Discord's Reign

by chief maximus

Ch.11 Darkly Dreaming Discord

DISCORD'S REIGN
Chapter 11-Darkly Dreaming Discord

Rainbow Dash raised her head and looked around. Her room was empty, and she knew she was alone in her house. She flopped her face back down onto her pillow, shrugging it off as her ears playing tricks on her due to lack of sleep. She allowed her mind to wander back to her moral dilemma as she heard it again.

This time though, she thought she pinned down where it came from. It seemed to originate from inside the closet where she kept her Wonderbolts uniform. She threw her hind legs over the bed and slowly stepped onto all fours. Her ears perked up. The sound came again. Now she was sure it was coming from the closet. Her heart began to beat faster as she carefully inched closer toward the closet door, her eyes transfixed on the source of the noise.

She lifted a hoof and quietly rested it against the closet door, ready to fling it open and make whatever was inside regret being there. She took a silent, deep breath. Her heart still pounding in her throat, she flung the door open and quickly checked every last inch of the closet. She sighed in relief, seeing nothing but her Wonderbolts uniform staring back at her.

She closed the closet door and walked away, shaking her head. 'I need to get some sleep.' She thought.

A yawn came over her as she turned back towards her bed, taking no notice of Discord sitting on it until she nearly ran into him. His mismatched blazing red pupils staring into what felt like her very soul as she took a cautious step back.

"Why hello Rainbow Dash!" he said jovially. "Long time no see."

She quickly regained her wits and glared at him, ready to attack.

"How did you get in here?" she demanded.

"Now is that any way to treat a house guest?" he asked standing from the bed, adopting a chastising tone.

She charged him, ready to slam into his chest. "I've got your 'house guest' right here!"

He simply moved his thin body out of the way and allowed her to crash into her wall, half of her outside her house and the other half inside.

Discord sighed grabbing her hind leg and yanking her out of the wall. "Always so quick to resort to violence. You certainly haven't changed."

"I don't know how you escaped," Rainbow Dash snarled, wings flapping wildly as she hung upside down, "But I'll get the other elements, and we'll put you back in granite where you belong!"

"Well, I don't want to spoil the surprise, but suffice to say I couldn't have done it without that lovely blind ambition of yours!" He smiled dropping her onto the floor on her head.

She quickly sprang back up and got ready to charge him again.

"Well, looks like you are still as stubborn as ever." he said snapping his fingers and summoning a rope that wrapped itself tightly around her hind legs and wings.

"Let me go!" she snapped, struggling against her bonds but to no avail.

"You've already proven you are prone to violence." Discord said, a devilish smile curling onto his lips. "I'm not here to hurt you, you know. I'm just here to talk."

"Now, if you think you can behave yourself, I might release you. Do we have an accord?"

Discord may have been a showman, trickster, word twister and malevolent prankster, but he wasn't a liar. She realized this and nodded, still keeping a sharp eye on the god of disharmony.

"Good." he said snapping his fingers. The pegasus collapsed to the floor as her bonds disappeared. "See? I'm a chimera of my word after all."

She got to her hooves and looked at him, a deep seated mistrust and dislike permeating her stare.

"What did you come here to talk about?" she asked, a small but genuine curiosity behind her words.

"Not so much talk about, but show. Words can be powerful, but actually being there, now that evokes all the senses." he added. "So why don't we begin our chat with your third day on the job as a member of the weather team?" a snap of his fingers and her house began to melt away, much to her alarm.

"What the hell are you doing to my house?!" she shouted, about ready to charge him again.

"Don't worry, your house is fine. I'm just taking you on a little trip back in time." he said as they found themselves standing in the middle of the sky. Rainbow immediately began flapping her wings, much to Discord's amusement.

"No need for that." he chuckled, walking across the empty sky. "I assure you, the ground is perfectly solid." Rainbow Dash looked ahead, startled to see a younger version of herself hovering next to an older pegasus stallion with a silver coat and light blue mane, a snowflake on his flank.

"Remember him?" he asked as he continued walking towards them. Rainbow followed hovering beside him; she still didn't trust his word about the sky being solid.

"Yeah." she said guardedly, folding her arms. "Sleet Fall. My old boss. What about him?"

Her was patience wearing quite thin.

"You know you never noticed," Discord said, "But he had quite the soft spot for you back then." Rainbow couldn't help but feel a slight disgust. She knew she liked mares even when she first dropped out of flight school and moved here, but even if she hadn't, Sleet was at least twice her age at the time.

"Ugh...so what? What does this have to do with anything?"

This had gone far enough. Discord somehow escaped, had broken into her house and was now subjecting her to embarrassing memories.

"You don't remember what day this is," the chimera asked smiling, "Do you?"

"No." Dash snapped, out of patience by this point.

"Well then," he said stepping closer to the pair of spectral pegasi. "Let me enlighten you."

The cyan pegasus hovered forward, a sudden premonition of misfortune burning the back of her throat.

Sleet Fall's words drifted through the still air.

"Alright Rainbow, you've been doing good these past few days, all that's left is for you to make a small shower over the apple farm and the meadows outside town. There are a few clouds to the southeast you can use, but don't bring in too many at a time. You'll have a thunderstorm or worse on your hooves before you know it. The static charge in those clouds will make them stick together and attract more clouds the bigger they get, so only use a few. Understand?"

"Yeah, yeah, not too many." she said smiling confidently, "It's not my first day on the job ya know."

"Alright. I gotta go check on the other trainees. After you get this done you can take your lunch break. You think you can handle this by yourself?"

"I said I got it!" she answered, her confidence bordering on arrogance.

The elder pegasus flew away as young Rainbow gathered the clouds from the southeast. Her stomach rumbled loudly as she decided that faster she got her work done, the faster she could eat.

"I could get a shower goin' in ten seconds flat if I just brought all the clouds from over there..." she said in direct defiance of her instructors warning.

"Starting to come back to you now?" Discord asked as Rainbow continued to watch her younger self gather as many clouds as she could manage and began pushing them over the apple orchard.

"Nope." she said flatly, unamused by whatever game he was playing at. "This just looks like another boring day as a trainee."

"Then let me try and jog your memory." Discord said sitting in the sky without any visible object to support him. "This was the day your boss got fired, and you gave yourself a concussion and a broken rib or two. Sounding familiar now?"

She did remember a time early in her career that she had hurt herself, but couldn't remember why or how it happened. No one else had been in the sector that day besides her boss. He had since resigned and left Ponyville following the accident, or so she was told.

The official story was that Sleet had not been paying attention to the wind speeds and directions while creating a shower, and perfect conditions allowed it to spiral into a thunderstorm in which one of his students was injured and two other ponies killed. His position and job protected him from criminal liability, but he was forced to quit and leave town in shame to search for new work.

Young Rainbow had already moved two large groups of clouds before she noticed the wind beginning to pick up, the particles in the air slowly charging the clouds, drawing more moisture from the air and increasing in height and size. She stopped and pushed the clouds she was bringing back where she'd gotten them as she tried to disperse the ones currently growing and turning darker by the second.

"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" she panicked as the towering cumulus began to rise, the winds above it going the opposite direction of those below, a perfect way to start a tornado. She knew she'd be fired if she didn't stop this system from developing further, so she ignored everything she had learned up until that point and flew into the heart of the clouds to try and drive them apart.

Soon the storm had grown so large that the clouds from the southeast she had used to build it were slowly drawing nearer to the massive thunderhead now settling in over the Sweet Apple Acres fields.

"Rainbow Dash! What have you done?!" Sleet shouted from outside the clouds as another weather manager followed him. He recognized what was happening and took quick action.

He glanced at the pegasus beside him, trying and failing to keep the panic out of his voice. "Sound the tornado alarm! I'll see if I can find her!"

"Have you lost it?" the other pony gasped. "That's a thunderstorm! Only an idiot would fly into that!"

"Just go!" he insisted as he took off toward the heart of the quickly developing storm, lightning illuminating the interior of the clouds as he disappeared into them.

"Rainbow! Rainbow where are you!" he shouted above the howling winds. He got no response as he continued searching, the strong gusts and frequent hail battering his wings as they struggled to keep him aloft. As luck would have it, a small break in the clouds revealed the unconscious rainbow maned pegasus in the dirt of a freshly plowed field. He darted downward snatching her up in his forelegs as he quickly flew beneath the clouds and toward Ponyville, the tornado warning siren blaring loudly.

At this point, everything froze as Discord snapped his fingers.

"So I bet you didn't know your little rush to get something to eat created a tornado did you?" he asked with that same mischievous grin across his face.

"So, everypony makes mistakes, mine was just a little bigger than most." she growled, still unmoved by Discord's forced trip down memory lane. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my house so I can get the elements together and seal you up again."

"Right, everypony does. I understand. Now here's something else I bet you didn't know." he grinned as if he were about to open a birthday present. "Ever wonder why Applejack lives with only her grandmother on that big farm?" Discord asked, preparing to resume time.

"No. It's never come up..."

Discord's grin grew ever wider upon hearing her response.

"This is easily the best part of this job." he said to himself as he snapped his fingers, resuming the normal flow of time.

"What say we follow Mr. storm cloud and see where he ends up shall we?"

Rainbow was slowly putting two and two together as she followed Discord and the cloud over the farm. The tornado alarm was still blaring as what appeared to be an Apple extended family picnic was interrupted by the sudden onset of the storm. The adults scrambled to gather up the children and herd them into the outdoor basement.

An orange mare with a red mane looked out into the fields to make sure everypony had been accounted for, and saw what couldn't have been more than a year old Applebloom crying out in one of the far orchards.

She raced toward her as fast as she could go, a larger dark red stallion calling to her from the cellar outside the barn where the entire Apple family hid. Rainbow spied a worried Applejack and Big MacIntosh looking on from inside the cellar as the mare quickly reached the scared filly, just as the funnel cloud touched down on the opposite edge of the field. Applebloom's hind leg lay pinned under a heavy fallen tree branch as the mare struggled to lift it, Rainbow hearing her words over the storm as if she were right next to her.

"It's okay sweetie, Momma's here."

The scared young filly only cried as her mother failed to lift it, the winds getting more fierce as she heard the dark red stallion call her name.

"Hurry Gala! The twister's coming!" he said taking a few steps out of the cellar, despite attempts from other family members to pull him back. Shingles from the roof of the barn flew off as the creaking of metal from one of the two apple silos echoed through the howling winds.

"I can't get it off her leg!" she responded still struggling as hard as she could but to no avail. The stallion took off at full speed toward the pair, reaching them just as the tornado was midfield and closing. The two of them combined moved the heavy branch and threw the still crying Applebloom onto the stallion's back as they ran as fast as they could toward the cellar.

Rainbow couldn't bear to watch her marefriends parents die, but she found herself unable to even blink, her muscles utterly frozen in such an intense amalgamation of feelings she could scarcely describe what emotion was currently coursing through her.

Debris from the farm had now scattered across the ground as they jumped and wove around other fallen branches and overturned tables on their way to their waiting family in the cellar. Rainbow watched on edge as they approached them, only a crossbeam from one of the tables laid in their way, but both were so focused on getting to the cellar, neither saw it. Their forelegs stumbled over it, catapulting Applebloom into the cellar and into Applejacks waiting hooves.

A creaking of tortured metal finally giving way brought all their eyes to the old apple silo sitting next to a brand new one as it listed heavily to the left, falling right on top of the two ponies only ten feet away from their waiting family, the sickening echo of collapsing metal reverberating through the farm and in the cyan pegasus' ears. The tornado moved across the field and into the Everfree forest before dissipating, Rainbow now standing on the solid sky Discord had told her about in stunned horror.

She had created the tornado that orphaned Applejack and her brother and sister. She felt sick, barely able to grasp what she just seen. She was a murderer, and not just any murderer. She orphaned the one pony in this world that brought her any real happiness. The headstrong pegasus hadn't even noticed the echoing cries of baby Applebloom right before the silo fell, tears of unimaginable guilt pouring from her eyes as the scene before her paused with a snap of Discord's fingers, and this too began to melt away as it reformed back into her bedroom.

"Well isn't that something? First you cheat on her with Spitfire, and now this!" he said clasping both hands together happily, "Although I suppose that happened in reverse order. Some element of Loyalty you turned out to be."

She couldn't believe it. Had what she seen been true? It conflicted with everything she had been told about that seemingly insignificant day. She literally felt like she was going to be sick as she sat on her flanks, her mouth still open with no words to accompany her expression.

"But...they said Sleet caused it..." she whimpered.

"Looks like old Sleet didn't want you to take the fall, so he took the blame, and with you not awake or able to remember what happened, no one questioned it." Discord shrugged, "Quite foolish if you ask me, but I guess he must have just been a hopeless romantic. I suppose you owe him more than you thought?"

Rainbow could do nothing except stare straight ahead, dozens of painful emotions battling for supremacy inside her. A mix of shock and pure self loathing fought for dominance across her face as the god of disharmony grinned, his work now complete.

Discord checked the time on a watch that had just appeared on his taloned wrist and added

"Well, that's my time. I hope whatever you ate for lunch that day was worth it!" he laughed sharply as he snapped his fingers, a bright flash filling her vision as Rainbow Dash awoke in her bed with a start. She tried desperately to catch her breath as her eyes darted around the room.

'It...it was just a dream...' she assured herself, though the indescribable guilt still tore at her heart. No dream in her recent memory had felt that real. Regardless, as she regained control of her heartbeat she settled on the realization that she had to at least try to apologize to Applejack, weather that meant taking a deserved buck to the face or not. She dried her eyes and tamed her mane as she set out on the front porch.

A sense of relief began to replace the guilt she felt in her dream after she realized it was just that. The thing that bothered her however was that none of her dreams up until that point had been so coherent or linear. Usually it was just a random assortment of ponies and places, but that...that was something completely different. And Discord was in it acting as some kind of guide. Certainly strange, but she assured herself it was just a harmless dream, probably brought on by all the worrying and stressing she'd been doing.

It was then that she decided to do something she had never done in all her years as the fastest pegasus in Equestria. Swallow her pride, and apologize to those she had wronged. She knew Applejack may not take her back, but she had to have closure, for her own sake. Before taking on that particular challenge, there was a certain old pegasus friend of hers she needed to make amends with.

---

Applejack stared nervously into her grandmother's somber expression, unsure of what was to happen next. She supposed she had heard the whole story she had told Pinkie as she inched closer.

"Now, I may be hard a hearin', but I know when my grandfoal has somethin' on her mind." she said taking a seat on a square bale of hay softly.

Applejack still couldn't find words as she considered that maybe there was a chance Granny Smith hadn't heard everything she said.

"Now dearie. This Raibow Dash feller done put his lips on another mare did he?" she asked to Applejacks relief.

The muted orange earth pony found herself at a crossroads. She could correct her grandmother and tell her that Rainbow Dash wasn't a stallion, or lie to one of the ponies that helped raise her. She thought of life in exile and being outcast from the only family she had ever known, never being able to see any of her kin again so long as she lived. Then she thought of the lie she would be living if she kept up business as usual.

'You're tha element of honesty for Celestia's sake!' she admonished herself. 'How can ya live up ta that title if ya try an lie to yourself and your family about who you love?'

Love. That was a word she'd never before used to describe her little Dashie, even in her head. She began to realize how miserable she had been without her, and it had only been a few hours. The cyan pegasus dominated her thoughts every waking second since she had broken her heart in the barn she currently stood. The choice she had to make was an easy one.

"Granny...Rainbow ain't a fella...she's a mare. A mare that...I love." she stammered, though she was confident in her head, her voice betrayed her true nervousness.

A pensive look crossed her Grandmothers face as Applejack steeled herself for all kinds of harsh names and expletives, but none came.

"So, it's a she? You fell fer another mare?" the elderly earth pony asked leaning back some against the hay.

Applejack nodded, still unsure of how Granny Smith would handle this news. Her brother had warned her about this, but this was a genie that couldn't be put back into its bottle.

"Well, I s'pose you have yer reasons, but I am a might sore at ya." she said quietly as Applejack immediately assumed the worst.

"I...I guess I'll get my things then..." she said sniffing up her tears and turning to the barn doors when Granny stopped her.

"Where you goin' child?"

Applejack turned to look at her as she took a step from the hay bale toward her granddaughter.

"I...I thought you were gonna kick me of tha farm...for likin' mares instead a stallions." she stuttered, still unsure of Granny Smith's true feelings.

"Heavens no child! I raised you. You thought I was gon exile you from tha Apple family home jus' 'cause you love somepony?" she asked in honest surprise.

Applejack's heart began to lighten as she realized that not only was Granny Smith not banishing her from her home, but also didn't seem to care she was in love with another mare!

"But- you said you were sore at me?"

Granny Smith put an aged foreleg on her granddaughter's shoulder.

"I was sore at ya on account a you not tellin' me what were the matter darlin'. I seen how hurt you were yesterday, but I weren't 'bout to pry inta yer business."

The heart stopping fear in Applejacks eyes morphed to tears of joy as she hugged her frail old grandmother around the neck, her shawl moistening from her occasional sobs.

"There, there child...It's all right now..." she whispered as she patted her back softly.

"Now from what I heard, she went ta kissin' on somepony else. That right?"

"Yes 'm." Applejack answered.

"That nice Pink filly gave ya some good advice. Ya tried gettin', Rainbow, was it? Her side ah tha story?"

"No ma'am."

"Well then, t'ain't much I can tell ya cept to go on an try ta find her. An keep that temper a yers under control." she added, knowing that she too had the same Apple family fire when she was younger.

"After, ya git yer chores done."

---

Big Macintosh had headed back toward Sweet Apple Acres as Twilight could only think of one thing she had managed to put off for the last day or so as she sat on her bed, books scattered about the loft. How to stop Discord. She still had no idea what he had done with Princess Celestia or how he had escaped in the first place, though she could only assume it had to do with the events of the night of the Sun Celebration.

Then there was the fact that she still had to get the rest of her friends to even believe Discord had escaped. So far only Applejack and Big MacIntosh said they at least gave her the benefit of the doubt. She was still at a loss as to how she would convince the others, let alone seal Discord back in stone where he belongs. The elements of harmony stopped him last time, but they were locked in Canterlot tower, if Discord hadn't cast them into a volcano already.

She heard Spike return with an armload of scrolls and set them on the table below her.

His footsteps trudged up the stairs as he flopped back onto his bed face down, having moved it back to where it belonged.

Twilight rolled onto her back and rubbed her eyes with her hooves.

"Spike, take a letter."

The young dragon produced a quill and paper from under himself and held them together, his head still buried in his bed.

"This is an emergency meeting of the elements of harmony. Everypony come to the library as soon as you can!"

Spike's tireless claws transcribed her every word while not looking up from his bed, expertly rolling up the scroll and lifting his face from his sheets.

"Going to the rest of the girls?" he asked inhaling.

"Yes. Thanks Spike."

With a blast of green fire the scroll was engulfed and split off in five different directions in the afternoon sun.

"Any ideas how to get the others to believe Discord's escaped once they get here?" she asked, craning her neck from her bed.

"None whatsoever."

The baby dragon answered. A moment later his head 'thunked' back onto his pillow.

Twilight laid her head back down and stared up at the ceiling.

"You're a big help Spike." she said sarcastically.

"Maybe I would be up to thinking for you if I didn't have to wait in line for an hour behind some old mare with forty coupons to buy another ten scrolls!" the tired baby dragon snapped back at her.

She opened her mouth for a rebuttal, but her normally silver tongue had turned to clay.

"Touche."

---

Big Macintosh trotted slowly through the iron gates, keeping a sharp eye out for Granny Smith or Applejack. He was supposed to be back last night to do his chores in the morning, but obviously got a little caught up at Twilights place.

"Macintosh! Where'n Celestias name ya been boy? Yer sister's out thar doin' yer chores." Granny Smith called from the porch in her rocker.

The red stallion jumped at her unexpected question before answering.

"Uh...I walked my marefriend home Granny, but she ahh...wanted me to keep her company through the night."

"Ah made my bed out in tha livin' room acourse." he added quickly, catching Granny Smith's inquisitive stare.

"I raised a proper gentlecolt then. Go'n an do yer chores now."

A curt nod and he set off toward the barn, his muscles still sore, but figuring he could power through his work and actually get a few hours rest tonight if he turned in early.

His sister was in the barn packing up apples into bushels when she saw his shadow.

"Well hey there Mac, where'd you get off to last night?"

He hooked himself to his plow harness as he answered his sister carefully.

"I took Twilight out for dinner."

"Really? I 'spose she actually showed up this time?" she said smiling back at her older brother.

"Eeyup. We ate at some fancy french place, then we..." he stopped halfway through, not wanting to kiss and tell.

Applejack caught on to her brother's trailing voice as she continued to probe.

"Yeah? Then what?" she asked earnestly, though the red stallion had known her long enough to know when she was trying to get something out of him.

"Then...we went back to the library and looked at the stars."

Applejack lowered her eyes, a sly grin coming across her lips.

"Looked at the stars? For all night and until this afternoon?"

"A lady doesn't ask, and a gentlecolt doesn't tell." he added tying off himself to the plow.

"Big MacIntosh you sly dog!" she teased, catching sight of his reddening cheeks as he left the barn.

After he had gone, she sighed to herself. Seeing her brother happy only reminded her that she still had a damaged relationship to fix, and was still unsure of how she was going to go about it.

Before she could consider it any further, a scroll appeared in front of her, floating gently down to the ground. She flattened it out with her forelegs as she read it.

'An emergency? I s'pose Big Mac can mind my chores. I did most ah his today anyway.'

She shrugged, left the barn and trotted off toward Ponyville.

During her trot, she had time to think of what she was going to say to Rainbow, knowing she'd be there.

'Guess I should start with an apology for flyin' off the handle...then I s'pose I let her tell her end of the story.'

Her thoughts interrupted by a rush of winds from behind her, two pegasi having just landed to her rear.

"Howdy Fluttershy and...Rainbow."

Rainbow looked down at her forelegs. "You go ahead Shy, I need to talk to Applejack for a second."

"Okay. Good luck!" she whispered as she continued along the road to the library.

At first, neither said much of anything. Unsure of who should make the first move, Applejack took it upon herself to initiate the conversation.

"Rainbow-"

"Applejack-"

They stopped talking as they both realized they'd cut each other off. Both shared a quick chuckle before continuing.

"Listen Rainbow...I...I'm sorry for...acting the way I did." she began, drawing her hoof along the ground nervously.

Rainbow's face lit slightly at Applejacks suggestion that she was the one who should apologize. "Sorry? You had every right to be mad! I made...a mistake. A huge mistake."

The cyan pegasus found herself digging into the ground with her hoof in apprehension as well, mentally preparing herself to utter two words she was fairly certain she had never said to anypony before.

"I'm sorry Applejack. I'm sorry it took me hurting you to realize how much you mean to me." she whispered, looking into her emerald eyes as they shined with relief.

"It's okay Rainbow. The time I've spent without you has been the most miserable I've ever felt in my life." the normally proud earth pony admitted.

Applejack met Rainbows magenta eyes, a relieved smile plastered across her face beneath her rainbow mane.

The farmers daughter nuzzled her head against her cheek affectionately, wordlessly accepting her apology.

"I know how hard that must have been for you." Applejack teased, earning a scoff from her cyan companion.

"Yeah, well..." she began, her earth pony mate cutting her off as she stood her up on her hind legs, her forelegs resting on her shoulders. Rainbow couldn't help but gaze into the perfect emerald bedroom eyes Applejack was sending her way, the heat of her breath across the bridge of her nose almost driving her to come the rest of the way toward the orange pony's waiting lips.

She whispered softly into her ear, rubbing the spot between her wings that she had discovered drove her cyan friend wild with desire.

"Ah missed you Rainbow. But you know what I missed the most?"

Her wings almost instantly stood straight out as she couldn't even muster the breath to respond. Applejack finished her sentence, but not before giving her a playful nibble on the ear.

"Whippin' your tail in a race."

She gave a sly smile before taking off toward the library, laughing as she went.

"Have fun eatin' my dust!" she called over her shoulder.

Rainbow smiled, a look of determination across her face as she tried to get airborne, but found her wings too stiff to fly.

'Clever filly...' she thought breaking off in a hoof race after her.

---

Rarity was the first to arrive at the library, hanging a rather large hat on the hatrack by the door as Spike greeted her with his usual lovestruck stare.

"Twilight darling! I've been meaning to ask you how your date with Big MacIntosh went. I'll bet you looked simply ravishing."

She took a seat on the couch next to her pouring them some tea Spike had made.

"It went pretty well..." Twilight said, a slight red tint warming under her eyes as she thought of the events of last night...and again later on that night...then early that morning...and once on the couch they currently sat.

"Well let's hear it! Spare no detail! I simply must know where he took you."

After a soothing sip of tea, Twilight began.

"We went to that new french restaurant on Stirrup street-"

"You got in to La Jumet Elegante?" Rarity interjected "I've been on a waiting list for weeks!" she added with slight indignity.

"Mac can be pretty persuasive when he wants to be." Twilight added with a contented smile, taking another sip of her tea to mask her the redness under her eyes.

"Very well, what about afterwards?"

Twilight's blush grew even more obvious as she stumbled over her words. She may have gotten to a comfortable place with Big MacIntosh, but her friends were another story.

"Ah, we...um...came back here...and we...stargazed!"

She thanked Celestia she had remembered what she had told Big Mac they were going to do originally.

"And by stargaze, you mean..." the alabaster unicorn trailed off as Twilight broke eye contact and turned about as red as her coltfriends coat.

"Oh Twilight! I'm so happy for you! You're a grown mare now! How was he? I'll bet he was all the stallion he looks to be-"

Twilight glanced nervously around the room before seeing Spike staring blankly at Rarity from the kitchen.

"If you don't mind Rarity, I'd rather not...in front of Spike."

"Oh! Yes, say no more darling. We'll catch up later. So what is this emergency about?" she asked taking a sip of her tea.

"I'd just like to wait until everypony gets here so I won't have to repeat myself five times."

The bell above the door rang as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie walked in together followed shortly by an out of breath Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

The orange earth pony threw her hooves in the air in victory. "I won! Ha, eat that hot shot!"

"Cuz you cheated!"

"More like kept you from cheatin!" she replied as Twilight cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Thanks for coming girls. I called you all here because princess Celestia and indeed the whole kingdom is in trouble."

The tone in the room dropped to one of seriousness, everypony knowing Twilight didn't joke when it came to the kingdom or Celestia.

"What is it, Sugarcube?" Applejack asked, forgetting the race and focusing on the lavender unicorn as she stood from the couch.

'Well, I guess the best way to say it something crazy...is to just say it.' she reasoned taking a lung full of air before dropping her bombshell.

"The pony sitting in Canterlot castle right now isn't princess Celestia. It's Discord. He escaped from stone somehow and now everypony sees him as the real princess!" she paused for a moment. "Well, everypony except me. But that's beside the point!"

As she expected, they weren't accepting her story right of the bat, most of their faces holding looks of confusion.

A lump in the back of Rainbow's throat returned as she remembered her dream, and who was in it. Potentially lending some credibility to her disturbing nightmare.

"Twilight...wouldn't we have noticed if Discord escaped? I mean, he changed everything and made it all crazy last time remember?" Pinkie suggested, recalling her favorite part of Discord's previous escape, that delicious chocolate milk rain.

"Yes, but he's keeping himself under control for some reason. He's planning something, I just know it...but I don't know what."

Twilight sighed and looked around, noting with dismay the doubt still present on her friends' faces.

"I went to Canterlot and saw him sitting on Celestia's throne! The whole royal court treated him like he was the real princess! He tricked Rarity into lugging that boulder around, and made Rainbow think she was in Cloudsdale, why couldn't he do the same thing to himself?"

"I thought we agreed to never speak of that." Rarity added in aggravation.

"What's the matter, you and Tom havin' a lovers quarrel?" Applejack teased as Rainbow giggled from behind her.

"Why you uncouth little-"

"Girls!" The lavender unicorn snapped, losing her patience. "We can make fun of Rarity later! I think we have bigger problems!"

Twilight was running out of ideas. She had said everything she thought would work, but her friends still looked unsure.

Before she could come up with another word, the window in the loft burst open, a small pink cloud coming through it. It hovered above the loft overlooking the ground floor where they were all standing.

A bolt of lightning struck from the cloud with a deafening crack, revealing the deity they had been discussing.

Everypony's eyes were wide with shock as the god of disharmony stood above them, resting his mismatched hands on the railing before addressing his waiting audience.

"I'll say you do."

Comments

shit got real! discord dosn't sound happy

[Professor Donger]

this ish got for realzies!

[Grimdark Jester]

Great chapter mate hope the next one isn't far of

[Mithrandir]

bum bum bummmmmm

[dzamie]

Out of curiosity, when you were writing this chapter, were you aware that Pinkie and Fluttershy have the same voice actor, as do Rainbow and Applejack? I ask because those are the pairs they arrived in.

[chief maximus]

33458
I knew RD and Applejack did, didn't know about pinkie and fluttershy tho. It wasn't in my head at the time of the writing so I guess it's just a coincidence.

[Hazama]

While I'm relieved for Applejack that Granny isn't angry about her preferences, it was still a little anti-climactic.
I'm looking forward to see if Twilight and Applejack resolving their issues has any effect on Discord's plan. Seems Rainbow still has something of her own to work out, though, and the other three don't appear to have been touched.

[chief maximus]

33491
Yes, I intended to make the confrontation play out that way, a bit of a let down though it may have been. And indeed, Rainbow definitely has some 'splainin to do.

seems like we're nearing the end of this excellently written story love discord here btw. total asshole and no trollestia!
not a fan of f/f shipping but you made it work for me props to you. and i cant wait for discord to kick some flank!

[RadaVonVon]

Thank you! You actually sparked a couple idea for my own fanfiction I'm doing right now, and gave me a couple of ideas because there were some things I wanted to do, I kind of figured out how to do them.

[Evil-Lovieness]

Swwwwag!!! Level, Chaos!

By the way anyone else thinking that Pinki has to keep herself in check so as NOT to admit her true(and obvious) feelings towards Discord's world?

[Luna Plays Minecraft]

Chimera? Discord is a Draconequus.

[AnonDiscord]

Sooooo intense