It was cold and dark, but also light. Just very cold and rather odd to be honest. Who would have though that being imprisoned was so... confusing? Discord glanced around the half-dark, half-light expanse of freezing cold space that surrounded him. He would have preferred to be locked into the statue for all of eternity instead of drifting here, if one could believe that. Truly, being locked in that statue would have been torture, but this couldn't be any better. Could it?
Darkness. Light. That was what confused him the most. Those two forces were both present and nonexistent in the plane of nothingness. The only thing that truly was, was him. Even that was left to be determined. For, in reality, he was frozen in stone to sit idly by as the world moved and changed around him. But, if that was reality, then where was he? Was his mind locked in a dreamscape until he was freed, if that was to ever happen? Or was he simply dead? Is this what it felt like to no longer be a part of the world, a drifting soul gone from the body?
No, he couldn't be dead. He was the immortal Lord of Chaos. So, that left him as locked in a dreamscape. Unless there were other options he was too blind to see... But what could those be? His mind, for once, was completely blank. There were no thoughts, no half-finished plans he would later execute. There was only silence. So, what was he left with? An icy cold... something. Darkness. Light. Silence.
That last one hit him the most. He wasn't used to it. The silence seemed foreboding, leaving him in quite the uneasy state. What was waiting for him at the end of this nothingness? If he was to find out, he would have to find a way out of here. But how? The Elements of Harmony were the most powerful artifacts known to ponykind. And if he could break free, he would just be trapped again by Celestia and Luna. Oh, how the mere thought of them made his blood boil.
Another thing he was left with. Emotion, feelings, senses. He could see the nothingness around him, if one could call that seeing, and he could feel the icy cold tendrils of air sending shivers along his spine. His rage towards the two princesses grew with each passing moment, the sheer emptiness only serving to fan the flames of fury. But there was something else, something he couldn't quite put his claw on...
The light flared around her as she screamed in agony, the magic pulling her far away into the unknown. Then it suddenly vanished. Her hooves were once again on solid ground, though it was rockier than anything she had set hoof on before. She turned towards where she knew the place she once called home was and saw it grow further away from her. The moon. That must be where she was. So she was trapped here for now, but it wouldn't last. The magic would fade, for with only one pony wielding the Elements it would be weaker and could not rid Equestria of her permanently. She would be back, one day.
That was when it suddenly went black. The stars flickered out. All but four, shining brightly against the darkened sky. It was always night here, a giant rock shrouded in darkness. It was bleak, but Nightmare Moon did not mind as much as others would have. As the last remnants of the starlight faded, the alicorn was joined by two pegasi and two unicorns. When their hooves touched the moon, the four remaining stars faded out of existence.
"Our four most loyal guards, what hast brought you here?" Nightmare Moon asked, her voice hollow and cold.
Shaking in their armor, the guards all exchanged glances. They were unsure whether or not to fan the flames of their queen's anger, should she choose to harm them for what had been done. Shrouded in darkness, all that could be seen now were the glowing turquoise eyes of Nightmare Moon and the dimmer, yet still visible, yellow eyes of the four guards. Each of the four had learned one thing when they had departed from Equestria into the stars: They would all be trapped for a thousand years, and then only their queen would return. They certainly would be dying serving her, as Darkwing had presumed.
Captain Darkwing was the one who ended up speaking, his voice quivering with fear. "My queen, it seems that we have been... sent, by Celestia, to provide you the means of escape after a certain time has passed."
"We see some remain loyal to us," she paused and took note of the four pairs of eyes in front of her. "...but is this all you have amongst you?"
"Y-yes, my queen. We four are the only ones who remain loyal to you, and will remain loyal until the very end." Three of the four pairs of yellow eyes bobbed up and down in the darkness, as if the ponies they belonged to were nodding in agreement. Tense seconds passed, though it seemed more like minutes or even hours to the nervous guards.
Finally, Nightmare Moon spoke. "Very well. You shall always have a place by our side once we return to Equestria and the throne. Might we know the names of the others loyal to us, for Captain Darkwing was no surprise."
With quivering voices and shaking knees, each guard spoke in turn. First was Frosted Star, the one other pegasus among their numbers aside from their captain, Darkwing. Moonblink was next, the unicorn finding his voice before his same-species companion. And finally, Night Stone managed to introduce himself by stuttering out his name. All were thankful they could not be seen except for their eyes, for Nightmare Moon surely would not have been amused by their shaking forms.
As if just now remembering they were unicorns, Night Stone and Moonblink managed to tap into their magic and light up the small area around both them and their pegasus compadres. Nightmare Moon also found herself able to light her horn, revealing her unscathed armor and glistening fangs for her guards to see. "Mm, that's better."
If it had still been dark, it wouldn't have mattered much. You could hear the smile in Nightmare Moon's voice as she spoke. She now had four loyal guards that would help her escape once the magic of the Elements had weakened and the time came for her to return. Not that it would matter much to have them by her side, for she would easily be able to defeat Celestia. After all, it was only a matter of time before her connection with the Elements faded and the magic weakened.
The darkness, the cold. The silence. It surrounded him, closing in from all directions. He was trapped, unable to move from the spot where he stood. He was, for what it was worth, a statue. Frozen in time and space for what could easily be eternity. But he could feel. That was what made him different, kept him aware of just how empty the place around him was. Most of what he could feel was easily placed, such as the cold and the burning rage within, but there was one thing that was not. It haunted him.
Just how quiet it was should have set off warning bells, and it did in a sense, but he was still without true thoughts to keep him busy. So he was forced to stand still in the nothingness spread out before him, unable to even move to entertain himself. And after what seemed like years to the immortal being, he saw a light. Not just the seemingly present light that accompanied the darkness and the cold, but a true light off in the distance. And he was free.
As soon as he could move, Discord slowly stretched out each limb and his tail. Once he felt slightly more relaxed, he began to hear the voices in his head returning. They were soft at first, but grew louder with every step he took towards that one bluish light at the end of the tunnel of nothingness. Of course, their ramblings were speculations of what that light could be, but the sound was welcome nonetheless. Now, that unknown feeling had vanished and Discord couldn't feel happier.
As Nightmare Moon's magic, as well as that of the two unicorn guards, lit up the area around them on the moon, the stars began to reappear one by one. At first, the small lights went unnoticed by the group of ponies. Each one was engrossed in their own thoughts, Nightmare's ones of planning and the guards' ones of their families back on Equestria. But the guards had pledged their service to Princess Luna, and Nightmare Moon had simply take her place as Ruler of the Night. So, they served her now.
It was not until the glow from the magic seemed nearly non-existent that Darkwing noticed the stars surrounding them. More were joining the numbers of stars each second, surrounding them, calling to him. As he looked at the faces of his fellow guards he knew that they felt it too.
The twinkling of their light drew him to them, putting him in a trance. Without thinking, he spread his wings and lifted off into the night. Frosted Star soon followed suit, his own bat wings seeming to glow as he grew closer to the multitudes of stars. As one, Moonblink and Night Stone ceased the glowing of their horns and instead found themselves being lifted towards the ever brighter lights on trails of stardust.
All Nightmare Moon could do was watch as her guards vanished, leaving her alone as her own magic faded out of existence. There was no need for it with the stars surrounding her, and it seemed as if the stars themselves had shut it off. When her guards had faded completely into the velvet-like sky, the stars' glow seemed to intensify ten-fold until Nightmare Moon was forced to shut her eyes against the blinding light. When she opened them again, each star paled in comparison to the four shining in the distance, forming a diamond wide enough to encompass the moon on which she was trapped.
The blue light was gone, but so was the gray haze-like emptiness from before. Instead of these things, Discord found himself walking along a path of stars, guided by a trail of shimmering silver stardust. The black velvet sky was dotted with twinkling white lights. Off in the distance, Discord swore he saw the outline of the dark side of the moon, which in reality wasn't really any darker than the light side all the way out here. Not that it mattered much to him anyway.
So, in an attempt to stay away from the silence that had plagued him for months on end, Discord followed the silver stardust road. With every few steps, the moon seemed to be growing closer. He soon figured out that was his destination, but found his magic to be of little help. The most he could do out here was turn the stardust into sprinkles for a millisecond. "Well that's pointless." he mumbled, continuing on.
Eventually reaching the rock-covered surface of the moon, Discord was surprised to see another form silhouetted against the starlight. The stars around her were dimming, and he couldn't help but be disheartened at the fact that he had missed something, even if it was just stars. Quietly, he moved towards the shadowy figure in the hope that he could identify this mysterious creature. No, it was definitely a pony, he could make out the outline of a horn atop its head; a unicorn.
At least, he thought it was until he heard a quiet rustling of feathers. So, it had wings too. An alicorn then. But he knew of only two... He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and noticed the flowing mane of the pony. "It can't be..." And he was right, it wasn't, for the pony had now turned her head and he could see the sharp fangs gleaming in the starlight. He shrunk into the shadows of a crater as she drew closer, holding his breath. When she turned away, he saw her horn light up with that same blue light he had seen earlier. So it was...