A Certain Level of E V I L
To be perfectly honest, things did grow boring every once in a while for the spirit of disharmony. Sure, he could pull the fabric of reality to his whim, heck, he could tear it apart and scrap it to move onto another project of universe building. He absolutely loved changing clouds into cotton candy and making the sun fight the moon for control of the sky, but after doing it for the dozenth time, it lost its luster. No matter how unbelievable it may seem and unreal as it may be, Discord was bored.
Being free did have its perks, and it wasn't like it was hard to escape his stone prison. Sure, it was in varying intervals of time, sometimes a year or two, sometimes a couple centuries, but he always waited patiently. It was all a game, and he was the player with the best poker face and luckiest hand. Ponies were a paradox. They were peaceful, loving, kind, but underneath their sweet exteriors, they were stupid. They couldn't help but blithely create a little chaos of their own every once in a while, and that small bit of chaos was all he needed to rip the binds of harmony that held him to shreds.
Currently, all he was doing was lounge around on a rather comfy cloud that lazily hovered over the land below, which was oddly still unaffected by the draconequus's magic. Instead of getting right to turning the world upside down, Discord, the genius he sought himself to be, was thinking. Now, despite his wonky appearance and mad demeanor, the spirit was a beast of thought. He actually loved to think, no matter what the thought was. He would let his mind wander aimlessly, which had granted him a limitless imagination that was tied to his powers. Currently, he was thinking of what to do.
"Hmm . . . I could make everypony part salamander...that'd be funny for a minute or two."He mused to himself, clutching a piece of the cloud in his eagle's claw of a hand, ripping it off from the main body, the white instantly transforming itself into a pink treat of cotton candy. He gobbled it down noisily as he continued speaking to himself.
"Or make a storm of sauerkraut rain down upon a Canterlot entirely made out of sausage . . ."
"Give mountains boxing gloves and let them beat the boulders out of one another?"
"Maybe give Nightmare Moon a visit . . . she's still around, isn't she?"
"Hmm . . what about the bearers of harmony?"
His haphazard yet immaculate thoughts turned to the six that had defeated him. He bore no grudge towards them, they were simply the opposite of what he was, and he was just fine with that. Without chaos, harmony would not exist and vice versa. They were the yin to his yang, the ketchup to his mustard, the Batman to his Joker.
He smirked a little at the thought at how easily he was winning when they first met. Those ponies couldn't win a game if he had given them a cheat sheet. The spirit chuckled at the remembrance of manipulating them, 'graying them out' to be the complete opposite of their pristine little selves.
". . ."
He paused as his scrambled mind went from thinking of twenty things at once. One was making the sky the ocean and the ocean the sky, the other went back to the term 'graying out', or as he liked to put it, discorded.
"I wonder . . ." Discord raised his eyes to his bird hand that he held in front of his face. He had never considered corrupting himself, seeing as how the possible outcomes could have been unfathomable. Would he become a little goody two-hooves and want to learn all about friendship and playing nice? Or become something else entirely? He considered it, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
Finally, he came to a decision. He couldn't dare call himself chaos incarnate without mixing things up in a little while. He charged a fringe of chaotic energy to his right hand, feeling his tug on reality alter the very air around him. He mentally thought of what he had done to the poor ponies, making the truthful Applejack a liar, the loyal Rainbow Dash a deserter, the gentle Fluttershy a cruel monster, the generous Rarity a greedy pig, the giggly Pinkie Pie a downer, and Twilight Sparkle, transforming all of her hope in her friends to dust. He wanted that to happen to him. Slowly, Discord raised his hand, his index finger poking out, and brought it to his forehead, tapping himself right between his disproportionate eyes.
"Hmm . . . now that's . . . dIffERaNt . . ."He barely managed to gurgle out, choking on his own words as a familiar darkness came over him. Was he becoming stone again?! And by his own volition too, such a shame. Celestia would be having a field day of mockery if she knew he had transformed himself into stone. But slowly, the darkness dimmed as the light of day began to gleam once more.
Oh, silly me. He chuckled in his head as he opened his eyes. All he had done was taken a little nap, that was all. But when his pupils had begun to register what was around, for the first time in his immortal life, the spirit was at a lost for words.
There was absolutely nothing around him.
Blank.
White.
Fathomless, bottomless, substanceless.
"Hello-o? Anypony?" Discord cupped his mixed hands around his mouth to magnify his voice to that of a loudspeaker level. All he received in reply was a fading echo from the white around him.
"This isn't some kind of joke, is it Celestia?"He cackled, wagging his finger at nothing in particular."Is this you trying to get back at me for making your toy pink? I swear, I was just kidding around. They made the second version white!"
Again, no answer from anywhere but his own voice.
A black figure crashed to the ground below faster than any meteor, landing not too far from the outskirts of Ponyville. Eventually, those curious enough traveled close to the crater to see a smoking figure in the impacted center. It sat there, motionless, as if it weren't alive at all. It was tall and lean, serpentine in structure . Every last inch of its body was a sleek, shiny black coloring, save for it's heterochromatic eyes and the scraggly appendages that could've have been wings jutting out of the back. A sense of foreboding hung heavy in the air around it, as if the area itself had been injected with something very, very evil.
Slowly, a pegasus mare worked up enough courage to approach the still creature. She fluttered down into the crater to stand before it, apprehensive in approach.
"H-hello . . ."She greeted, and the creature turned to look at her dully. He held the most bored and disappointed gaze upon his face.
"Hello." It repeated in the most monotone voice ever.
"I-I'm . . ."
Before she could even finish her sentence, she let out a small yet sudden gack and a whimper as the black creature whipped out his arm faster than she could even see, clutching her tightly around the throat, forcing her to gasp and choke for breath. He lifted her into the air and simply stared at her with a gaze that one would hold if they looked upon dirt on the bottom of their soles. He tightened his grip, and her hooves wildly swung in the air, her wings spastically flapping to try and free her body from this monster holding her. Despite her struggles, she could not break free. It was as if she was frozen in that direct space with his hand around her neck.
He squeezed ever tighter, her eyes nearly popping out of her skull and her gasps for air becoming more and more faint. Strangely, the same black coat that the beast held was forming over the pegasus, shooting across her body directly from the source of his hand. The black slithered it's way across her until every last inch was covered. Only then did he release her, her body falling to the dirt with a heavy thump. She did not move, she did not stir, for she was dead.
"That was . . . unentertaining." He turned to look up at the ponies on the rim of the crater, their eyes wide with shock and their hooves locked to the ground in fear. "What say you?" The monster stood up, slowly trotting towards them at an incredibly casual pace. "Can you bring Accord some entertainment? "He deadpanned, the ponies fleeing from his as fast their hooves could take them. He only followed behind as slowly as possible into Ponyville, every step leaving behind a trail of decay as the grass withered at his touch.
Ponyville fell in a matter of hours. The attack was a surprise as the dark creature left nothing but rot and fallen forms of ponies behind him. The bearers of harmony were defeated the moment he stepped into Sugarcube Corner, already taking out the element of laughter and leaving one spot open, the rest of the elements powers null and void without the complete set.
News began to spread fast of the walking plague, albeit slowly, as it seemed to simply take its time at a snail's pace. Over the next week, the entirety of the Everfree Forest was dead, every creature not given to Accord's entertainment. The creature found no pleasure in . . . anything. Not the blue skies above nor the beauty of the landscape around him, just a glazed over look and a bored tone as he eradicated every piece of life he passed.
Over a month, nearly half of Equestria had gone dark, and warriors from all over came to challenge the beast. No spear could pierce it, no sword could cut it, no spell or enchantment could hurt it. Invincible it seemed as it rendered every hope extinguished, pressing onwards in its doomwalk.
Canterlot was the last to fall as Accord scaled the mountain to the very top, nothing slowing him down or speeding him up either. Eventually, he held Princess Celestia's own throat in his hands, tightening ever so, feeling the life drain out of the immortal goddess. Eventually, and just as easily as the rest, her life flickered out of her eyes, and her limp form collapsed to the floor.
". . . I am not satisfied." Accord would state, sighing uncontently as he gazed around the empty throne room. He gazed down at his hands, the ones had taken so many lives so easily, and flicked them, feeling a spark of chaos magic play at his clawtips. ". . . Perhaps I can find some in this." He said to himself, finally grabbing at his own throat.
Reality itself seemed to alter and bend around him, literal cracks appearing in the air, as if existence was dying as well. Accord could finally feel his breath draw short, his vision dimming and blacking around the edges. Perhaps this is what he could find entertaining? With a small chuckle and a gasp, he wrenched his arms, hearing nothing but a small twist and a crack of bone.
He fell to the floor just as the cracks around him began to widen.
"Anypony? Anygriffin? Anybody?!" Discord called out, aimlessly floating through the void.
