//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three - Legacies 
// Story: The Science of Magic 
// by cammerhammer 
//------------------------------//





Lyra trotted through the chaotic remains of Ponyville. The soapy roads made it hard for her to walk and day turning into night every few minutes didn't help at all. Eventually, though, she made it to where her apartment used to be. The actual building hovered in the air, leaving a massive crater in the ground where the building had been. She crawled into the crater and curled into a ball, watching miscolored candy clouds and houses float by in the sky. She hated Discord's "New Ponyville" with a passion. It was almost disturbing, the randomness of it all.

Discord had come from nowhere, randomly changing things to "make it funnier." Bunnies grew freakishly long legs. Squirrels became the size of dogs. Apples grew to the size of melons, bending trees over at the trunk. Ponies' coats spontaneously changed color. He did everything possible to cause chaos and he loved it. Of course he did. He thrived on throwing the lives of others into a loop. Every time ponies tried to get together, he would drive them apart with well placed bursts of chaos. She couldn't find Carrot Top, or Derpy, or Caramel, or Vinyl, or Bon Bon. She was all alone and she hated it.

Lyra's hatred was interrupted by a deep laugh. She knew where it came from. She rushed to the hill overlooking Ponyville where Discord's throne usually sat. This time, he was actually on it, drinking chocolate milk raining from a cotton candy cloud above him.

"Why?" she demanded. "Why did you do this? We didn't do anything to you! Leave us alone!"

The god of Chaos laughed again. "My dear Lyra Heartstrings, I didn't do all this. You did."

"You're lying. I had nothing to do with this."

"Then why are you the one sitting on the throne?" Discord's form melted into her own, the only difference being the red eyes. The other Lyra's face twisted into a cruel sneer. "You can't deny it, Lyra. This is all your doing. All this is your legacy."

"No!" Lyra tried to yell in the not-Lyra's face, but it came out more like a squeak than a roar. "This wasn't me. This wasn't me! I wouldn't do this to my friends!" She took a step towards the throne.

The not-Lyra's horn glowed and Lyra found herself in a patch of quicksand, being pulled below ground at a startling speed.

"Hear me well, Lyra." Not-Lyra hovered directly in front of her face. "There is nothing you can do. You can't stop me. It's only a matter of time before I win. You can either join me and have some fun with this or you can fight me and be smothered."

The quicksand was up to her withers. "Drop dead."

"Then you will be consumed." The not-Lyra sat back on the throne and watched Lyra slip under the quicksand. It was dark. She couldn't breathe. She fought but kept slipping into the dark muck...