Follow TV Tropes

Following

Fanfic / The Last Draconequus

Go To

"When the draconequus race left the world, one child was left behind."
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tld_image_9822.png
The Last Draconequus, opening story hook.

"The Last Draconequus" is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction series, written by Alara J. Rogers, that started with a single story of the same name intended to tell the backstory of Discord. Although the original fic remains incomplete, numerous side-stories, sequels and spin-offs by the author (most of them set in the present time of the show), have used the backstory it tells, creating an expansive, fleshed-out universe that includes many alternate continuities and what-if premises. It remains canon-compliant as far as season four (although it ignores the comics).

The main The Last Draconequus continuity comprises the following stories:

The (extremely NSFW) Elements of Opposition series is an alternate continuity that branches off after the Princess Twilight Sparkle Endcaps, and includes:

Additionally, the author uses the backstory from Last Draconequus for several stand-alone fics which are also not a part of the main continuity:


This series contains examples of:

  • Affably Evil: Even in his more villainous moments, Discord is a real sweetheart compared to some of the other malevolent beings in Equestria, even being especially careful to not cause death or permanent harm to ponies.
  • Anti-Hero: Discord definitely fits this archetype in at least most of the stories in this series, but it's most pronounced in Not The Hero, which branches off from canon before Discord was reformed by Fluttershy.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The draconequus race were planning this in their final days. We're still not sure if they actually suceeded or not.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Discord's got some very questionable moral values. Sometimes he deigns to explain them, and they're... interesting, to say the least.
    • The first chapter of Awkward Conversations is all about Discord explaining to Twilight why he doesn't actually commit rape, after Twilight remarks that it would be in-character for him to do so. He is indignant and offended by this, not because rape is a horrible thing to do, but because he sees it as the most uncreative way possible to torment someone.
      Twilight: Believe me, your logic about why you don't want to commit rape is so weird, nopony would ever come up with it independently.
    • In Not The Hero, it's revealed that he's actually lying when he said he's against committing rape because it's an uncreative way to torment someone; it's actually because he has chaos avatar memories of Mayhem raping his mother from his perspective.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: In the Elements of Opposition series, Discord himself is subjected to this repeatedly for months as the mane six's alternate counterparts torment him physically and psychologically in an attempt to break him to their will.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Discord definitely had one — among other things, he became the last living member of his species when he about four or five years old and spent a good portion of his adolescence as a circus animal — but his outward demeanour hides a lot. In Elements of Opposition, once she learns more about Discord's past, Twilight is shocked by how bad he really had it, just because he never let on.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Discord almost can't help but be this, except in his very lowest moments.
  • Deconstruction Fic: Not The Hero is a deconstruction through and through, showing what a typical Gary Stu self-insert looks like from the outside. Essentially, the villain of the story is a Reality Warper with powers surpassing even Discord himself, who has mind-raped the main six and the princesses into loving him and thinking he's a great hero, and even altered the Elements of Harmony themselves to make himself into the seventh Element. He's terrifying.
  • Entropy and Chaos Magic: Chaos magic in this series is notably said to be default state of being for all magic, which is why it's generally more powerful. Harmonic magic, like the ponies use, is what happens when one tries to bring order to chaos and give it structure.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Discord's opposite number is Matrisse, the Avatar of Order, who is described as a living mountain of crystal and once tried to destroy all magic. He is also a true immortal who cannot be killed, only weakened. The Tree of Harmony may also qualify to a lesser extent, being a living crystalline tree that has powerful magic, recruits "partners", and can replicate itself by growing offshoots elsewhere in Equestria. Ironically, this makes Discord the most normal of the three.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Subverted. Discord does seem to be able to eat almost anything, but he's not actually capable of digesting everything and has to internally turn it into something he can handle. He also changes the taste of much of what he consumes to make it tolerable, and suffers when this ability is taken from him. Additionally, while his body does require meat, he almost never actually eats real meat, because he can conjure simulated meat just fine.
  • Fatal Flaw: Discord's ego has been his undoing many times before. He'll often assume that he's too powerful to be beaten, too complex to be figured out, or that the special way his magic works will save him if all else fails. But whenever he faces a new opponent, he still continues to underestimate them. It very rarely ends well.
  • Friendless Background: A partial subversion. He stated after being reformed by Fluttershy that he'd never had a friend before, and that's true, but technically, friends are not the same thing as family.
  • Functional Magic: Specifically Rule Magic. Madonna, mother of Discord, is the Principle of Motherhood, meaning her magic can only be used to aid her child and not herself.
  • God of Chaos: While not actual deities, this is effectively the role of the Avatars of Chaos — they embody and represent the concept of Chaos manifested as a living creature.
  • God of Order: Matrisse, a mountain of living crystal, is the Avatar of Order. While there have been many Avatars of Chaos throughout history, there's only been one Avatar of Order. It's not a good force, and tried to destroy all magic due to finding it chaotic.
  • Godzilla Threshold: The situation normally has to be pretty bad for anyone to consider calling in Discord to deal with it, but it does happen.
  • Graceful Loser: All things considered, Discord gets on remarkably well with the ponies responsible for trapping him in stone twice. He still holds something of a grudge against Celestia, but the two of them can hold a conversation just fine. And to Twilight, he just says that the fact that she beat him makes her interesting. Love, Friendship and Chaos even reveals that he may have a romantic interest in her for exactly this reason.
  • Hate Sink: Anon from Not The Hero — any appearance he makes in-story will (out of universe) elicit horror, hatred, disgust, and threats of bodily harm from the readers, up to and including a wish to 'kill him, rape him, and eat his fucking costume.'
  • The Hedonist: Discord is this, even moreso here than in canon. In Awkward Conversations, he talks at length about his many sexual encounters back when he ruled Equestria. Even when he was still together with Celestia, he was "morally opposed" to the concept of marriage because of the fact that it forced monogamy.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In Traitor, Discord fully intends to give his life to save the ponies from Tirek's wrath after he is betrayed. Fortunately, it doesn't come to that.
  • Humiliation Conga: The Elements of Opposition series is a decidedly non-comedic example of this for Discord, where a combination of obedience and honesty spells allow him to be captured, enslaved, tortured, and even raped.
  • Knight Templar: It's likely that Matrisse was this, what with his alleged attempt to destroy all magic for being too chaotic.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Not The Hero does this a lot, being that it's basically a gigantic parody/deconstruction of the prevalent tropes of self-insert brony-in-Equestria fics, right down to the villain allegedly coming from a world where their reality is a cartoon show.
  • Manipulative Bastard: It's Discord, so of course this shows up.
  • Mind Rape: The discording effect used against the main six is referenced a few times. In the Elements of Opposition series, we see a more extreme version of this which turned the other world's main six into evil villains.
  • Missing Mom: Discord's mother, Madonna, vanishes at the end of the first chapter of The Last Draconequus, along with the rest of his species. It is left unclear whether she is dead or has managed to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Elements of Opposition features at least two characters talking about some of Discord's more badass moments in the past, including how he fought for Equestria in their war against the dragons at great personal risk and how he saved magic itself by smashing Matrisse, the Avatar of Order into pieces, scattering his power. However, since The Last Draconequus is still incomplete and has not gotten that far yet, we haven't actually seen either of these events.
  • Order vs. Chaos: Not quite the traditional model. In Equestria, there are in fact three avatars in the cosmic balancing act. The Avatar of Chaos is always a creature, because chaos represents life, creativity and magic. Discord is just the latest in a long line of these. The Avatar of Order is a true immortal, an Eldritch Abomination by name of Matrisse, who Discord is said to have defeated by smashing into pieces and decentralising his power. And finally, in the middle, we have the Tree of Harmony in the Everfree. Supposedly, it can be killed, but it can also grow offshoots of itself and recruit others to help it. The one in the Everfree is said to be the last, as Discord is implied to have destroyed all the others and grown the Everfree around it to box the Tree in.
  • Orphan's Ordeal: Discord is the only draconequus and has been since early in his existence.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: According to Discord's inner monologue, eastern dragons do exist in this universe, and are capable of interbreeding with ponies, creating a new chimera species called the long-ma. The draconequui were long-ma who migrated west. Supposedly, the original long-ma followed a different evolutionary path and are still around today, and deny being draconequui at all, but Discord still considers them basically the same species.
  • Outside-Context Problem: Anon from Not The Hero is this for Discord.
  • Puny Earthlings: Discord has visited alternate universes before, and knows of humans. While he doesn't have a particularly low opinion of them compared to ponies, in Not The Hero, he scoffs at the idea that he should find a human intimidating, pointing out that even if he wasn't the Spirit of Chaos, he'd still be bigger than a human and have way more natural weaponry. The fact that Anon did intimidate him was one of his first clues that he was dealing with a Reality Warper, not a normal human.
  • Reality Warper: Despite the fact that he is called one often, Discord in this series denies that what he's doing is actual reality-warping. His chaos magic may not make sense by the normal rules of magic, but that's just because it's governed by a unique type of meta-magic that follows a different, unseen set of rules. Anon, on the other hand...
  • Sentient Cosmic Force: Chaos is talked about in these terms, both by Discord himself and other characters who understand it. The same is apparently true of Order and Harmony, with the avatars merely being agents of these forces, and Discord at one point mentions that while destiny as ponies understand it is not a real thing, there is a force somewhat like it that exists.
  • Sliding Scale of Living Toys: In The Last Draconequus, Discord uses his magic to animate a toy draconequus he made out of a discarded and partially destroyed stuffed pony. The toy, Little Sister, is a Level 4 (I've Got No Strings) when Discord is actively using his magic to animate her, though he removes the animating magic when he is sleeping or not present.
  • The Artful Dodger: While this trope usually applies to children who live on the streets, it applies in this case despite the fact that the young Discord lived in the wilderness. After initially attempting to find food in nature, and mostly failing, Discord comes to thrive on and greatly enjoy stealing food from earth pony farmers, and deliberately taunts them with his exploits (for example, leaving behind apple cores after sneaking into an apple cart and eating several of the apples as the farmer pulls the cart to market.)
  • War Is Hell: The war against the dragons, in which Discord fought for Equestria at Celestia's request, is said to have played a large part in driving him insane.

Top