The Eyes of Discord

Rainbow Dash shouted as she was thrown into a cloud pillar, propelled by a nearby blast of heat.

“Ugh!”

She rubbed her head, looking around, confusion clouding her mind.  Above her, dozens of other pegasi were flying away from the area as fast as they could, retreating into the wild blue sky above.

“What the hay?”

She looked up, a sense of dread creeping over her.  Up above her, an ominous black cloud hung, where once a beautiful cloud building had been.  A few fragments drifted down from the cloud.  Ash, a few pieces of wood, and much to her horror, charred feathers.  While she was staring at the gruesome scene, a faint thundering sound could be heard, growing nearer, and louder.

As the sound grew closer, the few ponies that were still in the area cleared away, screaming.  Rainbow heard a series of short, rapid pops, and watched as one pegasi suddenly slumped, and fell towards the ground, trailing blood behind it.  She felt the cold presence of fear enter her heart.

“Oh no…”

Her eyes shifted, following her ears to the source of the noise.  The metal beast hung in the air, its blades spinning wickedly.  The thing seemed to glare at her, almost freezing her in her spot.  Almost.  Rainbow Dash threw herself off the cloud, just as the beast fired one of its fiery projectiles forward.  The cloud exploded behind her, singing her tail, and flinging her forward, screaming the whole way.

She spread her wings, catching herself, just before she hit another cloud building.

She heard a faint voice, as if coming to her from across a great distance.

“It’s ok Dashie…”

“Huh?”

She quickly glanced around, and saw that the only other ponies in the area were fleeing as fast as they could.  The distant metal behemoth was turning now, coming to face Rainbow once again.

With a start, Rainbow Dash realized that the lumbering craft before her was not the only source of the large, throbbing noise.  She dove downward, yelling as the cloud bank behind her exploded.  The clouds parted rapidly, revealing another of the metal monstrosities.  She dove underneath of a nearby cloud, stopping briefly to catch her breath.

“What in the world are those things?” She asked nopony in particular.  Slowly, she realized she was shaking.  Above her, she could still here the screams of fleeing ponies, and the sounds of the metal beasts, mixed in with the occasional explosion.  Despite her usual confidence, she felt a cold finger of terror scrape across her back.  This was bad… very, very bad.

“It’s ok…”

Rainbow dared to peek around the cloud, afraid of what she might see.  Slowly, the hideous sight came into view.  The two things were circling through the city, sending flaming objects into the cloud structures, and any ponies unlucky enough to be in them.

“Sweet Celestia…”

Rainbow Dash slowly shook her head, transfixed by the carnage.  It was a harrowing sight.  She felt herself tremble, unsure of what to do.  Her heart thundered away in her chest, almost matching the sound of the beasts.  Suddenly, she heard that awful sound again, though this time, it came from directly below her.  She spun downward, adjusting her view.  Yet another of the wicked monsters was facing her, its wings covered with weapons.  

“I’ve got you, it’s all right…”

Rainbow Dash screamed as a small projectile whizzed past her, chopping through the cloud at her back.  Furiously beating her wings, she zipped off in between two rows of buildings, afraid to look back.  She had no need to:  her ears confirmed her suspicions.  The metal giant was following her.  

Around her, the buildings burst into flames.  She could feel the heat singe her fur, and her mane.  Ahead of her, she could see the massive Cloudaseum.  She flew towards the structure, hoping that its great walls would shield her.  

“Dashie, it’s all ok…”

Zipping through the open archways, Rainbow entered to middle of the arena, and stopped cold.  In front of her, barely a hundred feet away, one of the beasts hovered, its cool metal surface gleaming in the sunlight.  Quickly, she jerked to the right, but stopped dead in her tracks.  Another of the monsters was hovering there as well, creeping slowly towards her.  She gulped, and then swung to face her old left.  She groaned as she saw another of the things slide into place.

Rainbow didn’t even bother to look behind her, she could see the reflection glinting on the monstrosity before her.  She was totally surrounded.  She felt like her heart was bursting out of her chest, as she was completely transfixed in fear.  She tried to climb, get up above the things, but she felt as though her wings were made of lead.

“Oh no!”

The things got closer to her.

“It’s alright Dashie…”

Small flaming projectiles separated themselves from the accursed metal creations, all flying towards her.

“NO!” She screamed, her heart pounding, her entire body shaking with terror.  Still, her wings were frozen, refusing to beat.  

The little demons closed in on her.

“It’s ok…”

With a huge, searing heat, they exploded around her, burning her fur, nocking loose dozens of her feathers, and sending her plummeting to the ground, far, far below.  He mouth was curled open in a scream of pain, a trail of fire behind her.  The ground rushed up to meet her.

“NOOOO!!!”

“It’s all going to be ok…”

Rainbow’s eyes snapped open, her chest heaving, her entire body shaking.  A soft voice was whispering in her ear, its source half an inch from the side of her head.

“It’s ok Dashie, I’ve got you.”

Rainbow suddenly realized that she was wrapped in strong forelegs, and soft wings.  She glanced around herself for a moment, still afraid for her life.

         She was in her bed, the sheets covering all of her body except for her head.  The room was dark, and the clock on the wall read three in the morning.  As far as she could tell, she was uninjured.  The voice came again, though this time from beneath her.  

“It’s ok… it’s ok.”

She looked down, locking on to the source of the voice.  Slowly, she stopped trembling.  Her breath caught for a second, and then she felt a few tears escape her eyes, running down her face.  She dove her head down, snuggling against the stallion that held her in his strong embrace.  She reached down around him, wrapping him in her forehooves.  Slowly, she unfurled her wings, feeling the feathers brush against the bed sheets, and then wrapped them around the pony that she lay on.  Though she was now completely awake, he continued to whisper.

“It’s alright, you’re safe, I’ve got you…”

Tenderly, he stroked her mane, comforting the disturbed mare.  Little by little, she regained her composure, and raised her head, looking into her husband’s eyes.

“Thanks Swifty.”

Swiftwing smiled, and then hugged her more tightly against himself. “Are you alright Dashie?  That was one heck of a nightmare.”

She inhaled quickly, remembering the dream. “Yeah… yeah, I’m fine.  Sorry I woke you.”

He shook his head.

“Are you kidding me?  I’m glad you woke me.  You’re lucky I was here.  You were shaking so bad, and you nearly rolled off the bed.  I barely managed to grab you, I mean, I was still half asleep and all.”

“I… I guess.”

Rainbow was frustrated with herself for having the repeated nightmares, and even more annoying, they were getting worse, and more common, not sparser.  She felt like a filly, still traumatized by the event that had happened two years ago.  Still… she had to admit, waking up in Swiftwing’s gentle embrace sure beat the crap out of waking up alone, and finding that she’d managed to roll off the bed, taking the sheets with her.

“I’m just glad that I can repay the favor…”

Swiftwing’s voice sounded in her ears once more.  Rainbow groaned, thinking back over the past few weeks.  They had been exceptionally good, with Swiftwing getting a promotion in the royal guard, and Rainbow receiving more and more interest from the Wonderbolts.  It almost seemed as though the entire world had turned in their favor, ever since their wedding, six weeks earlier.  Well, the entire world, except for one, tiny detail:  The fact that they were both plagued by their old memories, haunted by the ghosts of the past.

Some nights were blissfully calm, but that scarcely happened.  More often than not, one of the two woke up in the others strong embrace, screaming loud enough to raise the dead.  She was glad that Tank slept outside, otherwise the tortoise would probably have gone deaf by now.  

Rainbow Dash sighed, and then carefully pulled herself up, heaving herself over to lie beside the pegasus stallion.  He turned with her, maintaining his embrace.  She snuggled against him, afraid to go back to sleep, not wanting the monsters of her own imagination to return.  

“Swifty… I’m scared.  I feel like I can’t even sleep anymore.  Why does this keep happening to us?  It’s making me feel so stupid…”

“I don’t know Dashie… I don’t know.”

Gently, Swiftwing pressed his lips against hers.  After a few moments, he was about to pull back, when he felt her pull herself closer, pressing against him.  He moaned softly, and tightened his grip on her body.  The two ponies snuggled against each other, enjoying the other’s presence.

“Blueblood… your request is ridiculous.  The Northern province gets more than enough hay.  Your citizens already receive an excess amount of food.  Also, about this loan that you want… it is completely unneeded.  You’ve had an economic boom for the past five years!”

Princess Luna was displeased with the annoying unicorn noble, who had been acting even more frustrating than normal for the past several months.

“Well, of course, the Nordlands have been doing mighty fine as of late, with no small thanks to my own brilliant leadership.” Prince Blueblood smiled, as if flattered by his own statement. “But I find your lack of assistance odd.  I mean, the royal treasury is stuffed with gold.  It seems ridiculous that you would withhold any from your loyal subjects.”

“Stuffed with Gold!” The princess of the night stared at the arrogant unicorn, incredulous. “Are you jesting?  The royal treasury is not so illustrious as most of our subjects seem to think.  We don’t have unlimited funding, if we did, it would mean unlimited taxes, which would annoy you quite a bit!” The Alicorn snorted. “For the last two years, most of our currency has been going to Cloudsdale, aiding the reconstruction effort.”

“Ah!  But that’s just it!  You’re showing the pegasi favoritism!  Really, it’s not fair, we unicorns could use some help up north too!  Don’t you think that we should get an equal share of the royal funds?” The prince smiled, thinking he’d finally cornered the midnight colored Alicorn into helping him.

The princess’s eyes narrowed dangerously, and she could feel anger building towards the pony.  Luna suppressed the shouts she was going to unleash upon the unfortunate stallion, instead trading them for a low growl.

“The pegasi did not choose to be attacked by the humans, Blueblood.  I can assure you, if your people had had their entire city demolished, and a quarter of their population wiped out, then we would be more than happy to give you all the bits that you needed.  For now, however, I do not believe that the humans ever made it farther North-East than Canterlot, so therefore, I must ask that you leave.” She raised an eyebrow at the Unicorn. “That is, unless you have other matters to discuss?”

She waited a few moments, seeing if he would reply.  Blueblood remained mute.  Her eyes gradually returned to their previous, un-angered state, now showing curiosity. “What are you playing at, coming here at six A.M anyway?  Its unlike you, Celestia isn’t even up yet, and I wouldn’t have been either if it weren’t for hoofy’s comet flying past earlier this morning.”

The unicorn backed off, clearly startled by her angry remarks. “Well, I dare say, I was just here to try and get an early start on things, that’s all.  I have a very busy schedule for the rest of the day, and wanted to try and get this taken care of.”

The steward of the moon snorted, amused. “Busy schedule?  What, busy getting your mane beautified and your cloak tailored?  You do realize that your guards report your whereabouts back to the main security center here, don’t you?”

Blueblood halted, unsure of how to respond to the dark Alicorn.  He felt embarrassed at his daily activities suddenly becoming public information.  He shook his head quickly, warding off thoughts of the potentially bad PR.

“I will be back later your highness!” He said the last bit with a sneer, “Perhaps your sister will be more understanding!  She never allowed herself to be possessed be a demon anyway-”

“ENOUGH, BLUEBLOOD!” She had quickly adopted the royal canterlot voice, drawing smirks from some of the guards in the area.  She rose up from her throne, eyes crackling with magical energy. “REMOVE THYSELF FROM OUR PRESENCE AT ONCE!  AND IN THE FUTURE, YOU WILL REFRAIN FROM INSULTING THINE RULERS!”

“Hmph!” The stallion snorted, and then, head raised, he turned and stormed out of the throne room.  A unicorn guard trotted up to the Princess, bowing.  Lifting his head, he began to speak.

“Shall we file a reprimand for the prince’s actions, milady?”

The Princess sighed, shaking her head.

“THAT…” Luna blushed, unintentionally blasting the guard with the royal Canterlot voice. “That won’t be necessary, Lieutenant.” Her horn glowed, and the guard’s armor shifted back into the positions it had been in before the vocal outburst. “I apologize, it’s just that that particular stallion has a habit of driving me insane every time he walks in here.”

The soldier chuckled. “It is perfectly alright, your highness, he’s good at doing that to all of us…  Are you sure there isn’t a way to temporarily reopen the portal?  It would be far too easy just to shove him through, and let the humans deal with him.”

“Sadly, no, there isn’t, though that is a rather wonderful idea.” The princess of the night slowly shook her head, causing her mane to sparkle like the night sky. “I don’t know what’s gotten into the stallion lately… for the past month or so, he’s been uncharacteristically reckless.  Annoying he may be, but he has never done anything to risk his political power in the past… it’s entirely unlike him.”

“I don’t know milady, do you think perhaps the griffons have been pressuring him?” The unicorn Lieutenant looked at her, awaiting the princess’s answer.  Luna shook her head slowly. “I doubt it… Blueblood would be more likely to come running to us for help than give in to any potential threats or blackmail… he may be a jerk, but he’s certainly not stupid.”

The guard slowly shook his head, and then started to open his mouth.  Hesitating, he closed it once more.

“You were going to say something, Lieutenant?” The dark princess eyed him, curious.

“Well… pardon me, your highness, but the whole political landscape recently has been… troubling, to say the least.  I may not know much about politics… but from what I do know, the way that things have been acting lately… it doesn’t look good.”  The unicorn looked troubled.  Luna was silent for a moment.

“It isn’t good, Lieutenant… it isn’t good in the least.” She sighed. “The last time we had to deal with this much unrest… what with the griffons, internal matters, the zebras, and increasing trouble in the everfree forest…” She slowly shook her head, her eyes lifting to a stained glass window in the corner of the throne room. “Well… that was a long, long time ago.”

Saberspark followed her gaze to the distant window. “I see…” The two ponies stood next to each, staring at the scene depicted on the glass.

An Alicorn stallion stood, blood flowing from a dozen wounds on his body.  All around him, dozens of creatures, from ponies to griffons to manticores, all stood, raising their claws and weapons against him.  To defend himself, the stallion had but a dented sword, missing the last foot off the end.

A single tear silently fell from Luna’s left eye, leaving a silvery trail behind it.  Saberspark turned back to her.  

“All you alright milady?”

The night princess turned away, regaining her composure.  Quickly she nodded. “I’m fine Saberspark… I’m fine.”

“Good…  good… just a little bit more heat.” Alex stared intently at the crucible levitating over the fire.  A chestnut colored unicorn shoved some coal into the flames, causing them to shoot up around the container.  “All right, good, that’s the ticket… and… now!”

He spun, the crucible floating out of the fire, going between the two unicorns.  The object halted in midair, and then poured out its molten contents into a mold.  Alex waited for the molten metal to settle, and then gently levitated the crucible down on a rock slab, careful not to touch the burning hot object.

He turned back to the mold, focusing intently on the glowing metal within.  The other unicorn trotted closer, carefully looking at the dangerously hot object.

“Do you think that this one is going to be strong enough?”

Alex chuckled, thinking of the previous times they had tried to make this particular component.

“I believe so Metalspark  though I guess we can’t be certain.  It doesn’t seem like it’s too much of a stretch to say it will hold up.”

Metalspark rolled his eyes.

“I’m pretty sure that’s what you said before each of… well… these.” He gestured behind them, motioning at a pile of twisted and charred metal.

“Yeah well, this time, I’ve got some reinforcements that we’re going to wrap around the barrel.  If it doesn’t work, nothing will.  Besides, that last one was able to withstand eleven test fires before it gave out… so, we are making progress.”

Metalspark merely shook his head, scowling.

“I just don’t like the idea of it blowing up in my face again.  When you cram explosives and metal balls down a tube, it just doesn’t ever seem to work out.”

Alex nodded, smiling.  

“Yeah… I know it’s a hard concept to get down.  Just trust me though, it works just fine.  You just have to be careful, that’s all.”

“If you say so.”

The other unicorn slowly shook his head.

Alex grinned as he watched the metal cool off.  For the last two years, ever since he had officially been inducted into the Equestrian military, he had been assigned to work on reinventing human technology.  After all, He was the best pony for the job, as a result of his... special knowledge of humanity.

The greater majority of his “inventions” were being kept behind closed doors, at least until they could find more practical ways of supplying them. However, in some royal and military buildings, electric lights and basic radios were beginning to make an appearance.  The only reason why the lights weren’t more common, was that Princess Celestia was still trying to find a practical way to set up a large scale power grid.  Alex chuckled as he thought of the rapid advances that Equestria was making.

“How long do you think that this’ll take to cool off?” Metalspark eyed the molten metal, curios.  Alex’s eyes darted over to a clock hanging on the wall.

“Hmm… it’s already four thirty, so we probably won’t be able to do anything with it until tomorrow.  Besides, I’ve got to leave in another half hour, I’ve got dinner plans.  We should probably start cleaning everything up.” Alex warily glanced at the absolute mess of tools, ingots, and canisters that lay around the large room.

Metalspark held up a hoof, as if signaling Alex to halt.

“Wait… let me guess… you’ve got plans with a certain female unicorn?”

Alex laughed, starting to levitate the first of the strewed items back to their shelves and bins.

“Maybe… and she might happen to be one of the princess’s students… I just can’t seem to remember right now.” Alex

winked at his friend.

Metalspark shook his head, beginning to put his own equipment away.

“Alright buddy, have fun.  You should try that new seaweed place in town… it’s pretty exotic, but I think it serves great food.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Alex continued his work, watching the clock run down to the time when he could leave.