//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 -A Strange New Friendship 
// Story: The Equestria That Never Was 
// by desertbat 
//------------------------------//

Discord awkwardly held me tightly with his lion paw arm, tears almost running down the cheeks of his goat head, as he spectated the battle between Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon that was still going on. I spent this silence contemplating what to say. I had so many questions for him, but I had to decide the ones that should be asked first. "So," I began, " what did you do to cause this?" I gestured to the battle. " Also you're super powerful, why can't you just change them back to normal?"

He released me from his paw and frustratingly looked me in the eyes. "I don't know who you are, but I now know one hundred percent that you're not from this world for multiple reasons: the first being that you have to ask ridiculous questions like that and the second being you probably think this," he said, pointing to the sisters, " is all I did. I can assure you I wish this was all I did - I would have been able to fix this problem and celebrated with cake. No, I'm afraid it goes back farther than simply tricking the two sisters into their corrupt forms." That statement made me gulp in a panic - something he noticed all too quickly." Tell me, do you recall the pillars of Equestria?"

"Of course. They're the six ponies that kept Equestria safe, with Starswirl the Bearded as their leader - though I kind of think Starswirl's a jerk."

"Same, but that's not important right this moment. Now I'm sure you remember in your dreams what they did to Stygian, the Pony of Shadows before they met the mane six - sending him and themselves to Limbo for a thousand years?" I nodded my head in agreement. "Well, they never sent him to Limbo - just themselves. After witnessing what the pillars did to Tirek, I followed them for a long time - waiting for the right opportunity to get rid of them and allow chaos to finally reign. Their spell for the pony of shadows was the perfect opportunity to do such a thing, and as an added bonus, I could interfere with their plans. 

Just before Stygian was being sent off to Limbo, I got him out of the crossfire and replaced who they sent with the one pony that could talk sense into the new ruling tyrant of the Crystal Empire - King Sombra's lover, Radiant Hope. Radiant Hope never managed to warn Celestia and Luna of her love's descent into madness before it was too late, and the Crystal Empire forever became the domain of Sombra.

Sombra discovered what happened to Hope and, by using his own power of the shadows, overpowered Stygian and told him his life would be spared for servitude of the Crystal Empire - Stygian actually felt he was given more respect from Sombra than the pillars ever gave him and eventually won Sombra's trust, becoming his new general and waging war on Equestria out of rage for losing his beloved.

Eventually, the war caused quarrels between the sisters and the nightmare entity corrupted both of their minds - causing not only a national war but a civil war as well. Other factions you might know - such as the Changelings, Dragons, the Storm King's army, and many others - have joined the fray to cause a world war, but to sum it all up, I destroyed harmony in Equestria, and most likely, the whole world."

There were many things I wanted to know, but I was too flabbergasted by this newly acquired knowledge to ask. My energy felt drained as everything within the few hours I'd arrived in Equestria sunk in. If I had realized what I had, if I had never made that wish, then none of this would be happening to me or, possibly, Violet. Now I would never see my loving family, my quiet life, and possibly the woman I wanted to marry ever again. A wish that was supposed to grant my heart's desire only stripped the wealth I had away from me, leaving only this torment and a deepening hatred for the avarice that damned me to this Hell. Tears began to form and I felt a paw on my head, trying to comfort me. "I can't imagine I'll ever be able to truly make up for my past follies, but I promise you if there's anything I can do to help, I will."

As nice as he was acting towards me, I couldn't believe his words, and that mindset only reinforced that I was on my own. In an attempt to avoid the sense of defeat, a desperate plan manifested in me. "The tree of harmony," I shouted out loud. Discord looked like he wanted to tell me something, but I was already lost in thought to listen. Discord said that the mane six couldn't help me, but from his story about the pillars he never mentioned disposing the elements from the tree they planted before. With steely determination and strong disillusion, I backtracked to the castle of the two sisters to see the tree of harmony below it - not even realizing I left Discord behind and caused myself to be all alone.

There it was - the tree of harmony. A crystal tree with six magic stones that could restore balance to this world. "Oh, thank God the tree is still he..." the slots that contained the elements were empty - the elements were gone. "No." I ran up to the tree to inspected every inch of it. "No!" It didn't change anything - the elements were most likely lost forever. "NOOO!" I began hitting the ground with my left forehoof - ignoring the pain I caused it. I yelled out in rage and collapsed to the ground, crying without end. I felt so defeated and weak that I didn't even notice until it was too late, a timberwolf was behind me. 

The timberwolf pounced and had me trapped in his mighty wooden claws. I was powerless to stop it. I thought for sure that this was how I would die. To my luck, the timberwolf was knocked on his feet from a mighty swipe of Discord's strong lion paw. He charged it with his mismatched horns and tore at it with his other hand - his taloned hand. The timberwolf fell to pieces and Discord swiped the wooden remains with his fur-tipped serpent tail. "Are you alright." He said, a little irritated." I tried to tell you, I corrupted the elements centuries ago and scattered them throughout the land. You can't rely on them anymore."

Discord extended his taloned hand to help me up, but, at that moment, I let my anger get to me. Instead of excepting his hand in friendship, I used my forehoof to hit him hard in the jaw - so hard that I was positive I moved him back an inch. "Do you realized what you've done!?" I shouted at him with hatred flowing through me. "All this time my love and I were dreaming of coming to a beautiful land full of joy and happiness, and you did nothing but feed us lies?! How dark is your heart? Do you just enjoy ruining everyone's life? Does this amuse you to break everyone and watch a world lose it's innocence? You sent this world to its death. Do you really think that because you're telling me to forgive you and that you're sorry that it can change anything?"

My anger had weakened me and it forced me to sit down and rest for a minute. I examined Discord, expecting him to lash out at me - mentally or physically. He didn't, however. His expression looked tired and broken as if he always expected to be told this and knew he had no reason to defend what he did. 

"You're right." He said in a nonaggressive way. " I ruined the world. A few years ago I would still consider this paradise, but that was until I found a certain magic mirror. When I destroyed the magic mirror in this castle above us, its magical essence scattered across the night sky, probably reaching your world as well. One of the essences struck me and I began to have visions," my attention soon became glued to him at the mention of this, "visions of a world where I never helped Stygian, where I was defeated, Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon, the Elements found Twilight Sparkle and her group of friends that would not only keep Equestria safe from creatures like me but forgive them and show them the magic of friendship. I saw a world where I had friends and... mostly helped save the day with them. Most of all, I was loved and accepted by the pony named Fluttershy. She never even had the chance to exist in this world and I still feel like I betrayed her kindness. It was then that I realized I couldn't continue with this. What I once found fun was soon revolting in my eyes. I decided that I would, from now on, try my best to restore Equestria, but on that day Tirek also came back. I once had the power to stop all the evil that ruled this world, but after my fight with Tirek, I lost so much of the power you saw in your visions - the visions we somehow shared. I don't think I'll ever be able to fix Equestria on my own, but ever since I felt those two disturbances and met you, it's been giving me a feeling that I was possibly granted a second chance - maybe not to redeem myself, but to give Equestria the chance to be what it was meant to be."

The next words I would say were words I never thought I would have said after knowing what happened moments ago and his actions in this world. "I...I'm....sorry." 

Discord came closer and gave a small smirk my way. "You have no reason to be sorry to me. I must admit, you hit very hard for a pony." 

I don't know why, but I began to chuckle a little. "Thanks, I'm not originally a pony and quite surprised I can do as much as I can right now."

"Yes. And I'm sure you'll figure things out more during our journey to find your beloved. Come on, follow me."

I began looking at him with hope. "My beautiful Violet is here, and alive?"

"Of course, I told you I felt two magical disturbances, didn't I? So, I'm guessing from that and your speech, she was the other."

"And...you can find her." I was becoming so joyful, I began to forget about the raging drama we just had.

"Well, yes. I didn't lose that power fighting Tirek. Now come on, we need to travel South. Perhaps one day we can return here and free the alicorn sisters but that's not today. Hopefully reuniting you two will lead us in the right step like I think it will. This is still Equestria after all, and, vision or not, things always seem to eventually work out for it in the end."

I could hear only confidence and determination in his tone. On impulse, I ran to him and gave him a hug and I could feel the rage and hate I so easily had moments ago dissipate, turning into hope and joy. "Thank you, for saving my life and for assisting me in finding my Violet."

"I have a lot to make up for, this is the least I could do. Let's get going." He began to walk and I soon followed.

As terrible as the first few hours being here were, I was happy to gain a friend in a time of need, and I felt confident that one day we could fix this paradise lost.