//------------------------------// // Throne Room Discussions // Story: The Return of Unicornia // by StormLuna //------------------------------// When the two returned to the throne room Twilight immediately rushed to her friends with tears in her eyes. They knew why she was so distraught and did their best to comfort her. Rarity embraced her and said, "Twilight darling, I'm sorry about this." Twilight cried, "I can't believe it girls, I can't believe she'd do this to me and my brother! I always thought she was honest with me about everything....." she then pointed her wing towards Celestia and screamed, "but everything is a lie! My whole life has been one big lie!" Celestia's eyes were red from her own crying and the glares that she was receiving from Discord and Luna weren't helping any. Discord addressed her, "Princess Celestia, I don't get it...." Celestia interrupted, "Discord, Equestrian culture is different now. Ponies in this day and age would be angry over me giving birth and I hate to think what they'd think if they knew what you and I did back in the day. They'd probably want Luna to take over as a sole ruler and be terrified of Starlight because of her powers and look down upon her because of you being her father." Discord sighed in frustration, "Celestia, you should have put Twilight and Shining Armor ahead of what society would think. This just shows that you aren't exactly the motherly type, just like you weren't when you got so upset over me teaching Starlight chaos magic, magic that she had every right to know and every right to practice." Luna added, "Sister, back then I had my concerns over him teaching her chaos magic but now I look back and realize that he was right. We should have just had her talk to him because I'm sure he would have stopped had you not kept them from talking." Discord added, "And I would have had you let her talk to me. Had I known she wanted me to stop, I would have done it for her." He then looked towards Twilight and her friends and added, "You know Celestia, I thought you would learn your lesson. You were not a good mother to Starlight and look what happened to her and look at what is going on with Twilight. She is angry and she is devastated." Celestia sighed in frustration, "I get it, I'm a horrible mother. I get it, I should have just let you teach Starlight all the chaos magic in the world and I should have just raised Shining Armor and Twilight as my own despite what society would think." Luna added, "Yes sister, that would have been for the best." Celestia began to think more in-depth and began to wonder how things had turned out had she let Discord teach Starlight all the chaos magic possible and then it hit her, the true reason why Starlight became obsessed with studying. She studied the advanced chaos magic. She commented, "Sister, I think I know why Starlight became obsessed with studying. She figured that since Discord wouldn't be there to teach her all the chaos magic, she'd study it herself." Discord commented, "And had you just let me spend more time with my daughter and teach her as much as I knew, you two never would have had that falling out." Luna added, "And who knows, we may have long ago retired, Starlight would have taken over and you wouldn't have a younger daughter who is so distraught." She paused momentarily before adding, "And speaking of your younger offspring, shouldn't we get to the Crystal Empire so you can ruin Shining Armor's life too?" Celestia sighed in frustration, "Oh yes sister, what a wonderful way to put it." Celestia then turned to Twilight and asked, "Twilight, should we get going? I want to discuss all this with Shining Armor and Cadence." Twilight glared at Celestia and replied, "We may as well so that he won't have to be living this lie any longer than he needs to be." She became more angry and continued, "You know something Celestia, I don't know about how Luna feels about you but right now I hate you, Starlight has despised you since before Unicornia disappeared and now I'm sure Shining Armor will hate you too." As they were preparing to leave Discord decided to ask Celestia something he thought was very important, "Celestia, what do you want the rest of us to do? Do you want us to just wait here or what?" Celestia turned to Twilight and asked, "Twilight, you said that Starlight cast a spell to keep outsiders from using magic to get in. Do you think Discord could possibly get in or at least teleport to the dome and find a way in?" Twilight had a feeling what it was that Discord was thinking. She sighed in frustration, "Look, before we left Starlight cast a spell on that dome so that magic could be used to get in." Discord then turned to Celestia, "Celestia, do you want for me to wait for you here, go back to my realm or would you mind if I went and reunited with my daughter?" Celestia sighed in frustration, "I honestly think it would be best if you waited until we take care of everything else. We both have done things wrong and I think it would be best if we discussed them with her together and I have a feeling that she won't be very happy with us." Discord asked, "I take it you are talking about......" Celestia knew what he was talking about and did not want to cause even more turbulence between her and Twilight so she cut him off, "Yes, that. Now we must get going." Celestia sighed in frustration as they headed towards the exit to head to the train station. Both Luna and Twilight seemed to be constantly throwing it in her face about how she had lied to so many. While she was wanting to tell both of them to stop she couldn't bring herself to do so because they were right. She knew that things were not going to go well because of her lies. Once the royals were gone Applejack became curious about what Celestia prevented him from saying, "Discord, what were y'all talking about? What are y'all hiding from us?" Applejack was glaring at Discord and he felt as though she was easily picking up on what was going on. While Celestia had made him swear that he would tell nopony about this, he felt like he had to spill the beans, "Everypony, you know when I decided to help Tirek?" The five remembered the moment all too well and Fluttershy replied, "I do and I still don't know why you'd do that to your first friend." Discord explained the whole situation, "Well Celestia knew that Tirek's medallion was Twilight's key and told me to betray you and do what it took to get it away from him so I could give it to Twilight." The five gasped in shock before Rainbow flew up to where she was at eye level with Discord. She snapped, "What, Celestia was in on that too? She ordered you to betray us and put our lives at risk just so Twilight would have her key?" Discord nodded which prompted Applejack to ask, "Didn't you know how dangerous doing that would be? Didn't you know what Tirek could do once he took so much magic?" Discord replied, "I did but Celestia told me about how Twilight was unsure about her role as a princess and figured that this would be a test that would help her figure out what her role was." This brought back a memory for the five from when Discord brought up Twilight wondering what her role was and one wanted to know the truth. "Wait a minute," Rainbow snapped, "so it wasn't a matter of you eavesdropping when you brought up her wondering what her role was? Celestia told you about it?" Discord nodded, "She did tell me and she told me to lie to keep the truth hidden from all of you." Pinkie, who had been abnormally quiet finally spoke up, "She told you to lie? Maybe Starlight is right about her, she is a lying meanie-mean hooves!" Rarity then remembered how Starlight reacted to the news that he had aided Tirek and said, "Discord, Starlight was not happy when she learned of how you imprisoned us so Tirek could absorb our magic. I can only imagine how she will react when she learns of what he did to her sister thanks to you two." Rainbow added, "Yeah and given that she has the power to keep you out of Unicornia, she might just decide to toss you and Celestia both into limbo for allowing that to happen to Twilight." Applejack continued, "And with what you two have done, I wouldn't blame her one bit. I don't know her very well but I do have a feeling that she will be angry." Rarity finished, "And with the way her magic is, who knows what could happen. I've seen her powers and I'm with Applejack, you'd have it coming." Discord turned towards Fluttershy and was surprised that she was not defending him. She saw this and commented, "I'm sorry Discord but what you did to us, all of us, is bad. I don't want Starlight to do anything to you two but I could see her doing it." Discord sighed in frustration, "Well all we can do is hope for the best." Rainbow agreed, "Agreed but right now we need to just wait and hope things don't go too bad up in the Crystal Empire. I know Shining Armor will not be happy over this." The six then went quiet as they began to think about everything that could happen. While Twilight's friends were wondering what was going to happen in the Crystal Empire, Discord began to contemplate on how his reunion with his daughter would go and how he would handle any questions she might have for him. He knew her powers were great in the past but the very fact that she could keep him out of Unicornia did concern him. He knew that she could very well cast him into limbo if she desired so he knew he would have to tread lightly when meeting with her.