//------------------------------// // Embrace it // Story: Aeternitas Book I: Lunar Shadow // by Shadowlight Wanderer //------------------------------// Chapter 8 In which Fluttershy searches for the answers in the hedge maze and discovers that some beasts cannot be tamed easily (You all thought that we are going to start Fluttershy's part with wandering around empty castle ? Well, Gotcha!) Pure chaos. Absolute and total chaos. When Fluttershy awoke, her first thought was that Discord came to visit Canterlot and now the party was out of control. But when she looked around, she understood that it was a lot worse than that. All around her friends were running and screaming. Fluttershy saw Pinkie Pie galloping with a mixed expression of fury and sorrow in her eyes. In her mouth she was holding...a knife ? Fluttershy squeaked and became one with the ground again... But Pinkie was running further and further and soon disappeared. Fluttershy raised her head, still terrified. "What in Celestia's name is going on ? Oh my, I hope that this is just some sort of a... joke or... something" yellow pegasus gulped and got up. She started slowly walking towards the centrum of the big hall. "No, this can't be happening. I am sure that if I ask somepony what is going on, we can all found a way out of this. They all just... having a hard time because..." she gasped " Maybe something happened to the princesses. Maybe it was an attack and now we are in a trap EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Fluttershy jumped into the air when she felt somepony's hoof touching her back. "Fluttershy ? " said familiar, warm voice. Fluttershy, still two meters over ground, slowly opened her eyes "A-A-Applejack ? " she asked. She noticed famous Stetson hat and shortly after, the whole silhouette of apple farmer. AJ rose an eyebrow. Her emerald eyes looked tired but have a tough gaze. " 'Course it's me, sugarcube. Who else ?" Applejack said, staring at Fluttershy with confusion. Fluttershy slowly landed on the floor and moved closer to orange farm pony "Applejack... if you don't mind that I ask but do you know what is going on ?" she said quietly, hiding behind the veil of rosy mane. Fluttershy came a long way to become confident. Now she was much more bold and brave comparing to Fluttershy three years ago. But that situation made her feel like in the old days: afraid and uncertain. She looked at Applejack. "Are you all right ?" she asked, wrapping a wing around her friend. Applejack was contemplating something in the distance and it seemed that she didn't hear Fluttershy's question. "We need to get movin' " she finally answered, staring at shadows in front of her with determination " Whoever is hiding up there, won't hurt any of you tonight. Let's go ! " Applejack galloped away, entering the dark clouds and leaving Fluttershy behind. "Applejack, wait ! " screamed Fluttershy, trying to keep up. But when she passed through the shadows, she found herself in a very different location. "Where am I ? " Fluttershy looked around. And then recognized that place. She was standing in the middle of the Royal Gardens of Canterlot and around her was a bushes and fields of green grass, crossed with some thin, sandy paths. How she get here ? All of this was very, very disturbing. "Applejack ?" Fluttershy shouted as loud as she could. Her voice echoed in the garden and remained without any answer "Oh, this is so freaky"yellow pegasus started to slowly trot in the direction in which, in her opinion, should be the castle. Suddenly, a shadow passed through the path in front of her, some branches cracked in the scrubs. Fluttershy let out a short scream and once again jumped into the air, closing her eyes. For a moment, nothing happened. When she slowly opened her eyes and gave quick peek down and her eyes widened. She was high, very high over ground. She had to fly there almost subconsciously. She almost covered her eyes with her wings but she then understood that it would be suicide. Fighting with her fear of heights, Fluttershy used the opportunity to look around from above. She noticed that the aura around the castle was very strange and there was a strong lightning storm over her head but besides that, she didn't see anything suspicious. Fluttershy had to quickly dodge from some of the lightning bolts. All of the sudden, she heard a loud scream of pain. She looked around but she could not locate the source. In her search, Fluttershy saw a weird light emanating from one point of Royal Hedge maze. Even though she was a little scared, she decided to investigate it. She was going to puke from the height anyway, so she had to descend. She slowly landed near the source of light. She galloped through the twists and turns of the maze to find herself on a little piece of ground where the paths from different directions were joining together. Fluttershy stopped and shivered. She knew this place. In this place she was turned into her opposite self by... "Hello Fluttershy" said a voice over her. Fluttershy looked up to see a draconequus laying on a cloud of pink cotton candy "Discord ?" whispered Fluttershy. "Tadaaam!!! The one and only ! " Discord grinned and lowered his cloud to be on the level of Fluttershy's eyes. Then he put on more serious face, though malevolence was still sparkling in his eyes " Fluttershy, you did see the light, didn't you ? It was my signal for you. Something odd is going on here and I wanted you to be safe. " Fluttershy smiled "Oh, that's so sweet of you. So you noticed that something is going on too ?" "Of course I did. I am Discord, the Lord of Chaos. The level of disharmony in this castle can be smelled from miles away. And the most frustrating thing was that I am not responsible for this. Bizarre..." "Discord, why are you even here anyway ?" Discord smiled, his single tooth shone in the darkness "I was on a way to my monthly tea with Bill Cipher, when I accidentally overheard you talking about going to Canterlot. I just couldn't stop myself and I had to pay a visit to Celestia, cause she is such a hardflank. When I arrived, you were sitting there with princesses and talking. Starlight promised me once that we will go out and turn Celestia's castle into cheese. But I am not very patient creature, so I wanted to make you a little present and later get invited to a cup of tea. But just before I crushed, ekhm, modified the program of your party, something threw me out. It literally pushed me away right here. Look..." Discord stretched his claw and a bolt of lightning appeared out of nowhere. It flew into the air and then exploded, crushing with the invisible obstacle. Draconequus shook his head "I was extremely upset that I was kicked out before I even did anything. And after I realised that this here barrier is preventing me from entering, I got really furious. I tried whole arsenal. Cotton candy, plastic ducks, vines, plasma guns, tanks, flying pigs, power rays, bazookas, Flurry Heart, My "Capitan Wuuz" arrows, spaghetti, traffic lights, lamp shaped in shape of moi , grenades and most terrible weapon of choice...Celestia's underwear. Not a scratch. Even I could not penetrate it. But after several hours I realized that the things are really out of control..." Fluttershy moved closer to Discord "So what you are saying is..." Discord was now playing with his goatee "Well, normally I would be proud of this havoc. But as you might remember, I can sense alterations in magic. And this magic" he inhaled deeply and shook his head once again " This magic... this magic is older than Equestria, older than me. Older than this universe. We are dealing with the most powerful force in entire creation. And it is very, very evil" Fluttershy squealed and hugged Discord tightly, closing her eyes "How do you know that ?" "There was a moment of silence and then she heard Discord's whisper in her ear "Because I am here and you are here with me...just as planned" Fluttershy's eyes opened widely as she looked at spirit of chaos and disharmony "Wha-what ?" Discord giggled malevolently "My dear sweet Fluttershy...my sweet, naive Fluttershy...you honestly thought I could change so easily, so permanently... when there is such an opportunity for chaos and disorder" Fluttershy tried to break free from Discord's arms but he kept holding her still very tightly. Yellow pegasus started to shake. "Discord...please let me go ! What happened to you ? Are you all right ?" Discord snarled and chuckled "More than all right actually. Now you are all mine and nothing will stop me from realising my plan. Don't try to fight me, you know what I can do. Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Now that you are here we can spend that time more...efficiently, if you know what I mean". Fluttershy's eyes were now full of tears "Discord, please just stop ! Whatever is going on, stop acting like this !!!" Discord threw Fluttershy on the ground and she screamed in pain "Acting ? No way !" he hissed " I was goodie goodie for far too long. You ponies are all flexible with your plans and destinies. Well, till the time you got your cutie marks. But you can easily reshape your fate. And I... I was born into chaos. Since my birth, I was destined to cause disharmony and all that reformation of yours took it away." Discord rise above Fluttershy, his eyes glowing dangerously in the darkness. "Do you happened to know what it is like to be ripped off the essence of who you are ? I didn't ask to born the way I was born, but this is just who I am. And you forbid it to me because you were just scared of the things you couldn't understand. I am not one of your animals, you can't tame me. I will get this world the way I like it. The ponykind doesn't care for me so...so I will not care for ponies then. But firstly I must destroy the Elements to assure that I will not be stopped. Well, here we-" Crack Fluttershy felt the wave of heat coming through her body. She suddenly felt very dizzy and her body was vibrating with adrenaline Everything was shut down. Only the hatred remained. Fluttershy roared and tackled Discord, making him smash on one of the headgemaze's walls "YOU THINK YOU CAN TOIL WITH MY EMOTIONS AND GET AWAY JUST LIKE THAT ???!!! NO WAY I AM GOING TO DESTROY YOU, BRING YOU SUFFERING FOR THE REST OF YOUR WRETCHED EXISTANCE. I WILL END YOU AND YOU WILL PAY FOR FOOLING ME. I WILL ASK ONLY ONE TIME WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY FRIENDS??!!!OR ELSE I WILL KICK YOUR ASS SO HARD THAT YOU WILL FEEL IT THROUGH MILLENIUM" Discord laughed weakly, looking at Fluttershy, who was not Fluttershy anymore. He smiled. "Everything is going according to the plan. Let it out Fluttershy, let the beast out. Come on, finish me. I won't run. I want to see if I was correct about your kind. Come on, I have all eternity but you have limited life, so just do it !" "WANNA BET I WILL !!!" Fluttershy jumped on Discord's body. She was getting ready to punch. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I WAITED TO BE FREE ! I WILL ARANGE EVERYTHING IN ORDER SO MAYBE THEN YOU WILL BE GONE FOREVER!!!!" She raised hoof in the air... "Fluttershy, don't listen to him ! Stop!!!" Wave of energy thrown Fluttershy from Discord who was now raised into the air and faced with...himself „Keep yourself away from my lady” yelled real Discord The imposter’s eyes widened „You...how...but you shouldn’t...you couldn’t...” Discord’s eagle claw ignited „I recommend to you my book, “Discord 101”. First rule in dealing with me: Don’t ever question me”. Saaaaaaayoooooonaaaaraa!!!!!!!!!!” He blasted the imposter with the energy. Fake Discord was squashed with a full force on a hedge wall and disappeared. Discord quickly teleported closer to Fluttershy “Fluttershy, are you all right ?” Yellow pegasus’ breathing was now more stabilised and her eyes had a clearer sight. “Discord...Is that really you ? What happened to me ?” Discord sighed with irritation “Of course that it’s really me. That Discord who I just sent to Tartarus was a preposterous rip off. I have to admit, quite handsome rip off, but he was still the fake news. Anyway, I am really sorry that you have to get through all this mess. He said the truth about me wanting you safe. I really arrived here but then he took me by surprise and managed to immobilize me. I tried to fight him after you arrived but I couldn’t broke the spell until now.” Fluttershy was still lying on the ground “I don’t know if I should believe you. That evil one sounded so convincing...” she sobbed Discord nodded his head “Oh right, we are on this level. Okay, I understand that after all of this you need some proof. What if I tell you something only we know...” He whispered something into Fluttershy’s ear. She immediately blushed and rubbed her mane “Oh right, so it really is you... Discord, can you tell me what happened to me ? I was so...so terrified” Discord helped Fluttershy rise up and bit his lip “Fluttershy, in all of us there is good and bad. Sometimes we deny some part of us but their doesn’t die. It is waiting right there inside of you. And that creep... he apparently had a power of darkness that allowed you to awoke your dark side. It messed with you turning you into worst version of yourself. I did this to you many years ago in this very place” he looked around in bizarre sentiment “ but that was different. That magic is ancient, toxic and full of hatred. I am sure that our friends are suffering from living nightmares too. Whatever is influencing you with darkness, really wants to kill you. Luckily, I am here and I won’t allow it” He snapped his claws. Suddenly, he was wearing and armour and handing umbrella in his paw. “Discord is ready to rumble. I will avenge you, Fluttershy, our friends and my privacy. My image belongs to me and Hasbro. No one else can use it.” “What ?” asked confused Fluttershy. Discord coughed “Nothing. So, I will try to locate our enemy. I am not sure if we will be able to see each other again because something was keeping me away even before." he waved his paw and a portal materialised out of thin air. “ This portal will lead you to your friends. I am really sorry but I really got to go. Ta ta !” He jumped and disappeared in the flash of white light. “No Discord, wait” said Fluttershy but draconequus was already gone. Fluttershy lowered her head “I wonder “ she thought “ if Discord knows more about what is going on that he wants to tell ? And what that dark Discord told me about Discord being so fed up and frustrated...can it really be true ?” She slowly approached the portal and took a deep breath “Oh, let me be brave “ she muttered. She passed through the energy veil She landed in the middle of scene so unrealistic that she had to close her eyes and open them again to be sure that it was really there. She took a deep breath and shouted “Guys, what is going on ?”