Discord: Not one of a kind
A tribute to: My Little Pony Friendship is Magic
Pony POV Series by Alex Warlorn
It was the biggest polonaise Ponyville had ever seen. A sheer infinite number of ponies danced one after the other: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Trixie, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Sheriff Silverstar, Apple Fritter, Apple Bumpkin, Red Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Caramel Apple, Apple Strudel, Apple Tart, Baked Apple, Apple Brioche, Apple Cinnamon Crisp, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Twist, Snips, Snails, Pipsqueak, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, The Mayor, Zecora, Cheerilee, Pony Joe, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, Sapphire Shores, Spitfire, Soarin' and the rest of the Wonderbolts, the Royal guards, Prince Blueblood, Derpy Hooves, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, Carrot Top, Berry Punch and many more.
"No, doesn't work."
Immediately every single pony as well as the village behind them vanished into thin air, only to be replaced by white endless space as far as he could see. And his vision was very good. His name was Discord, Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos and he had returned to a place he knew far too well. Placed somewhere between the Limbo and the subconscious world his prison was as eternal as he was. The last time the Draconequus had been sealed here he had spend countless years wandering around this place, yet he had never found anything other than more white space. He could use his power to summon some Chaos to entertain himself, but even that did become boring after a few hundred years. It felt like playing a game of chess against himself.
"Again..."
He didn't feel anger or hatred at the moment, only frustration. He had brought this onto himself. The first time he had the excuse of not knowing anything about the Elements of Harmony. How could he know, that they were not only strong enough to overpower him but also able to turn his body into a statue and trap his mind in this ethereal realm?
"But this time I should have known! After I rendered the bearers harmless, I should have sealed away these cursed things."
But he hadn't. He had become too arrogant in his short time of freedom. Even when the truth about his failure was staring him in the face, even when the bearer of loyalty was standing right next to the group, he was unable to admit his failure.
The spirit signed. He would be trapped for a very long time. Again.
"Okay, calm down. The last time I already spend 100 years in denial about my defeat, 100 years in anger about Celestia and Luna, 100 years in depression but then I just started over again. I need to cheer me up. Time to bring up the big guns!"
He concentrated, recalling the creator's kind voice. It was the only contact they ever had with it but Discord could replicate the few lines flawlessly.
"Remember you three represent the three foundations of this world. You, Celestia, are the Light, my little Luna embodies the Darkness and last but not least Discord is the Chaos between those two forces."
Usually these two sentences cheered Discord up. He was not only one of the three very fundaments of reality, but also the only one truly unique. All by himself he portrayed Chaos, unlike the two sisters who also represented Harmony together.
But it didn't work this time. How could a force, which was spread between two beings, be able to overpower him? Worse, how could the same energy defeat him again, if it was spread over six ponies? It should have been weaker than the matchless Draconequus! These questions continued to drive him insane.
Maybe he had to use his other favourite trick again, that always lightened his mood. Concentrating on his mind, he split off a tiny part of his spirit and concentrated his still considerable power to send it back into Equestria. Discord had done that before. There was nothing that tiny piece of him could do there but at least it allowed him to know how much time had passed and what else was happening out there. Thanks to this ability, the spirit knew about the hiding place of the Elements of Harmony and the weaknesses of their bearers, but he would never admit that to Celestia.
He could see the celebration of his defeat. Celestia unveiled her new glass window, showing his last defeat.
The connection broke. He had lost his focus and the spell vanished instantly.
"I can't believe how stupid I look on that window. She has done that on purpose!"
The Draconequus tried to think about what else he could do. He could move to the Limbo. But he soon remembered why he never went there. The incantation of Chaos feared the strange soul-eating things that lurked in the darkness between the worlds, even if they could never truly endanger him, their attacks did hurt. He couldn't go to the subconscious world, the place of dreams, either, thanks to Luna's return. She would spot him instantly.
"There is no place I can go to."
He had to calm down. The celebration wouldn't last forever. Discord could just wait a bit and maybe go somewhere he never had visited before. But he had already seen every place in Equestria, every house, every mountain, and every stone. The trick was nothing new; he had done it countless times.
Once he memorized every detail about the royal castle and its residents and created a flawless imitation in the white space, copying every single detail. Then the personification of Chaos painted everything and everyone inside in different colors, looking forward to see the expression on pink Celestia's face. When his copy of the incantation of Light acted exactly like he expected her to he realized how empty this kind of Chaos was. There was no one to surprise with it. Everything was utterly predictable.
But there was still one place he always avoided: That strange energy under the royal Canterlot castle. It was no Light, no Darkness and not even Chaos, it was something completely different. It was one of the few things Discord feared.
"Well this is either the smartest or the stupidest thing I will ever do in my long life."
Gathering his concentration again, he could see the outside of the castle. Slowly he moved down to the ground, then even deeper. Even in his current form the spirit could feel that there was something powerful close by. Eventually he reached a small underground grotto. There was nothing there but a tiny speck of water on the ground.
"And I was afraid of that for all those years?"
Laughing the spirit flew closer and took a look at his own reflection; he knew that there would be none. No reflective surface did show his image. Maybe he was also part vampire. No, of course he knew the truth about that: The tiny part of himself was so small, so undetectable that there simply was no reflection. It was probably a good thing, otherwise Celestia or any random pony could have noticed his presence.
Looking into the water he saw himself.
"But that is…"
Before he could even finish his sentence he saw everything: Countless worlds, some similar to his, some completely different. The Draconequus could see thousands of worlds at the same time.
"… impossible."
Worlds, where there were odd bipedal creatures living in harmony with the ponies, worlds, where the same two-legged beings where mortal enemies with the ponies, worlds, where other sentient creatures called the Deerfolk, Rams, Rhinos and Giraffes lived in countries close to Equestria.
He watched Queen Celestia ruling over the world without mercy and Princess Celestia sacrificing herself for her friends and subjects without hesitation.
He saw the Elements of Harmony as corrupted rulers and as fearless heroes.
He witnessed strange beings, representing negative aspects of existence, attacking the Elements of Harmony, as well as the Elements of Harmony befriending these very beings.
He saw various names given to the strange water, which caused this effect on him: Mirror, Gate, Abyss, Truth and many more.
The effect was overwhelming. Discord desperately tried to break the connection but that just didn't work. Earlier just getting slightly annoyed was enough to send him back into his prison, but somehow he couldn't go back now. The harder he fought against it, the further he moved away from the worlds and the more worlds he saw at the same time.
"Maybe I can concentrate on only one world."
Slowly he zoomed closer to one randomly chosen world. It was a strange world, but the spirit didn't care. He did recognize the royal castle, but half of it was floating over nothing at all. The entire structure was chaotic, with some rooms huge and empty and other rooms so tiny that not even a Parasprite would fit in.
A pegasus with pale blond mane and a gray coat walked around the impossible structure. She was carrying filly shaped muffin on her back and was constantly hunted by birds, trying to eat the baked good. Without reacting to the Draconequus at all, she just walked through him. Discord watched her in confusion, before deciding to go into the throne room and see why Celestia did all of this.
The very familiar throne there made the spirit finally understand whose castle this was.
It was his. In this world he was victorious. On his way he met the former rulers, now turned into statues decorating the castle. Then he found the elements. They were completely different. Rarity sat in a giant pile of dirty rocks grinning like a maniac, while Applejack told her what beautiful "diamonds" she had. Several of the worthless stones were covered in blood.
Slightly disturbed Discord left the scene and walked past a room holding a giant dragon.
"How can this be? That would be the world under my rule?"
"AHHHHHHhhhhhh…"
A sudden scream got his attention and soon the spirit of Chaos found the black door the scream came from. Pinkie Pie's and Fluttershy's voices could be heard behind a door.
"You will never laugh about me again."
"She will never laugh about anypony again."
"That was almost too easy…"
"We should try to find some of her sisters. These farmers still have a huge family."
Discord floated quickly to a different part of the castle.
"They were so different in my world. This world must have a completely different spirit of Chaos as well. It has to be someone else!"
Soon Discord found himself and Rainbow Dash. It was no different spirit of Chaos. It was Discord himself: The brown snake like body, one hoofed limb, another a lizard leg, a eagle's claw, a lion's paw, a bat wing, one blue feathered wing and finally a horse's face. It looked exactly like him. Unlike the hyperactive pegasus he remembered, this version was completely broken. While he kept his distance the other incantation of Chaos picked up the Element of Loyalty.
"Listen, my newest challenge is something special. If you take care of your nerdy unicorn friend I will return the whole world back to normal! As soon as her lifeless body hits the floor all your other friends and the rest of this pathetic world will be free. I will find another world to play with, maybe the one on the other side of the rainbow. Isn't that a generous offer? You will be remembered as a tragic hero!"
As Rainbow Dash broke down crying, the other Discord erupted into laughter.
As fast as the Draconequus could he left this scene as well.
"I… I am like this… I also broke their personalities and laughed in Twilight's face about it. That is me. I never regretted it. I am… I am a…"
Before he could finish his thoughts, he saw a grey Twilight Sparkle sitting in the garden. She looked at the stars. Discord sat next to her.
"I know that you can't hear me. I was so desperate for a diversion, but I won't find anything of that here. This world is dead. It is just like my old prison. No, it is actually worse. I can see clearly, that I am not one of a kind. I am nothing special. Even if I had won the battle against Harmony, this is what kind of victory I would have achieved. I would have taken everything from you, even the last bit of personality."
Slowly the spirit of Chaos lost his colors, turning grey. He didn't care anymore or wonder why it did happen.
"They are still beautiful." Twilight Tragedy whispered watching the stars above her.
The Draconequus stared at the grey stargazing unicorn. Did he just saw a small smile? Or did he imagine that? How could she even be able to feel that anymore? His counterpart had broken everything in this world, how could she still find a light in all this suffering?
As he thought about these questions his colors returned. Discord wondered if his power had briefly turned against its master or if it was a side effect of Truth. Eventually he looked wistfully at the grey pony besides him.
"I know it means nothing, but I am sorry for everything that happened to you. I hope that you will someday break this corruption for good. Good luck."
Slowly Discord moved further away from this nightmarish world and tried to change his view to another world. Quickly he found another one very close by. This one reminded him a lot at his old world. Here the spirit of Chaos had lost his battle with the Elements but his influence on the ponies wasn't gone. Countless of them still suffered from his Chaos.
He started to try Fluttershy's house first. After all, she did put up the best defence against his attempts to corrupt her, so this version might me the same. Discord still needed something to improve his mood and he felt, that he would find that something here.
The spirit never expected her reflection to come alive and talk to her. A closer inspection did show him, that she was indeed born by the Chaos infused into her by his counterpart. He didn't even know such a thing was possible.
The talk went on with the reflection clearly having the upper hoof. Discord was about to leave this world as well, this was likely the moment where the suffering will drown everything else. The reflection would consume and replace the pony, and then take other victims.
„You're lonely."
Fluttershy had said that to her alter ego, causing the spirit to stop dead as well. The Draconequus was speechless. At the same time the copy did seem to run out of steam and slowly Fluttershy dominated the conversation until she finished it by singing the other version to sleep.
Discord couldn't help himself. For the first time since his second banishment he smiled.
Suddenly various images flew past him: Rainbow Dash abandoning her friends on her own free will, Rarity teaching a spoiled brat, Applejack looking into Truth, Pinkie Pie fighting her own all-devouring anger, Twilight Sparkle healing Trixie, Rainbow Dash's confession, a party of the group for Trixie, Fluttercruel switching places with Fluttershy, Fluttershy turning into Nightmare Whisper, only to be defeated by the combined power of the Elements herself. Discord saw that these ponies would never give up, no matter how hopeless the situation seemed.
The spirit of Chaos suddenly found himself back in the eternal white space.
"Wow, that was certainly something: A pony born from Chaos wielding the Element of Kindness to save her corrupted original self. She has grown so much. Maybe I should…"
A vision of a fearful Fluttershy surrounded by darkness hit him without any warning.
"What was that?"
He suddenly remembered one of the things he had learned in this world: Prolonged exposure to Truth would give the limited ability to predict the future.
Without even knowing what he would or could do Discord casted his spell and sent a fraction of himself into the outside world. But everything was fine there. Fluttershy seemed to be okay, having a picnic with her friends. Surely Twilight Sparkle looked confused and her hair was a mess but he couldn't find anything remotely looking like…
"No!"
The concentration broke again as the Draconequus realized, where he had seen this darkness before. It was the Limbo. The place he never wanted to return to.
Without hesitation he teleported to the Limbo. He didn't need to send only a part of him there, as it was close enough to whatever dimension his prison was to enter it completely. Immediately various shadowlike beings attacked the spirit from all sides, leaving claw marks on his arms and legs. Some looked like ponies, other appeared to be giant spiders, some were similar to the bipedal creatures he had seen in Truth, others seemed to be dragons but most of them didn't resemble any creature Discord had ever seen. Slowly he was able to actually see anything of the world around him besides his countless opponents. Most of it was just thick fog like darkness but just like last time the ground seemed to be made of sand, shifting around like it was moved by some sort of invisible wind. Somewhere in the distance were some structures, likely mountains. But the most disturbing thing about this world was the complete lack of sound. The beings didn't scream or growl, they just continued to attack.
Ignoring the pain the spirit of Chaos scanned the darkness around him for anything resembling a living being or a soul. Soon Discord sensed something far away from him. Even as he teleported the creatures continued to attack him, leaving several claw marks on his face. Eventually he stood next to what remains of Fluttershy's other side.
Her body was covered in countless scars, but even worse were her other wounds: She was missing her left foreleg, the right hind leg as well as both wings. Slowly white energy drifted out from the wounds, only to vanish into the darkness.
The infinitive number of creatures surrounded them as he moved closer to the fallen pegasus.
Picking the dying being up, Discord floated above the ground, preparing his teleportation out of this miserable world.
"I guess this doesn't make any sense to you. But you know what? I never make sense!"
Without any further words the prey vanished before the eyes of the endless silent horde.
Back in the familiar white space Discord took the time to look at his new roommate. Her missing limbs still leaked her energy into the void.
The spirit of Chaos wondered if he maybe was too late. Her very soul was vanishing before his eyes. If he had realized it sooner… But thinking like that won't get him anywhere.
He concentrated his own energy to regrow her missing limbs. She was born from his magic after all. As the personification of Chaos visualized pony legs, he let his power flow through her. The seconds seemed like an eternity but eventually the energy stopped to leave her and an eagle's claw did grow out of the wound where the foreleg should be. Discord almost dropped his spell in shock. Soon a lizard leg appeared instead of the expected hind leg. Within moments the stumps on her back shifted into a yellow feathered wing and a batwing. While the transformation was unexpected, the wounded pony was finally stabilized. Even the scars slowly vanished from her body as her fur turned darker; resembling the color she had when she was created.
The still unconscious pegasus was slowly picked up by his telekinesis and he created a simple bed under her, to slowly lower her into it. Suddenly a realisation hit Discord.
"I would have never done anything like this before. I never used my powers to heal anybody. It is strange. It feels… nice."
As he watched over the still unconscious pony the Draconequus wondered what she could be like. She had never the chance to meet Fluttershy face to face, she wasn't there to save Rainbow Dash from her corruption and she would never confront Nightmare Whisper, earning her Element of Kindness. Instead the spirit of Chaos could feel his own chaotic magic flowing through her. He wasn't one of a kind anymore. Not even in this world. And he didn't mind it at all.
"Maybe I also was lone…"
A groan interrupted his train of thoughts. Curiously he floated closer to the awakening pegasus.
She remembered her creation, Discord letting his Chaos infest her, no Fluttershy to create her opposite. The fluttering pegasus had beaten him at his own game but the spirit was a sore loser and turned her anyway. Then she was born. She felt everything Fluttershy never felt. She wanted to be cruel. That was the only thing her old man had ever said to her.
This went on for some time, only to end abruptly, when the nerd and the farmer charged into her house, lassoed her and cast some sort of spell on her. Suddenly the pony was in this strange dark world. Everything tried to kill her. The pegasus ran away: Minutes, Hours, Days. She had no idea how long she lasted, until she became weaker and she started to get hit by the horde around her. Every attack weakened her further, until she couldn't even walk anymore. Now the creatures did take their time, biting and clawing her from time to time without any hurry. Those sick things did enjoy this. The pony didn't understand why they were so cruel.
Eventually she lost consciousness. The last thing she felt, was something ripping her wings apart. The pegasus knew she would never reawaken. But she did. She awoke in a bed. The first thing she saw was the old man looking at her. She reacted naturally and rammed her right foreleg into his face. The impact had enough force to even knock Discord back.
Slowly she saw her surroundings: Nothing at all, but the bed she lay into. She looked at herself and saw that her wounds had vanished. She still had her hoofs, her eagle's claw, her lizard leg and her wings, even if one looked like a batwing. Then she realized what was wrong.
"WHAT?!? You! What have you done with me? Where am I?"
"I saved you from these stalkers. Don't you remember them? And you are in the void between the worlds, I guess. Nobody bothered to leave a street number behind."
The pony was completely confused. Then she realized the old man was still covered in scars, looking a lot like the ones she got from the creatures. He looked like he had walked through hell. Looking at herself, at her claw, she still saw a poor parody of Discord. The yellow pegasus stomped the floor in fury. Only for a cloud to pop up above her and rain chocolate milk all over herself.
Smiling the Draconequus teleported next to her and caught some chocolate milk in a glass, he produced out of nowhere, tasting her first creation.
"Dark bitter chocolate flavor, I see, that you have a different taste. In case you are wondering, you just made this cloud."
Still smiling the old man filled another glass with chocolate milk and put it next to her.
"How did this happen to me? What am I?"
"Maybe we should introduce ourselves first. My name is Discord, embodiment of Chaos. What is yours?"
The pony noticed that the old man stared at her intensely. His face was different. It wasn't the same empty goofy expression from before, it seemed more focused. Then for the first time in her life, she thought about herself. There was no time for that in the chaotic Ponyville or the dark place. She was a cruel version of Fluttershy. Cruel Fluttershy. FlutterCruel. Slowly the clouds above her vanished.
"I am… Fluttercruel."
"Very good. When I healed your being with my magic, some Chaos remained behind. It is yours now. Consider it a late birthday present. And try your glass, it tastes really good."
Since she had nothing else to do and was incredible thirsty from the whole ordeal, she drank the entire dark bitter chocolate milk in one fluid motion. It did taste good. For the first time since her banishment she managed a weak smile.
