//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Discord's Concessions // Story: Filly Eyes // by Betty_Starlight //------------------------------// So, the pink pegasus filly held her joint in her left forehoof and brought it to her mouth, as she stood there, to the left of the blue dragon, she talked to Discord. We suddenly all heard the loud reverberating voice respond, “Say what you will, Twinkle Shine! But I was just coming by to see how our cursed one was doing!” I feel a spark ignite in my brain as I look up and say, “Your mom wants to see how the cursed one is doing!” “What? What would you know about my mother, Jessi?” I smile, “I don’t know, Discord? What does your mom know about your mom?” “That doesn’t make any sense!” “Your mom doesn’t make any sense, but we still keep her around!” I can hear the voice grow irritated, “You know nothing about my mom!” I see the embers of the joint burn in front of Twinkle’s snout as the voice continues. “And Twinkle! I know who released you, but can you tell me who preserved your statue? I couldn’t help but notice that the other two were in very poor repair!” Twinkle exhales smoke onto me and I breath in the warm vapors with my nostrils as I hear her retort, “Your mom!”* “You fillies are insufferable!” I frown, “So, now your mom is insufferable?” “What? No! I wasn’t even talking about my mother!” Twinkle passes the roach to Ace with her left forehoof, “Well, you are now! So, go on, Discord! What about your mom?” “Ugh!” The voice groans before going silent, as the blue dragon brings the roach to his beak with his right claw to take a drag and make the front glow… I then adjust my eyes to the pegasus before me and smile, “We’re going straight to Tartarus now! You know that, right?” She smiles as the dragon breaths smoke onto me, “Yeah, but taunting him is so much fun!” I frown, “I wonder what he’s going to do?” “Who cares, Jessi!” She trains her brown eyes onto me sternly. “I am sick of being afraid! So no, I won’t bow to him or anypony else! Let him do his worst! I’m ready to die, anytime he wants!” I can only stare at this other filly wide-eyed as a realization suddenly strikes me, “Y-you’re not afraid of him, are you?” The dragon breathes smoke onto me and I lift my nostrils to inhale as Twinkle moves her left forehoof towards the fire lizard, “Jessi, I was a stone corpse for two thousand years…” I frown at the other filly as the dragon passes the roach to her and says, “Uh, you finish it, Twinks! I’ll roll us another stoge! I think we’re probably gonna need it?” I see her collect the burning joint with her left forehoof and put it in her mouth before taking a drag… I see the embers of the end burn and a small bit of ash falls on the floor as I see her auburn eyes narrow in peaceful satisfaction from the herb she’s smoking… She soon exhales a large cloud of smoke onto me and says, “I don’t remember much, Jessi… But I remember one thing quite vividly, now…” before putting the joint back in her mouth as the dragon walks to her nightstand and stashbox… I widen my eyes while leaning closer to this filly, “W-what?” “I remember hurt, Jessi… I remember pain… Not physical pain or anything like that, but when I was in stone, I remember the sadness that overtook me…” I see her lower her gaze, “It dominated my mind for a very long time and eventually consumed me…” she stops and widens her eyes. “Tell me Jessi, do you know what it is to cry?” “I uh, I think so?” Her mouth changes straight across her snout, “I cried for a very long time, Jessi… Not physically, obviously. I mean, I was stone and couldn’t make tears! But deep inside, I was torn apart! I” she shakes her head to stare back at me. “I wondered how ponies, supposedly the most friendly and forgiving creatures on Equus, could do this to me! I wondered about the other two, as well! I wondered if I would ever be free! And eventually, it all stopped…” “S-stopped?” She nods her head, “Yes, Jessi! Eventually, my thoughts just stopped and I didn’t think anymore… I merely floated… Waiting in nothingness…” she blinks, “Once my mind no longer troubled me, it was very peaceful… Just silence…” I frown, “And then what happened?” “Well, here I am!” She exclaims while widening her brown eyes. I raise my gaze, “What do you mean?” Her eyes narrow intently at me, “I became Twinkle Shine, Jessi! I became this new filly when I cast off Cozy Glow by making peace with her…” I frown, “Aren’t you the same filly, though?” She smiles at me as I witness the dazed look in her eyes, “Not exactly, no… Cozy Glow was me, before I let things go in my life… I realized I don’t need those things anymore and that they aren’t doing me any good…” before bringing the last of the joint to her mouth for one of her final drags. I widen my eyes, “Are you okay, Twinkle?” She breathes smoke onto me before smiling and saying, “Oh, golly! I can never tell!” At that point, I can only scrunch my mouth and say, “Finish your roach, Twinkle!” Ace looks over at both of us from my left, “Hey man! I got a doob rolled up and ready to go! Where’s your lighter?” Twinkle widens her eyes, “Oh, golly!” <*****> And so, I once again brought the burning joint to my snout with my right forehoof while my other three remained planted on the floor and I once again pursed my lips around the cardboard tip to inhale and I once again, felt the warm earthy smoke travel into my mouth and down my throat as I began to wonder how much I had smoked, just then? Suddenly, Ace turns his beak towards me and smiles, “Hey, don’t sweat it Twinks! I’ll see my guy at the edge of Equestria later and hook you up! I’ll also smoke you up too, little sister!” I opened my mouth and put my tongue on my lower lip while exhaling another cloud of smoke towards Jessi, who now glared back at me with a reddish glazed look in her eyes… I hear the same juvenile masculine voice from my left ask me, “Hey, Twinkle! Filly dude! You okay? You still with us?” I turn my head left to him and snuff the half-joint out in the ashtray as I say sternly, “Unacceptable! Two hours in the Tickle Box!” Ace widens his yellow slitted eyes and frowns as he raises his claws in front of him to brace, “Whoa, Twinkle man! I didn’t mean anything!” I turn my body towards the dragon and lower my head with an insane grin on my pink snout as the bluish-white waves of my mane now stroke my shoulders and I furrow my brows and say, “Too late, Ace! You’re getting tickled!” And just then, I’m enveloped inside a black void… Suddenly, a clear platform becomes somewhat visible to me and my hooves appear to be standing on it as I stood there on all hooves and glanced around at the starry, spacey background when I hear a familiar smarmy voice say from behind me, “Hello, Twinkle Shine!” I turn to see the two mismatched eyes inside the head of a familiar draconequus as I witness his shoulders visibly relax from about 20 feet away as he floats over the same platform and he asks me, “How are you?” I can’t help but widen my eyes as my mouth narrows and I admit, “I was doing a lot better about thirty seconds ago!” He smiles that familiar snaggle-tooth smile of his as the long tooth on the left side of his maw goes diagonal and I hear him retort, “Tell me Twinkle, do you understand love?” he opens his mouth and sighs, “I actually loved a pony once… Her name was Fluttershy… Eventually though, it became obvious to her friends that I was prolonging her life, for she didn’t age, while they all continued to get older…” he lowers his gaze,”And so, Fluttershy begged me to make her mortal again! She didn’t want her friends to whither and die alone, before her… And that’s when I knew Twinkle, that her friends were more important to her than me…” he wistfully gazes off to the left, “I also knew that I could never be that special to her and that granting her wish was really all I could do… And so, I allowed her to age once more… And then, I could only watch as this beautiful pony, the first creature to show me genuine compassion and kindness in over a thousand years, slowly whither and die before me… But before she left her mortal coil, I made her a promise…” he lowers his gaze at me, “I promised her that I would protect Equestria, forever and always… And that leads me to my mistakes, once again! You see, I once united you and the two other villains you were with in an act of subterfuge, in order to unite Equestria and rid it of all of you for good… That was a mistake because you overthrew me and took my power… And much later, when magic disappeared from Equestria, I became dormant and only recently emerged as it came back… And so, after discovering that everypony and everything I once knew had changed, I began to wonder, what became of the terrible trio? I searched that area of Equestria, only to find the rectangular remains of that same stone courtyard and I saw that yours was the only statue that survived… And so, I asked myself, what if her powers could be used for good? And I decided unfreeze you…” he widens his eyes. “Although I’m still perplexed as to what happened to your memories?” he shrugs and moves his eagle talon and lion paw to his sides. “While I have no idea why you can’t recall, I’ll admit that it’s probably for the best that you forget that part of your life!” I widen my eyes, “Oh golly! So, you’re the one who freed me, huh?” I raise my neck when suddenly wishing I had the joint here, despite my current state of mind. “So, how did you know that I was gonna do good?” “I’ll admit that I didn’t! I had decided to let you choose for yourself, after that point! It’s good that you’re mostly good, but for a modest amount of Tartarus-raising!” I frown and lie, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He points at me with his lion paw and says louder, “Oh, don’t act so innocent! I know you occasionally steal petty cash from Izzy to purchase milkshakes and how well you can lie and sneak your way out of most situations!” I normalize my mouth and raise my gaze in defiance, “And what of it, Discord?” “Oh?” The draconequus frowns. I furrow my brow, “How is it your place to sit in judgment of me, or anypony else for that matter, especially considering who you are?” He widens his eyes and suddenly, lowers his paw and frowns, “Actually Twinkle… Actually, you have a point there… I’m no judge…” At this point, I’m still not exactly sure what just happened and can only keep my eyes wide as I timidly ask the serpent, “Uh, what?” He sighs, “After everything I’ve done, I…” he closes his eyes before admitting somewhat slower. “I’ve been wrong before and I’m certainly not in any position to judge you or anypony else…” he opens his eyes to me and normalizes his rate of speech. “I’m sorry, Twinkle… I’ll return you to your home now…” Suddenly, the spacey area I was in grows fuzzy and distorted in my vision as I yell, “Hey! I wasn’t done talking to you!” before the vision of my own room back in Izzy’s cottage becomes more focused into view and I behold a blue dragon on the right and a green unicorn filly on the left, both with really confused looks on their faces… Jessi turns her neck to me, “What just happened?” I turn my head to her and widen my eyes, “I have no idea!” (To be continued...)