There were a lot of things that Discord enjoyed in life – chocolate rain, ancient evil relics going berserk and Fluttershy, just to name a few. The number one love of his admittedly dastardly mind, however, was in the annoyance of others. It was hardly mean spirited. If anything, pestering ponies was his way of showing how much he liked them. Fluttershy understood this, and Luna even more so. Ah, Luna, she was a fun one. Far more so than her sister.

Of course, the fact that Celestia wasn’t the fun one meant that she was easier to bother, and that knocked her to almost the very top of his list of favorites. In fact, at this very moment he was meant to be at some special dinner or other for her, meant to convince the snooty nobles that he was properly tamed. He couldn’t help but grin at the thought of her incensed expression; not tamed quite yet, it seemed.

Celestia used to be on top of his list, but she was knocked down a couple pegs by her dear protégé. Very few ponies could match Twilight Sparkle. Oh, sorry, Princess Twilight Sparkle. He could derive hours of enjoyment just by subtly repositioning her oh-so-carefully arranged things back at the castle and watching her scamper around in a huff trying to fix it all. And the outrage she always displayed when she discovered him?

Priceless.

But there was one individual who outdid them all, a single… well, not really a pony. Regardless, her serious, no-nonsense manner and haughty views made her an irresistible target of endless pranks, schemes, jokes, crack-ups and general buffoonery. The best part of all? She was considered an Enemy of the State, so Celestia and Twilight didn’t so much as bat an eye to stop him. He could be as playful as he wanted, and nopony could – or would – get in his way!

And at that very moment, his number one favorite victimpal was in his sights, making her way through a dark cave. Yes, technically she was well within Equestrian borders, which meant she was violating quite a few rules, as well as a treaty or two. Celestia would be furious when she next saw him, but he’d shut her up quickly when he told her the real – well, somewhat real – reason he’d skipped out on her boring dinner.

The trespasser walked cautiously, the caves lit only by the dim light of her twisted horn. Chrysalis’s eyes were narrowed to mere slits, her ears flicking to her echoing hoofsteps. Discord watched from the shadows, his body flat against the walls. Literally; he was disguised as a cave painting. Normally he might have spoken up, or created some obstacle for her by changing the floor to cream cheese or making the cave run in endless circles. He did that to a minotaur lord once, centuries ago. Fun times.

Not today. Discord could sense something different, a powerful magic he didn’t recognize. Or rather, he did, but only in trace amounts. It was negative energy, the kind of thing that makes ponies hate and leads to wars. That kind of power had never existed in Equestria before. He would know, its non-presence was one of the things that attracted him to this land in the first place.

But now the acrid, rotten stench of it festered in his nostrils. He was tempted to remove them to spare himself the trouble, but decided it would be better to use every sense he had to keep track of the stuff. That much bad energy in one place had to be trouble, trouble enough to dampen even his spirits.

Which was why he now pursued Chrysalis. Her presence here had surprised him, but it could only mean she had some kind of nefarious plan in mind. Discord didn’t like nefarious plans that were not of his own creation. Besides, this was an opportunity to frustrate the changeling queen by catching her in the act and ruining all her plans. It was bound to be more fun than rubbing elbows with a bunch of party poopers.

Oh, that gave him an idea!

No! No, he needed to focus. Chrysalis. He had keep an eye on Chrysalis.

The cave was remarkably dull, filled with air that hadn’t been utilized in centuries, maybe even millennia. This was one of many things that disturbed Discord about this whole affair. Clearly, the tunnel was natural, but it appeared as though Chrysalis’s changelings had uncovered the place by accident.

Yet if it was by accident, then all this foul energy he was detecting was not of their doing. So… what was it?

He watched from the cracks and crevices as the changeling queen turned her head this way and that, as if in search of something. She paused at a three-directional fork in the cave, her eyes narrowing to slits as she studied each available path. That, too, struck Discord as odd. Was she entering these caves for the first time?

He had been so certain that she had a scheme in motion when he first sensed her down here. Now he wasn’t so certain. But, with the sheer amount of energy seeped into the place, he wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to take advantage of it. Yes, better to keep watching for now. Snatching it away right before it was in her grasp could be entertaining.

After some consideration, Chrysalis took the left path, carefully climbing over jagged rocks and around boulders that had fallen from the ceiling. Discord followed close behind, his curiosity stronger than ever.

For what seemed like an eternity, Chrysalis walked. Deeper and deeper they went. The air was so stale Discord thought it could replace Twilight. Were it not for the ominous magic swirling about the place, he might have grown bored. Instead, he found himself anxious – a relatively new sensation in his emotional repertoire.

The energy was so thick at this point that he could actually see it, like the entire world was being viewed through some dark, static-covered filter. He hardly even cared about Chrysalis anymore; whatever was causing this much negative energy could only mean bad things. Chrysalis too appeared uncertain, her hoofsteps sharp and her lips pulled back in a grimace. Her eyes darted about the darkness as though anticipating an attack.

Then, after turning a corner, she came to a stop. Her eyes narrowed, her legs bent, her transparent wings opened wide in a flight or fight response. She remained that way for a few seconds, and Discord began to wonder. His painted form snaked across the rocks to a flat space just behind her. He thrust his head out of the illusion to peer at the darkness.

There, not five feet deep into the cave, was a wall. But not just a wall of stone, oh no; this was metal. It glistened dully in the green light of Chrysalis’s horn, smooth and plain and very clearly not natural. As Discord examined it from over the unaware Chrysalis’s shoulder, he reached out with his magic and felt… nothing. It was as if the wall went beyond the physical aspects of the concept. Whatever was on the other side, he couldn’t see it.

Chrysalis approached the metal and rubbed it with her hoof. “What is this?”

“A good question.”

The changeling queen whipped around, her horn sparking and her lips pulled back in a snarl. She was just in time to see Discord fully pull himself out of the wall, his expression more serious than any he’d held in ages. The sight only made her hiss and step back.

“You.” She spat on the floor. “I’d ask if this is your doing, Discord, but it doesn’t seem to be your style.”

“Right you are, Chrissy.” He rubbed his chin, eyes set on the wall behind her. “I’ve never seen the like.”

She kicked at the floor, her horn aimed at him as she set herself into a defensive posture. “How long have you been following me?”

He waved dismissively. “Ever since you arrived in Equestria. Honestly, Chrissy, did you think I wouldn’t notice your magic in the area?”

“Stop calling me that, you overgrown buffoon!” She took another step back, her hindquarters bumping the wall. “You think I did this, don’t you?”

“No.” At last he ave her a direct look, and it wasn’t a pleasant one. “But I do think you’ll try to use whatever is hidden behind it. You were drawn here by the negative energies, weren’t you?”

She sniffed derisively, but at last let her horn dim. “Something like that.”

“Ah.” A mortarboard appeared on his head and he waved a scroll in her face. “Your scouts found this cave system with all the lingering energy, then told you about it.”

“And I came to investigate personally.” Chrysalis turned about to study the wall. “I honestly thought Celestia was cooking something up, but this is nothing like her magic.”

“Agreed.” He stepped up to rub the wall, ignoring how she sidled away from him. The surface felt rougher than it looked, like fine cement. “This is certainly a magical construct. Celestia will want to know about this.”

Chrysalis snorted. “Yes, that’s a good boy. Run to Celestia and tell her everything! Tell me, does your tail wag when she smiles?”

He responded by waggling his tail tuft in her face. His own took on a canine appearance; he panted with tongue lolled out and gave her a big, sloppy lick on the cheek. She cried out and snapped her fangs at him.

Chuckling at her attempts to rub off the slime, he reverted back to his original form. “You’re so easy.”

She stomped, icky saliva dripping onto the floor from her hoof. “Someday I’m going to figure out how to hurt you, and when I do—” A muzzle flashed around her mouth, effectively sealing it. Her muffled scream and vicious eyes only made him laugh.

As she struggled to push off the muzzle, he studied her with a cocked smile. “I’m afraid my duty is very clear. You are in violation of quite a few rules, aren’t you, Chrissy?” He licked the palm of his lion’s paw, which grew exponentially.

Chrysalis’s eyes widened and she turned to flee.

“For example, you entered Equestria without the proper papers! Let me just provide the stamp, hmm?” He swung his massive paw like a fly swatter, catching Chrysalis and smacking her between it and the cave wall. When he pulled it back, she was splayed out like a museum exhibit, a sticky white glue forming a square all around her. She struggled, her motions fruitless against whatever substance the giant ‘stamp’ was made from.

Discord guffawed and danced around the beam she shot at him. “What’s this? Transporting weaponry across national lines? I’ll have to confiscate that.”

She squirmed as he reached forward and grabbed her horn. With a loud pop, he pulled it off.

He spoke into the bottom of the horn like a microphone. his ears became large speakers and his voice echoing through the caves. “It seems we have everything under control here. Now I just have to deliver this package to the proper recipient. I imagine Princess Luna will be very interested in this now that it’s properly packaged up.”

Chrysalis’s eyes narrowed. Vicious growls escaped her clamped jaws. Yet no matter how much she bucked and hissed and tugged, she remained firmly glued to the wall.

Discord reached out to pat her cheek, tossing the horn behind him haphazardly. It flew up and attached to the ceiling as if it were a stalactite. “Now, you just stay comfortable right here while I take a look at what it is you’ve found, okay? Okay.”

He turned to the metal wall and peered at it, trying to gauge the strength of its magic resistance. It took him several seconds, but he ultimately concluded that even his power wouldn’t be enough to pierce the thing. The thought brought a frown to his lips; either somepony didn’t want anypony else snooping around, or this was designed to keep something dangerous in.

Discord was willing to wager on that second one, but he knew it very well could be option number one, and if so… Well, it would help to know. One way or another, he needed to see inside. Information was an ally, and he’d need as much as he could gather before deciding if this was something Celestia needed to hear about.

And so he closed his eyes and began searching. His magic fanned out in small slivers, tracing the wall into the rock and looking for an edge. Surely this thing didn’t extend too far.

But it did. To his alarm, it extended very far, and when he finally found an edge it was only to discover that the wall had moved in a new direction. After several long seconds of scanning, he realized that this wasn’t a wall at all.

It was a box.

Now more than ever, Discord was convinced that this wasn’t intended to keep ponies out.

“Oh-ho, what’s this?”

He pulled one of the magical tendrils around the box, searching for the oddity he’d barely detected. Yes, there it was. At first he thought it might be a weakness in the box’s structure, but no, that wasn’t it. It was a kind of magical construct, to be sure, but it was… sucking. Yes, that was it exactly. What he’d found was like an ethereal tube of sorts. What was it—

He gasped as his magical tendril snapped taut. Discord grimaced and tried to pull his it back… but couldn’t. Whatever that thing was, it was taking all the negative energy that surrounded this place, and now it was trying to gather up his chaos energy!

Discord fought against the thing’s pull, gradually using more and more magic. To his steadily growing alarm, the thing just kept vacuuming it up. Worse, whatever that thing was, it was coming towards him, shifting over the edge of the box like some scuttling, nonphysical centipede!

He did the only thing he could think of; he severed the magic from himself. He opened his eyes as the tendril zipped away, sucked into the box like a spaghetti noodle. In an instant, he lost sight of the… thing.

Releasing a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, Discord took a shaky step backwards. He felt at his chest and knew that he’d been weakened. It would take a long time to recover from that kind of damage, but it could have been much worse. In any case, this was definitely not something he should keep to himself.

He turned to find Chrysalis staring at him with wide eyes. Hiding his moment of anxiety with a light smile, he began to reach for her. “Well then, shall we be off to—”

Silence. Total and complete. Discord’s heart dropped into his feet, and for once not literally. He spun about to find himself staring not at a metal wall, but black. Something big. Something round. Something he couldn’t make out, because it stretched tall and wide immediately before him… and he could not look away from the black. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see world’s colors – and even light itself – being pulled into the gaping abyss like long strings of melted plastic.

He felt so… stretchy, as if his feet were nailed to the floor and something was pulling on his head. A pressure began to build in his skull. He tried to speak, but no sound escaped him. Or perhaps it did. Perhaps the thing was swallowing that too.

He came out of a daze. It was instantly replaced by panic.

He tried to teleport. Nothing happened.

He tried to step back. His legs ignored him.

With every passing second, he felt weaker. He opened his mouth to shout, but all he heard was nothing at all, not even the faintest whisper. His eyes bulged as something within the dark, something beyond his vision but unmistakably there… looked at him.

Hello?

Is… is s-somepony there?

I hear your voice.

D-Discord? Is th-that you?

Luna! What’s going on? Where are we? Why can’t I see anything?

Am I… imagining you? Are you really here?

What? Yes. Yes, I’m here.

I… I can see you. This is… this is the real you!

Well, I can’t see you! Luna, what’s going on? Is this some kind of game?

Discord, l-listen to me! We’re dead. Do you hear me? We are all dead!

Dead? I thought the afterlife would be more interesting than this. Pity.

No! No, I m-mean… You don’t understand. I’m s-so sorry.

Sorry? For what? Oh, please don’t tell me you killed me. Talk about disappointing.

It’s going to make me see it again. I d-don’t want to see it again…

Luna? I’m all for not making sense, but really, you need to start making sense.

Y-you have a chance. This m-must be how it happens. Yes… Yes, I can see it!

Good. Lend me your eyes so I can see it.

I’ll do better than that.

Luna? I can feel… What are you doing?

Luna. Luna? I don’t like this. It feels wrong.

E-everything is wrong.

Luna, stop!

It’s all w-wrong! But th-there’s a chance to stop it.

Get out of my head!

We’re dead, Discord. We’re all dead.

No… Sweet mercy, no. I don’t want to die!

You have one chance. It won’t come again.

O-one chance…

Do what you have to Discord. P-please, do this! For those who are left.

I…

“I see.”

He didn’t hear it. It didn’t matter. He knew what was coming, how it would go.

How he would go.

Fear gripped him as he stared death in its inky, black face. Yet even as his entire body shook, he knew what he had to do. The information had to be preserved, and there was only one way to do that.

With every ounce of willpower he had, Discord began to turn away from the all-consuming darkness. He felt a million invisible, tiny arms pulling him, but somehow he managed to resist. His gaze fell upon the cave, upon Chrysalis. She remained trapped against the wall, squirming and pulling as she stared with wide-eyed terror at whatever surrounded him.

She seemed so far away.

Of course. He was in the Maw.

Though it felt as though his arm would rip off, he brought it forward against the obsessive tug. He pointed to Chrysalis and, with what little energy he had left, began the transfer. The gaping blackness tugged at the magic he sent, pulling away little strings at a time. He wouldn’t be able to give her everything, but hopefully what he could offer would be enough. He watched it siphon into her thrashing skull, all that might save Equestria.

The unseen claws of the Maw dug into his flesh. His mouth opened in a silent shriek and fear threatened to consume his mind, but he forced it to remained focused. Even as he was dragged back, squirming and fighting, he kept his eyes on Chrysalis, his arm stretched for her.

The transfer was as done as it could possibly be. If he went any longer, he’d not have enough to…

He snapped his talons one last time, and Chrysalis was freed from the wall. She fell to the floor and immediately began backing away, gazing upon him with a fresh horror.

The light was fading, a circle closing in. Discord’s legs wouldn’t respond to him anymore. He suspected they’d been ripped to shreds. With tears being pulled back into the abyss, he forced his trembling lips to move:

Run away.

He said it again and again, unable to hear, doubting she could. He needed her to understand.

If Chrysalis died, so did Equestria.

Run away. Run away. Run away. Run away.

At last, the changeling queen turned and bounded into the caves, disappearing from sight.

If his magic hadn’t been completely drained, Discord might have relaxed. If he didn’t know he was dying, he might have had hope. If it wasn’t for how his body was being slowly torn apart, he would have breathed a sigh of relief.

As the Maw closed, his world became black. He saw nothing, but his world was pain.

He screamed. He screamed and shrieked and pleaded for the end.

He heard none of it.

Author's Notes:

Though I had to postpone it no less than three times, at long last I'm getting to this. I've always been a horror fan, and while Silent Hill isn't my favorite horror game series it definitely ranks highly for its (usually) strong stories and creepy atmosphere.

I've seen a few others attempt to crossover the game to MLP, but every time it felt... lackluster. To (hopefully) avoid falling into that trap, I decided this story wouldn't be a crossover, but a tribute. A lot of the things you will see will be glaringly different from what Silent Hill offers, and that is intentional. I want this to be its own story, not some derivative, and that meant taking common concepts and re-imagining them from scratch.

This story is also an experiment designed to challenge my skill at weaving a plotline. There will be a great many characters involved, and no character will get more than two chapters from their own perspective. This makes it difficult to recognize a single central character or establish a constant, flowing plotline, hence the challenge.

Let's see if I can pull this off.