Story I may well actually write despite having a backlog · 11:52pm May 3rd, 2015
Well, I did clear Be Discreet from my backlog, so technically speaking, I could add a new story. I was going to make the first one I added "World Without Harmony", which is an anthology, similar to "Awkward Conversations" (or, I suppose, "Robot Scootaloo") in that each chapter is supposed to stand on its own to some degree, dealing with the history of the Oppositionverse and how it got so screwed up.
But lately I've had a taste for writing Discord darker than Not The Hero or any of my post-reform fics justify. So I'm considering writing something called Age of Chaos, which is an anthology of snapshots from the days when Discord "unruled" Equestria. So far, most of what I've revealed about the stuff he did was exposed in his point of view, which is a. totally biased b. possibly lying c. almost certainly filtering to the memories of the stuff he's prouder of, so it is very heavily whitewashed. That's not me whitewashing it, though, that's Discord whitewashing it. I'd like to write some of the stuff that he actually did that made Celestia say that his rule tormented ponies and made her willing to turn him to stone. Especially because it should be an interesting challenge, writing him in character for how I've set him up in his post-stone life, keeping him from killing anyone or causing severe physical pain... and still having him do horrifying things, without completely and totally losing all sympathy for him forever.
Most of the chapters would be from the perspective of ponies who lived under his rule, though there might be a few from his perspective, or Celestia's, Luna's or Starswirl's. I have in mind the story of a mare who comes to work for Discord as a servant, and a mare who is desperate enough for justice that she's willing to risk going to Discord's court and asking for his judgement, and maybe a colt who gets displaced in time due to Discord's Pied Piper stunt. Also, possibly I might put his battle against Matrisse in here rather than in Last Draconequus (since Last Draconequus is planned to only spend one or two chapters on the Age of Chaos, as it's more or less the story of how Discord became who he became and once he becomes it, the story is mostly over, so some of the more fun things I could write about, like his battle with Matrisse or when he teamed up with Celestia and Luna to fight Brightest Star after chaos more or less ate her brain, might be out of place in Last Draconequus.)
I'm kind of reluctant because the story would be very open-ended. Unlike Awkward Conversations and Robot Scootaloo, or even World Without Harmony, where there are actually a finite number of chapters planned, Age of Chaos would pretty much never be complete as long as I'm still writing ponyfic, because I could always think of something else to add to it. I don't like the idea of having a perpetual incomplete on the account forever. But it's not the only one I've ever done; I have a perpetually incomplete Q anthology on fanfiction.net because it includes all my prompt writing on my Q livejournal account, and there's always the potential to add to it.
Well. Right now I'm trying to finish the next chapter of No Escape From Yourself, after having written almost literally nothing at all in the month of April, and then Not the Hero and Elements of Opposition. After I clear those three, then maybe I'll do this one.
Hmm. When Discord whitewashes something, what color does it become? I want to say plaid.
In any case, whichever of these you decide to put forward, I look forward to them. Both sound darkly fascinating.
I like the idea of seeing the stuff Discord got up to in his Age of Misrule, or however you prefer to call it. I would definitely love to read about the Matrisse fight. One thing I am worried about, those Horrorses that Twilight was descended from, I'm afraid I'd lose my lunch reading that chapter. But that might have been the Q Discord, not the Last Draconequus Discord.
3042536
That was Q. Native Equestrian Discord didn't do anything like that.
In comparison to native Equestrian Discord, Q has better control of his temper overall, is less malicious, less personally obsessed with causing chaos, and generally speaking plays a villain rather than being a villain... most of the time. But when he finally does snap, he can be much, much nastier than nearly anything else on Equestria. There are overlaps in their history, things both of them did in the past, but that particular stunt is not one of them.
3042556 I suppose with age comes wisdom and control, but also much greater capacity for cruelty when that control is breached.
3042565
Pretty much, yeah.
Discord's a role Q plays (of course, what the TNG crew see is also a role Q plays; no mortal ever gets to see Q quite exactly how he really is), which is mostly somewhat sillier than the role he plays to humans. But if you push him into breaking character... this is a guy who has committed near-genocides to save half a population from the other half. Get him righteously angry, and he's got other roles he can play. Like gods of destruction and rage.
Native Equestrian Discord isn't a role, he is who he is. He's a complex guy, but he's not a five billion year old energy being. Q can get much darker than Discord would ever let himself fall to.
3042578 Can't argue with that. In your headcanon, do you include stuff from Star Trek novels, like the Q Continuum Trilogy? That was what made Q really interesting to me in the first place, it gave such a rich look at the idea of an immortal being gradually maturing, and gave us a truly evil version of Q (0) to contrast him with.
3042585
I take several of the novels as my canon, and ignore others. Specifically, I take Q Continuum Trilogy, I, Q, String Theory trilogy, and Beyond Dishonor, while specifically and blatantly ignoring Q & A and The Eternal Sky or whatever that horrible horrible one was that killed off Amanda and Junior. Q-Squared is a legit alternate universe in my stuff; I don't ignore it, but because it got jossed it has to be an alternate. Sometimes, when it's funny to make a reference to it, I take Q-In-Law as canon (I had an RP going once where Q had lost his powers, and met Lwaxana, and she threw a pie in his face.)
And yeah, I both hated and loved the Q Continuum trilogy. It had so many horrible, horrible plot holes, but omg that whole relationship with 0 and the idea of seducing Q to the dark side, teaching him the joys of torturing mortals to teach them lessons... also, one of my reasons for originally being convinced Q and Discord are the same guy is that Q's first stunt on the planet 0 and his pals end up destroying is a rain of fruit. :-) I have mentioned 0 in a few fanfics, though I've never actually had him appear as a character yet. Also, that scene where Suzy-Q is holding a gun on the son of the guy possessed by 0, and she's going to kill him if the father doesn't hand over her son... and then he calls her bluff and she can't do it, because having a child has softened her enough that she can't bring herself to murder an innocent child even to save her own. (I also have a great love for Suzy-Q, though since she only appeared in one episode, it's kind of more my fanon version of her I've fallen in love with.)
If you're interested, I have a fic, Tainted, which deals specifically with the aftermath of Q's trial for aiding 0, and what the repercussions to him have been.
3042620 Sold! Thanks for the link, and now I have another author to follow!