It was a cold and miserable spring day in the Everfree Forest. The sky was dark and overcast, letting loose a constant light rain, the kind that soaked right through the thickest fur and chilled ponies to the bone. A cold silence pervaded the forest, the animals and beasts and monsters who called it home were absent, likely hdding in their dens and lairs, awaiting the summer’s warmth.

Yet as Discord walked slowly through the ruined halls of the castle – the once vaulted ceiling torn away by the Nightmare’s wrath – he felt no desire to seek shelter. It felt rather appropriate considering his current mood.

Discord took another step and snorted, if any pony saw him like this they might not recognize him. For Discord Lord of Chaos and Disharmony was neither flying nor floating nor strutting nor skipping nor even a trotting a proper promenade. Instead he was moving in a way that no pony – living or dead – had ever seen him do, a leisurely walk.

Yet there was a reason for this strange circumstance.

For The Spirit of Chaos was massively, inconceivably, resoundingly bored.

His best friend Fluttershy was busy preparing her ‘little animal friends’ for their upcoming breeding season; a task that Discord wished to be very far from.

The Spirit of Chaos shuddered, he had accidentally caught part of one of the quiet pony’s biweekly ‘Sex Ed: Rodent Edition’ lessons earlier in the year and he had no plan to repeat that experience once, yet alone the dozens of times that staying in the butter yellow pegasus' house would entail.

It didn’t help that he couldn’t fully trust himself to avoid remarking on how much the pony breeding season resembled those base beasts that they thought themselves so much above.

Such comments, for some reason, offended ponies.

It was not his fault that draconequi were simply a more refined species.

None of his other friends were available either.

Twilight was in the Canterlot Archives doing book-pony things, something Discord would otherwise be happy to ‘help’ with if not for the fact that Celestia had long ago banned him from the place.

Rarity, also in Canterlot, was attending some sort of party hosted by another of her high class associates. A mare by the name of Deep Stain, apparently a former Royal Maid before her meteoric rise to become a major mover and shaker.

Discord frowned, while he didn’t normally remember the names of any of Rarity’s many acquaintances this name had struck him as odd. What Destiny could a pony possibly have that would name her a ‘deep stain’.

Discord shook his head, ponies ultimately were good-natured beings, it couldn’t be that bad.

Rainbow Dash was away in Cloudsdale for some big weather pony meeting while Applejack was busy on her farm ...

... and Pinkie Pie was preparing for a ‘CK Class Party Emergency’...

... whatever that meant.

And, of course, neither Celestia nor Luna wanted to see his face after the ‘Great Cakening of 1002’.

Also the entire ‘siding with Tirek’ thing, but he was 90% certain that the Cakening was the main point of contention.

Discord smirked, worth it.

So here he was, in Everfree, a place that had once been his home, seeking something to alleviate his apocalyptic boredom.

Well, calling thiscastle his his old home was stretching it, as the entire structure had been built in the decades following his petrification.

Nonetheless, it was all that remained of the Great City of Everfree.

The draconequus sighed, not a single day went by where he didn’t miss his old home, the city that had taken in a strange andlonely being – the last of his kind – without so much as a protest.

Everfree had never been the most peaceful of cities, her clans were always jostling for position and prestige. Nor had it been the most safe, with the forest was always probing and testing her inhabitants. Nor was it the most prosperous, much of the city had been without running water.

Yet Everfree had been his home.

Now, over two thousand years from his petrification there was absolutely nothing left of the city but this castle.

He had been there, imprisoned in stone. the day the city had been razed to the ground. The day her ponies – mare, stallion and foal – had been slaughtered at the hooves of the Lunatic Cults. All in revenge for the banishing of their queen.

Although he had never known the massacre was so complete until he had asked Celestia mere months ago.

The period of time following the Razing of Everfree was one the most painful in his long life. Watching the burnt remains of his beloved home slowly being consumed by the forest, while the sun and moon moved erratically above.

And then Celestia had shown up to bring him to her newly built capital, to serve as a glorified lawn ornament in her stupid hedge maze.

Discord groaned, Ugh, he was being introspective, he hated when that happened. He desperately needed something to entertain him, this damned castle better have something interesting.

As if summoned by the draconequis’ griping, he came upon a room – seemingly untouched by the cataclysm that had shattered the castle – empty but for a single mirror.

As Discord approached the mirror he read the inscription ‘etaF fo evaeW eht tub noitcelfer ruoy ton wohs I’, he snorted, cute.

Discord was intrigued, a mirror showing the Weave of Fate seems like the perfect remedy to his current predicament.

He stepped in front of the mirror and took in the reflection of an empty room. He tilted his head, while the mirror outright said it wouldn’t show his reflection but he nonetheless assumed that something would happen.

After several moments something appeared in the surface of the mirror, a strange pictogram of a paperclip with eyes beside a box containing text.

‘It looks like you are attempting to use the Mirror of Etaf™ do you need assistance?’

Discord paused and tilted his head, “I do?”

‘Thank you for choosing the Mirror of Etaf™ registered trademark of High Artificer Sharp Foresight, proud member of the Artificer's Guild of Equestria. The Mirror of Etaf™ lets one plumb the very threads of Fate itself to reveal the future for the low, low price of three payments of 100 000 bits, payable directly to High Artificer Sharp Foresight.’

Discord sighed, of course there was a catch; after all, why else would such a powerful artifact be left in these ruins, if not for the fact that it had been left completely inoperable? It seems like he would need to find something else to entertain himself. Discord started to turn away from the mirror, but before he could another message appeared.

‘Greetings Lord Discord, would you like to redeem your free trial?’

Maybe not, the Draconequus tilted his head and snorted “Sure.”

‘Great, your free trial has begun Lord Discord’

‘To use the Mirror of Etaf™ please state the name the name of an individual and either a timeframe or a specific event. Please note that the Mirror of Etaf cannot scry events that never happen’

The draconequus laid his chin in his talon and stared into the mirror, “Mirror, show me my glorious self in 1000 years.”

The reflection of the empty room quickly faded to black before suddenly turning a shocking solid blue, ERROR 404: TIME THREAD NOT FOUND declared solid black text in the centre of the mirror.

Discord was confused for a moment before the strange paperclip creature reappeared.

‘It is important to remember that 1000 years is a very long time, far longer than most ponies live.’

Discord was offended, he was not ‘most ponies’. Even without a Mantle a draconequus could easily live a thousand years, and Discord, Lord of Chaos and Disharmony was not without a Mantle. Nonetheless, he understood the implication, and he hated it.

“Mirror show me Princess Celestia in 1000 years.”

What proceeded was identical to what came before, the same fade to black, the same shockingly blue image, the same error and the paperclip creature appearing after a few seconds with the same message.

Attempting the same with the other three Princesses also had the same results, and – even more concerning – so had attempting to scry a mere 200 years into the future of all five of the Mantled Immortals.

Discord was agitated ...

... no – much as he hated it – Discord was terrified.

Despite what the paperclip creature had claimed, 200 years was not a long time, at least nor for a true Immortal, Discord had been entombed in stone for well over ten times that time. It was much akin a mortal’s decade; a considerable amount of time, but far from inconceivable and well within one’s expected lifespan.

If the mirror’s implications were correct, then in a mere two hundred years all five of the world’s known Mantled Immortals would be dead.

Five of the six Mantled Immortals, can’t forget the Tree, the damnable Tree.

To be Immortal does not merely mean to be unaging, many mortal species were beyond the grip of senescence. Dragons, draconequi, even natural born alicorns who had not found their Mantle yet, all of them had nothing to fear from age.

Nor does Immortal mean to be outright beyond Death, many a Mantled had died in Discord’s long life, some of whom died at his talon.

Rather, real Immortallity – the immortality that was brought with the possession of a Mantle – means that one is simply outside the dominion of the Wheel of Mortality. That death is no longer an inevitability, but rather the direct result of a Significant act.

As one particularly poetic sage in Everfree had put it ‘The lives of the gods are subject not to the whims of time nor chance’.

To put it all simply, the death of a Mantled Immortal is not happenstance and never coincidence; it is always proof of enemy action.

And the death of five?

That all but identified the enemy as the Wheel of Destiny itself.

If, that is, this damned mirror had not led him astray.

Discord needed to know more, so he did something that every prophet and farseer had always warned against. “Mirror, show me the death of Princess Celestia Sol Invictus, Mantled Immortal and Alicorn of the Sun.” He was not quite daring enough to scry his own death, but to scry the deaths of his fellow Immortals? Aye, that he was.

‘Are you certain that you want to scry this event, scrying the deaths of known individuals is deemed inadvisable by 9 out of 10 seers.’

“I am.” The Draconequus said with force.

Once again the mirror faded to black, but this time instead of turning blue it faded into a scene of a sterile white room, Discord recognized it as a modern healer's building, a 'hospital' if he was not incorrect.

The immobile form of Princess Celestia laid on a simple bed with pale blue covers. The alicorn was covered in wires and tubes originating from dozens of large expensive looking machines. Of only one of them did Discord had any idea of its purpose, a display showing a jagged red line that apparently measures a pony’s heartbeat.

Discord briefly smirked as he remembered when Celestia had taken him to get a ‘physical’, apparently the machine was not supposed to show loopy-loops or vertical asymptotes.

Discord shook his head, now was not the time for that, he was watching the death of a mare that – while he may not view as a friend – he held a deep respect for.

Celestia looked bad, even if Discord had not the context to know she was dying, it would be obvious.

The ethereal mane she had taken to wearing recently was absent for a pink mane much like her youth.

Much like, but undeniably Less; for her mane had lost a great deal of vibrancy. Similarly her hair had taken on a much greyer pallor, fur, mane and even the Sun emblem on her flank had faded in a way that belied the presence of the spectre of Death. Her eyes were open, unblinking and vacant. Her breathing – while stable and rhythmic – was shallow and subtly wrong in a way Discord couldn't place.

Discord was silent as he watched for a couple breaths before his eyes opened in shock, there was no muscular contractions. He tracked his eyes from the largest tube in the alicorn’s throat over to a device that looked suspiciously like a bellows. She’s not breathing, her lungs are being inflated and deflated like Luna’s stallion blow-up doll!

Does that even count as alive?

Apparently so, since the mirror was showing this moment instead of earlier.

Discord tore his eyes away from the pitiful sight of the dying alicorn and looked to the four mares that were standing in the room. The two closer were unfamiliar, both wearing the uniform of the physicians of modern Equestria – either ‘doctors’ or ‘nurses’ Discord didn’t understand the distinction – they were a unicorn and pegasus and had emblems of what discord recognized as a pony’s brain and heart – the organ, not the simplified pictogram of a pony’s rump that was associated with love – respectively.

The two physicians were talking to two much more familiar ponies. One Princess Luna and Princess Twilight Sparkle, although strangely, only the latter was wearing regalia. That’s a queen’s crown not a princess’ tiara. Princess Luna – or perhaps just Luna – wore a face of barely contained grief while Queen Twilight had the placid expression that Discord had learned to associate with the modern Celestia. The expression of an unfeeling ruler unbothered by the trials of leadership.

It, quite honestly, gave him the creeps, especially on the face of such a young mare. The Twilight in the mirror couldn’t be more than five years older than the present one.

Discord strained his ears, trying to hear what the physicians were saying, after all scrying sound was no more difficult than scrying images, no artificer worth her salt would neglect the former when she had already established the latter.

Suddenly, as if summoned by his thoughts, the paperclip creature appeared again, ‘Want to hear the future as you see it, well for a small monthly charger of 200 000 bits, now you can. Introducing the Mirror of Etaf™ premium subscription, now with high definition stereo sound! The Mirror of Etaf™, the future is hear!’

There was a cracking sound as the stone tile that Discord laid upon shattered. How dare that paperclip creature interrupt the death of Celestia in order to beg for bits. Discord suddenly wished that this High Artificer Sharp Foresight was still alive so he could wring her greedy neck.

Well, it was a good thing that the draconequus had had two thousand years to practice lip reading.

Discord’s wrath was interrupted by a change. The physicians had apparently finished explaining the situation to the two alicorns.

Luna made a deferential not to Twilight and said something that Discord could not read.

Twilight shook her head slowly and Discord recognized the words on her lips, ‘No, she’s your sister.’

Luna made a small nod and a tear rolled down her face, she turned to the mortal mares, ‘I’ll do it.’

The four mares trotted slowly over to one of the machines and one of the physicians pointed to a switch with her hoof.

Luna shook in grief as she reached a hoof towards the switch and flicked it.

Suddenly the bellows like device halted, Celestia’s chest suddenly went still.

Luna immediately broke down sobbing, Queen Twilight wrapped her forehooves and wings around the larger mare.

While that was happening discord saw the alicorn’s heartbeat graph become smaller and weaker before missing a beat. Her heart beat three more times before the smooth line crisp line became a chaotic random jumble, and it was a but a few moments before that jumble gave way to a simple flat line.

The machines weren’t just breathing for her, they were beating her heart. Oh, Celestia, what happened to you?

As Discord thought that last thought, the mirror suddenly went black.

There was a moment of silence as Discord contemplated what he had just seen. Immortals do not die of natural causes. Discord shed a tear as he remembered the brash and fiery mare that had once met him barb for barb. What had happened to her?

Discord tapped the shattered stone with his talon, he needed to know more, “Mirror, show me the death of Princess Luna Moonsong Nocturne, Mantled Immortal and Alicorn of the Moon.”

‘Are you certain that you want to scry this event, scrying the deaths of individuals is deemed inadvisable by 9 out of 10 seers.’

“I am. Do not ask again.”

This time Discord was once again greeted by a familiar blue image, albeit the text was different this time, and even less useful.

ERROR 400: BAD REQUEST

Once again the paperclip creature appeared after a few seconds, ‘Please be advised that the Mirror of Etaf™ is not capable of scrying events that happen outside the domain of the Terrestrial Plane.’

Discord snorted, Well that’s surprisingly helpful. Discord grimaced, he could imagine a grief stricken Luna taking out her pain upon the denizens of the Lower and Outer Planes, until she met something that she could not defeat.

Discord sighed, he had started this, he would see it through, “Mirror, show me the death of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Mantled Immortal and Alicorn of Eros.”

The mirror faded to black again and when it faded in, the scene was dark, the Princess of Erotic Love was holding a bouquet of flowers as she wept at the foot of a large gravestone.

Discord did not need to see the familiar emblem of shield and star to know to whom the grave belonged. He shook his head, it was never a good idea for a Mantled to fall for a mortal, certainly not a mortal subject to the whims of time.

Then another pony appeared, a mare concealed in a dark cloak, apparently moving silently enough that the grieving alicorn did not notice her approach.

The mare stopped a half pace away and apparently spoke something judging by the swivelling of Cadence’s ears.

The alicorn turned around to face the other mare, her eyes streaked with tears.

The becloaked mare lifted a hoof and dropped the hood of her cloak, revealing a scowling severe face, with the curved blade-like horn characteristic of the umbrum, a twisted sub-tribe of unicorns changed by dark Corruption Magic.

The mare’s eyes lit up the familiar green and purple and her horn the inky black of the aforementioned magic.

Cadence’s eyes widened and she attempted to scramble away, but was caught in the mare’s black aura.

The umbrum smiled with malice ‘For Lord Sombra’ she used telekinesis to draw a hideous abomination of a dagger (Discord counted at least thirty separate spikes, most of which seemed to serve no purpose but to make it more inconvenient and dangerous for a creature to hold) and thrust it directly into Cadence's Eye.

Discord briefly saw the splatter of the alicorn’s dark blood from her destroyed eye socket before the mirror went black.

Blood and ashes, Discord stared at the mirror, taken aback by the sudden and extreme violence. He shook his head, he was scrying the last moments of Immortals, violence was the number one cause of such a thing. If anything Celestia’s death had been the outlier, a Mantled does not die peacefully in their bed, not without something having gone horribly wrong.

Nonetheless, he had one alicorn left to scry, as much as he did not want to see the death of a friend, he had set his course and he would not turn back now. He needed to know everything the mirror would show him. “Mirror, show me the death of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Mantled Immortal and Alicorn of That Which Lays Between, the Endless Font of Power and Axle upon which the multitude Wheels of Time turn, Magic.”

The mirror once more faded to black, but this time the scene that the mirror showed him was intimately familiar, unmistakably the interior of the farmhouse at Sweet Apple Acres. Although undoubtedly showing some considerable age.

In the room were two mares, laying on a bed was an elderly earth pony, looking incredibly near death, the distinctive orange coat and three apple emblem left no doubt as to her identity.

Across the room, implacably stood an elder Queen Twilight – for Discord held no doubt that she was certainly a queen – who had grown well into her alicornhood, her stature more than a match for the late Celestia at her peak, her horn long and sharp enough to pierce the very heavens, her mane ethereal and flowing with eldritch power.

Yet she stood there watching her dying friend with an expression of casual indifference.

Applejack was speaking and though Discord couldn’t read one word in five, he could easily see the depth of hurt and betrayal in the mare’s eyes and the rage in her expression as she screamed at the alicorn.

And Twilight stood there, neither speaking nor emoting.

Suddenly the elderly mare’s expression changed, gone was the anger, leaving only cold hatred, she spoke slowly – letting Discord read the words from her lips – ‘yah took mah son’.

For the first time since the scrying had started, Twilight moved, if only to speak, ‘I did what was necessary to secure the future of ponykind.’

Applejack apparently did not like that answer as she immediately started screaming, Discord once again unable to read but a couple words. None of them ones he would ever deign to speak in polite company, yet alone impolite company.

Twilight, showing that she wasn’t completely incapable of reaction, pinned her ears to her head, as she stood there taking the Earth Pony’s abuse.

Then suddenly, several minutes later – like a switch was flicked – the alicorn turned to leave with only a ‘Goodbye Applejack, it hurts me that you think of me like that.’

The alicorn left the room and the mirror’s scrying followed her into the hall, down the stairs and out the front door.

Outside the old farmhouse, there was no sign of the Apple Clan’s orchards, instead the farmhouse was surrounded by a suburb.

And a dreary suburb it was, both sides of the black paved street were filled what looked like identical copies of the same small house – like they were built by deranged mirror pool clones – with the same hideous dirty white siding. The houses surrounding the old farmhouse oppressively, seemingly trying to crush it under their relentless conformity.

Even more concerning, despite it clearly being midday, the streets were deserted. Discord scanned the windows and saw a handful of ponies staring in fear at the alicorn.

Then the elder Twilight spread her wings and took off.

The alicorn ascended quickly, and Discord was given his first view of the future Ponyville from above.

And he did not like what he saw, but for a single landmark – Twilight’s hideous harmony crystal tree-castle thing – the town was completely unrecognizable.

The town was ten times the size and gone were the dirt roads and quaint quirky buildings, in their place was paved streets of identical houses and oppressive towering grey buildings. As so many times before whimsey had been crushed under the tides of progress.

But the changes to Ponyville was not the most concerning development, not in the least.

The Everfree Forest was gone. Nothing remained. Discord was struck with incredible heartache, Everfree was – and will always be – his home, even without her ponies.

Nonetheless, the forest’s loss was expected. Celestia had told him – in great grief – of the Night of Tears, where the Lunatic Cults of Nightmare Moon razed the city of Everfree, leaving no survivors. That the Everfree had lasted a thousand years without her oathsworn scions was already a miracle. For he alone wasn’t enough – even as a Mantled – especially not when he had been sealed in stone and unable to renew his oaths for well over two thousand years.

But what was not expected, and even more tragic – albeit less personal – was the mountain directly to Ponyville’s north. The Pillar of Twilight – although it goes by ‘the Canterhorn’ now, apparently – upon which the ‘Royal City of Canterlot’ had been built.

But it was not Canterlot that Discord saw through the mirror, rather the entire city was missing.

Discord was not sure what to think as he stared at the ugly broken scar upon the mountain, the results of gravity reasserting its grasp upon the city that had denied it for so long.

Canterlot meant very little to him, and he was never one to be terribly heartbroken about the deaths of ponies didn’t know; he hadbeen – indirectly – responsible for the deaths of many during his firstReign of Chaos.

Nonetheless, the loss of the nation’s capital had a degree of symbolic and narrative weight that was hard to overstate. Equestria could little more survive the loss of its capital than a pony could survive her heart being ripped out.

It was the Sundering of Solstice that marked the beginning of the Hundred Years War, a war that would bury the ancient tribal nations of the east under the ice and snow of the Windego’s eternal winter.

Similarly, his own inverting of the Great City of Equestria had brought her Republic to its knees.

And ... well ... the Razing of Everfree was the end of the Principality.

There was little chance for the Second Principality to prosper where it’s predecessors had fallen; even without knowing that he was watching Twilight Sparkle’s last moments, it was obvious that he was scrying into the last years of modern Equestria.

Then the future Twilight landed. The bustling square quickly emptied in a way that was incredibly familiar to the draconequus.

By the time the alicorn had folded her wings she was alone but for a single young pegasus colt, who had noticed neither the mare’s landing nor the flight of the other ponies.

Twilight approached the colt and said something.

The colt – who had been busy investigating something on the ground – turned towards the approaching queen and froze, his irises shrinking to pinpricks.

Twilight further approached the colt slowly with her head held low. It was clear that the alicorn was trying to avoid scaring the colt.

Not that it worked, the colt was shaking in terror.

Then, suddenly, there was an adult mare between the colt and the alicorn. The pegasus was clearly the dam of the colt, and she confronted the alicorn with a level of aggression that could only come from a mother defending her child.

Twilight took several steps back before turning away from the two ponies, her placid facade breaking for a tiny fraction of a second. What was revealed was a depth of maddened grief that gave Discord chills.

Twilight quickly cantered away, giving only a glance at the statue of a young pegasus filly before striding towards her castle.

Discord took a long look at the statue, it appeared to be made of petrilith – the unfortunately redundant term used for petrified flesh – but Discord couldn’t imagine what such a young filly could have done to deserve such a sentence. Especially with Equestria’s extreme focus on redemptive justice.

Twilight approached the front gate of her crystal tree castle monstrosity, she spared not a glance for the guards who pushed open its heavy doors and trotted into the castle.

The alicorn trotted on the familiar path to the throne room but as soon as she reached it she halted.

There was a pony sitting on the throne, her throne.

He was a stallion, although not a healthy example of one. His face was marred with a massive scar and more than half his grey coat was missing, his skin appeared to be three sized too large on his emaciated frame; a telltale sign of dark magic abuse. His orange mane was short, mangy and matted. He smiled maliciously with crooked yellowed teeth. But the most shocking element of his appearance was the tattered remains of fragile butterfly-like wings, the wings of a flutterpony. In his hooves he twirled a jewelled sceptre, judging by how it matched her regalia it was likely Twilight’s.

Discord tilted his head, he was under the impression that the entire tribe was extinct, cursed forevermore to be something less than ponies. Discord shuddered, remembering when Celestia had shown him the Breezy migration.

The stallion’s smile widened to the point it looked painful and he began to speak ‘Queen Twilight Sparkle, it is wonderful to see you once again.’ the mirror made an unpleasant screech and its image was corrupted as the stallion spoke, yet his words were clear in a way that went beyond lipreading.

Discord winced, he was glad that he couldn’t actually hear the stallion, his spellsong had to be incredibly twisted to cause such a reaction.

‘Now, young Twilight, is it so bad to permit this old stallion a modicum of Whimsey? This world these days is so lacking in such things.’

Twilight approached with a degree of hostility.

The stallion set the sceptre down and dropped out of the throne, approaching the alicorn with an inconstant limping gait, ‘Oh, Twilight, things just didn’t work out for you, did they? Last of the alicorns, last of the Twilights, last of the Elements of Harmony ...’

Twilight recoiled.

‘... oh you didn’t know that one?’ The stallion laughed, ‘You didn’t even stay long enough to see dear Applejack’s last moments, what a good friend are you?’

Twilight replied, but Discord could not see her mouth.

‘Ha, but it matters not, friendship is but a lie. A deception to comfort the weak and hamstring the strong. There is only power, and the will to use it.’ The stallion smirks, ‘But I would be careful about collecting too many more Death Curses if I were you, they are not something to scoff at even if they originate from a worthless dirt pony.”

Twilight stalked forward aggressively.

‘Ah, that struck a nerve, didn’t it. Broke through your queenly facade.’ The stallion took a couple steps back, ‘You know, when I first figured out what dear Princess Celestia was doing to herself – what she forced you to do to yourself – I laughed for three weeks straight. It is not a sign of strength that you have to rely on such a thing.’

Twilight said something in retort.

The stallion laughed, ‘Always so quick to protect the late princess’s honour. Quite Loyal, but not quite Honest.’ He paused, ‘It is all her fault, every single disaster and crisis of your reign – through action or inaction, cowardice or ignorance – it all lays at the hooves of one foolish princess. I know it, and – for all your protests – you know it too.’

Twilight took a step forward, her wings spread in aggression.

‘Such fire for a mare who so mistreated you.’ he paused, ‘Oh, but the abuser so often ends up being loved by those she abuses.’

Twilight said something in retort.

‘No, Twilight, she didn’t love you, she couldn’t love you. You were but a tool for her, an exceptionally useful tool, but a tool nonetheless. Much like the Apple colt – indeed his entire generation – was a tool to you. And, may I say, you’re a lot rougher on your tools than dear Princess Celestia ever was.’

Twilight took a step back and said something.

‘It was necessary? Ha, what was it that you Twilights always liked to say? That ‘necessity is the refuge of cowards’? No, my dear, you simply did as you wished and nopony had the power to stop you.’ The stallion snorted, ‘It is the way of the world.’

Three was a brief pause.

‘I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but I have come to miss your madhouse of a family. They might have been a complete pain in the flank, but at least they weren’t the soft snivelling cowards that Princess Celestia preferred for her citizenry.’ The stallion snorted, ‘It was such a shame what happened to them. They turned to you for guidance and leadership during their times of struggle and you turned your back on them. Then – abandoned by their favoured daughter – they died in a fascinatingspiral of resentment and paranoia. Succession crises are always so very exciting; always so personal, so bitter.’ He paused, ‘But as they say, ‘que sera sera’. As your late student discovered, one does not simply unweave and reweave the past.’

Twilight twitched.

The stallion laughed, ‘Is that what you have been doing for the last couple decades, retreating from your duties to chase futile hopes of a better past? That must be why your ponies love you so much. Why, you should hear the kinds of things that are said about you when they don’t think anypony is listening. I’m partial to ‘idiot tyrant’ and ‘useless queen’.’

The stallion paused, ‘Are not mortals so ungrateful? Do they not remember all you’ve done for them? All the peoples you have destroyed to keep them safe? Gryphons, Caribou, Zebra, Kirin, Umbrum, Windego, Changelings, Dragons, all of them burned under your judging gaze and unending arcane power. Such a shame that your lauded ‘Friendship Magic’ never worked out in the end.’

The stallion started trotting around the mare, “It was never to be, how could it? You, immortal, ageless, eternally young, watching as those around you aged and died in but a blink or the eye, how could you ever hold friendships with beings so short lived? How could you ever enter into a partnership of equals with individuals who have but a fraction of your knowledge, experience and power?’

Twilight turned to face the stallion and Discord saw her face for the first time since the verbal abuse had started. Her facade of calm was all but shattered, her beautiful face was marred with an ugly expression of barely contained grief, anger and hatred, tears were streaming freely, staining dark lines down her face. She said nothing as she stared at the flutterpony with malice.

‘I warned you not to be so quick to destroy your enemies, didn’t I, that without the threat of the monsters and bandits and invaders, the ungrateful common pony would be quick to turn on you. Viewing you as an unneeded relic of an age gone by. It happened in the past, you know, you should have heard the kinds of things said about poor Princess Luna back in the old Principality; Celestia too, but, even back then she wasn’t the kind to care much about things as insignificant as public opinion. So long as the parties, wine, salt and stallions kept flowing, the young mare was content.’ The stallion snorted, ‘Which, in retrospect, explains how disastrous the Nightmare Rebellion went for the Celestine Loyalists.’

‘Celestia won the Rebellion.’

‘Bah, Deus Ex Machina don’t count, and Celestia would never have been willing to sunder the Elements of Harmony to banish her dear sister if she had been winning. You should know by now, how unreliable a historian Celestia actually was. How many ancient Evils, lost empires and dangerous artifacts have you encountered that were carefully erased from history over the last millennium? Nightmare Moon was mentioned in two books, Luna and the Elements of Harmony in one, the rest in none. All because dear Nanny Celestia didn’t want her pwecious liwtle ponies to be scawed. How many disasters of the last century could have been avoided if the knowledge of their existence hadn’t been taken to the grave by a selfish alicorn? How many more if said alicorn wasn’t such an immensely credulous fool? Plots and plans and conspiracies of treachery, firmly rooted in Equestria’s fertile soil, grown strong under a millennium of rule by the unseeing eyes of the Princess of the Sun.’

‘Celestia believed in ponies.’

‘Exactly, my young Twilight, she ‘believed in ponies’, there’s no better way to find yourself let down and betrayed than believing in ponies. For as much as ponies like to talk about Loyalty, a more duplicitous and treacherous kind I have never met. Even those too empty headed to have plots and schemes of their own are but one unverified rumour from turning their tail on those they claim to be loyal to. Only the combined weight of force and threat of violence dull a pony’s treachery. A lesson that Celestia unfortunately never learned and one that you learned too late.’

‘Too late?’

“Too late. You are the last remaining relic of another time, totally alone and rendered obsolete by your own actions. The sun and moon move without your input thanks to the Great Orrery built beneath the mountain, the ponies are largely self-governing with your near total retreat from public, ponies are no longer slowly going extinct, everything that could ever possibly threaten the ponies has been dealt with. Well, everything – that is – but you. How long do you think you could live with the constant scorn of your subjects? Luna lasted but a hundred years before an alternate persona formed of her dissociated psyche and took the front, plunging Equestria into vicious civil war. Would Celestia’s patented special meditation help you hold out for longer? Or would it merely expedite the process? I know which one I would bet on.’ The stallion chuckled, ‘I’m certain you feel it, the malignant tumour deep in your psyche, formed of all the emotions and thoughts you refuse to recognize, constantly growing stronger in the shadow of your Super-Ego, despite all your attempts to destroy it. How many would survive the maddened rampage of ‘Darklight Sparkle’, after you spent the last century making certain that nothing remained that could possibly challenge you?’

Discord’s eyes widened as the stallion spoke, the purpose of the conversation finally laid bare.

Twilight stared at the stallion, her eyes betraying a degree of maddened grief that was terrifying. ‘You are wrong, there is one more threat that I have not yet destroyed.’

‘Me? Why, Twilight you flatter ...’ And suddenly the image on the mirror skipped and the stallion was gone.

‘B̴̧͔͚͈̹̳͚̽̾̅Ẹ̷̦̥̗̖̩̘͂ ̸̰̬̥̺̰̅̒̋Ù̷̢͉͓͍̣̥̈͆͌Ṉ̶̹̟͕̲͛̐̃͆͘ͅM̸̭̙̂̿̏̓̇̎A̶̦̮̺̜̗̅̿͐̍͂̅̈͝ͅD̵̛̖̦͖͚̬̰̍̋̃͘̚͝E̵͍̭͉̭̬̤̣̚’ Twilight spoke as she projected a beam of pure power, retroactively removing the stallion moments before he was struck.

The mare breathed heavily as she looked around the throne room, the throne and the far wall no longer existent. ‘My studies into the nature of time were not fruitless parasite.’

Twilight trotted to the gaping hole in her castle, and stared at the line of pristine green grass cut through the city, hundreds of houses and other structures suddenly absent.

The confused expressions of the common ponies turned to horror and terror as they set their eyes on their queen.

Under the judging eyes of the horrified ponies, Twilight’s cracked facade of calm finally shattered, her star-strewn mane turned to black fire as her coat gradually darkened, ‘N-no, I refuse.”

Then the mirror flashed a bright magenta that blinded Discord.

When the draconequus’ vision returned, the mirror had once again turned the familiar black of an ended vision.

Discord was silent, whatever he had been expecting for Twilight’s end, that was not it. Never would he have imagined that it would be so dire, so depressing. And who was that malignant stallion?

‘Your free trial has now expired. Thank you for using the Mirror of Etaf™, we at the Artificer’s Guild wish that your scryed future was a pleasant one.’ Then the mirror returned to how he had found it, showing an empty reflection of the room.

Well, that’s that. Thought the draconequus as he picked himself off the floor and left the room aimlessly in a daze. The mirror would share no more of its portents of doom.

Twenty minutes later – mind in turmoil – the Draconequus found himself standing before a familiar damnable tree.

Why did it have to be a bucking tree? Would it have been so hard for Destiny to give me a sexy young draconequess for a counterpart? Hells, I would have even taken an alicorn. But, a tree?! How does a tree even acquire a mantle? Trees aren’t even sentient.

Discord shook his head, he had far, far,farbetter reasons to curse Destiny than the Mantled of Harmony.

The Tree of Harmony sparkled and made a jingling sound.

The draconequus harrowed his eyes and tilted his head, he had never quite managed to figure out whether such things were random or were they the Tree’s attempted to communication. “We’re all going to die.”

The tree seemed to dim slightly.

“Well, perhaps not you, but both myself and all four princesses are dead within two centuries.”

The tree jingled softly.

“Why?”

The tree sparkled questioningly.

“Are we just toys to Destiny? To be discarded when it grows bored of us? When it tires of our story and desires to weave another?”

The tree glimmered condescendingly.

Discord snorted, “What more can I do? I tried to fight Destiny once before, and only became a tool for its end.” Discord sighed, he still remembered that fateful day; when the Grand Seer of Everfree prophesied that Everfree would become the next capital of her ancient enemy Equestria. It was that day that a young draconequus finally decided – after a lifetime of resistance – that he would take up the twin mantles of Chaos and Discord, taking the latter as his new name.

He had set out to destroy the Republic of Equestria, and over the next hundred years he did. Nothing was left of that damnable Republic.

Nothing, that is, but a pair of naive, idealistic young alicorns raised on tales of Equestrian glory, wieldinga weapon that he had no defence against. The seer had never specified that it would be the Republic of Equestria of which Everfree would be the capital of.

Thus, turned to stone, he could do nothing but watch and listen as his beloved city was gradually transformed into a pale imitation of her old imperialistic enemy.

Discord was shook out of his reverie by the tree twinkling in scorn.

Suddenly, a very different memory came to the forefront of the draconequus’ mind. ‘As much as it pains me to say this, my Lord, your entire plan was flawed from its inception. Opposing Destiny – while far from impossible – can only bedone with subtlety, not overwhelming force. The Wheel of Destiny is powerful – far more powerful than even a god like you – but lacks in agility. Nopony can overpower it, but even a foal – with the right knowledge – can outmanoeuvre it. A small, well placed change will always have a greater long-term effect on the Weave of Fate than a larger, less well placed act. And a push at the right point can outright shatter Fate.’

Discord shook his head and glared at the Tree, “Was that you?” How could the tree have possibly known of that conversation? Well, for a given definition of ‘conversation’, ‘lonely old stallion monologueing at a statue’ would be more accurate.

He honestly missed High Priest Changing Fate, the stallion was outspoken and critical in a way that was entirely uncharacteristic of a cultist. A refreshing change from the normal cultist who had a surfeit of zeal and a deficit of sense.

Of course, there was never indication that the elderly Discordian knew that his god was awake and cognizant in his statuary imprisonment. Honestly, it was entirely possible that the stallion had been unaware that he was actually talking to Discord himself and not merely a statue commissioned to commemorate his defeat. After all, what kind of idiot displays the petrified, but still living, body of her most dangerous enemy in the centre of the royal capital?

Discord was once more brought out of his reminiscence by the Tree, scintillating smugly.

Discord stared dubiously at the Tree, “Just because such a thing is possible in theory, that does not mean it is actually possible. Knowing that Shatterpoints might exist does not help if I can’t even identify one.” And nothing but a Shatterpoint would be enough, this was not the kind of future that Destiny could be softly nudged away from. “I refuse to be the subject of another self-fulfilling prophecy.”

The tree was silent.

Discord sighed, realizing the corner he had talked himself into, “Which is exactly what I would be if I were to let the prophecy come true through inaction.”

The tree radiated a palatable aura of smugness.

“I hate you.”

The tree’s smugness only grew.

“Okay, fine ...” Discord whined, “... what’s your plan then?”

The tree shimmered and made a chiming sound as a glowing silhouette of an eagle’s talon appeared on its trunk.

As Discord was reaching out with his paw, he hesitated. While there was no example of any creature mantling either Destiny or Fate, most theologians strongly associated both with Harmony. Discord’s mind was briefly filled with images of his broken body fertilizing the roots of the Tree.

The Draconequus shook his head, it was a tree, and it was powered by Virtue Magic. Even though its Elements had defeated him twice before, it could not do what he feared.Magic – quite simply – could not be turned against its nature.

Discord resolutely placed his paw on the Tree’s trunk ...

... and suddenly Discord’s inner eye was opened wide with visions of a great tapestry of possibility, weaved from the very worldlines of the world’s peoples.

Discord staggered back and stared wide eyed at the Tree, “That’s how you see the world?!”

The Tree twinkled sadly in affirmation.

Discord shook his head, what would it be like to have such knowledge but a near complete lack of any form of agency. In many ways it was the complete inverse of his problem.

Suddenly he understood the tree’s plan, “So, you are the eye and I the hammer.” And so the Sprit of Chaos and Disharmony once again placed his paw upon the Tree of Harmony and plunged into the Weave of Fate, working together – for the first time in history – to shatter fate.

Princess Twilight Sparkle galloped through the halls of the Canterlot Archives, nearly a tonne – 978 kilograms precisely – of books levitated in her magenta magic. This was the first time the newly ascended alicorn had managed to make time on her extremely busy schedule to visit the semi-secret library since Princess Celestia had given her access.

And she was going to make the most of what little time she did have.

Hence the galloping ...

... and the levitating of enough books to crush a mortal pony to death.

The young mare had been told many times during her adolescence to not gallop in the library. Unfortunately, the filly had never really taken such warnings to heart; perhaps because they had never originated from Princess Celestia.

And her ascension to alicornhood had not convinced her to reconsider that habit. In fact, with the inertial modulation of a pegasus and the preternatural grip of an Earth Pony she was more secure in her agility than she had ever been as a unicorn.

In a different timeline, Twilight’s surety would not be misplaced and, indeed, her entire visit to the archives would be forgotten as inconsequential.

As it was, said recklessness was her undoing as her right forehoof came down upon something that was most certainly not the smooth stone floor of the archives.

The young alicorn’s hoof – insulated from the rooting power of the earth – slipped out from under her, sending Twilight careening to the left and into a tall, sturdy bookshelf with an immense crash.

There was a second crash as a tonne – nearly – of books slammed into the mare from behind.

A mere mortal pony would likely have been severely injured – if not killed –but alicorns were significantly more robust than that. As such, the young princess suffered only the most superficial of injuries.

Twilight groaned and shifted, causing a cascade of books to fall. The alicorn managed to get a single hoof flat onto the ground, drawing enough strength from the earth to free her from her literary tomb. Yet the mare still could not see.

She reached her forehooves up and removed the offending book from her horn, observing the ragged hole torn right though the poor thing’s spine, and sighed, there existed no bookward that could resist the gore of an alicorn.

Twilight gasped in horror as she surveyed the damage around her; apparently the bookwards used by the Canterlot Archives were vastly inferior to her own, if they didn’t even protect against high velocity collision. The scene around her was a massacre, dust covers strewn everywhere, spines broken, boards bent or missing entirely and countless pages torn.

Perhaps her data was biased from two years as a librarian in the town where Rainbow Dash lived, but collision was responsible for aproximately 63.7% of potential book-harm events. Any bookward that failed to protect from such a thing was clearly inadequate.

It’s not like she even hit them that hard, Rainbow’s average speed of collision was between four and five times greater than the speed she had been moving with, to say nothing of the outlier datapoints stemming from the pegasus' practising of her Sonic Rainboom. And if her books could survive a collision from a barely subsonic Rainbow, then the Royal Archivists were clearly slacking.

Twilight shook her head, that was all immaterial. She had damaged quite a few books and there was no point in worrying about what could have been done to protect them.

The mare surveyed the damage and was thankful once again for having learned as many book-specific mending spell as she had. Magic was just so useful; nopony needed to know this crash had even happened, and all she lost was a couple hours of time and less mana than she would recover in that period.

As the mare catagorized the books by damage, she took a look at the bookshelf she had hit. It was empty but for a single book, an unassuming thin brown book wedged into the corner of a shelf; where it would be hidden had the bookshelf not been empty.

Twilight levitated the book and opened it.

The book was not – as it's location would imply – about pottery.

In fact, it was a spellbook. Moreover, Twilight recognized the hornwriting; this was a Starswirl the Bearded spellbook.

Thus the alicorn was distracted from the task at hoof and skimmed the book as its brethren lay broken around her.

Two things quickly became clear: the first was that she had never seen any of these seven spells before. Considering that the alicorn had already read every single thing she could get her hooves on about her foalhood hero, that was a big deal.

The second was perhaps even more significant; this spellbook was from very early in the stallion's life. From before he was famous and felt the need to deliberately add unnecessary complexity to his spells. While not simple – no Starswirl spell could ever be accused of being simple – they were far more manageable than some of his later spells.

So manageable that the young alicorn felt that she could cast one of them – the third – with only a fortnight of preparation.

Twilight felt herself being overcome with a manic glee, how often did a mage have the opportunity to cast a Starswirl the Bearded spell that may have never been cast before? She would begin the preparations immediately.

The mare looked around and blushed; well, maybe not immediately.

In her distraction the alicorn missed the disappearance of a single peel of a banana.

Well here is the prologue of the v3 of The Twilight Prince. I am feeling much happier with the quality and consistency of this new version. And a prologue gives me the opportunity to introduce important concepts early (instead of like chapter 20 or something).