Darkness Awakens 1 : Discord's Side

by Tyler-the-Brony

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Princess Luna, Original Character, Discord, Princess Celestia
Length: 6014

Discord's story, from the beginning of his mind, to the end of it. Somepony looms in the background behind it all, but who could it be?

The first story of my upcoming series, Darkness Awakens. The series will examine the lives of Discord, Chrysalis, King Sombra, and Nightmare Moon as well as two others, who are both involved and behind it all.

This story will follow Discord, through his first step in Equestria, to the moment he thaws ice in it. This is intended to be read after watching the corresponding episodes, so that's the reason for a lack of lines in those relating parts. They were just done too well already.

Enjoy, and stay tuned for more if you want the answers this part will leave you with.

P. S Rated Teen just in case. Not trying to limit readers, but better to be safe than sorry right?

Published 2013-01-28 09:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-28 09:20:01 UTC

Part 1: The Beginning of Chaos

“Awaken. You have slept long enough now. Rise up, in order to meet your duties.” A voice called out from the darkness that surrounded the only other creature present in this blank landscape.

This visible creature had the head of a pony, but the rest of its body appeared to be made from all sorts of different creatures, both magical and ordinary. Though this creature wasn’t aware of it yet, he was named Discord, the Spirit or God of Disharmony for the land Equestria.

At the end of the mysterious voices commands, Discord slowly began to stir from his current position in the mysterious dark world. A few long moments later, Discord had fully roused himself and stood staring avidly all around him.

“Welcome to Life Discord, Spirit of Disharmony.” The mysterious voice called out to Discord, catching his attention as Discord turned about, desperately trying to pinpoint the exact location of the voice’s origin.

“Who are you? Where are you? Where am I? What did you just call me?” Discord demanded of the voice, as confused as curious.

“This is my Discarded Realm. My punishment if you will. I have been here many a long year without another Discord.” The voice answered, very careful to be cryptic.

“A punishment for you? Well why am I here then? I have not performed the same crime as you. I have done nothing!” Discord berated the voice, curiousity still strong within his voice.

“You certainly have not Discord. But I did create you here because it is where all my power currently resides. It would have been impossible for me to define your shape and consciousness outside of this Realm. You are part of my residual power Discord.” The voice explained.

“Part of you? Nonsense! I am my own being! I have my own mind and ideals! I have my own name! Didn’t you state it as Discord a while earlier?” Discord bit back at the voice, anger apparent now.

“You may be of your own mind and body Discord, but you will never be entirely free of me. We two are joined now. And as we are dependent upon one another, I will now grant you your freedom from this place so as to enjoy your life as you see fit.” The voice laughed near the end, startling Discord.

“Why only free me from here? Why not free yourself if you possess the ability to send others away from here?” Discord inquired, confusion now immensely clear in his words.

“My power is too great to free all of it at once from this place. I may free small portions of my power at a time, but unless I condense my power and release it in influence over beings like you, I shall never be entirely free of this curse.” The voice now positively sounded ecstatic.

“What?” Discord demanded, before sight and other senses were blurred away for an instant.

“Fear not Discord, first of my Creators. You shall know what my words mean one day. But for now, go and follow my Will’s direction.” The voice whispered as Discord vanished, leaving only a blank area of space within the Realm afterwards.

**

Discord blinked a few times initially in order to clear his eyes of the lingering darkness, becoming shocked initially afterwards by the multitude of shapes, lights and colors around him. Discord had appeared in the woods near what was clearly an immense pony settlement being massively expanded at that particular time.

Discord did not yet know it, but this place was called Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria, new homeland of the Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns. Though it had now been a long time since its founding on the first Hearth’s Warming Eve, Equestria was not yet fully settled or completely assembled. At the current moment, Canterlot Castle was being expanded over some of the older parts of Canterlot as the city spread wider to accommodate its large population.

Discord gazed upon the Castle and the city of Canterlot. Discord continued to stare at it for a few moments in silence, then felt an unresistable urge to travel towards it on foot. As soon as Discord set his goat hoof upon the cobblestone road to Canterlot, it immediately changed into soapy bubbles, yet Discord’s foot remained balanced upon the surface as well as if it were still made of cobblestone.

Discord immediately panicked and backed away, though the road remained soapy. After a few moments, it eventually returned to its original state. Shocked, Discord decided to touch a tree and see what might happen. As his paw made contact with the tree, it immediately inverted its own gravity and had its roots appear covered in dirt where its leaves had once been.

As Discord gazed at the tree before it too righted itself, Discord realized he felt no trepidation in changing things around him into odd versions of what they once were. His step upon the road proved that he could continue to exist as casually as he chose while the world bent around him.

Discord smiled malevolently at this revelation. Discord would make the whole of this new land feel his power, because he wanted to see how others might react in his stead to such changes to their natural order. Discord set off towards Canterlot again, this time choosing to somewhat casually skate over the soapy road as the world slowly revolved and changed around him, as was his will now.

Part 2: Revealed and Documented

“What could be causing all this my sister?” Luna looked up at Celestia with worry written clearly across her face as she observed the current state of Canterlot.

Celestia gazed out across her kingdom as well, baffled by the strange series of events that had befallen her subjects and even the very earth and air in which they lived. Trees floated upside, clocks spun in reverse, and ponies behaved without thought and restraint for no explainable reason.

“I do not know Luna, but it can bode nothing good for Equestria. I am certain there must be a cause behind all this, but I am as close to guessing what it is as I am to finding it and putting a stop to it.” Celestia sighed as another of her guards flew by, spinning like a corkscrew backwards.

“I might be able to help you with that.” A voice with a clearly mocking tone called out behind Celestia and Luna.

The Royal Sisters turned about near instantly, frightened and confused as to how somepony had managed to not only reach them here, but arrive without causing any noticeable signs of arrival at all.

Behind them on the banister sat Discord, clearly in extremely high spirits as he twirled about the glass images in the Castle’s windows and ate an apple core into a full apple. Discord set down the apple as it at last regained its full composure, and called a cloud over to his side to fill a glass he seemed to have summoned from nowhere.

“Who are you? How did you arrive here? How is it you can exist so calmly in all this chaos!? ARE THOU THE ONE WHO DOES THIS?!” Luna’s voice boomed louder and louder as she shouted accusations at Discord, who merely smiled and laughed as his glass finished filling to the brim with chocolate milk.

“Let’s see. I am Discord, or so I am told. I arrived here by slithering through the air. I can exist calmly in this chaos because it doesn’t affect me, and yes I AM the one who’s doing all this to your kingdom. I believe that answers all your questions in order no?” Discord teased Luna as he sipped away a portion of his glass.

“What are you? How did you come to be here? Why do this?” Celestia stepped up and asked Discord, as curious as furious at the strange creature.

“I’ll go off of your first question, ‘What am I?’. Such an interesting question, and one I’m not quite sure I can answer on my own right now. If I had to name a species for myself….I’d say draconeques. It just has a certain ring to it. If I had to define myself as a being, I’d guess I’m a god, or maybe a Spirit.” Discord explained as he drained the rest of his glass, and then returned the remaining chocolate milk to the cloud.

“You think yourself like a god?” Luna stepped up beside Celestia, her anger partially pushed aside in a quest to understand her new enemy.

“What else would you call a being that can so profoundly influence this world, yet remains unaffected by his own influence? Spirit of Disharmony. I think you’ll find quite a few others will call me that.” Discord laughed as he stepped into one of the planes of glass in the castles windows, shocking Celestia and Luna greatly.

“Now, as for your others questions, Sun Princess. I have just as little idea as you do in regards to how I came to this Equestria, though I have many ideas. As for why I do all this, I’m simply bored by the way things used to be.” Discord explained, his likeness flitting between various windows.

“You will regret finally appearing before us Discord. I am assured of that.” Celestia threatened, eliciting a giggle out of Discord.

“If you are Disharmony, then we shall use the Elements of Harmony to stop you!” Luna screamed after Discord’s giggle, causing him to only laugh harder.

“You’re more than welcome to try that, but I dare you to find one area that truly represents ‘Harmony’ anymore in which to use them! And to think you can also hope to use them properly even though you’re still so unattuned to them! Bwahahaha! Buh-Bye!” Discord barked as he whirled himself away from the castle and off to another corner of Equestria.

**

“Darn this Discord! He is a far more difficult villain to vanquish than he initially seemed to be when he revealed himself before us!” Luna spoke up as she slammed her hoof down on the map of Equestria she had before, showing various areas Discord had appeared and had also vanished from as he expanded his influence over Equestria.

“I could not agree more Luna. Discord is confident, but not enough to face us on even grounds it would seem.” Celestia added in, mildly limping towards Luna, her hoof injured by Discord in their last meeting.

“We must convince him to battle us for control of Equestria.” Luna told Celestia, confident this was the only way to lure the 'Spirit' out of hiding long enough for them to vanquish him.

“I agree wholeheartedly. The only question is how to find him or lure him out in order to do just that.” Celestia answered Luna before she began staring off into the sunset of that day, hoping that some solution to vanquishing Discord could appear within her mind soon.

Part 3: The Original Battle & The First Observations

“Well, you certainly got my attention. And you could have done just that so much simpler.” Discord spoke up as he uncoiled into existence in the air above Celestia and Luna.

Celestia and Luna did not initially answer Discord, as they had to reset the sun and the moon respectively. The sisters had caused each of them to rotate in shapes directly above, so as to draw Discord’s attention so they could battle him once more.

Once the sun and moon had been returned to their current proper positions on the horizon, Celestia and Luna turned to face Discord, both mildly out of breath, but still with enough energy to use the Elements of Harmony.

“Discord! Your chaos ends today!” Luna shouted up at Discord, worry more prevalent than anger in her voice as she feared she may not truly be able to stop the God any more today than she had the other days past.

“Oh really? And whatever makes you think that?” Discord asked as he inverted himself completely so as to try and make the sisters believe he’d flipped the entire world upside down instead.

“Today, the Elements of Harmony stand with us.” Celestia answered Discord, a mild sneer upon her regal face.

“Very well then. Let’s get this over with. I’m supposed to reconstruct Manehattan entirely backwards later today.” Discord replied, mild exasperation clear in his words and actions, as he set about conjuring a stage for himself to stand upon while he waited for the inevitable attack attempt.

Luna and Celestia each closed their eyes and began to focus upon the Elements in front of them. Celestia focused upon Generosity, Kindness, and Magic, while Luna focused on Laughter, Honesty, and Loyalty. Slowly, as the sisters focus grew, the Elements formed a small aura about them and began to rise from the ground before shining immensely bright.

Discord chose this moment to yawn in lack of awe at the Regal Sisters, hoping to disrupt them. Celestia and Luna would not be deterred by his actions today however. The Elements continued to shine bright, and before Discord could even begin to react, their shine peaked and engulfed a huge area around the sisters in a rainbow of magic.

The sisters both collapsed and shielded their eyes upon the Elements melding, only opening them when they were absolutely sure there was no hint of extra light in the air. Upon opening their eyes and rising up on their hooves again, the sisters were in shock at what they saw next.

Before them stood Discord, perfectly petrified into stone in the pose he had been in mere moments before. The Spirit of Chaos had not even had a chance to change his pose out of his mocking yawn. Celestia and Luna each inspected the statue for a long time, before finally conceding to the idea that they had truly defeated Discord with the Elements of Harmony. Each smiled at the other, and then rejoiced shortly after.

Upon regaining their normal composure, Luna and Celestia returned to Canterlot to oversee the repair of Discord’s influence, though much of it had naturally reversed upon the God’s defeat. Once they were content the opportunity was there, the sisters dispatched a battalion of Royal guards to retrieve the statue of Discord from where it currently laid, and bring it to Canterlot Gardens, so that the sister could always watch him.

And so Discord stared through his imprisonment, unable to move or act, but still able to watch and think. And so the God waited for his next chance within the Gardens of his greatest enemies to date.

**

Discord watched Canterlot for many long years, though none of its residents were even mildly of this fact. Discord saw and heard everything within the walls of the city, though very little of what he could see or hear interested him at all.

Discord saw buildings raised and destroyed as the city evolved and grew around him. And though he truly did not care about them, he began to notice changes in Princess Luna over the years. Discord began to see the glimmer of envy and minute hatred in Luna’s eyes whenever she looked at her sister or her subjects in the Daylight.

The gleam of envy and hate grew brighter every time Discord viewed it, until envy and hatred fully shone in Luna’s eyes one day when the sun set over Equestria. Discord watched as Luna brought out the night as was her routine, and was surprised and pleased when Luna refused to lower it the next day.

Discord watched with wonder as Luna truly morphed before his eyes, into a being that called herself Nightmare Moon, and also bore witness when she was banished to the moon by her own sister for 1000 years.

Upon Luna’s banishment as Nightmare Moon, Discord began to feel his chaos again as Luna’s link to her Elements faded, though only minutely. Discord knew that this meant his time would come again, and that he had just seen the beginning of that very occurrence with his own frozen eyes.

Part 4: The First Return

Luna had disappointed Discord by coming back to Canterlot after so many years as the Forgotten Ruler and not as the oh so malevolent Nightmare Moon. Fortunately, Discord did not have to observe in silence the shift he felt within Celestia and Luna for long.

It began as only another day to Discord. At first, Discord only heard the sound of the arguing fillies before him as yet another group of school foals toured the Canterlot Gardens and examined his statue. Eventually though, as the degree to which the fillies argued and their volume increased as they left the garden, Discord felt a shift in his form.

Ecstatically Discord waited as he began to feel the sensation spread outwards from a single point on his body. Discord knew that a crack had finally appeared in the spell the Elements of the Regal Sisters had imprisoned him in for so long. The thought of being free again made Discord laugh, and for once, he heard the laugh outside his body too.

It was mere minutes later that Discord fully freed himself. As he stretched free of the remnants of the petrification, Discord laughed again as he looked across Canterlot at just how much it had grown beyond what he could sense as a statue.

Discord slithered into the air shortly thereafter, and set off across Equestria, looking forward to seeing just who this ‘Twilight Sparkle’ that Celestia forever droned on about was.

**

Discord smiled from his viewpoint disguised as nothing more than another tree among the apple orchard he had found the first of the New Bearers of the Elements of Harmony in. And even better than that was the fact that the others had joined the first nearly immediately after Discord began his first Chocolate Storm.

True that these ponies had managed to corale all his clouds and a few more aspects of his influence together in one area, but Discord felt content to see that alone, not one of these ponies could resist his influence at all.

The pink one seemed to quite enjoy the after effects of his influence, while the cyan one was perpetually angry at them. The orange one seemed confused, and the white one seemed reluctant to help. The yellow one seemed disturbed, and the purple one was overconfident.

Thanks to recently overheard pieces of conversation from Celestia herself, Discord was certain he knew which pony was which, and was able to place the facts he’d heard about each together in his head.

Discord began to see an idea of how to stop these ponies from interfering with him, and set off immediately for Canterlot, intent to greet them and Celestia as only he could.

**

Discord felt such joy at the shock plastered on Celestia and the other ponies faces as they discovered he’d taken away their precious Elements of Harmony.

Discord decided there was no better time to reveal himself and goad some nice responses out of all the assembled ponies than now. As he took over the form of his which was forever carved into the nearby window, he felt as he hadn’t since before the sisters had drawn him out to his first and only defeat.

Goading Celestia had its joys, but she was too worn from time and duty to truly appreciate his influence as anything more than the worst kind of nuisance. The other ponies were an entirely different story.

Rainbow Dash had the shortest temper of them all, whilst Pinkie Pie couldn’t be bothered to take Discord seriously. Applejack and Twilight Sparkle both revealed themselves to boil easily under their surface, while Rarity remained unfazed and Fluttershy got startled from a mere passing reference.

Tormenting these ponies was guaranteed to be the best kind of fun for Discord, so he gave them clues to lead them where he could divide and conquer them.

**

As the ponies arrived at the maze, Discord felt both shock and extreme joy at being able to remove the things that 4 of them held dearest to their bodies; he hadn’t even been able to attempt removing wings and horns when he had dealt with Luna and Celestia. Not only was he back, but Discord was now stronger and craftier than ever it seemed.

Discord watched as each of the ponies slowly followed his lures, and then fell into his traps.

Applejack was simply pathetic at how easily she believed that Discord alone could break their friendship. How gullible she was for the Element of Honesty. Her failing single hoofedly assured Discord an immense opportunity to destroy the others.

Pinkie Pie truly feared peer pressure it seemed, no matter how outwardly different she tried to be. Though it mildly pained Discord to warp the one who enjoyed him the most, he still knew it must be done to assure his reign.

Rarity proved herself to be as vain as any Canterlotian when she couldn’t sacrifice temporary solitary gain for herself over helping her friends as a whole. My, how terrible a thing to do.

Rainbow Dash was funny to deal with, as Discord knew the temptation of these so called ‘Wonderbolts’ wouldn’t work on her after hearing rumor of Nightmare Moon’s attempts to shatter the group. And so, Discord threatened her home town, which seemed to work far better than he could have ever hoped it would.

Fluttershy infuriated Discord as she proved herself to be the strongest. FLUTTERSHY of all ponies. Discord decided to directly interfere with her, as he hadn’t done to any of the others aside from a small degree. Her change was the easiest to detect, though at this point there was no stopping Discord.

Twilight did not fail in the maze, but Discord knew she held their shared friendship in the highest regards, so she would take the most work. As Rainbow flew off to save her ‘home’, Discord declared his victory and sped off to Ponyville, certain his next victory would lie there.

**

Twilight fell after constant goading by Discord’s influence, as well as a botched attack with the now found yet useless Elements of Harmony. Discord danced and laughed about all of Equestria at his victory, until he felt a minute shift in his influence in Ponyville yet again.

Discord sighed profusely, as he was certain this shift he felt could only mean another headache focused around Twilight Sparkle and her ‘friends’. And, as though she heard his silent thoughts, Twilight and her meddlesome friends showed up in front of his throne but a few short minutes later.

Discord berated and tried to warp the ponies yet again, though his heart wasn’t really in it this time, as he refused to believe his power could be so easily defeated again, especially by 6 such common ponies.

As Discord awaited what he felt would be but another failed attempt to use the Elements of Harmony against him, he suddenly felt shock and fear as he saw genuine unity between the Elements and their Bearers reignite against him.

As the Elements power approached Discord, all he could do was wail and attempt a futile escape, all of which only amounted to a slightly different pose in his statue this time. Again, only when Equestria was ‘righted’ again was Discord moved somewhere more suitable for a statue, which happened to be a different area of Canterlot than before.

And so, Discord waited for freedom inside Canterlot again, this time far angrier than he had been in his last stint as an ornament.

Part 5: The Changelings and a King Sombrero?

As it turned out, the upcoming year alone would be far more interesting than all the thousands Discord had waited through before. Discord also had far greater sensing range this time, so nothing that happened in Equestria escaped his range anymore.

At first, all Discord heard and loosely ‘saw’ was more and more about Twilight Sparkle and her insufferable pony friends, sometimes more about one or the other than another. As the year progressed though, Discord began to hear worry amongst the citizens of Canterlot, even in Celestia and Luna themselves.

Apparently, some foreign nation had laid a threat against Equestria, and nopony seemed to known who sent it, where it came from, or why they would threaten Canterlot and Equestria, leading to mass speculation and hysteria.

Having been around Equestria as much as he had, Discord knew most of the ponies thoughts and ideas were so silly it would make him laugh aloud if he could. What was worse though was all the talk of a Wedding Discord also heard now. It was all the mares and all the extra and normal Guards within the confines of Canterlot could talk and think about it seemed.

Discord eventually saw the bride and groom in question. The only interesting fact about the stallion aside from his place amongst the Guards and his amount of magic was the identity of his little sister. Discord thought it funny how Twilight Sparkle’s very own brother was the talk of Canterlot, and yet he hadn’t seen that particular purple mare about him once yet.

The bride was far more interesting. When Discord had viewed her at first, she had seemed to be the simple ideal of a teenage princess. Laughing and trotting about with her friends while they talked wedding details. It had sickened Discord. A month or so after he first saw her though, Discord noticed an immense change in the ‘blushing bride.’

She was colder to her friends and everypony else, and now seemed to be obsessed about only the timeline of her wedding, rather than the flowers or anything else trivial. Discord knew something must be about to happen at the Wedding now. It was no longer the normal affair it might’ve been a month ago.

When the day was finally close to happening, Discord blotted out everything about the trivialities of the Wedding in order to focus on the bigger picture. The better he listened to those details, the more excited Discord became. Discord finally was able to hear the true thoughts of the Bride as she sealed away Twilight and prepped herself for the ceremony. Oh how Discord liked the alicorn mare now.

This ‘Cadence’ or whatever had even managed to fool Twilight’s friends, as well as her brother and the princesses to her plan, an action Discord himself had not even succeeded at. As Discord watched the ceremony progress, he began to notice the odd creatures gathering about Canterlot’s Barriers as well. They looked as though they were sickly small Alicorns, though Discord knew they must be something much darker and much more invovled in the brides plans than that.

Eventually, the meddlesome Twilight and the ‘real’ bride made it to the event. What was even better about all that was the fact that it didn’t halt the now properly named Queen Chrysalis and her Changelings from battering Canterlot to submission. Twilight and her friends couldn’t even get to the Elements to attempt to stop her.

Though it was not of his own design, Discord liked the look of a defeated Canterlot. The only thing that ruined the whole day was when every Changeling was blasted out of the city, not by the Elements of Harmony, but by the power of ‘love’. Eughck.

As Discord watched Chrysalis sail over him, he both physically sighed and mentally applauded her efforts. As the last Changeling flew beyond his sight, Discord closed off all his senses as he had no interest in the ‘true’ wedding anymore. Fortunately, Discord wouldn’t have to wait much longer for more to happen in Equestria.

**

Celestia and Luna were up to something. Discord was certain of that by all the whispered conversations he heard between them nowadays. As far as Discord could tell, this plan of theirs involved several different and complicated steps, some of which had Luna, some of which had Twilight, and some of which had somepony Discord could swear he’d heard called King Sombrero.

Discord knew he must simply be mishearing the name of this pony, but the name King Sombrero made him laugh, so he kept it in mind as the name repeated itself more and more frequently. Eventually, all Discord could tell was that this King had taken over something called the Crystal Empire and that the meddlesome couple from that Changeling wedding had already gone ahead.

Discord had heard of the Crystal Empire back when he had first come to Equestria, but he’d had so much more fun in Canterlot and Ponyville and such, that he never felt any need to directly investigate the supposed 'Empire’, though Discord though he’d heard of this Sombrero, or Sombra as he knew he should call him, had visited it just before the whole Nightmare Moon thing.

One day, Discord heard this all repeated to who else but Twilight Sparkle. It was amazing with all she did that the citizens of Equestria hadn’t rioted and demanded that she replace Celestia already. Discord only heard them talk for a short time though, then Twilight’s voice was gone. The Princesses got silent too, which puzzled and mildly irritated Discord. What else was he supposed to do to whittle away time except listen to those around him?

A day or two later, Discord saw an aurora appear over Canterlot, which could only mean that Twilight or that Cadence had beaten Sombrero in Celestia’s stead again. Discord tried to roll his eyes, but then remembered he was still imprisoned and merely mentally sighed as he waited for the next interesting tidbit of conversation.

Part 6: The Second Return and the Second Speech

"Oh Celestia. You sat in the sun too long on your throne." Discord thought to himself as Celestia talked of taking him to Ponyville to have him reformed.

The very thought that the embodiment of Chaos itself could be anything other than harmful to Celestia’s natural order made Discord break into silent laughter with himself.

Discord would humour Celestia’s idea though. If it meant freedom from this stone suit, even for only a short time, he’d take the chance. Nopony, not even meddlesome Twilight and her kind friend Fluttershy, could hope to change him as he was now anyway.

Discord continued his silent laughter all the time he was being loaded for travel and then through the actual flight and arrival too. Soon enough after, Discord heard the hum that sounded his freedom.

**

My how much like Celestia Twilight and her friends had become in such a shorter period of time. None of them were any fun to tease anymore. Anger was just too prevalent a reaction from them now. He’d have to find new playthings soon.

Discord did agree that using his influence in a stealthier fashion was a bit more enjoyable long term though. Instant chaos being widespread was fun, but it was far more so to watch it boil up slowly under the surface over time.

Discord noticed something odd about the ponies this time though. Chaffing away their individual attitudes was easier than ever, but it seemed he could no longer do a single thing to chafe their friendship as a whole to any sort of degree that might make it snap.

Even if he couldn’t affect their friendship enough to make the Elements worthless, if he simply infuriated the others enough while keeping Fluttershy calm, he could still make the Elements useless. Stealing the reforming spells certainly was a riot though. Stealing things she desperately needed from Twilight and abusing them in the open always seemed to grind her gears. She was as knowledgeable and yet as dim as Celestia when it came to judging his powers.

Fluttershy was much easier to trick this time around too, seeing as actually angering her friends without ‘changing’ who they were was a much more subtle try than his last attempt at deceiving Fluttershy. It didn’t work entirely to the degree he hoped, but the damage was done.

The dinner party sealed Fluttershy’s trust, while amping the anger of the others over the limit Discord needed. Fluttershy’s friends comment certainly came as a shock to Discord, but seing that his dam idea came to fruition but a short time later, he brushed it off for the moment.

His plan to stop the threat of the Elements came through wonderfully, but it came at a price Discord never expected to have to pay; his one friend. For once, Discord saw something beyond his own actions, and ultimately used his magic for somepony else for the first time ever.

An old acquaintance of Discord’s did not like that occurrence at all.

**

Just as Discord set off on his own after returning to Canterlot with Celestia, an overpowering darkness obliterated all his surroundings. As Discord scurried about, looking for an exit, a voice echoed about him

“You disappoint me Discord.” The voice from Discord’s creation spoke up, sending fear throughout Discord this time.

“W-Whatever do you mean? I thought you said to live my life as I saw fit-“ Discord shakily explained, only to have the voice silence him.

“Quiet. I told you your duties in life. You are a part of my power Discord. You are the First Creator of Chaos, and of my freedom. I will not have you serve Celestia with the power I saw fit to give you. I have already lost too much of my ultimate plan.” The voice spoke, more worriedly towards the end than the beginning.

As Discord tried to call out to the voice again, his voice was sapped from him and his limbs sprung to a solitary state at his sides. Discord silently struggled as the voice grew clearer,

“It seems the time for my return must come now or never. I will gather from the residue of Chaotic magic already about. I must gather the others. Why don’t you also rejoin my welcoming party Discord?” The voice sneered towards the end, with a hint of hysterical laughter.

Discord silently screamed as he was whipped away into the darkness, while light returned to where he once stood in Canterlot, mere moments ago. It would be many hours before Discord’s absence would be noticed in Canterlot, and by that time, it would already be too late.

Preview: The Last of His Kind

“Who are we meeting today father?” Celestia spoke up while she was next to Luna at her father’s side, curious about why her father was being so secretive about which advisor she and her sister would get to meet and speak with today.

“Somepony….very different. He is the only one of his kind left. Be kind to him Celestia, Luna. He has not had the easiest of lives thus far, even as my Oldest Advisor.” Solaran spoke to his daughters, worried more for their reactions than his advisors.

“Of course father.” Celestia responded, turning to look ahead of herself again.

“Yes daddy.” Luna chimed in shortly after, beaming for a moment up at her father and then bouncing along after her sister.

Just as Luna, Celestia, and Solaran reached the peak of the steep hill they had been climbing, they passed through what felt as though a sheet of ice cold water, though all of them knew it to be a cloak of Celestia and Luna’s mother, Eclisia’s, design.

Once through the barrier, all three Alicorns found themselves in a large plane populated with plants from all regions of Equestria in linked bloom. In the middle of the field, stood a strange creature, far taller and slimmer than any pony Celestia or Luna knew of.

Upon seeing the arrival, the creature looked up and smiled at Celestia and Luna before uttering a single greeting;

“Welcome Royal Sisters. It is nice to finally meet you.”