//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: Ancient Twilight 
// by demonbaker 
//------------------------------//

There are three ways to deal with a discorded pony.

The first is to forcefully realign their destabilized soul, purging the chaos magic in the process.

The second is a memory spell, pulling select memories from the pony to realign their soul with the light. The issue with this is that you need a intimate connection with the pony in question to know exactly which memories to pull.

The third is to kill them and let Harmony sort out their soul after they are gone.

The problem with this is that whatever Chaos just did to the fabric of harmony, it's seriously fucking with her essence. Light and Darkness next to her seem affected, but for some reason, Time is the most affected—her head feels like it might split open. She can feel the strings of harmony vibrating to a discordant beat.

Time looks to Light. "Purge their souls, I'm too...affected by whatever chaos did to fix this elegantly. A blast of pure light should do it." Time shudders. "Please hurry.”

Both alicorns seem ready to object, but the obvious distress in Time’s eyes quiets them. Dark summons a shimmering portal of shadow and steps through while Light gathers energy inside her horn.

Clover takes cover behind Time as the Discorded ponies rush them, faces contorted with anger. Right before they arrived at the quartet, a deafening blast of pure magic slams into everypony present. Clover's body spasms in pain as some of her color comes back for a brief moment, her soul's darkness forcefully purged for a single instant. By the time that Clover recovers she notices that all the other ponies (excluding Time and Light) were on the ground, unconscious.

A quick look at their souls shows that the chaos magic is no longer tainting their manaflows, and even though the timeline will likely never fully recover from whatever it was Chaos just did, the founders of Equestria are safe and protected. 

With that taken care of, Time returns her focus to helping Clover recover from the blast of magic. Time takes a deep breath just in time to see Luna return. Nodding at her, she and Time help Clover's body recover back to its natural equilibrium.

When all is said and done, Time simply sighs and looks at Celestia and Luna. "You two can take it from here; the worst of the pain seems to have gone. My..." Time looks at the slowly recovering Clover. "…Student and I have some work to do. These aren't the only discorded ponies Chaos created." Bowing and pulling Clover outside of time before the other two could react, she heads back to her tower.

There is a lot of work to be done, and she's going to need to prepare.


~~~~~


"And why should I believe you? If what you say is true, then she serves me far more than I ever thought, and if it isn't, nothing changes. I see no reason to be a part of your...scheme." The words are spoken by a deep voice, which comes from a frail and sickly looking alicorn. Thin skin stretched so tightly over the bones you can clearly see them, listless milky eyes that seem to focus on something far in the distance, ignoring Chaos's pacing from a moth-eaten high backed chair. If it weren't for the devastating aura of sheer terror the specter exudes, it would be easy to write off this alicorn as a sickly Stallion nearing death.

As with most things in the world, all is not as it appears.

Chaos shakes his head slowly, his pacing beginning to wear down the already quite worn rug he's standing on. "Now now, Death, no need to be that way. You have a limited ability to see into the future, do you not?"

The frail pony scoffs. "Of course I do, though much of what I know changed suddenly within the last few minutes. A lot of lifespans just got cut drastically short. The longest being a few hundred years from now, and the shortest only have minutes remaining. That stunt you pulled gave me a lot of work to do." The frail pony flicks a bony hoof toward Chaos. "Begone, I’m busy. I'll have no part in your pranks." The word seems to practically ooze disdain, the last syllable ending in a hiss.

Many mortals (and some immortals too) would quake in terror at this demand, but Chaos simply sighs and looks Death in the eyes. "I'm afraid I can't do that. She's been doing this for far too long." Chaos snaps his fingers and waits. The change comes not even fifteen seconds later, and Death hisses in a deep breath. "What have you done! You've killed us all, you fool!" Death's ragged breathing fills the air for several moments. "You incompetent buffoon! You dare to mess with the very magic that binds the world together?"

Chaos simply continues to stare into deaths eyes, waiting. Once Death's anger passes he seems to get lost in thought. "I understand. What I see now is your failure. This is no trifling matter, Chaos. Harmony is not something that appreciates being toyed with—you're tipping the scales, scales that have existed far longer than anyone realizes."

Chaos nods. "I know the stakes; I'm putting the very core of my being on the line here."

Death scoffs. "You doom us all. I shall give you what you require, but should you fail, I'll make sure your final moments will be in such torment that the release of the void shall be a welcome sight."

Death waves his bony hoof at Chaos once more. "Begone, I have work to do. Fear not about my sister; I shall be speaking to Life quite a bit about this stunt." Death pauses for a moment. "Ah, she's already begun. I admit it's an effective strategy." Death's eyes grow softer, almost kind. "But I fear for her student. Too much darkness can taint one forever. I hope she's up to the task—killing that many would weigh on even the strongest of minds."

Chaos gives a grand bow and vanishes from Death’s domain, leaving a small scale where he was standing. One half is white, while the other is black. Death stares at it for a long time with his milky eyes, observing as the scales slowly move toward darkness. Sighing he gets up from his chair and shuffles over to the small toy. Knocking it over completely, he sighs. "That buffoon dooms us all, and he has time for tricks." Pulling a worn cloak from a stand he sets off on his way.

He's got an Alicorn to appease, and a very old book to dig up from where the last owner left it.