//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Discord's Game // by Background_Pony //------------------------------// Once upon a time, as most whimsy yarns start, there was a chaotic spirit named Discord. This draconaquus ran about the land, occasionally taking shape in the form of a pony and wreaking all sorts of havoc. Many were outraged and called upon the King and Queen, Queen Galaxia and King Universen. Galaxia was expectant with a filly, one who would control the sun and half of the stars. Discord laughed with glee when he found out Galaxia would have a precious foal soon, and be completely occupied with her. So he raced through the land, slipping into shadows at the royal palace and snickering every time one of their subjects would come in and ask them to take care of Discord already.  The draconaquus began to mess with the rulers, trying to get them to focus on that instead of his mischief he was making outside of Canterlot. When the palace workers would  come by and polish the stained glass windows until they shone like diamonds in the sunlight, he would take a handful of sand from the jousting field outside of the castle and smear it all over the elaborate glass. When they would recieve letters from Dusk Shimmer, a holder of an element of harmony, he'd snatch the letter from the viridian burst of flame that accompanied it and burn it again with a blast of glittery maroon fire, never to be seen again.   The monarchs slowly began to notice his mischeif. They thought it was some party trick, or a prank by a snarky maid. But as time bore on, they began to get suspicious. Now, the Queen and King weren't completely naive to the trickster named Discord, but they didn't know he had done all of this.  In the blazing months of June on a groggy Friday, Galaxia had her first foal. She had a coat like fine alabaster and a mane as soft as a peach. Her name was Celestia.  The chaotic spirit tried his very hardest to corrupt the alicorn filly, but she was loved and adored by all. This small filly was studious and kind to everypony, whether they were polite to her or not. She had many interests but she loved nothing more than to watch her mother raise the sun every morning and assist her father every night in raising the stars, rapt in awe.  Three years later, Galaxia was pregnate with another filly, who would raise the moon and help raise the stars when her mother and father passed. Celestia was thrilled to be an older sister, studdying tirelessly on sleep spells and spells that made lullabies with glasses of water and a bell. After months of anxious waiting, the second filly with a mane like spun silk came on a frigid December twenty-first. Her coat was like the rich midnight color of her father's, only lighter. Her name was Luna, and she was quieter than her sister. Discord cackled and snorted and guffawed at the filly, hissing false promises of what she could do if she joined him. "Celestia will be a thing of the past," he murmured, swooping close to Luna. "We will rule the land and everypony out there will bow to us." She resisted the whispers for a couple of months, but soon succumbed to his lies.  "Alright Luna," he laughed manically while looping excitedly through the air. "at the snap of my fingers, you'll become Moonlight Nightsky, the ruler of Equestria and the queen beside me!" In a hushed tone he added, "and become a pony who's mind is woven with chaos and thick with malice. AKA, Nightmare Moon." The filly nodded and placed her crown in the circle that was etched in the sand.  "One, two, and-" The last thing Luna remembered was a stinging whirlwind of malicious, malevolent thoughts tearing through her head. All the strength melted out of her hooves and everything went black. She lay unconcious on the courtyard ground for quite a while, Discord twiddling his thumbs patiently. An hour later she woke up, gasping for breath in ragged, broken heaves. She tried her hardest to get up, but there wasn't any strength left in her body at all.  Two strong arms lifted her up, but she promptly crumpled to her knees and continued to wheeze. Discord sighed and snapped his talons, a tall champagne glass of water levitating next to him. He plucked the glass out of the air and pushed it in front of Nightmare Moon's muzzle.  She gulped down the water, and quickly relaxed as Discord tossed the empty champagne glass over his shoulder, a sharp explosion soon following it.  "Nightmare Moon," Discord crooned, running the thumb of his lion paw along the dark alicorn's jawline, "just as regally vicious as I expected. Could you perhaps raise the moon?" "Certainly," she sighed, her horn glowing a pulsing cerulean and emenating a constant silvery hum. "easy as metaphorical pie." "Oh and one more thing," he called, bouncing a fuschia cloud like a basketball and then throwing it into a hoop that appeared above him. "don't lower it." Nightmare Moon nodded and haughtily beat her wings before jetting into the palace. When she got there, her sister was waiting angrily with the ponies who held the elements of harmony beside her. You all know what happened next.  One thousand years passed by, no matter how slowly they went. Luna was pulled from Discord's grasp and returned to the throne.  When she got to Canterlot Castle, her mother nor father was standing there with open arms and teary eyes. There was no happy 'welcome home'. Only a drowsy sepia family picture with droplets of water peppering the front. Luna's voice cracked multiple times when she asked her sister where her parents were. She almost didn't want to hear the answer.  "Luna, mom and dad were killed by Discord," Celestia sighed in a soft voice, eyes moist and sympathetic. The young princess sobbed and ran to her room, and threw herself onto her bed. She didn't know how long she lay there, sniffling and hiccuping into her goose-down pillow.  "It was an accident, you know." A far-too-familiar voice cut its way through the melancholy silence of Luna's room. The midnight alicorn pull her head out from under her pillow and sniffed at the draconaquus that was perched on her windowsill, one leg dangling outside. Discord was dangerously close to falling, but she didn't care. How could she feel any compassion towards her parents' assassin? "I really didn't mean to kill them," the chimera sighed, scratching behind his ear and flicking his tail in embarrasment. "I was just making a few clouds into chocolate raining cotton candy ones when this wild pink and blue pegasus rams into me and starts shouting about 'Praise Galaxia' and I go flying into your parents' throne room. My dumb horns stab them and they're dead in a second." Luna glared at Discord; although he sounded sincere and truthful, she still didn't trust him. "I guess what I'm trying to say is," the draconaquus gulped and slicked back the hairs on the top of his head. "I'm sorry, Luna." The blue mare gritted her teeth and turned her back to Discord. "We hear thou's apology and fully acknowledge it, but thou's apology isn't accepted by us. Twas a terrible lie thou hasth made." "Nice accent." Luna blushed a ripe crimson and hurled her pillow at Discord with her magic.  "We art using the traditional Canterlottish tongue," she hissed. "now get out before I call the withholders of the elements." "You need to catch up, Luna." The princess plugged her ears. "The wi...elements ha... died... the... placed by... Sparkle... Dash... Appleja... Inkie Pi... Rari... Shy." Half of what Discord said was drowned out from the alicorn mare plugging her ears.  "Leave, Discord. We doth not have business with a cur like thee." Luna snarled, casting a flesh-to-stone spell. He shrieked and landed with a loud clunk in the royal garden.  Everypony who has a lick of knowledge knows of when Discord broke out the first time, but there are very few who survived to tell the story of the second time. When Discord broke out the second time, he made sure to stay unseen and unnoticed. He slunk into the palace and to Celestia's room. She was peacefully asleep, lightly snoring on a wide bed with a quilt wrapped snugly around her. The corners of her mouth twitched in a smile and her nose crinkled in a way that made Discord almost crumple up in a tiny ball and barf glitter and rainbows. But he had to stay focused. He chuckled as he clicked his talons together, and Celestia's once marble skin was now rough concrete. She had the same serene expression on her face as she was hauled into the throne room and clunked next to the tall chair with ornate carvings on the back board. He chuckled and magicked a marker into his paw. With a steady claw, he scribbled a curly mustache onto the statue and sauntered off.  Luna put up more of a fight. By the time Discord could cast a flesh to stone spell, her bed sheets were wrapped around his horn and several of the curtains were torn to shreds and smoking from powerful blasts of magic. Her statue had a crushing leer to it, giving her ominous look a hawkish glare to it. Discord grinned snarkily as he dragged her statue off to the throne room, laughing all the way there. "Ready or not, Equestria," he growled, a glass of chocolate milk appearing in his talon. "here I come.