//------------------------------// // Royal Pain // Story: Thread of Destiny // by Shenzy //------------------------------// Royal pain Celestia was prepared for battle. Willing to put all necessary gears in motion to win. Unlike her appearance in Ponyville, she had let go of all her royal insignia for this; her crown, her collar and horseshoes had been gone, but she was far from being bare. As many threats had shown their face in Equestria – forcing fighs on her and at times brining her close to the edge of defeat, she knew her next fight could be her last as well. So the princess had called out to all over the land for the best blacksmiths there are. Only five of them had proven worthy for the task. Those chosen blacksmiths worked harder as nopony before them in the history of Equestria, in order to make the impossible happen. They was supposed to live in the palest, but refused to, so they could stay at the royal forged all day. The forged of course wasn't ordinary either, since it was half the size of the princess palace, having five separated smelting furnace which was kept running by hundreds of workers until the task should be finished and guarded by a full size army of loyal pegasus. This one in a kind forge just had been build for this one occasion, to craft the most powerful armor there could be and it was a full success. Under the wise lead of Princess Celestia herself, the day came when the furnace lit up a last time, unleashing the heat of suns into smelting forms, filling them with enchanted metals, so rare – half of them just had been discovered for this task. There was no parade, no mentioning in any history book, not even a single word lost about it anywhere – when the five proudly presented what they had done. The royal armor was made of parts: The first one being massive horseshoes – the bottom of those was forged out of a black metal, hard enough to smash trough anything without even getting a scratch. The second was golden leg armor, not any less massive, but as strong as the horseshoes, still light and flexible to keep her agile – gapless connecting the first to the third part was body-armor, in the same golden metal- which showed an alicorn head on her chest, able to resist all kind of magic, which she had made sure her self of by testing it – blowing a small mountain to bits just for this matter the fourth part seemed fragile on first glance, but was essential to protect her flight ability - coating her wings along the parts where her bones used to be located, letting the feathers untouched, to ensure her maneuverability the fifth part could easily be mistaken for a crown at first, but was also made out of the same thick golden metal and unlike the crown – it was crafted around her ears, leading down to her cheeks to guarantee a big sight of field, but still be able to block of hits to the head The howl armor was way to heavy for any ordinary pony to carry and covered in one of a kind ornaments, multiple times showing the sun in between - so there be no doubt for who this armor was crafted for. If it was for this alone, the armor was already the most precious artifact there is, but as Celestia received it, she knew she had to go even further than this, as she added the final pieces: The Elements of Harmony The Elements where fordged by her alicorn magic into the armor – one at her left flank... one at her right flank... one at her left shoulder... one at her right shoulder... the fith into her chestplate... and the finally one was crafted into her crown - shining bright red like a rubby. This last element was unlike the others, not hidden inside the indestructable steel – but for pratical reason outside, since this one was not meant to protect her unlike the others- this one was used to reinforce her already incredible magic powers. Combined this pieces, the elements and her alicorn power, rose them self to howl new levels, multiplying her strength, speed, agility, magic and even her willpower outside any scale. In any other world, Discord could had taken Celestia apart – quite literally, playing her to his will, but right here and now she was quite a match for his powers, probably even more than that... ... still, he had a chance. Discord was unpredictable... ruthless... and right now – raving mad! "I see you got a new dress Celi! Wont save you!" he screamed as he threw another energyball at her. The ball was about half a meter in diameter and fast as a speeding bullet while performing a slight screw motion and glowing in a cotton candy pink – which belittled his incredible destruction power until the impact revealed there was nothing innocent about it. As Celestia had about half a second to react to this new attack, but didn't even need a quarter of this time to doge the shot and returning fire by one of her yellow/blue flashing beams of her horn – as the element on her top kicked in and gave it a red sparking glow around it – but failing to hit since Discord had teleported him self out of the way. The energyball hit a building in the middle, the explosion blew huge chunks out of it, blasting parts all over town - as twelve floors of this building crashed to the ground. Celestia's beam had a similar effect, cutting clean as a hot knife through a building and parts of the streets below, deep down into the earth - causing a line of fire to burst up like the crack was a volcano. Celestia knew everything she would destroy, could be rebuild – as long she would win this battle. On the polar opposite, Discord knew he just had to destroy her – and nothing more than that. The armor might seemed to be to much even for his unlimited powers, but Celestia itself still was just an lousy alicorn – when its about his standards. As the armor withstood several direct hits, absorbing or reflecting shots by Discord, the princess inside had shown to suffer every time a little bit. If he could keep up his paste, he would win... but if she was able to land a direct hit on him, there was no way to tell if he could get up again, since he lacked that fancy armor of hers. Discord made a swift move, dancing around a few buildings as he rapidly threw five more balls in her general direction like curve-balls, not going straight – but still landing in a long bow close to her, as they exploded like fireworks next to her, shaking her trough harshly. The princess withstood this attack and countered with a similar one, firing three glowing beams of light after him as one hit his tail and set it on fire. "OUCH!" he screamed, as he hurried to lick his fingers and put out the flame like a candle. He got his paste up again, diving down between a housing complex to get lose of her as he slid from house to house like a snake, finding his path and searching the sky for the alicorn as she zoomed above his head on the constant search for him. Discord reacted quickly and his skin became the pattern of the brick wall he was pressing himself against, making her lose his tracks. Only a few seconds passed as he jumped out of cover for another surprise attack, Celestia noticed right away – her six sense was battle-prove as she had fought many times, still she was little to late. The draconequus made a grab motion, despite Celestia being around fifty meters away, he got her in his grip as around her body magic started to glow before she could put out a counter spell. He rose up another hundred meters quickly and started to spin around himself and the alicorn along with him like a hammer thrower – she being the hammer about to get thrown, as she got released at his highest spin velocity. With a -swoosh- the alicorn flew uncontrolled trough the air – smashing into a nearby building and out of the other side, followed by office furnishings and concrete. "You getting old!" Discord shouted laughing at the big hole she had left behind "why don't you reti..." but before he could finish his line, his eyes got wide as a bright flash came back trough the hole, setting the building in fire in the process and hitting him right on his chest. He had barely time to turn his body, so the shot didn't hit him directly and he got thrown away. Discord crashed into a building trough the roof and another few floors deeper, until he landed back first on an elegant bright red couch, with golden frame. As fire ran wild inside his body, making him yell agony "the -worst - possible -PAIN!", clenching his teeth, as paw grabbed for his burned chest, while his griffon hand covered his pained face. The chest was burned, all around his side, as well his shoulder and part of his stomach... at first it looked quite bad but as he was able to get him self up, knowing she would look after him soon, if not blowing up the howl house in order to get trough him. It was like lightning had struck him, the wound still had this kind of sparkling sensation to it, as he placed his paw onto it, casting a healing spell as well removing the left over energy of her attack. Alicornmagic of this level would not just vanish into thin air unless it had used itself up in order to do what ever it was supposed to do, in this case it was meant to destroy everything in his path, so as he channeled the left over energy, the couch got set on fire and the golden frame molt down like water. The energy was gone and the wound was healed, this had only cost a few seconds of time which he didn't had, still his side felt numb and he had to pump his hand in order to get a feeling back. He got him self out of the building onto one of the landmarks: a giant golden horse head on top of a building as he spotted Celestia hoovering nearby. The horsehead came to life on the touch of his finger with a deafening - neigh, turning itself to Celestia with a big huff as the howl building leaned forward like it was his extended neck and in an impossible fast motion, devouring the princess in a single bite. Discord didn't took his time to watch the howl thing as he was already gone when the horse head sparked fire out of his eyes, giving a last roaring neigh before exploding into a ball of molten metal. Celestia spotted him as he tried to find cover behind a skyscraper, it was the biggest one around and there for perfect, but was already hit at some point and the big golden apple on top had stopped spinning. There was to much places he could hide behind, lurking for a new attack, so she let go of her last concerns as she charged up her magic and the element of magic started to glow. For a fraction of a second the howl world got dark, as all light around seemed to get sucked into the blast. It cut right trough the building from top to ground, thick enough to atomize the first thirty floors in the blink of an eye, before getting thinner the next twenty floors, leaving behind burned walls on the edge of the beam until it cut trough the rest of it when she finished the attack – making the building appear like a tree which was hit by a dozen lightning strikes onto the same spot. The Big Apple Tower was no more. The done damage was devastating to the structure of the building, as it started to lean slowly towards the ground, casting his shadow above everything which was going to get hit, gaining speed as its inclination rose to the point the metal strives inside the concrete snapped like piano strings. Ninty floors came down to the ground, crushing its own remaining floors – as well four other buildings below it, causing a giant smoke cloud covering half the city in a thick mix concrete and dust, hiding the swath of destruction which had been on the other side of the building, since the beam didn't had stopped – cutting down a bunch of stores and minor skyscrapers, literally melting the streets to a steaming mush river of tar, partial burning. Discord was more than surprised to find out which extremes Celestia's was willing to take. If he had floated just a few meters higher, the blast had cut straight trough him, unable to avoid it. Still he had been to close to the blast, so a part of the energy had spread onto him like an static discharge, making his howl body feeling numb, as well his wound started to burn again. He had a hard time to focus his vision, as two alicorn's was in his line of sight for a moment, making him rub his eyes with his arm, as he tried to avoid another charge of her, using short span teleports. He would like to get him self on the other end of town, but the alicorn magic he hold inside his body made this an impossible task. He was pure chaos from deep within. She was harmony. Mixing this elements was meant to short circuit his system. Not just his magic, his howl body started to break down. His vision and magic was bad enough, but also his lung had a hart time keeping up, making him choke in a bunch of times and last but not least he noticed his left arm not just felt numb anymore, he could barely move it, let alone perform any task. "Discord.............. " the word hung above the city in the same strong voice he had listen to for about a thousand years, still it was different. When Celestia's voice was like warm sunshine, this time it lacked the warm tone it used to have, making it incisive enough to run trough every bone causing pain. "..... surrender and your life will be spared!". His reply came like an echo from all sides around her, making it impossible to trace his location. "Spared!? HA! ... you call being turned to stone a life!? You can stick your offer up your royal nose... princess!" spatting the words as he had a bad taste on his tongue. He stood in some destroyed street, as his view wandered around in oder to distract him from the pulsing pain in his chest, while he tried to heal him self once more... with partial success. There wasn't to many of the town left. As he looked down he found molten tar and took the time to take a finger full to nibble on it "Not bad..." he tried to remember when he had the last time a peanutbutter and tar sandwich, but couldn't. At least a third of the towns building had been completely destroyed, even more buildings had been hit by collateral damage or stood in flames which slowly spread since there was nopony left in town to put them out... same goes for the streets connecting the districts. Central road was now about six meters deeper and filled with a wild mix out of boiling tar, molten iron and building pieces, framed by burning ruins left and right. He had to think of something and had to do it fast. In the first minutes of the fight he was on the winning street, but after her lucky hit, he started to stumble down -turned to stone avenue-. In a close combat fight, he probably could use a direct blast to finish her off... to bad he could not use his claw to do so, he had a quite deadly tennis serve with it, but his arm felt to unresponsive to handle the necessary power. His lionpaw on the other side was just fine. He made appear one of his energyspheres a few times and disappear once again. Good enough. Than an idea struck him, as he made appear a few more times an energysphere in his paw before getting him self up into the air again. This time there was no sneaking up as he got on eye level with Celestia, just a few hundred meters distance between them – facing one another like cowboys in a duel at sunset. Nothing was said, not a muscle was moved as the two opponents just took a close look on one another. The royal armor was partial burned, but still unbroken. Celestia her self on the other hand tried to hide an expression on her face. Her hair just hung down and wounds could be seen where the armor didn't covered her body. Discord him self didn't look any better right now. There was burned flesh and other minor wounds scattered around his body – panting even more than Celestia and his claw hing stiff down his side. There was no sign or anything, as both reacted at the very same moment – as she sent another cutting beam in his direction, while he threw an energyball, similar to the start of the fight, but this time was different. On the first encounter both was able to avoid the blasts coming at them with ease, this time they reacted a lot slower. Celestia got hit by the pink ball straight to the chest, as well Discord did. The alicorn was blasted backwards, barely able to hold her self up in the air, while Discord fell towards the ground like a stone, crashing somewhere between the houses beneath. The alicorn kept her guard up, performing a flyover above the crash site - until she had spotted him laying on the ground, so she landed quickly next to him. The draconequus was on all fours and slowly about to get up once again, but the princess would not let him do so. Her armor began to glow where the elements had been hidden inside, as a sphere of white light started to shine around her, forming rings of energy along. Discord was up on his feet but barely could do two steps when a rainbow coloured beam of light hit him straight, making him cry in argony as his body was turned into stone. Celestia observed the statue of the banished god for a minute, before she collapsed onto her knees, trying to get some rest. "Its done..." she said to her self thoughtful, closing her eyes to focus on this moment. There was a soft glow surrounding her body and the ground beneath as she started to cast a healing spell on herself. As alicorn she knew about a thousand spells some say, but almost nopony ever had seen her perform magic. Usual she avoided using magic in public, since she felt the need, to give everypony the feeling to be equal. A soft wind blew through the street as her ears caught a sound of crumbling stone in front of her. The statue slowly fell to pieces. At first the horns partial fell down, followed by an arm, while cracks started to spread all over it, like it would age on a rapid rate, turning to dust. She had no idea what was going on. This spell was meant to keep him banned into stone, not to kill him, so she did her best to get up and got herself a few steps closer as his voice once again seemed to come from everywhere "My turn..." as the head of the statue landed on the ground, to reveal the inside of the statue was completely empty- it was just an shell! There was no time to react. All around Celestia, inside the buildings, energyballs light up - striking at her one after another. At least two dozen of them hammering onto her, hitting every square inch; brutalizing her body like never before. Not even two seconds after the firestorm had been worn of, the real Discord came from above, crushing trough the statue of his to deliver the finally blow with an oversize iron boxing glove, which also had a pink glow to it – striking her directly onto the unicorn symbol in the middle of her chest, giving it a crack as she was thrown down the street to crash into the one building, which had been spared from the destruction - until now. There was a loud impact and more destruction - which at this point didn't stand out anymore. It was just one more ruin next to another one and so on down the street. The only thing which made this one special was, that it probably was the last building which was obliterated, since the fight just had ended and the winner was him. The draconequus took a look on the crumbled statue, than into the remains of a broken window, which lacked of a reflection "to bad, he was such a head-turner..." he sighed, when suddenly his reflection jumped around the corner of the window, waving his hands to the audience, making him cheer with glee "Bravo! Bravo! Magnificent performance" the double blushed and waved it off embarrassed as the real Discord threw a bouquet of roses into the mirror and got caught by the reflection. It hold up the roses as well a small golden trophy in his other paws and was bowing down all around, like there was a bigger audience as screams and whistling was to hear from all around. The original was going on his way to search Celestia. The building front was gone, so Discord would not be to surprised to find her a few buildings further than this. Getting inside required to push aside debris of building parts and bookshelf's, but he didn't bother to do so and teleported straight behind this mess. The air was filled with burning papers, dancing in a balmy breeze all around him. The remains looked like some kind of tourist agency... brochures where laying on the ground, next to some thin books about Equestria, most of them covered in dirt and unable to read. The walls (the ones still standing) hung full of posters, showing exotic places and had partial pin boards on them. On every step he heard the sound of cracking wood and concrete below him, but at least he had a good light here, helping him on his search, since the sun had plenty space to shine in trough holes everywhere, while parts of the ceiling fell to the ground all around him, giving the impression this building was about to collapse. The search was really short, for once it wasn't to big of a store and on the other hand the swath of destruction gave the direction, as he found Celestia laying on top of something what might have been a bookshelf. The wall behind her told the story of the impact: it was pushed in around half an meter and cracked, but didn't collapse like the building front, which he found to be a kinda impressive construction – given the force it had to withstand. The alicorn was laying in front of him and didn't seem to move at all, since the armor gave him a hard time to tell if she was still breathing, so he decided to give her a small nudge with his goatleg, as she opened her eye partial. "So... you are still alive?" Discord said, making it sound like he wasn't sure what to make of it. Celestia knew there was no way she could get up for the next hours. This was just an last respite she figured, preparing her self to die with calm dignity. Discord felt awkward about this, like he had seen it before, as an old thought caught up to him, when he was turned to stone the first time, he had imaged this moment... he had spent hundred of years doing so, creating all kind of scenarios in his head, but most of the time it was something like: Defeating Celestia, taking over Equestria and making it his playground forever. He tried to repeat this thought a few times, but it didn't sound as good like it used to- back than... almost like something essential was missing. It was gnawing on him from the edge of his mind right now... maybe he just could turn Celestia into stone - giving her a taste of her own medicine? Was that it? No... not quite. Still not a bad idea, which he put in another part of his mind on a to-do-list for another time. There was nothing wrong here, so why he felt bothered all of a sudden? He had won a fair fight between them, at least by his understanding of the term fair. At this point he sat down in front of her, crossing his arms and legs, going trough his main-checklist: Step 1, causing chaos... as he took a glance over his shoulder. Done that. Step 2, defeating Celestia when she shows up - now giving her a glance. Done that. Step 3, causing more chaos... hm. Sounds kinda fun. Should do that. Step 4, Living happily ever after. At this part he started to struggle... odd. He ripped out a few sides from a book nearby and ate them frustrated, starring down on Celestia which observed him as good she could. The longer he starred back at her, the more he felt she had neither any idea what was going on right now. "What?" he asked her, but didn't got any response... making him frown, since she passed in and out fainting partial, breaking her focus "Oh, don't be such a drama queen!". In all of Equestria was only a hand full of immortal creatures and Celestia was one of them. Also she knew him for quite some time, so it might been worth a shot to try something different. As his paw touched her face, Celestia closed her eye in anticipation for him to finish what he had started, but the feeling which streamed through her was way different from what she had expected – as she felt more alive...? Which was kinda confusing to her "What have..." cutting her self off. Celestia's mayor head and neck wounds had been healed and she felt some energy in her body again, even was able to sit up, but still not enough to get up on her hooves or even think of continuing the fight, so this was a option by any means. Discord would win with a single gesture. Still the expression on his face made clear, if she even would hint... on something like a -Thank you- he would reverse his healing spell ... twice. So, he just sat there in front of her, slowly rubbed his paws like a impatient kid, waiting for some cookie to cool down. Impatient was probably the second word coming to mind, when it was about to describe Discord, so seeing him just sitting there, waiting for something to happen was somehow really disturbing, making her unsure what to do about it. If she said something wrong, he might would change his mind once more? Maybe this was another one of his tricks ... maybe he wanted to corrupt her as well? There was no way to be sure, so she just jumped into the blue, since there was nothing more to lose, than she already was willing to give "What do you want?" His paws hold still when he tried to respond, his mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish but he could not quite find a way to start it "I... actually..... i- i don't know" suprising himself saying so. The draconequus got up and started to walk slowly up and down in front of her, like it would help i'm to get on tracks, waving his hands while doing so. "Then, what do you know?" giving him another little push, hopefully in the right direction. "Isn't this obvious? I am supposed to bring magnificent chaos... and you... pesky harmony ...of course i guess i'm a lot better on my part" as he made a complacent gesture around him "...but there is still something missing and it drives me nuts! What am i missing!? ...tell me!" Celestia´s eyes got wide as she kept listening to him, rumbling on about the topic, but it took only a few heartbeats for her to think about it, since she knew this problem better than anypony else. Oh, it had been so long time ago... more than a thousand years... but it felt like it had just been yesterday, a very strong dejavué was crawling up inside of her and she could not shake it off. It was just like it was back then. A fight between two immortals, meant to be to end with ones death. She had fought it and she had won... but she didn't kill her enemy back then; instead she had used the Elements of Harmony to turn him into stone for a thousand years to come. Discord had been defeated, the land had been saved and harmony restored, but she felt wrong about it-...but why would she? Something had been missing, a single piece putting everything together. It had turned out, to get rid of this weird feeling was more luck than anything else, since she received help herself and didn't want to image how long it would had took without. Days? Weeks? Years? ... longer? There was just no way to tell. There was one more thing which could make her shiver about this memory: a trivial -what if- ... what if she didn't had found it back than? Would she had been able to figure it out on her own? Most unlikely... and there withing was the the core of the problem. Discord never had anypony willing to help him on this or anything at all. She could let him get consumed by it to the point of breaking apart, but probably would break the world along with him... He might been evil, he might been her biggest foe and still could end her life, but she decided not to give in to this dark thoughts ... she had to give him the answer... or she might would lose it herself. "You want to bring chaos to Equestria" she began. "Of course! I just said that! Are you deaf?" the question was cynical to the point being poisonous. She waited a moment for him to calm down, as he was kicking debris around until he was able to listen to her again. "And when everything is chaos... ?" He turned around and bent down to her, waving his finger "Well, i ..." was all he could say before he was stuck, reaching once more an dead point. He would make chaos, or not? Everything he could think of would lead him back to the start. Chaos for chaos sake – this was the pattern he was following all this years, but having a pattern... was this really chaos? How could it be...? Chaos was meant to be unpredictable! To make no sense! What fun would there be had otherwise? But the harder he tried to accomplish this goal, the more predictable he became, the more sense it made why he did, what he did! It was a loop and he found himself stuck right in its center. There was no way out. His life was nothing less than pathetic. A joke without punch line. Had it always been like this and he didn't notice until now? One of the few remaining walls got blown into pieces, but he didn't feel better. He just did what he had to... like a worker, going trough his routine until he would bite the dust. Of course... being immortal made this task a lot more tedious. How could his greatest victory taste so pale? "Discord..." she spoke up to get his attention a last time. He was more than stunned to find her standing upright when he gave her a glance. If there was anything about Celestia even more impregnable than her armor, it probably was her iron will. She was shivering and he got quite a good idea how much pain it must been, to force her self up, as he was thinking about to give her another blast so she could not try some kind of attack or trick, holding ready a energyball about the size of an orange in his paw, but something about her had changed, she didn't look threatening anymore to him. Maybe it was just the horrible state she was in, to weak to hold her own weight properly, having one of her legs bent to get a better hold... but the thing which was giving her away was - her eyes. There was no more lust to fight. She was not broken or unwilling to do so if she had to, but right now... her glance was somehow... merciful? "... i know what you are missing." she claimed, panting. His paw stifled the energyball in a short hiss "What-is-it?" as he payed close attention towards her. She gave him a heartwarming smile, using a big deal of strength in order to say this one clear as she could "Somepony to love". The draconequus thought that was the biggest pile of nonsense he ever had heard – which technical should be a good thing towards him, but almost made him choke right now. "What? Are you out of your mind Celi!?" giving her a angry frown "like you got anypony on your side! You are talking ....!" trying to find of a fitting word to express this phenomenalwrong statement! "Truth" she suggested, as she slowly sunk to the ground again, not able to hold her self up anymore as pulsating sparks of pain run through her spine. If the town wasn't already torn to the ground, he sure had done it now! Since this was most outrageous to even think about something like this, let alone say it straight to his face. He was on fire, literally. "You are alone! How could you possible know!?" he accused her of lying. The benevolent smile from before came back on her face "I'm not..." she explained "i love every single pony there is... and they love me in return... and this..." she felt how her systemic circulation gave in and became unsteady and started to gasp "its what makes me... makes me fight... raise the sun..." her sight started to blur "makes" she tried to blink but, felt so tired and wanted to sleep "my life, worth while." Like a tsunami wave of recognition washed over his mind as he pulled out a burned piece of paper out of his imaginary pocket, like a magician would pull out a hidden card. His hand stroke through his white hair "how could i forget?" his mind felt blown as he stumbled across the room, raising a pushed over chair from the ground with his magic in order to sit down. He had to sit down and it felt so good to sit like he didn't had sat in decades. When they had started this fight, he had not just turned to his old habits, he had completely forgot everything. This wasn't him anymore. It felt so wrong right now, but for a howl other reason and this time it was the "right one" to feel wrong about. She was absolute right. This is why he was here, this was what it was all about "Fluttershy" he said to himself. He gave Celestia an glance, but she was once again just laying on her side, breathing hard and unconscious. His eyes was wandering around the room. There wasn't much left to be looked at. As he took a look through the gaping hole towards the street, watching a skyscraper which still was about to tilt slowly it also came to his mind where they even had fought. A howl city was destroyed... for a piece of paper, which he now hold up to his face. Than an idea struck him, as a light-bulb appeared above his head, making him search the ground until he found what he was looking for. It was just some common brochure about travel destinations, nothing special. He flipped pages and read up what ever was written in it, skipping the colorful pictures and smiling pony's in between, also the advertisement – keeping focus on the available places. "Filly Delphia" "Apple Losa" "Smocky Mountain" "Baltimare" he flipped pages till he almost was through when he found what he was searching for, holding up the burned paper once more. -Upcoming flying performance in: Ya#h###... Giving the brochure another glance "Visit Yanhoover! The west coast breeze" He jumped up from his chair in excitement, the chair he had sat on fall over again as he made two big steps towards Celestia and rose her from the ground with his powers, waking her up in the process "YOU ARE GENIUS!" he yelled grabbing her head in order to give her an fat kiss on the mouth, making her eyes go wide and broad awake... and even blushed, kinda enjoying it a little. Nopony should ever find out, but this... felt like her very first kiss. "Fun talking to you, got to go!" he said, like he was late for work and with that - was gone. Celestia slowly sunk down to the ground, her heart was racing and her blood pressure had skyrocket for a few seconds, but then was slowly going back to normal, after the first adrenaline rush was over. The force field around town had vanished when Discord had delivered his last hit and the few pony's near the barrier had noticed right away, running into the town center in order to see what was going on, the others had followed quickly into the ruins once called Manehatten, but the town was nothing alike they remembered. So much had to be repaired or even rebuild from scratch. It was hard to tell, if that was even possible. A bunch of pony's got right away into fire fighting, putting out some buildings which had been still on flames, helping the ones that knew what to do. As the pony's spread about town, checking what had happened to their homes and stores, also the store owner and his wife found their way into what they assumed had been theirs, but it was hard to tell by the damage done. His wife went to the left of the store, while her husband was going to the right, looking for things that might be worth to be saved when suddenly his wife shouted "SWEET CELESTIA!" "Yeah i know, its quite bad here too..." he replied, as his wife shouted again "No, no! Come over here, hurry!!” being panicky. Her husband immediately run over to see what all the ruckus was about "Why do y-" his jaw dropped before mumbling incredulous "Sweet, Celestia...". It was really her! In his store! What an unbelievable surprise and honor. He threw himself next to his wife onto the ground in order to show his respect towards her, as they noticed the princess was not in her best shape. "Honey, get some water, quick" he ordered and she did. The faucet in the backroom was destroyed, but the water still run out of the broken conduit onto the ground and into a crack underground. She picked up a cup from a small cupboard on the ground and filled it up to the tip. The stallion took this moment to check for her condition "Your highness, are you awake?" feeling big relieve when the alicorn opened her eyes, giving an almost unnoticeable nod. When the wife had returned, they gave her the cup which she drank slowly, making both pony's grin in glee. After half an hour and some more cups of water the princess asked him to help him up, but it was an impossible task. The princess it self might was quite tall, even taller than any stallion, but still elegant in therms of body-shape... but her armor on the other side was thick dense steel and way to heavy to get up and impossible to remove. Her husband run out onto the street, gathering every strong stallion he could find. Begging, bribing and partial threaten any strong stallion he could find in order to follow him, to the point he had a small crowd collected around him, some just came along out of pure curiosity what the fuzz was all about. His wife kept guard of the princess, making sure she didn't faint again by talking to her, telling her about all the travels she had taken part in with her beloved man and about the store they had been in for so long. As her man returned with half a dozen stallions, which reacted similar to him, mumbling her name in reverence, like saying it out loud could bring misfortune above them. The stallions forgot about the bribes and threats - they knew this was way to important to be this fussy about anything else in this moment and focused on the work laying ahead. Not even twenty minutes later hundred of pony's had gathered around the infamous store, clearing the path of debris and had put up an medical tent, as well doing anything helpful they could think of, but most of them just sat there patiently, since there was nothing they could do, what hadn't been done already, holding company to one another. The mass got silent as the Princess Celestia slowly walked outside the store, propped by four of the strongest stallions this town had to offer, while doctors and nurses lead the way and started the treatment as soon she was inside the tent. As time passed thousands already had been gathered around this spot, sitting on the street or in nearby buildings, but there was not a single pony who dared to cut in line in order to do something ungracefully. Most of them waited silently, only a few where whispering, but there was one exception and she was sitting right in the middle. A single earthpony was playing on a cello, using only her hooves to pluck the strings... and sung, while she did so. The song was an ancient ballad "Spirited Away" or as some pony's knew it "Always with me". The mare stood on a big pile of concrete, so most could not just hear, but also see her – but she could not see them in return, since she had closed her eyes to focus on the music. The mare had gray fur, a long shiny black mane and pink eyes - a melody note on her flank and wore a pink bow-tie on a white collar, as her strong melodic voice was carried through the streets, attracting even more pony's to come by and listen, while the some spectators started to sing along in harmony.