The cold was harsh on his fur, despite having a heavy cloak on. Discord thought Lightning Dust was hard to track down, but Chrysalis was on a whole other level. All he had to go on was rumors of a bug monster up in the mountains that were circulating around the Crystal Empire. He had no concrete sightings, no news reports about what happened after the wedding. These flimsy rumors were his only lead. He had no choice. He had to try the mountains. The wind blowing around the snow was not only blisteringly cold, but incredibly loud. The only thing louder than the wind was a giant roar coming from behind the draconequus disguised as a pony. Discord turned around to see an eight foot tall yeti towering above him. He considered changing back to his draconequus self, because then he’d be of equal size with the monster, height wise at least. But he decided against it.
No, he wanted this to be fun! He rarely got fun anymore....
He began by taking a steady stance and stared down the creature, almost taunting him with a look that said, “Try it. I dare you. I bucking dare you.” And he did.
The monster quickly lunged at Discord, but Discord was prepared. He kept himself low as he ran forward too, easily slipping under the creature’s legs. Before the yeti could turn around, Discord lifted his legs in the air and bucked the monster, just above its tail. The monster lost balance and fell forward. Noticing his chance, Discord came down with considerable force on the monster’s spine. The monster screamed out in pain, knocked Discord away, and stumbled back up.
The wind was blowing harder now, and it was hard for either contestant to see their opponent through the thick snow. The yeti lunged at Discord a second time, prepared for his maneuver this time. But the draconequus pony had something else planned. As the monster came closer, he realised that his head was at just the perfect height. When the monster was close enough, Discord bowed his head forward, and before the monster could strike, it felt Discord’s deer antler strike its groin. While still under the monster, Discord swiftly lifted his head, driving the deer antler further. Releasing the monster, it fell to its knees. writhing in pain. Discord flew up to its face for the final blow, but did not expect what happened next.
Neither did the yeti.
Instinctually, the yeti brought up its fist and struck Discord as hard as he could. Caught completely off his guard, the draconequus pony flew threw the air and hit his back on the cliff face behind him. He opened his eyes to see the yeti gathering himself. Discord grinned and spit out a tooth. “I like it when they fight back,” he said to himself. The yeti roared as loud as it could, in an attempt to scare Discord away. No way in Tartarus that was happening. Taking notice of the cliff face behind him, Discord figured out a way to finish off the monster for good.
When the monster collected itself, it prepared to lunge at Discord a third time. They never learn, do they? The draconequus pony thought to himself. It started running at Discord again. Okay, I have to time this perfectly, he thought. The yeti was getting closer and closer. Come on, that’s it. That’s it! NOW! Discord teleported away at the last possible second, and before the yeti had any time to understand what just happened, he ran head first into the cliff face at top speed.
Discord watched as the monster slid down the wall, unconscious, bleeding profusely from its head. When the monster didn’t get up, Discord relaxed his muscles, content in his victory. He brushed the dirt off his cloak and said, “You put up one hell of a fight.” He continued on his hike and left the monster to die.
*****
Just when Discord was starting to give up hope, his ears perked up to the faintest sound of fire crackling in the distance. He ran in the direction of the sound to find a small cave near the top of the mountain. Looking inside the opening, he saw the glow of fire shining light onto the face of a broken queen. Chrysalis noticed his presence. “Leave! Leave if you know what’s good for you!” she hissed.
She was obviously scared. Discord could sense that in her fear she was trying to avoid an attack by sounding as threatening as possible. It didn’t work on Discord. “I mean no harm. I come here peacefully, unarmed.” He removed his cloak to reveal his true self, his draconequus self.
“Oh,” she said, “I’ve heard of you. You’re, um...Dissonance? No...Discombobulated? Uh...Discord? Yeah, Discord.”
Discord took that as a sign that she isn’t as defensive now, and let himself inside. He finally got a close look at the queen. The feature that stood out the most was her mane. Or rather, her lack of one. Her web mane was almost completely gone, only a stub of it remained. Discord had no idea what had caused that, but he could tell that she was extremely beat up. She had one eye closed all the time. It must be a permanent injury from her defeat. She was dirty, and she stunk. Just like Lightning Dust. Perhaps the saddest thing of all was that she was shivering uncontrollably, desperately trying to get warm from the fire. “So what do you want?” she hissed.
Before answering her question, Discord sat down in front of the fire with his legs crossed and spawned a marshmallow on a metal poker and another for Chrysalis. Handing it to her, he said, “No sense in starting a fire if you’re not going to roast marshmallows.” She accepted the offering with an eyebrow raised, still waiting for the answer to her question.
After slowly turning his marshmallow, the draconequus obliged. “I’ve been planning. Bigger, stronger, more complicated than I’ve ever planned before.” He paused. “But I can’t do it alone. I decided I’d need help from the very characters who hate my targets more than anything in the world.” He paused again to inspect his marshmallow, before putting it back in the fire. “Of course you know a Twilight Sparkle, don’t you?”
Chrysalis’s eye widened. So THAT’s what this is about! She almost DIED because of that little twat. “Twilight Sparkle?” she asked. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of what kind of agonizing torture I can subject that little rat to for all the suffering I’ve had to endure.”
Those words were music to Discord’s ears. He pulled his marshmallow out of the fire to notice that it was a golden brown. Perfect. He then shoved the confectionary into his mouth, enjoying the gooeyness of the inside. It was perfection on his tongue. Chrysalis put her attention back to her marshmallow, which she had completely forgotten about. Consequently, it was on fire. She quickly blew it out, but all that did was blow the treat off the poker and into the fire. Discord laughed as the changeling had lost her treat.
“Yeah, laugh it up,” she said, a slight smile on her face. “But you can count me in. Just leave that little rat for me.” Boo yah! Discord thought to himself. Two down, four to go. Chrysalis interrupted his victorious thoughts, though. “I have one question, though.”
“Shoot,” he said.
“Weren’t you ‘reformed,’ or whatever?” she asked.
That was not a question Discord was prepared to answer. He had expected a slew of questions, like “Why are you a pony?”, “Why me?”, “How did you track me down?”, or even “What’s in it for me?”, but he didn’t expect that. After some thinking, he decided it was best to be honest.
“Well, I guess I should start from the beginning,” he began. “Being stone doesn’t mean I can’t hear everything Celestia says, so I had been hearing of her plans for a while. My first thought was to fake it. That would have been simple enough: put on an act, convince everyone I’m ‘good,’” he did air quotes around the word “good.” Good and evil are two very broad entities when in reality ponies and others weren’t one or the other, and it all depended on one’s point of view. “And when their guard is down, strike. My plan was dead pretty quickly, though, because Celestia let Twilight keep the Elements of Harmony in case I do anything funny. Boo. She’s no fun.
“So when the yellow pony, Fluttershy, was the one who volunteered to do the job, I thought up another plan: Trick her. Deceive her. Convince her to not use her element. That’s something I learned early on. Do whatever it takes to win, to get your way, and who cares about anybody else? But then Fluttershy showed something I didn’t expect: Compassion. She stood up for me when everyone else was on the attack. She seemed to legitimately care about me. She seemed like a real friend. So I decided that maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all. I decided to help out the stuck up princess, and I got treated to boring court meetings filled with a bunch of even more stuck up ponies who didn’t trust me, stupid legal documents, and a bunch of other torturous things.
“Every day, I’d hear tons of ponies tell me I was worthless, that I was a monster, that I was nothing but a crazed villain. And you know what? They’re right! Look at me. I’m not made out for parliament! I don’t know... My life has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs and successes and failures. I don’t even know what to do with it. But I do know that it’s not to serve a strict dictator who doesn’t understand anything unless it’s rigidly structured. I don’t need friendship. It’s worthless. Those ponies don’t need me and I don’t need them. Look out for yourself. Don’t try to care for anyone else because they sure as hell won’t care for you.”
“Come on,” Chrysalis said. “Nobody’s that heartless.”
Discord raised an eyebrow. “Really? Then you don’t know me very well.”
The wind outside picked up and a powerful gust found its way into the cave, blowing out the fire. Not long after, Chrysalis started shivering again. She just couldn’t get warm for the life of her. Discord couldn’t stand to look at that, so he did the only logical thing that came to mind. He took off his cloak and put it on her.
She looked up at Discord, surprised. “Why did you do that? You could have easily stayed warm yourself.”
“It’s no big deal.”
She just stared at him. After a while, she said, “I knew it. You’re not entirely selfish. There is a soft spot in you, after all.”
“What?” Discord asked.
“Admit it,” she said with a smirk.
“No.”
“Come on.”
“No!”
“Just admit it!”
“What’s the big deal? Nobody’s that heartless!” After he realized what he said, he gasped and put his hands to his mouth. Chrysalis only smirked at him.
“Don’t stress on it. It was a one-time thing,” Discord said.
“Sure,” she said, still smirking.