• Published 14th Jun 2012
  • 3,285 Views, 19 Comments

Discord's Reign - HiddenBrony



Discord was free for some time before the ponies got organized...

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Division of Loyalty

Discord swirled the clouds around him, a gleeful chuckle escaping his lips as the spun clouds started to turn pink. Floating them above his head, he clapped his mitts together as the new cloudforms took off into the sky, finding their white brethren and infecting them into a delicious treat. Satisfied that the problem would take care of itself, Discord’s newest target made herself clear to him with a scream.

Up above, a griffin spun around her cloud nest, trying desperately to keep the home from falling apart. Wooden sticks, perfectly placed on hard-packed cloudstuff started to sink into the hastily sweetening surface, large chunks of personal belongings and furniture plummeting to the ground, shattering mercilessly nearby. With a cry of dismay, the cloudy home broke apart, the sticky residue coming off as chocolate rain as the floors spit out the last of the griffin’s home.

“What is this stuff!?” Gilda shrieked, a picture frame grasped in one claw and her signed Wonderbolts poster in the the other. Shifting the rolled up poster to her back leg, she reached out to some of the last fleeing clouds, grasping the pink mass in her talon. Giving it a cursory sniff, Gilda stuck her tongue out and lapped at it. “What the –” On reaction, she chucked the sticky mess away from her, the cloud rocketing away. “Is this some kind of prank!?” Spinning about, her eagle eyes caught sight of some patchwork creature below. Soaring down to meet with the creature, Gilda raised her voice. “Hey! What’s the big idea, freakshow! This your lame idea of a joke?” Pointing an accusing claw at Discord, Gilda quickly exchanged which claw she had outstretched, bringing the picture frame close her chest instead.

Tittering his tongue, Discord shrugged in complete nonchalance. “My, whatever do you mean? I’m just a lost, wandering passersby, but my oh my do I ever seem to be in luck!”

“Can it, dweeb!” Gilda interrupted. Discord reeled back in mild surprise, his face quickly shirking back to its usual calm smile. “I know you had something to do with it!” she lied. “Something as stupid looking as you can’t be up to any good.”

“Pot calling the kettle black, aren’t we Gilda?” Discord said, his smile growing.

Gida’s wings stalled for a moment, forcing her to land on the ground as she took a step back. “Wha– How did you know my name!?”

Discord slipped close to Gilda, his face practically rubbing up against hers. Pinching her cheeks, Discord patronized the griffin. “You’re like a little proto-me, what with your two creatures! Get with the program, lady, you have to have at least five different creatures to be considered cool!” With a cry, Gilda quickly swiped at Discord’s head, but a flash of light blinded her as Discord appeared directly above her. “Well now, that wasn’t very nice, but you never were really considered one of the nice ones!”

“Shut up, freakshow! You don’t know me!” Gilda shrieked, her giant wings flaring.

“Oh, don’t I, Gilda? Let’s see here...” Without missing a beat, Discord produced a long ledger and a pair of reading glasses. Peering disdainfully over the records, he started to read off the list. “Gilda does not play well with others. Frequently gets into fights over speed and foregone conclusions of what can be considered cool. Poor influence on other Flight Camp attendee, Rainbow Dash. Request formal apology from the Junior Speedsters. Ooohoo, a request for immediate suspension, that was signed and delivered by the head of the camp!” Discord squealed, his eyes taking in Gilda’s shocked expression.

“W-where did you get those!?” she stammered. Shaking her head roughly, Gilda steadied herself. With a ferocious flap of her wings, Gilda tore through the sky after Discord, again taking a swipe at the documents in which he read. With another flash of light, Discord himself disappeared, but Gilda was rewarded with the shredding of paper between her talons. Looking about for her prey, she spotted Discord still reading from one last page.

“Well well, a Missing Ponies report from Flight School. Seems like little Rainbow Dash proved forever loyal to her friend and left the school with you.” Discord’s smile dripped with poison. “I do wonder how that turned out in the end.”

Gilda’s eyes narrowed, her breaths became quick yet labored. “Hey! I’m warning you, if you don’t clear out of here, I’m gonna make you regret it!” Brandishing her sharp talons, it took her a moment to realize that she was no longer holding the picture frame. Looking sharply to the ground, instead of seeing the discarded photo, Discord had somehow appeared below her, chuckling mercilessly at the picture.

“Really now, this is too good.” The frame held an old photo of Gilda and Dash standing side by side, the torn and scratched out faces of the rest of the Junior Speedsters beside them.

Gilda’s face turned stark red as she realized what he was holding, her face strained. “Give that back you freak!” Slamming down on all fours, the Wonderbolt poster crumpled underneath her weight. Ignoring the lost collector's item, she seethed with every breath.

Discord’s eyebrows shot up, his expression a mask of mock surprise. “Give this back?” Discord dangled the picture in front of Gilda, his face slowly melding to that of grim amusement. “Of course! It’s not even mine.” Tossing it limply over to Gilda, Discord smiled disarmingly. “I wouldn’t even know what to do with it!”

Gilda snarled in response, taking up the picture in her claw. Looking down at it, she made sure it was okay. There she was, same as always, but – she gasped. Dash had completely disappeared. “What? How did –!?”

Discord played with a little filly in his palm, the rainbow pegasus looking like she had stepped straight out of the picture. Every time she flew out of his hands, Discord snapped up the pony by her tail and dragged her back down, pinning her under his finger before letting go, repeating the process until Gilda recovered. “She really is a tenacious little one, isn’t she?”

“Let her go! She doesn’t belong to you!” Gilda shrieked, her pupils shrinking. Discord caught the filly by the tail, this time bringing her close to his eyes. The miniature pony huffed at him, trying to punch his nose as she hung uselessly from his grip.

“Belong to me?” Discord echoed easily, his voice unattached to his mouth. Slowly the light around them started to fade. Gilda looked away from Discord a moment to see if her eyes were playing tricks, but by the time she looked back, he had gone. “Oh, Gilda, are you trying to say something?” Beside her, Rainbow Dash stepped into view, Gilda’s jaw dropping as the pony glared at her. “That, perhaps, she belongs to you?”

“She –” Gilda started.

“You should find some friends someplace else!” Rainbow Dash said.

Gilda shook her head. “Dash, come on! Look, I’m sorry! Okay?”

Discord’s laugh surrounded her as another Rainbow Dash stepped forward. “Now you show the loyalty to a friend who followed you? Oh, dear me, how touching!” Another Rainbow Dash appeared, Gilda looking this way and that. Everywhere she looked, another Rainbow Dash came to view.

“H-hey! She made a choice! Them, or me! She picked wrong, okay?” Gilda screamed, looking the first Rainbow Dash in the eye. “I’m important too! Cloudsdale, remember Dash? All those times, you just want to throw away? Me ‘n you!”

“Gag!” Discord shouted, the Rainbow Dashes that had gathered starting to disappear. Holding the filly in his hand, Discord shook his head. “I’m not here to make you discover yourself. I really could care less about you.” Above them, the sky which had been only peppered with white and pink clouds started to overcast in a deep, pink hue. Out in the distance, he could see pegasi trying to buck the clouds away, but to little avail. “But you have given me a lot to think about about our little miss Rainbow Dash.”

Growling, Gilda made as if to charge Discord, but soon found she couldn’t move. Looking down, she saw that she no longer possessed the legs to even charge, instead she sat upon a sealion’s tail, flapping uselessly about. “Wh-what did you do to me?”

Discord smiled, spreading his arms wide. “Oh, I just thought you might like to see how the other lions live.” Looking down at the struggling filly, he amusedly watched as the pony bit at his talons. “Hm, I guess I won’t be needing this anymore.” Releasing the Rainbow Dash, Gilda allowed herself some relief to watch the miniature photo-Dash escape the clutches of her captor. However, as she flapped her wings to join the pegasus in the air, the thick and heavy sealion tail slowed her up. As she strained herself, Dash continued to fly away, her small size becoming microscopic in the skies.

“Yeah? Well turn me back before I... no!” Gilda shouted, having noticed the tiny Dash continue to fly away from her. She flapped as hard as she could to get into the air, but it was nowhere near the speed of the miniature mare. “She’s getting away! She’s leaving! She can’t leave! Not again!”

Discord chuckled. “Didn’t I make this clear, Gilda? You made your choice, as she’ll make hers. It’s all a matter of framing the right decision.” Pointing a finger toward the last streaks of a rainbow mane, Discord snapped his talons together. “Annnnd... Pow!” Gilda watched uselessly as the Dash from her photograph erupted into a small tuft of flame, disappearing almost as instantly as she had appeared. Her wings froze, the half eagle/half sealion slumping hard against the ground in a heap, her expression frozen in shock and anger.

Bringing his hands together, Discord parted the ground below her, opening up a channel of water for the new Gilda to dwell in. Pieces of flotsam from her cloud nest floated benignly around her as she instinctively tread water. “Really now, I thank you for your time, but I really must be going. I have a few more places to stop by and then a date with royalty. What do you wear in front of a Sun Goddess? It’s been so long.” Gilda splashed angrily, her tail kicking against the water as she struggled to get at Discord. “Oh, what do I care, she prances about naked anyway. I might as well return the favor. No use covering up such a perfect picture of chaos!”

Discord spun on his heels, ignoring the shouting ex-griffin behind him. Considering for a moment to dry up the pond he had created, he thought better of it.

He at least owed her that much.