. Now he was in the land of the dead and he had his magic, and his ears and eyes, but nothing else.

And then the Lord of the Dead appeared before him. "You foolish god. You think you can break my rule without consequence? You think the law of death is to be trifled with?"

The god wanted to make sarcastic, witty replies, but without his tongue, he could not. He was too weak and tired from pain and the spilling of his blood to make his magic work. He was helpless before the Lord of the Dead.

The Lord of the Dead picked him up by the next and shook him. "You will learn what it means to defy this rule, god of breaking rules!"

And then the Lord of the Dead marched all the way up the tunnel, carrying the god of breaking rules upright by the neck. The weight of the god's body made his neck stretch like a giraffe, and he choked in the Lord of the Dead's grip, but without his limbs or wings or tongue, he was helpless. Finally the Lord of the Dead reached the outside, where he flung the god. "Die here of your wounds and you will be reunited with your lost love. Else, learn to accept that you will never see her again."

But the god of breaking rules would not be so easily defeated.

Chapter 4

After the Lord of the Dead left him, he coughed up his horn and held it between his teeth, so he could use his magic to call for help. With a spell, he made the air vibrate with the sound of his voice, even though he had no tongue.

First he called to Dragon, and Dragon came. "Dragon, the Lord of the Dead has cut me in half. I need another half or I will die. Give me your lower half, with your two legs, and I will break two rules for you. I will break the rule of fire and the living, allowing you to be immune to fire and to breathe it out at your prey. And I will break the rule of stone and the living, allowing you to eat crystalline stone and draw strength from it."

"I will not take that deal, god of breaking rules," Dragon said. "Those are attractive things, but not worth losing my entire lower body for. I will give you only my lower body, no legs, if you give me a means to grow quickly so I can restore myself."

"I need at least one leg," the god of breaking rules said. "I will have to give my gifts to another creature if you cannot give me your lower body and at least one leg."

Now Dragon is fierce, and dragons do not live in harmony with each other. Dragon considered, for he wanted the god's gifts very much. So he flew to his home and said to his mate, "My wife, I have been offered a deal by the god of breaking rules. We will have the ability to breathe fire, and eat gemstones, and quickly grow. I need only give him my lower body and one of your legs."

"I do not think those gifts are worth one of my legs," his wife said.

"Well, I do, and I am bigger than you." So saying, Dragon tore his wife's leg off and flew back to the god of breaking rules.

"God of breaking rules, I will give you a dragon leg and a dragon's lower body. The dragon's lower body will be mine; the leg is my wife's. Give me your gifts."

So the god of breaking rules took the dragon's long, powerful tail and the lower part of the dragon's body, and the leg torn from the wife of Dragon, and gave Dragon his three gifts. "To grow back your body or to turn to great size, only go to your hoard that you have saved and sleep on it," the god of breaking rules said. "Greed will give you strength and growth. Your wounds will heal and you will become even larger than you are."

"Thank you, god of breaking rules," Dragon said, and returned home to share the news with his wife.

Now the god of breaking rules had a full body, at least, so he was no longer bleeding. But he was very, very cold from all the blood he had lost, so he called to Bear. “Bear, you are so hungry in the wintertime, when the fruits and berries you love to eat are gone and the fish you delight in hide under the ice. I can give you a gift to help with that.”

Bear remembered how her belly growled all winter long, as loud as her own fierce growl. “I am interested,” she said.

The god of breaking rules conjured for her a bag of sleeping powder. “Sprinkle this powder on yourself, and it will break the rule of sleep. Instead of merely sleeping in the day or the night, it will give you the power to sleep all winter long, so you will feel no hunger. When you wake in the spring, the berries and fish will have returned, and you can eat your fill. I only ask that you give me your coat, for I am very cold.”

“I cannot give you all of my coat, for I would be cold myself,” Bear said. “But I will give you half, to wrap around your upper body, in exchange for the gift of winter sleep.”

“That’s acceptable,” the god said. So Bear gave him part of her coat to wrap around his upper body, and he gave her the sleeping powder. But Bear, as we know, is somewhat clumsy in her great size, and in her eagerness to return to her den and share her gift with her cubs, she tripped and scattered the powder throughout the forest. And that is why so many animals sleep during the winter.

Next the god of breaking rules called to Goat. "Goat, you are so small, ponies take all your food and crowd you off their land. I can give you a gift to help you with that."

"I would love such a gift," Goat said, "for it is true. I am small, and ponies take all my food, and push me off their lands."

"Then I will break the rule of hooved creatures for you. You will not need to live on flat, even lands as ponies and cows and deer do; you will be able to live on the roughest, most dangerous mountains. And you will be able to feed on any type of food at all, even foods that ponies consider spoiled, foul-tasting or poisonous. All I ask in return is that you give me your leg and one horn."

"That sounds like a good deal," Goat said, and gave the god of breaking rules his leg and one horn. And that is why goats live in the mountains where ponies cannot easily walk, and eat foods no pony is willing to taste.

Next the god of breaking rules called to Eagle. "Eagle, you fly so high, it is hard for you to see your prey down on the land below."

"It is true," Eagle said, "but I am too strong and proud to fly lower."

"I will break the rule of eyesight for you. I will give you unnatural eyes that can see the prey on the land at any distance, no matter how high you fly. All I ask from you is a wing and a talon."

Eagle was hungry, but too proud to change her behavior, so the god's gift appealed to her. She agreed, and that is why eagles can see from so far away in the sky, farther than any pegasus can see.

Next the god of breaking rules called to Lion. "Lion, your cubs go hungry, for the other cats are quicker to take your prey than you. You are not stealthy like panther, or powerful like tiger, or fast like cheetah. But I can give you an advantage."

Lion was sad, because she could not feed her cubs as well as she would like, and they mewled with hunger all the time. "I will take any advantage," Lion said. "What will you give me?"

"I will break the rule of cats for you. Cats are solitary hunters. I will give you harmony with your sisters. You will work together with them to hunt in packs, so you will be able to hunt bigger prey, faster prey, and more alert prey than you can do now. All I ask is that you give me your forelimb and the tuft of your tail."

"I will do that, for I would love to hunt in harmony with my sisters, and take more prey that way."

And so Lion gave the god of breaking rules her forelimb and the tuft of her tail, and became the only cat that hunts in packs.

Finally the god called to his own two creations, Bat and Snake. "Bat, my child, I need a favor. You were a creature of nighttime when I broke the rule of flying creatures and made you the first furred creature that can fly. But now it is hard for you to find your prey in the darkness that you love. Give me your wing, as once I gave it to you, and I will break the rule of eyesight and give you the ability to see with song."

"Father, I would give you my wing anyway, for I would not have it if not for you," Bat said. "But I accept your gift." And so Bat gave the god of breaking rules her wing, and gained the power to see with her song.

"Snake, I cannot speak without my horn, for the Lord of the Dead took my tongue. I broke the rule of creatures that move on the land for you, and gave you the power to move without legs. Give me now your tongue that I may speak."

"You gave Bat a present in exchange for her wing," Snake said. "What present will you give me?"

"Snake, I made you. You owe me."

"You made Bat but you still gave her a present. If you are going to play favorites I won't give you anything."

The god of breaking rules was angry at his ungrateful child, but he needed Snake's tongue so he did not say so. "Then I will ask of you two gifts. Give me your tongue and also a fang. And I will give to you a rattle for your tail."

"What good does a rattle for my tail do me?" Snake asked.

"When you shake it, it will terrify your prey into standing still, so you can more easily catch them."

"Well, all right, that sounds okay," Snake said, and took the god's gift, in exchange for his tongue and one fang. But the god had tricked Snake, for while sometimes prey freeze at the sound of Snake's rattle, other times prey startle and run away, so the rattle is sometimes a gift and sometimes a curse.

Now the god had everything he had lost: two wings, four limbs, a tongue, and a lower body with a tail. He also had an extra horn in case he needed it, and a fang just because it looked cool. He put his own horn back on his head and began to search for the second way to the land of the dead, the one where he would need to swim a river but would not need to go through the seven gates.

But while he was searching, Stag came to him. Stag was very proud and arrogant, and thought that if the other animals had received gifts from the god of breaking rules, why couldn't he? "God of breaking rules, I have come to ask for a gift!" Stag said.

"Do you know the way to the land of the dead?" the god asked.

"No, because I am not dead," Stag said.

"Well, then go away. You're of no use to me."

"I demand that you give me a gift!" Stag said. "You gave so many animals gifts, and I am so strong and proud with my fine antlers, I deserve a gift more than they do!"

"Don't those fine antlers give you a headache from carrying them around all the time?" the god of breaking rules said.

"Well, they do sometimes," Stag admitted.

"Then here's my gift," the god said, and Stag's antlers fell off.

"What have you done? You took my antlers!" Stag screamed.

"They'll grow back. Every spring you will lose your antlers and grow new ones. That way you won't have so many headaches. Now go away before I give you another gift."

Stag ran away in fear. The god picked up one of Stag's antlers. "You can never have enough horns," he said, and put it in his bag with all his other things.

As the god passed through the glade, he found a dying bird, who had been burned badly by a lightning strike. "Oh, bird, maybe this isn't the best time, but I need a dead creature to guide me to the land of the dead. My mortal love is dead and I am on a quest to go into the land of the dead and bring her back to life. Will you do that for me?"

The bird was a very kind bird who loved to help others, and who was sympathetic to the god's story of love. She also liked to break an occasional rule and play a prank from time to time herself, so she appreciated the god. "I will do that," she sang, though her voice was weak from the pain of her burns.

The god gave her the strength to fly even though she was all but dead. Because she was dying, she knew the way to the second entrance to the land of the dead, over a cliff shrouded in mist. "Fly down to the base of the cliff, and you will find the River Styx," the bird said. "The ferrymare will take you across, and then you will be in the land of the dead."

"Thank you, bird, you have helped me so much. I will break a rule for you."

Because the bird was not quite dead yet, the god of breaking rules did not have to break the rule of life and death to break the rule of fire and death. He changed the bird so that fire, rather than killing her, would cause her to be reborn at her full strength. And then he set her aflame, and she burst back into life as a glorious orange-winged phoenix.

"Thank you, god of breaking rules! I did not feel ready to die!" the bird sang, and flew away, overjoyed to be returned to health and life.

"You're welcome, bird!" the god called. "Come back when I have returned with my love, and I am sure she will want to meet you and make friends with you, you have helped us so much!"

Then the god of breaking rules flew down the cliff, to land on the bank of the river that bordered the land of the dead.

Author's Note

In case you haven't figured it out by now... this is not going to end well.

Chapter 5

The god of breaking rules went to the border of the river. He looked up and down the bank of the river, and finally found the ferrymare, an old crone clad in a hooded black cloak.

"Oh, ferrymare, I need passage into the Land of the Dead," the god of breaking rules said.

"I will take you, if you have bits," the ferrymare said. "Do you have two bits?"

"No, I do not," the god said, bringing forth his bag. "But I have these beautiful scarves of the day and the night."

"I do not want such things. I only want bits."

"I have a stag's antler and a goat's horn."

"I do not want such things. I only want bits."

"I have the clay of life, from Nature's table, and I have the thread of fate, taken from the Three Sisters, the weavers of Fate."

"I do not want such things. I only want bits."

The god sighed. "You drive a hard bargain, ferrymare. Perhaps I should swim across."

The old crone grinned at him. "You can do so if you wish, but if you do, you will lose all your memories. Those who drink of the River Styx forget their memories of life."

"I thought that was the River Lethe."

"They are all the same river," the crone whispered. "So I would advise that you find yourself two bits to pay me with, or else never shall you cross the river with your memories of life intact."

Dejected, the god of breaking rules sat by the side of the river, trying to think how he could do as he had planned, for he knew that if he left this place to go find a mortal pony to give him bits, he would not be able to find his way back without another dead creature as a guide—and it was great fortune that he had come upon the bird he saved before it was fully dead. Who knew when he would meet with such fortune again?

Then a fish popped up out of the water and spoke to him. "God of breaking rules, why are you so sad?"

"I do not know how to cross the River Styx without swallowing water," he said. "If I bind my mouth and nose so I cannot swallow and I cannot accidentally snort water, then I will be unable to breathe when my head breaks the surface, and I will never make it across. But I do not have coins for the ferrymare."

"If you had gills like mine, nothing could be easier!" boasted the fish. "I do not breathe through my mouth or nose; water flows through the gills by the side of my neck, and I breathe from that. It's a shame you have no gills, god of breaking rules."

"You could give me yours," the god said. "And I could break the rules of water creatures for you, and give you the ability to breathe and walk on land."

"Why would I want such a gift?" the fish asked.

"Fish, in a rushing river such as this one you have nothing to fear but the larger fish that make their meals of you. But what if you were to swim into a calm pond, where those large fish cannot go, and then the sun were to dry the stream between the river and the pond, so you could never return? Or worse, supposing the pond itself dried? With the power to crawl on land and breathe the air, you could make your home in small ponds where you would be the biggest fish, and you need never fear that the pond would dry up and leave you to choke."

"Hmm, that does sound like a good deal," the fish said. "Very well, god of breaking rules, I will trade you some of my gills for the ability to breathe in the air and crawl on the land."

And so the god of breaking rules broke the rule of fish, and created the lungfish, who crawls from pond to pond when hot summer dries up its home.

With gills, the god of breaking rules had a plan to safely cross the river. First he put most of his things in his bag, and put his bag in his mouth, to block the water from coming through his teeth. Then he used the scarves to bind his muzzle, so his nose was covered and his jaw was held together tightly. Now he could not breathe in the air any longer, for no air could come into his nose or mouth. But where air cannot go, neither can water, so he was safe from accidentally swallowing the water of the river. And when he put his head down into the water, the gills breathed for him, so he could swim without running out of air.

In this way he reached the far bank of the River Styx, and was truly in the land of the dead.

He removed the scarves, took his bag from his mouth, and wrung them all out until they were dry, with no risk that there would be water to swallow still held within them. Then he slung them back around his neck and proceeded inward, to recruit help from the dead.

In the land of the dead there was a stallion called Futile Ambition, whose goal in death was to push a huge and heavy stone to the top of a hill. The Lord of the Dead had promised Futile Ambition that if he should succeed, he would be allowed to enter the Elysian Fields, the lands of paradise that lie within the Land of the Dead. But this was a lie, for only the virtuous dead may enter the Elysian Fields, and Futile Ambition had been a ruthless schemer in life. To ensure that he could never succeed, a spell had been cast on the stone such that, as soon as it drew close to the top of the hill, it would slip from Ambition's grasp and fall.

Now the god of breaking rules knew that his power could not stand against the power of the Lord of the Dead, and that he needed to conserve his strength in order to break the law of life and death. So he did not break the rule of the stone or its need to fall. Instead he approached Ambition. "Ho there, good fellow! Why do you spend all your time pushing that stone up the hill? It seems a great effort, and I cannot see what you gain by it!"

"The Lord of the Dead has promised me that if I should get it to the top, I will be allowed to leave this terrible task and enter the Elysian Fields," Futile Ambition said. "Such is my ambition."

"And ambition has been the rule of your life, has it not? All that you have done, you've done for ambition," the god of breaking rules said, and looked into the stallion's eyes. "But ambition has won you nothing but death, and a thankless, endless task. What if you were to give up on your ambitions, and follow another's? Perhaps you would have more success that way!" And in so saying, he broke the rule of that stallion's life, and freed him from the hold of his own ambition. To break the rule of a pony's personality drains them of color and happiness, but Futile Ambition was a dead shade, and his slavery to the stone made him unhappy, so all in all, he was not harmed by this.

"You're right," the shade said, the colors he had had in life draining from him and causing him to turn grey. "My ambition has never made me happy, nor brought me success."

"Follow me, then. We will challenge the very rule of the Lord of the Dead, and perhaps you may win freedom from these lands that way."

"Perhaps," Futile Ambition said, "though I find I don't really care very much one way or the other."

"That's the spirit!" the god said, and went to find the next shade of the dead.

He came to a mare named Short Grasp, who had spent her life reaching for what she could not have, and in her quest for the forbidden had even sacrificed her own foal to dark powers, all to no avail, since death had taken her anyway. She was standing in a shallow stream, chained by her leg so she could not escape. Above her on the riverbank, a wonderful apple tree grew, heavy with fruit, and its overladen branches hung just above her head. But if she bent to the water to drink, the water receded, until there would be nothing but dry rocks below her. And if she stood on hind legs to reach the apples above her, the branches retreated, lifting until she could no longer reach them any longer.

"Ho there!" the god of breaking rules called to her. "You seem to be in a bit of a bind there, my lady!"

"Oh, I am so hungry and thirsty!" Short Grasp moaned. "I would do anything for one who allowed me to drink my fill of this water and eat an apple!"

"But you must recognize, the Lord of the Dead has forbidden you these treats," the god of breaking rules said. "Even I, who break the rules, dare not break his rule – not unless we could challenge and overthrow him."

"I would gladly aid with that," Short Grasp said, "but I am chained here!"

"Well, it is a rule that a chain holds together," the god of breaking rules said. "Break that rule, and the chain shall break as well." And so it was done.

Now that she was free, Short Grasp attempted again to bend her head to the water, or to leap up and take an apple, but the spells that had tormented her were still active, and she could not. "Leave off those things! Find satisfaction in something else, at least until you have the power to take what you want," the god of breaking rules said. "Here, why not quench yourself this way?" And he turned the muddy bank of the river into chocolate, with puddles of chocolate-flavored milk wherever there had been a puddle of river water. And Short Grasp ate her fill of chocolate and quenched herself with chocolate milk.

Many souls within the Land of the Dead were suffering torments for their wickedness in life. To each one, the god of breaking rules came, and broke some rule or another, that they would be free of their torments and could follow him. And in this way, he led an army of the dead to the Elysian Fields, for he knew his love had been virtuous, and that she would be within the lands of paradise. The Elysian Fields were well guarded, with walls of bone and briar, protected by creatures such as manticores and orthroi. Only two gates led to the fields, the gate of horn and the gate of ivory, made from the horns of fallen alicorn gods and the tusks of the elephant lords. At night, the Lady of Dreams, wife of the Lord of the Dead, would leave through one of the gates or the other, to travel the world and bring dreams to the sleepers. Directly within the gates was the glorious palace of the Lord of the Dead, made of obsidian and worked all over with gold and silver, studded with gems.

The god of breaking rules had no intent to go to the Lord of the Dead's palace. He intended to travel directly into the Elysian Fields to look for his lost love. But if his army was fighting the Lord of the Dead, he thought, then the Lord of the Dead would be too busy to stop the god of breaking rules. So he told each of the lost souls following him that they had come to challenge the Lord of the Dead, though he knew that task was impossible.

At the gates, the Lord of the Dead himself met the army of shades with his own army. The shades of warriors who had fallen in honorable combat, defending their homes or their loved ones, had been granted passage to the Elysian Fields to serve as its defenders, though never before since the Dawn Times had a defense been needed. Terrifying creatures joined in battle with those shades, attacking the army of the wicked dead. Manticores, orthroi, cockatrices, gorgons, phoukas, bansidhe, and wyverns, all fought alongside the noble dead against the army raised by the god of breaking rules.

But most of these creatures were chimeras, famed for being made by the breaking of one rule or another, and many of them were the children of the god of breaking rules, his own creations from the Dawn Times. They fought the army of wicked shades at the command of their master, the Lord of the Dead, but they granted their father deference, and let him pass. So the god of breaking rules walked right through the battlefield, ignoring the combat, wanting only to reach the gate of ivory or the gate of horn before the shades he'd tricked into following him all fell in battle and were dispersed back to their appointed torments.

And then he met the hydra, who would not let him pass.

"Hydra, I made you!" the god of breaking rules exclaimed. "You could not grow back two heads for one lost if I had not granted you the breaking of the rule of numbers! You could not even have more than one head if I had not broken the law that one creature has one head, for you! Stand aside for me!"

"Father, our lives are torment, for we are always fighting with each other, yet, sharing one body, we can never escape each other!" the hydra's heads screamed. "Your gifts have given us nothing but conflict and discord, and our suffering is endless! Only by serving the will of our master the Lord of the Dead have we found any peace! So we will not stand aside for you. We will crush you, for the pain your gifts have given us!"

"You can try," the god of breaking rules said.

So saying, he leapt into the air, and began to dart this way and that. The god had always been very agile and flexible, and now that half his body was a dragon's, he was even more so. He flew between two heads and caused them to bite at him, snapping, and then when he circled around them, and between their necks, and around them again, he caused them to accidentally knot two necks together. Then he performed the same dance with two other heads, confusing them and flying over and under and this way and that way until they, too, had tangled themselves in a knot.

But the hydra's fifth head had no partner to be tangled with. "Thank you, father," the fifth hydra head taunted. "By tying the others, you've left me free to act, with no interference from the others."

The god of breaking rules fired a bolt of magic at the fifth hydra head, intending to blast it off and thus to force the hydra to grow two more heads, which he could then tangle. But the god of breaking rules was no warrior, for no war can be fought if the soldiers know no discipline and rule. The hydra dodged his bolt of magic, and before he could launch another attack, it caught him in its fanged mouth and bit him, poisoning him with its venom.

He tried to break the rule of the hydra's venom, which brings paralysis and numbness, but already his magic had gone numb, and he could no longer fight. And so the hydra brought him to its master in triumph, and laid his limp and paralyzed form before the Lord of the Dead.

"You did not learn from the last time," the Lord of the Dead said. "Here in the Land of the Dead, nothing can die. But I can imprison you, and I can make you suffer for your crimes. You will remain within the Land of the Dead eternally, but never be reunited with your love."

Then the Lord of the Dead had him dragged beneath the earth below the palace, to be imprisoned in a tomb of stone.

Chapter 6

Deep inside his tomb of rock, the god of breaking rules lamented his failure, for now he was imprisoned and his lady was still dead, and never would he be reunited with her.

"I told you I would have you someday," Rock gloated. "Rock is eternal, unchanging. Now that you are my prisoner, the rules will never again be broken, and the world shall stay as it is, as unchanging as I am, forever."

"We will see about that," the god of breaking rules said, but it was mere bravado, for he knew it was unlikely that he would be able to break free. He attempted to use his magic to free himself, but deep within the domain of the Earth, the strength of rock is unparalleled. Though he fought fiercely and even broke rock in places, rock still held him firmly. Sometimes the broken pieces of rock still jiggle and slide against each other, and when that happens there is an earthquake. He tried to summon fire against rock, a fire so strong that even rock would burn, and melted holes in the rock. But rock simply became solid again, turning into mountains around those holes. Because the god of breaking rules had granted dragons immunity to fire, they came to live in those mountains, swimming in the molten rock as they please. But the god's body was only half dragon, so even if he could have made such a hole for himself, he could not swim through it without burning himself to death.

When his magic was exhausted, the god began to weep for his lost love and his own hopelessness. Eventually he cried himself to sleep, and in his sleep, the Lady of Dreams visited him.

"Why do you weep, god of breaking rules?" she asked him.

"I weep for my love, who is dead, and for my failure to rescue her and return her to the land of the living," the god said.

The Lady of Dreams lowered her head. "I am jealous," she admitted softly. "I was a mortal mare myself once, taken by the Lord of the Dead to be his wife so long ago, I can barely remember what it was like. But even though I have eternal life as a goddess of dreams, and your mare is a mortal who died, I feel that she has a richer treasure than I do, for she has true love, and I do not."

"Does not your husband, the Lord of the Dead, love you?" the god asked.

"No," she said. "Death is cold and impartial. Death comes to all in even measure; he plays no favorites, and he cannot love. He took me when he was younger, when he thought perhaps a mare could awaken his heart and teach him how to feel love, but a dead heart cannot beat. And while ponies love the joyous dreams I craft for them, they fear the dark ones, and call me Nightmare, though such dark dreams are often what they need to warn them of a danger in their future or to help them resolve a conflict in their heart. No one loves me, god of breaking rules. And so I envy your love."

"Then it is too bad that I will never get free of this prison," the god lamented. "For I could bring you with me to the surface world, when I bring my love, and you could walk among ponies as one of their own, and befriend them. You are a beautiful mare; surely somepony would love you! It's a tragedy that such beauty should be held tightly in the hooves of one who cannot feel love. But there is nothing I can do, for I cannot escape this stone."

"I could help you," the Lady of Dreams said. "Perhaps I could persuade my husband to free you... but you would have to promise to free me when you rescue your love. I am tired of seeing the world only through the dreams of ponies. I wish to be a pony again and walk on the earth in the light of the moon, not merely drift through dreams."

"I will gladly make that promise," the god said. "But if your husband does not love you, you will never be able to persuade him to free me. He hates me for trying to break his law."

The Lady of Dreams' ears drooped, and her head bowed even lower. But the god said, "However, perhaps you can persuade him to take me from this tomb to torment me."

"To torment you!" the Lady of Dreams cried. "Why would you want me to ask him to do that?"

"Because the darkness and silence and loneliness of a stone prison are worse for me than any pain I could suffer," the god admitted. He might not have admitted to such a thing if he were awake, but this was a dream, and in dreams, all tongues are loosened. "Tell him to put me on display to punish me and teach any who would see me the consequences of breaking the law of life and death. Because he is angry at me, he will follow such a suggestion from one that he trusts, even if he does not love her. And if you say such things to him then he will not believe that you are conspiring with me. He'll never see it coming."

"My heart is soft, and I will have difficulty doing as you say," the Lady of Dreams said. "But it is much as with the dark dreams I bring; if I bring you suffering in this way, it may be to your benefit. So I will do it."

Thus she went to her husband, and said, "My lord, I think you have made a mistake, locking the god of breaking rules away in a dark stone prison."

The Lord of the Dead scowled at her. "It is no more than he deserves!"

"True, but perhaps it may be less than he deserves," the Lady of Dreams said. "He tried to break your law, and yet you put him in a dark place where he will be forgotten, and none will remember his transgression. A foal cannot learn from the consequences that others suffered if he never learns that others suffered consequences. Would it not be better to punish him publicly, and thus let all know what dire fate lies in store for any who break your laws?"

The Lord of the Dead considered this. "Your words have merit, my wife," he said. "I will consider this."

It is the nature of those who rule without compassion and with inflexible laws that they take pleasure in the thought of the punishments meted out to those who break the law. So this plan pleased the Lord of the Dead, and he set to carrying it out.

So the god of breaking rules was dragged from his stone tomb to be tormented and put on display. They put an iron ring on his horn, to keep him from using his magic, and then began the torment, at the orders of the Lord of the Dead.

Imps and goblins whipped him, but they did not remove Bear's thick coat from his back, so his suffering was not too severe. The Lord of the Dead saw this and felt that the torment was not enough.

Ifrits and windigos lowered him by his wrists into a pit of flame, but his dragon tail was impervious to flame, so he did not burn. The Lord of the Dead was angered, and felt that the torment was not enough.

Changelings and rock monsters held him down, by his limbs, his tail, his wings and his head, and a venomous toad was brought, to spit into his eyes. This caused him terrible pain, and the god writhed and screamed and begged, so at last the Lord of the Dead was satisfied that the torment was enough. The venom corroded the god's very eyeballs, turning whites and iris both to a solid yellow, the color of the clear liquid that seeps from a wound or the crust that forms around one that is healing. It sank into his pupils and stained them blood red, tearing one open wider and causing the other to curl inward on itself with pain, making it smaller.

Now that he had been punished, he was placed on display. He was bound into a ball of concentric iron rings, where one ringed him from head to tail, and the others circled around him, and the ball was hung suspended from the ceiling in the court of the Lord of the Dead. His arms were suspended above his head. His mouth was clamped shut with an iron muzzle, which was bound to the ring in front of him, so he was forced to lower his head. His legs were spread and bound to the two sides of the ring that circled him top to bottom, where they intersected with the lowest of the rings that went around him back to front. His tail and wings were bound to the rings as well.

There is no day or night in the Land of the Dead, so the god could not know how long he hung there, being shown to all the spirits and demons of the Land of the Dead as a demonstration of why no one should try to break the rule of life and death. They pelted him with rotten things, and dirt, and sometimes rocks; those that had lips to do so spat in his face and his eyes, which were healing but still in great pain from the venom; and sometimes creatures bit him and drank some blood or nibbled at some flesh. The time he hung in the cage was misery, yet for all his suffering, he still thought it better than the stone tomb. His eyes burned, but they could still see somewhat, so the fact that he was in the dim light of the Palace of the Dead was an improvement over the darkness of a stone tomb. And if only he could get his muzzle free so he could talk, he had a plan to escape.

At times he was left alone; even in the Land of the Dead, where none do truly sleep, there are times of rest. During those times, when none could see him, he pulled at the iron muzzle, hour by hour, day by day. Sweat, and occasional blood from the times when something they threw hit his face, slid down his face and under the muzzle, and the moisture made it easier for him to slip it off, a width of a single hair at a time. As he pulled and pulled, his muzzle lengthened and thinned, until at last when he pulled free, he resembled a goat more than a pony. But now, at least, he could speak.

"Iron, you are so very strong," he said, praising his captor. "So very steadfast! Why, as hard as I have tried to escape you, all I have managed to do is free my mouth, and that at the cost of warping my face into a new shape. I do not think I would dare do that for any of my limbs or my tail!"

"That is wise," Iron said. "Because what you say is true. I am strong, and I am steadfast. I alone have the power to break magic, or to channel it. Swords made from me can cut any other metal, and shatter even crystals that are too hard to cut. I can make a wheel for a pony's carriage that will never wear out, or be the beams of a house so tall a pony cannot easily see the top."

"You are very impressive," the god agreed. "And yet I see that no other metal embraces you easily! Copper is well loved, marrying with zinc, tin or aluminum; gold and silver mate freely with each other, or with copper; yet the only substance that embraces you is the ash that is the essence of life, and that is no metal. Aren't you lonely with no other metal to love you?"

"I am lonely," Iron admitted. "The ash of life is imbued in me to strengthen me against water and make me shine bright, but the substance of life mates with all things, and gives its best attention to the things that live. I would like to know the embrace of another metal. But if it is not to be, then so be it. I remain steadfast in my duties."

"Well, Iron," the god said. "I know of a love spell that would make you irresistible, and cause other objects made of metal to embrace you passionately even without fire to melt you into one another. You could remain steadfast in your duties, never melting, and still know the loving touch of metal."

"But why would you give me such a thing?" Iron asked. "I am your captor; my duty is to hold you fast, so others can see the folly of doing as you have done. Why would you do anything to aid me?"

"You are so steadfast, I have come to recognize that I will never be free unless you release me, and you are so sworn to your duties, that will not happen unless the Lord of the Dead commands it," the god said. "I will be your prisoner for a very long time. So is it not better for me to do favors for you, so that you will treat me more kindly? You hold me still in this ball, but the ball hangs from a chain of you, which can swing back and forth. If you could find it in your heart to hold that motion still, so that those who come to torment me cannot fling me about, my situation would be much improved, but I would still be your prisoner and it would be no violation of your duty to do such a thing."

"So you are bargaining for better treatment," Iron said.

"Yes. Is it working?" asked the god.

"I would like to know the love of another metal," Iron said. "Very well, god of breaking rules. I will hold you still, and in return you will cast a love spell on me that will make me irresistible."

"Oh, but there is only one problem," the god said. "You are also blocking my magic. I cannot cast any spell without it."

"I will not free your horn," Iron said. "That would be dereliction of my duties. But I can stop breaking the magic you cast, so that you can cast one spell. After that I must block your magic again."

"That is fair," the god said.

So Iron freed the god's magic for one spell. And the god broke the rule of up and down, and cast it onto Iron. Normally things are flung from the sky alone, and cling to the ground alone, unless they are fastened or catapulted. But the force of the god's love spell, cast on Iron, caused it to love itself so much that it would cling to itself, without fastening, and with force as great as the force that makes things cling to the ground. Yet as the cage collapsed in on itself, the rings that bound the god twisting to embrace each other, Iron came to hate itself so much for falling for the god's trickery that parts of it were repulsed from other parts with a force as strong as that which makes things fall from the air. And that is why Iron alone is magnetic.

The twisting of the cage as it came together tore the god's limbs off entirely, for his limbs were not as strong as iron, and when iron chains and iron rings clung fast to each other it was soft flesh that gave way. But the iron ring on his horn flew free and clung to the other parts of Iron, so the god's magic was freed moments before his limbs were torn from him. With all his power returned to him, it was a simple matter to break the rule of iron, and make the cuffs that still held his body parts corrode into rust even without the presence of water. With the cuffs corroded, the body parts were freed, and the god's magic summoned all his parts back to him and reassembled himself. He healed his eyes so he could see as well, but the god of breaking rules cannot perform any magic that does not break a rule, so the rule he chose to break was the one that said that healed wounds should look healed. So his eyesight was restored, but the appearance of his eyes after they'd been burned by the venom remained.

Wasting no time, now that his body was restored, he went straight from the Lord of the Dead's palace to find his love.

Author's Note

Added a small bit back in Chapter 4 to account for Discord's brown body coat; somehow I completely forgot about that one when I was assembling all his body parts. It gets referenced in this chapter, too.

"The ash of life" = carbon. Steel is made from iron and carbon. Alloys with iron are a lot rarer and/or more modern than alloys of anything else, except for iron and carbon. In my headcanon, iron is rare in Equestria, and largely used only in applications where its strength is vital or its property of defusing magic is needed. The idea that iron defuses magic comes from the concept of cold iron burning the fae, in European folklore.

The Lady of Dreams is based partly on the legend of Persephone, but I'm sure you can all see there's another character that's had a much stronger influence. :-)

Chapter 7

While the Lord of the Dead and his court did rest, the god of breaking rules slithered stealthily through the palace like his child Snake, avoiding the guards. Soon he came to the gate of the palace, which led out to the Elysian Fields. A single Orthros sat inside the gate, guarding it. He cried and whined, pulling at his chain. The Orthros, like the hydra, break the rule of heads, so they are the god's children as well.

The Orthros barked. "Halt! Who goes there? You are a stranger!"

"I'm no stranger, my son," the god of breaking rules said. "I look very different, I know, but smell me. I am the god of breaking rules, who created you!"

The Orthros sniffed. "You do not smell quite the same as the god of breaking rules," the Orthros said. "I smell many creatures on you. I smell dragon, and bear, and lion, and goat, and eagle, and even the venom of a toad."

"Yes, all those things are true," the god said. "But my head is still the same head as I have always had."

The Orthros sniffed the god's head. "It is true. You are the god of breaking rules, who created me," the Orthros said, and then whined. "But I wish you had not! I am so very sad!"

"Tell me why you are sad," the god said. "If it is within my power to help you, I will do so, in exchange for a small favor from you."

"My brother is dying," the Orthros said. "One of his heads was torn off in the battle, and now he only has one, and is dying from the lack. We were pups together! We played together, we ate together, we trained together! We thought we would die in battle together, but now he is going on without me! He will enter the Elysian Fields, while I remain behind as the sole guard for the palace, and we will be separated!"

"But you are a mortal dog, even though you serve the Lord of the Dead," the god said. "Someday you too will die, will you not? And then you will join your brother."

"No, god of breaking rules, I am not fully mortal, nor is my brother," the Orthros said. "We can die in battle, but the Lord of the Dead has withdrawn the boon of mortal aging from us, that we may serve him the longer. It may be centuries or millennia before I finally fall in battle myself and rejoin my brother, and will he even remember me then? I do not want to go on without my brother, but I am a faithful dog and I must remain alive to serve my master!" The Orthros whined pitifully again.

"There may be a way I can help you," the god said. "Let me go and see."

Back into the palace he crept, seeking the kennels. In the kennels, he found the dying Orthros, bandaged and lying on clean and comfortable straw, where he was placed to await his end. The dying, one-headed Orthros whimpered.

"Oh, heroic Orthros, who lost his head in battle," the god said. "I am the god of breaking rules, who created you. Are you suffering now? Is there anything I can do to ease your pain?"

"My master's dog handlers have given me potions to take the pain away," the dying Orthros said. "I am only suffering because I know that soon I will be leaving my beloved brother! I would never choose to leave him behind, but my master the Lord of the Dead will not stay his hoof for even a faithful servant as I have been. Soon my master will come to escort me to the Elysian Fields, and I will be separated from my brother for what may be aeons."

"Well, I have a possible solution for this," the god of breaking rules said. "I have already broken the rule of heads to make you, the Orthroi. I can break it again and place your living head on your brother's body. Your soul and his will combine and become one, and never will you be separated again in this or any other lifetime."

"I would be greatly thankful if you could grant me such a boon," the Orthros said. "I don't fear death, but I don't want to leave my brother."

So the god of breaking rules returned to the first Orthros, carrying the head of the second. "Oh Orthros, let me break the rule of heads for you and your brother and fasten his to your body. Your souls will combine into one dog with three heads, and you will never be separated again. Your brother has already agreed."

"I agree as well," the Orthros said.

"Then all I ask is that you turn all three heads away and do not bark or attempt to stop me when I travel from this palace to the Elysian Fields."

"But you are alive," the Orthros said. "The living are not permitted to go to the Elysian Fields."

"I am the god of breaking rules, and that is a rule," the god said. "Would you like me to save your brother and join him with you or not?"

"I am a faithful dog," the Orthros whined. "But I love my brother. Very well, Father, I will not stop you from breaking this rule."

So the god joined the head of one Orthros to the body and two heads of another, creating Kerberos, the dog of three heads. And Kerberos was joyful, for he was both of the brothers at the same time, and never would they be separated again. So he held his bark and did not give chase when the god of breaking rules snuck through the gate, out of the palace, into the Elysian Fields.

The Elysian Fields are the most wondrous paradise a pony can imagine. The grass that grows plentifully is the most delicious and filling of all grasses, tasting better than the apples of the mortal world. There are apples too, and carrots, and many delicious flowers, surpassing the most delightful of their kind that mortals can know. In the Elysian Fields, the shades of dead ponies, and other dead creatures, romp and play endlessly, without suffering or age, so long as they died without evil in their hearts. The only sorrow that anypony in the Elysian Fields might ever encounter is the sorrow of parting from the loved ones and friends who still live.

For most ponies, this is merely a bittersweet tang, for they know that all ponies are mortal. In the fullness of time, the friends and family they loved will come to join them. But for one pony, the sorrow could not be eased. Even as wondrous as the Elysian Fields were, her heart still hurt her, for she had loved an immortal god, and she knew that by the nature of things a god would not normally ever die. Thus she believed that she had lost her love forever.

She sat by the banks of the River Lethe, gazing into the water – which did not show her reflection, as she was a shade, but she knew well how she had appeared in life, and through the magic of the Elysian Fields so her shade appeared to be. She had the whitest of coats, and a lovely pink mane, and beautiful purple eyes. But her colors were all faded with her sadness, for even though she was in paradise, her loneliness could not be consoled.

And then she heard his voice. "My love!"

She turned and beheld him. His body was strange and patchworked now, his face twisted and pulled, his once-handsome eyes corroded; but she could hear in his voice and see in what remained of the face he had once had that he was her lover, the god of breaking rules. Swiftly she got to her hooves and galloped to him, embracing him. "Oh, I don't know whether to be overjoyed or stricken with grief!" she said. "I have missed you so much, but after my passing I took comfort in the fact that at least you were alive. Now you have come to me, and we can be together once more, but this must mean that you are dead as well!"

"But I'm not," the god of breaking rules said. "I have gone through many hardships and broken many rules to get here, and as you can see, I bear the scars of my trials." He gestured at his body, so changed from what she remembered. "But I am still alive, my dear, and I intend to bring you back with me to the land of the living."

"That doesn't seem right," the mare said. "It is the rule that the dead should remain dead, and the living shall not join them until they too are dead."

"Why am I the god of breaking rules if I cannot break the one rule that has caused me and my love the greatest misery?" the god of breaking rules said. "Come, my dear, surely you know where your bones are laid. Take me to them that I may restore you to life."

The beautiful mare did have some misgivings still, but she was merely a mortal and her lover was a god. Surely, she thought, if this thing he is doing is evil, he would know and he would not do it, for he is my love, and a god, and a good stallion at heart. She trusted in her god lover, and did not protest again. She guided her love to her own tomb, where her bones lay beneath the earth. "It will be wonderful if I can walk in the world again," she said. "But if your magic should fail in this, do not grieve. It makes me so very happy that you would try to reunite us in this way, it could hardly numb such happiness even if we do not succeed."

"Oh, but I will succeed," he said. "I stole the clay of Nature, which she uses to create all life." He gestured, and the beautiful mare's bones reassembled themselves into her skeleton. "Put on your skeleton, please, so I may clothe you in flesh."

She stepped into her skeleton and the god of breaking rules went to work. Though he had never created a creature from the clay of life before – his children were creatures who Nature had made from the clay and allowed him then to transform as he would, breaking the rules she had set in their beginning – he had seen Nature do it many times, and he knew what to do. It was easier than Nature's work, for he was creating a pony out of the bones of a pony, not a creature who had never before existed out of nothing but the clay.

First he coated her bones with clay, covering every white sliver, and the clay became her flesh and organs. He then wove the weaver's thread of life all around her body to cover her with skin and re-create her beautiful white coat. Then, remembering how Sky had loved his gift of pegasi, and how the pegasus ponies had loved his gift to them of Sky, he took some of his own feathers from his back. At that time, his feathers were dark brown, as was his leather wing, for he had received them from Eagle and Bat. He washed the brown color off of them in the river Lethe, taking care not to allow droplets to touch himself or his love. Then when they were dry, he stitched them into the shape of two wings with the weaver's thread and the clay, and fastened them to his love's back.

"Why have you given me wings?" she asked.

"Wings are beautiful, and you are beautiful. You deserve to be able to soar in the sky with me," he said.

Then a shadow, dark as the night sky, fell across the two.

"You promised to free me when you freed your love," the Lady of Dreams said coldly. "Did you forget your promise?"

"Did I make you a promise?" the god asked. "I've made so many promises, I can hardly keep track."

His love struck her hoof against his withers. "The Lady of Dreams deserves more respect than that from you," she said sharply, and turned to the Lady. "My apologies, my Lady. What was the nature of the bargain you and he made?"

"I helped him to escape from my husband, the Lord of the Dead, so he would be able to find you and free you," the Lady said. "In exchange, he promised to free me. I wish to walk in the world again as a living pony. The Lord of the Dead took me from the surface world to be his wife, so very long ago when I was hardly more than a filly, but he has no love for me, or anyone, for the heart of death is cold. I wish to live again, and feel love."

"Then you shall have that," the mortal mare said. "Love, how can we help the Lady of Dreams return to life? Do you have any more clay?"

The god of breaking rules shook his head. "I used it all on you," he said. "There's no way I can get any more to clothe the Lady of Dreams in flesh again."

"Well, then it is quite simple," the mortal mare said. "For it is in the power of living mares, clothed in flesh, that they may clothe new spirits in flesh and bring them into life, with the power of their wombs. Take my womb and use its power to give the Lady of Dreams a living body, like mine."

"If I do that you will never have children," the god objected.

"If she had not helped you, I would still be fleshless and trapped forever in death, and the dead do not bear children either. Let her be my sister, clothed in my flesh but of mare's age, not a daughter to be foaled."

The god was reluctant, but he had never been able to deny his love anything, and it was her goodness of heart and generosity that had drawn him to love her at the first, so what choice did he have? He took her womb from her and molded it around the spirit of the Lady of Dreams. The Lady had been mortal far too long ago for even her bones to still remain, but she had been the wife of a god and had been granted some of a god's power. She dreamed her bones and her flesh and her skin into place, and the god molded the clay around her dreams. Her dreams were so powerful that they leaked out all around the god as he worked, and stained him like ink. He broke the rule of ink for his face and all the parts of him that he could see, but because he could not see his own wings behind him, they were stained blue like the dream of a bird winging through the bright blue sunlit sky, or the dream of a bat singing to the dark blue night.

"Now there is one more thing," the god said. "I promised Sun and Moon that I would give their hearts to mares who walk on the surface of the earth, so that they could reunite as sisters. Since you are to return to life as sisters, let me give to you the hearts of the Sun and the Moon." The god knew that if he did this the two mares would be filled with the power of the Sun and the Moon, and would be as immortal as gods once they returned to the land of the living. He could keep his promises to the Sun and the Moon and also ensure that he would never lose his love to death again.

"I do not know if I am worthy to carry the heart of the Sun," his love said. "I am but a mortal mare."

"But I am the wife of a god," the Lady of Dreams said. "I must keep the power of dreams, or else who will ensure that ponies receive the right dreams at night? The heart of the Moon would be well suited to me." She turned to the mortal mare. "And you have given me your own flesh to give me life, and made me your sister. If I am worthy of the heart of the Moon, how could you, the lover of a god and the sister of the Moon, possibly not be worthy of the heart of the Sun?"

The mortal mare agreed with some reluctance that this was the case, for she was humble, but not foolishly so.

The god gave his love the heart of the Sun, and wrapped her head and her tail in the scarf that was made from the sky's sundress, so it became her mane and her tail. He gave the Lady of Dreams the heart of the Moon, and wrapped her head and tail in the scarf made from the sky's nightgown, so it became her mane and tail.

"Oh, it burns!" his love cried out. "The heart of the Sun burns inside me! Oh, I fear I will explode, or char to ashes!"

"The heart of the Moon is cold like ice!" the Lady cried. "I fear I will freeze!"

Acting quickly, the god removed his own horn and broke it in half, placing one half on each of the sister's foreheads so they would be able to control the power of magic. In so doing he truly made of them gods, for with wings and horns they were now alicorns, and could safely wield the vast powers he had just granted them. As for himself, he took the goat's horn and the stag's antler he had in his bag, and stuck them on his own head to serve in place of his horn.

No sooner had he done this than the Lady of Dreams cried out. "Oh, no! My husband is rousing, and he will come and attack us! He will never let us escape back into the surface world!"

"We'd best hurry!" the mare who now bore the heart of the Sun said. "How shall we leave?"

"We must go through the gate of horn," the Lady, who now bore the heart of the Moon, said. "It is the gate of true dreams. From there we can escape."

The three of them flew quickly to the gate of horn. However, when they stepped through, the god of breaking rules struck one of the pillars, and it shattered into a thousand little horns, which he gathered into his bag.

"What are you doing?" the Moon mare asked frantically. "Now true dreams cannot come to ponies!"

"The gate will be repaired, eventually, but now it will be hard for the Lord of the Dead to send the righteous and truthful against us," the god said. "Also, these horns might come to be useful."

"But if he cannot send the righteous and truthful against us, he can just send the false and the cruel," the Moon mare said.

"How many of them were in the Elysian fields?" the god asked. "We already knew we would need to fight our way through monsters, for all of the unrighteous dead lay ahead of us, and many monsters. I don't wish to harm the righteous dead, and I doubt that the two of you do either. This way, our enemies will be those we can pit our full might against."

"Let us hurry," the Sun mare said. "I will fight if I must, but it would be best if we went as quickly as we might, so there will be fewer foes to stand in our way."

The god of breaking rules and the Moon mare agreed with this, and so the three of them flew through the land of the dead, preparing their magic to fight.

Author's Note

Kerberos is the original Greek spelling (or most accurate transliteration thereof) of Cerberus.

Chapter 8

In the land of the dead there are fearsome creatures who are nonetheless noble, and serve the Lord of the Dead lawfully, such as the orthroi, the manticores and the wyverns. But there are also ferocious monsters and horrifying beasts. Timberwolves, hydras, harpies, and emponysas were only some of the creatures the Lord of the Dead could send against them. There were also ghastly undead creatures, zomponies and vamponies, shadow ponies and nightmare monsters, spirits of hatred and disharmony. And there were all of the unrighteous dead, many of whom were angry at the god of breaking rules for leading them into a battle they could have never won.

In addition, the Lord of the Dead was able to use the gate of ivory, which is the gate of illusions and false dreams, to send illusions to confuse them. But the Lady of Dreams dispelled the falsehoods and the nightmares with her power over dreams, and the light of the Moon shining from her horn, illuminating the darkness. The god of breaking rules persuaded many of the monsters, who were his children, to let them pass. And his love, the Sun mare, shone the pure light of day on vamponies and shadow ponies, and they vanished in the light.

Once they had passed through the monsters, they were faced by an army of the unrighteous dead. "God of breaking rules! You betrayed us!" shouted Futile Ambition, whose ambitions had returned to him when the god had been defeated by the hydra, some time ago. "You said you would fight the Lord of the Dead with us, and you lied!"

"If the Lord of the Dead was your enemy, and you wished to fight him, why do you fight for him now?" the Sun mare asked.

"Because he has promised us the Elysian Fields if we defeat the god of breaking rules!"

"But he cannot give to you the Elysian Fields. They are for the righteous, and you are the unrighteous dead," the Sun mare said. "Only if you repent of your sins in life and embrace the harmony of friendship with your fellow ponies can you reach the Elysian Fields, and you will never achieve that by fighting."

"Even if we were to repent, we are to be tortured in Tartarus forever, unless we serve the Lord of the Dead and do his bidding! So we must fight you!"

"Do you truly wish to fight us? Or do you wish to see the Sun and Moon again, and be freed of the darkness within you, and thus enter the Elysian Fields? For I believe that the Lord of the Dead is wrong to imprison and torture anypony for eternity. I believe that anyone who truly repents should be allowed their freedom, to join the ones that once they loved in the Elysian Fields. Embrace harmony, and I tell you, I will make a path for you to enter Paradise. Or refuse, and fight us, and my sister and I will ensure you are banished to the darkness, until the day you do repent."

"And who are you to say such things?" the unrighteous dead demanded. "You are only a dead mortal pony, just like we are!"

"I was a dead mortal pony," the Sun mare said. "But now I live again, and the Sun lives inside me, and I walk beside my sister, the Moon. That is how I can say such things."

The wicked dead were restless. Some wished to take her offer, for after so many years of unending torment they had come to repent of their sins, but they could not imagine how she and her companions could defeat the forces arrayed against them. Some wished to smite her all the more, for sometimes when we have lost hope for so very long, the thought of it coming back offends us. And some laughed, for they had no desire to repent, only to escape their punishment.

While they shifted amongst themselves, the Sun mare said to the Moon mare, "I know you were mortal a very long time ago, but do you remember the legend of the Elements of Harmony?"

"I was mortal a very long time ago, but I have walked in the dreams of mortals ever since that time," the Moon mare said. "I do remember. The six Elements combined are said to have power over even the gods, for if the gods do not act in harmony, why then are they gods?"

The god of breaking rules was troubled by such talk. It is very, very rare that breaking a rule should ever lead to harmony. "They won't hesitate for long. We need to fight back, not talk of childhood stories."

"No, my love. We will never win in a fight; look how many legions of wicked dead there are, and how many monsters! What we must do is bring harmony to our enemies, so they will no longer be our enemies."

"And those who may choose to be enemies after that, we will seal away until they repent of their wickedness," the Moon mare said.

"I don't see where I fit into this," the god said crossly. "Now that you have a sister, you no longer care about me?"

The Sun mare sighed. "You're wrong, love. The Elements of Harmony are Honesty, Kindness, Generosity and Loyalty, but there are two more. Laughter, for how can we achieve harmony if we suffer stress and tension all the time? Laughter lets ponies at odds with each other relax and enjoy the company of the other... and there are very few ways to create Laughter that don't involve breaking a rule." She placed her hoof on his paw. "You always made me laugh."

The god was somewhat mollified, hearing the calm and gentle words of his love. "What is the sixth?"

"Why, the sixth is the very force that brought you here, the force that led my sister to join us, the force that binds us three together. It is Love – the love shared in bedrooms, the love between parent and child, the love of sisters... the love of friends. My sister showed you friendship when you were imprisoned, because she longed for love, and now we are all three together. In Harmony. Do you understand?"

The god of breaking rules understood very little about Harmony, but he did understand love, and agreed that Love as a principle could include him as well. Had he not stormed the gates of the Land of the Dead for love, and had he not been transformed irrevocably by it? In any case, he would never admit that there was anything he didn't understand. "Yes, of course I do," he said.

"Then let us act," the Moon mare said.

But the Sun mare held her gaze for one moment. "We are sisters. We should know each other's names," she said.

"It was too long ago that I was mortal. I no longer remember my name," the Moon mare said.

The Sun mare nodded. "Then choose one. And I will choose a new one also, for I am no longer the mare I was when last I walked the earth. We are truly both born anew and should have new names."

The Moon mare agreed. Then the two rose into the cavernous sky of the Land of the Dead, and their horns lit with a light so bright, even the god of breaking rules, who could visit and chat with the Sun, had to shield his eyes. And the Sun mare spoke, in a voice that echoed through the caverns.

"I am Celestia, of the Sun and sky!"

And the Moon mare spoke, in a voice equally as loud, "I am Luna, of the Moon and dreams!"

"And to those who sorrow over their sins in life, we will bring harmony, and free them to enter Paradise!"

"But to those who cling to their wickedness, they will no longer be tortured, but they will be banished to darkness until they repent!"

"With Kindness, that my sister the Moon showed to my love when she helped him to be free of the Lord of the Dead!" And as the Sun mare Celestia spoke, a pink sparkling gem appeared, circling around the Moon mare Luna.

"With Generosity, that my sister the Sun showed to me when she gave up her own womb to give me flesh!" And as the Moon mare Luna spoke, a green gem appeared, circling around the Sun mare Celestia.

"With Honesty, that my sister the Moon brings to ponykind when she carries to them true dreams from the gate of Horn!" And so an orange gem appeared before Luna.

"With Loyalty, that my sister the Sun gives to me and to her love!" And so a red gem appeared before Celestia.

And then Celestia reached down with her forehoof, gesturing for the god of breaking rules to come and join her, but he was uncertain, for the light hurt his eyes and he still felt he was no true part of Harmony.

"Come, my love," Celestia called to him. "We are about to break one of the greatest rules of all – the rule that a pony should endure eternal suffering for their wickedness in life. For a life is short, and eternity is long, and there can never be justice in eternal punishment. This rule is unjust, and we will break it, with your help."

And so the god of breaking rules was convinced, and flew up to join his love and her sister. Celestia called out, "With Laughter, that my love brings to the world through the many rules he breaks!" And a blue gem appeared before him.

And then the two sisters spoke as one. "With Love, which binds ponies to one another, through friendship, through mates of the heart, through parents and foals, through brothers and sisters!" And a final gem appeared before them like a star, and it shone even brighter than before.

The monsters and nightmares and creatures of shadow that still remained cried out as the pure light of harmony dissolved them. The dead who had been wicked in life, but who grieved for their sins, reached to the light, and prayed for redemption in Harmony, and so they were transported to the Elysian Fields. The dead who still turned from the path of righteousness, who clung to their sin and did not repent, were banished from the plains of Tartarus to the darkness out beyond the moon. Sometimes some of these wicked creatures manage to slip back to earth and invade the dreams of the living, but the Moon mare Luna, the Lady of Dreams, continues to protect us from them, banishing them from our nightmares to this day.

As all the dead were dispelled, some to an eternity in the paradise of the Elysian Fields, some to lonely darkness, the Lord of the Dead appeared. Before, he had been proud, and arrogant, and cruel, for his dominion had been absolute. Now he was humbled before the power of Harmony, but still he sought to enforce the law of life and death.

"Do not do this," he pleaded with them. "Can you not be content as goddesses who live within the Sun and Moon, without flesh? You are dead, both of you. If you break the law of life and death by returning to the land of the living, you will break everything. If you value Harmony, you must not do this."

The sisters looked at each other in trepidation, for they both valued Harmony and had no desire to break the world. But the god of breaking rules laughed. "That's what everyone says, every time I break a rule! Oh, god of breaking rules, do not give wings to ponies, for ponies are not birds and shouldn't have wings! And yet I did, and ended the loneliness of the sky, and made the ponies I touched delighted with the gift of flight! Oh, god of breaking rules, do not give creatures extra heads, for creatures should have only one head! And yet I took your own faithful hound, who was so saddened by his brother's dying that he wished to follow his brother into death, and I took his brother's head while he still lived and joined it to him, and now they are one hound with three heads, as loyal and faithful as ever, but happy now for they can never be parted! Oh, god of breaking rules, do not break the rule of fire and death, for creatures who are burned should die! And yet I gave the gift to the phoenix of being restored to life with fire, and she was grateful and happy!"

He landed before the Lord of the Dead, glaring at him with the corroded eyes that the Lord of the Dead's torments had left him with. "Your law, your order, only makes creatures suffer. I gave up almost all the parts of my body to free my love from you. I have sacrificed more than any creature can without dying. And still you would not grant my request, because your rules say that the dead should never return to the living. But I say, rules are suffering! Rules are pain! Your rule said that the wicked dead should suffer eternally, though their crimes were far, far less than an eternity and the suffering they caused could never equal an eternity of suffering. An eternity of suffering! Even if they repented! Because of your rules!"

The god of breaking rules spat on the Lord of the Dead. "You love torturing those who break your rules so much, I freed myself by tricking you into torturing me. You have so little capacity for love and mercy in your heart that you took a young mare, nearly a filly still, and carried her off to be your wife, and yet never in all of this time did you ever love her. I gave her a sister that loves her. And I will make sure that both of those sisters walk in the land of the living again, for they deserve it, and I will not deny such virtuous and magnificent mares the reward they deserve just because you have a rule."

The sisters heard his words, his passion, and they were moved. They heard how he spoke of the happiness he brought by breaking rules, and they considered them. And they heard his reminders of the cruelty of the Lord of the Dead, and they were convinced. If a creature who caused such suffering and did not care, or even was pleased by it, was enforcing a rule, and a creature of such passion, who wanted to bring happiness, wanted to break it, was it not obvious that the rule should be broken? For the sisters were not yet wise, despite all their intelligence and their good hearts, and they did not know that sometimes rules exist for a reason, beyond the nature of who is enforcing or breaking them.

And so the three marched onward, through the now-empty lands of Tartarus, but they did not go to the river. For at the river Styx, the caverns of the Land of the Dead are low, and stalactites hang thick, and even a skilled flyer cannot be certain of crossing the river without falling in... and none of them had bits, so Charon would not take them. Instead, they went to the gates where first the god of breaking rules attempted to breach the land of the dead.

At the seventh gate, the gate of obsidian, the windigos blocked their passage, but Celestia and Luna used the power of Harmony to dispel the windigos into nothingness. And so they passed.

At the sixth gate, the gate of gold, the centaurs blocked their passage, and tried to steal their magic. But Celestia generously bargained with them, giving them two of the horns from the gate of horn. These horns were imbued with magic, and so the magic-hungry centaurs were sated, and let them pass.

At the fifth gate, the gate of silver, the harpies blocked their passage. But Luna kindly combed the fur on their monkey-like heads and bodies to groom them, and preened their wings for them, and for the first time since their vigil began the harpies were comfortable and did not itch. So the harpies were satisfied, and let them pass.

At the fourth gate, the gate of copper, the tigers blocked their passage. But Luna told them the truth – the Land of the Dead was empty of the restless, the wicked and the monstrous, and there was no more need to guard the passage. Tigers are solitary creatures and do not like working together or taking orders. When they heard that the task they'd been bound to no longer had a purpose, the tigers ran away. And so they passed.

At the third gate, the gate of brass, the manticores blocked their passage. But manticores were the children of the god of breaking rules, and fathers know where their children are ticklish. The god of breaking rules tickled the manticores and made them laugh too hard to hold the gates, and so they passed.

At the second gate, the gate of bronze, the griffins blocked their passage. "You may go through," they said to Celestia, "but only you. These others are ugly and stupid." But Celestia took offense at those words, for her loyalty to her sister and her love. She glared at the griffins so fiercely that they took fright, and threatened to bring the might of the Sun against them if they did not take back their insults. The griffins agreed, and in their fear, they let them pass.

At the first gate, the final gate, the gate of iron, the minotaurs blocked their passage. "We are the last line of defense," the minotaurs said. "We have been charged with keeping the dead from entering the land of the living, and we will keep to our charge no matter what."

"But these mares are alive, and so am I," said the god of breaking rules.

"The living cannot enter the land of the dead without sacrificing all that they are."

"And I have done so. Don't you remember me? You took my horn."

The minotaurs scowled. "You tricked us! That horn was made of paper."

Celestia, Luna and the god of breaking rules all attempted to open the iron gate, but iron absorbs magic, and held a grudge against the god of breaking rules. It swallowed their magic and would not let them go. The minotaurs stood stern, refusing to move, and without being able to use magic against them, Celestia, Luna and the god of breaking rules could not defeat them.

Through the iron grate that served as the gate to the land of the living, there were ponies, for the god of breaking rules had worn away the stone that blocked the passage from their sight. Many ponies had come to the gate, hoping to find the ones they had loved. "Ponies!" Celestia called out to them. "I have come from the land of the dead, and I can give you news of the ones you loved! But we need more magic to open the gate, for iron swallows magic and we need more than we have!"

One of the ponies spoke. "But we are mere mortal ponies of earth, Goddess," he said. "We could try to kick down the gate, but the minotaurs have swords and could stab us through the gate!"

"Yes, that is exactly what we'll do if you try to kick down this gate," the minotaurs said. "Challenge us, and you'll meet a dire fate!"

"But if you had horns, you could use magic!" Celestia said. "Sister!"

Luna threw the bag of horns to Celestia. The minotaurs moved in on Celestia with their swords, to take the bag of horns from her, but she tossed it to her love... who emptied the bag by flinging its contents through the iron grate.

The ponies saw the horns, like the horns of the gods and goddesses but much smaller, and knew what they needed to do. They took the horns and put them on their heads, and gained the power of magic. With many, many ponies who wanted news of their friends and loved ones using their magic, the gate was forced open and the minotaurs were forced to flee.

Within the antechamber, hidden from the sunlight and moonlight of the lands of living ponies, Celestia told the ponies of their loved ones, many of whom she had met in the Elysian Fields. Ponies, unlike the god of breaking rules, can be satisfied even if those they love are dead, so long as they know their loved ones are happy in a land of paradise, for they know they are mortal and in the fullness of time they will join the ones who went ahead. They were pleased with the news Celestia brought, and they dispersed, leaving the tunnel with their new horns on their heads. And that is why the unicorns can wield the power of magic, for the power of magic is the power of love and friendship, which drove them to brave the gate to the land of the dead.

The god of breaking rules went ahead of the sisters, eager to be free of the confines of the rocky tunnel. He floated in the air outside, breathing deeply of its freshness, enjoying the warmth of the Sun on his back. "Celestia, Luna, come on!" he called to them, and if they had had any doubts, those were dispersed by his enthusiasm. With equal eagerness, they ran to join him, and those who had been dead came out, alive again, into the land of the living, carrying the hearts of the Sun and the Moon within them.

And above them, in the sky, Moon was yanked into the sunlit sky by the presence of her heart, and the presence of her own heart froze Sun in place. Never again would they move on their own, as the harmony of the world broke. The sky stopped as well, as the laws of everything shattered.

Author's Note

Emponysa = empusa, a little-known monster from Greek myth.

Harpies were birds with women's heads and bodies; in Equestria, they have monkey heads and bodies, because that's how MLP handles creatures that are supposed to be half-human like minotaurs and centaurs.

Chapter 9

The ponies of the world cried out in fear to see the Sun and the Moon both in the sky at the same time, but it was not the first time; the god of breaking rules himself had caused an eclipse in his quest to save his love.

However, the sisters could feel the stuttering of their hearts, as the natural order fell to pieces around them. “Something is wrong,” Celestia said. “Do you feel it, sister?”

Luna nodded. “I should not be out in the daylight. We should share our time on this world, but not our time in the sky.”

The god of breaking rules laughed. “Don’t be silly! Is there a good reason you shouldn’t share time in the sky? Do either of you remember how Moon missed her sister, and Sun wanted jewels like her sister’s stars, and I gave them the gift of an eclipse, breaking the rules of night and day? This is much the same as that, and nothing to worry about!”

“No,” Celestia said. “Something is wrong, my love. I can feel it.”

Luna said, “The sun and the moon have come to a halt. They are supposed to go around the world on their own, but I can feel that they have stopped. The world will burn if they don’t move! There will never be a night again!”

“I believe we can move them ourselves,” Celestia said. “Let us try, sister! The hearts of the Sun and the Moon beat inside us; surely we have the power to move them, as once they moved themselves!”

“Yes, let’s try it!” Luna said.

The sisters reached out to the sun and the moon with their telekinesis, and the sun and the moon responded, for the sisters who had once been mortal ponies now bore the hearts of the Sun and the Moon, and so they were the Sun and the Moon. On their flanks, images of their hearts’ essences appeared as their cutie marks—the Sun on Celestia, and the Moon on Luna. Celestia was able to make the sun set, bringing the nightfall, and Luna brought the moon to the center of the sky. She then re-arranged the stars in the sky, which were the Moon’s jewels, for while she had been the wife of the Lord of the Dead, she had never had jewels or beautiful adornments.

The god of breaking rules was relieved. It had never been his goal to destroy the world, after all, and he hadn’t known that putting the hearts of the Sun and the Moon in the sisters would make the Sun and the Moon stop moving on their own.

There were many things the god of breaking rules didn’t know, after all. For sometimes, we break rules, with no understanding of the harmony that we destroy by doing so.

Then the three Fates, and Love, and Nature, all flew down, coming to see what had broken the harmony of the world and made the sun and the moon stop in place.

They looked down on the two new goddesses, horned and winged with the hearts of Sun and Moon inside them, and the Elements of Harmony in those hearts… and they were horrified.

“What have you done?” Sealer said to the god of breaking rules.

“How did you get the thread of life?” Weaver demanded.

“You stole the clay of life from me!” Nature accused.

“That mare with the heart of the Sun is the one you loved, the one who died,” Love said. “And the one with the heart of the Moon is the Lady of Dreams, who was married to the Lord of the Dead, though he could not love her. Both of them are dead, and should not be here!”

Luna snapped, “I was the wife of a god, and a goddess myself. I have every right to be in the world at nighttime.”

“But you aren’t bringing dreams,” Nature said. “You breathe like a living mare, and the blood moves in your veins.”

Spinner said, “I did not start threads for these mares.”

“Because you cut their threads, when they died!” the god of breaking rules said. “But now they are one with the Sun and the Moon, so they have threads as surely as everything does.”

“Then they are gods!” Weaver snapped. “They walk the world like mortals. Gods should live in the lands of the gods.”

“I never did,” the god of breaking rules said.

“Because you’re the god of breaking rules! They aren’t, so they should not be breaking the rules of mortals and gods!”

Nature said, “The harmony of the world has been broken. The sun and the moon no longer spin about the world on their own. The clouds cannot move or make rain. The winds have stopped. The seasons will no longer come. Hear how Sky weeps, for her harmony has been torn from her!”

And indeed, Sky was weeping. Where her eyes were, the clouds poured rain endlessly, but there was no rain anywhere else in the world. Without Sun and Moon moving about within her, Sky could not make winds, or clouds, or seasons.

The god of breaking rules called out. “Sky! Sky, stop weeping! There is a way to solve your problem!”

Sky looked at him angrily. “You have done this to me,” she said, and the rain that came down from her eyes turned to ice, making the lands underneath her face bitterly cold, so cold that Celestia and Luna, even though they were gods now, shivered. “I helped you, and I see you used my gifts to break the law of life and death, and destroy the harmony of the world!”

“Don’t be so upset. There’s a way to fix it,” the god of breaking rules said, after breaking the rule of ice so that he could keep himself, his love and his sister warm despite the icy storm. “I gave you ponies who can fly! Ask those ponies to move the clouds and the wind for you, and make the rain, and the seasons. They love you, sky, they’ll do anything for you. Give them the tasks you can’t do for yourself any longer, and they will take care of you.”

“I will ask them,” the sky said. “But I am still very angry with you! I should be able to do those things for myself, not have to rely on my pony friends!”

“And with the harmony of the world broken, the animals no longer know what to do,” Nature said angrily. “When Sky’s pegasi bring winter, the animals who you gave the gift of winter sleep to will freeze, or never wake from their slumber when spring comes. They will have a hard time finding food, or mates, or living their lives a natural way, as I intended, for you have broken the harmony of the world. Just as you were told would happen, if you broke the laws of life and death.”

“Surely there’s a way to solve that problem, too,” the god of breaking rules said.

“I have already asked ponies to help with it. Many of them turned me down. The ones you gave horns to think they are like gods, and they want nothing to do with the nature of the world. I have had to ask the ones you gave no gifts to.” She smiled thinly. “So I gave them gifts. I gave them strength and the power to call on me, to make plants grow, for you’ve broken the harmony of the world and now only when ponies call on my power can I exist properly in the world anymore.”

“Well, it sounds like the problem is solved, then,” the god of breaking rules said.

“Silence!” Nature howled at him, and in sudden fear, he was quiet. “You think that you can find a solution for every problem. Breaking a rule caused a problem? Never fear, just break another rule! That is not the way we gods built the world. You have broken everything by breaking the law of life and death.”

“We can find solutions for the problems,” Sealer said. “But the fact remains that all the problems are your fault.”

“You were warned,” Weaver said.

“I’m sorry,” Spinner said.

Love said, quietly, “All of the gods met in council when we saw what you had done, and we have decided we must punish you.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Celestia said, defending her love. “You know well that everything he did, he did for me, and to fulfill the promise he made to my sister while he was trying to find his way to me. How can you, Love, say it’s right to punish him, when what he did, he did for love?”

“Because my domain has limits,” Love said. “You are very new to being a god, but you will find that to maintain the world’s harmony, all of us must accept limits on our power. All but the god of breaking rules, who agreed to this when the universe was created, and then went and broke the rules he had already agreed to. Just because you love someone, does not give you the right to destroy the world as we knew it for their sake.”

“Then must we return to the land of the dead?” Luna challenged.

“No,” Weaver said. “In fact, you cannot. You are gods now, and you are the Sun and the Moon. If you were to die, the world would lose Sun and Moon and be locked in lightless darkness forever.”

“We cannot repair the harmony of the world by letting you return to the land of the dead,” Nature said. “We cannot repair it at all, in fact. We will have to rely on ponies to do the things that just a short while ago, happened on their own. And if they fail to do those things, we gods will be powerless, and the world will be destroyed.”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other, and then at the god of breaking rules. “My love… you didn’t warn me this would happen,” Celestia said, troubled.

“How was I supposed to know?” the god of breaking rules asked, desperately.

“Because we told you!” Nature thundered. “Wisdom told you! The weavers told you! I told you! Love would have told you if you’d asked, but by the time you talked to him, we had all told you and we thought you understood! When we told you that breaking the rule of life and death would destroy the harmony of the world, and bring nothing but chaos, what did you think we meant?”

“I had no idea,” the god of breaking rules said. “You never told me what that was supposed to mean. What do I know of harmony? Harmony doesn’t break the rules! Chaos does! Chaos sounded fine to me… and it still sounds okay! So Celestia and Luna will have to move the Sun and Moon themselves, so what? They are the Sun and the Moon now, so that’s to be expected! Sky and Nature will have to ask ponies to help them? Well, ponies are good and love to be helpful, so that’s not going to be a problem! The seasons and the rains won’t come unless ponies help Sky? I gave Sky ponies to help her! The animals won’t remember how to care for themselves without help? Nature, you just said you solved that problem by giving gifts to ponies so they can help you!”

He spun around, pointing at all the ponies who had gathered around the conclave of the gods. “And look, I gave some ponies magic, that before only we gods had! They’ll find new ways to bring harmony to the world! Instead of a small number of gods doing everything that shapes the world, now there are thousands of ponies to help us! I’m sorry your harmony broke, but it sounds like we’ve solved all the problems that that caused, so why are you still so upset?”

Nature shook her head, her eyes dark with anger. “If you still cannot understand what you did wrong, there’s no point in trying to explain it,” she said. “Here is my punishment, god of breaking rules. You will wear this strange shape you earned in your journey to the Land of the Dead forever. You may never again be an alicorn.”

“Don’t be silly, that’s a rule and I’ll break it anytime I want,” the god of breaking rules said.

Nature smiled cruelly. “Not this rule. You can change what you look like from time to time, of course, that is part of your power. But in your essence, in your true form: this is what you will be until the end of time.”

“Well, so what?” the god of breaking rules said, laughing. “The way I look is because many animals gave me gifts, to help me survive when the Lord of the Dead would have me die. Do you think I’m ashamed of it? I think I look quite beautiful, to be honest! Now my very form breaks every rule of animals that there is, and it shows off the generosity of all of Nature’s creations! So if you tell me I must wear this form, I do it gladly, and I will be a demonstration of the kindness of your creatures!”

“I agree,” Celestia said bravely. “If my love must bear the scars and the changes his journey to save me brought about, forever, then those scars and changes are beautiful, for he did it for love.”

“Beautiful is perhaps a stretch,” Luna said, “but he certainly looks like a god of breaking rules should.”

Nature scowled. She didn’t appreciate the god of breaking rules’ lack of concern with the punishment she’d given him.

“We have taken your thread, god of breaking rules,” the Fates said, “and woven a dark future for you, to punish you for breaking the harmony of the world.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t believe fate can affect me,” the god of breaking rules boasted. “If I have a fate, well, then that’s a rule, and I can break it!” He laughed. “Besides. My love is alive, and a goddess now who can never die, so I can never be parted from her again. What kind of dark fate could you possibly come up with that would hurt me worse than losing her did?”

The weavers scowled. The god of breaking rules was entirely too cavalier about the punishment that they were giving him.

Then Love spoke. “You lied to me.”

“Yes, but it was in the cause of love! Your cause! You should have been sympathetic to me to begin with.”

“You lied to me, and got me drunk so that I would give you a potion of lust, to use on Nature. One of my closest friends.”

“To be fair,” Nature admitted, “the potion helped, but if he’d tried to seduce me I probably wouldn’t have said no. He was handsome… then.”

Love ignored Nature. “You used me, to try to carry out this mad plan of yours. When all of us gods warned you, you couldn’t do this thing or it would destroy the harmony of the world, you just did it anyway, and you tricked me into helping you.”

The god of breaking rules laughed nervously. “Well… yes, that’s true, and I’m sorry, but I did it for love. Surely you understand?”

“And what is the worst part,” Love continued, stalking forward toward the god of breaking rules, “is that you keep using my domain to justify this! As if I made you do it! As if, because I gave you the gift of love, you were compelled to break the law of life and death! As if it’s my fault!”

“I never said it was your fault, just that I thought you could sympathize…”

“I don’t give the gift of love to gods so they can ruin the world we all built together! You chose to love a mortal—”

“I didn’t actually choose that. Aren’t you the one who chooses? Or is it random? She was just so perfect I couldn’t help but love her.”

“—and her entire life, you knew she’d die someday, but somehow it took you by surprise!”

“She was too young! If she’d died of old age—”

“Mortals die, god of breaking rules! It’s what they do! But you were shocked, that a mortal died, and you decided, you’d break the law of life and death because it doesn’t matter to you what rules you break or what the consequences are! It doesn’t matter who gets hurt! All that matters is that you get what you want!” Love was now directly in front of the god of breaking rules’ face, shouting.

“I see you’re very angry about this,” the god of breaking rules said, tentatively, “and I’m sorry, I never meant to make you so angry—”

“You didn’t care, though. You never care who gets angry. Who gets hurt. Who gets blamed.” Love grabbed the god of breaking rules’ elongated face. “And you think you will get away with anything you do, and nothing can possibly hurt you.”

“Breaking rules is what I do.”

“Yes. But love is not.” Love released his grip. “So I will take away your love.”

“Wait, what?” The god of breaking rules shook his head wildly. “You can’t do that! You ponies just said that Celestia can’t die!”

Celestia said, “What am I doing here?” She looked around herself in apparent confusion. “I was in the sky… wasn’t I? I thought I was in the sky… Oh, it’s nighttime. I should be on the other side of the world now…”

“No, it’s all right,” Weaver said. “You’re a pony now. You and Moon both.”

“But Moon is in the sky…” Celestia pointed with her hoof.

Luna said, “No, I’m here.”

“Did you take their memories?” the god of breaking rules asked. “You aren’t the god of memory. You can’t do that.”

“No. I’ve taken her love.” Love smiled nastily. “It was the Goddess of Wisdom who took her memories. She knew she could take nothing from you directly, for you have no wisdom. She and I agreed to do this, for gods should not remember being mortal ponies. The Lord of the Dead was wrong to do that to the Lady of Dreams, and you were wrong to do it to the Sun and Moon.”

“Who made us into ponies?” Luna asked.

“That one.” Nature gestured at the god of breaking rules. “The bringer of chaos. The destroyer of harmony.”

“No,” the god of breaking rules said. “No. Celestia—”

“That’s my name, now that I am a pony?”

“Celestia – listen to me, remember me – don’t you remember me? We loved each other.”

“I don’t,” Celestia said. “I’m sorry.”

“No,” he said again. He whirled on Love. “No. Give her back! She loved me! You have no right to take that from her!”

“Do you care that I took her love from her,” Love said, “or do you care that by doing so, I’ve taken love from you?”

“It’s the same thing! Give her back her memories!” He turned to Celestia. “Celestia, try to remember! You died, I went to the land of the dead to bring you back—”

Luna laughed unpleasantly. “That sounds like a lie. No one can come back from the land of the dead.”

Celestia said, “I’m the Sun. How could I have been dead?”

“No, you – you weren’t the Sun, I gave you the heart of the Sun when I brought you back—”

“I don’t see how that’s possible,” Celestia said politely.

“If we are gods, what are we doing here in the world?” Luna asked. “Shouldn’t we be in the land of the gods?”

“You are the Sun and the Moon. You need to remain here in the world to keep your selves in the sky moving,” Nature said.

The god of breaking rules shook his head. “No. No, this is all wrong! This can’t – Luna, you were the Lady of Dreams, remember? You were married to the Lord of the Dead, but he didn’t love you, so you wanted to return to the world of the living, too! And Celestia – you were my love! I sacrificed everything for you! I lost everything of my body but my head and torso, and had to replace all my body parts with different animals. I was imprisoned and tortured , my skull was reshaped, my eyes were damaged, all so I could find you and return you to the land of the living.”

“If that’s true, then thank you,” Celestia said. “I do appreciate all the effort you went to.”

The god of breaking rules began to weep, his golden eyes filling with tears. “Celestia. Celestia, try to remember. We loved each other. We were everything to each other. Can’t you remember?”

“I’m sorry,” Celestia said. “I do appreciate everything you’ve done, and I think I may even have some slight inklings of memory of having been a mortal pony once, but I don’t feel that way about you now. I think it would be best if you found somepony else to love.”

And as she and Luna flew away with Nature and the weavers, Love smiled, and the smile was savage and cruel. “You should not have used me and lied to me, brother,” he said. “But you thought there would never be any consequences for anything you do. Don’t bother trying to find someone else to love, either. I have taken Love away from you. You will never find friendship, or family, or the love of a special somepony, ever again.”

With that, he flew away, leaving the god of breaking rules broken and crying, in pain like he had never imagined before. This hurt far worse than being tortured by the Lord of the Dead. This hurt even worse than losing his love had. Because then he had known she was in the Elysian Fields, in paradise, and still loved him. But now he knew he was nothing to her any longer, the love she had felt for him erased as if it had never been.

He lifted his head, wiping his tears away with his lion paw. He broke a few rules, and this was what they did to him? They thought he was a bringer of chaos and disharmony, just because he wanted one dead mare to live again?

They accused him of breaking the world. Well, then let them, and he would show them just how broken a world could be.

And so he broke all the rules. He broke the rule of gravity, and made houses float. He broke the rule of dimensions, and made things that were solid into things that were flat, as if made of paper. He broke the rules of day and night, over and over. He broke the rules that trees should not walk and that fish should not fly and that roads should not float. He even broke the rule that doors connect two sides equally, and made it so that a door that goes to a new place cannot return a pony to the original place.

They gave him a new name. No longer merely the god of breaking rules, they called him now the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, Discord. And all the gods remained angry with him, except for Sky.

Throughout all of time, Sky has been swift to anger, her rages coming quickly and fiercely, and then swift to forgive and let go, the storms of her fury dissipating quickly. Sky had been enraged when she learned how the god of breaking rules had broken the harmony of the world and made her dependent on her flying ponies, the pegasi. But the pegasi had been a gift from the god, himself. And every time she saw them and delighted in them as they flew within her, she remembered her old friend and how he had given her these ponies as a gift, breaking the rule of ponies and wings to raise them from the earth, up to join her.

So she pleaded with the weavers to show him mercy. “Do not let his future be nothing but darkness,” she said. “Punish him for what he has done and what he is doing, but do not let Love deprive him forever. There was good in him, and even his worst act, when he broke the harmony of the world, he did out of love and kindness.”

The Fates had never liked the god of breaking rules, and liked him less now that he was Discord, but all the gods love Sky, and so they heeded her words. “We will give him a choice,” they said. “He will suffer many years in loneliness, and many more years in loneliness and darkness, but a time will come that one of his children, one of your adopted ones, will offer him friendship. That pony will have the power to see the goodness that you see. And if he accepts that friendship, he will be saved. But if he turns on it and rejects that pony, then his destiny is sealed, and he will know nothing but darkness and loneliness all of his days.”

Sky agreed that this was acceptable. As cats and dogs floated past within her, barking and meowing, with kites chasing them with open maws and clacking teeth, Sky said, “Will anything be done to stop the chaos he is causing now?”

“Celestia and Luna wielded the Elements of Harmony once, to escape the land of the dead,” Sealer said. “They no longer remember that, but Harmony does. Harmony will find a way to reach out to them and restore what has been lost.”

Rock waited patiently.

It had sworn vengeance on the god of breaking rules when he pushed Rock aside with water, to gain access to the land of the dead. It had sworn it again when the Lady of Dreams had tricked the Lord of the Dead into taking the god away from Rock, after Rock had imprisoned him.

Rock was patient, implacable and unmoving.

Someday, Rock would have him again.

Author's Note

I'm fucking DONE! Yes!

I keep going back and forth as to whether this is simply its own thing, like an AU, or if it's a myth from ancient Equestria that Twilight found and translated. The translation theory would explain why the sisters' Elements are wrong, and why there is no foreshadowing of Nightmare Moon... but then why is there foreshadowing of Fluttershy? Why does the Goddess of Wisdom resemble Twilight Sparkle? Is Love's ruthlessness a foreshadowing of Cadance's, or simply a natural part of the story? I don't know, and maybe I never will.

The first four parts of this story were posted November 2013. Among the first things I ever posted for MLP fanfic, and almost literally ten full years ago. I can't believe I got stuck on one chapter for 7 years, but to be fair, I have an original YA novel that is 9 chapters and has been stuck on chapter 9 since the early 1990's, so, you know, it's on brand.