As the glow of the elements faded away, the bearers descended once more, gasping for breath. It was done. Discord had been sealed once more, and it had only cost them the lives of the two alicorn sisters.
Twilight wondered if it was worth it.
Wearily she picked herself up, moving towards the crater Discord had been above when frozen.
As she neared the edge, she felt a flare of magical energy, and screamed a warning.
Less than a tenth of a second later, a bolt of bluish lightning punched a hole the size of her head through Rainbow Dash’s chest.
Death was instant. “Hahahaha!” Discord’s cackling filled the air, “Predictable! Naughty naughty, no stone for me this time! AHAHAHA!”
“SHOW YOURSELF!” Twilight screamed, tears flowing freely, “HOW ARE YOU STILL FREE?!”
“Pfft! HAHAHAHAHA!” her question made him burst into laughter again, “Have you really not realized it, you silly filly? Maybe purplesmart was too nice a nickname for you. I’m change purpledumb, and because of that I win. I was sealed in stone three times thanks to those elements, so I changed my reaction to them. You don’t get it still? I am a force of reality itself. Any interaction or action taken is one route. I can, at will, change that route retroactively. I can make your spells hit all your friends, make your heart change to not beat, and so much more. So now what, purpledumb? You’ve lost one of your precious element bearers, the princess pains are dead, and your greatest weapon is disabled. And I don’t have a scratch on me,” Discord sauntered out of the smoke at the bottom of the crater, revealing it to be the truth, “So, purpledumb, you done?”
She screamed in rage, launching as many bolts of magic as she could at his stupid FUCKING SNEER!
He laughed, the sound waves visibly distorting the air and sending the bolts scattering in different directions. Spent, she collapsed to the ground, glaring up at him as her friends surrounded her, Fluttershy bearing Rainbow Dash’s body on her back. “Why?” she whispered, a look of absolute betrayal on her face, “Why would you do this? I thought we were friends!”
Discord simply smiled, “But we are. Out of all of the ponies I’ve killed, many have had time to suffer. Because we were friends, I’ll give you a quick death.”
He cackled again as a ball of energy began to form over his floating throne, “Tell me purpledumb,” he stated casually as he buffed his claws, “Do you remember the day before this began?” His smirk grew wider, “How you were really annoyed. What was it you said to me? Oh yeah.” He snapped, and a plush Twilight appeared in midair, talking in her voice, “Discord, go bother somepony else! Celestia give me patience, why can’t you take anything seriously? You’re like an immature child!”
He snapped and the doll vanished, before he leaned forward, his upper body extending until he was only a few feet from the group, “So tell me, purpledumb. How does it feel to have me take you seriously?” His grin grew even colder, “Honestly, I should thank you. Thanks. Because of you, I realized it’s more fun being the bad guy. It’s just-”
“THAT IS IT!” Fluttershy exclaimed in fury, staring him right in the eyes, “YOU ARE GOING TO BE SORRY AND STOP THIS FUCKING NONSENSE RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME I WILL GELD YOU!”
He blinked, before his upper body snapped back to normal with the sound of a rubber band, “Did… did you just try the stare on me?” he asked in genuine incredulity. “Pfft! AHAHAHAHAHA, it looks like you’ve grown a bit of a backbone! Pity it took the death of so many of your friends and neighbors to do it! AHAHAHAHA!”
“It was worth a shot,” Rarity muttered to the weeping Fluttershy, “But I do believe we’ve made him madder.”
“Oh, you’re right about that,” Discord’s grin widened, “Remember my offer of a painless death? Consider it rescinded. I’m going to enjoy this.” He snapped, and the vast ball of energy the size of Canterlot dissipated in seconds. “I think I’ll go with the poetic irony for each of you,” he murmured, studying them as he stood from his throne, which vanished. “And you, Flutters, are going to be first! Isn’t that wonderful!”
His magic surrounded her in his implacable grasp, lifting her into the air as she thrashed and screamed, trying to break free. He patted her on the head gently, before his other hand rose and formed a medium sized energy sphere, which he tossed towards Ponyville.
A moment later, it looked like a piece of the sun had been brought to Equis. The light was so bright it might as well have been the sun.
When it faded, a massive mushroom cloud of smoke was rising from the crater, “So there we go,” he cheered, “The stage is set!”
He snapped once more, and the four other members of the mane six were frozen, as he set Dash’s corpse to the side, marking it with a little picket sign that said “for later.”
With that, he snapped once more, a horizontal portal forming and dropping a lot of bones onto Fluttershy’s head. She screamed and cowered as they stopped, “May I present to you, your animal friends!” Discord cheered, pulling something from the pile.
Fluttershy stared in horror at the rabbit skull, “No… Angel…” she whispered in horror, “YOU MONSTER! I CAN’T BELIEVE WE TRUSTED YOU!”
Discord merely laughed, “Honestly my dear?” he said in an amused voice, “Neither can I. But hey, good news and bad news. The good news is that I’m going to bring all your friends back to life!” As she brightened slightly, his smirk grew even crueler, “The bad news is that I’m bringing them back to life as undead abominations hungering for pony flesh.”
Her slight smile vanished, replaced by a look of horror as he raised both hands, “Gonna need to use both snaps for this one,” he said cheerily, before snapping with both hands in unison.
The ground began to bubble as the bones slowly sank down into it, vanishing beneath the dirt. “You may be wondering, what is he doing? Has he decided to give up? Is he playing around? Only half correct,” he said, smiling cheerily, “Not giving up, sorry to say, but I most certainly am enjoying myself, and that’s what really counts in playing, hmm? Ah, and it looks like the next game has begun!”
Everypony watched in disgust and horror as limbs clad in grey, rotting flesh created by magic erupted from the ground. “It’s like Ahm watching ah bad zombie movie beginning,” Applejack couldn’t keep the thought to herself.
Discord’s eyebrow twitched, “And you just volunteered for second!” he said, smiling, “Isn’t that wonderful.”
Fluttershy began to scream, as helpless as she was in Discord’s magical grasp, while the animals closed ranks around her. “Angel Bunny! Please! It’s me! It’s mama! Don’t do this!” she begged the animals.
Her words, however, fell on rotting ears, as the larger animals (mostly bears and one manticore) started to tear into her, quickly followed by the gnashing teeth and sharp claws of the smaller ones. Her agonized screams only lasted a few seconds before trailing off into a gurgle followed by silence. Discord laughed, tossing a piece of popcorn into his mouth from a bag he pulled from thin air. He flicked another one into a portal, and it popped out an inch before Twilight Sparkle’s wide, horrified jaw. She nearly choked as his laughter increased, “Well, that was a fun time waster – or rather, time killer.”
He snapped, and the animals all collapsed back into bones, the necrotic magic sustaining them vanishing. He floated Fluttershy’s body, or what was left of it, back towards him, whistling lightly, the sound going up and down wildly, “They sure were eager,” he chuckled at the gore-spattered pony corpse. She was in three major pieces, her neck, head, and front legs, the majority of her barrel and her left back leg, and her right leg. Most of it was stripped to the bone by ever-hungry teeth. “I’ve always wondered where the meat goes,” Discord mused, “The constructs don’t actually eat it, but it doesn’t reappear when I dispel them. Maybe I just need to test it some more.”
He casually tore Fluttershy’s skull off, the half-skinned object seeming to radiate the horror and agony of her last moments, “Alas poor Flutters, I knew her well,” he said dramatically, “Unfortunately, I didn’t get to know her as well as those lovely zombies eating her heart.”
With that he clenched his talon, spattering the remaining mane four with blood and bits of brain matter and bone. “So, one down,” he said cheerily, “And discount Texan is next, I believe.”
Twilight couldn’t move, not even to talk and curse or scream. An alicorn of Magic Itself, and Discord had easily overpowered everything they had.
She knew now why ponies had once worshipped him as a god. She was legitimately considering if he could be one, with the morbid fascination of someone who knows they’re about to die.
Applejack floated into the air as he released his hold on her voice, and she began screaming immediately “NO! NO! YOU GET AWAY FROM ME, MONSTER! TWILIGHT! RARITY! HELP ME! PINKIE! PLEASE! SOMEONE STOP HIM!”
He just studied her, scratching his chin with a mannequin arm before glancing at the arm his tail held and melting it into slag, before scrachign with his talons. “Hmm. I wonder how to do you,” he hummed, before snapping his fingers. She was suddenly silent, and he leaned over her terrified face, “Say, Miss Apple. Do you prefer apples cooked in a pie, or jam.”
A look of utter horror crossed Twilight’s face. She understood, he noted. Perhaps he should let her talk a bit? No, it’d just be back to the whole monster bit with her. While she was book-smart, purpledumb lived up to her name when it came to actual wisdom.
He brightened as an idea struck him, instead of allowing Applejack to choose. “Ooh! Lightbulb!” he snatched the glowing bulb with his tail and stowed it in a portal, “Never know when you may need a spare,” he whispered conspiratorially, “But anyway, why choose when you can have both?”
He snapped, and Applejack was suddenly ApplejackS. A second Applejack hung in the air next to her. “So for those of you wondering, I’ve split her bodily control between her bodies,” he said cheerily, “This Applejack can talk but not move, and this one can move but not talk. Now, you’ll be Pie, and you’ll be Jam. Got it? Good.”
With another snap, a large oven hovered in midair, and the one titled “pie” floated into it’s open mouth. As the door closed he released his control over her vocal cords, only for her screaming to be muffled by the door, mostly a bunch of “NOs” and when he’d heard one he’d heard them all.
As he turned the dial on the oven up with a theatrical twist, he turned to the other Applejack, “Don’t worry,” he said cheerfully, “You’ll feel everything with both bodies. I wouldn’t want to deprive you of the experience, after all.” With another snap, Jam was trapped in a device that looked similar to a wine presser, only transparent. “Sorry, I know this isn’t how you typically make apple jam, but I don’t have time to cut up the pieces first. I guess I’ll have to content myself with the finished product.”
She screamed in wordless horror, but not a sound came out as Jam frantically bucked the glass holding her in the deathtrap. Worse, she could feel the heat on the other her’s fur as the oven, which had been set to five hundred, began to heat up rapidly.
Twilight watched, literally unable to look away as one of her best friends was crushed into a bony pulp slowly, while another version of her was killed by overheating, and resembled charcoal when Discord finally pulled her out. “Hmm, looks like I flubbed the pie,” he said in what seemed like legitimate annoyance, “And the jam is too chunky for a proper spread.” Another snap and the press and oven vanished, letting the almost liquidized applejam to splatter over the ground, while he sniffed the charcoal one, holding it by it’s leg. “Hmm. I wonder if it’s only burned on the outside?” he mused, before taking a large bite of her side. A moment later he spat it out, “Ugh, burned all the way through. This is just inedible,” he gargled and spat with a glass of water he hadn’t been holding before, tossing her burned corpse to the side “Still, that’s two. I know I’m saving purpledumb for last, so which of you wants to go next?” he leered at Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “You, I know what I’m going to do,” he pointed at Rarity, “While you, I’m still unsure. I’m currently leaning towards shoving your party cannon up your flank and firing away.”
He hummed, before summoning something into his talon, “I’ll flip a coin! Heads it’s the vain one, tails it’s the fun one!”
With that he flipped it,letting the coin fall to the ground before he giggled, “Heads! Looks like you’re next, Narcissa.”
Rarity’s eyes screamed for help, but neither pony could do anything. “Now, I’ve heard things about you bullying a diamond dog tribe into submission then stealing all their diamonds for your own greed,” Discord hummed, “So what I’m thinking now, is letting your death be a long and horrible one at their hands. Or rather, at their tools.”
Twilight couldn’t believe her ears. This Discord was a monster, yes. He’d tortured and murdered her friends psychologically and physically, in ways that were cruel and unusual. But rape?! The very crime was literally completely unheard of among ponykind, and only minotaurs and diamond dogs ever did anything of the sort!
With a snap of his fingers, Rarity was bound to a table, and with another snap, five confused diamond dogs were standing next to him. “Hello boys,” Discord greeted them cheerfully, “I’ve called you here for a spot of revenge with a side of murder. See this mare?” he gestured to Rarity, “Well, I want her dead in the most painfully humiliating way possible. Use her as much as you want, the harder the better. If she dies halfway through, I’ll give you a prize!”
With that he snapped, transporting the table and the suddenly viciously-grinning diamond dogs several yards away. “That one’s gonna take time, and I’m not into voyeurism,” Discord smiled cheerily, “I’m more of an orgy draconequis myself… much more chaotic than simply insert tab a into slot b.”
He smiled at Pinkie Pie, who didn’t react. A slight frown crossed Discord’s face, “Hmm. Did I already break you?” he snapped once, and her mouth was unfrozen. She just stood silently.
He nodded, “Right. You’re not going to be any fun, so here. You like being able to move in six dimensions when other ponies only move in five? Well here, have an all expense paid trip to the thirty eighth dimension.”
With a snap, Pinkie Pie simply disappeared, leaving no trace. “And that, dear purpledumb, makes five of six. Well, it will when the boys finish with Narcissa over there. So, what do you think of serious me? You liking it so far?” He snapped, unfreezing her mouth. She didn’t bother to curse him out or anything of the like, just raised her gaze to meet his and said softly, “I’m glad you killed Flutters first. She would be utterly devastated to see the extent of your depravity. She loved you, you know.”
“Oh, purpledumb,” he patted her on the head, “Better beings than you have tried to hurt me with words. You wanna know what I replied with? BANG.”
As he shouted the last word, a text bubble appeared above his head. He reached up, grabbing the word out of it like it was a large cinderblock of white with the words printed on it.
Calmly he raised it into the air before dropping it on Twilight’s tail. She shouted in sharp pain as her tail was all but ripped out – evidently the “cinderblock” was incredibly stick, and had caught all of her tail hair on it’s way down. “So, now that that caustic tongue has been silenced,” Discord said happily, “I wanted you to know I’ve got something extra special in mind for you.”
She looked up at him in trepidation, before one of the diamond dogs came loping over, penis blatantly waving around. “She’s dead, alpha,” the diamond dog reported.
Discord looked genuinely impressed, “That was really fast,” he remarked, “How?”
“She not made to take five at once in two holes,” the dog leered.
Discord burst out laughing, “Well done!” he cheered, “Get your friends over here.”
Once they were all in front of him, he clasped his hands together, “Well, you did it. So, like I said, you get a reward.”
Beams of energy flashed from his eyes, disintegrating them instantly, “You get a painless death, unlike the rest of your pathetic species,” he sneered before turning back to Twilight, “Now, where was I? Oh yeah. Something extra special. See, ponies are a social species. For your mental health, you need people to interact with occasionally. And you, you’re an alicorn. Notoriously hard to kill, unless you know the trick like me. Almost impossible to suicide, and immortal to boot! So I’m going to simply let you go, Twilight Sparkle, because with a snap of my fingers, you and I will be the only surviving sentients on Equis. No minotaurs, gryphons, seaponies, normal ponies, crystal ponies, whatever the fuck Sombra was, centaurs, changelings, you get the idea. No sentient life except for us, and I sure as shit won’t be sticking around.”
He paused, thinking, “Oh yeah, and I’m going to make all the books in the world go up in flames too. Can’t have you just pouring yourself into research to find some way into another world. That’d be cheating, and cheaters get even more punishment.”
With that he raised his claw, every last trace of joviality fading from his face, “I’ll ask you one last time, Twilight Sparkle. Do you like it when I take you seriously?”
She spat, “Fuck you.”
He smirked, “Classy.” Before snapping.
Nothing seemed to change, but she knew better than to assume Discord had failed. It was just that there were no living sentients or books around to show it. Moreover, as an alicorn she was closer in tune with the flow of magic that connected Equis to the Great Beyond, the afterlife of the Elysian Fields. She could feel the sudden vast flow of magic grow exponentially as countless millions of beings were ended in an instant. “I made sure they all felt themselves disintegrating,” Discord said cheerfully, “So, how does it feel being the last of your kind? And knowing you’re the inciting action?”
She roared in rage, lunging at him only for him to teleport behind her, “So long, Sparks. Hey, want a hint? Try playing the harmonica. It’s a good time-waster when you’re lonely.”
With that he vanished, and she screamed at the sky, all her anger, sadness, and fear rushing from her in a truly terrifying yell. “I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS YOU FUCKING MONSTER!” she roared.
Three thousand years later, Discord decided to check on her. He found a wreck of a being, starved of food and weak in magic and body, immortality proving to be the curse many lesser immortals saw it as – sometimes not being easy to kill was indeed a downside, and it made it hard to starve to death. She was barely clinging to sanity as she wrote frantically on scraps of home-made paper. Behind her was a vast mountain of homemade books, each one lovingly written and filled with knowledge she’d tried to transcribe as best she could. He could see the red ink from where he stood – she was writing with her own blood. Slowly he descended, considering if he should just set the books on fire and leave again, but landed before he could choose. The instant she saw him, she begged, pleaded, sobbed and demanded he kill her.
His amusement faded, before returning. Just because the game was over didn’t mean he was done. Unfortunately it seemed he wouldn’t be wringing any more enjoyment out of her.
His physical response was a simple smirk, followed by two words, “I win.” Before his tail shot through her heart and his claw punched through her brain in the same instant.
A simultaneous strike to the two most vital magical organs while magically depleted. The only absolutely sure way to kill an alicorn instantaneously.
After that he left Equis, having wiped off his bloodied limbs with the painstakingly made paper and books, set the rest of the mountain of books on fire, and left, while singing under his breath, “I’m the spirit of chaos, the image of evil, don’t deny. Gonna turn your world around and then I’ll watch you cry-y. Don’t fight it, just look at the chaos rising everywhere. Game over! I’m plunging your world into everlasting despair…”
Author's Note
Well, that happened.
I was inspired to write this after reading "Strings" by naturalbornderpy. I enjoyed his depiction of Discord as a force that would do anything to inspire change, though I was unsatisfied with the ending like many people. So I decided to write my own psycho-Discord.
Each of their deaths was made to be poetically ironic.
RD: killed by a bolt of blue lightning.
Flutters: killed and eaten by the pseudo-resurrected corpses of her animal friends.
AJ: Split in two, then flattened into a pulp and charbroiled in an oven simultaneously - Apple Pie and Apple Jam.
Rarity: Raped to death by the diamond dogs she feared having that exact outcome from.
Pinkie: Little bit of a backstory to this one. In my headcanon, Pinkie is oddly a multidimensional error in reality, and can see and interact with several higher and lower dimensions. Hence she can do things that are literally imperceptible to most beings. Discord, however, is a Spirit of a primal force. He has access to and can interact with vastly more dimensions, so he casts her into one of those dimensions beyond what she can interact with, and as her body isn't meant to exist in that format, it leads to her instant death.
Twilight: The second most psychological death. Instead of killing her with her friends, he left her alone on Equis for three thousand years, before declaring his victory and ending her life. All along, to him this was merely a game.
I'm not currently skilled enough to make this into a full story so I'm leaving it as a oneshot. Hope you like it.
The lyrics Discord sings at the end is from Aviators - "Spirit of Chaos," a great song and the thing I listened to on repeat while writing this.
I know there are errors, grammar mistakes, plot holes, and more. I'm currently half asleep, but I'm currently tired and want to rest rather than edit, hence the hiatus tag rather than complete.
