The roots of what remained of the Tree of Harmony had spread far across the lands of Ayafern. Many of the creatures, both the relatively sane and violently maddened, had taken notice. Some—like Togg Tahlzul—had taken an interest in the radiant saplings. But there were others that saw the Collapse and all that it had brought with it as a scourge.
Those who had long ago embraced the unearthly shadows that covered every inch of Ayafern saw these resplendent roots as nothing more than a blight upon their eternally nighted world. It was an unnatural warping and melding of two wholly disparate dimensions—an anomaly that should not be but nevertheless is. These creatures would seek to snuff out the unwelcome light of Harmony and return all back to the madness and chaos left behind by a long and crippling war between a Goddess and a God-King.
But among both the creatures of brilliant Harmony and eldritch Darkness there existed a being who was an anomaly unto itself. The being in question was an ageless spirit—one whose existence was born of nuclear chaos but not wholly bound by it. His name was Discord, and he was a creature who was the very embodiment of his namesake. Presumed a despicable villain by those who thought they knew better, the spirit was cast in stone and forgotten by the world.
Shackled by the power of Harmony and unable to exert his chaotic will over the unwashed masses, he could do nothing but watch and wait as countless years passed him by. For well over a millennium, he was forced to watch as Harmony encroach upon and overtook his carefully crafted anarchy. But Discord was far from upset, for he had played his part and knew that his time would come again.
The ages of chaos and order rose and fell in cycles after all. This was a fact that was etched into Discord's very malleable and sometimes non-existent bones. He'd known it since the very moment of his renascence within the center of infinity. It was only a matter of time, and time meant nothing to a creature like Discord. That said, there was one thing the chaos spirit hadn't counted on—something he never expected to have to contend with.
Namely, the unspeakable actions of one Onyx Thaddeus Pie.
Ponies could be so deliciously unpredictable during times of strife, and personal hardship especially seemed to bring out the worst in those colorful little equines. Their willingness to jump straight to the most extreme solutions to try and resolve their problems was something Discord thoroughly enjoyed about ponies, at least in most circumstances. It amused him. It entertained him. It fed his endless thirst for madness and disorder.
But, like with everything else, there was a line that mere mortals weren't meant to cross. Chaos came in all kinds of flavors, and though Discord had sampled them all, there were certain flavors that even he found distasteful. He harbored a special dislike for all things eldritch and religious zealotry in particular. Though he couldn't remember his reasons for the aversion, he knew he had them and he knew the aversion was strong.
It was especially ironic considering his origins and the fact that, in a sense, the chaotic spirit himself could be considered an eldritch being. Discord was well aware of this fact and, contrary to what one might think, it brought him no amusement. He had no love for the place he came from or the unearthly, unsightly abominations he was forced to call his kin, so rather than stay, he chose to abandon and forget it all.
He'd forgotten a great many things since his previous quiescence and subsequent reawakening, but the echoes of a past he'd left behind still remained in the form of that nameless antipathy. It was a past he felt he was better off not knowing, but unfortunately, a certain desperate earth pony had done his best to drag those memories kicking and screaming back to the surface.
The foolish stallion had brought forth something that ought not to have set foot beyond the dimensional veil separating Equestria from that place. Even from within his stony prison, Discord could feel that presence—ancient, otherworldly... familiar. Though he couldn't quite recall exactly where or when he'd seen or heard the umbral deity, he knew without a doubt they'd met somewhere before.
It wasn't something the chaotic spirit wanted to dwell on, but much to his relief, the stallion's grim commune with the elder being had been brief. No sooner had it arrived than it retreated back into the Dark from whence it came. The problem had resolved itself and Discord could continue to wait out his long and boring imprisonment in blissful ignorance of what once was... or so he thought.
Unfortunately for him, that was not to be the end of his otherworldly problems.
The zealous earth pony would continue his grisly dealings with the Dark for many more years to come. He would even go so far as to convert an entire community into a fanatical cult of worshippers. Try as Discord might to simply ignore the madpony and his macabre actions, he couldn't help the nagging sensation he felt that history was repeating itself somehow.
The thought tore at Discord and would've driven him mad, had he not already been a physical representation of the very concept. It had gotten to the point where the spirit had very nearly reached his breaking point, but then something strange happened. In a sudden and violent dimensional distortion that shook Discord to his very core, the entirety of the stallion's cult vanished.
It all happened in the blink of an eye, and the stallion himself disappeared not too long after it was all said and done. He hadn't died as far as Discord could tell. He simply seemed to just... fade out of existence, never to be seen again. Needless to say, it was a joyous, if baffling, occasion for the fed-up spirit. Assuming the foolish pony had finally bitten off more than he could chew, Discord put the issue out of his head for what he hoped would be the last time.
That hope would eventually turn to certainty as decades became centuries devoid of any more unearthly foolishness. The age of chaos that Discord had put into motion would inevitably give way to a brilliant era of harmony. What followed was an age of unprecedented growth and prosperity, though it would come at the cost of the diarchy that Equestria was initially founded upon.
The equine kingdom once ruled by both the Sun and Moon would become a monarchy. The Sun would banish the rebellious Moon and take the throne for herself, and Discord in his stone prison would be a jolly witness to it all. Alas, that would be the final occurrence of what Discord considered true chaos to come for almost a thousand years. The rest of that time would see the avatar of disorder wallowing in endless ennui as Equestria basked in radiant harmony.
Unbeknownst to both Discord and the rest of Equestria, however, the Dark was still there, lurking just beneath the surface. The selfish schemes of elder deities from beyond the veil had already been set in motion. The die was cast long ago and the fate of Equestria and its many denizens had been tragically and irreparably altered from the very beginning.
The tail end of that prosperous millennium would see the birth of six young would-be champions of Harmony. Had ancient powers from the other side not interfered, those six would have pushed Equestria to even greater heights in the future. But lamentably, such a glorious future was no longer meant to be. Discord was indeed a powerful being who could see far beyond what mere mortals could comprehend, but he was neither omnipotent nor omniscient.
What's more, his focus had waned over the centuries, the utter banality of his sedentary existence having been too much for him to bear. His consciousness had dulled to the point of near dormancy by the end of the peaceful era that had reigned for a thousand years. The birth of Celestia's future protege did not rouse him and the sonic rainboom heard around the world would garner only a very brief and very mild interest from the draconequus.
Had he been more cognizant of the world around him at the time, Discord would have noticed the blatant disruption of the magical field surrounding Equestria. Not only that, but he would have also picked up on a very brief yet very familiar distortion in the dimensional wall keeping Equestria protected from the horrors of the other side. As things stood, however, he let the incident pass from his thoughts like a soft breeze through tall grass.
It was only as the very fabric of reality began to crumble and reshape itself around him that Discord stirred. Night blacker than any he'd ever seen in Equestria had fallen over the land. A deep and guttural roar seemed to emanate from the very earth itself as it collapsed and reformed over and over again beneath his marble cage. Alien stars began to light up the void-like sky above, rapidly blinking in and out of existence one after the other.
And the screams.
A terrible cacophony of screams filled his ears. Horrified. Terrified. Agonized. Feral. Monstrous. Not even during the height of his reign over Equestria had Discord heard such screams. Each and every single one pierced his mind, snapping him out of his centuries-long stupor and instilling in him a sense of complete bewilderment and a sort of horrified fascination.
He reached out to touch the world with his preternatural senses for the first time in ages and his confusion turned to shock at what he saw. Equestria was physically, spiritually, and fundamentally falling apart right before his very eyes. The shock then quickly slipped into anger as he realized what was happening. The other side had spilled over into a realm it had no business in, and the Dark and all its foul creatures were both literally and figuratively consuming the land, devouring it whole.
In a word, it was unchecked, unmitigated, unstoppable chaos, and Discord—the very avatar of chaos and disorder—was not happy in the least.
He had slept for far too long. He had willfully ignored the world. He'd seen the signs, felt them all to some extent, and turned away from it all. He foolishly assumed that any cosmic kerfuffles would sort themselves out and that he need only wait to be released from his prison. He had waited so patiently for his time to come. He'd been so eager to reclaim his Equestrian playground—so excited to tease and taunt and torture his little equine playthings.
But it had all gone wrong.
It wasn't his time to shine, it was theirs. It was their playground now, and the innocent denizens of Equestria were theirs to do with as they pleased. They had stolen the new era of chaos and madness out from under Discord's snaggletoothed snout. Even if he were to be liberated from his marble prison right here and now, the chaos spirit wasn't sure if he could take it back at this point, even with his immense power.
And so he silently fumed as the Dark continued to encroach upon the world, his stony cage still intact, but only just. He could feel the power of Harmony ebbing away, and it would likely only be a matter of time before he was free and able to stretch his misshapen arms and legs again. He'd only just begun to ruminate on what he could do about the situation once he was freed when a blinding pillar of prismatic light burst forth from the ground in the far distance.
He watched stunned as another column of light erupted elsewhere, then another and another and countless more after that. The draconequus immediately recognized the light for what it was—how could he not, given his current state? Harmony was trying to fight back against the Dark, and the sight of it gave Discord an idea. It gave him a path forward, and as that idea blossomed in his mind, he smiled inwardly.
Another pillar of rainbow light emerged from right beneath his marble pedestal just then. It engulfed him entirely and, as it tore away the stone that held him captive like so much wrapping paper, he began to laugh. It was a long, loud cackle that did little to convey the true depths of the humor he felt at the sheer irony of this outrageous state of affairs.
Harmony, it seemed, was quite desperate indeed.