Of Stone And Sadness

It was cold. So very, very cold. Not even the sun's rays could penetrate the layers of icy oblivion that seemed to swirl around his frozen body. His limbs were locked, displaying his stone-clasped, mismatched body in the terrified, petrified, horrified state that he had inevitably turned to in his last moments of “life”. Cold granite gripped his form tightly, like a snake that was slowly smothering and choking its future meal. He longed to move, to stretch, to talk. Oh, how he missed talking. How he missed the ability to turn pony against pony with just a soft whisper, a gentle caress and shove in the right direction. How he missed to listen to his own soft, humorous, serpentine voice that seemed to snake through the minds of those he bestowed his beloved voice upon. Nations had crumbled, cities had been razed and battles had been fought over his voice. That was seemingly the worse part for the lonely Draconequus. His voice, his pride and joy, his top-trump, his ace in the hole, the trick up his sleeve had been bound forever in cold, hard stone. And it was torture.

Twice now, twice he had been trumped. He, the spirit of chaos, of bedlam and mayhem, had been imprisoned by those foolish ponies and their silly little Elements. It made him so very, very angry. If his blood had not been petrified in his veins at that point, it would have been boiling and had his throat and voice not been bound in granite he would have cursed the heavens, Celestia and Harmony. As it was, he was quite content to simply retreat to the refined mind he had developed and curse and scream and holler there. And just when he thought he was done with his anger and his contempt and just when he thought he had gotten it out of his system, a singular bird would delve out of the sky and do it's...business on the statue of chaos. And so the circle would repeat, except instead of cursing Celestia and Harmony, Discord would simply yell at this bird whom he had now named as the enemy of his life, his darkest and most cunning foe and the bird would just tweet and fly away.

Over his previous millennia entrapment in the stone asylum, Discord had grown to take in everything and every finite detail of any area. Oh, his eyes were frozen but he was far from blind. He could hear and he could reach out, perhaps only for a moment, with his magic to investigate his new abode. Once his short exploration finished, he merely created a picture of his home in his mind and from there he could keep looking, keep expanding as each new day heralded a new inch, a new nanometre to be jotted down and created in his ever-growing world that resided in his mind. He could see around him, every blade of grass, every bug or beetle hiding in the brush and every statue that lay around him.

On some days he would be overjoyed to hear the soft, simple flapping of butterfly wings, though to admit it would be heresy to his beautiful chaos. He loved the un-tampered sounds of nature around him, his stone prison serving its purpose to rob him of his powers but also creating a whole new ability. The ability to allow Discord to see things as they should be seen without the forceful influence of chaos to alter them. That did not mean that Discord did not miss his chaotic gift, nor did it mean that if he were to ever break out again that he would simply not use his powers. Oh no, it merely allowed Discord to enjoy the simple pleasures of nature without being interrupted by the screaming, pounding voice of his deranged powers telling him to warp and twist the creations around him. Rainfall was yet another one of his hidden, unknown joys. The sounds that could range from a soft pitter patter on his immobile body to the thunderous, heavy downpour that made the heavens themselves scream. He always had an affinity for rain, creating the idea of cotton candy clouds with chocolate rain had been a great day for him. Fusing his favourite foods along with his favourite, subconscious sound had brought oodles of joy to the mismatched beast.

Days where ponies gathered and played and talked were his favourite days. They saw him as cruel, cold, evil and monstrous but he couldn't blame them. Along the path of protection he had been twisted, turned vile and repugnant. Discord understood alright but that didn't stop the pain in his heart when he felt the ponies look at him with horror. He understood but it didn't stop hurting when the bile would rise in the throats of those who looked at him. He understood that what had happened was for the best but it didn't stop the aching in his chest or the soft voice in his head that kept telling him to simply break out and make them bow before him. He despised the conversations that these fickle ponies would have but he loved the ponies themselves too much. He had cared for them, in the beginning. No one remembered the days of Discord's first rule, merely his second tyrannical rule. He wasn't always the monster that people saw but time and judgement had changed him. He felt such hatred towards these creatures, creatures who shunned him for his humour and his appearance and yet he couldn't help but love them, like a mother would continue loving her son even if he did something terrible. The ponies were still protected from him, he never raised a hand against them, never harmed them and he most certainly never turned them to stone.

On other days though, it would be a living hell. On other days, she would come to visit him. The victorious ruler, the bringer of the sun, the Princess and deity to the ponies would grace him with her “holy” presence. He could always sense her, even if she refused to speak. One does not live the life of an immortal sun goddess without giving off a fair bit of magical power. And Celestia stank of magical power. She would come to him, golden horseshoes resonating a gentle clop-clop-clop as she strolled through the garden. Every month she would visit her beloved statue gardens, for there were more then one statue laying around the castle. If Discord remembered right, there was Thrall the griffin emperor who would have slaughtered hundreds of innocents if Celestia had not stopped him. There was Thr'ashki, the rogue dragon who had gone on a spree of terror in Canterlot itself. The city had burned that day and how Discord had laughed behind his stone prison. There was Rover the Diamond Dog King, Carvirus the hectic crazed zebra chieftain and there was Smite, the buffalo that resembled a furry boulder. There was one statue that even Discord feared though, a creature that was around before Celestia and Luna but not before him. This creature was different, an abomination on a world where killing and violence was such a heinous crime. Discord himself had turned this very creature to obsidian stone, fighting it to the brink of his own death and battling to save the lives of the ponies which viewed him as only a monster. Yet Celestia had no idea. He did not like to ponder his dark path so when Celestia had asked about it he had refused to tell her the tale of how such a creature became stone and she never pestered him about it again, convinced that it was for the best that this particular piece of the past remained buried.

Celestia would stand in front of him and have the gall to lecture him about his past doings, his mistakes and how she “gave him every chance” and she “thought we could be friends”. It made him sick to his stomach, the Princess of the sun mocking him with false truths, promising a friendship that could never happen. Yet he couldn't stop his conflicting, battling emotions as she would talk to him. As far as he could tell she spoke to him and him alone, the other statues remained as unsocial as, well, statues. She would start with the same boring, sickening lecture but then would instead tell him of the happenings of Equestria. He hated the way that she managed to make him grateful and angry at the same time. Grateful that she would tell him of his Equestria, the Equestria that he had worked so hard in protecting, the Equestria that drove him to become a monster and yet he would be so angry because she did his old job too well. She was a fair ruler, she secured safety and peace for her citizens and she was loved. For the first two thousand years he had protected and created more land and more creatures for his precious pony subjects and still they feared him, loathed him even. His idea of fun was perhaps twisted to them but to spit on him after everything he'd done, well it drove him to the brink of insanity, it very nearly tore him at the seams. It drove him to search for some good old fashioned chaotic fun.

So, she would stand there and talk and he would listen. And as he listened he would grow more happy and more sad and more angry.

And when she left the spirit of Chaos, the belittled, treacherous, benevolent ex-ruler of Equestria would curl into the dark corners of his mind and he would cry. He would cry for his treasured ponies, he would cry for his inability to stop the rush of chaos that surrounded and lived in him and he would cry for his own pitiful mistakes.

First fanfiction ever. That doesn't exactly give me the ability to completely disregard all criticism though so if you could be kind but fair that'd be appreciated. I don't want any “This was bad” comments because that gives no indication on how to improve.
Anyway...yeah.

Revelation Of A Solar God

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Revelation Of A Solar God

Months passed, season melted into season. Fully fledged green canopy withered and fell into a dark brown void of decaying leaves and bone chilling wind. Ponies began to take to wearing winter gear, the brilliant coloured coats smothered by layers of jumpers, sweaters and scarves. Snow fell daintily from the sky, a blanket of pure, crisp white coating the skin of Equestria. The temperature plummeted, causing icicles to form on each upturned entrance, stalactites of snow hanging from the most out of reach areas. Animals had fled, delving into their readily arranged homes for hibernation during the cold, harsh winter months. No longer could the jaunty singing of ponies be heard through the great city of Canterlot. The citizens had resigned themselves to merely sitting in their homes with their families, the fireplaces flickering an illuminating orange and yellow gleam, talking of the past and the present and what spring might bring. The guards of Canterlot still remained, their jobs allowing no time for weak willed thoughts directed to the shriek of the wind around them or the spine tingling cold that gripped the great capital. They had a job to do and they would be damned if they allowed such fickle things as the cold to keep them from doing it.

The snow had coated his statue, shrouding the dark god in a lovely coat of white, making him look like a malformed snowpony. He would have welcomed the feeling of snow for even that was not as blisteringly cold as the icy tendrils that spread throughout his body. He would have welcomed the feeling of soft, crumbly snow coating his fur and scales instead of the diamond hard stone that swirled around his body. Alas, he had retired to his mind long ago, happy with the temporary home he had created for himself. As it was, he was currently creating fountains of chocolate milk around his home, shrouding the should-be white home in dark cascades of a muddy brown colour. And how he loved it, laughing as he spewed chocolate around his new stomping ground, his chaotic domain. A few months ago, dear Discord had given up entirely. No more would he worry about these ponies, no more would he lay down and sob because of Celly-Belly, no more would he listen attentively for the soft sounds of wings and of rain that he so enjoyed. He was the king of chaos, the darkest lord of the darkest night and it was about time he started to act like it. Sobbing and, gag, caring wouldn't help him in this situation and ,whilst being a chaotic rebel certainly wouldn't either, at least he'd be able to have a little fun.

Well, on most days he liked to believe that. Other days though, the days she would visit would leave him just as confused as months ago. She would talk to him, convince him that all is well in Equestria, she would promise that she would look after them and Discord would then do something he never thought he would do.

He would believe her.

And it would drive him mad.

How she, she, the embodiment of all that is good and pure in this world could strike a cord with the embodiment of all that was bad and tainted in this world. How she could simply talk about the foolish lives of her ponies and herself and how he would foolishly be caught in rapt attention, desperate for her to keep talking, to rid him of the crippling mundaneness of his new life. How she could make him disregard his precious chaos, perhaps only for a few minutes, in order to listen to her soft, royal voice talk to him about the most simple things. Malice is something that Discord understood well, anger and hate along with it. But being thankful, being grateful, that was something new to him and it made him want to cry, to dance and to roar slander in her face at the same time. She would surely laugh if she could feel the pitiful state of his dark, twisted heart whenever she spoke, how he listened to her like a young puppy. Today was no different, at least he did not believe so at first.

Discord had been in his home, sparking and fizzing fireworks until they exploded in a brilliant puff of blue smoke which gave birth to flying tortoises in turn when he felt her presence. With a muffled, “I feel a disturbance in The Force”, Discord exited his perfectly imperfect world and cast his mind and his ears towards the Princess before him. He could picture her now, glistening white coat with a rainbow streaked mane that he had often regarded as vaguely watermelon coloured. Of course, she would just scream abuse and slanderous terms at him when he said such a thing and he would wheel away laughing. Ah, the memories. He could practically feel her greyish, magenta eyes burning into his snowy statue, twinkling with a hint of mischief and enthusiasm that he remembered from the days of old. She would, of course, be wearing her royal golden “armour”. A golden, glowing tiara would sit upon her royal noggin, a large, purple jewelled enthused necklace would rest upon her chest and stunningly bright golden horseshoes would keep her dainty little hooves cold from the winter's snow.

“Discord...”

She would always start this way, just his name, a blank pause and then she would delve into her ready made, boring speech about his bad past and how much she did for him.

“I've made a terrible mistake”

Well, this is new.

“When I realized what I had done, I just..I had to...”

She seemed to whittle off towards the end, her speech diminishing as she desperately clawed for a way to speak about her own misgivings. Had he been alive and well, Discord would have surely laughed at this display of weakness but being nothing but stone he had come to realize that his boredom was so great that he would much rather actually listen to Celestia then to verbally berate her in his mind palace.

“You weren't always-you were...,” Celestia started softly and then began to stumble towards the end trying to get her point across, “good” she finished, whispering.

Discord, the god of all things wrong and unnatural in the world, the cause of confusion and mayhem, was chillingly shocked at her discovery. No knowledge had been kept from his first rule, ponies believed they lived their little lives without any intervention. He did not publicly announce his protection or his rule over them. He would help, he would fight for them if need be but when they saw him, they would just run. Or scream. Sometimes both.

Clearing her throat, Celestia continued. Discord could practically feel the guilt rolling off of her in waves.

“When I first saw you, all those years ago, I saw only what I wanted to see. A monster. A filthy, dark, twisted behemoth of darkness”.

Discord cringed a little bit in his stone cell. Had he been mobile he would surely have clutched his heart and toppled over most dramatically in order to cover his hurt at the words. Even now, years later, those words still stung.

“I didn't see the knowledge before my eyes. No pony had been hurt or killed in all the time of your second reign. You...you didn't ever harm them. Not even once. In fact, if I could hazard a guess, I believe you even protected them”.

Discord was once more stunned. She had, inevitably, hit the metaphorical nail on the metaphorical head. He longed to tell her the truth, to scream his full past, to laugh in joy as she peeled away his rotten skin to expose what he was below it. And what was below it was a fair, playful, protective ruler though no pony may have seen it.

“And I fought you. And you would laugh like you were having the most fun in the world and at that time I thought you were laughing at me but you weren't were you?”

Discord stopped nodding for a minute in his mind in order to roll his eyes at her. Only dearest Celly would ask a question to a statue.

“You were laughing because finally, finally you had found another being that understood. Another being that could see Equestria as you saw it, a glorious haven that needed protection. It just made you so...happy to see a member of your precious ponies finally stand up for themselves, to stand up to you”

Discord just stood there, in his stone prison a grimace on his face. He'd been overjoyed to see a member of his protected, loved race finally stand up for themselves but he never wanted another to see Equestria the way he saw it. He would never have wanted to inflict that burden to anypony, not even his most hated enemy who was, at this moment, that bloody bird. The sight of Equestria as he and Celestia saw it, well, it robbed you of your freedom. No longer were you able to do what you want out of fear of leaving your people defenceless. No longer could you simply watch the world go by without constantly worrying over the slightest thing. No longer could you be yourself around others, of fear of them looking upon you in a stained light. You had to be more, you had to be powerful and wonderful and scary at the same time. And such a task was a torment on the soul.

“Then Luna joined the fight, my precious little sister fought you with me. She didn't truly understand, she never saw Equestria the way me and you see it. Even now, I don't believe she does and yet she still helped.”

Discord remembered the days of Luna's arrival. The fun he had had at her expense, the fury and anger in Celestia's eyes every time he had beaten her down. Still she always returned and for that reason, Discord started to warm to her (not in that way!). She was, after all, like a little filly Celestia, constantly allowing her emotions to get the better of her. She refused to visit his statue now, Discord himself wasn't fully sure why but he believed it was to do with the fact that when he last got out he had turned her bedroom floor into bubblegum and filled her room with foam and bubbles.

“We founded the Elements, bent them to our will and together we drove you off your throne. For the first hundred years I was happy. But then weariness began to set in. The crippling loneliness that ruling brought, the inability to be yourself. It drove Luna to do terrible things and it drove me to the point where I to had to reciprocate those terrible things in order to stop her”

Discord could feel the sadness and the anger and the self loathing roaring off of Celestia, masking all other emotions. This was the reason, the reason why he wanted no pony else to bear the weight of the throne. It drove them mad, self loathing and anger bubbled around their very soul until one day they would snap. However, Celly had surprised him.

“But I forgave myself, the only thing I could do. I forgave myself because I would have been a worthless ruler had I been smothered in guilt. And when Luna finally returned I felt so happy and so sad at the same time. Sometimes, even now, it hurts to look back on what happened between me and her. The rift is too wide now, we will never be as close as we once were”

Discord could hear Celestia whimper slightly and, without his realization, he found his heart began to ache.

“But alas, my sister and I's quarrels are not why I came here. You see, when you broke out of the stone statue and caused chaos you said something that seemed to strike a nerve with me. In fact you said a few things”.

Discord began to sweat inside his stone prison, his mental fear beginning to form into something more physical. Well, as physical as you could get inside a stone cold statue. Had he said something bad? Had he destroyed his last chance of speaking to Celestia whilst he allowed his chaos to consume him? Had he obliterated Celestia's feelings and mistakes towards him by insulting her in some way?

“You said, for I can remember it as well as if it were yesterday “Did you miss me, Celestia? I've missed you. It's quite lonely being encased in stone. But you wouldn't know that, would you, because I don't turn ponies into stone”.

Discord stopped his needless sweating, his mind vanishing all traces of his perspiration of terror as he stopped to listen to his repeated speech. He could remember that, perhaps one of the few moments beside the feeling of happiness from his glorious chaos and the feeling of agony as he turned to stone, that he could remember.

“You missed me? Oh, at the time you may have been joking but I have ruled over ponies long enough to unravel emotions. Somewhere, deep inside, you had missed me and I missed you. Oh, I missed you so much. The only one who I believed could understand me, the only one who could have helped me bear the pain of leadership”

Discord's heart have a little quiver, a slight shake of joy as he listened to her soft words, growing louder and louder as she grew more and more emotional. She had missed him!

“And then you said something that struck me to the very core, my very being. “I don't turn ponies to stone.” I didn't believe you at first but once the threat of your chaos had been extinguished I had to check, I just had to. When I found nothing, no sign of any petrification towards any living creature I decided to take it upon myself to visit you. To keep you up to date with the goings on in Equestria. At first I thought the reason I was speaking to you was guilt, guilt at not believing you but I began to see something else. I began to see that you cared for them, you cared for the ponies, for the rabbits and the manticores and even the hydras.

You never openly showed it, I know, but there was something about your actions. When you broke out you mentally harmed 6 ponies but that was it. There was no physical harm to any creature, nor did you attempt to break up any more friendships. Heh, even the rabbits that you...warped were happy. Apparently, according to one Miss Fluttershy, the rabbits actually quite enjoyed being the tall creatures for once.”

Celestia spoke very rapidly, allowing little time for any interruption even though the object of attention which she was talking to was a statue. She seemed almost scared to be halted, as if she needed to get this off of her chest as quickly as possible. Discord noted the hurried sound of her voice, the way she seemed to almost squirm when speaking.

“Naturally I went snooping over your life, if you could have called it a life. I learnt many mysteries, many dark secrets that should have stayed buried. Yet, I found nothing on you.”

Behind his stone walls, Discord smirked triumphantly. During the openings of his second tyrannical reign he had personally sought to destroy all knowledge of his previous reign, his new chaotic self sickened by the lengths which he had previously gone to in order to help those creatures. Even now, his mind free of the darkened influence of his chaotic self, he still revelled in the pride of keeping his old self hidden from the world.

“Until...”

Shit.

“I happened to stumble across an incredibly old tome named quite loosely as “The Time Before The Rise”. Intrigued I was to find that such an old book lived in the Canterlot libraries, a place that I had searched time and time again. Hidden at the back it was, such an old, dusty, tattered, stained book.”

Double shit. Discord himself remembered that tome, written by a pony named Cornelius Quill if he remembered correctly and, needless to say, it was the bane of his chaotic life. That book was everywhere in the old days! Libraries had to be burned just to get rid of it, hundreds of copies scattered all across Equestria. He had travelled far and wide to destroy these “history” books and yet he had not even bothered to search the capitals library.

“The things I learnt from that book, Discord. The guilt that plagued me, the horror at what I had done. The things that you suffered through, the torment and the ridicule that ponies tossed towards you without a care in the world. Even after everything you had done for them they despised you. Now, now I can truly see why you are what you are.”

Too many times today Discord had felt shocked. Too many times he had been surprised by this pretty pony Princess. Emotions boiled up inside of him like a cauldron filled with a brew. Happiness at being seen as who and what he is, anger at being pitied by the Princess, sadness at having to relive his past but, most surprising of all, comedic. Here she was, the Princess of the sun, founder of Harmony, protector of the lands of Equestria apologizing to the monster in the statue. Oh, if Discord could laugh out loud his sides would be splitting and his breathing would be laboured. How the roles had been reversed, the angry, foolish, blind Princess turned guilty and depressed just because of his past. How he could make her suffer just by reciting his memories.

“But don't worry Discord..”

Don't worry! Worrying is the last thing on my mind dearest Celly! Discord chortled to himself, wrapped up in the comedy and the tragedy and the oddity that was his own life, entwined without consent to Celestia's.

“...I'm going to help you.”

Now Discord froze. Now he began to worry. Help from the Goddess of the sun herself was an unusual idea to the draconequus. It wasn't so much the idea of how she would help him, Celestia was a stubborn old mare, he was pretty sure she'd find something, some form of powerful magic to “help” him in some form. It was more the idea of why she would help him that caused Discord to mentally sweat. Guilt is a feeble thing. It can only drive someone so far before it breaks and the whole cause is forgotten. Discord did not want to see Celestia strive to help him, he did not want himself to see progress, to get his hopes up and then to have them shattered by the cruel temptress before him. And it was for that reason alone that Discord started to worry.

“I shall study, learn new magic to help you. Discord, I promise to undo the damage I have wrought upon you. I have realized that your more...chaotic side will be a burden but there must, there simply must be a way to silence it.”

Now Discord began to truly freak out. This wasn't going well. This wasn't going well at all. He didn't want his chaotic influence taken away, it was a part of his life, his calling. To strip him of that would be to tear the wings of a pegasus or take the horn of a unicorn. Never before in his millennia upon millennia of life had Discord been so afraid of a simple, feeble promise and pretty soon he started to hope that she would break that horrible, cruel promise.

“I'll return Discord, the kingdom still needs me right now and if I were to loiter here any more suspicions would be raised. But mark my words, by the end of the year, you will be free of your chaos burden!”

With that, the Princess of the sun, the ruler of the throne, the light that beaconed among the darkest day strode off towards her palace, completely oblivious to the draconequus's mental strife. Oh and the mental strife he was feeling. Every instinct in his body screamed danger, his chaotic side was pretty much whimpering in a corner, shielding itself from the promise of complete destruction that lingered around the mind of the chaotic beast.

Aiming to free himself of the pressing topic at hand, trying to rid his mind of the possible horrors and dark days that lay ahead of him Discord retreated to his mentally created land. And when he arrived there he was greeted by a sight that made his pupils contract and the breath catch in his throat. Subconsciously his mind must have been working, altering his world whilst he listened, at first, in rapt attention to Celestia and then in horror of her plan, her promise. Because before him stood the Alicorn princess herself, unmoving, smiling, one foreleg raised forward in a greeting similar to a hoofshake but that was not what scared Discord the most.

She was completely covered in grey, cold granite, the same grey, cold granite that clung to his body, the same grey, cold granite that he had sworn to never use on a living being had been utilized by his subconscious to try and take away the threat of Celestia's promise in his mind. To try and make him see that the only way out is a fight, to try and make him see that sometimes his own rules must be broken for him to live the way he needs to.

Discord looked upon the petrified Princess and sobbed once, turning his back on his created, twisted, sadistic world as he fled to the darkest recesses of his now cluttered, now churning mind. And there, the great king of chaos, scourge of ponies, tyrannical ruler started to weep tears that stained the dark, empty black void around him.

Dark Paths Taken

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Dark Paths Taken

Lightning and thunder and rain hurtled around the figures that wheeled and soared and erupted across the dark, grey skies. Below them, great waves of rain water coated the land, smothering and choking the green, luscious fields that should have been visible. The heads of trees could be seen, just the wilting, sickly green leaves poking out of the great flood of water, almost like a hand reaching out for salvation from its terrible fate. In the distance, a small cluster of bright, shining lights could be seen. Civilization. A small, quiet town, home to only those who wanted to escape from the hustle and bustle of the larger, cramped cities. Canterlot itself was one of these cities, ponies constantly mashed and crushed and squashed against each other as they would desperately try to get to their destination. Nay, this small content town had none of that. It was a quaint place, quiet and caring and neighbourly. Yet it was here that the battle was fought. Above a seemingly inconspicuous village, a village that would be surprised if they were to find that the rain had fallen minutes early or that the grass had grown an extra inch from the ordinary. The sight, the location of a battle that threatened to swallow up the calm town and leave it clawing for its sanity and its reason.

The three figures clashed together at once, lightning flaring up around them, illuminating them in a great flash of bold, yellow light. Oh, they were a sight to behold. First, the smallest of them, a midnight blue speck of an Alicorn was engulfed by the light, showing the quivering villagers below a brief glimpse of her glory. Dark ,deep blue wings sprouted from her side, feathers and plumage rustling softly even amidst the battling, tarnishing storm. A deep, sea blue coat that seemed to cast a holy glow across her body, as if the night sky itself had come down and wrapped itself around her form. Blue, billowing hair flowed from her head and her rump, what appeared to be tiny, inconceivable stars twinkling rapidly in her stunning mane. A crescent moon etched onto her flank, a symbol of the power and the bravery and the royalty that was the Lunar Princess. Ruler of the night, bringer of the moon, a shining star in the darkness of space.

The next figure to appear, nanoseconds after the smaller Alicorn, was a much larger, much more regal looking Alicorn. She had a bright, white coat that seemed to shine through the murky depths of the stormy clouds, almost brightening the sky itself. There was a tenseness to this one, a deep unbound weight that seemed to press her down, even from where the villagers were watching they could see it. She seemed to have the very sky resting down upon her back as she struggled with the task at hand, the task of taking Equestria from the claws of a monstrosity. Her mane was a vibrant, rainbow like colour, moving calmly even though the wind howled unreasonably around her. It flowed and floated and disobeyed the, as of yet unfounded, rules of gravity. Two glorious, majestic wings sprouted from her back, stretching metres upon metres apart until she seemed to take up half of the sky. The most distinguishable feature, however, was the sun mark that lay upon her flank. Tales had been said of the mare with the sun on her flank, how she battled and fought and protected the ponies from the dark god that had them trapped like rats in a maze. A goddess before her rise, a beacon of hope in the swirling dark void.

Finally, the last figure made himself known, the lightning blazing its path behind him as he reared back his head to laugh menacingly. The dark god himself, battling the embodiments of hope atop the blissfully boring town of Ponyville. The head of a pony had never looked quite so wrong, as if it had been crudely moulded like clay. Golden eyes shined gruesomely in the darkness, red pupils mere pinpricks in the endless sea of gold. A long, sharp snaggletooth hung from his upper lip, twisted and lion-esque in its imperfect form. Bushy, albino eyebrows and a small, carefully ungroomed beard sprouted from the face of chaos itself. A mane of pitch blackness ran down the length of his neck, none of the finesse and beauty that the Alicorns manes had shown was distinguishable in the dark depths of the fur. A blue goat horn sprouted from the left side of his head, mirrored imperfectly by the deer's horn that resided on the right side of his head. A dark brown, furry coat wrapped around most of his body. A brown that vaguely resembled the darkest chocolate known to pony kind. His right arm was a brutal looking lion's paw, white claws visible even in the storm. A pale yellow colour, almost ill looking, the lion paw was clenched tightly together resembling a fist. The left arm, the talons of an eagle, stretched and writhed in a brighter yellow complexion, glowing softly with an unholy light. A large, leathery bat wing hung from his back, tendrils and veins crawling across its dark surface as it beat up and down in an unnatural formation. On the other side, a sea blue pegasus wing stood tall and proud, flapping to keep in time with the unnaturally large bat wing.

His lower body was no less deformed then his upper body. A cloven, goat leg resided on the left side of his body. Once more, the colour of the body area was a caramelized brown colour, the hoof itself of deep black, almost like obsidian. His right leg, if you could call it that, resembled that of a dragons perfectly. Green the colour of bright, living leaves flickered across the scaled surface, the leg itself ending in a clawed, lethal foot. Further down though, the dark brown coat melded into scales of a glorious red colour as the tail of the beast came into view. The final medley of mismatched horror stretched behind him, the tail of a certain, venomous snake, the red menace twisted and curled through the air, occasionally whipping outwards as the flaps on the end caught the air and fluttered.

They clashed once more, the beast and the royalty. Swooping and zooming and shrieking towards one another in a disjointed dance. Bright, magical light flared around the twin sisters as they began to foolishly shoot great, arcing beams of magic from the long, pointed horns atop their heads. Spinning through the display of ignorance, the draconequus flew closer and closer. The bolts of pure magic began to increase in speed as the Alicorns began to realize that the monster was drawing closer and closer to them. Still he dodged and ducked and swum towards them across the sky. The older one, the magnificent solar mare, dropped out of the sky and flew low as she came to the realization that the creature was too close to continue the fruitless onslaught. Her younger sister however had no such indication. With a loud crack, the serpentine tail of the mismatched monster slammed into the blue Alicorn, sending her pin-wheeling across the sky as she started to fall rapidly towards the ground. The eldest sister had the horror of watching her sister fall closer and closer to the ground until she impacted with a thud that could be heard in the small village. The loud boom of laughter caught her attention once more as she spun to face the cruel, sadistic monster that had hurt her sister. She shrieked once in unrivalled anger, in unparalleled contempt as she erupted towards the chaotic demon that had attacked her and her sister.

Discord watched as she drew closer and closer, raising one of his death white eyebrows at her as she continued her approach. Slowly, he raised his cold taloned left arm before him and clenched it into a fist.

“Oh my, Celestia, now this is a mistake”

Discord cawed triumphantly as she felt the breath leave her body, her wings locking together as she began to fall. Faster and faster, the wind picking up, the tears streaming from her eyes as the ground drew closer and closer and clo-

[.]

Discord yawned softly, pulling his monstrous head out of the hazy memory that now swirled around his brain like the swirl of water vanishing down a sink. He could relive any memory he wanted now, being trapped in the vast expanse of his mind certainly had its benefits, be them only a few. It allowed him to remember aspects of his old life, to notice things he had failed to notice before. It allowed him to view from a new angle, a new aspect, a new way.

The snow had yet to clear from the surrounding grounds. Great bundles of the cold, fluffy coat lay scattered around the area, flakes of icy chill still falling stubbornly from the grey clouds above. The spring had yet to burst forth from the wintered world, desperately struggling against the bonds as the winter world squeezed and smothered the land of Equestria in a white blanket. His statue though had been cleared of the soft shroud of paleness that had coated it before. Celestia herself had seen to that, returning the day after her bewitching promise in order to “be able to see him properly”. As if she actually wanted to see him. Guilty she may feel but even that wouldn't stop the feel of vomit rising in her throat as she would look upon his deformed, twisted, warped body. Merely lying to him, she was and he knew it. No creature could bear the sight of him, so to put such an effort into displaying his form was most certainly her first step in relieving herself of the guilt and the sadness she was feeling towards him.

It had been a week since Celestia's haunting visit and her even more terrifying promise. The week, oh it had heralded only pain and misery for the petrified draconequus. Life without his beloved chaos, his calling card, his true talent, his beautifully crafted chaotic powers. It had eaten him up inside, like maggots devouring the inside of a long dead meal. He could feel his mind biting and fighting with itself as he tried to wrap himself around the idea of being...harmonious. Of being reborn as something that wasn't himself, having his image stripped away from him. He would no longer be Discord, were Celestia to rip his chaos forcefully out of him, he would have to find a new name for himself, a new life to live. A whole new name, a whole new life. The thought made him want to puke and cry and scream. It would be like dying, surrendering his life and his mind, and the very idea of death for an immortal being was a terrifying thought. Would it hurt, to have his dark side torn from him? Would he remember anything at all of his past self? Would he simply cease to be, his life now so entwined with chaos that the removal of it may remove him from this world as well.

These thoughts and so, so many more had been what was clawing and whirling around him, his sanity slowly slipping away as he had begun to feel the ever engulfing fear that was staining his mind and leading him to search for a way, anyway to keep himself and his beloved chaos together. The ways he would think of, the means of protection for himself, they would have caused grown stallions to weep and they would have caused the flowers to wilt and the skies to darken. There had been no ideas, no plans, no schemes that he could fall back on. At first he believed that perhaps, when the spell was cast mere resistance against it would be enough, just pushing all his will against the spell would surely halt it but the more he thought about it, the more he began to realize that Celestia would surely force it further upon him. Perhaps, he had thought to himself, she would release him from the stone prison in order to cast the spell and he could just vanish away in a shimmering, shining light, teleporting to the very edge of of Equestria. This ingenious plan soon shattered into segments however as he began to doubt his magical abilities. Being trapped in stone would surely leave him drained, a long range transportation spell out of his reach. Short range was useless, Celly herself could just track him down and follow his path were he to disappear and re-appear a measly couple of miles away. His thoughts had soon turned darker, the influence of his now endangered chaos twisting his plans into a menacing form.

Battle, it would whisper to him, fight and tear and scorch those who stand before you. Celestia herself would look particularly stunning as a lawn ornament.

Those thoughts, those darkening, ever encompassing thoughts had begun to form around his mind, begun to press further and further inwards as they desperately squirmed to be picked, to force Discord to choose the darkest possible path. Still though, still he kept to his promise. Still he chose to not endanger any of his ponies, seemingly agreeing to rather have his soul torn apart then to break his age old, cast in stone promise to himself. No matter what they did to him, no matter how hurt and worthless and broken they may make him feel, the path of righteous violence was not a path Discord was willing to take.

It was on an incredibly normal day, eight days after the promise that for a certain time Discord forgot all about his woes and his fears and his hurt. Because on this eighth day, something shocking happened. Something that, once more, he could never have expected to happen.

He was visited by the Lunar Princess.

At first he wasn't sure about the new figure that strode towards him, plowing through the snow and causing loud cracking noises to shake across the garden as the hooves came down heavily upon the ground. Never before had he felt the aura and the power of this new visitor. Unicorns remained relatively close to the magical potential that he had grown accustomed to from them, he could pick out a pegasus pony by the mere sounds of their wings, he could even detect the earth ponies by feeling the vibrations of the ground as they stomped around. This though, this was new. He could feel the wind whistling through feathers, the soft, unmistakeable rustling sound that only wings could make. The hooves were as earth pony as they got, the vibrations shaking the ground. So heavy they were, almost as if each time they impacted they would shake the very foundations of Equestria. The most mysterious feeling though was the almost cold magic that whisked and slid around this new arrival. It was freezing and lonely and sad and guilty but, most importantly, it was blue. The only other pony who could produce a colour spectrum of magic was Celestia herself.

Of course, being aeons old and having a millennia of wisdom and knowledge at his disposal, it only took Discord a couple of seconds to figure out the conundrum before him. And when he did figure it out, there was only one thing to do.

Lu-lu! He roared in his mind, a soft mischievous smile curling up the corners of his crooked mouth. How long has it been since I saw you last?

Discord continued to talk to himself, quite content in his mind to host an imaginary conversation with the startling mare before him. After all, it was probably not best to hold out for a conversation with the queen of coldness herself. How judgemental she could be, still keeping that petty grudge of hers.

“Hello beast”

Her voice was strong, stronger then he remembered it to be. It was weighed down with knowledge and wisdom and power. Also, maybe, just maybe, a smidgen of...guilt?

Discord chuckled softly to himself, quite prepared to deal with the thorned, barbed comments that Luna was sure to throw at him. On the bright side, he now knew that she hadn't forgiven him for the bubblegum-bubbles-foam experiment that he had pulled in her room.

“How the mighty fall. We remember thou when thou was at the height of thy's power”

Discord laid back in his mind, conjuring a soft cloud to lay upon as he braced himself for the verbal attack she was about to unleash upon him. Creating a box of popcorn, Discord sat back and chomped down on one of his favourite treats, completely content with her slanderous attacks on his oh so holy name.

“Where did thou go wrong dearest Discord? Ruler for centuries, turned to stone and forced to reside in the garden of the ponies that you so cruelly enslaved.

Did thou enjoy it? What thou did to them, our ponies. How they loathed thou, and for good reason apparently. Was it fun, to kill and maim and torture our citizens for thy's own sick pleasure. What a monster thou are, even now thou brings bile to our throat. Thou sickens us, thou sickens all that look upon you. Hideous, traitorous, corrupt, monstrous. Thou breeds only fear and nauseous. Oh, how far thou has fallen. Tell us, dear Discord, what is thy purpose now?”

Now Discord had been bracing himself for a tongue licking but this, this was beyond that. This was a kick in the teeth, this was a spit upon his face. A kick in the gut, a punch to his very soul. And without his consent, he began to grow increasingly angry.

“Tia reigns supreme, the land has never seen such happier days. Harmony is here, our ponies are finally joyous and free and pure. So, what is the point of thou?”

Her voice had diminished slightly as she began to finish her venomous speech.

“What is the point of thou?”

She repeated this once more, a simple whisper that held such anger, such hatred, such malice and contempt and sadness. Discord was simply destroyed. The god of chaos had been hurt in such a deep way by this spiteful, old mare, such a deep way. It felt as if a stake had been driven through his dark heart, again and again. He had grown used to the idea of being a monster but never before had someone attacked him so poisonously. A single, long tear trickled down his cheek, falling through the air and landing with a soft plop on the dark nether of his mind. His eyes, the old sad eyes hardened quite suddenly as his anger pulsed off of him in fat waves. He growled once, just once but it was such a horrible sound. It was the sound of every created creature, every being sentient or not, every monster that lurked in the darkness and every creature that soared in the light crying out in anger and hurt and indescribable malice. His mind pulsed from the void of seething blackness into a blood red complexion, strobing the now angered Discord in faint, crimson light.

“What has thou done to Tia!?”

Luna practically roared at him, the royal voice bouncing and shifting and echoing in the head of the spirit of chaos. Anger was immediately thrust away as dizzying confusion burst forth from the draconequus's mind. Had something happened to her? Was she ill, hurt, maimed, dying?

Once more, without his consent his heart began to spike rapidly in a pain that made him want to curl up and clutch his chest, just to lay there and simply stop. Stop being, stop playing, stop hating. Just to stop. Just stop, stop, stop!

“She barely pays us any attention, always with her head stuck in an old tome or book, constantly searching. Searching for things that she refuses to tell me, things she keeps hidden from even her sister. Ever since she began to visit thou”

Discord halted his rapid thought process, the worst of what he had imagined now sinking into an ocean of liquid calm. His questions answered in a split second from the hot headed Princess of the moon that stood before his statue. She wasn't hurt, she wasn't maimed or dying. No, she was doing something that was almost as bad.

She was keeping her promise.

Happiness and fear burst through his mental veins pumping feelings of such warmth and compassion around his created body, the knowledge exploding from his conscious like fireworks from a Hearth's Warming Eve night. She was alive, she was well. She wasn't hurt or wounded in anyway. Discord's heart leapt and bounded and danced in a blissful dance before the second wave of emotions rolled through him, flattening the vivid dancing of his twisted heart in seconds. She was helping him, finding out more and more. If she was ignoring Luna, Luna, her little sister, her pride and joy then things must have gotten very serious, very quickly. Now terror began to explode in his heart, the dance now morphing into a terrible, twisted ballet of adrenaline and horror as thoughts of her victory, her questions finally answered, her promise kept began to writhe around his mind.

No, no, no, no!

There was a pounding in his head, a whirring in his ears as the world seemed to halt around him. No longer could he feel the depths of Luna's power, no longer could he feel the snow around him or the wind whistling through the gloomy, slate-grey sky. No longer could he feel his chaos or his harmony, no longer could he feel his fast flying thoughts, the same fast flying thoughts that had swarmed around him for days. No, there was only one thing he could feel.

He could feel his end, his rebirth and his final goodbye approaching him as Celestia drew closer and closer and closer to discovery, to knowledge that should surely have stayed buried lest Discord lose his very reason to live.

Luna was still talking but he blanked it out, the keening, shrieking voice fading into the background of endless droning that he simply couldn't handle hearing right now. His worst dream, his nightmare was loping towards him. All this time, in his stone prison, in his head he had had his chaos to help him, to allow him to pull through so many hardships. His safety net from fear of failure. And now it was going to be yanked from underneath him. Discord was falling, further and further and faster and faster then he had ever fell before and, right now, he desperately needed that safety net. He needed it now more then ever.

He just heard Luna's final words, a faint sneer and a crippling rude goodbye before she marched off, the snow forming around her as she stalked towards the castle. He didn't care, she could do what she wanted. Right now, he had one priority. Only one.

Escape.

And then, slowly, the whispering influence of his chaos began to drift towards him. He heard his own voice, this time cold and devoid of all emotion speak to him. A faint call, an impart of twisted schemes and darkened knowledge.

Petrify, the soft, serpentine voice that he used to love so much, to adore even, whispered to him, she wishes to control you, to take your power for herself. You know what needs to happen. You know what we must do.

After all, the voice, his voice, said slyly, devilishly and yet with all the malice in the world, rules are made to be broken.

Discord turned slowly, rotating on his feet to spin one hundred and eighty degrees towards the direction of that manipulative voice. There, a throbbing, humming, pulsating spectrum of red and gold and black, blazed softly. It was dark and light, perfect and imperfect, harmonious and chaotic. The source of his rage and his anger and his dark, terrible visions. His chaotic influence just swirled around in a tight cloud of boiling emotions, longing to be free of this stony hell. Not once, not even once, had Discord spoke to nor entered his influential darker side, the area of his mind where only the most horrific and maddening things could be thought of. It was a dark place, a place that would seep into his mind and corrupt him were he to enter it. It would force his hand, make him do anything, anything, in order to escape.

Discord stared and stared for what felt like a millennia, his gaze locked into the seething mass of chaotic power that buzzed and fizzed and sparked at the very corner of his mind. All of his thoughts, of Celestia's sadistic promise, of Luna's intense burning hatred from him, of the ponies who had spat on him and turned away from him, even after he had sacrificed so much of himself to them, began to swirl around his mind, poisoning his judgement. Discord, the misunderstood, mismatched monster took a deep, shuddering, throat tickling breath and went through with one of the biggest mistakes in his immortal life. He plunged into the very heart of the squirming mess of chaos, losing himself in the crawling, howling madness.

And as the tendrils of chaos, as the whispers of power began to snake into his head he realized something.

Sometimes, rules must be broken.

Authors note: DUN DUN DUN!
Just so you know, I bloody love Luna but I needed somepony to play the big, bad, tormenting bully and she was just too perfect for the job.
Also, I know I said that Discord never harmed ponies and that in the very beginning of this he practically beats Luna and Celestia's flanks but there is a very good reasons for that, you just have to wait for the reveal.

Of Shattered Promises And Broken Minds

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Of Shattered Promises And Broken Minds

Anger.

Malice.

Hate.

Dark, tortured feelings screamed and flew around the mind of the newly infected king of chaos, blood red light pouring from the massive, swirling crimson cloud that smothered the mind of the draconequus. Spikes of twisted feelings drilled into his conscious every second, driving the corrupt thoughts further and further into the horribly writhing mind and pouring molten lead into the single, rebellious corner of his mind that was screaming and shrieking to be free, similar to the actions of the chaos influence before it had consumed him entirely. Still the disobedient, cawing psyche continued to pound ferociously against the mass of seething spoilt apple red storm of dark chaos, attempting to push back the crawling wall of sheer evil with little effect. Soon the darkness and the malice and the anger began to form into something, something monstrous and mismatched and chaotic.

Cloudy, twirling apparitions of vapour descended upon the once black floor of the mind confinements, dark seeping red spreading out along the floor from the first touch. Slowly, the misty cloud began to take shape, twisted form hazily visible inside the sparking, dinning storm of rotten magic. One large, dulled green, scaly leg protruded from the smoke, talons clicking sharply against the still pooling floor. Another cloven, similarly dulled goat leg stepped out, lice and spiders running down its length before hitting the floor and disappearing, the illusion spent. The figure almost seemed to materialize as it pulled itself out of the still spinning vapour with a loud hiss and a low, dark, vomit inducing chuckle.

It was like Discord but worse, so much worse. Bile would rise up at the mere sight of Discord but this, this monstrosity would cause eyeballs to burn and wither, throats to convulse and gag and noses to scrunch up and burst blood from the slits, brutally assaulted by the horrendous leaking smell that trickled from the mouth.

The golden eyes had altered, humanity lost in a dark void of shining gold flames, the red pinpricked pupils even smaller then before and veins of bright red snaking across the blazing orbs. The single snaggletooth was curved and a horrible,a rotting banana colour that had a ring of dark brown enamel near the top that seemed to perfectly form around the bent tooth. The white eyebrows and beard were now crawling with lice and a fine layer of dandruff flickered across their surfaces like snow laying on a clearing. The usually vivid blue goat horn was now a grey shaded twisted creation, jutting out of his head with an abnormally large curl that was surprising even compared to the draconequus's old horn. The once bone white deer horn was now snapped along the tips, brown bone caked with dirt and grime and decay. Each breath exhaled reeked off death and atrophy, a foul smell that littered the dark red void before him. His usually sleek, groomed hair was now spiking up at all angles, small lice crawling along its surface like the soldiers of an army marching to war.

His once dark chocolate coloured coat was now a deep black colour, drawing in all the light around him so that it looked like he was the eater of the sun, light bending towards him at an impossible angle. His furry lion paw was now bone think as a tight, taut mucky yellow coat lay over it like a blanket covering a festering wound. His long, banana coloured eagle talon now hung limply at his side, deep swathes of red rings coating around its edge, spiralling downwards until it reached the broken, peeling brown talons. His mismatched legs were their abnormal grey colour, the bright green scales smothered in a choking dull hold. His once long, red tail was now an even darker red colour that simulated a rich copper like tinge, curling and twisting as if it had a mind of its own. Instead of ending in its usual feathery, winged flaps it ended in a raw, bloody stump that was pulsing a sickly green colour. The bat wing was stretched to breaking point, holes punctured in the leathery folds like violent stab wounds. The bright blue pegasus wing was now limp and drooping, a sheen of darkness wrapping itself tightly around it like a snake squeezing the life of its helpless prey.

This new, hopelessly morphed Discord stepped forward, a slight smile playing across his lips creating a vivid and petrifying visage of yellowing, rotting teeth. He laughed in an abysmally cruel way, stretching his broken limbs out in front of him with a loud, bile inducing crack that resonated horribly through the darkening mind, acoustics allowing the sound to continue long after it should have faded. The dark spirit of chaos raised his quivering taloned hand and snapped his fingers, his scenery morphing into a new clear picture, a picture that would plague the nightmares of ponies for as long as the slept. A scene that would cause God's to weep and the stars themselves to plummet from the skies.

It was Canterlot but a horribly warped, sick version of Canterlot. Houses burnt with blinding, scorching blue and green flames in the background, cracked walls opening up like the gaping mouth of a monster. Ponies of every colour and ethnicity tearing across the scene, screaming and crying and flailing, their limp bodies hitting the ground with a loud thump as the unquenchable flames raced up the length of their filthy equine bodies. The trees were upside down, roots hanging upwards towards the sky like gnarled fingers clawing for the clouds. The once green, luscious ground was scorched and brown, great poka-dots of red and grey and black spreading across the floor almost like a horribly mutated game of Twister. Feral woodland creatures ravished across the demonic sight, sickeningly elongated legs pushing their heads upward towards the skies, trampling and stamping the still laying forms of ponies. The sky was a deep, dark gold and red colour, flashing blue lightning streaking across its length regularly like the first sign of the Apocalypse. Canterlot castle was decadent, decrepit and hopelessly obliterated. Smoke poured from the smashed roof of the tallest tower, flames licking up its side with startling speed. The castle itself was criss-crossed with dark green ivy that tightened and choked the walls, cracks forming around the parasitic plant like the opening of a sadistic gateway, the walls nearly crumbling under the smothering strain. Shards of broken glass littered the grounds, the gardens horribly scorched with unreal, green flames. Flowers wilted in the dead air, violent shades of bright yellow flickering across their bodies like a fireplace. The large doors to the great castle entrance had been blown apart. Frail, broken wood lay on the large steel rimmed hinges, clutching to the sides like a drowning pony clutching to the side of a life raft. Canterlot had been razed, torn asunder. Burnt and crushed and terminated with shocking clarity. That, however, was not the worst sight.

Before the broken draconequus, there stood two dull, ivy covered statues that clung to the granite with an iron grip. The first statue was of a large, once blue Alicorn with a starry mane. The once beautiful Princess of the Night now lay smothered in stone, midnight blue coat choking under the sea of cold rock. Her once flowing mane now hung straight at her side, the rock forcing it downwards in a stunning reflection of the mane of one Pinkamena Dianne Pie. Her gorgeous, regal wings now lay coated in the stone, feathers turned into brittle, freezing material and plumage being carved into the rocky surface. Her horseshoes and tiara were broken, sharp shards of what once was moonlit glass stabbing in all directions like a slicing, broken bottle. The most shocking factor though was the face. There was such terror in those eyes, such pain. Cold, hard stone tears trickled down her cheeks, solidifying in place for all eternity. Her mouth was open in what should have been a painfilled scream, a sound that had been cut short by the crawling rock. Her once twisting, sparkling, majestic horn was snapped and shattered. The base remained but the horn itself lay on the floor beside the statue, a sick reminder to those who would dare disobey the uncontrollable king of chaos.

The second statue was of similar texture. The large, pure white Alicorn goddess of the sun now encased in the very stone that she had used to imprison him. Her once infuriatingly dove white body was now swirled in chilling granite, deep notches carved into the rock. Her watermelon coloured mane was stretched behind her looking painfully tight as if she had been blown by an exceedingly strong wind before being petrified. Her beautiful, spread wings were weighed down to her sides with the unbridled weight of the stone that surrounded her, forcing her wings to curl tightly into her Alicornian body. Similarly to her little Alicorn sister, Celestia's horseshoes, necklace and tiara were segmented and smashed, jutting edges striking into the coat of the Princess of the Sun. Her face told the whole story, the story of her utterly destroyed hope for him. Her eyes were wide with guilt and anger and sadness and, most astonishingly, betrayal. Tears that had yet to spill had formed into stone whilst they lay in the corners of her eyes, a feeble, depressing sight for the great Alicorn. Her mouth was cut into the dark silhouette of unrepairable pain, her mouth biting down on her bottom lip with the unknown reaction to cease her needless shrieking. Oh, and her horn. Her once great, long, powerful, radiating horn was torn from the head of the wonderful Princess. It lay before her forelegs, a horrible sight to behold, long white tip still faintly glowing with a holy light.

The statues of the Princesses of Equestria, the rulers of the land and the protectors of the ponies lay before Discord, ruler of everything and anything.

Discord felt a slight drill against his mind as his gaze fell upon the petrified Celestia, a slight scream just distinguishable before it faded into the dark clouds of thought. Discord sighed in utter bliss once before he snapped his fingers, the scene sinking into the ground like swirling of a whirlpool, the future passing before him with a loud slurp.

Soon, my dearest Celestia, Discord thought to himself as he watched his diabolical plan disappear from sight, a malevolent smile crossing his features, so very, very soon.

And with that the rotting, blackening, abominable visage of chaos gave off a loud, awful laugh and vanished, patiently waiting for the moment that Celestia would enact her plan.

Waiting for the moment when he would take his revenge.

[.]

Three days had passed, three long, arduous days that ticked by slowly like the falling of sand into an hourglass. But on that fourth day, on that fourth day Celestia arrived at the gardens once more, a large smile across her face as she anticipated the return of the newly freed Discord.

The day that everything changed.

He watched her through his blind, magical eyes. Great juicy rolls of joy and glee rolled off of her in great clouds of happiness, bringing the bile to the throat of the erroneous draconequus. Such bright, happy emotions that plagued his dark thoughts like flies over a carcass. How he wished to pummel and crush them beneath his feet, how he wished to rid that pitiful world of all of their needless, never-ending joy. Celestia stepped forward towards the statue, excitement and nerves pouring out of her as she cleared her throat and began her rehearsed speech.

“I have accomplished it Discord. The spell to rid you of your terrible burden. Oh, it was difficult to find, secrets hidden within the darkest books of the Canterlot archives but I found it nonetheless.

Now, the spell does require a living creature to perform upon, so I shall rid you of your stone prison for merely a second to allow the spell to take effect...”

Mistake number one. Discord muttered to Celestia, his voice going unheard.

“...but I trust you enough to know that you won't do anything stupid when you are freed. After all, I am about to save you from years of torment...”

Number two.

“...Once the spell takes effect it will, if all goes according to plan, rid you of that drilling voice of chaos. And then, you can start a whole new, useful, happy life.”

Number three, you're out Celestia! Discord roared to himself, conjuring a field of spectators to himself before shrouding himself in a rich gold and red baseball uniform.

Celestia took a hesitant step back, the magical energy gathering up into the base of her horn with a light crackling. He felt her smile at him and, just for a moment, he felt the clawing feeling return to his mind, the effect little more then the bite of a gnat to his godly form.

“Ok Discord, I'm going to begin the depetrification now.”

Celestia let loose a small bolt of shining yellow magic that slammed into the chest of the statue of chaos. The golden light struck and stuck to the statue like a spider clinging to a web before the yellowy blaze began to spread across the whole body, cracks splitting along the edges of the statue.

And here. We. Go! Discord thought to himself as the feeling returned to his limbs, the bright light spreading across his body in a glorious, warm feeling that kindled his body in buttery joy. It was quickly squashed however as Discord enacted his simple and yet elegant plan.

Once she had seen the bolt stick to the statue, Celestia had immediately began to concentrate on the second matter, the removal of his chaos energy. She closed her eyes as she felt the hidden, forgotten magic twirl around her horn with a brilliant tingly, fuzzy feeling. Feeling the last pieces of the magical puzzle falling into place, Celestia opened her now shining eyes and blasted the uncensored spell at the now freed, rejuvenated king of chaos.

The spell hit his body with a loud crack, brilliant purple light exploding outwards as the blazing orb of purple, arcane magic dug into his body. Soon though, something began to go horribly, horribly wrong. Large cracks had appeared in his body, stretching along his chest in a gaping, pitch black tear that spread for too long a distance. Celestia could only watch in absolute, unrivalled horror as the king of chaos, the lord of all things unnatural, the spirit of mayhem, cracked and tore into a million tiny pieces that blew across the clearing. Celestia screamed, a heart wrenching, sorrow filled explosion of a scream that shattered the windows of the castle with a loud splintering sound. Her eyes were wide with undiluted horror, tears pouring down her face as she beheld the scattered segments of the creature she had sworn to help laying across the floor. Her mane and tail flared wickedly, emotions claiming her for their own as she howled and cursed and shrieked at the sky and the ground, and at the order and the reason and her own stubbornness to perform such a reckless, deadly spell. Her self belittling curses were soon smothered as a much more powerful, loud sound roared from behind her, cold, hard laughter tearing across the garden grounds.

Celestia wheeled around, mouth still open in a silent scream before her gaze grazed the beast before her. Discord lay curled up on the floor, laughing his imbecilic head off, great tears streaming down his face as he clutched at his stomach in giggled pain. Celestia blinked slowly before wheeling around once more to stare at the remains of the chaotic demon. Her site found the pieces of him, the shattered segments and slowly, slowly she began to realize what had happened. What lay before her was not the chunks of the draconequus, it was instead dark, deep rich chocolate that layered the clearing.

Without her realization, Discord had teleported out of his tomb long before the final crack had spread and allowed his body to burst forth, changing the figure inside the prison into an exact replica of him, except this was a dark black chocolate colour with a delicious taste. So, when she had seemingly blown him apart she had only shot her spell at the chocolatey god, the arcane magic destroying the dead material with a loud explosion.

Celestia turned, slowly this time, to face the still guffawing Discord. Anger blazed in her eyes but as a soft wave of happiness and joy at not having obliterated him rolled through her she began to relax. Celestia chuckled slightly before fixing her full attention onto the spirit of chaos. The laugh caught in her throat, breath wheezed out of her as she took in the dark sight before her.

He was Discord but not at the same time. Something had gone wrong with his revival. He was monstrous, beastly and broken. There was a strong smell of rot in the air the seemed to rise off of his shaking body, the once beautiful brown coat now a dark grey and black as though all of the colour had been washed out. Celestia stopped the bile from rising in her throat as she raked her gaze across hid whole body, guilt bubbling up within her like a fountain.

“Discord...what did...how did..”, Celestia started talking softly, grief welling up in her voice as she took in the sight of the draconequus that she and her sister had morphed so cruelly, “Oh Discord, I'm so, so sorry! What did we do to you!?”

Discord stopped his chuckling rolling to rise from the ground, stretching out to his whole height so that he towered before Celestia, coating her in his shadow.

“You, Celestia, trapped me in stone for a thousand years. And when I finally got out, finally had a bit of fun you threw me straight back into that cold hell”, Discord whispered softly, voice carrying loud hints of anger and hatred, “but don't you worry, my dear, because soon, very, very soon you shall know the feeling.”

Discord cartwheeled into the air, spreading out his long body in such a glorious way, back cracking from the year of imprisonment. He rose into the air until he could clearly see the whole of Canterlot.

“Now, where was I?”, Discord chuckled mischievously cold, voice dripping with malice, “Ah yes, complete and utter chaos. Watch, Celestia, as I raze your beautiful city to the ground.”

Discord turned his gaze back to the city before he clicked his fingers, the crack echoing loudly across the gardens. Immediately, ten bright blue fireworks blazed into life behind him and climbed into the sky, punching through the clouds. They soared to higher altitudes before exploding with a bright, gold message that shimmered in the bright, blue sky.

Discord's Back Baby!

The writing began to fizzle before falling to the earth as light twitches of embers dotted the sky. Instead of being put out by the air though the embers roared to life as ten inhumanely large fireballs shrieked through the air, the heat causing the remaining clouds to disappear in great wafts of vapour. The blazing fireballs descended rapidly, glowing an icy blue colour before they exploded across Canterlot with a series of bright, lightning coloured explosions. Great licks of fire tore through the city, houses engulfed by the great blue flare as the trees and the grass were caught ablaze. Almost immediately, screams rocketed around the great capitol as ponies desperately raced away from the onrushing flames. Celestia could only stare in growing horror as the town, the greenery and the castle were consumed by the growing mass of ice blue flames. Suddenly, a soft voice whispered into her ear, the wreak of carrion wafting across her face as Discord spoke softly to her.

“Do not fret my dear. T'is a new creation of mine named cold fire. Fitting right, considering the colour. The fire consumes all non sentient and dead or inactive organisms but leaves the others alone. Whilst the joy of burning ponies just thrills me to the very core I would much prefer to have their worlds melt away before them so I can hear them beg for their deaths, their lives ruined by my torrential storm of fire.”

Now Celestia altered her gaze to stare into the raging gold eyes of the monster who had caused such misery, such uncontrollable hatred flickering in his red pupils.

“You see Celly, something happened to me in that abysmally cold statue. I broke. Simply put it, I broke. You broke me Celestia. So, in a way, this whole thing is your fault.”

Discord spread his arms outwards in a gesture that simply spoke of his “reluctance” to the situation at hand, sarcastic and cruel. Celestia couldn't breathe, couldn't move as she watched her castle, her town crumble around her, the sounds of crying wood and burning trees searing through her ears, the sound shattering her age old heart. Tears bubbled in the corner of her eyes as she took in the whole scene before her. Once more, the wrenching stench wafted into her nose as Discord pulled himself closer to her, whispering softly into her ear.

“This, you foolish pony, is merely the beginning.”

Discord rose up, his figure blotting out the sun and snapped his fingers once more, the sound of breaking bones bouncing across the gardens as his magic burst outwards.

Skies morphed, animals altered, Canterlot razed, the castle brought to cinders. All had happened and were still happening, such delicious misery lacing the air as those pitiful, snivelling ponies weeped openly at the atrocious site before them. It was so brilliantly revitalizing, strength flooding through his blotted veins as he absorbed the dark thoughts around him. Celestia turned towards the sickening monster that stood before her as he took his fill of these dark, sad, morbidly terrifying thoughts. Her eyes never lost their dulled, depressed, guilty look but her voice rose loud and clear across the gardens.

“This...this is not the work of Discord.”

“This is very much the work of Discord! This is the work of the Discord that simply refuses to play by anyponies rules anymore! This is the work of Discord who is so sick and tired of your priggish attitude! This is the work of Discord who has simply had enough!”

Spittle flew from the draconequus's lips as he wheeled around to face the solar princess, anger and hate bubbling up inside of him. Rage poured through his veins as he took in the sight of the creature that had made his life miserable, turning his beautifully uncontrollable body to stone. A sharp spike of pain tore through his head as the screaming voice from earlier shrieked like a banshee again before it faded. She did not even flinch as she regarded him with those sorrowful, teary eyes, the look boring into him with a force strong enough to melt steel.

“I will give you one chance Discord, stop this madness now before you hurt somepony.”

Discord growled a terrible growl, the sound reverberating across the short distance between the two deities of order and chaos.

“Or what!?” He spat at her, contempt lacing his voice like poison.

Celestia closed her eyes for a mere second but so many loud, clamorous thoughts raced through her mind as she did. He was too far gone now, too far down the dark path. She had no other choice, just like before. The lesser of two evils. When she opened her eyes again they were hard and devoid of all emotion, terrifyingly blank as she burned into the eyes of the draconequus.

“Or I will have to stop you.”

Discord smirked slightly before he belched out a loud laugh that radiated defective, deficient humour, dark bubbling mirth dripping from the sound. He clutched his rotting sides as he beheld the solar princess take a step towards him, defiance written across her face.

Celestia watched in a detached manner as the spirit of chaos dissolved into a pool of dark, malicious laughter. She stepped forward, horn glowing with an eerily powerful light as she began to bring the offence to the large, beastly, sadistic antagonist before her. Just as she was about to fire off a brilliant ball of arcane magic, as she was about to start the bloody battle a loud sound tore through the sky.

“TIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAA!”

A midnight blue blur streaked through the skies towards her, wings flapping so fast that they were a blur of movement. Still the figure soared towards her, a bright vivid spectrum of dark blues, purples and twinkling stars bursting out from behind her as she increased her speed. The midnight blur soon grew bigger and bigger, closer and closer before the lunar princess hit the ground beside her older sister with a loud thump that caused a shockwave of sound and dust to blast across the gardens, blue energy crackling on the very tips. Princess Luna strode from the dust of her arrival to stand beside her sister, a hard, cold look in her eyes as she beheld the gruesome figure before her.

“This time, sister, we fight him together.”

Celestia turned to stare at her younger sister, the magnificent blue coat now spiked with angered, frustrated hairs that rose to attention like soldiers. How she had grown from the little filly that Celestia knew so long ago, the little filly that had been scared of her own shadow. Celestia nodded her approval before turning to face the now quiet monstrosity who was silently regarding both sisters with an inquisitive eye.

“Oh goodie”, Discord cawed, a horrid yellow teethed smile breaking across his face as his carrion breath wafted around the area, “the fight!”

Celestia's horn exploded in a bright orange light as an orb of similarly orange light burst from her appendage, burning with the heat of the sun. Luna's horn had also lit and fused, a vivid dark blue beam of immovable light streaming towards the age old enemy. Discord jumped high and vaulted the orange ball of unrepressed solar energy before dropping to the ground and, snapping his fingers, the blue arcane bolt now fizzling out of existence mere seconds before it struck him. Discord growled with inconceivable pleasure at the feeling of finally getting his hands dirty. He snapped his taloned hand and a cotton candy pink cloud descended around Luna, wrapping her tightly in the sticky goodness before starting to choke the life out of her, constricting its grip on her lungs. Celestia flew towards him, wings beating tirelessly against the air as she crossed the distance in seconds and smashed into Discord, sending them both flying across the garden and through a deep grey hedge.

Luna burst from her sweet prison with a fantastic explosion of blue light before she to vaulted across the clearing using her wings and tore through the hedge. Celestia remained grappling with the draconequus, snaking one hoof down to pound his jaw with enough force to crack marble. The spirit merely chuckled at the strike before leaning towards her face and expelling his foetid breath onto her face, malodorous smells wafting through her nose. Celestia became green before Discord raised one leg and, kicking her, sent her flying across the new clearing and into a rosebush, where she proceeded to vomit. Just as he got up, Luna exploded from the hedge edge and spun forward, facing Discord in front of her sister, desperately trying to defend her. She closed her eyes for a split second and when they opened they were the shining reflection of the moon itself, power crackling out of them with unbelievable force. Luna opened her mouth and roared at Discord, the ground tearing itself apart as the sound raced across its surface. Discord was sent careening backwards as the magic fuelled soundwave smashed into him, tossing him into the wind. Discord fell onto his back and rolled backwards skilfully before raising both of his arms, palms out as he tossed a dark grey bolt of magic out of the mismatched hands. Luna, still slightly dazed from her previous spell was struck in the chest by the dark grey bolt as she flew backwards to land in a crumpled heap beside her sister. Discord marched forward just as the twin Alicorn's rose and gave each other a slight look and then a knowing nod.

Swiftly the two princesses bolted, one to the left and one to the right until they surrounded him on both sides. Discord merely smirked at the attempt to distract his thoughts towards which princess to attack or defend against first. He twisted sideways so that his left side faced Celestia and his right side faced Luna. He raised his taloned hand at Celestia and brought two talons towards himself, beckoning her onwards. Celestia smiled slightly, the spell she had been holding in now flaring to life as she blew a sharp streak of dark yellow and red lightning towards Discord, hoping to catch him in the chest, wind him and finish the battle up quickly. The lightning streak tore towards him as he opened his taloned palm and, as its tip impacted, merely tossed it back towards Celestia with the ease of batting away a ball with a metre wide club. Celestia's eyes widened in astonishment as she saw her own vibrant lightning dart back towards her. She just had time to mutter a soft curse under her breath before the lightning caught her in the chest, sending her zooming backwards, red and yellow sparks twisting around her form. Discord's eyes darted back to Luna as he saw her blast a scribbly, exceedingly grey spell at him. A spell that he remembered all too well.

Discord waited until it was in reach before raising his hand up with lightning fast speed and snatched it out of the air, cupping it with his lion paw hand and gazing at it with an unreadable expression. His eyes slowly rolled upwards to face Luna who was staring with bafflement at Discord's disregard for her magic, simply catching one of her most powerful spells as easily as plucking a leaf from the ground. Discord smiled a rotten smile as he looked Luna straight in the eyes, hate and anger and surprise glittering in his golden eyes.

“My, my, my Luna. You have been gone for some time now but I thought even you would know that petrification spells are among one of the darkest magic’s known to ponykind. I'm a little bit disappointed in you really.”

Discord gazed into Luna's eyes as they filled with a tinge of guilt before resetting back to her hardened, battle ready expression. He smiled slightly before tossing the unadulterated dark magic behind him where it seemingly vanished. Luna's eyes widened considerably as he did this and immediately she bolted towards him, travelling at an unbelievably fast pace that would put Rainbow Dash to shame. Discord waited as she drew closer and closer, pulling his cupped lion fist back slightly to smash into her head just as she pulled closer and-

Moved right past him, disappearing behind his back with the thudding vibrations of her hooves hitting the ground continuing. Discord heard a slight sob from behind him, a whimper of pain that brought happiness to his heart. Or it would have if it were not interrupted by the shriek that echoed around his mind once more, aggravating the draconequus further as he slowly turned to face the princesses. He turned and as his face fell upon the scene before him, shock and worry without consent exploded from within him.

Luna was on the floor, large fat tears dripping down her face as she knelt next to the downed figure beside her, the figure that Discord recognized all too well. Celestia lay on the floor, tears falling out of her eyes, soft whimpering escaping her clenched, pained lips as she desperately tried to keep her pride. Below her, from the waist down the gleaming, pristine white coat was a steady grey of cold, hard granite. As he watched, the stone began to creep up her body converting all it touched into frozen rock. Celestia screamed just once as it passed across her chest, her perfectly moulded necklace shattering from the effects of the petrification spell that Discord had so haphazardly thrown behind him. The spell that had struck Celestia, who had attempted to sneak up on him. The spell that had turned her lower body to granite. The spell that was now making its way up the length of her body. The stone was on her neck now, cutting off all sounds as the throat closed and convulsed, clawing for breath that wouldn't come. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as the stone encompassed, first, her rainbow coloured mane and then her mouth. The eyes shone with tears, pain and guilt and misery and betrayal aching across the gardens, directed at Discord. Slowly, the eyes themselves folded from the still seeping stone, the last trace of Celestia vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Discord should have been smiling, smirking, cawing triumphantly. He had achieved his final goal, the petrification of the princess. He should have felt joy and happiness and retribution burst from him. He should have walked over there and turned silly little Luna to stone, to encase her for all eternity with her sister. But Discord did none of these things. Discord simply stood stone still as something horrible and wonderful, dreadful and blissful , horrifying and astounding happened.

The shrieking of the banshee like voice grew louder and louder, the words now distinguishable as the force and pain started to explode inside of him. Still the voice carried across his head, the pain ready to erupt.

No, no, no, no, no, NO!

The banshee scream suddenly changed, Discord's own voice occupying the voice as his conscious roared at itself, as it battled for control from the chaos influence that was now recoiling in fear.

The voice continued to roar and scream and shriek as Discord's mind tore itself in two.

Authors note: I know that with Discord's battle and the petrification of Celestia that this chapter closely resembles one of the newest chapters of When The Wind Changes (which if you haven't read before then shame on you) but I have something quite large planned for the next chapter. When a God's mind tears in half something very powerful happens, something very interesting.

You could even say that the fun will be doubled.

Morbidly Discorded

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Morbidly Discorded

Moments before

Inside the corrupted, churning mind Discord could only watch in horror as he saw himself carelessly throw the petrification spell over his shoulder, realization hitting the trapped draconequus far quicker then it hit the dark, lumbering beast that had claimed rights to his mind. He watched in suspense as Luna charged towards his darker self, felt tears prickling his mental eyes as he watched himself pull back one dead, dull lions fist, ready to shatter the lunar princess's head with one almighty blow. He could only watch in unbearable agony as the the Goddess of the Night tore past him, letting out a quiet sob and convincing him of his earlier thoughts, the thoughts that he was desperately trying to block out but to no avail. He fruitlessly tried to stop his own body as the rotten version of himself turned around slowly to face the one sight that Discord had been fearing, dreading for the whole of his imprisonment. The sight that cleaved into his heart and soul, that stabbed deeply into his abysmally small heart.

Celestia was before him, half petrified and valiantly battling to stay silent despite the rolling amounts of pain that were obviously flooding her body. Discord watched, large fat tears streaming down his hideous face as the granite relentlessly moved forward, climbing up her snowy white chest. He jolted once in surprise and dark depression as he heard her scream out in pain, as he heard his chaotic influence give a soft chuckle inside of his mind, the sound ringing in his created ears. He watched in abject fear, trying to tear himself away from the sight but unable to, as the cold, dead stone reached her elegant swan like neck. As she gagged and choked, trying to draw the air in without any hope of the breath entering or exiting her body again, her hopeless cause swiftly being abandoned as the stone rose higher. He watched in undiluted sadness as her beautiful, vibrant rainbow mane was turned to stone in the blink of an eye, colours fading into hard, granite-grey stone that dragged the mane towards the ground. Finally, he watched in dismay and dread as those gentle magenta eyes flooded once with tears, a look of such betrayal crossing their depths before they were consumed by the tide of stone that had roared across her body and consumed her. Discord could only watch from the sidelines as the last traces of the solar princess, the Goddess of the Sun, the ruler of Equestria faded from view as the magenta eyes disappeared for all eternity.

Discord's mind collapsed as he struggled to come to terms with what he had done to her. How he had tortured her and trapped her for all eternity. How he had broken his age old promise to never petrify, never hurt and never kill a pony. His mind flooded with self loathing and pity and such unprecedented guilt that scorched his heart and soul with great lapses of liquid pain. His body hit the still strobing red ground with a low thud as he crumpled into a ball of tears, great sobs wracking his body as his head plunged into his mismatched hands, shudders shaking his deformed body. He felt his heart break just as his mind had, he felt pain and misery burning through his veins like rays of the beating sun. Her sun. He felt such guilt and fear and anger.

Discord raised his head, eyes burning with rage and hate as he beheld the swirling red mass of tortured, corrupting feelings that had wormed their way into his mind and pushed him to his breaking point, the same swirling red mass that had turned one of his most beloved, cherished ponies to stone. Tears dried on his ancient face as he stood up to his full height to glare at the chaotic influence that swarmed around his mind before he growled in an unimaginable voice, pain and misery and anger racing across the sound and echoing awfully around the crimson cell. He opened his snaggletoothed mouth and, with the power and the anger of a enraged deity, began to roar at the tendrils of red corruption, voice shattering the tight grips that his chaotic influence had grappled onto his mind with.

No, no, no, no, no, NO!

Discord reached forward with his shaking, rage induced hands and began to tear into the cloud around his mind, tendrils of chaos stabbing into him with excruciating pain that he ignored as he continued his relentless assault. He felt the twirling, dark cloud give a little, as fear flooded the newly infected mind of chaos, icy tendrils of horror lacing the chaos influence as it vainly tried to fight back at the unstoppable godly juggernaut that was slicing and screaming and pounding into it with the force of planets and suns.

Discord advanced his relentless, bloodthirsty assault on his persecutor and his corrupted, warped mind as he dove further and further into the storm around him, ripping great tufts of the influence apart with his bare hands, barely registering the sharp stabbing tendrils that tore into his body. He plunged further into the wriggling mass, slicing and tearing until he reached its very core. An orb the size of a watermelon lay in the centre, bursts of red lightning sparking out of its core and torching the confines of his mind. Dark black storm clouds coated its length, smothering the orbs colour from view with great blasts of blue lightning snaking out and zooming towards the approaching draconequus, striking him in the chest but not stopping his rapid approach.

Discord leapt towards the red and blue lightning smothered orb, ignoring the stench of burnt fur and scorched flesh that wafted around him every time a burst of the lightning struck him. Smashing the dark storm clouds aside, Discord gripped the now revealed golden sheeted orb with one hand and his imprisoned mind with the other before tossing them as far away from each other as possible, the golden orb slamming into the walls of his mind with a loud crack that exploded in brilliant white light.

Immediately, Discord felt pain rip into his body as he felt his very being tear itself in two. He dropped to his knees as the pain intensified, the agony exploding within him with the force of a bomb. He glanced up once, tears of afflictions pouring down his face like great sheets of rain, as he saw the orbs shattered white light approach him and coat his body in a dulling, pain relieving glow, before grabbing him with a gentle embrace. Discord closed his eyes as he felt the pain wash away, the bright shining light now encompassing his whole being, growing brighter and brighter until it blotted out all other sights and sounds. Somewhere in the distance he heard a low scream of pain before a curious ripping noise billowed around his ears as the brilliant white light faded. He opened his golden, small and large eyes slowly before they surged open rapidly as they took in the baffling sight that lay before him.

[.]

Unimaginable pain tore through the twisted form of Discord as he felt his mind rip in half, his conscious beginning to crumble as he dropped to one green, rotten, scaly knee, his mismatched hands pressed tightly against his head. Tears sprung up in his golden, torturous eyes as the pain increased, tearing through his very soul and slicing his shrivelled, blackened heart in two. This feeling was unlike anything he had experienced in his millennium’s of life, such pain and agony soaring through his form as he felt his body pull itself apart. Through his closed eyelids, Discord could faintly see a bright white light but none of that mattered, the only thing that mattered was the shards in his mind and the pain in his body. A scream tore from his mouth, cracked curled lips opening to allow the low shriek to escape as the pain surged out of him before he heard a loud ripping noise similar to fabric being pulled apart break across the garden. Almost immediately the pain ended and the draconequus was left panting and sweating with terror at the newfound empty feeling, his limbs shivering slightly with horror and his eyes darting swiftly towards the lunar princess who was still sobbing over the stone body of her sister, great golden orbs twitching ever so slightly.

Discord rose unsteadily to his feet, quivering slightly as his muscles coiled and wrapped around his insides, his mind pushing him towards the prospect of just curling up and falling asleep, to rid itself of the fear of experiencing that pain again. His eyebrows declined along his eyes as he glared at the whimpering form of the lunar princess before speaking up in a raspy and yet relieved voice, vague hints of experienced pain tainting the tone.

“What...what did you do to me?”

Luna just continued to sob, disgusting the lord of chaos with her petty whimpers that brought bile to his ancient throat. His lips curled in disgust at her revolting display of love before, waveringly, he began to walk over to her. His dulled grey feet stomped across the ground with loud thuds, dirt and dust flicking upwards and soiling his body as the dragon talons tore great clumps out of the earth. It took him perhaps thirty seconds to cross the clearing, by that time his power and his energy had returned to him and the confident but sickening smirk had reappeared on his face. Calmly he wandered up to the still sobbing Goddess of the Night, raising his head to peer over her body at the stone statue of Celestia before he let out a gagging sound and spat phlegm onto the face of the statue, watching in glee as it rolled down the cold grey face. Now Luna raised her head to look at him, puffy red eyes blazing with anger at the shocking display of impudence. She made to stand up, her horn glowing slightly with an ethereal light before Discord grabbed her around the throat and raised her into the sky, the lack of oxygen cutting off the spell as Luna desperately flailed to draw in a breath. Discord raised his serpentine neck so that he could stare into Luna's now terrified eyes, whispering softly to her with the smell of rot on his breath.

“I asked you a question little Luna. What did you do to me!?”

Luna's eyes widened in fear and oxygen deprivation, making her eyes bulge slightly. Discord was overjoyed to see that her eyes were staring straight at him, wide with terror at his asphyxiation of her. He felt a perverse sense of pleasure at the feeling of holding a life in his sharp, dirty hands. Suddenly, her eyes flickered to something behind him and they widened even further, a strangled grunt echoing out of her throat as she desperately tried to back-pedal away. Her wings beat furiously at the air but it was like trying to move a rock with a feather, Discord had an iron grip on her throat and nothing, nothing, would make him let go.

Well, almost nothing.

A loud, ear-splitting whistle tore through the clearing, riding on the wind like a bird upon the air. Discord frowned slightly before dropping Luna in a bundle on the floor where she proceeded to draw in loud, shaky breathes before coughing wracked her body, sending her into convulsing fits of pain. Discord's mind raced towards the idea of whatever creature may have raised his alarm, perhaps a foolish guard pony had come out to convert himself towards the role of the chaotic demons new plaything.

Discord turned just in time to see a brilliantly yellow lion paw collide painfully against his muzzle, sending him flying backwards.

[.]

The newly freed Discord could only watch himself in bafflement, glancing down at his perfectly imperfect, mismatched hands before glancing up at the figure that had its back faced towards him. It was himself except rotten and broken, pockmarks torn into the folds of his beautiful bat wing and dusty, shadowed webs clinging to his blue pegasus wing. His precious red tail ended in a bloody, weeping stump that oozed blood and marrow white pus. Discord watched as the sickening version of himself stood shakily onto its feet, repeating the movement himself until both gods of chaos remained standing. It still had its back to him as it called out to the weeping figure of Luna.

For a split second, the now free Discord pondered the matter at hand, his splitting from the darker adaptation of himself before events began to converge that forced his mind to focus on something else, something dark and cruel and negligent.

Discord's eyes narrowed as it watched it, himself, stroll up to the princess and spit upon the fallen statue with a disgraceful expression upon its face, Discord's own vision going red at the monstrous sight. He let out a light growl that no one heard before slowly walking towards the dark visage of himself as he watched it pick up Luna as if she were merely a doll. He watched her kick and struggle, watched the life start to fade out of her old eyes as she became slowly starved of oxygen. He watched her eyes widen slightly at the sight of him, bugging out of her head as she desperately tried to suck in breath to no avail. Looking into those eyes he could see that she thought this was it, her death by the hands of not one but two Discord's. Her ultimate fear, the god of chaos doubled but without the fun.

How wrong she was.

Discord whistled loudly as he sauntered up to the monster that had claimed his body, bringing his lion paw back as far as he could, ready for the reaction that he was hoping for. He wasn't disappointed. The Discord like brute dropped Luna like a sack of potatoes before turning around just at the right moment to experience the joys of having a lions fist sent smashing into its distorted face with the strength of a herd of stampeding buffaloes. He watched his other form for a moment as it soared through the air and out of sight, slamming through a dense green hedge at the edge of the garden before he knelt down next to the still coughing figure of Luna, bringing his hands to rest upon her neck as he fixed her constricted and crushed oesophagus. The Princess of the Night jumped at the sudden touch, air flooding her now free throat as her horn glowed a bright blue, magic building up to blast at the sadistically twisted monster before her.

“Cut that out Lu-lu, if I was going to hurt you I would have done it by now.”

Discord grumbled at the Alicorn princess, grabbing the tip of her horn and extinguishing the magical build up that she had been preparing for him like a birthday candle. The Princess of the Night raised her head to meet his, eyes locking together as the two gods stared at each other in bated silence. In a hazy, wheezing voice the ruler of the moon spoke up, eyes flashing with never-ending sorrow and blazing with unquenchable anger.

“You...you did hurt us. You...turned Celestia to stone you-you monster.”

Discord winced slightly at the brutal words that she had used to attack him before his gaze fell upon the stone figure that lay beside him, raising one hand to gently caress the rough, hard granite, running a loving trail across the petrified neck of Celestia.

“I would never, never, do that.” Discord whispered softly so that Luna and Luna alone could hear his voice, could see how hurt and guilty and angry he truly was. So that she could hear the pounding of his bloody heart and the whispers of grievous mistakes dripping from his voice.

Discord stood up as a loud crack sounded from the now three holed hedge, bracing himself for the return of his dark, twisted side. He glanced at Luna for a split second, blazing eyes shining into hers.

“I'm going to take care of that thing and then, my dear Luna, I am going to save Equestria and restore your lovely sister to flesh and blood. And I'll tell you something else, when all is said and done you will thank me.”

The discordantly mischievous grin flashed across his imperfect face, a sight for sore eyes compared to the curled, decaying smile that the other Discord had worn as Luna looked up into his eyes, briefly searching them for any hints of the dark monster that had petrified Celestia and then spat on her stone body. The lunar princess found only guilt and sadness and unbearable anger in those ancient, age-old eyes and her heart gave a slight leap of hope as she saw the hardened, battle-ready expression enter his face as he prepared himself to fight for his world. Discord allowed a slight, wavering smirk to curl the corners of his mouth upwards as he watched the night princess give a short, sharp nod at him before resuming her mourning of her sister. He turned just in time to see his corrupted body untangle itself from the hedge with a loud curse.

The abnormal, atrocious body turned itself to stare at the mismatched figure before it, confusion giving way to a large, yellow teethed smile that broke across its features as it beheld the screaming, whining voice that had lain trapped in its head for so long now, in its full form.

“Hello brother of bone, it's certainly been a while since I've seen you like this.”

The voice that emanated from the diabolical draconequus was filled with sarcasm, scorn and blistering malice, nearly make Discord shudder with a tremor of anxiety.

“I am not your brother! I'm Discord, me! You're...nothing.”

Discord spat venomously at the unnatural being before him, the stench of decay and rot slipping into the air, lacing it with light trails of death. The loathsome king of chaos smirked softly, bringing one broken talon up to his mouth as it formed into a small pout at the stabbing words.

“Oh dear me that stung! Well if I'm not dear Dissy then I suppose I'd better find a more...suitable name for myself.”

The now nameless draconequus seemed to struggle for a second, eyes darting upwards as if to stare into its very own mind as it rapped one long, bony finger against its chin before it raised it up in triumph, a loud aha splitting the silence like a knife cutting through butter.

“If you're Discord, spirit of chaos then I am Morbid, master of suffering. It has a nice little ring to it right? Oh, I'm so glad you like it!”

Discord merely curled his lips, arms flailing around him to cover all of the burning landscape around him, the ringing of screaming soaring across the crumbling, razed city.

“Look at what you've done Morbid. This isn't the way that life is supposed to be. Chaos is one thing but death and misery and pain. They are tools that should not be wielded by any creature. You were there with me, in my mind, when I petrified the last truly great threat to Equestria. You alone know what it feels like to live under the shadow of a barbaric monster. Do not change into the beast that we swore so long ago to never convert to.”

The newly named Morbid just looked at Discord with disgust, anger boiling up inside of him like a burning stew. His fiendish eyes glittered with unsuppressed contempt at the sight of the should be king of chaos before him that refused to accept that over time things change, circumstances differ.

“Do you not remember the way those pitiful ponies fled from you, even after all you had done! Do you no longer care that there is no creature in the world that can stand your presence, no creature that knows your suffering, no creature that can help you bear the pain of betrayal and dissatisfied emotions of those disgusting ponies.”

Morbid spat out his speech, venom and malice and hatred lending volume to his dark voice, the screams and crackles of burning diminishing in the background as the wind began to pick up around the two intricately linked deities.

“Nobody but me. I can help you Discord, you would no longer have to live in shame and anger from these ponies, they would bow before you like peasants to a god. Together, we could claim Equestria as our own. All you have to do is join with me.”

Luna glanced up from her sorrow-felt moaning at this, her eyes widening slightly in fear as she beheld Discord's silence as he pondered the thought, terror erupting in her soul as she pushed herself to her feet painfully, preparing herself to fight the two of them if the situation may arise. Her horn glowed weakly with faint blue energy, Morbid noticing and looking at her with a carrion smirk and cold, humourless eyes. Discord shook his head softly before his gaze returned to Morbid, burning into the dark draconequus's eyes with rage that would have burnt worlds and caused suns to collapse. His voice was quiet but strong, anger and hate lacing the voice like a drug.

“Never.”

Morbid's features fell in open shock at the decline of his dark invitation before his face morphed into a blank, cold look that screamed a warning to every creature nearby.

“So be it.”

Discord rose to his full height, cracking the knuckles of his hands with loud, shot-like noises that blasted around the clearing, preparing himself for the inevitable storm that was about to descend. His voice rose loud and clear, cutting through the air with a monotonous tone.

“So be it indeed.”

The two dark gods, one of the refines of chaos and the other of the pain of misery and madness, began to circle each other with slow, deliberate steps. Their heavy feet left great indents in the ground around them, the grass mushing itself into place as the soles of the draconequus's came down upon it. Discord held a cold, steady frown upon his face that betrayed his rolling emotions of rage and misery whilst Morbid wore the same carrion smirk that he had equipped to his facial expressions so early on in his rise to power. The twin deities that had both risen from each others contempt and power locked gazes, lightning flickering from golden orbs to golden orbs as rage and confidence clashed together in a pitched battle for dominance. Their mismatched hands curled into fists and then unclenched with small popping noises as the bones cracked against each other, magical energy swirling around the fingertips with a light crackling of sparks. Their twin tails, one long and winding and the other stumped and bleeding, writhed behind them slightly as the breeze picked up, magical power flooding the environment around them and bending it to their rolling emotions. Their wings fluttered in the strong gusts of wind, blue feathers swirling contrastingly with black feathers as they continued to beat to keep the two battle-locked contestants inside the still forming circle.

Then the first mistake was made.

Morbid, still looking into the pouring, angered eyes of the spirit of chaos opposite him took a wrong step, one large cloven hoof sinking slightly into the indent of the footstep that Discord had made into the ground previously, causing him to make a slight shift in his balance as his eyes flickered down to glance across his next stepping point.

Morbid's eyes rose upwards just in time to see the spirit of chaos flying at him, magic crackling around his mismatched body as he propelled himself forward at an excruciating speed. Morbid smiled chillingly as Discord drew closer by the second, a brief thought flickering through his seething mind as he felt the battle begin.

Now, now things get really fun!

Authors note: Careful guys, we got a badass draconequus over here. In all honesty, I'm pretty hyped about writing the, hopefully, epic battle scene that is about follow in the next chapter. Wish me luck because if I fail dismally at that task then I give you full permission to yell abuse at me...over the internet.

An Unstoppable Force And An Immovable Object

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An Unstoppable Force And An Immovable Object

The careening, rocketing draconequus struck Morbid with the speed of a cannonball, slamming hard enough into his stomach to force all of the air out of his lungs and to send him, once more, flying backwards through the hedge and into the clearing where he had first fought the twin Alicorns. He slammed into the dusty ground with a loud thump that rattled across the gardens and a muffled curse, forcing Luna's ears to twitch slightly before she returned to her keening and mourning of her older sister. Discord calmly stepped through the now pockmarked hedge before his golden eyes settled on the blank area around him, Morbid completely missing from the picture. Discord's eyes narrowed in puzzlement and preparation as he slowly strode out to the middle of the dusty clearing, eyes peeled all around him for any signs of his twisted, monstrous form. Stopping in the middle, gaze roaming all around him, peering into possible hiding places Discord cooed to the hidden figure of Morbid.

“Come out come out wherever you areeeee~”

Suddenly a dark shadow blotted out the sun, a looming dark figure stretching up into the sky before Discord, a loud snapping and pop of teleportation magic sounding from the spot from which Morbid had just appeared. Discord's eyes shrunk at the sudden disappearance of the light before his ears twitched and his eyes widened at the cold voice that sounded from right in front of him.

“With pleasure.”

A large golden ball of pure, crackling magic exploded from the opened lion paw of the hopelessly rotten Morbid, springing to life and spiralling towards Discord at a phenomenal speed that defied belief, a slight mach cone surrounding it before it slammed into Discord.

The explosion was vivid and colourful, great flames of purple and green sprouting from the source of the bomb-like orb before the loud shriek and crackle of electricity punctured the relative silence of the gardens, great yellow and gold sparks streaming out of the blast like lightning. Pain shot through Discord's age old body as the magical orb impacted with his chest, exploding and sending him flying backwards through the hedge which, by now, was barely a hedge at all. Instead of stopping though, the pain-filled draconequus kept shooting backwards before slamming hard into the white stone wall of one of the many Canterlot towers, the marble cracking and splintering upon impact as he fell through with a loud, grinding shriek that sent rubble bursting out of the hole in great fountains.

Needless to say, Luna was incredibly surprised to see the streaking, soaring figure of Discord go zooming through the air with a loud fizzling sound, a mach cone nearly enveloping him at the speed which he was travelling. She was even more surprised and, without realizing, worried to see him go straight into and then straight through the cold, white marble walls of one of the largest towers, the sound causing her ears to flatten in horror as the screeching sound of grinding rocks reached her ears. Her attention was diverted from the horrifying sight before her as the soft rustling of leaves caught her attention, her head spinning around to locate the source of the noise.

Morbid was dragging himself out of the hedge, a winning smirk on his face as he beheld the sight of the flattened, segmented wall that was still cracking and crumbling in front of him before he turned his gaze to Luna as his cold, carrion smile increased in length at the sight of her. Shakily, the Lunar princess rose to her feet as the beastly, terrifying figure of Morbid sauntered towards her, whistling a tune through his cracked, yellow teeth.

Luna's horn blazed a bright, brilliant blue colour for a second, making Morbid stop in his tracks and his tune choke off before the startlingly powerful light was cut off as Luna slumped to the floor once more, physical and mental limits strained to their breaking points. Morbid resumed his tune after letting out a soft chuckle at the goddess of the nights helplessness, striding towards her until he stood directly in front of the panting, weakened goddess.

He held one taloned, broken hand out, palm facing upwards before a brilliant burst of bright green fire erupted from the outstretched hand, billowing upwards for three metres and spreading out to the sides slightly as if it wanted to escape. Luna could feel the intense, scolding heat from where she lay on the floor, fear freezing her limbs as she took in the sight of the mad god before her with the disturbed smile stretched across his face.

“I've always fancied fried pony.”

Luna opened her eyes wide, anger and rebellion blazing in her orbs as she took it upon herself to go out with dignity, to not weep and cry and beg before the monster. Still, she could not stop a single lone tear from rolling down her face as the whiff of rot fell onto her, as she braced herself for the burning sensations, as she braced herself for the end.

The end though, never came.

A great white chunk of pure marble came shooting through the air, whistling slightly at its rapid velocity before it slammed hard into the malformed head of Morbid, making him quench the spell. A loud roar burst from the dark draconequus's throat as he clutched the side of his head that the marble had struck, golden blood seeping out from the wound before he wheeled around to face the attacker, anger and rage swimming across his face.

Discord stood in the large almost circular hole of the great marble tower, eyes closed and whistling a gentle tune whilst throwing a large marble white chunk of rock up and down in his lion pawed hand. Faster then believable, he pulled back the stone clasped hand and pelted it towards Morbid who just had enough time to widen his eyes at the onrushing object before it corked him right in between the eyes, causing tears to stream out of his mismatched eyes, his muzzle successfully bruised but not broken. Roaring once more, Morbid charged towards the figure of Discord who was still smirking triumphantly before the lord of chaos disappeared into the dark tunnel that Morbid had created so effectively.

Leaping over the crumbled, fallen remaining rocks that littered the front of the hole, Morbid wormed his way inside the dark tunnel before his eyes fell on Discord, alone, at the end of the tower standing next to a single wooden, oak coloured door. Morbid took a step forward towards the smirking Discord before he stopped quite suddenly at what was happening before him. Discord was resting his hand upon the flat, cold surface of the stone tower at the far end of the room, yellow tendrils of magic pulsing across the surface of the marble walls.

Cracks began to spread across the wall where his palm lay, crawling upwards until they seemed to reach the very top of the massive, stone constructed tower. A loud rumbling noise penetrated the confused thoughts of Morbid as he took in the sight of the cracked, torn walls before his eyes widened in realization as large chunks of the tower began to fall around him, the massive spiralling walls collapsing and crumbling towards the ground. His gaze caught Discord's who was smiling with a tinge of victory, eyes narrowed playfully in triumph as the rocks and stone continued to pelt the two before the tower gave an almighty groan and folded upon them, burying the twin gods under metres of white marble rocks.

Luna watched in horror, desperately dragging her stone sister away from the falling debris as one of the great towers of Canterlot Castle came tumbling down upon the gods of chaos and suffering, dust exploding from the impact as the final rocks teetered and fell, ringing across the land with a gentle thud, barely distinguishable over the sound of screaming ponies. Silence reigned supreme as the rocks stopped their descent, as the dust settled around the collapsed tower.

As the twin gods lay buried beneath the brickwork.

[.]

Moments earlier

Discord groaned loudly as he excavated himself from the sizeable draconequus shaped hole in the opposite side of the tower, marvelling at the sight of the massive hole he had punctured in the smooth rock of the tower. Just as he made ready to storm out of the hole and battle with his other self he caught movement out of the corner of his golden eye. He rotated his serpentine body to face the flicker of movement and gasped slightly at the sight that stood before him. A pony, dressed in the garbs of a royal servant was shakily climbing to her feet, coughing up dust from the fallen rocks and clutching one injured, broken leg to her side. When she opened her eyes with a hesitant flutter she immediately yelped at the sight of the lord of chaos staring at her before she attempted to bolt from the room, ending up with her slamming into the ground on her broken leg and shrieking in pain.

Discord moved forward until he rested beside her, kneeling down on one green, scaled leg to inspect the injury of the pony with curious, roaming eyes. The little mare shivered in undisguised fear as she felt the burning gaze of the draconequus travel across the length of her body before resting at her broken leg, eyeing it with thought. Suddenly, he clicked his fingers with a loud crack, making her jump in terror before a strange fuzzy, warm sensation crept across her broken leg, soothing and healing the shattered bone with the ease of pouring cereal into a bowl. She gasped as she felt the bone reset before the fuzzy feeling faded from her mind, leaving her thoughts crystal clear but no less confused. Had the king of chaos just helped her?

She once again shrunk back in fear, tucking her legs tightly into her body a Discord stood up and admired the tower before returning his gaze and speaking to her in a quiet but comforting voice that she had never expected to hear from a creature like him.

“Are there any more ponies in this tower?”

The little mare shook her head slightly, her parched throat causing her to start coughing again before she looked up in surprise to see a cool glass of chocolate milk resting just above her in the outstretched lion hand of Discord. Carefully, she took the glass in both hooves before looking at him quizzically. He merely smiled in a soft gentle way that convinced her, almost too easily to accept the drink. She took a hesitant sip of the chocolate before rapidly gulping down the whole content of the glass, feeling the soft, warm chocolate travel down her throat and warm her insides.

“T-thanks...”

Discord merely smiled a pure, convincing smile at the still shaking but brave mare before him. He turned around quite suddenly, causing her to eep once more before his voice rang out to her, deep and powerful, a stunning contrast from the voice she had heard him speak with earlier, as if he was preparing himself for something, something dark.

“You're going to want to leave now. I have two princess's to save.”

Discord heard the mare stand up and bolt for the doorway, the wooden smash of the door signalling her escape from the tower before he let a soft, nervous grin at the idea he was about to implement. Whistling a calming tune he strolled towards the large pile of rocks that carpeted the floor, eyes carefully searching for the most large and sharp looking rock before he grabbed a particularly nasty hunk of stone and started to walk towards the hole in the wall.

He was just in time to see Morbid unleash a violent pillar of flames from his palm. Narrowing his eyes, Discord took careful aim and unleashed the marble chunk, watching it stream through the air to smash into the twisted head of Morbid, the cry of pain filling his ears with happiness.

Lets see if this pays off

[.]

Discord exploded from the rubble with a loud rumble, chunks of loose rock flying away from him as he burst from the surface like he was emerging from a clear, blue lake. Around him swirled a deep purple spherical shield that shimmered slightly, the falling rocks trickling off of the magical defence mechanism as if they were raindrops. The vibrant purple shield around him vanished with a soft pop as he surveyed the damage that he had caused, mismatched wings flapping behind him to keep him firmly in the air to have an eye out for any unwanted activity.

He cast his golden gaze towards the lunar princess and her immobile sister, happiness flowing from him as he took in the sight of both of them far off from the rubble. He would go to them soon, fix the terrible mistake he had done but first he needed to be sure, he needed to know that Morbid wouldn't be coming bac-

One broken, twisted, rotting hand pierced the field of rubble, smashing through the surface with a small groan and a shudder from beneath the endless piles of rocks. Discord's eyes widened as the rock face glowed a fantastic red colour for a second before they simply disintegrated around the form of the now visible and kneeling Morbid, rocks turning to ash at his cold, dead touch. Morbid rose to his contrasting feet, brushing himself off like he did this daily before he raised his long neck to stare at the hovering figure of Discord above him, a faint smile splayed across the monstrous face. With a crack and a beat of conflicting wings, the dark draconequus rose into the air to hover five metres away from Discord, small golden leaking cuts coating both of their bodies and flowing down them to dry and crust near their matted fur.

“So Discord, how many ponies did you kill with that little stunt?”

For a second Discord felt fear at the prospect of having killed any of the little ponies inside the tower before he was comforted by the memory of the little mare whom he had asked the question to. Smiling his happy, mischievous smile Discord replied in a voice filled with mirth.

“Oh, did you like my little stunt? You certainly seemed to be a bit wary of it when the rocks started to collapse. You should have seen your face!”

With the final few words Discord pulled a face that vaguely resembled a terrified raccoon caught in the act of pilfering through a dustbin. Morbid's expression darkened instantly as he became the butt of the joke, wings still flapping solemnly whilst the stench of death squeezed and crawled through the air. Still, Morbid let out a loud, cold laugh that drew the attention of the Lunar princess once more who cast her gaze upwards only to be met by the figure of two draconequus's in the air, arguing over the rubble of the great tower.

“Well dear Discord, I do so believe it is my turn!”

This drew the attention of the joking, playing draconequus as he cast his gaze towards the cold, rage-filled eyes of Morbid, a small pout forming in the chaotic face as he raised one finger to put on his bottom lip, enraging Morbid even further.

“Oh, were we taking turns? I just thought you were getting your ass handed to you.”

Morbid merely grinned evilly at this before clicking his fingers and summoning a large black spear of crackling dark magic, spinning the weapon around and around his hand before he lunged towards Discord, intent on piercing the heart of the king of chaos.

Discord moved backwards, the tip of the magical spear penetrating his skin and sending a painful bolt of electricity through his body before he grabbed the extended spear with both hands and snapped it in two, the explosion of the escaping magic blasting both draconequus's back.

“Come now, is that the best you can do?”

At this Morbid shrieked once in unquenchable rage before he rushed towards Discord, fuelled by anger that pushed him even faster towards his enemy and his antagonist. Discord growled in pain and anger as Morbid collided with him, pushing both of them through the air, spinning and punching at each other. Discord felt a strong taloned hand hit him hard, very hard in the stomach before he replied with a rapid rabbit punch to Morbid's face, causing the draconequus to yell out in pain. Before they knew it, their airborne tumble had sent them rocketing towards the ground at incredible speeds, the wind whipping around them. Morbid released his grip in Discord and extended his wings, parachuting upwards as the ground reared closer and closer.

Discord beat his wings tirelessly as he grew closer and closer to the ground, pulling up at the last second to stop the heavy collision that he had nearly experienced. Turning his head he saw Morbid hovering metres above him, the sun hiding his ugly face from view behind a deep shadow. Discord growled before the sparks raced around his body, blue lightning flaring up around his form and crackling electricity pouring from his fingertips to lace around his form. He took off flying towards the hovering Morbid, blue lightning smothering his body in an icy glow that attracted the attention of Luna once more, like so many other things had that day.

He continued to streak towards Morbid before realization hit him. Morbid would never just stay still, not without letting out a witty comment or beckoning him forward which meant only one thing. That wasn't Morbid. However, a small smile split Discord's face as he realized that Morbid didn't know that Discord had seen through his deceit.

Discord kept up the rapid approach until he was merely a foot away from the obviously fake Morbid before he suddenly soared straight upwards, ruffling the mane of the imposter. Discord turned around, expecting to see Morbid racing towards him, only to be met by blue skies in all direction. Frowning in puzzlement Discord turned to find a red blue of lightning arcing towards him from directly behind him, Morbid exploding from the bright blazing sun, the perfect hiding spot, invisible to the eye. Discord braced himself in anticipation as Morbid neared, red lightning blasting out from him much like Discord's blue lightning mere seconds ago.

Morbid collided with Discord, red sparks exploding upon impact with the draconequus, great flashes of bright red and blue light bursting across the sky as the pair began to plummet towards the castle, Morbid driving hard into the weakly struggling form of Discord. They descended swiftly towards the roof of the main castle body, puncturing through the walls as easily as if it were butter. Discord's body cushioned the impact for Morbid as he continued to push into him, the great marble falling around them both as they fell towards the red carpeted floor of the main chamber, Celestia's throne sitting at the end of the large room.

They impacted with the cold, stone floor, Morbid driving Discord deeper and deeper into the hard, freezing rock causing the draconequus to cough out a dribble of golden blood. Dust erupted around them as their descent came to a sudden halt, Morbid sitting atop Discord's chest as he brutally slammed both fists down upon the draconequus's head again and again. Discord moaned in pain, his strength failing him as the fists drove into him like twin sledgehammers before he heard something, something that forced him to open his golden eyes.

There was a pony, the pony he had saved, galloping towards the pair, fear evident on her face but the sigh before her strengthening her resolve. She seemed to be charging Morbid down, anger lighting in her eyes as she took sight of her protector and saviour getting mercilessly beaten by that...monster. Just as she drew near Morbid's head turned to her surprise evident upon his face before it morphed into a horrible, blood-curdling grin that forced her approach to grind to a halt. One of Morbid's hands, the lion paw, snaked out from the rubble and the crater made by Discord's impact to beckon her forward, her limbs obeying the command against her will. She tried to resist, planting both hooves on the ground and trying to stop but his strength was too much for her as she felt him pull her forward like a puppet on strings.

Morbid eyed the pony as she drew level with him, tears streaming down her face as fear clutched her heart tightly, the horrible stench of decay reaching her nose and causing it to stream. Morbid cast his gaze along the ponies body, raking his eyes across her form forcing her to shiver in terror before he made a gagging noise and his gaze hardened with an evil that would chill the bones of a manticore.

“Ugly little thing aren't you? Congratulations though, you'll be the first pony I'm going to devour.”

The little mare broke down in sobs as she felt her limbs being dragged towards the monstrous creature before her, as she saw his jaw unhinge and widen, a dark black void becoming prominent. The stench of rot washed over her as she prepared to die a pointless, useless death.

Morbid watched her draw closer, opening his mouth wide as he did so, revelling in the smell of fear that poured from her. He closed his eyes as his meal drew closer, as saliva bubbled from his mouth in horrible gouts of spittle. However, his meal never arrived.

A hard, sharp tug of his lice crawling beard forced Morbid to close his mouth and look down, the spell evaporating as the mare began to bolt for the double doors at the end of the room, tears still pouring down her face. His eyes widened in fear as he gazed at the sight below him, a sight that caused the blood of the god of suffering to freeze.

Discord had his eyes wide open, pure gold light shining out of them and a dangerously angered frown slicing into his brow, lips curled in uttermost anger. Energy crackled and sparked around him as he put one hand on the chest of Morbid almost gently, Morbid seizing up in terror at the sight that sat below him. Discord spoke in a deep, crackling voice that resonated pure, unbridled power, magic itself embodied.

“Now, that, that was a mistake.”

And then, with a gentle exhale of breath Discord released his energy.

Luna watched the castle for any signs of activity, eyes searching the crumbling ruins in search of Morbid and Discord. She had seen them go flying through the main chamber roof perhaps five minuets ago and Luna had done something she had never thought she would do. She had worried for Discord. Ears tilted forward, eyes narrowed Luna was caught completely off guard by the incredible explosion that occurred mere moments later.

Great shards of bright red and golden light tore through the roof of the main chamber, a helix of flashing red and yellow lightning bursting upwards towards the sky. A loud shrieking explosion toppled the roof of the main chamber, collapsing rock falling all around the magical helix but disintegrating on touch with the powerful magic. A fierce wind tore across Luna's face, whipping her hair back as the helix continued to spin and whirl, great blasts of red and gold streaming across its surface as the magical build-up tore through the throne room. That, though, was only the beginning.

The helix began to descend, falling in upon itself as the magic apparently vanished. Soon the top of the helix began to rapidly decline, slamming into the ground with a loud crack of sparks and magic. All was silent for a mere second before the true explosion seared through the castle.

A thunderously loud boom cracked around Canterlot Castle, a brilliant white shield of light expanding from the source of the explosion, gold and red sparks flickering along its surface. The white shield continued to expand, passing over Luna with a slight popping noise making Luna wonder if perhaps the shield was not as powerful as she thought it was. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream of pure agony as she glanced up to see Morbid and Morbid alone go careening through the air, shield slamming into his figure before he started to plummet with an incredible velocity, slamming into the city of Canterlot itself, the crack of his heavy impact even reaching Luna herself who shuddered at the sound.

Discord stood up from his perfectly shaped hole in the floor, clasping his head as he felt the dizziness beginning to claim him. He staggered forward before falling onto his hands and knees as the sudden draining of his magical power caught up to him. It was not everyday that a pure magical helix along with an incredibly powerful repellent shield were capable of being cast one after the other. It was a feat that not even Luna and Celestia combined could achieve, a small gloating point that Discord stored away for later use. He struggled back to his feet before walking slowly and achingly towards the double doors at the front of the room, one hanging off of its hinges as he stepped outside and into the remains of the Canterlot gardens.

Discord broke into a light jog as he felt his magic seeping back into him, flooding his veins with power and adrenaline. He had won, beaten the evil that had lurked in his heart and his mind for so long! Now only a few things remained on his list of promises to keep.

Stopping at the edge of the great castle Discord glanced at the city of Canterlot, great flames licking up the sides of buildings and burning trees as the ponies around the town seemed to shriek and scream in one great symphony of horror. Discord's eyes softened as he raised one long, eagle taloned hand and snapped his fingers, a wave of magic washing over the city that stood before him. Immediately the flames extinguished themselves, the fire vanishing in an instance leaving the ponies below to gaze around them in relief and confusion, the horrors of mere seconds ago being washed away swiftly. It stung his heart to here the ponies below praising Celestia but they didn't know, he was satisfied with just their survival to feel angered about the lack of ego inflation.

Horrible weariness overcame the lord of chaos as he crumpled to the ground in a heap, eyes closing lazily as his mind began to darken and sleep started to call to him. He had truly worn himself out with that last act, his mind beginning to shut down to allow his magical batteries to recharge. He yawned loudly, accomplishment and joy at his actions pouring through his mind before they were interrupted by another sound.

The crying of a certain goddess of the night.

Discord hauled himself back up with a light groan before stumbling deeper into the gardens to locate the twin sisters, magic slowly trickling back into him like the drip of a tap. Stumbling and crashing into rich green shrubbery, Discord followed the heart-rending noise of the sobbing princess, ears flicking back and forth and eyesight swirling as the darkness once more tinged at the corners of his mind, beckoning him towards sleep. He growled away the weak thoughts before once more pushing onwards, breaking through a line of thick, brown trees at the edge of the garden to fall upon the sight of the twin sisters, one of flesh and one of stone.

He wobbled into the clear yet dust smothered clearing, legs shaking from exhaustion as his legs began to give way. Discord fell, his head slamming into the ground with a loud thud as his limbs flailed wildly, his whole body shivering in tiredness and disbelief at his current, weak predicament. He lay there for perhaps twenty seconds, vainly attempting to rise but always falling forward, low growls of annoyance escaping him along with a few stray tears of helplessness that created clean trails down his dust coated face.

Just as he struggled to stand, resting on his knees slightly, already feeling himself toppling forward, his descent was halted by one large, regal blue feathered wing pressing steadily against his chest. Discord turned his eyes upwards to stare at the figure that was supporting him, to stare into the eyes of Luna who regarded him with a hidden look for a second before lowering herself onto her belly and indicating towards her back. Her voice rose loud and clear, regal tones flowing from her mouth as she spoke to him.

“Thou was right Discord. We thank thee for the stopping of the beast. Now, let us do something for you. Support yourself on us so that we may save our sister.”

Discord blinked in astonishment, raising one figure to point at himself and then another to point at Luna herself who merely nodded at him, a small, shy smile lighting her face as she beheld the thunderstruck spirit of chaos. Discord slowly rose again, leaning heavily on Luna who merely replied with a muffled grunt of strain before she forced herself into a hardened silence. Finally, standing upright, the spirit of chaos and the goddess of the moon limped forward together, Discord relying heavily on the blue Alicorn beside him lest he fall once more. The gods of chaos and order working together to end the needless strife that a much darker foe had caused. It took them one whole minute, a minute of strain and strength, of sweat and frustration before they reached the fallen statue of Celestia, both crumbling to the ground, panting in weariness.

Discord inched forward, dragging himself just a little bit further until he rested beside the cold, grey statue that housed the goddess of the sun. He breathed in deeply, closing his golden eyes to allow the feeling of magic to clear away all other shreds of his being. He allowed the power to consume him, drawing upon the last dregs of his almighty power to right a great wrong that he had caused. With the feeling of tearing off a particularly nasty plaster, Discord snatched his last few meagre portions of magic and drew them into him, feeling the power surge once more, be it sluggishly, through his veins.

Discord opened his eyes, golden light bursting from his orbs as he felt the magic ripple underneath his skin and sink into his palms to rest for the inevitable spell that would follow. Discord breathed deeply once before he rested his palms upon the statue of Celestia, feeling his magic creep along the stone body with a luminous golden glow that began to spread like a burnt hole in paper. Discord grunted in exhaustion as sweat began to pour down his head.

The golden light spread quickly and efficiently, every area of her body it swam over immediately reverting back to its natural white shimmer, engulfing her tail on a vast array of beautiful gold until the shine cleared and her pastel colours returned. Soon enough her neck followed, small shards of her shattered necklace still stuck into her swan like neck but right now that wasn't important. The golden light crept up her neck and coated her face and her mane, the light growing to nearly epic proportions as it began to shine more brightly then the sun itself. Despite the brilliantly bright golden glow that emanated from Celestia, Discord refused to avert his gaze, eyes burning and tearing up in their sockets as they continued to stare at the amazing golden flare before them.

The golden shimmering light began to fade, vanishing within a mere few seconds as the stone encased around Celestia's head simply cracked and burst, flying through the air in a few dusty grey pieces. Discord waited with bated breath as Celestia lay on the ground, free from the stone prison and yet completely unmoving. They remained that way, the monster and the princess until Discord felt a single tear roll down his cheek as he came to the realization that it didn't work, that he had murdered the only creature out there who would ever have helped him. And then Celestia stirred.

It was not a real movement, merely a toss and turning motion that one may do whilst in their sleep, accompanied by the soft snore that escaped her throat. Discord felt a large, joyous grin burst across his face as the tears dried up and he gazed almost lovingly at the solar princess as she snored and slept upon the ground, noting how adorable she looked when she was free of the weight of leadership. Luna leapt forward to peer at her sister, eyes roaming her white body for any signs of damage before she sighed once in happiness, small tear-drops falling from her eyes and striking the ground with soft plinks. She cast her gaze towards Discord, admiration and untethered joy sparkling across her eyes before they widened and the lunar princess let out a small gasp of horror at whatever sight lay behind Discord.

Discord turned his head as quickly as he could, feeling the bones snap and pop around his neck as he rotated his head around.

Only to be met by the feeling of two iron gripped hands closing and tightening around his neck. Discord gagged in fear as he felt the bone-crushing grip tighten, staring up into the cold, angry eyes of Morbid who was burning his gaze into Discord's with such loathing. Luna made to stand and fight but with one crack of his stumped red tail he sent her flying across the clearing to impact upon a tree, her body literally smashing into and exiting the other side of the unfortunate woodland flora. Discord's eyes bulged slightly as once more the grip tightened, Morbid lowering his head down towards Discord's ear, eyes red with pain and body lacerated in deep, long slices that oozed golden blood, washing down his body and pooling on the ground and the choking draconequus beneath him, soaking into Discord's fur.

“You will never be free of me Discord, never.”

Discord tried vainly to push Morbid off of him, to allow oxygen to flood his lungs but he simply couldn't, the grip was much, much to strong. An odd melting sensation gripped Discord as he diverted his bulging eyes to the sight of Morbid's mismatched hands which were sinking into him, pooling around his neck and literally forcing upon him. The same horrible occurrence was happening all along Morbid and Discord's body as the twisted, monstrous, rotten draconequus moulded back into the mind of Discord with a low, dark laugh that rang across the clearing and through Discord's mind.

The final aspects of Morbid slowly trickled into his body, small amounts of strength flooding his limbs thanks to the new unwelcome guest before he turned over and retched upon the floor in disgust. He could feel Morbid cackle madly in his mind, feel the biting, stinging sensation of his chaos influence return to his conscious. He could feel the roaring, laughing voice of Morbid calling softly to him, spreading a message across his mind like a leaf blowing in the wind.

I will always be here brother dearest, always

Celestia lay in a deep sleep, unbeknown to the colossal events that had occurred before her.

Luna lay unconscious in the gardens, blood oozing out of the long cut in her mane as shards of bark and blood lay around her, pooling softly.

Discord gripped his head and screamed, screamed louder and angrier then ever before as he felt the needling, stabbing feeling of the chaos influence return to his mind, as he felt all he had worked for break down.

As he felt the whispered voice return to him, convincing him to do something chaotic.

And all went black.

Authors note: So, did I do a good or a bad job on the battle scene? Its the first time I've tried writing something like that so some feedback would be nice. Also, sorry about the lack of updates but I'm taking some exams at the moment so those come first.

Ah yes, I feel I need to pique your interests a bit more then I, hopefully, already have. The next chapter of Discordian Revelations is going to be called: Split Through The Middle. Make of that what you will. Also, enjoy!

Split Through The Middle

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Split Through The Middle

He awoke to the soft, gentle, caring embrace of silk sheets and the inexplicably beautiful sound of song birds merrily chirping in his ear.

And it sickened him.

He hurt, his whole form hurt. The endless screaming pain drilled him to his very core, exploding tendrils of sharp, piercing agony ripping into him with a force that brought small tears to his eyes. The feeling of the sheets and the sounds of the birds was the only escape from the endless torrent of pain, the only attachment he had to the real world any more and so he focused on them, a small, pulsing ball of whispered, dark promises shivering in disgust inside his mind as he listened closely to the sound of the chanting birds.

The pain began to slowly, horribly slowly, seep out of him, agony still flaring through his body but now it was quietened down, less loud and rumbustious as pain gave way to confusion about his whereabouts.

Groaning in pain, great aching stabs tearing through his body and pure, yellow sunlight streaming onto his closed eyelids Discord shakily opened his golden orbs, wincing in pain as the sunlight burned his retinas before blinking as he began to survey where he was.

The room was smothered in yellow, flaring light that stretched across the whole area, dispelling any hopes of darkness or shadows, the light filtering though a high, glassed window that showed pure blue skies, red drapes lay at its side like the royal guards shouldering Celestia or the castle. The room was a shockingly bright white colour, snowy marble rising up around him that seemed to have been freshly dug up and formed, slight cracks tracing the length of the nearly perfect room's complexion.

A dainty wooden table stood at the far end of the room, draws tightly closed and surface completely barren of anything other then a single sheet of crisp, white parchment and a long feathered quill. A single, deep brown door lay slightly slanted against the wall, a small crack opened beside the hinge as if somepony was peaking in at his battered form. To his right lay a small, white quilted bedside table equipped with a clear, crisp glass of water and a small selection of various biscuits and vegetables, the brown crumbly food and the unsettling green nutrients intermingling on the small silver plate they rested on.

The rest of the room was surprisingly plain, only a rather obnoxious looking cupboard that looked beaten and worn along with a small, arched doorway that possibly led to a bathroom really stood out. The bed he was currently laying upon was a notched, brown one with a caressing, warm, fluffy white coat and a deep, dark red duvet that stretched from corner to corner magnificently. The pillows were the same snowy white colour, fluffed with goose feathers and embroidered with golden lace which, in turn, formed swirling patterns very similar to those Celestia wore on her golden necklace.

Discord groaned once more as the flashing, strobing, dappled sunlight continued to stream almost sadistically into the room and, most importantly, into his weary, bloodshot eyes. A loud, long, drawn-out yawn broke across the draconequus's face as he stretched out his mismatched arms with a series of loud pops and clicks, the bones cracking back together with a continuation of cringe-worthy sounds.

He took sight of the clear, orderly water that lay perfectly in the middle of the wooden table, smirking slightly as he raised his taloned hand and snapped his fingers, the water immediately turning a sludgy brown colour and the glass colouring a faint red and green colour as the chaos magic did its work. This simple piece of magic caused Discord to blink slightly in a daze that was similar to having all of the blood rush to your head at once, his eyes going slightly fuzzy as the magic withdrawal systems began to set in.

Discord growled in annoyance as the spinning wave of fatigue passed, angry at his apparent lack of ability to perform any real magic without experiencing poor effects. He reached out one hand to clasp the magically infused drink, throwing his head backwards as he drank the contents of the glass itself, feeling much more happy towards drinking the warm, fuzzy liquid then the cold, hard glass.

With a loud thump he rolled out of the pristine, perfect bed and hit the cold marble floor with a pained groan, grabbing his head with his mismatched hands as it slammed ruthlessly into the stone.

Grumbling incoherent curses to himself, Discord rose shakily to his feet, the sun's light still flaring around the room in a manner that would, and was, considered annoying to the light sensitive draconequus. Suddenly a loud, low rumbling split through the air like the sound of thunder as Discord glanced down at his hungry stomach in annoyance, sighing to himself as the loud noise of food lust failed to die down.

Noting the severe lack of truly edible products in the room, biscuits and vegetables be damned, Discord snapped his taloned fingers as trays of rather chaotic food burst into life around him, chocolate coated cabbages, jelly rubies and a large, mustard coated, cheese filled, mushroom smothered pizza doing happy jigs around the now woozy, drained draconequus.

With shaky, fatigued hands he grasped a small section of each food before he smashed them together to create one unholy abomination of chaotic cuisine before he devoured his new creation, licking his lips with one long, pink, snake-like tongue as the food fell into his now content belly. An immortal did not really need food, it was a trivial thing to have but long ago Discord had decided that to make the best of delicious tastes he would incorporate aspects of hunger into himself so that when he did taste food he would be able to fully experience its pleasures. He wouldn't die if he didn't eat food, he'd just be constantly followed by his rumbling tummy.

His so called hunger quenched Discord allowed himself to think back to the previous...hours? Days? Weeks? He no longer knew how long he had been staying in this room unconscious, perhaps it was merely for a few hours but with him being the immortal god of chaos it could have been years upon years, a body that never aged certainly had its flaws.

Discord sighed to himself, dragging a surprising soft lion paw across his face and stretching his features as his mind replayed the last few events that he could remember. His battle with his darker side, the freeing of Celestia from stone and then the return of his chaotic influence. He could still feel it now, hammering into his mind but he would give it no leverage over him, not after seeing what it could do if it was free. He wouldn't allow any of that to happen again, not as long as he lived and breathed.

Discord smiled softly, a stark difference to his usual mischievous smirk, as he looked around the rather plush room, noting the colours and the structure which labelled it as only one area. A guest room in the illustrious Canterlot Castle. His thoughts turned to that of Celestia and Luna swiftly as he beheld the room, wondering on their health and how Celestia was fairing after her...ordeal.

His brooding thoughts were soon interrupted by the heavy hoofsteps and clanking metal noises that could only lead to one distinctive type of creature, the golden armour clad royal guards of Celestia and Luna. Discord grumbled at the prospect of putting up with one of the kiss-ass, fun-ruining, annoyingly silent guards as the heavy clopping of armoured hooves drew closer and closer to his deep brown wooden door, halting just on the outside as if the guard was listening for movement within.

Discord calmly strolled over to the somewhat open door and yanked it fully open with astonishing speed, causing the leaning guard on the outside to stumble inwards and collide with the furry stomach of the draconequus who merely looked at him qith curiosity. The royal guard backed up and regarded Discord with a blank stare, detached grey eyes staring into golden ones as he spoke in a manner that would have easily disproved his embarrassing collision with the spirit of chaos.

“The Princesses wish to see you.”

The stallions voice was deep and mellow, the perfect tone for a royal guard. The guard himself was a grey furred and white maned pegasus, wings jutting out of his specially crafted armour as he continued to stare at Discord with an impassive glance.

“Best not to leave 'em waiting then.”

The stallion nodded sharply before he turned and trotted back through the open door, followed by a smirking Discord who was eyeing the colt with something that closely resembled sadistic pleasure, the odd pair trotting and hovering down narrow halls and cold alleys.

“So, what's your name, or can I just call you Sourpuss?”

The mischievous, baiting purr of a voice quivered from Discord's throat as he swirled upside down to stare into the guards eyes, gold mirth-filled eyes clashing against slate grey eyes as the royal guard halted in his steps suddenly at the surprising sight of the draconequus hanging in front of him. Swiftly enough, the stallion grumbled and continued on the journey, ignoring Discord's question and quickening his pace, hooves clapping on the hard floor.

“Sourpuss it is. So Sourpuss, how long have I been a-snoozin'?”

The guard grunted slightly as Discord barrel rolled around him, the walls flaring up into bright polka dot patterns that leaked glowing golden paint onto the wall, dripping down to the floor. The unfortunate escort had, of course, been warned of Discord's antics so he had braced himself for such an occurrence.

“Classified information.”

At this the painted, partially strobing colours on the normally white walls disappeared with a loud pop, the draoncequus spinning in his small flight to stare at the guard with unamused eyes and a trace of exhaustion.

“Awww, c'mon Sourpuss! Think of all we've been through, you can tell your dear friend Discord.”

“I have never met you before in my life.”

“I like to think it was a more spiritual bond really, like we were meant to be here right now, discussing my slumber.”

“I don't think that's going to happen.”

“Why?”

“Orders of the Princess herself.”

Discord smirked, dropping down onto the floor straight behind the guard with a light thump and a patter of wings before he extended both hands out to touch the parallel walls, feeling magic tingle and race through his fingertips, depleting his energy but for a good- no, funny- cause.

The guard had slowed down somewhat when he had heard the gentle flutter of wings stop as the sound of a small thump reached his ears but he was stopped stiff by what occurred next.

The wall to the right of him blazed a brilliant yellow for a split second, forcing him to blink just as the wall to his left blazed a deep, midnight blue. Opening his eyes he took in the spectacle that had become of the right wall, eyes boggling as he stared at the rather flattering display. On the right wall, in a rather suggestive flank wiggling image was Celestia herself, or a very clever copy of Celestia. From the pure white coat, to the pastel mane, the sun cutie-mark, the magenta eyes and the golden garments the 2-D image of Celestia bore her figure and likeness perfectly had it not been for the fact that she was currently jiggling her seemingly planet sized flank at the guard, causing him to blush and turn to his left.

To his utmost horror the left side was truly no better, perhaps not quite as dirty as the image of a possibly drunk dancing Celestia but still enough to make the guard's cheeks flood with heat. It was a stunning head picture of the Lunar Princess herself, flowing blue mane, captivating midnight blue fur, dazzling blue eyes and, most importantly, bright red reading glasses that only heightened the incredibly suggestive and seductive look in her eyes. With a wink of one eye, the figure of Luna blew a kiss in his direction, the guard falling onto his rump in suprise. The guard blushed vividly, head darting from side to side, trying to determine where he should look before ear splitting laughter sounded behind him, causing him to turn and face the noise maker.

Discord lay curled on the floor, tears dribbling from his eyes and hefty giggles escaping his throat as he rocked back and forth, disjointed voice calling out to the embarrassed guard as he chortled a question.

“S-so, wh-hich one of t-t-these lurvely mares w-wanted me to be le-f-ft in the dark?”

The swift glance the guard distributed to the swaying figure of Celestia was enough of an answer for Discord who just doubled his laughter as the guards face turned redder and redder, both from shame and anger. The hardened exterior of the guard shattered swiftly as the laughter began to pick up and draw the attention of the servants on other rooms who popped their heads out only to be met by the flattering flank of Celestia.

“STOP THIS AT ONCE! CAN YOU BE MATURE FOR ONE SECOND!”

The guard covered his mouth with one hoof nearly immediately, eyes widening in horror as the draconequus's head turned sharply to him and fixed him with a gaze that held a sadistic amusement, the guard both terrified of the god of chaos and terrified at the prospect of what would happen if the Princess were to find out he had yelled at her guest.

At the loud outburst from the guard Discord stopped his nearly endless laughter, the twin images of the Princesses disappearing as the spirit of chaos climbed to his feet and calmly walked towards the now shaking, nervous guard, a smile on the ancient draconian face, cleverly hiding his rapidly depleting magic with.

“Now where would be the fun in that?”

And with that Discord bopped the anxious, scared guard on his helmeted head with one claw, feeling his magic fizzle and change the unfortunate pony before him.

[.]

“Sister, he was supposed to be here five minutes ago!”

“Maybe he just got lost.”

“Hmph.”

“Come now Luna, surely he isn-”

The arguing goddesses were silenced quite abruptly as one of the small wooden doors to the right of the great, if somewhat trashed, throne room burst open with a loud bang, the door slamming into the marble wall with a force that caused it to buckle slightly.

In strode the mismatched, whistling, nearly dancing form of Discord, his eyes closed and his lips pursed as he continued his merry tune. His twin, oddity wings fluttered slightly on his back and his snake tail swept the ground in time with the peculiar beat he was whistling. The most prominent figure though was the small, pink balloon animal he held in his arms, cradled softly in his lion paw like an infant.

He carried on with his mindless whistling until he stood directly in front of the twin seated Alicorn's, one residing on her usual golden throne whilst the other sat upon a regal, ice blue throne that rivalled her sisters. The eyelids of the draconequus shifted open, revealing two gleaming pools of gold and mischief as he held out the pink balloon pony to Celestia with one hand, a smirk on his face.

“A little present for you Cell-Bell.”

Out of the right side of his eye Discord saw Luna pout slightly, her lips meeting together adorably in a sign of jealousy. Discord ignored her though, hiding his smile behind an impassive wall as Celestia took the balloon animal cautiously in one gold horseshoed hoof, eyes quizzical but glimmering with surprise at the gift.

“Why...thank you Discord. However, I see you are lacking your escort. May I ask where FeatherWing is?”

“Oh Sourpuss? He's floating around here somewhere.”

The tone that Discord used, a detached voice that simply glistened with suspicious activity, drew Celestia's attention as she frowned at him, followed by the glare of the Lunar Princess who may have thanked him in the field of battle but was far from forgiving him for his past crimes.

“Discord, what have you done?”

“Well, today I woke up to the lovely soun-”

“I mean with FeatherWing!”

“Ah, you see that's my next gift.”

Celestia's face morphed into a frown in a split second as Discord snapped his fingers before the pink balloon animal on her lap began to grow and change shape, melding back into the form of a particularly flustered, blushing guard.

“Surprise!”

The Solar Princess could only watch, completely and utterly stunned at the new arrival, as the guard turned a furious shade of red, wings fluttering and eyes bulging and frantically spinning in his head. Then came the flee.

The guards fluttering wings and red face disappeared rather quickly as the embarrassed, bedraggled colt sent himself blasting into the air to crash through the ceiling into the bright, clear blue skies. All of this passed in a mere matter of seconds but for Discord the expression on not only Celestia's but Luna's face would stay with him for the rest of his life as he curled into a tight ball and started to howl with laughter.

His unrestrained giggles were abruptly stopped as a strong, blue line of magic forced his lips together, choking off the noise mere seconds later as the Lunar Princess regained her mind, glaring at Discord with none of her previous warmth and gratefulness.

“Discord!”

The draconequus brought a pair of contrasting hands up to his lips, ripping off the magic with an audible squeak of pain before he responded in a calm voice.

“Yes Lu?”

“What is the meaning of this!? We expected thou's visitation, not a disrespectful handling of the guards. Thou will be puni-”

Luna didn't have time to finish her sentence, muffled by her own quiet shriek as Discord slithered towards her like a snake on caffeine, coming to rest directly before her and tapping her gently on the head with a yellow talon. Before Celestia could intervene Luna's whole form began to shiver, her eyes swirling with multiple colours, seconds later resetting to normal as Luna blinked rapidly, clearing her head, Discord still smirking in front of her and Celestia glaring at the draconequus, horn glowing yellow with suppressed rage and a prepared spell.

Discord backed up from the throne of the Goddess of the Moon rather quickly as her horn began to glow bright blue, wings flapping and eyes lighting up as she hovered in the air menacingly. Celestia braced herself for the barrage of yelling that was about to descend, Discord merely remained smirking, if somewhat cautiously, mere feet away from the hovering form of Luna.

“What did you do to me?”

The voice that whispered from Luna's mouth was not of high volume, nor even of old Equestrian. If anything, it seemed to be a normal, soft, satisfying voice that Celestia noted later to herself had sounded very good on her sister.

Luna herself seemed to recognize the change as well as she dropped to the floor, eyes wide and proceeded to produce a range of vocal sounds, ranging from the alphabet to speaking her own name and then to making a great variety of random noises that had Discord smiling widely in humour.

Luna glanced at the smiling draconequus, emotions rolling across her face as she struggled to decide whether or not what he did was a gift or a prank. Finally she sighed and once more resorted to resting on her throne, eyeing Discord warily whilst rolling her tongue around her mouth to see if anything had changed.

Discord watched Luna for another second before he turned to Celestia whose horn had stopped glowing by now, a small smirk on his face as he spoke up in a jubilant voice.

“Now that I've fixed Lu's little voice issue you can go ahead.”

With that Discord snapped his fingers and fell backwards right into his plush, red, chaotic throne that he had created so long ago, sinking into the throne with a content sigh, the magical after-effects muffled but not entirely hidden by the draconequus as his leg began to shiver from overexertion. Celestia frowned in confusion and tinges of worry as she beheld the almost sleeping looking spirit of chaos.

“What do you mean?”

“Y'know very well Cell-Bell. You can start thanking me now, I mean I did save the world~”

At this both Celestia and Luna sighed, hitting themselves with their own hooves in a way that would be entirely unexpected of the royal sisters.

“Discord, we did not call you here to say our thanks, not yet at least.”

At this Discord opened his eyes and peered at Celestia curiously.

“Then why, my dear, am I here?”

“To get rid of your chaos of course, did you think I had forgot?”

At this Discord blanched and turned a pale shade of white, the throne vanishing from underneath him as he shakily sprung up to his full height. Even now, ever after seeing all he could do, all he could become he still couldn't allow his chaos, his hated and yet loved chaos to die. It would drag him down with it, leaving a husk of the God he once was. And he simply couldn't allow that.

The air froze, cold chills blasting through the ruined throne room, flooding through the gaping voids in the walls. The sun itself disappeared behind a cluster of dark, grey storm clouds that had simply appeared flickering lightning, plunging the usually sunny, warm throne room into abysmal darkness.

Celestia herself visibly flinched as Discord serenely walked, walked, towards her, his golden eyes cold and harsh against his usual funny, mischievous self. In those cold, hard golden orbs she saw a creature on the edge of his breaking point, one who had been through so much only to find himself back at square one. And that scared her more then anything else.

Discord kept up his approach until he stood directly in front of Celestia, hot breath tickling her face as she looked into the blank, devoid eyes and shivered. Luna was similarly frozen, looking on in fear and nerves.

“No.”

Celestia gulped deeply, eyes switching to all sights apart from the draconequus before her dramatically as she spoke up in a shaky voice.

“B-but without our help you might-t turn back into that thing.”

“I'm not ready to die Celestia and that is exactly what would happen if you killed my chaos. It is a part of me and to tear that away, to burn it and destroy it, it would destroy me. My answer is no and I recommend you leave it at that.”

Celestia's face morphed from that of a scared, nervous filly to one of a confused, puzzled one quickly, surprising the spirit of chaos with the rather sudden change of character.

“Kill your chaos?”

Discord frowned, lips curling up into a vicious looking pout as he whirled around, eyes spread wide to emphasis his point.

“Yes Celestia, kill my chaos and I will not let you do- Wait, what is it?”

At first Celestia had sat stone still on her throne as Discord had raised his mismatched arms and had begun his speech before the soft giggles had started. From there it was only a matter of seconds before the flood barriers fell as the giggles converted into a full blown, rather un-princess like laugh that rung around the battered throne room heavily. Even Luna was getting in on the fun even if she didn't fully understand why her sister was laughing, light peals of laughter echoing out of her midnight blue throat equally loudly.

“What is so funny!?”

By now the God of Chaos had grown more and more frustrated at the antics of the two Princesses who had completely ruined the rather dark mood he had worked so hard to create.

Celestia wiped a tear out of her eye as she took in the sight of the aggravated draconequus, her sister still obliviously laughing to thin air.

“Oh Discord, did you really think I would kill your powers?”

“...”

“Did you really think I could kill your powers?”

“...Yes?”

At this Celestia let out a chuckle, her sister still guffawing in the background before she continued speaking in a giddy tone, happy at no longer being stared down in a terrifying manner that had chilled her to her old bones.

“The spell I was talking about was no destruction spell or kill curse. No, it was a mere modified blockade spell.”

Discord blinked one eye and then the other in a surprising comparison of a particular green alligator.

“A what now?”

“A blockade spell, normally used to halt or stop any oncoming objects of to block an area of land. It took a while but I managed to shorten the spell down to a smaller, more specific area.”

Discord blinked again, clear confusion on his face as he spoke up in a hazy voice.

“My noggin'?”

“Yes Discord, your, ahem, noggin'. The spell should put up a barrier of sorts between your chaos and yourself, not destroying your power but not allowing it control...

...It would effectively merely be a blockade against dark thoughts and evil intentions. Your powers would be decreased, you would no longer be able to call on your chaotic self but, even then, you would still be as powerful as myself or Luna...

...I know you better then you think Discord. I know that losing your chaos would be like me losing my horn so I came up with a simple, non-violent solution. But will you accept it?”

Discord blinked once more in a disturbing, serpentine motion before he raised one taloned hand to tug at his pristine white beard, eyes narrowed thoughtfully in contemplation of the question. His chaos would remain but be imprisoned, a type of death on its own. Was it truly worth it, getting rid of his chaos? He had kept it in check for millennia, never letting it get to bad but now, now the rules of the game had changed. Morbid couldn't be allowed access to his thoughts, his body again, even if it took total imprisonment to accomplish it.

Discord looked up from his pondering, golden eyes unreadable before he snapped his fingers, producing a pair of vibrant red sunglasses and a dart board-esque object that sat snugly on his chest, red and white circles spiralling around its soft wood.

“Well my dear, fire away!”

Celestia nodded whilst Luna looked on in rapt attention, recently recovered from her embarrassing fit of the giggles. Celestia closed her eyes and focused her power, feeling the magic build up in her now glowing yellow horn. A swirling mass of crackling magic danced around her horn as she opened her eyes, flooded with yellow light, and allowed a brilliant yellow bolt of magic to discharge from her horn and hit the nervous but disguised Discord straight in the chest.

Discord grimaced, not in pain but in discomfort as the creeping tendrils of magic wormed into his body and through his form to slither inside of his mind. The thick, golden projectile that had sprouted limbs was heavy and cold, chilling and smothering the fur of his chest like a vice. When the wriggling, squirming magic touched his mind like a probing serpent Discord hissed loudly, causing Celestia and Luna to back up as his eyes began to glow a sickly shade of red, body taut and stretched and head turned upwards to stare at the ceiling, eyes and mouth wide open.

There was no pain, no agony or screaming abuse of his body. No there was something much worse, something that Discord would gladly have chosen pain and suffering over. His privacy, his mind and his secrets were being torn open and tossed aside by the writhing magic, smashing and cluttering into his mind as it wormed its way towards its destination like a bull in a china shop. It felt, for all purposes, like a train had whipped through his mind and disrupted the organised chaos he had created so magnificently.

Not soon enough for Discord the probing, uncovering, seething mass of magic found its destination, plunking itself down between chaos and sanity with a resounding crack of power. Just realizing of the true situation at hand, Discord's chaotic influence flung itself at the barrier, shrieking and screaming much to the horror of Discord before it was cut off by the barrier fizzling, muting the horrid noises with a golden throb of energy.

The worst was yet to come for Discord as Celestia's powerful magical spell began to reforge Discord's twisted, shattered mind, fixing the damage it had done. Discord visibly bit his lip as the unpleasant sensation of resewing his mind fell upon his conscious, the barrier spell slinking and knotting all memories back together, re-shuffling them back to their originally places with an apparent lack of privacy. Its job done, its 'victim's' mind fixed and sorted the spell fell silent, shimmering slightly in a blockade of magic as Discord was forcefully yanked back to the world of the living.

Celestia and Luna were closer to him now, both had slunk off of their thrones early on into the stages of the spell to watch and to prepare for what may happen if Discord were to lose himself or the spell were to go wrong. Both visibly flinched as Discord's head suddenly sprang forward, a loud, choked intake of breath whistling through his open mouth as he sucked in air. The golden eyes were slits of swirling, mixing emotions, all of which were indistinguishable in the mess of feelings.

Great, heaving coughs racked Discord's body as he pitched forward to land on all fours before the twin Princesses, tears of discomfort streaming from his golden eyes as he retched loudly.

Celestia watched Discord hit the floor, eyes twinkling and blinking in guilt at the idea of her own spell causing the God this much discomfort as she stepped forward, ignoring Luna's cries of warning and protest until she stood directly before the floored spirit.

“Discord...?”

Those golden eyes flashed up to her for a second as the coughing seized his body once more.

“Did it...did it work?”

The coughing whittled down to deep wheezing as Discord rolled onto his back in a position that, were it not for his wide eyes and shivering body, would have looked like he was asking for a belly-rub. Slowly, even the wheezing diminished until all that remained was heavy breaths, Celestia desperately awaiting an answer to her question. She did not have to wait much longer.

“That was the single, most uncomfortable thing I have ever felt ever.”

Celestia backed up, a wide grin stretched across her features as Discord climbed back to his contrasting legs, mumbling as he did so whilst Luna looked on from a sensible distance. Celestia piped up in an obviously happy voice as Discord stretched, his muscles knotted from the extending and then coiling of his body.

“So, how do you feel?”

Discord looked at her with one eye, an eye that sparkled with the worldwide signs of did you really need to ask that?

“I feel like my insides have been replaced by snakes. There's no pain, just feels kinda...squirmy.”

At his rather odd simile, Luna blanched and paled slightly, images of her insides being turned into snakes causing her to turn a sickly shade of white. She barely even heard Celestia's voice once more speak up, this time slightly more subdued by the knowledge that her spell had caused some minor after effects.

“What about your...Chaos?”

Discord looked at Celestia and faintly, very faintly she could detect the glimmers of nerves in his eyes before he closed them and took a deep breath. She similarly held her breath as the God of Chaos continued to remain strangely silent, obviously searching for something within his own mind. She was mere seconds away from exploding out a deep breath of trapped air when he opened his irregular eyes as a gentle smile painted itself across his face.

“Silent. Its still there but I can't reach it and it can't reach me.”

Luna finally spoke in a creepily cheerful voice, both because of the triumph of the spell and because she had finally gotten rid of the horrible snake organ idea from her own mind.

“Well, this calls for a party!”

[.]

Pinkie Pie was hopping through the town of Ponyville, the constant spring in her step causing her pink form to bounce up and down instead of the usual tort that a pony would embark upon, when a sudden feeling came over her, causing her to shudder. With curious eyes she glanced up at the castle which had seemed to whisper the callings of a party to her before her eyes narrowed and burned with the light of a thousand parties.

“I sense a disturbance in the force.”

[.]

Both Celestia and Discord were looking at Luna rather quizzically, eyebrows raised as the midnight blue mare began to blush and stutter in embarrassment.

“I was j-just going to suggest w-we have a party...”

Just as Luna began to awkwardly shuffle her hooves in humiliation Celestia beamed a white toothed smile at the randomly timed suggestion whilst Discord merely looked on in shock, not expecting them to offer him anything, let alone a real party. A party for him. If he wasn't the God of Chaos, Discord would surely have let the dams fall by now but even his iron hard will and chaotic attitude could not stop the slight watering of his eyes as he realized that they wanted to host a party for him, not against him or over his defeat.

Celestia turned to Discord, who hastily wiped his damp eyes with one hand, smiling as she began to speak in a rich, clear voice that clearly showed her happiness and traces of smugness at pulling off the complex spell successfully.

“A party to celebrate your rejuvenation and you leaving behind your life of chaos and mischief. A perfect idea Luna!”

Discord snapped out of his blissful emotions as Celestia finished her little speech, observing the solar ruler with an amused expression that made Celestia shiver, not in fear or terror but in a deep expectation of events to come.

“Now Celestia, why on Equestria do you think I would leave behind my mischief?”

Celestia opened her mouth to deliver a sharp response before she was cut off by a shriek of terror behind her, causing the Goddess of the Sun to whirl around as Discord began to laugh hysterically.

Luna stood on tense, taut legs, hyperventilating wildly, eyes rolling around her head in fear and nostrils flaring up in terror. Her mane was a whipping inferno, her wings shivering and jutting out at her signs in a rapid response to danger, making her appear bigger. Her horn was lit up a bright, brilliant, bedazzling blue that shone with an incredibly light. All around her, the source of her fear and irritation lay, scattered and numerous. Great green rubber snakes, some upon her back and head, most sent careening across the throne room from the powerful shakes of the lunar ruler were strewn across the room haphazardly.

Celestia watched Luna in morbid fascination as the strong, resilient mare began to shudder and buck, eyes swimming with visions of snakes that brought back ideas of slippery, slithery snakes that wiggled around inside her.

Turning back with an expression that resembled something close to anger at the cackling draconequus, intent on dishing out a verbal lashing, she was quite surprised to be met with not one, but two lemon-meringue pies straight to the face, the crusts and filling exploding around her form.

Discord cascaded into more heavenly, heavy, rumbustious chuckles as he beheld the rulers of Equestria, one wriggling and trying to knock out plastic snakes with violent kicks and the other covered with pie and blinking at him rather forcibly, as if she didn't truly understand what had just happened. This just caused Discord to laugh all the harder as one of Celestia's large, golden clad shoes rose up to wipe and fling the remains of the pie from her face, her eyes still unreadable.

“Oh my dear Celestia, why did you think I would give up my mischief when its this much fun?”

For answer, Celestia smiled a soft, cold smile, Luna still vainly charging around behind her and shrieking, though all sounds were cut off as the lead ruler of Equestria began to speak in a somewhat hushed tone.

“Because you wouldn't want to get hurt.”

Discord smirked at the answer, oblivious to the slight tinges of smoking wafting from Celestia's mane.

“And what do you mean by that my Pie-faced Princess?”

At this Celestia smiled again, this time drawing Discord's attention with the levels of ice and irritation that rolled off of her.

“Every action has a consequence Discord...”

At this Celestia's mane burst into flames along with her tail, the heat licking up the floor and the sight causing Luna to halt her rapid running and Discord to flail backwards in terror, yelping loudly as the heat bit him. Celestia spoke in a loud, clear, cold voice that made Discord shiver with fear and with hints of amusement as he awaited the chase.

“Hello Discord,” the burning Celestia said as she stepped towards him, flames causing the marble floor to crack slightly, “you can call me Consequence.”

Discord backed up, sweat lacing his body and creating a sheen of sparkling perspiration just as his back hit the ruined wall of the throne room, causing him to turn his head around in terror and then whip it back, eyes widening as the flameball known as Celestia stepped closer to him, his voice whispering out with a fearful tinge in the entrapment of the castle.

“Well buck.”

A/N: Damn this chapter was a tough one to write. I'm still not entirely happy with it but I have made enough changes for now. Maybe I'll go back and change it a bit later but for now screw it, I'm tired.

Once again, tell me what you think.