//------------------------------// // On the Trail of Scattered Recollections // Story: At the Twilight of Harmony // by Rammy //------------------------------// ?? days since the fall of Traxti City Unknown time, unknown location “Oww...” Discord grumbled as he awoke. His whole body ached. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he was most likely underground judging from the roughly hewn chamber his was in. The only source of light was a rapidly dying out torch on the far wall. Where exactly am I?  Hmmm… Odd… My magic reserves are curiously low.  Something warm and sticky dripped down over his eyes. In curiosity he put his clawed hand up to see that it was blood. This, plus his aching body, got him to examine himself. He could see that he had several deep cuts and bruises all over his body. A dull ache coming from his paw made him think that it was either sprained or broken. He must had been in a terrible fight, but he couldn’t remember.   Discord looked around to see that wherever he was had recently been the scene of something violent. He could see the shadows of overturned chairs, torn cloth, and smashed boxes and barrels. He must have passed out before he could escape from whatever Tartarus he got himself into. He snapped a flashlight to get a better view of the chambers as the torch was not providing enough light. He swept the beam of light across the destroyed room. He could see that there was a lot of what he really hoped was red paint splattered all over the place. He slowly crept to look over an overturned table and went green. He could see at least three mutilated, beyond recognition, bodies. As he moved the beam of his flashlight around he could count at least seven more bodies of which at least could be recognized. Looks like it he was in a diamond dog cave system judging by the fact that the bodies were diamond dogs.. What exactly happened here??! And for that matter how did I get here? He nearly screamed like a little girl when he saw a diamond dog hanging from a hook from the ceiling with his mouth cut wide open in a smile. Prior Event “Why so serious!?” Discord looked over at the now terrified diamond dog. The diamond dog in question whimpered. He would have lost his everything in his bowls if he hadn’t already when he saw what the draconequus did to three of his pack earlier. He scrambled to back up from the demented draconequus now sporting clown makeup and a green wig. “Let’s put a smile on your face.” Discord licked his lips and moving a strand of the green hair out of his eyes. Present Now I’m really going to be sick… Discord thought just before he threw up into a paper bag. He pulled out a spiral note book and wrote down. “Note to self: never speak of this to Fluttershy. Anyone.” Unfortunately, he still was not getting the answers he needed or, in the case of the previous, wanted. His magic was also not working correctly to enter the Plane of Harmony which he was sure would be less traumatizing for him to find out what happened. Less haphazardly too as he really needed to remember things in order otherwise he could miss something... He continued to wander the room using his claw to feel for residue magical energies. There was a lot of residual dark magic but he kept going as there had to be something he could discover other then the obvious. In the center of the room he finally found something of interest. To the uninitiated it was just a pile of stones but to Discord it looked to be indicative of Diamond dogs stone magic. However, the magic residual on the stones was off. He could tell that the stones were saturated with dark magic. Fresh too as the stone were still quite warm and yet ice cold. Discord shivered; he never really liked the feel of dark magic. The dark magic concerned him as it was atypical for a diamond dog. Not only that, it was an unfamiliar type of dark magic. He had encountered dark magic users from every race in his long life… except one. Prior Event “For your sakes this had better be good…” Discord could just make out the sounds of gruff and bony chilling sounding voice. A moment of yapping and barking from the diamond dogs sounded. It was clear that he was being shown to whomever the voice belong to. “You diminutive slobbery waste of flesh you let someone follow you!” “Only silly chimera. Not someone.” One of the diamond dogs countered. Discord opened his eyes just enough to see but not let them know he was conscious. His head was spinning from the knock to his head from earlier, but he could just make out the flicker of a  magically projected, dark silhouette. A draconic silhouette from what he could tell. The distortion and his spinning head was making a positive ID hard. “Idiots! That is no mere chimera! That is a draconequus and a KEEPER OF HARMONY!!” The diamond dogs stood there confused. One even scratched his head. Discord carefully shifted his arms and noticed that he was tied up and that his hands were shackled. From the slight numbness he surmised that the shackles were most likely of the magic suppressor type. Luckily, he could feel that his tail was merely tied up with rope like the rest of him. “Don’t just stand there drooling! KILL HIM!” The fight afterwards was a blur. Unfortunately for Discord, the magic suppressor cuffs had effected his magic and being attacked from all sides by over a dozen diamond dogs and from at least two dog mages made the fight a life or death struggle for him. By the time the last diamond dog was dead Discord had numerous deep cuts and a broken paw. “Impressive and that’s saying a lot coming from me.” The dragon clapped. Discord glared up at the dragon, a murderous glint in his eyes. “You’re… Next...” Discord gasped out, stumbling towards the figure. “Not likely Keeper…” The silhouette smirked as Discord lost consciousness. Present A dragon dark magic user that wasn’t the ‘Chaos Bringer’ was reason for extreme alarm. It was going to be hard enough to take the “Chaos Bringer’ down as it was. “I need to warn the others!” Discord exclaimed rushing out of the chamber and into a maze of tunnels. As soon as I find a way out of here… I just hope I’m not too late. Discord again attempted to enter the Plane of Harmony but failed “Damn it!” He couldn’t even leave a note yet either. This was beginning to annoy him. At least he could do basic stuff. After an hour Discord was even more lost than before. “I HATE MAZES!” In frustration he slammed a clawed fist against a wall. A rock dislodged from the ceiling and became an ear of corn when it hit his head. “I said maze not maize…” Discord rolled his eyes kicking the corn. I guess this is poetic justice for what I did to He of Hourglass’s Bearers... Prior Event Diamond Dogs? No way did Diamond Dogs that to Traxti City… at least not alone. Nevermind diamond dog magic cannot do what the dome did. There must be more… Mmmm I see hoof prints… but the gait indicates minotaurs not ponies or some other hooved creature… though it doesn’t leave out a chimera... Something doesn't add up the trail was masked so carefully before now. Several exclamations could explain this either they figure the panic would mask their retreat, they no longer care, or I’m walking into a trap. Discord noticed that the tracks went into a cave nearby. Taking a long hard look around he could see no sentries nearby. Discord was a bit surprised at that and really hoped that it meant he wasn’t walking into a trap… He snapped a necklace of glowsticks around his neck and cautiously stepped into the darkness of the cave. At the back of the cave was a poorly disguised tunnel. Discord carefully made his way in preparing for the ambush. When none came he kept going, hoping that he wouldn’t lose the trail in the darkness. Judging by the crudeness of the tunnels it was apparent that this was dug by a rouge pack and not part of the Diamond Confederation. Made sense to him given the dark magic quality of the green magic dome. Discord carefully and slyly marked the route he was going. He wanted to make sure he didn’t get lost as diamond dog tunnels were know to be deadly just for the fact that they were maze like. Of course, they were also deadly for another reason as it wasn’t uncommon for some tunnels to be booby trapped. Present “O perfect,” Discord sighed. “Now I finally remember a helpful memory that isn’t *hurk* gut wrenching…” Discord snapped a fastfood placemat kiddie maze in front of him. A Discord head marking his location in the maze. “Now to get out of here.” Discord quickly made his way out of the tunnels. He didn’t care if in his haste if he ran into anyone. Time was no longer on his side and what he discovered made being cautious useless now. Less than half an hour later he stumbled out of the cave and into the darkness of the night. How long was I in those tunnels?! 8 Days after the fall of Traxti City Just after sunset, Forest somewhere near Traxti City. Discord hid carefully in the trees as a group of battle ready minotaurs marched by. That was the third one in the past six hours. This was making it very difficult for him to keep on the trial that he was on. He had sensed the same magic that comprised the dome less than two days ago. The trail was rapidly fading. Much more of these interruptions and he might totally lose it. After a few minutes of waiting Discord got down and began to follow the magic trail again. Several more times during the night he had to again hide from minotaurs and once even a pack of diamond dogs. The escalation to war was astonishing. Though he supposed with the slow deterioration of the city over the past year it shouldn't be too surprising. The sun was just beginning to rise when he noticed that there was tracks along the same route as the magic trail he had been following. Discord bent down and carefully examined the tracks. This was the first actual physical tracks on the trail that he had been following. “Diamond dogs.” He whispered.