//------------------------------//
// Chapter Seven 
// Story: A Method in this Madness 
// by Xeroed_In 
//------------------------------//

Chapter VII:
Somepony screamed.

Then another.

Then another and another and another until the entire crowd was in panic and ponies began running in all directions in a frenzy of color. Some ponies tripped and were almost trampled underhoof by the rest of the crowd. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were near the front, and so avoided all of this, but were still shell-shocked at the unexpected events of tonight. Mouths agape, their tiny minds struggled to comprehend what had just transgressed in front of them. 

Sweetie Belle was the first to realise and so began to hiccup quietly as the soft salty tears set in. Scootaloo next, but her only her Adams apple bobbed up and down as she tried to voice her words. Apple Bloom just stared as the swirling mob of ponies around her as they raced every which-way in panic, their hooves pounding a rat-tat-tat on the pavement. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, and the growling chorus only redoubled the panicked crowds efforts to seek shelter in any abode nearest to them. But to no avail, because a magical pulse from the sky slammed every door, every window, every escape shut. Hideous and maniacal laughter floated from the same portal from which Celestia had emerged from only moments before, laughter that held an edge like a ragged and biting wire. 
"SILENCE!" boomed a whisping and sinister voice.
Everypony stopped.

Another form slipped down from the cloud portal, undulating like a snake as it came towards the stunned crowd, insane laughter roiling off the form in waves. The crowd shifted backwards from the still grieving Princess Luna to make room for the newcomer, and Discord let loose a malevolent giggle as he stepped onto the pavement.
"Well," he chuckled, waving the remains of Celestia's torn off tail without care, "seems I couldn't trust her as far as I could throw her."

He stepped through the abscess made by the parted and fearstruck crowd, looking left and right and tut-tutting at every odd pony. Apple Bloom quivered in fear as he stepped past, drew back against the wall of legs around her as his mismatched ones, one a scaly reptilian claw and the other a shaggy cloven hoof, clacked down inches barely a meter from her nose. She couldn't shut her eyes as his bearded and draconic head swung above her. She felt something warm trickle down her hind legs and instantly knew that she had soiled herself. 

Last time Discord had arrived in Equestria, he had only caused minor chaos with no malevolent intent, only returned to play with everyponies sense of reality, but this time something was different. He exuded an air of danger this time, of a vicious side ready to snap at the slightest moment. 
Reflected in his mad red eyes, hiding in the edge of his toothy grin, was a sense of....ruthlessness.

Princess Luna looked up with red-rimmed eyes as Discord drew closer, absent-mindedly tossing the rainbow remains of Celestia's tail off to the side.
"You...you did this..." she whispered. "You killed her..."
"Mmmm?" Discord asked, "and what if I did?"
"I'll kill you, you bastard!" Luna leapt to her feet and charged past the ranks of wide-eyed ponies, charging with her head down and magic gathering into her horn in a pulsating pitch-blue aura.
"I'LL KILL YOU!!!"

Discord crouched down, a manic grin on his face, as Luna drew closer and closer and closer, and then her head dipped and the magic fired in a bolt that streamed past his face, then his hand reached out and grasped Luna by the neck, and she couldn't stop, couldn't turn, couldn't escape and then....
KRAK.

The sickening crunch of breaking vertebrae reverberated throughout the streets, seeming to float further than it actually did, Luna shuddered once, eyes still open in shock. Her mouth opened and closed in disbelief and then she went limp, still hanging from Discord's clawed hand by her broken neck. Somepony was sick, the stench of vomit intermingling with the animal smell of fear that permeated the crowd.

Discord chuckled and then laughed as he tossed Luna's limp body to the side like a discarded rag doll to land near the crowd like a piece of garbage, the loose spinal bones clacking together.
"When I say that I don't like getting blood on my hands, I mean it. Of course, there was no spilled blood in doing that."
Somepony whimpered, but Discord continued, ignoring the abject fear running through the crowd.
"Now listen up everypony. I come in peace. That's right, peace. I don't want any trouble, just to play a game. A game. This is a chasing game. You will run, and my minions will try to catch you. Simple?"

The shadows around Discord's feet began to swirl and with with each word, incandescent claws lashing out from the darkness, low growls and cat-like hisses accompanying them. There were creatures in the pitch, creatures that surely couldn't be of this world. 
"Now, now everypony, this is not a game of tag. Tag will kill you. This is a game where you run. So that's it, run.... while you still can."
"No, we won't!"

Silence.

Somepony in the crowd stepped to the fore, to gaze defiantly at the towering draconic figure of Discord. It was Brazen Heart, one of Ponyville's elderly.
"Excuse me?" said Discord, his hands clasped together, a queasy smile breaking across his features, showing glinting canines.
"I said no, you vile and deceitful creature. We ponies aren't going anywhere." said Brazen, puffing his chest out in pride to stand in rebellion in front of such terror.
"Oh...really?" Discord gestured and the clawing shadows around his feet harpooned forwards and fell upon Brazen Heart, who began to wail as all too real claws latched onto his wrinkled old flesh. Blood spurted and he screamed as the shadows dragged him to the ground and swarmed over him like a flood of hungry ants. 

Apple Bloom couldn't take her eyes of the slowly squirming corpse as his screams began to be drowned out by loud crunching and chewing noises.
Discord swung back to face the crowd as the shadows began to take shape, seeming to climb out from the ground at his feet and begin to circle the terrified ponies like cats.
"I did say run, everypony..." Discord said, his sentence beginning to lapse into incoherent laughter as lightning once again illuminated the ensuing chaos. "EVERYPONY RUN!"