"Have you never noticed, Little Sparkle? The world moves in cycles, history repeating itself over and over again." Discord leaned back against an oversized beanbag that had appeared behind him. He fumbled for his bubble pipe before realizing that he had cast it aside earlier. "A race will rise, become dominant, and fall. Then another race will rise to take their place and the cycle repeats. Again and again, since time immemorial." His eyes lacked any trace of their usual silliness or playfulness. All that remained was a cruel sadness, deeper and darker than anything Twilight could comprehend. Discord's flat voice spoke without emotion, and it was possibly the most unnerving thing Twilight had ever heard. "Right now, the ponies are the dominant species," Discord continued, either not noticing or not paying attention to Twilight's discomfort. "Before them, it was the alicorns, of which only Celestia and Luna remain. And even before them... it was the humans."
"Humans?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Ah yes, the humans," Twilight saw a flicker of a fond smile appear on Discord's face, though his voice remained as emotionless as ever. "What an absolutely marvellous race. Capable of both the worst atrocities and the greatest kindnesses, they completely conquered the world and shaped it to their whims. They were completely incapable of magic, but that only drove them to accomplish greater and greater things. Just imagine it. Able to fly hundreds of individuals through the air at speeds not even the Element of Loyalty can achieve, capable of building enormous structures that make even Canterlot Castle itself look like a hovel, and a solid enough grasp of their own biology that they could perform heart transplants and the patient could survive. And all without a single bit of magic."
Twilight's breath caught in her chest. What Discord was saying sounded wondrous! Her inner scholar was going nuts. So was her outer scholar, she mentally added, as she realized she was literally dancing on her hooves. If there was even the slightest kernel of truth to what Discord was saying, she really wanted to know more about them. "So what happened?" Twilight asked, leaning in. "They're not around anymore, right? So what happened to them?"
"There was a war with the alicorns."
Twilight sat back heavily, her head drooping with disappointment. She had finally gotten closer to learning a little more about that complicated creature from the Everfree. And for her search to end with such a simple answer... A frown spread on her face as she realized something. Nothing about what had happened since that cre - that human, she corrected herself - first appeared had been simple. She narrowed her eyes at Discord. "You're not telling me something."
Discord grinned, a hint of his usually mischievous spirit blossoming in his eyes. "Plenty. But in this case, I'm not telling you who the war was against. The humans and alicorns did go to war together, that much is true. But they fought as allies, not as enemies."
"Allies?" Twilight repeated. Memories flashed through her mind; memories of fire, of blood, of pain. She reached up and touched her horn, carefully brushing against the cracks that spread throughout it like the reaching strings of a spider web. "We were allied with something like that?"
Discord's smirk widened even further. "Oh?" he asked mockingly. "Is the vaunted Element of Magic herself refusing to make friends with someone? Is the power of your so-called Harmony really that weak?"
Twilight couldn't respond to that.
After a pause to let her answer, Discord shrugged. "Looks like my victory will be even easier than I thought. As I was saying, the humans and the alicorns fought side-by-side, allied against a great evil power-"
"Was it you?" Twilight asked bluntly.
Discord gave her an offended huff. "Really, are you just going to blame me for everything until you find something I'm actually responsible for? You need to go out and make some real hobbies. I hadn't even been created by then, I'll have you know."
"If you want me to stop accusing you, maybe you should stop doing terrible things," Twilight suggested.
"Nah. Where was I?" Discord popped his eyeballs out of his skull and rolled them between his fingers, trying to remember what he had been saying before being so rudely interrupted while Twilight watched with a mixture of disgust and dismay. "Oh right, alicorn war or whatever. Anyways, there was a war against some sort of evil. Alicorns survived, humans didn't. Eventually the alicorns vanished as well. A whole bunch of things happened after that — eventually the Elements of Harmony were created in the hopes that it would prevent another war of that scale." Discord uncomfortably scratched the back of his head with a sheepish expression on his face. "And then, well... a whole bunch of stuff happened after that. Celestia took the throne, and here we are now... and, uh... the end."
Twilight's expressionless face spoke volumes. "Little more detail than that would be nice."
"I don't know much more than that," Discord admitted with a shrug. "I don't know where either the alicorns or the evil force came from in the first place. I don't know how they defeated the power in the end. And I don't know why the humans and alicorns decided to ally with each other. Honestly, all my knowledge comes from stories Celestia told me back in our youth."
"You knew the Princess when you were young? Twilight asked. "Wait... you were young?" Somehow, she'd managed to build up this image of Discord of an immortal, omnipresent force in her head; ever-present and everlasting.
"Tia's older than I am, thank you very much," Discord gave her an annoyed glare, though there was no heat in it and it vanished as quickly as it came. "Keep in mind, all the stories were ones that she had heard from her own mother, so I'm not too sure how truthful they are."
"Mother?" Twilight repeated. "The Princess never told me about her mother..."
"I'm not surprised," Discord said. "Tia's good at hiding it, but she's never gotten over what happened to her mother." Twilight's ears flicked at his tone. If it hadn't been Discord, she would have sworn there was genuine concern in his voice. Since it was Discord, she passed it off as either her imagination or him trying to manipulate her in some way.
"Prove it," Twilight challenged, knowing there was no way he could. "You're saying that Princess Celestia still carries burdens from thousands of years ago? Then prove it."
"Easy," Discord replied without a trace of hesitation. An amused chuckle escaped him at Twilight's expression, but the amusement quickly faded away. "And you've given me the ammo I need. 'Princess' Celestia. 'Princess.' What an interesting title. Why not Queen?"
Twilight remained silent, knowing he was going to answer the question anyway.
Discord frowned slightly at Twilight's unwillingness to play along, but like the amusement from before, it vanished as quickly as it came. "Celestia's mother was the Queen of the Alicorns. I don't think Tia's even aware of it, but she's constantly comparing herself to her mother. Until she feels that she's her equal, she's not going to be taking her title. Thousands of years have passed, and Celestia's still living in her mother's shadow. It's just so tragic, isn't it?" Deep laughter boomed from him, throwing away his apparent melancholy in an instant. "It's just... too FUNNY!"
Twilight recoiled from Discord's apparent complete shift in personality. If she had had any doubts about his insanity, they were now safely dismissed.
"Time and time and time again, repeating without end and without any sort of plan." Discord's hand covered his face and he threw his head back, his entire body shaking with the horrible laughter. "Some evil forces rise, threatens the world, and is defeated. Lessons are learned, life goes on, and in the end, nothing changes! It doesn't matter. None of it! Another evil will inevitably threaten the world, before being defeated in turn. So orderly, so regular." Discord sneered."So... disgusting." His attention switched back to Twilight and the expression on his face switched over from monstrously evil to bright and cheery. "So that's why I'm going to break that rule, among others."
"How?"
"Well," Discord wrapped his arm around her, pulling her up close to him and whispering into her ear like her was imparting some sort of great wisdom. "Things aren't turning out exactly as I had hoped, but a little improvisation is good now and then. A plan that goes exactly as planned sounds pretty boring, don't you think? Besides, what’s happening is far better than I could possibly have hoped for."
"A plan is, by its very definition, supposed to go as planned," Twilight argued. "Otherwise, there's no point in making a plan in the first place- Don't do that!" Discord was making 'blah blah blah' motions with his hand.
"Whatever. Not interested." He clapped his hands together. "Tell you what, since you've been such a good sport and I never would have made it this far without you, I'll do you a little favour." He raised three fingers. "I'll answer any three questions you have. And if you act fast, for a one-time bonus, I'll answer them simply and honestly. No fancy word games."
"So I can ask any three questions I li-?" The words were out of Twilight's mouth before she could think about them , but she quickly stopped herself by shoving her own hooves into her mouth.
Discord grinned, a playful twinkle in his eyes. "So close," he taunted. "You still have three questions. I'm sure you've got some."
She had plenty. "Why are you making everything so complicated?" she snarled. "The humans, the changelings, Nightmare Moon, the Princesses, my friends and their sisters, Spike, and I'm sure there's plenty more I don't know about. You keep talking how this is just a 'game' to you and we're all 'pieces' belonging to the 'players'. If the humans are your pieces, and the Elements of Harmony are the stakes, then where do the changelings come in? Not even you could keep track of something with this many moving pieces!"
"Oh, I've completely lost control," Discord admitted without a hint of shame. "Originally, the plan was quite simple. Not my best work, I'll admit, but I think it would have got the job done." He ticked off a finger. "The humans aren't my pieces. The one I gifted to Chrysalis and her changelings worked perfectly, but Celestia's was captured by Nightmare Moon. Things fell apart on that front pretty quickly. If any of you had died, everything would have been ruined. As things stand, only one piece on the board is actually mine. No, I'm not telling who it is. As for the changelings, I pushed them to invade Canterlot as payment for services rendered. Same concept with your friend's sisters and that dragon that follows you everywhere." Another finger ticked down. Discord stared at it for a moment before quickly raising it again. "Actually, I'm in a good mood, so we'll count those as one question."
Twilight gaped at him. She had trouble wrapping her head around the simple and casual way he talked about causing the changelings' invasion like that. Hundreds of lives, so casually played with. So casually ruined. "You... you sent Spike and the others to Canterlot. You're the reason they're there." She wasn't angry. She was well past anger. Her voice was dangerously calm, and even Discord realized that pushing her any farther would be dangerous even for him.
Naturally, Discord treated pushing her buttons the exact same way he would have treated finding a giant red button labelled DO NOT PUSH. By pushing it as hard as he could. "Hmm? Oh, you didn't know that? Thought you'd already blamed that on me." Wow, he thought, she's actually shaking with rage. Wonder if I can make her burst into flames.
To Discord's disappointment, Twilight didn't rise to the bait. She took a deep breath before releasing it with a sound not unlike a steam whistle. "You're a psychopath."
"True. But that doesn't mean I'm not good company."
"Shut up." Twilight had had more than enough, and wasn't going to put up with any more of his nonsense. "How can you use magic here? The Elements should have sealed your powers away." She was so enraged with Discord that she failed to notice the waves of power spreading across her body. Various shades of purple, green, red, and pure black rippled through her coat and mane, leaving only her eyes untouched by the changing colours.
Discord quickly hid his smile. It wouldn't be good if Twilight noticed what was happening. "You and your friends' seal is nowhere near as strong as your pretty Princesses' was. Even if we ignore that little burst of power I got a little while back, I've already been sealed away for well over a thousand years. I know my way around this place, and I know how to slip through its defences. In fact, I would say nopony knows as much about the Elements of Harmony as I do."
"You?" Twilight scoffed. "Then why have you already been beaten by them twice?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously as he lifted his final extended finger in front of her face. "That wasn't my question. You said that you don't know any of the details about the humans. Why can't you look that up in your mirror?"
"Can't," Discord snapped his fingers, and the mirror in question appeared once again. "The thing's bonded to me. It'll show any point in time that I chose, but it can only show periods of time that I was alive for. It was a gift from the one who created me."
"Created you?"
"And I'm afraid you've used up all your questions." Discord appeared at her side and gave her a hard shove, sending her staggering towards the mirror. He grabbed the back of her head and squashed her muzzle painfully against the glass. "Since you were so interested in the mirror, I think I'll show you the very first memory recorded on it."
The reflective glass pressed up against Twilight's face started to ripple and warp. She screamed as she was torn out of her body and drawn into the mirror, and everything was consumed by darkness.
Twilight couldn't breathe.
She didn't feel the need to breathe.
She couldn't move.
That was fine. She didn't want to move.
She floated in some sort of strange liquid, warm and comfortable. The liquid was all she needed; all she had ever known. The liquid nurtured her, cared for her. She was held in a tiny room, small enough that the walls and ceiling pressed against her. Light, tainted red from passing through the liquid gave evidence of a world beyond the one she knew. She wasn't curious about it. "Outside" was a theory at best, and one that didn't interest her.
She was... at peace.
Time passed without meaning. The light came and went, unremarked. Days, months, years... time was a concept she barely understood. Her warm little world gave her everything she needed. Nothing changed, and nothing was ever going to.
Nothing, that was, until the day that everything changed.
Twilight felt something from "outside." It called to her, pulled at her; calling for her to leave, to escape her tiny world. She moved for the first time, the liquid offering little resistance. She had to escape, had to find out what was calling out to her. She struck out at the shell surrounding her, tiny claws digging into the boundaries of her cage. For the first time that she could remember, she felt like she wasn't home. She felt like she was in a prison, and she wanted out.
Voices trickled in from outside. Others?
"Luna!" one of the voices said. The voice was young. Feminine. It squeaked with excitement. "I did it! I got my cutie mark!"
"Really?" Another young feminine voice called. "Was that that burst of magic? That's so cool! What'd you get it for?"
"'Was that the cause of that burst of magic,' Luna." The voice's chiding tone vanished in a playful giggle. "Watch this." The source of the light moved back and forth a few times and Twilight heard the second voice give an excited squeal.
"Ohmygoodness, you can control the sun? That's amazing!"
Whatever they were talking about, they sure sounded like they were having fun. Fun. Fuuuuun.
What an intriguing word.
Twilight wanted to meet them.
She struck out at the walls around her again, and this time there was a satisfying crack as the walls buckled beneath her blow. Twilight didn't realize it, but the noises she was making had not gone unnoticed.
"Did you hear that?" the second voice asked. The excitement that had suffused the voice had vanished, replaced instead with trepidation and fear.
"I did," the first voice responded. Just like the other voice, this voice's excitement had also vanished .In its place was determination and caution. "Stay close to me." Several more seconds passed where the voices were silent, and Twilight feared they had disappeared.
"Tia, what's that?" One of the voices suddenly spoke up. Twilight perked up in excitement. They sounded so close!
"I'm not sure," the other voice admitted. The barrier cracked under another of Twilight's blows, and she heard a gasp from outside. "It's moving!"
There. Twilight's claws burst through the shell trapping her. For the first time she could remember, she could see the sky. It was so blue! A strange feeling brushed against her skin and she wondered what it was. Ah. That was air.
The capsule she was in split in half without any warning, dropping her onto the cold dirt. Dirt. How strange. And then there was the trees, and the plants, and the clouds, and the sun. Everything was just so interesting!
She wanted to see everything! Unfortunately, her body refused to listen to her. Because of her traitorous body, she ended up falling face-first onto the discarded eggshell, the smooth calcium shattering under the impact. What a bizarre egg it was, all patterned with spots and stripes.
"Ugly thing, isn't it?"
"Hush, Luna. There's no need to be rude."
Twilight turned her head to see a pair of strange creatures staring at her. They had four legs, two wings, and one horn. Twilight wondered if that meant they had three eyes. The larger of the two possessed a white coat and a pure pink mane and tail, while the smaller one wore a mixture of blue and indigo. Twilight tried to greet them, but all that came out of her mouth was an adorable little squeak.
The larger of the pair approached Twilight, carefully holding out a hoof for Twilight to grab. "Hey there, little guy," she said softly, keeping herself low to the ground so as to not appear intimidating. "What are you?"
The second creature peered out from behind a bush. "Be careful, Tia," she warned. "That thing looks weird."
Ignoring the smaller one's protests, Celestia picked Twilight up. "Oh, you're worrying too much. He's completely safe. Aren't you, little guy?" She rubbed Twilight's head, giggling at Twilight's happy little chirp."Awww, he likes me," she cooed before looking over at the little one still hiding behind her bush. "Come say hello, Luna."
Luna carefully crawled out from behind her bush, creeping towards Twilight with an outstretched hoof reaching out to poke at Twilight's side. Twilight felt a mischievous urge swell within her and pounced on the extended hoof, gnawing on it with toothless gums.
The scream alone was worth it.
"AIEEE! IT'S EATING ME! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF! SISTER, YOU LIED TO ME!"
Celestia giggled, pulling Twilight away from Luna's panicked flailing. "Aww, he was just playing. Weren't you, little guy?" She poked at Twilight's stomach, a smile spreading across her face before it faded and a thoughtful frown took its place. "You're going to need a name. I can't just keep calling you 'little guy' forever, can I?"
"How about 'Nuisance?'" Luna grumbled, rubbing at her offended limb.
"No." Celestia vetoed the suggestion without even pretending to consider it. She bit her at lower lip as her gaze wandered over Twilight's body before her eyes lit up. "I've got it!" she exclaimed, a happy smile blossoming on her face with all the radiance of the sun. "What do you think about..."
"~...Discord,~" Celestia said. Her expression was deceptively neutral, only the barest hint of a frown tickling at the corners of her mouth and a subtle darkening of her eyes revealing her emotions to anyone who knew how to read them. "~That's the name of the one that brought you here.~"
Celestia, Luna, and John sat in front of the broken remains of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. A small campfire burned in front of them, a pot of water brought to a near-boil above it. Dirty rags floated in the simmering water before being lifted out in a wave of indigo magic. Luna cleaned at the blood and dirt covering herself and her sister, carefully removing as much grime as possible out of their open wounds.
"~I... I see,~" John heaved a heavy sigh, resting his head in his hands. Celestia had just been explaining to him everything she knew about humanity, and what had happened to them. To hear that everyone, everything he might have known, was long gone. Torn away from him forever, along with his memories. A sprout of emotion had taken root deep inside his heart, threatening to burst out and consume him. Anger? Sadness? Even he wasn't sure what it was. "~I'm sorry,~" he said, pushing himself to his feet. "~But I need some time alone.~"
Luna watched him go before turning her gaze to her sister. "Are you sure about this, sister? Can we trust him?"
"I'm not sure," Celestia admitted, also watching John walk away. "But I know he has to make his own choice. We can't force a decision on him."
Luna hesitated as she squeezed the rag, forcing out the excess water. A slight frown flickered at the edges of her lips as she turned to look at her sister. “What was that language you were speaking? I do not think I have ever heard anything like it before.”
“Mother taught it to me.” Celestia lifted her wing so that Luna could reach some of the mud underneath it. “I never thought I would ever need to use it, but Mother didn’t want them to be forgotten. She said once that nopony would be alive right now if it hadn’t been for what the humans did.”
Carefully wiping the worst of the mud away, Luna turned back to the pot. “Do you know what she meant? I have not seen much of this human, but what I have seen and heard does not paint him in the best light.” Except for what he did with Nightmare Moon, she mentally added. As if the thought had been a signal, Nightmare Moon suddenly started struggling from her prison inside Luna, desperate to escape her bindings. A firm thought from Luna quickly had the spirit squashed back into her theoretical jail cell.
“You can’t blame him,” Celestia said, not noticing Luna’s actions. “I’m not sure what Mother meant, but it seems like this human has been through much since he arrived.” Seeing that Luna was about to ask for clarification, Celestia spoke first. “First, he was somehow brought here by Discord. Discord then erased all of his memories.”
“You’re sure he doesn’t just have amnesia?” Luna asked, wringing out the rag again. “Though that does not sound like something Discord would do…”
“That’s just it,” Celestia sighed. “Here’s where things get complicated. I scanned him with magic while we talked, and he’s an absolute wreck. As best as I understand it, this is what happened. After erasing his memories, Discord gave him brand new ones in replacement. This would have made the human more likely to do what he had wanted.”
Luna nodded in understanding. “That sounds more like Discord. He always did love taking the most complicated path possible. But I do not understand what you meant. It sounds very simple to me.”
Celestia snickered. “Oh, it gets better. This is where Nightmare Moon appears. She erased the memories Discord had made, but she was much less controlled. It was like,” Celestia licked her lips as she tried to think of an appropriate metaphor. “It was like trying to clear a spiderweb by throwing boulders at it. The spiderweb is gone, but so is most of the surrounding area.” Seeing that Luna understood, Celestia continued onwards. “When she left him in order to possess me, she also left several layers of spellwork in his mind so that she would be able to control him if they ever met again.”
“But she didn’t,” Luna pointed out, thinking how Nightmare had tried exactly that.
“But she didn’t,” Celestia agreed. “Discord interfered again, and removed the mind control spells. I think he also pointed him in our direction.”
“Goodness,” Luna mumbled. She felt like her eyes were trying to cross themselves from the sheer over-complicated nature of what had happened. “How did you scan him?” she asked instead, trying to steer the conversation away from muddy waters. “Whatever I touched him with magic, it simply... broke, I suppose would be the best word for it.”
“I think that ability of his is connected to his own emotions,” Celestia said, thoughtfully scratching her cheek with a hoof. She stopped and stared at her hoof with a grimace as she realized she had just rubbed a streak of mud across her face. “It’s mostly defensive in nature, and activates automatically. Since he trusts you and me now, even if only a little, we can now cast magic on him or use it freely around him. If he stops trusting us, our magic will be negated again.”
“Huh,” Luna said, a considering look in her eyes. “But what about Nightmare Moon and Discord? They meant him ill, yet nothing happened to stop them.”
A tiny smile flickered across Celestia’s lips. “I think that’s because he didn’t know about either of them. His ability only stops magic that he knows about. He didn’t even realize I was scanning him.” The smile flipped, turning itself into a pensive frown. “What I can’t understand is the nature of his ability to cancel magic. It’s not magical in nature, which means that it couldn’t have been Nightmare Moon or Discord who gave it to him.”
Having finally cleaned the rag to acceptable standards, Luna began to carefully clean the mud and dirt out of Celestia’s open cuts so that they wouldn’t get infected while she healed. She stared into her sister’s large eyes, as vast and deep as the depths of the universe. “What are you scheming?”
Celestia’s chuckle turned into a grimace of pain as Luna accidentally opened one of her many wounds. “You’re really going to have to be more specific,” she gently teased to the Lunar Princess’ apologetic face.
Rolling her eyes, Luna gently dabbed at Celestia’s forehead with the damp cloth more carefully than before. “This entire thing feels wrong. I realized as soon as the young foals told me what was going on. You’re scheming something, aren’t you? I don’t believe you were caught off guard as you keep pretending.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Celestia replied. Despite her words, the amused twinkle in her eyes was inviting Luna to explain.
Luna grunted as she wiped the dirt away from her older sister’s wounds. “You knew Twilight Sparkle would be unlikely to win against anything of Discord’s, yet you kept the Elements of Harmony in Canterlot. Then, despite being aware the changelings were up to something, you just happened to be absent when they invaded Canterlot. Canterlot was taken almost without a fight, as if the entire royal guard had been stationed somewhere else. You deliberately gave Canterlot over to the changelings, didn’t you?” she accused. “In fact, you did it at a time when your niece and her husband were visiting. I just can’t understand why.”
Celestia’s smile widened imperceptibly, feeling overflowing pride in her sister for managing to put together such a complete picture with so little information. Luna had always been good with puzzles. She quickly schooled her expression, making sure not to reveal her real emotions. “You flatter me,” she said, never losing her serene smile. “Even I couldn’t have predicted everything that happened.”
“Fine,” Luna huffed. “Keep your secrets.” Dipping the cloth back in the bucket of water, she rinsed it a little before pulling it back out. Minutes passed in silence as Luna quickly cared for the wounds she had inflicted, always cautious not to further the damage. Her tongue flicked across her suddenly dry lips as a new thought occurred to her. “It’s fine,” Luna said quietly. “I’m not angry at you.”
“You should be,” Celestia admitted as she craned her neck back and stared up at the beautiful blue sky far above them. “…Do you think less of me for it?” she asked sadly, her voice barely above a whisper. “I used my own family as pawns. I willingly abandoned my subjects in their time of need. I allowed my student to bear a burden far greater than she should have. I let you get captured and did nothing to save you.” A hint of a tear trickled out of the corner of her eyes. “…I couldn’t save you. Just like last time, I couldn’t save y-“
She was cut off as Luna grabbed her neck and pulled her in for a tight hug. “I’m here now,” she whispered, gently rubbing at the back of Celestia’s head. “I’m here for you.”
"Thank you," Celestia said quietly. She closed her eyes and leant into Luna's embrace. Minutes passed in silence before Celestia spoke again. "Sister?" Celestia asked slowly, hesitantly. "Can I confess something?"
With a flicker of her eyes, Luna granted permission.
"I'm scared," Celestia admitted heavily. She fell silent again, and Luna felt the need to prompt her.
"Scared that you won't be able to protect yo- our little ponies?" Luna asked, catching herself in time. "Or that your student will not be able to bear the task you have set her?"
Celestia shook her head. "No, that's not it." She sighed, her eyes falling to the pure white horn on the ground next to her. "I still feel that I did the right thing. But that's just it. It was far too easy."
"Easy." Luna repeated in a deadpan tone, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She gave a meaningful look over at the ruins that were all that remained of their former home. "Really."
A tiny chuckle escaped Celestia, ending with a sharp pained gasp as injured bones ground against each other. "Don't make me laugh," she begged playfully. "It hurts." Her mood turned somber and she turned her head up to look at a cloud that was just covering the sun. "Once I realized Discord was planning something, I leapt at the opportunity to match wits with him. Everypony around me just became pieces to manipulate in our match. Ponies who trust me with their lives faded into easily replaceable pieces. Even I became nothing more than a simple piece. It was just... so easy." Celestia's head sagged. "I fear I am no better than he is."
Luna took a moment to parse through what Celestia had said to find the hidden meaning underneath. It wasn't hard. "You still care for him, don't you? You feel like you could have saved him."
"Yes," Celestia admitted, a single tear dripping off of her muzzle to mix in the fresh mud beneath her. "I do."
"Sister..." Luna sighed. She lay in the mud next to Celestia, extending a wing to cover her sister. "Discord made his choice. I thought you accepted that."
"I thought I did, too." Celestia's mane gently curled around the stump of her horn. "I hate this," she disclosed quietly. "I'm the most powerful being alive, other than Discord himself. I've lived for millennia, and have raised the sun every day for almost all of those years. An entire nation moves at my merest whim, and the leader of every country on the planet would obey me if I gave them an order. And despite all this power, I can't do anything to protect those most important to me. Not Discord, not you, not Twilight, and not..." Her voice drifted off into silence.
"...Mother?" Luna asked, filling in the blanks. Seeing Celestia's slow nod, Luna sighed and looked up at the sky. "I wish I could have known her."
"You would have liked her." Luna had been barely older than a filly when their mother, as well as the entire alicorn race except for the two sisters, had vanished without a trace. The last memory Celestia had of their mother was watching the alicorn mare fighting desperately against two twisted alicorn-like creatures, trying to draw them away from her young daughters. It wasn't until many, many years later that Celestia was finally able to put a name to those creatures. Changelings.
"Luna," Celestia said suddenly. "There's something I need to tell you."
Luna looked over at Celestia with surprise at Celestia's abruptness. "Well, go ahead, sister," she encouraged. "You don't need my permission."
"You were right." Celestia spoke slowly, quietly. It was like she needed to force out every word. "I allowed the changelings to take over Canterlot. I knew that they were coming, and I let it happen. I even made certain that Cadance and her husband were there at the time, so that they would be captured by the invading changelings."
Luna eyes widened in surprise. What Celestia was confessing to... This was worse than treason! "Why?" she whispered out. "What could have possible possessed you to do something like that?"
"To keep them safe," Celestia said quietly, almost too quietly for Luna to hear. "And also..." An image of her mother being attacked by a pair of changelings passed in front of her eyes, but she banished it almost as quickly as it came. "We cannot afford to fight with the changelings, especially not now."
Celestia stared directly into Luna's eyes, her gaze as firm and unwavering as her heart. "I want to establish peace with the Changeling Queen."
Twilight gasped.
Her awareness returned to her with the weight of a rampaging manticore, and it took her a moment to realize where she was. She lay in front of the magic mirror, her limbs splayed out in every direction on the nonexistent floor. "Oh… My head… What happened?".
"Oh good, you're awake. Finally." Discord sat a little ways away, an open book held in front of him. The book possessed a very fashionable red cover, complete with a white trimming, and Discord closed it with a snap before making it disappear. He was frowning, almost glaring at her."Time for your final lesson in world magic."
Twilight blinked, pushing her mane out of her eyes. She was having a hard time keeping up with Discord's rapid mood swings. "Um... Now?"
"We're out of time, and we won't be meeting up for a while after this, so yes, now. Harmony or Chaos. Which do you think is the world's natural state?"
"Harmony," Twilight answered immediately. She didn't even need to think about it. Discord's frown spread, letting her know she had picked wrong.
"Figure it out before we meet again," he told her, picking her up. "That's your homework."
She glared at him. "If I have anything to say about it, you won't have the chance." Since he was holding her in his arms, she was able to easily stab his chest with her hoof. "I know your weakness. You draw power from the chaos going on around you. The chaos you create. If we can hit you with the Elements again immediately after you escape, before you can start spreading chaos again, we'll be able to seal you away again. Maybe this time for good."
"That's only if you can do that, Twilight Sparkle," Discord challenged her. "But you're right. That'll work. If you can seal me immediately after I break free, you'll be able to put a seal on me stronger than the one the Princesses sealed me with." A small, unamused smirk revealed his teeth to her. "But you'll only get one chance."
"That's plenty."
Discord shifted her in his grip, bringing her face up next to his. "But so what? Go ahead. Seal me away again. It won't stop me. I'm immortal. Your life, all the lives of your friends and your descendants, will pass in the blink of an eye to me. So be my guest. Friendship me. All I have to do..." He slowly closed his eyes. "...is blink. It may take a few decades or a few centuries, but I will be free again. And you won't be around to stop me."
"Somepony will always be there to stop you. No matter the age, ponies will never give up."
"Oh, I doubt that." Discord snapped his fingers and a hole opened in the air in front of him. He lifted Twilight above his head, purple light emanating from the portal illuminating them both. His hand gripped her throat; not enough to hurt but enough to make her aware of its presence. “You can’t even stop the changelings. What makes you think you could possibly do anything to me? Not that it won’t be funny watching you try.”
Twilight wrapped her hooves around his wrist, pulling her face up close to his. “Because I have my friends with me. Once we’ve finished with the changelings, we’ve coming for you.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Discord mocked. He pressed up against the rip in time and space, his arm the only thing preventing her from falling through. "And let me give you one last piece of advice before you return to your body. If you meet the second human, run. You wouldn't like what'll happen if you try to fight him."
He released his grip on her, but she didn’t fall through. She clutched on to his wrist, glaring at him. The pull of the portal caused her mane and tail to thrash wildly, but she stubbornly refused to let go. Surprise flitted across his face before he gave her a taunting smile. “Something you wish to say?”
“You better believe it,” Twilight growled at him. “Why are you doing this? Everything that’s happened so far - it all keeps coming back to you. Whether it’s those humans or the changelings, it’s all because of you. I’ll bet you’re responsible for the fight we just watched, too. And then, to top it all off, you bring me here to teach me some sort of magic. What are you planning, Discord?”
Discord chuckled, a chuckle that slowly transformed into a deep booming laugh. “Who can say?” he all but shouted, his voice brimming with amusement. “Maybe I just want to see Celestia’s precious little world collapse around her ears. Maybe I want to shatter that facade of security she’s spent so many years raising around herself. Maybe I want to watch as Harmony breaks, pushed to the brink by only the slightest touch of chaos.”
“Or maybe,” he added, whispering into her ear. “Maybe it’s all because of you. You, who defeated me last time. Maybe I just want to watch you suffer, to watch you twist in the wind until you lose everything, and know that you were unable to prevent it when you had the chance. So show me, little puppet. Will you be able to cut the strings that control you?” Twilight felt a pressure on her throat, cutting off the flow of oxygen to her lungs. “Or will you wrap them around your own neck?”
He shook her off his arm, and she fell into the endless void.
The portal closed behind Twilight, leaving Discord alone in the neverending void. Alone in the neverending loneliness.
...
Neverending boredom, I mean. Right.
He looked over at the scattered remnants of the board that had held his playing pieces. The board was tipped on its side, the pieces that it had carried either scattered about or lost forever in the space between worlds. Two very special pieces stood out to him, and he considered them as he picked up the images of the two humans.
He hadn’t lied to Twilight. He truly did know nothing about what had happened to the humans. It had never seemed important before.
But now he was curious.
He dropped the pieces and reached out, his claws tearing through the fabric of time and space. He had used up all of his remaining power saving Celestia earlier, but he was still able to reach across realms without any trouble. Returning Twilight to her body had been simple. All he had needed to do was shove her spirit into the absolute void. She would find her way back to her body on her own.
Probably.
Discord grunted in pain as a backlash of power twisted his talons backwards, nearly snapping them off. Alright, so this took slightly more power than he thought, continuing on despite the pain. While his seal prevented him from reaching into the physical world, that wasn’t where he was heading.
Instead, he was going deeper. Deeper and deeper into his seal, following the tiniest trail of magical energy that had reached all the way to him. It was easy to follow it to its source. He was squeezed, crushed, squashed, flattened, and compressed, but he continued on.
Eventually he broke through the final barrier, and fell into the metaphysical. Into the realm that didn't exist.
“We need to talk,” he said.