//------------------------------// // Silence of Laughter // Story: Discord's Reign // by HiddenBrony //------------------------------// It was as good as a place to start as any. Draped in an inexpressive gray landscape, the Pie Rock Farm lay as dormant and sediment filled as ever. The weather above looked as happy and sun filled as ever. And, as ever, he could feel the ponies celebrating in their Harmony. He would have to change that. There were too many things that were uniform, and as he walked nonchalantly through the melting sea of chocolate dirt, he took some delight in the feeling of goo on his scaly tail. Slipping his head around, he sampled his newest creation with a quick lick, face melding to that of some deliriously happy child. Slipping his head between his legs, he kept walking with his body arched into a circle. He took a rock into his hand and examined it, chuckling with mild enthusiasm when it quacked. “Now now, you’ll make a terrible ruckus if you don’t keep a lid on it,” he shushed the stone, before slipping the rest of his body around until he was upright. Reeling back, the draconequus spun on his heels, chucking the rock into a neatly organized pile. “So be sure to share with your friends!” Laughing heartily, Discord was rewarded by the sound of every animal under the sun emanating from the pile of previously inanimate rocks. Hopping about, the lovely formations did their best to imitate what animal noise they claimed, many swimming in the chocolate slurry that Discord had provided them. “Who goes there!?” a strong, stern voice called out. Standing at his doorstep, a grizzled brown stallion with a graying mane looked about at the sea of disruption, the multicolored draconequus standing royally in the center of it. “Who are you? What are you doing with my rocks?” “Oh, joyous of joys, a pony talking to little old me!” With a flash, Discord was mere inches from the elder Pie’s face, his body contorted around the doorframe to the old house. “It’s been absolutely ages since one of your kind has been so lovely as to give me the gift of conversation like an intellectual equal.” Discord slipped a clawed talon around the surprised stallion’s face, punctuating his point by bopping him in the noggin. Slithering on the ground, Discord slid up into a standing position with his lion’s paw outstretched. Before the pony could even consider shaking hooves with the beast, he had already retracted the offer in order to show off his improvements. “About your little rock farm – love it, completely useless. I wouldn’t change a thing. So I did.” With an unapologetic shrug, Discord materialized a normal looking rock into his hand, bringing it close to the Pie’s nose. “Bit too drab, I can’t have a glorious empire of chaos with something so... gray.” Shaking his head furiously, the gray maned stallion approached Discord, only to halt as his hoof slipped into the chocolate stew underneath. “N-now you listen here, you! I want you off my farm, and back to normal!” Discord pulled a long face. However, a moment passed before he brightened again. “Oh dearest Celestia of the Sun itself, I do believe I’m being rude!” Rocking his head back with his paw over his eyes, Discord decried his folly. Falling to his knees, he grasped his paws over the stallion’s hoof before he could question Discord’s motives. “Do forgive an old fogey. I just broke out and I really don’t know where my manners have been the past thousand years!” As Discord stared unceasingly into the rock farmer’s, the pony couldn’t help but feel smaller by the moment. “The name is Discord,” he slipped out, making sure each syllable had its due. “Master of Chaos and purveyor of all that is fun and glorious!” Releasing the eldest Pie, Discord towered over the stallion far more than he had previously. The father gasped in surprise. His head barely reached Discord’s ankle, and even then only thanks to the hat he wore upon his head. Picking the miniature pony up by the scruff of his mane, Discord set him neatly inside his own mailbox. “Now, daddy Discord is going to need a few words with your wife about a certain pink party pony and I really don’t need an extra set of teeth yammering about ‘get out of my house’ this and ‘don’t turn my farm into sauce’ that. It’s all so routine.” Slapping the mailbox shut with an unceremonious bang, Discord disposed of the thing with a snap. All at once, the mailbox grew legs and sprouted from the ground, its spindly legs bent as if ready to bolt in any given direction. Discord patted its little red flag like a dog, picking up a vaguely bone shaped rock that clucked like a chicken. He could hear the inflated voice echoing inside his unorthodox prison. “Now now, my sweet little Pie, you’re in no position to make threats.” Flinging the rock into the horizon, Discord slapped the back of the mailbox with a hearty laugh. “Fetch!” With a howl, the mailbox took off running, its body flailing this way and that as its unfamiliar legs sank into the gooey muck. “Now then, where was I?” Turning about, Discord saw a pair of eyes quivering in the window before darting away from the curtains. With a smirk, he decided he was sort of in a hurry and without further ado, he watched the walls sink into the ground, the roof completely intact above them, exposing the huddled trio of mares. Discord happily sauntered into the house, feigning hanging up some illusionary jacket before he walked into the kitchen. “Hoooooneeeyyy! I’m home!” Shooting the family a winning smile, Discord sat comfortably upon a stool, holding his knees with his hands as he leaned back. “Oh, what a day I’ve had. Woke up in stone like the past millennium, real boring job. Really stuck in a rut, if you know what I mean.” Grabbing a handful of fruits in his giant lion’s mitts, he smashed them all together, flinging the mush into his mouth as he continued. Needless to say he hadn’t the manners to remember to swallow before continuing. “Then I saw three little fillies fighting in the streets, and I thought, woe is me, what a horrible sight! I really must do something about all this fighting and disharmony at my doorstep. Ohhhhh, kids these days, am I right?” Leaning forward with a loud gulp, Discord slammed his elbows into the table as he leaned close to the Pie girls, the same happy smile planted on his face. A long silence followed as Discord’s happy grin slowly degenerated to boredom, the family hiding their faces as the mother whispered words of solace to her children. “Really now,” Discord said, his finger flicking an apple across the ‘room’, “I’d be placated with a simple yes or no.” Swallowing what fear she could, the elder Pie sister stood up, her legs wobbling as she faced Discord. “I-I’m not a-a-afraid of you!” Her amber eyes shot daggers into Discord’s, something that only served to give him humor. “Afraid of me? Who said I was trying to frighten anypony?” Belting out a belly laugh, Discord took to the air, floating impossibly over the table as he flew about the wall-less home. “If I wanted to strike fear into a pony’s heart then I would, oh I don’t know...” Discord trailed, his gleeful glide slowing down. Opening up the refrigerator, the sister Pie could only watch as horrifying eldritch tentacles burst from the door, prompting Discord to close it quickly. “Whoops! Sorry about that, that’s a whole new world of terrifying that’s really not my style.” Sliding back to the table, Discord shot the mare a grin. “I’m just here to talk. Really.” “I don’t wanna talk! I want my dad back!” The gray mare was persistently attempting to get on his bad side, Discord reasoned. Snapping his fingers, Discord called the eldest Pie to appear before them, a look of surprise plastered over the pony’s face. Before he could open his mouth, Discord whipped about the room, taking a seat on the stallion and shoving some fruity mush into his mouth. Slamming his jaw firmly shut, the father only had a moment to taste the food before it turned to stone in his mouth, shortly followed by a stiffness in his legs. Then his chest. Soon the entire pony was petrified, frozen in place as if time itself had stopped for him. “There, the big man on campus is home and look at how he’s enjoying his dinner!” Spinning him around, Discord used the father as his new throne as he talked with the Pie women. “Papa!” screamed the amber-eyed mare, but Discord cut her off with a wave of his claw. “Now that daddy’s home, I’m sure he’ll want to be left alone. He’s feeling a bit stiff from playing fetch. Now, I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain, let’s see yours.” The elder sister took a reluctant step forward, her eyes darting between her father and Discord. “M-monster! Turn him back!” Discord brought his arm up to his chest, his face contorted into pain. “Oh, you wound me! Your father is fine, really! He doesn’t even know what’s happened to him. Ponies should be so lucky.” With a flash of light, Discord disappeared. Reappearing alongside the elder sister, he sent an unamused look toward the mother and her youngest daughter. “Now, I’m here to ask about the missing member of your family. There is a disturbing lack of pink in your lives.” The mother finally raised her head. Looking down at her daughter and sending a pleading look to the other, she opened her mouth to speak. “That’s enough!” She shakily brought herself up to her legs with a slowness that Discord wasn’t sure whether she was frightened or just old. The thought brought a warm smile to his face as he pushed himself off the eldest daughter. She seemed to relax slightly, her hooves slowly finding their way back to her sister. “You big – brute!” “Such language,” Discord said flatly, his legs finding the ground. “Tell me, Miss Pie, do you speak to your daughters that way? I haven’t even said a cross word to your family,” he laughed. “Get out, ruffian!” the mother shouted, her daughters looking up in fear as Discord approached her. "I’m learning all sorts of new insults today,” Discord mused, tapping a paw on the mother Pie’s head. The matriarch crumpled to her knees, streaks of pink running through her mane. “Look, if you’re going to use such colorful language, I think you should match it. It certainly is nicer to look at than that awful grey.” Cyan eyes looked up at Discord in terror as blue started to leak out of her hooves, followed by reds and greens spreading over her tail. A swirl of color started to leak into her eyes, causing the pony to rapidly look about as her world started to contort with the colors that filled her vision. “I gave you a new outlook on life for free, too! How wonderful is that? No need to thank me, my little pony, I do believe you’ll find a new life waiting for you, in say, the Manehatten Circus!” With a dreadful snap, the last parent disappeared before the sisters’ eyes. The youngest gave a shout of dismay, hugging her sibling even tighter. Discord chuckled as he brought his hands together into a square box, making sure to give the Pie girls a good view. “Don’t fret, little ponies! Look at how much fun she’s having!” In the impossible box Discord made in his hands, scenes of their mother performing degrading acts flashed between his fingertips. Yelling the strangest vocabulary either of them had ever heard, their mother danced about. She slammed into poles and dunked her head into water barrels. Dismissing the imagery, Discord put his arms akimbo. He stared at the girls, his face frozen. “I really only came here for one thing, and that was to ask a few questions...” Hugging her sister close, the amber-eyed pony glared up at Discord, tears streaming down her eyes. “I’m not gonna tell anything to you! You’re a horrible monster! I won’t tell you anything about Pinkie!” Discord rolled his eyes. In a flash of light, the older sister was miniaturized in his palm, scrutinized under his gaze. “I believe I’ve already talked to you. You bore me.” Closing his fist around her, he leaned back, winding up a baseball pitch. With a lightning fast throw, the sister screamed as she collided into a portrait that hung in space on the wall. Instead of slamming into the painting of their rock farm, she entered the portrait, her pony features replaced with acrylic paints as she landed among the fields. Amused with his work, Discord’s ear twitched with a strange sound. Spinning on his heels, he looked down at the last Pie, huddled with her hooves over her head. Her hair parted over one eye, but he could plainly see that both of them were closed. “What’s this?” Discord muttered, his ear spinning to hear what the youngest sister was saying. Rather, singing. “G-giggle at the ghoooostie.... Guffaw at the g-g-g-grossly... Craaack... crack up at the creepy!” she sobbed, a puddle forming around her face as she continued to try to remove herself. Discord put a hand to his chin, listening to the little pony’s song. “Ha!” Discord shouted suddenly, getting the Pie daughter to yelp in fright. “Isn’t that what you do? Ha ha ha!” Grinning down at the young mare, he chuckled alongside his combative laughter. “Come on now, laugh at me, please! I’m a funny guy, really!” “That’s...” she choked out, shaking her head. Purple eyes shimmered as the pony pawed the ground. “That’s not right! That’s mean laughter! You’re a mean person!” “Oh, come now, Pie! Laughter is laughter, any way you slice it!” To punctuate his point, Discord snaked into the air, a jaunty laugh accompanying him with a chorus of all sorts of pony laughter flowing across the fields. “Listen to that laughter! Why, if I was such a bad guy, wouldn’t I go away?” With nowhere to run, the little gray mare could only return to huddling down, throwing her hooves over her ears. “It’s not the same! Granny Pie knew the difference! It can’t be the same...!” Discord grinned over the filly, considering a new bit of chaos to add to the mix. With one final snap of his fingers, the walls rose back up into place, the laughter of disembodied ponies disappearing as they snapped back into place. Looking up, the last Pie saw that she was alone. Discord had disappeared, her father with him. A mailbox had taken his place. Looking about, she chanced her voice to the home. “P-papa?” Sniffing, the young mare stepped toward the painting on the wall. “Mama?” Nopony answered her. Approaching the portrait, the youngest Pie put a hoof on the painting. There, on a farm that was still made for rocks and the ponies that farmed them, stood her sister, shouting wordlessly at her sister, her hooves outstretched as if asking to pull her out. Hooves hitting the solid glass pane, the pony tried again in vain. “Sis? Sis!” Outside, Discord leaned against the wall, a rock in his paw as he casually peered into the window to watch the young mare. Taking a bite out of the stone, he chewed on it thoughtfully. He pried himself up, stretching as he blew a bubble out of sediment. He got what he wanted out of the family, after all. Walking among the sweet syrupy fields, Discord considered laughing.