We all have a little bit of sin inside of us, don't we, dear reader?

Oh, don't act so nonplussed. I know what's going on here. I wouldn't be surprised if you already had some idea of who I am, as smart as you think you are. 'Condescending tone?' you ask whilst resting your head on your arm and re-crossing your legs. 'Genre-savvy? No concept of a fourth wall? Why, surely this must be that Discord fellow!"

Well, I'll go ahead and nip that theory in the bud: I am not Discord, and you do not know who I am, although I can't call your hypothetical conjecture entirely inaccurate, either. Discord and I are like the two poles of a magnet, opposite and alike. Two sides of the same coin, or perhaps more like the same side of two different coins. We're like a pair of coins, one of which has heads on both sides, and the other has only tails. And we are both one side of each.

I would advise you to not consider this an introduction on my part. I haven't told you my name yet, after all, and I don't plan to. Not for a long while, anyway—not to imply that me telling you my name is of any importance. You could maybe even guess it, after all. Now, I haven't disclosed any information that may hint towards my name—although red herrings do abound—, but it is in my nature to point out that the chance of any given guess at my name being correct is, like so much in life, nontrivial.

Now, where was I? Sin, right. It's everywhere. It's not something we can avoid; we all have these urges and instincts of sinfulness. We try to ignore them, because they go against what we call "moral," or because we've been told that there's such a thing as "evil," and that committing sinful acts is the keystone of wickedness.

Well, let me tell you something: sin is an illusion. There is no reason to neglect those feelings. Your mind has instincts for a reason, and that reason is self-improvement. Don't you want to be the best you can possibly be? Go ahead, tell lies, be vain, be indulgent. You'll only be better for it in the end. And if everypony were to make themselves as perfect as they could be—ooh, wouldn't that just be excellent? A veritable paradise of sinful ponies doing their best to out-lie, out-cheat, and out-class one another! Oh, just imagine what they could accomplish.

Oh, fie, now I've gone and riled myself up. Anyway, I must be off now; I have a very important appointment to make it to, which has been a long time coming, so ta-ta.

The sound of stone shifting on stone awoke the guard with a start. He had nodded off again, as he was wont to do; seven hours a day of standing in one place, it shouldn't be that big of a deal if he nodded off every now and then, especially when he was posted next to a stone door down in some Celestia-forsaken dungeon of the castle, in a long, dimly-lit hallway which seemed to stretch endlessly in one direction, and ran about twenty feet in the other before disappearing around a sharp corner. All along the hall, at irregular intervals and on either side, were dozens of doors of just as many different styles, each one hiding behind it some damned memory of Equestrian history, ranging from terrible weapons from years past, to vicious criminals and terrible monsters.

The guard yawned loudly and stretched before freezing in place as he finally realized what exactly had caused him to stir. He slowly turned his head towards the door, and went cold when he saw that it was ever so slightly cracked open, the small opening offering a glimpse into a seemingly endless darkness which issued forth a draft of stale, icy air that seemed almost to whisper with foul intentions.

From the other side of the door, he could hear the sounds of something stirring—something big, slow-moving, and which filled him with the same dread he'd had as a foal, when he was lying in bed and knew, beyond a doubt, that there was a monster in his closet, even though it was never there when he went to check. He hadn't been told what he as guarding, but he knew, for certain that there was a monster on the other side of that door; he couldn't see it, but he could feel its presence, its sheer malice, just as aware of him as he of it.

And then, against the impenetrable darkness beyond the door, were delineated a pair of blank white eyes, as deep and impenetrable as the shadow they were embedded in.

The eyes' sharp gaze severed the last thread of courage in the guard, who immediately turned and fled. With this, the door rumbled the rest of the way open, and a mass of corporeal shadow spilled out onto the ground before coalescing into a tall, snakelike figure which stood on two legs and began looking around the corridor measuredly.

Behind him was the massive, rune-engraved stone door that he had just come from, and across from this was another door, this one of a simple wooden construction with a small window cut in it. On the other side of this window, a sky-blue mare was staring at him as if he were a ghost. The two briefly made eye contact before the mare cackled wildly and slammed her head into the door with a sharp crack.

As if signaled by this, a troop of guards came barreling around the corner, led by the guard which had just fled. They all hesitated slightly upon seeing the serpentine beast, before three of them stepped forward, brandishing weapons.

The creature regarded the spear-wielding ponies with disinterest for a few moments, before finally speaking:

"You really shouldn't wave those sticks around with a lady present." he said, which elicited a confused murmur from the group of guards before he gestured with his head towards the wooden door, where the blue mare could still be seen, now glancing excitedly back and forth between the serpent and the group of guards whilst gnashing her teeth violently.

The beast then snapped his fingers and all hell broke loose.

The guards had re-focused their attention on him, and, when one had begun to step forward with his spear raised, placing him directly in front of the wooden door, the door, with a nudge from the serpent's magic, slammed violently outwards, knocking the guard onto his back and sending his spear spiraling through the air towards the waiting soldiers, who flinched away from where it embedded itself in the ground among their formation.

At the same time, the mare, now freed from her confinement, leapt into the hallway and dropped low, facing the remaining guards, snarling and ready to pounce. She feinted a lunge towards them, causing the already-startled guards to flinch tremendously, one even letting out a cry of terror before the mare grinned wildly and began howling with laughter.

Using this distraction as an opportunity, the beast disintegrated into a translucent, stygian miasma, which slithered across the ground and re-solidified behind the group of soldiers without them noticing. Looming over them, he extended one gangly arm and lazily traced a circle around the group, which was made visible on the ground around them as a radiant purple silhouette. No sooner had one of the guards noticed this, and begun to speak, then the creature spread his two arms and quickly brought his two hands together, causing the circle to contract—and as the barrier retreated, whatever flesh or metal or wood passed through it simply disappeared, eliciting uncanny screams of pain as the ponies trapped inside were quickly removed from existence molecule-by-molecule.

The sigil reached its center and collapsed, vanishing in a small flash of white light, and then nothing was left in the hall except for the chimera and the hysterical mare. The two regarded one another for a moment, the mare sitting and panting like a hound waiting for orders, before the former spoke:

"You. I like you." said the draconequus with a grin.

In a dim, naturally-lit cavern at the base of a mountain on the other side of Equestria, a throng of ponies in dark-grey hooded robes murmured amongst themselves as another pony wearing similarly grey robes decorated with an intricate silver trim stepped up to a podium overlooking the cathedral.

The pony removed his hood, revealing a light-blue stallion with a plain brown mane and light green eyes. One half of his face was covered in a complexly-patterned tattoo, which closely matched the trim of his cloak. He surveyed the congregation for a couple of seconds before standing up on his hind legs, placing his front hooves on the podium, and clearing his throat.

"Brothers and sisters," he began. "Today marks one year since our lord's endless slumber ended, and one year since he was, tragically, locked away into stone once more, because of that accursed Celestia and her hooflicking Elements." The crowd murmured a bit at this, a few weak calls of "Hail Discord!" coming from among them.

"Hail Discord." responded the leader. He continued: "It is with this passage of time in mind that I must announce, regretfully, that we will no longer be meeting." Several of the cultists let out shocked gasps, and a worried murmur quickly spread throughout the assembly. "Please, calm down. I know that this comes suddenly but..." the leader trailed off as the murmuring began giving way to screams, and members of the congregation began fleeing.

"And that's why I don't like to make public appearances." said a voice from behind the leader, prompting him to turn.

Before him stood an unmistakeable figure: a lithe serpentine biped with horns and wings which, along with its arms and legs, seemed to each have been taken at random from other animals: one arm each from a bear and some reptilian beast; an oversized equine leg paired with a chitinous, spined insect leg; one wing of bone, and the other like a bat's, except almost entirely transparent, as if it were made of some organic glass.

The leader fell back against the podium, knocking it over before stammering: "Y-You-Dis... You... is it really you?"

"Yes, it is me." responded the draconequus. "I am who I am, but who am I?"

The leader stood back onto his hooves, and examined the creature closely. "You- you're not Discord."

"That is correct. I am, however, your new god." He clapped as he said this, sending out a wave of energy which rumbled the cave walls and brought the entire congregation to attention. The beast stepped up to the podium, and conjured a pen and clipboard, which he appeared to study carefully, flipping back and forth amongst the pages as the mass of panicking ponies slowly calmed down and returned to in front of the stage.

The draconequus cleared his throat, and spoke, in a voice that boomed and seemed to echo from every point in the chamber: "My first order of business," he began, before disappearing the clipboard, opening up his torso like a suit jacket, and producing a light blue mare from within, holding her by the scruff of her neck while she held her hooves close to her chest and panted like a dog. "is that this one be kept fed, watered, and healthy. She is of great interest to me, and is to be considered my second in command." This provoked another wave of murmurs from the crowd, and the mare barked with excitement and wagged her tail.

"Second order of business..." he continued, as he set the mare down on the stage and gave her a firm pat on the head, "...is world domination." This brought an abrupt end to the crowd's uneasy quiet.

He stepped away from the podium, and turned to address the cult leader. "Tell me everything you know about the Elements of Harmony."

Author's Note

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star,
Multifoliate rose,
Of death's twilight kingdom:
The hope only
Of empty men.