Previously, on Battlestar Galactica.......
“T-t-t-the spell! I messed up somehow! A-a-an now he's going to break out!” Twilight was nearly in tears, from fear or self-loathing I was unsure.
Celestia and Luna both struck battle stances, and Celestia extended a wing protectively over the smaller unicorn. Luna looked at me as I slowly approached the group, my back to the statue.
“When! Uncle, how long until the beast breaks free?!” she demanded in a slightly panicked tone, her horn aglow with defensive and offensive magic.
I stopped and thought for a moment, rubbing my chin.
“Right abooooooout..........now.”
The stone exploded.
Turns out, underground bunkers aren't actually that well ventilated. Surprising, I know.
By the time the dust in the air finally cleared, the place where Discord's statue had been was only empty air, with a small pile of rubble being the only indication that something had ever stood there at all.
“Heheheheh...”
Discord's menacing laugh emanated from every direction. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the cliché. It just seemed like it was gonna be one of those days. The other ponies in the room, however, did not react as well as I.
The Elements of Harmony all collectively screamed in terror and collided in a group-fear-hug*. Celestia and Luna stood back to back so as not to be surprised. Powerful magic flowed in and around their horns, but their hardened exteriors were betrayed by the obvious fear in their eyes.
“Yes, yes. Congratulations,” I said condescendingly as I slowly clapped, “You spooked a half dozen adolescent ponies and my nieces. Well done.”
A grunt of annoyance echoed throughout the room and I head a pair of mismatched feet softly land behind me. I grinned.
Gotcha.
Discord stood with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. His eyes were furrowed just enough to show the contempt with which he held me. To say that Hell-creatures hate Angels is comparable to saying that the intense, raging storms of superheated plasma that roll across the surface of the universe's hottest stars are a bit warm.
The feeling is most decidedly mutual.
“You should treat your elders with more respect. Honestly, didn't your Daddy ever teach you that?”
I shrugged. “Yes, but he also taught me to hold nothing but contempt in my heart for creatures such as yourself.” Discord looked disappointed.
“Well that was a bit of a let-down. I expected a better one-liner from the Angel of Sarcasm himself.”
Instead of replying, I began a slow, casual pace towards Discord. My right hand found Nameless, and Discord's eyes bulged for a moment before he forced himself to return to an aura of dismissive arrogance.
“Sorry, D, but I'm afraid this isn't really a social call. More like tidying up. The Big Show's coming soon, and it was decided we should clean up any strays before the curtain opens.”
Discord laughed insanely and wagged a claw at me. “Oh, I know the Big Show's about to happen. But I know something you don't know!” I raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Really? Is that so? That's so weird, because here I was thinking you'd been busy this whole time. What, with being a slab of granite, and all.”
All amusement drained out of the draconequus's face, and he scowled at me. With jerky, unpredictable movements, he slithered close to me, stopping just inches from my face. He stood almost a foot taller than me when standing, so I was forced to look up.
“I'd advise you keep that attitude in check, Child. We were here long before you and your precious Father decided to come in and clean up the town. We have powers and wisdom you could never even hope to comprehend.”
In a flash, Nameless' tip was pressed into the underside of his throat. I applied a tiny bit of pressure and a trickle of blood flowed across her edge.
“Of the two of us, I'd say you should be the one watching what you say.” I applied a bit more pressure, and the blood flow increased. Discord didn't so much as flinch. “Your Kind may be older, but I've slain more of your Kin than there are stars in the sky. I could draw every drop of blood in that disgusting abomination you call a body, and it would be less than a drop in the ocean of what my blade has carved from Hell.”
Any and all pretense was gone. No more humor remained in either Discord or myself, and for several tense moments our eyes were locked. His were filled with unbridled hatred, and I'm sure mine looked much the same.
The ponies were frozen solid, shocked to see any being brave enough, or crazy enough, go toe-to-toe with the God of Chaos himself. My nieces braced themselves for what they knew would come next.
At the exact same moment, we snapped into action.
I thrust Nameless upwards and Discord rolled his upper body away from me. In the same motion, he whipped his tail around and slammed it against my breastplate.
Hard.
I grunted, but used my free left hand to grab the draconequus's appendage and hurl him against the wall farthest away from the watching equines. Without pausing, Discord dug his claws into the floor and tore a hole in the fabric of reality. As he dived in, I took a quick backwards step. Discord's unholy claws sliced through the air inches in front of my nose, only for the entire arm to be cleanly sliced in half by a downward strike from Nameless.
A howl of pain came from across the room, and I turned to see Discord rubbing the same arm I had cut off, it having regrown almost immediately. Discord narrowed his eyes and raised his non-aching hand. With a snap of his fingers, a dozen sharp diamond skewers came into existence around me. As they converged on me, each aimed at my head, I feathered out and reappeared behind Discord.
I grabbed the back of the beast's neck and pivoted into the air, at the same time using my momentum to pull Discord's face into my knee. His face met my gilded knee with a sickening crunch. The Elements cringed, and even my nieces couldn't help but wince at the sound of bone disintegrating. Any normal creature would have been reduced to sobbing from the agony, if not knocked unconscious outright.
But Hell-beasts are not normal creatures.
The sound that came from Discord was a moan of absolute ecstasy.
Instead of finding the feeling uncomfortable, Demons, Draconequus, and other Hell-beasts find pain orgasmic.
Discord's moan faded as he rolled off of my knee. His face wasn't pretty, but it wasn't as completely wrecked as it should have been. Before I could think to question it, Discord contorted his body and slithered behind me. I only managed to spin around halfway before a hoof slammed into my side. A jolt of pain went up my side as I was flung across the confined space. A moment before I would have hit the wall, I flared my wings and stopped in midair. I gracefully dropped the few inches to the floor and tucked my wings back in.
Something was wrong.
Discord was an unusually powerful Draconequus, that much I had known already. But to make a High Angel feel pain? A Seraph sure, but me? Short of the Archangels, I was one of the most powerful surviving Angels in all of Creation.
Something was very, very wrong.
*The 3rd best kind of hug
To any Galactica fans reading, who's voice did YOU hear reading the intro line?