Chaos Vs. Order

by Justice3442

Chapter 6: Look Who’s Coming to Completely Desolated, Necroblasted Dinner

I took a few moments to observe and enjoy the chaos created by making it rain ice cream cones. This would likely go down in history of as one my more benevolent acts as undisputed ruler of Equestria by those that were fortunate enough to miss the pointier ends of the waffle cones as they descended from the sky.

I don’t know if it was spite or bravado that spurred me on to immediately return to the edge of Equestria and begin syphoning energy into myself once more… Oh wait… Yes I do… It was both spite and bravado. Spite, because the Order Keepers had actually managed to anger me and I wanted so much to get them back, and bravado because I had never, until very recently that is, been offered any sort of real challenge.

The idea that anything existed that posed a threat could simply pop into existence seemed laughable. Besides, if these Order Keepers were so powerful they could simply snuff out my existence, well… Maybe that’d be worth seeing, or maybe I just wasn’t ready to live in a universe where my supreme power was considered paltry by some.

…

No! Paltry! It has nothing to do with chickens! P-a-l-t-r…

…

I swear, Pinkie. I’m not sure why you’re allowed outside sometimes!

… Wait! Why are you laughing like that? I—oh, right. I did recount making that very joke to Longshot over a millennium ago. I suppose I brought this one on myself.

Anyhow, while the first victory had gone to me, there was a better and then not chance more Order Keepers would return for round two. It would pay to be prepared with more power for their arrival… Besides, even if they didn’t return, more power meant I could extend my influence even further, and those Griffins were simply have far too easy a time with that idol of theirs.

So, with only a fraction of my usual fun activities going on in Equestria, I once again began the laborious process of slowly absorbing magical energy as it left the planet.

Once again, the passage of time began to lose all meaning as I shifted in and out of my corporeal form, slowly absorbing the magical energy that flowed out of Equestria. I would later regret that I fell into a nice—elck—orderly pattern, but the work seemed to be progressing much faster as near as I could tell.

I don’t know how long I stayed up there… days… weeks… possibly months, but it wasn’t long before my castle was paid a visit.

A string of tin cans I had set up with a string leading back down to the planet’s surface began to clatter, and—

Well of course I know there’s no air in space!

‘Then how did the cans make noise?’ Because magic! Magic is the reason! I swear Twilight, you of all ponies should know better than to question these things.

As I was saying, the cans clattered and the suddenly burst into green fire which reduced them to crumbling rust. Now, it’s not often I consider something ‘odd’, but this was odd in that I had nothing to do with the can’s destruction.

Seems it was time to return home and see what the fuss was all about.

Soon I was parachuting back down to Equestria. I could see snow-capped mountain peaks and even noted some of the forests had begun to change color from green to a collection of oranges, reds, and yellows. I snapped my fingers on the way down giving the mountains a nice hot fudge covering and added, purple, cyan, and chartreuse to the colors of the forests.

As my feet made contact with the ground, I unstrapped my plaid parachute and let it slither away and turned towards my castle.

Something was off…

After a few strokes of my beard it occurred to me that my castle was now much flatter than usual. It also wasn’t usually chunks of rocks that had been blasted in all directions that were still burning with green necrotic energies.

“Oh, that’s never good,” I said as I began to examine the necroplasma lined crater that had taken up residence where my castle had been. I quickly donned a brown jumpsuit, some spectacles, and pulled out a rectangular black device with a green readout and long white light-up fins on the sides that rapidly lifted up and down before the whole thing exploded in my paw. Just as I suspected, the PKE’s in this region where now off the charts and I haven’t even thrown a ghost death-day party in years!

Unlikely it was the ponies. Necromantic energies were simply not there thing. The Spanish Inquisition? No, they usually mail ahead. Certainly I had made plenty of creatures and entities mad at me in the past, but given recent events, this was likely the work off…

“Greetings, Lord of Chaos,” a deep, dark voice boomed out from above me.

I turned.

Of course! A giant, skeletal dragon which bones darkened from the necromantic energies contained within!

…

...Wait, what?

Few things give me cause to pause, but this collection of bones was massive. It towered over me and would do so even with my giraffe neck attachment. The skeletal ribs tapered down to a pelvis and large, skeletal tail that ended some ways off where my petunia garden had once been if the skeletal dragon’s very presence didn’t kill my entire lawn and everything I was growing. It’s exposed teeth where the size of swords, if swords were made out of ivory and slightly more roun—

You know what? You all know what fully grown dragons look like. Imagine one of those with all its scales off and its meaty bits having long ago rotted away into a pile of festering dragon goo.

...Could someone revive Fluttershy? This next part is important.

Anyway, how that giant talking collection of bones managed to sneak up like that is beyond me. I’d say it was like it emerged from the shadows themselves, but my castle was on a plateau. The same plateau the massive skeleton and I now stood on. There weren’t exactly any shadows for it to emerge from.

Well, my house was exploded and every bit of flora around it was now dead. Rude is what this was!

Still, a mass of dragon bones kept whole by massive amounts of negative energies of necromancy was something new and I figured it couldn’t hurt to try being polite.

I nodded and tipped my hat which I was suddenly now wearing. “Hello, I don’t believe we’ve met. I see you already know me and have made yourself at home,” I said as I motioned to the smoking, fiery green crater were my stone castle once stood. “But I don’t have a name to go with such a… erm…”

A gloomy waft of pitch black smoke escaped from between the creature’s teeth and nostril sockets.

“… charming face,” I said with a smile.

“I am known as Dracolich.”

I raised an eyebrow with enough force that it pierced the brim of my hat. “As in a ‘dragon lich’? Not much for names are you?”

“I was the first lich. The first dragon,” Dracolich rumbled out. “Shedding my useless mortality while the multiverse was still in its infancy.”

As unsure as I am to the truth of those words, I’ve yet to see anything contradict that statement in my travels.

“I suppose that would give you certain privileges over the label,” I mused. “I’d offer you some tea, but you sort of destroyed just about everything I owned. Speaking of which, may I ask why you decided to necroblast my castle? Have I wronged you or your master, or is this just something a Dracolich does because it’s Tuesday?” I pursed my lips slightly and pulled out a calendar. “Is it Tuesday?” I asked as I looked at the numbered boxes under a picture of a kitten playfully tangled in yard. “I’m afraid I lost track of time while I was up in space turning myself into an unstoppable conduit of chaotic energy.”

Dracolich gave me an annoyed growl. “I am here at the bequest of the Order Keepers. This is your last chance to cease your activities outside the bounds of this planet.” Dracolich’s tone turned threatening. “I am your final warning.”

I lowered the calendar and grinned. “Ah, so it’s ‘your masters’ is it?”

Dracolich let out another growl. A warning. I had a struck a chord and decided to keep on strumming it. “So the Order Keepers were so afraid of another butt-whooping that they sent their skeletal lap-dragon to intimidate me?”

“Do not test me, chaos spirit.” Dracolich said in a tone soaked in imminent danger. He flapped holey wings still wrapped in scaly leather, kicking up dust and bits of destroyed castle from the ground. “My servitude to the Order Keepers is indeed regrettable, but don’t take your small victory as sign you can stand against me. I once ruled over the very Nexus itself. Your dominion over this tiny planet of magic is laughable in comparison.”

“Ooooh, ho ho! I’m so scared! Am I in for a bit of a bonetrousle?” I said mischievously to the multi-story tall collection of ancient, necro powered bones and sharp pointy bits. “What are you going to do? Destroy my body?” My grin turned wicked. “I lost track of how much I destroyed and recreated it just over the last months. Once more will do very little.” I informed, punctuating me statement with a bit of a laugh, “Nyeh heh heh.”

Dracolich cocked his head ever so slightly. “There are things which are irreplaceable that can be taken from you.”

“That’s doubtful,” I replied. “You already burned up my collection of antique photos. And I had those despite cameras not even being invented yet.”

 “Discord! Your reign of terror ends today!” a familiar matriarchal voice shouted out.

Amethyst the White… She always did show up at the most inconvenient of times.

My shoulders slumped. “Not now Amethyst! I have compa—”

“Spare us your excuses fiend! We have brought your doom.”

Longshot. Amethyst had brought a friend. “Ugh… Now is really a bad time, just give me a little bit for my eminent epic showdown and—”

“We’re going to kick your flank! Yeah!”

I sighed. That would be Whiplash. The trifecta of ponies who wanted me dead the most was now complete. I kept my eyes on Dracolich. He seemed nonplused by the situation… but without any muscles on his face, he was a bit hard to read.

“Seriously! You can all see I have a guest! Just give me—”

“What the Tartarus is that?!”

Thanks, Whiplash. I didn’t want to actually finish that sentence anyway.

“IT’S A GIANT DRAGON LICH THAT’S ALSO HERE TO KILL ME!” I shouted in frustration as I motioned towards Dracolich. “IF YOU PONIES DON’T WANT TO GET CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE, THEN I SUGGEST—”

I heard the jingling of bells. “No tricks this time, Discord! We finish this now.”

I turned to give the owner of the fourth voice a glance laced with irritation and angry bees that were now buzzing over my face. Said owner was a youthful grey unicorn stallion wearing a yellow star and blue moon themed dark blue pointy hat and matching cape, both covered with golden jingle-bells.

Starswirl… I dare say his horrible taste in fashion would haunt the young stallion to his grave. A mass of ponie’s shouts and cries joined in agreement as a mix of colorful earth pony, pegasi, and unicorn mares and stallions all dressed and armed for to kick flank or chew-bubble gum crested the hill to the plateau.

I surmised there was a distinct lack of gum amongst the group.

A powerful and beyond-ancient dragon lich, the four most skilled, most powerful ponies in Equestria, an army of angry ponies prepared for war, and me with all my tea reduced to necrofried ash.

I looked over the sea of ponies all armored up and armed. In addition to the weapons Longshot and Whiplash carried, I felt a few other magical voids amongst the army, though most came equipped with whatever they could cobble together… I’m sure there was at least one pony with protection made entirely from bits of pumpkin.

It had been some time before somepony organized something much bigger and stronger than an angry mob to take me out, and this might be the first time anypony had mustered up something that might truly be a threat.

I grinned widely, my guest momentarily forgotten. I had been preparing for this moment, this was sure to be a treat.

It was after that exact thought that I heard the sound of necroplasmic fire being shot out of the maw of a giant skeletal dragon’s mouth. It sounds like something of a ‘phwosh’ combined with the screams of those being kept in excruciating pain from torture.

I turned just as a jet of green fire shot past me. I felt it’s energies on my body as it passed, my muscles fatiguing and my bones beginning to ache with the feeling that comes from being very, very old.

Time seemed to slow down as I watched the negative energy shoot towards the head of the pony army.

 “No! Stop!” I shouted vainly. I raised my claw to do something… Catch the necro energies in a giant necro energy-proof net… Put up a giant mirror that would reflect it away from the ponies… Summon a giant wall made of stone or something stronger… Anything. But there simply wasn’t enough time.

That was the moment…

The moment I finally understood…

Understood what it meant to be helpless.

Amethyst and Starswirl were quick to teleport. Longshot flapped his wings and shot upwards. Whiplash was quick to dodge. The ponies behind them, however, were not so fast or skilled.

Green energy tore through the center of the army. While some managed to escape the wretched bath of necroplasm, many were not so lucky. Flesh atrophied and began to rot in an instant. Ponies screamed in agony as their bodies began to rapidly age or worse. Eyes and skin turned to liq—

Fluttershy… please… Please stop crying. I…

I…

I can’t…

Sniff.

No, no… It’s fine. I had seen countless deaths before. This was—sigh— this was no different.

…

Really everypony, I’m fine. Let’s continue.

After the blast things got much quieter, if for an instant. Even my experienced foes gave pause as they took in the wanton destruction and loss of life that was unleashed. As quickly as the quiet was born, it disappeared as injured survivors screamed in agony and cried for help. The army became a flurry of activity as ponies scrambled to try to help the wounded.

“Discord!” Amethyst called out in a wrathful tone. I felt the magic begin to drain from the area around her horn as her allies readied to attack. “How dare—” 

“BE QUIET!”

My words echoed over the plateau and down into the valley’s below, reverberating off hills and distant mountains and down into the very core of every pony present.

Somewhat surprisingly, my command was headed, if unintentionally. Amethyst’s concentration seemed broken. Longshot loosened his grip on his bow. Whiplash ceased galloping towards me and stopped in place. Starswirl and other ponies likewise stopped what they were doing, save for the injured, the dying, and those tending to them.

All the ponies’ eyes were on me. Their collective synapsis in their minds seemed to almost fire off with one uniform thought. “What will Discord do now?”

I turned to face Dracolich with a rage I had not known in all my eons of existence.

Death meant stillness. Emptiness. With life there was action, and with action chaos.

I could not fix death. Oh, perhaps I could put bodies back the way there were down to the tiniest atom… But somehow… I had never once been able to bring something back to life.

A ponderous enigma for another day. At the moment, I could think of nothing but ripping Dracolich’s unlife from him.

“Well, Chaos Lord,” Dracolich began, “what say you? Do you comply, or continue to face the consequences?”

I raised my lion’s paw and pointed the palm towards Dracolich.

No gags.

No tricks.

Not even a flippant remark.

I simply let loose with a barrage of red chaotic energy. If my castle was still standing, it would have undoubtedly been destroyed now. The massive blast engulfed the undead dragon completely, as well as much the surrounding air and ground around it. The energy carved out a new gorge the plateau as wave after wave of energy consumed all in its path.

Rock.

Bone.

Energy.

It didn’t matter. Everything was destroyed and consumed in the fires of chaos.

I ceased the energy torrent and watched as the enormous flickering red energy beam flew away and out of the planet’s atmosphere.

Those ponies still able stood motionless. Staring in unbelief at what they had just seen. Never before had they witnessed such unbridled displays of my power. Probably because never before had I unleased such unbridled power. The plateau was now horse shoe shaped, a new massive valley having just been formed in its center, heat from smoldering rocks wafting up from this new form of extreme landscaping.

Finally, one pony broke the silence.

“Did you… Did you get it?” asked Whiplash.

Sharp as a hammer, that one.

To my and everyone’s great surprise, dust from the air around us and the newly carved valley began to collect above it. Giant white bones began to form and knit together before they turned blackish blue with dark energies. A massive rib cage formed and more bones joined either side of it. A long skeletal tail was put back together, bit by bit, piece by piece, and the massive skull of a dragon reappeared as bone fragments, which just moments ago were little more than calcium rich dust, coalesced back into their original form.

“I’m… I’m afraid not,” was my answer to the inquisitive earth pony.

Dracolich hovered high above us all, his scaly wings flapped up and down as little rays of the setting sun eked past the spaces in his bones and holes in his scaled wings. He looked upon me and only me with the same expressionless look I had come to expect from this creature whose face was just bones.

He began to speak in a cold tone. “You’re response… is predictable.”

Unexpectedly, Starswirl suddenly teleported to my side. “What now?” he asked.

I shook my head solemnly. “I wish I knew…”

“Starswirl!” Amethyst’s voiced called out. “Away from that monstrosity! This is just part of a game he’s playing with us!”

The bells on Starswirl’s hat jingling slightly as he tilted his head upwards. “Is that true?”

I shook my head. “I have never once killed a pony. Not even Whiplash, Longshot, or Amethyst when I found out they could all be very real threats to me. Killing others is… well, it’s just so… evil…”

“Starswirl! I demand you come back here this instant!”

With a reluctant look on his face, Starswirl teleported back to his teacher’s side.

I looked back up as Dracolich lifted his front claws. They were as massive as the rest of him and looked equally as deadly. Though, he had already proven that his physical traits were far from the danger he posed.

The claws seemed to tense as if Dracolich was dragging them downward through heavy drapes that ripped under their force and weight, but there were no drapes here. Empty air at the tips of Dracolich’s claws seemed to tear as if he was shredding the very fabric of reality itself.

Perhaps he was.

Swirling voids of blue and black appeared up in the sky like an open wound of energy.

Darcolich slowly descended, tearing the sky all the way down until him and the rips he was making touched ground on the new gorge created by my chaos blast.

Unequestrian howls and shrieks began to echo out from the long tears of black and blue. I watched as winged pony-sized bipedal pink creature’s emerged, sharp teeth and claws at the ready. They were followed by tall, lanky greenish-grey entities that held simple clubs. The little pink beings began to take flight and the much taller creatures began to scale the sides of the blast zone.

I turned to the very army that had been gathered to destroy me. “Ponies! You must prepare to defend yourselves! An army of monsters is—”  

“No more tricks, Discord!”

I wrinkled my nose and glared at Amethyst. “Amethyst, you fool! Listen to me! He’s going to kill—“

I was cut off by a chorus of high-pitched squeals. I looked above me as large skeletal feathery black birds, like hawks or eagles created from death itself swarmed out of the portals. They flew past Dracolich, casting a shadow over myself and the ponies below.

The death birds descended just as the glint of razor-sharp white teeth framed by taunt pink skin and massive green-grey hands emerged from the gorge.