Shadows of the Past

by Dr Atom Discharge

Chapter two: Chaos

Last Time: Celestia’s Troops charged towards Discord’s Statue again, in what looked to be their most powerful attack yet. To everyone's surprise, they skidded to a stop, a look of horror on their faces. A dark chuckle echoed across the battlefield, cutting through the noise and silencing everypony. A chill ran down Twilight’s spine - she knew that laugh… she knew it all too well.
“My, my… What a delicious display of Chaos! Muahahaha!” Discord’s dark voice rang out across the courtyard. Nopony dared to move.

Discord stepped down of the plinth and stretched, before wrapping his arm around Twilight and pulling her into an overly friendly hug.
“Aaah, if it isn’t my favourite little unicorn Twilight Sparkle… element of Magic… How have you been? Because I’ve been encased in stone. It’s not the most comfortable, so thanks for that. But hey, forgive and forget eh? Ha ha ha! Especially when you’re creating such beautiful chaos… a little hypocritical don’t you think?” Discord spoke in a friendly tone.

Before Twilight could respond Discord dropped her to the floor and walked towards The Princess, giving her an overly exaggerated bow.
“Your Highness it has been far too long since we last spoke. If I heard right, you were sent to the moon for a while… 1000 years if I’m right? Well… I’ll tell you what, it’s not half as bad as having an itch on your nose for two millennia! Uggghhh… I spent the first hour free just scratching it." Discord then swivelled around and straightened up.

He clicked his fingers, a cloud formed and it started to rain into his hand, which gathered in thin air into the shape of a martini glass, which then filled with liquid, followed by and olive on a skewer, which plopped into the glass. He then picked the olive out of the glass and flicked it away, it simply passed through the ground as if I wasn’t there, disappearing. He then drank the liquid, before tipping the empty glass to peer into it. He then drank the glass. This spectacle left everyone a little baffled, as it made no physical sense what so ever.

Discord then looked around at the two sets of troops and grinned.
“Looks like the little sister is rebelling… He he he… just like Celestia to send someone else to fight her battles… quite literally.” Discord said as he slithered through the air, up to Celestia’s captain. The Captain had turned a Deathly white in comparison to his usual grey colour, he looked like he was going to collapse. Discord laughed right in his face.
“You’re looking a little… gray… here, let me help.” He said with a dark laugh.

Discord extended a claw and tapped him on the nose, and then from the nose, spread a new colour, a bright orange, making the captain appear completely ridiculous. The captain jumped back and squealed, which made Discord fall back, rocking on his back in mid-air, clutching his stomach as he laughed. The Captains face turned to outrage and he glared at his troops
“WELL!? What are you waiting for!? GET HIM!” He bellowed. One of his Stallions turned to him and said
“What about the Princ-“
“NOW!” The captain cut him off, and the troops moved towards Discord and away from Luna’s guards.

All of group around the now empty plinth had the same thought and bolted for the back gate, now completely unguarded. Their adrenaline was still pumping, Ex-Captain Blade and Captain Sabre both drew ahead and rammed into the gate, breaking the locked latch and sending the gates flying outwards. They recovered as the group caught up. They then continued out into the mountains behind Canterlot.

After they had gotten far enough away from Canterlot they stopped and caught their breath. Captain Sabre looked back down the track silently, his expression sombre. Luna placed a hoof on his shoulder, startling him slightly.
“I know Sabre… we lost a lot of good soldiers today… but let us not waste the chance they gave us.” Luna said in an attempt to comfort him.

Atom had recovered and had started to heal the wounds of the troops. Twilight was not used to running so much, and so she was still resting. They had followed a game trail into the mountains, and so weren’t likely to be followed. After everyone had recovered and been healed they set up camp. Luna had been prepared enough to bring enough supplies for everyone. It wasn’t luxury, but after what they had been through, it was heaven just to be able to rest.

The camp was silent, everypony was processing the day in their own way, and one by one they headed off to their respective tents. In the end the only ones left around the fire were Luna, Sabre, Blade, and then Twilight cuddling up to Atom. Sabre had been staring into the fire, but blinked and looked up.
“…I’ll take first watch tonight.” He said quietly, but Atom shook his head
“No, you’ve been through a lot, and need your sleep, I’m used to little sleep, so I’ll take the first watch.” Atom interjected.

Sabre looked like he wanted to protest, but he stopped and shook his head.
“Yeah… okay… in that case… I’ll go sleep for second watch.” He got up and slowly make his way to his tent. A concerned look crosses the Princess’s face, and she got up and headed to his tent.
“I am going to make sure he is okay…” She said and then slipped inside. Blade was the next to go, followed soon by Twilight, and then Atom was left alone by the slowly dying fire, keeping watch in the cold, dark woods high in the mountains.

Atom sat alone in the camp. He had decided not to wake Sabre. He needed the sleep more than Atom. The sun was just dawning when a movement caught Atom’s eyes; It was at Sabre’s Tent. The flap rustled and Luna stepped out and met eyes with Atom. Her eyes went wide with shock, and at that exact moment, Atom realized that Luna hadn’t come out of the tent the night before. The Princess then glared at Atom with a look that said ‘not a word’. Atom simply nodded and Luna made her way to her own tent.

Atom smirked a little but then heard a soft whimpering from Twilight’s tent. He knew this as the usual sign that she was having one of her nightmares. He made his way over to her tent and went in. He sat by her cot and watched her rock back and forth on the bed. Atom gently took Twilight’s hoof between his own and she started to settle before slowly opening her eyes, tears still streaming down her face. She looked over at Atom, registering him for a second and then threw her forelegs around him, pulling him close.

“The nightmares still?” Atom asked worried. He held her close, but before Twilight could answer they heard Sabre's loud voice.
“Everypony wake up, you’re going to want to see this!” Atom and Twilight shared a nervous glance before rushing outside to quite the sight indeed. As they looked down the track towards Canterlot, their jaws dropped; the entire mountain mounted city had been turned upside down and re-fixed to the mountain… The startled ponies still in the city were still able to walk properly, though completely upside down. It was a very odd image indeed. And they could see the tiny figure of Discord rolling about laughing on the rounded base of the city, which was now the top.

No pony spoke for a moment then Sabre said the only thing that could really be said.
“… Buck…” At that everypony looked at each other and nodded simultaneously. They all knew it was time to move on. Atom quickly packed up with magic, and then walked over to Luna.
“Princess, where exactly are we heading?” Atom asked her. The Princess turned around and gave a little smile
“We are going to my old home, the abandoned palace in the Everfree forest." She said proudly.

Atom raised an eyebrow .
“Why there? If you don’t mind my asking.” He said curiously, to which the Princess smirked a little.
“Well, I know the place, and it is defendable. Anyway… there are a lot of old documents there and I get the feeling that we will find some answers locked away in its depths.” She said, making Atom very curious. But he suppressed his questions and helped the others pack up the camp.

They set off and started making good headway. By noon they had reached the other side of the mountain and were starting to make their way down the other side. There was no path down though, and the decent was steep, several times somepony almost slipped down. After this their progress slowed significantly. And it was already dark by the time they were at the bottom of the Mountain, and so they set up camp. This time Sabre insisted on keeping watch.

They had camped at the foot of the mountain, slightly into the edge of large expanse of woodland known as the Everfree Forest. Sabre was playing extra close attention; it was a dangerous area for certain. But sometimes, you cannot see the wood for the trees, quite literally in this case. A pack of Timberwolves circled the encampment. And by the time Sabre had seen them, it was too late.

Muffled shouts and screams broke out as the Timberwolves pounced on the tents, some made it out… other’s didn’t, what was left of their tent little more than bloody tatters. The survivors quickly scattered, Sabre moving with the Princess, obviously willing to do anything to keep her safe. Captain Blade broke off with a group of Luna’s guard who separated into groups to scatter the Timberwolves.

Atom pulled Twilight out of bed, she didn’t quite know what was happening at first, but just ran. She saw the unmistakable silhouette of a timberwolf snatch one of Luna’s troops from the back of the group, his screams slowly fading into the distance. Twilight ran with Atom through the endless rows of trees. It was like something out of a nightmare; no matter how fast they galloped the growls behind them only ever seemed to get closer.

When it sounded like they were no more than inches away, Twilight dared not to look around to check, they suddenly stopped. The only sound was the two sets of hoofsteps. There was a flash of movement off to the right and a scream of pain, and then only the sound of hoofsteps… but now only one… only Twilight’s were left. It took her a moment to register it, but even when she did, she couldn’t stop, she couldn’t turn back, she couldn’t save the love of her life, her legs were moving of their own accord. And so she kept galloping, tears streaming from her eyes.

After what seemed like forever she slowed, her legs physically unable to keep going… she hadn’t heard any noise but her own hoofsteps since Atom was snatched. She crawled over to tree and slumped up against it, crying into her hooves. She was so tired, she was so scared, and she was so alone... She didn’t know what to do, and she didn’t know where she was… everything seemed so hopeless… she wanted to just giv-

She felt a warm, damp, breath ruffle the fur on her forehead, and a sickly sweet smell of tree sap filled her nose. She slowly looked up from her hooves, not wanting to see what she knew was there… she wanted to pretend everything was okay, but as her head slowly raised she knew it was exactly what she had known, and dreaded. Looking directly at her, just inches from her face, was a large Timberwolf, its fearsome maw of twisted and jagged branches and twigs that made up its teeth. It snorted in her face, the warm sickly breath turning to mist in the cool night’s air as is broke against Twilight’s face, followed closely by a low ominous growl.