A Tale of Shadows and Chaos

by cuddlyluna

Chapter 7

"A long, long time ago, our world was not inhabited by creatures like us, but rather ones not like anything you would see today. Above these creatures were gods that shaped the world, and ruled over it."

"One faithful day, conflict broke out amongst the gods. The population of the race that once ruled over the land was wiped out. Only a few gods remained after the conflict. Together, these gods created Harmony, The Spirit of Order."

"Harmony was an equine like most of you are, as such, the life she brought to the world primarily consisted of creatures like yourselves. Harmony would also give sentience to creatures that had formerly been animalistic, such as griffons and dragons."

"As Harmony watched over the world, she stumbled across a lone child, the last surviving member of the race that lived before our time. She took her in as her daughter, and the child ruled alongside Harmony."

"But with order, came chaos. Unknowingly to everyone, Discord formed as a result of Harmony's creation. Unlike his counterpart, Discord was alone in the world. He traveled the world attempting to find creatures like himself, but to no avail."

"Eventually, Discord and the child found each other. The child saw Discord's loneliness, so the child spent time with the draconequus. Over time, the two became friends. Harmony would encounter Discord with her daughter, and seeing as how she cared for him, Harmony accepted him. They would go on to become a family of sorts."

"One day, the two spirits met with the gods, though the gods did not approve of Discord. They saw him as a creature that was too dangerous to be kept alive, and insisted that he must be destroyed. The draconequus did not care for their opinion, and left to return to his home, only to find his daughter missing. Nowhere across the Earth could the child be found."

"Both spirits were full of anguish. Harmony would stay in her temple for weeks on end. Discord, however, had a far more extreme response. He couldn't bear the one thing he had in his existence being stolen away from him, driving him to insanity. Discord lashed out against the gods, and took their lives in his enraged state."

"In response, Harmony confronted Discord. She first attempted to reason with him, but Discord was too far gone. Their battle raged for hours, the world was reshaped from their strife. As they fought, Discord gained the upper hand, having greater combat abilities than Harmony."

"To save her world, Harmony sacrificed herself to banish Discord to the darkest depths of Tartarus. The remains of Harmony fell to the Earth, and grew into a crystal tree. The Tree of Harmony."

The magical vision would disappear, and its energy would flow back into the crystal. "Discord eventually escaped and regained his power, though Harmony has yet to reform her true self. The important question is who shattered that segment of time?"

"I did it."

Everyone would turn to see Discord standing there, he had his arms behind his back and a straight, serious look at them. Deep sadness hid in his eyes as he focused on the group.

The room was quiet for a minute, some things begged to be spoken, but it was difficult to speak from the tensity of the room.

"Why?" Twilight asked, standing before him with a hurt expression.

"I could not let anyone interfere with my creation, nor did I want the outcome of the battle between Harmony and I changed. I wanted my origins to remain a mystery, and until now, I succeded."

Celestia approached him to speak. "Why did you kill the gods?" Discord's eyes would light up red from his emotions. "They had it coming! It was either them or me, and all they ever did was abuse their power and destroy the old world!" He exclaimed, the room fell back into silence as the group looked upon him, afraid.

Discord would shut his eyes and cool off for a minute. "Perhaps I took too much after them. There could have been a better solution, but it's impossible to change that event."

"What of the girl?" Luna would say after she let the room settle down for a minute. Discord kept his eyes shut. He would turn around towards the wall, not being able to face them.

"Fluttershy."

"Yes?" Fluttershy answered from the back of the group, still shaken up about the whole situation.

"The only reason I gave you a chance, was because of her. You remind me of her. I see her when I see you. I thought I could move on, letting you fill the gap that her disappearance had on me. The feelings I have had for you all of this time, are feelings towards another. I'm sorry."

The room was dead silent, so much so that the faint wind from outside the house could be heard. The ponies in the room were always curious about how Discord came to be, but none expected the reveal to be quite like this.

Discord would slowly teleport out of the room, leaving the group to find an answer to the situation themselves. Fluttershy fell to the floor in tears, with others coming to comfort her. Star Swirl would approach Twilight and the sisters. "Alright, neither Discord or Scorpan can give us much information on how to stop this. Does anyone have any ideas in mind?"

Twilight would reply first. "Going off what September said, Shadows are the source of these recent time shatterings. Since we have no luck to repair time, our next best course of action should be to confront the shadows directly. Though I wouldn't know where to start with that plan."

Luna would speak next. "I think I have a plan, but we should speak with Stygian first. If we are to face off against shadows, another pony experienced with them might prove useful."

The three agreed with Luna's idea and went to check on Fluttershy, who was still crying her eyes out. "I never knew any of this. He was broken inside all of this time." Fluttershy said between her breaths. Twilight would kneel down and put her hoof on her.

"I know how hard this must be for you, but we need you to stay strong, Fluttershy. It takes all of us together to save the world." Twilight would help her up and wrap her in a hug. Fluttershy hugged her back, still sniffly. "I'll, try my best to pull myself together."

Star Swirl walked over to Scorpan. "Thank you for everything Scorpan, We would appreciate it if you continued your efforts here. Meanwhile, we will do our part against what we believe to be the forces behind this."

Scorpan nodded, putting his hand on his old friend. "Take care of yourself, all of you. I wish you the best on your journey."

The rest would give their farewells to Scorpan, and would be off. Once they were all outside, The alicorns would put their horns together and return to Equestria. Through Luna's input, they made it to the doorstep of Stygian's house. As Twilight knocked, a conversation would be heard inside.

"Just a minute!" Stygian called out in a light-hearted tone. When he opened the door to see almost every important pony ever, he was a little shocked. "I erm, remember Flurry Heart being a little... younger."

Twilight shook her head about all the craziness of the situation "There is a lot to explain, can we come inside?"

"Yes, sure, though I have another visitor over that you might recognize." Another grey pony would appear in the doorway behind Stygian, happy to see a familiar face.

"Shadow Lock?" Twilight curiously walked inside, with only the other alicorns and Star Swirl entering, as the rest decided to stay outside.

Shadow Lock walked with Twilight to a living room and sat down with her. "Hey Twilight, I didn't get word that my ancestor Stygian was himself again until we bumped into each other at your coronation. We've been catching up since then."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that you two connected. I would have wrote you a letter about it, but princess life made it slip my mind that Stygian had a modern-day family member he could meet with."

"Don't worry about it. So, what's the story behind the crew you have assembled?" Stygian said, levitating a cup of coffee up to his lips. With the others coming to join them in the living room.

Twilight would get them up to speed, the story made them both fascinated and concerned. Stygian would eventually get a chance to talk once Twilight was finished. "That all sounds important and all, but why have you come here? I'm just a regular unicorn, Star Swirl is the magic expert here."

Luna responded. "Because like me, you have prior experience with shadows. You were also there when we revisited that dimension."

Celestia looked over to her sister. "Care to tell us what you are referring to?"

Luna would take a deep sigh. "Stygian and I revisited that nightmare of a dimension that the pillars rescued us from that one time, only to find it under new ruling. Eris, a creature claiming to be the cousin of Discord, had a Casino there and apparently drove out the shadows. We ended up stopping her only for an alternate Daybreaker version of you to take charge."

The other alicorns gave her a confused look, while Star Swirl would concentrate on his ancient knowledge. "That dimension is close to what may be the very heart of shadows. If we really are to confront them, that mirror is our best bet."

Stygian would think to himself for a moment. He ended up walking into another room to unlock several locks. Stygian returned with a box, opening it to contain the last piece of the mirror portal. "I guess I'm in."

Twilight and the rest were happy to have another on board, Luna then looked over to Shadow Lock. "I would like you to come as well, since you are aware of the situation."

Shadow Lock hesitated for a second, but nodded and agreed to come along. The group would teleport into the Canterlot throne room, with Raven Inkwell forcefully having to hold back Kibitz from Twilight to prevent a rant about missing two whole days of royal duties. "I'll take care of him, do what you need to do your majesties," Raven said, with Twilight smiling and responding with a nod in thanks.

When everyone was in the mirror room, Luna explained her plan. "Once we put the piece in, we will all enter except for Shadow Lock, who will stay behind and remove the piece. This will prevent any bad guys from entering our world. After that, our best bet is just power through everything and find an entrance to the shadow world that might lie further within. When we want to return, one of the alicorns or Star Swirl will create a minor cross-dimension distortion in front of Shadow Lock to let him know to put the piece back in."

The group ok'd the plan. Twilight was finishing writing three copies of the same letter and teleporting them off. "Just to be safe." Twilight stepped forward first. Shadow Lock started to levitate the piece, but Twilight first turned around to address everyone. "I don't know what we will face, but be ready for anything. I believe in all of you."

Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Thanks for the confidence boost, but we are all ready to fight. Sooner that piece gets in, the better."

Twilight grinned and nodded to Shadow Lock, who inserted the piece into the slot. Twilight bravely walked inside.

On the other side, It was a floating island with a familiar tree castle on it with a purple sky. However, there was no creature in sight, and no sounds could be heard. Rainbow would follow right behind her with her hooves up, but was let down that no one was around. "Hey, what gives?"

Luna stepped through, looking very confused. "This place was packed last time we were here. Don't let your guard down yet, they might all be inside."

As the group walked into the castle, they found the indoor section to be deserted as well. Luna lead them up the stairs to what formerly served as Eris's throne room. Where the throne would normally be was instead a pitch-black portal. Shadowy energy radiated from the spiraling vortex that was in front of them.

The group exchanged looks. They carefully, one after the other, stepped through.