Discord
In one moment Discord lay near to Twilight with his eyes shut, and in the next he found himself sitting beneath a great coil of scales, grinding against the grass and across the plains. The beast was him as he had always been, before the pony, before anything else, though towering in a size and power he couldn't comprehend. The monster turned his head and looked down with serpentine eyes at his pony-shaped counterpart, inspiring a perverse fear that he'd never quite known before. The pony and the draconequus stared at one another, motionless.
“I never thought I'd see the day when I took on a form as pathetic as that,” rumbled the beast.
Pony Discord rolled his eyes. “If you would rather be annihilated by some pony spirit of death, be my guest.”
“Rather than being a pony? I think I might choose the other option.” The draconequus groaned and turned, the ground trembling beneath him as he did. “All that time you've spent around these ponies has turned you into a scaredy lionbat. Wouldn't it be interesting to see just what would happen if I introduced chaos to death? I'm a lot more powerful than you're giving me credit for.”
“No.” The pony stuck his tongue out. “You might get zombies. If you're lucky. Odds are you'll end up erased from existence. And that's not fun for either of us.”
“It's not like you to dwell on mortality so much, seeing as you don't have it to begin with.”
“Then you should be grateful I'm saving your gargantuan behind.” The pony walked away from his other self, through a patch of decayed flowers. “What's the deal with your giantness anyway?”
The draconequus shrugged, causing a minor quake. “Don't ask me. This is your screwy pony dream.”
“Is it really?” Pony Discord sighed and looked around himself. “If this is what I was missing this whole time, I am sorely disappointed.” He kicked a patch of flowers. “From my understanding it was supposed to be the most deliciously random, nonsensical part of pony existence. Not that that's saying much.”
His lumbering colossus of a self did not return a quip. He tried to play with the flowers, batting them between his hooves, but found that they soon turned into dust. He sighed and sprawled out amongst them, hoping for something to happen. At first he did not notice the light hitting his hooves. But it grew brighter, the sun curling up from around the distant plain, until he had to cover his eyes and turn away.
When he could see again, he beheld the most magnificent white pony that he had ever seen. Princess Celestia stood, one hoof lifted, a sliver of a break in her grace as she stared at him in surprise. And her attention turned to the draconequus, who had slithered himself off toward some other distraction.
“I really must be dreaming,” muttered Celestia, rubbing her forehead. The moment she felt the realization, all tension left her hooves and her wings loosened from her sides. She beheld the pony before her. “I never thought I would see you like this.”
Discord drew himself up and filled his lungs with air, scraping a hoof. Even if it was a dream, there was no other pony he wanted to see more than her. He grinned from ear to ear, baring a fang as he sprung into the speech he'd dreamed of ever since he'd been imprisoned in stone. “At long last, we meet again!” His lungs certainly did not lack for volume, but he did not sound nearly as threatening as he would have liked. “It's been a thousand years since we last faced one another, and now you are without your precious Elements...”
He could not speak much more, though, before Celestia burst out laughing. His cheeks turned red and he stomped his hooves. “What's so funny?”
“Nothing,” said Celestia, wiping a tear from her eye with her wing. “If you really were a pony, things might have been different.” The words seemed too casual to her and yet they ripped right through Discord. “But this isn't you. There is only one thing that you are. You cannot escape your destiny any more than I can my own.”
Princess Celestia nodded meaningfully to the draconequus.
“I can change,” sputtered Discord, putting his hooves up. “Of course I can change. I'm always changing, Princess.”
Why won't you look at me? Why won't you recognize me?
“It's ironic, then, that you're always the same.” She drew close to him and brushed a wing over his face. Her feathers were softer than any cloud, warmer than any sunshine. “A part of me wishes that you were not merely a fragment of my imagination. If you could only understand us, just a little.”
“But...” Discord protested. She nudged him aside with her wing. His nemesis, his obsession, the thing he wanted to tear down more than anything else and she was brushing him aside like he was nothing more than a doll.
“Shh,” she said. “I've had so many dreams broken. I do not need another.”
She turned towards the scales on the draconequus and gestured with a hoof. Her horn did not seem to so much as sparkle, but there was some powerful magic in the air. A terrifying howl split the sky and everything shook as the beast's body twisted, all of its myriad colors fading to gray. A crackling sound followed as the beast began to turn to stone.
“What are you doing?” Discord dashed against her, trying to take her down. He didn't so much as budge her before he fell back on his rump, and he thought her wing might have moved to put him there.
“I'm putting things right,” said Celestia. The sun rose above her as she turned and walked away without so much as looking back. “Once I find it, this madness can finally end.”
Discord tried to chase after her but his hooves wouldn't move. He looked down and cried out. His hooves had turned to stone, and the petrification crept up his legs. It felt as real as the first time he had experienced it, when she had taken up the Elements of Harmony and used their power on him. He struggled with all of his might but could not shed the magic that threatened to consume him again.
“What is it?” he called after Celestia. “What are you looking for?”
“The seat of harmony,” she said, as if reminding herself.
Then she was gone, no more than a zephyr against the sinking sun. He felt her absence flooding through him, her celestial majesty, her kind presence burned into his mind like the greatest insult and the sweetest kiss all at once. Come back. I need you here with me. I don't know why, and I hate it, but I need you. The draconequus fell with a mighty crash behind him. And the pony, alone, watched the stagnant world turn as the stone ate him from the inside out. He threw his head back and screamed.
Discord awoken to a frantic shaking from Twilight Sparkle. His eyes flashed open and he panted, looking around himself frantically. She took a step back and tilted her head.
“Are you alright?” she asked. “You were calling out in your sleep. It was... kind of weird.”
He sat up. He stood and turned around, testing his hooves, his tail, wiggling his ears, making sure every part of him worked. He studied his surroundings and found them nigh identical to the way they had been before they had slept, except for a few changes, like the line of trees that seemed to move across the hills as if they were water. Flickering lights brighter than the stars rose in the west. He blinked them away and laid down again, when he found his body still heavy with fatigue and the shock of being suddenly roused.
“Yes, everything is fine,” he said, folding his hooves under his head. “Go back to sleep, Twilight.”
She laid down again and stared at him. “It sounded like you were having a nightmare or something.”
“Did it?” Discord muttered and looked away. “I'm sure you'd find that just fascinating.”
Twilight bit her lip as if to say well, yes, but she didn't, bless her heart. Instead she just shut her eyes and let the thrall of sleep coax over her again. He thought she had drifted off when she spoke again.
“I just wonder what it is that you could be so afraid of.”
Discord snorted and thumped himself against the grass. “Nothing,” he said. “I'm afraid of nothing.”
She murmured some sarcastic reply before her wit sunk with her into slumber. He didn't even know if she understood him, or his defiance. Yet, the idea of returning to that realm of sleep where he might have been rendered helpless—worse, helpless to the twisted designs of his own mind—kept his heavy eyes wide open. He stared at Twilight, how easily she slept. How easily all ponies slept! When they alone could take themselves to unfathomable terror.
It's a wonder they manage to do it at all, he thought.
For all he fought it, sleep began to overtake him again. He stirred, but could not fight himself. Again he looked at Twilight, and how at peace she seemed to be, body repeating a soft swell and fall and the sound of her breath making chorus with the wind. He looked about, and then inched a little closer. And closer more, until he could feel the little heat radiating off of her body. It was a weakness he would never accept in himself. But being even a little bit closer helped put him at ease, and finally fall into dreamless sleep.
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight felt herself stirring awake to the sound of feathered wings batting the air.
“Whoa, Twilight, I never thought I'd see you all cozy with a stallion. Heh.”
“...wha?”
Twilight Sparkle's eyes fluttered open and she saw none other than Rainbow Dash casually hovering in the sky in front of her. As she became more awake, she became more confused. Her friend being there was a most peculiar, unlikely thing. The strangeness of the situation was underscored by the words of her friend. She felt Discord before she looked at him, sleeping soundly beside her as if it were the most natural thing. And she had a vague memory of feeling some pony close, some comforting warmth warding off the night chill.
The unicorn practically jumped out of her skin, leaping away from him and twisting about. “Discord? What are you doing?” She flustered and this only made Rainbow laugh more. And as much as she hated to admit it, the presence of the pegasus was the more pressing issue at present.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, then felt her stomach twist. “You're not dead, are you? Please tell me you didn't die.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Nope, no more dead than you or your 'very special somepony' there,” she said. Twilight twitched but made no response. The pegasus set down and pressed a hoof on her foreleg. “See?” she said. “I'm still kickin'.”
By this point, Discord was beginning to wake up. He raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. When their eyes met, there was an uneasy silence. Discord seemed to look clear through the mare, until he understood her presence precisely and then shook his head. He continued to put on the most languished display of waking up, complete with stretching and grooming and nibbling at grass. Twilight sighed and tapped the base of her horn.
“That still doesn't explain what you're doing here.”
Rainbow Dash ducked down and scraped her hoof against the ground. “Why else? To find the princess!”
Twilight blinked. “Well, that's well and good, but...”
“Everything is squared away with the pegasi,” she said, and zipped a quick line past Twilight. She circled back and stopped again. “Spitfire has things under control. Have you met Spitfire?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head the other way. “Whatever. I heard you were looking for the princess and I couldn't stand the thought of you out here, alone, with him...” She gestured at Discord. “I figured out where you were going and flew as fast as I could. That crazy door was still open, so... here I am. On the mission.”
Twilight sat and stared at Rainbow Dash. Her being there seemed against all odds. Not impossible, but the whole situation just seemed off somehow. For all she knew it could have been another manifestation of her heart, brought about by some strange magic. She looked to Discord helplessly.
“Is it alright?” she said. “Not a crazy trick?”
Discord looked at Rainbow Dash and rolled his eyes. “Her body is too 'here.' She's too straightforward for an illusion,” he said. “I can see her for exactly what she is. But it makes no difference to me. It's up to you whether you want to let her come along or not.”
I don't think he understands what this means to me, thought Twilight, looking up at her smiling friend. To have an old friend close by. It's not like we know each other that well, and yet having her here comforts me.
She'd felt such a sense of relief and happiness when she saw her friend there with them, no matter the circumstances. And she had felt the touch of her friend, the heat in her hooves and the slight of her feathers. It had to be her. I'm overthinking this.
“I'm sorry for acting funny,” she said, throwing her hooves around Rainbow Dash. The pegasus flinched and laughed nervously before returning the gesture. “It's just that this place has been messing with my head,” she said. “I'm really glad you're here, Rainbow.”
“Hey, I'm just glad to help,” said Rainbow Dash, wriggling her wings as Twilight released her. “I missed you, Twilight.”
Twilight smiled. Rainbow Dash seemed to positively glow. Though that might have had something to do with the sudden brightening of the sun.
“So what's the drill?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Where we headed?”
Discord flicked his tail and paced back. “Chasing some purple light Twilight magicked up,” he said. “Unless you have any better ideas.”
“Nah, Twi seems to have things under control.”
Twilight fished through her bags and pulled out the little orb of sunlight. She held it in her hooves, always marveling how it seemed simultaneously solid and yet to have no substance whatsoever. Every time she took it out she feared that it would be gone, or grow dim. She primed her horn, feeling the magics of the place feeding into her.
This time, just a light touch... she thought.
Discord sat beside her and watched her work blithely. “Have you heard of the 'seat of harmony?'”
Twilight looked up, a single dot of purple on her horn. “No,” she said. “It sounds like it could be related to the Elements of Harmony, though. Why are you asking all of a sudden?”
“No reason,” said Discord. “It just sounds like the kind of place the princess might be.”
“Even if it is,” said Twilight, “we have no idea how to get there if we don't know if it exists. Now if I can just get this tracing spell to work again...”
She touched her horn to the orb and let just a whisper of magic escape. It flashed violet and another tether of light streaked up into the air before vanishing somewhere in the distant sky.
Rainbow Dash's wings fluttered. “Looks like it's a good thing I'm here,” she said. “Might take some wing power to get us there.” The pegasus looked down and lifted into the air. Or so Twilight thought.
"Um, is that normal for the ground here?" she asked.
Twilight felt her hoof slip through the grass and jumped back. The ground seemed to fade from beneath them, patches of blue sky replacing the gold and green. As more and more of it disappeared, she searched frantically for somewhere solid to stand. The very earth she was standing on was vanishing faster than any of them could react. Her whole body seemed to wrench, vertigo ceizing her as she became very aware of just how far she would fall. She saw a cloud bloom nearby and jumped at it from a remaining patch of green, just before it vanished.
Oh Celestia, please let me remember this spell..
She was falling and spraying purple sparks as she tried to concentrate. She squeezed her eyes shut as she rushed downwards. Then with a soft sound, she found herself still and standing on something cool and fluffy. She opened her eyes.
A tuft of cloud supported her glowing hooves. Beneath her the open air expanded in every direction, and far, far below spread the golden fields of the land. A dizziness overtook her and she clutched the cloud.
“I think you thought too many sky thoughts,” she squeaked at Rainbow Dash. "Why were you just watching?"
"Sometimes a little fall is good for you," remarked Discord, who had no trouble standing in spite of the lack of anything to support him.
"I was going to grab you," said Rainbow Dash, glaring at Discord. "But it all just kind of happened at once. You okay?"
The pegasus flapped her wings casually and drifted over to help support her. For once Twilight begrudged Discord's convenient ability to disregard the laws of physics. She slumped against Rainbow Dash and tried to ignore that both of them had almost let her fall. Even if they weren't going to let her land.
Discord suddenly wiggled his ears, and his tail, and then groaned in effort as he squeezed and a pair of golden wings popped out of his back. “Is this too unnatural?”
Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “Jeez,” she said, sticking her tongue out. “That's not creepy at all. Though I might be starting to see what you saw in him, heh.”
Twilight was not amused. She lashed her tail and leered at Discord. “A little help, here?”
“You're not worried he'll turn you into a duck, or something?” said Rainbow Dash.
Discord shook his head. “Another time, perhaps,” he said. “But that doesn't mean I can't whip something up. Let me see...”
He clapped his hooves together and a pair of purple wings poofed into existence on Twilight. She looked back in surprise, and her wings shot out to communicate her distress. Discord laughed and rolled onto his back on a cloud.
“I have to say, that look suits you,” he said. “Now let's get a move on. You've already made a bit of a scene this morning, and it looks like Celestia is on the move. We need to push hard if we're to keep up with her.”
Twilight sighed and gave an irritated flap. The three of them formed a small, clumsy formation and flew towards where the light had vanished. She tried not to think too much about her appearance. She might have looked like Celestia or Cadence at a glance, but in her heart and in her capability she was still little more than a unicorn. A talented unicorn, but a unicorn nonetheless.
As they soared ever onward, Rainbow Dash turned to Discord. “Twilight I can understand,” she said, “but why did you leave Equestria? You had pretty much everything you could want.”
Discord chuckled. “It was a lot of fun, for a while,” he said. “But I realized that they would be even more fun if I gave them a little time to recuperate.”
Twilight made herself look away, where the light had vanished. I can't let myself forget that he's still Discord. If he's right... well, it won't matter once the princess comes back. She'll fix everything. Discord, and Nightmare Moon, and everything will be back to normal. It was getting harder to hate Discord, though. He had saved them, saved her, and for all of his one-sided purpose, there was still something about him. Something more than the sum of his parts, than his role.
At least, I really hope so.