Prologue
In the beginning, before the sun and the moon, before the constellations and time, there was nothing. The emptiness we now know as space was a complete void, wallowing in its own darkness. But that would all change before too long, for a cosmic event that would soon bring about all things as we know it today was about to take place.
The birth of the Universe.
With a sudden outburst of heat and energy, the center of everything exploded in an exponential shock wave, burning through the emptiness, filling it with the stars and planets. Our story begins on one such planet, barely after its birth, when all who live there now were just beginning to evolve into their current forms.
All these beings who are alive today know that there is a balance that must be kept throughout the cosmos, a balance that, if shifted, could throw everything we know and love back into the void that was before time. The birthing of the universe began this honored tradition, bringing forth two of the universes most well-known balance keepers; Order and Chaos.
These two forces, the law-makers of all, decided to have a wager, whoever could tip the balance in their favor would win absolute control of everything. Order decided to do this by only gently nudging the patrons of the universe in its direction, while Chaos decided to try another path.
From the very core of its being, Chaos gave birth to another being, one who would go forth and work its powers of persuasion and bring glory to its name.
This being, was Discord.
And this is where our story begins,
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Chapter One
The being named Discord chuckled to himself as he flew towards his destination, a land called Equestria. This was the final stop on his list of places to shift on this planet. He had visited all other lands on this forsaken spit of earth, bring chaos and ruin to all. Beautiful chaos and disarray were abounding. Only one left and he could leave this rock and move on to the next planet.
He began humming as he lazily flew amongst the clouds, flitting here and there as he neared his destination. His “maker”, if indeed it could be called that, had informed him that there were actually intelligent beings there. These beings called themselves ponies. Quadrupedal creatures that had no arms, only four legs that they walked on, and a head that could be lowered to obtain their nutrients from the grass.
Discord smirked. He much preferred his own beautiful, haphazard form, which included a dragon-like head and tail, a feathered body, one elk horn, one antelope horn, two wings, one that of a bat, the other like a birds, and four legs; a lions paw, an eagles talon, a horses hoof, and a dragon leg. On top of that, he was able to stand upon his rear two legs and use his front two limbs like the hands of another race he had overthrown. They had been called humans.
Oh yes, they had not taken long at all to bring into chaos.
His whole body shivered with pleasure. This was just too easy, everywhere he went, nature itself rearranged into a more chaotic form. Clouds would become stones, the birds and animals would transform into grotesque forms. And the sky even fell away in some chunks, leaving the original void of the universe.
But enough reminiscing. He broke himself out of his thoughts and peered through a cloud that had become cotton-candy and looked at the ground below. To his delight, he saw that he had made it to Equestria.
“Well, well, would you look at that?” He said to himself as he manifested a pocket-watch whose hands were running in opposite directions and at strange intervals, jumping back and forth between the numbers at varying speeds. “Time sure flies when you’re having fun. Hahaha!” As if the watch had heard, it then grew wings and fluttered away. ”Let’s go have some fun!” Rubbing his front two appendages together, he took off, spiraling down through the skies at breakneck speeds towards the land of Equestria.
===
Princess Celestia sighed as she peered over the land of Equestria from her tower atop Canterlot. Lately she and her sister, Luna, had been arguing more and more. Luna felt as if all the ponies in the land didn’t appreciate the night that she gave to them. Of course Celestia had tried explaining that the ponies were merely sleeping and couldn’t appreciate it at the time, and that there were even some ponies that did indeed stay up in the night and slept through the day, but Luna was hearing none of it. And as each day passed, she felt like she was losing more and more of her sister.
She turned away from her window and began walking towards her sister’s room to let her know that she was going to lower the sun so she could take over, when something caught her eye. She turned and looked back out the window and noticed something falling, no, it wasn’t falling. It was flying. And it was flying straight towards the small village of Ponyville. Celestia cocked her head to one side and called her guards to her.
“Yes Princess?” One asked.
“Go and inform my sister that it is time for her to take control of the skies. And also inform her that as soon as she is done to join me in Ponyville. There is something that I must attend to.” She waved her hoof in the direction of the door. “Go now.”
The two guards bowed out of the room, to go and do as they were told, while Princess Celestia looked back out the window at the strange being that was flying towards her and her sister’s kingdom. She had to meet it head-on, be it friend or foe.
Spreading her wings wide, she leaped from the balcony into the darkening skies.
===
Discord was laughing almost maniacally now as he drew ever nearer to the small village below him. He could now see the individual ponies below him; most were heading into their small dwellings, no doubt turning in for the coming night. He didn’t mind, soon there would be no distinguishing night from day anyway.
Pulling his wings back to slow his descent, he alighted on a tree branch just outside of town, instantly turning the whole tree into a gelatinous mess that still supported his weight. He stood on his hind limbs, raising his forelegs in a dramatic gesture, such as a conductor would gather the attention of the musicians about to play in a symphony. But before he could do anything further, a bright white pony appeared before him, but this one was different. It had two wings, both were the same he noticed with a sneer, and it had a single horn in the middle of its forehead and it looked as if its rainbow-colored mane and tail were flowing from the body.
“Oh ho!” Discord cried out, lowering his arms and staring at this new pony. ”And just what manner of creature are you?”
Princess Celestia raised her head in a regal manner as she addressed the strange looking creature. It looked like something that had just been thrown together out of spare parts, nothing seemed to match. “I am Princess Celestia; one of two rulers of the land of Equestria and the most powerful alicorn in existence. Who, or what, pray tell, are you?”
Discord grinned and popped a hat out of thin air, doffing it in a mocking bow to the Princess. “Oh, forgive me your Highness,” He tossed the hat to the ground where it dissolved into a swarm of flies. “Allow me formally introduce myself.” He threw his arms out once again, causing his name to appear in fire above his head. “My name is Discord. And I am the bringer of chaos, mayhem, and just about anything unpleasant you can think of.” He pointed a claw at the white alicorn. “But most importantly, I’m the one who will be ruling here in just a little while. But don’t worry; maybe I’ll keep you on as a pet.”
Celestia recoiled in horror as he performed his magic with ease and told her who, and more importantly what, he was and what he was capable of doing.
She faced him full on with a fierce gaze in her eyes. ”You will be doing no such thing creature!”
There was no way that she was going to stand by and let her ponies become slaves or worse to this... thing! With the fire in her heart burning bright, she let loose a lightning bolt towards Discord.
Discord only yawned and flicked his wrist at the bolt, changing it into bubbles that floated away.
“Oh come now, is that the best that you can do?” He snapped his claws as a human would, and had ropes of darkness come into existence, binding Celestia’s wings to her sides and causing her to fall to the earth.
Landing heavily on her side, she heard a few of her wing bones snap, and she felt her breath leave her in a sudden ‘whoof!’
A laugh broke out of Discord as he gently descended next to the fallen Princess.
“Do you see now my dear?” He drew one claw down the length of her horn and continued down her jawline, causing her to shiver. “I was old before you were even thought of, and there’s no way that you could beat me with such puny magic.”
He snapped his claws again, tightening the ropes around the Princess and driving out what little air she had left in her lungs. ”And again, that means that this land will. Be. Mine!” With heavy emphasis on the last word he kicked her hard in her ribs, and Celestia was sure that she heard a couple of her ribs crack as the blow landed.
Discord knelt next to her so that he could whisper in her ear.
“But I am a sporting fellow, so I’ll give you and your ponies a fighting chance. Let’s see, today is,” He manifested a calendar that no normal being could make heads or tails of and looked at it. “Ok, so today is Monday. How about this? I’ll give you until Friday to try and stop me. How’s that? Four days to see if you can find that impossible, minuscule chance that you might beat me. Hmm? If you win, you keep your kingdom. But when I win, I take everything. Deal? If you agree just make a noise, any one will do.”
The only sound Celestia was able to make was a small groaning sound. It was all she could manage due to the pain.
Discord stood and clapped his hands together, banishing the bindings around her wings.
“Excellent! Oh, but to make things even more fun,” He waved his talon theatrically and a twisted hourglass appeared.
“The sand in the glass will fall for the four days, and that entire time, this land will slowly become more and more chaotic. Just as a little incentive you understand. I’ll send you back to your castle with a duplicate. Well then Princess, this has been delightful, meeting you and all, but you really should be hurrying with a solution to this terrible situation that you’ve found yourself mixed up in. See you Friday!”
A horrible laugh echoed from his throat and all throughout the land as he sent her crashing back into the stones in front of the palace gates of her castle along with the hourglass.
Immediately, the palace guards were yelling and rushing towards her, even her sister was coming towards her, a worried expression on her face.
But Celestia only had eyes for the glass, the sand slowly trickling down, counting the hours till the end of Equestria.