//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Letting Go // Story: Shattered Hope // by Rocky The Unicorn //------------------------------// Rocky trotted down the hallways in the Canterlot castle. Eventually, she stumbled upon the exams room. A decent sized line waited outside the door. All of these unicorns, hoping to have their time to shine. They wanted a chance to change the world, just like she did. The lavender unicorn eagerly waited, as the line started moving again. She was so distracted, that she didn't realize the pony in front of her had stopped. The two bumped into each other and fell onto the floor. Rocky's blue and purple mane was on her face. She carefully moved some of the strands to the side, tucked behind her ear. She stood up and reached out a helping hoof to the mare she had bumped into. "Sorry about that. I didn't realize the line had stopped moving!" Rocky said with embarrassment. "It's ok! This line for the library sure is long!" The beige earth pony replied. "Oh, I hope you know this isn't the line to the Canterlot library. This is for exams to get into Celestia's School for gifted unicorns!" "Silly me! The library never gets this busy!" The earth pony turned when Rocky stopped her. "Wait, what's your name? I'm Rocky." "The name's Rosefilm! Now I best be off. It was nice meeting you!" And with that, the pony walked out. "Rocky, you are up for entrance exams," Princess Luna said. The alicorn escorted the lavender unicorn into the room where Celestia and the judges watched, awaiting her act. Rocky wanted to perform a time-freezing spell. She knew it was risky and very complex, but she needed to do something clever to get her into Celestia's school. Her horn lets off a vibrant green glow. For a moment, everything seemed to stop. It was like no pony else in the world mattered. Everything was still and peaceful. Then, the spell backfired. Green magic bursts zapped all around the room until the blast hit the Princess. Instead of freezing everything in time, it literally froze Princess Celestia. The judges began to panic and ordered Rocky to turn her back. Rocky could feel the sweat drip down her face. She concentrated as a ton of shots of magic flew everywhere, everypony started to panic. Celestia managed to break through with her own magic. Rather than stay and watch, the lavender unicorn ran out of the room, tears in her eyes. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Discord sulked, lying on the branch of a tree. He had never been quite as chaotic as he used to after she left. That's what he kept telling himself. She only left, but he knew it wasn't true. She was never coming back. Almost every day, tears would fill his eyes at the thought of her. Up in the tree, he would watch her old cottage. It had been 3000 years, and after the years would go by, Discord watched as different ponies would move into her cottage. In the past decade, a family had moved in. A little orange pegasus with a black and magenta swirly mane lived there with her parents currently. And to think, they had no idea about all of the tea parties he had there, and all of the memorable moments with her. One day, he sat there on the branch, tears in his eyes, when he heard a familiar voice. "Discord..." The voice said with concern. "Leave me alone!" Discord yelled at the voice. He turned to see Princess Twilight, who had sat down on the branch slightly above him, overlooking him with a bird's eye view. She had a satchel bag with her. Using her magic, she took out 6 stones of various colors. "I think I may be getting closer finding the new elements." Discord's eyes lit up for a second, the yellowing glowing under the red menacing slits. He looked so upset and offended by the harmless remark. "Does it look like I care, Princess?" Discord snarkily remarked. "I know it's hard to let go of the past, and I don't want to move on either," Twilight assured him. "You don't understand!" Discord growled. "Do you think you know how much despair I've gone through these past 3000 years? Well, I can assure you you're wrong!" "Well, they were my friends you know!" She angrily shot back. "SHE MEANT SO MUCH MORE TO ME!" Discord screeched. Tears surfaced in his eyes. He tried to fight them back, but it was no use. "She was my wife..." Twilight sat on the branch above him, dumbfounded. Her face was as pale as a ghost. Twilight slipped the new elements into her bag again. "Discord, I just thought that maybe if you feel a magical unbalance, you could let me know. We need harmony in Equestria again, and we are so close to finding it," Twilight told him. Discord slightly nodded, as he rested his head on top of his folded eagle claw and lion paw. Tears soaked his cheeks. He looked away from Twilight, and down at the cottage. Twilight casually got up and flew off, not looking back at the lonely draconequus. Discord let out a groan of despair as he sat there, silently sobbing on the tree branch. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight was flying back to Canterlot. She felt horrible as she flew over the menacing forest. She never realized how torn apart Discord had been, ever since Fluttershy's passing. She never even stood by him or offered to help him through his struggles. Instead, she had felt sorry for herself. In retrospect, he was very good at hiding his emotions, but still. She could have done something, anything. Twilight felt like a horrible friend. She was the Princess of Friendship for crying out loud, yet she wasn't even there for one of her oldest friends in his time of need. The alicorn princess eventually arrived in Canterlot. The mare gracefully landed by the Castle in the left wing, where exams were being held. She saw the unicorn she had met earlier, running out of the castle. Instead of feeling a hopeful and joyful feeling, this time, Twilight began feeling saddened. She started to think about how much she had messed up earlier. Then, she felt a movement coming from her satchel bag. She opened, and saw the green stone glowing. It flew up out of the bag, and started chasing the unicorn who was rushing out of the castle. Twilight frantically began chasing after the runaway element.