Essays Index
Remarked Timelines series: Part 1 - Overview | Part 2 - Sombra | Part 3 - Chrysalis | Part 4 - Nightmare | Part 5 - Tirek | Part 6 - Discord | Part 7 - Flim & Flam | Part 8 - Wasteland

You can tell this is a DannyJ project, because the timelines with the most Discord are the ones I've written the most about.

The Discord timeline:
This timeline begins in a dark fashion, as a missed spell from Twilight Sparkle traps Rainbow Dash in a crystal. While she is lighter than Twilight or Starlight were in their crystals, she still sinks through the clouds as the other foals scramble to get help from the adults. Twilight and Starlight are both pulled away again by the time spell before either can help Dash, and so she falls through the cloud. Some flight camp instructors do respond, but aren't quick enough to catch Dash's crystal. She hits the ground at terminal velocity and is killed.

Rainbow Dash's untimely death prompts a huge investigation from the authorities, putting the incident at the flight camp under much greater scrutiny than in any previous timeline. Twilight and Starlight were both seen, and a nationwide ponyhunt begins for the both of them, though just as in previous timelines, neither can be found. Twilight, in particular, is the prime suspect of a murder investigation now, and her alicornhood is not as quickly glossed over in official reports, though most still write it off as an illusion. Princess Celestia is also made aware of the case, but does not initially see its significance to the timeline.

In time, the Rainbow Dash case goes cold and fades out of popular consciousness, but Dash's death is still devastating for those who knew her. Fluttershy, Gilda, Hoops, and Dumb-Bell are deeply affected, as are all the other foals and instructors in the flight camp, but none take it worse than Dash's parents. Unable to face the memory of losing their youngest child, Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles leave Cloudsdale altogether, and move to Canterlot to get away from it all. In Canterlot, they both take up new careers, with Windy Whistles in particular going on to work at the palace as a maid.

Working in the palace, Windy Whistles becomes a familiar sight to Celestia, who learns her name and speaks often with her, as she does with all of her staff. At the same time, Shining Armor is rising through the ranks of the Royal Guard to become worthy of Princess Cadance, and his family have started occasionally showing up at the palace. By chance, this leads to an incident where Twilight Sparkle is present at the palace to see Shining, and Windy Whistles recognises her from the descriptions of her daughter's killer.

Not knowing who Twilight Sparkle is, Windy at first tries to go to Shining Armor about her. The drama is quickly defused as he informs her that Twilight is too young to have possibly been the one at the flight camp, but word of the confusion reaches Celestia's ears, and the thought sticks in her head. Upon investigation, Celestia makes the connection between the distorted timeline and the death of Rainbow Dash, and even begins to suspect Twilight Sparkle of being the Element of Magic who never was.

Celestia makes an immediate effort to correct the timeline, bringing Twilight Sparkle on as her student, trying to teach her friendship, and picking up the abandoned threads of her original plan. However, while Twilight shows promise, and Celestia is even able to track down the other four surviving Bearers, she soon realises that the plan is doomed without Rainbow Dash to wield the Element of Loyalty. This realisation causes Celestia great emotional distress, and she spends long nights dwelling on Nightmare Moon's imminent return, and how woefully ill-prepared she is for it.

During this time, Celestia also frets about the risks involved in fighting Nightmare Moon with her Royal Guard plan, and struggles with her own doubts as to whether she'll even be able to save Luna at all without the Elements. These are concerns that she's had in all the remarked timelines, but which have never been so heavy on her mind as in this one. She confides in her friends and advisors, including staff at the palace, and all of them reassure her that she is doing the right thing, and encourage her to keep on her current course.

However, Windy Whistles has different advice for Celestia than anypony else. Having lost her child, she tells Celestia of how valuable family is. She talks about Dash, and how she would have done anything to save her, and says that if Celestia truly loves her sister, she should be willing to make any sacrifice she has to for that love. Celestia, having already felt the doubt and temptation to risk Equestria for Luna's sake, is not ready to hear this, and gives into her emotional weakness.

On the day before the Summer Sun Celebration, she uses a ritual-based spell to break the seal holding Discord. He returns, greatly intrigued by Celestia's decision to let him out, and she begs him to defeat Nightmare Moon and save Luna for her. Discord agrees, if only because he hates the Nightmare Forces as much as Celestia does, but he makes it very clear that he won't rescue Luna until after he's dealt with the Tree of Harmony, as otherwise the two of them would be able to use the Elements to re-seal him as soon he isn't needed anymore. Desperate, defeated, and given no real choice anyway, Celestia agrees to his terms, and does not try to stop him.

When Nightmare Moon returns and tries to battle Celestia, her plan to begin an eternal night is immediately foiled by Discord. He easily defeats her and drives her off, and then begins a new plot to finally kill the Tree of Harmony, believing that the original plundervines had failed and died. Through extremely convoluted means, he succeeds, and the Tree is killed. Discord then tracks down Nightmare Moon again and purges her corruption, as promised. Celestia and Luna finally have their reunion, but at the cost of Equestria becoming engulfed in chaos.

Fully confident that there is no remaining threat to him around, Discord fully invests himself in his new chaotic reign. Life in Equestria is completely upturned for all its citizens, as Discord's chaos spreads across multiple continents, just as it did in the old days. The smaller-scale players such as the Flim Flam Brothers and Sunset Shimmer are forced to abandon any previous plans they might have had out of self-preservation, and even Queen Chrysalis retreats to the safety of the Changeling Kingdom rather than face Discord.

Through his early reign, Discord seeks out interesting people to amuse himself with, having many encounters with the likes of Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer, and Tirek.

From the start, Twilight tries as best she can to research ways of taking Discord down. Just like Celestia and Luna once did in the original Reign of Chaos, she goes on a series of quests to track down legendary magical artefacts that might be capable of harming him, but she never finds anything effective. The two of them have several battles, but for the most part, Discord laughs off anything Twilight throws at him, and spends most of their fights toying with her.

Discord then meets Tirek, sensing the presence of his unusual magic almost as soon as he breaks out of Tartarus. Just as in the prime timeline, the two have a stand-off in which Tirek is easily defeated, but Discord's subconscious desire for friendship leads him to let Tirek go free. He even helps him to find and consume pony magic, justifying his actions by saying that he finds Tirek amusing and wants to keep him around. However, unlike in the prime timeline, this is a much more genuine friendship on Tirek's side, as Discord did not lose his respect by siding with ponies or betraying his friends.

Starlight Glimmer is the next major encounter, as Discord happens across Ourtown by chance, and spends an afternoon terrorising the village. He takes particular glee in tormenting Starlight Glimmer, as her Equalism philosophy is particularly distasteful to him. He ruins her life just as the Bearers did, by exposing the lie about the Staff of Sameness, and restoring everypony's cutie marks. Starlight Glimmer attempts to challenge him with her talent spell, Pieces, but is simply not powerful enough to affect Discord with it. Afterwards, Discord brings Tirek to the town, and lets him consume Starlight's magic, allowing her to feel what life without her own special talent is like, and leaving her helpless before him.

Eventually, with the Tree of Harmony no longer around to maintain the seal, King Sombra and the Crystal Empire make their grand return. Unable to ignore the threat that Sombra poses, even with everything else happening, Celestia, Luna, and Twilight go north to overthrow him and restore the Crystal Empire, despite not having an army this time, and lacking the Elements of Harmony. At the same time, Discord decides to get involved as well, and drags Tirek along for the adventure.

At first, Twilight and the Royal Sisters are bested, turned to stone by Sombra's dark powers. However, their battle is only a smokescreen for Discord, who uses the distraction to steal the Crystal Heart back and plunge the Empire into chaos. As the crystal pony slaves rise up, Tirek consumes the magic of the Crystal Heart, and then battles Sombra head on. Discord cures the ponies' petrification, and they agree to a truce until Sombra can be defeated. With Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Discord, and Tirek together, Sombra stands no chance. Discord finishes him off by banishing him to the Great Abyss, where the rest of his kind dwell in perpetual darkness.

The threat dealt with, Discord ends the truce, and he and the ponies go back to fighting one another. Tirek, now strong enough to challenge alicorns, offers to consume their magic for him, but Discord prefers to keep them as an entertaining challenge for himself, and so Tirek decides to return to his homeland instead, now that he is powerful enough to reconquer it.

Soon after Tirek leaves Equestria, the Nightmare Forces begin seeking out Discord's enemies, trying to find suitable hosts who they could use to oppose him. They are soundly rejected by the Royal Sisters and Twilight, but find a promising candidate in Queen Chrysalis. Although she claims her Darkstone Throne negates any non-changeling magic, in actuality it only nullifies non-dark magic, meaning that a nightmare and a changeling could bond and combine their power, and still operate as normal within the Darkstone Throne's anti-magic field. Though Chrysalis is loath to work with the nightmares, she recognises the immense advantage that this alliance offers, and so agrees to allow herself and several other changelings to become nightmare hosts.

With an army of nightmare changelings and the Darkstone Throne behind her, Chrysalis attacks Discord, and tries to lure him to the Changeling Kingdom to trap him. The attempt does not go well, as Discord quickly figures out that an anti-magic field is present. As soon as he does, he leaves, and returns later with Tirek in tow.

Tirek, being strong enough to challenge alicorns already, and not dependent on direct spell-casting like Discord, charges through the Changeling Kingdom with ease. Although he has great difficulty using his draining spell in the anti-magic field, his own stores of dark magic and the similar nature of his draining to that of the Darkstone Throne's allows him to consume the magic of the changelings and nightmares with impunity.

After fighting his way through most of the entire army, he reaches the throne room, and smashes the Darkstone Throne to pieces with his bare hands. With the anti-magic field disrupted, Discord is able to teleport in, and the two of them finish Chrysalis off together. Tirek beats her bloody and consumes her magic, and Discord turns her into a guppy and leaves her in a pond in Canterlot.

With her defeat, the changelings and the nightmares are both broken for good, neither able to challenge Discord's rule (or lack thereof) ever again. Tirek resumes his journey back to his homeland, and Discord goes back to tormenting the Royal Sisters for fun.