Until now, Darling would have never believed Discord was directly responsible for the state of the forest. It broke her heart that Discord looked at her as an enemy. She reminded herself it could be worse, he could be dead or be killing others. When Discord was cleansed by the Empathy Stones that should have kept him dormant and pacified. Unless she found a way to reach him it was only a matter of time before...
No
Darling chose not to think about that, it wouldn't be productive.
Darling could see small visions and moments outside of the forest, but it usually required ponies of incredible caliber being near each other during a moment of strong unity. Something similar to what happened when the Fires of Friendship were made. What she really needed was a pony that would enter the forest and find her. She could see and act through the Empathy Stones as long as somepony were carrying them. Darling knew beggars can't be choosers, but the stones were too important to give to just anypony. Fortunately she had a good candidate in mind. Starswirl the Bearded loved to explore as much as he loved to learn, surely one day he would wander into these woods to investigate them.
Her current dilemma until then were the seeds Discord planted. They sucked the life out of everything, including her. Meaning, Discord had effectively replaced himself with something that would keep the forest forever 'cursed.' She used the Empathy Stones. A single seed that had just sprouted burned away in a colorful wave. Darling should have been relieved, being able to quickly destroy what Discord had left behind, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.
It was what Discord had left behind.
He had played a role in the creation of the flowers, manticores, cockatrices, plants, the ever changing nature of the forest... It wasn't safe to the outside world, but it had a working ecosystem. She couldn't say whether the forest was ethically right or wrong, but it was the work of the little dragon she loved. She couldn't bring herself to end it, it would be like she killed his children. She used the stones not to harm, but curb the growth and consumption rate of the seeds to a reasonable amount. She was willing to put in the love and care and give them the extra attention they need.
Now, she waited.
For once Darling was glad for being an immobile tree, she felt as if she could barely contain her excitement. Starswirl was finally here, after she subtly encouraged many explorers to spread word about seeing her, Starswirl had become curious enough to see her for himself. She stood tall and proud as the unicorn trotted up to her. Darling hushed the forest, granting him a moment of silence as he examined her.
"Yup, that's a tree." Starswirl grunted, then turned around to leave.
She panicked and jabbed his mind to bring his attention back to her. When he turned around, she made the Empathy Stones glow with colorful light.
"Hmm, that's interesting..." Starswirl lit up his horn.
Darling felt nervous as a magical force probed her body. She thought the whole act seemed rather rude... until she realized that's exactly how she treats just about everything. Maybe that's why all explorers seemed to believe ghosts were haunting her forest.
"You're the reason the forest doesn't spread, fancy that," Starswirl monotoned, "well what the hay do you want with me?"
Was he talking to her? That can't be right, Darling couldn't speak.
"Well if you made a bunch no name adventurers come pester me just so you could show off how pretty you are, then I'll be taking my leave then." Starswirl sighed and turned around again.
Darling jabbed his mind again, making the unicorn spin in frustration.
"Do you mind?! That feels like somepony ran their tongue over my brain," he complained.
Darling berated herself that she didn’t think this through more. She lit up the Empathy Stones more, and filled Starswirl with the desire to take the jewels with him.
"You want me to take those..." Starswirl rubbed his chin.
Empathy Stones! Darling tried her hardest to somehow communicate with him. Pretty rainbow jewels! The super important looking crystal in my chest cavity! The magical gems of obvious power in my branches! Empathy Stones!
"I was about to call these things Empathy Stones, but then I realized how stupid that name was." Starswirl weighed them in his magic.
For being a powerful wizard he was rather mean, and cranky. Darling wanted to see him try and come up with a better na—
"I'll call them the Elements of Harmony."
She admitted he had a flair for when he named things, but he was still a jerk.
Starswirl cleared his throat. "So the Tree of Harmony, bearer of the Elements of Harmony, wishes for me to take the elements with me?"
Darling released a wave of joy and caused Starswirl to stumble. All the creatures in the forest roared with pride as Darling communicated her approval through them.
"Heck no I'm not taking those jewels, are you stupid? If my scan spell was right those elements are the only things keeping this forest from spreading to the outside world. Besides, I didn't bring a pack to take them with me, and I'm far too lazy to levitate them the whole way out."
Darling's was in shock as Starswirl stormed off. A few minutes later all the creatures of the forest roared in fury.
What a baby… Darling sulked.
Darling sensed a swan pull it's neck out of the ground nearby with grace as it swam in circles, treating the dirt like water. The sun screamed for about five seconds, vomited, and then apologized. There was a large aurora in the sky that twisted around like a snake, the whole thing currently consisted of multiple copies of A Hipster's Guide to Conspiracy Theories Vol. 37: God has a plan, and you can stop it~! Darling couldn't see or read, but every time she focused on it she somehow had a perfect image of it broadcasted to her mind. Discord loved to show off and now could take it to a whole new level. He changed what the aurora consisted of anywhere between five seconds to five minutes.
Darling felt hopeless, the only thing that brought her comfort now was her routine. She guided the animals, restrained the seeds, comforted the ponies, and waited. It was all she could do, and she hated herself for it. For being an all powerful figure respected and worshiped by her little ponies, she was embarrassed how she had to have a threat approach her in order to deal with it. She had almost given up on trying to get ponies to come to her and take the elements. Darling was focused on the aurora above her when she heard gasp nearby.
"The Tree of Harmony..." Luna muttered.
Darling observed in silence the two sisters that stared at her in awe. She noticed Celestia wore an aura of grim resolution. Darling tried to soothe her mind, she didn't know what Celestia had planned but when ponies approached her with a sense of defeat, compromise, and finality it usually wasn't good. She hoped the two of them didn’t plan to cut her down for some silly reason. Celestia flew up and hovered near Darling's chest, she shot it with a ray of her magic. Darling was about to make it very clear how rude she felt that was when the two spoke up again.
"Are you sure?" Luna frowned.
"We have managed to discover the only means by which we can defeat Discord, and free the citizens of Equestria!" Celestia answered.
Darling had no mouth, yet she tried to scream in joy.
Celestia levitated the elements out of Darling. "Even without these elements, the Tree of Harmony will possess a powerful magic," Darling felt somewhat violated as her chest opened up against her will, "as long as that magic remains, it will continue to control and contain all that grows here."
"Didn't Starswirl say the elements kept a powerful force of Chaos from growing? He claimed even the Tree of Harmony itself underestimated it." Luna countered.
Darling pressed down hard on both of their minds and urged them both to ignore Starswirl. He didn't know what he was talking about, and more importantly, he was a jerk.
"That was before Discord's appearance, I can only imagine he was the chaos Starswirl was speaking of." Celestia assured.
"Very well, as you say, sister..."
Luna watched a school of fish swam by as she approached Discord. She had become numb to the sight of such things, another sign his rule had carried on for too long. She glanced at her sister once more for reassurance, and then she focused on the threat at hoof.
"Oh hooo, ho ho~ this is so much fun! How about a game of pin the tail on the pony?" Discord held up Celestia's tail.
Celestia examined her flank with a sharp intake, "Playtime is over for you Discord!"
"Oh I doubt that." Discord stopped to munch on a bag of seeds Luna couldn't recognize. "Hungry?"
A seed bounced off of Luna's head. She refused to answer the mad creature, every time she had in the past he would always find a way to make her sound stupid.
"Suit yourselves." Discord shrugged and went back to munching on seeds.
Luna felt there wasn't much to be laughed about in this situation, but she found the idea of using large jewelry to stop an insane god to be somewhat amusing. To be frank, she didn't have much faith in the elements, but she believed in her sister. She would stand by her until the end. She pulled out the elements of laughter, honesty, and loyalty. She tried to ignore the happy little buzz that tickled the back of her mind. Being around the tree and the elements always messed with a pony's mind.
"Ooooo, what have you got there?" Discord leaned forward.
"The Elements of Harmony!" Celestia retorted.
"With them we shall defeat you!" Luna added in.
Discord broke out into laughter. "You should see yourselves right now! The expressions on your face, so intense, so sure of yourselves right now!"
Luna touched her horn to her Sister's, and focused their intent on stopping Discord. She felt as if the elements themselves supported them, cheered them on. We'll do it, She thought, We'll give Discord eternal rest! Her brain hurt as the pleasant hum turned into a scream, she would describe the experience akin to having her mind smacked against sandpaper. Luna gritted her teeth as a rainbow came out of their connected horns, it swirled upward and then arched back down towards Discord.
"Hilarious!" Discord leaned back as a prismatic light enveloped him, his whole body became encased in stone all at once before he could finish his laugh.
It was over, Discord had been defeated, Equestria was free of his terror. Luna fell back on her haunches and panted, This was the most wonderful she ever felt in her entire life! It was as if her whole body was on fire, no, made of fire. She felt as she could take on anything right there and then. Euphoria was replaced by paranoia as she glared at the statue of Discord. Yes, he was turned to stone, but that didn't guarantee he was completely restrained.
"We should break the statue," Luna growled, "make sure he never comes back!"
She flinched when a hoof was laid on her back. She looked at her sister, who stared at her with kind, reassuring eyes.
"Peace, Luna, it is over." Celestia smiled.
"Can we truly say it's over, what if he breaks free?"
"Then we will seal him away again," Celestia nuzzled Luna's cheek, "together."
Darling reflected on past events, and with a combination of being able to glimpse inside Luna's mind with the elements, she now had a pretty clear idea on how her enemy worked. The creature’s pattern was rather simple in hindsight. Darling's mother became irrational and burned through all her energy at once. Frost stole the fruit which she stored the last bit of her power in, which in turn killed her Mother. The Parasite moved into her Mother's killer, Frost, and made her burn through all of her energy. Frost’s increase in power along the rate she expended it turned her into a twisted version of an alicorn. Discord accidentally killed her, the parasite moved into Discord. The Parasite moved into an individual, they burned through all their energy, and became irrational enough to attack everyone around them.
Darling halted the cycle by turning Discord to stone. Discord broke free and was turned back to stone by Luna and Celestia. The Parasite left Discord because it saw a powerful entity it could drain dry at that moment. Luna was possessed and she was going mad.
Darling chose to look at Luna and Discord's battle as a victory. She expelled the Parasite from an individual without it killing them. The process may have left them frozen in place with their mind free to go insane by natural causes, but they were at least not getting sucked dry and left for dead by a parasite. Darling found it difficult, but she tried to look at that as a good thing. The parasite attempted twice now to use Discord and leave him dead, and it had failed. If she found a way to free him from his stone prison and soothe his heart and mind, then they could finally be reunited without them being enemies.
Her current problem now was an alicorn possessed by the dangerous parasite which caused her to go mad. Her elements were locked up under the Castle of the Two Sisters, that meant she couldn't really 'see' through them to tell how Luna was doing. Celestia would grab the elements when Luna inevitably went insane, but then what? Turn Luna to stone? Celestia would be infected by the parasite, with nopony left to stop her. Furthermore, Celestia could handle using three of the elements at once, all six would put a terrible strain on her body. Darling knew it would cripple Celestia at best, end her life at worst.
Darling ran out of time, she felt the two of them exert powerful amounts of magic. She had to think of something now or turn Luna to stone. Celestia's magic radiated nearby, and Darling felt the six of the elements rise from where they there were stored. Celestia flew up from where she stood and wrapped them in her magic. The Element of Magic rose out of the stone globe in center of their alter. Darling had learned what it felt like to be trapped in stone through the Element of Magic. The whole experience made her feel claustrophobic, which in turn increased her guilt.
She felt Celestia activate the Elements. What was she going to do?! Even if she were to eject the parasite out of Luna, where could she possibly trap it so it wouldn't be able to reach anypony else? Both Darling and Celestia wanted nothing more than to put a stop to this fight without harming Luna, and the unity of their hearts allowed Darling to see through Celestia's eyes. Tears made her vision blurry as she stared at the twisted form of Luna and her Moon.
The Moon.
Darling threw caution to the wind, and channeled all her power through Celestia. I wish I could save Luna from this Nightmare, the two thought as one. Both poured everything they had into their one and only shot. Darling targeted the parasite directly and attempted to banish it to the Moon. She let her power wash over Luna, trying to heal her as fast as the Parasite was desperately draining her. She pushed harder, and felt the Parasite relent as it began its trajectory toward the moon.
Darling pushed the Elements further before the backlash of energy could destroy Celestia's body, this time using them as a shock absorber for her. All color drained from the Elements as the last of their power kept Celestia's body from undergoing harm. The last thought she felt from Celestia before being disconnected made her mentally scream in frustration. She successfully sent the Parasite to the Moon without killing Luna, but the mare was still not free.
The Parasite took Luna with her.