//------------------------------// // I - Chapter Ten // Story: Stolen Soul on the Passage of Home // by Kaffeina //------------------------------// I Chapter Ten A Whispered Thought Aranea, in the garden of the palace, was now cursing far louder as she neared the edge of the garden. It was good that Discord could talk, she had only barely guessed at that, but the fact her pendant was here, but she wasn’t? It was outright depressing and had Aranea moderately pissed off. “How the hell am I supposed to find her?” As the warrior's frustration became evident, Discord snickered internally. He could find anyone anywhere, so long as there was something to point him there. Despite this, he let the warrior wallow in her emotional turmoil, an evil laugh touching the edge of his lips. Even as a stone statue, here in Equestria proper at least, he could easily visit his Abyss and languished in the chaos he felt forming around the sole human inhabitant of Equestria. help her As a lord of chaos, the only one in his Equestria, Discord was used to a variety of oddities. Such as, the existence of an alien who traveled around in a box, the moon having air and life sprinkling it's surface, or even the fact that an entire section of the world was inaccessible and inhabitable to most species on the planet. What he was not used to was anyone telepathically communicating with him. The words held a weight to them that made him fear for his life if he did not obey. He had heard of ponies hearing it. The Ghost of Vengeance, it was called, and despite the name it often directed others on paths least deadly to them. Many might consider him a god, but Discord knew he was not invulnerable. "I can help find her," he said, sounding more serious than he ever had in his life. "And why should I trust you?" she asked, her eyes darkening as she stared at the statue. Discord felt the anger and shivered. Humans, the most unpredictable race in the Multiverse and here he was ready to help one of them, what a rush. Mother, thank you for this. Discord immediately spoke again once having grasped a proper answer. "You shouldn't, but the princesses can't do what I can," Discord answered simply, "I can find someone with the smallest link." He also realized that he now knew who the Ghost of Vengeance was and felt a terrible chuckle deep in his throat. The warrior seemed deep in contemplation, sitting herself before his statue as his words rang through her head. "Very well," she said after a few moments. Discord beamed, "However, should you do anything to her aside from bring her to me alive, I will make sure that your other tooth finds itself a new home in your eye, or worse." Discord winced, he knew very well what she could do. "Agreed," Discord answered. The warrior was immediately on her feet and the weapon from her back was now in her hands. With a resounding crack, the weapon crashed into the stone and blew it off the trapped chaos lord. A loud laugh was the response as he felt the magic of the word respond to him and curl up around him like a nice breeze. Aranea watched until he had settled down, then thrust the pendant towards him. A subtle nod and the chaos lord disappeared with the pendant in hand. Aranea shook her head, questioning why she would even try trusting the very being who had basically tortured her. If it could be called torture, sitting in a black room with only a window viewing out. The woman shook her head and turned around, making her way out of the castle courtyard towards the crystalline caves below. Deep inside them, she took a seat and focused herself. Meditation, she had scoffed at it in her past life, but it helped immensely with her emotions and so she had taken it up. As she sat, the caves hummed with energy allowing her to fall in a deep state of relaxation. Twilight Sparkle stared out at the sky, her thoughts drifting around. The woman she had encountered was an odd one, but compared to her initial thoughts, she was far different. The events of the past, where the woman had allegedly killed hundreds for the sick pleasure, simply did not fit in with how she acted. She could have changed, but something told Twilight some aspect of the past had been exaggerated. Picking up the book she had originally learned about the Dragoon from, she found that despite what it said, a number of footnotes claimed each statement to be nothing but word of mouth. In the footnotes, at the last mention of the Dragoon in History, she found an odd statement. "The Truth can be learned through the Scrying Eye?" Twilight frowned, "What does that even...." she suddenly gasped and grabbed another history book from down the shelf. It was a heavily debated Tome, simply due to the fact that many of it's facts contained within were not supported by other history books. As she read, Twilight found what she was looking for. Inside the tome, the section on the Dragoon was longer than many others, far longer. It stated that the Dragoon had been seen a multitude of times throughout recorded history, and Twilight stared at the drawings and paintings that showed the woman in the background. Beneath each was a simple few word quote, stating what had happened. The shock on the lavender unicorn's face showed that something was wrong, either Celestia had been lied to or she had known. It was with extreme hesitation that Twilight wrote a letter to Celestia and explained what she had found. Dear Princess Celestia, After meeting the Dragoon, or Aranea as she prefers, I found myself wondering why this human (Another term I learned from her), or woman as I have learned she uses like the Minotaurs, would commit the acts of evil listed in most of the history books I have. One of the books mentioned a book by Scrying Eye and I found that most of the other books were conflicted against. In fact, the original book I read said most of the facts were by word of mouth, which doesn't make sense for a history book, while Scrying says that during her time, the book was written after Princess Luna's banishment if you didn't know which I think you do, she witnessed something completely different and even found evidence of Aranea being around at the time of Discord! She's as old as you two! I was wondering if you might know why she would have been known as committing these acts. Your Student Twilight Sparkle With a whisp of green flame, Spike sent the letter on. Twilight didn't know why she still felt nervous, after all, Celestia wouldn't have attacked her despite possibly knowing she wasn't evil, would she? "Changelings," an annoyed Aranea muttered as she left the caves. While she had been down below, she had found evidence, rather bodies, that some of the castle staff weren't who they claimed to be. The bodies weren't in a good enough state for her figure out who the damnable bugs were replacing up there. The only ones she could be certain weren't replaced were the Princesses themselves. Her mood soured, especially after she had managed to calm down, and Aranea moved through the castle and barged in on the meeting between Celestia and a rather skittish noble. The noble nervously stood and started to speak, "T-this is a p-private meeting between myself the Princess, y-you have no right to barge in on us like-" he was stopped as Aranea glared. "Beat it," she hissed. The noble, like an obedient dog, bolted out of the throne room and disappeared down the halls screaming, resulting in an eye roll by Aranea as she approached Celestia. "We have an issue," she said as a whisp of green flame dropped a rolled up piece of parchment in front of the princess. She picked it up in her magic and read it as Aranea stared. "Yes, we do," Celestia muttered. "Changelings, princess, the issue is changelings. They're in your staff here," Aranea said, getting a skeptical look from the princess, "I found bodies and slime in the caves." The princess's eyes darkened and she stared at Aranea, "Get the guards and have them lock down the castle, I'll have Shining Armor put up his shield." Whoever Shining Armor was, Aranea hoped that the shield of his could keep changelings in, because it was going to be a pain finding out who the bugs had replaced and how exactly they had got here and when. Celestia scribbled her response to Twilight and disappeared in a flash of light. Aranea walked out of the throne room with a yell, "LOCK DOWN THE CASTLE. INTRUDERS AND MURDERERS ARE AFTER THE PRINCESSES." While the main castle staff went into a panic, the guards saluted and made for each exit, informing the other guards along the way.