//------------------------------// // Seeds of Doubt // Story: Little Memories // by Skijarama //------------------------------// Slowly but surely, Twilight’s senses began to come back to her. Her head pounded with a sharp headache, and the rest of her body also ached. Her muscles were stiff and slow to respond to her instructions. A low, quiet groan of discomfort slipped past her lips, echoing ominously around her and sending an unnatural chill down her spine. Finally, she managed to blearily open her eyes and look around. Confusion flooded through her when she saw that she was no longer in the Everfree Forest; or anywhere, for that matter. She was lying flat on her side in the middle of an endless, empty abyss of pure blackness. She lifted her hoof and was bewildered to actually see it despite no source of actual light. It was almost as if she was glowing. “What happened?” she thought while forcing herself to stand on shaking legs. Her hooves clopped loudly on the unseen surface she stood on, making her wince. Everything she did was deafening in the total stillness and silence. Once the echo of her own movements had sufficiently faded, she quickly ran over the events she could remember in her mind. “Okay, we were heading through the forest. We stopped in a clearing to rest our legs and get our bearings. I was attacked by some cragodiles, and my barrier failed. I tried to bring it back up while my friends fought them off, but… but…” A chill ran down her spine, recalling how she had been lurched several yards into the air and crushed in the grasp of one of those accursed vines. A lump formed in her throat as she recalled the plant with the fingers, and how it had pumped some sort of gas down her throat. She shuddered uncontrollably when she looked around again, a new, very macabre hypothesis entering her mind. “Am… am I… dead?” she thought weakly, the mere idea making her legs feel as if they were made of jelly. She couldn’t help but be reminded of the dark fluid that Celestia had pulled her out of in the very first memory she had made since being an amnesiac. Anxiously, she licked her lips and opened her mouth to speak. “H-hello?” She almost jumped out of her skin with a frightened shriek when,  somewhere nearby, there was a deafening crash and similarly-alarmed shout. She spun on the speaker, her wings flaring out and her horn sparking to life with magic. That magic then fizzled out when she saw who she was sharing this darkness with. Her eyes flew wide, and her jaw fell open to gape uselessly at the serpentine being before her. “What? D-Discord?” The draconequus, who had just fallen off of a rather delicately balanced stack of chairs that culminated in a lopsided throne made of sugar canes, lifted his head off the ground to glare at her. “Oh, for pony’s sake!” he grumbled irritably before slithering up into a standing position and snapping his talons. The stack of chairs vanished in a flash of light. “Didn’t anypony ever tell you not to sneak up on the spirit of chaos when he’s trying to enjoy the show?!” Twilight staggered back, her ears drooping in fear. Why was Discord here? And again, where was here?! Discord eyed her retreat with a bored expression before shrugging his shoulders. “Oh, I suppose I can’t be too upset at you. You’ve forgotten just about everything your parents ever taught you about respecting your elders. And having Rainbow Dash as your role model can not have been good for you.” Twilight’s shocked and frightened expression took on an edge of irritation on hearing her friend get insulted. “Hey! She’s my friend!” she barked indignantly. Discord nodded. “Yes, I am painfully aware of that. But, just between you and me, friends can still be a terrible influence,” he said before snapping his talons. The darkness was washed away, replaced with a seemingly-empty room with a sole light bulb hanging from the ceiling. “Now then, to business!” “No!” Twilight shot back, backing away and shaking her head again. “How am I even here?! Where are we?! What happened to my friends?! What did you do to them?!” Discord sighed before pulling his eyes out of his skull (much to Twilight’s disgust) and rolled them across the floor to vanish into the darkness at the edge of the light. “Oh, if you must know,” he said, walking back out of the darkness with his eyes back where they belonged.  “In order: One, I can talk to the wielders of the Elements of Harmony so long as they are close enough to me, and right now you have a small piece of me in your lungs. Until that goes away, I can talk to you however much I want. Two, this is a shared mental space between our two minds. Third, they’re fighting some vines and angry reptiles as we speak. Finally, I did nothing to them. I can’t, I’m a petrified statue in a heavily-warded vault in the real world.” Twilight blinked, her confusion setting in again. “Wha… a piece of you is in my lungs? What are you…” she began to ask before her eyes slowly widened. “The plant.” As if to confirm her suspicions, Discord suddenly reached out and held a bouquet of flowers out to her. The flowers were all of the same variety that had knocked her out, and they began to angrily hiss and spray their blue toxin at her. Twilight squeaked and scrambled back, her hoof flying up to cover her nose and mouth. Discord grinned and cackled in amusement. “Yes, that’s right! These adorably hostile plants are my creations. Same with the vines,” he stated before dropping the bouquet into a hole in the world, where it promptly disappeared. “But… when?” Twilight asked, her mind racing. “How?” “I planted the seeds centuries ago,” Discord explained, gesturing to one side. A window opened in the air. Through it, Twilight could see Celestia and Luna confronting Discord, the Elements of Harmony swirling around them. “As a failsafe, in case my plans didn’t quite work out as I had hoped.” The image in the window zoomed in to Discord’s paw clutching a bulbous sack of black seeds. As he taunted the princesses, he swung the sack around, occasionally taking out a handful and throwing them into his mouth. Plenty of the seeds fell to the ground and subtly burrowed beneath the surface.  “I had hoped that they would have gone to work shortly after I was stoned,” Discord went on, grimacing in annoyance. He snapped his fingers, and the window winked out of existence. “But alas, the Tree of Harmony had too much magic left in its branches. It kept my Plunder seeds from growing up big and strong for a thousand years.” “Until now…” Twilight whispered, the dots all finally coming together.  “Bingo!” Discord cheered, clapping enthusiastically. Twilight frowned and looked up at Discord directly. “Can you stop them?” she asked. Discord stopped clapping, his expression souring. “Maybe I could. But why would I do that?” he asked, summoning a cone of ice cream made out of rocks from the air and taking a long, taunting lick. Twilight’s coat bristled. “They’re hurting everypony! They’re trying to kill me and my friends! They’ve already taken the princesses!” she spelled out, her ears folding back. “Please, pull them back!” There was a flash of light, and suddenly the empty room was gone. In its place was a wild and hectic office. A desk made out of equal parts marble and sandpaper stood in the center, while lava crawled up the walls and snakes made up the window frames. Discord sat behind the desk, typing furiously at a typewriter. “Well, Miss Sparkle,” he began in a monotone that implied he had been doing this job for far, far too long. “After carefully reviewing your request for a favor, I have decided to decline.” Twilight stepped forward, placing her hoof on the desk. “Discord, please-” The desk vanished, and they were standing in the middle of a barren wasteland, Discord’s arms crossed bitterly over his chest. “Don’t you ‘Discord, please’ me, young miss,” he scolded as if to a foal. “If you have any problems with what’s happening right now, then you should take them up with Princess Rainbow Dash.” Twilight blinked. “Wha… do you mean because she decided not to let you out?” she asked anxiously, her heart withering in her chest. Discord’s expression morphed into a malicious grin. “Now you’re getting it. She was given every good reason to release me and reap the rewards, but she decided to be a little scaredy pony and chuck me in the most boring cell in Canterlot with her tail between her legs. This is her just desserts.” “But you’re hurting everypony else!” Twilight protested, stepping forward. “None of them had anything to do with your sentence! Take your anger out on us, but leave the rest of Equestria alone!” Discord hummed thoughtfully, stroking at his white tuft of a beard. “Well, you see, under any normal circumstance, you might have a point there…” his expression hardened. “But as it stands, Rainbow Dash is a Princess of Equestria. She holds authority over the entire population, and she represents them, too. Her actions carry consequences for the entire nation, and this is just one example of that. Not like it matters, though. I can’t do anything about it from here anyway.” Twilight opened her mouth to retort, but the words caught in her throat. “Wha… what?” “Oh, please. Do you think I’m controlling the vines right now? Oh, how silly of you!” Discord cackled before slithering up until his face was right up in hers. “I’m a statue right now, remember? Talking to you like this is, quite literally, the extent of what I can do. Now, maybe if Rainbow had released me back then, I would have held the vines back and made things easier on all of you. But right now? They are simply doing whatever they want.” Twilight swallowed heavily. She took a deep breath before her expression hardened. “Fine then. Don’t help. We’ll save Equestria on our own!” she declared with determination and firm stomp of her hoof. “Just as soon as I wake up, we’re going to find the Tree of Harmony and save them from your vines!” Discord shrugged. “Maybe you will. I can’t exactly stop you,” he relented before smirking sideways at her. A chair materialized behind him, and he sat down lazily. “But tell me this, Twilight… Are you sure that Rainbow Dash is the pony for the job?” Twilight hesitated, her ears twitching in confusion. “Huh? What do you mean?” Discord grinned. “Don’t play coy with me, Sparkle Butt. Do you honestly believe that Rainbow Dash is the right pony to lead you and your friends to victory? After everything she’s kept from you?” Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise. “Everything she’s kept from me?” she echoed quietly before scowling. “What in the world are you going on about?” Discord leaned back in his seat and rolled his talon around in the air. “Funny story: Did you know that back when Celestia brought me to Ponyville to be released and ‘reformed,’ I made Rainbow Dash an offer, which she refused?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed skeptically. “What are you talking about? What offer?” Discord’s grin grew, and he leaned forward ominously in his sear. “My offer about your memories, of course…” A beam of cyan energy from Rarity’s horn cut through the air, severing the vine that held Twilight in the sky. Blue liquid burst from the stem and all the vines around the clearing twitched and writhed as if in pain. Twilight’s unconscious body, still held tightly in several coils of vine, fell from the sky like a stone.  Just before she hit the ground, more cyan light enveloped her, slowing her descent to something that wouldn’t cause her any harm. “Twilight’s safe!” The unicorn shouted to be heard over the commotion of the fighting going on around her. “Good!” Rainbow barked while giving a parting buck to the last cragodile as it withdrew into the water. “Keep it that way! Somepony wake her up!” The situation was dire. The moment Twilight was strangled out, the vines had swarmed in with a fury. Rainbow, Applejack, rarity, and Pinkie had all worked tirelessly for the last several minutes to fend off the advancing predators and the vines, hoping for an opportunity to get Twilight down and their barrier back up. All the while, Fluttershy had watched from the sky with a panicked look on her face, powerless to do anything to help in all of the chaos. Rainbow snarled and went to rejoin the others in the thick of it before one of the vines launched at her from the right, slamming into her ribs and sending her sprawling with a cry of pain. She turned to look up at it, ready to try and defend herself however possible. It was a thick one, and it was moving fast. Without her wings, she wouldn’t have enough time to move out of the way as it came down on her. It reared back to strike, but then, to Rainbow’s confusion, fell still, along with all of the other vines in the clearing. They twitched and spasmed for several seconds and then suddenly pulled back, withdrawing from the clearing all at once. “What in tarnation are those varmints doin’ now?!” Applejack asked, short of breath. “Looks like they’re running away!” Pinkie Pie said before turning and bouncing over to Twilight. “But why would they do that?” Rarity asked uneasily. “They had us pinned!” “Who cares?!” Rainbow snapped, forcing herself to stand and quickly making her way for Twilight. “Let’s just get the barrier up before they come back!” Nopony had any arguments for that. Before Rainbow could make good on that order, a wisp of smoke appeared in front of her face from above before erupting in a swirl of green flames. When they faded, a scroll was hovering in the air. By instinct, Rainbow reached out and snatched it from the air. “A letter from Spike?” she asked herself quietly. “What’s it say?” Pinkie asked from Twilight’s side. “Twilight looks okay to me, by the way!” Rainbow looked back and forth between Twilight and the note. If there was even a small chance that Spike was letting her know where her family was, then she had to read this thing now. Putting aside her concern for Twilight for the moment, she opened the letter and got to reading it out loud for the others to hear. Rainbow, I just got a letter in my Dragonfire from the captain of the Lunar Guard. The soldiers you wanted down in Ponyville arrived a little bit ago and have started fighting back against the vines. Things in Canterlot are calming down a little bit. Thorax is doing a pretty good job keeping everypony assured. He makes a pretty good you, honestly. No word yet on Celestia or Luna, yet. I’m sorry. I hope things are going well on your end. -Spike. “Perhaps the efforts of the guard drew the attention of the vines away?” Rarity suggested with a raised eyebrow. “Makes sense to me. If they’re makin’ progress hard fer them vines, Ah imagine they’d wanna plow through the new obstacle sooner than later,” Applejack agreed.  “But that means that Ponyville’s gonna be under an even worse attack soon!” Pinkie pointed out, her ears standing up and a worried look crossing her face. Rainbow nodded and set the letter off to one side. “Then we need to hurry,” she stated plainly before making her way over to Twilight. Her face twisted with a sympathetic grimace when she saw the friction burns and dark bruises that marred much of Twilight’s barrel. Her face was red and irritated-looking from the plant that had latched itself onto her, and her eyes were closed. But at least she was breathing. “Is she alright?” Fluttershy asked in a jittering voice, setting down a few feet away. “I think so,” Rainbow replied before tentatively reaching out. She lightly smacked Twilight’s left cheek a few times. “Hey, Twi. Come on, wake up. Look at me!” After another few smacks, Twilight’s face contorted, and a dry, hoarse groan came from the bottom of her voice. She tensed up for a few seconds before opening her eyes and looking around. “Wha… what… what happened?” she mumbled before going into a coughing fit. “Woah there, sugarcube,” Applejack said, putting a hoof on her back as she sat up. “Easy, now. Y’all took a thrashin’.” “Are you okay?” Rainbow asked emphatically once Twilight’s coughing fit died down. The alicorn ran a hoof over her face and her eyes before looking directly at Rainbow Dash. “Y-yeah… yeah, I’m okay,” she mumbled quietly. Rainbow’s relief was not as strong as it should have been. She didn’t know what, but something about how Twilight ha said that, something about how she was looking at her set Rainbow’s mind on edge. Dismissing it as tension from the fight that just ended, she lifted up her hoof to help Twilight up. “Good. Come on, we need to keep moving, and we need you awake.” Twilight eyed her hoof for a few seconds. The feeling of something being wrong grew more intense when she didn’t take it and stood under her own power. She wobbled slightly but then nodded. “Alright… I think I’m good to keep moving,” she said slowly once she was upright. Rainbow frowned. “Twi, are you sure you’re okay?” she asked quietly, placing a hoof on the alicorn’s shoulder. “You’re acting kinda-” “I’m fine,” Twilight cut her off. “I’m just stressed. Let’s just…” she took a deep breath and brushed past Rainbow’s hoof. “Let’s just go.” Rainbow stared after Twilight as she began to make her way for the edge of the forest. She then turned and looked to each of her friends, hoping for some kind of explanation. Unfortunately, all of them looked just as confused as she did. “Well, we heard her,” Applejack eventually spoke up, starting after Twilight at a brisk pace. “C’mon.” Rainbow stood still as the rest of her friends departed, her mind wandering with confusion and anxiety. Something was definitely wrong… the question was, what? Without any means of answering that question right now, and still having to deal with the looming threat of the vines, Rainbow decided she would tackle the matter later. She turned and cantered to catch up with the others, soon joining them in Twilight’s reformed barrier as Fluttershy led the way deeper into the forest.