After breakfast the boys had been given a short tour of the castle and Damon told them they may go anywhere they like except for his master's chambers on the north side of the castle. So now Tobey and Adrien were in the library looking up any books they could read while Nick was exploring around more. Discord on the other hand was with Damon as he questioned the young wizard.
"You know, you don't seem to talk very much especially during dinner last night."
Damon replied coolly, "I mainly just wanted to get to know all of you better first. After all, how would you feel if four strangers from different worlds came into your home all of a sudden?"
Discord stated, "Fair point. Though I would have just sent the strangers back right away." he muttered to himself, "With maybe a few surprises…"
"And I told you, I would have but my magic is very limited so you'll just have to wait."
There was a pause as they walked around the grand hallway until Discord asked, "So this master of yours, what's he like?"
Damon stopped walking and didn't look at the draconequus as he answered, "He is my teacher. He helped me unlock my potential when certain… people… didn't think I could be any more than what I am."
"Wanted to prove them wrong, I see…"
"Very much so, but more importantly I wanted to impress someone to show I was worthy of her."
"Her?" Discord lit up in intrigue.
"An old friend of mine, we grew up together. We did just about everything together to the point I was feeling something more…"
The chaotic being smirked, "I know how that is…"
"I know you do, as I had listened to all of you expressing a fondness to girls that are close friends to you, it reminded me of my own past." A little too much in fact…
Two children giggle from playing around with the girl taking the lead by flying above the boy.
She called out, "Hurry up, slow poke!"
"No fair! You're cheating!"
"Hey, why do the hard way when you can do it the smarter way?"
He growled but in a nice way.
The two kept on playing until they got tired and landed in a flower bed, relaxing.
"Damon?" she voiced.
"Yeah?"
"Will we be friends forever?"
"Oh absolutely!"
She smiled and held her hand out and he took it. They truly were the best of friends until…
"Damon! Why?!" she shouted out in despair.
"Because it's my destiny!"
"No! This can't be it! Please, come back home, forget this dark magic, forget training with him! He'll only bring you down!"
"No! You're bringing me down! I thought you would be happy for me! I finally have the power to match you!"
"Damon… I never… I never wanted this for you!"
"How unfortunate…" a deep voice behind them said.
She yelled, "You! You did this! How dare you drag him down this path!"
"Temper, girl. After all, your kind must remain pure hearted."
She scowled and kept quiet.
Damon gave her a final question, "Will you support me or not?"
There was an ominous pause as they stared at each other for a long time before she frowned in disappointment and replied, "No. I will not." and she flew away and that was the last time he ever saw her.
Trying to block the memory out, he told Discord, "As it also happens, the mention of your girls is quite similar that of my girl being clever, brave, kind, and fierce."
Discord was intrigued by that and touched his chin and pondered out loud, "You don't say… Any chance we can meet this girl?"
"I'm afraid not, we… had a falling out and we lost touch." he looked away, not sure why he would outright admit that when he could have just lied that she was currently away and wouldn't be back for a long time.
Discord was surprised himself by how sympathetic he was feeling toward this boy when hearing those sad words. Probably because he could remember how he almost lost Fluttershy the day he was reformed by her and when he betrayed her under Tirek's influence. Looking back those were some close calls between him and the sweet pegasus but it was clear that Damon didn't have that same luck with his friend and possible childhood sweetheart.
He stated, "My condolences."
Damon turned back and merely smirked, "Well, it's all in the past and I have a life now that's better than what I had before. She's nothing to me now." with that said he uttered, "Excuse me." and left without another word.
Discord stood there mulling over Damon's sudden departure.
By then Nick came from around a corner and said, "You don't really believe he's forgotten about her, do you?"
"Of course not, the look in his eyes was enough to tell you that he still misses her."
"What he said about her too, it's not a coincidence, is it?"
"Yes, I'm starting to think that there's more going on here than meets the eye."
"What do you think we should do?"
"Interesting, you're asking me of what we should do?"
"Well you're the only one that's more experienced in these matters, so yes, I am asking you what we should do."
Discord was rather touched to say the least, and told the fox, "No one has ever asked for my advice before. Usually I need to voice it out in order for others to get the idea."
Nick quipped, "You're that annoying, uh?"
"Maybe, but that's just who I am. I am the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony what else am I suppose to do?"
"That's an excellent point. We cannot change who we are no matter how much you want to. I've been there and you already know why."
Discord nodded.
"We can however change how people perceive us through our actions. You told us you were a villain but then you decided to be good, more or less, by not taking over like you did once before. I was giving Judy a hard time before I decided to finally help her when there was more at stake than I realized. Animals turning savage… it wasn't normal."
"Even I would have never gone that far. I mainly just turned Equestria into my own personal playground, and that was basically it."
"Not very empathic to others, I get it. But I'll admit that isn't the same as Bellwether trying to divide Zootopia and who knows what else she would have done had she succeeded."
"So to answer your question, I believe we need to wait and see what happens next given how we're in a strange place as it is and need to understand it better before doing anything else."
"Should we tell Adrien and Tobey this?"
"They're smart kids but even so I think it would be best we keep this between us plus I don't want to give Damon a reason of suspecting we're on to him."
Nick nodded and said, "He wants us here for something. I thought about how strangely calm he was when he met us and if he was in a hurry to get us back home, he would have done so by now."
"Not to mention he could have lifted the magical barrier so I could have returned all of us home by now instead."
"That was a big mistake."
"That's what happens when you let an amateur villain think of plans."
"Villain? That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"
"Not really, because I can sense some dark magic has already overtaken him."
"Okay, that's not good."
"So in the meantime we keep playing dumb until something happens."
Nick agreed.
The girls were heading toward the Forbidden Forest making Fluttershy gulp and said aloud.
"This is just like the Everfree Forest back in Equestria."
"Is it really?" Becky asked.
Fluttershy replied, "Yes, and it is very scary and dangerous."
Now concerned, Becky asked the other two, "Are you sure Cecilia wants us to go in there?"
Marinette was holding the map and answered, "I'm afraid so."
Judy reasoned, "I'm sure Cecilia wouldn't want us to be harmed or else why would she send us here?"
Becky pointed, "Maybe, but it doesn't help that the forest would be called the Forbidden Forest without a reason."
Marinette nodded, "That is true."
Judy motioned, "We'll be okay, girls, after all are we not all saviors in our own worlds?"
Fluttershy retorted, "I'm only half a savior. My friends and I need to be together in order to save our world."
"Just because you're part of a team doesn't mean you're not a savoir." said Marinette, "Chat and I are a team."
Becky stated, "So are me and Huggy."
Judy added, "And I wouldn't know what to do if Nick wasn't my partner, but don't tell him I said that." she smirked.
Marinette inquired with a grin, "Ego much?"
"Oh yeah."
The girls giggled at that and it eased Fluttershy making her say, "Discord is that way too."
Becky chuckled, "Tobey too."
Marinette smiled, "Chat thinks he doesn't but he does."
That made them all laugh again.
"Wow, can you imagine what they must be like together?" Becky questioned.
Marinette exclaimed, "Oh my gosh!"
Judy gestured, "That would be a recipe for disaster waiting considering Nick was a con-artist before he became a cop like me."
Fluttershy said, "Oh dear… Discord was a former villain…"
Becky shouted, "What?! Are you serious?! So is Tobey!"
The girls gapped with them looking to Marinette.
The teen told them, "As far as I know Chat was never a con-artist or villain but… he does possess the power of destruction through his Kwami…" she slowly gawked in realization making the girls do the same.
"Do you think that's why the wizard took all of them?!" Becky yelled.
Judy indicated, "It has to be! There's no other explanation!"
Fluttershy uttered, "No!" Fearing the royal sisters were right all along about Discord's abduction.
Tikki declared, "Then we haven't a moment to lose."
They agreed to this and with newfound vigor running through them, they entered into the forest.
For what seem like hours as they walked through woodland, so far nothing had happened to them making them calm throughout the hike. And it helped that the girls were talking among themselves to learn more about their personal lives in which lead to a conversation about siblings surprising both Becky and Fluttershy they both had little brothers that were annoying in their own right.
Judy commented, "You two are lucky at least you only had one brother. I had over a hundred brothers both older and younger, and that goes with my sisters too."
Marinette sighed, "At least you all have siblings, I'm an only child and it does get pretty lonely sometimes."
"So I guess no one wins in terms of family." said Judy.
They agreed to that before Becky noticed below, "Um, guys? I think we may be going in circles here."
They saw that she was right when seeing their print marks in the dirt which Marinette shouted, "Oh no!" and tried to look at the map again when a huge gush of wind blew it away from them!
Thinking quickly, Becky cried, "Word up!" and transformed to go after the map.
At super speed she was able to catch up with the map but as she tried to reach for it storm clouds suddenly appeared and lightning struck at the paper and it turned into dust!
She yelled in dismay, "No!" and superspeeded back to the others with regret before the storm got worst.
Judy called to her, "Word Girl! Over here!"
The superhero saw them huddled together by a tree as the rain began to fall. Judy then quickly reached her paw into her pouch and pulled out a tent already made and grew next to them. Without a moment to lose, they went in and to their shock found that it was like a little house with a working kitchen and everything!
Once they settle in and started to make some food, Becky somberly apologized to them, "I'm sorry about the map…"
Fluttershy comforted her, "Oh it's okay, you tried your best."
Judy did the same, "That's right and it's not your fault that a storm suddenly came out of nowhere!"
The girl asked, "Still, what are we going to do without a map?"
They looked to each other not sure how to answer that.
Marinette said, "We'll think of something."
Judy agreed with her, "Right, it's tough now but we'll figure it out, we just need to keep a positive attitude."
"I like the way you think." Becky grinned making the others smile as well.