One Song Glory
Chapter Four: One Song Glory
Lightning flashed white and thunder boomed above as our tyrant Discord roared atop his throne of bones. The sky was red with the blood of lost generations, and the black moon shone menacingly in the midday sky. Thick, dark clouds poured hot liquid terror and icy needles of hate onto our coats and heads, searing our skins with disillusionment and sorrow, chilling us to the bone with regret and sadness. Discord's dire roar sent us all to our knees in fear, cowering before the terrible chaotic God who ruled our formerly lovely land with a blood-stained iron claw.
“You are mine!” his roar seemed to say, “And you will always be mine!” His eyes flashed a horrible crimson, tinged with molten gold. His soul was as black as his deeds. His crown was fashioned from the blood and bones of our brothers and sisters, his throne from our fathers and mothers and children. His eagle's claw clutched a scepter topped with the horned skull of our late, great ruler, King Solaris. The great king's vast white wings were fashioned crudely with sinew to Discord's terrible throne, rotting and decaying there as a warning to the rest of us. He murdered and dismembered our beloved King to use his flesh as interior decoration. And what he did to the King's wife, the benevolent and beautiful Queen Faust... it was unspeakable. It was disgusting and vile, and we could only imagine what Solaris' and Faust's two daughters must be feeling in their exile.
Dear Princess Celestia and Selena... No... she preferred Luna, now. A nickname, maybe? Or another self, a way to escape the storm of horror the rest of us were caught inside of? Dear Luna... so young, to lose her beloved father so violently....We couldn't possibly have blamed her if she changed her name and her identity to escape the grief. Celestia kept her dear sister close, we knew, far away in exile, and we could only hope they saved us soon.
We had questions, though. Many questions. Why did Discord murder and ruin Solaris and Faust, yet choose to send Celestia and Luna into exile? He could have easily killed them as well, yet he chose not to. Oh well. It doesn't bode well to attempt to understand the mind of a god of Chaos.
The fields grew barren, and the Earth ponies could not grow their food. The trees and the vegetation died horribly, withering away into toxic husks. The Earth ponies claimed they could almost feel the Earth beneath their hooves screaming in agony as it was poisoned from the inside out. Famine and plague washed over the land like a tidal wave of death and pestilence. Ponies starved to death rather than eat the toxic husks left behind by the hellstorm of Discord's chaotic rule.
The clouds in the sky were thick and black, and the Pegasi tried to clear them, but failed. The Pegasi could not fly high enough to kick the clouds away, as the lightning would kill them in mid-air and send their charred and bloodied carcass spiraling back down to earth, where it would land on a pile of other failed Pegasi. Wave after wave of Pegasi tried to clear the deadly clouds of suffering, and wave after wave of Pegasi would fall back to earth, long dead before they hit the ground. Mass graves littered the hellscape, deep open pits filled haphazardly with the bloody, liquified pieces-parts of ponies who failed to survive. And very few didn't fail to survive.
The unicorns used their magic to sustain themselves for a while, but soon Discord caught on, and used his own chaotic magic to suck the magic right out of them to use for himself. Huge clouds of shimmering smoke hovered from town to town and village to city, and every unicorn caught in the smoke found themselves powerless and too weak to move. Thousands of unicorns died in the streets, unable to even get back home to say goodbye to their families. Those of us still strong enough to help tried our best to help the unicorns get back to their homes to die in peace, but more often than not it was far too late, and the poor unicorn died on the way there, and was left to rot.
The alicorns, immortal as they were by normal means, mounted attacks against Discord left and right, and were left with ruin. While an alicorn was immortal when it came to natural causes of death, such as disease or hunger or thirst or old age, an alicorn could still be killed, and many were. Discord tore their wings from their bodies, twisted their necks, gouged out their eyes, and did unspeakable, vile, unimaginable things to the royals of our land before allowing them the sweet release of death.
Where were our beloved Princesses? Why were they allowing this to happen to us? Didn't they care? Didn't they love us as we loved them? Didn't they feel the Earth beneath their hooves wail with the ghosts of flora and fauna poisoned by Discord's terrible reign? Didn't they smell the charring of flesh from an unlucky Pegasus caught in a shot of lightning aimed by a malevolent black cloud of shadow? Didn't they feel the smoke that drained the magic from the unicorns and left them to die in the gutters, alone and in excruciating pain, unable to even utter a sound or pray for their loved ones? Didn't they see the black moon shine through the blood-red midday sky and hear the terrible, great roar of a tyrant and a usurper of their glorious throne? Couldn't they hear the voices of their fallen bretheren, crying out from beneath the ground? Couldn't they see the suffering all around them? Where were they, in their exile, that they could not sense our pain and agony? Why didn't they come for us? Why? Where were our beloved princesses?
Eventually, the wars overtook us. Wars amongst ourselves for what little food was left, wars with other nations for their resources not yet toxified by Discord. Wars within ourselves over suffering and sadness. Nopony smiled. Nopony looked at one another. We sat in place, melancholy statues, not yet stone but close enough, wasting away into nothing once there was nothing left to live for.
From his throne of carnage, Discord roared in victory. His terror had been wrought, his chaos unleashed. We heard his terrible maniacal laughter from high above, and each note of his victorious cackle cut like a blade straight to the very core of our beings. Icy tears slipped down our broken cheeks as we laid down in the streets to await our deaths. Extinction. Ponykind, destroyed. Discord's reign, supreme. What was he after? Why did he do all this? What was this vile despot's goal? Why did he want Equestria-- neigh, the world, in the palm of his paw? Furthermore, the world was in his paw, so easily destroyed with a flick of his wrist, so why didn't he just destroy us all? Why leave us to die slowly, begging for death?
But then, a miracle. One day, as the war and famine threatened to consume us all, the sun rose. Bringing the sun into our sky on a golden chariot, our Princess Celestia strode magnificently through our lands, bringing life and warmth back to our barren hellscape. Luna was not far behind, as the terrible dark moon set in the sky, finally ending the eternal night of darkness. The two Princesses combined their powers, their horns lighting up the sky brighter than any white lightning. The clouds dispersed, the sun shone, and from his dark castle, we could hear Discord shriek in disbelief and rage.
Celestia and Luna opened their great wings, and took to the sky. In their wake, life returned to the land in waves. Plants that were just virulent husks sprang back to life. Trees flourished and bore fruit once more. Animals returned. Crops grew stronger than ever. Ponies close to death were rejuvenated and reborn. Rain, real water rain, fell from the sky onto the tongues of ponies denied their thirst for eons.
Discord emerged from his tower, a great evil beast of gnarled claws and gnashing teeth. He was angry that his chaos has been reversed and broken by the very Princesses he saw fit to give his mercy towards. A huge, serpentine mix-and-match monster made up of terrible things. The claw of an eagle, the paw of a lion, the head of a despot, the body of a stallion, the legs of a dragon and a goat, and the wings of a Pegasus and a demon. He roared so powerfully that the sound wave nearly knocked young Princess Luna from the sky. But she recovered with the helping hoof of her sister, and together the Princesses lunged at Discord, and anypony could see that Celestia was aiming to pierce Discord's heart with her great white horn. Anypony could clearly see that Celestia had a bone to pick with Discord. The why was unknown, yet uncared for. All that mattered is that she was here. She was fighting. She was winning.
Discord took off, cursing and spitting fire the whole way through. The princesses chased him and chased him, setting in motion the regular setting and rising of the sun and moon. They chased Discord for centuries, never letting the monster rest for even a single moment. They chased him from hidey-hole to hidey-hole, from forest to desert to glacier to ocean. And when that horrible tyrant, that monster, could go no further?
The Princesses were waiting for him. They caught him from both sides, and together, they used their Elements of Harmony on him. Laughter to dispel the fear and the sorrow of millions. Honesty to dispel Discord's lies and deceit. Generosity to dispel his greed and avarice. Kindness to dispel his cruelty and terror. Loyalty to dispel the wars and the betrayal between us. And of course, Magic, to overpower Discord's own and send him back to the Hell he sprang from. Discord's shriek of agony could be heard from sea to shining sea as his body was turned to stone from the inside out. Soon, the scream died down to sweet, delicious silence, and the Princesses flew over the vast stretches of blue sky, and ponies all over Equestria cheered and sang their praises.
Life had returned in Equestria. Celestia was crowned the supreme ruler of the land of Equestria, with Luna as next in line for the throne. Finally, after millennia of sorrow, pain, suffering, and death, we had joy, relief, happiness, and life. All the blood of the fallen was washed away, and all the bodies were given proper respect. They were buried in a certain area of Equestria, and trees symbolizing their pain sprang from their gravesites, forming a dense, thick forest. Princess Celestia named the forest the Everfree, for now the ponies buried within it were forever free from Discord's rule. The Everfree forest thrived for centuries, and will thrive for centuries still.
The scars of Discord's rule will be carried always within the collective heart of ponykind. The thousands of years ruled by a tyrant dictator, hearing him roar from his tower and watching the midday sky turn black and chaotic will never die in our spirits. Watching the bodies of ponies drop in the streets and die, and hearing the sobbing of starving orphaned foals forced to seek warmth in the bloated, decaying bellies of their mothers, and using the bones of their fathers as weapons against their own will be a psychological scar that will never fully heal. But under the rule of our beautiful and benevolent Princess Celestia, who preaches togetherness, honor, and the light in our hearts above all else, we will survive. We will stand tall on our hooves once more, and we will travel forward, one trot at a time.
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History is written by the victors...prior to recordable media.
I have a feeling that this section is part of an Equestrian propaganda book.
2183417
It's more of a book written by a survivor of Discord's rule, but you're right, it's pretty propaganda-ish. But it is a generally accurate description of Discord's rule of Equestria, even if it is pretty dark. And it is true that history is written by the victors.
As a lovely Broadway musical states, "A man's called a traitor, or liberator, a rich man's a thief or philanthropist, is one a crusader, or ruthless invader, it's all in which label is able to persist! There are precious few at ease with moral ambiguities, so we act as though they don't exist~"
2185778
I never said the story would be entirely happy.
Why did you put the author's note at the bottom? I read the whole chapter before seeing that.
2193456
Because the site automatically puts it at the bottom.
2247053
)
Oh that stinks. It would have been good to have a warning before I read the whole thing just to know what I was getting into. Next time, could you just have it as part of the chapter, just so people know it's going to be darker? (Great chapter BTW
The plot (hehe plot) very nice
I WANT MORE!!!! 
That was amazing! BUT ITS NOT FINISHED!!!
I cant wait for more! How soon untill the next one?
2307872
Thanks for all the love! I'm working on chapter 5, but it's slow going thanks to a series of unfortunate family events that are keeping me and ol' Discy separate for now.
2323336Oh! Well Ihope everything gets better!
Queen Faust. LOOL
You don't say.
If you're gonna say that, say it at the beginning.
I find it a nice headcannon, especially the Everfree Forest. It's very nice.