Discord inhaled and exhaled slowly: he had to be careful about this, and everything that came out of his mouth had to be perfect, sincere, and true to a degree. Well more than true - this was the real Fluttershy he had waiting behind the door. Unfortunately, Cadance and Shining were nowhere to be seen in the parlor to the royal box. Instead, he found himself face to face with King Sombra and Princess Luna, and just beyond the partially parted velvet curtain her could see one or two of the duchesses.
His mouth, strangely enough, ran dry at the sight, but they hadn’t noticed him. But he wasn’t a draconequus of inaction, so Discord cleared his throat and stepped forward. Both of the them turned to him, and Sombra stood up, almost defensively.
“Your majesties,” Discord said, bowing deeply and trying not to sound mocking in his address to them both. “ I insist on a moment of the Royal Family’s time.”
“For what, may I ask?” the King asked. The question was barbed yet soft at the same time. Discord slowly rose from the bow.
“I have found her Royal Highness, the Grand Duchess Fluttershy,” he said sincerely, and tried not to smile. But Luna must have seen the faint uptick in the corner of his mouth, and scowled. He cursed how perceptive she was, and had always been.
“We will see no one!” she snapped. “Let alone some cheap trick.”
“Cheap trick?” Discord exclaimed. How dare she! “This is the Grand Duchess Fluttershy, I swear. She is waiting right outside of you’d just let her in.”
He made his way to the door to let Gracie - no, Fluttershy - in, when a voice he hadn’t heard in years rang out from behind him.
“That is quite enough.” Princess Celestia commanded, appearing from behind the curtain in all her glory, her children peering behind her. “We will see no one.”
“Please, your highness-,” oh how he hated to beg, let alone to Sunbutt. “We’ve come all the way from Ponyville-”
“A claim we have heard thousands of times before,” Luna interjected. “Let us guess: she’s been in hiding? Or in a coma? Living in the woods with all the woodland creatures she befriended in her youth?”
“Or is it just some, poor, young mare you’ve conned into a part like dozens beforehand?” Celestia glowered. “Groomed to fit a role, charmed by you and the thought of the reward I promised? Or is she just like you, not caring if you break a broken family’s heart?”
“N-no! She’s not like that! It’s not like that - I’m not like that! Not anymore,” Discord explained, or at least tried. “But she’s the real thing! Please, Celestia, believe me.”
“Do not address me like we’re close,” the Princess said, horn glowing. “I refuse to be lied to, and my family will no longer be put through any more torment. Get out now.”
This was a side of Celestia he had only seen a few times, and each time became more frightening. Staring up at her in his smaller pony size, surrounded by equally angry, equally upset, equally powerful ponies would have made anyone die in fright, but the look in her eyes - such a sad, hurt look...it shook him nearly to the core.
But before anymore reflection could be made on his behalf, Discord found himself rudely picked up in golden magic, and thrown indelicately out the door, landing face first at the hooves of Gracie. With a groan of pain, he looked up at her for sympathy, for a question, for anything. But what he got was a look akin to Celestia’s. Where the princess’s shook him, the mare in front of looked at him with such disbelief, such disgust, such disappointment and such sadness that he wanted to drop dead right on the spot.
“You used me.” Her voice was so quiet he could hardly hear her.
“Gracie…?”
“You used me! And I fell for every word you said!” she exclaimed, her eyes welling up with tears. Gracie turned angrily and began to walk away. “I can’t believe I let you, I can’t believe I let myself.”
“Wait, please-” Discord pleaded, trying to catch up with her.
“And for what? Their money?” She turned on him, and got within a hairsbreadth of his muzzle. “You can summon anything you wish, why would you need the money?”
“Well, originally, it was more of a power and manipulation move, but it’s not like that anymore! I swear!” he tried to explain, but all her got was an angry snort as she turned away. In a desperate move, he grabbed her hoof, turning her back toward him. “But not anymore, because you really are the duchess!”
“Discord, please, I’m tired of you lying to me!”
“I’m not lying! The night of the siege, the strange creature opening the wall - that was me! That was real!” Discord said with a desperate smile. “Please believe me.”
“No! I don’t care if it was real or not, I don’t care of whatever you say is the truth or not, just leave me alone! I’ve had enough!” Gracie tried to wrench her hoof away as Discord attempted to beg and plead and bargain once again, and when that failed…
<b><i>SLAP!</i></b>
The sound of her hoof resounding off his cheek echoed in the hall, gaining the attention of a few patrons, and Cadance and Shining Armor, who were just returning from getting refreshments. But all they saw was Gracie bolting down the hall, out of sight, and Discord standing in shock in the middle of it all, clutching his reddening face. He wanted to follow her, but his hooves were frozen to the floor. Looking down for a moment, he could see ice crystals forming around his fetlocks, and wasn’t surprised.
“What happened? What did you do?” Shining Armor demanded, trotting to him quickly as Cadance, fearing the worst, ran back to the royal box. “Why didn’t you wait for Cadance and I?”
“I...I thought…,” Discord stammered, not reacting as Shining stamped the ice away from his hooves. “I told her. I told her everything. She knows this was a ploy, she knows I was using her. She knows I think she’s Fluttershy, and she is! But she doesn’t believe me, not anymore.”
“Discord…,” Shining sighed. “You really messed this up.”
“But I will make it right,” the spirit of chaos said with determination. “They will believe me, and they will know it is her.”
“And how? How are you going to do that?”
Both Shining and Discord turned to see an infuriated Cadance stomp her way to them.
“How will you prove that you’re not just some conman?” the princess asked pointedly, jabbing a hoof into Discord’s chest. “And you!”
Shining Armor shrank as she turned to him.
“Why would you work with him? What drove you to this? You don’t need the money!” she hissed. He hung his head.
“I know it was wrong - but I was getting desperate,” he quietly explained. “Every lead went cold, every spell foiled, and I missed you more than anything. I hoped that working with him...I could get somewhere. I didn’t want anything to do with the con -”
“He hoped that the real Fluttershy would show up to an audition to get to her family, or at least try to use my magic to locate her, but,” Discord interrupted,”with the magic ban, I have to retain a low profile.”
“Why would you need a low profile? You’re just a unicorn,” Cadance asked. Discord shook his head. “Not a unicorn...Shining who did you bring into this?”
---
An hour later, the show ended, although eight ponies couldn’t remember what had happened in the second act. The Royal Family had been too upset to really watch the show after the unicorn came into their box and had to spoil their evening. The Duchess’ and Princess’s plan to keep their mother in a fair mood, which had already been on the verge of failing in the first place, lay in shambles, and Celestia just looked ahead from the rest of the family, lost in her own thoughts. Sombra tried to think of anything and everything to snap her out of it, and Luna, upset for her family and sister, had left after the confrontation, mumbling something of seeing to the dreamworld and taking care of her domain. Cadance was silent, stressed by the truths she had been told and the inevitable betrayal on her part coming as soon as they entered their carriage.
“Driver,” she said quietly,” I am staying at the palace tonight, can we stop by my apartments to pick up my things?”
The driver nodded curtly, and closed the door behind her as she entered the carriage, disappearing around to the front. Cadance settled down next to her uncle with a sigh, and looked at her cousins, who were either trying to conceal disappointment badly, or anger just as badly, picking at helms of skirts or rubbing a stand of mane neurotically. Her uncle was looking sadly at his wife, and she just watched out the window as the opera house was pulled out of view as they slowly ascended into the sky.
And then her view was of the opposite wall of the carriage as it suddenly careened right, and began flying faster than the driver normally would’ve, and should’ve gone. The rest of the family was thrown topsy-turvy in the carriage as well. Once righted, Sombra banged his hoof on the the small window-door to the driver.
“What is the meaning of this? I demand you slow down immediately!” he shouted, trying to pry the door open, only to have it pulled shut under his hoof. “Ugh!”
Celestia craned her head out the window at her side, blinded momentarily by the harsh, cold wind that buffeted against her. The driver was flying at a speed that no normal pegasus should be able to fly. She called out to him, and he slowly turned his head to her. Instead of their regular driver, she saw the once familiar face of Discord. There was a flash, and the pony body was gone, replaced by the drake-like one of the spirit of chaos.
“Discord! What is going on?” she shouted, horn glowing threateningly. He scowled and suddenly they were landing, and the princess was thrown once again to the side of the carriage. She righted herself, and looked at the rest of her family. Pinkie and Rarity looked sick to their stomachs, Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked ready to fight, and Cadance...Cadance wouldn’t meet her eye, guilty. She looked outside, recognizing the house not as the princess of love’s, but of her fiance’s. “Cadance? What are we doing here?”
“Auntie Celestia, don’t be angry,” the young mare prefaced. “But there is something you need to know.”
Before she could continue, and before Celestia could demand an answer, the door of the carriage opened harshly, revealing Discord. Sombra growled and tried to lunge at him, but with a snap of a talon, found himself pressed back into the seats.
“I’ve already been attacked enough tonight, thank you very much, and that was me disguised as a conman,” Discord said, monotone, before turning to Celestia. “And you, Sunbutt, are going to chill for one whole minute.”
“You...were the conman? Why in Tartarus would you bring a fake Fluttershy? As some cruel joke?” she hissed. So much for chilling.
“She wasn’t fake!” Cadance interjected. “She’s the real Fluttershy!”
“Cadance, Discord is a trickster and a liar! He’s probably fooled you,” Celestia reprimanded, gaining a groan from the chaos spirit.
“My gods, it’s not like I helped get you out of the siege or anything. You’re welcome, by the way,” he said.” But this is legitimately her. Just look at her! Look at the necklace she has! And guess what she vaguely remembers? The aforementioned siege! And that was without any influence on my part! And she has amnesia, to top it off, so for her to remember that out of everything is something.”
Celestia looked between her niece and the spirit in disbelief. “But, we searched Ponyville extensively…”
“Did you check the orphanage? Because that’s where she’s been,” Discord replied. The family looked at each in shock - they assumed that anyone would have recognized her and brought her to authorities. “Look, I know things have gone horribly for the past few years. I know people have used you, and that I have tried to be one of those people - but that was before I fell- before I realized the mare I found was your duchess. And things have gone just as badly for her.
“Just...go and talk to her, and then you can cast your judgment,” he finished. Sombra and Celestia looked at each other, unsure of whether or not to do it. They had been lied to too many times, and despite the speech from the most unlikely sources, they were unsure of whether or not to truly trust him. There was a soft click, and suddenly a small blue box was in front of their muzzles.
“Our music box!” Twilight exclaimed. “I thought... it was lost forever…”
“It plays our lullaby,” Rarity softly cooed, gently enveloping it in her magic and pulled it closer to her and her sisters. “It only works if all keys are there though, right?”
Celestia nodded, looking at the box nestled between her daughters.
“Then, maybe it’s worth seeing if it is her,” Pinkie said, rubbing her pendant with a hoof. “Then we could play the song! And then it might trigger her memory!”
“Please Ma? This is possibly the last chance we have,” Applejack asked, solemnly. Celestia looked at the pleading faces of her children, then to her husband, who nodded, then to Discord, who wasn’t looking at them, instead looking forlornly at a dark window in the house. She sighed.
“You’re all right,” she said. “But I will see her first before any of you do. To make sure it isn’t a trick.”
“I don’t think it is,” Cadance said. “ I ran multiple spells when I first met her. There were no illusions, nothing.”
Celestia said nothing, but stepped down from the carriage and past Discord. The rest followed like ducklings behind her into the house. Discord stayed in place and watched as the window lit up, and saw the shadowed form of Celestia in the room. She entered as Discord was watching down below and softly lit the lights, just in case the mare that could have been her child was asleep. But instead she found an empty room, with no signs of life in it save for a few bags from a few shops around the city, an old tattered coat, a wilting flower on the boudoir…
Next to a familiar, glittering pendant with a shining pink gem in its center. But the mare who it belonged to was long gone.
“Fluttershy…?”