A thousand years I have waited here, buried under the earth. A thousand years clinging to the last of my strength until my six Elements were returned to me. A thousand years worth of life has passed before my sight—sprouting seeds, death of prey, all the growth and prosperity young Celestia has given her ponies—and this is the day I have waited for during every moment of it.

I can feel the rays of sunlight warm every leaf, every blade of grass in this Everfree Forest we created together, my friend. A cavern this may be, but my roots are not bound by something as crude as stone. The rock itself may as well be my roots, for it is a part of our creation just as I am. Just as you are, little ant.

Yes, little ant, I feel you scurrying up my trunk as surely as a mortal would feel the embrace of a lover. Why do you stop? Why are you surprised? I may be a tree, but that has never been enough to silence my voice in your ears. Your disguises are clever, my friend, but I know you. Better than you know yourself, perhaps.

“Is [i]that[/i] the welcome I get after a thousand years of separation anxiety?” Chaos’ power reveals its familiar form in a flash of light near my base. “You’re still making that ridiculous claim?”

I claim it because it is true. Many creatures in our world recognize the skin of Discord, but how many could have known you as an insect? I know your presence better than I know the song of rain.

“Pah! We are older than the rain, my dear.”

We are older than everything, my friend. Did you think it chance that I was able to reach out to you? After all the eons we’ve spent together in our creations, the ripples of your power are as natural for me to sense as wind in a meadow.

“Ripples and wind and meadows! You think the Spirit of Chaos is as predictable as the weather?”

Few are the secrets you can hide from me, my friend.

“Few, but I can still hide them. You’re no stranger to secrets yourself.” At the snap of his talons, a cone of light shines down on the flower near my trunk, and the chest that rests atop it. “Exhibit A, this exquisite little box of yours! You never let out a peep about this thing in all the years after your transformation. But that isn’t why you called me here, is it?”

Why do you war against me?

His laughter booms in my cavern like a crash of thunder, shaking even my highest bough. “War? No, no, no, if either of us is at war, it’s you! What else would you need those pesky Elements for but to lock me away until the end of the world? I was going to be very cross with you when that happened, by the way. It was only some twist of fate that my prison weakened enough for me to escape the first time!”

I created the Elements so my power might still be shared with the world while I remain here to watch over this land. They may have imprisoned you, but you know my magic is not powerful enough to destroy you.

“Then what’s with all this war nonsense? You know the same about mine.”

I do not. Your plunder seeds pressed against me every day you were gone. For a thousand winters, I thought you were trying to punish me the same way you were punished, force me to see and observe our world, but be powerless to act in it. I was wrong. They tried to strangle me, and you still allowed them to grow after you were freed by the ponies. If the Elements had not been returned to me, this form would have perished.

He rips off one of my lower limbs with one swift pull. “That didn’t hurt at all, did it? Oh, I’m sure you felt something shift inside you to accommodate the change just like I do, but you aren’t some [i]Tree of Harmony[/i], my dear. You’re one to talk about my disguises when you wear a mask yourself.”

I created my own, just as you turned that limb into a chocolate bar. Must you eat me right in front of me?

“All to prove the point!” He snaps his claws, and the last remnants of chocolate melts into a rain over my roots. “How could I destroy a part of you if our magic can’t destroy each other? This body with all this crystal bark and little orbs of light for leaves isn’t the true you.”

Neither is that face yours.

“Discord volunteered to be my vessel, remember? Of course you do.” He grabs another branch and swings himself up, and I feel him lean against my trunk. “You remember when every one of our creations goes extinct. Did you want me to let him die right in front of us?”

He was a good and brave soul, and your tyranny did nothing but stain his memory in the pages of history.

“He asked the Spirit of Chaos to keep the draconequus tribe alive, and I will never let them be forgotten as long as this world lives.”

I miss him. All of them. The ponies believe they know how to put on a holiday, but I could hear the racket of draconequus festivals no matter where I traveled.

“They weren’t the first ones we’ve lost, either in this world or the others.” He begins his climb again, claws and tail wrapping around my limbs to pull himself along. “They really are quite versatile. We should make them again sometime.”

They were always your favorites, weren’t they?

He dangles by his tail, clutching at his chest. “You wound me! What is the draconequus compared to the tongue-tailed desert swallow, or the saw boned swordfish? I can’t possibly choose!”

But you were so proud of them.

“I’m proud of everything I do, my dear. That’s how it stays fun!” He stills for a moment, and his arms hang limp by his head. “Well, I suppose I could have done better with the saw boned swordfish. Poor things never had a chance, did they?”

And are you proud of your war?

“Oh, there you go again. Why are you still using that word?”

Because you haven’t answered me. We had centuries of peace after you took Discord’s body. Equestria was founded, I took this form, and we had centuries more before you started your attack. Why did you change?

“Change? [i]Me?”[/i] A snap of his claws, and my own branches wrap around him. In a flash of light and magic, they split open, and he flutters about on butterfly wings. “Well, I suppose I do change every now and then. What? Are you getting jealous cooped up in this cave all the time now that I’m free to go out and about in our creation?”

You couldn’t feel the desperation in the earth. Every farmer poured their souls into it, into me by extension, and you kept their bounty from them. Both pony and plant wanted nothing more than to grow and prosper, but you crushed those hopes again and again.

“And when did you take such a keen interest in the ponies’ food stores?” He drapes himself over my highest branches, and swats at me with his paw. “I don’t recall seeing you step in during that trouble with the windigoes. And that was before you were rooted to the spot! You think I’m the one who changed?”

The windigoes were only following their nature. It was the ponies’ fault their dread winter fell on them, and the ponies found the solution all on their own.

“And I wasn’t following [i]my[/i] nature? Farmers didn’t need their crops because candy sprouted out of the ground for them. Each star in the night sky had its turn to be the sun every other heartbeat. It all sounds very chaotic to me.”

How many worlds have we created together, my friend?

“I never bothered to count.”

Have you counted how many times you’ve taken it upon yourself to rule over all the land? How many times you’ve challenged the children we created for supremacy over the world we gave them? How many times you assaulted me?

“How many times have you ingrained yourself into one of our worlds? How many times have you ignored everything for the sake of one nation? How many times have you sacrificed your freedom?”

Only once.

“And there is my answer.”

And so you have lead me back to where we started. Why? I know you love this world, my friend. You never gave your gifts of speech and wit to as many different creatures as you did here, nor did you ever take such an interest in helping me craft them. Did you raise them up only to dominate them all?


He falls out of his perch in laughter, drifting back and forth on his way down like a leaf in the wind. “I nearly forgot the early days! I wonder how Rainbow Dash would react if I told her I was the one that gave the pegasi their wings? If you had it your way, the earth ponies would have been alone.”

Why do you refuse to answer?

“Because I thought you knew me better than I knew myself!” He lands at my base and folds his arms behind his head, crossing his legs as he reclines on my cavern’s floor. “Are you admitting that after all this time, all the lands and oceans and skies and creatures we created together, there [i]is[/i] something you don’t know about me after all?”

Your pride has always been your weakness, my friend.

“My pride? I’m not the one that anchored myself in the middle of a country to try and keep an eye on things. A country that hasn’t changed a bit to justify those years of vigilance!”

You know that for a fact, do you?

He raises an eyebrow. “Did you just try to chide me?”

Perish the thought, my friend. You truly sense nothing different about this world after your imprisonment? The magic we felt at Equestria’s founding has only grown.

“The pony migration? The power that chased away the windigoes was [i]your[/i] magic, my dear. The ponies set aside the chaos between them and—”

No, my friend. They accessed that magic all on their own, and that same magic returned twice over, scant centuries later.

“Centuries...?” He sits upright. “Are you talking about Celestia and Luna? I thought you created the alicorns behind my back!”

They were born flesh and blood by pony parents, introduced into our world free of either of our influence.

He paces before me, and I hear the timberwolves howl in celebration of a successful hunt in the pause. “This is what made you imprison yourself, isn’t it? You think the ponies made new magic of their own?”

The three tribes of ponies, designed by the two of us to be similar yet different, combined our gifts in an instant of unity. I have sensed that same spark of power whenever an alicorn has been near me. Their magic is not ours, but the same power that flows through them now lives within this earth itself.

“How is that possible? We’ve created immortal creatures before, but our worlds have only ever had two sources of magic! Ours! Now there’s a third?”

I do not know if they are immortal or not. Several alicorns rose while you were stone, all of them to die. I have waited centuries for Celestia to join them, but for now, her flame of life still burns as brightly as ever. As does Luna’s. Perhaps their lifespans will only last a few millennia more. Until we know that for sure, I cannot say what kind of influence their magic might have on the future—for this world or those we have yet to make.

“Then... they could be like us? They could share our power?” He groans and sinks to his knees. “Don’t even joke about that! Celestia can’t join us in our eternity! It’ll be two against one for every single creation forever!”

I don’t know what the future holds, my friend. Alicorn magic may live and die with this world, or it may transcend all worlds like ours. Don’t you think it is worth finding out?

He scratches his chin. “But there are [i]four[/i] alicorns, now! Surely we can learn more together out there rather than you being rooted to the ground like this. Come out and join me! We can walk together again, like the old days!”

No. I tried to speak to the sisters when they first retrieved my Elements, and the youngest princess when she was here with the bearers. They still lack the wisdom to hear me like you can. If I cannot speak with them, then I will speak with the earth. We have never seen this in any previous creation, nor can we say for sure it will never happen again. I must understand it. I will stay here to the ending of this world if that is what it takes.

“Then it seems I have wasted my time. Stay here then. See what I care.” His claws snap, and a rift in space is torn asunder. “Adieu, my dear.”

Are we parting as enemies now that you know the truth? You still haven’t answered my question.

“Didn’t I? Perhaps I did, and you missed it.” He laughs. “Oh, don’t feel too bad if you can’t figure it out. There’s just some things you don’t know about me. I’ll be sure to tell you at the end of the world!” He is gone as his portal closes behind him.

I would sigh if I had a mouth. Perhaps cry if I had eyes. He is the one entity who has been my companion as long as I have been his, and I still fail to get a straight answer from him. His mischief holds no fear for me, but now that he knows my goal, will he force me to abandon it? Only his word will keep him in check until the six bearers open my gift to them, but I cannot guess his motive.

An echo of magic from one of the six calls for me. I feel her hooves dig into the soil of her farm, and I welcome the new seed she has planted into my world.

Grow strong, little seed. Frustrated as I am, eternity will always give me another chance to understand him. I pray we reach that point before you suffer for it.