//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Clear Waters and Obscured Connections // by canterlots //------------------------------// Inside the stone gate was a very long hallway. There was no light inside the hallway, although Twilight noticed that there were torch holders lining the hall. Black ash on the arched stone ceiling indicated that they had been once used, but recent use was not evident. Eventually, the hallway opened up into a large grand hall. The architecture had an ornate style which was obviously quite old. The floor was black and white marble in a checkerboard fashion. There was a red carpet lined with gold extending out in front of her and ending at a fountain. The carpet was lined on either side by carved white columns supporting horizontal beams. The columns partially hid a sort of ‘garden’ where purple rainclouds poured down brown rain on some very strange looking plants. On closer inspection, some of the plants were actually moving—gathering up as much rain as they could and then planting themselves in the soil, only to get back up and run around again a few seconds later. Twilight walked down the carpet towards the fountain to get a better look at it. It seemed to be illuminated somehow, but no light source was apparent. As it came into view she noticed that there was a pony beside it. As she got closer, she recognised the brown coat and grey mane. It was Sam. He was sitting beside the fountain in a prostrate position. Twilight approached. Well maybe he won’t be so happy for me searching through his stuff, but if I am really to join them, then I must stay confident. “Hello, Sam. It’s Twilight.” Twilight looked around. From the fountain, the red carpet split off into four directions. She was slightly disturbed when the two paths nearest to her seemed to lead into doorways which had collapsed. Rock and rubble was piled up around the doors and scattered across the floor around them, blocking anyone from coming or going. “What is this place?” Sam didn’t respond. His eyes were closed and he didn’t seem to notice her. “Sam?” It was then that Twilight took a closer look at the fountain. At the centre, carved in stone, were three Draconequus facing outwards, with their backs to each other. Water poured down into a large bowl below, sending up mist which hovered in the air around the fountain, illuminated by the mysterious light source. Twilight had the distinct sensation that she had made a huge mistake. Suddenly, the mist began to twirl up into a vortex in front of her. The vortex drew itself out into a long, thin line and then started sprouting features. Details emerged and before long, Twilight recognised the familiar creature standing before her. Discord. “Well well well well! Twilight! To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this, your surprising visit?” “Discord! What are you doing here?” Discord laughed. “I should ask you the same thing." Discord floated down and started pacing around Twilight, lending him the appearance of an older pony lecturing a foal. "You come here, barging into my beloved homestead only to start demanding questions of me? Not very polite, you know. A nice, highly sophisticated Canterlot lady such as yourself should know that.” His house. The feeling sunk in. Twilight knew she had made a mistake now. She didn’t know what to say. “You seem lost, Twilight,” Discord said, adopting a patronizing tone. “I don’t think you know where you are, or how you got here.” “So let me guess, let me suggest, if you will, an explanation. I do so love games of chance.” Discord seemed amused. He floated up to his statue and straightened up his posture, looming down over her, in line with the three Draconequus of stone. “You came here because you desire power. You want it... no, you need it to protect your friends. Their fates are your responsibility and yours alone. You came here because Celestia refuses to listen to the Great Twilight Sparkle, and frankly, you do not trust her anymore. You came here to renounce your nation and ruler. You came here as a treacherous dog, Twilight... You came here to serve me.” Twilight laughed even though she was feeling somewhat insecure about how well he seemed to know her. “Oh yeah? And why would I do that.” Discord exploded into mist and spread out across the room. His voice seemed to emanate from various different corners of the room. Its volume was completely unpredictable as well. Sometimes it sounded like he was shouting from one corner of the room, and others it sounded like he was whispering in her ear. “Twilight, I know that you are not like the others. You are special. While they blindly accept, you reason. While they are happy just for someone to watch over them, you take matters into your own hands. While they force themselves to be content with trivial banalities, you have ambition.” Discord paused before continuing with a thoughtful tone. “Let me ask you something. Do you know why you serve Celestia?” Twilight didn’t answer. It was apparent that the question was only part of his continuing diatribe. “Because your parents served her. And why, might I ask, do you think they served her? Because their parents served her. And how could it come to pass, pray tell, that they served her? Because their parents served her!” “I think you see where I am going with this,” Discord said, sounding satisfied. “I am not such a bad guy, Twilight.” Discord adopted more of a jovial tone. “I can make life very comfortable for you. You will see that I can be very accommodating to those in my favour. You and I could have a lot of fun together.” Discord contracted his form once again into the form of a visible cloud of mist. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat. “And that’s what I’m all about! Fun.” He paused dramatically, giving time to let the thoughts sink in for the purple pony. When he was satisfied he had waited long enough, he curled his form around Twilight and held his right paw out in front of her as if he was literally trying to point to his vision for the future. “Those elements can be used for more than just harmony, you know. They could be the implements—the utensils—with which we serve up a whole whopping helping—a buffet!—of Discord.” Discord smiled and then floated over to the side of the fountain where he leaned one arm up against the edge and held it to his head in the thinker pose. “So. Now I want to know what you think. You are a very smart mare, after all. I am sure that you will make the right decision.” Those words triggered a red light in Twilight’s head. She had the distinct sensation that she had heard them before. She thought back to the beginning of the whole affair and how all started. Am I really going to make such a heavy decision solely on the basis of some silly dream? The idea now seemed rather crazy to Twilight, even though some parts of Discord’s rant had hit dangerously close to home. She had now made up her mind. “No.” “Eh?” “No, you’re wrong... About everything," Twilight said with conviction. "We don’t serve Princess Celestia out of tradition or obligation. We serve her because she represents something beautiful. She represents the fact that if we ponies set aside our differences and concerns of personal gain to work together, we can achieve great things." Her conviction faltered a little bit as she considered the fact that it was her own thoughts which had led her into the hands of discord. "And all questions of my... personal insecurities aside, I would rather die than hand over the elements to you.” “What did you come here for then!?” Discord said, suddenly sounding very angry. He flew up into the air and loomed over her, staring her straight in the eyes. Animosity emanated from his misty visage. “Did you come here to mock me? You risk to evoke my wrath, Twilight.” “I came here for... well... reasons that aren’t very justified anymore,” Twilight said, stammering a little as she came to grips with the concept, herself. “But that is none of your business.” She thought back to the friendliness she had been shown by Sam. “All you need to know is that I came here because I was led here by the nice notes written by my friend over there and if you don’t mind, I think we would like to leave now.” Discord started laughing hysterically. All of the hatred she had seen in him seemed to evaporate in an instant. “Your ‘friend’ over there didn’t write those notes.” More laughing. “I did!” Twilight now felt disgusted by the whole affair. She thought back to how the landmark stumps had seemed like beacons of hope to her, and how she romanticized the idea of being ‘watched over’ by someone. She felt sick to her stomach and wanted only to leave. “Yes, but by all means, go. I didn’t invite you and I am not holding you,” Discord said, sounding amused once more. “However, I can’t be held responsible for what your ‘friend’ thinks of your departure.” Discord laughed once again. “You have been warned.” Twilight was dejected. All of her sunny expectations for what she might find in this place had been swiftly and mercilessly dashed on the rocks. It’s best if I just go. There’s no point in hanging around here anymore. She turned to leave. On that cue, Sam broke from his catatonic state. “I am afraid I can’t allow you to leave, Twilight.” “Sam, I don’t want to cause any trouble.” “B-but you already have,” Sam said. Twilight noticed that he was visibly shaking. “I didn’t want it to come to this... b-but if you were to go back to the Princess and inform her of the location of Lord Discord’s secret shrine... well...” Lord Discord. Ugh. That phrase sounded particularly repulsive coming from him. Twilight observed the brown unicorn. She didn’t see any signs of mind control, yet something in his voice sounded different—not affected, just weary. He sounded much older now. “You understand that I can’t have that...” Sam continued. “I liked you, Twilight. Why did you have to go snooping around!?” His tone was becoming quite angry, but it was obvious that this was just a facade. A more apt term to describe him at that moment would be cornered. “You’ve ruined everything by coming here! Can’t you see that!?” “But this is how it must be,” Sam continued, his voice had the sound of a pony who had resigned to a decision which was out of his hands. “If you will not serve Discord... Then you must die for him.” With that, Sam began to walk towards Twilight. She started backing off. “Sam, stay back. I don’t want to have to hurt you.” Sam ignored her. His capacity for speech seemed to be exhausted. Twilight stood her ground. If this is how it’s going to be, I need to defend myself. She dropped her torch and levitated some large rocks from the collapsed doorway. She lifted them overhead and got ready to send them crashing down into the brown pony. At that moment, a shockwave of black emanated from his horn. It spread as a sphere and as it crossed Twilight’s levitating rocks, her magical energies were stripped away from it and the rocks plummeted straight into the ground. Her eyes widened. She had never seen this kind of magic before. As for dealing with it, she didn’t even know where to start. She picked up more large rocks and this time quickly gave them as much momentum as she could. They were headed straight on course for collision, but Sam sent out another black shockwave and the rocks stopped in their tracks, falling to the ground. Sam now entered a gallop towards her. Twilight tried to turn around and run, but failed to escape. He tackled her to the ground. She scrambled and tried to right herself as she saw him approaching closer and closer. Then his eyes went fluorescent blue and everything around her went black. Twilight felt her body growing cold but her horn growing white hot. All she could see around her was the pair of eerie blue eyes and a pinkish light above her head. She cried out and tried to right herself, but she felt the will to fight back being drained from her. She fell back to the ground and felt like she was being forced into a deep sleep. Suddenly, she heard a loud thump and a groan of pain from Sam. The blue eyes disappeared and light had returned to the room. Twilight looked up. She saw Sam slowly righting himself from the floor a little ways away from where she was lying. Then she saw the strong orange legs of a pony with a three apple cutie mark meeting him with a buck that fell square on the jaw. He flew backwards from the blow. Applejack! Twilight forced herself back up. Her will to fight had returned and she wondered how she had even thought about accepting defeat a few seconds ago. When back on her hooves, she saw Applejack standing over Sam, her front hoof holding his head against the ground. “Don’t you even think about gettin’ up or you’re gonna get bucked in the face again,” Applejack commanded the brown pony. Then she noticed that Twilight had gotten up. “Hey there, Twi. Just figured you could use a little help. –Hope it wasn’t too assuming of me.” Twilight was about to utter something, but Discord interrupted with a cry of protest. “Arrgh! Once again I have taken the proverbial pie to the face! I won’t forget this! I will always be around, Twilight, and if we ever meet again in the flesh, you can guarantee that it will not be under such civil terms! Arrivederci!” Discord snapped his fingers and then turned into smoke. Twilight looked around her. Discord and Sam were now gone. Applejack’s front hoof was square against the ground. The fountain had stopped and the plants in the garden and chocolate rainclouds had all turned to dust. Everything was now very quiet. Her eyes settled on Applejack. Applejack noticed. “So I guess it’s just us now, huh.” Twilight’s face broke out in a smile. She ran over and tackle-hugged her friend. “Whoa now! Easy!” Applejack said, laughing. “Applejack! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!” The two friends shared a long embrace. “You saved my life.” Twilight tried to take on a tone reflecting the gravity of the situation, but it just ended up sounding dry and a little confused. “Aw come on now. Ain’t nothing you wouldn’t have done for me,” Applejack responded. Thoughts came to Twilight all at once and talking felt like trying to squish four ponies through a doorway at the same time. “No... No really, I wouldn’t be alive at this moment right now if you hadn’t come just at this very time! I am beyond grateful. I am indebted to you. For my life! That’s just... And you can say what you want about hypotheticals and circumstances where I would have saved your life—assuming I even could!—but the fact is that you were here... And right at the very moment that I needed you! And, well... and... ” Applejack guessed the question that was on Twilight’s mind. “Why am I out here in the middle of the Everfree forest, in some creepy temple at night?” “YES!” Twilight said, excitably. The happiness drained from Applejack’s features. “Well the thing is, Twilight...And I’m sorry for this but... I didn’t trust you.” “What?” said Twilight, completely derailed by this answer. “Well, I saw you hanging around that old house that nopony has been in for years... Most folks think it’s haunted.” Haunted? Maybe they just never saw Sam go into it. He did say he was out to sea often. “Then when I talked to you, you started making up all sorts of crazy stories. I couldn’t believe you were lying to me,” Applejack said, sounding a little hurt. Her tone brightened up a bit and she chuckled. “But the part where I really knew things were wrong, that was when you didn’t want to come to the Apple family feast! At last year’s, you ate more than three Big Macintoshes combined!” Twilight smiled. “I know, I know. I wanted to tell you everything, but I was just so wrapped up in the moment. I wasn’t about to let go of my project for anything. I’m sorry.” “Yeah, well, I figured something was up and I decided to follow you. After you left that house, and I saw you heading for the Everfree forest, I zipped back home for a second just to grab some supplies. I figured I might be in for a bit of a journey." “Then when I came back to the path, you were nowhere to be found. I almost lost you, but luckily, a few broken twigs and hoofprints tipped me off in your direction. Then when I found you by that rock, I saw your eyes glowing blue and then you zapped that stump with a black lightning bolt. It didn’t make me feel too confident that you were still on the good side, as you might guess.” “But I kept my distance and followed you. I didn’t get a good feeling from that field of flowers, so I stayed around the outside. I think we both figured out my suspicions on that one were good. Then when you went down into the swamps, I nearly lost you again. Luckily I heard your cries, and they directed me to you. When I found you, you were down on the ground. My heart melted. I just wanted to help you, evil or not.” “I approached, but you woke up and looked me straight in the eye. I got afraid and just ran off. I don’t even know why, really. But after that I started tailing you again. I kept my eye on you and followed at a distance until you got to that horrible tunnel.” “You don’t know what that was like without a torch. I couldn’t see my hoof in front of my face. The only thing that I had to go on was your dim light in the distance. And that would disappear every once in a while, too. Then you heard me and yelled out. I was so afraid that you were going to come back and find me. I just sat there frozen. I started hearing things—horrible things. I don’t even want to talk about what it sounded like. I might have gone crazy in there if I hadn’t heard you denying your fears. It had such honesty to it that you made me believe too.” The situation almost seemed silly to Twilight looking back now. She laughed. “You know, I put on a brave face, but I was actually shaking in my boots like a filly when I was yelling at you in there,” she said. Applejack gave a weak smile. “Oh you were? Well... That makes me feel a little better, I guess.” “But go on,” Twilight encouraged. “So anyways, when you made your way inside this place, I still couldn’t be sure you were still on our side. Then I saw you talking to Discord. I didn’t want to believe it. I just waited it out and listened. When that brown pony started attacking you that was all the proof I needed. It looked like he was sucking your soul out from your horn! I just got so mad! And...Well... You probably know the rest.” “Yes, I understand. You were right to not trust me,” Twilight responded, apologetically. “I got a little carried away with all this, I am sorry. I really should have been more honest with you. If I had told you what was on my mind, you probably could have sorted me out and we wouldn’t have gotten in this mess in the first place.” “Well you can tell me now...” Applejack trailed off, leaving time for Twilight to continue. Twilight knew she was due for an explanation. She breathed a long sigh. “I don’t even fully understand it, myself. It might sound crazy, but there was this dream that I had which sort of... tipped me off about the existence of this place. I didn’t even know what I was looking for, really... Maybe it was just curiosity... At the time it felt like something much bigger... But somehow, I led myself straight into the hands of Discord. You gotta understand that I didn’t intend for this to happen. I’m sorry... I’m just... really confused...” “That’s ok, you don’t have to explain it to me right now if it is too hard on you. I can see now that your intentions were good...Honestly, I am just happy to have you back.” “That’s like a tautology coming from you,” Twilight replied, frivolously. “A what now?” Twilight laughed. “I just mean that it’s obviously going to be honest, coming from you. But I am happy too... Now, what do you say we get out of here?” “I’d say I’m all for it,” Applejack responded with a smile. As they turned to leave, something occurred to Twilight. “There was one part to your story which confused me... If you were watching while I went into the house, you must have seen Sam come and go, yes?” Applejack suddenly looked like she had seen a ghost. “Twilight... Nopony came or left while you were in that house.”