This... This is a very intriguing take on Discord's origins.  I'll be tracking this, so try not to disappoint me, m'kay?

Seriously though, you're off to an amazing start.

This is gonna be awesome.

this.....is both the greatest and most insane thing ever...........of all time..........I LOVE IT!

QUITE, quite interesting. Tracked.

You know, that Discord actually loyal, funny, and very sweet in his own way. And I hate that "love' spirit, he's brainwashing ponies.

Knowing what discord's going to become in the future makes this a bittersweet tale, but I'm loving the playful young dragonequus.  I do worry about what will become of Savvy though.

Finding this incredibly entertaining~

But, I'm curious...is Savoir going to become Screwball?

Yesss! SCREWBALL HERE!!! Discord helping ponies and kicking' other spirits ass! Way to go, woo hooo!

Funny. Good. More.

Bravo.

Discord is powered by hatred, violence, and randomness.  He's not going to like the auras of happiness and harmony his successful attempts to help ponies will create, so he has to compensate by solving problems in a somewhat chaotic manner.   Hm, that would work quite well actually.

>>173493173493

STOP FIGURING THINGS OUT

>>173847173847

It's what I do.

Sorry.

Uh-oh, Discy's in troooouble

I must say I wasn't expecting the Screwball name to show up the way it did, but when I think about it, who else but a jester or other humor-talented pony would take a liking to Discord? I mean, which of the Mane 6 was happy about the cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain?

What, no platypuses?

>>195850195850 Thst would have been the obvious thing to do! But no one expects an ostrich.

rainbow factories and poison joke oh my

This just keeps getting more and more intresting, great job~

When you think about it, Discord went very, very easy on our favorite marshmallow equines.  Nightmare Moon was willing to kill and it showed.  Discord held Twilight in his hands and did nothing.  He was either so incredibly over confident that he thought her no threat at all (and the fact that he cheered when he thought he won showed he was uncertain) or that he had no desire to hurt her despite her being his biggest threat.  That's part of the problem I have with fics that present him as some ultimate evil  He was a manipulative bastard, but in the end, all he wanted was to have fun; and maiming and killing others didn't seem to be part of that.

Anyways, good chapter.  

Awesome chap~

All this conflict with the Spirits is interesting, and with each one I can see definite development in Discord and Screwball resulting.  What I'm most curious about is when Celestia and Luna will enter the fray and what the result will be.

I'm starting to hope this story turns out into an alternate universe.  I'm caring too much for Discord right now to be ok with him getting petrified in the future...

>>291997291997

I've been thinking for a while to somehow write a story with Discord and fit in a line along the lines of "I can remove the trademark characters of a pegasus. I can steal away the signature symbol of the unicorn, the source of their magic. How hard do you think it would be for me to remove a heart?" That's not to say I'm opposed to seeing Discord as truly evil in other fics as long as the author does a good job with the story. Hell, sometimes he's just more fun as being purely ill-intentioned than having any reason to sympathize with him.

>>292437292437

We'll run into Celestia and Luna in Chapters Nine and Ten, respectively. That is, if things keep on schedule.

And for the ending... Well, we'll see. Just stick around~

Aw hells yes, I knew I'd like this story Why the crap didnt I read this sooner?

>>296188296188

I donno, but I'm glad you liked it!

And hey, check out Heavenly Turmoil, the pseudo-prequel/sequel/sidequel to this one if you'd like!

R.I.P Screwball.

You know what, I just realized!

You ever read Nuklear Age? Cotton Candy Discord reminds me of Nuklear Man In his behavior, his origin, his cosmic opposers...

But most importantly in his behavior.

"Stupid sun. What you ever do for Nukie?"

>>299065299065

You know, I never have. Now I have to check this out.

>>291997291997 Yeah, that's about the only version of Discord I don't like either, the portrayals of him as a mindless brute or dark force. It pops up a LOT in art, dunno how often it does in fanfic... Makes Discord a lot more dull, loses a lot of what makes him special.

I'm finally getting around to reading all the Discord stories that are out there. This one's off to an interesting start. It's a little grim what with the way Discord came into being but the tone stays light enough for me to continue on.

That poor pony. That poor poor pony. She's got her work cut out for her to keep the new king in line. The back and forth between Savoir Faire and Discord is really amusing, especially with her mind going coo-coo with trying to stay focused on her job.

A great start! I'm looking forward to the rest!

>>325276325276

That was actually a carry-over from my origins of Discord from "Heavenly Turmoil." If you're reading Discord stories and you don't like Grimdark, well... this would be the first time I ever recommend someone didn't read one of my stories.

That was a wicked awesome chapter, especially Time's breakdown and last insane act.  That ending.. dayum!  And here I thought Death would be the cruel SOB.  Well done!

>>325335325335

Oh, don't worry about me. I've read far worse things in this fandom and in others.

Getting through more of the story and I really enjoy how Discord is figuring out all that he can do. It's like a kitten finding some string and playing with it.

Of course, I can tell things will be ramped up with the other spirits looking to coral their wayward sibling. Looking forward to it!

Aaaaand revelation.

This is both insightful and intriguing. I really like how you slowly reveal more about Discord's nature and how he reacts to things. He doesn't even realize it, but he's a slave to his instincts and has to act in a certain way to survive. However, you paint it in a pleasant gray area, where chaos isn't necessarily a bad thing. And you craft it all in a compelling story! Bravo!

If you ask me, Nature seemed even more screwed up than Discord. Scary. At least she got her Wizard of Oz moment by dropping a house on her head.

I also like how Savoir has slowly, and without even realizing it, been warming up to her new friend. Friendship just sneaks up on you.

Ever onward!

Ugh. I share something with Discord. Brussel sprouts. Our one true weakness.

Anyway, I'm really invested in Screwball's character. I hope to see more development as I go deeper.

Leave it to Discord to create a legacy that nopony appreciates years later. The guy really needs a publicists.

I get the feeling that Harmony is going to be the one that ultimately creates the elements that seal Discord. And she won't like it.

Screwball's a crazy one. She can juggle and take a pie to the face like none other! I wonder if Trixie has inherited any of her bad luck...

Oooh, Death is next. This will be interesting.

After finishing the last chapter, I had to get right into this one. Screwball's fate was too important!

Huh, I figured that Screwball had some type of split personality, what with the voice and all, and it seems that was the case. I'm with Discord. I don't like Savoir Faire.

A good chuckle was had for how Discord managed to wake Screwball up. Much D'aww was had shortly afterwards.

Keep it up!

before finding screwballs fate:

after:

SCREWBALL LIVES! CHOCOLATE MILK FOR ALL!

She lives! Huzzah; time to celebrate with cotton candy!

So the indents on the paragraphs have all gone to hell. Man, it doesn't matter if it's uploaded from GoogleDocs or copy-pasted from Word, FiMfiction just loves making things difficult.

.....everything makes so much more sense now.....

So the secret to keeping Discord from running rampant nd becoming a permanently evil monster is to keep him within the confines of a successful circus?

Makes sense to me.  I love this story even though it is bound to have a tragic end.  I will stick around though.  Maybe I will be surprised by where this leads nonetheless.  Or maybe by how it gets there.  One never knows.

Discord has found his paradise.

Now I'm REALLY worried about how this going to end...  We haven't run out of Spirits yet.

>>454566454566

>>454915454915

All this talk of sense! You guys are expecting too much. And Jack, I'm very confident that the rest of the story will keep you guessing.

>>456404456404

It won't be much longer until the next Spirit gets their turn. And trust me, they're going to make Time look harmless in comparison.

Seeing the notification in my inbox that this story updated totally made my day. This was one of my favorite chapters yet, I was thrilled to see more Masky and Patsy, I love what you've done with those two. I'll refrain from any wild guessing about the direction this story will be going or how it will end, you're a great writer and whatever your grand and glorious plan for this story is, after reading it up until this point, I'm convinced it will be golden.

>>457057457057

Thanks so much! It fills my heart with rainbows whenever I see someone excited about my story.

And if you like seeing Masky and Patsy, you should check out Elements of Larceny. It's a whole story that focuses on them.

I don't suggest trying what Discord did with the cotton candy. I still haven't gotten it out of my hair. I bet I look like Pinkie.

discord's favorite question is the same as mine. cool

This is a really interesting fic. Tracking. Love the take on it and it makes me feel...hopeful that he has good intentions but at the same time i worry for him and Screwball. Truly fun to read :)

This is so full of D'awww and awesome! Please continue, this is why I go to FIMFiction!

This is an evil, evil fic - it's so full of cute moments and well-timed gags and utter hilarity and that lovely relationship between Screwball & Discord, and good ol' Discy so clearly wants to do good...

And that makes it a tragedy even when it's not, because we know that scene in the flash-forward is his destiny and it cannot be escaped. Our favourite couple are doomed to failure and darkness. You make me sad. (I love it!)

>>490549490549

Thanks so much! It's my goal for this story to make everyone tear up at least once, either out of sadness or laughter, so looks like that's one down! And 2,700 to go...

Well, this next chapter should be out by the end of the night, so let's see if I can't get some waterworks going with that one.

Dang FiM always trying to fight me every step of the way with the paragraph indentations... Dropping out lines of text... It's like it's trying to get on my nerves at this point. Ah well.

Another awesome chapter ye of the two names and adorable Cicero avatar. After re-reading some of the past few chapters of this story and finally reading The Elements of Larceny, I again have to conclude that you are just a badass writer. Thanks a lot for taking the time to create things like this for us.

So, how much of the Ploughmothian's hostility was from their natural insularity and how much was Discord's well-intentioned blanket of chaos magic?

What Discord needs to learn from this: There's good Chaos and bad Chaos.

>>494088494088

It's really up to the reader on how they want to see it. Or based on how the reader views people from Massachusetts.

Personally, I imagine that they just wouldn't have been friendly to the pair just because, you know, Discord is a bit frightening to look at. But the dash of chaos Discord added agitated their distrust of foreign culture to the point of violence.

>>494131494131

Yeah, that's what I was thinking myself.

This chapter was sad... Sad in the way that it reminds you just what Discord is, and what inevitable future may happen, which I REALLY hope won't happen.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

And now we're into full-on tragedy and bleakness, with a quite terrifying breakdown on Discy's part (the paragraphs and font in total disarray is a nice touch) and a really sad ending.   It's only going to get worse, isn't it?

Once again, marvelous work!

You have me wondering what makes the circus the place to be for chaos and disharmony. I'm probably thinking too hard about it, so I'll let the next chapter clue me in.

Doesn't surprise me that Discord would ask about the Windigoes. They're almost kindred spirits.

The Fearless Lash is giving me rumblings of the Great and Powerful Trixie. Good vibes!

See you next chapter!

There must be a happy way to end this!  There must!   Or at least not completely depressing!

And yes, I made an account just to comment on this fic.  :P  I can't wait for another chapter!  Seriously, I can't.  I've been checking back every day since I found this.  This is incredibly good.

>>617738617738

Image: http://i.imgur.com/BvSYc.png

oh my god my heart is full of rainbows thank you so much

And no promises about a happy or unhappy ending. I like to make surprises~

Though I'm hoping to get the next chapter up by next Tuesday, so stick around!

You always seem to write exactly what fits.  So I'm confident it'll be awesome regardless how it goes.  And surprises are the best!

Oh, and YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES!!!       ANOTHER CHAPTER SOON!!!

boooooo ponyville was made during celestia's rule.

lost interest now

>>641566641566

I initially wrote the chapter for Equestria Daily back in December, and "Family Appreciation Day" didn't come out until January 7.

Sorry that the canon changing this one insignificant detail beyond my control or anticipation ruined the story for you.

He had both deer and goat antlers poking from the top of his head,

A deer antler and a goat horn.

Antlers are solid bone and are shed yearly, with some exceptions, while horns are kept throughout the life and are made of bone, muscle, and keratin.

Wow. This is exquisite. Both the story and the chapter, especially that dark echo of the speech to the Poison Joke. You've definitely got me looking forward to more.

>>642198642198

Thanks so much for the feedback! I was really hoping people would remember the Poison Joke speech. And trust me, the next chapter is going to be good. We finally get to meet a particular princess...~

There's only so much shit one draconequus can take before he snaps.

Poor Screwball...she learned, like every Greek hero, that dealing with the affairs of gods always ends in tragedy.

>>641589641589

phasers set to hug?

>>642670642670

Fire at will.

Poison Joak and stereotypical ostriches?

Oh dear.

‘No I think there is, and I think I will speak my mind.’ The coal black cloud drifted through the empty realm like an autumn leaf on the wind, floating over the remaining four with morbid amusement. ‘Because our two attempts at shepherding our brother has resulted in failure on Nature’s part and embarrassment on Love’s part. Frankly, if this gets any worse, we’re going to end up with one of those miserable worlds with those hairless monkeys.’

A loud crash rang through the void, if it could.

Standing before all of the shapeless spirits was one spirit that did take form. I shone a bright, fiery blue and wore a long, flowing, red cape. It was truely massive. The spirits were puny compared to it. The behemoth was bigger than the entire fucking universe. It crossed its arms and glared down at Death from behind a set of angular, red sunglasses. It pointed at Death.

Death would've gulped if he had physical form. This giant was pants-shittingly terrifying. Time spoke with a trembling fear in his aged voice.

'The spirit that came before even I. The Spirit of Spiral Power.' Time shifted to Death's general direction. 'You just fucked yourself over. Badly.'

Spiral reached down and grabbed the puny wisp of black mist. 'WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!?' Its many voices roared in hot-blooded, and undeniably manly fury. Death had to admit he'd gone a bit GAR for it, even if it threatened him with his end.

'JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, TALKING ABOUT US HUMANS WITHOUT EVEN BOTHERING TO REMEMBER OUR PHYSIOLOGY?' The bigger-than-the-universe giant's voice gained another one over top of the others, this time much louder than the others, and like, ten times more hotblooded than the others. 'US HUMANS AIN'T NO HAIRLESS MONKEY! WE'RE A BUNCH OF APES, WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF HAIR AS SOME OTHER APES. JUST NOT AS LONG. DO YOU KNOW WHY THAT IS!?'

Death shifted in such a way to implicate a so 'no'. The giant roared at him.

'BECAUSE US HUMANS ARE SO HOT-BLOODED THAT WE'D BURN UP IF WE HAD THICK FUR! THERE AIN'T NO WAY ANY LITTLE WISP IS GONNA MOCK US BECAUSE HE'S JEALOUS THAT HE WASN'T BUILT FOR BADASSERY FROM DAY ONE OF HIS MEASLY HALF LIFE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, YOU BOZO!? YOU AIN'T SHIT! YOU AIN'T NOTHIN' COMPARED TO THE HUMAN RACE! NOW YOU'RE GONNA FACE YOUR PUNISHMENT!'

Death felt fear unlike any he'd ever instilled in the mortals. He knew something bad was gonna happen. He just wasn't prepared for this kind of 'bad'.

The fiery blue giant lifted its hands to the sky and made a giant drill of the same energy that composed itself. And this drill wasn't some mammy-pamby hand-drill. This drill was bigger than the giant. The giant hefted the drill back with ease and then rammed the spinning tip through Death, completely and utterly annihilating the black spirit, leaving none of his essence behind as the drill tore the fabric of space-time and destroyed any hope of Death returning.

And that's how Equestria was saved. The rest of this story  is a big 'What if Death wasn't bitchdrilled by Super Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann?'

One of the most well-written and profoundly descriptive chapters you've ever done. You've got a real knack not only for conveying the physical reality of where the characters are but also the emotional reality of what they are going through and how this colors their perceptions of the world. You should totally use that gift of yours for all its worth. For many writers, long descriptive paragraphs in between dialogue or bits of progression get tedious and boring, not for you though, you keep them flavorful and alive. For readers, that makes your chapters not only more fun to read, but also really captures them in the world you've woven.

In short, bravo.

This is really, really good. It's fun, but serious - laughable, yet heartbreaking. A perfect Discord story! You've made him the mad chaotic genius he deserves to be, in my humble opinion. Thank you for a great series so far!

I keep reading Discord's speech with an imagined John De Lancie voice. I wonder who would suitably voice Screwball? Maybe the voice actress that did Harley Quinn in Batman? Hm. I'm being random now, don't mind me.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

(I wasn't exaggerating when I said I checked this every day.  I read it the day it got published ... but was too tired to comment. )

THIS IS PURELY EPIC.  Man, Death is manipulative!  Poor Screwball, after all her efforts...  I can hardly wait to read what happens next!!!  

Damn nature

>>643456643456

Great, now I've gotta change the ending or everyone will think I was stealing from you when the giant robot comes to save the future.

Thanks a lot, jerk.

>>643923643923

Thank you for the kind words!

And for whatever reason, I always imagined Screwball sounding a little like Celestia, though much less confident and a little bit softer and higher pitched. She's got such a good matronly voice to her, and Screwballl is the mother figure. But Arleen Sorkin isn't a bad pick, either.

>>657807657807

Trust me, you deserve the kind words - your story has brought me hours of entertainment! Whoof! If I could give you a medal, or even a decent cup of tea in gratitude, I would.

All right, so Nicole Olivier is Scroob. So who would Savoir Faire's voice actress be, if you could choose?

Hm. Christopher Lee as Time, I think. The spirits would be hard to decide upon! Oye, the possibilities!

Now I ramble. Sorry! I'll drink my tea in your honour and wish you well, TwoNames!

>>657789657789

I'm no jerk! I am the mighty Kamineigh.

I am he who weaves magnificent comments across this glorious website with deep philosophical texts and splendorous analogies that make no sense what-so-ever. I am he who is the tired asshole who really should stop stroking his own ego and go to sleep.

>>643562643562

Thanks so much! I was really worried about this chapter, since this was really going to be the crux of the entire story. It's what everything had been building up to, so I had to fret about if the rest of the story was set up effectively for this or not rather than just worrying about how this single chapter would go. But seeing all of you guys' positive feedback really puts a smile on my face.

>>645564645564

And I feel fine~

>>655897655897

Trust me, I've been planning out this next chapter since I was working on the prologue, it's going to be awesome.

>>657865657865

Probably just a meaner version of Nicole Oliver again.

For Nature, I'd say Grey DeLisle. She's just mastered that quintessential angry woman voice.

Death, for some reason, I always imagined like Keith David but with a light British accent. Or at least that sort of sophisticated charm.

Christopher Lee would be a good Time, yeah. I do love that voice...

Kathleen Barr for Life. Truth be told, I don't think about Life that much.

Harmony might be good with Natalie Lander. She did a nice job of a soft, helpless voice for Terra Branford.

>>657958657958

Ah! I think you've got it nailed perfectly with those actors! Good show! Grey is a great choice! Hm, a British David... Ralph Fiennes perhaps?

Sadly, this'll mean more voices in my head. Great!

- Wheee!

And so Discord goes on with his chaotic tyranny over everypony. And we all know how THAT ended... Oh poor Screwball.

>>658010658010 Oh, hello again!

I just wanted to say I started reading this many months ago. I lost interest after a while, but I must say, the writing is amazing!

Wait, where's Screwball?

When I first saw the pic I was like "Oh god did one of my few story readers copy off of me?!"

But this seems legit, and people seem to love it, so I'm gunna try and read it.

Hey, TheManWithTwoNames, would you give me a review of my story, A Forgotten Power? It has Discord in it, but the main character is Screwball

~M

I always wondered about the disco world, this seems to be pretty dang fitting me gusta

Wow, nicely done chaos. And yes, Chaos is actually easy to screw up.

Hahahahahaha!!!   Wow, you really did spend time on this, even though it's the second shortest chapter!   It would be awesome to see an animated version of this!

Apparently, Discord wasn't evil when he reigned either.  Cheering up that poor filly and then saving her like that..

Oh, and I noticed what you did there with Ponyville.  I remember in one of the comments someone stated that one later episode showed that Ponyville was created during Celestia's reign.  So you destroyed it so it could be rebuilt later!  :)  The level of consistency in this fanfic is amazing!

Though... I couldn't help but wonder about Screwball during the entire chapter... and how he forgot her... hmmm...

'Till next chapter!!!  :D

>>690500690500

I'm glad you gave me a second chance. I guarantee you'll not be disappointed!

>>690524690524

Who?

>>690846690846

>>691068691068

This is really only a glimpse of our discordant dystopia~

We're only two-thirds through, and the rest takes place during the real exciting part of Discord's reign.

>>691511691511

I had it planned when the chapter was written first just in case there was some different canon later in the season. It was getting destroyed one way or another. But really, Ponyville, such a blah name. It had it coming, really.

>>691756691756 I didn't.

He didn’t even want to be the King of Equestria anymore if he couldn’t do it with Screwball!

Sounds like Discord's got his priorities mixed up, if you get what I mean.

First the Kingdom.

THEN the fillies.

"God herself"

Implied Faust? Also, nice touch with the angelic Surprise.

Wonderfully horrible work. It is a dystopia. Not even Discord's happy. He just doesn't know it.

Oh, and I'd be happy to help with the T-shirt thing, but I've got an extraplanar invasion of Equestria to plan out, subvert, and invert. Plus, I may have given Pinkie too much fourth wall awareness. Long story. Suffice to say, I've got my hands full.

I love this story.

>>691756691756

That song! Oh, I couldn't stop smiling! The words, the choreography what with the filly-juggling and the Discopolis Dancers, whoosh!

Though shorter than other chapters (for YOU anyway, no complaints), the dialog and circumstances (long live the mighty Squirrel King!) really brought back that lovely comedy that we haven't seen for a little while - you also notably ramped the hilarity to maximum levels! Wonderful!

Can't wait for more, as always!

- YEE!

I kind'a missed "Nope, Chuck Testa. Who is that anyway?".

And the People's Front of Judea called. They need their copies of "Life of Brian" back or the whole thing will turn into a comedy.

This entire chapter was enjoyable and hilarious.

I think my favorite part was the Ovaltine. Classic.

I had to use a wrecking ball and twenty tonnes of dynamite to take down the writer's block that hit me for this chapter. Be gentle with me on this one, please?