"Order and chaos. The oldest of truths, destined to spend a hopeless eternity at each other's throats... Harmony's precious balance is built on making sure we stay that way. As long as he's keeping us in line, we can never settle our differences once and for all. So, what I propose is quite simple — get rid of Harmony."
—Discord
A My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by Chrono Ryono set just before Discord subjects Equestria to his infamous reign of chaos and suffering. Discord approaches his lawful counterpart Array with a treacherous proposition, and despite not wanting to admit it, Array sees his point...
The story was originally posted on FiMFiction
but has since moved to the author's DeviantART.
Tropes:
- Back Story: To the Elements of Harmony and Discord's reign of chaos in Equestria.
- Beam Spam: Array's main approach to fighting Discord. One blast failed? Try fifty. None of them work.
- Dead Fic:
Word of God states the story will not be continued on its own, but will instead be integrated into its source material. - Deadpan Snarker: Discord loves his one-liners.
- Death Glare: Array gives Discord one. It's described as "a glare that spoke only of death and dismemberment."
- Faux Affably Evil: Discord, unsurprisingly. He appears to take genuine offense when Array criticizes his "pure chaos" ideology, and insists that he offers "a gift that releases mortals from the tedium and repetition of life."
- God of Order: Array, who embodies order and stability and serves as Discord's lawful counterpart.
- Gone Horribly Right: Array wanted Harmony out of the way so that nothing would interfere with his goal to kill Discord. Not realizing that he lacked the ability to actually do it.
- Informed Attribute: Array describes himself as being "eternally patient". He proceeds to disprove this by snapping at Discord's delays and wordplay repeatedly. He vaguely handwaves it by claiming there is a "distinction between impatience and intolerance for provocation." Which, in context, basically translates to "I'm patient with everyone except you."
- Kamehame Hadoken: Array's final attack appeared to be something like this.
- The Maker: Harmony is referred to as this, among other things. Inverted with the "Whisper" that Discord alludes to, which apparently exists solely to unmake creations that go wrong.
- Meaningful Name: Following the trend already set by Discord, Array's name refers to an orderly arrangement.
- Mr. Exposition: Discord elaborates on the mechanics of their plan after it's already halfway through, just for the benefit of the readers. In fact, he's responsible for revealing quite a few details regarding the setting, including Harmony's supposed grand scheme. He even lampshades it himself: "So, expository banter aside, I'm sure you're wondering why I called this meeting?"
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: How much of a "hero" is debatable, but Array only succeeds in giving Discord free rein over everything in his attempt to stop him for good.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Subverted. Discord easily survives Array's desperate bid to defeat him, and even snares him in a trap, but proceeds to... release and berate him instead, proclaiming him to not be worth it. As he said, he's no murderer.
- Nominal Hero: Array, arguably. Most of his actions, both villainous and heroic, are motivated by his one desire — to erase Chaos forever so that Order may rule in its absence.
- Then again, he does seem to genuinely believe that absolute order would make for a perfect world. Of course, since Discord is his Chaos counterpart, perhaps he too believes that absolute chaos would make a perfect world?
- Discord lampshades this rather cruelly:
Discord: "Honestly, you've no right to play the hero here. You played just as much a part in this as I did." - Nonchalant Dodge: Discord evades Array's Beam Spam by "dancing, spinning, rolling and teleporting."
- Non-Standard Character Design: Array is described as having a crystalline body with a sky blue coat, silver wings and solid black eyes. There are no ponies in the canon show, including the alicorn trio, who even remotely resemble this design philosophy. Arguably it's justified, as he is the Anthropomorphic Personification of order and his form reflects this - the same way Discord's mismatched body represents chaos.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Discord is selfish and amoral, and accuses Array of being no better.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Discord and Array uniting the primordial forces of order and chaos to defeat the Top God? Happens between scenes.
- Order Versus Chaos: Taken to its literal extreme when the gods of these elements slug it out. Chaos wins.
- The Phoenix: Harmony is described to be one, and since he's established as the god of the setting, he is probably the first. No relation to other phoenices (including Philomena) has been hinted at.
- Sequel Hook: Presumably, the sequel will involve Array somehow sending the Elements of Harmony to Equestria.
- Status Quo Is God: Literally. Order Versus Chaos is the status quo of creation itself because Harmony supposedly keeps it that way. Discord's motive is to defy it by eliminating Harmony.
- Stealth Pun: The "bulky rectangular bat with a thin handle at its base" that chirps. Discord yells "oh yeah, he hits it for six!" after taking a swing with it. It's a cricket bat.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Down here you don't have to kiss his tail feathers with a fancy title."
- Yin-Yang Bomb: Order and chaos joining forces, which is apparently enough to overcome even the Top God.
