From the balcony, Grogar smiled wickedly as he saw Pinkie Pie freezing in the cold in front of everypony. The earth pony was tied to two sticks like a scarecrow. More cruelly, he ordered to put her a red coned hat on her head and a black woolen bag on her body to humiliate her. Since she was the element of laughter, her death should bring him a smile.
For the first time, in all those horrendous thousands of years in which he´d been waiting, recovering and gaining enough strength, he felt satisfied and inner peace. Every little detail in his plan was accomplished. He got his bell back, Twilight Sparkle was dead, and every single powerful pony or creature in Equestria, was either powerless, dead or working for him. He had the throne assured for him forever, and most importantly, he had destroyed Gusty´s legacy, just as she destroyed his. She was responsible for having turned from a horrifying almighty emperor to a silly foals tail villain. That was the most painful and humiliating consequence from Gusty´s victory. It made him feel that all his work, all the sacrifices and suffering to get to be who he is today, were meaningless.
Throughout his whole life, Grogar has had to prove himself. Even though he was heir to the throne, the elders didn´t think he was fit for a king because they saw him as a weak, defenseless, weird and dumb lamb due to not being able to do things a lamb his age could do. At the time, his land had been destroyed by war. There was too much pressure to get back the great kingdom it once was, and for that they needed a strong ram, something that Grogar wasn´t when he was very young. Even though he overcame those difficulties, the stigma was still there. That deeply hurt him, causing him to do anything to show everyone around him that he was not weak nor stupid. He was a fierce, fearsome and cunning ruler. Not just any ruler, an emperor! He was willing to do anything, no matter who he hurt along the way. It was him or them, that was his philosophy. Nonetheless, that same philosophy also brought painful memories.
But that was in the past. Right now, he was back in control, which meant the beginning of a new golden era for his empire. And this time, nopony was going to stop him. And if one of those pathetic ponies was willing to oppose him, he would use worse measures, even if it meant the extermination of the entire pony species.
“You see that Gusty?” he said to the cover of a Gusty the Great book. “All those ponies that you sworn to protect are under my rule once again. Seems like you failed your mission.” he chuckled. “You thought that you had got rid of me by banishing me forever. You should have killed me while you had the chance.”
He ignited his horns and blasted the book, lighting it on fire. He smiled in satisfaction as he watched it slowly burn.
He perked his ears up when he heard a voice, realizing he was not alone.
“Are you done speaking to yourself? We get it, you´re cray cray. Still, it´s so annoying.”
Grogar turned around. The one who was talking to him was Daybreaker.
“What are you doing here?” he asked surprised.
“I´m so bored. Nothing interesting has happened!”
Grogar narrowed his eyes.
“You literally killed your sister.” he responded bluntly. “Isn´t that exciting enough?”
“Nah… It was too easy.”
Grogar sighed while rolling his eyes.
“Give me something to do right now, otherwise I´m going to end up burning the whole castle!”
Daybreaker noticed Pinkie Pie down there.
“I could burn her!”
She spread her wings, ready to fly. Grogar, however took her with his magic.
“You are not doing anything to her.”
Daybreaker scoffed.
“Are you kidding? She´s there, tied up, waiting to die. It´s the perfect target! She´s absolutely asking me to light her on fire!”
“But if you did, it would make her death faster. I want to see how her soul slowly fades away.” he explained with a wicked smile.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Still, give me something to do! I´m so booooooored!”
Seeing her behavior, Grogar was starting to regret his decision of not having killed Celestia. His curiosity got the best of him. Still, he also knew that she might serve for later. So, he decided to keep his cool before he destroyed her, despite being very difficult to do so.
“Look, you´ll do something when I tell you so. Alright?”
“Oh! I could burn that dragon thing of yours!”
Grogar widened his eyes. He restrained the alicorn against the wall.
“YOU´RE NOT TOUCHING HIM!”
“Oh.. Daddy instinct?” Daybreaker laughed.
“Of course not! I only care about him because he´ll serve me for my plans. And if you burn him alive, I´ll make sure you hang by the neck! Understood?”
“Ok, ok. Fine, old goat.”
“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!” Grogar yelled while lighting his horns. “DO NOT DISRESPECT ME!”
“I´m just teasing. I´m just teasing. Are you reacting like this because you think I´m not competent enough or because you think I´ll betray you? Because if that´s the case, I´m not planning anything against you, ok? Don´t be paranoid.”
Grogar raised an eyebrow.
“But you do have a desire to rule.” he accused.
“Not ruling per say… I´m just here to have some fun.”
Grogar was honestly surprised by that answer.
“Well, this is not a game. This is something serious.”
“Do the responsabilities involve destroying ponies? Or taking charge of things?”
“Mostly, yes.”
“Then count me in. But please, don´t leave me without anything to do.”
Grogar was still somewhat skeptical. He had lived long enough to be wise about who to trust.
"How do I know that you won´t backstab me?"
"Although I am powerful alicorn indeed," she explained while carassing her mane of fire. "I know that I have nothing to do against you in combat. So, why bother?"
Grogar didn´t respond but anypony could tell from his looks that he still didn´t trust her.
“You still don´t believe me, do you? Ugh… You´re much dumber than I thought.”
Grogar frowned and expired air from his nose. Suddenly, a guard opened the door timidly.
“Your majesty…” she called the ram´s attention timidly.
“WHAT?!”
The poor guard whimpered in fear.
“I have bad news.”
“Great, what I needed.” Grogar muttered under his breath. “What is it?!”
The guard gulped.
“The prisoners have escaped.”
Discord was lying on the ground full of sadness. Grogar might have not told him himself, but he knew what had happened. His friend Twilight was dead, which meant that there was no hope for the rest of the mane 6. Yes, it was true that Grogar told him that if he did as he said, she wouldn´t be harmed, but Discord knew that if Fluttershy remained alive she would be a hostage and a slave. He didn´t know what would be better for her, death or life. As painful as it was, he had to think about it. This was the future for them.
His thoughts were interrupted by hoofsteps. He observed the guards approaching his cell. They sighed relieved when they saw him, something that genuinely surprised the draconequus.
“You know what? This is the first time that a pony outside Fluttershy and her friends is happy to see me.” he scoffed while rolling his eyes. “Don´t know how I should feel about that.”
“Thank goodness he didn´t escape.” the female guard said.
Discord raised an eyebrow.
“What are you talking about?”
The two guards were puzzled.
“Seriously, you didn´t hear a thing?” the other guard asked.
“Well, considering that I´m literally inside the most isolated cell where the only sound I can hear are waterdrops falling, I wouldn´t be surprised if I were you.” he replied sarcastically.
“But you´re an almighty spirit of chaos! Surely you must have noticed something.”
“Actually, now that you said it, I noticed a magic change. But it must be from my fa… I mean, Emperor Grogar.”
“Wrong. It was from Tirek.”
“Oh wow. How exciting. The three musketeers have escaped from prison just to be destroyed by Grogar.” Discord faked excitedness.
“They aren´t the only ones who escaped.”
“Fluttershy escaped too.”
Discord gasped. Finally, some light in all the darkness. He held his chest as he sighed relieved.
“I wouldn´t be so calm if I were you. Grogar is going to hunt her down and you know that.” the guard said while opening the door of his cell.
“Speaking of him, he wants to talk to you.”
Discord puffed frustrated.
“Oh, not again, please. He never gives me a break. Like he always says, he´s never satisfied.”
“Yeah, sorry about it.” the guard apologized while enchaining his neck.
“Must be hard having him as a father.”
Discord´s ears perked up and his eyes widened.
“Wait. He´s told everypony?” he pulled down his ears. “Why does he love torturing me so much?”
The two guards looked at each other.
“Hey, I know that it won´t be for much help, but if you need support you can count on us.” one of them told Discord.
“We´re the ones who are in charge of scolding you whenever Grogar wants so. In those moments, feel free to talk to us.”
Discord was genuinely surprised by theses ponies´ willingness to help him. Even though he was used to hearing that from Fluttershy, it was still surprising to hear those comforting words. So much, that it made him feel uneasy. Nervously, he grabbed his tail.
“Um… Thanks, I guess.”
The two guards and Discord arrived to the throne room. Grogar sat on the throne in his usually proud and steady posture and frowning like he always does. The guards bowed down and left the room. They looked worriedly at Discord. The draconequus didn´t understand why two ponies who only knew of him for his reputation were so worried about him.
And the surprises didn´t end there. He also saw an alicorn that resembled Nightmare Moon but her coat was white, her eyes were of different color and her mane was literally fire.
“Where did she come from?” he asked Grogar.
“Don´t you recognize her, you idiot?” Grogar replied back.
Discord looked harder. When he recognized her, he stared at Grogar.
“I originally intended to change Luna back to Nightmare Moon, but she jumped in between.”
Celestia and Luna may not be Discord´s favorite ponies, but he couldn´t help but feeling bad for them. He knew how hard the process of reformation was, and making Luna go through that again and Celestia experience it, was very cruel.
“I have gathered you two here to give you an important task.”
“Oh finally!” Daybreaker said.
But she immediately stopped behaving like that once she noticed Grogar frowning at her.
“Unfortunately, thanks to the guards´ incompetence four prisoners managed to break free. These are the three backstabbers, Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, and one of Twilight Sparkle´s friend, Fluttershy.”
He gave Discord a hateful glance. The draconequus, however, didn´t seem terrified at all. He gave his father a victorious smirk.
“Well, well, looks like somepony´s plan´s backfired.” Discord told him cockily.
Grogar scowled at Discord. The draconequus walked towards him
“See? What did I tell you? You overestimate yourself too much. How could you have ignored that Tirek could literally absorb magic from any creature around him? Because you thought you had won and got confident that you were invincible!”
Even though he pretended not to be affected by Discord´s words, they were damaging his pride.
“And now thanks to that little mistake, I´m pretty sure my bestest and dearest friend Fluttershy is going to be the catalyst of your downfall.”
Grogar smiled wickedly when he came up with the perfect answer.
“Or maybe you will be the catalyst of hers.”
Discord bit his lip. Grogar jumped from the throne and walked towards him menacingly, making Discord walk backwards while grabbing his tail in fear.
“You call out on me for being overconfident, but you´re not so different. That´s something you´ve inherited from me.”
Discord looked away embarassed. Grogar grabbed his chain to pull it towards his face.
“Look at me in the eyes when I´m speaking to you.” he told him while pulling down his beard. “Understood?”
Discord stood silent while frowning. Grogar growled while releasing Discord´s bear and chin. The draconequus massaged his chin while giving him a hateful look. The ram returned to the throne.
“Don´t think that you´ve won just yet. You are still under my control, and as long as that lasts, you will do as I say. Having said that, I´m going to give you your first task.” Grogar sat on his throne. “You are going to search for Fluttershy and bring her back here.”
Despite not having an expression on his face, he felt relief and confidence inside. It would be a perfect chance to escape, reunite with Fluttershy and come up with a plan to bring him down. Of course, that pleasant feeling stopped when Grogar finished his sentence.
“With me.”
Discord gasped softly.
“Come on, did you really think that I was foolish enough to let you go search for her without my supervision?” Grogar gave out a laugh. “You disappoint me, Discord. I thought you were smarter. Besides, it will show if keeping your precious friend as a hostage works as a way to ensure your loyalty. Remember, you fail me, she dies. And I´ll make sure she does in the most painful way. I won´t be merciful with her, Discord. Bear that in mind.”
Discord was at the brink of a panic attack. His unconscious knew that this was bound to happen, but his more conscious mind refused to believe it during the time inside his cell. There had to be something else he had to do. Anything!
After thinking about it for some time, he realized that the only choice, as much as he hated it, was putting in his father´s hooves. At least he didn´t have to do it respect his feelings, but rather in a strategic perspective.
“If I were an emperor, would I do that?” he thought to himself.
Once he found all the flaws in his father´s plan, he decided to speak.
“Wait a minute. If you come with me, who will be your substitute?” Discord replied back. “Bray isn´t here anymore! You don´t trust anypony working for you right now as much as you trusted him, not even me!”
Grogar tried to reply back, but he couldn´t find a sleingle argument that could refute his son´s, which kind of alarmed him.
His thoughts were interrupted by Daybreaker´s laugh.
“I believe it would be me, silly.” she smiled cockily.
Grogar thought about what the corrupted alicorn just said. Sure, he absolutely didn´t like her attitude, she was too impertinent and seemed that the only thing she wanted was having fun. That being said, unlike Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow, she didn´t seem interested in getting him out of the way. Quite the contrary, she did want to work with him. She knew that in order to have fun, she had to do as he said. And she was satisfied with that. Thinking about the conversation they had before in a calm emotional state, he saw that she had potential.
“Well, I´m sorry if I ruin your illusions, but if you´re not Bray, then that´s not happening.”
“Actually, it is.” Grogar corrected.
Discord was left mouth agape.
“HA! In your face!” she flew to Grogar´s side and started shaking his hoof. “Thank you so much! I assure you that your kingdom-”
“Empire.” Grogar corrected angrily
“Yeah, whatever, is in good hoofs.”
Grogar shoved her out of his way by putting his hoof on her face.
“Let´s go now.” he said while approaching Discord.
The draconequus tried to run to the throne to hold on into it, but Grogar stepped in front of him a violently pulled Discord´s chain towards him.
“Remember, disobey and she´ll be out of your life.”
Discord lowered his head and closed his eyes defeated. He knew that Grogar would force him to do awful things he didn´t want to do but he also couldn´t risk Fluttershy´s life. So, he had no choice but not put up a fight.
Grogar put a hoof on his chin.
“Aw… Don´t take this as a punishment. You will be the great Lord of Chaos you once were. Besides, you´re going to have the chance to see another friend of yours for the last time.” Grogar grinned.
Discord widened his eyes horrified.
Pinkie Pie had her eyes closed while hanging her head low. She couldn´t dare to look at the ponies she and her friends failed. What´s worse, they were still divided. In fact, the crowd watching her was formed by unicorns, who from what she heard, didn´t pity her much. She could hear all the whispers, the sobs, the silence… This was the most humiliating and cruelest moment in her life: one of the most beloved Equestria´s heroes tied like scarecrow or some puppet dying slowly in the cold in front of everypony. It was Grogar´s way to tell ponies that this was the beginning of their doom. And what´s more, all her legs ached. She could feel the ropes piercing her skin, apart from the hostile cold she was subjected to. So, the poor pony decided to wait for her death. It was the only thing she could hold on to, as she wouldn´t feel any more pain.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a male unicorn´s voice.
“Look! The emperor!” he pointed at the castle´s balcony.
The unicorns immediately bowed while shaking from fear. Pinkie´s ears perked up, she opened her eyes slightly and looked up.
The ram closed his eyes and rang his bell. Pinkie gasped and closed her eyes preparing for the worse to happen. However, she didn´t hear any magic hitting the ponies. She opened her eyes and sighed relieved that their forms hadn´t changed. She saw lots of changelings flying above. Both the ponies and Pinkie Pie were confused. But everything made sense when Grogar began to speak.
“Ponies of Equestria. I bring you an announcement: there are four fugitives on the run. Three of them are famous Equestria´s villains: Chrysalis, ex-queen of the changelings, Tirek, ex-prince of the ancient and destroyed Kingdom of Midnight, and Cozy Glow, ex-student of the School of Friendship.”
The unicorns were surprised by the announcement, but not horrified. Those three were nothing compared to Grogar. The horrors they´d do to them would never match Grogar´s plan.
“And the fourth prisoner, is one of Twilight Sparkle´s friends: the pegasus named Fluttershy.”
Pinkie gasped when she heard Fluttershy´s name. She was alive! Not only that, she had been in Canterlot during all this time! But even though Pinkie was glad that at least one of her friends was alive, she knew that as soon as Grogar put his hoofs on her, she would be dead. There was no point in remaining hopeful. The only thing it would bring was more pain. But at least, in a matter of minutes, she wouldn´t feel any pain anymore.
“If you help me to capture them, you will be rewarded with protection, food, shelter and a prosperous position. I know that none of you will doubt helping with the villains, but I know that some of you will have it more difficult when it comes to Fluttershy.”
The unicorns looked at each other to find which one of them would betray their own species by helping a pegasus.
“So, if anypony harbors or helps her, they will be punished with death.”
Those words convinced Pinkie Pie that she made the right decision not to have hope. Otherwise, those words would have hurt more. Her heart was already too broken. She didn´t need another blow.
“Lastly, I don´t care how you bring me the villains, but I want the pegasus alive. You hear me? ALIVE!”
The unicorns stepped backwards, intimidated by Grogar´s yell.
“So, as a result, I feel obliged to assist, which means that I´ll be absent. But you won´t be unsupervised.” Grogar smiled wickedly.
Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow.
“Let me introduce you my temporary substitute, Daybreaker.”
Suddenly from the roof, jumped an alicorn to the balcony. For some reason, she seemed very familiar, although no pony had ever seen her before. Only Pinkie Pie recognized her. She gasped horrified and gave out a yell.
“CELESTIA!!”
The unicorns in the crowd gasped. Daybreaker heard Pinkie Pie. She raised an eyebrow while looking at her.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER YOU MONSTER?!” Pinkie Pie asked Grogar aggressively.
“Celestia?” Daybreaker thought aloud confused. “I´m Daybreaker, for your information!”
Pinkie Pie realized something important in that moment. Grogar´s corruption spell twisted the victims´ memories. But if they were reminded of who they were, there might be a chance to turn them back to who they once were.
“You´re not. You´re-”
Grogar shut her mouth before she could say something else.
“Not another word!” he turned to Daybreaker. “Ignore what she just said. She´s just trying to manipulate you.”
Although she was confused and curious of the reason why Pinkie called her that, Daybreaker decided to put up an act.
“Well, d´uh! Isn´t it obvious? She called me by another name! It´s clear that she´s not good from here.” she said while pointing at her head.
“You´d better not think otherwise.”
“Ok, ok. But just so you know, I don´t believe in people who are insane.” she smiled a bit nervously.
Finally, Grogar left the balcony. He was accompanied by some changelings and Discord when he left the castle. Pinkie Pie was trying to speak despite being muzzled. There came a point when the cold took away all her energies. Pinkie Pie became unconscious.
Grogar smiled in satisfaction.
“One less.” he muttered by undoing Pinkie´s muzzle, since she wouldn´t need it anymore.
Discord covered his mouth, breaking in tears.
“No…” he muttered.
Grogar pulled Discord´s chain to tell him to continue walking. The draconequus nodded sadly and followed.
Once Grogar and his guards weren´t in the square, two earth pony guards approached Pinkie Pie. Daybreaker noticed it and confronted them.
“Hey! What are you doing?” she asked.
One of the guards, who was a yellow earth pony looked away. Her workmate, who was darker yellow pony, quickly took charge of the situation.
“Well, what does it look like? We´re taking the body!” he cheerfully explained.
The female earth pony glared at him.
“What?” Daybreaker asked.
“Oh! You misunderstood, my mistake.” the male earth pony laughed. “Since, it´s clear that she´s dead, we´re taking her down because what sense does it make that she´s still there?”
“Intimidation?” she rolled his eyes. “These ponies…”
“Well, we say that it doesn´t make sense because this is a place full of unicorns. Not earth ponies.” the female earth pony pointed out. “I mean, right now the three tribes are confronted, so they don´t care if anything happens to a pony of another tribe. So, what´s the point?”
Daybreaker scratched h chin.
“Huh, that´s a good argument. But how are you so sure she´s dead?”
“Allow me!” the male earth pony exclaimed.
Out of his armor he took out a stethoscope and replaced his helmet with a doctor hat. After putting the earpieces on, he auscultated Pinkie.
“Hm….” he moved the stethoscope around her chest. “No heartbeat. Yeah. Pretty dead! So, if you don´t mind we´ll take the body to another place!”
The earth ponies untied Pinkie and carried the body on their backs. They smiled nervously while going downstairs.
“Under whose orders?” an unicorn blocked their way. “We only listen to unicorns´ guards orders!”
“My orders.” a female voice said.
In the crowd, there was a pale yellow unicorn mare with black glasses with an armor. With just a frown, she gained the crowd´s respect. As soon as she took one step, the crowd quickly made way for her.
“I was the one who thought the idea of transferring the body. It´s a more effective tactic of fear.”
“And where are you taking it, exactly?”
“To Ponyville. Its habitants are mostly earth ponies.”
“Well, aren´t you on sadistic unicorn. Very well. In the name of Grogar, I allow the transfer. You may go.”
“Thank you.” the unicorn bowed.
The unicorn and earth ponies left the scaffold. They walked some streets in Canterlot until finding a secret passage underground. After making sure nopony was looking them, they entered the passage. Once they arrived to their destination, they sighed in relief.
“Ok. That was very close.” the female earth pony cleaned sweat from her forehead.
“Yeah.” the unicorn agreed. “Cheese, be more careful with what you say! If it wasn´t for Meghan, we would have been arrested immediately.”
Cheese Sandwich smiled apologetically.
“Sorry, Moonie.”
“Moonie?”
“It´s a nickname I came up for your name. Moondancer, Moonie!”
Moondancer rolled her eyes.
“But seriously Moondancer, you were amazing!” Meghan said.
“Well, you came up with a great idea.” Moondancer winked.
With her magic, she laid Pinkie Pie on the ground. The three ponies looked worried at her.
“Is it true that you heard no heartbeat?” Meghan asked Cheese.
“I don´t know. This is a toy.” Cheese pointed at his fake stethoscope.
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie opened her eyes and rubbed her forehead.
“I think there we have our answer.” Moondancer said.