The Darkness among the Stars

by Haseo


Chapter 19 - Seeking for Remedy

Chapter 19
Seeking for Remedy

The girls didn't know how to react. They just stared at Twilight. She didn't know either if she should smile or cry. “I know, this sounds weird. But I've never seen the Princess like that before. She wasn't afraid of Nightmare Moon at all, but every time somepony mentions Soul she cringes in fear. I can't believe it either, but Soul seems to be more than dangerous when even the Princess is afraid of his revenge.”

Applejack was the only pony who didn't look shocked or agitated by the thought of an upcoming fight. Her gaze was stoic and dull. “The Princess is talking quite a lot. Ah only didn't understand one thing. What did Princess Luna mean when she said that he had dealt with Discord?”

Twilight gulped heavily. “Well, the Princesses had talked to me before in private. They told me that when Princess Luna found Soul, he was only a small colt. He laid, hurt, with his life on the line in his destroyed home town. She said that Soul had fought against Discord and nearly killed him. Soul separated a part of Discord's power and sealed it somehow. He kinda tamed him. Made him harmless.”

Everypony looked at her with disbelief, only Applejack showing determination. “If that is the case, we could simply ask Discord how to stop him.”

Rainbow dashed forward and squeezed Applejack's face together. “Are you nuts? We turned him into stone? How could we ask him? You don't want to seriously release him for that?”

Applejack pushed Rainbow away from herself and turned to Twilight again. “Your tiara is broken but that doesn't mean that the remaining elements aren't working. We just to free his head so he can speak to us.”

Twilight rubbed her chin and thought about every possible out come of the situation. “Well, I suppose nothing bad could happen. We could give it a shot.” Her horn ignited in bright light. They felt how they bodies became lighter, but the magic broke once again and the ponies fell to the ground.

In the next moment, six heavily armed guards and Princess Luna stood in the room. “Twilight Sparkle! What is the meaning of this? We told you to rest!”

She slowly regained a clear mind and raised from the floor. “We wanted to go outside and talk to Discord. We wanted to know more about Soul.”

Princess Luna couldn't believe what the ponies were planning. “We magic-proofed this room so nopony can enter or leave. We would at least notice.” Princess Luna turned around to her guards. She waved a hoof to dismiss them. They disappeared in a brink. “Since my sister is occupied with other things right know, I can talk to you a little bit more frankly. You know, I didn't tell my sister, but I think she left out a little but important fact.”

The girls looked at Princess Luna with huge eyes, hoping for something that would mean everything could still turn out well. But the expression of the Princess didn't quite support this hope. “Applejack, you had asked me what would be the worst case. Well, the point is that I had never actually seen how Soul fought Discord. He definitely took the majority of Discord's power away but I never learned where. I've always had a hunch. When he was younger he got several magical outburst when he was agitated, afraid, or angry. He always took this draconian form, which was beyond all known power so far. I believe that he didn't only get the power of the aspect of time but the power of chaos as well. Not that this would be bad enough, even if the Elements would work properly right know, I doubt that they would work against him since it is made of his loved one.”

Twilight's eye twitched furiously and her mane seemed to became somehow messy. “Let me get this straight. So Soul is the original aspect of space that had captured the aspect of time and is possibly possessed with chaos, has the darker side of the Princess and yourself as subordinates and on top of that, an army of magic eating creatures that are supposed to be immune against the Elements of Harmony?” Twilight stumbled backwards and nearly lost consciousness. Rarity caught her in the last moment.

Princess Luna was rather surprised that Twilight got it right. “Well, yes. That pretty much subscribes the situation right now.”

Though Applejack knew that Soul is a threat to them right know, she couldn't suppress her feelings for him. She stepped in front of the Princess with determination in her eyes and bravery in her heart. “But Ah still don't want him to be hurt. Regardless what we will do, you won't harm him.”

She excepted to be slapped for such rudeness but instead the Princess smiled at her warmly. “I can imagine how you feel for him. He is such a marvellous stallion. But it isn't yourself who loves him. It's your element. I don't know if he was always like this but when I brought him to the castle he was very distant and unemotional except towards me. Nopony really liked him besides Star Swirl. His own soldiers feared him and the servants tried to avoid eye-contact when he spoke to them. There was only one servant that was brave or stupid enough to tell him how disgusting and brute his behaviour towards his subordinates was. I remember this scene quite well. She stood her ground and stared into his eyes. The other servants tried to pull her away but she didn't listen. Soul approached her and stood right in front of her. She still didn't showed fear. The servants and guards in the room already turned away they didn't want to see how he would hurt Harmony or even worse. But when absolutely nothing happened, all of us were more than surprised. They just stared at each other. Finally, he turned away and told her to come to his chamber when she was done cleaning. I don't know what happened there but something changed. I think she somehow managed to touch his heart, something was buried under his massive losses in his foalhood. He pestered his underlings less and less until he began to become… friendly... he began to greet them like normal ponies would do. He ordered Harmony over and over to his chamber. He had always a small smile on his lips when she left even when he tried to suppress it in front of me. Every time, he thought I didn't watch him he give Harmony some little extras. Her rude honesty somehow drove them together. It was such an innocent and lovely relationship.”

While Princess Luna revelled in her memories, Applejack thought about what she said. She looked thoughtfully to the ground and sat on the floor. “No, Ah doubt that. Ah know it is weird to say that so fast. But Ah honestly think that we're predestined for each other. Ah was all honest before Ah get the element. Why should the fact change that he should be together with an honest mare?”

The Princess snapped out of her thoughts and watched Applejack carefully. “Listen carefully Applejack. I really want to believe that this is true. I always wanted him to be happy, but if you manage to hurt him somehow, you and I will be enemies for the rest of your life.”

Behind the ponies a butter-coloured pegasus mare whispered a little bit louder than intended. “If we live long enough.”

Everypony had fallen back to the actual matter. They realized that they should think of a possibility to stop Soul. They didn't looked each other in the eyes until Princess Luna spoke again.

“I think it would be the best if we all rest now and didn't try to escape. The tournament tomorrow could be from great importance for the fight against him.”

With a dark blue flash, the Princess disappeared again, leaving them behind. The girls looked at each other and laid themselves wordlessly in one of the prepared beds. Twilight extinguished the candles in the room.

Several feet above the vault were the royal gardens. Rain had began to fall from the sky. The pegasus ponies had did a great job on this one. Nopony was in the gardens anymore except one. Princess Celestia sat before a statue of a dragon with a ponies head and a single fang, a lion paw, snake-like tail, and two kinds of wings. Her mane laid neatly on the ground, heavy from the water it had absorbed and covered the majority of her face. She just sat there for a few minutes before her horn finally began to glow faintly. Nothing seemed to happen until a deep voice began to ring through the gardens.

“So you give me back the ability to speak? How generous of you.”

Princess Celestia didn't answer at first, a few seconds passed by before the responded. “It has been quite same time Discord. How are you doing?”

“Good,” The voice laughed but silenced quickly. “Except for the fact that I'm imprisoned in stone pretty well.”

Silence turned in for a few moments. When the Princess breathed in to say something, the voice interrupted her. “I suppose you aren't here because you want to have a friendly chat. So tell me what you want.”

The Princess looked directly into the stone eyes of Discord. “I'm afraid to die Discord. I'm afraid that he will get me. I'm afraid of what will be after this life.”

The voice once again began to laugh. “You're so rich, Tia. Even I didn't manage to kill you in my best times before I took that ridiculous form. What are you fearing Ms. Immortal?”

Discord couldn't stop laughing. Princess Celestia answered him dryly without showing emotions. “Black Terror.”

The laughter stopped immediately. “He is dead. He can't do anything to you. He is dead for sure.”

Princess Celestia turned her head away, a drilling pain piercing through her chest. “He returned, the Elements left us. Harmony wants revenge. She led him here. He want my life for what I had to her. He enslaved Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon and somehow managed to raise an army of Leyfeeder. Luna and I can't defeat him.”

A whole forty minutes had passed before Discord answered her. “So what do you want from me? How could I help you?”

The Princess didn't need long to state her answer. “Join us to fight him. Together we might be strong enough to stop him.”

Again time had passed before Discord answered. For the Princess it had to feel like an eternity. “I won't help you.”

The Princess fell down on her knees, her head hung low. “I beg you Discord. I don't want to die. I don't want to leave my little ponies. I beg you, I even kneel in front of you in the mud, please help me.”

Again silence turned in for a few minutes. “I appreciate it a lot that you bow to me, but I don't want to die either.”

The Princess’s head shoot upwards to face the stone statue again. “But I thought at least you-...”

Discord interrupted her while she started to humiliate herself even more. “Stop it. What happened to the fearless and proud ruler of Equestria? You don't know what happened when Black Terror fought me do you? How long do you think the fight had lasted? How much do you think I could have done against him?”

Princess Celestia was caught completely off-guard by this question. Discord's tone fell even deeper and much darker. “None of you puny Princesses were there when everything escalated. I followed my usual business when I came along that small village. It seemed to be so lovely I just had to destroy it. In seconds flames were bursting out of every home. It was hilarious. They tried to save their foals so I killed the adults one by one in front of their kids before I burned them alive. Everypony was gone except for two unicorns. His mother charged at me with a furious scream. I simply cracked her neck.”

Nothing could have better told how disgusted Celestia was than her own face. Her eyes widened in shock as she remembered how cruel Discord used to be and how harmless he was after that incident. But she said nothing and just listened to Discord's story.

“This was the biggest mistake I made in my entire life. Her son looked at me, stared directly into my eyes the whole time. The moment he knew that his mother died, all happiness, every glimpse of hope disappeared in his eyes. They turned dark, wrath filling his little body. It was such a delightful view. But my pleasure didn't last long. It wasn't usual that little unicorn foals tried to attack me with their magic, but this one was different. The smell of burned flesh disappeared, the air became heavy and thick. A mortal would crumble and fall unconscious under this pressure. My skin began to hurt. This was the moment I felt fear for the first time in my long life. When I realized that, it was already too late. His eyes glowed in a dangerous white light along with his flank. His horn nearly burst under the massive pressure of his very own magic. I was never so terrified before. Streams of magic floated from the stars to his horn. It looked like lightning would constantly be connecting his horn with the sky. Sparks flew everywhere around. For the first time I wanted to flee, to run for my life. But I couldn't even move an inch.” Discord's voice cracked, it indeed sounded like he was… crying. The Spirit of Chaos was crying under his stone shell.

Princess Celestia didn't know how to comfort him. It was weird, she didn't see the bloodlust any more. She just saw another of her subjects or even an old friend. “Discord, it's okay. This is long over. If you don't want to tell me any more it's okay.”

The sobbing stopped nearly immediately. “You don't have to comfort me… after all, we are enemies aren't we? But I will tell you everything so you can cringe in fear until he finally comes after you. So before I could do anything, I felt something piercing through my back. In this moment I couldn't think, couldn't move, nor could I breath. Not that this one strike was worse enough, several followed it. With every hit I felt less and less. My body became numb and lifeless. Though I'm supposed to be immortal, I felt how my life left my body. His magic stopped and my body came finally to a rest. I fell to the ground and couldn't move. I slowly opened my eyes. The only thing I could see was him covered in blood. His eyes still glowed in a wrath filled light. I felt like my body was wrapped in heavy chains. I can't say if they were real or not, I was just too tired. Something began to tug at me. My physical body didn't moved but some other part did. I felt weaker every passing second. My eyes slowly closed again. I knew if I'd close them I would never wake up again. I could hear the birds singing and a weird noise, the noise of the universe calling for me. But I was disturbed from one single sound that didn't belong there. My eyes ripped open again. I saw him stagger, struggling with his own magic. Wild lightning made of raw magic hit the ground around him. His horn had cracked under this massive burden. The tug upon my body disappeared but the part of my soul that had already left my body never returned. The magical cone around his horn exploded and smashed him away. This is the last thing I can remember. After that I woke up like this, within the stone statue thing, of course. This is everything I have to say to you. I think you have to raise the sun soon.”

Tears fell to the ground. They rolled over the alabaster cheek of the Solar Princess. “Thank you, Discord.“ She turned around and walked slowly through the rain until she reached the entrance to her personal tower where her special balcony was. She had once more raised from that balcony the sun like she had done for the past thousand years. The sun slowly began to rise in her magical grip.

Down in the gardens stood the bare statue. “The reason I can't help you is that I don't want to witness your death... Good luck, my lovely Tia.”

The sound in the gardens was gone. Deep beneath it were six little ponies sleeping. Neatly laid in their beds. The noise of calm breaths was the only sound in the room. They really seemed to enjoy their sleep. Every single of them knew that it could be soon over with the era of peace. They dreamed peacefully about a library with every book that was written since the beginning of time, about joining the Wonderbolts and flying various shows, about being able to help every single critter in the wide world, about creating fashion together with her little sister that is known all over the world, about making everypony laugh and keeping the frowns and sadness away. Only one pony didn't dream about her apple orchard alone. She dreamed about her family, her granny, her little sister, her bigger brother, and her husband called Soul Tearer. He looked at her with kindness and a caring smile. “My dear Applejack. The end is near, everything will shatter.” His face turned dark and sharp fangs reached out of his jaw.

Applejack jumped in shock out of her bed. In the very same moment, the door began to unlock itself magically. The doors swung open and blinded her immediately. A high-pitched voice called after them. “It's time to get up ladies! Today your attendance is required.”