Finally, after so much time walking, Fluttershy, Discord and Angel got to the sanctuary. At first, Fluttershy felt relief but it quickly turned into panic.
After giving a few glances, both the pegasus and the draconequus came to the conclusion that the sanctuary was completely empty. That could mean three things: One, the animals were hidden to keep warm and protect themselves, two, they were missing, and three, or in the worst of cases, devoured by Grogar´s monsters.
“Where is everypony? Are they safe?” she asked Angel.
The bunny nodded his head. He led Fluttershy and Discord to the stock door. He jumped to open it. Once the door was opened, Flutterhy gasped, Discord and Angel widened his eyes. Every animal in the sanctuary were hugging each other, trembling both from the cold and fear. But not only were the animals inside. There were also Shining Armor, Cadence and Flurry Heart! Just like Fluttershy and Discord, they were injured, something they could tell by the bandages and bruises all around Shining´s and Cadence´s bodies. Fortunately, they were minor injuries. Flurry´s body was in a good state. Speaking of her, she cooed in joy when she saw Fluttershy, calling Shining’s, Cadence´s and every animals´ attention.
“Fluttershy!” Shining Armor Cadence exclaimed in chorus while they got on four legs.
All the animals ran to her. Harry the bear took her and hugged her tightly. The other animals joined the hug. Though a little overwhelmed, Fluttershy smiled happily when she saw that every animal was ok.
“Oh…” she laughed. “I missed you too.”
“It´s so good to see you!” Cadence said as she and her family approached with a big smile.
But after noticing all the bruises and scratches around their bodies, as well as their expression of fatigue, their smiles banished.
“Oh my…” Cadence mumbled under her breath
“You two seem to have been through a lot.” Shining Armor commented a bit worried.
Fluttershy and Discord nervously looked to the ground. Noticing that, Shining quickly shook his hoof.
“You don´t have to tell us right now. You´re probably exhausted and want to rest before telling us what happened.”
“But first we need to nurse you. Are there any bandages left?” she asked Shining Armor.
“We finished the roll we had before, but I´m sure I saw more at the first aid kit.”
The couple walked towards the first aid kit and opened it, taking everything necessary to heal Fluttershy and Discord. Meanwhile, Flurry flew to Fluttershy and hugged her.
“Oh Flurry, it´s so good to see you ok.” she said as she returned the hug and held her.
Flurry scrubbed her head against Fluttershy´s chest with her eyes closed. When she opened them, she noticed Discord hugging his knees with a sad expression on his face. Worried about him, Flurry softly pulled Fluttershy´s hair to call her attention.
“What is it Flurry?”
The baby alicorn pointed at Discord.
“Him? He´s… He´s not ok. I had a pretty rough time, but he had it worse than me.”
Flurry raised an eyebrow. Fluttershy sighed.
“Remember when the mean old Grogar said Discord was his son?”
Flurry nodded.
“Well, as you know, Grogar is not like your mommy and daddy. They like being around you, they hug you, kiss you, and most importantly they love you. Grogar never did that with Discord.”
Flurry looked sad at Discord. She jumped from Fluttershy´s forelegs and flew to Discord´s lap. The draconequus opened his eyes surprised, seeing that the baby alicorn was sitting on his lap. Discord looked around anxiously until he found Harry the bear.
“I think you got animals confused. He´s the bear not me.” he said to Flurry.
“I don´t think so.” Fluttershy told Discord as she shook her head with a sweet smile. “I think she likes you.”
Discord raised an eyebrow confused. Flurry hugged him with her wings and smiled at him. Slowly, he returned the hug, which made him smile in return. Although it took him some time, he summoned a teddy bear for her. She took it and hugged him.
“You seem to like foals.” Fluttershy commented.
Discord widened his eyes.
“No… What are you talking about?” he lied. “I´m not into foals. They cry and are annoying. Ouch!”
Flurry took a feather out of his pegasus wing. He frowned at her, but the baby smiled and laughed. Though mad at her, Discord couldn´t get angry at her.
“I don´t blame you. They´re very cute. But you´re right, sometimes they are a bit difficult. I remember having a bit of a hard time when I took care of the CMC.” Fluttershy chuckled at her memory. But her face quickly saddened. “I hope they´re ok.”
“Yeah… None of us going through the greatest time.” Discord sighed. “Ponies are going to hate me so much after this.”
“Why?”
“They discovered I´m Grogar´s creation! They´ll think I´m like him for the rest of their lives.”
“Well, I don´t think that.” Fluttershy put her hoof on Discord´s paw. “Neither will my neighbours.”
“Your neighbours?”
“The mare and the foal you saved.”
Discord blinked surprised.
“Those were your neighbours at Cloudsdale?”
Fluttershy nodded.
“At that moment, you showed that you´re nothing like Grogar. You even freed all of them and put them away from him. They know you´re not a monester. They really owe you their lives.” Fluttershy put her hoof on Discord´s paw. “Standing up to Grogar like that takes so much courage. You´re either the single bravest creature I´ve ever seen. Or the craziest.”
“Uh… Probably the second.” Discord smiled nervously. “I don´t feel very brave. But you,” he signed at her. “definitely are.”
“You think that?”
Discord placed Fluttershy´s hoof on his chest.
“Definitely.”
Fluttershy blushed.
They noticed Cadence and Shining Armor coming back with bandages.
“Um… Cadence, Shining. How did you end up at the sanctuary?” Fluttershy asked curiously.
“After we helped the other kingdoms, we decided to come back to Canterlot, with Twilight. But it was almost impossible due to the weather.” Cadence explained.
“We tried to keep on going but something awful made us stop.” Shining´s voice broke. He closed his eyes.
Fluttershy knew what that awful thing was. Her ears dropped.
“So you know…”
Cadence nodded, with tears in her eyes.
“We saw a purple figure falling into the Everfree forest just after we heard a bell ring.” she wiped her tears. “By the shock, we couldn´t keep on going on. Luckily, we found your sanctuary. Just like you, we opened the door and found the same thing.” Cadence pointed at the animals while smiling sadly. The animals looked at the pair with pity.
Flurry went to hug her two parents, also sad for what happened to her aunt.
“We failed you. I´m so sorry.” Fluttershy apologized sad, her eyes filling with tears.
Shining and Cadence dried their noses.
“You have nothing to apologize for. We know it´s not your fault. You did all you could.” Shining reassured her.
“But at least it´s a relief to see you two alive.” Cadence told Fluttershy and Discord as she bandaged Fluttershy.
“Just one more…” Shining told Discord as he finished bandaging his neck. “Ok done!” he swept his sweat off his forehead. “Learning first aid at the military was one of the best decisions I ever had.” he thought aloud before laughing nervously. He bit his lip, seeing that he didn´t make neither Discord nor Fluttershy laugh.
“This might seem a little rough for you to answer, but… what happened to the others?” Shining asked curious.
Fluttershy and Discord looked away nervously.
“Probably dead as well. He locked us inside a cell and separated us. He told us that he would execute us all in different places so we wouldn´t spend our last moments together. Well… with the exception of me.”
“Really?” Shining asked surprised.
“Ironic, considering that he hates me the most. But he wasn´t done with me. He wanted me for his own purposes.” Fluttershy shivered while remembering the moments they talked to each other. “For example, he wanted to use me as a tool to control Discord.”
Everypony and animal stared at Discord. He looked from side to side quickly, trying to look for something to use as an excuse not to talk.
“Well lookie here! There was some carrot juice or something here for Angel. Why did you get out looking for carrots when you could have had this instead?”
Angel frowned at him and started patting his foot against the floor, waiting impatiently for Discord to talk about his past. The draconequus took a glance of his surroundings. They were begging him with eyes full of empathy, specially Fluttershy. He bit his lip.
“You might not like it but it´s important that you tell us.” Cadence told him.
“There´s nothing much to tell. You saw it pretty well with your eyes.”
“But we want to know the whole story.” Fluttershy remarked. She took Discord´s hoof. “We are here for you.” she gave him a smile that relieved his nervousness.
Discord inspired and expired.
“Ok. But please don´t let go of my paw.” Discord begged Fluttershy.
“Wasn´t planning to.”
Discord smiled sweetly at Fluttershy.
“Thousands of years ago, while Grogar was still ruling Equestria, he created monsters in order to keep ponies under his control. One day, inspired by North Eastern Equestria´s dragons, which were legends from around Mistmane´s village, he decided to create his ultimate weapon. But things didn´t go as he expected. Instead of getting the scariest monster, he got… well… me.” Discord smiled nervously.
The ponies and animals listened attentively.
“I don´t consider myself a disgrace, but Grogar did. So, ashamed of what he got, he locked me inside a room until he came up with a solution about what to do with me. Though most of the time alone, Grogar and Bray would check on me from time to time.” he chuckled. “I really got on their nerves, especially Grogar. You see, our idea of chaos was pretty different. Grogar saw it as destruction whereas I saw it as play! But can you really blame me? I was just a child! Besides, where is the fun in that?”
Fluttershy chuckled slightly.
“But deep down believed what he told me. It made me feel awful and sad. Still, my curiosity was stronger. So one day, I sneaked out my room to go through the town. However, I panicked soon when I saw everypony bashing at me. I ran away to a forest. Without, my life was about to change.”
“You met Gusty there, didn´t you?” Fluttershy guessed.
Discord nodded.
“Wait what?” Shining asked confused.
“Yeah, It´s confusing even to me. You see, Grogar must have erased my memories with her to keep me under control. I recently remembered. But yeah, I did meet her. She saved my life, in fact, taking me as her `hostage´ instead of letting her unicorns kill me. Unlike Grogar, she was kind to me. She didn´t believe I was a monster. She even loved me as her child! In fact, she told me that once she defeated Grogar, I could live with her and her daughters.” he smiled nostalgically. “But that never happened. After Grogar tried to throw me down a well, he must have done something for me to become unconscious. He could have let me for dead, but surprisingly, he didn´t.”
“What happened after Gusty defeated Grogar?” Cadence asked.
“He was banished. We took refuge in a cavern. Those days were really difficult for him. So much, that there came a point where I was his only hope to get his throne back. Besides, I was the only one who could take care of him. Those were the worst days in my life. Grogar got more and more hostile towards me. When he was ruling, it was more verbal but when he was banished… he started threatening me or fired magic at me if I did a single mistake in my training. One day, he got me injured. That´s when I decided to escape. As he always said, he warned me that I wouldn´t be accepted anywhere, he was the only one who would. The most painful thing about Grogar is that he´s always right about the world. He wasn´t wrong about me, he wasn´t wrong about Gusty. Everything he said happened. I had to travel to many lands in order to find a place I could stay in, including Scorpan´s kingdom. None of them accepted me. My last attempt to fit in was in Equestria. For my misfortune, they didn´t accept me. That´s when I decided to try stop fitting in. And well, you know the rest.” he said sadly.
There was a brief silence.
“Wow Discord… That sounds very rough. I´m sorry you had to go through all of that.” Shining told him.
“Why didn´t you tell me?” Fluttershy asked heart broken by Discord´s story.
“I was afraid that you would stop being my friend.”
“Of course not! These things hurt a creature´s soul deeply. I would have understood you better. Fortunately, there are ponies who are experts on helping creatures in the same situation. I suggest you go to one once this is over.”
“You mean telling this to a complete stranger alone in a room? No, no. I´d rather just tell you and that´s it.”
“But it´s not that easy. These ponies know how to help you in a way that ordinary ponies don´t.” Fluttershy sighed while stroking her mane. “I know that from experience…”
“Oh right. That darn Summer Flight Camp.” Discord rolled his eyes.
“What happened there?” Cadence asked curiously.
“When I was a filly, I was a really weak flyer. When I flapped my wings, I constantly went up and down, and because of that, I couldn´t fly fast. The other foals would laugh or yell at me for that.”
“Yeah, Twilight went through something similar before entering Celestia´s school.” Shining Armor commented.
“The worst thing is that I didn´t know how to defend myself. That caused me to have constant bad thoughts about myself and isolating myself from everypony. Well, except Rainbow Dash. Since I thought I was an annoyance, I never told this to anypony. Once I was out on my own, I thought there was nothing to worry about, but the thoughts were still there. Luckily, thanks to the help of my friends, I realized I needed to seek support, so I decided to consult one of these ponies.”
“Did it work?” Discord asked curiously.
“Yes, pretty much. However, when I´m really stressed the thoughts come back. They might not disappear forever but at least they won´t stop me from my goals.”
Discord looked away, thinking about what Fluttershy said. However, he quickly came back to reality when he heard Fluttershy´s voice.
“Until they came true.”
“What do you mean with that?” Shining Armor asked.
“One of my most recurring thoughts is that my element is not appreciated. That is just for the weak. I firmly believe that kindness is a strong force, but how will it be if nopony believes in its strength?”
“What makes you think that?” Cadence asked.
“Look out there! Nopony´s offering a hoof to their neighbours. There´s so much hostility out there. And that´s because Grogar´s fuelling it, and if he keeps on doing that, soon, ponies of the same species will turn against each other. Nopony will show compassion anymore and if one does, they´ll be considered weak, and thus, they won´t do it again” Fluttershy sniffed. “It saddens me because it´s my element.” Fluttershy´s eyes filled with tears. “It´s the only thing I can do for Twilight!” Fluttershy sobbed while breaking into tears. “Carrying on spreading kindness in her name. But right now, that won´t save anypony from Grogar. So why did I have to be the survivor if what I have to offer won´t help anypony?!”
Fluttershy put her hooves on her eyes as she sobbed loudly. Her animals quickly hugged her.
“Fluttershy. That´s not true. We still believe in kindness. And I´m sure that somepony out there still does too.” Shining Armor said.
“That´s the thing about our elements. They seem weak because they´re not aggressive nor a brute force that in desperate times like this everypony roots for. But believe me, it is in those times when they are the most needed and the strongest.” Cadence said.
“Exactly.” Discord agreed. “And that comes from a creature who believed that those things never existed! But that´s because I was barely shown that. I might have never told you this because I´m not into showing feelings but if it makes you feel better, here it goes.” Discord inspired and expired. “I´m very grateful for your kindness. It means so so much to me in such a way that you would never imagine. It saved my life. It opened me to new possibilities that I was desperately craving for, but never found. Thanks to it, I remembered that I could be loved and accepted for who I am.” Discord shed some tears. “It encouraged me to be a better draconequus, even though I never thought that was possible. When I found difficult doing a good act, I´d always go back to my memories with you to tell myself that I could do it. Your kindness is what got me through the rough time I was separated from you and with Grogar. So yes, even in these hard times, it saved some creature. And that creature, is me.”
After hearing Discord´s words, Fluttershy felt so moved. Her tears weren´t from sadness, but rather gratefulness. Quickly and without nopony expecting it, she hugged Discord, which made him blush in return. Her tears stopped, and instead she was blushing and had a relaxed smile on her face. She felt so calm that she had her eyes closed. Discord also relaxed and closed his eyes, with a big smile on his face.
Cadence, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart and the animals observed the scene. Angel had a mixture of emotions: jealous because he wanted Fluttershy to hug him like that but happy because she wasn´t crying anymore.
“Should we turn around or…?” Shining Armor asked Cadence, a little nervous by the scene.
Cadence and Flurry Heart, on the other hoof, were enjoying the scene. Flurry was excited to see what happened next, whereas Cadence was smiling in serenity.
“Cadence?” Shining asked worried, since he saw her cry.
“Sorry. You know I love seeing scenes like this, specially now. After seeing so many ugly things, it´s a relief to see something beautiful. It shows what I just said. Love is a powerful force, isn´t it? It changes a creature´s heart and makes them show their best.” Cadence said to Shining Armor.
“Yeah. I agree.” Shining put his foreleg around Cadence. “Although I think that you should let them some privacy. Remember they´ve been separated and have gone through a really rough time. Besides, staring at couples can come off as creepy, just so you know.”
Cadence blushed in embarrassment.
“Yeah, you´re right.”
But right when she was about to turn around, Flurry started to babble to call her parents attention.
“What is it hon?” Shining asked Flurry.
A flash of light blinded Shining Armor and Cadence. Some animals jumped back, while others observed in awe. scared They couldn´t figure out where it came from until it started fading. Apparently, it came from Fluttershy! Discord´s arms were up, still scared by the sudden flash and light that surrounded her. Yet, that was not the most surprising thing. Fluttershy herself didn´t seem to notice it! She was still with her eyes closed, smiling and hugging Discord.
“Thank you, Discord.” she said as she finally opened her eyes and undid the hug.
Her calm expression turned into one of strangeness when she saw her animals and friends shocked. Well, except Flurry, who had a big smile of joy on her face.
“What? What is it?”
“You seriously didn´t notice? A light literally surrounded you for a moment!” Discord put his arms in the air to emphasize his point.
Angel and the other animals nodded their heads energetically.
“Really? I didn´t notice.” Fluttershy scratched her temple. “Oh my… I am must be really tired if I didn´t notice that. Although… I feel really good.” she smiled.
“What do you mean?” Cadence asked curiously.
“My body doesn´t hurt anymore. It feels… normal. Just like in any other day.” Fluttershy gasped. “Does that mean….” she wondered aloud.
She looked at her wings.
“Whoah, are you sure you want to try to fly?” Cadence asked her, knowing what her intention was. “You might feel better but that doesn´t mean that you can still do activities that require physical effort.”
“But there´s only one way to find out, right?” Fluttershy said.
“I mean, she´s not wrong.” Shining Armor agreed with her.
“Just in case, we need mats, a towel…” Discord said as he summoned those elements, with certain difficulty. “And liquids!”
Angel noticed how Fluttershy smiled at Discord, which made him feel jealous. Before Discord summoned any liquids, he noticed the carrot juice up in the shelves. Grinning confidently, he jumped to the shelf to get the bottle. The animals noticed him. They shook their heads or told him to get down, which got everypony´s attention. Fluttershy gasped when she saw Angel on the shelves.
“Angel!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “Put that down!” she ordered worried.
The bunny, however, didn´t listen. And for that, he slipped off the shelf´s edge and fell. The animals gasped horrified. Without thinking it twice, Fluttershy flew to him. Fortunately, she got him on time, but in doing so, she crashed against the shelf. Her friends went to aid her.
“Are you alright?” Shining asked.
Fluttershy´s eyes went everywhere.
“Whoah…”
Discord pulled out the first aid kit from the wall.
“Quick Shining! Do your whatever it is that you learnt in the military!” he told him.
Fluttershy shook her head.
“I don´t think that will be necessary.” Cadence told them.
“Yeah, I feel better, don´t worry.” Fluttershy reassured Discord. “But you´re gonna have to help me put that back where it was.”
Discord realized what he had done. He quickly hid the first aid kit behind his back.
Fluttershy looked at Angel. She frowned when she realized that he was smiling.
“Why are you smiling you mister?”
Angel jumped from her arms. He put his forelegs on his chest defensively.
“Why wouldn´t you be? Because what you did was very dangerous! What would have happened if I hadn´t flown in ti-”
Fluttershy widened her eyes at her realization.
“I flew…” she turned to her friends and the animals. “I flew! My magic´s back!”
The animals jumped out of joy. Flurry laughed.
“It´s a miracle!” Cadence exclaimed.
“Ah!” Shining clapped his hooves. “Thank goodness she has her magic again.” he exclaimed while looking up.
“I didn´t do this, so how could have this happen? Not that I´m not happy for you, I really am, but I´m just curious. And confused too.” Discord stroked his beard.
Fluttershy looked at her hooves.
“I guess you must have triggered something when you reminded me the power of my element. I´m not sure where that magic came from, though.”
“It came from you!” Discord pointed at her. “That magic was inside you the whole time!”
Cadence and Shining stared at Discord.
“How do you know that?” Cadence asked.
“I don´t. I was just wild guessing.” Discord shrugged.
The couple scowled at him. Meanwhile, Fluttershy kept staring at her hooves.
“I might never know, and though I´d like to, we can´t waste time thinking about it. We need to go back to Canterlot to stop Grogar from doing more harm.”
“I agree.” Shining stood up. “He needs to pay for what he did to Twilight.” he smacked his hoof.
“May his kingdom be over.” Cadence said.
Flurry ignited her horn while smirking. Flutteshy noticed her mane being slightly pulled. When she looked down, she saw it was Angel. He pointed at himself and the other animals.
“You want to help? Oh that´s so sweet, but also very dangerous. I don´t want any of you to be harmed.”
Angel confidently shook his head.
“Ok. You may come.”
The animals cheered.
“But before going we need to come up with a plan.” she looked at Discord. “Any ideas?” she asked while smirking and raising an eyebrow playfully.
Discord laughed.
“With pleasure.”