Discord’s hands balled into fists, and he growled, “What do you mean ‘visitors,’ exactly?”
The blonde woman hesitated.
“Who is it, Derpy?!” he demanded angrily. Fluttershy flinched, slowly backing away from the two of them. She stopped dead, however, when she heard the answer.
“It’s Princess Twilight and General Flash Sentry!”
“WHAT?!” Discord’s fists ignited into flames, and he started pacing the room aggressively. “I should have known that little brat would run straight to Celestia. How many did they bring with them? Hundreds? Thousands?” The flames climbed his arms, singeing his white suit. “How dead are we, Derpy? How many are there?”
“None.”
“Worse than I thought! Evacuate the—wait.” He stopped dead, the fire beginning to consume the rest of his suit. Looking around in confusion, Discord caught the look of terror on Fluttershy’s face at his violent anger. The flames that surrounded him vanished, but her look did not change. Fighting off the icy weight that settled in the pit of his stomach, he turned to Derpy and repeated stupidly, “None?”
Derpy nodded. “Yes, sir. It’s just the two of them. And the princess is wounded. They came to us for help, they said.”
Fluttershy rushed forward. “Twilight’s hurt? How bad is it? Has it been tended to? What happened to them?” Derpy had to throw her hands up in self-defense to end the concerned woman’s barrage of questions.
“She has a single bullet wound in her leg. She specifically asked to see you, Miss Fluttershy. She said you could heal it.”
Fluttershy flushed a little. “I don’t know what I can do, but I’ll see her immediately! Where is she?”
“In the infirmary, Miss. I’ll show you,” Derpy took her arm and led her out of the room, leaving Discord alone in the dining room.
He stood paralyzed, the look on Fluttershy’s face still floating before his eyes. It had bothered him before when she was frightened of him, but now it killed him. Discord had thought that being kind to her would be enough to ease her fears, but obviously he was wrong. He groaned, stomping his foot in frustration. What else did she want? Maybe he just hadn’t been kind enough. He could do more. Eager to make it up to her, Discord hurried after them toward the infirmary.
The nurses were just untying the sweatshirt around Twilight’s leg when Fluttershy burst through the door. “Twilight!” She cried, rushing to her friend’s side and dropping to her knees to examine the bullet wound. “Oh, it needs to be cleaned first; I can’t see anything!”
A nurse hurried up with a wet rag and reached forward to clean the wound. Twilight caught her wrist. “Wait! Don’t you have any anesthetic or something?”
The nurse shook her head. “I’m sorry. You can bite down on this.” She handed Twilight a small towel.
“Or you could just say please,” called a voice from the doorway. Discord approached Twilight and snapped his fingers, vaporizing the shrapnel and instantly healing the flesh around it. He even removed the bloodstain from her jeans and sweatshirt. The princess looked blankly from her leg to Discord, then slowly a smile spread across her face. “Thank you,” she said, standing up and testing her weight on it. She grinned. “Thank you!” she repeated joyfully.
Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief, then beamed at Discord, who had to fight down a flurry of butterflies from seeing her smile again. She rose to her feet to hug Twilight again, but when Fluttershy looked past her friend, she gasped quietly. In the corner, Flash Sentry was dangling between two armed guards, either unconscious or nearly so. “What’s going on?” she demanded. “Let him go!”
The guards looked at each other and then back to Fluttershy. “He’s Celestia’s top general. He’s a threat.”
Discord saw Fluttershy’s horrified face and immediately stepped forward. “I will take custody of the general. Thank you, gentlemen.” The guards released Flash and he dropped straight to the ground like a sack of lead, groaning in pain. Apparently he was still conscious, but only just. But a snap of the fingers from Discord and he was perfectly healthy again.
He stood up slowly, very aware of the two guns still pointing at him. “Thank you.”
Telekinetically, Discord gave the general a quick once-over to check for weapons, but the guards has already disarmed him, so he was practically harmless. Besides, if he tried anything, Discord’s magic was strong enough to prevent any unarmed attacks.
Once he had gotten to his feet, Flash immediately went to Twilight to see that she was all right. He breathed a quick sigh of relief and looked back up to Discord. “Your work?” he asked, pointing at where the bullet wound used to be. Discord nodded. Flash almost smiled. “Thank you again. I didn’t believe the princess—I mean Twilight,” he corrected himself when Twilight gave him a look. “—when she told us that you were this friendly. I thank you again for helping us.”
Discord nodded cordially, his single fang showing as he smiled. Fluttershy smiled up at him again, and his smile turned to a grin. She was pleased with him. Maybe that would be enough to convince her that she had no reason to be afraid of him.
Twilight hugged Fluttershy again. “Oh, Fluttershy, Discord was wrong. It’s not the guards who are corrupted, but Celestia herself!”
That caught Discord’s attention as well as Fluttershy’s. “What?” they asked together.
“Fluttershy, it’s just awful! It wasn’t the guards, it was the princess! Celestia—she,” Twilight took a breath. “—she shot Twist. Right in front of everyone. Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”
Fluttershy gasped in horror. “That can’t be! She’s our protector!”
“No, she isn’t,” Discord replied grimly. This report only confirmed his suspicions. Celestia had been behind it all along.
Twilight looked at Discord. “We should’ve listened to you. Twist would still be alive if we had left her here with you like you wanted us to.”
“We told you we were trying to save her life.”
“You were right.” The princess hung her head. “She would’ve been safer here.”
Fluttershy was still pale and shaking with disbelief. “She shot her?”
“Right in front of all of us.” Twilight sighed. “I’ll never forget it. The way she just fell over…” she trailed off, and Flash Sentry put an arm around her shoulders to comfort her.
Fluttershy looked from Twilight to Discord and back to Twilight. “Does she kill everyone we send to Canterlot for special trial?”
Twilight nodded. “No one is spared.”
Fluttershy’s eyes filled with tears. Then a realization struck her. “Where is everybody else?”
“They’re in the Canterlot dungeons, being held for questioning. Who knows what Celestia has done to them by now.” The princess looked up at Discord. “Is there any way we can rescue them?”
Discord looked down at her, then at Flash Sentry, and then to Fluttershy, who was looking up at him with pleading eyes. “We can certainly try,” he said.