“So what happened to your eye?” I asked as I was lead into the new district of my town.
“That’s what you lead with?” the drake grumbled.
“It is sort of staring me in the face,” I returned.
“Let me start back a little before,” he sighed. “When Rarity died, Twilight was devastated. I never even saw her open a book for months. She went and held court, raised and lowered the moon, and slept. It took a while for her to get back to as normal as she could get. After ten years, I had to take a vacation, step out of the fast lane. And that’s when Thorax found me.”
“He was still around?”
Spike nodded. “Changelings live some pretty long lives,” he sighed, reaching up to rub a claw over the scarred mess that had been his left eye. “Chrysalis declared war on his kingdom. When she vanished after you rescued everyone, she set up a new hive in secret.”
We walked for a moment in silence. “Did you know that in most insect species, once a queen starts laying eggs, she doesn’t stop? Chrysalis raised a whole army in a few decades and started a civil war in the Hivelands.”
“And Twilight or Sunset didn’t do anything?” I asked, incredulous.
“They had agreed to a non-interference policy with the Hivelands,” Spike said. “One I was strongly against. I stayed behind to help defend the young and elderly. Thorax sent an envoy to the Diarchs, but was returned without a refusal for aid.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t sound like either of them,” I protested. “They would never just let a friend fight alone!”
“When they were just the Princess of Friendship and a simple runaway, yes,” the drake returned. “But now they are the rulers of an entire nation. They had no choice. I see that now.” He chuckled ruefully. “It’s interesting how losing an eye will help you see better sometimes.”
“So what happened?”
“Chrysalis attacked the Hive, late in the night,” Spike continued. “And they had a couple of manticores with them. I lost my eye to one, but what they didn’t know was just how much fire I could breathe.” He closed his eye and took a deep breath, blowing out a puff of smoke. “I can still hear the screams.”
“How did it end?” I asked, afraid for the answer.
“Thorax and Pharynx took on Chrysalis two on one in the middle of the final push,” he said as we entered a public square, a fountain portraying Pegasi pushing some clouds together. “They won, severing her hold on the other Changelings, but she managed to kill Pharynx in the process.Thorax still sits over the Hivelands, but he’s not as easy-going as he used to be.”
“Well, looks as though the sleepyhead finally woke up,” a voice said from behind us. I blinked as I turned around.
And while he was no older than he had been while I had known him, he was also visibly different. He was wearing a threadbare sweater and a scarf done in yellow and pink, and just a hair transparent.
“Discord?”
“In the flesh, so to speak,” he said, dipping in a slight bow. His voice was a little more mild
“What’s the matter with you?” I asked. “You’re not quite solid.”
“I spent just a bit too much time not being me,” he said. “As a being of Chaos, I have to be chaotic as much as possible. And I decided to just take a break from being me for a while.”
“Fluttershy,” I whispered.
“Of course not,” he sniffed, turning away. “I just needed to decide what kind of chaos I wanted to explore this time. It has nothing to do with the kindest, most beautiful pony the world had ever known not being…”
I set a hoof on his shoulder, feeling it almost like a liquid. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I understand how you feel.”
“I suspect you do,” he said, firming up a bit as he turned. He frowned at me, tilting his head. “You’re not under some sort of spell, are you?” he asked.
“Not that I’m aware of,” I said, turning in a circle. “Why?”
He reached out and curled his talons around something in the air and pulled hard and my world lurched, the air turning white.
”She’s stable, but I’m not sure for how long.”
He released the whatever it was he had grabbed as I collapsed. He frowned and rubbed his talons together, feeling something between them. He grew just a bit more solid as he did. “This is Chaos magic,” he said, his voice starting to sound like it once did when I knew him. “You never cease to surprise me.”
I managed to turn my head away before I vomited.