Midday
March 12th, 62 BNM
Equestria, midland plains
'Anarchy Hills', Discord's capital

The ground and valley lay adorned with square patterns of pastel colours, utterly devoid of anything found naturally. The bedraggled travellers traversed the sloping hills, wary eyes casting over the many floating rock islands far overhead, a few house fragments and trees adorning them.
Before them, a large rising hilltop was marked with a vacant red velvet throne, the arms of the chair noticeably warped and distorted to the eyes of those who beheld it. The cloaked, rather deprived Ponies nervously glanced about, as their leader came forth, a thin looking Earth Pony stallion with a very unkempt beard:
"My lord Discord. We have travelled far, from the San Palomino lands. Our town is plagued with a shortage of water ever since the river dried up. We come before you to beseech your might and aid our suffering."
A moment of silence reigned over the plains, the pastel pink skies and clouds overhead rumbling slightly, the flocks of flying schools of fish gulping the air as they circled around. But they swiftly scattered, as a crack of electricity split the air just above the throne. Right at that moment, the throne floated off its rise, slowly rotating as a long figure came slowly hovering out of the rip in the air.
Coming to slowly sit with his back bent over the throne, the Draconeraqus glanced at the travellers with his inquisitive red and yellow eyes, a small smirk on his snaggle-toothed mouth as he sat more upright once the throne stopped rotating.
"I know why you came. And what makes you think I'll help?"
Discord's sceptical remark was followed with his usual smirk, as the pony leader's followers bowed low behind him on the pastel squared hills before his throne hill. Their leader pleaded yet again:
"Please, we will pledge our loyalty to you."
"I presumed all of Equestria would have thought that already... Anyone with half a brain at least." Discord mumbled, more to himself but loud enough to be heard.
"We will pledge more then any of them already have! We have no water to drink or for crops!"
Rolling his eyes at the desperate pony, Discord clicked his eagle talon, teleporting right in front of the pony leader as he then leant down his long neck to look the leader in the eyes:
"Oh stop grovelling, it would be amusing if it weren't so pathetic. Besides, I know there's no water there. I needed to freeze the water in that river upstream from your valley."
At this, the leader's expression turned to abject confusion, as he asked incredulously while looking up, and slowly backing away from Discord:
"Why would you freeze our water?"
At this, Discord snapped his talon one more time, and a portal opened up, a vision to the past. On it, a massive river was frozen solid, with many copies of Discord holding sticks in an early form of bandy. Multiple Discords knocked a ball around on the ice with rounded sticks, as Discord remarked offhandedly as one of his dopplegangers scored a number of points in a row by multiplying the ball as it flew towards the goal posts.
"To have an ice rink to play against myself on, with this fun sport the Caninberians came up with. Are all ponies as slow witted as you?"
One of the younger ponies in the travelling cloaks, a Pegasus mare, rushed forwards with her hoof outstretched in anger, her yell and hoof getting right in Discord's face.
"You, you selfish monster!"
Discord's face frowned deeply at this, as the leader shushed the mare back, pleading with the Draconeraqus:
"Quiet! Please, my lord, Glisten, she is young, she does not know what she says!"
Discord stared passively at the group, before he snapped his fingers just once.
In another portal which appeared in place of the one showing Discord's ice rink, a picture of their water deprived town appeared, the river bed dried up as much as the desert around it.
Yet when Discord snapped his fingers yet again, the town split open in the middle, as a gigantic water geyser burst forth, shooting skywards with its heated steam and fumes as Discord's magic then shoved the travellers through. A journey that took them days took a second for him.
As they landed, it was quickly evident that the size of the water geyser was flooding the town, the warm water from the geyser steaming hot as it flooded the streets.
"You see, there was water right under your noses all the time. And its as hot and putrid as your attitudes are."
Discord cackled as he zipped shut the portal, the towns ponies having been dropped back from their now to be flooded town.
Staring back at the expanse that was his main valley, Discord tapped his lion paw to his chin, thinking:
"Hmm, maybe I should have kept them around, had fun with them..."
After a moment of thought, Discord laughed this off, as he turned the ground beneath him into a river of golden syrup, and sat down on a canoe made of bread as he laughed. Finishing his laugh, Discord magicked a mirror into existance, his reflection not behaving normally as Discord posed, the reflection moving differently as it examined Discord as an artist would a work in progress:
"Nah, they were too rude for my liking. Why can't I just find somepony who has a sense of humor for once? Oh well, nopony can be me I guess."
Flexing a muscle on his lion paw, Discord waited as his reflection then leant out of the mirror to take a tape measure around the bicep, before retreating with a nod and a smile. At this, Discord shrugged:
"But really, who could? Perfection wouldn't be what it was if everypony was as good as each other."
"Exactly, keep telling yourself that." The reflection rebuked, to which Discord then smirked at his reflection as he pointed to it:
"And me, myself and I guarantees fun and intelligence all the time."
"Mind that swelling head of yours, it might get as fat as your belly could from lounging about all the time."
Discord's eyes narrowed as the bread canoe bobbed on the golden syrup river, the mirror Discord smirking back as the real Discord rebuked grumpily:
"You're a smart-alek, aren't you?"
"Well I am your reflection."
"A fragile reflection..." Discord warned, his own face taking on a smirk as the reflection Discord laughed off the warning:
"Ah-ah-ah, Seven Years Bad Lu-URK!"
The reflection Discord was pulled from the mirror, as the mirror itself vanished with a pop, as the now smirking Discord held the doppelganger in a magical hold:
"I would think those egotistical towns-ponies would remind you to not be a killjoy..."
At this, the Discord reflection could only offer a sheepish grin, to which the real Discord then offered a similar smirk as he replied:
"But, arguing with myself is at least entertaining if anything else."
One more snap of his eagle talons, and the once-reflection Discord had become a winged pig that flew off backwards through the skies, as Discord paddled down the golden syrup river, whistling a tune to himself.
Life was good for the chaotic tyrant, though he was more of a mischief maker in his mind.

Equestria, north midland mountains

Growing bored of his golden syrup canoe ride, Discord had taken flight, across the landscapes, morphing them to his whims as he went. Rivers reversed their currents, trees uprooted and began walking off in all sorts of directions, birds began to burrow underground and fish began to fly, while land based animals began to shapeshift togather, morphing into much larger creatures that were made up of many animals stuck together.
Yet as the Draconeraqus flew, his meandering wanderings taking him north, there was an area in the mountains he'd largely left untouched, a large number of valleys known to have once harboured a fortress, and was home to stone giants, though where exactly in the many valleys was not entirely known.
He stopped his wanton transfigurations as he came to a slow flight high above the forest strewn valleys, his normally thoughtful, playful gaze turning more subdued.
Slowly flying down, Discord landed on a ridge, as he found a familiar place.

The Draconeraqus staggered through, having awoken that day yet again in the forest. He ran, away, as warned. Flashes in his mind. A green eyed Silhouette hurting him, a light blue eyed figure helping him and pleading for him to run, as a red eyed and yellow eyed pair of creatures were marauding further in his shadowed early memories like demons, and tales of more of them. A silenced voice, as he thought something had been ripped away.

But as the memories played, each time he ever recalled them, they became muted, blurred. Soon, they became a mess, a hallucination he paid little heed to as nothing but the inaccurate memories any young aged being would have.
Unseen, taking flight from the valley ridge, Discord's eyes turned to the east for a moment, before he took flight south, mind set on what else he could do today.
Just a few miles from where he'd landed, the unseen ruins lay dormant, silent, save for the sliver of hidden evil that had endured.
An evil that would be forgotten, along with much of the history surrounding it, as Discord's reign turned Equestria into a state of anarchy and unnatural disorder.
The Alicorns were becoming myth faster then anybody anticipated. Their war, their mistake, their legacy.
A legacy of the Sun and Moon being out of natural sync, and Discord's manipulating all that stopped cataclysms that would arise by them coming to a stop in motions. His rule of these cycles made him a god.
Yet it wasn't perfect. Some days he forgot to move the day and night the same time each day, so there was no set sunrise and sunset time, and vice versa for the moon. The cycles were non-uniform, but the important thing was that he always remembered to at some point.
Discord's once mercy granted was that no dead world was worth ruling over for his own amusement.
Amusement that he created of his own power, for he couldn't recall any life of his own before.

Same day
Mid Afternoon
Equestria, Mid-Eastern mountains
Neighagra falls
Meadowbrook’s tower

The mare stared out of the curtain, the river outside her tower, far down in the canyon beyond, having been turned into a flowing river of a different sort. The Mage Meadowbrook gave a derisive snort as she turned away from the sight that Discord, in a brief pass over this place, had done to the majestic Neighagra falls.
Now, the Neighagra falls ran much thicker, as the river had been turned into flowing, smooth blackcurrent jam. The waterfall now trickled, no more mist or rainbows from them, nor was there much noise as there once was. The 'jamfall' ran rather silently and in a solid sheet of trickling spread one normally saw on breads or in jars.
Sure enough, the knock on her door sounded right on cue, as Meadowbrook made her way through.
Opening the door to her tower, Meadowbrook saw the blue robed, grey bearded Wizard Unicorn standing before her, his hat tilted back as he bowed to her in greeting. But as Starswirl cast his gaze towards the distant valley and river, he couldn't help but murmur with mixed incredulity and worry:
"How long has that been-."
"3 weeks. A shame, when it was ale I didn't find it as bad. I hate blackcurrent."
With that personal gripe uttered, the yellow furred mage let Starswirl inside the tower, being sure to shut the door.
From the outside, the tower became invisible, as she had been careful to enchant it following Discord's rise to power to remain hidden to all, except those she let know where it was.
Sadly that number was still very few.

Sat in the dining room, as Starswirl quietly drank the light herbal tea she brought out, Meadowbrook's yellow magic set aside the teapot as she surmised what she'd sought out:
"He's still wreaking havoc, but what can we do? He controls the sun and moon, any attempts to take him down are not worth the trouble, unless they can take over those duties."
Meadowbrook's words were ones he'd heard many times, as Starswirl put down his teacup as he replied coldly:
"They're almost ready, I've had Celestia and Luna trained well, they'll be ready when their opportunity comes. Once it comes, they will return from sanctuary in the New Gryphon north, and claim what they must."
Meadowbrook's brow furrowed at the Wizard's words, as she pressed him on his resolve, and what seemed to be misplaced certainty:
"You said it last time you came to exchange news, information. They're no Alicorns, they're gone. Those two haven't the power to overcome Discord and take over the duties that any who take power for order must. The damage has been done, it can't be fixed so quickly."
Grimacing at this, an old wound to the pride of he and her, the last Wizard and Mage in Equestria, forced into hiding as Discord made playthings out of prolific magic wielders in Equestria as if they were toys.
"I know. But what I've had brewing for a number of years is almost ready. It will work, they can do it."
Scathingly, Meadowbrook regarded this news with a degree of skepticism, as she jabbed a hoof towards Starswirl accusing him of past misdeeds she'd witnessed herself, especially against the now dead Being of Gluttony:
"Yes, this secret project of yours. And I somehow have a sneaking suspicion that your necromancy studies went towards it."
"None more then is absolutely necessary. I am not Siral, I won't be tempted by power that there is no need for."
Starswirl's proclamation, as he rose to his feet slightly from the table, didn't faze Meadowbrook in the slightest, as she coldly replied to him through slits for eyes:
"Forgive me if I distrust of your words..."
Snorting at this, Starswirl maintained and air of certainty, but admitted to fault because she was one of the very few longtime acquaintances he had left:
"I realize I got overzealous when those other creatures of his were running amok, but the fact remains is that we were so focused on that threat that not only did we prove unable to coerce the Alicorns out of their foolish actions those years ago, but we missed a puerile tyrant just waiting in the wings all this time. I won't let this opportunity I've been brewing go to waste."
"How can I trust it if you won't tell me what it is? Even after all these years we've collaborated and conversed in secrecy from Discord?"
Meadowbrook spoke softly now, as her tone became hurt by the cold demeanour of Starswirl. Truth be told, he had been cold ever since Siral had turned so long ago, the same time as the Citadel was beseiged and King Nova was killed. Made worse was when the Salamander, Chack vanished, and somehow silenced Siral in his fortress ruins, and the last being of his disappeared too. But the missing seventh, whatever the evil creature was, had gone entirely.
The only respite was that Discord's demeanour meant he wasn't the same being.
"Discord came through here just 3 weeks ago. He seeks us out as he does any powerful magic wielders. The less ponies that know, the safer the secret is until it must be unleashed, when it is ready."
"And when will it be ready?" Meadowbrook bluntly asked, the Mage Unicorn standing up at her table as she thumped the drink mug on the mahogany tabletop. But Starswirl only sighed, as he replied honestly:
"That, I will tell Celestia and Luna. But, it will be very soon. By the midsummer, Discord will be gone."
Starswirl was silent for a moment, before he quietly remarked in a tone Meadowbrook could barely hear:
"As shall I be."

Her expression now lost all scathing about him, as the Mage knew this may happen. He had been hinting that he may be going after this, leaving Equestria forever somehow, someway.
"The tools I will leave them, where they are being forged, the spellwork requires such great exertion, that I may not survive. If I do, I will be drained of all but the barest of life. Yes, these are steeped in necromancy, but to harness virtues, and power, to overcome any evil now, or in future, that may arise on this world."
"I, I don't know what to say."
Meadowbrook's utterance was laced with regret for the harsher tones she had just a minute ago about his methods, yet Starswirl's tone remained as certain as ever, even if laced with a bit of melancholy, and perhaps, relief.
"Meadowbrook, I wanted to tell you this so you wouldn't miss me when I vanish, even if you disapproved of some of my more desperate studies. Given how historiography has been thrown asunder in Discord's time I'll likely be recorded as simply one of many who 'vanished' during his reign. I say it would be for the best. I have lived a long life, a full life. Admittedly not as best as I could have hoped. Chasing a prophecy without opening my eyes earlier to the world around me was just the most blatant of my poor choices..."
"I lost more in my journeys then I hoped to gain, this last act may bring me balance. I will give Equestria, the world, the chances I feel I had a hoof in perhaps costing it in the ways of peace, had I done more."
Meadowbrook walked around the table, laying a hoof on Starswirl's shoulder as she offered a consoling hoof to the still rather stoic wizard. She wondered when the last time he'd smiled was.
"Do not speak that way. You have done more then anypony I know."
"Perhaps that is why it is best I disappear, to leave while I am still ahead. Besides, those two are the future, I am the past. And if I am perfectly honest, I have had my fill of stress the job of wizard brings. My mind is made up."
They sat in silence, and it was a few minutes before their conversation about any last few matters and news of Discord's antics and chaos came up again.

An hour later

As he exited the doorway, the only visible part of the tower when he opened the door itself, Starswirl stopped short as Meadowbrook came to the door with him.
Meadowbrook blinked a few times, the yellow furred Mage regarding the Wizard before her with newfound eyes. He now seemed, older, jaded, but losing none of his wisdom. Time had taken its toll on him long before the civil war and much else.
Shaking her head with a smile, Meadowbrook replied with a slight tremble:
"You are right. I can't, and won't stop you. But what shall I do?"
"Whatever you decide, do what you wish. But, if you truly wish to know what you should do, take advice I gave to a very old friend, a long time ago. Advice I wish, to heaven and hell, that he had heeded, and perhaps so much could have been avoided if he'd heeded it.
As Starswirl spoke this, he leant against the doorway as he glanced into Meadowbrook's tearful, sad, but accepting gaze. But his mind wandered to a time long ago.
To Starswirl, it had been 52 years. To Siral, 112, enough where if he were still here, they'd be the same age.
But he always recalled the time, now 738 years ago, before any time jumps, before the prophecy, the last time they were truly friends.

A friendly, outgoing elder wizard, and a younger, more withdrawn, shy but curious and skilled wizard, sitting together, stargazing, discussing topics of interest, sharing a small pipeweed batch on a starlit hilltop.
So long ago, when Siral was far from the wretched, scarred, deformed and depraved monster he became. A victim of others, and his own curiosity, and ambition in the end.
Even with the friends Stasrwirl made on those time jumps, he lost one. He knew that now.
In his mind, Siral faded, leaving only an older, more jaded and worn Starswirl alone on the starlit hilltop.

Pulling from his melancholic memories, Starswirl offered a forced grin at Meadowbrook as he spoke:
"Live as you choose, but do not follow others into destinies not your own. Live your own life."
"How would you if you were in my position?"
"Maybe add some more artefacts to your collection?"
Laughing at his coy remark at what magical accomplishments were what made her famous, Meadowbrook wiped a tear as she replied in good nature:
"Perhaps not. Eight seems right."
In a very rare, more natural smile, Starswirl turned to leave, putting his pointed hat on along with his blue cloak, turning to leave the tower with a few last words.
"Perhaps. But, to be blunt Meadowbrook my dear, your life is not mine. Whatever you decide, I don't give a damn."
And with that, he strode off down the pathway, as Meadowbrook watched the bearded wizard slowly fade from view, as it was a half minute before he vanished in a flash of blue light, heading north to his proteges.
Lamenting this as the last time she would likely ever see Starswirl, Meadowbrook silently bid him goodbye, and shut the door of her tower. A small ghost of a smile crept across her face as she door shut, her whisper more to herself:
"Go in peace, wherever you end up."

Equestria midlands
Everfree forest, deep forest
Harmony alcove

A semi-open cavern enclosed it, but as he arrived, on yet another checkup, Starswirl yet again marvelled at the growth this creation of the gifts he left, and Everfree's magic, had cultivated.
Before him, as the vines slowly crept around its crystalline roots and structure that grew inside the cavernous alcove, he knew of the part of the prophecy that inspired this. Cultivating harmony's essence, through the harvesting of the imprints left on gifts left from those he met, who displayed the true, most pure of virtues that he had felt as the sources of great power.

Seek the essences of true Harmony, the greatest power to be had to combat these threats you are to face at the end of your destiny.
A Treacherous One, for you and they to learn of True Loyalty.
A Restrained One, for you and they to learn of True Magic.
A Deceitful One, for you and they to learn of True Honesty.
A Glum One, for you and they to learn of True Joy.
A Selfish One, for you and they to learn of True Generosity.
A Cruel One, for you and they to learn of True Kindness.

The Tree of Harmony.
Glancing around, as he saw the rocks they grew from, one with many names that acted as a 'booster' for magic, as some weapons in the civil war took advantage of. Orichalcum was one name, and Starswirl heard the name Quintessenite once, though he doubted that name would truly stick.
Overhead, the vines morphed to show an Alicorn head, through which the spirit of the forest spoke to him, Everfree, the first ever Alicorn, and one who merged with nature to live forever in harmony with nature:
"It is ready. We can begin as soon as you are willing. Once it begins, there is no going back."
Casting his gaze over the tree, this project having grown with their cooperation over 6 years, Starswirl saw the 6 different gems in the tree. Five coloured ones of yellow, blue, red, green and purple, and the most powerful, but most dependant upon the others, magic, in the centre as a pink, star shaped jewel.
"To harness the energy needed whenever these, Elements, would be used, more is needed to fuel them from the start. The virtues and their energies alone are not enough, they must be harnessed by a willing mind, to meld with them, join them."
"Yes I know. I'm giving myself up for them, body, soul and mind, this isn't news Everfree." Starswirl grumpily remarked, as he stared up at the vine bodied Alicorn avatar that came to stand on the ground near him, the echoing voice carrying through the alcove:
"We underestimated, especially if your chosen recipients and any future ones are to wield power for any potential threat, let alone upgrading your two candidates back to their Alicorn status, or have any hope of harnessing the thanful balancing spell of the sun and moon Discord put in place."
"How much did we underestimate?" Warily, Starswirl asked, not liking the implications.
"Enough where I must meld as well. After these Elements are finished, this forest will no longer have me. I will spread, no longer an intact mind. I will, go on, my energy given to the Elements, but my mind and spirit freed."
"You'll die?"
Starswirl's query was blunt, sad even. He didn't realize what this would cost Everfree, what this endeavour would do to the forest spirit.
"Yes, but I accept it. It is, for the best. This forest, can endure without me as its lord. But you, you will not be alone where you go. I cannot guarantee what it will be like, but you shall not die, but pass beyond the mortal realm to complete it."
"A sacrifice I am willing to make, we've been over this. But you are sure of your own role?"
Starswirl asked carefully of the forest spirit, the Alicorn avatar merely nodding as it/he stared at the glowing blue/white tree, a small wooden smile on his features:
"Yes. I have lived long. To see, or rather ensure that Equestria returns to peace is a sacrifice worth making. Even with two Alicorns ascending, I expect they'll have learned from their ancestors' mistakes, nor make unnatural levels of disorder that even nature wouldn't create as Discord does."
"I think the latter goes without saying."
Starswirl's blunt remark about the state of things hid his own misgivings however, but not over this matter. Sensing this, Everfree probed the Wizard, the vines creaking on his body as he shuffled to face the Wizard:
"You seem troubled..."
Shuffling on his hooves, Starswirl said it out loud, what had been nagging at him for so long.
"It, isn't right, that I just leave them, Celestia and Luna. I cannot in good conscience just leave them clues to get these, use them, and nothing else. I, I want to part ways with them with better final memories then just duty. Duty cost me friends in the past on its own."
Everfree regarded the Wizard curiously, but the forest spirit gave a slight rumbling chuckle as he turned to the tree, silent for a moment. After a few moments, Everfree spoke in a low, but optimistic tone to the Wizard:
"It is wise to cherish while you can be with them. Go. The tree can wait, so long as you do not take too long. Do what feels right. I will be waiting."
Blinking a few times, the Wizard quietly nodded to the forest spirit, promising to return when the time would come to prepare for the future. His final duty, but one he chose as a way to ensure what must be fixed was given the chance to be done.
But far north, in their sanctuary in the New Gryphon empire's outskirts, he had two ex-Alicorn sisters who he wanted time with for the sake of sake pleasant memories as his last days among this plane of existence, before he plunged into the unknown as he secured the future.
Starswirl wanted his last days with the two Princesses he had come to see as his best pupils, and friends in spite of his demeanour through the years, to be jovial ones worth taking with him into what could be oblivion. It would make the act he had to do worth it, a last moment of calm before his willing end.
He knew they were ready, but he wanted his last moments of his life to be his, not his duty's.
He headed north, knowing he would be back, for the last journey of his path.

Author's Notes:

Long chapter, took longer to write, but we are on the home stretch. The next chapter will be all about Starswirl socialising with the sisters in their sanctuary away from Discord's, antic stained Equestria, as he also reminisces with them over all that occurred. A sort of wrap up/sendoff chapter for them before he finally dives into making the Elements final and sacrificing himself, and Everfree as needed, to complete their great power.
Also, a final farewell to the Mage Meadowbrook, whom was terse but cooperative with him during the chaotic, low key 6 years of Discord's rule, and a tribute to one of the best farewell's in storytelling history made by a blunt man.
If anything, this chapter's longer writing time was due to me forming the sort of rule Discord had being presented in a small but exemplary snippet. So I looked for inspiration, and I found it in Samurai Jack's Aku. A jovial, but dark and all powerful rule.
Villainous Discord always seemed sort of Aku-lite, more the prankster then the tyrant, but enough of a temper on him to not insult or rile up as the show featured in its episodes. So it offered me guidence on how to portray him. Though undertones of the origin I gave him barely haunt him. Barely.