//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Discord // by PurpleWonderPower //------------------------------// Chapter 7 As the years passed by and the seasons changed, so did Princess Twilight. She loved to explore all the parts of her home, among all the flowers, trees and animals. Her three aunts had told her she could explore as much of the land as she wanted, just as long as she never went past the stretch of trees that separated her homeland from the rest of Equestria. But one day, a little while after she turned fifteen, Twilight Sparkle became curious. Curious about what was out there. Curious about the places beyond her home, and what adventures she might have exploring them. And it was on that day that Twilight decided to find out. She told her three aunts that she was going out, and began her journey up to the edge of her homeland, hoping that she would find something on the other side. She passed the cherry trees, with their beautiful blossoms, the pink petals swirling round in the breeze. She passed the babbling brook, with its crystal-clear waters and cattails growing along the banks. She passed the grassy meadows with the squirrels and bunnies scampering happily around, until she reached the edge of her homeland. As she looked up at the trees, she felt a flicker of doubt. Her aunts had obviously warned her not to come here for a reason. But I'm not helpless! thought Twilight, fiercely, I'm fifteen, and I know tons of advanced magic! I can take care of myself! With her doubts vanishing, she strode into the trees. They were so thick it was almost like nighttime. Then Twilight had an idea. Activating a simple torch spell she had learned from her aunts, she projected a glowing beam of light from her horn through the trees, lighting up the area around her. Now she could see everything. Twilight gave a satisfied nod. Much better. Soon she reached the end of the trees and looked out at the grassy landscape. It didn't look much different to the land she had just crossed over from. But then Twilight Sparkle noticed something really interesting. About a quarter of a mile from where she was standing, there was a tall, wide, craggy cliff. And on top of the cliff, a little to the left, Twilight could see the top of what looked like an old, ruined castle. Twilight's eyes widened. Her first step out of her home territory and she had come across this. A smile spread across the purple alicorn's face, and she galloped towards the cliff. An old spooky castle certainly sounded like something worth exploring. She reached the cliff and looked up. Huh. It sure looked taller close up. Now how to get up there? thought Twilight, Should I fly? Being an alicorn, Twilight Sparkle had wings, of course, but she wasn't very good with them. Her aunts had taught her everything she knew about magic, but they had never taught her how to fly. The most she could do was flap them and rise up into the air, before wobbling and teetering, eventually losing balance and flopping back down. Flying was very hard. She just couldn't seem to keep herself upright. But there was a castle to be explored, and to do that, she had to get to the top if the cliff. Taking a deep breath, she opened her wings and began to flap them. At first it seemed to work; she rose up into the air, but as she began to fly faster, one one of her wings went wonky, and she smacked into the face of the cliff! "Ow!" she moaned! She suddenly fell backwards and hurtled towards the ground! "AAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed, flapping her wings like crazy! She divebombed down, then swerved back up in a loop! "YAAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed, as she flew around and around, before smashing into the ground with a spray of dirt and stones. "Ow!" she moaned, massaging her sore skin. She shakily stood up and brushed off the dirt from her wings. Shaking herself off, she peered up at the cliff. Obviously flying wasn't going to get her anywhere. "How am I going to get up there now?" wondered Twilight. Then she had an idea. "Oh, I know!" she exclaimed, "Teleportation!" Screwing her eyes shut, she tried to do a teleportation spell. It was risky, as she hadn't quite mastered teleportation spells yet. Only yesterday had she tried to teleport downstairs for breakfast, and ended up sitting in a bird's nest, surrounded by cheeping chicks. Twilight shook that minor disaster out of her head and cast the spell. She disappeared in a flash of purple light, and reappeared at the top of the cliff. She looked around and her face lit up! "I did it!" she exclaimed, trotting away from the edge of the cliff and towards the castle. Suddenly, her hoof slipped and fell into empty space, and she stumbled on the edge of a deep chasm. She quickly stepped back. "Wow," she said, shakily, "That was close." She took a look down at the chasm. It was deep, and extremely wide. There seemed to be a cave built down in one of the walls, and on the opposite side to where Twilight was standing, there was a stone staircase leading down to the bottom. "What is this place?" breathed Twilight, gazing down into the chasm. She trotted round the edge of the chasm, intending to reach the staircase and explore. But as she trotted round, she noticed something incredible. She slowed to a walk, and headed over. A few dozen metres away from the chasm was a long line of trees. And coiled round them, preventing anypony or anything from getting through, were hundreds of enormous spiky black vines. They covered every inch of the trees, and Twilight couldn't see any opening. Curious, Twilight activated her magic and tried to teleport to the other side, but it didn't seem to work. It was like there was something blocking her magic, preventing her from entering what was hidden behind those vines. Meanwhile, unknown to Twilight, somepony else was watching her. Discord leaned against the side of the cave, smirking as he watched the purple alicorn examine his Plunderseed vines. "Curious little pony," he purred, as Twilight turned away from the vines and headed back over to the Castle of the Two Sisters. Discord smirked, then spotted a little brown bunny rabbit scampering across the ground near him. He gave it a firm tap in the head with his eagle claw, and with a flash of light, it mutated into a huge sabre-tooth bunny rabbit, twice the size of the original. "Bring her to me!" purred Discord, stroking the mutant bunny rabbit under the chin. Twilight walked up to the castle and stared up at it. It looked much more mysterious close up. It was a deep purple, and most of the top looked like it had been burned away long ago. It looked like a place that held a lot of secrets. She was about to head inside and see what the castle held, when she heard a screech from behind her. She turned round to see a bunny rabbit with huge sabre teeth sitting on the grass. Twilight's eyes widened. "What are you?" she wondered, looking down at the rabbit. The rabbit gave a screech and Twilight took a step back. It bounced over and yanked at her tail with its teeth. She gasped and tried to shake it off. "Get off me!" she cried! She flung the rabbit away from her, and it landed on the grass. It shook itself off and bounced back up to Twilight. It moved its paws towards itself, as if beckoning to her. "What is it?" Twilight asked it, "Do you want me to follow you?" The rabbit nodded eagerly, then hopped behind Twilight and started nudging her forward. "OK! OK!" laughed Twilight, as the rabbit nudged her along, "I'm coming!" The rabbit clapped its paws and scampered away from her. She trotted after it, feeling rather excited. The rabbit scampered around the side of the chasm with Twilight in hot pursuit. It reached the stone staircase and hopped down the steps leading down into the chasm. "Wait!" called Twilight, swerving round and galloping down the steps after the rabbit, "Stop! I can't keep up with you!" She reached the bottom of the steps and galloped forward, just in time to see the rabbit disappear into the cave she had seen in the wall. She galloped after it and ran into the cave. But she slowed to a walk as she saw the sight before her. Her jaw dropped as low as it could go as her eyes fell upon the glowing magical tree, draped with shimmering vines and glowing silver gemstones. She gazed at it in awe. The rabbit at her hooves gave a little screech, and she patted it on the head without really noticing. Then, in the shadows behind the mysterious tree, something definitely moved. Twilight's ears pricked up, and her eyes fixed on the tree. The light from the tree was casting a shadow of someone else behind it. "Hello?" she called, her voice echoing round the cavern, "I know you're in there. Don't be afraid." She listened for a moment, then heard a low, soft voice speak from behind the tree. "I'm not afraid." "Then come out," said Twilight, curiously. "Then you'll be afraid," the voice purred. Twilight's eyes widened. "No," she called, "Please come out. I won't be scared of you. I promise." She waited for another moment and then heard the voice speak, "As you wish." Twilight peered curiously at the tree, and saw a tall, thin figure emerge from the shadows behind it. He had a long brown body, and his body parts seemed to be from all sorts of animals. He had two different horns on the top of his grey pony head, and bright yellow eyes with red pupils. "Whoah...Who are you?" asked Twilight, curiously, "I've never seen anything like you before." "I look like a lot of different creatures," replied Discord. "So what's your name?" "I have a name," answered Discord, "But it is not one you would want to speak. I am but a spirit, residing here." "So where is "here"?" asked Twilight, curiously, "And what's with that tree? And the castle? And those black vines surrounding that forest?" "Curious, aren't you?" said Discord, playfully, touching the alicorn's cheek, "See here," he led her to the edge of the cave so she could see his Plunderseed vines, "It's my home. They call it the Everfree Forest." "The Everfree Forest?" repeated Twilight, "My aunts told me stories about that place. They said it was an awful place and that I should never go there." "Awful?" repeated Discord, innocently, "Oh no. The Everfree Forest is my residence, controlled by my magic. And I would never let a sweet little pony like you come to any harm." "You have magic too?" said Twilight, trotting up, "So do I! My aunts taught me everything about it." The one thing in the universe they can do right, thought Discord, rolling his eyes. "I even got my cutie mark for magic," Twilight said, pointing to the mark on her flank, "I've studied it for years, then one day I got my cutie mark when I—" "—Wanted to push your alicorn magic to its limits and ended up turning all the trees into liquorice and your aunts into rabbits?" asked Discord, with a sneaky smile. Twilight's eyes widened. "How'd you know about that?" she asked, in amazement. Discord placed his hands on her shoulders and sidled up close to her. "I've been watching over you for a long time, Twilight Sparkle," he said, squeezing her shoulders, "I know all about you." There was something comforting about having his hands on her shoulders. "So what's your cutie mark?" Twilight asked, peering over at his flank, "Is it magic too?" She took a look at his flank and touched his snake tail, reminding Discord faintly of the time when she was five. "You don't have one," said Twilight, "Are you a blank flank, like my aunts? With no cutie mark?" "Cutie mark?" repeated Discord, "Ohohoho, no," he chuckled, waving his hand, amusedly, "I don't have a cutie mark, my dear Twilight. For I am a draconequus. You are a pony." "So do you not have a special talent?" asked Twilight, "Or do you have a special talent but just no cutie mark?" She came up closer to him, rather intrigued. "What can your magic do? Can it teleport? I can teleport, well, only sort of. Can you turn invisible, or make objects move, or duplicate things, or travel through time, or—" "Whoah, whoah, whoah, far too many questions, my dear," said Discord, pinching Twilight's lips shut, silencing her, "My ears can only hold so much." His ears detached from his head and fell onto the floor as he said this. Twilight laughed and brushed his paw off her. "Sorry," she said, smiling, "I've never had anypony to talk to, and maybe I can talk to you. She smiled up at him, and Discord felt very awkward as she did. "Perhaps. Isn't it about time you went home, though?" he said, "Your aunts will probably be worried if you don't return soon." "Well...I guess," said Twilight, regretfully, looking down at the floor. "Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle," said Discord, "It was very nice meeting you." "Wait! Will I see you again?" asked Twilight, as he strode away, "Will you be here often?" Discord turned round and looked down on the young alicorn with a look of affection. "I'll be here if you need me to be," he said, softly. And with that, he melted into the shadows, leaving the young alicorn all alone. What are you getting yourself into, Discord!? he scolded himself.