A while back, several of the most highly rated stories on Fimfiction were added to our folders for review. The Keepers of Discord is one such story, netting a very impressive ratio of 4277 to 64 at the time I took the screenshot.

For a story to become so well loved, it must do something truly exceptional. It's rare to find a story that resonates so well with the hearts of the general public. However, I believe that no story is without flaws, and I will be only happy to nitpick this thing to death if that's what it truly deserves. Y'all know what that means, right?

Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to use that picture.

So without further ado, let's grab a scalpel and get to dissecting.

You'd think that being trapped in stone would mean that, if nothing else, I could get some peace and quiet. Unfortunately, it seems that Celestia has other ideas.

She has appointed these ponies... these 'Keepers', as she calls them, to keep me entertained during my incarceration.

Honestly? I'd prefer the boredom.

This description is about as informative as the word written on a stop sign. It does indeed tell you what kind of sign it is, but fails to inform you why the sign is even there in the first place. Likewise, this description only really does two things: it introduces the premise, and introduces Discord's voice as the story's narrator. The only actual hint of any deeper drama comes from the bog-standard 'sad' tag. That's one way to avoid spoilers, I guess, so we're going in mostly blind.

FYI: The full-sized version of the cover art is located here. For some reason, the version attached to the story is tiny. I blame the cutie mark gnomes. You can never trust those things.

Chapter 1: Discord · 9th Dec 2012 · 9,626 words

  You would think I had enough troubles, wouldn't you? I was finally free after thousands of years, released from my prison and ready to spread chaos and insanity across the earth, only to be stopped in less than a day by a mere handful of colorful, goody-goody, near-juvenile mares.

  Not only that, but I was once again encased in stone and unable to move, and in an even more uncomfortable and undignified position than the first time. And, not that I had a mirror to check, but I'm pretty sure the expression on my face was ridiculous. At least, judging by the "trying-to-hide-how-funny-I-think-this-is" expressions on all of the little ponies who saw me.

  In addition, I was once again stuck back in the gardens, though this time far away from regular traffic, in a sealed off area where very few ponies would tread. Why, I couldn't even watch the pretty little ponies prance by while I imagined all of the wonderfully chaotic things I would do to them if I were free!

The opener is one of the most important parts of a story, and this one does a smashing job, like a monster truck rolling over the competition, even. Perhaps I have low expectations from all the bland and badly-spelled weather reports that people love to write, but it's nice to see a story that focuses so heavily on characterization. The only thing I find odd is the way that Discord addresses the audience directly with his choice of the word 'you.' In general, that should be avoided as it breaks immersion, but it's only in the first sentence, and it does help establish that this story is told directly from Discord's perspective.

Before moving on, I need to point out an odd formatting choice. Every paragraph is slightly indented with two spaces. On FimFiction, it's a bad idea to indent using spaces due to the fact that the text is justified, meaning that the size of the 'space' character is dynamically adjusted so that the left and right sides of the text neatly line up against the margins. Thus, by indenting with spaces, the indented lines appear uneven.

However, in this story that's not a big deal because the indentions are shallow and the irregularity is hard to see. Still, the paragraphs are also spaced, so it's not like the indentions even serve a purpose. I guess if the author wanted to make the story look slightly chaotic without compromising the overall appearance much, then grats? He succeeded.

So while Discord is complaining, Celesta arrives and brings a gray unicorn with her.

  When I say grey, I don't just mean the color of her coat. I mean that grey is how she appeared to me. Grey and lifeless, completely devoid of anything fun or interesting about her. Her mane, though, was a vibrant red. An irritating red. A red that had no place being in the same vicinity as such a dull creature, let alone being attached to her body.

  Needless to say, I loathed the little thing on sight.

Another important factor for a story is how it handles its descriptions. If I had a word to describe this, it would be: opinionated. More than just color, there's real personality here; we're drawn in to Discord's bias and share his first impression with him. If you happen to be keen on symbolism, take note that 'grey and lifeless' is an apt description for how Discord himself appears to the world in general, given that he's a statue and all.

The descriptions in general are great when Discord has an opinion, but when he doesn't, we're left with basically nothing. If you'd like to know what the garden looks like, there's mention of a hedge and... well, a hedge. Discord simply doesn't care enough about the scenery to describe it. I'm hesitant to call this a 'flaw' per se, but it is a limitation of working in first person. In a way, this makes the reader even more trapped than Discord himself is. We exist only in the back of his mind, and the only things that we experience are those that he's actively thinking about.

The story wastes no time in establishing the premise and conflict.

  Celestia nodded to the unicorn by her side, and I once again turned my attention to the drab little thing. "This is Ember Spark. She's one of the staff here at the castle. And, starting today, she has a new position, one that I have created with you in mind. She is to be the very first Keeper of Discord."

  The who of the what, now? The mare next to Celestia smiled shyly and stepped forward, giving a little bow with her head. Not quite the proper deference for the incarnation of pure chaos, but my injured dignity will take any salve, no matter how paltry.

  "Her position, and those who come after her, will be to maintain and clean your statue and the surrounding area, and... well, to keep you company. She will talk to you, read to you, occasionally arrange to have music brought to you—"

  Oh, no. No. Seriously, no. Anything was better than this! Boredom is better than this! Don't you dare, Celestia!

  "—all in the hopes that you will not be lonely. You are too dangerous to be let free, Discord, but that doesn't mean that I want you to suffer."

  Then why arrange for my torture? Oh, you tyrannical, grim-faced, sour old nag! You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? Do you really think that driving me insane will make me less dangerous once I manage to free myself?

  Oh, and I will free myself, I silently fumed while Celestia babbled on. Those Bearers of yours, even your beloved Twilight Sparkle, they won't last forever.

  And once they die? Well. Once they die, the seal will weaken once again. And then I will be free.

I hate to bother with typos, but "Well. Once they die..." should be one sentence, not two.

Anyway, this is a waiting game, where Discord's sanity is to be tested against the persistence of these 'Keepers.' To ensure that this story has some tension, take note of the strict time limit. His second incarceration is going to be much shorter than his first, presuming normal, mortal lifespans.

Taking a step back, I'd like to comment on Celestia's motives. At face value, she's presented as being sorry, remorseful, and her actions are purely altruistic. However, since Discord's escaped once before, it also makes sense that the Keepers should keep an eye on him, looking for any sign that he might do so again. (Celestia wouldn't mention that in front of Discord, of course.) Having read the whole story, I can say that this is not the case. Celestia has no ulterior motive, and she really can be taken at face value. This is a missed opportunity, perhaps.

While the premise of this story currently differs from canon and the AU tag is warranted, it was first published before the start of Season Three (A Canterlot Wedding was the latest aired episode). Back then, no AU tag would have been needed; this is the kind of thing that Celestia would actually do based on what we knew. In fact, Keep Calm and Flutter On probably helped this story by supporting its main premise. In that regard, this story has aged well, despite being invalidated by that same episode.

~~*~~

See this thing? That's the scene divider that the author uses. You'd best get used to it, as it appears a grand total of thirty times, or about once per 321 words. Yes, the scenes are very short, and that gives the story a somewhat choppy feel. It's not rushed so much as it is terse, and a lot of time can pass between scenes with little indication as to how much. Discord simply doesn't bother to keep track of it.

From this point forward, the author switches to using italicized text for words that Discord would speak were he able to do so. I'm fine with this, is it'd get old quickly if every other line had 'I would have said if I were able to' tacked onto it.

  "My friends tease me, you know."

  Not a surprise.

  "They call me the Royal Bird-poo cleaner."

  Please stop talking [sic]

  "My friend, Sunny Fields, says..."

  Another thing that really is very unpleasant about being encased in stone? I can't simply ignore ponies who twitter on like idiots.

Italic Discord forgot a period here. I can't say I was looking for grammar errors, but this is only one of four that I noticed in the whole story (I mentioned one earlier, and the other two are these: two paragraphs aren't spaced properly in the third scene, and a pony called Sunny Meadows loses the 's' at the end of her name once). That's a low error count for a story of this length, which is always nice to see.

And yes, this 'Keeper' arrangement goes about as well as you'd expect. Ember Spark doesn't annoy Discord the whole time, just most of it. In addition to gossiping, she also washes him, tends to the corner of the garden he's in, and reads to him. Her choice of literature is questionable, though, as she feels inclined to head him raunchy romance novels. (You know, 'washing him' sounds kinda dirty, especially since he's hard all the time, and frequently covered in white body fluid—okay, I'll stop. This is teen rated, not a clopfic.)

Discord insists that he simply loathes this little mayfly, but even this early on there are signs that he's getting used to her presence. For example, he criticizes her when she misses a spot while washing him, as if he feels entitled to her doing a thorough job. That's really the charm of this story, where Discord's character development happens gradually and naturally.

Well, Ember Spark gets 'fat,' and abandons him for four weeks during the winter. Despite what Discord may have said, he does not, in fact, prefer the boredom. When she returns, she's lost weight, and he reaches the obvious conclusion that she was pregnant. It isn't long before she brings her baby daughter, Evening Breeze, much to Discord's chagrin.

  Children are boring.

  One thing, though. I finally got some appreciation for how my face was frozen, because when little Evening Breeze finally focused her dull violet eyes upon me, she let out an unholy squawk of fear and began shrieking at the top of her lungs. No matter what she did, Ember was unable to calm her daughter, so she finally loaded her up into the carriage and took off.

  Aww, she didn't even say goodbye to me!

Yep, the only time he enjoys this baby is when she's upset. He might be getting used to the presence of these ponies, but he's still holding true to his base nature.

The story switches into high gear, spanning decades in two short sections. Sure, it's been moving quickly all along, but this is fast even for this story. Evening Breeze grows up, Ember Spark's husband dies, and she quits her job because she's getting too old for it and doesn't have the heart to do more than the base motions. Honestly, I'm having a hard time summarizing this story because it almost reads like a summary itself.

The pony who takes over for her when she quits? Evening Breeze. Yes, that's right; the pony who spent much of her life growing up whilst cowering in fear of Discord's statue is now responsible for keeping him clean when Canterlot's dozens of opinionated, little tiny birds keep shitting on him. So much for that whole cutie mark thing and finding one's own destiny, because apparently being a Keeper of Discord is a family business and that trumps freedom of choice.

While Ember Spark manages to last about a quarter of the story's length, her daughter only lasts three of those short scenes.

  I almost missed Ember Spark. That's how dull and annoying Evening Breeze was. She never read to me, she barely cleaned me, and she never, and I mean never, did anything about the weeds and plants in my enclosure until they got to the point where she had to struggle just to get in. Then she'd rope some poor slob of a gardener into cutting the grass, or rather the weeds, down to a manageable level.

See what I mean about the story basically being a summary? Pretty much the entirety of Evening Breeze's interactions with Discord take place within this single paragraph. The rest of his time with her is mostly spent talking about her third child, a pegasus by the name of Sunny Meadows, and yes, that is the pony who appears in the cover art. I'm not sure if Sunny Meadows was named after Ember's friend, Sunny Fields, or if this is just a coincidence. It's not actually mentioned in the story, but the lives of these ponies look well thought out, so I'm going to assume the former.

Evening Breeze isn't the type of pony to bring her children to work, but she does bring Sunny Meadows one day due to a problem with her foalsitter. Sunny takes an instant liking to Discord, climbing on his statute and later flying up to boop him on the nose. Given the neglect he's faced, he appreciates the attention and takes a liking to her too.

Even before Sunny leaves school, she criticizes her mother's lack of professionalism and offers to take over the job. Evening Breeze agrees, leaving for good.

   I watched Breeze walk stiffly away. I felt something odd. Unusual. Not quite anger. I'd felt that before, but it felt similar. I couldn't quite put a name to it, but something about the way [Sunny]'d thrown that bucket had stirred something in this old stone heart of mine.

  And now, I had yet another new Keeper.

While Discord's character development thus far has been gradual, this is a major turning point. The first keeper, Ember Spark, Discord made a point of ignoring, and the second keeper, Evening Breeze, made a point of ignoring him. This third one, Sunny Meadows? They both like each other. He might not have a word to properly describe his feelings, but he thinks of her in much the same way that one would think of their own child.

If I have any criticism about Sunny's character, it's that she a bit too perfect for him. Everything that Ember Spark did that Discord found droll, Sunny finds a way to make interesting. Instead of reading him romance novels or children's stories, she reads goofy comedies that focus on randomness. Instead of keeping the garden neat and trim, she decides to just throw seeds everywhere and let the plants fight amongst themselves. This latter action even earns her her cutie mark, a smiling sun. It seems to reflect her positive outlook more than anything to do with Discord directly, but there's no questioning that she's enamored with the concept of chaos even to the point of obsessiveness. The appearance of her cutie mark also highlights just how stupid it was to force Evening Breeze into doing something she hated.

When Ember Spark dies, Sunny confesses that her grandmother was her only real friend. I guess that makes sense considering how weird and eccentric she is, but this friendlessness also feels like an excuse to allow her to spend more time with Discord. She does want to start a family, though, and gets married fairly quickly, I guess. It's impossible to tell how much time passes when Discord rarely bothers to mention it.

~~*~~

  Sunny was definitely no good with pregnancies. On the one paw, I was glad it was over. No more grousing about feeling sick and bloated, or groans as she tried to flit around cleaning me off. No more unexpected vomiting.

  On the other talon, I was, frankly, annoyed that there was going to be yet another pony taking Sunny's attention away from me.

  You see, I'd figured it out. I knew, now, why I'd been upset. Her husband had captured her eye and her heart, and now there was this foal, as well. These ponies were conspiring to take my Keeper away from me.

  It wasn't that I cared. It wasn't because I was lonely, and it certainly wasn't because of anything as silly and pointless as jealousy.

  It's because she was mine. And I don't like sharing.

~~*~~

I decided to quote one whole section just so you can see just how short these things are getting. The next one's even shorter, spanning only three paragraphs, one of which consists of a just a single sentence. While I can understand not wanting to bog the story down by dragging out the scenes unnecessarily, it makes the pacing feel fast, particularly when there's a string of five short scenes in a row.

The author does vary his scene composition, which keeps things interesting, but it still feels like we're not getting the whole story. Sunny enlists her kids for help while recovering from a broken leg, and rewards them by reading one of her stories. This bit offers further insight:

  See, there are only a certain number of stories that can be considered "chaotic and funny" in the world, and Sunny had read most of those to me in her first couple of years. She'd then taken it upon herself to write more of them, and occasionally came back with something completely new.

  Her stories were terrible, at first, much like her paintings. But, hey, they grow on you.

I have mixed feelings about this passage. It adds more insight into Sunny's life and deepens her character, but this is also a large and interesting portion of Discord's life that happens completely offscreen. Shouldn't he have mentioned something earlier? What else have we missed out on? Way to make him an unreliable narrator. This passage is also pure telling. From our perspective, there's nothing tangible about Sunny's writing (or paintings); they're simply activities that she does. If we want to know more about them, we're left to our own imaginations.

Sometimes, though, the brevity can add to the story far more than jumping in and explaining everything would. At some point, Sunny's husband left her for another mare. She never told Discord and we only learn about it when her kids bring it up. The author could have thrown that in our faces for sympathy, but he opted to give Sunny a choice. Her decision to stay silent speaks volumes about how ashamed she must feel. It also shows us, albeit indirectly, that she cares about what Discord thinks of her.

In case we'd forgotten, Discord notices that one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony has passed away (he doesn't know which one). Once they all die, all he'll need is just a little burst of chaos to help him break free. Given how much Sunny loves chaos, and how much her family loves arguing, that's pretty much a virtual guarantee.

The Elements aren't the only ones dying, as Evening Breeze also drops dead. You know, Sunny's now had two of her close family members die, and the only other death mentioned was Ember Spark's husband. This seems like an abridged list, so these mourning scenes exist primarily to keep the readers informed of the ex-keepers' statuses. They do give us more insight into Sunny's life, so it's not like they're bad or anything. They just happen to highlight the highly-selective nature of the scenes that we see.

  "I see... you?" When Sunny motioned for her to continue, Summer looked around and then said, "I see the hedge maze, and the grass."

  "And how do those look?"

  "Neat. Orderly. Except right by the border of the Chaos Garden, where weeds keep creeping out. I keep telling you, a retaining wall—"

  "I never wanted to put a wall around the garden, dear. It didn't seem right to fence it in." Sunny grunted with the effort as she got to her hooves, wiping her brow with a towel. "What you're seeing is order, all around the Chaos Garden. Trimmed grass, sculptured hedges, clean walkways. If we put a wall around the garden, we'd rob it of its power. If we let it go everywhere, it would corrupt the order of this place—" sounds good to me, I thought, "—but that would rob the garden itself of what makes it special."

  Hmm.

  "Chaos and order go together like oil and water," Sunny said, piling her gardening tools into a cart. "They don't really mix all that well, but if you take one away and just leave the other... well, it gets boring, doesn't it?"

We don't have long to go before this chapter ends, so now's as good of a time as any to start teaching morals, right? The thought that order and chaos aren't true antagonists, but compliments, is one that's good for fiction, but doesn't make much sense, logically. There's a reason that the saying 'may you live in interesting times' is considered to be a curse. Well, this is more of my opinion than anything else, so I shan't argue. If your world happens to have a chaos god imprisoned in stone, then this is a very good moral to teach.

Discord complains that there's only one Element bearer left, and blames Twilight for keeping him trapped. It's fine for Discord to have that opinion, but this story was written pre-Twilicorn so it actually makes more sense to have Applejack live the longest. She has the healthiest diet, the healthiest lifestyle, and the oldest living relative. Regardless, whoever's left must be pushing her 120s by now, as we're on our third, nearly fourth, generation of Keepers here. Seriously, Sunny's a grandmother now, as we've been introduced to her youngest child's daughter! There might be another explanation for what's keeping Discord bound, but that falls under the category of wild speculation so I'll save it for the end.

Sunny gets ill, and that youngest daughter of hers, Summer Sky, takes over. I've avoided mentioning that name because the words 'Sunny' and 'Summer' are similar in appearance and it's very easy to get them confused if you happen to be skimming. Plus, it's another name to keep track of, and as short as this story is, it has a lot of them. I counted six OCs who have speaking roles. A few others, such as the husbands, only play offscreen roles.

I'd complain more, but even in the brief moments that we know them, the author does a good job of giving all the characters distinct personalities appropriate for their ages and allows them to develop over time. It's still a lot to keep track of, though, as all of them have their own unique color schemes too (except for Summer, who's a carbon copy of her mother. She does have a different personality, though, being more of a doormat).

Discord feels his last bond snap, so he'll finally be able to escape. The chaotic burst which allows him to do so? The turmoil in Summer's heart when she comes to deliver the news of her mother's death.

Given how much Discord cares for her, and how inexperienced he is with loss in general, this puts a huge damper on his triumphant return. It's a hollow victory, and one could even say that he's broken up about it.

Sunny wrote a letter to him before dying, so the first thing Discord does upon breaking free is to claim it.

  I reached down and took Sunny's letter in my talons. I looked at her daughter, who was staring at me with a combination of awe and terror.

  "Thank you," I said to her, and she nodded and squeaked something in response.

  "Are you afraid of me, my little pony?" I asked, stepping down from my pedestal and feeling the grass beneath me. My senses were being flooded, now. The stone kept me dulled, but now my awareness was free. Summer Sky's heart was beating fit to burst. The smell of fear flooded off of her, and I could see her limbs trembling.

  "Yes," she whispered.

  I strode towards her in a flash, and took her muzzle in my lion's paw. Leaning down, I looked into her eyes.

  "Neither you, nor anypony in your family, from now until the end of all things, will ever have need to fear me. I promise you this."

This certainly isn't the chaotic upheaval that one would expect from Discord's escape, but it does show just how much he's changed. It fits his character within the context of this story, and that's the important part.

My only real gripe about this scene is more on a technical level. Discord's senses might be flooded, but ours certainly aren't. A little more detail could have done wonders here. As it is now, it's hard to relate to that aspect of Discord's release. The only sensation that's actually new is smell, which Discord's probably grateful for considering the fact that he spent a fair bit of time staring at bird poop on his nose.

The chapter ends on a cliffhanger, where Discord opens Sunny's letter, but we don't get to see it.

Chapter 2: Celestia · 12th Nov 2012 · 1,286 words

This chapter is fairly short, and is told from Celestia's point of view. It also starts right in the middle of an action scene where she's confronting Discord and, well, I don't actually know why. She might be confronting Discord simply because he's Discord (not a bad reason given his history) or she might just have a thing for goofy-looking statues. The point I'm trying to make is that I know what to expect from Discord, but I don't know what to expect from Celestia, and that's a problem because she's the narrator now. Instead of dumping us straight into the action, a brief scene where Celestia talks strategy with Luna before jumping into things could help by establishing her narrative voice and motives.

Whatever Celestia had expected, she doesn't find. Instead, she finds herself in the awkward position of trying to comfort a grieving Discord.

  "Why did you do that to me? Why did you give me servants, though I was entrapped in stone? Why did... Why... Why do they die so quickly?"

  "Ah." I said. In order to hide my surprise, I looked away, towards the sky, and saw Luna on her approach. I caught her eye and shook my head. Confused, but trusting me, Luna turned and banked away. "It's the cost of immortality, Discord. Those who are mortal, no matter how long they may live, pass away before we truly get to know them. Then we spend the rest of our lives mourning them."

Gee, that doesn't sound very comforting.

This is the story's second moral, and it's not one that I agree with. Now's as good of a time as any for a long-winded rant, I suppose. Celestia's message has two parts, the first one being that mortal lives appear brief and ephemeral, and the second being that he'll grieve for all of eternity.

That first part is very strongly supported by the story itself, and that's actually where the problem lies. It's not the nebulous concept of immortality which causes mortal lives to zip by; it's the fact that the story's narrative structure skips decades between sections. The story might be told in a semi stream-of-consciousness style directly from Discord himself, but his credibility is poor. Am I really supposed to believe that he simply stops thinking between scenes? Of course not! His character development wouldn't make sense without that offscreen action. Thus, the suggestion that 'immortality' is the root cause behind this breakneck pacing is just silly. It's almost as bad as trying to blame the vast distance to Mars on the red planet's color. Sure, you could write up some nonsense about redshifting and make it sound plausible, but that wouldn't make it true.

There is one saving grace here, and that's the fact that this is a message that Discord needs to hear. Whenever he got fed up with the Keepers, he liked to lean on his immortality as a means of comforting himself. The annoying ponies would crumble to dust before him, if only he could blink. That sort of thing.

The second part of the message about never forgetting actually runs contrary to the first. Having a brief and incomplete perception of mortal lives implies a faulty memory (one's perception of the passage of time is dependent on memory), while being stuck grieving forever implies a perfect memory. You can't have it both ways. Celestia should be speaking from experience here, but it just doesn't make sense. She must be pretty messed up in the head if all she can remember about the mortal lives that touched her is how much she misses them. As is, she makes it sound as if Discord's never going to be able to move on. That's a cheap play for extra sympathy, and it's completely unnecessary. Telling him that he'd eventually forget her completely would be even more hurtful in the short term, as he clearly doesn't want to move on.

Celestia later tries to sugarcoat her message by stating that Sunny's memory will always stay alive in his heart, but it's still the same thing and it's still not comforting. Discord even complains as such.

The chapter wraps up with him making some demands with regards to the Keepers and their duties. Apparently, he wants a statue to help remember Sunny Meadows by. He also took her lesson about order and chaos to heart, so he isn't going to be a major villain anymore. The exact extent of his antics will be determined at a later date, but for now, he just wants to brood. When Celestia leaves, he turns the mountain into rainbow colored gumballs, because that's the kind of thing he does.

Chapter 3: Epilogue · 7th Nov 2012 · 533 words

This final remaining chapter exists primarily for the purpose of revealing the contents of Sunny's letter. It's well thought out and quite touching. Here's a sample:

  I wanted to say thank you. I know that probably sounds weird, since you didn't have a choice and all, but honestly? I had a great time being a Keeper. Tending the garden, cleaning your statue, writing my silly stories and making my terrible paintings, it was all just too much fun! I'm the luckiest pony in the world, to have had that job. I just wish my mom could have seen how lucky I was.

In case you happened to have any heartstrings left, those are probably gone now, slain by this touching letter which simply can't stop grabbing you and shaking you and beating you against a wall and giving you an atomic wedgie and the pain isn't nearly enough because you'll never get over the loss of this wonderfully amazing pony whom you'll never get to meet and who never got to meet you and it's all so sad and blublublublub. You drowned in your own tears. Game over. Try again?

I'm not sure if it was intentional, but there's an interesting parallel in word choice here. Remember this?

Honestly? I'd prefer the boredom.

That was from the story's description. I'll just leave that as a final thought.

Honestly? I like this story. The only real issue I have is with Celestia's lesson. The story leans on its narrative faults (fast pacing, selective detail) in order to advance an agenda of hate against the concept of immortality. However, if you read between the lines that argument doesn't hold up. It's subtle and hard to see, but I found it irritating enough for 10% rage.

As far as those narrative faults go, while I would have liked more detail here and there and perhaps another scene or two, there's still enough presented to identify with the characters and watch them grow. And that's what this story is really all about. The Keepers of Discord from beginning to end is an engaging tale with excellent characterization, and for that it's well worth its place as one of Fimfiction's most highly rated stories.

The Seal of Derpproval ~ Under 30% rage, and well worthy of it.

Art Of The Fanfic Award ~ All six points. The story might be an AU now, but it wasn't at the time of publication so it still qualifies for point four.

Pity Pothole Medal ~ Gee, let's kill off the one pony whom he loves the most, and then rub salt in the wound by telling him that he's never going to go over her for as long as he lives (which is forever, because he's immortal). On top of that, let's drip lemon juice on the salt-encrusted wound by allowing her to write a touching farewell letter, despite the fact that she never actually met him.

Hey, I did promise some wild speculation, so I'm not going to sign off just yet. First of all: an alternate ending. Had Discord realized that Sunny's ex-husband was still alive and decided to take revenge, this story could have played out very differently, resulting in a third (and final) incarceration. This time, the Keepers really could act as wardens, and Celestia could stop by every decade or so to refresh the spell keeping him bound. In a way, that would have been a more merciful ending, because at least then he'd have company. With the way this story currently ends, he's shut himself up to grieve in isolation.

Secondly: there's the matter of Discord's prison and how its strength is tied to the lives of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. There's nothing that specifically states that only one pony can be a bearer of a particular element at a time, and Sunny Meadows did display a great deal of kindness towards Discord. Being in such close proximity to his prison, that particular spirit of harmony may have latched onto her and thus it was her life which was the final straw keeping Discord in check. That would have doomed them never to meet, and would have given the story even more of a tragic element than it already has (as if it needs to be any sadder).

To help cheer you up, how about this nice, comforting image featuring Discord and Fluttershy?

Source: Her Final Moments...

Wait, that's not comforting. Gosh, I must be channeling Celestia, because I'm really bad at this. Oh well.