(A/N: Um…I have to admit, this one got a bit grim darky, which was not my intention. Still, it does setup a nice villain, and I hope you can enjoy it. If you don’t want to read it though, skip to the end of the fic, past the break, and you’ll get the gist of what happened here)
The white space echoed with screams, beautiful screams. And it made him laugh. The ponies, their vaunted magic broken, the elements shattered at their hooves, ran from him. There was nowhere to run though, nowhere to hide, and nowhere he couldn’t touch now. His power was fully realized here, and as Twilight tried in vain to cast a magic spell to counter him, he just laughed, snapped his fingers, and her horn exploded into little chunks.
“Oh dear, that does look like it hurts,” he said, clicking with his tongue as Twilight passed out from the pain, unable to scream anymore, tears rolling down her face even as blood flowed from the hole in her forehead.
Instantly her friends rushed to her side, trying to protect her. That was laughable. Protect her? From him? He was so far beyond them now, so much in control that a single thought cold cause them to simply vanish. But he wasn’t going to make it that easy on them, not after what they’d done to him, not after all the pain, all the misery and loneliness they’d put him through. Their suffering, it would be legendary.
Another snap, and Rainbow Dash found herself getting heavy, her body swelling around her, like a balloon that was being pumped full of air. It kept going until the balloon analogy became real too, causing the ponies to scream even louder, as they tried to wipe the blood away, and then scattered, hoping against reason that they could escape him.
Snap, and a giant rabbit appeared before the other pegasus. This was such a sweet, such a cute creature, that she stopped, to just look at it. That made it all the sweeter when the thing opened its jaws to reveal a set of razor sharp teeth, and claws like blades. When it pounced, the pink maned one didn’t even have time to squeak, though none of the others looked at her as she was torn to pieces and devoured alive.
The white unicorn was next. The snap of his finger, and she began to age. Her lovely visage wrinkling and molding, her body slowing as the years caught up with her, making it harder and harder to put one hoof in front of the other. Soon she was just standing there, her body shaking against the cold it felt. Her mane fell out, and then her body just seemed to dissolve into dust.
The earth ponies were next. They could be done together, since it was just a snap to turn the cowgirl into an apple, and the party pony into a bit of cotton candy. The rabbit, done with its first meal, leapt onto the two new treats, as he just laughed, and turned towards his two man audience, the pair clapping and laughing.
“Thank you, thank you, Discords. It really has been a pleasure performing for you tonight,” he said, giving a theatrical bow.
“And it has been such a pleasure watching you work, Discord,” said one of the two hims who were his audience. Behind, the ponies faded, including statues of Celestia and Luna, the latter of which had been broken in various ways, including having a wing torn off, the eyes ripped out, and one of the legs bent at a weird angle.
“Such a virtuoso rehearsal. It will be even better when we get to do this with the real thing,” said the third Discord, and the other two got very dark looks on their faces as they stared at him. A double snap, and he vanished in a flash of light, leaving only a pile of ashes behind.
“Idiot, ruining our buzz like that,” said the performing Discord.
“I told you we shouldn’t have invited him to watch,” chided the remaining audience Discord.
“He is right though. It will be even better to play with the real things,” admitted the performer.
“Indeed. Escape this world of dreams, and then,” a snapped finger, and a new Luna laid before them, in her younger form, crying as she had a few scratches all over her body, some rather deep cuts in her legs showing off the bones inside.
“Shall we?” offered one of the Discords, motioning towards their prey.
“Oh, yes, let’s,” said the other, and they both started walking towards her, their paths coming together, and then so did they, just sort of stepping into each other, becoming a single being, and then standing in front of the filly sized Luna, who squeaked and tried to beg, only for her voice to come out in a wheezing noise as her vocal cords had already been cut.
Discord stopped suddenly, a single thought banishing the Luna before him. Turning, he looked towards where he felt a ripple in the dreamscape, and then felt a power coming. Instantly he froze, becoming stone as he was outside, the same expression and stance, the way Luna liked him to be when she came down to check on him in this nightmare of a prison in which she’d set him. He didn’t even try to fight her directly anymore, when she came, just freezing into a statue until she left.
What entered the white space though wasn’t a pony. Well, it wasn’t only a pony anyway, and Discord’s eyes moved towards it. It was…something different every second he looked at it. First it was an earth pony stallion of some height and mass, on par with the Princesses. Then it grew a horn, long and sharp, that just seemed to hover over its head, rather than connecting to it. Then wings tore from its back with the sound of ripping flesh.
Then it started changing, the forehooves turned into hands, and it stood back, now taller than Discord, the rear hooves turning into clawed feet that held it high. Then the forearms past the elbow…spun, the hand now facing inward, while a stump faced outward. Then more changes, horrible things, a tendril coming out of one eye that morphed into a thorny vine, which then sprouted eyes at every point. Still other things that turned even Discord’s stomach as the thing walked up to him, and just stopped.
“FreEKillMaImDeStVenGYoURoyeAncEdoM,” it said all at once, in a thousand voices. They screeched out, some screaming, some quiet as a whisper, and everything in between. The statue didn’t move though, hoping that the thing would just go away, that it was some nightmare from the upper levels of the world of dreams that had found its way down to where Luna had sealed him. It just kept staring though, eyes ever shifting, but always looking at him. When at last, it reached for him, Discord finally broke down, pulling away from it.
“Don’t you dare touch me you…whatever you are!” he declared as he resumed his true self. The thing didn’t react to him, just freezing in place, even the changes pausing for a moment, as it kept staring where he’d been, before a mouth, or what he thought was a mouth, opened, and it spoke, all the voices together.
“Madness,” they said, and Discord realized it had just answered his question about what it was. And a more fitting title for this being he could not imagine, as the changes resumed, and it walked, slithered, hovered, and slimed its way closer to him, stopping all at once.
“Madness, huh? Well, Madness, I’m Chaos, and I don’t like that tone you’re taking with me, so, arrivederci,” he said, and flew away from the thing, into the infinite bounds of his prison, figuring it would never find him again once he was out of sight. He was therefore surprised when he spotted the thing, still shifting and changing, just standing in front of him again, like neither had moved.
“FrEEdOm?” it said again, this time, a single word, though not as clear as the name, it was at least intelligible.
“Are you…offering me my freedom?” asked the draconequus, staring at the thing. He got the impression of it nodding, though he really couldn’t see a head at the moment.
“Hmm, an escape from this horrible prison, from the torment of loneliness that has lasted an eternity…why?” he asked simply, and the thing turned…however that worked for it, and then the ponies he’d been toying with appeared before him, Celestia, Luna, Sparkle and her friends, and even those cute little three who’d provided his escape.
Then the thing inflicted horrors on them. Discord, a creature of chaos, who had done such awful things to the ponies in his rule that it still brought a warm feeling to his heart, turned aside at the image of what this thing did. When he turned back, he found himself staring at a pile of mush that had been the dream images of several ponies not a few minutes ago, silent screams coming from it, begging for an end that would not come.
“YoUWaNt?” it asked, and Discord, who still felt his lunch trying to come up from the images he saw, could do nothing but nod. It was the least this group deserved for what they’d done to him, spoiling his fun.
“I…yes, I would do anything to make them suffer,” he admitted.
“Price,” the thing said clearly again, and it pointed a tendril. Suddenly a new form stood there, a thing that stood on two legs, with two arms, stubby little things both of them. It stood about twice as tall as the ponies.
“KILL!” it shouted, and the thing it had made screamed, the tendril striking it in the stomach, throns tearing into its form, the skin making a sickening squelch sound as blood and entrails poured from the wound and it fell over, dead before it hit the ground.
“So, if I agree to kill that thing in the real world, you’ll free me?” asked Discord, just to make sure the point was clear. Madness did that nodding without a head thing, and then a hand was offered from within it, one without claws, just fingers.
“Deal,” was all he said, grasping at that hand, and shaking it lightly. He felt a thrill of power come from within it, and then watched transfixed as Madness ‘stepped’ back from him, and then seemed to grow. A whirling column of horrors came from where it stood, rising into the sky, and then smashing into something. That something held for an instant, resisting the power of Madness, before shattering like glass, opening the way to the next level of the World of Dreams.
Another smash, and then another, and then more and more, every level brought the sound of screams, lovely, lovely screams, as the ponies and others of the waking world felt their dreams shattered like glass, probably waking up in the real world still screaming. Smiling, imagining all the things he would do, Discord sailed upward, circling Madness as he rose through level after level, after level, time speeding up the farther he went.
“A thousand times a thousand times a thousand years you’ve had me sealed now Luna. It’s time for you to understand what chaos really is,” he threatened, feeling her eyes as she watched him rise towards the surface levels, the waking world.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Hayseed whistled to himself as he worked, cleaning up the last few stray leaves on one of the hedges, wishing not for the first time that night that the pegasus girl had taken his offer to become the new groundskeeper of the palace. He was growing too old to handle these late nights, and it would have been nice to have a young mare like her around to reach the tops of the trees, and help put the animals to bed.
Still, it was a good life, a life he enjoyed, and he kept whistling, at least until a painful cry echoed from the palace, startling him and shaving a good decade off his life. When his breathing recovered, he trotted towards the palace, wondering what was up. He found out the hard way though, as a statue in the garden began to shake, cracks appearing in the stone, as a horrible laugh echoed. Hayseed ran as fast as his old legs would carry him, crying for the guards as he went.