Winter in Ponyville was a beautiful thing to see; the small village and its surrounding areas were a canvas of peace when covered by snow.
In one of the near fields, three fillies wearing the usual winter gear ran after each other, throwing snowballs and doing their best to avoid them.
Perched in a near tree, a creature made of what seemed to be a dozen different animals was keeping an eye on the girls and chuckling at their antics.
Discord's 'job' should be watching if any creature came out from the Everfree forest (whose limit was a hundred yards away), and not working as a sitter; but Pinkie had asked him to take care of them while she solved some issue related to her family. Besides, he could do both with his eyes closed.
-Pegasi rules! - Scootaloo proclaimed, standing in front of the 'dead' Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, half buried in snow.
-And the victory goes to... Scootaloo!- Discord exclaimed, floating towards them and throwing confetti at the little pegasus while cheers filled the air, seemingly coming from nowhere.
Scootaloo bowed and gloated while the other two ponies got up and giggled at their friend.
-Good way to end the winter break, don't ya think? - Applebloom said.
-Ugh, don't remind me.
-Look at the bright side; we'll finally learn what the Great War was! - Sweetie chirped.
-You mean you don't know about that yet? -questioned Discord.
-Our teacher said it'd be the first theme we'd study after the break.
Discord snorted.
-I swear, if this is about protecting your innocence or something silly like that...
-Why? What do you know about that war? - asked Scootaloo.
-I know about every war. Because, no matter who fights in them, no matter what weapons are made and used, war never changes. Devastating, relentless, bloody, nightmarish... all these words and more paled to describe the horrors it brings, - he sat on the snow and conjured hot chocolate for everyone; it was going to be a long story.
The girls thanked him and sat in front of it, looking forward to what he had to say; none was a better storyteller than Discord.
And so, he narrated while the four of them sipped at the hot chocolate.
-It is something that goes hand to hand with life and sentience, to everyone's chagrin. And in a world of magic, where that energy can be born and feeds upon emotions and concepts, war is even more dangerous, – His expression turned somber, and that mischievous spark in his eyes disappeared. The fillies looked at each other and leaned forward.
-Such was the one known as the Great War.
In his talon, Discord conjured a small replica of their world, Gaia. A red arrow appeared oven a relatively small mass of land.
-The continent of Berkrum was witness to such conflict, the greatest and most terrible of our era. Many races resided and grew there: buffaloes, donkeys, dragons, griffins, minotaurs, gargoyles, changelings, ponies, horses, yaks, sea serpents, centaurs, diamond dogs, zebras... - as he talked, the image shifted and turned into an image of each species, passing one after another.
-Long before the war started, peace and turmoil already replaced one another continuously as the mortals argued and fought with other species and between each other for the usual things: territory, riches, slaves, religion or simply hatred of what's different.
-That's terrible!- Sweetie wailed, seeing ponies being used to move heavy stones for the minotaurs or dragon eggs stolen by griffins.
-All that started to change when the Spirit of Harmony appeared, –Discord smiled as he made a beautiful, magnificent bird of blue feathers form from a rainbow glow, flying around them and dazzling the girls.
-Phoenix (calling himself that because he looked like one; he wasn't very original when coming up with names) was born from the bonds mortals shared, and was distraught at their almost constant state of skirmishes and warring. He then made it his mission to change things for the better. For centuries he fought for a better future, and little by little he was making it real.
The Spirit of Chaos used to believe nothing could stop the mortals' endless conflicts. But seeing Phoenix try and succeed... that had been something incredible.
-The warring city-states of the minotaur in the island of Minos founded a central, democratic government that would help with keeping the peace between them without loosing complete autonomy over their internal affairs. - the ponies looked as Phoenix looked with pride as several groups of minotaurs shook hands in an ornate room.
-The griffin clans created alliances that would eventually give birth to their kingdoms (though deciding who would rule was not without bloodshed) to face the constant attacks from the dragons, as well as to organize the raids to steal their treasures. Phoenix wasn't proud of that part. - he said, showing the bird hitting his head against a wall while griffins discussed something over a table.
-The yaks... became somewhat less temperamental. They still broke everything they didn't like, but it was an improvement to how they were before. Still as boring as ever, though. - he then showed the Spirit covering under a table as a group of yanks broke a statue by jumping over it repeatedly.
-The pony tribes of unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies managed to put aside their differences and form some sort of hybrid between a monarchy and a federation that we know as Equestria. It helped that their constant fighting almost got them trapped in ice to be used as a food source by the Windigos.
-No!- they said in disbelief.
-No, really; if it wasn't for him you would all still hate each other or would be frozen for all of eternity. - Ghostly forms of equines swam through the sky, freezing unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi alike before Phoenix divebombed them and shot magic beams left and right, while the ponies summoned pink flames from their bonds to help vanish the spectres.
-Wow, Phoenix was incredible! - Scootaloo commented while swinging her arms in what seemed to be battle poses as the Spirit grabbed a Windigo by the ethereal mane and threw it far beyond the horizon effortlessly.
-He sure was,- chuckled the draconequus. -The diamond dogs managed to found schools and educate some of their members to be decent merchants... and make sure no one was dumb enough to steal gems from a dragon. Though it took the Spirit a few generations, and the invention of the aspirin, to manage that. - Discord held a cackle as he remembered how many tons of pills he took in those decades.
-The changelings decided to organize themselves on hives, and managed to sate their hunger for emotions by forming bonds between themselves. They still prefer to live in secrecy, so many of the other races didn't even know they were real. At least they weren't sucking the emotions out of other beings, leaving them lifeless husks; so he decided to let them reveal themselves when they felt ready and left them in peace. After partying long and wildly, of course.
-Eugh!- the fillies said, sticking their tongues out in disgust at the sight of the phoenix surrounded by changelings, merrily dancing and singing alongside them while Discord flirted with a pair of giggling twins.
-What? - the Spirit questioned, looking at the three in confusion. He wasn't showing them what happened after with that pair; that would stay right in his memory to be cherished.
-For you, maybe. Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes! The crystal ponies were given hope and fought back against the Umbrum, beings of dark magic that fed of despair and had them enslaved for sustenance. The Spirit personally sealed them somewhere under the lands of the Crystal Empire, making sure they wouldn't go out and spread their terror again.
-So pretty... - Sweetie said with sparkling eyes at seeing the shiny coats of the crystal ponies as Poenix shoved the Umbrum into their prison. Discord snorted.
-Still as hopeless as your ancestors... the centaurs and gargoyles (who, surprisingly for two different species back then, got along incredibly well) managed to evacuate their land when volcanic activity made it uninhabitable. Arriving at the pony kingdom of Saddle Arabia, they managed to settle and integrate... after a couple of civil wars. That century wasn't kind to him. - the draconequus continued, recalling the nights he spent getting drunk with Phoenix to try and rid him of the gloomy mood those wars caused him.
-He barely squashed a third one, and let those intolerants that wanted to get rid of the centaurs and gargoyles know what he'd do to them and their corpses if they didn't learned to, if not live in harmony, at least to respect and tolerate each other. The dragons were so impressed at his political skill after the conflict in Saddle Arabia that some accepted to be taught by him. It was just a small number, but Phoenix still counted it as a victory. - He showed the Spirit of Harmony loking proudly at a city in the middle of a desert as some dragons looked in admiration and curiosity.
-Little by little, he fought to bring harmony to Berkrum. Sadly, he failed in the end, - he smiled a bitter smile, that turned into a frown as he conjured several dragons of different forms and sizes.
-The Dragon Lords, rulers of most of their kind, saw the rising and prosperous nations around them, and felt many things: envy at how they were starting to be left behind; greed at the many riches they saw the others possessed and wished to take; though they wouldn't admit it, they felt fear as the other nations were starting to fight back more effectively against them with every new generation; some were hungry and curious to know how the other races tasted, either raw or roasted,- The fillies looked a little green at that; most ponies reacted in a similar at the idea of eating meat. Meh, herbivores. - . Some were vengeful at the wrongs pones, griffins, diamond dogs and minotaurs had caused them and their subjects, wether justified or not. And, so the Great War started.
The Spirit looked at the fillies as he conjured the images of their four kinds:
A fire dragon, with shiny scales and leathered wings; the one pictured most in their books and pictures.
A water dragon, lacking wings but having a long and serpentine body with fins on its back and tail instead of spikes, complete with gills on its neck.
An air dragon of a thin, aerodynamic figure and feathered wings.
An earth dragon, lacking wings but with a thicker and bulkier body than the others.
-Dragons are incredibly durable and powerful creatures; having in count they could become giant though greed and hoarding, they were a warrior's nightmare. A single one could face a small platoon of soldiers without issue,- he sighed, closing his eyes before looking at the ponies.
-You can't imagine how desperate everyone else was when armies of thousands of dragons of all kinds appeared on the horizon, ready to conquer and devastate. For a more of a decade they fought, blood of every species bathing the ground. In the name of victory, peace, or simply to survive, horrible things were created and done.
Now the three of them were enraptured, looking anxious and biting their nails.
-Phoenix found himself in the middle of it all, increasingly desperate at the situation that spiraled out of control around him.
Seeing his fellow Spirit falling apart emotionally at the magnitude of the war was what finally drove Discord to forgoe his vow of non-interference and help Phoenix to try and stop it. Like it helped in the end.
-Eventually, the sages and arcane masters of Equestria created a weapon of mass destruction; so powerful it would make the most fearless tremble in terror. The dragons somehow stole it, and prepare to launch it into Equestria, which was not only close to the lands of the Dragon Lords and managed to fought them to a stalemate several times, but also had a special place in the heart of the Spirit of Harmony, - he looked at the fillies with a little smile that promptly disappeared.
-Powerful as he was, Phoenix wasn't invincible, and was gravely wounded trying to stop them from using it. Failing that, he pushed himself to his limits and outran the weapon, arriving to Equestria first and using all of his power to drag it to the Void Between Realms.
With that, Discord made a ball of fog, surrounded in every direction by a darkness darker than black itself.
-A lost place, stuck somewhere between the realms that composed reality; Equestria and its ponies were safe from the weapon and the war, protected with a barrier that kept them there, floating in an endless void.
The fillies looked up, at the dome of grey fog that floated well above the clouds. Now they knew what it was.
-But the titanic effort it took and his wounds took their toll in the utterly exhausted Phoenix, and the Spirit of Harmony perished, - Discord said quietly, while the three ponies sniffed. Seeing their friend so quiet and melancholic when he usually was so funny and lively was almost as sad as the storh.
-And with him, the way back to our world. The ponies found themselves trapped in a land surrounded by an eternal mist, still connected yet forever apart from the planet it came from. Back on Gaia, the weapon was so devastating it destroyed the will to fight of many warriors. For them, it seemed to have turned Equestria into a mist the dragons couldn't pierce or go through, and whoever went into never came back.
The draconequus dispelled the images and looked up, towards the barrier.
-With their will broken and a great part of their population dead, the last Dragon Lord alive decided to save what was left of his kind and surrendered. The war was over at last. The dragons retreated from the conquered lands and went back to their relatively isolated lives, wondering why they went to war in the first place if they lost so much more than whatever they managed to gain. The other races managed to recover at different rates, but for centuries none would dare to talk and relate to dragons. Things eased with time, but most still distrust them.
-Wait, how do you know that if you're stuck here with us? - frowned Scootaloo while pointing at him in suspicion. Discord looked at them with a hint of pride in his eyes.
-There's still a connection between Equestria and Gaia; that's how the light there comes here, and why we still have days and nights. I can send part of my consciousness and see what's going on over there. Unfortunately, not even I can get us back.
-… Will we ever go back? - asked Applebloom.
Discord was quiet for a while.
-I'm working on that; don't you girls worry about that. I promise you that one day, we will, and I'll show you the wonders of the world.
They smiled and hugged him, surprising the old Spirit.
After they left back to their homes, Discord got back to the branch and looked at the Everfree. They're still too young to know. But we are close to going back. We need seven, and we already have six.
He looked at the blasted barrier, the last thing his friend did. The last will come soon; I can feel it. I just...
...
You would be so disappointed in us, Phoenix.
