Celestia was relaxing in her art room. In it were many famous paintings by Salvador Donkey, Claude Manet and Leonardo De Hoovsie. She often came here when she had lots to think about as it usually calmed her mind. It took her almost her whole lifetime to get the room just right and she never let anyone, aside from herself, in it alone for fear of messing it up. The last few days were a train-wreck. She had exiled her favourite student and one of her close friends. Then, to top it all off, she had to explain to her other friends what she had done and why she did it. But it had to be done, or at least she told her self this. She wandered around the room, vaguely in the direction of her bed. When she got there she collapsed on the bed and began to sob. The silent yet unstoppable tears escaped for hours until she thought she could cry no more.
She looked up and wiped her eyes. Above her was one of Salvador's more famous pieces, the melting clock. The abstract artist always brought a smile to her face when she remembered the times they had. The smile was dashed when the hands of the clock slowly began to move backwards and the clock face was replaced with one she recognized much better.
"Discord, get out the painting," she half snapped, half sighed.
Discord smirked as he jumped out of the painting and straight on to Celestia.
"Stop this. I am not a foal anymore and i do not need you to cheer me up any more." After finishing the sentence she realised how harsh she had sounded. "Look. I've had a difficult last few days and I don't want anyone trying to cheer me up."
"As much as it hurts to see you sad, I'm glad you said that. You see I heard about Twilight's 'incident' and I wish to help." It was then that he saw Celestia's expression change and really wished he was stone again.
"YOU! HELP! I wouldn't trust you to even be yourself! The only reason I'm giving you a CHANCE is because Fluttershy practically BEGGED me to!" At this point Celestia was practically on top of Discord with her wings flared and magic armed. He slunk out from underneath her and brushed himself down.
"I do wish you would have come to me sooner." He snuck a glance at Celestia and instantly regretted it but carried on nonetheless. "This was my magic you were dealing with and it would have made sense to ask me to reverse it. I would have been happy to oblige." Celestia was practically staring daggers at this point. "Even though you have exiled them I could still save them IF you tell me where they are." Celestia muttered something under her breath and Discord grinned. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."
As much as it pained her to even think it, she knew Discord would be invaluable. "They're at Nightfire but before you go I'm sending Axewing with you to make sure you don't just run off and cause chaos."
"Celestia, my dear. Do you have any faith in me?" Discord asked with a fake innocent smile
"No," Celestia responded bluntly.
Axewing was back at Ponyville, enjoying a hastily put together party from Pinkie Pie. It was nowhere near her usual standards but given the circumstances he didn't mind, in fact he was glad to stay, just in case one of the girls needed any help.Most would say it wasn't his fault but he couldn't help but feel guilty for being one of the bearers of bad news.
He was sitting on a bench outside to let his ears readjust from painfully high volumes of rock music. Who knew Pinkie was such a rock fan and it was a real shock to see Rarity in the middle of a mosh pit. He almost went to ask if she was okay until he saw how wide she was smiling. And let's just say Rainbow Dash is a VERY friendly drunk. Even Fluttershy looked reasonably happy until she saw Angel try to stage dive and disappear into the crowd. The party was almost dead now. The four girls were chatting loudly until their deafness faded, Vinyl was packing up her equipment with what looked like a very disapproving Octavia, and Berry Punch was downing the alcohol now that she knew no-one else wanted it. Maybe Celestia would transfer him here if he asked enough. He could always use the excuse that the Everfree forest could be a danger.
Axewing was snapped out of these thoughts by a death grip. His first reaction was to reach for the dagger he had sheathed under his wing but stopped when he opened his eyes. All he could see was a mass of pink and he guessed that it was Pinkie that was nearly choking him.
"Please don't surprise me like that. The last person that did that was in hospital for a week," he said with a smile even though he was being completely serious
"Reelaaax, Axey. This is a party. No-one's gonna try and hurt you here." Pinkie grinned and stumbled as she released him.
"You'd be surprised. I remember this one time at a gala a few years ago." He began but was interrupted by a guard.
Sir, Princess Celestia has requested that you assist Discord in the recovery of Twilight Sparkle and Applejack." The guard finished the sentence with a salute.
"Did he say rescue?" Rainbow Dash asked
"I can tell what you're thinking and you are not joining me." Axewing knew he was fighting a losing battle as Rarity slid up beside him. Almost straight away his legs turned to jelly.
"But you're ever so strong and I know you'll be able to protect us. We'd be ever so grateful." A soft kiss on the cheek was a decider for him.
"Alright but only if Discord says yes," he said trying to regain both his lost dignity and authority.
"Discord, Would you do me a huge favour?" Axewing asked, trying to employ Rarity's tactic of innocence and failing horribly.
"My 'protector' is asking me favours. Could it get much worse?" Discord looked down from his newspaper and rolled his eyes a little. Before Axewing responded Pinkie bounced out of a bush.
"could you please please please PLEASE take us to Nightfire so that we can save Twilight and Applejack from cruel and horrible torture?"
"Oh look, it got worse," Discord muttered to himself. "Follow me. And I hope you didn't have a big lunch."
The ground lurched out from under them and morphed in to a half broken roller coaster with a colour scheme that would put Rainbow Dash's mane to shame.Discord sat at the front and pulled a couple of invisible levers. Fluttershy hovered where she was. She was trying to decide if she should go to the front to prevent discord from pulling tricks or go to the back so she could be safe. She eventually decided on the first choice. Axewing tried to slide in next to Rarity but was beaten by Rainbow Dash. Admitting defeat, Axewing settled down next to Pinkie and awaited her trademark death hug.
"Please keep all hooves, wings and horns inside the ride at all times. And away.
We.
Go."