//------------------------------// // Part 1 Chaos imprisoned // Story: The Book of Ages. Volume 1. Harmony and Immortality // by Rune Singer //------------------------------// “Lodestone /ˈləʊdˌstəʊn/ noun 1. A magical crystal of legend, said to have existed upon the fabled island of Marelantis. Cirqa 2000 B.E.(Before Equestria) 2. A piece of such rock, which was used as a primitive attractor of evil 3. Guiding magic crystal, fabled to have been alive Coltford Dctionary Since he was a foal Spell Wright admired his father immensely, following his every hoof-step, especially revering Crystal Quill’s magical abilities. He tried to gain his father’s approval with all his strength, from his first tentative spells to his present actions. During foalhood Spell Wright did not know how to recognise how abandoned he was and such was his wonderment of his father that he did not even compare other foal’s families to his single parent one. No spell could have been so complete as the self-imposed idolisation the son had for his father, completely forgetting even the few years he got to be with his mother before she wasted away from the babesia that claimed many lives that year. Little did the few comments of friends help Spell Wright, that his father was bluntly ignoring him, using him whenever he was convenient. Crystal Quill on the other hand was thought by the general populous to be an embittered widower and thus his stern and devoid of affection handling of his only son, was forgiven. Despite being aware of what was thought and said about him, he maintained that persona, hiding beneath his hatred for the other two races, especially the pegasi for a reason he had pushed back from his mind, long ago. He never remarried, focusing instead on his attunement to the unicorn lodestone. When his son gained his mark, advancing on the same day to the third degree, in a rare gesture of affection, Crystal Quill included Spell Wright in the plan hatched so long ago. He knew how malleable to his views and wishes his son was, despite being highly intelligent and powerful enough to rival his own potential. Thus was the derelict cavern below the lodestone reopened in secret. In the beginning, Crystal Quill, second only to the King in knowledge and sheer power, strove to covertly lay the foundations to connect the lodestone in its birth above, to a construct in his cavern below. After the success to form a lay-line, the construct was augmented to encase various summoned entities that failed time and time again to yield any result. Namely to generate earthquakes at will, tapping into the already seismic activity of the Mareterranean region. Spell Wright had never as much as spoken against his father’s experiments, all with specimen that where bought off sailors and traders. When the need for stronger victims came forth, Spell Wright grew apprehensive and after the death of a half crazed harpy runt, he confronted his father on his absence of ethics. Thus Crystal Quill brought out the trump card he held for so long. He diverted the subject of his own fallacy to how naive and unfocused Spell Wright was. Did he not see that the apple of his eye, the beautiful and talented Concordia, did not even bat an eyelash his way? That despite his status and accomplishments, she gave him no regard? Him the only stallion worthy of her… Slowly and steadily was Spell Wright’s mind poisoned, and using the same arguments that justified all actions of his father, so where his propositions rationalised as well. Yes, he Spell Wright was the only destined mate for Concordia. Spell Wright took it upon himself to watch and follow Concordia closely. Her sister who usually unnerved him, now was branded as an interloper in his mind. She clearly was going to plot against Concordia when he would marry her and be the rightful King. All the better if his father found a way to bring all pegasi ground infrastructure to ruin, forcing them to bow down to him for aid. Their ridiculous cloud citadel would not save them from starvation, if their surface stores where levelled. So he at first thought it was Aneris who took Concordia away from him, but soon realised it was much worse. For reasons he did not know back then, he had not informed his father about the twins disappearing from view whenever they went to the forest, the forgotten ancient gardens. Foul magic was afoot he had thought and tried to find accusatory proof against Aneris when on that fateful day he saw his rival for the first time. Any initial enthusiasm he might have had in more innocent times upon seeing a live Draconequus, was burned away as he witnessed the affection for that creature in Concordia’s eyes. He did not care how angry his father would be at how late he was privy to the information, but what Crystal Quill would do to the creature began do sound very ethical to Spell Wright. ——————————— Thus he was theirs, trapped like any other silly beast within the crystal prison. Spell Wright paced not unlike his father, around Discord’s prison, delighting in how futile the beast’s attempt to mold, change, transport and explode himself, where. For a week now, the draconequus exerted himself to escape, resulting only in displaying the endless ways that creature could damage itself and survive. Discord on the other hand had lost all sense of time. By what could have been the third day he had given up on maintaining any facade of what his only friends would call a benign appearance. He took ever more disturbing forms and displayed contorted demonic visages in vain. For an endless amount of time he tried to destroy the walls around him, which always backfired against him. Acid, explosions, bending of elements and rearrangement of his own materia where futile. The more powerful the attack, the worse the backlash. A vicious circle of attacking, receiving pain and lashing out in reaction began, that did not limit itself to the physical. Discord attempted teleporting his body, in whole or in parts to no avail. He applied time transcending magic, but his prison was a rare fixed point in the dimension, allowing no paradox or deviation. He finally tried projecting his mind in order to enter that of his captors. That resulted in an echo of himself in his thoughts, which he erased immediately. That way lay only madness and he somehow knew it would be far worse than one of his rage. During the hours he was left alone, Discord rested and thought of his friends, first speaking to them through the crystal on his neck but receiving no sign of recognition or being able to see or hear anything. Then he cried, few tears in the beginning, then agonised wails, to end up in long-wound roars and throat rending desperation. Lastly came hate. A loathing for his captors, following a malice against creation around him and ending in a hidden disgust of himself. The crystal around his neck got darker all the while, unable to serve its purpose in venting all of its wearer’s darkness into the Chaos Dimension. Soon he allowed the backfiring echoes of his own mind to linger, if only to have some company, yet soon he gave them freedom to develop into smaller copy personalities of himself, with whom he toyed, commanded and soon conferred with. They transcendent from mere walls to bounce thoughts off to minions with their own ideas and suggestions. It was these minions of his who subtly cautioned him to shroud himself in darkness, giving less of a target for the worthless eyes of his enemies. From them he also found the soon to become joyful activity of taunting the two stallions whenever they tried to resolve whatever their conundrum was. Discord made his thoughts appear as words against the surface of his prison, mocking and distracting the ponies. Especially the younger who seemed to have less of a stomach for Discord’s more visceral displays than the father, soon became very stressed at what the words would say. Discord perfected this torture of Spell Wright’s nerves the next days to the point that the pony spoke back, trying in vain to defend his father and himself. Not long after, Discord got more information out of the fatigued wreck that Crystal Quill would ever wish him to learn. When it was clear what the ponies wanted to do with him after all, Discord was both relieved and perplexed. “Let them create an earthquake, he thought, let them cause as many as they wished, let them cause the biggest of all and rend the land in twain! No hide off my back…I will be free and I’ll take my sweet time to kill them.” Before long Discord found Spell Wright’s malleability so laughable that he had a hard time to keep the source of the pony’s sudden wealth of solutions away from his father. Discord -and his echoes- guided the pony through bringing the lay line to correctly connect to the lodestone above the cavern without the backlash that was the reason the previous specimen perished. The application of stone devouring spell that would bore to where the convergent boundary of the Mareuropean and Qilian teutonic plates met, was a nifty little trick but effective nonetheless. The draconequus kept it to himself how effective it really was, besides he wholesomely enjoyed to see his captors squirm on how to actually activate the generated earthquake and direct it. He laughed and celebrated the fact that it was all just too easy, a mere simplistic incantation would do it. He also gleefully did not inform his ignorant listener that neither the rock-boring spell could be stopped once started nor that there was no directing an earthquake to anywhere. “Let the world burn and sink and suffer!” he shouted at the ponies, not forming those words on the crystal walls. “You are in the end so inferior, so ignorant that you deserve to listen to my trap…” “Can you hear me?” came a new voice from no-where and at no discernible time. Discord had almost forgotten the sounds of other voices beyond his captors and his own echoes. “Can you hear me?” repeated the voice more faint this time “I am not always awake enough to send my words but I could hear you since you were caught. I know where you are and I am happy you did not die as fast as the other things.” Discord completely filled his prison with darkness, so as not to let any hint of motion, light or reaction give away the chance that presented itself for escape. Tentatively he asked. “Where are you then and can you free me?” “No, I cannot. I have never moved from where I am, and where that is, its below. I am in a place not unlike your own, connected to the Lodestone of the earth ponies.” “Who are you” demanded Discord impatiently. “They call me Pebble” answered the voice. “Pebble. Who are they? Can they free me? Why are you not dead?” Discord’s questions became not unlike the interrogation his own captors tried to subject him under. “I…” Pebble’s voice seemed exhausted and fading rapidly “…its taking too much of me to send words…so far…so far…I can direct memories…, they are already in the lodestone…not much effort to…let them travel to you…will…speak…again…” Thus Discord met Pebble, a son of Marelantis who never seized watching over his parents and his sisters.