//------------------------------// // How in Equestria had it all Come Down to This? // Story: The Mark of the Soul // by Comicizzum //------------------------------// For the first time in years Discord was thankful he lived alone in his own dimension. Slamming the door to his house, he reached within his chest and pulled out his heart. Setting it on the coffee table, the poor organ literally bled his emotions, red tears falling all over the carpet. Did he care? Not one bit. He’d promised himself that he would never again be responsible for her tears and yet he’d left her, the one pony he cared most about, with a river of them falling from her gorgeous teal eyes. Eyes full of sorrow. Eyes full of pain. Because of him. Discord scrunched his eyes shut and screamed, an explosion of pure chaos blasting from his being. The force obliterated his entire house; every fiber of wood, furniture, and glass ripped to slivers and shards of unrecognizable material in seconds. Did he care? Not one bit! “It’s not like I wanted to break her heart!” he snarled, reforming his house with a snap only to pick up the nearest piece of glass - a vase - and throw it across the room. With satisfaction he listened to it break and decided further shattering was in order.    Summoning a door, he walked through to a room filled with mirrors and windows. Picking up a baseball bat that had helpfully appeared next to the door, he swung at the nearest mirror and listened as a symphony of shards bounced all over the floor. He swung again. And again. Glass rained down, cutting into his skin; a physical representation of the pain coursing through his veins. After every square inch of mirror and window lay at his feet, Discord threw the bat and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Lungs heaving, he walked up the wall and threw himself onto his couch somewhere near the ceiling, covering his eyes and relishing the sting from the various cuts.  How in Equestria had it all come down to this?  He used to be the most terrifying villain in all of pony history! The only thing that could stop him was his exact opposite, harmony. And where did harmony get him? Into this tangled mess! “This is all Celestia’s fault!” he snarled. “Her and her stupid idea of reformation! Why couldn’t she have just left me in stone? Fluttershy would have been better off. But now… now…” He snarled again, slamming his fist into the coffee table and sending it spiraling towards the ground. A leg fell off on impact. Discord watched as it spun around in zero gravity, smacking into several different objects on an uncharted course.  If anypony had told him that the weak pegasus he’d manipulated years ago in Celestia’s maze would one day become the owner of his heart he would have laughed in their face! But he was a very different draconequus back then compared to now. Then he only had love for chaos, believing love between creatures as petty and finite. How could he think otherwise? Nocreature had ever loved him and the only examples of love he’d seen ended in death. Death. That was the biggest reason behind the raging conflict in his heart. One day Fluttershy would die and he would be alone. Forget the revolted stares and whispers their relationship would bring; living life without her after having her romantically would destroy him. He’d wander the rest of existence unfulfilled, lost, and alone in a way he’d never had to deal with before. “But we’re already doomed to that life, aren’t we?” Discord looked up and scowled as a copy of himself wearing a pair of glasses sat down beside him. “I didn’t ask for your opinion!” he snapped. “Too bad,” he said, sticking out a forked tongue. “You’re already head over heels in love with her. Denying yourself of romance - that she clearly wants too because she’s the one who asked you! - is stupid.” “It is not!” Discord 2 stared at him skeptically. “Really? How so?” “Because of the memories we’d create! After she died they would be all we had left. We’d live in them and forget everything else!” “But we would have them instead of just the dreams we’ve been feeding off of for years.” “Dreams are sometimes better than reality!” “But actual memories containing what Fluttershy tastes like when kissed would be so much better!” Discord 2 countered. “Shut up! You’re not helping!” “Why are you fighting this?” “Because I have to!” Discord bellowed, standing up. “For Fluttershy! Do you know what would happen if she got involved with us? She would be shunned. She would be scorned. She would become a target. Every single horrible thing those ponies say about us they would begin to say about her! I cannot allow that to happen. I cannot allow her to become a freak to her own kind by becoming involved with me.  “And what of children?” he continued. “Surely one day she will want some of her own and we don’t even know if we’re compatible! And would we even want a child? A spawn of my genes would never be accepted by ponykind. It would be feared, hated, shunned, just like us!” “But it would be half of her. It would be a physical manifestation of our love for each other.” “It would be an abomination to everyone else,” Discord lamented. “I would hate to be the reason Fluttershy’s children were rejected. She deserves a stallion not this!” He gestured to himself. Discord 2 scowled. “Since when do we have issues with self image?” “We don’t!” Discord said, “Except for when it involves possible offspring with the most gorgeous mare to ever grace Equestria!” He flopped down and mournfully continued, “And I can’t stand the thought of watching her die. If we could have children and they ended up inheriting my immortality, Fluttershy would succumb to her mortality, leaving us behind. I don’t think I could live without her. I would submit myself to being stone over her grave; after wallowing in misery until our children were grown and settled, that is.” “But that was the plan regardless, wasn’t it?”  Yes, that had become the plan; shortly after the incident with Tirek. After realizing how deeply he cared for her, and how much it would hurt being without her, Discord decided that the moment Fluttershy died he would become her grave’s protector forever. Not that she nor any of their friends knew that; not even Celestia and Luna knew. He knew they wondered what would become of him after Fluttershy’s death but neither had the courage to ask. The only princess who might have the imagination of his planned fate would be Cadence and that was only because of her understanding of love. But she wasn’t even aware of their feelings for each other so maybe she would be just as surprised as everypony else in the end.    Discord 2 harrumphed before standing up. “While you’ve brought up some good points, the stone gravemarker is our chosen fate either way. I don’t see why you can’t live the life you really want until then.”     Discord put his head in his paw and claw. “But what if it all falls apart? What if this whole venture is doomed to fail before it even starts? A draconequus and a pony? It’s not meant to be. It never was!” “Says you.” “I am you!” “And I’m also you!” Discord 2 retorted. “So there must be a part of you that believes it could be.” Discord threw up his hands. “The hopeless part! The part that is foolish enough to believe in dreams and all that other impossible hooey!”   “Have you forgotten who we are? We are chaos! We literally are capable of doing the impossible!” “There are some things even chaos isn’t capable of conquering!” Discord spat. “And being in a successful endless relationship with Fluttershy is one of them!” “You can’t know that!” “And you can?!” Before the copy could respond a sealed scroll magically poofed into existence between them. Discord unfurled it with a little more force than necessary, ripping it in half. Angrily shoving the stupid piece of parchment back together, he read the summons and crumbled it into a ball, tossing it over his shoulder. It disappeared through a small portal to a local dump. “Sorry, Cordy Two, but I’m going to have to cut this incredibly distressing conversation short. Don’t be here when I get back.” “I wouldn’t have anything new to say anyway!”  Discord snapped his fingers and a hole appeared beneath him. Cordy Two frowned.  “Another forced exit? My you are getting predicta-” Discord forced him through the hole, cutting him off.  “Me? Predictable?!” He closed the void. "How utterly absurd!” Snapping his fingers, he teleported to the palace in Canterlot, silently hoping the task Celestia had for him would be chaotic enough to distract him from a certain pink and yellow pegasus.