Chapter 1

Equestria, many aeons past...

The two Alicorn sisters stood opposite each other, over a map over the new area that would be the savior of their people.

"And thine scouts report yonder land to be a mountain of great height, with crystal caves aplenty. Shall we establish mines?" said Luna, Her ethereal mane glittering with the stars of the night.

"Neigh, mine sister. Thou art not considering, a capital is to to be established, and what spot may better present a palace, than a mountain?" Celestia responded, her gilded hooves pawing at a crease in the map's parchment.

Luna frowned, not expecting this response. "Verily, yet, our national gem reserves hath not-"

"Your highnesses!" a Pegasus burst into the window, noisily slamming the panes into the walls, cracking one. He hurriedly landed and bowed, but did so too fast, thus slamming his face into the tiled floor, as if severely disoriented. The princesses watch silently, Celestia arching an eyebrow at this ungraceful show of haste. "The last team of pegasus scouts hath reported back, from the dark realms!" Both sisters' faces lifted considerably. The dark realm was an oddity that had thoroughly puzzled their team of unicorn scryers, they simply couldn't scan it. They could identify every major landmark from the dense forests to the open deserts of this new land, but it was almost as if there were a shroud blocking any view from this bizarre place. The exploratory divination crew called it "the dark realms", being overdramatic as they were.

"Well, truly, ‘tis marvelous news!" Luna burst out. "Haste, my subject! Summon the squad anon, so we may hear What news have we from afar!"

The pegasus lowered his head. "They're all dead." Luna's face dropped, and the imperial guards in the room stared fixedly ahead, wings tucked tightly against their sides, for they recognized the growing expression of anger on Celestia's face.

"Repeat thyself, scout." Celestia growled.

"It was unlike anything we'd ever seen! Twas a great beast, with the tail and flank of a pony, and head of a gryphon! There were great towering beasts, like monkeys, but furless, and covered in eyes, They seized the team, and cast them to the gaping maw! But above them all, there was another, a great amalgam of fauna, and he-" the pegasus suddenly stopped his panicked gushing as if he'd choked on a word, his eyes losing focus as he fell to his foreknees.

"Finish thy report, soldier!" Celestia bellowed, her hair whipping back in the wind that wasn't there.

The soldier looked up at the alicorns again, who could see his eyes filling with bloodshot veins. He choked out several syllables. "Hai- Hail Eques-" and his skull was pierced by two spikes, one splitting and branching, the other corkscrewing out. The imperial guards abandoned all pretense of isolation and immediately surrounded the half-screaming, half gurgling pegasus scout, spears levelled.

The mutilation continued, with the pony's jaws opening far wider than any pony's could, and some kind of a bulbous shape emerging, drenched in the scout's blood. With a jolt, they realized, it was a snout. With a sudden crack of snapping bone, The scout's skull snapped in half, the two halves of the cranium flopping away on the skin they were attached to. Yet the scout still stood, his gorily removed head having been replaced by a bizarre new one, narrower, and still drenched crimson.

And suddenly, the new head spoke. "Well, that certainly won't do for our first introduction." The voice echoed out,as the head began spinning on the neck, around and around, picking up speed until it was barely visible, spraying blood on the guards, staining their pristine white fur with the gore of their colleague.

"Well, there we are." The head stopped spinning, and grinned broadly at the princesses. "You must be new here."

It was a draconequus.
“Well? It’s rude to stare, you know. I came all this way inside this cramped pony and you greet me with this silence? You wound me, mon ami!”

“What hast thou done to our subject?!” Celestia yelled at the intruder.

“My my my, rather touchy, aren't we? What’s wrong, get up on the wrong side of the haystack today?”

“We ponies have risen above our savage roots, unlike you draconequui, claiming chunks of land and declaring yourself supreme! What foolish ideal have you pressed on your realm this time? Hatred? Paranoia?”

“You see, I was preparing for a civil conversation, but it seems we immediately proceed into hostilities! I must say, that was quite racist. Man, a centuries-old deity can’t catch a break around here!” He reared onto the scout’s hind legs, the flesh squelching around as he did so.

“And you!” He jabbed a hoof at the silent Luna, a claw poking through the leg’s skin as he did so. “You’re just going to let her treat a guest this way? For shame!”

Luna straightened up and cleared her throat. “We know not why thou hast slain our subjects, O strange draconequus, and we are not pleased at such actions, but we do strive for peace between our nations.”

Celestia glared at Luna. “Yon beast controls not a nation, but a horde of savages, blindly following his despotic rule!”

Their attention was yanked back to the draconequus, who was now working his way out through the scout’s neck, forming a long snakelike body that couldn't have physically fit inside. His left claw was of an eagle, his right of a lion. His wings were both skinned and feathered, and all of it was curiously free of the blood that drenched the six feet of floor surrounding it.
As he swished his tail out of the neck, leaving the corpse to slump over shapelessly, He threw up his claws and declared exasperatedly, “Fine, be like that. After all, it’s not like I came here for a reason or anything. Oh, and I’d appreciate it if you stopped referring to me by my species, it rustles my jimmies rather severely.”
Luna looked puzzled, attempting to follow the being’s odd manner of speech, as Celestia declared “Then by what name shalt we know thee, beast?”
It grinned devilishly and snaked its body upwards. “ My followers call me-” and he uttered a deafening screech, as of metal squealing against metal. And then, in the blink of an eye, his snout paralleled Celestia’s, their eyes millimeters apart.

“But you can call me Discord.”

And just as quickly, he vanished from sight, but his raucous laughter echoed around the chamber for several minutes later.

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