//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: Acts // Story: Forgotten Bygones // by Catpaw616 //------------------------------// "What's going on here?" Trixie heard Starlight ask the alicorn, her tone as cold as ice. Her eyes were fixed on her former teacher, while narrowing them in suspicion. Trixie turned to her other side and saw Discord give Twilight the same identical look. He crossed his arms and he tapped his hoof when Twilight continued to stall by darting her eyes around nervously, while Spike just kept laughing nervously. "Uh... this isn't the best time right now." Spike cleared his throat nervously. "For what?" Trixie tilted her head. "When is the best time for what you did?" "What did she do?" Starlight asked, a little startled by what she said. She turned back to Twilight. "I demand an answer!" "I'm with her." Discord told Twilight, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "No, I want Twilight to say it with her own words." Trixie told the two of them; and which, for some reason, gave Twilight a tiny smirk. Twilight now started to back away. "Why are you smiling at me like that?" she muttered, as if she was talking to herself. Starlight's gaze landed on the book that was behind Twilight. She raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "You wouldn't mind if I had that book, would you?" Starlight asked Twilight, her tone caked with suspicion. Before Twilight would answer, Starlight grabbed the book with her aura, and started to flip through the pages, with Discord and Trixie watching at the sides. "Wait!" Twilight called out desperately. But it was too late. Once they had found the page, Discord and Trixie glared at Twilight, while Starlight looked at her with a confused expression. "You have this in your library?" Discord angrily asked her. "Well..." Twilight rubbed her neck nervously. "You did it, didn't you?" Discord said bitterly. Twilight lowered her ears, and her eyes were filled with regret. "You, you didn't..." Starlight lowered her ears. "You surely didn't unleash a dangerous spell onto us without thought?" she exclaimed. "I didn't mean too!" Twilight told them, raising her voice. "I swear, it was an accident." "An accident that would've made us rot in jail!" Discord told her bitterly. "An accident that would turned me to stone the third time." "What do you mean by that?" Starlight looked at Discord, perplexed. "Celestia deemed I was a menace to society and that I was ordered to be turned to stone the next day." Discord explained, while looking at Twilight bitterly. "That hurt me greatly." "I'm sorry, you have understand!" Spike now butted in. "We now know this is a kind of spell is wild, and could be cast without thought! You have to realize that this is not Twilight's fault." "No, it is her fault. Because she had that stupid book in the first place." Trixie told the dragon. "What kind of a princess are you?" Twilight looked taken aback. "Excuse me?" "A princess wouldn't be so careless over ancient spells! Who knows how many spells you may have. Who knows when you'll cast a spell that could potentially doom us all!" Twilight lowered her ears in regret. "I'm... I'm sorry. I really am." "Well, it's going to take more than an apology to revert what you have done." Discord scoffed. "After all, your carelessness did lead me to hurt Fluttershy after all. After I had promised myself to never hurt her again." "I know that, but..." Twilight tried explaining herself once more, but Discord quickly went up to her, and lifted her up in the air with force; as if Twilight was as light as an empty bag. Even Trixie was shocked by how strong Discord was, and she turned and saw Starlight looked equally shocked as well. "You made me hurt Fluttershy, and put our lives in danger!" Discord snarled. "Do you know how it felt to be feared by Fluttershy again? Trembling under my presence? Being constantly reminded of my past before being turned to stone a second time?" "Discord, that's enough, we get the point!" Spike told him. "Put her down, please!" He looked back and forth at Twilight, who just looked at him in defeat, and back at the tiny dragon, who looked like he was begging for mercy. He sighed and he dropped Twilight to the ground. "You're lucky Spike convinced me." Discord told Twilight, who was still wincing from the pain. "I would've given you more scolding and an actual injury." he said coldly. "Will you give me a chance to explain myself?" Twilight said as she continued to wince. "Listen, I'm sorry that I cast the spell on you. You all deserve to be angry, and I..." she trailed off when she noticed that someone was missing. Trixie and Discord noticed it too. "Starlight?" Trixie called out. But after she said that, they heard the door slam shut upstairs. Twilight just hanged her head in shame. "I hope you're proud." Discord said, before leaving the room and heading upstairs, presumably coming to Starlight's aid. As they left, Trixie watched Twilight look at her with sadness. "I'm-" "Don't say it." Trixie shut her down. "You've already done enough." With that, she left the room, and went upstairs to Starlight's room. Leaving behind a sorrowful dragon, and a regretful alicorn alone. Trixie knocked on Starlight's bedroom door. She heard a few mutters inside her room, but they were quiet when they heard the knock. "Come to say 'sorry' once more, traitor?" Trixie recognized the bitter voice of Discord. "No, it's me." Trixie told them, while being a little shocked by what Discord said. "Come in, and lock it." ordered Starlight. Doing as she said, she entered inside her room, and locked the door with her magic. "About time the three of us gathered together after what happened just moments ago." Discord muttered. "Let's start off by saying things to get out of our chest." "You already did that." Trixie rolled her eyes. "No no no, not all of it. Mostly because Spike was there." Discord winked. "I'll go first. I don't-" Trixie silenced him by levitating an apple from a nearby bowl, and shoved it in inside Discord's mouth, silencing his speech. "Hey!" Discord exclaimed. "How dare you interrupt my temper tantrum?" he told her while chewing. "You're lucky this apple is good, or else I would've thrown it at you." Trixie then winked. "Good, you don't wanna risk choking then." Discord rolled his eyes back. Trixie then looked at Starlight, who just looked at the ground with a sorrowful expression. "Why did you leave? Normally you don't leave a confrontation without screaming first." "I... was too angry and too... sad to say anything." she told her. "I know she says its an accident but-" "Don't listen to that." Trixie scoffed. "It's her own fault her stupid habits made us get into this mess." she told her. "I have no idea why she has access to ancient spells if she is going to release one so carelessly." "Twilight is usually careful with spells." Starlight told her calmly. "She's not known to being careless." "That doesn't excuse what she did." Trixie told her. "After all what we went through? To fix her stupid mistake?" Starlight sighed. "I guess." "Well, she's certainly going to be a big help with the Princesses." Discord rolled his eyes after taking a bite of the apple. "No, she won't." Starlight said to him firmly. "Because you know she will have a panic attack and slow us down? Not to mention increase the awkwardness?" Discord chuckled. "Could be that. But its mostly because she's not going at all." Starlight finished. "What?" Trixie and Discord exclaimed. "Ok, I know we all don't like Twilight right now, but she could be useful for that mission. She probably knows the ins and outs of the castle!" "For once I agree with that." Discord said while pointing at Trixie. Starlight thought of it more. "No, Discord makes a good point. Going to assault the princesses, not to mention her former teacher, would only make the stress worse on herself if she is part of the assult." "She deserves it though. After what she did." Trixie pointed out. "One might think that, and I kinda agree, but Twilight doesn't even need to be part of the quest anyway. We're the ones who are supposed to bring the memories back after all. Twilight would only be a guide for us. Plus, I'm sure it's not that hard to navigate the castle." Trixie and Discord looked at each other, and in the end, they just shrugged. "Fine." Discord said. "When will we leave?" Trixie asked her. Starlight looked out the window. The moon was still high in the sky. It would take a while until it was morning again. "We leave at the crack of dawn; and we do not alert Twilight, or let her know of our departure." Starlight told them while looking out the window. "It will just be us. The three alone." Trixie tensed. She wasn't sure about Starlight's plan of breaking into the castle again and actually attempting to hurt royalty. But... they had to eventually, and the stalling and the waiting would come to an end. Trixie just hoped that restoring Celestia and Luna would be a piece of cake. But they all knew that it was going to be a challenge. One that they would go to prison for, and even be turned to stone for their crimes. Just don't get caught and we're fine. Trixie repeated in her head. But it didn't make the stress any better.