The lavender unicorn was still chewing on the side of her cheek, eyes darting worriedly from her friend's intense eyes to the horn she was staring so intently at.
"You need my help? W-well, alright. What do you need me to do?"
She knew what Fluttershy would say even before it tumbled from the pegasus's mouth, although she prayed to Equestria it wasn't the case. It had indeed taken months for Twilight to be comfortable with using magic again, but she wasn't ready to try a spell, least of all on Discord.
"I need you to perform a spell for me," Fluttershy ordered, gently gripping the unicorn with her hooves and staring into her violet, searching eyes. Twilight was about to protest, but Fluttershy dragged her to the side of the spirit's bed.
Twilight let her eyes scan his shaking body in apprehension. The last spell she had done on him...
"I don't know, Fluttershy," she mumbled softly, not even realizing she was beginning to back away from her friend, and the bed. She tried to keep her composure as tears filled Fluttershy's eyes.
"Twilight, please!" Fluttershy pleaded in a ragged, sobbed whisper. "I need your help – I can't do it on my own! I don't have magic! Please.." She looked up to where the whimpering spirit lay and tossed. "We need to help him."
Twilight had to agree. He was shaking like a school filly, looking genuinely frightened by whatever was plaguing his subconscious state. Why did Twilight have a feeling it was something to do with what they just read? She was sure Fluttershy did too.
"Alright..what will you have me do?" the unicorn asked softly, pumping magic to the tip of her horn for preparation. She stood in front of the spirit, biting her lip fiercely, hard enough that it started to sting and the pony tasted the metallic taste of blood. She drew her teeth back, instead aiming her horn.
"Do you know any dream spells?"
Instantly, Twilight lost her concentration, the magic pulse fading to a spurting fizzle as she turned to her friend in shock. "Dream spells! Fluttershy, those kind of spells – invading one's dream is bordering the line of black magic!"
Fluttershy tilted her head slightly. He had invaded her dreams more times than she could count. Granted, it was for the sake of protecting her, but he had used black – well, what was she thinking; he was the spirit of chaos. Of course he used black magic.
"Simply seeing into his dream is black magic?"
"Bordering it," Twilight said with an affirmed nod, extinguishing the purple light in her horn, and starting to make her way back to bed. "Tainting a dream and inflicting nightmares is the blackest of magic because it causes true suffering and psychological pain-"
"But we aren't-"
"Invading a dream," Twilight began with extra emphasis, silencing the pegasus, "is also tampering with a darker magic and is against Equestrian laws. That paralyzing spell I tried on Discord that started this whole mess was black magic, but it was for the sake of banishing evil so I figured I could get away with it."
Fluttershy sniffled, resting on her haunches and flinching as Discord threw off the rest of the bedsheets, that tumbled onto her. She poked her face out of the fabric.
"So then everything Discord does is black magic. That alone is enough to put him away, and add taking over Equestria to it," she mumbled. "But...but we need do something! Twilight, who will find out all we did was look into his dream? If Celestia finds out just tell her why you did it."
Twilight's eyes wandered back to the thrashing form. The amount of fear etched into his scrunched up face drenched with perspiration was incredible, and enough for her to feel sympathetic for him. If this spell could actually help him, perhaps she'd finally have a chance of making things up to him.
The unicorn set her jaw, giving a firm nod. "Alright then."
She wrapped a foreleg around the pegasus as Fluttershy gratefully hugged her. The pony quickly and subtly trotted to one of the library shelves, levitating the spell book down to her with her horn. "Alicorn's Power" felt tainted in her touch, and the unicorn wanted to toss it out the window, but she kept it firmly in the purple bubble, walking shakily to the saffron pegasus.
"I hate this book," Twilight murmured with a shiver, laying it down and sifting through. "I really hate it, but I never memorized this dream spell, so I need to look at it."
Touching this book by magic or hoof just felt so wrong to Twilight, the very presence of the book sending shivers through her spine, and tears threatening to spill. Yet the unicorn knew that this book also had the potential to help him, and her beloved princesses. So Twilight read on.
"Fine, I think I'm finally done," the unicorn breathed out, although almost biting back her words to delay the process. She had no idea how to perform this spell and just what it may cause. For all she knew it could tamper with his mind and blacken it completely, giving him amnesia.
The unicorn stood in front of the bed, knowing she needed to lay the negative thoughts to rest. If she panicked too severely it would cause fatal harm. Alicorn magic needed a calm mind to perform correctly.
"Stand by my side, Fluttershy," Twilight requested, voice visibly quivering and prompting Fluttershy to gently rub her back with a hoof.
The unicorn let the pulse of power surge through her horn, softly rippling her mane and Discord's bed sheets with an invisible, calm wind. The surge of violet shot through her horn, illuminating the room, the wind blowing far fiercer.
Fluttershy watched in awe as pages swirled around the area the unicorn was standing, spiraling in the form of a cyclone. The pegasus trembled, desperately trying to snap her eyes open as unconsciousness tried to pull her under.
"No, don't fight it," Twilight ordered, trying to push the last bit of her remaining strength in the spell before the fingers of unconsciousness gripped her. They were already trying to.
"That's the spell working – it's taking us into the dream. I know..it's uncomfortable, but try to withstand...it.." Her voice was beginning to slur, eyes beginning to shut. Her knees buckled as she collapsed with Fluttershy, head slamming into the ground, although the horn continued emitting a vibrant purple light.
Right before Fluttershy fell under completely, she briefly caught sight of his rapidly swinging tail – that suddenly slammed into a glass on the night table.
There was a loud clatter, followed by a shattering sound as the glass bounced off the floor tiles. The two ponies were thrust back into consciousness as if ice cold water had drenched them. Twilight's horn gave a painful, fizzing pop, send the two equines flying backwards from the sudden magic explosion.
The girls painfully stood, wondering where the spell went wrong. That's when they saw the very confused, disoriented spirit with his tired eyes half open, looking halfheartedly down at them.
"What're...you doin'?" he asked groggily, blinking in exhaustion and tilting his head questionably at Twilight's dimly lit horn.
Fluttershy was quick to come up with an excuse: "Twilight saw you kicked your blankets off and she was going to cover you again." She shot a subtle glare to the unicorn, who quickly scrambled into action to perform a spell so as not to let on they fabricated a lie.
"...Okay," was all Discord mumbled. He was out again.
The unicorn sighed as she replaced the blankets on the curled up form, poofing a new glass of milk into existence and using a spell to clean the mess of glass and liquid.
"Well, that went swimmingly," the unicorn muttered sarcastically, slamming the stupid alicorn spell book shut, and angrily kicking it underneath a book shelf. She waited to see if he'd start screaming again, but the spirit remained sleeping peacefully like a baby.
"I guess we'll have to try again tomorrow night," Fluttershy said softly, finally giving into her exhaustion and crawling into bed next to the draconequus. She watched as Twilight quietly sauntered her way to her own bed, out before even wriggling under the quilt.
xxxxxxxx
Twilight wasn't hungry. On the table lay a grand feast of breakfast rolls, cookies, and even her favorite cream buns were oozing their delicious filling into her plate. Yet the unicorn hadn't the desire to pop even a piece of one into her mouth. Darn that Discord – he had completely taken away her appetite. It seemed Rain Drizzle could tell.
"You alright, sweetheart?" her nanny asked softly, nuzzling the back of her head, concern for her child clear in her eyes. It was the same with Celestia.
"Twilight?" the princess asked softly, walking close to her and kneeling slightly down to her student's level. "Are you alright, my student?"
The unicorn held back her tears. She felt sick for practicing black magic, not only behind her mentor's back, but in her own home! She couldn't keep it a secret from her, but she couldn't tell her either. Once again the horrible idea of a punishment in terms of magic kindergarten popped back into her head, almost making the paranoid pony start hyperventilating.
"I-I'm fine – nothing's wrong," Twilight mumbled, rolling her cream bun. She stiffened, feeling Celestia's glare on her, her maternal instincts having kicked in.
"Don't try to pull the 'nothing' card with me, young lady," the royal alicorn said sternly, giving her student a reprimanding nudge from behind. "Now tell me what's wrong."
Twilight knew she needed to think up another fake explanation fast at the speed Fluttershy had last night, but her mind faltered. It was then the unicorn realized she didn't need to make anything up.
"I'm still upset about last night. Everything was going so great, and..." She released her breath as Celestia nodded understandingly, sadly, absently pacing the room.
"Oh, I know, my student. Try to forget about it. It's hard enough trying to help Luna; I don't know if I can cheer you up as well! It was a mistake letting Luna come to dinner with him roaming freely."
The princess settled on her haunches by the windowsill, her ethereal mane rippling in the sunlight pouring through the windows."I knew she hadn't seen him in thousands of years, and I knew their reunion wouldn't be a happy one."
Twilight had no comforting words to offer, and therefore only trotted to her teacher's side, wiggling underneath her wing and pressing herself comfortingly against the white mare.
"Where's Luna now, princess?"
"In her room taking a nap. I sent Discord to the greenhouse again, and I hope he can keep himself occupied there for a while – there should be enough to entertain himself with." Her eyes hardened, glazing over with a venom. "I don't want to see his face for some time."
Twilight couldn't exactly disagree with that after last night, and she was honestly surprised the sun alicorn hadn't banished the impish creature from her palace completely. She gazed out the palace window. Deep in the stretching Canterlot gardens, she saw a small and rather run down green house amidst many other lively looking ones. It was no wonder the princess was going to tear it down.
The princess trotted behind her pupil, once again nudging the young unicorn. Twilight turned just to get a breakfast bun stuffed in her mouth. She tried to form a halfhearted glare, but her mentor's eyes only glinted mischievously.
"I believe the whole reason for this get together was to spend some quality time together?" She grinned as her charge's eyes sparkled like a young filly about to tear into her presents on Hearths Warming Eve.
"Come." And the unicorn did, falling into a trot beside her surrogate mother.
xxxxxxxx
Moss green hooves dug vigorously into the soft dirt, finally reaching their target: the roots."If these roots jump up and try to jump at my face like the last row I found, I swear to Celestia I am making YOU cut these ones, Green! Stupid magic...weeds and their stupid teeth.."
Green Hoof snorted, resting on a rafter over one of the green houses and watching his brother work. "Oh come on, Miner – they aren't that bad."
"Easy for you to say, Green," Miner muttered under his breath, igniting his horn and aiming it at the brown roots of the weed. "Stupid thing didn't try to snap off your face.." He yelped, hopping back as the magic weed's yellow teeth nearly sunk into his muzzle.
"OH geez! Here we go!" The young stallion scrambled to his feet, shouting out pleas for help as the weed chased him. His brother only collapsed over the rafters in hysterics, his evergreen hooves all that were seen as he shook with mirth.
There was a loud snap, and the panting stallion managed to slice his weed clippers into the base of the roots; the clippers sliced through the plant like a knife through hot butter, and the weed collapsed, its fierceness diminishing with its life.
"Yeah, I revel the memories of digging in the mines," Miner muttered, crawling against the ground towards his brother. "At least the sapphires and rubies never tried to eat me. How did we go from mines to gardens anyways.."
"At least be thankful Celestia gave us a job when the mine collapsed. Of course, it did help that father was one of her most faithful servants."
Green Hoof glanced over to where his exhausted brother was laying in a puddle of mud. He glanced back to the crumbling greenhouse they were supposed to demolish that day, and he moaned. It was sweltering outside. The last thing either brother wanted to do was help with the demolition and use such an intense amount of magic. They hardly had the energy for that.
Miner moaned as his brother wiggled his tail over his face, and he tried batting it away. "Bug off, I'm trying to rest here.."
"Miner, get up. You know we need to help with the demolition." he growled as his brother kicked away his tail, which swung casually in the air. "I'm tired too, but we just need to get through this, and then we can head off to lunch."
Green Hoof hopped down off the rafters, giving the whining and protesting younger stallion a kick in the flanks. "Come on – Brick Breaker is waiting." He looked back frantically to where his boss was fixing a poker faced look at him.
"Oh, alright.." At last Miner rolled onto his feet, following his older brother, although not without a few annoyed grumbles that Green tried to ignore. The two gardening brothers made their way to the crumbling green house.
"Aren't we supposed to take down this thing tomorrow?" Miner grumbled, getting into position in front of the tattered green tent.
"We were," Brick Breaker said, "but apparently the weather ponies call for a lot of rain tomorrow. I trust neither of us want to clean up this mess in wet grass and mud?" He began igniting his horn, and both agreeing brothers did the same.
"Does the princess know?" Green Hoof asked, as the light from his horn synchronized with the others, beginning to shake the weak, frail foundation of the greenhouse.
"No – I don't think so. We'll tell her later. Trust me, she'll be relieved. I know she's been wanting to get rid of this eyesore. Now let's tear this thing down!"
xxxxxxxx
The surviving flowers lined in pots under the rays of the sun were spitting buttery popcorn pieces out, dispensing it like a machine. Discord caught them in open jaws, sinking his snaggle tooth into the soft morsel.
He had to admit his little playpen had been greatly entertaining, and he thoroughly enjoyed causing chaos without worrying about being reprimanded or punished by anypony. He smirked, laying back on a bag of fertilizer and examining his work. He had done fantastic.
Flowers were spitting popcorn and gumballs, or else the flowers themselves were some kind of carnival treat. A storm of chocolate rain brewed over the shelves of flowers, and Discord had transformed the dirt into Oreo pieces, which he was eagerly pawing his way through and shoveling into his mouth.
He had to at least give Celestia a bit of credit. This was perhaps slightly...kind of the princess, although he hated to admit it. It was nice to have more freedom than he was usually limited to.
It was just too bad he was far too exhausted to enjoy it. The annoyed spirit fell back against his pillow with a small plunk, rubbing at his mismatched eyes. The nightmares from last night were still lingering in his memory and the draconequus wondered why they were suddenly so constant. It was every night now, and they were worse, harder to bear. The faces, the dead eyes, those damn princesses- they stayed in his mind, stuck there like a bitter glue he would never be able to remove.
The tired spirit blearily looked up when a board suddenly snapped off the side of the green tent. He tilted an ear, but smirked. Celestia was right – this place was in horrible condition now.
Another board fell, and then another. The smirk fell from the draconequus's face, replaced with panic and a pang of fear when he realized the pile of rubbish was collapsing.
"And I think it's time for this draconequus to make his exit." He went to snap his fingers – nothing happened. The spirit was breathing heavily now. Teleportation spells had been compromised with his limited magic, but not when he was merely trying to flash himself ten feet away.
That princess! She must have put some sort of barrier on the greenhouse so he couldn't use magic to get free!
"Wait!" Discord gasped, fighting desperately to hold up more boards as they fell. "Wait! Wait!"
xxxxxxxx
Twilight lay spread out on her mentor's puffy, circular bed. It was overflowing with different cushions. Her favorite had to be the blazing yellow one with the beads stitched in to form a sun. It wasn't particularly comfortable to lay her head down on, but it was a beauty to look at, as were most of the princess's things.
"I remember when you were seven I caught you jumping on my bed, so sure I couldn't see you." The regal princess grinned, using her magic to run her soft, bristled brush through her ethereal mane.
"It was the sweetest thing." Celestia laughed at the embarrassed flush spreading across her pupil's face, and she set down the brush, walking next to the bed where the little filly had her face buried into the mattress like an embarrassed teen.
"Care to elaborate on the new spells you were oh-so excited about in the letter you sent me, my dear?" Celestia asked quietly by the unicorn's ear. She barely had time to move away from the dangerous range of the pony's horn as her head shot up in excitement.
"Oh, princess – yes!" Twilight's violet eyes sparkled with excitement, her body fidgeting slightly in happiness, bouncing the mattress as she jabbered on.
"I read a few new books, and I learned a few really good and effective spells for healing cuts and burns." She hopped off the bed, grinning and trotting back to where Celestia was at her vanity.
"Finally, finally when somepony gets hurt around here I can do something to help them without having to worry about relying on others!" The grin and bouncing ceased, her head lowering. "Or..making things worse," she whispered.
Instantly, a gentle force brought her chin up to her mentor's stern, violet eyes. Twilight gulped, which was a difficult feat with the golden hoof under her chin. She almost tried to pull away, but would never be stupid enough to do such a thing.
"Now, Twilight, listen to me," Celestia frowned, keeping her child's face held gently in her hoof. "You cannot keep belittling yourself for what happened months ago. I know you learned from it and you will never again attempt black magic."
Twilight nearly burst into tears and childish sobs, wanting so bad to cling to her surrogate mommy and wail that wasn't the case. She had betrayed her mentor last night and she was going to betray her again tonight. The one pony she loved more than anyone...
"Y-yes," was all the trembling unicorn managed to strangle from her throat, Celestia completely misinterpreting her tears.
"I know you're upset Discord won't forgive you," the princess sighed, slipping on the rest of her bands and at last the golden crown, "but forgiveness isn't exactly in his nature..at all. So please don't cry because he's still angry. I'm afraid that's just Discord."
Twilight felt utterly sick, her throat doing desperate swallows to fight the rising bile as she lied to her teacher. "Yes, that's why..I'm crying. I guess it's just hard sometimes."
"It will stay that way, I'm afraid," Celestia sighed, giving her student a gentle nuzzle. She crossed the bed chambers, through the translucent bed curtains, and to her relaxing mat in the corner of the room.
"How about we stop all this depressing talk and get to talking about your studies?" She smiled compassionately at her student, trying to induce the slightest smile. It had no effect on the downcast pony.
The princess pursed her lips, biting down tensely, wondering what else to do. Her eyes roamed the room, settling on the cushion Twilight had been enticed by. Smirking, Celestia enveloped it into a subtle, purple hue, raising it ever so slowly, impishly behind her charge.
Twilight heard the rustling of fabric behind her, and she saw the faint shadow of the pillow rising from the wall. Sure enough, the moment she turned, the pillow slammed into her face.
The frazzled unicorn blinked away the dots in her vision, rubbing her face. As she raised her head, a mahogany, plush pillow swatted her in the face.
"Hey!" Twilight gasped, wriggling her head out from under the two pillows and staring at her mentor. The look of utter confusion and almost betrayal was almost enough to make the sun princess burst into laughter.
Celestia usually held to the traditional formalities with her student even when she was little. There were many cases where the two broke them; such as after nightmares, punishments, any terrible situation that would bring out the maternal side in the old mare, or simply to loosen up and play.
Like today.
"You want it to stop, Twilight Sparkle?" her mentor grinned, the grin an unnatural, playful, and deeply sinister look. "Well then, engage me."
"Prin-" Twilight's protest was interrupted as a pillow was gently stuffed into her mouth. She blinked, the pillow hanging there for a moment as those purple eyes blinked at her teacher curiously. After several seconds they changed into different expressions, finally narrowing, the corners of her mouth turning up into a sly grin.
Celestia gave an indignant shriek as a set of pillows rose from her bed and pelted her like a rain of soft projectiles. The princess fell ungracefully to the floor, but couldn't help laughing as the cushions fell mercilessly on top of her. It was rare she had this much fun with her student.
Twilight's eyes gleamed with playful malice as she rose the last set of cushions off the now naked looking bed, and right in mid-hurl she froze rigid.
Celestia had summoned a fairly large pillow; its weight of feathers and size almost measuring to the alicorn. She seemed to have taken the liberty to summon a stitched pattern on it that cheerfully spelled "I won."
The pillow was thrown, but it was far to heavy and exploding inwardly with feathers – which became outward as it slammed into the bed. Like giant fluffy snowflakes, the room exploded with feathers, decorating the room in white. The two ponies were on their backs and stomachs in giggling hysterics, sounding like two school fillies.
"Oh, Equestria, my room! Rain Drizzle is going to have a fit!" Celestia managed to gasp between peals of laughter, giggling more as Twilight used magic to thrust the feathers at her.
The unicorn flopped onto her back, giving a contended hum and waving her forelegs and back legs up and down in the sea of feathers like a snow angel. She giggled from their softness, turning to look at her mentor, throwing her hooves to her mouth in mirth at Celestia's condition. She looked like a rather large chicken with the feathers covering her.
"Pr-Prin-ce-he-he-hess!" Twilight fell into a point of complete hysterics, tears seeping from her eyes, unsure why she found this to be that funny! Perhaps it just felt so good to laugh and not have her mind on everything. She was completely at ease and content right now. Celestia seemed to be the same.
Yet fate had the cruelest of ways to abruptly end that, and shatter the happiness and laughter.
Celestia stood, trying to shake the feathers off, and to no avail. More than half still clung to her, especially into her flowing mane. She shook her head vigorously, laughing, but the feathers stayed clung like stubborn little burrs.
"Good luck getting them off," Twilight giggled, spluttering out guffaws when Celestia flashed her a playful glare.
The regal princess rolled her eyes, giving a smalltranquil smile as she threw open the window, sticking her head out enough to let the breeze gently caress her fur, lift the soft feathers from her body. She watched as most of them fluttered carelessly into the wind.
Something compelled the princess to glance down at the gardens. When she did, everything around her seemed to shatter. Twilight's now concerned tone drowned out in a steady ringing in her ears.
The sun alicorn was seeing nothing but the wreckage on the ground. She didn't hear Twilight's shout for her to come back as she dove out the window, spreading her wings. All Celestia heard was her pounding heart.
Her hooves slammed into the ground, and she took the sight before her in stunned silence. The greenhouse was there, a crumbled mess like she had asked for. Boards were everywhere, as were shattered pots and glass. In the tangled colors of green the princess saw a single tuft of white fuzz from his tail.
All at once, Celestia sent a deep, booming wave of energy around her, causing a magical wind to send the crowding demolition ponies flying back into the mud in shock and confusion as their horrified princess scrambled to the wreckage.
"Discord!" The alicorn fell to the ground, magic engulfing boards and glass, and ripping them off, throwing them into the gardens, destroying it, even managing to kill a row of magic weeds. Celestia didn't care – not in the slightest. She just needed to get to him-
The gray head flopped into the dirt as it was freed from a board. Crimson blood matted into his fur, dripping down his face and neck from where the glass had sliced into his body. His eyes were shut, ears limp to the sides of his face. No – they were pinned to the ground by glass.
The demolition ponies all exchanged horrified gasps when they saw the limp, twisted and bleeding face draped over their princess's lap. They could tell even from a distance that he wasn't breathing.
"No, no, no, no!" Celestia gasped urgently, raggedly, jerking his face to her, holding it so tightly he'd probably whine in pain if he was conscious. "Discord? Stay with me! No-no.."
It was all her fault.
"I-I need medics," the princess muttered, her voice giving off to incoherent rambles and gibberish for a few minutes, before it settled back in full, loud, coherency. "I need medics!"
The demolition and gardening ponies shot each other helpless looks, frozen stiff there in the mud for a moment, only looking on to the horror in front of them.
"I need MEDICS!" Celestia yelled, effectively breaking the stallions from their trances as they scrambled throughout the mud, finally jumping to their feet and galloping to the palace, shouting to the servants. Celestia's shouts rang louder than any other pony as she screamed after them.
"GO! GO! GO! GO!"
xxxxxxxx
(This chapter was supposed to stretch on far longer than ten pages, but I realized that it would reach about twenty three? XD The next part stands alone as a chapter.
Yes, and I do believe Canterlot gardens have magic snapping weeds. Why? Because it's funny.
Discord, damnit, stop getting yourself hurt.
Just realized I forgot to indent chapter six and seven. Whoopsie~ Will fix that later.)