I am Ruin

by XHunter

Chapter 2 - Getting Schooled

When Discord appeared in front of Adam, he thought that he must have fallen asleep before he pulled the trigger; or that he did pull it, and the bullet had somehow failed to kill him. A walking zoo coming to him with the offer of a “better life” had to have been some manifestation of his imagination. But that was all before he had signed that contract.

As soon as Discord had finished saying his name Adam found himself…somewhere. It was a vast empty void with no color, not even black. Adam couldn’t feel his body, he was everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. The only feeling within the emptiness was the constant pain.

I-It hurts, was the only thought he could form. The pain was immense. It felt as though every fiber of his being was stretched until it ripped apart. The pain told Adam that none of this could be some manifestation of his subconscious. He would never conceive of torture like this, not even for the few people he hated. It was in this pain that he floated for what felt like an eternity.

“Oops, one second,” a familiar voice pierced through the void. Within the abyss, Adam could swear he was hearing the sound of someone trying to start a gasoline engine. After a third attempt, the engine finally started, and he could feel the pain subsiding.

Gradually, sensation began to return to his body. The void slowly took form. The first thing Adam saw was the white, flat, unending floor that expanded in every direction. Complimenting the floor was a baby blue sky. In front of Adam stood Discord next to a generator; which the Chaos Lord proceeded to snap out of existence.

“Sorry, I forget how terrible crossing can be for the inexperienced,” Adamcould barely understand what Discord was saying as he was recovering from the abruptness of having a body again. He was shaking from the phantom pain throughout his body.

“W-wha’,”mummered Adam. Discord, huffing, snapped his fingers and summoned a bucket; which he proceeded to splash Adam with. “FUCK!” Adam snapped into focus, Liquid now covering him from head to toe.

“Look, we have much to discuss. If you’re going to be the new Lord of Chaos™, then you need to know what you’re supposed to do.” A whiteboard appeared behind Discord as he was now dressed in a brown suit and glasses.

Still shaking Adam glared at Discord, ”What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Hmm?”

“You send me to some torture zone and then decide to splash me with—wait, is this lemonade?” a small trickle of the liquid had managed to reach his tongue.

“Well duh, water is so obvious a choice. Lemonade is much more unexpected.”

“Okay look,” Adam took a quick breath to calm himself, “just give me a moment to recover,” he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths while lightly rubbing his left arm for a moment. Discord stood there, crossing his arms and tapping his claw.

After ten seconds Adam opened his eyes, “Why did you splash me with lemonade?”

“Well if you weren’t being such a drama queen I wouldn’t have to,” Discord said.

“Lis-” Adam tried to blurt, but Discord put a finger to his mouth before he could finish.

“Atatata, we have limited time before we reach Equestria and I don’t want to waste it listening to your complaints.”

Adam glared at Discord, “Fine.”

Discord removed his finger from Adam's mouth. Snapping his fingers, a school desk appeared beside Adam, “Have a seat.”

Adam obliged. Discord cleared his throat and summoned a teaching pointer, “As Lord of Chaos™ it is your job to sow chaos throughout the land, big or small,” Discord tapped the whiteboard. The word “CHAOS” appeared on it.

“So what, I go around destroying things?”

“That is one way to do it, yes; but there are many more. Your core purpose is to incite change. It is the goal of Chaos to keep the world evolving and moving forward, and never becoming complacent and stagnant.”

“Okay, then what are these other ways to cause chaos? I thought destruction was, like, the whole goal of chaos.”

“That is where we shall correct your understanding of chaos. Chaos desires change, and destruction is but one of many ways to achieve said change.” A drawing of a ruined city appeared on the whiteboard while a mysterious smoke billowed out of it, flowing harmlessly into the plane around them.

“As an example of what else you can do, take me for instance. I create chaos through pranks and gags, much like the first Lord of Chaos Loki,” replied Discord as a green poorly-drawn wolf-man wearing a shirt that said “Loki” appeared on the board, accompanied by a box of various prank toys: Whoopie cushions, joy buzzers, and so forth.

“And an example of chaos through acts of good is Set, at least in his early years.” A canine that looked similar to Loki drawn in red appeared, wearing a shirt with the name “Set” written upon it. It went around cleaning up the pranks Loki left around. Eventually, the two drawings encountered each other. Loki started arguing with Set upon finding his pranks being removed.

“By the way, just so you don’t ask me later, no, those two never met. Although that would be a sight to behold,” Discord chuckled at the thought.

After a while, the two drawings seemed to come to a truce. Set offered his hand to Loki, and Loki accepted. Immediately, Loki went aflame and burned to a pile of ash while Set laughed. Discord spoke up, “As I said, Set was good at the start.” The drawing of Set turned to Adam and revealed one of Loki’s joy buzzers in his hands, though this one had red flames half haphazardly drawn onto it.

Adam looked back at Discord, “So then there isn’t a set way to cause chaos. As long as I cause change, it’s good enough.” Adam paused in thought for a second, “How often do I have to cause chaos?”

“Right now, whenever you want. The incarnation of harmony: The Tree of Harmony ” —Discord tapped the whiteboard. A drawing of a crystalline tree appeared on it— “has been relatively inactive in recent times. The last time it caused something big was the creation of those blasted Elements of Harmony.

“Those elements pushed the scales, so my father, Mayhem, had to cause a lot of chaos over a thousand years ago to keep the world in balance.” Upon the board, a creature similar looking to Discord appeared. Adam guessed it was Mayhem as it was poorly drawn, making it hard to tell whether the differences were purposeful or accidental due to a lack of skill.

Adam found it a little interesting that Discord would have a father. He assumed because Discord was some kind of “Spirit of Disharmony,” he just popped into the existence of Equestria, “What did he do?” he asked.

“Mayhem decided to do something of equal impact, create a second Lord of Chaos™! A.k.a, mwah.” Discord proudly pointed at himself as another drawing that looked closer to Discord appeared on the whiteboard. It was smaller than Mayhem and started to mock the tree by blowing raspberries.

Adam’s curiosity peaked. “How powerful are we? I mean, I’ve seen you create stuff out of nothing, but what I’m understanding is that he just created life. I’m only assuming, but since you had to make a contract with someone to bring over my soul implies it’s above your power to directly manipulate them; let alone create one.”

“What an inquisitive cookie you are!” Discord proudly exclaimed, poking Adam’s cheek, causing a gold star to appear upon it.

“You are right in assuming that we cannot create life nor manipulate souls. So dear old dad had to go do it the good old fashion way and shack up a lady.”

“So there’s a race of Chaos Lords?”

“No, he simply imbued me with chaos magic during my development.”

“Then what is your species?”

Discord puffed out his chest and pointed towards himself, “I am a draconequus!” a golden glow appeared around him, “And soon you will be too.”

“Wait, why didn’t you just have your own kid and pass down the title to them?”

“One, being a Lord is not a title, it is a state of being. That is why a second one existing is so impactful. Second, I’m doomed to be out of commission soon, having a kid would take far too long. And third, even if I wanted a kid before, I couldn’t. I am the last draconequus. Well, technically, now you’re the last draconequus.”

“Um, what happened to the rest?” Adam was starting to question what he got himself into. If the draconqui had all presumably died somehow, and now Discord was soon to die, was he being thrust into a world that would hunt him?

It’s the only thing that makes sense. A whole species doesn’t just disappear. Maybe they were hunted for their horns? Kinda like a few species on Earth, Adam thought.

“That’s not important, I’ll tell you later,” Discord ignored the question, “Anyway, let’s continue onto the topic of magic.” The whiteboard cleared, and “MAGIC” was soon spelled onto it, “I have decided that you’ll be going in with very little magic.”

Adam crossed his arms, “If you can control how much I’m going to have why are you not making me as strong as you? If you want me to create chaos wouldn’t it be better for me to be stronger?”

“While yes I would like you to cause tons of chaos, I can’t risk you accidentally flipping reality on its head and angering the wrong ponies. Everything I’m doing would be pointless if you immediately got sealed in stone or something. Plus you’re a being that has never even touched magic before. Not even your soul is magical. If you were to gain all the power I possess, you would lose control easily.”

“That reminds me, you didn’t answer my other question. How strong are you, and by extension, how strong will I get?” Adam assumed Discord was a reality bender. He could summon objects from nothing and animate drawings. However, there was a whole range of power Discord could have with manipulating reality. There was a big difference between creating a whiteboard and some clothes and destroying worlds.

Discord placed his clawed hand to his chin and thought for a second, “Hmmm, if I felt like it, I could temporarily delete the concept of the color red from existence. Of course, magic on that level would have its consequences.”

Th-that’s not simple reality manipulation. He can just decide what the rules of reality were! Adam was dumbfounded. The titles, Lord of Chaos and Spirit of Disharmony, did little justice to the strength Discord possessed. If someone told Adam that Discord made his universe, he wouldn’t doubt it. “And um, I can do that too.”

“Oh of course, and probably easier too.”

“What! How!” Adam found it hard to believe Discord nonchalantly said he’d find deleting the color red easy.

Discord tapped the whiteboard, and a circle labeled “soul” appeared upon it with the inside shaded shortly after. “You see, magic is partially linked to the soul. The stronger your soul is, the stronger your magic, naturally.” Discord tapped the whiteboard once more, and another circle appeared, this one slightly bigger than the first. ”Since your new soul will be comprised of your current one and half of mine, it’ll be stronger than most others. Mine included.” A third soul appeared on the board, three times larger than the second.

“Wait, only half of yours?” Adam asked, perplexed.

“It’s the reason I need someone to be the next Lord of Chaos™. I’ve unfortunately lost half of my soul to those ponies I was talking about earlier. You can’t live for long if you lose too much of your soul.” Discord purposefully omitted that half of it was just sealed in stone and that he’d be fine if he let the rest of it get sealed as well. Adam nodded his head in understanding.

“Now we’ve got a bit of time before we reach Equestria, so any more questions?”

Discord was inviting Adam to ask anything beyond his role as Lord of Chaos, he would have to ask the more important ones first. Adam took a moment to think, I need to know what to expect. In case I’m placed somewhere dangerous, thus Adam asked, “Okay, where will I be appearing in Equestria?”

“Oh! I completely forgot about that. You’ll be appearing in the small town of Ponyville. I can’t believe I forgot that considering you’ll be right at the hooves of the ponies who’ve almost killed me.”

“The people trying to kill you? Won’t they just kill me instead as soon as I get there?! Can’t you place me somewhere else?!” the incompetence on display was surprising to Adam. How could Discord be so strong and yet not think to place him somewhere safe?

“There’s no point in yelling at me because I can’t send you anywhere else except for where I’m at. And besides, you’re in no real danger. They’re all practically pacifists, too compassionate to harm anyone, not even a fly.”

What Discord just said caught Adam's attention. Discord just described them as pacifists. And while Discord perceived him as a bit gullible, Adam was a good listener; you don’t get a scholarship to a prestigious university for nothing. That discrepancy led Adam to a thought: Why did they attack Discord? If Discord was being truthful about them being pacifists Adam could conclude one thing: Discord attacked first.

I might have gotten myself into trouble. I should have asked questions before I signed that contract! It was an easy slip-up on Discord’s part, but now Adam was questioning what Discord did and why he needed Adam. He would’ve asked why Discord was attacked, but he didn’t want to risk the ire of the draconequus. Even if Discord only had half his soul, it was clear he was still extremely powerful. And although Discord had been so far benign, it could all be a farce.

“Okay,” Adam replied simply, choosing to play it safe and move on, ”What’s my new body going to be? Am I going to be, like, a clone of you?” His having the appearance of Discord was now a risk. There wasn’t much said about the body in the contract, and Discord hadn’t talked about it in detail.

“No. You’ll be my offspring. I wanted your cover story to be that you’re my child. If they think that you’re simply a foal, they’ll be hesitant to do any harm to you.” Another admission that they were kind.

“But I’d still look like you, it would just be cloning still. Unless you got a surrogate, but you told me you didn’t have a kid.”

“That's why I got a bit of help. I transformed your DNA into draconequus DNA, combined it with my own, and then aged up the resulting body. So congrats you’re your own father!”

Adam chose to Ignore the 'father' comment. He wouldn’t pretend he knew the magic behind what Discord did, but if his DNA was made ‘draconeq’ why didn’t he make a body using that, “If you were able to change my DNA, then why didn’t you use it for the body?”

“The appearance of draconequi can vary wildly. I wanted to ensure you at least looked somewhat like me,” Discord explained.

Adam didn’t trust that Discord told him the whole truth. After his first slip-up, Adam was now analyzing his words more carefully. If Discord wanted to keep Adam safe, it would’ve been better for him to have a completely different appearance. However, it seemed Discord wanted them to know that he was directly involved. But why?

“Ahem,” Discord interrupted Adam’s thoughts, “We’re about to arrive.” Discord pulled up his wrist, and upon it was an incredibly large watch with random numbers on it, “We have time for one last question so be quick.”

Adam needed to ask the right question. Despite everything Discord had told him, none of it could be used to figure out what Discord was planning. In thought, Adam remembered the contract. Discord needed help, and he had said nothing about who helped him. Discord had said nothing about ‘Primum’. Even if asking who Primum was didn’t explain what Discord planned, it would still be more info on an unknown.

“Who’s Primum?” Adam asked. He was afraid that Discord would dodge it like the question about the draconequi, but what he said surprised him.

“Ooooo, that’s a question with a really long answer. So, I’ll summarize it.” Discord's voice took a nervous tone. “Now this is something that will most definitely be restricted for you to say. Primum doesn’t like it when those he isn’t involved with know about him,” Discord took a breath, “but since you’re a part of the contract you’re allowed to know.

“Primum is the most powerful being in all of our reality. Remember how I said I could delete the color red temporarily? Primum can do that permanently with ease. He is essentially the equivalent of your idea of a god; it’s far easier to list what he can’t do, than what he can. Luckily for all of us, he chooses to be a spectator. He only ever gets involved when you come to him or when he wants to ‘add more drama.’” Discord finished, air-quoting the last part.

What Adam heard did not yield the answers he was looking for. Instead, it left him with another: Where does he fit in now? Discord acquired the help of an essential god, and he needed Adam for some reason.

“Now with your last question answered we can continue,” Discord said as he snapped his fingers, the contract and a portal appearing in front of the two of them, “Once we both step through this portal Primum’s contract will handle everything.”

Despite his doubts about Discord's ulterior motives, Adam felt a tingle of anticipation. Right in front of him was a portal that would lead to a new life, one where he could avoid being a failure this time. Adam took a deep breath and stepped through.

Comments

[Posh]

“Sorry, I forget how terrible crossing can be for the inexperienced,” Alex could barely understand what Discord was saying as he was recovering from the abruptness of having a body again. He was shaking from the phantom pain throughout his body.

I think the protagonist’s name should change randomly once per chapter, without comment from the narration or characters. I think he should be named Rodney in the next chapter.

[sansblaster21]

11490655
totally xd

[XHunter]

11490655

Talk about embarrassing lol. Thanks for pointing it out. Don't know how that got passed me and my editor.

Anyway fixed.

[DiscordantDisciple]

The references to other fics... its too much! (NOT REALLY I LIKE THEM A BUNCH)