//------------------------------// // The Secrets He Hides // Story: Dark Libra // by DragonassasslnGR //------------------------------// Cassius had left the library and walked to the statue of Princess Luna as Nightmare Moon, in the Ponyville park. The moonlight was beaming down through the cloud cover and shining on the statue. Suddenly Discord stepped out from behind it, eating a golden apple. "So this is where you would go first. I owe Angel ten bits when I get back." he said with bits of apple falling from his mouth. "Chaos incarnate." Cassius muttered in a low voice. "Like I said before and I know you were listening in. I have no intention to stop you. I'm just here to keep... fatalities to a minimum if you don't mind." Discord assured him. "Step away from the beacon Incarnate." Cassius growled. "Still insisting on one word nicknames are we? How... prophesied of you. Fine, I'll play it your way." said the chaotic creature as he stepped aside. Cassius slowly approached the statue keeping his eye on Discord. When he finally made it to the statue he took off his head wrappings. His other eye looked exactly the same as the first, except all three rings where gray. He paced around it as he inspected it for abnormalities. Cassius walked over and ran a hoof over the side of it’s front. Finding a notch between the ground and the stone he began to dig. He was tearing through the earth with hell bent fury. Before long Cassius had almost created a sinkhole that would threaten to eat the statue. Discord watched with anticipation to see what had driven Cassius to enter this new perspective on life. Cassius stopped and climbed out of the hole he had dug. His wrappings from wings to his muzzle was covered in a thin layer of dirt and mud. He stared into the hole with an irritated look. "Incarnate, where did she hide it." He asked without looking away from the hole. "Which one is the IT that you mean, Cassius?" Discord said with a chuckle. A flash of lightning from a storm cloud struck in the distance giving off a flash of light. When the temporary light faded Cassius was staring daggers at Discord. Discord only grinned before saying, "Ooh, somepony is going for the scary approach tonight." "You know what I mean Incarnate. Where did she hide the beacon?" Cassius retorted. "Oh that IT, well it should be there in the same kind of box she locked the journal in. By the way did Twilight read it yet, come to think of it have you read it?" Discord asked with a large grin. Cassius looked at him with irritation of a few seconds then went back to the statue and continued to dig. ************************************************ Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash took to the sky to find Cassius while Twilight stayed at the library, she tried to find her book of stunning spells incase they couldn't reason with him. "What do we do when we find him Fluttershy?" asked the rainbow colored pegasus. "We try to reason with him." Fluttershy replied with determination in her voice. "And if that fails, then what?" Rainbow said softly. Fluttershy sighed, closing her eyes and looking down slightly. When she opened them she turned her head to look at Rainbow in the eyes and said, "We stall him until Twilight gets there." Rainbow nodded with agreement to plan B and they said nothing the rest of the flight. They flew over the park when they heard Cassius yelling about something. They immediately landed just behind a few trees and looked out from behind a bush they hid under. Cassius was pulling a midnight black box out from under the Nightmare Moon statue. It had the royal Canterlot seal on it and was locked with a golden lock. They noticed Discord leaning against a tree watching him. "There Incarnate, I found it. She wasn't as clever as she thought." Cassius said in laughter. "One down five to go. Soon all will be right with the world." he continued as he tried to smash the box. When his hooves made contact, there was a flash of light and Cassius was sent flying backwards into a tree leaving a massive splatter of blood on impact. "Bah ha ha ha."Discord laughed hysterically at Cassius. Rainbow grabbed Fluttershy before she could fly out and help Cassius, by covering her mouth. Dash could see the anger flash in her friends eyes, she thought Fluttershy would shoot flames from them at Discord if she could. Discord walked over to the fallen pegasus grabbing the box on the way. Still laughing, he crouched next to him. "Cassius, I promised not to tell you who you are, but I can heal you without violation to said promise." Discord looked at the blood splatter on the tree and said, "And it looks like you are in no position to say no. I however will withhold some things when I heal you. I do hope you understand why." With a snap of Discords claw Cassius was lifted into the air with light swirling around him. The bandages evaporated and all of his wounds instantly healed right before Rainbow and Fluttershy's eyes. There was another flash of bright white light that nearly blinded them both. When their vision finally cleared they saw Cassius looking right into Discords face. He stood straight on all of his legs and his wings were unfurled. His body showed no signs of ever being injured in the first place. His cutie mark had also changed color, the circle was still black but the symbol was now gold. There were also three more symbols glowing blood red. The first two where on both of his wings and the last one was on his forehead. "Somepony was enchanted while they were gone. Well never the less, you are welcome my forgetful friend." Discord said with a smirk. "The box incarnate, Now." Cassius demanded with a straight face as the symbols faded into his coat. Discord sighed loudly and said, "Right to the point. Even without your memory you are still the same. More or less that is." Discord handed over the Midnight black box to the gray pegasus. Cassius took it and held it under his arm. He flapped his wings once and was over fifty feet in the air in an instant. The force from the sudden gust of wind sent dust everywhere and almost knocked Discord over. Cassius hovered and looked around for a direction. When he found one he braced to move. Suddenly a sonic boom erupted in the blink of an eye and Cassius was gone leaving only the sound. The roar of the explosion shattered glass all around Ponyville. "Show off." Discord mumbled to himself as the earth trembled. Still standing where he was Discord looked into the sky. The sun was coming. He closed his eyes and said with a sigh, "Did you enjoy the show Fluttershy?" Fluttershy stepped out leaving an awe struck Dash with a gaping mouth beside the tree. "What was that about Discord? Why did you let him leave with whatever he has?" The yellow pegasus asked with raw and anger in her voice as she hastily trotted over to him. "I am keeping a promise to an old Friend that helped me long ago Fluttershy. I know its uncharacteristic of me to care about things like that. Until you helped me that is." Discord replied as he cocked his head and looked over to her. Seeing the sincerity on Discords face removed any anger she had. When she finally got to him she sat down and asked, "What was the promise?" Straightening his head and looking back to the sky, Discord sat down beside her and said, " Rule one: I am to keep Cassius from dying until he fulfills his purpose. Rule "2: I am not to interfere with whatever he does if it stopped him or hinders him. Rule 3: I am not allowed to tell him or anypony anything of his past. Those are the rules and I can not change or break them." "Who did you make the promise too?" Fluttershy asked quietly. "If I did Fluttershy I would break rule 3. He will be back and he won’t remember anything past scaring you." Discord said as he got up and started walking. "Oh, Rainbow Dash do you still want to race him?” Discord asked with a smile. ******************************************************** The night began to give way to the rising sun. Celestia was awake and performing her daily duties as the Sun Goddess. As she was watching the moon lower and her sun beginning to peek over the horizon she heard a sonic boom in the distance that broke her concentration and she lost her mental grip on the sleeping giant. Celestia was astounded when the castle itself shook even though it was far away from the epicenter. She could see something streaming across the sky at break neck speeds towards the Everfree Forest and was unsure as to what it was, but she could see the gray after trail from of it. Across the castle in another tower Luna was lowering the her moon when she too heard and felt the massive detonation. She looked over to Ponyville to see the air distorting and a gray blur flying away. She jumped off from the balcony that she stood on and flew to her sisters tower as fast as she could. Whatever just happened it must be trouble. "Sister did you see that?" Luna yelled as she came in to land beside the elder sister. Celestia just looked on in horror as the air started to calm down. "Sister are you ok?" Luna asked her sister who only stared at Ponyville. Celestia blinked and calmly said, "Luna we need to finish the transition of night and day. I need you to go to Ponyville and tend to whatever anypony needs help with. Just cast a energy to rejuvenation spell on yourself. I'll stay here and tend to the castle and the ponies of Canterlot." Luna did as she was told and flew back to her tower, finishing the transition with her sister. After the sun had taken the place of her moon she cast a spell that left her feeling as though she had gotten a good day's sleep. She was about to fly to Ponyville when a thought entered her head. What if the thing that caused the explosion was a threat and would attack her on sight. Luna decided to teleport there instead, but where would be a good place to go to. The local librarian would probably be glad to see her. Spike had been woken up by what he thought was a bomb going off in the park. All of the windows had either cracked or shattered and some books had fallen from their shelves. He was cleaning up the mess when Luna appeared inched in front of him. The baby dragon jumped back and took cover behind the center table of the main chamber in the library. "Twilight Sparkle where are you?" Luna called. Spike got up and said, "She had left with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy Princess." Luna lowered her head and asked calmly, " Spike where did she go?" the baby dragon shrugged his shoulders. Luna sighed and looked over the damage then asked, "Are you ok do you need my help with anything before I go looking for her?" "No princess please go find her and bring her back." Spike said with a fear for the worst. With that Luna nodded and walked out of the giant tree. Luna closed the door behind her and looked at all the nearby buildings. They were all in the same condition with the windows damaged or destroyed. Other than that they were safe to live in. she spread her wings and took off despite the possible danger. Finding Twilight was her first priority and she had to act quickly. Twilight Teleported next to the statue and looked around. She saw the hole under it and then looked to see Discord. She ran over to Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Discord and began to speak. "What happened and why is Discord here? No offence." Asked the confused mare. "None taken my dear. We just saw a friend off. Well at least until he snapped out of his... current condition." replied the creature of chaos lying down in the grass, while drinking a glass of chocolate milk from a swirly straw. "Discord was telling us that Cassius was acting on a memory fragment. That made him enter a memory so he thinks were are all people from it." Dash told the lavender unicorn. Fluttershy sadly nodded in agreement. With a confused look Twilight said, "So he is reliving a memory?" "Yes and from the looks of it a very traumatic one. Maybe the one that caused his Accident that left him in the condition he is in now." The three looked at him in horror. "I was kidding about the last part. Reformed or not I'm still allowed to have a sense of humor." Discord said as he shrugged. Rainbow Dash looked over to Twilight and said in an excited voice, "That sonic boom was Cassius breaking the sound barrier in less than a second." "Doesn't that make you the second fastest flyer in all of Equestria then." Discord said with a grin and one eye open looking at her with his hands under his head. The rainbow maned pegasus looked flustered and said, "Well... you saw the markings on his wings they must have been enchanted or something." "What markings did he have Dash." Twilight asked immediately. "They where enchantments Twilight. To be specific the ones on Cassius's wings are power boosters that increase physical strength. But the one on his forehead however is meant to lower willpower and mental functions." Discord said uninterrupted. "Why would that be there?" Fluttershy asked. "To prevent a resistance to spells. Speaking of." Discord said as he shot up and grabbed Fluttershy and Twilight by the heads. A sudden flash of light flickered from Discords claw and paw. Both Twilight and Fluttershy fell to the ground unconscious and motionless. Rainbow Dash backed away in fear of Discord's sudden hostility. "What did you do to my ..." she was interrupted by Discord's griffin claw clamping down on her head. The same flash of light appeared and she fell to the hard ground struggling to keep conscious. Discord flexed his wrist and said, "It's a memory lock spell. You won’t remember me being here or Cassius for that matter." He walked away and as Dash's vision blurred and faded.