//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Enemy of My Enemy... // Story: Flight of the Valkyrie // by Underwood //------------------------------// “What do you mean you lost her?!” the Princess shrieked in a nostalgic display of Twilighting. “I told you I was going to be busy; it's not like I could keep my eye on her the entire time! She was sitting on the bleachers one moment, and the next, she was gone!” Rainbow Dash emoted dramatically as she hovered at the foot of Twilight’s throne in Canterlot Castle. “She seemed totally chill while we were talking in Cloudsdale, so how was I supposed to know she was gonna run away again!” “You took her to Cloudsdale? Why?! How is that preserving the timeline?!” “You said to look after her, so I looked after her! It was right next-door because of the graduation ceremony, so it would have been weird not to go! And if you’d wanted me to lock her in the dorms all day or assign a security detail to watch her, you should have told me!” “‘The graduation ceremony’! Oh, how did I forget?!” She slapped her forehead. “Even so, you were supposed to be helping her open up and finding out if she really did pull off a sonic rainboom, not just fillysitting while you do your daily routine!” “Well excuuuse me, Princess, but I'm not just some weather-pony any more. I can't just drop my duties as Captain of the Wonderbolts because you asked me to, Princess or not.” Twilight stood from her throne with purpose, dropping any illusion that this was a common squabble between friends. “But I am a Princess—the Princess—and your reckless disregard of my orders could jeopardise the very existence of Equestria as we know it! If Shooting Star learns too much about our timeline, we may be forced to keep her here so as to not pollute the events of the past. Not only will she never see her friends or family again, but the consequences of her permanent removal from the past could be equally as catastrophic as tainting it! What if she’s the ancestor of a pony you know? For all we know, their entire bloodline could be erased! Is that what you want?” Dash frowned, lowering herself to the floor as she considered the greater repercussions of such a simple oversight, already blaming herself behind the bravado. It wouldn’t have been hard to keep a better eye on Star during the drills, just like she had followed her after the diner. She wasn’t often caught out by naivete, but perhaps Shooting Star had played her like a harp, fostering a false sense of trust that she then exploited to escape? It did seem like the tactic of a military mind in hindsight, not that they were holding her under duress or anything. “No, of course not,” she answered, her voice audibly repentant now. “I did my best to keep an eye on her; at least as much as I thought I needed to. I even trailed her after she asked to fly around the city alone. I figured that the sights alone wouldn’t cause a problem, and after she didn’t take that opportunity to run away-” “You let her explore Canterlot?!” “Supervised!” “How is that-!? Nevermind. She has seen the castle, after all, so it’s not like you’re the only one at fault here. At least she doesn’t know that Cloudsdale used to be Pegasopolis, right?” An awkward silence hung in the air as Dash avoided eye-contact. “Are you kidding me? Of all the-” She exhaled, pinching her sinuses. Breathe, Twilight, you’re better than this, just breathe. “And how did she react?” “Um, well, confused, I guess. That’s when I told her we should leave and she asked to fly around.” The Princess tempered her breathing, knowing that she was placing more than a fair amount of burden on Rainbow Dash’s back. Time-travel was a dangerous and poorly understood phenomenon that was frequently described as apocalyptic in scale, with multiple conflicting theories on what and what not should be done in its event—pure conjecture at best, entirely fictional at worst. Actual accounts of time-travel were almost non-existent, and she suspected that the majority of all occurrences had been witnessed by her first-hoof, somehow making her the utmost authority in this situation, despite almost entirely winging it every time. This was not Rainbow Dash’s fault; if anything, it was hers for not setting out clearly defined rules and itineraries. Twilight sat back down on her velvet cushion, now equally as embarrassed by her outburst as Dash was of her own laxity. This unexpected ordeal was bringing out far more of her old, temperamental self than she was comfortable with. No longer was she the wonder-filled filly that could make mistakes and afford emotional outbursts like this; she was the Princess of Equestria, and creatures looked to her for calm guidance and knowledgeable authority. You’re a Princess, Twilight. Play your part. Taking a deep breath, Twilight cleared her mind and carefully considered what Rainbow Dash had just said. Focus on solutions, not problems. “You said she asked to fly around Cloudsdale? She hasn’t shown any interest in exploring the castle while she was here, so she must have been looking for something specific once she knew it was her home town… I can’t imagine that anything would be familiar to her after two-thousand years, though. Perhaps knowing what she was looking for might give us a clue as to where she is now?” “I don't know. I don't think so.” Dash shook her head. “She just flew around to the suburbs then freaked out and went straight back to the Academy. Didn't even land.” Twilight sighed, closing her eyes to massage her temples. “We need to find her before she accidentally contaminates herself past the point of no return, though honestly at this point it might be too late already. It’s easy to forget something somecreature said, but when you see things with your own two eyes... Did she say anything of note when you spoke?” “Not really, she barely said anything—only mentioned joining the Valkyries. I guess I did most of the talking,” she chuckled awkwardly, rubbing her foreleg. “When it comes to unreadable creatures, she’s right up there with Maud and Briar. But is it really so bad if she sees stuff? Can’t you just make her forget with magic?” “Erasing memories with magic is imprecise and far too dangerous. Memories are linked together like a web and you can never affect just one, especially if erasing days-worth of experiences. The last thing we need is to erase memories of her timeline too—that could be equally as catastrophic.” Twilight openly groaned while deflating into her hooves, feeling as though Princess Celestia would have managed this situation far better than she was doing. With another huff, she steepled her hooves and stared intently at the floor, trying to find a single clue in everything they already knew. “Let's think about this methodically. It’s possible that the goal of her previous escape attempts was to find Pegasopolis, hoping it to be familiar after Canterlot wasn’t. Given the opportunity to explore it, she flew directly to a residential neighbourhood, which remained relatively similar in layout thanks to it’s unique ability to expand non-linearly. There are a couple of reasons she might have visited this spot, but the most likely is that it was her foalhood home, being the last bastion she had before moving to Canterlot to join the Valkyries, based on the surviving censuses at least. Seeing as how she immediately left that location in an agitated state, it’s safe to say that she didn’t find what she was looking for, which may have been the trigger for her disappearance. The fact that she looked at all suggests that she may now accept this world as reality, at least, but that leaves us in an even more dangerous situation…” She looked up at Rainbow Dash, who stared back blankly, having clearly lost the thread at some point. “We have no idea what her next move will be,” she finished. “Ohhh,” the pegasus nodded slowly, pretending that the answer was obvious now. “But wasn’t that already the problem?” “Yes, but with nothing left to tie her to this world, she may have become dangerous. Either she believes this is all some illusionary torture designed for her by Discord, or she’s having an existential crisis about being in a future where everything she remembers is long gone. Being so resistant to our help, she’s clearly going to take things into her own hooves, and her first target would be-” The Princess jumped to her hooves, her expression dire. “Discord,” Rainbow Dash replied, their eyes locked with a concerned frown. “And the only reliably way to get to Discord-” There was a heavy pause despite both already knowing the answer, broken when they spoke the name in unison; “Fluttershy, are you here?” Shooting Star called out awkwardly, having never met this pony before or even knowing what she looked like. Luckily for her the animal sanctuary was easy to spot from the sky, having asked a local for specific directions after finding her cottage empty. She knew she didn’t have long before the super-friends tracked her down, but she had a lead on them for now, and she intended to make the most of it. “Oh g-goodness, a visitor! W-W-What do I do, w-w-what do I do?” a meek voice trembled from behind a nearby palm tree, apparently trying to hide themselves, though failing miserably. The flight from the Wonderbolts Academy to Ponyville had been a long one, with the cool afternoon breeze helping temper Star’s emotions before this interaction. She exhaled and approached the conspicuous pony that was hiding little more than their face behind the trunk. “Um, excuse me?” The stuttering pony shot backwards with the kind of jump you could only produce if you were afraid of your own shadow. Falling to the floor in full view, the figure appeared to be a young earth-pony with a pale-green coat and cream hair. They shook in fear as they lay on their back with both hooves covering their eyes, leaving Star to look down on them with confused pity. “Are... you okay?” “S-S-S-So-So-So-Sorry!” Shooting Star tilted her head, having never met a pony quite as meek as this. What was their problem? Had they never seen a pegasus before or something? “Are you Fluttershy?” “F-F-F-F-F-?” “Oh goodness, what happened? Are you okay, Soft Touch?” a motherly voice called out as a concerned yellow pegasus with a long, pink ponytail approached. Carefully bending down to help the shivering pony up, she faced the unfamiliar pegasus with a look of polite distrust. “I'm sorry, Soft Touch isn't very confident around other ponies, they much prefer the company of animals. Can I help you?” “Are you Fluttershy?” “Yes?” she answered cautiously, taking a protective step in front of the cowering pony. “I heard you're the pony to talk to about-” Star swallowed the knot in her throat, still finding it hard to speak the monster's name. “Discord.” The pale-yellow pegasus exhaled, allowing her whole body to relax into what appeared to be a comfortable weariness. Clearly this wasn’t the first time she had been approached about this topic. “What's he done now?” Star frowned, confused at what kind of relationship this seemingly kind pegasus could have with that chaotic murderer. “It's not really about what… ‘he's’ done now, exactly. How much can you tell me about ‘his’ past?” Fluttershy blinked in confusion before her eyes widened, now realising who she was talking to. “Are you Shooting Star?! I had no idea you were coming here. Shouldn't you be with Rainbow Dash?” “She was busy. Look, I'm sick of nopony answering my questions, so I'm taking things into my own hooves. I was told you were close to it, so I came to see you myself. Can we talk?” The pink-maned pegasus looked over to the nearby waterfall, weighing her responsibilities, then back to the mare. Twilight would normally give her a heads-up about a meeting like this, but she was sure there was a good reason for not doing so. Besides, not only did she want to do her part to help Shooting Star get home, but she was quite interested in hearing about Discord’s younger years. “Soft Touch, would you please attend to the snakes' five-o'clock massage for me? I think I'll be busy with our guest for a little while,” she cooed “S-Sure, Fluttershy.” The young pony turned and galloped away as fast as their skinny legs would carry them, eyes shut tight and cheeks red. “Please, come this way, we can sit at the stumps.” The softly-spoken pegasus gestured towards a pink, ironwork table positioned between two tree stumps cut to just the right height for seating, and the pair trotted over, leaving temporary hoofprints in the soft grass beneath them. “He seems... easily scared,” Star stated as she sat down, crossing her forelegs on the table. “Oh, Soft Touch is a lovely pony. They're one of three assistants I have here at the sanctuary. As much as I love one-on-one time with all the animals, there are simply too many for me to care for alone these days. What they lack in social skills, they more than make up for with how well they handle the critters. Reminds me of myself when I was younger,” she giggled. “So, what is it you wanted to ask me about Discord?” She exhaled. “Well, I don't know what the Princess has told you about me, but where I'm from—when I'm from—is a lot less... peaceful than this place.” “Goodness, I'm so sorry to hear that. Are you saying that Discord had something to do with that?” Star closed her eyes, feeling her upper-lip twitch as she relived those violent and harrowing final moments in her head once more. “Yes. Discord attacked the palace—my palace—completely out of the blue. I was told he felled the King and then-” Her breath shuddered as she frowned, picturing those terrified civilian faces again. “It was turning ponies to stone left and right, indiscriminately—guards and staff alike.” “That's awful!” Fluttershy extended her hoof towards her guest, genuinely upset and wishing to console the pegasus across the table, though Shooting Star remained rigid and unreceptive. She sighed as she retracted her gesture. “But that doesn't sound like Discord. The Discord I know would never harm anycreature, not even before he reformed. He may have caused a lot of trouble, but he never did anything to hurt us… Not directly, anyway,” she muttered, thinking back to Tirek. “He turned the palace upside-down, literally! It was like he could change the very being of the world with a snap of his fingers, and revelled in the chaos it caused!” “Now that sounds like Discord,” Fluttershy admitted with tired disappointment. “You know, it's not very nice to talk about somecreature behind their back.” The sarcastic voice caught both ponies off-guard as Discord suddenly flashed into existence, lying across the table on his side, facing Shooting Star. The sudden appearance of the Valkyrie's nemesis caused her to reel so hard that she tumbled backwards off her stump, hitting the floor with an uncomfortable thud, though mostly padded by the spongy grass. “My ears were burning!” he continued, licking his fingers to extinguish the literal fires on the peaks of his ears, all while maintaining his smugly mischievous expression. “Discord! Um, I'm not sure this is the best time-” Fluttershy began, anxiously tapping her hoof-tips together. “Nonsense!” he exclaimed, forming a face on the back of his head to address her. “Where better to get your answers than straight from the draconequus' mouth, hm?” With another click of his fingers, Discord, Star, the stump she had been sitting on, and the ironwork table disappeared; replaced by the pegasus laying on a chaise longue and Discord sitting in an antique armchair beside her. The reformed lord of chaos was now wearing a diamond-patterned sweater-vest, fake beard, and round glasses, as he licked a pencil tip before flicking through a clipboard of blank paper. Shooting Star lay supine, frozen by the shock of whatever had just happened. “What in the blue-” she began, but was immediately cut-off. “Now tell me vere it all shtarted goink wrong,” he asked in a mock Germane accent. The pegasus flew into a rage, violently flailing her way off the couch, only to be grabbed by prehensile pillows and forcefully pulled back. “Let go of me, you monster!” “Very interestink, but how does it make you feel?” “Discord!” Fluttershy snapped, causing the draconequus to flinch. The gentle pegasus raising her voice was a well-learned sign that once again he had gone a little too far. “Oh, very well,” he grumbled, effortlessly snapping everything back to how it had been with a single flash of light. Discord now stood with his arms folded petulantly next to Fluttershy, who smiled repentantly across the table at their intensely panicked guest. Star's eyes shot left and right like a mouse trapped in an Abyssian's larder, suddenly feeling that same helplessness of being at the whims of a greater power that she had just before arriving to this world. “Now, apologise to our guest,” Fluttershy instructed her reformed friend in a scolding tone. “Oh please, I was merely-” “Discord. Like—we—discussed.” “Fine,” he hissed, grinding his teeth in frustration before begrudgingly grunting through them. “I'm sorry for altering reality against your will. I am a recovering chaos addict.” “That's better. Now, let's please conduct the rest of this conversation like civilised, reality-conforming adults.” “Perish the thought,” Discord grumbled, flashing into existence his own version of one of the Castle of Friendship’s crystal thrones, and taking a seat. Shaking her head with a small sigh, Fluttershy turned her attention back to Shooting Star, who was still staring at her friend, bug-eyed. “Discord is right, though, there's no better creature to answer your questions than him. Just as long as you don’t reveal anything that could change the past.” “Please, what do you take me for? I’m quite familiar with time-travel etiquette, thank you very much,” the draconequus pouted, indignantly. Every muscle in the Valkyrie's body screamed as she remained frozen in fight-or-flight mode. Watching your friends and colleagues turned to stone with the snap of a finger was one thing—she had even been teleported by him once, with the rest of the palace staff—but being the sole focus of his seemingly infinite power was truly terrifying. He could do anything. Anything. A snap of his fingers and she could cease to exist, be physically warped beyond recognition, or subjected to an unending existence of unspeakable torture at his whims, assuming that wasn’t already what this place was. Why had she tried to fight him before? What did she hope to accomplish as an insignificant pegasus against his magic? The only skill she had was flying away, just like she had flown away from her parents. She was a coward deep down, and this proved it. Discord and Fluttershy shared a look of confused concern as the rainbow-maned pegasus shook in silence, a cold sweat forming on her brow. “Come now, dear, I won't bite; not unless you ask me to,” Discord joked, opening his mouth to reveal his tongue as a miniature Discord, who waved merrily. Unimpressed, Fluttershy gave him a swift jab in the ribs, causing him to bite off his own tongue, which proceeded to sprout its own legs and fly to freedom. “Ow! You know, just because it's magic doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.” “Don't worry, Shooting Star, he won't do anything to you while I'm here,” Fluttershy cooed passive-aggressively. “Go ahead and ask anything you'd like.” The tense pegasus swallowed, attempting to regain control of her throat. Just what was it about this mild-mannered pegasus that bent this psychopathic force to her will? Was she somehow stronger than she seemed? Had he become weaker after all this time? It didn’t feel like it. She couldn't begin to understand this bizarre pair's dynamic, but that wasn't why she was here; she was here for answers, and she didn’t have time to wallow in her own insecurities. It was do or die time. “Wh- Why?” She grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to escape the flashbacks of her falling comrades. “Hm. Oh, I know this one!” Discord exclaimed with a clap. “It's ‘What is a question I can't possibly answer’, Alex.” Fluttershy shot him a withering sidewards glance, warning him to take this seriously. “Oh, all right, but I don't see why I should be the only one making sense here; this is not part of my job description.” He sighed, swapping his crossed leg. “Let's start again, shall we? I'm Discord, Lord of Chaos and purveyor of madness,” he announced with pride, placing his hand on his chest before mumbling dryly; “Reformed, of course.” The draconequus folded his mismatched arms as he relaxed back into his smug smile, waiting for a reply. After a few silent beats passed, he began to tap his cloven hoof impatiently. “This is usually where civilised creatures give their names in return, you know. It takes two to tête-à-tête.” “It's okay if you don't want to,” the yellow pegasus interjected, once more sliding her hoof across the table in camaraderie. “Just take your time. If it helps, Rainbow Dash already shared with us what you told her.” “But it's the principal of the thing!” Discord objected, having already been forced out of his comfort zone himself. “Everycreature already knows my name, but I still introduced myself! Did they not have manners in ancient Equestria?” “Shush. My name's Fluttershy. There's nothing special about me, I just run this animal sanctuary and take care of any sick or injured animals that come to Ponyville, big or small. I've been friends with Discord for quite some time now-” “Best friends,” he corrected. “-So I know how to deal with him, and I can tell when he's lying.” “Yes, well,” he pouted defensively. “I've simply come to appreciate a little routine amidst the chaos of life. Don't think for a moment that I've become one of your 'domesticated critters'.” “What's that supposed to mean?” she snapped, turning to him. As the unlikely pair squabbled like an old married couple, Star attempted to calm her breathing, placing one hoof on the other to abate its shaking. She had felt fear before, having survived both a war and prior encounter with Discord, but this was the first time she had ever felt truly helpless, and it wasn't a feeling she was well equipped to deal with. She had always been the fastest, always had a plan, always believed it was just a matter of time before she got what she deserved... Was this the same ego she had scorned Rainbow Dash for? Had she been so accidentally successful her entire life that only now, as she feared losing everything that she had accomplished, she was finally seeing herself for the first time? These deeply personal questions were more than she was willing to confront at this very moment, but there was at least one she was capable of answering aloud; “Lieutenant Shooting Star. Drill Sergeant of the Valkyrie Corps, aerial division of the Canterlot Royal Guard.” The bickering immediately ceased as Discord and Fluttershy turned back to Star, surprised by her sudden vocalisation. “Oh, so she responds to you,” the draconequus sneered. “And don't I remember something about your title being honorary? You forgot to mention that part.” “Discord!” Fluttershy hissed, before smiling warmly at their guest. “Thank you for introducing yourself, Shooting Star, it’s a pleasure to formally meet you. Are you ready to ask Discord what you wanted to know?” “I'm all ears,” the draconequus grumbled, contemptuously folding his arms at the short leash he was being kept on. Shooting Star exhaled, lowering her forelegs to her side as she regained composure. “Why… Why did you attack Canterlot?” She bit her cheek as she forced herself to make searing eye-contact with the monster across the table. Her attention was met with mild interest, though his eyes lacked any trace of intimidation, not that she expected to see any from this heartless beast. “‘Attack Canterlot’?” Discord echoed with faux shock, overacting the following moment of thought by extending his lip and cupping his chin. “Well it depends which time you're talking about, though I wouldn't call it an ‘attack’, myself. Simply... ‘unappreciated entertainment services’.” “‘Entertainment services’?” Star hissed through clenched teeth, feeling her face heat up from his blasé attitude. “Discord, please take this seriously, she's already been through enough,” Fluttershy mediated. “You can see she’s trying, so you should too.” He clucked his tongue. “I’m not sure exactly what you’re expecting me to confess to here. For all the disreputable dalliances in my past, not once have I done anything to make anycreature this angry at me. Why, she’s practically frothing at the mouth!” With a small flash, the pair turned to Shooting Star, who now had a thick, white froth covering her lips like a beard. Realising what was now there, she turned and spat out what she could—thankfully, said froth tasted to be from cider in origin. Fluttershy turned back to her partner with a scowl, though he continued as if nothing had happened. “If I had attacked Canterlot, don’t you think somecreature else would remember? Like, I don’t know, me? I’ve noticed that such a thing tends to attract some attention, and more than a little ire.” “If it happened two-thousand years ago, nocreature would still be around to be angry,” Fluttershy snapped back, before realising what she said and turning to Star apologetically. “Sorry, no offence.” “True, I do sometimes forget that not every creature lives as long as I do,” Discord mused, nodding. “Though I am reminded when I see the grey streaks in Rarity’s mane.” Fluttershy delivered another sharp kick for insulting her friend. “Outch! Honestly, I don’t know why you’re taking this Rainbow Dash-knock-off’s word over mine. You’d think I’d have gained a little ‘benefit of the doubt’ by now, having saved Equestria more times than I can count on my toes!” He gestured dramatically down to his singular hoof, which he wiggled for emphasis. “There’s only so many times I can defend my good name before getting testy.” He huffed and folded his arms, leading Fluttershy to feel as though she had indeed been too hard on him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel like we’ve been ganging up on you. I do believe you, it’s just hard to take your answers seriously when you’re behaving so insincerely.” He heaved a deep sigh, relaxing his arms as he seemed to take on a more serious tone. “As I’ve said, I don't recall having ever met this pony before, nor do I recall ‘attacking’ Canterlot with such results as to elicit this kind of hatred. Obviously she isn’t referring to the events of this era, and the only thing before that was my little tussle with the previous Princesses, which I’ll remind you left me as a garden ornament for the next two-thousand years.” “And you don’t remember anything happening before you were turned to stone by-” Fluttershy peeked at Shooting Star, worrying if they had already revealed too much of her future. Luckily, the Valkyrie appeared to be too caught up in her own schadenfreude. “So you got turned to stone too?” Shooting Star smirked, relishing the irony too much to even realise the clear existence of a cure to said ailment. “Oh don't look so giddy,” he snapped, pouting. “Honestly, you'd think I was as bad as Tirek the way you're carrying on.” Fluttershy grit her teeth at the sudden release of even more future-sensitive details. “Why does everypony keep mentioning Tirek?” Star immediately asked, her mood seemingly lifted by the knowledge of Discord’s comeuppance. “Is the book popular in your time or something?” “‘Book?’ Oh, um-” Fluttershy stammered, unsure how to back-pedal from this one. “Tch. Why does he get a book and I don't?” Discord snapped. “I didn’t even get my own crystal throne for saving Equestria!” He flung his arms out to emphasise the one he had created himself. “‘Save’ Equestria? You?” Star half-snarled, half-chuckled, having not believed what she had heard the first time. “Discord, shh!” Fluttershy hissed. “Oh right, 'preserving the timeline' or whatever.” He rolled his eyes, leaning back inhis throne. “This spinning dirt-ball has been around for millennia, and time is still linear?Please.Talk about passé. Certainly not how I’d do things.” “Enough of this nonsense,” Star interrupted, clearly emboldened by Discord’s fallibility. “I’m here for answers, not stories. I don't care if you remember me, but are you seriously saying that you don't remember killing King Cosmos and petrifying the staff?!” Star shouted, standing up as she leaned on the table. “You destroyed Canterlot!” “‘Killed’?! ‘Destroyed’?!” He sat up, taking these allegations quite seriously now. “My dear, I think I would recall something quite so dramatic, as would history. Do you think I would have been given a chance at redemption had I done something quite so serious? You may not know me personally, but ‘serious’ is not in my repertoire.” He exhaled, relaxing his posture once more as he steepled his mismatched fingers. “I may not be the poster-draconequus for good intentions, but I won't be lumped in with the likes of that horned meat-head or that poor excuse of a 'Storm King'. I am the Lord of Chaos, not Destruction.” “I'm afraid I have to agree with Discord on this,” Fluttershy stated with an almost apologetic look. “He may have done some unsavoury things in the past, like turning our friends against each other, capturing the Princesses, helping Equestria be drained of magic, not helping when Canterlot was enslavedfor the second time, impersonating Grogar-” “Yes. Thank you,” he sneered sarcastically. “-but he's never been violent. What exactly did you see him do?” Shooting Star's lip raised, sick of having to justify her anger to everypony she met. Was it really so hard for them to imagine this all-powerful agent of chaos abusing his near-infinite power? Perhaps it was too long a time ago for them to care, but for her it was mere days. “Besides dark magic that only ‘he’ could have cast?” she barked. “Stone walls becoming quilts? Objects springing to life? Teleporting the entire residence of the palace back as they tried to flee?” “Well, those things aren’t exactly evil,” Fluttershy weakly joked before sighing. “I guess you get used to it.” “He turned ponies to stone with his fingers, using the same magic as just now! He- They- They fell… Shattered. Valkyries- My friends- Private Bells—just gone.” A tear slipped from her eye before she knew it, which she angrily struck from her cheek. She glared at Fluttershy, her eyes as red as her cheeks. “Is that ‘evil’ enough, or was seeing my comrades shatter like glass just a cute little prank too?” Her chest heaved as she lifted an accusatory hoof toward the perpetrator. “I watched him swat us down like flies, no less real than he is right here, right now.” Fluttershy had already teared up, her hooves covering her mouth as she struggled to find words strong enough to console the Valkyrie. She could feel the genuine pain radiating from Shooting Star, which was beyond a doubt spoken with truth from the heart. Likewise, Discord raised a feline paw to his chest, his face unusually straight as he expressed rare, genuine sympathy. “It sounds like a truly terrible thing has happened to you and your kin.” He paused for a beat. “But I swear to you, hand on my heart, that I would have never done such awful things. For the pleasure I derive—or derived—from mischief and perversion, even before my reformation I would have never caused physical harm to any creature, let alone to that degree. I’ve never even heard of King Cos-” Shooting Star shrieked in frustration, slamming her hooves loudly against the ironwork. Before her hosts could react, she spread her gradated wings with a mighty 'fwoosh' and blasted herself vertically into the sky, bursting a cloud above them before jetting off with near-sonic-boom speed, causing the nearby Soft Touch to nearly jump out of their skin. “Wait!” Fluttershy screamed as she stood, though it was already too late to even be heard. Discord exhaled heavily, finally feeling the weight of the accusations against him. He knew for certain that he had never done the things she was alleging—there’s no way he could simply forget such acts. It did sound like his magic, but it simply wasn't in him to be such a... monster. Was it? Sure, he could believe that he’d messed around with the palace and its staff so long ago that such petty misdemeanours had slipped his mind, but petrifying ponies? Allowing them to shatter? There’s no way he wouldn’t remember that, even if his memories were hazy before that first meeting with the royal sisters. That… was their first meeting, right? Fluttershy lowered herself to her stump as she continued to stare at the cloudless spot in the sky, her mind blank as to what to do next. Not only had she been caught off-guard by this encounter, but she seemed to have only make things worse! “What if what she saw only looked like me?” Discord pondered aloud, thoughtfully stroking his chin-hair. “What?” the yellow pegasus asked hollowly from her deafening daze. “Well, you and I are no strangers to changelings or disguises of a magical nature. Perhaps what she saw was me, but not me.” Fluttershy blinked a few times, struggling to wrap her head around the simple concept. “Are you saying that... you were framed?” “I can't imagine who would want to do such a thing, especially considering how ineffectual it was, given that we’re only just now learning of it. If somecreature was trying to besmirch my good name, they certainly did a poor job of it. Have you considered-” Discord stopped himself, prompting the pegasus to ask what she was supposed to be considering. “Have you considered that… perhaps she is the one trying to ruin my reputation?” “What are you saying?” “Think about it; I’ve begun to make quite a name for myself as the ‘eighth Mane Six’, and all of a sudden some pony appears out of nowhere, claiming that I’m some sort of super-villain that’s done things that only she remembers. How do we know that she’s not the changeling?” “There’s no way that she was faking those emotions, I’d stake my sanctuary on it. Besides, if Twilight says that she came from the past, I believe her.” He sighed, slumping back in his crystalline throne. “I suppose you’re right. It just doesn’t add up.” “We should tell Twilight what just happened—she might do something dangerous while this upset. Besides, if anycreature can catch up with Shooting Star, it’s Rainbow Dash.”