Searching for Six Ponies (And Discord if I Feel Like It)

by Coltsguy

He's...Gone?

To her subjects and her sister, Princess Celestia managed to maintain a calm air about her. However, internally she was deeply concerned about what was happening on the other side of the rift. She knew Seth better than anyone present thanks to the scrying spell and also knew that even though he would do as she asked, she couldn't help but worry that he may not be able to match Discord a second time. The fact that it had been almost three weeks since he had entered the rift was a mindful concern of hers as well.

She was concerned, but showing it to anyone would cause them more grief than what they were already demonstrating. The fact that it was Discord who who coming along with Seth meant that they could not leave their post to go anywhere else. They had done what they could to keep their spirits up, but she could easily tell that things were slowly becoming strained over the circumstances.

She couldn't blame them for their feelings. Before this trip, the longest he had been gone in one of the rifts was three days. The fact that he had been gone three weeks on this trip was slightly disheartening. However, she knew that no matter how things looked they always turned out alright in the end.

Wait. There! She could feel it. The buildup of chaotic energy inside the rift. Whenever he had come back, there had been a similar buildup coming from it that she could feel.

"It is time," she announced.

The ponies around her perked up at hearing her words.

"Finally! We've been here way too long," said Rainbow Dash.

"Now's not the time Rainbow Dash," Twilight Sparkle said. "Everypony get ready!"

The six Elements of Harmony gathered together a relatively good distance away from the rift and prepared to activate their powers. A few seconds later and a bright flash erupted. It was accompanied by an uproarious laughter. Discord had arrived.

He had come by himself.

Celestia's heart sank. Discord had returned by himself. That meant that Seth might have succeeded in his goal, but it came at a cost. She watched as her faithful student and her friends came to a similar conclusion.

"Discord!" they yelled in unison.

"The one and only," he stated in his usual flamboyant manner.

"Wait, where's Seth?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Oh him? He's been taken care of."

"What did ya do tah him!?!"

"Are you sure you want to know? The details may give you nightmares after all," he said while dropping his tone for the last part.

"You monster!" yelled Rarity.

Discord simply laughed for a few moments before continuing.

"Oh it's not all that bad really. Still, there's no doubt that he will never come back to you. I've made sure of it."

Celestia couldn't believe what she was hearing. He was gone? It was impossible. Things didn't work like that here. Things always turned out for the best.

She continued to observe as the Elements activated. She almost didn't care at this point. It was necessary, but she felt as though she had lost a part of herself. She knew that she held no real attachment to Seth. Still, thanks to her scrying spell, she couldn't help the fact that she cared for him in the same way a mother would of a wayward child. Knowing that he had been lost due to Discord's hubris was slightly disheartening.

She continued to look on as Discord became awash in the light of the elements. As his body once again turned to stone, she also couldn't help but wonder what she could have done differently. What steps could she have taken to prevent this? What precautions could she have implemented to forgo this outcome?

As the light faded and Discord's new prison was established, she steeled herself to those present. Despite what she felt, she needed to keep up any appearances in front of those she cared for; her little ponies.

"Well done my faithful student. You have once again stopped Discord and saved us from any chaos he might have spread."

"I know, but still it doesn't really feel like that big of a victory," she responded.

"I understand," Celestia remarked.

"But you can bring him back right?" asked Twilight.

"I am sorry. I do not know of a way to bring him back from wherever he went. Not only that, I am unaware of the place he went to in order to bring him back. I would need to know that in order to even begin to research a way to do so. I am afraid that he is lost to us," she finished in an even somber tone that before.

"But Discord was able to do it!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "We can get him to tell us how to bring him back!"

Celestia simply shook her head.

"Discord would never tell us how he managed to get there. I doubt that he even did it on his own. If you recall, his magic and Seth's magic clashed to create the rifts in the first place. It most likely was created by accident."

"But it was both the same magic!" yelled Twilight.

"Indeed they were. However, they were different spells. Three different spells reacting to each other at the same time to be precise. Recreating those three spells would be nearly impossible since we are not even aware of the spells that they used."

"But! But!"

Celestia watched as Applejack placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. It saddened her to see her faithful student feeling powerless to do anything. She knew how Twilight felt, but there wasn't anything that she could feasibly do to bring Seth back. She could only hope that he wasn't in any danger.

It was then that she felt a hoof on her own shoulder. She peered over to see Luna looking back at her. She knew that they didn't need words to express what each other were feeling. It was as plain as day. She simply grinned sadly back to her sister and then turned back to her loyal subjects.

"There is nothing more that we can do here. I believe it is time to head back home."

They all nodded and began by returning their elemental jewelery to the ornate box that they came from. They then began their walk back towards Appleloosa to board a train home. She as well as Luna and Shining Armor stayed behind to chat for a moment.

"Tis true that there is no normal way to bring Seth back. However, is there really no way to return him here?" asked Luna.

Celestia sighed before continuing.

"There is only one being who knows the spell to cross between dimensions. That being is Discord. Even if he created the situation unintentionally, he could still have seen the spell come forth in the chaos that occurred. After all, he is chaos incarnate. If a spell was created, he would have learned it then. He is a mad genius after all."

"We could always try to interrogate him and make him tell us," Shining Armor said. "I may not have any attachment to Seth, but I feel obligated to help him since he helped return Twilight and the others home safely."

"As I told Twilight and her friends, it is much too risky. Even if all the necessary precautions are made, there are still too many things that could go wrong in addition to the fact that he will most likely not tell us anyway. I wish there was a way, but there is not."

The three of them remained silent for a few moments.

"If you don't mind, I'm going to go with my sister and her friends back to Ponyville for a while."

"I understand," Celestia replied.

Shining Armor then saluted her and galloped to his distant sister.

"Come Luna. It is time that we returned to the castle."

"You are not going to say goodbye to the others?"

"I feel that now is not the time to say anything. Until now, they have never felt like they had failed at anything on this scale before. He may have only been here for a small time, but he left an enormous impact upon them. To have him just as swiftly leave them is something that they would never have expected. I feel that they need some time to think about this by themselves.

"There is also the matter of the royal business we need to attend to. We have been away from the castle for nearly a month. It is best that we return to make sure that things are still running smoothly."

With that said, the two of them took to the skies and flew back to Canterlot under their own power.

Things there went smoothly after they had arrived. They had missed several dignitaries and diplomats, but things were smoothed over and talks with Prince Blueblood went well. He had done an admirable job in their absence. With things wrapped up, she gave her thanks to everyone who had held things together in her absence, finished lowering the sun for the day, and retired to her room for the night.

The circular room itself was befitting one of royalty such as herself. There were shelves full of books and items that she was fond of dotting in several places. A grand ivory styling booth with a full length mirror was sitting near her bed. Her bed itself was a grand affair. It was an ornate gold and red affair that looked absolutely plush.

It was on that bed that Celestia simply collapsed onto. Despite expending no effort on her own part, she had been emotionally drained. This ordeal was unique in it's overall stature. The appearance of Seth, finding out that she was entertainment to millions, adding a new life's worth of memories, Discord's return, the subsequent loss and return of her student and friends, and the loss of Seth to them as well were all a great deal to in take despite how long it had actually taken. All she wanted to do now was rest and recover so that she could face forward once again like she always had.

However, her thoughts were interrupted as she went to grab her pillow. Sitting on top of said pillow was a peculiar object. It was an object that wasn't something that you would see in here since she never used them.

It was an envelope.

It made her very curious. Why was there an envelope on her pillow? Who would even place it there? No one ever entered her private chambers with the exception of Luna and she didn't use envelopes either. In truth, no one could enter her chambers other than herself and Luna unless invited in.

She stood up from her bed and levitated the envelope over to herself. All that was written on the front was her name. She turned it over to see if there was anything written on the back. To her astonishment, there was.

Written on the back of the envelope was 'From: Seth'.

How had he left this here for her? He had never been to the castle before other than his quick trip with her to the throne room. He had definitely never been anywhere near her private chambers. He couldn't have sent this here. But if not him, then who did? Who else could have known about him and could access this part of the castle?

It then hit her. There was one possibility, but it seemed impossible. It didn't seem like something he would do. However, she remembered the words of Sherlock Holmes from Seth's memories. If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Perhaps that was why she was having such a difficult time believing it.

Only Discord could have dropped this in here.

She picked up a small ceremonial dagger from one of the many shelves with her telekinesis and used it to open the envelope. After returning the dagger, she pulled out the contents of the envelope. All there was were a few sheets of notebook paper. They all had writing on them in Seth's style of cursive. Thankfully, she could read it now since it was different than Equestrian cursive. She took a moment to compose herself before reading what he had written for her.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Author's Note:

I would have had this out sooner, but I finally got around to watching Angel Beats, and suddenly everything just seemed so bad that I just had to set it down for a while. It is a great anime, but it really made me feel a little depressed for a bit. But, it's behind me now and hopefully I can get down what I want to for the final chapter without it feeling like I wrote a POS ending.

Comments

[RoadRunneR]

CLIFF HANGERRRRSSS!!!

you bastard.

[Lucien Chance]

I'm glad to see this is back. It's easily one of my favorite stories, and I love to check my feed and see it updated.

I despise you for that cliffhanger. That was terrible. Honestly one of the best placed cliffhangers I've ever seen. Curse you.