If Chaos prevails...

by The Marshmallow

Interlude 3 - Regret

"...And this is His Super-Duper Majesty's super-duper secret room!" Pinkie Pie led the way, bouncing happily through the hidden door she had just opened. Small clouds of dust were raised at each of her leaps, and a mouldy smell came from the ancient room. From the little they could see in the darkness, it looked like it hadn't been entered in months, possibly years. Still, The pink pony was perfectly comfortable visiting it, and showing it to her new friends. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash? Not so much. Even the latter, usually so confident, was clearly not comfortable. She was probably wondering about the horrible secrets a creature such as Discord could hold, considering that not only everything cruel and horrible was in her mind already very possible, but she could hardly imagine what something embarrassing could look for him, since the Lord of Chaos was already the most random creature she had ever seen. Maybe on a tie with Pinkie? "Give me a moment, I think it's around here!"

The main reason the blue mare was boldly stepping in the darkness was that the even more afraid Fluttershy was leaning on her as if searching for protection, and she quite liked it. There were basically two kinds of rooms they had seen in their tour of the castle. The fairly normal, even boring ones, and the somehow messed up ones: gardens growing on the ceiling with gravity-defying waterfalls, little zoos with weirdly-mutated and often dangerous animals, corridors that led nowhere or that magically extended for kilometres, and so much more. She, too, had no idea what more the castle could hide, especially in such a mysterious and menacing place.

"Oh, here it is!" multiple multi-coloured tongues of fire started floating in the room, appearing close to its centre and slowly moving toward the walls. A well-choreographed show that made Rainbow Dash gasp in amazement, and startled Fluttershy a little bit. The first thing the two ponies could see was the smiling face of Pinkie Pie, then her hoof pressed against some strange glass globe on the floor. It was probably a magical artefact, the one that allowed her to light the room. It was not the only one, as mysterious objects were both scattered on the floor and put on some shelves, obviously without any label. As Dash, honestly quite curious, tentatively got closer to one of the items (Some kind of mantle) Pinkie Pie spoke again, always with her cheery tone "If I were you, I wouldn't touch this stuff. Half of them are, like, super dangerous weapons!" Dash quickly retracted her hoof, as Fluttershy simply squealed. "But there is a lot to see, anyway..."

As the flames got closer to the walls, finally the whole layout of the room was revealed. It was fairly large, it was octagonally shaped, and it had a weird stone pillar in the middle, about one meter in radius and two in height. There were some shelves here and there, but none was directly on a wall. The reason? Floating just at a few centimetres from each wall, at about one meter from the floor, there were windows in stained glass fairly similar to those in the Throne room. The style was possibly even more complex, the colours were more vibrant, and the depicted scenes were much more impactful. Some details were rendered with such skill and in such small size that some extremely skilled magician must have been involved. "Oh my gosh, those are Awesome!"

"Yep!" Pinkie smiled at Dash's excitement, hoping Fluttershy would appreciate too. But as much as she was timidly looking around, she didn't seem to be enjoying the scenes, but to actually be scared by them. Maybe Pinkie should have guessed that would happen, as the windows mostly showed epic battles, which were bound to be more to Dash's taste than to her.

On one there was a red centaur, seemingly taller than the buildings in ruin around him, grappling a Discord just as large as him. Bolts and rays of light were going in all directions, leaving holes in the mountains surrounding the scene. Another one was set in the desert, and there was a black insect-like mare on her knees while a very fearsome-looking Discord was looking down on her from the top of a pile of black shells. A beautiful palace was on the background, while in the sky there were some circles showing the face of many ponies, probably somehow involved with the story. A very impressive one involved Discord holding a cage in his paw, within which he kept a terrifying dragon, although in Discord's grasp looked powerless. Around them, there were hundreds of Dragons flying, and they were depicted in such detail that each one was clearly afraid, unwilling to get closer to the lord of Chaos.

Fluttershy's eyes ended focusing on maybe the simplest one. Under the light of the moon, in front of a castle within a forest, Discord and a white Alicorn were facing one another. There were hardly words fit to describe the expression of the first. An impossible rage was distorting his face, his teeth looked sharp as razors, his eyes were as red as flames, and his lips defined a devilish smile. Below his feet, there were many crystal shards of six different colours. The white pony, instead, was looking at him with tears in her eyes. There wasn't fear, just a sense of defeat and a sense of sadness that the yellow mare felt like her own. "M-maybe we shouldn't be here?"

"Oh, you definitely shouldn't be here!" With a voice like thunder, The figure of Discord manifested himself. Fluttershy Shrieked, while Rainbow Dash's first instinct, although she was terrified too, was to get between the monster and her most precious friend. Pinkie Pie, on the contrary, simply stood where she was, still smiling. She was the one Discord focused on first, addressing her with a low-pitched roar "Pinkie...?"

His demand for answers didn't go unanswered for long since with a still cheery tone Pinkie spoke just moments later: "Well, you said to give them a tour of the whole Castle except your bedroom, so..."

"No!" Discord was not pleased with the answer and quickly interrupted the pink pony. "I told you to show them all the castle except my private rooms." His gaze was surprisingly stern. Not furious like she looked in the ancient depictions, but menacing nonetheless. With a circular gesture of his paw he then pointed at the room they were in "This one was obviously included!"

Pinkie thought a bit about it, trying to recall his exact words, sporting for a few moments an intensively pensive expression on her face. She looked unconvinced. "No, you didn't!"

"H-he did...", Fluttershy whispered, barely audible. As both the mare's and Discord's gaze moved towards her tried to hide behind Dash even more "I think...?"

"See, here's somepony with a good memory!" Discord said, looking at Pinkie with the same stern look. Yet the tone of his voice didn't fully match it: "What do you have to say in your defence, Royal Advisor Pinkamena Diane Pie?" A white, oversized wig appeared on his head and a black robe covered his body. In his paw there was now a small gavel, which with a swift motion he moved down, suddenly stopping just below his own chest as if it had actually hit something, inexplicably producing a sonorous 'thud'. In front of Pinkie Pie there was now a witness stand.

"Uhm..." Again, whenever Pinkie looked pensive, it was pretty difficult to say if she was still acting jokingly or if she was actually serious. If any other pony had shown the same kind of expression or gestures, it would certainly have been taken as a mockery. But with Pinkie, it was just her normal self. "My bad?"

Discord sighed. It was not easy to stay mad at her. "Fine." All the stuff he had conjured vanished suddenly, as he turned his head towards the other two mares, that suddenly got even closer to one another, with Fluttershy still clearly trembling in fear. Discord expression softened almost immediately. "Promise me you will never come in here anymore, and I will answer a single question about what you have seen."

Both mares blinked for a few moments. They kind of expected some kind of punishment for the three of them, as if they had discovered some terrible secret they shouldn't have. But in the end, Discord seemed no more than mildly inconvenienced. For a secret getting out, he was taking it quite well. "I promise." Rainbow dash was obviously the first one to answer, and to take the chance to ask a question. She didn't think that much about it. "Who is that mare there, the white one who looks kind of like the Princess?"

Discord looked at the incriminated artwork for a few moments, which felt exceptionally long to everypony. He didn't look pleased, as if the scene brought painful memories back to his mind. But he kept his word nonetheless "I have been King for a thousand years, you know as much. But long before I had already been the ruler of Equestria. That is, until two sisters, both Alicorns..." At the look Dash was giving hem he explained: "Ponies with both wings and a horn..." The blue mare nodded. "Decided to usurp me."

With a movement of its claw, Discord conjured a sort of Diorama in front of him. The scene depicted a small village, built with an architectonic style that even the two of them could recognize as very ancient. The ground underneath showed a colourful checkered pattern only sometimes covered with patches of grass, large chunks of land, some with houses on them, were floating upside down, and strange creatures were jumping around chaotically. In the middle of the Chaos, inevitably, there was Discord himself, sitting on a golden throne and laughing. He also looked a lot more handsome and muscular than he actually was, and there was a mane of flowing blonde hair on his head. Nopony had the courage to point that out, though. "The older one was white, the younger dark Blue. Like me, they could move the sun and the moon with ease..." The two figures walked in the scene. The white one was surprisingly tall and walked with dignity and a posture worthy of a queen. What the sister lacked in the same kind of physique and grace, and compensated with the intensity and dignity of her gaze, which was pointing at Discord with disdain. Their horns lit up, and spell they had never seen started bolting toward the lord of Chaos, who still looked unconcerned as he deflected them all with ease. "They had powerful magic, for ponies, but even together couldn't match me. Until they found a powerful magical artefact, that is." Six gems appeared and started to swirl around them. A rainbow coloured wave of magic swallowed Discord moments later, leaving only a statue of him afterwards. Then the scene quickly changed.

There was now a beautiful forest, with a castle in ruin in the middle of it. It did seem relatively recent, but severely damaged by some terrible battle "They managed to imprison me in stone for who knows how many years, maybe even centuries. Until one day, in their lust for power, they started fighting among themselves." And so they appeared. The white one looked the same, while the younger was now as big as her, and many shades darker. As under discord all form of entertainment were strongly encouraged, even in the pegasus' city of Cloudsdale they had seen magic shows, and even some magic duels. It was clear that they were just at another level. Each ray of light and ball of fire conjured by the older one lit the clearing they were in like a small sun, while the dark and deadly blasts of her sister swallowed everything they touched, destroying trees and even leaving large and impossibly deep holes in the ground. Both, though, were agile enough to avoid most of them in their flight, and they shields and barriers they could conjure were no less powerful. " I don't know who started it, but both wanted to be the sole ruler of Equestria. Since their strength was perfectly matched, the battle lasted for many days. But in the end, the older one prevailed. Using the same artefact that petrified me, she sealed her sister on the moon forever" The figure of the black princess vanished as a ray of rainbow light hit her, while on the moon above the scene the familiar face appeared. "Still, as the artefact could only be powered by them both. As the harmony between them broke, my curse was lifted, and I could banish her. So I took what was mine, and the rest is History." Discord looked for a moment at the stained glasses around him, "Almost all of it, obviously" And then laughed, although it sounded a bit forced.

"Wait, so there really were other princesses!?" Dash looked somehow interested. She had never even considered the fact. cadence was, as far as she knew, the only one of her kind. many had even theorized she was a new form of evolution for ponies, as Nopony remembered anything like her. "And the mare face on the moon hasn't always been there? And what magical artefact was that? And..."

"tsk tsk tsk" Discord shook his head, a single raised claw swinging left and right. "You asked one question, and I answered. No more for you." A pouty expression was now on the mare's face, and it looked like she wanted to complain. Discord didn't give her the time. "Fluttershy, dear, what about you?"

"I-I promise..." that was the first thing, preceding everything else by many seconds. It felt somehow obliged to agree to the conditions, although she had no intention to come back to that room anyways. But since she had the chance, she thought it could just as well ask the one question that had been on her mind for quite a while. "Y-your super duper majesty... I..."

"Discord is fine!" he interrupted, trying to sound as suave as possible. In a few days they would have married, it was better to drop all the formalities. A light bulb suddenly appeared above his head "Or we could think of some nickname, it's a wonderful Idea!"

"D-Discord..." For Fluttershy just calling him by name was pushing it. She couldn't even imagine finding the courage to call him by something as intimate as a nickname "Why did you hide these in here? Is there..." her voice was shaking a bit, she was thinking of stopping, to avoid that question... But somehow she felt it was necessary to know "Something you regret?"

"Nrgh..." Discord expression had changed completely. The muscles on his face tensed considerably, as he tried to keep his light-hearted facade with poor results. She had hit the mark, and he didn't like it. After a few more seconds in which his expression kept changing, he finally settled on a smile, surprising the three mares. "Those... Those are two questions! So I'll answer the first one, as agreed..."

"Count the second one as mine!"

Discord stopped. For a moment, his right eye twitched. He turned his head toward his royal advisor, looking at her in disbelief. his mo9uth opened, but he was incapable of speaking. then it close. For a moment in his eyes there were rage and feelings of betrayal, but they didn't last. Then he looked like he was considering his options, and his pupils moved frenetically around the room, maybe searching fo a diversion. Finally, he sighed "Et tu, Pinkie?"

Pinkie was not smiling as usual, and her upper teeth were biting on her lower lip in a slightly contrived expression. She felt bad for doing this, but her eyes were still filled with determination. She was doing it for him. It was the right thing to do. And many other things she repeated in her mind. But before speaking again, she had to swallow, and breathe "I... I think it is important for you to answer. Especially since you are going to marry her..." And that was not just the opinion of the Royal advisor Pinkie Pie. It was the opinion of the mare, of the friend, Pinkie Pie. And against that, there was little Discord could do.

"I see." laconic, Discord looked for a moment at Pinkie, and then at Fluttershy. He could now see what was happening. And he didn't like it. Or did he? Pinkie Pie was the only mare capable of taking him constantly by surprise, and this was certainly surprising. Not in an amusing way, sure, but he kind of understood what she was trying to achieve. And, on the other hoof, he had promised. So, he started.

"Some of the stories I hid here are a bit too... Graphic, so to speak, for Pony's tastes. My war against an army of Dragons? Believe me, that wasn't pretty. And in some of these stories, I wouldn't look as good as I should. Sometimes, when you are King, you have to do what you have to do. I don't think Ponies would really like to know the exact details of how I protected them, and I certainly don't want to tell. I have a reputation, you know?" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, but luckily he didn't notice. he simply went on "And, believe me, there are creatures so terrible that is just better not to remember them." His look went towards the depiction of the red centaur. The only one in the room in which it looked like Discord was struggling. "But I thought that, even if Everypony else should forget, I should not. This is the reason I made these. Pulled them from my memory, and my magic did the rest." The level of versatility of Chaos magic was on another level compared to unicorn magic, especially since it relied much more on instinct than on reasoning. A pony would have had to carve and put every single fragment of glass in its place. He just had to think of the figure with enough detail and throw some magic at it.

"Some, I thought of them as friends. Some, They did to me things they shouldn't have. One..." His look went on the white alicorn "Did defeat me!" And in saying this, even though he himself thought it had accepted the fact, his voice cracked for a moment in rage. It was the only time in his life he lost a battle. A Draconeequs like him was not meant to know defeat at the hooves of ponies, it was unacceptable "I have this personal rule. The most important one..." he thought about it for a moment "Maybe the only one I have." That didn't at all sound ominous. "When I have to punish somepony, it has to be fun! Disobedient employees, Criminals, Even enemies... I have a pretty good track record, and I personally insisted that my best punishments were put in history books!" Yes, he was way too proud. But even pinkie somehow agreed with him. Sure, sometimes he went overboard... But in general, his punishments were both fair and fun. And the entire Equestrian legal system was strongly influenced by that in (at least in her opinion) a good way. "But a few times I got angry, really angry, and then I didn't uphold my own rule."

It was almost unnecessary for him to speak further. fluttershy could easily read the regret in her face, a sense of disappointment in himself that she didn't even think the Lord of Chaos could have. And after a few seconds, she simply asked: "W-what did you do, then?"

"Celestia...", he whispered, before correcting himself "The white alicorn. She had the magic of all the three kinds of ponies, she had the whole kingdom for herself, which she obtained defeating her sister, and would even have raised and set both the sun and the moon by herself. Moving the sun was her talent, her 'cutie mark'." She had everything Discord imagined a pony could want. "At the time I thought it would be fun to take away everything from her as she had done long before petrifying me." it sounded like a good idea. Even fun. He was probably laughing while doing it "I weakened her body so she wouldn't have the strength of an earth pony, I weakened her wings so she wouldn't fly like a pegasus, and I made her horn useless so she wouldn't cast magic like a unicorn" At the idea of a pegasus losing his ability to fly, Rainbow dash shivered already. That was cruel... and was only the beginning "I took back MY kingdom, obviously..." here he paused for a few long seconds "Then I cursed her so that the light of the sun would burn her. Isn't it ironic? The princess of the sun without the possibility of seeing the sun ever again..." Discord wasn't smiling. There was a certain melancholy in his gaze, maybe even a little bit of shame "It seemed a fitting punishment. I think I even laughed as she ran away." Discord looked for a moment at Pinkie. She seemed sad. A bit disappointed even, although she already knew the story. But he could see that she was still supportive of him. Moving toward Fluttershy, his eyes passed on Rainbow Dash for a moment; she was in equal measures disgusted and terrified. But nothing hurt as seeing his bride-to-be simply crying. "But thinking back at it, not even once I thought of it as funny..."

There was silence for a few long moments, and again the one who broke it was Fluttershy. At this point, the rule Discord had set earlier was not so relevant, so she asked: "Did you ever see her again?"

Discord thought for a few moments about it "No. Alicorn can potentially live forever and are pretty tough... But they are not immortal. With what I did to her, I doubt she could have survived a thousand years." He sighed, there was nostalgia in his voice "She was quite the mare. After I robbed her of everything, she did barely show fear. You know what she said as she was running away?" Pinkie knew the answer already, but the other two looked quite curious "Mark my words, Discord..." She tried somehow to imitate a female voice, although she barely remembered what she sounded like. The flowing iridescent mane he had conjured on his own head was quite accurate though "Even if Chaos prevails, Order will soon be restored!" he chuckled at that. A sad laugh. "So much for that, I guess. It's a pity, she might have been such a fun rival..." A long sigh got out of his mouth, then he looked at Fluttershy. His very voice sprung back to normal, almost suddenly: "Well, that's it! Did I answer your question?"

"Y-yes" It was all she was able to say. She didn't even know what to think. He did horrible things, sure, but somehow he recognized them as such. And he did show to her his ponylike side, which she really didn't expect. Behind the facade of confidence and arrogance of the Lord of Chaos, there was so much more...

"Time to go, then" The voice of Discord echoed for a moment, taking her away by her train of thought. The door of the room suddenly closed, and the flames that brought light to it started to fade. In just a snap, they were back to the throne room. Fluttershy had barely the time to give a last look to the crying white mare. "Hope you had a nice tour of the castle, besides that last... Place" Discord's expression was now the same as always, characterized by a large smile, probably a bit too smug to make it pleasant. But Fluttershy doubted she had really left everything else behind. Now that she knew the truth, it seemed to her that in every wrinkle and in every little movement of her facial muscles there was some deeper meaning. And suddenly she had started to think that even somepony like Discord, sometimes, might need to be comforted. Like one of her creatures. Maybe, just maybe, like one of her friends?

"By the way, I was disappointed nopony asked about the artefacts. It took centuries to collect all of them... there was pretty cool stuff in there...", Discord mused, clearly intentioned to tease the three ponies. Rainbow dash bit the hook instantly

"Like what?" There was honest curiosity in the blue mare, even a certain eagerness.

"Not telling! You already had your question answered..." Just like that, Discord was back at having fun as always.

"That's unfair! You answered more of Fluttershy's questions!" And somehow, Fluttershy felt that even for Rainbow Dash might have found her place there at the castle. Pinkie... Cadence... everypony was so kind to them.

"Did I?" Sometimes even Discord, who right now was badly feigning innocence. Maybe she should have tried to get used to her situation. It felt like it was for the best. Marrying Discord... It could not have been all that bad, could it?

Fluttershy, so assorted in her own thoughts, did not notice how Pinkie Pie was looking at her, in those brief few moments. there a smile on her face, and just a pinch of melancholy in her eyes. Somehow, she looked satisfied. As if everything was falling into place.

Author's Note:

This should have a been a quick and nice interlude, like the previous two. Just a few info about the lore and Discord's point of view. In and out, Twenty minutes adventure.... Six days later, it somehow became the longest chapter I've written.

I've been worrying a bit while writing this if I had been developing Discord too quickly, making him too sympathetic, or even just revealing too much... But overall I think it fits well with the duplicity of his character.

Also, I had some fun writing this... I hope you liked it too!

With love,
The Marshmallow

Comments

[Destructor055]

Did Pinkie plan the whole thing so that Fluttershy could see that side of Discord? If so, Pinkie is a really chess master