//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - One Last Letter // Story: Discord Discordant // by TheAceofClubs //------------------------------// ------------------------------------------ Chapter I One Last Letter ------------------------------------------ Canterlot had always been a bustling city around the clock. When the citizens weren’t celebrating some event or another they’d be hard at work. But today was different. There was still the usual noise, but the difference was that it was an unsure sound. Above the city were gathering clouds of a dark brown colour. Clouds that hadn’t long been gathered above Ponyville to the south of the city. Twilight Sparkle knew it wouldn’t be long before the contents of those clouds began to drop upon the city and had she still been a younger filly what would fall would’ve excited her, but she couldn’t seem to muster a smile. “Cheer up Twilight.” Spike, her small draconic assistant said, approaching her. He felt like he should’ve said something more, but in the context there really wasn’t anything that would’ve helped. Twilight turned her head to look at her young protégé. “I’m fine Spike, really.” She said quietly, managing to muster an obviously fake grin. Spike frowned and moved up beside her. “Sure you are.” He said sarcastically. “You can’t hide it from me." Twilight faced forward again and chuckled in amusement. “What’s so funny?” Spike asked slowly, unsure as of what made her laugh, although he admitted he was glad she did. “You, Spike.” She murmured. “You're right. I can’t hide it from you and I guess I should stop trying.” Spike frowned; Twilight had always been a little bit of a pessimist, but this worried him. “You know Twi, everything will get better.” He said, trying to inspire the young mare. “Twilight shook her head slightly and stood up. “Have you got everything you need packed?” She asked the dragon. He nodded and she faced forwards again. “I’m just going to check on the others then.” As Twilight headed back into the house behind them, Spike took a seat on the curb and looked up at the dark brown sky. Krakoom! A loud crack of thunder reverberated through the air and a few seconds later drops of rain began to fall from the clouds. Spike held out his hand as a drop of the brown liquid fell into his palm. Raising it to his face, he licked the drop off the hand and smiled. It was a shame that an event such as chocolate rain couldn’t have come at a better time. “You’ve packed enough, right deary-er, I mean your highness?” “I’m sure, thank you. Aunt Celestia has prepared everything for me; I’ve got all I need.” “Well, if you’re sure.” The kitchen was almost a blur with all the ponies moving around it. Around the table moved Twilight Velvet and Night Light, Twilight Sparkle’s parents, levitating various foods across the room into cases for travel, whereas just to the side stood two slightly larger ponies. A pink mare with both a horn and wings, with a long purple mane travelling down her face stood beside one of the doors, watching the parents move around the room, muttering to one another. On the other side of the door was a stallion, white furred with an ultramarine blue mane, a unicorn horn sat on his forehead. Occasionally Shining Armor, Twilight Sparkle’s older brother, would hazard a glance at the pink mare, wracking his mind for something to say to her. “How is everything coming along?” Came a voice from the doorway as Twilight Sparkle entered the room. Velvet turned her head fleetingly before returning to levitating necessities back and forth. “We’re nearly done honey.” She said loud enough that she could be heard. Twilight turned her head to the other two ponies stood beside the door. “And the both of you?” She inquired blankly. “We’re ready to go Twilie.” Shining Armor said with an enthusiastic smile. Cadance nodded in agreement and Twilight nodded back before turning to leave again. “Twilight honey, I was wondering, what about your friends?” Twilight stopped on the spot as Velvet spoke.  “Are they coming too?” “...What friends?” Twilight said bitterly before continuing on her way. Cadance and Shining looked at each other and frowned. Shining sighed and looked to his parents. “I’m going to go and get hooked up to the wagon, okay?” He said, also turning to leave. “Okay son, we’ll be out in a little bit, alright?” Night Light said quickly, turning to give a quick smile to them. “Alright.” Shining said as he left the room. Quietly, Cadance followed him as they made their way out to the front of the house. The two of them looked up as they noticed the already falling rain. “It’s...brown?” Cadance asked quietly. “Chocolate actually.” The two ponies looked just off to the side of them; Spike was still sat on the curb, trickles of rain lining his scales. “Chocolate rain?” Shining asked again with a raised eyebrow. Spike nodded. “Yup. Bet you wouldn’t believe me if I told you that the clouds are pink past all the chocolate.” Spike’s words were beyond believable, but the rain was already quite heavy and droplets were already trickling from their noses down to their mouths; they were indeed chocolate flavoured raindrops. “That’s...weird.” Shining said quietly. Spike nodded in agreement. “Yeah, next there’ll be a blizzard of gemstones.” There was a brief silence after his words. “...that one was a jo-“ The last half of the word was muffled as cloth covered his face. Spike flailed around in shock before yanking it off; it was a cloak. Twilight had just trotted out with her own cloak wrapped around her figure, passing coverings likewise to the other two ponies. “Hey, what gives Twi?” Spike asked curiously. “It’s the middle of sum-“ “Summer, I know.” She interrupted the little dragon without turning to him. “We wouldn’t stand a chance where we’re going in winter.” Spike raised an eyebrow. “Where are we going anyway?” He asked carefully. “Heifngard.” Cadance said quietly. “Heifngard?” Shining repeated. “As in, the capital of the griffonian dominion?” Cadance nodded in confirmation. “Why are we going all the way there? Isn’t travelling on the ground there too dangerous?” Spike pursued. There was a short pop as Twilight teleported up onto the wagon, along with her and Spike’s belongings. Another pop and Spike was sat up beside her. “According to Princess Celestia, we don’t have time to head elsewhere.” Cadance said calmly. “I’ve been there before, but the need was never quite so urgent and we had far more supplies to make the journey easier; Lord Hjalmar is an old friend of ours. He’ll be sure to accept us.” Spike corrected his seating uncomfortably. “And what about Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?” There were a few silent moments, other than the echo of thunder far above them. “...What?” Spike asked unsurely. “They won’t be leaving Canterlot Spike.” Shining eventually said quietly, looking sideways at Cadance, who had started levitating her own belongings on the back of the cart. “But why not?” The young dragon asked confusedly. “It’s because there’re some ponies that refuse to leave their homes and lives here.” Cadance said quietly. “Both Auntie Celestia and Auntie Luna vowed that they wouldn’t leave Equestria until they were certain that every other pony was safe from harm.” Spike frowned in even more confusion. “From harm? What would possibly harm them?” Spike would’ve been right, but they all knew better. There had been small signs of uneven harmony all across Equestria so far, but it was merely a calm before a storm and they knew this all too well. “Shining, we need to be ready to go.” Twilight said quietly to her brother who nodded in response and moved round to the front of the cart to secure himself while Spike’s eyes fell back on Twilight worriedly. “...Twilight?” He murmured. The greyish-purple pony then gave a flash of her horn and a scroll levitated out from under her cloak and landed in Spike’s lap: it was sealed tightly, much tighter than any other message Twilight had ever sent to the princess. “Send that to Princess Celestia please Spike,” She said, ignoring his question. “and don’t read it.” Spike picked the scroll up and stared at it for a second. Turning his glance to Twilight who had already looked away he gave a sigh, mustered strength from the back of his throat before breathing out. A puff of green flame burst from his lips over the parchment, seeming to incinerate every inch of it. Dear Princess Celestia,   I imagine you can understand why I’m writing to you. First of all, I feel it is suitable that I apologize again; after all, I was the one tasked with dispatching Discord but failed. I had imagined that this meant that Equestria would simply become a more chaotic place, but now that I know better Equestria seems to be fading away in front of my eyes. I’m not sure what you expect us to achieve by making us evacuate to our neighbouring countries, but I trust that you know what you're doing; you always do. But with all the recent events that have come to pass I don’t know what to believe, or what I should do. It feels bad enough that I leave you to whatever grim fate you know that I don’t when I should be there beside you. It was upon your orders that I left Canterlot, but I now feel like I've failed you by not defying your words. Even now, every moment I look back towards the palace I fight the urge to run all the way back to your side. But although I feel I have failed you I can still make the promise that I'll make sure I can see you again, to say sorry, defeat Discord and repair the damage I have undoubtedly brought on Equestria. And if your words are as sincere as I expect, I'll have to fight for it; if this is to be the last lesson you teach me, then I'll be as faithful a student as I've always strived to be. Hoping this won't be my last letter to you, Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. "How touching. You really should feel lucky to have such a student Celestia." It had been well over a thousand years since the three individuals present had last stood together in Canterlot palace's courtroom. Against the furthest wall was a small set of stairs leading up to two impressive-looking thrones overlooking what should have been a room full of wellwishers to the monarchy; one white and one identical black seat. Princess Celestia couldn't help but notice how odd it was to look up the steps instead of down for once. Beside her was her sister, the mare of the night, Princess Luna, while at the top of the stairs was a long serpentine creature, with various appendages of conflicting animals. "You're right. Twilight is dear to me; I am indeed lucky." Celestia agreed quietly. "Not lucky enough though, am I right?" Discord, the peculiar creature sat in Celestia's throne, chuckled to himself, scrunching up the letter from Twilight in his hand, curling his fingers around the parchment before throwing it in the air but instead catch a small ball. Such was the power of the spirit of chaos and disorder, even if said power was slightly misused. "I don't understand why we have to sit and suffer your detestable jesting." Luna spat in disgust at the draconequus before her. Celestia wanted to answer her sister, but she couldn't find the words. All she could do was sit and watch the ball rise and fall as Discord tossed and caught it. Thoughts were spiralling inside her head, trying to find any upside to the situation; some way of turning the disadvantage to their favour. "Because it would be bad sport to attack me if I mean no harm to you." Discord said with a teasing laugh, rolling sideways and laying upside down on the throne, still throwing the ball, but instead letting it fall before it began to rise again into his hand. "It's common gaming etiquette after all." "I don't care for your games!" Luna growled angrily. "Our kingdom is panicked by your changes, yet we stand before each other merely mincing words!" Celestia lowered her head guiltily; her sister was right. Equestria needed them, but she couldn't raise a hoof to take action. "But you're a princess aren't you?" Discord sneered back at Luna. "Why, no-one should be able to stop you, yet here you are, standing idly before me like a lemon." As the final word was uttered the ball turned into the round yellow fruit which he then threw at Luna; it was far from catching her off-guard and with a sharp flick of her head following a flash of her horn the lemon changed course midair and ground into a wall with a splat. "Messy. Makes a nice change though; Canterlot is far too clean in my opinion." Discord continued with a grin. "Yet, it does prove my point; you obviously drove that into the wall yourself instead of just deflecting it. You want to get at me, don't you Luna?" The dark alicorn gritted her teeth; he was right, she wanted nothing more than to dive at the smug abomination, but something was holding her back. "And what about you Celestia?" Discord's head seemed to rotate 360 degrees as he looked at the larger pony. "You just know that this is all your fault, don't you?" Celestia remained silent, trying not to give him the satisfaction of a response. "Why, you're so dedicated to Equestria, you're afraid to do anything in case you make matters worse." "Do not pay heed to his words sister." Luna assured Celestia confidently. Celestia tried to turn to face her younger sibling, but couldn't manage it before she felt a cold grip on her shoulder, making her snap her head in the opposite direction. "A brave but worthless statement." Discord hissed from beside the white Alicorn. "Not listening to me wouldn't help poor Tia here. After all, I know what she's thinking that anyway." Luna glared at the talons on Celestia's shoulder; that was the final straw. "Unhand my sister, filthy abomination!" She snarled, sending a small burst of energy shooting from her horn in Discord's direction. He merely laughed aloud, his body twisting and spiraling around the burst of energy before rematerialising high in the air, leaving a crackling sound behind them as the spell collided with the wall. "I told you, it's common gaming etiquette to respect others as you expect to be respected." The draconequus said with mock disappointment. "And I told you that your games are meaningless to us." Luna spat at Discord, causing him to smack a palm to his face. "Alright, fine, how about I make it more practical then?" Discord groaned, clicking his fingers with immediate noticeable effects of his magic around the room. Floor tiling was ripped up as pillars rose from underneath, seperating the two princesses from one another. Celestia turned her head to look around; the throne room wasn't terribly large, but Celestia couldn't deny that the walls had vanished from sight. She could see the ceiling, but no wall; the room just seemed to stretch on forever. "Luna!" She cried out worriedly. "Luna, where are you?" "We are safe sister; do not fret!" Luna's voice was heard from behind the pillars to Celestia's right, causing her to sigh in relief. "Discord?" Celestia called out again, this time for the chaotic creature that had seperated them. "What is this nonsense?" A laughing reverberated through the room, echoing deeply. "Your lives have just become a much larger game." Discord's voice was full of glee as he clearly took too much enjoyment out of the situation. "Not long ago your beloved elements of harmony traversed a similar maze before leaving as enemies. I must say, I'm getting a kick out of the mazes; so many twists and turns, coils and spirals." "So we must escape this maze?" Luna asked in annoyance. "Do you simply intend to waste our time?" Celestia shook her head. "There's a catch," She answered. "there's always a catch." Discord's laugh echoed through the maze again. "Yes, there is and it seems to me like Celestia's finally catching on to my humour. Hah! Did you see what I did there? Oh, I crack myself up, really I do." He cackled hysterically before calming down a little and continuing. "No? Well, I guess you've heard it before. Yes Celestia, there is a catch; there's no thrill in the chase, so I propose a bet of sorts. If you win said bet, I'll leave Equestria in peace forever." Celestia blinked in surprise; that was quite a hefty price for him to place on a game. "And what, pray tell, do you obtain should victory be yours?" Luna asked carefully. "In a word?" Discord asked simply. "Your powers. Although I don't want them; too peaceful and boring for my liking. No, you'll lose your ability to resist me; in fact you'll really only be normal unicorns...with wings, stuck in this maze as my playthings forever." Celestia had frozen up as Discord had said that. "And what makes you think we'd actually accept your challenge?" Luna shouted defiantly, answered by another hearty laugh. "Well that's the best part, honestly." Discord's voice said loudly. "Both of you must play fairly, no magic or flying, or you forfeit and I win!" His voice trailed off into crazed high-pitched giggling as Luna gritted her teeth in frustration. "Fine Discord." Celestia said with some of her usual composure. "We accept your challenge and will best you at it. Luna, we'll meet outside the maze." "Indeed we will!" Luna boomed in her royal Canterlot voice before charging off along the pillar walls and into the maze. Celestia took a moment to compose herself again before taking a step. "The clock's ticking Celestia and Twilight is waiting for a letter, remember?" Discord snickered before Celestia gritted her own teeth and galloped her way into the maze as well. "Through these paths find the truth in your heart; can you make it to the end, or wind up back at the start?"