Rainbow dash opened her eyes in the castle’s medical ward that was attending all the injured royal guards - the ponies the black-clad assassin injured, the ones attacked by ‘Black Abyss’ , including Discord himself, who was awake at Fluttershy’s bed with a defeated expression on his face. Rainbow met Twilight’s worried gaze, who asked if she was alright. Rainbow answered that she was fine and tried to get up, despite her aching body and Twilight trying to stop her. Her enthusiasm to kick some flank disappeared immediately when she looked behind herself and noticed the prosthetic wing on her back. Her face suddenly darkened as she muttered, “My wing, my wing.” Through gasps. She teared up and hugged Twilight, sobbing.

Meanwhile the rest of the Mane Six had woken up and Fluttershy assured discord that she was okay – so he excused himself and dragged himself out to be alone with his thoughts. Ignoring all the fuss, Fluttershy got up and sprinted after him, to find him outside in the gardens under a tree. She gingerly trotted up to him and laid a hoof on his shoulder that only made him sigh louder. She asked if he was alright, to which he responded no. He then proceeded to tell her why, he was a monster, a liability and had no power against the Iron Guard. Fluttershy frowned upon hearing that name, and replied by saying that he was not any of those things because he had tried to save her and the iron guard had caught him by surprise.

He looked her in the eye and said that she didn’t understand. He was a draconequus alpha in something called the draconequus army long before the formation of equestria. He had done terrible things to ponies and the iron guard had banished the entire army as a result – they were the protectors of ponies at the time – something they had sacrificed many of their own for, reducing their numbers from fifty to eight. They left him behind to punish the ponies of equestria for betraying them until they finally returned – that is why he is the only draconequus left.

Upon hearing this she lights up and says that they can use this information to stop them. She grabs his paw and tries to move him but he remains still, saying that he did horrible things to ponies when he was in the army that he could never be excused for, despite Fluttershy saying otherwise. He then said that he couldn’t bear to be around her for fear of harming her due to that past nature of his – his addiction to consuming the magic of equestrian ponies like it was a harmful drug. Fluttershy begged him to stop but he refused, hugged her quietly and said goodbye, apologized for all this being his fault and then turned himself into stone under the tree with a snap and a sad smile. Fluttershy panicked and shouted his name, but he was already solid rock. She panicked more and flew back to Twilight to tell her what happened, who arrived at the scene with the rest of her friends to stare helplessly at the gloomy statue of discord – hopelessly failing to understand why he did so.

Twilight had nearly run out of ideas when she saw two Alicorns descend into the garden from the sun with angelic grace and posture. The two retired princesses landed regally as the jaws of everypony dropped in awe. Celestia smiled at twilight warmly, while Luna snorted and muttered, “We leave for a few moons and it all falls to pieces…”

Twilight gasped as she saw Luna and made her signature ‘Idea’ face. She hastily explained what happened to Discord and told Luna that, with her help, she could enter Discords mind and find out why he did what he did. Luna agreed to do so, just as soon as Twilight explained why she was little again. Ignoring the question, Twilight’s horn glowed purple and its magic wrapped itself around Luna’s own horn. Sighing, she cast her dream walking spell on the statue of Discord and connected Twilight’s mind to his.

Twilight awoke in a grassy field, confused due to the lack of chaos around. She called for Discord, but received no answer. She made her way to what appeared to be Fluttershy’s – now abandoned – cottage, trotting past it, she found a rather sulky looking discord drooping under what appeared to be the same tree she had found his statue under. Without turning to face her, he asked her why she was there with a low groan and defeated voice. She answered - to bring him back from stone. Discord simply shook his head without making eye contact and told her to leave before he unknowingly hurt her. She asked him why he would do such a thing. He turned around slowly to face her for the first time and said, “Because I’m a Monster.”

Twilight tried to reason that that was a long time ago, and that he changed – he shook his head, and said that he meant something else entirely. Twilight tilted her head with curiosity and discord told her the part of his story that he himself had been denied from knowing.

He told her to forget everything she thought she knew of the history of equestria, and told her that in the very beginning – before the time of Star Swirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever – even before Grogar, there were many, many draconequus like himself in the land that would be known as Equestria. Daily they would tease and annoy the ponies of the three tribes, but their most wicked act was consuming the magic of the ponies. To them it was like a drug, and they could not resist the sensation. Occasionally a pony would not survive the process. The tribes were on friendly terms with one another as they had all arrived in Equestria as one and therefor decided to deal with the problem collectively. With their magical knowledge and willpower they tried all they could, but were no match for the drunken chaos magic that they were up against. Some ponies migrated away and started their own colonies, others stayed and prayed it would end.

None of the draconequus believed they would ever have a reason to stop – that is, until the Iron guard showed up. They came out of seemingly nowhere, and had the ability to dispel and suppress chaos magic. In a week they purged the land of draconequus, by banishing any they came across to spend an eternity in something called the void – a dimension of nothingness that would keep its prisoners alive by magic to torture them with boredom and the inability to do anything. Many draconequus fled in fear from the unstoppable Iron guard. Not long after, the Iron guard erected a massive metal wall to channel their magic and form a dome over the land – a land now shielded from all evil that the Iron Guard called Sanctum.

To counter the Iron Guard, the draconequus united and formed an army that would regularly lay siege on Sanctum. They would fail miserably every time. The fifty members of the guard were too powerful, even for an army. Discord was one of the more powerful draconequus, so he was a commander, an ‘alpha’ in this failure of an army - under the King of the Draconequus, Lord Anarchy. Nearly a thousand years later they would use hundreds of creatures from another realm, Windigos, as hunting dogs – a strategy that would lead to their supposed victory. The Windigos could bring winter to Sanctum by passing through the shield of the guard, distracting them by forcing them to aid the ponies of Sanctum in almighty snowstorms.

One day Discord managed to break a tiny hole in the Magical barrier and teleport into a large group of ponies. At the time the Windigos had caused an almighty snowstorm and all the tribe leaders gathered under one roof to discuss what to do in the freezing drought. Their fear upon seeing a draconequus for the first time allowed Discord to manipulate and force them into a deal. Reveal the source of the power of the Iron Guard and they would be left alone. Whatever this was, it would definitely have enough magic for the army to be content.

The ponies foolishly agreed and secretly lead him to the nexus of the power of their protectors. A glowing sphere with a conscious they called Citadel. Discord took them by surprise and lowering the dome by weakening the entire guard from their source by destroying Citadel – despite the larger and more powerful 51^st member of the Guard being present solely to protect it. The draconequus broke in and ransacked the fort, tearing it down. Some flew ahead and attacked the ponies, indifferent to the deal that was made by Discord. The king did not care either. In their desperation the iron guard performed a failsafe spell that could immediately banish nearly the entire army, but would trap a large number of themselves in the void along with them. Only Eight iron guards remained, but they were enough to put down any surviving draconequus.

They were furious with the betrayal of the ponies, and threatened to punish them severely. The ponies once again let fear control them and banished the rest of the guard from the land that they had created – for fear that they would become a nuisance bent on revenge. Not all ponies agreed to this decision, those that didn’t were banished as well – they journeyed north as were not heard from again. As for Discord? He was the only draconequus left, solely because the Iron guard had captured rather than banished him. They discussed and realized that he could help them. So they erased his memory entirely, the only thing he could remember was his name and magic. They figured that he could give the traitorous ponies a hard time before the guard returned for their revenge – so they left him there.

The ponies in what was once Sanctum felt guilty after banishing their protectors and their friends, and so they decided to erase every record of the iron guard and the draconequus army so their descendants would not feel that guilt, knowing that their homeland was ultimately built and saved by betrayal. They fabricated a fake history, one in which only the Windigos and the ponies existed. The Windigos supposedly were attracted by negative emotion, and since the tribes were supposedly enemies, they would come. Not in a pack of a hundred like they used to, but just as a trio. This would lead to the fake story of the survival of the pony race and the formation of a land with a different name - Equestria - that everypony knew today. To aid the lie, they declared the day of the exodus of the Iron guard and the ponies who still believed in them a national holiday, Hearth’s Warming. A lie that was protected by ponies like Starswirl the bearded when he was young and later his student Clover the Clever herself.

They ‘created’ Both Grogar and Gusty the great to erase any doubt that there may be of the legitimacy of the past – forging evidence to prove the existence of the fictional characters. And Discord was released onto them after a time-bomb spell placed on him by the Iron Guard had ran its course and they had something for him to ruin.

Twilight blinked twice in disbelief. It all made sense now. Not really. Her entire life, childhood and perception of history had been a lie. The story behind her favorite holiday was a lie. At least now she knew why the iron guard were attacking. Discord sighed and said that everything that was happening now was all his fault – it was his idea to convince the ponies to betray their protectors. Twilight objected, but Discord didn’t allow her to state her claims. He went on to say that now that Black Abyss had restored his memory, he could have a re-lapse of his ‘magic addiction’. Twilight continued to shake her head in disagreement but Discord simply went on and said, “So now you know why I must stay here.” He held Twilight’s shaking hoof gently, patted it and told her that he was lucky to have her as a friend. With a sad smile he told her to give Fluttershy and the rest of her friends his regards, finishing with a goodbye and a snap of his fingers.

Luna’s magic failed abruptly as twilight regained consciousness while screaming “NO!” All the ponies shared worried glances as Fluttershy hurried over to twilight to ask what happened to Discord. Twilight brought back her posture and told everypony present to sit down – what comes next is shocking.