Olympus
War gave into her wounds, and gave into Peace.
What next? It's a simple question. The answer is not so simple. What would you answer if someone asked this question after your family was slaughtered, your king killed, and you were thrown across the word by a god with a vendetta against anything big with scales? My answer - was vengeance.
When I woke up, at first, I wanted to die. I truly, truly did. This world had nothing for me anymore - family, dead. People, dead. King, dead. Whoever was left of my kind would be hunted down and slaughtered. As my bones, flesh and scales began to knit back together thanks to a drakons more powerful regeneration and my magic naturally healing me at an elevated rate, I contemplated all the options I had available to me.
To die. To be at rest, sheltered from the world. Discord would have wiped the draconics out, and possibly the only species who could defeat him - while I was woefully unaware of the other species, I knew that the draconics were generally the strongest of the mortal races given enough time. There were exceptions though, to the point where this was not a rule so much as a suggestion. This suggestion was tantalizing - but then I realized. Living is harder than dying. And if I lived, I would spite Discord with my very existence. Reminder of the time he came close to death - I was unaware of the complexities but I could still tell how painfully close he had come. Reminder of the time he had failed. This was off the table - I had to live. But what would I do with my life? Hide? Run? Look for help? No, no. My mind settled on a choice, a single word that explained everything I needed to do. Vengeance.
I had to be strong. Strong, like my mother - like the mother who had given up her life for me. Strong, like Bellum, who had went down fighting a battle he knew he would lose. I had to put my grief aside, steel myself, and move towards vengeance. So this is what I did.
I pushed myself up on sore muscles and freshly healed bones. My legs were quivering, my scales still chipped. A drakon's healing was a trait that was especially useful - it wasn't regeneration, but it was close. Scales were the hardest and took the longest to heal, but they were still doing it. Just slowly. A plan of action formed in my head.
Step 1. See where I am.
Step 2. Find a town.
Step 3. Don't get noticed by people. That would be bad - draconics and...any other race that isn't a gryphon tend to mix poorly. Gryphons are quite calm and accepting, though, especially of strength.
Step 4. Find a library.
Step 6. Kill Discord.
...I was still working on Step 5.
I was, absolutely, unfathomably lost. I had no idea where I was - forested, that was for sure, but apart from that I didn't have a clue. No landmarks I knew. No castles that looked familiar. No lands that I had ever been in. Despite how powerful Discord was, his influence over my home...town? Home-capital? Over my home had likely faded, so I wouldn't be able to detect it from afar even if my magic was strong enough. Now - this is not to say that I was alone. I was located in a forest by some plains decorated with hills, yes, but there were settlements. There was a pony settlement further up ahead. I had kept an eye on it for a few hours now, and had managed to locate the library. My plan was quite simple.
Find a book that tells me how to kill Discord. And follow the instructions. Well - that was the ideal scenario. More likely, I'd end up finding books on what exactly Discord was, who else had that level of power, who I could turn to. A map would be nice too, as well as any tome of magic I could get. I'd prefer a book on how to kill Discord outright though. That would be a lot easier. I fantasized about it, actually - about tearing his throat out, tearing his head off, him losing his power and begging for his life. About cooking his flesh and eating it, mounting his skeleton on my wall as a reminder to never cross me - the Drakon Queen, Queen Tempest I, First of Her Name! With jaws that could shatter mountains, claws that could rend planets, and wings of pure magic that dwarfed the sun. Yes, I had an overactive imagination. It wasn't very productive, but it was something to do that kept me busy.
I wanted to eat him.
I wanted to eat him, and that terrified me.
I had neglected my stomach. My mother had always told me to never eat more, but never eat less than I needed to. In an unfamiliar territory, without the plentiful animals that the forests had provided me, it had been hard to find food. So I brushed aside the concern and waited until nightfall, so I could raid the library in peace. The doors were locked, but I had managed to carve through the wood wall easily with my claws, not even using a droplet of magic. I pushed the bookshelf to the side and began to search through the books. I knew Allspeak, and I knew how to read and write - although reading Allspeak does take me significantly longer than reading Draconic. This is part of why I spent so much time in the library. The other part was that I kept getting lost, in the wrong section - for some reason, it was alphabetized instead of divided into sections THEN alphabetized like a normal, proper collection of books. While my mother's library was small - maybe ten, twelve books, at least they had proper organization.
A book on warspells, a book on the draconic races, a book on Spirits - which at the time I wasn't familiar with what a Spirit was but I did know they played the roles of "divines," a book of glyphs and magic, and a map. This was what I had in my collection, floating in my colorless grasp. My magic was a white color, but a telekinetic glow only appeared if you were using telekinesis. My..."air grip" spell, for lack of a better term wasn't actually telekinesis, allowing the books to float glowlessly. Glowessly? Without a glow? WIthout a glow. Allowing the books to float without a glow. Not something that was useful at the moment, but it could potentially be useful eventually. It was a little difficult to lift all of them at once. Not draining on the magic but just...mentally draining, I suppose? Unless you've cast magic yourself it's impossible to accurately explain.
Then I froze in my place as I saw a little pony - a colt, I believe, no taller than my knee. I stared at him. He stared at me. I stared at him. He stared at me - and he screamed. He screamed at the top of his lungs, shrieking and babbling incoherently in allspeak. Something along the lines of "monster." And for a brief moment, I played the role of the monster. Because my stomach rumbled with hunger, and I realized - I could eat him. It would be a simple spell to snap his neck then take him back and roast his flesh, chomping down on his cooked meat hungrily and throwing his bones away, my belly full and bloated with meat. I could eat him, and nothing could stop me. And I didn't just realize I could eat him - I wanted to eat him. I wanted to pounce, I wanted to bite, slash, cook, bite, eat. My horns lit up with magic and a wave of brute force-
struck the ceiling, the library ceiling beginning to rumble and crack as chunks of it fell down. It wouldn't cave in entirely, but it still caused the colt to stop screaming and run off. I convinced myself to sprint away, although it took tremendous effort - It had taken my everything to not target the colt. I ran, I ran so far until I was in the forest, where I couldn't hear the ponies yell and congregate, I ran so far and so fast I couldn't feel my legs before I collapsed in the middle of the forest, completely lost to where I was. And I laid there for a while - thinking.
Maybe Discord wasn't the only monster.
It took some time to get my mind off of what had happened, but the books had helped. Not only had the books helped with that, but they helped further my knowledge of magic in general. The two most important books were the ones on warspells and Spirits.
A warspell is a specific type of spell, made for one purpose and one purpose only - to kill. A ray of heat can be weaponized, but it can also be used to cook your food. An air blade can be used to cut yourself free, brute force can be used to push or break - but the spell that goes by the name "Cleave" is meant for one purpose and one purpose only. To hurt. To cleave with mystic force, to cut, to sharpen your magic into a blade of telekinetic power. The blade targets flesh and only flesh, phasing through defense. The spell happens to be quite taxing on the magic however and only phases through armor, magical defense and regenerative defense is not taken into this. There are spells that ignore regeneration, and a lot of utility spells can be weaponized or have dual purposes...but in the end, a warspell has one purpose and one purpose only. To destroy.
But with this purpose comes its greatest strength and weakness. Intent. You cannot practice or spar with a warspell. Say you suddenly ascend to Spirithood, and are given the strength to quite literally rend countries apart. You create a warspell that can destroy a country for you, but you cannot practice this spell with the desire to see what happens. You have to truly desire to destroy the country. Intent. Desire. This is the power and downfall of a warspell - it has no effect unless there is meaning behind it.
The book on warspells had many, it even had spells meant for combat that weren't warspells, but only a few of them were of use to me. Cleave, Thunderous Discharge, Electric Discharge, and probably most terrifying of all - Destruction.
Cleave was a warspell meant to slash through flesh and ignore defense. (Mys, Destrum, Fres, Srecis, Foreo, Vitrus, Ignum, Defrus - Magic, Destroy, Force, Edge/Sharpness, Focus, Life, Ignore, Defense. "Magic Destruction - Force edge sharpened that focuses on life and ignore defense.)
Thunderous Discharge was a spell meant to create a thunderous boom of sound to stun and daze. (Mys, Tesrun, Fres, Auden - Magic, Storm, Force, Sound. "Magic - Force of a Storm's Sound)
Electric Discharge was a spell meant to shoot lightning from the horns. (Mys, Tesrun, Fres, Fyrd - Magic, Storm, Force, Fire. Magic - Force of a Storm's Fire)
But there was one spell that frightened me, and while I mention it I doubt I would ever be able to cast it. Why? It was one glyph. The horror of this may not dawn on you, but as you've noticed - each spell starts with "Mys." Magic. The reason for this is because glyphs are sentences, basically, that are willed into the world through magic. If a glyph doesn't start with magic, that means it is primal in nature. A spell only a Spirit could cast. A primal force of nature, willed into the world. "Destrum." That was the entire spell. "Destruction." A primal spell of destruction, meant to destroy. Not kill, maim, hurt, but to destroy. No doubt it would be powerful enough to actually destroy the molecules of something, a feat only a Spirit could do. The spell frightened me, frightened me almost as much as the idea of Discord coming to kill me and my vengeance being cut short. Almost.
The book on Spirits was equally interesting, and significantly less horrifying. More...awe-inspiring, if anything. From the Maker's corpse rose life, and the first being ever created became Life. The first Spirit. The second Spirit was the Spirit of Death. But they had no sapience. Life, with a lower case l, did have sapience - fighting and warring for years, birthing Discord and Harmony. As the Windigo attacked and were promptly banished, Order was born. While I won't bore you with the details of every single Spirit being born ever, there were a few especially notable ones.
The only Spirits that had never been reincarnated were Life, Death, Discord, Harmony, and Order. Their names were Vitrus, Mortrus, Dis, Hos, and Dos, although they preferred to be called by their spirit names. Life and Death were infinitely beyond anything that anyone could throw at them - so much so that they removed themselves entirely from the physical plane. If they were to become physical, they would be able to end Discord's life with a thought, so great was their power. Discord and Order had tried to kill one another, but Harmony had weakened both of them and stopped them from fighting, more or less.
The most powerful Spirits were, at the time of this book being written, were the Elemental Spirits and the Celestial Spirits. Draelos, the Spirit of Fire. Misika, the Spirit of Water. And Goraloth, the Spirit of Earth. The Celestial Spirits - Apollo and Artemis, were no pushovers either, both being Alicorns that were crowned as King and Queen of the ponies. Above them all was Hos - or, Harmony as she was called, who had rooted herself to prevent her from misusing her power, and as such wasn't on the list, rather a footnote.
But the book was written ten years ago. I made a mentally revised list. Considering there were only three I knew who were alive that weren't Discord, the list would probably be something like...
1. Discord. He was chaos incarnate - his power could literally warp reality.
2. Draelos? I knew he was strong, about as strong as Bellum, and Bellum did managed to actually wound Discord.
3. Misika. She was a water serpent, but she wasn't that strong. Strong magically, yes, but nothing compared to Discord most likely, and weaker than Draelos physically.
4. Gryphus. The Gryphon King was confirmed to be alive, and was probably the only one who Discord actually couldn't hurt. Gryphus' speed would be far too great.
Further reading revealed that apparently each Spirit had a spell, totally unique to them that corresponded to their glyph. Draelos had a spell of "Fyrd," probably one that could call infinite flame into existence. The book didn't tell. Did this mean that Discord had a spell of "Dis" that could do anything as long as it was chaotic? These single glyph spells weren't very descriptive much to my annoyance. Was the spell that Bellum used that actually managed to hurt Discord a spell of "Wreis"? A spell of pure War? Ugh. This was getting me nowhere, and turned out to be much more annoying than helpful.
Although, there was a helpful thing I had found at the back of the book. A list of all the Spirits still alive. This book was written a decade ago, but Spirits are ageless - maybe I could find someone who could help me. I formed a mental list of everyone who could help.
The Alicorn Pantheon. According to the map I had stolen, Mount Olympus was relatively close - I had found the forest I was in, and I was in Pony territory.
The Draconic Pantheon. While Bellum was dead, Discord had mentioned Misika and Draelos still being alive...but the dragonlands were so impossibly far from where I was, that even if I was at the drakon capitol it would take a month to get there.
Gryphum was relatively close, maybe a day or two's trip, and King Gryphus was apparently one of the Spirits Discord had been unable to kill. While Gryphus was quite powerful, his strongest feat would be his pure speed. He was the air. Wherever there was air, he was there too. It was something unique about specifically him - apparently, all Spirits had one unique trait that only they could do. The first Spirit of Sun, Sol, had the ability to call down solar flares with extreme effort. The second Spirit of Sun could also do this, but they had another trait on top of that - I believe the Alicorn of Sun, Apollo, has the ability for precognitive dreams. I don't know all of them, but this did spark my curiosity as to what the abilities of all the Spirits were. Why were there Spirits? Where does their power come from? I don't think any of these questions would get answered, any time soon.
My plan was simpler now. First - I would go to Mount Olympus. Then, with the Alicorns, I would go to Gryphum, then to the Dragonlands with the help of Gryphus, and the remaining Spirits would be able to defeat Discord, hopefully. Hopefully.
...Hopefully.
My belly empty, my mind full, my body healed, I pushed myself up and steeled myself.
It was go time.
The Future
The world of Liogella is a very large place. It's adorned with three continents - one small, one large, one colossal. Murysicinia is the smallest of the three. I've never personally been there, but from what I'e heard it can be described in three phrases. Sand, sand-serpents, and heat. The entire continent is a sandy landmass filled to the brim with hundreds of bestial creatures and draconics, creatures that have adapted to the sand and heat. I'm unaware of what the spirits there look like, but I doubt there are any. Only sapients can become spirits, which is why the wyverns and most windigo aren't spirits. Sure, they're sentient, yes, but it's exceedingly rare for them to actually have intelligence. And the only sapients located in Murysicinia were the "Saddle Arabians," as well as the few dragons that had made their home there.
The large continent's name is lost, and information about it is scarce. The colossal continent is Augolor. It's more or less divided into six sections - the North, the Eternal Forests, Equestria, the Dragonlands, Gryphum, and the Badlands. Equestria is the largest section, where all the ponies live - and is where the Nexus exists. Deep, deep underneath the Everfree Forest is a swirling cauldron of raw magic where Celestia wove the spells that made the land of Equestria tameable. Gryphum is a large, sea-bordering nation where - surprising no one, the gryphons life. The Dragonlands and Badlands are interchangeable terms, but the Badlands are a scorched, mountainous wasteland that leads into the Dragonlands. The North is where a host of things exist, including the home of the Wyverns, Windigo, Quetzalcoatl, Crystal Ponies, and what not. The Eternal Forests are...an oddity. The Deer and Wolves are the only known sapient creatures that exist there, but both haven't been seen since decades before I was born. There are no sapient creatures there, just endless forests filled with strange and ancient mystic creatures.
The Alicorn Pantheon were powerhouses. The first creature on the planet was an alicorn. Forged from a glob of blood from the Maker herself, Life was born as the first creature. From her sprung all Life. From Life came Death, and from Death and Life all Spirits were born. When Life created Fire, the Spirit of Fire was created - the first Draconic. The Spirit of Air was the first Eagle, who eventually became Gryphons...but you've heard this before. But Life was an Alicorn. A pony. Ponies were the first spirits, and this is reflected in the fact that - take 100 people from each race with shards of divinity, fill them with magic from the Nexus. 99 of everything that isn't a draconic or pony will explode. Two from each draconic race will ascend, and a whopping four from each pony race will ascend.
The Alicorn Pantheon was made by Life before she followed Death into the fabled Crucible of the Cosmos, the realm above our realm where they watch down as omniscient and omnipotent entities. Throughout history, the Spirit of the Sun, Moon, Love, Peace, Glory, and Sky have acted on the behalf of the Alicorn Pantheon. A note to make - there a lot of similar Spirits, and not all Spirits exist at the same time. Glory and War are both similar but they aren't the same. There are some distinctions. The Spirit of Sky is not the Spirit of Wind, but the Spirit of Storms is a term for the Spirit of Wind.
It's...strange. I could spend all day listing all the Spirits that have been confirmed to exist. But according to that ever so "useful" book on Spirits, the Alicorn Pantheon was composed of...
Apollo, the Crown Alicorn of the Sun. His unique power was the power of foresight in the form of precognitive dreams, and the ability to detect imminent danger.
Artemis, the Crown Alicorn of the Moon. Her power was the ability to walk through dreams and banish the nightmares of the ponies. It worked on non-ponies although in a very close range. About 100 meters.
The Alicorn of Love had died about 4,000 years prior to my birth, in a spat with the Spirit of Fire .
Serenity, the Alicorn of Peace possessed the power to provide someone with mental clarity despite their emotions. Even if they were furious or enraged or mad with grief, she could clear their minds with a touch and make them act rationally.
The Alicorn of Glory was the oldest Spirit in existence that wasn't one of the three core Spirits (Discord, Order Harmony,) or Life or Death. Emphasis on was, sadly. The legends about her were fearsome - said to have been able to defeat King Bellum without a droplet of magic in single combat, said to have so much magic that she fueled an entire army off of it. These were myths and legends and their validity was to be doubted, but there was a fact that was included in this book. Her death. She had killed herself using the single most powerful magic ever cast on Liogella. The Dragonlands used to be colossal, the entirety of Equestria fitting on and at the feet of Mt. Olympus. The Dragonlands stretched over the entirety of Equestria, and what is now the Badlands. There was even a natural bridge where the gap inbetween the Badlands and Dragonlands are.
This gap came from the magic she used. The Alicorn Pantheon all are about 3,000 except Serenity, who had ascended during the war by brokering peace between the oldest dragon in the world and a town. All the Alicorn Pantheon had died in the Draconic Wars, and Glory was the only one left. She stood still and stalwart against 10,100 dragons, all the size of towns, the largest of them being the bloodthirsty Spirit of Fire who is the size of what is now Mt. Canterlot. Or, Mt. Draelos as I knew it.
Her magic tore the landscape apart. Created a gap, caused huge floods, earthquakes, and the scorching of an entire land. Her magic tore the dragons apart and drowned those who survived. The Spirit of Fire, Draelos I was turned into pure stone and flung across the continent, while Glory gave into her wounds and died in Serenity's arms.
Since the Spirit of Fire, Draelos I was dead, the eldest dragon took his place as Dragon King. Calling up the Dragon Lords, he and Serenity brokered peace. Peace that continued, even after Draelos II, the son of the eldest dragon was born and ascended to the Spirit of Fire.
The Alicorn of Sky was dead too. Recently, actually. He fought Gryphus a mere decade before I was born and died as a result. While Sky had the raw strength, Gryphus had much more speed, experience and did have enough strength to do damage to Sky.
Apollo, Artemis, and Serenity were all that were left. But they would rebuild. They always did.
...Not this time, though.
The Present
The trip to Olympus was uneventful. It took about two weeks, most of which I spent eating and practicing my non-warspell magic. I was able to create a "ball" of brute force that I could move around telekinetically, allowing it to switch directions. This did take a lot out of me, though. I was able to create a basic shield, two air blades at once, and heal a scale a minute if I used my magic. I couldn't do any of this easily mind you, I was just able to. I had mastered telekinesis where I no longer needed to use my air spell, but I would keep that in mind if I ever wanted something to float invisibly.
Food was a bit of an issue, at first. Pony territory didn't have much in the way of meat. And the meat that I did find usually was guarded in towns and happened to speak.
I still managed around the food issue, however. There were rabbits, some non-sentient deer, a manticore - which honestly did prove a problem to me. The scorpion like tail could scratch my scales, and the poison could kill two drakons the size of me. But, a manticore doesn't have a strong natural hold on its body due to its lack of sapience, so I tore its bones out with telekinesis and cooked it with my fire. There was enough food.
Until I got to Mt. Olympus. The peak was about 10,000 meters up in the air, and while Equestria had expanded significantly, this was still the capital. There were dozens of settlements on its sides no doubt. Which means encounters - and ponies don't tend to work well with draconics, especially after the war. In fact, anything that wasn't a pony they tended to be racist and generally xenophobic towards.
Climbing Mt. Olympus presents a problem to me - if I was a dragon with wings, this would be much easier. But I'm not a dragon. Thankful for that - Discord probably would have been able to kill me in a weakened state if I didn't have the regeneration and higher defense of a drakon. Nor would I be able to do quite as much damage to him. But I do have very, very sharp claws. Sharp enough to pierce rock.
I had two options, basically. I scale the mountain - which takes tremendous effort and time. Or I blitz through the settlements, attract a lot of attention and quite possibly die. While a single draconic with their scales grown in could take on many ponies, eventually their magic resistance would wear down and they'd be vulnerable to the spells of the unicorns. Which reminds me - I learned that there are different types of magic. Well, no, I knew that. Everyone knows that. But the dark magic of a quetzalcoatl is different from the dark magic of a windigo, as they all present themselves in different ways. The spells of a unicorn are about order, control, and utility. The spells of a drakon are about war, destruction, and power.
But I've never killed a sapient. I don't know if I have it in me. Killing a rabbit for food is different from killing a creature saying "please don't kill me I have a family" for self-defense. As such, I decided to scale the mountain. I walked up the mountain path as far as I could before I spotted a settlement - and dug my claws into the side of the mountain and began to climb.
The trip was painful. Very painful. My arms ached like Tartarus, and I had to sleep twice to restore enough energy to finish the climb. I was hungry, very hungry - the only food I was able to find being a goat and a lion, but I was close to the top now. About ten minutes, and I'd-
There was an earth-shattering roar. I began to slide down the mountain, rocks made loose from its sheer force. The mountain began rumbling as rocks slid down the sides - and a dragon erupted from its side. He was a huge beast, about two of my mothers taller than Bellum. His wings were punctured as he slid through the ground, smashing down next to the mountain. He landed on his head - and there was a painful sounding crunch. Above him, a squiggly shape floated. My eyes weren't as strong as a gryphon's, so I had no idea what it was. The fact that something could kill a dragon larger than Bellum terrified me. I began climbing up the mountain as fast as I could, the rocks smashing against me and only dazing me for a moment. I only had to actively dodge a few large boulders before I had ascended Mount Olympus - and I met destruction.
Corpses of ponies clad in white robes littered the floor. Severed heads, tendrils of flesh and candy, dried blood mixing in with ketchup and mustard, and most terrifyingly of all - a corpse of an orange stallion with his eyes gouged out.
I had to hold what little lunch I had in. The corpses and blood weren't the disgusting part, rather the sheer chaos that had greeted me. Olympus was in ruins, probably one of the first sites that Discord had attacked.
The Alicorns could be of no help to me. But what of Olympus itself?
The resources I needed to defeat Discord were magic, allies, food, and tools. He had defeated the most powerful creatures in existence - my magic alone couldn't defeat him in it's current state, so I'd have to get stronger. I'd need allies to surround him and target him at the same time. I need food to survive, and I would like tools to make my vengeance easier. Olympus was home to the Alicorn Pantheon. One of the oldest groups of gods to have ever existed throughout the ages, of which a single member had defeated 10,000 dragons, of which controlled the very heavens themselves. I steeled my nerves and put my stomach's protests aside. I began to scavenge.
The library was my first stop. Due to the death of all the Alicorns, there were no protective wards on the books that were probably older than some of the Alicorns themselves. I grabbed a book on dark magic, chaos magic, and combat magic. I needed to know how to defend against dark and chaos magic, as well as learn whatever combat magic I could. I'd need every edge. Next stop was their...cafeteria, for lack of a better word. Their food there was spoiled and rotting, but there was enough food and vegetables that were in good enough condition to eat. My stomach wasn't full, but it wasn't empty.
My third stop was probably the most revolting, and actually lead me to pause for a moment. The corpse of the orange stallion was definitely Apollo, which meant that the the two here would be Artemis and Serenity. Artemis was nailed to her throne by her own horn, dried blood staining her throat and her eyes burnt out. I only knew the other Alicorn corpse was Serenity because of process of elimination. Her flesh and fur was burnt off, her body more of a pile than an actual corpse. I gagged but I did have to consider something.
A body is 50% magic, 50% matter. Some extremely powerful creatures can push that up to 60-40, but even the weakest Spirit is 80% magic and 20% matter. The reason why eating fresh things restores your magic is because the magic doesn't leak out into the world and go back to the Nexus to be recycled, but rather it still lingers in the meat. If I ate the Alicorns, I'd be full - of magic, and stomach.
...I gathered up the bits that weren't burnt. I wasn't particularly happy about it, but it would be better than letting them die in vain. I had hunted before, but never out of malice, only to eat and better myself. This wasn't that different, was it? Just...not allowing them to die in total vain. Most of their flesh was burnt, and what wasn't was cooked with a simple heat spell. Their meat tasted very sweet, but still retained the strong meat flavor. My theory was right. My stomach did feel fuller, and I could feel more magic inside of me. Not enough that I had doubled in power, but...maybe I could pull off that two air blades a bit easier now.
"Apollo, Artemis, Serenity, thank you for your gift." I whispered quietly. Maybe, if Life and Death did exist they'd give my message to them.
Moving past the madness of the throne room I found what I was searching for - the armory. Most of Olympus had been destroyed, leaving the armory exposed. Immediately I saw six things of note - a sword, a ring, a book, a pouch, an armor set, and a stone.
The sword was the Sword of Glory. The Sword she used to slay hundreds of dragons. Its design was unremarkable, but the red blade made it extremely...prevalent, for lack of a better word. The ring stood out because it was large. About the size of my wrist, actually, but ring-shaped in design. It wasn't meant for a pony - it wasn't meant to be worn by an alicorn. I was a small drakoness, but I was still twice the size of an alicorn and this was the size of my wrist. This was likely an artifact from before the dragon wars, and a basic magical scan told me its properties. It was enchanted to be extremely durable, but more importantly the large ruby on it could store magic. Not just store it and allow someone to drain from it - but acting literally as an extension of a creatures magic, giving them more magic as long as they wore it. The book was interesting because how it was bound in scales and had no title. I tried to open it - but it seemed to harden and close more in my grasp. But it was still noteworthy. The stone was interesting because it was just a regular stone - that I couldn't scan with my magic. I then tried to telekinetically lift it, and it ignored my attempts. It was a null-stone, a rare stone from the Nexus that had become so saturated with magic that it was immune to all but the absolute most powerful magic.
The most interesting of all would be a small pouch with a string around it that had two runes in it - Mys, and Vor. Magic Void. A bag of holding. A theoretically unlimited pouch - as long as the pouch itself was intact, it could store any number of materials. Immediately I stuffed the books I was telekinetically carrying into it as well as the scaled book. Just as I was picking up the Sword of Glory in my physical grasp - it ignored my magic, only shivering slightly with a telekinetic push, the ruins of Olympus turned into butterflies. I recoiled in shock as the butterflies rose up, forming a body and a head-
Discord, made of butterflies, stood over me. "Yoo-hoo!" He wiggled his fingers at me. “Did you miss me?” He giggled excitedly. I remember seeing red, throwing a chunk of rock directly at his head. He arched an eyebrow before he dodged to the side. “I suppose you did.” He was suddenly in front of me, leaning on top of me. I tried to move away but chains of candy bound me. “I must admit - I didn’t expect to see you again. I’d thought you’d kill your self out of grief! Sadly, though, you’re a bit more durable than that.” He sighed. “Impressive though. You've improved. Although - ugh, that ring? Really?" He tutted as he yanked the crystal out of the ring and chomped down on it, tearing the ring off me and throwing it to the side. He chewed on the crystal, gagged then spat it out. It was crushed and useless now. I stare at it before snarling and physically picking up the null-stone and throwing it at him. He rolled his eyes as he prepared to snap his fingers - then shrieked like a little filly as it flattened his head cartoonishly. He swayed side to side, a sad trumpet playing before he shook his head and growled. "That hurt! You wound me, Tempest. After all I've done for you?"
"Ever heard of Karma?" I retorted. "One day - you'll get what's coming to you. You'll die. Maybe not at my claws, but at the hands of another." I readied all of my magic against him, and threw it at him. Waves of brute force, a blade of air shooting towards his throat. The brute force splattered pathetically on his hold on his body. The blade of air elicited an eyebrow raise for him before he caught it with magic, keeping it hovering in place. My horns began to hurt as I shot beams of heat and ice against him. As the heat hit him he was suddenly in a lawn chair, sipping a lemonade, and as the ice hit him he was in a parka sipping hot cocoa calmly. Magic clearly wasn't working against him, but physically?
I launched towards him, but he dodged each time. Then I don't remember what happened next, exactly, but I remember holding the Blade of Glory in my hand and launching towards him, aiming it as his heart. His joyful expression dropped off his face and he stared at me for a moment before he narrowly dodged the blade. It scraped his arm, causing him to wince as it began to glow red and he recoiled. His voice thundered in my ears. "Little girl. You have NO idea what you just did." He spoke, his tone quivering before his magic enveloped me. A wave of pink washed over my outside, the Blade of Glory falling from my immobile hands. He picked it up and stared at it quietly, his eyes shutting. "Oh, Glory." He whispered. He stroked the blade fondly before casting it into the ground. The mountain cracked slightly as he walked towards me, his eyes glowing pink. He touched a paw to my head and I saw-
The world was on fire. The world was burning. The world was dying, drained of its color. The Nexus was ablaze, the ley-lines covered in flames, the mountains and landscape all melted. I saw great typhoons, hurricanes, storms, tornadoes, and earthquakes tearing the world asunder, oceans of magma and obsidian shores, and I saw the Nexus condensing in on itself until it was gone and-
Discord was quieter as he took his paw off me. But he was no less angry. "...Tempest." He spoke after a brief moment of silence. "You have done something no creature has ever done. No draconic. No equine. No chimera. No mortal. No Spirit. You have made me feel, twice. Genuine fear. Genuine anger." He smiled warmly, oddly. "Let me reward you for that."
"I'm going to kill you now." He spoke. My blood ran cold and I struggled in his mystic grasp, but his power had overpowered my own hold on my body. If he really wanted to, he could telekinetically crush my brain in an instant. "Or, try to. Let me explain, actually. I'm going to drop this mountaintop on you. And if you survive? You have one week to prepare. If you don't? Good riddance. I've always despised draconics, and you my friend are the last drakon left. Did you know the Wyverns were sapient before they met me? Not anymore." His body wiggled as he swam through the air and leaned on me. His touch was vile. "Good luck." His fingers snapped-
I was on the ground now, cloaked in shadow. My gaze tilted upwards as I saw the mountain top, crumbling as it barreled towards me.
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