//------------------------------//
// Chapter Fifty-Two 
// Story: A Journey Unthought Of 
// by Hustlin Tom 
//------------------------------//

Lyra gawked up at the being before her.  Discord had originally been sealed away in stone for nearly a thousand years by the Royal Sisters ages ago.  He had recently broken free of his prison and tried to create a Kingdom of Chaos where houses floated, clouds were made of cotton candy, and where the rain was chocolate milk.  Fortunately, the Elements of Harmony had stopped his short-lived rule, and returned him to the stony prison he had originally been contained in. 

Discord smirked knowingly, “Don’t act so surprised.  After all, Chaos is my profession!”  He looked at the claws on his lion paw in an offhanded manner, “I have a Ph.D. in it, in fact.  Along with a minor in Disharmony, General Mayhem, and Anarchy.  Now, I’m a smart draconequus, so let me guess what you’re about to ask,”  

“How did you get out of your prison?” Lyra whispered.  

Confetti fell from out of nowhere, and an unseen audience clapped and cheered.  Discord held a microphone up to his mouth and spoke to the unseen crowd, “And I guessed right!  What a show.  Thank you fillies and gentlecolts; you’re too kind!”  

The applause and cheers abruptly stopped at the snap of his fingertips, and Discord tossed the microphone away for it to explode into a conflagration of burning ice.  “As it turns out, my little pony, I’m not actually out of my prison; yet,”  Discord flashed a wicked smile, “However, since we were prison buddies, I thought I’d stroll on into your head and offer up some tasty morsels of conversation.”  

“This is the inside of my mind?”  

“It’s a bit empty I noticed, but that’s because I rearranged all the clutter here.  The music is fine, but you really should try free verse poetry sometime; that’s my favorite kind!”  

“You’re reorganizing my mind?”  Lyra asked with growing anger.  

Discord raised his hands in mock fear, “Hold on there, dearie!  I’ve just shoved them in the corner; I wanted to make sure you had a clear head, no distractions.  You’ll have it all back soon enough”.  

Lyra was hit from behind with something that forced her into a sitting position, and a small desk appeared before her with a paper and pencil.  She looked back and realized that she was sitting in a chair, like she was back in school at Canterlot.  

Discord cleared his throat, and Lyra turned to look at him, only to see that he had donned a long lab coat and a pair of thick spectacles.  A chalkboard flew out of nowhere to sit behind Discord and he quickly began to draw on it.  “Basic Equestrian History: As you all know, the nation of Equestria was founded by the three tribes of ponies that currently inhabit it: the Earth Ponies, the Unicorns, and the Pegasi.  Then some boring stuff happened, and the oh so noble Alicorn Sisters appeared,” 

Discord stuck his finger into his mouth and faked vomiting.  

“The only problem for them was that Equestria already had a ruler: the intelligent, wise, handsome, and humble chimera that is me.”  Discord placed his lion paw arm over where his heart should be and bowed.  “But the Alicorn Sisters decided that he was too good of competition to keep around, and that his wonderfully chaotic world was harming everypony.  Some ponies just don’t appreciate art!  So using the magic pop rocks called the Elements of Harmony, Trollestia and the other one banished Discord to a prison of stone for all eternity.”  Discord collapsed the pointer he had been holding.  

“What is the point of this,” Lyra asked in exasperation.  

Discord waved his finger at Lyra, “Speak out of turn Ms. Heartstrings, and I’ll have to use the Zipper.”  

Lyra sighed.  Not wanting to find out what ‘The Zipper’ was, she raised her hoof in the air.  

“Is there something you’d like to add, Ms. Heartstrings?”  Discord asked with a little snicker.  

“Yes, what is the point of this?  This is common knowledge.”  

“I’m so glad you asked!”  Discord jumped onto a rolling chair which appeared at the snap of his fingers, and rode it out all the way over to Lyra’s desk.  “While I’m not normally a proponent for things making sense, I think this history seems a bit, oh, I don’t..‘fairy tale’, don’t you?”  

“What do you mean?”  

Discord had disappeared from the rolling chair to appear right behind Lyra.  He clasped his arm around Lyra’s shoulder, and held his arm and open clawed hand out to show off the chalkboard.  “You see, this entire history known by everypony and taken for granted by all,” Discord closed his clawed fist and the chalkboard shattered “is a lie!”