The following morning found Twilight Sparkle dreary-eyed and restless. The poor pony was unable to catch a wink of sleep last night as every time she tried, her mind kept wandering to Patience’s journal and the horrible images it had chiseled within her mind.
She found it so hard to believe that her mentor, the kindest and gentlest of all ponies in Equestria, could be capable of torturing a defenseless servant pony. Twilight had tried to justify Celestia’s actions by reminding herself that it had been a different time and Celestia had pure intentions but she could not forget what Patience had written.
The Road to Ruin can be paved with Good Intentions.
All throughout the day Twilight’s mind was focused on the journal. So much so that she hadn’t been able to accomplish a single task on her To-Do list. She was unable to concentrate on her studies, her attempts at learning new spells ended up in disaster (she needed to conjure a salacious snail and instead summoned a salamander’s tail), and any effort to start upon her next objective was met with thoughts of chaos and disharmony. Finally, after failing to read the same page in her magic book for the tenth time in a row, Twilight decided that enough was enough. If she had any hopes in getting things accomplished, she needed to find out what happened to Celestia, Discord, Luna, and Patience.
Her trip to the Archives went without a hitch. BloodMoon let her through the doors without so much a word, just nodding in greeting as she trotted down the steps. She maneuvered her way back to the hidden chamber before opening the journal to where she left off.
Hooves trembling and heart racing, Twilight began the second half of the journal…
What transpired beyond that dreadful encounter is something I wish to forget. The discovery of the Shards had ignited a flame within Celestia’s heart that threatened to consume her entire being. Not once have I seen a pony with such ambition, with such drive. Alas, I fear that her intentions are not as pure as she makes them seem.
As we left the mansion, I try to corner Celestia’s sister, Luna to find out for what reason Celestia is so driven but to my dismay, Celestia kept her sister close as if she knew what my intentions be.
To complicate matters further, Celestia made the suggestion that I return back from whence I came…
“What doest thou mean?” Patience exclaimed.
“We must move swiftly if this war is to end,” Celestia commented coolly. “No longer shall we be grounded. We shall take to the skies and hasten our journey to collect the remaining Shards. As such we can no longer tolerate your presence.”
“See here,” Patience started but Luna stepped in front of him. Her dark blue eyes gazed deep into his own as she spoke. “Kind Patience,” she whispered. “Please do this for us. We need thee to return to the town and assist Prism. While I wish thee could come along, my sister is right. We must move swiftly lest Discord discover our intentions. If he discovers even one of the Shards before we do, than I fear all is lost.”
“But M’lady,” Patience protested. “I am unsure if I will be able to make it on my own.”
“That is none of our concern,” Celestia barked. She shot a look towards Luna. “Enough of this. We take to the skies.” She gestured with her jaw towards the southern sky. “Sister, you shall take the south whereas I will continue towards the east. Ye shall contact me the moment you discover the Shards. Once we have collected all six, we shall return home and put an end to Discord once and for all.”
Luna nudged Patience’s cheek with her own. “Please take care,” she whispered. Celestia flexed her powerful legs before leaping high into the air, her wings spreading wide open to catch the evening wind. Luna took flight soon after and within moments the sisters were out of sight.
Leaving Patience to fend for himself.
I returned home as requested only to discover that things had taken a turn for the worse. Discord, as it would seem, had grown tired of ponies and hath decided to alter reality itself. The buildings were no longer attached to the ground, instead floating high within the air. The clouds were of candy pastries, the ground slick with butter. Everywhere I looked ponies were slipping and sliding across the ground as they struggled to go about their everyday lives.
In the center of town was a throne and sitting upon it was none other than Discord himself…
“Not quite,” Discord muttered while examining the town. “It just doesn’t feel right.”
Patience was in a nearby alley, crouched behind a bale of hay. He couldn’t believe his eyes at all the chaos Discord was causing. Several ponies were lined up in front of the spirit’s throne, their hooves glued to the ground. Their manes had been transformed into steel plates and upon those plates were several candy treats that Discord occasionally snacked upon. Patience could see the beads of sweat dripping down the poor ponies’ foreheads as they were forced to endure the weight of their steel manes bearing down on them. Their knees were trembling from exhaustion but they fought with every ounce of strength to keep their bellies off the ground.
“Perhaps a change of scenery is in order.” Discord said. He raised his claws high into the air causing the ponies before him to cower in fear. He clicked his thumb and index claws together causing a loud clack to echo throughout the town. The ground beneath Patience’s hooves began to tremble as the grass sunk back into the soil and the dirt transformed into slick, cool tile. The ground was now in a checker pattern, alternating between dark blue and light blue tiles. Patience struggled to keep from slipping on the butter-covered tile. To keep from falling, he lowered himself to his knees, having to tolerate his stomach getting soaked in the foul-smelling butter.
“What do you think?” Discord asked one of his prisoners.
“Go to he…” the stallion started but a metal plate suddenly materialized over the stallion’s mouth, shutting him up. Discord ran his claws over the stallion’s cheek lightly. “No, no, no.” Discord purred. “We cannot have any of that, can we? You must learn your place.” He clicked his claws together and the stallion’s mane went back to normal as did his hooves. Without waiting for an explaination, the stallion took off running. Discord leapt off his throne as a white uniform with white stripes appeared upon his body. Laughing manically, Discord formed a ball of yellow energy between his claws, twisted his hips and lunged forward, hurtling the ball towards the escaping pony.
“Nae!” The stallion shouted as he tried to dodge Discord’s magic. He dove in and out of alleyways, turned up one street and down the next but still he could not avoid the magic. The ball struck the stallion in the rump and he transformed into a large footstool with four pony legs and a tail. Discord grinned at the result and motioned the stool over. It ran over to Discord, tail wagging all the way, and lay down before Discord’s throne. Discord hopped back onto the throne, his uniform vanishing as he did so, and propped his feet up onto the living stool.
“Much better,” Discord said, grinning.
Patience had seen enough. As quietly as possible, he crawled away from the center of town towards the secret entrance to the Underground. He kept as quiet as possible as he moved through the tunnels until he came upon the vast chamber that housed Discord’s victims. The number of victims had doubled since Patience left and the transformations seemed to have worsened. Prism was tending to a mare whose lips had been melted shut. Prism was trying to come up with ways to help the mare eat some food but to no avail.
“M’lady Prism,” Patience whispered.
“Patience!” She exclaimed. She gave her patient a soft nuzzle on the cheek before approaching Patience. “Doest thou bring us good news?”
Patience sighed. “Aye, I do. It turns out that the Shards are indeed real. The sisters are seeking them out as we speak.”
“Huzzah! That is news most joyous!” She tilted her head. “But why does thou seem so upset?”
“Celestia, the elder sister; she seems to have become obsessed with Discord’s destruction. I fear that in order to attain the Shards, she may cause more damage than good.” Patience explained the situation with MoneyBags and how Celestia had injured the rich stallion’s servant. By the time he had finished his story, Prism had a look of absolute disgust on her face. “Let us hope that they encounter no further resistance.”
“Let us hope,” Patience agreed. “But enough of this. Tell me, what has been going on? It seems that our troubles have escalated.”
“Indeed they have. Discord has made an announcement that he has grown bored.”
Patience winced. “That cannot be good.”
“I am sure you have seen what he has done to our town. We are not the only one who has undergone such horrible changes. He is transforming the entire countryside into a realm of chaos. I fear that if he is not stopped soon, our world will no longer be what we remember.”
Patience sighed. “Is there nothing we can do to retard his plans?”
“Nae,” Prism frowned. “Those who have risen against them have suffered terrible consequences.” She glanced over her shoulder towards the mare without a mouth. “He has yet to cause any deaths, but his message is clear; ‘Any pony who rises against me, shall suffer a terrible fate’. All we can do is continue to assist those who fall victim to his antics.”
Patience lowered his head with a sigh. “So it is the sisters to whom we must rely upon.”
Prism nodded. “Let us pray they put an end to this madness soon lest there won’t be any world left to save…”
Days turned to weeks, weeks into months and still no news of the sisters came to pass. Discord continued to alter the world in his image; turning mountains into mole-hills, causing animals to undergo dreadful mutations (such as having two heads or long, scrawny legs), miniaturizing our crops, and causing lightning storms that centralized over specific ponies causing them to continue their lives in a constant downpour. Every one and a while he would leave our town, without a doubt to cause trouble somewhere else. He would be gone days at a time but never longer than a week.
Whenever he disappeared we would send two teams out into the town. One team would search for food and water while the other sought out any of Discord’s victims whom we could assist. It was during the fifth month under his reign that we discovered that Discord had dried up all the rivers, replacing the water with thick chocolate syrup that was all but inedible. To make matters worse, the fiend had transformed what little crops remained into metallic copies. We were at a loss. Without food or water, we’d last a few days, a week at most. I fear that the only option remaining was to abandon the town lest we succumb to starvation.
Ah, but glory reign down upon us for, just as we were about to leave, something amazing happened.
“I do not like this,” Patience whispered. “He has never been gone this long.”
“Could it be he has found some other town to torment?” Prism asked.
“I doubt it. We have been his favorite for quite some time. I do not think he would abandon us so easily.” He and Prism were hiding inside of a large purple and pink bush that had its leaves transformed into some kind of gelatin treat. They were staring out towards Discord’s vacant throne. His slaves were still glued to the ground, the living footstool sleeping at the base of the throne. The slaves were using this time to catch up on their rest, lying on their stomachs trying hard not to let their heavy steel manes twist their necks around.
“Well if there has ever been a time for us to escape, this is it.” Prism nosed Patience’s flank. “We need to get the others topside and begin the exodus.”
“Go ahead,” Patience responded. “I shall keep watch for his return.” He frowned. “I still care not for this silence. It is unbearable.”
“I shall hurry.” She nuzzled his cheek and ran back to their hidden headquarters. Patience spared a glance in her direction before returning his attention back to the throne. Something didn’t feel right. There was an odd tension in the air that he couldn’t quite explain. It was as if the very air itself was charged with a magical energy. It gave him an unsettling feeling deep within his gut.
“Something is not right,” he whispered to himself. “There is something going on and I nae like it.”
Prism returned a few minutes later with two other ponies at her side. “We have everypony waiting.” She looked out towards Discord’s slaves with a pained expression upon her face. “Alas there is nothing we can do for them.”
Patience shook his head. “Pray that they understand.” He said in a comforting voice. “Let us make haste!” Together the four ponies retreated from their hiding spot towards the edge of town. Patience spared one last glance towards the center of town as if to say goodbye. He was about to return to Prism’s side when something unusual caught his eye.
“Wait,” he raised his hoof into the air. “Lady Prism, doest thou see what I see?”
She looked towards the throne. “Nae.”
“The center of the throne.” He cautiously walked down the central road into down, keeping an eye out for any signs of the chaotic spirit.
“Patience!” Prism hissed. “We don’t have time…”
“Silence!” he barked back. He stepped between Discord’s slaves who opened their eyes upon feeling his presence. He stepped around the living footstool in order to get a better look of the throne.
There, straight down the back of the throne, was a long, jagged crack.
“What the…”
The crack suddenly doubled in size, splitting the back of the throne in half. Patience jumped backwards in surprise then let out a loud yelp as the ground beneath him began to shake. He fell onto his side, eyes wide as the tiles shattered into a thousand little pieces exposing bright green grass beneath. The floating houses fell back to earth, settling back into their original spaces while the mountains returned to their original state. The clouds overhead returned to normal, the sky reverting from its pink coloration to its natural blue. Discord’s slaves found themselves free from his curse, freeing their hooves from the ground while turning their manes back to hair. Even the living footstool transformed back into the stallion that had dared speak back at Discord and despite looking rather haggard, he seemed to be alright.
“What is going on?” Patience shouted.
“His spells,” Prism exclaimed. “They are failing!”
Patience met Prism’s eyes. “Then that must mean,”
“The sisters were successful!” Prism screamed. She tackled Patience and wrapped him up in a tight hug. “Discord has been defeated at last!”
And so with great happiness without our hearts, we celebrated the fall of Discord. Days after our land had returned to normal, the sisters returned to our town dragging with them a statue of Discord. We ran to embrace the sisters but we could see within their eyes that the war against Discord had taken their toll. Luna, who had been so beautiful and cheerful, looked haunted with anger and despair. Celestia herself, as impossible as it would seem, contained within her a rage that I had never thought possible. She did not return our cheers nor did she bother explaining just how Discord fell. In fact, the sisters said few words to us after returning. We believed it be due to stress and fatigue so we let them be.
Word of the sisters’ triumph spread through the land like wildfire. Within days, our tiny town was invaded with all kinds of ponies, each one wishing to share their gratitude to the sisters. They bestowed upon the sisters dozens of precious gifts from every corner of the land, riches beyond imagine. It did not take long for rumors of the sisters’ power to begin a spreading. Ponies, rightfully so, wanted to know how two Alicorns could defeat a creature who could alter the very fabric of reality itself. They refused to answer their questions but that didn’t keep ponies from claiming that the sisters were, in fact, goddesses sent down to protect us. Within weeks, ponies began proclaiming the sisters Princesses, a fact that astounded me. I had served beneath royalty before, serving as Chancellor to those who had yet lost their kingdoms to Discord, but never have I seen the people actually appoint peasants to the throne. Aye, the sisters were indeed special, but they were not of royal blood.
Though as I write this, I must admit that I contain doubts for who hath heard of Alicorns that were not of royal blood? Their lineage remained a mystery but that did not seem to bother the citizens for, three months after Discord’s defeat, they officially pronounced the sisters as Princesses over the land. To my surprise, it was Celestia who asked me to retain my position as Chancellor and advisor, a task that I was happy to accept. We worked hard to rebuild the lives Discord had ruined, but soon we would learn that the nightmare wasn’t over.
In fact, it had just begun…