Some Love

Discord lay on the ground, the scorched clay broken by his contortions. His chest heaved up and down as he lay there in agony, blood running fresh down his face. Although the static had since ended, a faint ringing could still be heard in his ears.

“I...” he gasped, eyes wide, staring up at the golden sky, the sun in the corner of one of his eyes and the moon in the corner of the other. “I...”

Discord rolled over on to his side, and looked around, his gaze darting from the ruins of the wall, to the pile of gravel and sand he had vomited, and back again. After a few long moments of catching his breath and surveying the area, Discord pushed himself to his hoof and claw, and set his eyes on Meredith.

She was laying there in the clay, the magic that Discord had used to levitate her having been broken when the sonic attack had begun. He strode over, looking down at her with an expression of annoyance, kicking up bits of clay as he went.

“Now, Meredith, I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” he scolded the mop, cocking an eyebrow and frowning. “It isn’t like you at all to be so rude! First you drive off Celestia, and now you can’t even help me when I fall ill? What’s going on?”

Discord’s frown grew deeper, and his brow knit together. “Meredith, this is no place for name-calling. I’m sure we’re both above that, so please, give it a rest! I know you’re angry, but there was no reason to lash out at Celestia like that! And there was certainly no reason not to help me! My stomach aches so much that I hear a ringing in my ears! This is bad, Meredith, and I expect a little support when things get as bad as this!”

A faint breeze stirred the dust around Meredith, but it was the only noise that came from her general direction.

“And look, now you’ve gone and gotten yourself all dirty,” Discord griped, leaning down and running his paw through her yarn. “Soiled! Soiled and tarnished, just after I gave you a nice bath.”

Meredith said nothing.

Discord gasped in shock. “Meredith! Why, I never... how could you... how could you say something like that?”

The breezle rustled a bit of fluff from one of the yarn strands, and blew some more dirt onto Meredith.

“Well, you know what, Meredith?” Discord said, scowling at her and turning his muzzle up at the mop. “I think that you’ve said quite enough. Don’t bother me with any apologies here, because I simply will not stand for that sort of insult!”

Discord snorted, and looked back and Meredith, breathing heavily. Kicking and driving the clay with his hoof and claw, he made a small noise in the back of his throat, as if he were trying to cough up a hairball.

“I-I think it's best we spent some time apart, Meredith,” Discord choked out, his throat dry. “I really don’t think we should be aggravating this any further. We both need to go, until we calm down, and—”

Discord paused, glaring at the mop. “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Meredith, please, just be courteous for a moment and let us part ways!”

The ruins fell silent, and Discord was left staring at Meredith through angry, hurt eyes.

“I-I don’t know, Meredith.” He turned his back to her, and began to walk away, muttering sadly under his breath. “I just don’t know...”

Discord kicked up some of the sand at his hoof and claw, muttering angrily to himself. He had left the ruins of Canterlot Palace behind, and he was now wandering through the sand-flooded streets of Canterlot itself. A few tops of buildings jutted out here and there, but most were drowned in the sun-beat sands.

“Honestly, I can’t believe she would do something like that...” Discord grumbled. “Today was suppose to be special and she just... ruined it like that!”

His suit ruffles had come undone, and so had his bowtie. Despite himself, Discord had parted his shirt due to the heat.

“Now, Discord, don’t go talking to yourself,” he said, casting glances around at the ruined housetops poking from the mounds of sands. “Ponies are liable to think you’re mad...”

He trudged through the sands in the remains of the once great city, the wind ever so gently blowing bits of sand up in little flurries here and there. His blood on his chin had since dried, and was flaking off gently at the prompting of the breeze.

As he walked, Discord looked down at his hoof and claw occasionally, the hoofprints he left behind in the sand disappearing shortly afterward due to the wind’s effort. After an indeterminate amount of time, however, the sand began to be broken up by a large amount of rocks, chunks of buildings, and shattered bones.

“Oh, look at that, the road is beginning to fall into disrepair,” Discord commented upon seeing the debris scattered through the sand. “I’m all for a good mess, but this is inconvenient; not only that, it’s inconvenient to the only one who matters: me!”

Discord sighed and rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue. “If Meredith hadn’t driven her off, I would be liable to report this to Celestia...”

Walking a few more paces, Discord came across a rather steep dune that formed a berm of sorts. It seemed as though the sand had been intermingled with enough debris, clay, and rocks to not truly be called a dune anymore. It stretched around as far as Discord could see, before him and between two roofs, which blocked his view on either side of him.

“Oh, it seems as though a crowd has gathered here,” Discord said, wiping down his sweaty brow with his paw.

He approached the berm, and, after getting his footing, ascended the steep ten feet towards the top. His paw and talon dug into the dirt to get ample leverage, and in his climb, Discord unearthed a dirtied skull of a pony.

“Oh, pardon me,” he said, holding the skull at an arm’s length and looking deep into the eye sockets. “I just want to see what all the fuss is about, after all.”

Unceremoniously tossing the skull behind him, Discord crawled the rest of the way up the birm, and upon reaching the top, was greeted with a devastatingly magnificent sight.

The birm dropped off down about thirty to forty feet, the hue of the dirt and rocks and clay blackening as they went down. It couldn’t be called a berm here—this was the side of a crater. Discord stood on the edge, looking down over the crater, and the destruction contained within.

Large buildings stood in the crater, smoke rising from them as though they had just been burnt. Calling them buildings was honestly a stretch at this point—they were closer to smouldering pile of tinders with the frames of buildings precariously supporting them.

“What...” Discord whispered, his voice going soft as he gazed over the crater. Something was clicking in his mind, like the end of a vinyl record left too long on a record player...

He slid down the crater, his hoof and claw gliding along the surface without digging in, for whatever caused the blast that formed the crater ensured that the sides had become smooth as glass and just as hard. When he reached the bottom, Discord wandered aimlessly towards the center of the wreckage, weaving in and out of broken buildings and blasted homes.

“What’s all of this? How did I...” Discord paused as he passed over a fallen wall. Before him lay what was mostly likely a wide, busy street at some point. There was a large platform, like a parade float, blackened and fragile, looking as though a stiff wind could blow it to ash.

The buildings all flanking the street has suffered a significant amount more damage than the other buildings in the crater, which was truly saying something. These buildings were nothing more than piles of charred remains with low walls being the only evidence that they were ever buildings. The center of the street, right in front of the platform, was charred to the deepest black that Discord had ever seen, almost like a pool of ink that had been entrenched there.

He said nothing as he walked cautiously over to the platform, giving it a wide berth as he chose to approach the center of the road instead. There was a figure-like mark that precluded the scorch mark on the stone, and it looked like...

“Is that me?” Discord wondered aloud, under his breath. The unscorched area did look a little like him, but stretched out, elongated at his midriff and extended upward until it disappeared completely into long streaks that mingled with the charred stone.

As he stepped his hoof into the strange mark, the clicking sound began again, but this time very loud, and very fast, a droning not unlike the static filling his ears—

“HAVE YOU COME BACK TO FINISH THE JOB, DISCORD?”

“Agh!” Discord yelped, holding his paw to his forehead and clenching his eyes tight again. “What is going on? I... did I do this? Did I make this crater? Where is everypony, everyone?” He looked up, staring at the platform, and then around at the houses. “Celestia! Twilight! Come out, where are you? What’s...”

He stumbled backwards, falling down into his back, his legs fitting perfectly into the unscorched zone.

“Fluttershy? I need you—”

There was an intense, blinding flash of light, and reality pulled on itself until it snapped. The heat of the heart of a star engulfed him, and all was gone.