DISCORD'S REIGN
Chapter 7-Idols & Anchors
Applejack saw the top of the library come up over the hilly road Rainbow and herself traveled down. A light illuminated the loft window as she quickened her pace, her placated anger now reemerging from where she had buried it for the time being. Rainbow kept up with her as they reached the entrance after a short jog. Applejack bucked her back hooves hard against the door, nearly knocking it down.
"Applejack! You need to chill out!" she snapped as Applejack took a step behind the pegasus reluctantly. "Let me do the talking okay? All you're gonna do is scare Spike into a coma."
"Fine..." she said as the door creaked open about a half inch, revealing a green vertical pupil in the crack.
"Oh, it's just you guys..." he said opening the door completely, Applejack rushing in before Rainbow had a chance to stop her.
"Where is she?!" AJ growled as she got face to face with the scared witless young dragon.
"She went to Canterlot on business! The Princess sent an escort for her and everything I swear!" he answered frightened, his back against the wall before Rainbow Dash got a hold of her tail and pulled her back.
"What did I tell you?!" she said getting just as angry as Applejack.
They glared at each other before the earth pony glanced at Spike, then back to her, anger still present in her eyes as she finally relented and took a step back.
"Spike, how come Twilight didn't go on the date she said she was going on with Big Mac?" she asked somewhat calmly, the young dragon still shaking in fear from Applejack's outburst.
"She got ready to go, and we waited until eight o'clock, b-but when the time came royal guards showed up and told her the Princess needed to see her immediately!" he pled, imploring them with his scared eyes alone to believe him. Rainbow turned to look at Applejack, her face still unsatisfied with the answer (or excuse, as she saw it) he had given.
"When is she supposed to come back?" the pegasus asked in as nice a manner as possible, trying to calm Spike's nerves enough to give a straight answer.
"I don't know...she said if she wasn't back in a day, to tell you she was kidnapped by Discord." he added, unsure of wether or not they would believe him, as he barely believed Twilight when she told him.
"Discord?! That's a lie if I ever heard one! Just wait till I get my hooves on that yellow bellied-"
Rainbow Dash silenced her with a glare as she turned back to Spike.
"That doesn't make sense Spike, Discord is still sealed in stone. If she didn't want to go out with Big Mac, she should have just said so instead of leading him on like that." she added, doubting his story and losing some respect for Twilight in the process.
"That's what she told me to tell you guys! Honest!" he admitted, though their expressions still held stares of suspicion.
Applejack stepped passed Rainbow Dash and got into Spikes face as he cowered away.
"You tell her when she gets back, Applejack's lookin' for her." she nearly whispered in a threatening tone. He simply nodded as she turned and headed out the door, Rainbow following close behind as they headed back to Sweet Apple Acres.
"You probably coulda handled that a little better." the blue pegasus stated after they were a ways away from the library. She shot daggers at her before she responded.
"Don't tell me what I coulda done!" she said, anger still prevalent in her words. "Nopony does that to my kin and gets away with it."
Rainbow looked down the road to the farm deep in thought. It just wasn't like Twilight to lie, or make up some lame excuse for something she didn't want to do...but then again she was the element of magic, not honesty. She couldn't shake the thought in the back of her head that perhaps there was some truth to what Spike had told them. The official business part anyway, Discord escaping was just ridiculous.
"What if Spike was telling the truth?" she asked, earning a disgusted look from Applejack for even entertaining the thought.
"She was kidnapped by Discord? He somehow magically escaped from stone and is now pretending to be princess Celestia just so he could ruin Twilights romantic life? You do hear how dumb that sounds don't cha?"
"No not that, I mean that she coulda been called away by the princess, she is her number one student or whatever..." she suggested.
Applejack didn't respond, not wanting her anger to be explained away so easily.
"For her sake, I hope that's true."
After Celestia's chamber had melted away, they were transported to a quaint village, not much larger than ponyville, though the houses and buildings were much more primitive.
"Where are we?" Twilight asked looking around.
"This is where Princess Celestia was born. Humble beginnings for a pony destined to have the lives of millions in her hooves isn't it?" he asked as he walked down the dirt road toward what appeared to be a schoolhouse judging by all the fillies and colts outside it as he beckoned Twilight to follow. As they approached, they heard the mocking laughter of foals, in what looked like a group they had formed on the playground. Discord and Twilight were tall enough to see that in the middle of the group, being laughed at was none other than the filly version of princess Celestia, silently crying while the other foals mocked her every facet, from her multicolored mane to her sun emblem cutie mark.
Twilight was stunned by this egregious lack of respect for the monarch of Equestria before remembering this was clearly before she came to power.
"Yes, dear princess didn't have an easy childhood. She was different from all the other ponies. She had wings and a horn. You know how cruel children can be..." Discord said seeming as if he was amused by her suffering. His expression disgusted her.
"At home, things weren't much better." he said snapping his fingers and transporting them to the inside of a modest home, the sounds of arguing echoing through the closed bedroom door of a young princess Celestia as she hugged her stuffed unicorn close on her rather shabby bed.
"This was long before advancements in understanding the way alicorns and all other races were formed. The rest of the village thought of her and her parents as dangerous, thinking they had made a pact with some sort of dark entity or some other superstitious nonsense in order to have her. This caused an undue amount of stress on her parents, especially her mother while she was pregnant with Luna." he explained, the argument between Celestia's parents growing louder and more heated as the scared filly lay there, crying into her stuffed animal trying desperately to wish herself somewhere else.
Twilight had never known or would have even guessed her princess could come from such an upbringing. Her heart ached for the filly, wishing there was something she could do to help her, but swiftly remembering this was all in the past. She tried to detach her emotions from the situation as she heard a door slam, followed by the soft sobbing of a mare from somewhere else in the house.
"This was the night her father left her and her mother to fend for themselves. Truly a sad sight isn't it?" he said as a barely pregnant looking white unicorn came softly into Celestia's room, herself having looked like she had been crying for a while. She whispered something to her daughter that Twilight couldn't understand, as if they were speaking a different language. She looked to Discord in confusion as he remembered that the language had evolved considerably in 1000 years.
"Oh right, allow me to translate." he said snapping his fingers, their voices now speaking in a recognizable dialect.
"Where's dad?" Celestia asked.
"He's...he's gone sweetheart. He...He's not coming back..." she said quietly to her daughter, wanting to make up some story, like he'd gone on a long trip or business meeting, but she couldn't take lying to her daughter anymore. The filly's teary eyes filled with more hurt than Twilight could stand to look at directly.
"B-but...he said he loved me." she stammered through her agony, the thought of not being wanted by her father crushing the little filly's spirit right before Twilight's very eyes.
"I know Celestia...I love you-" she began, but was cut off by an angry outburst from her daughter.
"It's because of these stupid wings and this dumb cutie mark isn't it?!" she shouted angrily, her horn beginning to glow as her magic surrounded her wings, in an attempt to pull them off by force.
"I wish I was never born like this!" she said gritting her teeth through the pain as she pulled on her wings with her magic before her mother stopped her in a tight hug, wrapping her forelegs around the struggling child.
"Celestia stop! You're perfect the way you are! I wouldn't want any other filly but you as my daughter! You're beautiful to me Celestia, just the way I made you..." she cried, still holding the child in her arms as they both broke into tears together. Her mother laid onto her back on the young princesses bed, pulling her daughter into her arms as she snuggled close against her. Her mother softly began to sing her to sleep as the little princess continued to cry quietly into her mane. Twilight recognized the song as one the princess had once sung to her when she was just a filly, still training at her academy one night when she couldn't sleep.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take, my sunshine away..."
Celestia's mother's words rang in hear head as Twilight could barely see the scene in front of her through her tears. She heard the echoing snap of Discord's fingers as they were transported back outside, into a forest during the daytime.
"I'd say that's quite enough of that. Now that you have a some background on dear old princess, why don't we move ahead a little?" he said walking through some bushes to a small clearing where the young Celestia had gathered a seemingly random assortment of items. An eagle's feather, a lion's claw, a dragon's scale, a goat and deer's antlers and a small lock of her mane she had just pulled out with a wince, arranging them in a five pointed star with her hair in the middle, then looking back to consult a very old looking book she had placed next to her on the ground. Twilight walked over to try and read what was written on it, but the language was indecipherable.
"It's an ancient spell book. It was rumored to be just superstitions since even the most powerful unicorns of the day couldn't make any of the spells work. I figured you'd be curious." he explained as Twilight looked over to the young Celestia, counting off steps from the circle as she positioned her hooves properly. She took one last look at the book then took a deep breath.
"Pay attention Twilight!" Discord said excitedly as he pulled an inexplicable pair of red goggles down over his eyes. "You're about to witness Celestia's greatest sin!"
The alicorn's horn began to glow white, as did the corresponding objects before her. She said a few words that sounded to Twilight like gibberish as a small ball of energy encompassed the items in front of her. The strain on the filly's face was obvious, biting her lip to keep from breaking her concentration as Twilight shielded her eyes with one hoof. A thunderous boom and a blinding flash, later, the princess-to-be was thrown back a few feet, her face coated in soot as she coughed, getting to her hooves.
She rubbed the dirt from her eyes and ran to look at what she had done. Twilight lowered her hoof as Discord removed his goggles. Twilight couldn't believe what was sitting in the crater. It was a smaller, cuter version of the deity standing to her right. It was baby Discord.
"It worked!" Celestia gasped in happiness.
"It worked! It worked! It worked!" she repeated merrily as she bounced around her creation, little Discord smiling at her and laughing.
"You...she...created you?" Twilight asked in disbelief, looking to the god of disharmony as he seemed to have a nostalgic expression on his face.
"Well that's pretty obvious isn't it?" he answered as Celestia walked up to her new companion and picked out a name for him.
"Hm...I'm gonna call you...Discord! It was our word of the day yesterday, and your body's all mismatched, so it kinda fits." she said smiling at him as he just sat there looking at her, returning her grin, which was all he pretty much knew how to do at this point.
"Looks like I'm gonna hafta teach you how to talk." she said as little Discord repeated her last word.
"Talk!" he said happily as he grabbed his mismatched feet and rolled onto his back giggling.
"C'mon Discord, let's go show you to mommy!" she said levitating him onto her back as they rode out of the woods.
"Wait...why did she create you?" Twilight asked as they stood now alone in the clearing of his birth, her head still spinning trying to take in such an improbable revelation.
"She wanted a friend. Everypony in town ostracized her and her mother with the exception of a few kind souls. I was her only companion for many years, even after Luna was born. She taught me everything, how to speak, how to read, how to plan and organize...she was a lot like you Twilight. A place for everything and what not."
This was astounding to her, Discord was once...nice? Moreover, he was once Princess Celestia's friend? Twilight was speechless as the Spirit of Disharmony snapped his fingers once more. This time they arrived at what appeared to be the edge of town, Princess Celestia now looking just a few years older than Twilight, flanked by four royal guards as rain came down, causing their armor to make soft pings in the night air. Discord looked more like he did now, though without the goatee being quite as long, standing opposite her. There were no words, just cold glares.
"The irony of this situation is, she created me, granted me immortality so I could be by her side forever. I promised her I would be, and she ended up exiling me so she could rule Equestria with her sister. She cast me out so that none of her loyal subjects would ever know she had toyed with nature itself in creating me. To them, I was a monster, and she could't have any of those running around in her kingdom, especially one for which she was responsible. My sole purpose in life, the reason for my existence in the first place, was pulled out from under me. The funny thing was, I didn't want revenge. I just wanted her to know how it felt, to be roaming the planet, unable to die, only able to live without a cause. So I left her kingdom without a struggle, or even a cross word. But it was out in the wasteland that I discovered I too had some rather unique abilities, granted to me by way of her using a bit of herself to create me. I honed those abilities until I felt I was able to take on anything she could throw at me. I had to cast off everything she had previously instilled in me. Rules, order, logic, all had to be replaced. It was then I took up the mantle of chaos, and I truly became the being I am today." he said in an unusually somber tone.
"When the time was right, I emerged from the wasteland with a storm of furious madness that shrouded the land in insanity. There was little they could do to stop me, and I arrogantly thought I had them on the ropes. The land was under my control, and I was more powerful than you could possibly imagine, every pony in Equestria feeding my power with their misery under my chaotic spell. Then she created those blasted elements of harmony, sealed me in stone for a thousand years, and meticulously erased any and all evidence of my true origins, rewriting the history books to make me seem like some kind of god that has always and will always exist. While I always will exist, I am certainly no god. For a thousand years, anyone who dared mention Celestia's past was banished, and their traces struck from the history books until eventually, I became the stuff of ghost stories and legend." Discord concluded as he watched his former self walk into the stormy night, not even giving a cursory glance in the direction of his creator.
"Discord...I had no idea..." she said in disbelief as their surrounding's slowly morphed back into Celestia's chambers'. He turned to her and smiled.
"Of course you wouldn't. Your dear princess made sure of that." he said checking a watch that had just appeared on his wrist.
"Well, I think that's enough time. You're free to go Twilight." he said summoning the guards to escort her out of the castle.
"Wait, you're letting me go? Why?" she asked stunned, only minutes ago assured that she would be his prisoner forever.
"I only wanted to waste your time, and by now I'm sure there's a certain country friend of yours who would like a few words with you about a certain stallion." he said grinning gleefully as she realized what he had done. He had only imprisoned her to make her miss her date? Surely he wasn't that petty?
"You locked me up in that hell hole just to make me miss my date?!" she snapped furiously, angry at herself for not seeing through his ploy.
"Have you been paying attention? I deal in misery and chaos! What better way to cause misery that wasting your time and making you miss your night out with some excessively emotional story?" he said smugly as an anger built in her heart the likes of which she had never felt before.
"Was any of it even true?" she growled as he snapped his fingers, producing an envelope in his claw.
"And the Oscar goes to...Oh my goodness! Me! I'd like to thank the academy! Princess Celestia, and all the little ponies out there who will soon know misery and confusion beyond their wildest imagination!" he began as a sinister smile graced his face. Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing. The normally calm unicorn felt rage building inside her as the guards entered the room and led her out.
"Have a good evening Twilight! Send my regards to the Apple family!" he laughed as the chamber doors closed. A short trip to a waiting chariot and she was flown back to her house just as the sun was beginning to rise. She entered the library to find Spike asleep against the door, waking him as she opened it.
"...Ugh...Twilight? Twilight you're back!" he said happily as he jumped to his feet to greet her.
"What happened to you?" he said noticing how tattered she looked compared to when she left.
"I...I'm not even sure. Spike...remember when I told you to tell the other's if I didn't come back, that I had been kidnapped by Discord?"
The young dragon nodded slowly as she continued.
"I said that, because Discord has escaped. He's posing as princess Celestia in Canterlot right this second!"
Spike's eyes were filled with doubt as she pled with him to believe her.
"I know it sounds crazy, but he's making everyone else see himself as princess Celestia, and I'm the only one who see's him for what he is!" she said passionately, trying her best to make what she had said not sound completely insane. It didn't appear to be working.
"So you think, that princess Celestia...is really Discord in disguise from everypony else in the kingdom...but you?" he said trying to get what she had said straight.
"He has the power to make ponies see things for what they aren't, why wouldn't he apply that power to himself?" she asked, trying to convince Spike she wasn't slowly spiraling into the depths of insanity.
"Well...The princess has never sent an escort for you, and she probably wouldn't treat you as hostile if you didn't do what she said..." he said starting to possibly believe her arguments to have some merit.
"I don't know how he's able to do it to everypony, but you have to believe me Spike! Discord is free, and he's planning to run Equestria into the ground!" she pled, as Spike thought of another question.
"Okay...well if he is pretending to be princess Celestia, then where's the real princess?" he asked, Twilights expression shifted to one of worry as she sat on her flanks in the middle of the hardwood floor.
"That's what worries me Spike. I don't know. I don't know what he could have done with her. She's supposed to be the most powerful pony in all of Equestria..." she said softly as Spike tugged gently on her mane breaking her gaze away from her forelegs.
"You look really beat. I made your bed, now go get some rest, we can worry about this later."
"Spike! There wont be a later if we don't stop Discord!"
"Twilight, you need rest. You've been up all night doing Celestia knows what, and you know you can't think straight when you're tired. Now go." Spike demanded in a very uncharacteristic manner. She took a deep breath and sighed as she slowly walked upstairs.
"You're right...but you believe me, don't you?" she asked stopping in the middle of the stairway, her eyes begging him to give her the benefit of the doubt. After a second or two, he answered.
"Yeah Twilight. I believe you."
She smiled gently, thankful that her best friend still had her back even when she knew everypony else would think she was crazy. He was her anchor in this turbulent time, and she was glad that even if the rest of her friends may well want her committed to an insane asylum, that he would at least come visit her. Twilight's sleep cycle was all kinds of messed up as she woke around four in the afternoon that day. Spike had made her something to eat for when she got up, but it had long since gotten cold. She walked down to the main floor of the library where Spike sat asleep on the couch with the DSM IV open next to him.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence Spike." she said lifting the dragon onto her back and carrying him back up the stairs to his bed.
She trotted back downstairs and sat on the couch she had just evicted Spike from. Her thoughts dominated by one thing, and one thing only. How she could patch things up with Big MacIntosh. She was sure he had to have been hurt by her missing their date, but had no idea how she was going to explain it without sounding like a lunatic. She assumed Spike had told him what she instructed, but knew that even if she had actually been on royal business he would have had his doubts.
Then there was Applejack. She had already encountered her overprotectiveness, and that was before they had even done anything! The thought of facing her after doing that to her brother made her feel as though she had swallowed a beehive. She laid on her back and stared up at the ceiling forlornly. She could tell the truth, and hoped they believed her, or she could try and lie. Neither of which she was exactly comfortable in doing.
"Tomorrow. I'll just have to go to Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow and explain what happened, and take my lumps like a mare." she said swallowing in apprehension.
Tomorrow came and went, and Twilight hadn't so much as set hoof outside the library. She couldn't bear to show her face around Ponyville on the off chance she would run into Big MacIntosh, or worse, Applejack. Spike was supportive of her feelings for the first few days, but by day four, his patience was wearing thin.
"Twilight, you can't keep hiding in the library. Every day you spend not talking to Big Mac is one more day he'll spend thinking you stood him up on purpose!" he reasoned as she lay on the couch, paralyzed by the potential consequences of something that wasn't even her fault to begin with. She was wrapped in the blanket they had laid on during the Sun Celebration as she looked at the baby dragon standing in front of her with his arms folded.
"But he'll never believe I was captured by Discord! Nobody will!"
Spike walked closer to her and yanked the blanket out from around her.
"You've never, ever lied to your friends before have you?"
"No..."
"Then if they truly are your friends, they'll give you the benefit of the doubt like I did. You can't keep running from this, or you let Discord win. You said it yourself, he feeds on misery, and what are you right now?" he asked astutely.
She sighed and buried her face in one of the pillows before speaking a muffled response.
"Miserable..."
"Then go make yourself un-miserable!" Spike demanded as she pulled her face from the pillow and got up off the couch, stretching her legs.
"You're right Spike. I can't keep running from this. Thanks for putting up with me." she said as she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, the young dragon trying desperately to wipe it off.
"Bleh. Just say what you need to say, and you'll be fine." he said opening the door for her as she stepped outside for the first time in days. Her heart fluttered in fear as she thought of the task at hoof. She took a deep breath and reassured herself.
'They'll believe you...they're your friends. You've saved Equestria with this pony twice! She'll believe you.'
With confident thoughts in her head and nervousness in her body, she set out toward Sweet Apple Acres.