Seeing that it was getting darker and darker, all the unicorns present in the search lit their horns.
“Night already?” Twilight thought. She was so focused on looking for Spike, that she didn´t realize how dark it was.
“I didn´t remember how terrifying the Everfree was at night.” Rarity said while shivering.
“But it´s also beautiful.” contradicted Mistmane to calm Rarity. “There are things that you can see here only at night.”
“Nonetheless, we still need to be on alert.” Said Rockhoof. “You never know what´s lurking around.” He held the shovel in his mouth and looked suspiciously around, as if a dangerous creature was near them. Meadowbrook giggled at his gesture.
“I quite agree. We need to stick together.” advised Zecora. “Only then, we´ll be safer.”
Everypony nodded. Twilight opened her wings to call out her pegasi friends.
“Guys! Come here! It´s not safe to fly now!”
Not so long after, the four pegasi appeared. Discord was flying next to Fluttershy.
“Aargh! I haven´t flown this much in a millenia!” he complained as he stretched his back.
“Yeah…” Fluttershy agreed between pants. “It´s nice to get the chance to rest our wings for some time.”
“I guess you have no news…” suspected Twilight.
They looked away sadly.
“Sorry…” apologized Rainbow.
Twilight sat down while sighing. At this time, Twilight was too tired to cry. She just didn´t have enough energy.
“Don´t lose hope.” Somnambula put her hoof on Twilight´s shoulder. “We´ll find him.”
“I know we will, eventually.” Twilight held her hoof. “I just wish it was now.”
Starswirl was glad to see that the princess went from fearing not to find her dragon to being hopeful. Twilight yawned.
“Do you want to stop, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
Twilight sighed.
“Maybe I should. If I don´t rest, I´ll never find Spike.”
“That´s the spirit!” exclaimed Meadowbrook. “If you don´t take care of yourself, you´ll never be able to take care of others.”
“CAMPING NIGHT!” Pinkie yelled, while spreading confetti with her cannon.
“Say no more!”
Discord snapped his fingers and conjured up a camping, with a bornfire, seats, and tents included.
“Who wants marshmallows?” he asked, while taking out marshmallows impaled in sticks.
“ME ME!” Pinkie was the first to take a stick. Eventually, everypony had their own stick and sat by the bornfire.
All of them spent some time chatting and laughing. Starswirl talked about Scorpan, telling what he told Twilight. Well, all except Twilight. She was watching the fire sadly. She had been quiet the whole time. Fluttershy, who was near her, approached her.
“Are you ok?” she asked concerned.
“I just miss him.” Twilight answered. “Spike would have loved to be in a camping with all of us. I can´t stop thinking about him. How alone he must be, how much sadness he must have been feeling… because of me.”
Twilight choked on her words. Fluttershy was about to hug her, but Twilight elevated her hoof.
“But I´ll make my best to change when we find him. I promise to never miss out on his emotions. Never again.” she claimed confidently.
“I understand.” Fluttershy replied. “Angel and I fought too, and it was because I didn´t pay him much attention owing to being so busy at the sanctuary. I also ignored his feelings. But, in order to understand each other, Zecora gave us a potion that swapped our bodies. It was then when I understood how difficult his life was! And Angel did too. At least you didn´t need a potion to understand Spike.”
Fluttershy playfuly snugged Twilight, making her giggle.
“Reconciling with your loved ones is one of the best feelings ever, isn´t it?”
“Yeah.” Twilight agreed with her friend while nodding her head. Then, she sighed dreamly. “I can´t wait to wrap with my wings and tell him how much I love him.”
They turned their heads towards Rainbow when they heard her voice.
“Guys, I have a question for you.” she told the pillars. “Did you interact with Scorpan at some time?”
They all looked at each other.
“We were informed about the whole incident, but we were never in the scene.” Flash claimed. “Or maybe that´s only my case.”
“Same goes for me.” Rockhoof said.
“And for me.” Stygian said.
Mistmane and Meadowbrook shook their heads.
“Now that you say that, I might have seen him without knowing it was him.” Somnambula touched her chin in thought.
Starswirl widened his eyes.
“You did?”
Somnamula nodded.
“I remember being in Somnambula´s streets when I saw a hoodened creature. I couldn´t see what it was nor I could see his face, but from the way he was looking at the ground and the way his back was curved, anypony could tell he was really saddened.”
Starswirl looked at the ground and sighed defeated.
“How can I have done the same mistake twice?” he asked to himself aloud while looking at Stygian. “And think that it was the right thing?” he sighed. “I feel truly awful.”
He looked sadly at the ground. Suddenly, he noticed his hat out of his place. He touched his head, looking for his hat. After he looked up, he realized that Discord had taken it. He frowned at him.
“Oh, the typical feeling of regret about things from the past. Yeah, I´ve felt that before.”
“Give me back my hat!” demanded Starswirl as he tried to reach his hat. Discord made it a bit impossible for him while he continued speaking.
“So did Luna, Starlight, Stygian… We were villains once and we made our mistakes. But the thing is that we didn´t remain villains forever.”
That hurt Starswirl. He knew perfectly well that Discord was referencing what he said about villains.
“The same applies to you.” Discord explained while facing him upside down. “While you might have never tried to rule Equestria, you also made harm to others.”
Twilight bit her lip when she saw Discord being so direct to Stasrwirl. Rainbow and Rarity rolled their eyes as if they were saying “here he comes again.” Twilight tried to tell him to stop, but before she could, Discord went ahead.
“Don´t tell me to stop, Twilight. I´m giving him advice.” then he faced Rainbow and Rarity. “And don´t presume what I´m saying is wrong before listening to it!” He flew towards Starswirl.
“But now you´re regetting your mistakes. Doesn´t that tell you something, beardo?”
Starswirl stared at Discord perplexed and confused. He didn´t understood what was going on, nor how was it that he felt no shame in his behaviour.
“Come on!” Discord spat after scoffing. “You´re one of the most intelligent creatures in Equestria! Surely you can understand what I´m saying.”
Seeing no answer, Discord massaged his temples and decided to explain the meaning of he was saying.
“What I mean is that none of us are perfect. We´ve all made mistakes. But that doesn´t mean that you are those mistakes. You can learn from them and be a better pony next time. You´re doing it already, so why focusing on the past and not in the present?”
Discord put Stasrwirl´s hat on the wizard´s face.
“See? Not every time I open my mouth I say something bad!” he said to eveypony.
He snapped his fingers and left the camping. Everypony was left perplexed. Fluttershy got up from her seat.
“I´ll go and talk to him.” she said in an apologetic tone and smiling sheepishly.
At first, Starswirl was mad at the draconequus. But while he was watching his hat, he reflected on what Discord said. Zecora approached him.
“While his manners were not adequate, the truth in his words is great. I think he was also talking to you, Twilight.” she told Twilight.
Twilight felt a bit bad for misjudging Discord at first, but then felt a bit better. It was the same for Starswirl. He frowned and put his hat on.
“He´s right, Twilight. We did wrong, but from now on, we´ll make sure not to make the same mistakes!”
While Stasrwirl was giving a convivncing speech, Stygian, Zecora, Meadowbrook and Rockhoof were more concerned watching something behind Starswirl´s back.
“Ah.. Starswirl?” Stygian tried to warn him.
“No, don´t interrupt me, Stygian. I know I have done wrong to you in the past, and I´m sorry for it, ok?”
“You might wanna turn around…” Meadowbrook suggested.
“Right now!” Rockhoof yelled.
“Wha- Why?” the wizard asked confused.
“Just turn around.” Zecora begged.
Starswirl finally listened and what he found was not a pleasant surprise. Right in front of him, there stood a chimera with a necklace on the tiger´s neck.
“Hello…” the snake said with a cruel smirk.
Everypony stepped back.
Spike flew through the starry night, hiding himself in the trees so that the chimera didn´t see him. Down below, Scorpan and Punja were making sure he was safe.
“Do you see anything?” asked Scorpan.
Spike shook his head, while flying down.
“Negative. No trace of a pony.”
“Well, they´d better watch out and run away when they see it without a doubt. The forest is too big for us to arrive in time!” Punja said worried.
“The only thing we can do is keep searching. And hope we´re faster than the chimera!” Spike said.
Suddenly, Scorpan´s left ear bended. He tilted his head in order to hear better.
“What´s wrong?” Spike asked.
“Do you hear that? It sounds like voices.”
“From the chimera?” Punja asked after gasping.
Scorpan shook his head.
“No. One is familiar, as for the other one, I´ve never heard it before. Maybe they´re the ponies we´re looking for.”
“Can I?” Spike asked Scorpan as he pointed his shoulder, meaning that he wanted to stand on his shoulder so he could hear better.
Scorpan nodded. Spike rode on Scorpan´s shoulder and tilted his head to hear better. His expressions went from curiousity, to strangeness, and lastly horror.
One was sweet and warm, while the other one was the opposite. It was witty and loud. Just like the ones from two friends he knows… Spike gasped when he realized those voices came from Fluttershy and Discord.
“I know those voices! They´re my friends´!”
Punja and Scorpan widened his eyes.
“What?” Punja asked shocked.
Spike did not answer. Instead, he let himself be guided by the sound of the voices. Scorpan and Punja followed behind.
“What are they doing here?” he thought aloud.
They got to some bushes. From the spaces the leaves left, they managed to get the view of a cream butter Pegasus and a much, taller dragon. No, it wasn´t a dragon. It was as if somepony took various parts of creatures and stuck them together to create this strange creature. The two of them were having a conversation.
“I´m not upset. I´m telling you.” the dragon-like creature claimed.
“Yes, you are.” the pegasus contradicted. “Why else would you be here on your own?”
The dragon-like creature opened his mouth to speak, but had no words to refute his friend´s argument.
“Ok. Fine, I am. There, you happy?”
“Not until you tell me what´s wrong.”
“It´s nothing, really.”
“Come on, Discord. We´ve been friends for so long. You know perfectly well that I can tell when somepony isn´t feeling well. Why don´t you tell me?”
“Because everypony always expects me to mess things up, ok?! And what´s worse, they think it is because I haven´t changed. It wasn´t my intention to cause Spike to run away into the Everfree and make Twilight suffer while looking for him!”
“Wait what?” Spike intervened.
Discord and Fluttershy widened their eyes and turned around. They gasped when they saw Spike flying in front of them, and without thinking it, they hugged Spike.
“Spike! You´re ok!” Fluttershy said relieved. “I started to think that we would never find you!”
“Why did you take seriously what I said? Don´t you know that I´ m the last creature you should listen to?” Discord scolded Spike while holding him.
“Twilight is looking for me?” Spike said in a broken voice.
“Of course!” Discord responded angrily, frustrated that the dragon didn´t see it was obvious. “She´s worried sick! Don´t you ever do this again, you hear me? NEVER AGAIN.” Discord pressed his face against his.
Spike´s eyes filled with tears.
“She still loves me?”
“Yeah!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “She couldn´t stop thinking about you. She wanted you to be on her wings. She told me that. Let´s take you to Twilight.”
When he heard his sister´s name, he snapped out of his shock, remembering that they were in danger.
“Wait. Where is she?”
“She´s waiting with the rest at the camping.” Fluttershy replied calmly.
“What do you mean with the rest?”
“Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow, Zecora, Stygian, Starswirl…”
“WHAT?!” Scorpan got out of the bush and flew to Fluttershy. “You mean he´s here?”
“Um… Yes.”
“Scorpan?”
The gargoyle looked perplexed at Discord.
“Discord?”
“What are you doing here?” Discord asked shock.
“You two know each other?” asked Spike.
“I used to work at his father´s castle. But then I quit. That kingdom wasn´t definitely my place.”
“Will you quit the surprises? All your friends are about to end up in pieces!” Punja said, as she got out from the bush.
“What do you mean little zebra?” asked Fluttershy.
“Oh right!” exclaimed Spike, slapping his forehead for not warning about the chimera sooner. So many things were happening at once, that he straight down forgot about the chimera. “There´s a chimera with a magical artefact and it has smelt all of you.”
“What?”
“We need to get to the others. Now!” Spike begged Discord.
“I hope your friends aren´t settled too far away, just to make sure we arrive there before it-“
Punja wasn´t able to finish her sentence, for Discord had already snapped his fingers, and thus, they disappeared.
“Well, well, well, if it isssssn´t Sssstarssswirl the Bearded himssself…” the snake smirked.
“Oooh look! He´s brought aaall of his friends too!” the goat pointed out, as it glanced the pillars and Stygian.
The pillars stood firm, but Sygian, while maintaining his posture, was also scared and shocked. He had heard about chimeras but he had never seen one. It was the first time he had ever witnessed a chimera with his eyes. The chimera took notice of this and teased him.
“You seem scared, huh?” the tiger head said while looking at Stygian.
Starswirl put himself in front of Stygian to protect him. Twilight joined him. She ignited her horn aggressively.
“What do you want?”
“We want to join you for dinner.” the snake answered for her sisters, who were a bit intimated by the angry princess.
“You wanna join us?” Pinkie asked, popping out of nowhere behind Twilight, which surprised her a bit. “We have plenty of food! We have apple pies, marshmallows…”
“Pinkie.” Somnambula flew next to her. “We are his dinner.” she explained.
“Ooooh! In that case, you´re not welcome!”
“Yeah!” Applejack agreed with her friend. “I ain´t having none of you here!”
“Heeey! Isn´t shee the pony whooo kicked us in the paaaast?” the goat asked her sisters.
“Weren´t you the same chimera that tried to eat my sister?” AJ replied back, confronting the chimera.
“Yessss. And now you and your friendsss are going to ssserve usss plenty of food that will lassst for weeksss.”
“Yeah? Well, you´re dealing with five unicorns and an alicorn! Not to mention a pretty cool wonderbolt too.” Rainbow said proudly. Flash Magnus, who was by her side, rolled her eyes playfully.
“Oho! But you´re also dealing with this!” the tiger said as she touched the ruby she yielded in her neck.
Suddenly, the ruby struck a yellow and black ray directed at Rainbow and Flash. Luckily, they were able to dodge that ray, and it hit a tree, cutting it in a half. Rainbow looked at her friends.
“What in tarnation was that?”
The chimera launched an attack on the ponies, but Starswirl summoned a force camp to protect everypony. However, he soon realized that it would serve temporarily, as their powers were clashing against each other.
“I can´t hold this for much long! We need to come up with a plan. Now!” he begged his friends desperately.
“Can it be destroyed?” asked Rarity to Twilight.
“I don´t know. I´ve never seen that artefact in any history book.”
“Neither have I.” Stygian added. “But we need to get take it from them.”
“Guess we´ll have to improvise!” Flash said as he saw that Starswirl´s force camp breaking.
And so they did. Everypony did what they could do. Twilight, Starswirl and Stygian threw magical beams at the necklace to destroy it. Mistmane conjured up a water dragon just as she did in her battle against Sable Spirit. Somnambula and Flash Magnus created a storm, while Rainbow flew as fast as she could to create a Sonic Rainboom. Pinkie Pie used her party cannon, as normal. Applejack and Rarity helped Rockhoof to kick the chimera. But no matter how big our friends´ efforts were, the chimera would always win. That artefact was too powerful for them to handle.
“We can´t destroy it. It´s too powerful!” Twilight exclaimed.
Rarity looked at Meadowbrook and Zecora, who were about to join the fight. It was then when she got an idea.
“Girls, do you have herbs or things with which you could make a potion? You know, to distract make him sleep or something.”
Since Meadowbrook had none, she looked nervously at Zecora. The zebra, however seemed pretty calm and opened her bag. She took a bottle fool of petals. She handled them to Meadowbrook.
“I always bring some in case. Prevention is always better than curing a disgrace.”
Meadowbrook sighed relieved and both the earth pony and zebra got down to the job of creating a potion to sleep the chimera.
“That´s a great idea!” Stygian congratulated Rarity. The white unicorn smiled graciously.
“We´ll have to keep fighting, nonetheless.” Starswirl said.
“Starswirl´s right.” agreed Mistmane. “Our mission is to keep the chimera away from Meadowbrook and Zecora.”
Twilight, Stygian and Rockhoof nodded.
“You heard him. Let´s go!” yelled Rockhoof.
“Aye!” everypony agreed.
Rarity´s plan was good. However, it was too complicated. They felt that the chimera could reach them at any moment. Some help wouldn´t do any harm…
Spike, Punja, Scorpan, Fluttershy and Discord, appeared in a poof near the camping. Punja, looked around her, realizing that she was indeed in a different place.
“How did you do that?” she asked confused to Discord.
Discord rolled his eyes playfully as he chuckled.
“Obviously you don´t know me very well.”
They heard some noise and hid behind the trees. They observed that the chimera had already reached the camping before they could. Spike and Scorpan panicked when they saw Twilight and Stasrwirl fighting the chimera.
“Oh no…” Spike mumbled.
“We must help them!” exclaimed Scorpan.
He was about to burst off but Punja grabbed his tail.
“Waaaait!” she exclaimed as she struggled to keep Scorpan near them.
She was helped by Fluttershy, Spike and Discord.
“You can´t show up in the scene just yet! Right now, that thing is a dangerous threat!”
“Your little zebra is right. Even I, the most spontaneous creature on earth, knows clearly that´s not a good idea. I didn´t know you were that impulsive.” Discord teased Scorpan.
“Says the one who joined my brother.” Scorpan replied back.
That caught Discord off guard. He had no words to refute that.
“Oooh! Busted!” Punja exclaimed.
Discord looked away angrily while growling.
“How did you know that?” Fluttershy asked curiously.
Scorpan shook his head sadly.
“I would never forget my big brother brother´s earth-shaking steps. Besides, sometimes I hear travellers by the Everfree talk about this things. But I never heard one talk about Starswirl´s return”
“Guys!” Spike called out their attention, pointing at their struggling friends to emphasize the real problem. Both Scorpan and Discord looked away apologetically.
“Discord, can you poof that necklace away?” Fluttershy asked worried.
Discord confidently nodded his head. But when he looked the artefact in detail, a big chill travelled throughout his spine.
“Actually…. It´s impossible. Sorry.” he apologized genuinely, with some panic in his voice.
“Wha- Why?” Spike asked confused.
“It´s protected by a spell.”
“How do you know that?” Scorpan asked.
Discord seemed very nervous to answer that question and took some time to answer.
“Leet´´s just say that during my childhood I played with things I shouldn´t have played with…” he gave out a nervous smile.
Spike, Scorpan, Punja amd Fluttershy wondered why, but right now, it wasn´t the right time to ask questions. They looked at each other worried.
“You seem to know about that artefact.” Punja said. “Tell us all the facts.”
“I.. I can´t rememeber.”
“But you just said-“
“I just can´t! Ok?” Discord replied while covering his eyes with his hands.
Fluttershy noticed that Discord was experiencing some anxiety.
“Ok. Discord you´re too nervous. Are you alright?”
“I… I´m not so sure.” He replied.
“It´s ok if you don´t want to want to talk about it. But we need you to calm down to remember clearly. Can you do that?”
Discord uncovered his eyes to look at Fluttershy. He didn´t want to, but who could say no to those teal eyes? He sighed reluctantly.
“Ok.” he stroke his beard. “Um… I think the spell only works on my magic, but maybe it doesn´t work on other´s. There might be a chance to destroy it, but in order to do that, it has to taken away from the user while it´s not glowing.”
“But how are we going to do that?” asked Punja.
Spike looked at the chimera. He remembered the chimera´s conversation when they were hiding in the bushes, which gave him an idea.
“I got it! Scorpan, the chimera said that we were the ones the chimera has to kill. Our friends are just a snack to it!”
Scorpan perked his ears.
“You´re suggesting to act as a distraction?”
Spike nodded. Scorpan bit his lip.
“It kind of contradicts to the promise I made to your mother, but I haven´t got a better idea…”
“Wait.” Fluttershy intervened. “You know about-“
Fluttershy was interrupted by some grunts. The chimera managed to defeat Twilight, Stasrwirl, Mistmane and Stygian. With the artefact´s magic, it was able to tackle them against the ground.
“Twilight!” Rainbow exclaimed.
She and the rest tried to help them, but they were bound by the chimera´s magic.
“You know? We´ve never tried roasted ponies before, have we?” asked the tiger maliciously.
Her sisters laughed evily.
“There´sss alwaysss a firssst time for everything.”
The necklace illuminated. Twilight, Starswirl and Stygian closed their eyes, but just before something happened, a small stone hit the chimera´s neck.
“Hey!” a familiar voice exclaimed.
Twilight opened her eyes. She recognized it immediately. It was a voice she had heard thousands of time. She never felt so relieved to hear it again.
“Spike?” she asked in a whisper, while looking at the sky.
Indeed he was. There he was, flying in the sky, and ready to fight. Twilight´s eyes filled with tears. But for the first time since she lost him, they were tears of joy and relief.
“Remember when you laughed at me because I couldn´t spit fire? Well, now watch it burn!”
Spike inhaled and threw out a huge green flame at the air. Everypony raised their eyebrows, for they didn´t understand why Spike would throw fire to the sky and not towards the chimera. Even the chimera itself was confused.
“What is he doing?” asked Stygian.
“Twilight!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she ran.
“Fluttershy! Care to explain what is going on?” Twilight gave out a sheepish smile.
“Right away.”
While Fluttershy was explaining the plan to her friends, Spike dealt with the chimera.
“Reeallly? That’s aaall you wanted to shooow?”
As the chimera didn´t see any danger, the ruby was not glowing, which gave the chance to Scorpan to accomplish his part of the plan. He threw himself to the chimera´s neck, trying to take the necklace off it. The chimera activated the ruby, making Scorpan fly away before a ray of its magic hit him.
“Niiice try! But it diiidn´t work.”
The goat, snake and tiger smirked, thinking they had won. However, as soon as they lost sight of the ponies, Twilight, Starswirl, Stygian and Mistmane created magical beams that tackled the chimera against the ground.
“Meadowbrook! Zecora! How´s that potion going?” Mistmane asked as she struggled to keep the chimera in the ground.
“Almost there! But we still need time!” Meadowbrook answered. She and Zecora were striring as fast as they could.
“A sleeping potion, huh?” Punja said while looking at the pot. “I always stir with emotion, so I think I can help.”
“Help is what a healer needs. Specially from someone who´s from the same species.” Zecora accepted Punja´s help as she rubbed the little zebra´s messy curls.
“Ooh! She can rhyme!” Punja exclaimed. “This is definitely the best day in my life!”
And so, Punja helped Meadowbrook and Zecora to finish the potion. Meanwhile, the chimera was still on the ground.
“Can you activate it?” asked desperately the snake.
“I´m trying!” the tiger replied.
After some time, the tiger managed to reach its paw to the ruby, which allowed to break the magical beams. At first, they laughed in victory, but shortly after, out of nowhere, a heavy bargain appeared, and fell on them, forcing them back to the ground.
The ponies didn´t know what happened, but they quickly understood when they saw Discord cleaning his hands.
“Just because my magic doesn´t work on the artefact, it doesn´t mean that it doesn´t work on the chimera.” he said smugly.
Zecora put the liquid on a bottle. Meadowbrook took it and quickly put it in the chimera´s mouth.
“Sweet dreams.” she said with a smirk.
The chimera tried not to drink, but it soon did and fell into long sleep. The ruby stopped glowing and Starswirl to get it and destroy, freeing his tied up friends. The ponies cheered in victory. Spike landed in front of Twilight. He looked to the ground apologetically and fidgeted his fingers. He opened his arms to Twilight and gave her a small smile. Twilight´s eyes filled with tears and ran to her little brother´s arms.
“I´m so sorry!”
“What? No! Twilight, I´m the one who´s sorry. I ran away selfishly and made you suffer for long.” Tears started streaming down Spike´s face.
Twilight sobbed.
“But you wouldn´t have if I hadn´t told you those terrible things”
“I´m the one who started the fight, Twilight! I can´t change the fact that I said harmful words to you. But I promise to never do that again.”
“And I promise to never miss out on your feelings. Oh! I missed you so much.”
“Me too. I couldn´t stop thinking about you.”
“Neither could I.”
Spike and Twilight hugged tightly.
“SPIKEY WIKEEEY!” Rarity threw herself in Spike´s arms.
“We were so worried about you, sugarcube!” AJ said.
Fluttershy, Rainbow and Pinkie followed behind.
“Now, when we are back, how about doing some research about dragon culture?”
Spike shook his head with a smile.
“You don´t need to.”
“What? Why?”
Spike kept on smiling. After thinking about it. Twilight realized something.
“Wait. Did you find about them?”
Spike nodded warmly.
“Wow! I´m so happy. But… How?”
“Thank him.” Spike replied while looking at Scorpan.
The big gargoyle kneeled before the princess.
“Your majesty.”
“Scorpan.” Starswirl called.
Scorpan elevated his look and his eyes met with Starswirl´s. He jumped back in shock.
“Oh! Hello Starswirl…”
There was an awkward silence between the two.
“It´s been a long time, has it?” Starswirl asked.
“Yeah” Scorpan replied with a smile.
Starswirl looked nervously at Twilight. She and Spike nodded, saying with no words that if they could do it, he could do it. Starswirl inspired and expired.
“Look, I´m so sorry for behaving the way I did. I shouldn´t have been too hard you, considering the situation you were into.”
Scorpan looked away.
“Yeah, it´s ok. I should have told you about Tirek sooner, though.”
“So… We´re friends?”
Starswirl offered Scorpan a hoof. But Scorpan gave him a hug in return.
“Of course. I missed you. My friend.”
At first, the wizard was confused, but he quickly returned the hug.
“Oooh! Group hug!” Pinkie exclaimed excited as she hugged Scorpan.
The mane 6, Spike, the pillars, Stygian, Zecora, Punja and Discord joined Pinkie. Then, they decided to go home.
“Tell me about your parents. I´m so eager to know about them.” she asked Spike, as she put him on her back.
Spike joyfully agreed, and told the story, as all the ponies rode home. Everypony was happy. But Discord, despite being full of joy for finally finding Spike, he seemed tense and fearful, walking a bit slower and keeping some distance from everypony as he looked from side to side. Fluttershy noticed Discord´s absence, so she flew back and found him.
“There you are! You seem a bit off since you saw that necklace. We couldn´t talk about it before, but now we can. Are you sure you´re alright?”
Discord bit his lip, thinking carefully what to say.
“Yeah, I´m fine. But could you please keep me company? I.. don´t feel very safe.”
Fluttershy was going to ask why, but she didn´t want to pressure her friend
“Of course.” she agreed.
She grabbed Discord´s paw and walked together. Fluttershy´s presence made him calm, and soon they caught up with their friends.
The reason Discord was so nervous was because he knew somepony was watching them. And he wasn´t wrong. A pair of yellow and red eyes had watched the whole scene, and they also watched them leave.