The next time you saw Celestia, she was walking down the halls with her little sister. You had excused yourself from the bedchambers, desperate to get away from the judgmental glares of the Canterlot guards. The filly's attitude was pretty much back to normal; she was too young to fully understand the weight of the situation. For all everypony knew, Equestria was stuck in eternal night. No-one knew exactly how to change the world back into day, and if no-one could figure it out, all life would surely perish. The blue alicorn child was skipping around happily, but something was different about her. When a fireball had hit her flanks, she was badly burned. The burn left scars on her flank, which had newly re-grown it's fur with the help of Zecora's potions. The fur that regrew over the scars was dark, deep blue, like midnight itself. You couldn't help but feel anguish and guilt that you let that one fireball slip through.
'Discord?' The white goddess called. 'What are you doing up? You should be resting!'
'It's kinda hard with a whole battalion of soldiers glaring at you.' You retorted, but made it clear in your voice you were joking.
Celestia frowned. She knew you were a free spirit, and didn't much like being indoors.
'Fine, but you're staying here until you get better. I don't want you going back to the forest, especially in this weather.'
You barely even heard her, as you were too transfixed on the sudden change of Luna's attitude. As soon as she saw you, she stopped skipping and hid behind her sister's legs. Tia noticed it too.
'Luna, stop hiding. Look, come out and meet Discord.' The white alicorn hooked a hoof behind her little sister and pushed her forward. The little blue filly shied away from you and refused to make eye contact.
'No, it's okay. I can understand why she would be scared. Uh, I'm just gonna go for a walk outside.' You backed out of the room, trying to avoid any more awkwardness. The cast on your leg made movement harder, but you continued nonetheless. You just got out of sight when you heard Tia scolding her sister.
'You shouldn't be so rude to him! He saved your life.' She hissed.
'I... don't like.... it....' You heard a childish voice echo down the hall. 'It'. She called you 'it'.
'It's scaryyy.'
You could hardly blame her for acting this way, but in that split second, you could not have hated yourself more. You quickened your pace, searching for an exit. The last thing you heard was Celestia telling her little sister to go to bed.
You finally found a door leading to the grounds and opened it. A wall of cold air hit your face and ruffled your feathers, but you didn't mind. You slipped out and disappeared into the darkness of midnight. You walked around for a while, through open pastures and closed flower gardens. There were odd designs in the flowers, in some cases. There was a patch of dark blue roses growing, mixed in with white tulips. The different flowers were arranged so that they swirled together, and in the center there was a single flower that was neither rose or tulip. It appeared to be a cross-breed of some kind. The flower itself was beautiful. The petals swooped around at the base, curling outwards towards the top. The flower was white, but the tips of each petal were blue. You wondered for a moment if it represented something, but continued on past it without another thought. You noticed something new. A labyrinth.
Before you knew it, you had started walking into the maze. Before you knew it, you were deep within the walls of the maze. Before you knew it, you were hopelessly lost in the maze.
Meanwhile, back at the castle, Celestia was pulling her mane out worrying about you. You had been gone for hours, and no-one knew where you were. She thought you might have run away because of how Luna acted, but she soon disregarded that as nonsense. She came to the conclusion that you must have gotten lost. It was dark, and the grounds were immense. She knew you couldn't have gotten far with your broken leg. As she glanced out the window, her attention couldn't help being drawn towards the palace labyrinth. It had been known to lose ponies for days. The maze seemed to have a way of drawing you in. Normally she stayed away from it. A noise, however, changed her mind.
'GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!'
She recognized it as your voice, sighed, and flew out of the window.
She passed over the labyrinth, looking in, trying to find you. She came over a particularly dark patch, and attempted to land. She soon found out why the patch was darker than the rest; it was about eight feet deeper than she expected. She tumbled down, but luckily, something broke her fall. Something soft. Something warm. Something breathing.
The something groaned slightly as she landed on it.
'Owww.' It winced.
'AHH! Who's there?' She screamed, immediately springing back into the air.
'Celestia? It's me.' You laughed.
'Oh, right. Ummm... what are you doing in a hole?' She giggled, landing on the edge.
'I fell in.' You said in a deadpan voice.
'And why didn't you just fly out?' She asked, swooping in and picking you up, placing you on the dirt floor of the maze.
'Ummmm...' You quickly searched your mind for an answer. 'Because... that would be cheating? I mean, I assume the hole is a significant part of the maze.' You blurted. Celestia laughed.
'Now what's the real reason?' She leaned in close to you, trying to force the answer from you.
'Uh.... Zecora said to... not fly for.... health reasons?' You were terrible at lying. Celestia put on a serious face.
'No, you said you couldn't fly before, remember? Just outside the Everfree. I teleported us to the castle.'
'Uhhh...' You were stuck. There was no backing out of this one. You took a deep breath before finally telling her.
'I... I just can't. Ever since you left I just... haven't been able to. Flying was our thing, you know? And when you left, I felt I couldn't without you.'
'Discord...' She said.
'Yeah?'
'But I came back. I'm here, now.'
'I guess I just don't feel like this is real. I don't feel like you're staying.'
She leaned in closer. You felt her hot breath tickle the inside of your ear.
'I'm not going anywhere.' She whispered.
In that split second, as soon as the last word had left her mouth, your wings sprung up in the most glorious fashion, spreading out to an enormous span of nine feet. Celestia bit on her foreleg to stop any giggles escaping, but soon fell to the floor laughing. Crimson flooded your cheeks as tucked your wings back to your body.
'Oh.. well I guess that works again now...' You mumbled, as the new ruler of Equestria fought for breath through the cacophony of laughter pouring out of her.