Fluttershy jolted awake, a sudden sadness hitting her as soon as her head left the ground. She quickly checked to see that Twilight and Zecora were still sleeping beside her. The sun was gone, at least for now, leaving nothing but the moon in the sky, bouncing off the lake beside them.
Their walk to Canterlot was taking longer, though they had no way of knowing how many hours were passing, as the sun and moon no longer obeyed certain times, it seemed…under Discord’s power.
As she found that her friends remained fast asleep, she slowly allowed her head to rest upon the grass again. Watching the sky after her nightmares became something of a habit ever since Discord turned up missing. They were mostly about him, although some came from memories of villains and monsters they’d encountered over the years.
Those made her grateful that she was able to help Discord at all when she did. It also reminded her that her progress, their progress had been erased. Tonight’s dream had been less of a nightmare in the beginning.
She and Discord lay across from one another, a picnic basket between them. They were having tea outdoors, laughing as he told another classic joke of his. The animals joined them occasionally to steal some food, much to the Dracoquus' annoyance. The dream then turned dark, as most of them did, when Discord was faced with a decision.
Could he really be good, forever? In her nightmares, it seemed, he could not.
Chaos would be everywhere, there were screams heard in the streets as the roads uprooted from the ground, the sky becoming lit up by lightning and thunderstorms. She would be begging him to stop this, for the sake of their friendship, for her, and he would not.
No amount of begging could ever end it, she concluded. No…but she was starting to realize something that would.
“She dreams of him often…” Luna approached her sister from behind, who stood at the end of the balcony watching the stars. The Princess was trying to shake off Fluttershy’s most recent nightmare, one that had been…rather hard to see. She was not able to intervene, each time they would start to get bad, the Pegasus would wake up.
Celestia’s eyes drooped downward, and she felt as though she might collapse at any moment. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to sleep now.
“Of Discord?” She asked quietly, regarding her sister’s statement. Her eyes fixated on one twinkling star in the sky that reminded her of Twilight. Twilight, who now was nowhere to be found.
“Yes,”
Discord stood a distance away, watching-waiting. He could see a tired Celestia, doing her best to stay awake. Her face was scrunched up, her nose wrinkling and eyebrows sharp.
“I don’t know why I didn’t see it. I guess I never thought somepony would fall for…” Celestia paused, turning her eyes to the ground. “Well…that’s my fault…”
When Celestia had chosen Fluttershy to redeem Discord, she had done so because the Pegasus was kind; Because she was good, and because she hadn’t been so vulnerable to his mind games in the maze. Fluttershy was understanding, she gave the benefit of the doubt, something Celestia felt Discord needed in order to grow. How could she not have seen what would happen?
Luna looked at her, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth in a tight frown.
“It is not your fault, sister. Neither of us thought of what would happen. Discord must have grown lonely in his prison. The first pony to not shun him, to accept him? I should have known,”
Discord’s ears perked up. So, then, the Pegasus had reformed him? He attempted to steady his heartbeat as the sisters looked at one another solemnly.
“Fluttershy will not turn him to stone,”
Indeed, she won’t, he thought triumphantly.
“What can we do now?”
Suddenly, the sound of jostling leaves came from the East of the balcony. The Princesses turned their heads in its direction, then stared at one another, wide-eyed.