Through Changes

by Symphony


Caffeine

A/N: Edited by frieD195! Oh hey, I actually updated with the edited version right away!



The spirit yawned and brushed a hoof wearily through his mane. He stood up from the bed and stretched his back like a cat. He smacked his lips and walked out into the hallway, intending to find out where Era had gone after he asked her to fetch him some coffee. She had bounded off in glee, and Luna had walked to her sister's room to have a quick chat before the coming day. The implications of what he had told her last night still fresh in his mind.


Luna would of course have some questions for him, and he would try to answer them at the best of his abilities. He had told Luna, now he had to tell Celestia. But there was one pony he would have to talk to as well.


Era...


Just the thought of telling her broke the spirit. She would probably not understand at first, but she's a clever girl and would understand after a while. It was her reaction he feared, in all honesty. The look on her face as she finally understood the situation... It made Discord shudder. But where was Era? He had sent her off on her task almost half an hour ago, and the walk to the kitchen only takes ten minutes, tops. Oh, she probably got lost once again by taking a left before she was supposed to.


He sighed and walked down the hall to find her. She was his responsibility, after all. Though he wished that he could use his magic, just to be able to scry her and find her instantly, instead of checking random hallways and rooms. It wasn't an uncommon thing for her to get lost in the castle, but she always ignored that fact when he or Luna pointed it out.


After a few minutes of searching for the filly, he asked some servants and guards if they had seen seen her. Everypony said that they had just seen her earlier that morning, when she was trotting to the kitchen. Discord sighed heavily, as that meant that he had to go to Luna and ask if she could use a spell to locate the filly, but he would wait with that solution and continue searching on his own for a little longer. After walking down the hall for about five minutes, the spirit saw two empty cups lying on the floor. The cups were obviously from the castle kitchen, as they had the royal insignia. He picked up one of them and sniffed it. Coffee... He could recognize the bitter smell anywhere, but where was Era then? These cups were probably the cups she was bringing to them, but why were they empty?


The revelation hit the spirit like a ton of bricks. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Era had caffeine. Discord bit his lip. This wasn't good, this wasn't good at all! That filly was normally quite hyper, but how would she act like while fueled with coffee? Discord shuddered. He had to find her, now. Goodness knows what kind of chaos that filly could wreak upon the castle...


Discord paused right then. Hell, if she would cause chaos, she would really be daddy's girl! He grinned, but he knew that he had to stop her anyway. He sighed and started trotting down the halls once again.


The garden was usually a quiet, peaceful place. But today? Nope. Instead of it being the usual quiet sanctuary it was known to be, it was to put things lightly; disorder. The animals had been scared away, so had the gardeners. But it wasn't a monster or something like that rampaging through it, oh no.


It was 'just' a hyperactive filly fueled by two cups of coffee. No biggie, right? Well, that's what the servants thought at first, but then they witnessed the filly running around and using her magic to increase her speed even further. The guards had ordered one of the servants to fetch the filly's parents, specifically her father as the spirit would be able to catch up to her with his speed in flight. But for now they were just trying to limit her surroundings to keep her from running away from them again. Probably not the easiest thing to do when the filly knew how to teleport short distances...


''You can't catch me~!'' The filly sang as she teleported away from a guard who was trying to block her. She whooped in excitement as she yet again barely avoided being grabbed by one of the guards. This was probably the most fun she’d had in like, forever! It was so easy to evade the guards, who were becoming rapidly annoyed by her antics. Her wings fluttered because of the excitement building up inside of her. She grinned like a madmare as she noticed an opening between two of the guards which she could use to get away from the garden properly. She took the opportunity and dashed past the baffled guards.


She would just have to press on a little further, and she'd be in the clear for now. She giggled in glee as the guards scrambled to get on the chase behind the filly. Era would have none of it, and just accelerated until her tiny legs were a blur. It felt so easy to run! It was like she was stepping on thin air!.. Oh, wait... She looked down to see that she was, indeed, just running on thin air. She turned her head to see her father's glare as he held her by the scruff of her neck. She smiled sheepishly, and then started flailing her legs to escape from his grip, but to no avail. She pouted and crossed her forelegs, this was no fun at all...


Discord placed Era back on the ground and stepped on her tail just as she tried to dash away at full speed. The filly sighed and plopped down on her haunches. Yep, this wasn't fun at all... She started trashing and punching her father's foreleg, but the stallion didn’t move a single muscle.


''Let me go!'' She yelled and started pulling at her own tail with her magic to get away from him. But this wasn't working as well. Discord's eyes narrowed.


''Not until you have calmed down, young filly.'' He scolded. But Era had enough of his treatment. She focused her magic in a last ditch-effort and started levitating up into the air, with power cracking around her. Discord's jaw dropped and he instinctively drew back his foreleg, He tried to grab Era and pull her down, but he just got shocked by the aura surrounding her.


Discord knew what this was; it was Era's magic taking control in order to relieve the situation unfolding around her. It wasn't a good thing, and he knew it. The crackling power around her pulsed out dangerously twice and Discord's eyes widened. This wasn't good at all... He shielded his eyes with a foreleg, only to catch a glimpse of the power around her building and becoming stronger. Before he could even react, a shattering pulse of magic exploded from the filly. The ground shook almost as if it was an earthquake in progress,


By the time the pulse hit him, Discord screamed and flew back from the brute force. He looked down at the necklace, just to see the cracked rubies fly in pieces away from it. His eyes widened even further as the pieces of the rubies ignited and started pulsing with power of their own. It felt like time slowed down as the rubies ignited an explosion from the strong magic. His eyes were blinded by a crimson flash, followed by intense agony as the explosion rippled over his body. But just before he lost consciousness, he spotted the necklace flying away from him in shattered pieces.


Oh shit.