The Heart of Chaos: Discord's Origins

Chapters

Chapter 1: Creation of Chaos
Chapter 2: Father of Monsters
Chapter 3: Next of Kin to Chaos
Chapter 4: Draconequus Training 101

Chapter 1: Creation of Chaos

The universe requires balance. It is a simple fact that has been proven to be true for many different life forms since the beginning of time. Survival of both predator and prey, existence of both darkness and light. While one may triumph temporarily, the other always returns.

And so it was in this particular land of magical creatures, where death and fear ruled over everything. Ponies of all types who had previously led quiet, isolated lives now lived in terror of the powerful ram Grogar, father of monsters; but, as is the way of the universe, things would change again. The ponies began to flock together based on similar abilities, and the three newly created groups - Earth ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi - worked together against the tyrant, until finally one unicorn was given the opportunity by the help of her peers to banish Grogar from their world. Such harmony had never been seen in this land before, and peace was restored while ponies enjoyed even better lives side by side.

And of course, the universe couldn’t allow things to remain like this for the rest of time. An offshoot of this new magic of harmony shot skywards and towards the edge of their world. The magic exploded in a terrific shower of multicolored lights that nobody saw as it made contact with outer space, leaving nothing behind but a rolling, chaotic mass of . . . something.

* * *

Within that dark mass, at its very center, there lay an egg, yet its surface seemed to be composed of several different types of eggs, with the sections of contrasting layers unevenly stitched together, giving the egg a rough and asymmetrical shell.

The egg suddenly began to shake; it started gentle but grew more intense and violent by the second, until it seemed just short of exploding -

A sudden flash of light, accompanied by a single crack! filled the entire realm, then disappeared as abruptly as it had arrived.

The egg was revealed again but it now laid in splintered pieces, and among the mess was a creature, huddled in a heap with its tail wrapped around itself. The creature suddenly lifted its head, blinking slowly, then stood up. He was tall, much taller than any pony had ever been, and indeed he was the farthest thing from a pony. His body was primarily that of a snake’s, but his horned head was furry and equine, while his middle bore dark eagle feathers, two mispaired wings, and four clashing limbs.

The creature took in his surroundings, but all there was to see was smokey darkness, and the few feet of ground he could make out around him was bare. A thick silence lay over everything.

Well this is boring, the creature thought. What even is this place? He wondered if the rest of where he was was just as dull as this part.

Then suddenly light appeared from an unknown source, flooding the entire landscape. The creature stared out; there was no singular solid ground, but rather what must’ve been hundreds of floating land masses of all different sizes suspended stationarily in the air, black silhouettes set against a gray sky. They were also all devoid of any features at all.

So empty . . . I must be the only thing anywhere around here, the creature mused. He spun around slowly, taking in the dull scenery, and sighed. If only “around here” wasn’t so boring!

Without warning, the lighting changed with a flash. It now seemed to be a mix of bright pink and orange, blending and clashing and glowing differently in separate parts of the sky. The creature gasped, amazed, as he admired the change, then glanced down. The ground of the small land mass where he was standing was now patterned in blue checkers, instead of its previous dusty black, and the one closest to him was checkered in pink.

The creature lifted his head. It looked like a completely different world, one full of possibilities. And now, drinking in the scene around him, he had the strangest feeling that he was connected to this, this colorful sky and floating islands.

Just looking around him the creature could picture all sorts of fun, novel things for this newly vibrant world, so many ideas crashing into his mind that they were being lost among each other and the creature wasn’t able to keep track of them all. But he didn’t have to; something in this world was doing just that.

Pink fluffy clouds began to drift lazy across the glowing sky, showering the lands in what appeared to be just dark rain, but upon closer inspection proven to be chocolate milk. The various land masses expanded and began to float up and down in place as plants began to suddenly spring up on them. Some of the lands remained checkered in an array of colors while others sprouted tall blades of grass colored in shades of lime green and teal, each blade growing two tiny waving arms and a small head, with which they chattered in high pitched tones to one another. Animals such as bunnies with tall giraffe legs and lions sporting unicorn horns appeared, and red licorice bridges formed between separate land masses so the stampedes of bunnies and ballet buffaloes could travel across them. The creature leapt aside with a laugh as one of these groups of bunnies rushed right by him; but instead of landing back down on the ground, he discovered that he was floating and, with a little concentration, was able to move where he wished while still in the air. How exhilarating! The creature whooped and rose higher over the lands, watching as trees of all types claimed their places on the islands. Some bore creatures such as fire breathing monkeys and flying rubber chickens, while others uprooted themselves and ran along on their roots, and leaves of every color imaginable could be seen somewhere. A pink and purple polka dotted three-headed snake slithered past a winged possum and an opera-singing jackalope. On one of the bigger islands, a great waterfall of jam had appeared. Various schools of fish swam alongside narwhals through the sky, which was no longer just pink and orange but a ceaselessly swirling kaleidoscope of colors.

Thousands of strange and wacky animals, plants, and objects filled the entire landscape, as far as the eye could see, with a cacophony of clashing sounds and songs that were music to the creature’s ears. He roared with laughter, his arms thrown wide to embrace this new, wonderful world that he knew had come from him. It was his paradise. He was surrounded by the most ridiculous, senseless things in existence, just as ridiculous and senseless as the creature himself. It was the best feeling in the world! It was crazy! It was wild! It was fun! It was chaos! It was . . .

Discord.

The moment the word fell into his head the creature knew that it was for him; it was him. And it was the last thing he needed to finally be complete.

Chapter 2: Father of Monsters

Discord gazed out, admiring his work and his brand new world. Who knew what else he could do with these powers of his!

“So much possibility,” he exclaimed, staring at the eagle claws on his left hand in amazement and flexing them. “I guess I’ll just need to practice, eh?” He then squinted in concentration, and a moment later with a flash of light his curved talons were now flower stems sporting brightly colored daisies. He laughed, “Oh hoo, look at that!”

Then suddenly he became aware of something nagging at him in the back of his mind. It didn’t feel like this something was new, but instead that it had already been there and he was only just now aware of it.

Discord looked around. Despite the inherent chaoticness of the land itself, nothing really seemed out of place to him, but he felt that it was something beyond what he could simply see.

“Just how far out does this place go anyway?” he mused aloud. Even though nearly everything here had come from him, he realized that he still didn’t know anything about the world he was in except that it was connected to him and his mind.

Thinking of this, Discord closed his eyes and tried to use his powers to spread out in his mind, looking for boundaries. He found none, but he did find something else - what felt like hundreds of little holes, as if poked through thick jello. These holes felt different from the rest of his world, and oddly enough, the nagging disturbance seemed to be coming from the closest hole, which for some reason seemed to be pulling strongly on him. Discord opened his eyes to look at the spot, which at first seemed to be an ordinary patch of sky where a monstrous floating mailbox was chewing on a squirrel, but when he looked closer he could pick out a faint ripple, like on the surface of a disturbed glass of water.

“Aha!” Discord exclaimed, and, concentrating, he snapped with his right lion paw. A mini rocket materialized next to him and flew straight at the ripple, where it exploded in a shower of multicolored sparks that moved through the air to form different pictures. As nearby creatures oohed and ahhed at the show, Discord zoomed over to the newly created hole and summoned up a balloon telescope with another snap; he was getting faster and faster at this, he thought proudly.

“Now,” Discord mused as he put the telescope to his eye and looked through the hole with it. “What have we got here?”

At first it was hard to make out anything; after a moment Discord realized that he was looking down at an unfamiliar ground from very high above. He reached over and pulled on his telescope; the balloon stretched and gave a much clearer picture of what appeared to be an ordinary green field, dotted with small houses and tall trees near the edge, while in the center it was populated with a crowd of variously and vividly colored ponies, who seemed to be holding some sort of ceremony.

“So quiet and peaceful, and so normal,” Discord muttered with disdain as he analyzed the scene below him. “Goodness me, I doubt I’d be able to stand there for two minutes before dropping dead of boredom!”

But he kept watching; he knew that this very gathering, taking place in what appeared to be a complete other world, was the source of the nagging. He could definitely see why he wouldn’t like it, but there seemed to be more going on. There was some sort of repulsive force coming from the meeting below that was pulling on him, making his insides turn as though he were sick.

He could make out an Earth pony and a unicorn standing on a stage in front of the crowd, and then realized that the Earth pony’s mouth was moving but no sound accompanied it.

Discord sighed. “I guess I really do have to do everything around here, don’t I?” he mumbled as he snapped his fingers and caused a volume dial to appear, which he turned up until he could clearly make out the pony’s words from so far away.

“ - to honor the unicorn here, Gusty the Great, for her actions in finally and permanently defeating the dreaded Grogar!” the Earth pony called, and the crowd cheered wildly. The unicorn next to the Earth pony, Gusty, smiled abashedly at the crowd.

Two Pegasi swooped down and planted a pole on the stage, at the top of which was fastened a rolled up banner that then unraveled fully. It depicted a large, fierce, dark blue ram with a collar of bells, wicked sharp teeth protruding from his lower jaw, and glowing red eyes. The crowd’s boos at the sight of the banner changed to cheers as the Pegasi each brought a torch over and held them to the bottom edge of the banner, where the flames caught the tapestry and slowly spread upwards.

“And now, we will have peace and harmony in this land such as we have never known before!” the Earth pony shouted passionately, and the crowd roared in response.

“Grogar, huh?” Discord said thoughtfully as he lowered the telescope, still gazing into the other world. He popped the telescope with one of his talons, and it whined as the air flew out of it. “Well he certainly sounds like an interesting fellow. I wonder where he went.”

Discord sat back and gazed around the rest of his domain, thinking of all the other holes. Each one of those was a gateway to a neighboring world, and who knew how many holes there were in all, considering this dimension seemingly had no end nearby.

He concentrated again to feel where the holes were. They weren’t hard to pick out, but he realized that most of them felt very weak compared to the one he had just opened up. No, weak wasn’t exactly the right word, more like . . . less powerful. Or with less magic. Either way, the world that he had just peeked into had the strongest aura, which was separate from the repulsive force he had felt from the crowd of ponies. That world didn’t seem very exciting from what he could see, however, so he decided to go check out the others.

Discord moved slowly through the dimension, feeling for the more powerful holes. Most were fairly weak, although every now and then he’d get one that was a little stronger. After a while though, he suddenly felt one that was a lot more powerful, not as much as the first one but clearly one that he should stop by.

He found it next to the floating land mass with the waterfall of jam. With a smirk and a snap he procured a floating bow and arrow, which he grabbed and adjusted to aim at the ripple where there was now a bright red and white bulls-eye, leaning back and squinting one eye near shut.

“Nice and steady . . . ” he murmured softly, “and . . . fire at will.” He released the arrow, which soared gracefully through the air and landed right in the center of the bulls-eye, resulting in a shower of confetti and a cheer from a nearby group of merdogs who were watching.

Discord took a bow, then flew to the new portal. It was a bit small, so he took the inner edges of the hole and pulled them further from each other, stretching the hole enough so that he wouldn’t have to shrink to fit through. Discord barely took another glance through the portal before going through.

“Holy Tartarus” were the first words Discord breathed out as he looked at this new world. Which was saying a lot coming from him.

If his world was chaotic, it was nothing compared to wherever he was now. The sky was a seething, rolling mass of darkness with random bouts of red lightning flashing across it. The very fabric of this place seemed to be shifting and changing at random, and there was a feeling of something diseased hanging over everywhere. It was hard to make out much land or anything solid that wasn’t alive. And wherever he looked, the area was teeming with monsters and strange creatures of all types; but they weren’t like the silly hybrids in Discord’s world. These here were vicious, snarling and roaring at one another, while shrieks from terrorized lesser beings wrought the air.

“Well, it’s not exactly my taste,” Discord declared thoughtfully, looking all around him, “but I suppose it’s certainly one way of running things. And it does spice things up much more nicely than that other bore-show!”

Suddenly there was a furious roar from somewhere in the gloom rather close, causing several others to quickly flee from the spot. Discord, on the other hand, moved a little closer for a peek at the source.

At first he saw nothing but a silhouette - a huge, horned silhouette, pacing back and forth on a rocky patch of ground and occasionally stamping in fury with unintelligible roars.

“Yoo-hoo!” Discord called out, against all common sense. “Not to interrupt your brooding, pal, but it’s kinda dark over there!” He held up his lion paw and a beam of light shot from his palm at the creature. He held back a gasp.

It was a towering ram, nearly as tall as Discord himself, with thick cobalt fur covering a very muscular body and curved navy blue horns ending in two wicked sharp points. When he turned suddenly towards Discord he could see a row of many deadly fangs jutting up from his lower jaw, a crimson collar of golden bells, and thick silver eyebrows that sat upon a pair of glowing red eyes.

“WHAT do you think you’re doing, you insolent nuisance?” the ram growled, crouching slightly as though to attack. “Are you asking for a painful death?”

“You must be Grogar!” Discord exclaimed, completely disregarding the threat. At these words, the ram stopped, straightening up and narrowing his eyes at Discord.

“How do you know my name?” Grogar demanded. “Where do you even come from?”

“Oh I’m just dropping by from over there,” Discord replied casually, gesturing vaguely over his shoulder to where the portal back to his home was. “I had just been watching these ponies in some other world talking about their defeat of some fellow named Grogar, and there was this tapestry they burned that looked an awful lot like you - ”

“That’s because it was of me!” Grogar roared suddenly, stamping his hooves hard against the ground. This violent outburst caused Discord to float back a couple feet in surprise.

“That which you saw must clearly be the land that I was just banished from,” Grogar said bitterly. “I ruled there for several decades. I had come from a distant land in the far north of that same world, seeking a civilization to conquer in revenge against my kind for banishing me from my own home. I found a vast region of ponies who lived separate from each other on small independent farms and pastures, and I claimed it as my own. I created hundreds of monsters - the first ever true monsters of that world. They took what they wanted, destroyed what they didn’t, and terrorized citizens who were not killed or eaten just for the fun of it.” An evil smirk formed on the ram’s face as he reminisced. “It was glorious; I held more power than any weak-minded fool for miles could have ever imagined!”

His smirk suddenly turned into a nasty snarl. “And then those wretched ponies began to congregate together, forming tribes based on their similarities; soon I was facing unicorn covens and Pegasi air teams and Earth pony armies.” He spat on the ground in anger. “They learned to work together, and while I was distracted fighting them off with my monsters, that damned Gusty stole my Bewitching Bell - it had all of my magic stored safely away inside it! But once she took it and hid it at the top of Mount Everhoof with powerful spells, I could no longer access it. I was banished from that world entirely, and now I’m in this hellhole with no means of escape, while all my monstrous creations were either brought here, thrown into Tartarus, or forced to flee for their lives. But if I ever find a way out of here, those pathetic little lifeforms will regret their entire existence, and they will beg for death on bent knee - ”

“When you reclaim your magic bell and reconquer the world, blah blah,” Discord interrupted, now lounging in a lawn chair, as he tossed the last few pieces of popcorn he’d been eating into his mouth. “But wow, truly an epic tragedy, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! Although I don’t see why so much bloodshed was necessary; I bet you could’ve had plenty of good times without mass genocide, but hey that’s just me. Plus, cleaning up all that blood sounds pretty messy and not at all fun - ”

“Is that minuscule excuse for a brain of yours capable of producing even a slightly intelligent notion?!” Grogar screamed, so loudly that a pair of velociraptors perched on a nearly cliff screeched and took flight. “Your talking is unendurable and the very definition of annoying. What kind of insufferable creature even are you?”

“Uh - ” Discord was slightly taken aback by the outburst, and highly offended at the comment on him and his intelligence, but he decided not to respond to it because he didn’t feel like going to battle with this clearly crazy ram. The second question however made him glance down at his mismatched body, which he hadn’t really given much thought to before. “I dunno,” he replied, looking back up with a shrug and a smirk. “I’m just Discord, and what else do I need to be, really, besides my wonderfully charming sel- ”

“Get out of my sight before I pound you to death with my own bare hooves!!” Grogar roared with enough force that the entire ground he stood on shook. Discord didn’t need telling twice; he procured a bowler hat which he tipped down towards Grogar, then zoomed off further into the dimension away from the ram.

“Gods, someone certainly needs to get that guy a couple chill pills,” Discord muttered. “Talk about anger issues!” But inwardly he was genuinely extremely unnerved by Grogar’s strong tendencies and even enjoyment of such brutal violence. It was like . . . actual evil.

Suddenly Discord emerged in a sort of clearing - at least, there was less gloom pushing in from all sides, making it easier to see - and there was a greater bustle of activity here. Here, the sky was the most foaming and swirling, changing the very shape of the dimension. He looked around at all the monsters passing him, either not noticing him at the edge of the gloom or not caring enough to acknowledge him. There was also a ring of asteroids here, all different sized and irregularly shaped due to their massive amount of craters. Discord smiled; he could start to like this place.

“MY MY MY, WHAT DO I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE?” a loud cold voice suddenly boomed out, and Discord looked up at a sight he had somehow missed.

Up above the center of the clearing, there hovered a strange throne, which seemed to twist and turn and connect in ways that didn’t make any sense, and upon that throne was an even stranger creature. It was really just a brilliantly yellow two-dimensional triangle that emitted a faint glow, but there was a pair of arms and a pair of legs that were both black and very thin. The triangle had a black top hat on its highest point, a bow tie in the center of its front, which bore a pyramid-like pattern, and above this bow one large eye that had a single vertical black pupil, which was currently fixed right on Discord. All the monsters in the vicinity now turned to look at him as the triangle floated down from the throne and came face to face with Discord, while in one hand it swirled a wine glass filled with what looked like blood.

“WELL, well, well,” the triangle intoned, somehow meeting both of Discord’s eyes with the singular one. “We’ve got a newcomer, boys!”

Chapter 3: Next of Kin to Chaos

“So,” the triangle said, with no visible mouth anywhere, “what’s your name, kid?”

Discord felt a little freaked out at being surrounded by so many unfamiliar and hostile creatures. He also thought that this voice was the tiniest bit off-putting; it almost sounded like it came from a mechanical recording instead of a living being, and it seemed to echo even with no walls nearby. But now was not the time for worrying; he decided to put on a brave face, and he bowed dramatically. “Why, I . . . am Discord!” He sprang back up, grinning with his arms thrown outward, and a burst of fireworks erupted behind him.

The triangle laughed. It was a short, unusual laugh that almost sounded insane, but still retained a note of genuine mirth.

“I like you already! You certainly seem to know how to have a bit of fun!” The triangle tipped the top hat to him. “Name’s Bill Cipher. King of the Nightmare Realm around here.” He flew in a circle around Discord, inspecting him, his huge eye somehow widening even more. “And what a sight you are - a draconequus, around these parts!”

“A what?” Discord asked, bewildered. He had never heard of such a thing.

Bill came back around to face Discord; up close he wasn’t as large as he had initially seemed, and at eye level with Discord his feet only reached the bottom of his gray furry neck.

“A draconequus, of course. I’ve been in this miserable game called existence for nearly three trillion years, and even I’ve only seen a few of your kind.” Bill closed his eye and used his eyelids as lips to take a sip of his drink before continuing.

“Draconequi aren’t a breed like normal creatures; they don’t really mate and have kids, and as far as I’ve heard they don’t form their own civilizations. Draconequi are the extremely powerful physical manifestations of the darker forces of nature that simply spring into being when it’s their time. They’ve got magic that bests any creature in this multiverse - except for me, of course, but they do come pretty damn close. I met this one a while back, somewhere around mmm, twenty bil ago? Anyway he’d already been around for a while by then; he was the embodiment of violence - Cutthroat, was it? Yeah that sounds about right - and man, could that guy shed some blood!” Bill laughed again, then sighed regretfully. “We probably could’ve been pretty great pals if he hadn’t tried to slice me open within five minutes of me talking to him.”

Bill thrust his glass suddenly towards Discord. “Anyways! What’re you, kid? Actually no, you know what, I’m gonna guess - Discord, huh? So you’re, what, disharmony? Confusion?” His eye seemed to glow with excitement. “Chaos?”

Discord felt a smile spread on his face just at the mention of the third word. “I’ve no clue, but chaos sounds pretty great to me!” he replied. Bill cackled with delight.

“Well that’s fantastic to hear! I love chaos!” The monsters around them roared in agreement at Bill’s words. Discord couldn’t help but laugh along. He’d met someone who clearly thought just like him!

“So tell me, Discord,” Bill said, “how did you find your way here?”

Discord snapped his fingers and a glass of chocolate milk appeared in his clawed hand. He took a sip from his drink before he answered. “Well,” he said, indicating back the way he came with his glass, “I had been checking out this one weird spot in my dimension that kept giving me bad vibes, you know? Anyways, then I noticed a bunch of other connections to various worlds over there, so I came here next to see what it was like.” Discord paused suddenly, looking around him. “Or, wherever here is. I still don’t even know where I am. Didn’t you call this something earlier, the Nightmare Land or - ?”

“What, this shitshow?” Bill gestured around the dark world, a note of disdain now entering his reverberating voice. “This is the Nightmare Realm. It’s not even technically a dimension; it’s just the part of the multiverse in between other dimensions. Home to tons of monsters from all over, and also anything that gets lost, which usually never finds its way back out.”

Bill swirled his drink again, his eyes narrowed at something in the distance Discord couldn’t see. “This is where I’ve been stuck for nearly a trillion years, after something I’d done back home.”

“Are you serious?” Discord said in a slightly hushed voice, horrified at the idea of being trapped in one place for that long. “Whatever did you do?”

“Ah, never you mind, that’s not important,” Bill said dismissively, waving a hand. “So anyway, you said your dimension’s just next door, eh? Which one is it?”

But Discord now had a slight knot in the pit of his stomach. The hand holding his glass tightened instinctively. “Wait, but, if I'm in here now - will I be able to even get back out of this place?”

“Sure you will, kid!” Bill exclaimed with a laugh, patting Discord on the shoulder. “You’re a draconequus, and I’d like to see the barrier in all of space and time that could stop a draconequus. But I’m a special case. You see, I’m not just your average demon, oh no - I’m probably the most powerful dream demon you’ll ever meet in your immortal little lifetime. They don’t call me Master of the Mind for nothing, after all.” Bill’s free hand curled into a fist, which burst into glowing cyan flames. He stared at their flickering glow darkly.

“That’s what’s got me stuck here, though: the fact that I’m bound by a very ancient magic whose origins even I don’t know and that I don’t actually have a physical body, so I only have one way to enter another world on my own: the mindscape.”

“Well that must get quite boring,” Discord said, though he was now very relieved to know he’d still be able to get back to his lovely chaotic home. “Only one physical place anywhere around where you can freely cause chaos to your heart’s content, but it’s not exactly anybody’s number-one pick, is it?”

“Exactly!!” Bill screamed, throwing his arm around Discord and gesturing with the glass in his opposite hand to the world around them. “Just look at this place! There’s basically nobody to terrorize, because every living thing in here is either a monster themselves or dead too soon!”

He suddenly sighed, moving away from Discord again while rubbing his closed eyelid in frustration. “If I weren’t already insane I’d be worried for the state of my mind from being trapped in here for so long, but I’m still gonna try as best as I can to get out of here. Until then, this pathetic wasteland is the only thing I can call home.”

Discord felt an odd sensation that he wasn’t sure he liked very much; it took him a moment to realize that it was pity. “Well gods, if only there were a way for you to come to my place - we’d have a blast together over there, I promise you.” He frowned, then looked back at Bill. “What’s that ‘mindscape’ thing you mentioned earlier?”

“Oh, that,” Bill said, looking bored. “It’s just the metaphysical plane of existence that stretches over everything in the multiverse and allows me to appear when summoned in the dreams of living creatures and speak to them. Nothing special, really.” But then his eye widened suddenly, as though he had just remembered something.

“There is one way I can enter another physical realm,” Bill said excitedly, turning towards Discord. “Well, two ways really - one indirectly and one directly. I can make deals with creatures in their minds and offer them something they want while they give me the chance to temporarily borrow their bodies. I used to do it with humans all the time back in the old days, but they don’t trust me anymore.” He sighed, taking a thoughtful sip from his drink. “It’s not the most ideal solution, and I can’t do any magic while in those bodies, but I can still use my incredible charm and wits to get whatever it is I need or want.”

Discord had no idea what a human was, but he grinned as he listened to Bill. “And the other way? I’m guessing it’s the more direct way.”

“Right you are, kid. See, I can travel to any part of the multiverse via the mindscape, but I can’t make any portals to physical locations outside of the Nightmare Realm. However, if another creature were to open up a portal from their world to this place - then I’d be quite free to go into that world, where I’d gain my own physical body and be able to use my powers there however I wished! And I would be free from here, forever!” He laughed wildly.

Discord sprang higher into the air, arms thrown wide, accidentally sending his glass flying through the dark world. “Well that’s perfect! All we have to do is find a creature who can open up interdimensional portals, and then the fun would begin!” He pointed suddenly towards Bill. “What about those other things you mentioned, those - humans? Could you use them?”

Bill chuckled. “Nah, they don’t have magic. They’d have to build a portal themselves, and it would require the biggest of brains and most advanced technology, which makes it really difficult for them as they’re still in this Byzantine Empire era that’s been going on for a few decades. One did come pretty close a while back, however, but it was total trash, and then he and his tribe stopped trusting me. Those guys are just so paranoid.” If he had a mouth, Bill would be grinning wickedly. “But we don’t need humans, silly! We have a much better solution way closer to home.”

“We do?” Discord inquired, looking around the Nightmare Realm. “Who?”

Bill laughed and threw an arm around Discord’s shoulders. “Why, you, kid! Are you kidding? With your power, you could just snap those claws of yours and teleport yourself and anyone around you to wherever the hell in the multiverse you wish to go!”

“Really?” Discord stared at his paw in amazement. To imagine that he had the potential for that kind of power . . .

“How long have you been around anyway?” Bill asked suddenly, looking quizzically at Discord. “Surely you would’ve picked up on your teleportation power by now, it’s one of the most basic abilities. Originally I figured you were only a few decades old, but now I’m starting to think you’re closer to just a few years . . . ?”

Discord shook his head with a smirk. “Try more like a few hours.”

“A few hours?!” Bill repeated, flying around to face Discord and staring at him in shock. “You’re just an infant! My my, there’s so much you’ve got to learn! No wonder you looked so clueless when you wandered over here earlier.” Bill suddenly finished his drink at top speed, then threw the empty glass over his shoulder, where it collided with an asteroid and exploded. “Well then, who better to teach the newborn spirit of chaos how to wield his powers than the master of chaos?”

Discord grinned widely. “Excellent!” A pad of paper and a pencil appeared in his hands, which he grabbed and posed with as though eager to begin taking notes. “So, where to start? I presume teleportation and portal mastering is our first lesson?”

“Right you are!” Bill said, a single-lens pair of glasses appearing on his face. “See, the trick is your mind, not necessarily the magic. Sure you’ve got the potential to travel to the other side of existence in the space of a nanosecond, but when you’ve never done it before, it requires some serious concentration.”

There was a sudden flash, and Discord found Bill and himself now floating in a quieter, less populated area of the realm, and the glasses, pad, and pen had gone. He looked down and saw the clearing they had just been in, only much farther below.

“Now, let’s go ahead and try getting to your dimension,” Bill resumed casually. “Since you’re a beginner, you’ll need few distractions and some silence to really focus.”

Discord couldn’t help but feel surprised at this. “We’re starting off pretty big considering I’m just a beginner, eh? Thought we’d be going like, from this asteroid to that one.”

Bill made a pfft sound, waving his hand. “I don’t do small stuff, kid. If you can travel between dimensions, you can teleport to a few feet away. It’s that simple.”

Discord shrugged; it was sound logic to him.

“So, piece of advice: if you want to physically move between places, your mind has to be free to move as well,” Bill told Discord, moving around him. “This won’t be too hard since you already know where you’re planning to go pretty well. Just picture your dimension in your mind; focus on it and try, if you can, to feel like you’re there now.”

Discord closed his eyes, bringing to the forefront of his mind an image of his home. He immersed himself in the kaleidoscopic sky, the hundreds of unique floating islands, the plants and animals that ran across the chattering grass and checkered ground, the fish and creatures that swam through the air. Discord inhaled slightly, and could almost smell the cotton candy clouds dotting the sky. He relaxed as he felt himself just as much of a part of that dimension as everything else over there.

“Alright, now hold on to that image,” Bill’s voice said from somewhere next to Discord. “Hold on to whatever you’re feeling too actually, because you look relaxed enough for good transportation.

“Now,” Bill’s voice had moved to in front of Discord, “imagine yourself traveling there, and when you think you’re ready, snap your fingers to summon the magic and channel it better. If you vanish, I’ll be watching where you go in the mindscape.”

Discord allowed himself to become as fully submerged in the scene in his mind, then he raised his eagle claw slowly, shaking slightly. Discord brought his fingers together, took in a deep breath, and snapped.

There was a sudden rush, followed by the strangest feeling of everything around him being sucked into the void, before it all returned to normal, all under a second.

The first thing Discord registered, his eyes still closed, was the sound around him. The roars and shrieks were gone; instead, there was a symphony of overlaying music and various animal calls.

He opened his eyes. He was hovering in his own dimension again.There was a sudden loud squawk in his ear, and he turned to see a winged catfish staring at him. He laughed and reached out to pet the fish, but it zoomed away playfully.

Suddenly, everything around him slowed to a standstill. Discord stared around in alarm; the constant sound had also stopped, and he was suddenly feeling very worried. Then without warning the entire world except for Discord became grayscale, and there was a sudden flash of light besides him.

“Nice work, kid!” It was Bill, still glowing bright yellow and looking excited. “That was perfect!”

“Wha- Bill?” Discord asked, bewildered. “But how - I thought you couldn’t travel - ”

“Oh right, I forgot.” Bill threw his arms wide. “Welcome to the mindscape! I can also just hit pause on time itself whenever I want, so that’s why everything out there’s frozen.” Bill conjured a black cane and whirled it a bit through the air before pointing towards the edge of the dimension. “Now, all you gotta do is open a portal to the Nightmare Realm! When you’re back in the physical world, concentrate like you’re gonna teleport over there, but instead of actually going there, just open up a tear between the dimensional barriers. It should be easier than before.”

And with that Bill vanished. The whole dimension resumed its normal state as if nothing had happened. Discord blinked, then smirked. Following Bill’s instructions, he closed his eyes and pictured the Nightmare Realm in his mind, with all its swirling, suffocating gloom and chaotic monsters. This time, Discord focused on that world’s proximity to his, and he felt what seemed like a thin but strong wavering wall between the two realms. He raised his eagle claw again and snapped his fingers. In his mind, he sensed a large hole open up in that wall, and when he opened his eyes he saw a portal right in front of him, with the Nightmare Realm just visible on the other side.

Discord felt a wide grin spread across his face. Look what he could do with his powers! And that was only with a little bit of help!

Bill then appeared in the entranceway between the two worlds, looking very excited, before entering Discord’s dimension. The portal sealed up behind him.

“Well kid,” Bill said, turning to face Discord. “Time to begin unlocking your godlike potential!”

Chapter 4: Draconequus Training 101

“Well, well,” Bill said, looking all around. “This is definitely a great place you’ve got here!” He watched the various animals who had gathered around the two chaotic beings to stare at the newcomer in wonder.

“Oh, it’s really not that much,” Discord said, his tone an attempt at humility but betrayed by the confident grin he wore as he petted one of the fire-breathing monkeys that had landed on his shoulder. “Just the modest abodes of one . . . draconequus of chaos, as I suppose that’s what I am.” The monkey suddenly belched a stream of violently pink flames across DIscord’s face, then leapt onto a nearby land mass with a screech.

“You know kid, you surprise me,” Bill said, looking up at the colorful sky above. “You’re not that old and you didn’t know how to teleport, but you managed to create all this on your own? How’d you do it?”

Discord, who had just been using a summoned hose to wash off all the scorch marks from his face, looking up with a shrug. “I don’t really know myself; I had simply woken up here, where it had been all dark and empty, but then I guess it sort of, took the ideas that I had come up with for this place and just made them happen. No snap of any claws.”

Bill turned towards Discord, who was surprised to see how delighted Bill looked by that information. “Subconscious magic, eh? Yeah, that’s some pretty powerful stuff but damn, I sure wasn’t expecting this!” He spread his arms out to the dimension, laughing. “You wait till you get all your powers under control, kid. You just wait!”

Discord grinned at the idea, but then noticed something odd about Bill while the latter continued to study the chaotic realm. Discord pulled out a large magnifying glass and held it up to the dream demon’s side, frowning.

“Say Bill, didn’t you say you got a physical form whenever you managed to leave the Nightmare Realm and go somewhere else?” he asked. “Because you still look awfully 2-D to me.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too,” Bill replied, looking back at the draconequus. He summoned his black cane and began twirling it on his arm. “That only happens in metaphysical and mental places, but I know for sure that this isn’t one of those.” He reached up and tapped the air a couple times, and the sound of knocking as though on a door echoed from the taps, though they never connected with anything solid. “That means your world is just a pocket dimension, not a full-blown one.”

“Really?” Discord looked around at his realm. “How do you know?”

Bill chuckled, pointing a finger towards himself. “I’m the all-knowing eye, kid; I know lots of things.” He started about the dimension again, twirling his cane once more. “Basically, this realm is an offshoot of another, more powerful dimension.” Bill tapped his cane to his “chin”, wearing a ponderous expression. “Hmmm.” He turned then to Discord. “Didn’t you mention a world that you were getting bad vibes off of earlier?”

“Yeah.” Discord looked for the spot where he had made the window to that boring world of ponies, but then he remembered his newfound skill, and closed his eyes, searching with his mind instead. He soon found the same thin barrier, this one separating his realm from that first one he had seen, and with another snap opened up a new hole in the wall.

He and Bill floated over to the portal and peered out onto a large stretch of land surrounded by forest and mountains, with small dots scattered over the ground. Bill reached over and placed his pinched thumb and index finger above the scene and stretched them apart, causing their view to zoom in dramatically. Now the dots were clearly visible as groups of cottages and various ponies.

“Oh yeahhh, I remember this world,” Bill said, studying the ponies below. “It’s called Posæduum, but that’s an archaic name; the different creatures in this dimension are so unaware of each other’s existence that they probably don’t even realize there’s an entire world beyond their own societies that’s got its own name.”

The repulsive force Discord had felt earlier was gone now, but the memory of it lingered. He told Bill as much, and Bill nodded thoughtfully.

“Well, you’re a draconequus, kid. Another thing I forgot to mention: you’re created out of the opposite of whatever you stand for. So since you’re a spirit of chaos and general disorder, you were probably created out of a strong act of harmony among these inferior horses.” Bill’s eye suddenly widened a bit, and he turned to Discord. “You said you’re just a few hours old, eh? I’ll bet you were born from Grogar’s defeat. When that crazy ram turned up in the Nightmare Realm I went to go talk to him, and it turns out that the ponies defeated him by learning teamwork.” Bill rolled his eye. “Then he just yelled at me to leave him be and didn’t seem at all interested in my offer to help him get back to Posæduum. What a grouch.”

“That sounds about right,” Discord replied, studying the ponies below him. “Not long after I got this place chaos-ified, I felt that force coming from this world, and when I went to check it out I saw these guys holding a ceremony to celebrate his defeat.”

“Well, there ya go!” Bill exclaimed. “I’m a bit surprised, of course, since these ponies and their society are actually some of the least developed in this entire world and plenty of other kingdoms have been well established for some time now, but then again they’ve always seemed to have the most influence on this dimension for some reason.” Bill flew a bit back and faced the draconequus.

“Harmony and order is your natural enemy, kid, and basically your only weakness. Whenever you’re near a strong dose of it, you’re going to feel that same nausea, but to varying degrees, depending on how much of it there is and whether or not there’s actual magic involved. So if you were to go into a non-magical dimension and witness something like what you did earlier, you’d still be affected by it but it wouldn’t be too bad, whereas in Posæduum you’ll feel it a hell of a lot more. In that world, harmony and friendship have actual magical powers, so you’ll have to watch out for it.” He then sealed up the portal by tracing his cane up over the tear.

Discord took a moment to process this information. “How odd, that mere concepts can hold actual power in that world. But then again, I exist, so I suppose that does make sense.”

Bill laughed. “Kid, when it comes to creatures like us, there is no making sense. Now,” he floated back so that he was facing Discord at more of a distance. “We need to get that subconscious magic flowing through the rest of your mind. Just follow my lead!”

Under Bill’s guidance, Discord practiced opening more portals to different worlds by using the various holes he had felt earlier, only now he realized that there had never actually been any holes. What he had been feeling were all the various universes that neighbored his, and which shared an interdimensional wall with his realm. After practicing for quite a while, Discord only had to think of wherever it was that he wished to travel to, and with one snap of claws a magnificent portal would immediately appear before him. These shimmering barriers between worlds that he felt in his mind, the draconequus realized, were as impenetrable to mortal creatures like those in Posæduum as a stone wall was to a bunny, but for him they were more like thin curtains hung up to block off different rooms in a house. Really, they’re more just suggestions for barriers, Discord reasoned to himself. After all, there aren’t exactly multiverse police to stop me from going wherever I want, are there?

“Look at you go!” Bill exclaimed with glee after a while as he watched the speed and apparent ease with which Discord opened up gateways to other worlds.

They next worked on summoning things. Discord had already done pretty well on certain objects, especially things he was already familiar with, but Bill began to push him to simply come up with things on the spot, those that either he had never seen before or only existed in his imagination. At first he took ideas from the unique creature hybrids living in his dimension, but soon enough he was creating new ones, his mind jumbling together the wackiest combinations faster and faster as practiced more, until Discord felt as though his claws were to fall off at any moment. But overall he felt much better than he had before; he was aware of so much power now flowing through his entire body, which made it such a wonder that it had all been locked away in his mind before he’d been able to access it.

Bill was clearly impressed, however. “Nice work, kid! Now, let’s try something new, liiiike,” he turned to Discord with great glee, “summoning a creature from another dimension.”

Discord stared at the demon. “Can I do that?”

Bill laughed wildly. “Man, I keep telling you - you can do anything!! Chaos defies all laws of gravity and physics! It doesn’t have to follow the order of any science! If you can imagine it, you can make it happen. Go ahead!” Bill waved his cane in a circle as an inviting gesture. “Try bringing in one of the guys from the Nightmare Realm. Anybody will do, if you can pick out any particular creatures you saw - except that demonic ram Grogar, I don’t really wanna deal with him right now.”

The idea of being able to break any natural law in existence was certainly appealing to the draconequus and, oddly enough, not something he had considered.

Time to defy nature, I suppose, Discord thought to himself. He closed his eyes and tried to recall every single detail of his memories from the Nightmare Realm, especially the monsters he had noticed besides Grogar and Bill. A few seemed to stand out more, but none of them were in clear enough focus for him to fixate on one in particular, so he just let his subconscious decide and snapped his claws.

Discord opened his eyes and was only partially surprised to see the creature suspended in the air before him. It seemed to be simply a blob of some sort of glowing greenish goo, roughly in the shape of a bell jar, with no distinct features anywhere on it. However, just then the blob seemed to turn slightly, as though it were looking at Discord, and then suddenly a wide smile spread out across its surface.

“The Smooze!” Bill exclaimed. “Not bad, kid, not bad at all!” He reached out to tap the Smooze a couple times over the head, but the Smooze seemed to shrink into itself a bit, cowering from Bill while the smile on its “face” slid into a fearful frown. Bill, however, did not appear to notice this odd behavior as he cackled again.

“Well, kid,” Bill said, turning back to the draconequus, “I haven’t really got anything more to teach you. I’d say you’re all ready to go!”

Excitement flooded Discord’s veins, but a tiny part of him frowned at these words. “That’s great - but what exactly am I ready for?”

Once again Discord got the feeling that if Bill had a mouth he’d be grinning widely. “What’d’ya think we were practicing for, kid, carnival tricks? It’s time to have a little fun, and show those other worlds how to party!”

He flicked his cane, and a large shimmering oval expanded to show a birds eye view of Posæduum.

Discord’s eyes widened. He had almost forgotten why he and Bill had come back to his realm. He grinned as he imagined bringing all his joyous chaos and fun to that painfully dull world.

“Well then what are we waiting for!” Discord exclaimed, and turning towards the glowing vision of Posæduum he snapped his lion claws. Instantly the glow tore away from the surface of the hole like a clear wrap, and the portal sat open and waiting for them.

“After you,” Discord said to his companion, bowing dramatically towards the portal. Bill tipped his hat with equal flair, before carefully gliding from the chaotic realm into Posæduum. Discord followed suit, but not before remembering to grab the now-smiling Smooze and bring it along.

Bill laughed with glee as he spun around, surveying the entire land before him. “Oh it’s happening, it’s finally happening!” he cried. Suddenly his body glowed brightly, and Bill stretched out his arms eagerly. “It’s time to get PHYSICAL!”

Discord watched, amazed, as flesh and tendons grew over Bill, followed by a sort of steel triangular pyraminx and finally a brilliant flash of light. When it cleared, Bill was hovering there, looking entirely normal except for his now-3D form.

“And now – !” Bill jabbed his cane at the sky, and a new portal was torn open. Discord looked up and saw the swirling darkness of the Nightmare Realm, as well as a group of monsters crowded at the portal entrance, leering and trying to push through all at once. Eventually they all managed to get through; there were about ten of them, all from the clearing where Bill’s throne had been, and all looking eager for action.

Bill turned towards Discord, excitement pouring from every crack of his pyramid body. “Let’s get this show started!”