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// Chapter 1: Wrath Is Born From My Desires 
// Story: My Little Pony: Azure's Wrath 
// by The Grimm Reaper 
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I felt constricted as I awoke. My eyes were groggy, but not for long as I saw what lay before me. I was facing downward, strapped to a cold metal bench that lifted me higher above the dead and colourless bodies of other ponies. In the background, I could hear thumping, like pressing machines working at an accelerated rate. There was a thump, followed by what sounded like the hissing of a changeling.
I looked around, wide awake now. The first thing I saw was darkness trying to cover the rainbow of colours in the distance. Ponies wearing white bloodstained coats were travelling between work stations. I called out to them all, asking what was going on. Only one replied. Covered in blood, it would have been impossible to tell who the pony was were I to somehow see them in public. I could tell he was male by the sound of his voice and the shape of his body.
“Welcome to the ‘Rainbow Factory’, Azure.” his voice rang throughout my body and the sudden twist of his head revealed to me why that was the case. He was a unicorn, one of two kinds of ponies who could produce and harness magic.
“What is this madness? Release me immediately.” I shouted at him, but his smile just appeared from behind the darkness and he shook his head slowly.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Azure. You see, now that you’ve witnessed the outcome of our subjects below, we can’t let you leave.”
I growled at him. Of course I’d have witnessed them; I was hanging from the bench. The unicorn just laughed and turned to one of the workers.
“Begin.” he commanded. The worker nodded with a blank and emotionless expression on her face; clearly, working here numbed everypony’s feelings toward life and death. I watched as the worker pulled on a lever and the bench I was against rotated upright. A mechanical arm appeared, brandishing a long, thin blade at the end. I knew exactly where this was headed. I turned to the stallion and yelled at him.
“I’ll get you for this. Even in death I will not rest until you’re dead.”
The stallion seemed amused and nodded at me.
“I’ll live with the consequences.” he replied, pressing a button on the workbench. The arm before me thrust forward and I was met by a sharp pain in my chest. I gasped, losing all feeling in my body except around where the blade had entered. I looked down at it, seeing a nozzle draining me of my blood. It was attached to the blade. It started out slowly at first. But something else cut its way even further into me and occupied a space near my heart. The blood began to drain even quicker and I watched as the colour on my body, once a beautiful hazel colour, turned grey. My Cutie Mark faded slightly and distorted like a chalk scene left out in the rain. Once an azure fire symbol, it was now an orb of maroon. My eyes began to roll back into my head and I searched desperately inside my failing mind for something that would force me to remain alive. I figured my family would be enough to keep me conscious, but I grew frightened as I forgot who they were. The pain became all I knew. The fear of having forgotten my wife and daughter brought me back.
I saw a mirror resting a few hooves away from me. The stallion wanted me to watch myself slip away. As the pain-filled tears filled my eyes, the image of glistening eyes registered in my mind.
“Bright Eyes.” I exclaimed, letting out a gasp afterwards. They were my last words as the blood in my body was depleted. My heart stopped and the final thought in my head was the image of my little girl: Bright Eyes. I felt relieved to have remembered her name in the end.

The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by white. There was a sinister chuckle in the background, usually the kind of chuckle used when a prank was being pulled. It wasn’t the Unicorn’s chuckle, but somepony else’s. I looked myself over. I was my usual hazel self, my azure fire symbol as clear as day.
“Where am I?” I called out. The chuckle changed to a bemused laugh.
“Where does anypony go when they die?” The manner in which he laughed brought to mind a clown. I looked around for the owner of the voice, wanting to put a face to it.
“Welcome to the afterlife, Azure. You’re dead.” a flash of light impossibly brighter than the whiteness surrounding me revealed a strange creature. I recognised him immediately. It was Discord, the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.
“Discord? What are you doing here? You’re not dead, you’re just trapped. Discord chuckled once again and waved his chimera’s finger at me.
“You know my title, Azure, so you figure it out. I am the Spirit of Chaos. The important word being ‘spirit’. While I am trapped physically in Celestia’s private Garden, spiritually, I reign free. Think of the statue as a closed gate. I can’t possess more than one body at a time in a physical realm. But enough about me, I brought you here for a reason.” I didn’t pay much attention to his description of the spiritual and physical plains, but his last words interested me.
“So this isn’t the afterlife after all? You wouldn’t need to bring me to the afterlife if I were dead.” I knew I was right when Discord smiled at me.
“You got me, I knew I chose the right pony. You’re quite right, you’re not dead, just in a comatose state. It’s kind of like REM sleep, only you can’t be awoken from the outside.” he floated around me in a circle, resting his head on his hand.
“What do you want of me?” I asked. Discord laughed and back flipped in the air, holding his stomach.
“I want so many things, Azure, but from you, nothing.” I was brought aback by his response. If he didn’t want anything from me, then why keep me alive? Or did I somehow survive naturally?
“Then– what?” I asked, wanting clarity. Discord approached me, twisting and slithering like a snake in the air.
“I’m going to give you something, Azure. Something only two other ponies possess. My condition is that you put on a good show for me. I don’t expect you to do my job, which also happens to be my passion, oh no. No, I’m going to give you the power to get revenge on those in the Rainbow Factory. Would you like that?”
His question was so simple, but I found myself lost. I didn’t remember anything. I was going to address this problem, but he tapped my head and I found myself back at the Factory. The mechanical arm was headed toward me, but time had slowed down to a snail’s pace. I began to wonder why I wanted to remain conscious for such a thing. The answer ‘To live’ registered in my mind. Why did I want to live? The scene around me vanished like ripples in the water. There was white for a moment, and then I found myself standing in front of my wife – Ocean Heart. She was an Aqua coloured mare with an ocean blue mane. She was lying back in our bed, holding something in her hooves. She smiled at me and gently turned the bundle around, revealing a creamy coloured filly with light violet eyes.
“This is my girl.” I choked, tears coming to my eyes. I reached out my hooves to touch her. She looked at me with a curious expression. Then she began to cry. I stopped in my tracks and looked at her, confused as to what to do. Ocean Heart did nothing to stop her, but waited for me.
“Say her name, dear.” she said, giving me a smile. I looked down at my daughter once again and let a tear fall onto her face. She stopped crying and looked up at me with those beautiful eyes.
“Bright Eyes.” I said.

I snapped out of my trance and found myself back in the whiteness with Discord. He was giving me a quizzical look. When he moved to lean closer to me, everything came flooding back. I yelled at the top of my voice, feeling as though I were being flooded with water. I continued to yell longer than I should have, as though all the pain I’d felt in my life was exploding from within. Even with my voice screaming as loud as it was, I could hear Discord chuckling.
“Oops. I guess I underestimated your desire for revenge. You could be more powerful than me, Azure.” he disappeared into the whiteness, which turned to black afterwards. I continued to yell as loud and as high as I could. I felt like I was going to die all over again. The stab wound began to hurt again and my colour faded once more. My cutie mark turned into the maroon orb and I found myself unable to move. I snapped open my eyes and found myself lying on my back, the familiar sounds of thumping and hissing sounding in the background. I felt cold around me and at the same time, softness. I moved my eyes to the left to see a grey hoof sticking upward. To my right I saw the face of a mare who wore the expression of sadness and fear. It was the same expression I remembered seeing on Bright Eyes’ face when I went to hold her for the first time. I looked directly upward and saw the same procedure I had gone through happening to another pony. The screaming of a mare was unmistakable.