CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
THE MAGIC PRISM
The last time Tyllae pulled this trick on the bridge of the Hermes she was still under a foot tall. Then the door to her Other Side was open but a crack, this time she’d bucked it wide open!
The figure that stood wrapped in a coruscating cocoon of lambent pink fire stood as tall as the figure of Celestia in Discords’ vision, statuesque and almost terrifying in its eldritch beauty. Like Celestia, she stood on four legs but Tyllaes’ gem-hard hooves never touched the deck. Her coat, though it should have been washed out by the arcane aura that surrounded her, shone like luminous gold and her blazing pink mane rode her neck and back like a slow-motion bonfire fanned by a wind from another realm. Her antennae were like thin wisps of pink fire tipped with the gleaming hearts of rose-colored galaxies and her wings looked like twin nebulae swirled with all the shades of pink, stretching out to merge with the plasma-esque envelope that quivered around her. They beat slowly but no breeze reached us or disturbed either the balefire flames of the Gorn crew or the remnants of the fire suppression system. And yet, the scent of exotic, alien blooms from under ancient, mysterious trees stole across the Bridge. Faerie wings, it seems, tread the aether of old and not the mere air of mortals.
Her eyes were huge and black as obsidian, yet warm with silver highlights that I never noticed in her smaller, elfin form. Her brow was furrowed with determination as she appeared but her eyes flew wide in eloquent dismay and shock as she beheld the scene before her. I couldn’t see her ears but I did see her tail, like the flowing tail of a magical comet, droop as her eyes fell upon Stimbolts’ corpse.
Tyllae threw her head back and half-reared. A strange, echoing cry keened through the Bridge. Was it a song? Were there even words in it? To this day I can’t tell. The one fact that I do recall clearly was that this incarnation of Our Favorite Fey did not have a mouth… even though she did have a voice!
“Discord!” It was still Tyllaes’ voice even if it was deeper register, and it rang from everywhere as far as I could make out like the note of some enchanted carillon. “What hath thee done? Thou wert never Evil of Old! We are dismayed by what thou hath become!”
However Sunny and I felt, Discord was not cowed by the display. He stood up to his full, misshapen height at his end of the room and regarded the regal being at the other. The two of them made poles, positive at Tyllaes’ end and negative at his, the rest of the flotsam and jetsam of the Universe scattered between them.
“An occupational hazard!” He declared airily. “One can’t help but become tainted by hanging around creatures like these after a while! That’s why I’m so glad you came…”
“Didst thou think Our eyes were so blind, Base Lord of Chaos? We watch from a higher point and thy deeds and thoughts are plain to see from here. From what thou hath done in the past to what passeth through thy mind even at this moment, all is plain to Us.” Tyllae declaimed with the stamp of an eldritch hoof.
“Renounce thy mad scheming and make good what thou hath done. Restore the life thou hath wrongly taken and heal the mind of the unwilling tool of thy sickness! Thou must also undo the mischief thou hath done to one that We love. These things will be as unto a token of thy good faith and a surety of thy willingness to abide by thine ancient Compact again.” The Fey gestured with one hoof toward the crystal prism clutched in his grasp. “Thou must also destroy what thou hast made in thy arrogance and pain. It is not what thou wisheth it to be. It hath no love of thee and will work thy undoing.” Much of the sternness left her and both her voice and her eyes softened as she continued. “Verily, Discord, thou ailest in thy mind. Come, there is yet time to undo it if thou but taketh this first step toward healing. We may yet play together in the Other Realm in time could thee but do this thing. Leave off thy rage! Forget thy loss! Forsake thy sterile revenge! This Realm wast never meant for one such as thee. Let Us take thee Home and know peace once again. This Realm will forgive and forget thy works but its gratitude will be forever! Come, Discord, take a Faery by the hand for this Realm is more full of sorrow than thou canst understand.”
Tyllae reached out for Discord with one hoof, imploringly. The Lord of Chaos regarded it with uncharacteristic impassivity. He raised his head to look beyond Tyllae. Where we could only see the glowing nimbus of her power I could not help but to think Discord saw beyond her to the Other Side. He pondered the sight, his paw coming up to tug absently at his scraggly beard, his gaze thawing slowly and the lines smoothing from his unlovely face.
He took a step forward, his hoof quenching one of the balefire pyres on the deck. As he moved, the crystal flashed in his other hand and his eyes moved to look at it. He paused. He cocked his head toward it and he listened to something none of us could hear while Tyllae keened softly… sadly.
For Discords’ eyes left the Faery and focused on the crystal prism again. His features slowly twisted back into madness and his right eye developed a tic.
“I might have known…” He began slowly. “… I did know, didn’t I?” He spoke to the crystal for a moment. “That even you would end up corrupted by these Ponies. Well… you all come from the same place after all, don’t you? Must be something in the air there!” Something of his old swagger came back to him by then, though he refrained from his usual harebrained behavior in the presence of the Fey, it seemed. He pointed the crystal straight at Tyllae and continued.
“I like it here, Faery! I always did! You can keep your precious Other Realm. I don’t need it anymore. I have this!” He brandished the crystal on high and it flashed in a blaze of colors.
“What is that thing, anyway?” I ventured to ask. Sunny gave me a nudge with one wing and put a finger to her lips, but I wasn’t going to have it. Ok, I got that they were both incredibly old and in possession of powers and abilities we scarcely could conceive of. But they were both caught up in something that concerned the entire Pony race and its Friends. As far as I was concerned their business became our business and, by Luna, I wasn’t just going to sit off to the side at the Kiddies Table while the ‘adults’ talked!
“And,” I forged on. “While I’m thinking about it,” I turned to address the Fey. “…What the Hell, Tyllae?”
“It is as thee surmiseth, Starry-Eyes. We are on the Other Side now. We felt thy pain and thy fear. In defiance of Cappy Capers’ orders We came with all Our power to be at thy side in thy need. Though We fear that Cappy Caper may forbid Us dessert for at least a week for Our disobedience, We do not regret!” Her head came down to peer urgently at me as she added. “But if thee wouldst have words with Cappy Caper in Our behalf We wouldst be most grateful. We hath learned that Bob makest brownies tonight!”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed! It felt good, somehow, that even someone who dwelt… at least part of the time… in a Higher Realm could like brownies! I raised a hoof to touch her face and stopped short, unsure, at the surging aura around her.
“Starry.” Tyllae chided. “We hath snuggled in thy bosom countless times, what hast thee to fear of Our touch now?” She nuzzled my hoof tenderly and I stroked her face.
Sunny, being far less inhibited threw her arms around Tyllaes’ neck and hugged her. The Fey drew us both together under her wings as I followed suit. Sunny wept into her neck but I didn’t have the heart to touch her to comfort her. I hid my pain and screwed my eyes shut tight against the hot tears.
“Be not afraid, my Dear Ones! Though, even from where We stand, We cannot see how We believe… We hope… all will be well in the end. Much depends on Discord. Look upon him!” She urged. “Look upon him! Fear him and pity him for he is no longer his own master! He is a thrall to the thing he hath made in his madness, yet even now he could breaketh its chains could he but summon the strength to do so. Behold what he bears in his claw! Behold The Bane of Discord!” She pointed imperiously with an elegant hoof at what The Lord of Chaos clutched in his claw.
Discord looked annoyed at being upstaged. He had crossed his arms and tapped the Magic Prism against his shoulder in impatience.
“All done now?” He rolled his eyes. “Had our ‘touchy-feely’ moment, have we? Maybe you can have a tea party next. After all, you can always talk about the Most Powerful Magic Artifact Ever later! When it’s convenient for you, of course! Do take your time, do! I’ll just wait over here, shall I? Until you decide you have time for me, that is. Don’t worry! I’ll keep myself occupied somehow!”
With that, he snapped his fingers and Stimbolts corpse hung suspended in the air again. A blindfold appeared over Discords eyes as he limbered up the crystal like a ballbat.
“Piñata time!” He caroled then swung… and swung and swung and swung! Each time he swung his effort went astray though Stimbolt hung perfectly still. A frown creased his brow as he continued, growing more pronounced with each swing.
I growled and started forward, fully intending to yank that thing out of his hands to give him a few wallops with it somehow!
Sunny got in there first, though. Stimbolts corpse glowed with the magic of her horn and wafted back to where we stood in complete silence. Discord swung a few more times, his face lighting up with glee as the last swing passed straight through the spot vacated by the poor Middie with enough force to spin the old fiend around twice!
“Oh, now that’s just cheating!” He protesting, banishing his blindfold and glaring at his crystal accusingly.
“We’re no gwin’t’ sit by n’ let ye desecrate th’ poor Laddies body, ye bloody ghoul!” Sunny spat. “Now put th’ Lad t’ rights like Tyllae said… or is yon beyond yer over-rated power? ‘Lord o’ Chaos’, forsooth!”
Discord disappeared in a flash of blue, apparently with the intention of reappearing to loom over Sunny threateningly. Instead, his flashed into being halfway across the room from her and rebounded off some barrier unseen by either of us. He flailed and fell flat on his tail, both hands frantically securing the crystal! He scrambled to his feet in an instant and snarled at Tyllae who made a threatening gesture with one hoof.
“You think you’re sooo smart, don’t you? Well I couldn’t bring him back even if I wanted to! He’s somepony else’s problem now!” His face lit up in malevolent glee at the frown on Tyllae’s face. “What? The high-and-mighty Faery doesn’t understand? So much for your Higher vantage point! Things have Changed since you were gone, Tyllae. …And they’ll change even more soon!” He brandished the Magic Prism menacingly.
“‘Discords Bane’, indeed!” He snorted. “The Magic Prism is my greatest triumph! Long, long, long ago before we left your miserable dust-ball I made a promise to Celestia herself. I promised I would use my Power… for the most part… for ‘Good’”. He made a disgusted noise. “And I kept that promise for her sake, not for the sake of the Holier-than-Thou Celestia! …DON’T SAY HER NAME!” He suddenly thundered at Sunny, pointing the Prism at her like a sword! He brought himself under a semblance of control with an effort.
“Don’t any of you dare to sully her name by speaking it! And spare me your pathetic pity while you’re at it! I am Discord and I am beyond your feeble comprehension or your worthless sympathies!” He shook himself, stroking the crystal with his paw as he continued.
“Celestia never trusted me, not really. None of her friends did, either. I was under careful scrutiny all the time, my power carefully checked and monitored to see if I was ‘behaving’ myself.” As he spoke his eyes looked far away, focusing on something that happened long ago and far, far away.
“Fluttershy was put in charge of my ‘reform’. She believed in me! …She always did. She suggested to her high-and-mightiness that I might be happiest working with Celestia’s Academy of Magic and using my awesome power to help all of Equestria. Oh, I went along with it and it was so amusing to see what little those Ponies knew of Real Magic! They lapped it up, the least little crumbs of what I taught them. All those wise Unicorns and Zebra Shamans, feh! And yet even I was able to learn the odd nugget of insight from all those bumbling amateurs. Just goes to show you that even an idiot can get something right once in a while!”
I was going to point out to him who the ‘idiot’ really was, but I held my tongue. I glanced over to Sunny who had apparently had the same thought and we exchanged glances. Tyllae remained gravely silent.
“In the name of ‘research’ I was able to glean more bits of fascinating Arcane knowledge. There were leftover bits of Dark Magic scattered all over the globe, hidden away and almost forgotten except by a few pathetic individuals who were content to mutter their incantations in the dark and squander their knowledge for the sake of their petty, short-sighted dreams of Power. As if they would know True Power if they could see it!”
He fixed Tyllae with his mad eyes.
“There were still some Dark Faeries left, don’t you know? Oh, and the occasional Troll and a few things that fancied themselves to be Dark Gods as well.” He frowned at a memory. “That squid-faced chap showed real promise! Claimed he came from Somewhere Else, too, for all the good it did him. I was instrumental in ‘putting them down’, if you take my meaning. All in the name of Public Good and Equestrian Security, of course! But not until we got from them what we needed and certainly not before I got to have a little ‘fun’ with them. Oh, Celestia wasn’t entirely happy at my methods but she allowed herself to be outvoted by all my starry-eyed…” He tipped me a wink! “Co-workers! But even she couldn’t argue that we had done wonders. I helped turn deserts into orchards, swamps into croplands, tundra into forests. Powerful magic ‘untainted’…” He made sarcastic air quotes, the Prism tracing weird afterimages in the air as it moved. “By Chaos. But hidden in those dark secrets were hints of even more subtle and powerful magic. No, not mere magic…!” He checked himself and he leaned forward, his mad face intent. He’d been dying to tell this to somepony for literal ages!
“Pure, Primal POWER! What Ponies… and Faeries…” He sneered at Tyllae who only regarded him steadfastly. “Call Magic is only the safest edges of it. Can’t understand? I expected as much! Allow me to elucidate!”
The Discord the Ponytales were most familiar with reappeared as, with his trademark flash of magic, he appeared before us in a lab coat. A pocket protector jammed full of pencils, pens, and even a few elaborate quills bulged his breast pocket. Under the lab coat he wore a comfortable-looking and utterly incongruous maroon turtleneck shirt. He sported a thick head of hair of a chestnut hue, moderately long, that fell to the nape of his neck. A wave of it, obviously gelled in place, rode above his eyebrows in immobile serenity. When he spoke his voice took on a cultured, mellifluous tenor tone as he pointed to the blackboard he’d just conjured up with the Magic Prism.
On the board there was sketched a cartoon bonfire radiating heat and light. On the periphery of its influence were drawn tiny stick figures. Some of them wore robes adorned with stars and astrological signs, some wore skins and carried staffs, some wore tiny lab coats and brandished honest-to-Luna slide rules!
Closer to the flames other figures capered. Celestia-model Alicorns soared, spreading their wings to the blazing source of heat and light. Dragons orbited there as well, their sinuous necks craning this way and that. Closer in than that tiny figures played, the Faeries, among them… things… stalked and shambled and were seemingly held at bay somehow by their mere presence. One particularly disturbing figure held court in an orbit of its own just slightly closer in. Tentacles… I think… hid much of its face and the chalk itself mercifully glossed over the more hideous aspects of its being. I speculated as to what twisted love crafted a thing like that and wondered if this was the Dark God to who Discord so recently referred to…
With a smirk I noticed that the figure circling closest to the fire was none other than Discord himself! The egomaniacal son of a…
“The fire….” He began. “Represents The Power that lies at the heart of Everything. The source and engine of life, magic, and all versions of reality! And these figures represent the billyuns and billyuns of beings in the Cosmos who draw upon it to work Magic.”
I quirked a skeptical eyebrow at that statement, multiple dimensions had been postulated centuries ago but Science had never managed to definitely prove their existence.( The Vulcan Science Academy had ruled out their existence!) As of this Stardate they only exist in the minds of Arcane mystics and as mathematical models of the intricacies of Quantum Theory. I held my peace, not out of respect for the lecturer by any means, only in the hopes that he would have done with it quicker without questions-and-answers time.
“The Power grants its strength in proportion to a beings’ proximity to it. Naturally only the most Magically Powerful beings can dare approach it closely.” He coughed into his paw and rolled his eyes delicately as the talon holding the Prism tapped the cartoon Discord… erasing most of it. When he noticed that, he frowned and called an eraser into being that wiped it away. A conjured piece of chalk restored it. When he snapped his fingers to banish them they merged and changed into a trio of pink-and-yellow butterflies that fluttered up to hover just off his nose. The Great And Powerful Lord of Chaos recoiled from the sight and could only stare wild-eyed at them until they vanished of their own accord. He recovered fast enough, though the tic in his right eye grew worse…
“Heed thy own Portents, Discord, for all our sakes!” Tyllae caroled.
“Shut up! Shut UP!” Discord barked at her before turning his attention to the Prism. He shook it then peered at it closely with first one eye then the twitching other.
“…Don’t even think about going there again!” He growled to the Prism. “Do you hear me? Do you?” He shook the thing again before slipping smoothly back into his academic persona.
“As I was saying. Most beings can only bear to use the barest fraction of the power it provides, like these delicate and silly creatures who can only warm their hands at a distant fire they cannot approach without burning up. Some creatures are a little more tolerant of the blaze.” The Prism tapped the ring of Faeries and their kin while he gave a noncommittal nod to Tyllae who only looked on sadly.
“But even the most powerful of beings cannot approach the heart of the fire. Even I, Discord, could only stare into it from afar. It nearly drove us mad to…”
“Me.” I said, only too glad to interrupt him. “You should have said, ‘It nearly drove me mad.’”
“I said that!” He snapped pettishly.
“No, you didn’t.” I pointed out calmly. “You said ‘us’. How many bats do you rattling round in your belfry anyway?”
“You’re one to talk!” Discord sneered at me. “How’s the little Mare in your mind doing? Oops! I mean stallion!”
“D’ye ken th’ term ‘schizophrenia’, boyo?” Sunny helped me put more antimatter into the metaphorical reactor. “Th’ caramel’s a-slippin’ off yer apple for sure! Why d’ye no conjure up a wee couch n’ have a long talk about yer childhood wi’ yerself?”
“The Secret was there all the time!” Discord continued in thunderous tones, whacking the blackboard so hard with the Prism that it became crazed (Like its maker!) with ‘billyuns’ of shatter lines.
“In every spell, no matter how trivial…” He ranted. “Is an element of that Power, analogous to a quantum of that electromagnetic energy you wretched Ponies are so fond of!”
“Electricity is old news, Discord!” I put in, hurting secretly at the reference to the Mare in my Head who, for the sake of record, had been replaced with nopony at all! “Where have you been? Oops, that’s right! You were banished!”
“I WAS NOT BANISHED!” He roared! “I LEFT WITH THEM! I’VE BEEN WITH THEM ALL THIS TIME!” He struggled to compose himself, an effort that left him panting and clutching the Prism to his chest.
“Do you see how they are, Faery?” He spoke over our heads to Tyllae. “So unrepentant and disrespectful, they’ll drive you off your own world in time, you know.”
Tyllae spread her wings and her eyes blazed with eerie radiance as she pawed the air above the deck with one hoof. “We have another one to go to until they learn the lessons Our kind have already. In any event Thou art not one to speak of repentance and respect, Discord! Thou art not worthy…yet! Finish thy story. Tell them what We know now. Tell them from whence thy foul Magic Prism came!”
“Ahem!” Discord, flying straight and level once again, straightened is lab coat and ran a paw through his hair before resuming his rather nasal discourse again as the ruined blackboard joined the rest of the broken rubble in his mind. “As I was saying, I discovered that in every scrap of magic there resides the tiniest portion of the ash of that Primal Fire. Even as the sparks that fly from a mundane bonfire contain a bit of the fire itself so do the billyuns and billyuns of sparks of magic that propagate from the burning Heart of all Realities!” He stopped for a moment and buffed the Prism on the sleeve of his coat.
“Needless to say, I didn’t share this aspect of my research. No, no, no! Say what you will about the nature of my sanity but I wasn’t about to give mere Ponies access to such limitless power. Look what they did with mere atomic fission and balefire! Look at what Faerykind ultimately did with the Magic they loosed upon the world!”
I spoke up in anger as I say Tyllae flinch.
“And look what you’re doing!” I said. “Interstellar War is no joke. From where I stand you’re hardly any better than the beings you scorn. Sounds to me that you’re just afraid of competition, are you so petty that your life’s aspiration is to be the only Bully in the Dorm?” I was thunderstruck by a sudden thought.
“Good Luna! …You want to be worshipped, don’t you? ‘The Great God, Discord, Master of Magic’? Is that it, you….” I couldn’t find a word to sum it up better than, “You… Sap? Just because you enchanted a gem we’re all supposed to bend a knee to your genius?” I shook my head. “I’d point out that you are crazy beyond the dreams of madness, but you’re actions and words more than amply state my case. If you think for one instant…”
“Do you know…?” Discord cut me off and displayed the Prism to me. “How many beings it took to make this?” His mad, mad eyes reflected the highlights of the Prism.
“… What?” I whispered.
“Not just magic, but life itself contain the ashes of The Great Fire.” Discord purred. “All those creatures we searched the World for. First their Magic, then their very selves, all went into forming the nucleus of the Prism. And the Ponies I’d gathered ‘round me went along with it! I hardly had to convince them. Celestia’s Good Little Ponies decided it was for the best, in the name of Equestrian Security, of course. I could hardly believe it! They never knew how hard I laughed up my sleeves at them. So don’t prate to me about the Nobility of Ponies!” He said, scathingly before executing one of his patented personality flips.
“Aww!” He said sympathetically. “Don’t feel bad, Starry-Eyes! It wasn’t the only moral pitfall Ponies fell into. Surely a granddaughter, er, grandson of Khan would understand! Some things never change, don’t they?” He would have laid an arm across my shoulders, but Tyllae warded him off and his arm slid off the arcane barrier she interposed between us. He wandered away dropping his latest charade and standing before us in all his asymmetric glory.
“It was my link to the Great Fire!” He whirled to face us again. “The larger the Prism became the more of it I had access to. And it never gets tired or exhausted no matter I used it. What Unicorn or Alicorn could say that? It’s perfect! And…” He looked at us slyly. “Since it isn’t part of me not even Celestia could know of it! She could examine me all day and not detect the power I had at my command. I built it day by day right under her upturned nose and she never had a clue! It was hilarious!” He cackled and slapped his knee. I wanted sooo much to wipe that glee off his snout with something weighty!
“How many…?” Sunny’s voice faltered for a second. “How many… people did ye sacrifice t’ make th’ horrid thing?”
“Oh, I lost count long ago!” Discord said breezily. “Thousands definitely, probably hundreds of thousands…” He tapped his chin with the Prism thoughtfully. “Maybe even millions!” He frowned, concentrating. “Oh yes, definitely millions, now that I think about it. All of them in here! …Well just the part I needed, anyway!”
Sunny gagged and leaned against Tyllae who folded a prismatic wing around her. I reached out for her and she took me hoof and squeezed it desperately. If the horror we’d just heard served any purpose it brought me that much. New physiology or not, tears welled up in my eyes.
“Have you wondered yet why it takes the shape of a prism?” Discord asked us. “Of course you haven’t! Your minds are far too limited, aren’t they? Let’s take this one analogy at a time, shall we?” He flourished the Prism and held it flat in front of his face.
“What color is Reality?” he asked. “The light of The Great Fire is so powerful that it goes everywhere and everywhen. Realms seen and unseen, it reaches them all! Through the Prism I can see… and reach… them all!”
I was intrigued despite myself. “So, like a sufficiently hot fire produces everything from infrared to gamma rays… invisible to sight…the ‘Great Fire’ spawned multiple realities we can’t see? These realities are analogous to colors of a spectrum, is that what you’re saying?”
“Very good!” Discord beamed. “‘A’ for the day!” The gold star he’d intended to stick to my forehead slithered down the Faery shield instead, making him frown at Tyllae.
“I do wish you’d stop that! In my day Faeries were a lot more spontaneous and fun-loving. You’re no fun at all! I can see why Nightmare Moon put you away!”
“In Our day thou wert not evil. Oh, Discord, thou hath truly become a monster! It makes Us weep to see thee now, thou poor, wretched, unhappy child. Thou mayest yet redeem thyself. We beg thee to take the counsel We offer! Even in all thy pride and arrogance thou dost not truly comprehend the nature of the thing thou hast done. It hath blinded you and even now feeds thy madness. It serves thee not, Lord of Chaos. It cares naught for thee nor any other. The whispers thou hearest come from within thine own self, the deeds of thy Prism are but the stirrings of thine own twisted conscience. Take heed, Discord! Thou art not beyond redemption and forgiveness. Even now thou canst still come back. Honor the memory of thy Fluttershy and thy Celestia. How they would weep to see thee now!” Tyllae’s dark, dark eyes pleaded with the Monster before us.
Discord slowly froze. Only his eyes moved as they darted to the Faery upon whom they blazed with manic intensity. The light around him dimmed… or would it be more accurate to say that it fled from him?
In my life I’ve faced explosive decompression, cave-ins, radiation burns, war, and waking Sunny too early in the morning… but nothing filled me with so much instinctive dread as the sight of the Lord of Chaos descending into his wrath.
When he finally spoke it was in a low voice harder than dilithium, colder than the intergalactic abyss, and deadlier than a gamma-ray burster.
“That’s three times, isn’t it?” He slowly pivoted his head to fix the Fey with the full intensity of his gaze. Tyllae flinched back and pawed at the air, something like a low moan resonating in our ears…
“Well I refuse you three times!” He menaced her. “Now what?” He ground his teeth and growled. “I loved Celestia and she refused me… but I could live with that. I recognized that we were just too different. But Fluttershy was my friend and she loved me, she DID!” He let loose on that last word. He didn’t shout… he screamed so loud they must have heard it on Romulus! Our clothing shook and we stopped up our ears while Tyllae winced and braced herself.
Discord advanced on Tyllae. He snapped his fingers and something tiny suddenly glinted in his paw. I couldn’t make it out but whatever it was it made the Faerys’ eyes widen in alarm.
The Prism glinted coldly and he just walked through the Magic Tyllae summoned to keep him away. Sunny stepped in front of Tyllae and tried to shield her. I was not so passively inclined! I slipped under and gave him a solid right to the guts that would have dropped a Capellan Power Cat or a squad of berserk Klingons.
It was like punching a starship! I definitely broke fingers and maybe my wrist. I paid it no mind and swiveled my body to give him a kick but I never got the chance. The Prism twitched and batted me aside like a rag doll. As I flew away I caught a panicked glance of Sunny lowering her head to menace Discord with her horn!
Whatever he did to her I missed as I hit and rolled. When I wrenched my head back up I saw her senseless on the deck, her mane and wings disarrayed and disheveled. I surged to my hooves with every intent of charging straight into him. I may be an Augment, the heir of unnatural selection, but I was an Earth Pony, damnit! I wasn’t going to give up as long as I was breathing! Yet I froze in surprise when I saw what Discord held in his paw. It was a pin. A pin! Did he think he was going to pop a balloon?
But Tyllae never took her eyes off it. She held her ground, though, and even managed to look calm as he threatened her with it. She watched him intently, waiting.
Discord raised his paw and paused. He caught the Faerys’ eyes. “I told you, nopony mentions her name.”
As he struck, Tyllae changed her form. A Pink and Yellow Pony with three butterflies on her flank looked steadfastly into his mad eyes.
“Thou. Wert. Never. Her. Friend. She hatest thee!”
It was too late to recall the blow, or maybe the Prism drove the pin into her shoulder. Tyllae shrieked and keened a wailing cry as she fell to the deck. Discord, his face a mask of despair and shock, howled in dismay.
Pink radiance filled my eyes and it all went away…