The Yard

Time Taken: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Premise: Discord’s a magnificent trickster and a monster whose sole drive seems to cause chaos. What if his chaos had some larger purpose? What if Discord’s goals go beyond his outward appearance?

This small ‘freewrite’ is but the beginning of something larger.

What you see here has not been altered in any way. Expect grammatical, punctuation, and story errors, for it has not been edited in any way, shape, or form.

Update: Thanks to Nick, I now have some work to be done. Just waiting on you Ion. Also, I probably should have said this earlier. This Discord isn’t exactly ‘canon’. Think of him as an alternate universe Discord, because that’s what he is (he’s from ‘Equestria Noir’ to be a tad more precise).

That is all. Story remains unedited.

The Chaos Lord

Discord knew his defeat was near. He had long foreseen it and had long planned for it accordingly. He knew well that even in his moment of triumph—his moment of so called ‘victory’—his time was short, and no amount of self-imposed hubris, gloating over the finer details or even god-like powers would change the fact that his accomplishments were as fleeting as  a summer rainfall.

He stood near his throne of wood, stone, and iron beholding the very chaos he had brought forth to the otherwise peaceful world, his chaos more than clear against the backdrop of the normally quaint town of Ponyville—just the first of many more towns to fall under his chaos.

Yet, for all he had done, he couldn’t help but look on with weary eyes. “Theatrics,” he neutrally commented, looking around at his handiwork with conflicting feelings. “It’s all nothing more than pure theatrics…” he proved his point by waving his eagle claw, which caused one particular patch of land to glow. The chaotic mish-mash of soil, grass, and what looked like glass receded away to reveal lush green grass, morning dew still glistening on its leaves.

At this, the powerful Draconequus smiled, almost as if he was reminiscing. He closed his claw, causing the patch to be consumed by the chaotic environment again, yet the chaos didn’t consume the grass, but merely overtook it. It was at this point that he sighed in a tired manner, his mind torn by conflicting emotions. He still had the power to shape the world as he saw fit; such is the skill of a Chaos Lord. Yet, deep down, he knew it was a moot power when compared to his real role, one he could not escape from no matter how hard he tried.He faced his ‘labor’ with a somewhat sickened outlook. He felt the need to do chaos, yet he didn’t wish it on a land that had once been his home. How could he feel so conflicted over such a simple concept? He was a chaos lord, he had to enact chaos! Yet, doing so felt empty and devoid of actual feeling and emotion, so much so that he might as well have been sleepwalking. Had he freed himself only to feel guilt over his actions? Had he grown soft during his time as Celestia’s personal statue?

Ah yes, Celestia…just thinking of her name filled him with mixed emotions of rage, sorrow, and longing. Celestia was she who had stood against him, fought against him, and imprisoned him in stone, never to rise again. She was the one who had taken the young chaos lord’s heart and shattered into a zillion pieces, growing to hate him for what he had become; what he had to become to save all. She, who had sworn to stand beside him till the end of time, yet had turned her back when he had needed her most. The betrayer…Celestia was a betrayer…

Yet deep down, he still loved her.

As he stood over his creation, time slowly ticking down to oblivion, he smiled; smiled widely and with madness. He had the power to tear this world apart; change water to acid, turn rain into fiery hail, cause earthquakes and volcanoes to rise and consume the land with cleansing flames, turn the winds into toxic clouds of vile, boil every single living being’s blood by altering the atmospheric pressure, move the sun far enough to cause everything to freeze, and bring the sun close enough to cause all to burn. He even had the power to tear the very planet into pieces and set those pieces adrift into the vast cold cosmos, dooming whatever life was unfortunate enough to survive the splitting to a fate far worse than any death could bring. He had the power of the cosmos as the tip of his fingers…but he lacked the will to use that power; he feared and loathed it it just as much as he feared and loathed himself.

Oh, he lacked the will. Despite his cheery and almost blissful façade, Discord—who was the bearer of chaos and equal to the elder gods—nay, their superior in every way—was tired. He was so very tired…

Yes, he knew his time was short; he wanted it to be short. He had lived too long now, witnessed the land change around him. Over a thousand years to ponder his path; to ponder his failing and weaknesses. He deserved far worse than imprisonment.

And that was exactly what he would do.

He sat on his throne, face neutral, but eyes filled with longing. “My dear Celestia; I won’t that you were right. I won’t deny that I succumbed to madness and vice. I won’t even deny that you and your sister did the right thing by imprisoning me in stone because, you did; oh you did. You took my trust and used it against me. Granted, I had earned your wrath by then, but your original betrayal…that hurt the most.

“As much as we like to think of ourselves as free agents of life with fates that we ourselves create, the sad truth is that we’re all bound by invisible strings that tug and pull and guide us towards inescapable and unchangeable ends. You were destined to defeat and betray me, and I was destined to fall by your hoof; simple as that my dear; simple as that.” He snapped his finger, summoning a pink cloud to the left side of his throne. He looked at the little cloud, which seemed almost unnerved at being in the presence of a chaos lord. He waved his left claw, at which point an empty glass appeared with a whimsical pop of sound and light, gently resting between Discord’s index and thumb. “Fate…what a terrible joke fate is.” He placed the empty glass underneath the pink cloud as he thought of these words. He gave another snap of his fingers, and the cloud empties its contents onto the glass: liquid creamy chocolate. “Here I am, acting like a monster, all because fate has told me to do so. Here I am, waiting to be defeated by your agents; all because fate mandates that it must be so. Oh, I’m not the real monster here Celestia, Fate is the real monster here; for fate ensnares us all with invisible strings—puppeteer’s strings that control our every move. I can’t see the hands or hooves or claws or whatever moves the strings, but I can see the moves, see the outcomes. You think of me as the puppeteer of all these events when in truth, I’m merely a puppet myself.” With one mighty swig, he down the chocolate drink and tossed the glass aside, face twisted into a scowl. “My dear Celestia, just know that what happens today isn’t my doing. I know it sounds stupid, I might just be making all of it up as well, but truly, I know that you and I can’t be held accountable for our paths. You and I, we’ve played our roles as mandated by fate. But I’ve one more role to play, one I can’t escape no matter how hard I try. Fate mandates that it happens, and in the end, I’m but a puppet of fate.” He once again snapped his fingers, causing his throne to vanish, leaving him floating in mid-air. He crossed both his legs and closed his eyes, letting his tail drop to the ground to serve as a stand for his body. He put his claws together and deeply exhaled, almost as if he was about to mediate. Suddenly, a great power surrounded him; a fiery aura that seemed to bend the very space around it. “Control: control imposed over nature, over sentience—control that leads to dominance; dominance that leads to tyranny. Control over the land and its inhabitants; that was what drove me to act. Your—our—kind; we imposed so much control over the land, that the very unpredictability of being was stripped away, everything coming to a standstill. The past, the future; none of those things held meaning anymore. Life, for all its intricacies, had become predictable and malleable to the will of a few. It was this treachery against life and nature that convinced me that I couldn’t just stand by and let life degenerate any further.” His face grew grim as the memories flooded him, brow furrowing and upper lip somewhat twisting. “Your—our—kind, tried to subjugate me, turn me into their weapon, one with which they could dominate order and chaos alike. When I refused, they tried to end me, just as they had done my ancestor. They imprisoned me and condemned me to death.

“That’s when you saved me. You of all ponies, who had once shown doubt and fear of my power, went up against your own kingdom just so you could save me. You faced death and torture because you knew of my importance, of my purpose. You and your sister understood…

“Which is what made your betrayal all the more painful, for you joined those who would have subjugated you in a heartbeat had you been a chaos lord; those who were willing to destroy balance all in the name of dominance. You joined them, and you grew to hate me so, all because you believed me to be your foe when the real foe was behind you all along...

“Even now, when there are no more shadowy figures behind the scenes, you still stand against me; painting me a monster when you yourself have become the monster, for you inherited our kind’s foolish desire for order. Even now, you try so hard to keep your precious ponies happy and sheltered by controlling the world as you see fit. You’re not only damming yourself Princess, but all of our kind as well.” He deeply sighed, grimacing as memories of his failures at getting the sun regent to see reason flashed before his closed eyes. “My dear Celestia, you should have known better than to mess with the natural equilibrium. I was always meant to stand for two very different ideas, something our kind never quite understood. Of course, I knew well what I had to do to save our world…” He suddenlyput his two forelimbs palm to palm. Soon as he did this, his eyes shot wide opened, glowing bright red with vast magic. Underneath his body, a circle of red flames formed, etching an intricate symbol into the glassy ground that made up Discord’s changed Equestria. After a thousand years of waiting, he would finally conclude his magnum opus, which was strange, considering he knew well that his plan would meet catastrophic failure. In truth, he expected failure;

Suddenly, a great power rose in the east. Instantly, he knew to whom that power belonged, and what it meant for him. He wasn’t afraid; he was expectant. He had tried to stall them, yes, but not out of fear but as preparation; he had known the elements would recover, and in doing so become stronger than before. He was no fool; he knew stopping the elements of harmony was like stopping a force of nature. By ‘breaking’ them, he had made them tougher, brought them closer together. A real monster would have destroyed them, scattered their beings to the cosmos—something he wouldn’t put above Celestia—but he, he was no monster. At this, he smiled. “All part of the plan.”

Against all sane logic, he expected his scheme to fail; he was nothing compared to the raw power of the elements of harmony, for the bearers demonstrated great aptitude against his truths, tricks, and influence. He had to commend Celestia for finding such able-minded ponies to bear the elements, especially the one known as Twilight Sparkle, who led the group against him. She reminded him so much of a young Celestia: headstrong and tenacious to a fault. He wouldn’t have been surprised if Celestia was grooming Twilight to take her place as ruler of the nation, or at least to take some type of council or steward position.

Yes, everything was done according to plan.

The six elements of harmony drew nearer, power enough to start changing the draconequus’ morphed surroundings back to normal. He was shocked at just how much raw energy emanated from the six ponies, but his shock was a pleasant shock; the more power the elements had backing them up, the better the chances of his plan succeeding. By the time the six were within sight of him, it was already too little too late to stop that which he had prepared: he had gathered all the power he would need for his plan.

The last of the preparations was complete; the pieces had moved into place; now all he had to do was allow fate to take its course.

“Yes,” Discord said as he placed his claws together, “today’s the day...”