STAR HORSE

Prologue: Breaking

The world was at peace. Harmony had been returned to the landscape of Equestria; the chaos that had overcome it for a short while now bottled up within the fallen statue of the Draconequus, Discord. A sigh of relief washed over the land, shortly followed by an explosion of cheer. The six heroes of Equestria were soon mobbed and carried off by all of the ponies of Ponyville, who had returned to normal or come out of hiding.

Unheeded, however, was the fallen statue of the Draconequus, left undefended where anything or anyone could take it. All were either too absorbed in the joy of the victory to take notice, or believed that the beast of chaos would be trapped in stone forever, and thus there was no need to pay attention to it at this moment.

Their ignorance would be their downfall.
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Sensory deprivation can imprison people to the point of insanity. There is nothing to grip onto the world with, no way of knowing what is happening, who or what you are, or when the torment will end. The tides of nothing push and pull the person trapped within its depths until they are ripped apart and become no more than a heaving heap of confusion.

“This is awful, just awful..it's so boring! Nothing ever changes in this state! How did I let myself get beaten like that!” Discord rambled within the sanctuary of his mind. For Discord, a being already insane and a person of godlike power, his sense of self was stronger than most. And thus, with his consciousness and thought still intact in his petrified state, he was able to remain whole. The immobility, however, was pure torture to the living embodiment of chaos.

“I don't understand; they had all given up, I had won!” Discord reviewed, trying to ascertain how his second defeat had come about. The ponies had come together and combined again, with one more among them. How could that have made a difference? It made no sense to him.

“The land was covered in sweet chaos! I had a thousand years of surprises planned; exploding ducks, flying rocks, ponies turning into trees and more! But it's all ruined,” Discord continued to grumble. His loss at the hands of harmony drove him to misery, the opportunity he had finally gotten snatched away from his claw-tips.

“Celestia...” Discord's thoughts rose in anger. “She must have done something. That accursed mare, always having some sort of backup plan. I should have taken care of her first thing! Turned her into stone, see how she liked it!” Discord gave a mental sigh, defeat taking hold of him. There was nothing he could do. He knew that his prison was total, and that he had no way of acquiring freedom on his own. “That's what I get for trying to take the high road on stoning. Well, it looks like I'm going to have to find some way to amuse myself for a while. I'll just have to start plotting everything from scratch, just like last time. Now let's see...”

“AWAKEN NOW, BEING OF DISCORD!” A voice penetrated the tides of nothing. It was a parting of the sea to Discord, a mysterious path forward presenting itself before him, leading to what he saw as salvation.

“Whoa!” Discord gasped as he felt a sudden burst of energy flow through him. Power coursed through his veins, and his senses returned to him. He slowly regained the movement of his body. Discord whooped with glee; the spell had failed, as he thought it would, and he could return to have his revenge and re-open the doors of chaos over Equestria.

“Rise from your stony prison!” the voice of salvation boomed again, seeming to shake the very fabric of Discord's mind, the last of his prison's power evaporating into nothingness.

Maniacal laughter vibrated outwards from Discord's lungs as he was fully revived and able to take in his surroundings, which he quickly discovered to be non-existent. Darkness filled the nearby land and the infinite horizon. Darkness, blanket of both security and fear, the latter sensation rising unexpectedly through Discord as he tried to gauge where exactly he was. The only other creature present was a horse, tall and strong as Celestia herself, dressed in a shadowing dark cloak that made the horse seem like an extension of the void around them.

“Well, this is about as boring as the prison. I think I'll be headed back to Equestria now. Adios!” Discord addressed the creature in front of him, suppressing any fear in his voice. He prepared to teleport, but paused as the other creature spoke.

“Going so soon? Why would you want to do that?” The voice was as icy and chilling as a frozen wasteland. Discord felt as if his blood started to slow, his veins seeming to freeze as the sinister speech reached his ears.

“I have some chaos to spread, and some ponies who need to learn another lesson; that Discord never loses the game,” Discord justified, his passion for revenge lighting a fire within him, melting away all the ice and snow that had begun to crystallize within him.

“But how can you beat them? You couldn't before,” the hooded figure reasoned, as it started to walk a slow circle around Discord. “You got hit by one blast, and were defeated. And one thousand years ago, the exact same thing happened with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Do you really think you have the power?”

“Of course I-” Discord began, but cut himself off. Something about the speech of the creature, as well as his reflection on the events of the past, made him question whether he really did have the ability to take on the elements of harmony. A feeling of helplessness began to fester in the corners of Discord's mind, but he shook them off with a combination of curiosity and frustration.

“Why am I even listening to you, anyways? How do you know about what happened to me?Who are you? And where exactly are we? And how did I get set free?” Discord sent question after question to the figure, desperately trying to fight a battle he did not realize he had begun.

“My name is Darth Renatus. But that is of little importance, I am really nobody. We are here to talk about you,” Renatus kept his cold, emotionless tone, unshaken by the rampant inquiries. “I know what happened to you because I am an..admirer of your work, you could say. For your freedom, I merely tapped into your own power; essentially, I accelerated the process that let you break through the stone the first time. We are in the darkness, where all things come in the end. There is no reason to fear it. As for listening to me, well, you and I both know that you are not really listening to me. You are listening to the fears and realities of your situation. You cannot defeat the elements of harmony as you are.”

“I'm done with this,” Discord said immediately. “This is getting far too boring. I just won't take them lightly. This time they will feel my true power. I am Discord, spirit of disharmony, ruler of chaos! I don't need anybody else, to show them who has the real power,” Discord surmised, partially trying to convince himself. In a great desire to escape the awkward situation, Discord brought his claws up and snapped them. Nothing happened. Discord tried to cast the spell again, glaring down at his fumbling claw, but there was still no reaction.

“You are already losing, Discord,” Renatus spoke grimly. “Your power is in tatters after your last encounter with the Elements. You will find yourself quite unable to do things as you have before, if you do not adjust.”

“What?” Discord bellowed out, a rare loudness in his voice. Rather than continue the banter with the mysterious colt, Discord confirmed his deepest fears by trying every spell he could think of. A few, tiny clouds of chocolate milk formed above him, as opposed to massive storms; only half of a tutu appeared, instead of the full ballet number he had tried to call; he could not even manage to conjure up his favorite assortment of chaotic ponies!

“How can this be?!” Discord raged, his mind an inferno of hatred. He had broken free, had gotten his next chance to set things right in the world without having to sleep for another millennium; now it would all be dashed by some bizarre power drain?! His ability to wreak chaos was what defined him. If he no longer had that, what was he? Discord felt an identity crisis punch him in the gut, as he twisted and turned in his tantrum. A red haze began to cloud his vision.

The half dozen fluffy, soft, pink candy clouds filled with sweet chocolate milk began to grow with Discord's blazing anger. The dark realm around them shifted as well, clown faces and balloons popping into existence, aimlessly floating in the empty space. From beneath his cloak, Renatus smiled.

“Yes, feel the anger. It gives you control, makes you less of a fool. Let the anger flow through you, and then accept your place by my side. Only then, will you defeat the Elements of Harmony,” Renatus voiced softly, his words transforming from a hard iceberg to a silky soft whisper of encouragement, still sending icy shocks through Discord.

“What do you think you can offer me!” Discord shouted, lashing out his anger at the cloaked horse. He focused his magic on a transformation spell, making his form much large and his face more beastly, taking on the appearance of a massive dragon. It was purely cosmetic, but it had a distinct power to inspire fear into whoever he revealed it to. He put his now monstrous snout into the open hood of Renatus, and glared down with the fire of one thousand suns.

“All you need to know is that I am the path that will get you your revenge, your kingdom, and your precious chaos. I can give you the power you currently lack. Much more, I can give you power you have never even imagined. With my teachings, you will become the most powerful being in the universe. All you have to do is obey me. Join me, and Equestria will be yours,” Renatus was unphased by Discord's transformation, his speech maintaining the chill of the night.

“You want me to play second banana to you? Maybe you don't know who I am,” Discord growled. As enticing as the offer sounded, his anger and him clinging to his core principles (one of which was always to work alone) refused to just submit to the strange being talking to him. “I am Discord! I work alone! I am the greatest force of chaos!”

“Who continually loses to greater numbers of harmony as a direct result of such unfounded arrogance,” Renatus retorted. “I do not ask you to abandon your quest for chaotic domination; merely to let me guide you, and share in the glory and enslavement of the world to our mutual ends. I shall not give you chains, but new weapons with which you shall conquer all. Weapons of anger that you can use to defeat Celestia, defeat the wielders of harmony, and whoever else stands in your path!” Renatus' voice rose with passion, impatience melting away the former frost residing in his throat. “Join me, or you shall never succeed!”

Discord huffed smoke in and out of his nostrils, an odd calm coming over him. He sighed and reverted to his previous form. He struggled to think about why he had taken such an action. He was always one to stay lighthearted, never one to be angry. And yet his chaos seemed to amplify when he had lashed out in his rage; could that really be the key to overcoming the elements of harmony?

“How exactly will you give me these weapons?” Discord said reservedly, maintaining a stone wall in front of his inner turmoil.

“I will teach you,” Renatus answered. “Teach you the ways of the darkness, the ways of manipulation, and the ways of destruction. The ways of the Sith. And these tools, combined with your own chaos, will make you unstoppable,” Renatus put every ounce of his power into the movements of his throat, trying to make his voice as alluring as he possibly could. “Just shake my hoof, Discord, and you shall soon rule.” With that, Renatus lifted up a leg and extended a limb; it was long, slender, and black as midnight.

Discord paused for a moment, again considering the proposal being presented to him. Discord was still confused with the slithering ambiguity of Renatus, but a sixth sense had him convinced that there was truth to the power Renatus was offering, and that the power would be the way to get what he wanted. He loathed the idea of having to work with anyone else, but the fresh scars of being defeated by those six ponies seared within his mind, shutting down those prideful notions. His freedom, and his power, had to come before his ego.

Discord swiftly reached out and grabbed the hoof presented. He immediately felt another surge of energy flow through him, a power he had never felt within him before. Red sparks flew out from where their hands met, sealing their new pact. Discord laughed delightfully as the sparks ran up his arm and through the rest of his body.

“Now, let us go. And from now on, you shall take on a new name: Darth Discord.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 1: The Hunt Estimated time remaining: 35 Minutes