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// Deer To Be Discussed 
// Story: Discord's Very First Faithful Student 
// by Pokonic 
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"Long ago, there were three kinds of deer that inhabited the lands now known as Equestria! From the greenest forest to the highest peaks, they were one of the few to truly understand magic and the only creatures in the land to thrive as they did. While they all looked almost the same, they each had their own magical specialties; it is by that they divided themselves. Brown coats and white underbellies they all had, with just tints of their namesake color present in their coats that became darker as they aged. It was bec-"

Diamond thought to interrupt Discord's finely preformed narrative by raising a hoof and prodding at the hazy image of a deer that floated in front of her.

"What namesake color?" she said, cluelessly. "That doesn't even make any sense. Deer's aren't like ponies."

Discord, who was weaving illusions while sitting in a plush chair he had created for himself, hushed her.

"I haven't yet gotten there, my student." he said quietly, but with some amount of cheer, "This is not a short story, and while there will be no test for this I would think it would all interest you. So, no talkies."

Diamond rolled her eyes, but took her hoof away from the floating deer. Discord had been making illusions in the air as he was going on with the story, and so far the three distinct ones he was conjuring up all seemed relatively lifelike. She had seen a deer before, and the one Discord had made looked a lot like the one she had seen; slim and graceful, with a moderate sized horn-rack topping it's head. The main difference, Diamond noticed, was a little band on it's head that had a small green gem in the middle of it, and that it's eyes actually looked thoughtful, rather then cow-like and placid. 

It was really pretty, anyhow.

"Now, the deer had three herds, and the White-Tailed were the most common of the three. They lived from one sea to the other, and they lived in almost every forest in the land. They were the wisest in the ways of nature, and it is they who built villages among the trees. It was they who believed it was their right to control all they could, as they looked at nature and believed that they could do better. They were the ones to break in all the animals in Equestria, the ones who had weak wills and weaker minds, to command them all the better."

Discord threw his arms up, and a bunch of leaves came out of nowhere and flew up in the air. Diamond had long learned to not especially care about the stuff that Discord conjured up, but she was on guard for anything that might have landed in her hair. She was moderately pleased when she saw that the leaves dissipated upon hitting a solid surface, of course.

"They shaped the land and broke the skies, allowing the greatest among them to control how it rained and how the winds blew. They directed the migrations of birds and they decided when new trees would grow. When they came to new places, the first thing on their minds was always to see how they could change it to be better than how nature shaped it. Every time they came to a place where the animals were wild they offered them to be ruled over by themselves, in exchange for comfort and control. When they came across those that ate meat that they could not control, like the great forest-cats, they simply teleported their prey away until they wandered off."

Discord's magic quickly changed the library into something that wasn't the library; Diamond knew that she was still in a tree, but the one she was in now was covered in vines and looked far older than the one the library was built inside. The walls had hanging crystals all over them and standing just a few feet away was what Diamond could only assume was a deer, one who paid no attention to her sitting in the middle of the room. 

The deer looked like it was molding the very tree itself, by the way it was making the wall in front of it shimmer, like a pool of water. Diamond could feel the humidity around her change, and it was like being dunked in a pool; she didn't like how lifelike Discord's illusions could be, if they were illusions. With Discord being who he was, it was annoyingly hard to tell sometimes; the little birds that adorned each prong of the deer's antlers all looked real enough, along with the deer itself. The deer had green-gold markings all along her face and shoulders, and paid no attention to Diamond; her strange, delicate face just had a expression of mild annoyance on it, like bending nature to her will was a perfectly casual thing that didn't require and extra work out of her.

After a few moments, the library returned to normal, and Diamond exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"The middling herd deer were the Red-Tailed, and they lived in the great plains of tall grass, and they built their domains out of stone and earth."

Discord swept a hand over the cleared space in front of him, and a small model of a city appeared before Diamond's eyes. It mostly consisted of stone towers, Diamond noted, each looking like it was made from the earth itself. The biggest towers looked like they were made of solid granite, stacked in layers, while the smallest stumpy two-story dwellings looked like they were made of mud. But, the tops of every building were covered in green grass, with some even having small trees or bushes on them.

It kinda looked like what Canterlot might have been if it was built by Earth Ponies who never figured out what metal was, which was a really weird metaphor that Diamond would have never even considered using until about four days ago, which really distressed her on a primal level.

"Now," Discord said lightly, making a small dismissive motion with his left hand, making the whole scene vanish, "the Red-Tailed thought that it was their right to conquer others. When the White-Tailed found that words were best, the Red-Tailed thought that swords and spears were the best way to get points across. They had great control over their body, and could run for a hundred miles and jump so high in the air they could touch the clouds. They were the ones to break the wills of the goats and sheep in Equestria, the ones to drive the antelopes out of their homelands, and the ones to drive the bears and wolves of heartland into the forests and caves, away from sight. They offended their delicate tastes, you must understand."

Diamond was about to ask what a antelope was, until Discord made another full-room illusion.

Apparently, they looked like deer, sort of. It looked a little taller then a pony, somewhere in the middle between a big stallion and a normal sized mare, and while it was slender it's horns were shorter and more solid-looking then the big deer standing next to it. Both figures looked roughly the same, with the antelope having a maroon coat with a white underbelly, while the deer was overall more of a light brown with red highlights around his undercarriage. The deer was slightly taller than the antelope, but the antelope looked leaner and more wiry then the deer.

The antelope, though, had a small iron collar around it's neck, which was connected to a leash. The small, almost invisible iron chain that led from somewhere at the base of the antelope's beshackled neck was connected to a equally small, iron tip of one of the many individual horn-tips that graced the deer's head.

The stag looked pleased, and the antelope looked miserable. Diamond felt vaguely sick. Deer were supposed to be nice.

Discord looked pleased, but when he noticed that Diamond was frowning he quickly dismissed the illusion and went on with his exposition.

"Finally, the Black-Tailed deer were the quietest and shiest of all the deer herds. Unlike the White-Tails and the Red-Tails, they never enjoyed singing, or dance, or poetry. They all enjoyed being as far away from the other herds as possible, preferring they lived in the deepest forests and caves. Their magic was powerful when it came to obstruction; they could manipulate others minds like the Red-Tails manipulated their own body." 

"They conjured shadows around themselves and did their best to avoid contact with others that were not of their kind, and they took great pains to isolate themselves. They believed it was their right to live lives without interruption by such things like visitors, and whenever they were found by even the smallest insect, they redirected the intruder away from their lands. Living alone, they found that their tastes became less and less accepting of those that were not themselves, and they acted accordingly when other deer stumbled into their domains."

Discord waved his hand again, and something like a deer came into form. It wasn't much different then the White-Tail that he had made earlier, but this one had a dark brown coat and had horns that were more curled then either of the other two deer Discord had made, with inner prongs that almost made it look like it had a curly crown on it's head. It looked a little thin, too, like it hadn't had a good meal in days.

Discord then, after a few moments, clapped his hands, and quite suddenly the three figures he had made so far all came into existence, and they were bowing, Not at him, but at something that looked a bit like a deer, in the way that Celestia looked like a pony. It towered over the other deer, the big Red-Tailed barely at his shoulder, and it's coat was a light brown, fading to a creamy color as it's hair came up to it's large, graceful horns. In this respect, it resembled a mountain topped with snow, but it's legs were graceful and it's face was slim and finely formed.

"The Elk came!" Discord said, and he said that as if it was a punchline, "They traveled from across the sea, led by the greatest of their kind to rule a great kingdom! Twelve each found the capital of the three deer herds, and all displayed their might to each lord of the deer! The Elks worked their will on the White-Tails and proved that they had greater control over the natural forces than even the eldest among them! The twelve Elks sent to the Red-Tails proved their might in war, and a hundred of the Red-Tailed deer's greatest were felled by twelve Elk, and none of the invaders fell! The twelve who found the Black-Tailed reworked their magic's against them, preventing any in their beshadowed hall from being able to see until their nobles submitted to their superiority!"

Discord clapped again, and the cervids vanished.

"The Elks believed it was their right to show that they were better than everyone else. They allowed no other to contest this, and their ruler was a force unto himself! All the deer nations were dissolved as independents, and the three capitals of each were destroyed. The great Elk-King raised up a new, grand capital by his own power, moving mountain's and raising valleys as a new home for the Elks and all the nobles of the deer herds. The least among the Elks were treated as the equal as any king of the deer, and each of the thirty-six Elks who first visited the deer were given territories and power over the deer they themselves visited."

"The rest of the elk, who came in thirty-six groups of twenty-two-by-twelve, lived in their own mansions and towers in this great city, and in the center of it sat the throne of the Elk-King, resplendent in gold and other stranger, rarer things! No Elk spoke to a common deer, as only the lords of the conquered folk were considered worthy enough to shine their hooves and do work they did not wish to do."

Discord, in his theatrics, floated slightly out of the chair. Diamond paid this no mind, enraptured by the story.

"But the Elks offered great things in their rule! The White-Tailed were taught secret ways that the eldest among them only dreamed of in strange green-dreams! The Red-Tailed, wearing Elk-work, triumphed over and obliterated the wood bison, who was the only force who could stand before them! The Black-Tailed were shown wonders in the shadows, and learned to work new kinds of magic that has no bearing in the light! But above all the deer-lords, above even the highest mortal Elk, was the King!"

Discord threw up his hands, and suddenly the world became white and brown, white for the walls and brown for the ground. 

Diamond felt as if gravity was pushing her head down, and she certainty didn't feel like she was in a illusion, so she raised her head up high and got on all fours, confused and slightly scared.

But she didn't see Discord. She saw a deer, though, or, rather, an Elk. 

It was no normal Elk, though. It was twice as big as Celestia and had a torso so broad that a cow could stand on it's back and not touch either shoulderblade. It's coat was a dark, deep uniform brown, like tilled soil, and it's slim, powerful legs looked like they each had more muscle than a pony had in their entire body. It's head was sharply angular and wasn't curved around the edges like deer were; while it was far more foreword-facing it had none of the personality the rest of Discord's visions had, with a square chin and a stout, unwavering frame.

It's horns were massive and gilded, white bone and gold filigree merging together as they intertwined one another. The horns on the Elk's head looked simply too big for it to carry; the entire rack was as wide as a house and could probably carry five ponies each, and if the Elk could carry that huge mass of bone on it's head it was either made of tough stuff or it's horns worked differently then normal horns.

But it's eyes were the thing that scared Diamond the most. It was a scary creature; nothing should look so fake. It's legs were too long and it's head was too shaped, like it wasn't really made of flesh and bone and hair and it was just something that looked like a Elk.

It's eyes were two pure white pools. Not white like Canterlot marble or white like a pony's coat, but  white white. There was neither iris nor pupil, and no magic wavered around it's horns or head. It had eyes that were not blind, because like everything about it they were false. Whatever it was, it didn't use it's mouth to breath or use it's eyes to see, because it was operating on a entirely different level than everything else around it. If the Elk were like kings and queens to all the Deer, Diamond thought, then what was this to them?

Diamond was shaking when she noticed that the illusion had fully vanished, and Discord seemed none the wiser.

"After five thousand years of ruling a empire eternal, the Elk-King called on all the deer in the kingdom to gather in the capital, to participate in a ritual. This ritual, the Elk-King said, was to advance the kingdom beyond mortality and morality, and needed every single deer in the kingdom to complete."

Discord paused, like he did when he was about to complete a good joke, or await the payoff of a prank.

"This ritual was to attract my attention. He wanted my help to make every member of the kingdom happy and without care, because he wanted a place where only his rules existed."

Discord paused, again. His voice was serious now, lacking the cheer it normally had. He didn't even sound like he was going to break out into rhyme or anything.

"I did. And that's how the deer nations fell, because everyone became happy. They frolic in meadows now, and don't think about changing nature and war and secrecy for secrecy's sake. And, I think, the most important thing to remember about this, Diamond Tiara, was that nothing I just said was really important, because when the deer abandoned their villages and became content to graze on grass, nothing of value was lost."

Diamond blinked, very slowly. When she spoke, she spoke with the weight of a thousand questions in her mind, with the single one coming out of her mouth merely being the one most distressing to her. She still didn't feel that good about seeing that Elk-King or whatever it was.

"You are writing that report for me if you keep talking, right?"

Discord shrugged, sitting back in his chair.

"I said I would, didn't I?" he said, now sounding moderately concerned.

Diamond pursed her lips, and narrowed her eyes lightly.

"Good enough for me. Keep talking."