In a dark alleyway, a small mountain of trash sat, unassuming, by one of the many buildings in Discordant City. It had been left there for quite a long time and really was only paid attention to when residents from the surrounding buildings decided that adding to the pile was a good idea. One would think that the stench would be enough to drive the residents away, if the garbage didn’t smell of different kinds of fruit depending on the day, the position of the stars, or whenever the garbage felt like changing scents. It wasn't something you questioned. After all, anything was possible in a city governed by the Spirit of Chaos himself.
A rustle and tumble of garbage betrayed the presence of something moving within the mountain. A few moments of this passed before a tiny Zebra head poked out, a look of triumph on her face as she pulled out a half-eaten orange. She climbed fully out of the pile, carefully cradling the food as if it was the most precious thing in her current possession. Bits of garbage fell off her small, nearly foal-sized, body and revealed a small collection of blades attached to her barrel with faded leather straps. A meager form of self-defense.
The small zebra flopped on her back and appraised the orange in her hoof for several moments, her mouth watering as she imagined the last time she had eaten such a treat. Weeks? Months? Far too long, but it didn’t matter. She had it now!
’Success be mine, oh Glorious Fruit of- Wherever you came from! Snack time is a go!’
Falling back comfortably into the mountain of garbage, the tiny zebra opened her mouth in preparation of eating her newfound food source when her vision flooded in a bright kaleidoscope of lights, momentarily blinding her. No sound accompanied the light, only more colors. Then, as suddenly as the colors had come, they cleared, leaving the zebra dazed and confused. No longer was she sitting in the pile of sweet-smelling garbage. Now, she was within a fog and leaning back against a stone column of some sort. It was an uncomfortable and curious change to her previous scenery. One didn’t normally completely change locations at random in Discordant City, despite the general sort of chaotic happenings that occurred within its limits.
’Okay… This is new…’ the zebra thought to herself as she looked around at the new landscape, confusion evident on her face. ’What was that?!’
She spent a few more moments looking around before glancing at her hooves. At once, a smile broke out on her face. She still had her orange.
Giving said orange a quick toss in the air, the zebra chomped down on it and enjoyed a moment of sweetness exploding in her mouth. Worrying about where she was would do no good on an empty stomach, after all. Better to not let this rare treat go to waste. After swallowing down her meal, she stood up and brushed herself off, all the while looking around the area she was in. Just stone pillars on stone ground and heavy fog limiting her vision. Anything could be lurking out in there, and all she had on her was her meager set of knives. Who knew how useful they would be in this place? She didn’t let these unknowns bother her, though. Growing up in the likes of Discordant City had taught her that any sort of weakness would be exploited: by ponies, the weather, sometimes the City itself. This place was no different. She needed to think clearly if she was to get out of here.
’Okay, Zyrene. Think. Explosion of colors, Discordant City to stone garden. One of three things: I’ve been drugged, the city decided to be a stone paradise, or this is all part... of…’
After carefully gazing around, the tiny zebra's attention was drawn to a glowing arrow on the ground on the other side of the column she had originally been leaning against. At once, understanding flashed through her mind, followed next by a sense of dread, then anger. She had seen this arrow before, on the big screens around the City. It was part of a “game” Discord played with the residents and it didn’t matter if you wanted to be in it or not. If he decided you were going to be a part of this game, you were going to be a part of it. There was no arguing with him. This arrow was probably the single most consistent thing in this game, pointing each contestant to their opponent. The objective was to beat your opponent however necessary to advance to the next of however many rounds Discord felt like going through. The prize for winning all of the rounds was a Wish. A single Wish to be granted by the Master of Chaos himself.
In all honesty, that was a pretty big prize.
Whoever was at the other end of that arrow would know that as well.
Zyrene sat down with a heavy thump on the stone ground and gritted her teeth in frustration, letting her emotions go within her mind. ’Why!? Why me!? I don’t want to be in this stupid Game! I don’t want to end up broken or worse! Let someone else take the prize! Gah! Stupid Discord! Stupid Game! Stupid everything!’ A dull rumble of thunder echoed and lingered somewhere in the fog as if to match her frustrations.
This only went on for a few more moments before she started to compose herself. She was here already and no manner of whining or complaining would get her out of this. Either she beat whoever her opponent was or her opponent would beat her. There was no way around that. Slowly, Zyrene reeled her emotions in, bit by bit, until whatever anger she had dissolved into resignation.
’Let’s… Let’s get this over with…’
She got up to her hooves and checked herself over to make sure her small collection of blades were still attached to her small frame. Satisfied with what she found, she cast a hard glance at the arrow and began her first steps to it. The arrow moved with her, keeping in front of her and pointing straight ahead. Whoever her opponent was no doubt had a similar arrow pointing to her.
’I wonder who it is. It could be a unicorn with their magic spells, a dumb diamond dog, or… A Pegasus. In fact, definitely a pegasus. All this fog screams pegasus. Great. I’m going against a flier.’
Zyrene grit her teeth in frustration again, taking care to tread lightly in her steps to avoid the typical "clop clop" sound of hooves on stone. It slowed down her travel immensely, but she wasn't worried about moving fast. The fog was as much of a hindrance to the pegasus as it was to her in regards to vision. As long as she stayed quiet, she would be able to have a chance at taking her opponent by surprise.. With luck, she would be able to sneak in a first attack on her opponent before they got a chance to attack her.
After roughly a minute of walking, just as she passed by another stone pillar, Zyrene became aware of a slight tremor in the ground. Stopping, she looked around curiously, wondering at where the tremors were coming from. Was it a part of this arena? Were they to deal with earthquakes, too? That would be just like Discord to throw in an earthquake to spice things up. Thankfully, it was a minor one, though it seemed to be building up slowly.
’That's strange. Don't earthquakes usually start out strong, then get weak- Never mind. This is Discord. Rationality is non-existent with hi- What... is... that...[‘
The tiny mare's eyes went wide as she took in a great hulking shape moving in the fog towards her. A shape roughly looking like a diamond dog, though bigger than the dogs she had seen. Most other dogs she had seen wouldn’t hold a candle to this dog, even the full-grown ones. This dog wasn’t just big, he was a giant! Surely this wouldn’t be her opponent!
That was when she noticed another, similar purple arrow to hers in front of the diamond dog. She only had a moment to process this before both her and the dog’s arrows winked out, signifying that the opponents had found each other..
Such a sight terrified the mare.
’That's my opponent? That’s my opponent!? How am I supposed to beat that!?’
Zyrene felt her breath quicken and her heart race while she stared at her opponent. He wanted her to lose, that Discord. Or he wanted to see her squirm. There was no way that she would be able to defeat that! The beast was too big, easily dwarfing her. One of his paws would likely be enough to grab her and crush her!
’No. Get ahold of yourself, Zyrene. He’s big, but big guys aren’t unbeatable. She began to take a cautious step back from the beast, hoping beyond hope the dog hadn’t noticed her small form. ’Use your size to your advantage! that way you can be sure to… beat… him…’
Her eyes widened again when she saw the dog pause and start sniffing at the air. Very quick, the mare was overcome with a realization: There wasn’t a lot of scents in the stone garden here, but she did take a scent with her into this arena. The orange that she ate must’ve been really easy for him to smell.
’Crap crap crap crapcrapcrap!’ Zyrene’s eyes widened in a panic as her breath increased. She took another step back away from the the dog, edging to the side of the stone pillar as her mind raced to come up with some sort of plan to take on this dog. ’Why did I have to eat that orange? Think, Zyrene, think!’
She had blades, she had fog, she had stone pillars and… that was it. This place was really very bare and would offer nothing to help her out! If there were more corners and buildings, she would be in her perfect environment. Places to scale or hide in, actual environmental things to use. Here, she was at the whim of fog, stone, and maybe the wind. That was it.
Of course, her mulling had taken too long. Just as she was about to slide fully behind the pillar, the dog stopped his sniffing and looked in her direction, freezing her in place and causing her heart to clench in abject terror. The dog had pinpointed her, staring down at her small form. Zyrene heard him snort once before his voice boomed over to her.
“This is Titan’s challenge? This? A filly-foal? Discord really gives Titan this as Titan’s foe? Wrong. Filly is not a challenge! Titan could crush little filly like a bug. Right now!”
His eyes narrowed as he took a step forward, prompting the tiny mare to take a cautious step back. At that moment, the fog turned a slight purple, putting the final nail in her fears for this match.
The shield is up. He really is my opponent!
“Titan will beat little filly. Titan will get Titan’s wish. Do not fight, filly. Titan will be quick!”
And with that, he let out a roar and charged to Zyrene, the ground quaking as his massive form came barreling towards her. She let out a gasp in fright and turned on the spot, soon speeding away as fast as legs could take her as she let her instincts kick in. She knew that she could not beat that dog in a one-on-one fight and she definitely wasn’t going to give him the opportunity to catch her, even if that was looking to be a difficult approach as well.
’He’s catching up!’ she thought as the footsteps of the thundering dog sounded behind her. Think think think think think- TURN!
The mare did a sudden pivot and broke into a quick right turn before shooting off in the new direction. The dog, unprepared for this maneuver, thundered past her, then scrambled to stop his forward movement. Stone crunched and shattered as he dug his claws into the ground, showering the area with smaller stones and pebbles. Zyrene took this opportunity to gain some distance from him, running for several long seconds before scrambling behind a stone column to catch her breath. For some reason, that she was more out of breath than usual, leaving her panting as if she had been running for several minutes rather than for what amounted to a short dash.
Zyrene kept against that pillar, breathing deep as she attempted to work out how exactly she was going to beat this foe. She wished to herself that she wasn’t so out of breath already, else she could keep up the run for longer. That was when a thought came to her.
’Wait… if I am out of breath, then he should be, too. If he’s out of breath, then he won’t be able to sniff me out! I just have to wear him out, then!’
She poked her head out from behind the corner, her eyes gazing timidly out into the fog. She might be able to wear him out, but that would only work if she actually knew where he was. All she needed to do was locate him and make sure she was ahead of him. A dog as big as Titan would be very difficult to miss.
A flash of light came from somewhere in the fog, illuminating the large and dark shape of Titan far closer than she would have liked. A loud crack of thunder followed the flash almost immediately afterward, nearly drowning out Titan’s shout across the stone gardens.
“Filly! Come to Titan!”
Zyrene darted back behind her pillar, her chest pounding as she tried to steady her breathing. He was so close! What was she supposed to do!?
“Why does filly hide!? Filly can not win! Only Titan wins!” the voice shouted angrily. This shout was followed by a large crack, then a slow grinding sound. A few moments of this passed before a large shape landed by the pillar that Zyrene was hiding behind, its mass and sound literally lifting the her from the ground as it impacted. She landed painfully onto the ground, then looked over at the object that had landed next to her hiding spot, her eyes widening in terror. She wasted no time in clambering to her hooves and running away from the dog as fast as she could.
’A pillar. He knocked down a pillar!
“TITAN HEARS FILLY RUN!”
Then came the thunderous footsteps, quickly gaining on the tiny mare. Even if he lost his breath too, he would soon catch up on her due to his size alone. She couldn’t run circles like this around him. There was no indication of how long he could go for, while she was already feeling tired. With this course, she would defeat herself if he didn’t beat her.
’Change in plan! Do something he doesn’t expect. He’s big, but Diamond Dogs aren’t known to be smart. I can use that!’
She stopped suddenly, then turned around and faced the direction of the oncoming Titan, fighting against her natural instinct to run as she saw the dark shape thundering through the fog towards her. It was do or die here. She patted one of the blades on her barrel for reassurance and readied herself for this next move. If she failed here, that would be the end of the fight. If she succeeded, though, there might be a chance for her to achieve victory.
The lumbering form came barreling out of the fog towards her and, as she saw the fog part, Zyrene charged to Titan, getting her first real look at him since the start. She could see the surprise in the dog’s mottled brown face as she charged him and felt a small bit of satisfaction at that. Titan’s steps faltered while he tried to process this move and in that moment, Zyrene saw her advantage.
Darting underneath Titan, the tiny mare paused long enough to spring her legs for a jump, sailing up to her target and kicking out one of her blades with a hoof, catching it in her mouth, keeping her forward momentum going. Years of practice had honed in her skills for quickly arming herself and those skills had proven effective in the past. She hoped here would be the same. A quick spin as she flew forward was needed to pull off the move, and the blade was nearly wrenched from her grasp as she attempted it, but in the end, she succeeded.
Landing in a heap somewhere behind the dog, she was scarcely aware of the boom and the screams coming from Titan as he rolled around and cried out in pain. It wasn’t until after a few moments had passed before her mind rebooted and informed her of her success. Incredulously, she jumped to her hooves and turned around to stare at the dog, seeing him clutch at one of his legs.
“Filly! What did little filly do? What did filly do!?” cried Titan in a mix of anger and pain.
He tried to stand up at that, then stumbled and fell as one of his hind legs failed to support his weight, a key tendon by his paw sliced. He would not be using that leg for a long time. Zyrene couldn’t help but smile at that small bit of satisfaction at beating him. There was no way he could keep fighting like that. He’d just flop around like a beached fish!. She gave herself a mental pat on the back and began turning away in anticipation of the fight ending.
“No,” the deep voice of Titan rumbled from behind her. “Filly does not turn from Titan. Titan is not. Beat. So Easy!”
Eyes widening in fear, Zyrene turned around to look at the dog, now down on three of his legs, with his useless leg laying limp on the ground. His eyes betrayed a deep loathing for the zebra as he glared at her with all manners of hatred.
“Titan does not lose to little fillies! Titan does not lose!”
He pushed up roughly with his front legs and raised himself up on his good hind leg a to let out a loud roar before reaching over and digging his paws through another stone pillar he had landed beside. The structure began to crack in much the same way as with the last one that Titan broke, leaving Zyrene stepping backward in absolute terror. That attack was supposed to have put him down for the count. Now he was about to throw a pillar at her!
’Not good not good! RUN!’
Zyrene cried out, then turned and ran, her heart pounding in her chest. Behind her, the cracking turned to grinding, followed by an angry roar. The ground shook and trembled along with a new grinding sound that the tiny mare found all too familiar! The roaring of air sounded closer to her as the ground trembled. In that moment, Zyrene made a split second decision and rolled quickly to the side, narrowly avoiding the pillar as it crashed down where she was only a moment earlier. Her ears rang, her vision swam, and her head spun with how close this pillar had come to hitting her. The tiny mare stumbled up to her hooves, whimpering slightly as she tried to pull herself together.
“Titan can hear filly! Titan can smell filly! Titan will come! For! Filly!” came the shouting from her opponent where she had left him. In response, zyrene had just one thought come to mind.
’He’s going to kill me!’
She took a few faltering steps away from the pillar, still dazed from the pillar crashing by her. She stumbled again as the fallen column of stone shook and trembled. In the fog, she could hear more cracking sounds. It ended soon enough, but that still left the zebra wary. She wasted little time and was soon resuming her pace away from the monstrosity that was Titan.
’Think think think! That last attack didn’t beat him. It only pissed him off. Now he is literally destroying the whole place! How can I win against something like that? What can I use to my advantage here!?’
She ran and looked around, the fog still showing off a purple hue from the shield. Everywhere she ran, there was either fog or stone. If there was anything that could help her in this fight, it was not showing itself. Nothing. Not even a stone cranny! Still, she searched, looking for something, anything that would help her out. The ever-present trembling of the ground only spurred her to search more frantically, running in odd directions in an effort to throw off her opponent.
’Get away get away get away get-’
Suddenly, her vision filled with stone and the ground trembled as a piece of a pillar landed in front of her. She had enough time to let out a surprised yelp before stopping in place, narrowly avoiding hitting her face against the stone. Several more booms sounded nearby as more pieces of the pillar landed down nearby with pinpoint accuracy, seemingly blocking off any hope of her moving forward.
“Little Filly thought she could run away from Titan. Little filly thought she was smart.”
Zyrene hiccuped, then turned around to see the dog standing within the fog between two pillars. The tiny zebra’s breathing picked up, a brief question of just how he had caught up already floating through her head as she tried to run off once again. Titan, however, was prepared for this. With a quick swipe and push, he sent one pillar toppling down. Seeing the falling stone, Zyrene jumped back and away just as the column landed on the ground. Her eyes darted frantically for another way out before she tried running again. Still, the dog was ready, knocking down a second pillar and blocking off another avenue of escape. Zyrene looked around desperately for any way out, but found that all of her paths of exit were blocked by fallen pillars or the piece of pillar she had nearly run into.
The only way out was through the dog.
Titan, his face a visage of fury, slowly began limping his way to the tiny mare. Zyrene felt her heart race even more and desperately tried jumping and climbing at the pillars trapping her. It was no use, however. She could not get the height or grip to make it over. All the while, as she attempted to escape, Titan moved forward, more than certain of his victory now. She cast a glance back at the dog, wondering if maybe she could attempt that same trick from before on the other leg. Would she be able to get him a second time?
Her gaze went up to Titan’s face, a feeling of empty dread settling in her stomach. There was no way that would work a second time.
“Little filly will not run away now,” the massive dog growled. “Little filly will be Titan’s first win. Little filly will lose!”
As he roared out the last part of words, Zyrene knew it was over. She dropped to the ground, curled into a ball against a corner to make herself as tiny as possible, and hoped to herself that whatever the dog did, it was fast. She kept her eyes clenched closed and her ears splayed as she lay there shivering and waiting for this to end.
’At least you lasted this long against him, Zyrene. That’s more than what you expected. Besides, there’s no shame in losing against him. He was just out of your league…’
No sooner had she finished her thoughts, however, fate decide to intervene. A bright light flashed through her clenched eyelids, a deafening loud crack sound was heard, and a massive wave of static flew through Zyrene. A physical wall seemed to push against her that made her insides feel like they were compressed beyond what was safe. She let out a gasp mixed of pain and fear as one thought came through her mind:
’So, this is what the end feels like…’
She waited for a long while like that, shuddering and sniffling in her corner and nursing her hurt ears and singed fur, before she realized something: This was nothing like how death was supposed to be. You weren’t supposed to actually feel anything. Dead was dead. But then, if she wasn’t dead, then why did she feel? Why wasn’t Titan coming after her.
Gingerly, the mare brought her head up to look at where the dog was coming from, then gasped. This was immediately followed by a second gasp as Zyrene brought her hooves to her ears. This was for two reasons: the first being that Titan was now on the ground and struggling weakly in what looked like pain as steam slowly drifted off his singed fur, and the second being that Zyrene could not actually hear anything.
’What… just happened…’
The zebra looked at herself and took note of the singed striped fur once more, trying to come to terms with what she was witnessing. She looked between herself and Titan in disbelief at the stroke of luck she had had, even if it came at the cost of her hearing. She was close enough to feel some of the blast of whatever that was, but not close enough to get the full brunt. Knowing this, she tried to stand up, then stumbled and fell to the ground again as a wave of dizziness overtook her. Both of them seemed to be worse for wear now. There wasn’t any way the fight could go on.
Then she saw him move.
Her eyes widened again. ’No…’ she thought. ’He can’t still be ready to fight!?’
She looked at the large figure as it struggled to stand, unfocused eyes glaring in her general direction. Titan seethed and and bared his teeth, obviously in pain. With that pain was also a look of determination to beat her. This one tiny zebra that, for some reason, kept eluding him and was even now seemingly aided by something greater than him. She feared that it wouldn’t be enough, however. Even she could not get up to face off against him in her state.
’Get up, Zyrene!’ came her thoughts as the dog stood up and began to struggle to her. ’Don’t give up! You can beat him now! He’s weak! Don’t give up!’ That inner voice spurned her on to struggle to her hooves. Unsteadily, the mare tried once again to stand up, forcing herself to focus on the massive target in front of her.
’If you’re going to win against him, you need to play this carefully. He’s still very dangerous.’
Zyrene kept her eyes on the slow moving dog as he struggled to come closer and closer, not even bothering to try and move away. There was no point. It was either she finish it here, or be finished. Both she and he knew that. Finally, after several moments of him struggling to her, Titan looked down at the tiny mare, a flickering flame of determination in his eyes. She reached for a blade. He bared his teeth at her. Then… he seemed to relax completely before collapsing heavily on the ground in front of her, unmoving except for some shallow breathing.
Zyrene stared at the dog in surprise, before cautiously rubbing her eyes as if to do away a false image. But the image was true. Titan was down, and she was standing.
At once, the purple went away and the fog dissipated, revealing in full the stone pillars around her and the arena that they had fought on. Bright sunlight filled the arena in almost its entirety, except for two shadows: the ones of the pillars, and the one of a certain Draconequus.
A wave of magic washed over Zyrene, restoring her hearing and taking away her nausea that came with it. Immediately, the sound of laughter filled the air, drawing Zyrene to look up at the floating form of Discord in all of his mismatched glory.
“Brava, my dear! Brava!” he exclaimed, clapping excitedly to the sounds of quacking ducks, tooting horns, and several other random sounds. “What an unexpected twist! Imagine the surprise at that ending! All this time you spend running from an obviously stronger opponent, crushing the very arena around you two to defeat you, when right there at the end, you are saved by one of nature’s most unpredictable elements! Lightning! Hahah!” He did a twirl in the air, putting on a striped referee’s uniform and pulled out a large board with the number 10 written on it. A board which he quickly threw away, imploding the column it hit. “Really, this is the sort of entertainment I look forward to: a game of cat and mouse disrupted at the end by something something unexpected! Hah!”
Zyrene, for her part, stared unimpressed at Discord. He seemed to take the hint and scoffed at her, waving his talon at the striped figure.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that. You can’t expect to be put against everyone in your weight class. The whole world is larger that you!” He punctuated this by shrinking down to the size of a regular pony and ruffling her mane, much to her annoyance. She shook her head and tried to bat away the paw, at which Discord only chuckled.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure the next opponent will be easier. Or not. You never know what I will throw at you. Even I don’t know!” He laughed for several moments before collecting himself and clearing his throat. Lifting his talon in preparation for a snap, he said, “But enough of that. You’ve had your- Well… I’ve had my fun. You probably not so much, but that’s small stuff. Now for the next part!”
With that, he snapped her up before she could object, cradling her in his eagle arm as he turned to face the outer part of the arena and started speaking as if there was an actual audience there.
’Knowing Discord, he probably does have some way for everyone to see him,’ Zyrene thought to herself as she squirmed uncomfortably within his grasp.
“And that, ladies and gentlewhoevers, is the first round of The Arena! What other challenges awaits our diminutive zebra? What challenges await the future contestants? What sort of prize will our winner ask for at the end of the tunnel? When is today’s tea-time? What will happen to Titan here?”
He snapped his lion paw once, sending the large dog away in a flash of light. Where he sent Titan to was anyone’s guess, but Zyrene couldn’t imagine it being anywhere good. Briefly a small bit of pity wormed its way into her mind, though she easily pushed it aside. That dog had been prepared to flatten her with pillars, after all.
“All of that and more will be answered, my faithful viewers, next time! Who knows…” the draconequus chuckled, his amused grin never once faltering, even as his voice dropped to a sinister tone. His gaze locked to a point outward, far to an audience only he could see.
“Maybe you will be a part of it.”