What Bound Them

by Headless


28: Disharmony

It wasn't often that Discord wanted to sit still. He usually hated it. The lack of activity just grated on his nerves, even if, technically speaking, he could be sitting absolutely motionless in a physical sense and still bouncing off the walls in a magical one. Sitting still just felt wrong.

But now he was perched on the ruined widow's walk of what had been one of Canterlot's finest manors, and could have easily been mistaken for a statue. Or a gargoyle, at least, given his twisted features.

He wasn't entirely sure how long he'd been there before he heard the distant clop-clop of approaching hooves. There was only one set of them. He wasn't in the least bit surprised.

"Discord?"

It was the green unicorn, the one with the pinched features and far-too-early crow's feet. Oh, and the broken horn, of course. Of course it would be her. No, not in the least bit surprised.

Just... disappointed.

"Discord? Where are you?"

She was staring around at broken windows, as if expecting him to be on one of the ground levels. He sighed inwardly. Nopony ever thought to look up. They were all so dreadfully simple.

Still, he had already cast in his lot. May as well get it over with.

He fixed an utterly perfect, utterly fake smile onto his features, stepped forward off the balcony, and found himself behind the searching unicorn. When he spoke, his voice was its usual airy, carefree self.

"You rang?"


Compass Rose jumped at the sound of his voice. She had been expecting it, in a way, but that didn't keep it from startling her. She spun around to face Discord and fought to get her heartbeat under control.

The draconequus was still wearing that same smug, self-satisfied expression that he always did. He didn't show any signs of injury, or even of worry. He just looked like he always did.

Granted, that was still horrible to look at - even without the fact that his existence made her head swim, Discord was still a twisted mockery of a pony - but she found herself breathing a sigh of relief anyway.

"There you are," she said. "I was beginning to think you'd run off. Or that the windigos had..."

"Of course not," said Discord jovially. He took a few steps along the street, almost skipping as he went. "Didn't I say that they remind me of myself when I was younger? They wanted to take the time to catch up, as it were. Honestly, it was rather dull, as they aren't exactly the greatest conversationalists, but I have never been one to judge."

Compass blinked, then raised an eyebrow. "You spoke to them?"

"Well, yes." Discord stopped and gave her a quizzical look over his shoulder. "Didn't you? They do tend to repeat themselves a bit, but they do so love to talk. Surely you heard them as well?"

Compass shuddered at the memory of the oily whispers that had snaked their way into her brain during the blizzard. "Yes," she said. "But I tried to ignore it."

"Oh, it's never good to ignore them." Discord wagged a finger at her. "After all, they only tell you what you're already thinking. What have I been saying about living in denial?"

The unicorn tilted her head to one side. "Then what did they say to you?"

There was the most infinitesimal of pauses before Discord shrugged. "Not much," he said. His voice still retained its usual sound of amusement. "After all, what could I possibly be angry about? Now, you - I imagine somepony like you has quite a few things to be upset and afraid over."

Compass eyed him for a moment. He was avoiding anything approaching a direct answer again, but he always did that. He seemed as smug as ever, and there was no sign of injury. And yet...

She shook her head and said, "No. Almost nothing to be angry about. Worried and afraid, yes. But not angry."

"Oh, really?" Discord leaned forward, grinning like a lunatic, until his picket fence of yellowed teeth was mere inches from her muzzle. One of his claws came up and traced a line along the top of her head, stopping just above her horn. She managed to keep herself from pulling away, even as he spoke again and the stink of his rotten breath rolled over her. "Not even about losing this?"

She swallowed hard, fighting the sudden dryness in her mouth. "No. I told him to do it. I wish it hadn't happened, but I don't blame him." Finally, the ache grew too much for her to bear, and she raised a hoof to push his claw away. "I'm just worried that it'll end up with somepony getting hurt because I can't use magic any more. Like it almost did here." She paused, an image of Spike's oozing wounds drifting through her mind, and added, "Did."

"The purple one?" Discord straightened up and waved one hand dismissively. "He'll be fine. Dragon and all that. And he's a tough one, even for a dragon. Saved the Crystal Kingdom when he was just a baby, you know. Got a stained-glass window dedicated to him and everything." He laughed. "Of course, it's nothing on the ones I had in that one back there-" he jerked a thumb towards the distant castle "-but still, an impressive achievement."

Compass blinked. "Spike has a memorial dedicated to him?"

"Of course," said Discord, with a disinterested yawn. He let himself fall backward and lounged there, suspended in midair as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "Several, in fact. And a statue, assuming dear Cadence hasn't torn it down in a fit of pique by now. He was quite the celebrity back then, actually. Younger brother and chief confidant of the Princess of Magic, Ponyville's resident dragon, savior of the Crystal Kingdom, and any number of other titles. I believe he was formally knighted at some point, though I never paid much attention to that sort of thing."

"And what about you?" Compass sat back on her haunches and looked up at him curiously.

"Hm?" Discord blinked. "What about me?"

"You said you had some dedicated to you as well," she said, waving a hoof. "Were you ever knighted?"

The chimera let out a harsh laugh, almost a bark. "Of course not," he said, grinning still more widely. "Why would anypony knight me? I am, after all, Discord. Spirit of disharmony, Lord of Chaos, Prince of Madness, et cetera."

"But you saved Equestria," Compass pointed out. "You stopped the moon."

Discord raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"And," she continued firmly, "you're reformed, aren't you? You lived in the castle with the princesses. You're helping us now, even though you're weak. You tried to stop Nightmare Moon. You tried to stop all of this."

He laughed again. There was a twist of space, and then his paw was draped around her shoulders as he pulled her against his side. "Oh, my dear Compass Rose," he said, pinching her cheek with his other hand, "you have a lot to learn about public relations. Just because I did the occasional good deed doesn't mean I was liked. My memorials commemorate the centuries I spent spreading chaos across Equestria, lording it over all you little ponies like - well, like a god, in fact. As it turns out, some ponies tend to hold a grudge about that kind of thing."

She shook herself out of his grasp and looked up at him, frowning. "So that's what they said to you, then," she said. "The windigos."

Again, the most infinitesimal of pauses. Then Discord laughed and skipped away, shaking his head. "Ah, now, Miss Kindness," he said, in entirely bright and cheerful tones, "just because you're a bit more tolerable than the others doesn't mean I want you prying into my private business. We don't know one another that well just yet. Besides, don't we have places to be, magic to eat, lives to save, that sort of thing?"

And he danced off, humming to himself. Compass stared at his retreating back for a moment, then shook her head and set off after him.


For what felt like the hundredth time, Spike woke to discover new and interesting varieties of pain.

There was his sore throat, for starters. It felt as though it had been scraped raw. So did the inside of his mouth, but the pain there seemed less pronounced because he was too distracted by the horrible, bitter taste on his tongue.

All of that paled in comparison to the feel of the wounds Queen Chrysalis had inflicted on him. Even immediately after she had struck him, they hadn't felt like this. Now they subjected him to a horrible combination of sensations, like they were simultaneously being torn open, growing so cold that they were numb, and rotting away.

He took a moment to try and force the pain down, trying to push it out of his mind. They weren't small injuries, but he was a dragon, and they weren't large enough to kill him. It only partially worked.

There were voices nearby. Pith Helmet and Tailspin were talking to one another in low voices. He couldn't make out the words, but after a while, Tailspin laughed, and Pith gave what sounded like an embarrassed snort.

Spike opened his good eye.

The two ponies were sitting a few feet away. Tailspin was jabbing Pith in the side with one hoof and grinning slyly at him, while the stallion was obviously trying not to laugh, despite his look of embarrassment.

Spike gave a grunt and lifted his head. Immediately, the two of them turned to look at him, and Tailspin leapt to her hooves, her grin vanishing. Now she looked concerned.

"Heya, Spike," she said as she trotted up to him. Her voice had a note of forced cheer in it. "How you feeling?"

He blinked slowly at her, and she gave him a slightly sheepish smile. "Well, I've got to ask, right? It's not every day you start leaking oil." She lifted a hoof and pointed towards his chest.

The dragon turned his head to look at his scales. There was indeed something black and viscous oozing from his wounds. He had been half expecting it, but it still worried him. He let out a low sound in the back of his throat and looked back to her.

"Awful."

She let her false smile fade and moved a bit closer. "Are you going to be all right?"

"I don't know." Spike shrugged, then winced as his scales moved painfully. "I think the windigos did something to me. Or their magic reacted with Queen Chrysalis'. Or something." He hissed softly as one of his wounds twinged. "It... hurts. And it feels wrong. But I don't think I'm going to die just yet."

The pegasus gave a heavy sigh and dropped into a sitting position. "We need to get you to a doctor," she said. Then she paused, glanced over her shoulder at Pith, and continued, "We all need to see a doctor. As soon as possible, preferably. I've done my best with the big guy's leg, but it's not set properly and I know it. Compass can't keep pushing herself like she has been, you're, well-" she waved a hoof at his wounds "-bleeding tar, and I've got no idea what kind of magic I'm even living off of here."

Spike looked down at the ruby and shook his head. "Neither do I," he said, "but I don't think it's harmful. When I touched it, and all that red fire came up, I felt..." He searched for the right word for a few seconds, then gave up and said, "Better. I think it's become magical because of what I felt about Rarity and all the rest of my friends. It's not bad magic."

Tailspin nodded. "I guessed. But I'd still rather have myself checked over, along with the rest of you. We just have to hope we can get out of these mountains before the changelings take out all the fortresses. At least two of us are in need of expert care, which means military."

"Speaking of which," Pith said suddenly, "I think Compass just found our ride."

"That's me," said Discord brightly. He and Compass Rose were approaching from one of the side streets. "Chaos Taxi Services, Incorporated. The highest position in life any spirit of disharmony could ever aspire for."

Spike glanced down at Compass Rose. The unicorn was, for some reason, frowning heavily at Pith. He didn't seem to notice. He just kept eyeing Discord with the same suspicious look.

"I'd thought you'd be long gone by now," he said flatly. "Left me tied to that stretcher in the middle of a blizzard."

"Left? Never." Discord placed one paw over his chest, looking hurt. "I thought we had all agreed we're on the same side here. In case you hadn't noticed, the windigos were, to my shame, a bit more dangerous than I had anticipated. They separated us deliberately, after they kept me from getting us all off the mountaintop. They whisked me away for a little heart-to-heart."

Spike's one open eye narrowed. "Why would they do that?"

Discord grinned maliciously at him. "For the same reason they did it to you, Spikey boy. Better pickings. Aged like fine wine to boot." He wiggled a claw towards the wounds in the dragon's hide. "And it looks like they did a number on you indeed."

Spike suppressed the growl that rose up in his throat and settled for shaking his head. "Fine," he said. "Fine. They stopped you from taking us out of here. Can you do it now?"

"Not until we know whether or not he can heal himself," said Compass sharply. "That was the whole point of this, remember? And it's still our best shot."

"Quite," said Discord, nodding. "So. Assuming that you're all as sick of wasting time as I am-" Spike rolled his eye "-let's get on with this."

Tailspin stood up and trotted over to Pith. "Ready when you are," she said, as she helped the stallion to his hooves.

Discord grinned. "Then let's get started."

And he snapped his fingers.


When the world came back into focus, Spike found himself standing on top of a bluff overlooking a magically-distorted valley. Or, from another angle, he was standing in a valley and staring upward at a towering cliff. He tried to fight down the feeling of nausea that accompanied the dual vision, shook himself, and looked over towards Discord.

Everyone else did the same. The draconequus was standing at the very edge of the bluff, taking deep breaths and grinning. After a moment, he thumped his paw against his chest and said, "Ah, yes! Smell that mountain air. That's the stuff. Just the ticket for a recovering constitution such as mine."

"Well?" said Compass, taking a few steps forward to stand beside him. "Can you do it?"

The chimera smiled at her and patted the top of her head. "Already started, my dear. It's not exactly haute cuisine, but it is working." He flared his nostrils and sucked in another deep breath, then smacked his lips. "Ah... not a patch on what I used to have at my disposal, but it's far better than nothing. Like farm food. It's bland, but there's a lot of it. No offense to old Applejack's cooking, of course."

Compass broke into a wide, uncontrollable grin. "So it's going to work?" she said. Spike recognized the inflection in her voice. She sounded like Twilight always had after a breakthrough in her research. "You'll be able to stop the changelings?"

Discord stroked his goatee, looking thoughtful. "Hm. Possibly." One of his claws tapped against the longest of his fangs, making a soft clinking sound. "It's really an issue of time. If I had a week, perhaps, or a month, I might be able to gather up enough of this to do... almost anything. Given old Chryssi's timetable, though, I'm not sure."

Compass only looked slightly worried by this. "But it's a possibility."

"Everything's possible when I'm involved," said Discord airily. "That's the whole point of it, in fact. But I'll need time. As much time as you can give me."

"I thought we might have to do that," said Compass. She turned to face the rest of them, still smiling. "You see? We've got a chance. We can still do this, even without the Elements of Harmony. We just have to get back to the fortresses and tell them what's going on. If they know that Discord will be coming to help, they can plan around it. We can buy him the time he needs."

Spike snorted and eyed the chimera uneasily. He opened his mouth to say something, reconsidered, and shut it again.

"That's fine," said Pith, sounding skeptical, "but we've still got to get to the fortresses, and we're apparently on a range limit here."

"Not any more," said Discord brightly. "I'll need time to gather up enough to be comfortable confronting dear old Chryssi, but teleporting? Teleporting is easy. I've already got enough to send all of you halfway across the globe if I wanted to. Just say the word."

Pith frowned for a moment, then nodded. "Then Fort Maneholdt would be the best bet," he said. "Center of the cordon. Best place to go to get a message out."

"Your wish," said Discord, raising his claws, "is my command."

And he snapped his fingers, sending the four of them back into the void.