LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
western pine forests, 99,001 years ago
Mitgaeard flew eagerly around the immense and perfectly circular expanse of Matrix she had created. Much larger than the void she had created over Lake Valley, this miles-wide circle burned into the earth bore no life; the soil stopped abruptly on its outside, not a single bit of it spilling onto the silver surface; no clouds dared to sit in the sky above the unnatural disk of nothingness.
"Ah, another layer completed!" she said in delight. The massive serpent swooped down upon Discord, standing at the edge of the Matrix, still horrorstruck and immobile, coated in silver. "Do you sssssee the beauty of it yet, my grotesssque sssham of a ssssson?" She tapped him gently on the head with a flipper.
"Ah…" she added, gazing off into the distance. "Forssses are moving againssst usss onssse again. But we will not be defeated ssso easssily thisss time. I grow larger every year. It will be only a few more short agesss before I am masssssive enough ssso as to be unssssstoppable." She chuckled, hissing and spitting as she did so. "Let'sss ssseee who'sss coming out of the woodwork…"
She coiled up, scanning the trees, grinning eagerly. She noticed a particular spot among the pines, and opened her mouth wide, breathing a mass of black shards, which buried themselves in the trees before exploding, sending splinters and broken branches flying everywhere.
"I sssssee you, ssstrange creaturesssss," Mitgaeard called out. "Welcome to the Matrixsssss! I regret having company before it'sss finished. But then, by the time it'sss finished, I'll have extinguished all life in exissstence… ssssso it'sss good you're here now."
From the trees came the shout of a powerful male voice. "ARMIES OF THE PONY NATION, FULFILL YOUR DESTINY!"
An enormous horde of ponies began pouring out of the forest, every one of them winged and horned and surrounded by a magical aura, flying in an enormous thundering swarm, shooting at Mitgaeard with their beams of magic. The colossal serpent screeched at the surprising amount of pain she felt.
"Die, foolsss!" she snarled, snapping up a mouthful of them and swallowing them whole.
The pony at the very head of the formation was a dark gray stallion, with slanted eyes of a dazzling red, a spiky white and yellow mane, powerful brown hooves, and a black and blue funnel cloud surrounding him as well as depicted on his cutie mark.
"We do not fear death!" this pony announced.
His horn glowed yellow, and he along with many others created whips and lassos of pure magic, lashing Mitgaeard with them and wrapping around her body.
"We die with honor!" the pony continued. "We die to bring you back to your prison, snake!"
"You die for nothing," Mitgaeard countered calmly.
She flexed her body like a whip, sending many of the ponies attached to her by their tendrils of energy flying off in many directions, including the leader, who crashed into Discord before hitting the glassy surface of the Matrix along with many of his followers.
Turning to some of the ponies still in the air, Mitgaeard breathed a bright red beam that enveloped many of them, causing huge gaping wounds to appear all over their bodies. Most of them died instantly and dropped out of the sky like stones.
At the sight of ponies dying, Discord was moved to the first sign of life he had shown in almost a thousand years: a muted, anguished scream from his unmoving mouth.
The leader of the ponies noticed, and gave the silver statue an odd look. He didn't spend more than a second thinking about it, however; he immediately spread his enormous wings and rejoined the battle.
"Stand together, ponies!" he declared. "This is our most glorious moment as a young species! We will do whatever it takes to safeguard the world!"
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The sun had been rising when the ponies first attacked Sørmur dï Mitgaeard. And by the time they defeated her, it had been nighttime for hours.
She was tied down with the multicolored magical ropes from the ponies' horns, her mouth tied shut. Corpses were strewn around, both on the Matrix and in the forest.
"Well done to all of you," the gray-furred leader said calmly. "The living and the dead. We'll bring her back to her old prison cell. I'm sure she's looking forward to returning to her books."
In response, the serpent thrashed half-heartedly. The leader smirked.
"Then we bring all those who fell back home for proper burial." He pondered for a moment, then pointed to a portion of the army surrounding her. "You there, fifth legion! Stand watch over our fallen, just in case. Bring all those in the forest back onto the Matrix, where no scavengers will dare follow, and stand vigil… though I doubt you'll run into any trouble."
He walked toward Discord. "Let me take a look at this creature," he muttered.
The tornado that surrounded him expanded and towered, forming a huge black stormcloud. It thundered menacingly, and a yellow and black lightning bolt shot at Discord, shattering the layer of gray goo that covered him. He cried out in giddy pleasure and dropped to his knees, sobbing.
The ponies began dragging Mitgaeard along, lifting her up into the air. "A curssse upon you, my ssssssson," she muttered through the binding on her jaw. "You will have no power, none at all, until you become a true king."
The ponies tightened the cord around her snout and began escorting her to the south. Discord watched her go, then stared at his hands. He snapped his fingers and made a few gestures. Nothing happened.
"She's right," he said to the pony leader. "I've lost all of my magic. I can't do anything." He sighed. "I suppose you're going to take me back to Tartaros along with her."
"Why would we do that?" the pony responded. "She had you trapped. You've done nothing."
"I didn't do anything the day I was born either," said Discord derisively, "but they locked me up anyway because I'm her son."
"That's absurd and barbaric," the leader said simply. "You've obviously rejected all ties you have to her. You're free to go."
Discord looked impressed. "Well!" he said. "You're a lot more civilized than the last army who took her away. You ponies… you are ponies, aren't you?"
"Yes," the stallion said proudly. "I am Thunderblast, commander of the first army the pony race has ever had."
"Thunderblast!" Discord exclaimed, awestruck. "Wow. Do all ponies have such impressive names?"
"Well, we try. Names are powerful things. What's yours?"
"Ac—I mean, Discord," he said hastily. Thunderblast tilted his head in confusion, and Discord grinned sheepishly. "Used to be Accord, but I changed it."
"I see," said Thunderblast. "And… what are you exactly, if I may ask? You're like no serpent I've ever seen."
"I'm a draconequus," Discord said absently. He paused, then grinned. "I just made that up."
"A… a dragon-pony?" Thunderblast muttered. "Forgive me, but you don't really fit the description."
"Yes, but it's the best name I could come up with for… what I am," Discord explained. "Ponies and dragons were the biggest inspiration to me, in choosing my physical appearance and imagining my future. Especially ponies. I really want to be like your kind."
"I'm honored," Thunderblast said sincerely. "Is there anything I can do for you, friend?"
"Can you make me a king?" Discord said hopefully.
Thunderblast shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't have that authority. I'm sorry. Losing one's magical powers must be a painful tragedy."
"Yes, it is," he said quietly. "Well, thank you for all that you've done, Thunderblast. I guess I'm free. Not as free as I could be, but free enough."
"Where will you go?"
Discord shrugged. "I'll figure something out. See what kind of life I can have."
Thunderblast flapped his wings, rising into the air and setting a hoof on Discord's shoulder. "Take care of yourself," he said kindly.
Discord nodded.
"…Well, so long," Thunderblast finally said. He flew off, following the legions who were carrying Mitgaeard.
"…Goodbye," Discord whispered. He started walking away from the tree line, further into the Matrix, side-stepping dead ponies and nodding to the occasional living one who took notice of him. Eventually, he remembered his small wings and flapped them, taking off and flying all the way to the other end of the Matrix, where no battle had taken place, and wrung his hands as he walked along the edge, nervous about entering the forest.
From behind him came a powerful silver glow, and he turned around to see a towering macrauchenia with glowing fur and empty blue eyes, standing on the Matrix's surface.
"Greetings, young god of chaos," she said pleasantly.
"Queen Stellaris," he said in alarm. He quickly bent at the waist, bowing down. "It's an honor."
Stellaris smiled. "Aw, you're sweet."
A swarm of giant ants surrounded Discord. Some were a fiery red-orange, some acid-green, and others an icy blue, and all of them began crawling around and on Discord's body.
"So what are we looking at here?" the ants said in one voice. "Are we gonna take the risk that he ends up like his mother?"
A large creature rose up in front of Discord, and he stared blankly at an exact replica of himself.
"Aw, but he's cute," the replica said in a bubbly female voice. It transformed into a gigantic tiger. "Poor guy's been immobilized for almost a millennium," the tiger said sympathetically, before it changed into a great silver wolf. "That's not cool. How are you feeling, handsome?"
"Will you two give him some space?" said a nasal and gravelly voice.
"Guy must be claustrophobic enough as it is," a deep and slurred voice added.
The two heads and three arms of a dark red, lizardlike creature waved Hukwurm and Shifter aside. The wolf turned into a small, pitch-black bat, which cowered behind the trees, and the ants became a swarm of rust-red bees, which retreated to a safe distance and hovered, eyes still on Discord.
With those two out of the way, Kane and Boll looked Discord over carefully, one of Kane's hands on their hip and the other crossed with Boll's over their chest.
"Heya, kid," Kane rasped. "Nice to finally get a good look at you. You design that body yourself?"
"Yes, Lord Kane," Discord said stiffly, a bit nervous about everything that was happening.
"Well, I like it!" Kane said brightly.
"Rebellious," Boll slurred.
"Yeah," Kane agreed. "And fashionably asymmetrical. Did we inspire that?" The two-headed god spread their arms and displayed their mismatched feet.
"Possibly," Discord said thoughtfully. "I'd read about you. You may have subconsciously influenced my form, yes."
"That's swell," said Kane. "That's real swell."
Carto floated in the distance, deeper into the Matrix than any other creature present. Her eyeless face seemed to be looking between Discord and Stellaris, and the paddles that made up her four limbs and tail were unusually motionless, making only slight twitches.
Stellaris caught Discord's attention by touching his chin. "It is good to finally meet you, young and rebellious son of the Matrix."
"Why, thank you," said Discord, trying to remain calm. "Um… but I wouldn't say I'm young. I'm almost a million years old."
"Almost one million years," Kane laughed. "Ah, Boll, remember when we were that young and stupid?"
"Yeah," Boll said fondly.
Discord scanned the Old Gods, noticing that Shifter was now a large fanged squirrel. "I only see five Old Gods… or perhaps six," he said, nodding to Kane and Boll respectfully. "I thought there were six or seven of you."
"You refer to the Beast," said Stellaris, nodding. "He is being punished for an attempted global apocalypse, which he tried to orchestrate just to see what would happen. We chopped him into pieces and buried them all over the world. Not the perfect solution, but it's slowed him down. We haven't heard from him in the almost thirteen ages since."
"Wow," Discord said blankly.
"But let's talk about you," Stellaris said gently, smiling at him. "We spoke to your mother many eons ago. We've watched her, and we've watched you. Now that you're free, we'd like to welcome you into the ranks of the divine."
Discord frowned. "If you've been watching us for millions of years, why did you never stop her? Why did you never save me?"
"It is in our nature never to interfere with the real world," Stellaris said simply. "Those who make exceptions are punished." She stared meaningfully at the other Old Gods. All but Carto flinched nervously.
"Well, that's a stupid nature," Discord retorted. "I think you should change it."
Stellaris leaned forward, sneering in Discord's face. "Don't presume to know how to define proper behavior for a deity, child."
Discord lowered his head. "Apologies."
"Carto," said Stellaris, still looking at Discord. "You warned me about his mother. Make your judgment on this one, and whatever you say, I shall heed it."
"Judgment?" Discord peeped.
"He is nyot his myother," Carto said solemnly. "He is an innocyent. A good lyad with a sweet myind and a chyarmingly naïve outlyook which we'd all do well to adyopt."
"You're sure?"
"Quite syure, syister."
"Very well then. I trust you."
"So I'm in the clear?" Discord asked, straightening.
"You are," Stellaris confirmed. "You're one of us now: a god."
"A god," Discord repeated. "Like you… but with no powers. None." He perked up. "Can you make me a king? Mother said… I mean, Mitgaeard said that I'd get my powers back if I became a king."
"We cannot," said Stellaris. "Your path is your own to walk."
"Well, that's just—" Discord started to snarl, but quickly cowered under her baleful gaze. "I mean, I understand. Thank you."
Stellaris nodded. "Whatever your plans are, young Discord, we wish you well. May you find happiness."
"What are your plans, my lords and ladies?" Discord asked.
"It is time for us to begin preparing for our retirement."
"Retirement?"
"Oh, not for many thousands of years, but someday," Stellaris said.
The swarm of red bees transformed into a swarm of gigantic golden wasps, who swarmed around Discord as if embracing him. "Keep chaos alive, little brother," said Hukwurm, before the wasps scattered and vanished in clouds of rainbow sparkles.
Shifter hobbled toward Discord as a fluffy gray jackalope. "See you around, handsome," she said. She changed into a massive glittering gold lioness with huge feathered wings. "If you ever want to hang out, just call my name." She paused, then whispered in his ear as an afterthought: "It's Shifter." She vanished as Hukwurm had.
Kane pounded Discord on the shoulder. "Good luck, buddy. I hope you get your powers back. I love what you can do."
"So creative and clever," Boll slurred.
Kane nodded. "You'll get there."
Kane and Boll also sparkled and disappeared.
"Fare thee well, Dyiscord," Carto whispered as she vanished.
Stellaris merely raised a hoof and placed it gently on Discord's shoulder, nodding silently as she slowly faded away.
"Happiness…" Discord muttered. "I had it for a moment. Gotta find it again. Time to start searching, I guess…"