Discord's Game

by Background_Pony

[1] Of harps, wubs, cellos, and sweets

I can't decide

Whether you should live or die

Oh, you'll probably go to heaven

Please don't hang your head and cry

No wonder why my heart feels dead inside

It's cold and hard and petrified

Lock the doors and close the blinds

We're goin' for a ride!

Discord is known for a haughtily twisted smile lined with sharp teeth almost always present on his face, but now the maniacal grin was tugged into a tight frown. The draconaquus was perched anxiously on the edge of Celestia's throne, drumming his talons impatiently against the gold. He had everything he wanted; good food, plenty of chaos to go around, a nice place to curl up and take a nap, but the god of chaos was bored out of his mind.

He heaved a loud sigh and thumped his long scaly tail on the floor a couple of times, wondering how long he could put up with this. Discord mused over everything previous villains had done. Imprisonment, slavery, food sources, he counted the list off on each of his talons. When he got to the end of the list, he had used his wings, tail, and feet.

"Releasing a deadly plague has been done, so has a fighting arena- wait." The draconaquus quickly rushed through the list again, and he realized that a fighting arena hadn't been done yet. He began to snicker, propping his feet up on the head of the stone Luna statue. The quiet giggles turned to rolling chuckles, and the chuckles to snorting chortles, and then to roaring guffaws that echoed through the palace and back.

When Discord came to, tears were in his eyes and his sides hurt. "Oh Discord," he snarled, gripping the armrest of the throne and watching jovially as the claws to his lion paw slowly left large serrations in the fine leather. "You maniacal genius."

Meanwhile, it was a peaceful day in Ponyville. A light pink mare with three balloons for a cutie mark sat strumming a ukelele beneath a peach tree and singing along in a relaxed way.

"Oh, there's no where I'd rather be, than just here with you and me under a pe-a-a-ch tree," She reached over and tweaked the cyan, rainbow-maned mare's ear, scrunching her nose in a little smile. "Because peaches are sweet and so are you-ou-ou, and Dashie, oh yeah it's so-o-o-o true."

It seemed to be the end of the short ditty since she ended with a livelyhood of jaunty chords.

But not all was well in Ponyville.

"Unhand me, you ruffians!!" A gray earth pony shrieked, bucking the guards who restrained her in the legs. "I demand an explanation!!"

Her unicorn marefriend was putting up as much as a fight for the guards as she did, and maybe even a greater one. "KISS MY BASS, FOAL!!!" Vinyl Scratch bellowed, slamming an ivory hoof onto the button atop the boombox speakers.

A sonorous wave of wub whipped towards the white pegasi, knocking them backwards and crashing them into a counter. They glared at her but she just smiled a devilish smile as the knife block above them came hurdling towards them.

Scratch released a haughty cackle and sprinted to the commotion from the other side of the house.

Octavia had put up quite the fight, with two guards unconcious in the corner and one staggering out the door with a bloody nose. The gray earth pony stood on her back legs, cello in her hooves like a sword and breathing ragged heaves.

A guard began to regain conciousness in the corner and stumble to his feet, when Octavia swung the bass towards his head and across his face. He was launched into a calendar on the wall, landing with a thump. So I guess you could say he was hit into next week!

BA DUM CHHHH!

No?

Anyway, Octavia brushed a lock of her mane away from her eyes and leaned against her cello, giggling quietly to herself. She glanced at Vinyl and smiled an all too relaxed smile.

"Remind me NEVER to get on your bad side, Tavi." Vinyl Scratch ruffled the cellist's mane and winked.

In the rafters, a pony with hoofalls silent as night and a coat twice as blue watched in disgust as the marefriends rejoyced. On her hip was a rope with a small leather bag tied tight. She wrapped her hind legs around the wood beams and reached back, careful not to drop it onto the ponies below. She scooped a small amount of the silken dust from the bag and let out a breath.

It was just above a whisper, but the glimmering purple dust fell lightly onto Octavia and Vinyl.

They sneezed groggily, Vinyl leaning sleepily on her marefriend. Octavia swayed peacefully on her back hooves, then walked over and curled up on the couch with Vinyl in tow.

The cerulean pony above them snickered and jumped down, making no noise when her hooves hit the carpet. Her cutie mark gleamed in the sunlight, a moon with a wand beside it. Her horn glowed a misty pink as she levitated a rope from her waist.

With a swift movement, she tied the two up and slung them over her back, then teleported to Canterlot castle without a sound.

Meanwhile, in the cottage of Lyra and Bon Bon, their hooves were tied and they were plopped on a cart, glaring at anypony who stared; although there few and the sounds of distant shouting could be heard from many of the houses.

"If you wanna live a day in the dungeon, you'll stay shut up," one of the guards who was pulling the cart jeered, leering at the two mares.

"And what if I feel like singing all night?" Bon Bon hissed, challenging the stallion. "Oh come all ye scallywags, sing along with me, we are the royal bloods, the terrors of the sea! We pillage and plunder and we never compromise, we'll sail these raging waters till we take our glorious prize!"

"I told you not to make up that bar song," the other guard grunted, shouldering the pegasus next to him.

"WE RUN FROM NO ENEMY AND WE CAN FEEL NO PAIN!!!" Bon Bon bellowed, even louder than before.

One of the female guards jetted towards her from the skies, grinning a pointed smile and pulling out a golden dagger. "Keep singing and we'll see how well you can carry on that little ditty of yours without a tongue!" she pressed the tip of the blade to Bon Bon's chest, making a small nick.

Bon Bon's mouth snapped shut, but she continued glaring at the guards in front of her. A bead of blood formed over the cut and the pegasus wiped it away. "Watch your back."

The guard turned her back to the mare and snarled in a voice that was unearthly. "Discord doesn't take kindly to fillyfooling morons like you."

The cream colored mare gritted her teeth but stayed silent. She cursed the guard in her head again and again, wishing she would off herself with that puny dagger of her's.

Lyra sat trembling beside her marefriend, lip quivering and tail wrapped tightly around Bon Bon's. She didn't know where she was going and what she was going to do. A tear slid from her eye, landing with a tiny splash on the wood of the cart. It sent up a puff of dust that fell just as quickly, similar to her heart.

When Octavia woke up, she saw a blurred figure of a tiny cello and a greyish brown blob standing far away. She didn't feel her mane falling in gentle curves down her back, nor her tail swishing softly as she walked forward to the minute cello.

Her vision cleared from it's groggy state and she saw that it wasn't a tiny cello, but a gleaming violin with a bow to match. The greyish brown blob was Discord, waiting expectantly on Celestia's throne with his chin held in a paw.

"Play," he commanded, pointing at the violin. Octavia hesitantly picked up the violin and ran the bow across the strings in a smooth movement, pressing it into her shoulder.

A horrible screeching noise ripped from the instrument. The gray earth pony winced and laughed nervously. "I must admit that my violin playing is a bit rusty but..." her voice trailed off as she tried again.

A silky noise lifted her hopes and she began playing the song she had been practicing when she last tried playing a violin. It swooped and fell, taking Discord's breath away as the final note gently drifted through the palace.

"Good job." He sighed and sat up straight. "Shoo, your marefriend Vinyl is waiting for you in the dungeon." Immediately, two night guards appeared beside her, expressions stoic and blank.

"Wait- dungeon?!" Octavia was whisked off in a puff of blue smoke, violin still in hoof while the night guards still stood.

"She can wait. Bring in that Frederic Horse whatever," Discord grumbled, snapping his talons and thumping his tail against the head of the Celestia statue.

Octavia landed with a thump in a prison cell that had Vinyl bucking at the barred door with all her strength. When Octavia lurched to her feet, Vinyl gasped and pulled her into the most crushing hug possible. "OMIGOSHOCTYDON'TYOUEVERLEAVEMEAGAINAND Oh god what did they do to your mane."

"What?? I swear to god if they cut it I'll-" Octavia's throat was seized by shock as she looked at her reflection in the small mirror on the wall. Her mane was cut short in a bob, not even close to well done.

"I-I'm no b-beauty queen b-b-but," Octavia stuttered, feeling faint and wobbling on her hooves. "I can't be seen like this." She fell on the cot chained to the wall, nothing breaking her fall except for a cheap thin blanket and an equally as thin matress.

"We'll get out of here," Vinyl whispered, climbing in the cot on the oposite wall, tears in her eyes. "Once I figure out where here is."

Night fell, but sleep didn't come easy for any of the ponies in the cells. Weary convsation drifted from room to room, stirring the guards every once and a while. Lyra sat on the cot on the far wall, the thin blanket wrapped tightly around her thin frame for warmth. Heavy hearted sighs could be heard from every cell, and every once and a while a muffled sob broke the uneasy silence. The mint green unicorn's heart ached and she yearned to wrap her arms around Bon Bon in a tight hug, never letting go. Unfortunately as a punishment, Bon Bon had been placed in a cell far from her marefriend's.

The guards had been generous enough to allow her to bring along her lyre. It was propped up on the empty cot across from her, gleaming a silvery-gold glow in the gentle moonlight from the minute window on the wall beside her.

Lyra reached over and gingerly took the harp in her hooves, plucking each string to make sure it was in tune. The guards had drifted off to sleep, snoring comically and leaning against each other.

She tried to remember the tune to the song Bon Bon had wailed on the way there, gently dragging the tip of her hoof along each string to get the melody right.

"Oh come all ye scallywags," she murmured, voice barely above a whisper. She played through the first part, but the jaunty, rebelious song was nothing more than a breath of a melody.

Bon Bon's singing was fiercer than this. She tried again and was delighted at the sound. She went through it again and again.

"We pillage and plunder, cause you know we've got the nerve," a voice like the coo of a mourning dove sang, drifting into her ears.

"We'll sail these roaring waters 'till we take what we deserve," a raspy voice joined in, accompanied by the silken notes of a violin.

Lyra was shocked. The prisoners- ponies, just like her- were singing along with her harp. She grinned a wild grin and kept playing. The singers slowly got louder until they filled the entire dungeon up with sonourus voices.

A familiar voice rang out through all of the joyful tumult. There was no mistaking it: Bon Bon was singing her heart out, throwing caution to the wind.

When the sun rose, earnest and bright, they were finishing their ninth way through.

"Just re-sign to your faaate," everypony sang, "soon you'll be made into Diamond Dog bait!"

The doors at the top of the spiral staircase leading to the castle flew open with a slam, immediately silencing everypony in the cells and stopping Lyra and whomever was playing the violin.

A VERY angry looking draconaquus stormed down the stairs, tail thumping against the stair case with loud cracks. When he got to the bottom, he looked as if he would tear somepony's head off in a matter of seconds.

"What," he shouted, voice echoing through the dungeon and frightening everypony enough to make them scoot to the corner of their cell. "is the meaning of this?!"

Everypony stayed dead silent, fearing for their life. After a multitude of agonizing minutes, a sharp voice spoke out.

"We were singing!" it quipped, the tone having a stunning likeness to a scalpel on a feather pillow; pretty and sophisticated, but able to make everything terrible in a fraction of seconds. Everypony's head whipped towards the source. It was Quill, a weatherpony with a tongue that could leave scars in hickory bark. Her friend Echo stood behind her, glaring a wide eyed smirk. "aren't we allowed to have fun? And who do you think you are, ponynapping all of us! We aren't puppets, genius! We're living, breathing ponies who were made to have some fun in life! Not mindless pit-dogs who know nothing but anger, strife, and bloodshed!!"

Discord's fists clenched, talons and claws digging into the palms of his hand. His ears fluttered angrily, eyes narrowed to vengeful slits. He snarled under his breath, cursing the insolent pegasus.

Another voice broke the tension, raspy and loud. "And one more thing!" it shouted.

Discord spun around to face the voice, seething with rage. "Why the buck did you bring us here, trap us in tiny cells like caged animals, and then not tell us!?"

The draconaquus opened his mouth to say something, but a chorus of agreement cut him short.

"Damn straight!" one shouted, accompanied by a clank of metal.

"Who do you thing you buckin' are?!" another yowled.

"MUFFIN!!!"

"SILENCE!!!" Discord howled, voice filled with the venom and rage of a manticore. He stomped up to Quill's cell, unlatching the gate and calling the guards.

"You," he jabbed a finger at the weatherpony. The guards yanked her from the cell and wrapped rope tightly around her wings, crushing her primaries and flight muscles. Discord stooped down and leered at the pegasus, staring her in the eye. Quill didn't back down though. She glared just as hard, eyes narrowed.

The draconaquus grabbed her throat with his eagle claw and pressed his talons into her neck, just barely making tiny cuts. "You're fighting that Rainbow Dash fellow, whether you like it or not."

He let go of her neck and stomped back up the stairs, tail slapping angrily at the ground.

Author's Note:

Well, the first chapter was a train wreck. Constructive criticism please?

Comments

[Vehemence]

Moar! Is that enough constructive criticism?

In all seriousness, I loved it. I can't wait to see how the fight against Rainbow Dash will turn out. I also want to see what other ponies Discord has captured and forced to fight one another. Terrific job!

Also, nice Scissor Sisters reference.

[Background_Pony]

>> Vehemence

Okay honestly, the chapter is almost done but I'm trying to make it sound like Quill and Rainbow Dash haven't met before instead of 'hey yo imma kill you kay'. Cliches are easy to make but hard to correct.

[StormOfTheNight]

P
Agreeing with Vehemence here, Moar!! O.O
It's really good so far and I'd love to see a fight seen in the next chapter ^-^
keep it up!

[meh]

meh... and that's how next weeks episode ended... spoilers

[Dr.LunyJoy]

Man, i'm s-serouly scared right now
I';m FREAK'in OUt man Help me FREAK'in OUt!