Discord
String after string lodged itself within Discord's hooves. Tiny threads of fate connected to every living thing in every time twined through his body, pony or not, and into his core. The cosmos was his to play with, the creatures living within it his puppets, and he the puppet master. But the strings were many, and with each one that came into being their grip on him grew tighter.
“What in pony Tartaros is this?” he gasped. The thousands of lines glinted and then twisted, coiling his body within them. They tightened until he could feel his heart pounding in every inch of himself and they bit at his flesh, lifting him into the air.
“Now this just isn't fair!” he huffed. “Is this another one of those stupid pony dreams? Because it isn't funny. Now let me down this instant!”
There was no one to hear his protests. He hung suspended from nothingness over the grassy plains, only a stripe of purple light on the horizon. He tried to reach into the chaos and break his cage, but doing so only caused the strings to bite harder. Blood trickled onto the grass and hung on the bent blades. The strings tugged again.
Why can't I just wake up already? He closed his eyes and started to count. One... five... pi... e-negative... confound it. It's just a dream. Just a dream!
It did not make the pull of the threads of fate feel any less real. He groaned out as they constricted his throat. It seemed as if they intended to very slowly pull him apart, his muscles tightening a little with each passing moment, each new string whipping around his body.
He turned his gaze to the moon, the bright eye of the sky watching him in silence. He found the one thread that lead to that place and pulled. The wires around him weaved red lines into his coat, but still he managed to get her attention. The silhouette of Princess Luna appeared as fluid shadow upon the side of the moon.
“Are you the one responsible for this?” Discord growled. “Release me at once!”
Princess Luna laughed and tapped the face of the moon, causing the air between them to ripple. “I couldn't if I wanted to,” she said. “My power has passed into its darkest phase and I could not interfere if I wanted to. This dream is of your own making." She tilted her head. "Though now that you can dream, I am quite curious what it is that the embodiment of disharmony fears.”
“You ponies sure love to talk about me like I'm just a thing,” grumbled Discord, squeaking suddenly at a tightness around his throat. “If you're so smart then, what is this supposed to be?”
“You fancy yourself a master of puppets, but there are many strings that you pull,” she said. “Take too many and you find their combined strength is enough to overpower you. The very chaos you think you control twists about you, threatening to destroy you. It traps you.”
Discord stuck out his tongue, though not entirely voluntarily, as another string gripped his skull. “Really? I was expecting something a little more cryptic.”
Princess Luna sighed and tossed her mane. “I do not have time to play games,” she said. “My will is fading. Even in dreams my vision grows dark, but I will give you this warning: think about what it is you truly fear. And for pony's sake, own up to it.” She began to fade and she looked up at Discord one last time. “Go and save her before it is too late.”
“Save who?” said Discord. “Your stupid sister? Because I plan on it. I plan on doing it and rubbing it in her smug little face when I show her my Equestria.”
The princess of the night vanished, though, before she could reply. Discord twisted and tugged at his bonds. He did not wake. He only grew more restless and more familiar with the pony concept of physical pain. The cutting strands did not yield.
“At least ponies don't die in their dreams...” he groaned. The shining wire seemed to bite into his fur as he said so and he yelped out. The dream seemed like it would never end.
Then a there came a flicker of purple magic and one by one the threads began to snap. The rest slackened and let his wounded body slump, though they did not release him. Twilight Sparkle reached towards him with a hoof but could not seem to quite close the distance.
“Now what are you doing here?” he asked, unaware that he was crying a little. “Don't you have any sense of privacy?”
“I thought this was my dream,” explained Twilight Sparkle. “I'm not so sure anymore. Something strange is going on.” She worked to free him, but the threads seemed to be countless. No matter how many she cut, there were always more. But she did not give up.
“That's the understatement of the eon.” Discord groaned and popped his shoulders, rolling them. “All of this is supposed to get me in touch with my inner feelings? Blech.”
The unicorn tilted her head. “Discord?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“You keep having nightmares,” she said. “Every night. What's scaring you so much?”
Discord laughed dryly. He shook his head at the filly and tried to think of a clever retort. Seeing her there though, her young amethyst eyes filled with innocence and curiosity, wildness and power, made him realize something. For all of her inane pony mannerisms and thoughts, her dedication to Celestia and Harmony, he liked having her there. Maybe because she was an imperfect, impulsive, insatiable little creature. Maybe he wanted to see her for the same reasons he wanted to see Celestia again. No matter what it was, he knew he didn't want to lose her.
“Twilight!” he said, and his heart skipped a beat.
“What is it?” she asked.
He swallowed and stared at her. I should have told her sooner. I shouldn't have been so stupid! What did I think was going to happen? If only she can understand me...
“Don't trust Rainbow Dash!” he yelled. “She's a changeling! I should have told you sooner, but I...”
He glanced around at the empty field around him.
“Twilight Sparkle?”
The strings snapped taut around him again, making him cry out in pain. When he tried to force himself awake again, a flash of green filled his vision and a dark, chitinous face smiled at him from somewhere in the void. His body was paralyzed in sleep, and every time he stripped off a layer of the dream he found another one waiting above it. The waking world seemed to be a million miles away.
Twilight Sparkle
Dawn greeted Twilight Sparkle along with the tickle of clouds beneath her. She stirred and rubbed her eyes. Waking up in the golden lands was always a soothing experience, so much so that it could be difficult to coax herself into full consciousness. The strangeness of her dream, though, brought her to her hooves, and then her wings, and then the cloud that held Discord.
Rainbow Dash stood above Discord, so intent on studying his face that she hardly notice when Twilight set down on the clouds beside her.
"What are you doing?" asked Twilight, raising an eyebrow. "It's not like you to be the first pony up."
"I still don't trust him," said Rainbow Dash, frowning. She rubbed something out of her eyes and stepped back. "He's talking in his sleep."
"He does that," explained Twilight, leaning down to listen to Discord. "It's just nonsense. Which is completely normal for him. I wouldn't worry about it."
"I just want to make sure you're safe," said Rainbow Dash, turning away with a flick of her tail.
That's strange thought Twilight. She gave Discord a gentle nudge, but he continued to sleep soundly. He didn't seem to be having the fits that he normally did while sleeping. Must have finally calmed down.
The first hungers of the day greeted her next, her stomach churning up an angry growl. She glanced at the sky around her and frowned.
Rainbow Dash laughed. “Let's go to the ground,” she said. "We can't exactly eat the clouds. I mean, we could, but it wouldn't be very filling."
Twilight Sparkle looked down at the vast fields beneath them and sighed. “Should we wait for Discord?”
"He's not going to get lost," said Rainbow Dash. "Come on. He'll join us when he's ready."
Twilight nodded. She slipped from the cloud and felt the air rushing by her as she fell into freefall. As a unicorn, the vertigo of falling even a small distance filled her with panic and a little bit of nausea. The little bit of pegasus that Discord had instilled in her reveled in it, though, and she sped towards the ground, waiting seconds before impact before flapping her wings and drifting to the side. The sudden friction of the air grappled her and sent her into a spin, but she managed to at least slow her descent before tumbling across the grass. Rainbow Dash landed without so much as a thump nearby and helped her to her hooves, but not without her fair share of laughter.
“I'd like to see you get a spell right on your first try,” she muttered and chomped indignantly on a mouthful of grass. Every nibble still filled her mouth with flavor and sustenance. Once they'd grazed their fill, the two of them went to the nearest brook together and drank.
The rainbow pegasus dunked her head in the icy water and then pulled up, letting out a sharp breath. “Ah, much better.” She shivered from her head all the way down to her wingtips. “It could be hours before Discord wakes up. Why don't we just move on without him?”
“We can't do that!” Twilight's wings shot up, giving away her emotions completely. “It wouldn't be right.”
“Why not?” said Rainbow Dash. “It's Discord. He's like, the baddest guy on the planet. Besides. Super powerful being? Probably can take care of himself. It's more important that we find the princess, don't you think?”
Twilight looked at her reflection in the water. The wings, the horn, the bent crown seemed all out of place on her. A purple princess in all but name. And power. “It just doesn't feel right,” she said. “We left together. Maybe if you've come to know him the way I have, you'd understand.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “I think I understand,” she said. “You really do like him.”
“Well, yes,” said Twilight, blushing. “But not in that way. I don't think so, anyway. I mean... he's not a bad guy. Not completely. He's... a draconequus. He's complicated.”
Rainbow Dash preened at one of her wings. “I guess if you think he's okay, then that's that.” she paused. “You think you're a pretty good judge of character, huh?”
Twilight Sparkle blinked. “I know who I can trust,” she said. “Celestia... you and our friends. And I know I can trust him.”
“Maybe you should take a good look at yourself.” Rainbow Dash shook her head and pointed to the stream. “Do you even see what he's turning you into?”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Twilight flapped her wings.
“Just look,” said Rainbow Dash, "and try to see what I see."
Twilight Sparkle sighed and sagged over the water. “Fine,” she said.
She took another drink of water and studied her reflection more intently. She couldn't remember the last time she'd let herself fall completely into the solace of her thoughts, and how long it'd been since her thoughts strayed back to Equestria. My friends have never really let me down, she thought. Maybe I am making a mistake with Discord. But he's trying so hard to be more than just a devil. I want to help him, if I can... it's the right thing to do.
Rainbow Dash laughed and she heard the sound of the pegasus' wings beating. Twilight Sparkle looked up from the water as she felt a rush of motion. She caught an eyeful of clear blue sky as something cold and sick shot clean through her and out the other side. One moment her light was bright and alive, and the next it had been snuffed out. Twilight Sparkle's body fell in a heap on the shore.
Discord
Discord changed. One wing snapped from pegasus to bat and his muzzle grew long and fanged as the beast within him won out. He bit his way through the threads and the emerald enchantment forcing him into sleep. He awoke with a snap and sniffed the air. It was distant, but he could smell it. Ponies. Chaos. Blood. And death.
He cut through the air and slipped through a crack in the fabric of space, leaving ripples and tears to ache in his wake. The endless fields of the golden lands met him on the other side of the gap. Twilight lay crumpled in a heap and the changeling, still wearing Rainbow Dash's colors, save for a wicked crag of a horn upon her head, stood laughing over her.
“Twilight?” Discord knelt over her and put his hooves around her. Her body had not grown to chill but her weight fell completely against him. “I can't feel her heart.”
“Well, what did you expect?” The changeling flicked her wings and shed her pony-like form. But Discord could not hear the creature. It was insignificant, impossibly small, a mere thing. And Twilight wasn't breathing.
“She's not laughing or making those lovely little irritated grunts when I do something amusing," he said. "Come on. This can't be right.”
“Are you really that daft?” The changeling sighed and trudged past. “She's done. Gone. Went off to...” she paused and looked around. “Well, somewhere around here, I imagine.”
Discord gave Twilight a shake, as if doing so might rouse her from her state. It has to be wrong. This can't be... he squeezed back a tear and groaned at the feeling of a sob clenching in his throat. This isn't what I wanted at all.
The changeling turned her back and made to leave them there. He broke from Twilight and in a sudden sprint he tackled the changeling, pinning her to the ground. His red pupils widened with fury as he pinned the creature's neck beneath him.
“You did this.”
The changeling croaked and laughed again. “Of course I did! And what about you? You knew what I was from the very start. What did you expect me to do?”
“Fun and games,” said Discord, tightening his pressure on her windpipe. “That's all it was! She was going to find out eventually, and you would break her heart, or trick her, and it was supposed to be an exciting diversion. But you... you took her away!”
“I did,” said the changeling, the shell around her throat doubling up and hardening against Discord's hooves. Her body rose and fell with a quickening breath. “And I loved it. She cared so deeply for her friends and I felt that pure, innocent emotion snuff out beneath me. I wish I could have felt her shock and her pain, but I needed to get the job done.” She smiled and bared her fangs. “Your hatred, on the other hand... there's nothing more delicious.”
Discord's eyes widened with fury. His body trembled and contorted. His hoof twisted and his eagle claw formed. He grasped the creature by the neck and lifted her into the air. He no longer cared to conceal himself and swelled to full height as a draconequus once more. The changeling kicked her legs and dangled from his claws.
“You wouldn't do anything to hurt me, would you?” it said, and in a flash assumed the form of Twilight.
And just as quickly as it had changed, Discord ripped into the body and spirit of the creature and forced her back into her original state as she squealed in pain. “Don't you dare wear her face. I am going to make you regret ever having hurt my friend.”
The changeling laughed maniacally and threw her head back. “Your friend? Really! The mighty Discord in love with a mere pony.” She shook like a ragdoll before him. “My work for my hive is done. You can kill me, but the only regret I will ever feel is yours. It's delicious.”
Discord narrowed his eyes and bent her wings back. “No,” he said. “Death is too good for you. I will not give you the pleasure of watching me inflict the pain you did...”
“So you're just going to forgive and forget? Turn the other fat pony cheek?” The changeling stuck her tongue out.
The raw power of chaos and the thickness of the magic in the realm crackled through Discord's being. He felt the spark and crackle of energy all around him, and the spin of light and life that made up the foul creature he held in his claws.
“No,” he whispered. “Your fate will be far worse.”
The changeling continued to laugh and lash about in his grip. The fear did not overtake her until the feeling left her hooves and a sudden weight overtook her. She looked down to find her own form petrifying.
She screamed in a metallic, wild screech and cried while he did it. He forced the very nature of her body to change, her transformative magic turning on itself, forcing her cells to harden into stone. He stared into her eyes as the transformation neared its completion. He made himself watch as he punished the creature who he had let destroy Twilight Sparkle.
“There will be no release for you,” he said, once her tongue had hardened to stone and she could scream no more. “You will be forgotten, separated from your hive, and lost forever in a land that does not belong to you. You will be an icon of your own wickedness to be witnessed by the spirits of this land. And you will know no rest forever more.”
She could not reply, for she was nothing more than a statue of a changeling. He threw her upon the ground and left her there by the brook.
“Twilight...” he uttered as he picked up her body and held her in his arms. “I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to come to this.”
A light that felt as if it belonged to the coldest winter's day shone upon Discord. The Pale Mare stood before him, as if she had stood there the entire time, her eyes empty but somehow sad at the same time. She shook her head.
“You knew at the beginning of your journey that something like this may have come to pass,” she said. “And so it has. Twilight Sparkle lives no more.”
Discord looked down and brushed the purple mane from Twilight's face. Were she breathing she may well have appeared to be sleeping. “It's not fair.”
“It is not a question of fairness,” said the Pale Mare. “It was simply her time. You have seen only a glimpse of what awaits her here, and beyond. Will you lament her finding peace? Would you deny her the journey that she and all of her kind must take?”
I don't care, thought Discord. It was my fault. And I know this wasn't supposed to happen. She wants to meet Celestia again. And so do I. And I want her to be here, with me... then there's only one thing I can do.
“I'm going to bring her back.”
The Pale Mare frowned and her mane twisted as if caught up in a sudden furious gale. She lifted a hoof. “It is impossible,” she said. “Even for you. Even for me. Your power might be able to put the energy of life back into her body, but her soul has already departed. It is against every law of the universe. It cannot be done.”
Discord chuckled and laid Twilight Sparkle's body against the ground. He cracked his knuckles and spread his palms to the sky. “Then it falls to me. I am the master of the impossible. There is no rule that I cannot break. And I will tear this world apart before I let you stop me.”
But the Pale Mare did not move to stop him. She simply watched and shook her head as the cosmos twisted furiously about him. “It is futile,” she whispered.
Well you guys sound like you can handle a cliffhanger, so I'll see you next week.
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Fiend!
FIEND!
FIEND!
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AYEEEEEEE!
In perspective, Discord should blame himself for Twilight´s death, not the changeling. How could really not foresee this outcoming?
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Well, this was certainly not how i anticipated this morning going for me with just three updates to read.
Loved it.
You mixed up know and no when Discord said "you shall no know peace".
Great chapter.
1865855 - I dare say it's hardly a cliffhanger. I mean... killing Twilight, prior to actually resolving anything? Unlikely that she'll 'stay dead'. Stay unicorn? Who knows... stay dead? Probably not. She still has miles to travel before she goes. Granted... this may be temporary...
My only problem was how quickly she ignored Discord's warning about Rainbow, though... she probably doesn't have any frame of reference for what a changeling is. She's been rather out of the loop.
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Because he probably doesn't know that Chrysalis is making her move and is trying to trap all the gods and godslayers away from Equestria. Probably thought the changeling was just along to keep tabs/delay/etc.
Even in in dreams my vision grows dark
1. Extra In.
Aaaand... Let us hang of these god forsaken cliffs!
MUHAHAHA! The changelings shall be victorious! Glory to the swarm!
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I was under the impression that Twilight did not hear Discords warning because the changeling did something
Homonyms are my bane, apparently. Thanks for the reports.
I love opinions and interpretations and who's who to blame. o/' But I will point out one logistical thing. The Twilight that Discord tried to warn was in his dream.
It could be that she woke up before he could tell her.
It could be that she was, in spite of her words, just a product of his overactive imagination.
It could be his subconscious being incredibly vicious in letting him know he was too late.
But in any case the outcome is the same.
What's that, muses? Make Twilight stay dead? I'll think about it.
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Actually, you could even turn this into having the whole Mane Six die and join Celestia, while Discord is left to rule with a broken heart until Luna returns from her second banishment...
An assassin pony (somepony mind-controlled by Chrysalis like Shining was) walking up and killing Fluttershy before she realizes what's going on would probably cause some feels.
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She never heard the warning, either she woke up before he told her, while he was thinking to himself, or she was never in his dream in the first place.
Badass Discord ACTIVATE!!!
Well, Discord is now officially Bad Ass with the description of how he broke out of his Nightmare.
[youtube=Ykzg5X41-_E]
Well, not to intermingle stories or anything. But I saw a pretty good way to bring back a pony without doing the whole "Zompony" or perfect healing sort of thing. Instead of bringing her back Discord could make her a Shade basically a Soul who returns back to the living world and re-occupies his/her body but at the cost of if that shade dies again or comes to bodily harm the shade might fade into oblivion not ever having the chance to move on to promised lands. But 80% of all shades end up in the long run hating the persons resurrecting them due to it always being a highly selfish act, but I think it would be sweet to have discords only REAL friend be resurrected and face his greatest fear which all gods come to face the passing of time and mortal lives weather they be friend or enemy.
Ehhh....
If Twiley's death was supposed to make me go *HNNNGH*, I definitely did not get that in any way. Otherwise, written fairly well with good execution.
"Who the hell do you think I am!?"
Discord dude, fight the power.
1866111No.
1865855 I shall be waiting. I'm loving Discord's character development - that is, his personality's change. He's becoming something better than he was. He is becoming...well.. I don't know.
1866266 I agree
All of Discord's time has been leading up to this point. He can not continue to be as he was.
But has he always been the Discord that fought Celestia? Or was he originally something else and was changed by circumstance?
The time for Redemption is at hand. (hoof? claw? whatever hehe)
discord impossible? You know those two don't mix.
You do not put Discord and impossible in the same sentence unless it looks like this:
There is nothing impossible for Discord, for he himself is impossible, therefore he can do the impossible.
Twilight's dead. Can Discord bring her back?
Plot twist: Twilight is permanently dead, the changeling breaks free, kills Discord while he is distracted, gains ultimate power over chaos, conquers Equestria slaying all other changelings and continues to kill every single creature in Equestria over the course of about a thousand years.
The end!
Argh! Good ending, and a week, but what are we to do until then? And lovely touch on discords fury. That was a perfect IHNMAMS you did, and a chilling one.. Still, I look forward to each installment of this. And glad I found it.
Twilight's dead? No big deal. She's got the king of impossible with her, and he has the best motive to do it! Discord would go to the end of the universe, and risk his life thousands of times just to bring her back. She's in good claws.
why is the button Go to Top up there and not above the commends? xDDD
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She didn't hear it at all. He was in a dream. The changeling kept piling on layers of dreams so Discord couldn't wake up in time. The thing is, Discord knew all along that RD was a bug.
He thought the bug was going to be harmless, just giving Twi some emotional grief that he might have found humorous. He likes to semi-torture Twi, it seems, but he does care a great deal about her.
This chapter was most delicious!
The great thing about Discord: Up to the last chapter this can turn out to be a sappy, happy end with butterflies and little baby bunnies or a most heartbreaking, sad sobfest with extra tears and everypony crying their eyes out.
And I would love both.
Dang. I wish I had waited a week to read this chapter.
I think this is the most badass chapter you've written yet. You can practically feel bad badassness oozing from Discord at the end.
The rest of the chapter was great too.
You have written the best Discord ever, and I can hardly wait for the next chapter. Love the story.
This chapter was beautiful well done.
He needs a biologist to help him. See, until her neuronal synapses depolarize, she can be repaired!
That takes between 10 and 15 minutes. So, all he has to do is snap his fingers, fix her body and get her heart going again and viola!
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^This
Unfortunately, we're already in pony purgatory (say that 5 times fast), so the laws of nature are already weird. Is that even a physical body Discord is holding?
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Don't speak such things
I couldn't handle those kinds of feels
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I think doing that without the Tragedy or Sad tags would make me a total jerk and is kind of against the spirit of the fiction community. As it is there are parts that toe the line of Dark. . .
1875201 We can rebuild her... faster... stronger... (The 6 Million Bit Mare)
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Don't write yourself into a box just because you neglected a few tags. Let the story go where it wants to go! (Can you update your tags? I don't remember).
That said, don't feel compelled to write horrible tragedy just because some of us could totally see it happening. 'Let the story go where it wants to go' cuts both ways. Maybe there's a need for a metafic that diverges here... no, i have too many fanfic projects already...
Go discord bring twilight back oh and buck u pale mare
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The story then came to a screeching halt when Discord's confrontation with Celestia led to the most devastating rap battle of all time. The destruction brought about by their sick burns left Equestria nothing more than a charred husk.
Yeah I can update the tags. There's a certain kind of story I really like and I'm sticking to it. o/'
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I know, it would be a really mean thing to do, just "What if?"-ing.
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Don't read Fallout: Equestria without a tissue box nearby then.
I don't really know how everyone else feels but this chapter and the last felt incredibly rushed. I blew through this one and the last like tissue paper and found my self scratching my head a little bit. I didn't even realize that NMM went into a second banishment until I read a comment about it. I remember that there were some people bitchin at you to start speeding things up by you need to start slowing down. Don't sacrifice the quality of the story this far in, it'd be terribly unfortunate.
Is someone seriously downvoting my replies I will fight you :I
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To be completely blunt I'm just writing it at the pace the sequence seems to demand it. I keep an ear out, but I try to stick to my guns unless maybe there's a huge consensus. Bluh... I'll keep an eye on it.
So much for "I don't turn ponies into stone!" Discord isn't the type of guy you want to piss off.
Changeling: But... You don't turn ponies into stone!
Discord: You're not a pony.