“I am a Prince from the realm of the Daedra.”

The Deadric Prince of Madness, Sheogorath:  a humanoid demon who finds enjoyment in the manipulation of others through their minds.  Controlling the powers of Dementia and Mania, he gained a following in the realm of the living through his small interventions in their world.

“Don’t get confused with the realm of the Aedra.”

He had always played games with his subjects, manipulating them and driving them insane, sometimes for the best.  But the Madness he controlled was only a curse cast upon the being he had once been.  For what better torture to Order is there, than Madness?

“I met a beast whose powers would amaze ya!”

The curse was finally broken, after eons of alternating between the Prince of Order, Jyggalag, and the Prince of Madness.  Sheogorath recruited a Champion from the realm of humans, and in the end, that Champion both freed and killed him.  The Madgod was left without a body or a world.

“But we were split, ‘cause Harmony saved ya!”

His spirit wandered from realm to realm, searching for a body to occupy, one that could hold his full power without breaking.  Only one such being was found during his journey, an abomination of nature in a world dominated by an innate magical energy.  The abomination itself was capable of magic rivaling that of Madness—Chaos, it was called.

“Now I’m back sitting on my throne,”

The two powerful beings grew close together, only to be split by drastic differences in their desires to use their powers.  The Madgod wanted domination, but all Chaos wanted was fun.  In the end, the two beings fought for the fate of the magical land.

“…munching on cheese atop a scone.”

Chaos defeated Madness with the help of Harmony, the powerful protector of the magical realm.  Accepting that he shouldn’t interfere in such a peaceful and bizarre world, the Madgod said his farewells and erased all trace of his acts as he left.  With only one goal in mind, he set out for his original home:  the Shivering Isles.

“But in my heart I’ve always known,”

Regaining a throne—though only a copy of his original—Sheogorath settled back into his comfortable life as a ruler-god.  His subjects worshipped him and bent to his will once more.  He was happy, enjoying his food and drink and renown.  But something deep within the reaches of his heart continued to plague his thoughts…

“…that we’d meet again in a world of my own…”

In his dreams, he could see the figure of the abomination he had once battled.  The Madgod felt an uncertain dread in his gut, calling out to Chaos through the realms of reality.  Why he was being plagued, not even he could explain.  But one thing was certain:  Madness and Chaos would clash once again, but to what end and for what reason could not be determined…

***

High atop the tallest mountain in the land, a robed figure sat on the crumbling remains of a once-glorious statue.  All around him, cracked, burnt earth jutted out from the mountaintop, a grim reminder of the events that had transpired over the course of the last three days.  In the distance in any direction, thick black clouds bombarded the world with lightning and acid rain.  Fires raged on the southwestern edge of the main island, while sheets of ice swallowed the northeastern portion.

The mysterious figure leaned heavily on his wooden staff, staring off at the ruins of a great city a few miles to the south of the mountain.  Where the glorious capital of the island once stood, a deep black vortex of demonic energy swirled menacingly, pulling in most of the remaining living beings in the world.  The figure stared on; watching beast and man alike get swallowed by the anomaly, his eyes burned with a golden rage that could only be compared to that of his brother.

A single concentrated bolt of lightning crashed down in the center of the vortex, sending a shockwave of destructive energy across the island.  Even the mountain trembled under the force, sending more plates of earth bursting from the summit.  The statue currently being used as a seat crumbled further, sending its occupant to the ground in an angry heap.

“Bloody statue!” the figure snapped, bashing the remaining base with his staff.  As he struggled to his feet, an uprooted tree zoomed past, taking the rest of the statue with it.  Passing by him with mere inches from direct contact, the tree hurtled toward the life-eating anomaly with no chance of survival.

Taking a deep breath and regaining his bearings, the figure growled, “That beast had best hurry back!  If we don’t leave soon…”  He glanced back at the vortex, still more plants and animals being sucked in indiscriminately.

A voice called out from behind him, “Ask and you shall receive, Madgod.”  With a light golden glow, in bright contrast to the shadows of the clouds above them, another robed figure appeared at the tip of what was once a grand staircase leading up to the grand statue.  Taking several slow steps toward the first figure, the new arrival lowered his hood.

Underneath the hood, a young, pink, scowling face radiated with anger.  Bright white unruly hair crawled from the man’s head, with a long thick goat patch beard streaming from his chin.  Bright red pupils against large white eyes broke through the dim light with little effort.  As he approached the man referred to as ‘Madgod,’ his scowl twisted into a grin.

The Madgod chuckled solemnly, “Have you been to see it?  Has He reached it yet?”

“No, not quite,” came a somewhat smug response.  “Maybe He popped off for a snack or two?  I’m certain a demon like Him has plenty of scores to settle!”

“Is this a game to you?!” the Madgod snapped, swinging his staff violently in the figure’s direction.  "My world is in shambles!  My subjects are devoured!  Our magics are powerless against His!”  Each exclamation was accompanied by another swing of the staff.

“Sheogorath, my friend, you need to lighten up.”

As he was about to burst again, the Madgod suddenly lost his vigor, instead simply sighing, “Perhaps you are right, Discord.  What’s done is done, and cannot be undone, no matter the level of done-ness.”  Dropping his staff, the Madgod lowered his hood.

An aged, pink face met the dim light of the world.  The Madgod’s hair was thick and white, slicked back in contrast to the other man’s.  He sported a full white goatee, which added a sense of class to his demeanor.  Thick golden eyes cut through the darkness, meeting the red of the visitor’s with slit pupils.

The man known as Discord scoffed, “I won’t say we can’t fix this.  After all, you undid the damage to my world…”  After a long pause of staring into the Madgod’s eyes, he continued, “It won’t be easy, and we can’t count on our magic to save us.  No, I fear we may have to use our wits against this adversary.”

“Then you are a fool,” the Madgod sighed.

“Pardon me?  I’m a fool for having hope?”

“Correct!  You deserve a cookie, y’know?  Don’t you see the nature of our situation?  We are two godlike beings facing against a god-eater!  It’s a god-eater that we helped revive no less!  Tell me, Discord:  what are gods in the presence of a god-eater?”

The younger man placed a golden-gauntleted hand to his chin, stroking it thoughtfully.  With a frown he growled, “Dinner, I would assume...”

“Very good, Discord, very good!  You truly aren’t as stupid as ya look!  So tell me now:  what are mortal men in the presence of gods?”  The Madgod clapped his hands together, the staff he had previously dropped floating up into his dominant right.

“Toys, it would seem.  That’s what you made your subjects, at least, Sheogorath.”  Taking a second to think it out, Discord added, “Why do you keep referring to me by name?”

Sheogorath stopped stone still, his short-lived excitement fading instantly.  He groaned, “If I don’t call you by name, I won’t remember it was you I spoke to.  Lately the voices in my head have been running rampant!”  A sudden spark of pain flashed across his features, a knot forming near his left temple.  Rubbing it vigorously, he growled, “So many souls all screaming for freedom, dying for it even!  They each want out of here, want to go home, want to eat cheese again!  But they can’t, they never will, but I can’t let them know that!”

Discord snapped, “Get it together, Madgod; this is no time for your Madness!”  The younger man reached out to help the plagued demon, who was slowly falling toward the ground, losing whatever battle he was fighting in his head.

Sheogorath latched out with his staff hand, getting an impossibly tight grip on Discord’s robe.  He screamed in what could only be described as utter agony, “Do you remember it, Chaos?  Do you remember how we got here?  Can you remember what brought us to this mountain, in this storm, during the death of my world?  I need you to remember, Discord!”

With no warning, the Madgod lurched to his feet, his head smashing hard against his companion’s.  A bright ball of golden and purple energy ripped its way from the contact point as the elder demon held the younger in place.

Discord growled through the gut-wrenching pain in his head, “What kind of trap is this, you damned demon!?  What’s happening!?”  The ball of energy exploded in a burst of pink smoke, smothering the two white-haired figures.

Just as suddenly as Sheogorath had advanced, everything around them stopped.  The flames to the south froze in place, the bolts of lightning in the distance stopped in mid-crash, and the vortex simply ceased to swirl.  The two figures stood in excruciating pain, one looking as if death were embracing him, the other as if his mind was breaking.

The elder of the two rasped, “Can you remember how we got here?  What brought you here to my world all those days ago?  Why did you cross the border, and why did you not leave?”  Pain surged through his body with every breath, lighting a fire in his chest.

“I remember Ponyville, and the Elements, and something to do with a dream…  I remember a deal that you and I made, and some sort of magic slowly grasping my thoughts…  I remember our fight, and the demon that awoke because of it…”

The younger demon’s voice slowly faded out, his eyes opening wide in sudden horror.

“I remember a man dressed in white and blue, with a sword the size of you…”

Images danced around in his mind, fleeting and foreboding.

“And the demon’s name?  What was it, Chaos?!  Tell me its name!”

Struggling through the pain in his body, Discord craned his neck to look directly into Sheogorath’s eyes.  He whined, “What’s happening to us, Madgod?”

With heavy, grating breaths the plagued demon explained, “This is a sloppier version of the spell I used all those months ago in your world.  The good thing is we’ll be sent back to stop this hell from breaking loose!”  A few rough coughs attacked his remaining moments of life, giving him barely enough time to finish.  “The bad side is…if we succeed…then we’ll be dead for good…”

“If that’s the price to pay to stop this from happening…so be it.  But will we remember any of this when we go back?”

“Fleeting images…is all…  One of us…must remember it…or else…we’ll never…”

As Sheogorath’s voice faded and he released his final breath, the pink cloud suddenly burst into flames, swallowing the mountaintop in timeless agony.  All around the still-living Discord, the world began to turn back.  He was filled with a spinning sensation as sights and sounds and locations all twisted around him in a centrifugal manner.  It could have been minutes, or maybe even hours, but an intense wrenching in his body slowly grew more dominant as time continued to turn back ever further into the past.  Before long, he wasn’t even in the same world he had just watched die.

No, when the spinning finally stopped and the pain eased, he was floating in front of a large fountain in the middle of an overly-brightly-colored village.  Everything popped with color, a steep contrast to a world that he could only hope to remember.  As the memories of the dying world faded away, his mind slowly focused on the here and now.  He was suddenly remembering why he was floating by that particular fountain at that particular time.

When a bright yellow, four-legged animal with a pink mane trotted up to him and spoke, he had no reason to be surprised.  He had no reason to be alarmed either when he realized that he was no longer shaped like the man he believed he had just watched die.  No, now he held a serpentine form, with wings and claws and paws and horns.

It only took a few moments before the fog in his mind cleared, leaving him with no doubt about what he was supposed to be doing…

The pony repeated in a soft, kind voice, “Are you ready to go meet up with the others, Discord?”

Without hesitation or thought, he replied, “I still have absolutely no idea why I’m being ‘forced’ to ride that dreadful train with you Elements, but yes, I am ready.”

And, without a second glance at the fountain or a single thought as to why he felt he was forgetting something, the draconequus floated alongside the little pony with a leisurely smug grin on his snout.  As far as he cared, this was just another routine trip to Canterlot with ‘Princess Twilight Sparkle and Company’ for his monthly ‘behavioral evaluation.’

Sometimes being ‘reformed’ is such a hassle, he chuckled internally, thinking about his days as a chaotic beast.  Reminiscing to his past brought back a fond memory from more recent times.  It was the memory of a strange beast he had met not too long ago that seemed just as obsessed with having fun as he did.

If only I could remember that creature’s name…  It started with an ‘S’, I’m sure… Next Chapter: Canterlot, the Place Where Chaos Happens! Estimated time remaining: 33 Minutes