As he came into range he heard Fluttershy saying, "I'm sure Discord will catch Tirek and this will all be over soon."
Oh, she was so far behind the times. Hadn't Celestia notified anypony of what was really going on?
Rainbow Dash said, "I'll bet he takes his sweet time," in her usual abrasive tone, and Discord wouldn't normally have responded to it, but it made him angry. If he hadn't changed sides, he'd have taken Tirek down in moments. Who was she to question his competence?
He appeared on the ground in a flash of light. "Or perhaps these things just take time," he said snidely.
Fluttershy gasped, and threw herself at him, arms around him in a hug. "You're back! Did you bring the cucumber sandwiches?"
For a moment he smiled happily, as he always did when Fluttershy demonstrated affection to him. "I did," he said, summoning them into existence, and then remembered what he was really here for, and it drove the warmth he'd been feeling away instantly. "I imagine they'll be your last decent meal for quite some time."
He dropped the tray of sandwiches on the ground. As Fluttershy stared at the fallen food in confusion, he summoned a cage around the five ponies and the dragon, pinning them all in.
A cacophony of voices assaulted him. "What's going on?" "What are you doing?" Pinkie, shrieking in frustration. Normally a group of ponies all shouting angrily would amuse or excite him, feeding his need for disharmony and strife, but these ones... No. He was protecting them, even if they didn't realize it. Tirek was going to win, because he wanted Tirek to win, but he admitted, Tirek was a little too volatile and had to be managed around more fragile creatures like ponies. He was doing this so Tirek wouldn't hurt them, or Twilight... and also to help Tirek win, but really that was inevitable anyway, because Twilight wouldn't kill and Tirek would.
Tirek strode forward. "Ta-da!" Discord announced, gesturing at the cage.
"You've gathered up all of them?" Tirek asked, grinning.
"And her little dragon, too," Discord said, poking at Spike, who tried to bite him.
"Why are you doing this?" Fluttershy whimpered, tears welling in her eyes and spilling out. "I thought we were friends!"
He couldn't let the tears get to him. He couldn't. They were a manipulation tactic just like befriending him in the first place was. Even if they were sincere. "Oh, we were," he said, forcing a smile onto his face. "But Tirek offered me so much more than just tea parties. Surely you saw this coming?"
"I didn't. I really didn't," Fluttershy wept, finally breaking down into full-on crying, and his heart twisted in him again. The others were glaring at him as if they'd seen it coming -- even Pinkie -- but Fluttershy had believed him. Had trusted him.
What an idiot. It was her own fault, for trusting the Lord of Chaos to stay consistent.
But if it was her fault why did he feel so bad about it?
Tirek lifted the cage with his telekinesis, and suddenly Discord couldn't watch. He turned away as the ponies he'd called his friends for one brief year were brutally stripped of their magic, of everything that made them special and unique. He'd watched Tirek take the magic from so many other ponies but this time he couldn't look.
He heard and felt the cage crash to the ground, and turned, forcing composure on himself. They were all alive, dazed and weak from the loss but otherwise fine. Now they were no threat to himself and Tirek, and Tirek would have no motive to harm them, because they'd be valuable hostages.
"You really think she'd do anything for them?" Tirek asked.
Discord bowed, parodying Tirek's bow to him at the start of this adventure. "If Twilight has magic to give, it will be yours. Soon there won't be a Pegasus, Earth pony or unicorn who will be able to stand up against us."
"Us?" Tirek said in a derisive voice. Discord jerked his head up in shock to meet the centaur's eyes. "Who said anything about us?"
No. This wasn't happening. For a brief, horrible moment, a moment he could have used to teleport or attack, Discord, master of chaos and discombulation, creator of confusion and bemusement, could only stare upward in shock and say, "You did," as if this was some kind of mistake, as if pointing out that Tirek was being inconsistent was going to accomplish anything.
And then Tirek's magic grabbed him, and Discord felt all control over his own magic suddenly go numb. He'd wondered, idly, why nopony teleported away from Tirek or used telekinesis on him before their magic was sucked dry. Now he knew. His magic was still there, he could feel it, but he couldn't manipulate it. He couldn't use it.
Tirek pulled him into the air. "You've helped me grow strong. You've provided the means by which I can obtain Princess Twilight's magic." Discord looked down at the ground, at the ponies he'd just betrayed, in their cage, the guilt that had twisted in his gut earlier turning into sick fear and horror interlaced with a sense of how spectacularly he had just screwed everything up. "And now you are no longer of any use to me."
A wave of power slammed into him, and he felt sudden acute nausea, as if he were about to vomit. His mouth opened almost without volition, as if to let him retch, but instead of the contents of his stomach spewing out, it felt like the contents of his soul. It didn't hurt, exactly, but it felt like he was made of string and being unraveled, as if he were a stuffed animal with a vacuum hose pulling all his stuffing out -- he was emptying, his very essence being pulled out of him through his mouth, and it tasted like burnt cotton candy and broken glass and poison joke rotting and spoiled chocolate milk and everything, all the tastes he associated with chaos, burnt or ruined or spoiled and he still felt nauseous and it felt like he was throwing up but his throat muscles weren't moving. He was losing proprioception, losing any sense of where his body was, and up was down and vertigo enveloped him for the first time since he was a baby and there was nothing, nothing in the world but the burnt and spoiled flavor of Chaos in his mouth and too much magic pooled in his eyes to see anything but yellow light and the roaring in his ears drowning every sound there was and he was unwound, undone, going, going... gone.
He didn't quite even realize he was falling until he hit the ground, hard. Flexible bones bent, hard and painfully, maybe even ripping slightly in a few places, and he felt like his entire body was now one massive bruise, but nothing broke.
As Tirek stomped away, Discord struggled to his feet -- four of them, he felt much too weak and dizzy to stand up bipedally. He clutched the amulet. "But you said this was a sign of your gratitude and loyalty," he said, a pleading tone in his voice. The High Grand Poobah of Not Making Sense, begging for understanding because this situation didn't make any sense and somehow that wasn't fun at all. "A gift from someone close to you."
"My brother who betrayed me," Tirek growled, looking back and down at Discord. "It is as worthless as he is."
He stomped away, leaving Discord a broken shell. No magic. No ally. No friends.
"Surely you saw this comin'," Applejack said.
"I didn't," Discord said, barely able to make it louder than a whisper. "I truly didn't."
He closed his eyes, the sudden rush of grief and despair overwhelming him. Tirek. Tirek had been using him the whole time. He'd thought Tirek was his friend, he'd thought he could have both freedom and friendship, and he'd thrown away his one true friend for that. He'd betrayed Fluttershy, and then Tirek had betrayed him, and now he had nothing. The only pony who ever cared, and you threw her away. The only being who ever cared, and you traded her for a pile of lies and empty promises. No power, no allies, no friends. You betrayed the only creature who cared about you and now you have nothing. The voice in his head that always, always whispered at the back of his brain that he would never be loved, never be liked, overwhelmed him, and now it was all he could hear.
No power. No allies. No friends. You're nothing. You're a stupid fool, a terrible friend, a pathetic excuse for an avatar of chaos. Useless. Worthless. Only one pony cared, and now she hates you, and you deserve it. You deserve all of it.
No. The guilt didn't go away, the grief didn't dissipate, but both were buried under a sudden rush of anger. This was Tirek's fault. How dare Tirek. How dare he betray Discord like this! Anger gave him the strength to force himself up off the ground, even though he felt like a rag doll with the stuffing removed. He'd made that cage, he knew its weak points. He'd deliberately built it to have weak points that ponies couldn't take advantage of, because that introduced an element of unpredictability without significantly increasing the odds that he would lose.
Tirek was going off to challenge Twilight, to tell her he had hostages. Discord aimed to make sure he actually didn't. Because Tirek was volatile, Tirek could kill with ease, and that had made Discord uneasy when he thought of his particular, special ponies around Tirek when Discord had had the power to force Tirek to moderate his behavior. Now that he was completely powerless he was terrified -- not for himself, but for them. What if Tirek decided to kill one of them to demonstrate his resolve to Twilight and break her?
It didn't matter that they all hated him now. That, he deserved. They wouldn't forgive him; no creature could possibly forgive what he'd just done. But they hadn't deserved any of this. Both to spite Tirek, and to do whatever was left in his power to protect them and undo some of the consequences of his blind idiocy, he had to try to save them.
"Ain't you done enough?" Applejack asked bitterly as he came up to the cage and put his paws on the bars, wrapping his digits around them.
"A thousand plus zero is still a thousand, Applejack, unless we're using new math and I seem to have lost the textbook." He pushed, laterally and inward. Pony hooves could buck outward, but they couldn't pull in or to the sides with nearly as much strength as they could push out. Discord had thumbs and was on the outside. He'd made the cage to be strong, but he'd also made it weak against force hitting it in exactly this direction. "I need..." he panted, gasping for breath as he pushed, "...to apply... some negative numbers... to get back... to zero."
"Twilight isn't here to explain egghead language," Rainbow Dash snapped. "Say something that makes sense before I buck your face off, because you'd totally have that coming!"
Discord closed his eyes. "I totally would." They were budging, but only barely. The normal strength of his draconequus body, unenhanced by chaos magic, was primarily in the muscles running down his length and around him. He was incredibly flexible, and could support the weight of a half dozen ponies with his tail. His back limbs were also very powerful, short and close in to his body where they could take advantage of the leverage from his powerful torso, waist and tail muscles. But his front limbs were designed for precision work, or rapid motion, not for strength. They burned, his arm muscles aching like they were going to tear off his body, and they hadn't felt this way since he was young, never since he'd come into the full flower of his Chaos abilities. The type of motion the bars needed was one he wasn't actually particularly good at... he was just better than any pony could ever be. "You can... have a shot... later. If you... want. Once I... get these... bars... apart."
"You think that helping us now is going to make up for what you've done?" Rarity sniffed. "You betrayed us, and the only reason you're changing sides now is that Tirek just threw you away like garbage!"
"I'm not... trying... to win... redemption... just... get you... loose. You can... do what you... want to me. Later."
Pinkie strode over to the bars. "You. Made. Fluttershy. CRY."
Why weren't they pushing apart faster? He wasn't strong enough for this, he needed more time, more strength, he was going to fail at this too and then Twilight would surrender and all would be lost. "I know," he said, choking up, and no, he couldn't afford to actually cry in front of them, not now, not when he had to stay focused on this. "Beat me up... later. When I... get you... free."
"I can help," Spike said.
He squiggled his small body between the two bars Discord was trying to bend apart. They still wouldn't give clearance to his large head, so he couldn't escape yet, but he could brace against one of the bars and push against the other with his proportionately large dragon feet. Discord was breathing too hard to acknowledge him verbally, but he gave the small dragon a nod and a weak smile. Then the two draconic entities pushed against the bars for all they were worth.
"What do you think you're doing?" Tirek's voice boomed.
Discord's heart sank. Tirek wasn't any bigger than he'd become after taking Discord's magic, so he hadn't fought Twilight yet. But he was more than powerful enough to kill all of them without trouble. "What does... it look like?" he panted, trying to put as much sarcasm in his weak voice as he could. "Trying... to get... into the cage... for protection. When you... fight Twilight."
"Oh really!" Tirek chuckled. Discord felt himself being yanked free and levitated. The pull was so much stronger than he was now, it felt like the bars he was clinging to slipped right off his fingers. "I think you're lying."
"You'd be an expert... wouldn't you?" Discord said snidely.
"Hostage taking was your plan. And you're weak, Discord. Soft. I played you like a harp. A worthless trinket had you convinced that we were friends. Even after I warned you that friendship was a trap, you still fell. Just as easily as my idiot brother did."
Why was it he was too far above the cage to hear anything any of them were saying, but he could still hear Fluttershy crying? "And you're an insecure, pathetic creature who's so aware of how illegitimate and ephemeral his stolen power is, he thinks killing powerless mailmares is necessary to protect himself from threats," Discord snarled. "I'm soft? I'm weak? You're a liar and a trickster, I'll give you that, good enough to fool even me, but the only reason you aren't an ancient, decrepit half-corpse is me!"
"And that is why you're soft," Tirek said. "The thought occurs to me that your entire hostage taking plan was likely less about ensuring Twilight's easy defeat and more about ensuring that none of these worthless little ponies are harmed. I have your power now and the power of nearly every pony in Equestria. One puny little mare with power she doesn't understand and can't control can't possibly defeat me. So I don't need to keep any of these ponies alive."
"Oh yes you do," Discord snapped, his blood running cold. No. No, he couldn't let his betrayal lead to them being killed when he was helpless to protect them. He had no magic to intimidate Tirek with, he had only his mouth, but that had to be good enough. He had to make this work. "Kill any of her friends and Twilight Sparkle will kill you. This is no joke. They mean the world to her... and she'll sell out the world to protect them. But harm a single hair on any of their heads and there won't be enough left of you for even a closed casket funeral."
"Really! So confident you are in the talents of an unblooded little mare!"
"Listen to me, Tirek. That unblooded little mare defeated Nightmare Moon when she wasn't out of college yet and wasn't an alicorn. And alicorns are unstable, and she has the power of four of them within her. If you tip her over the edge into becoming a Nightmare like Luna did... she is brilliant, she knows every spell in that entire library, she knows how to invent new spells, she's read the works of every great tactician who ever wrote a book on tactics, and she will go berserk, except with all of her intelligence still at her command. And she will kill you."
"And why would you tell me this when I've taken your magic? Surely you no longer believe we're friends." Tirek chuckled derisively.
"For the obvious reason." Discord shrugged. "I don't want ponies dead. You, I could make an exception for, but I don't like the idea of what will happen to the world if Twilight goes insane and kills you. I'd rather deal with you ruling the world than Twilight going insane, even after what you just did to me... which should tell you how seriously I am taking this."
"Ha." Tirek smiled mirthlessly. "You underestimate me, Discord. I welcome a challenge. I don't need to achieve a bloodless victory over Twilight Sparkle... nor do I need to let her live. That quantity of magic will escape into the thaumic field as an explosion, and I can drain it directly that way. I could choose to kill you all, then kill her before she ever learns any of you are dead."
"Well, then if you're so very confident, how about a little wager?"
Tirek goggled at Discord. "What do you have to bet with?"
"Oh, I was thinking more of a friendly wager, even though we're no longer friends. You keep them alive, in reserve, and go fight Twilight. And if she kicks your oversized tuchis as thoroughly as I think she will, you'll be glad of having the hostages in reserve."
"I dislike 'friendly' wagers. They have no savor without stakes. And you have nothing to bet with."
"My life, then," Discord said. "If you defeat Twilight handily and you never needed to use the hostages, you can kill me. If she defeats you and you need hostages... you let me go. It's not like I'm of any use to you as a hostage, Twilight would probably prefer to see my ribs used to make a piano at this point."
Tirek's magic drew Discord so close, he could practically bite Discord in half, and for a terrified moment as Tirek bared his teeth Discord thought that was what he was going to do. Instead, Tirek murmured, as if sharing a confidence with him, "You don't have that to bet with, I'm afraid. I have to kill you anyway."
Discord's eyes went wide. "Why?" he asked, trying not to visibly cringe with the fear he felt.
"You told me yourself. Your magic regenerates. And while I intend to rule Equestria strictly and in perfect order, I'm well aware that I can't achieve that state without creating chaos. A great deal of chaos. Your magic will come back to you, and you'll come after me. I can't allow that."
So he'd lost. He'd been stupid, he'd been duped, and now he was going to lose not only his magic but his life. Discord swallowed. "Then as a last request. Play my friendly wager with me. I helped you, you could at least let me play one last game before-- before the end."
"Very well, I'll even put stakes into play," Tirek said, chuckling. "If Twilight defeats me, and I need to use hostages, and she surrenders to me as you say she will, I will release her and her friends. All of them may live on as slaves in my glorious Equestria." He laughed. "But if I defeat her, and take her magic without having to turn to these hostages, or if she refuses to surrender her magic to save them... then I will kill them all, and I will make you watch before you die."
Discord was breathing hard again. Would Twilight win? Could she win? When he'd been on Tirek's side, he'd assessed Tirek's chances against her as fair, even high; he'd come up with the hostage plan to save Twilight's life as well as to protect Tirek and help him win. But he'd assumed Tirek would have him on his side. Tirek hadn't grown any larger from taking Discord's magic as he had from taking the energy of the ponies and dragon in the cage below; Discord had been right, Tirek couldn't really use his magic. It had given him only a slight powerup. So now the smartest pony, and right now most experienced fighter of dire supernatural threats who still had her powers, had the power of four alicorns and the home turf advantage. Tirek had the power of nearly every pony in Equestria but no ability to use it with finesse. There was a good chance Twilight could win this.
He nodded and forced words out of his dry mouth, trying not to show weakness by swallowing again. "That-- that's fair enough stakes, I suppose." And it bought him time to try to figure out a way to escape, or free the others. Tirek couldn't kill him until after the battle with Twilight if the punishment he wanted to inflict on Discord for losing was to make him watch the death of the others.
Tirek raised an eyebrow. "You are that confident in this young princess."
"She beat me."
"So did I," Tirek said, and lifted the cage. Discord's heart broke when he saw that Spike was almost, almost able to get his head through. If he'd only been able to stall Tirek for a little while longer...
Tirek stuffed Discord into the space between the bars. Discord's head was longer and thinner than a pony's, so it actually fit. His body was wider than his head with his limbs on, and Tirek took no care to turn him sideways to make his limbs fit better, so it felt like the bars of the cage were going to rip his arms and legs off and shred his wings. Discord went limp, knowing that his body was highly compressible and his chance of surviving this without being maimed went up considerably if he relaxed himself completely. Also it would deny Tirek the satisfaction of watching him squirm and struggle.
When Discord was inside the cage, Tirek fixed it, bending the bars back into shape with ease... then dropped the cage again, making Discord's head knock so hard against the cage floor he was afraid for a moment that he'd lost his fang. He tasted blood. The next thing he knew was a brutal foreleg slam into his back, making him cry out in pain. "You traitor!" Rainbow Dash snarled, and pummeled him again. Even without her legendary speed, her hooves were very fast.
"Stop it!" Fluttershy screamed. "Stop it, stop hitting him!"
"He made you cry, Fluttershy. He sold you out! He sold all of us out!" She grabbed Discord's beard and yanked his head up. "What were you talking to Tirek about? Were you trying to tell him Twilight's secrets so he'd take you back as his ally? Huh?"
Discord wrenched his head free -- which hurt, without his chaos magic having his beard yanked painfully was actually agonizing, but he didn't want his head within punching range of Dash's hooves anymore-- and sat up as much as he could, coiling his body in the tiny cage to make more room. "I was trying to keep him from killing all of you!" he snapped. "And I think I succeeded. I hope. If Twilight beats him and he has to resort to using his hostages, he's going to let you all go once Twilight surrenders her magic."
"Twilight would never do that!" Dash retorted.
"To save the six of you? Oh, yes, she would, in a heartbeat."
Applejack shook her head. "It wouldn't be right, sacrificing all Equestria to that crazy centaur just on our account. I don't think Twi will surrender for any reason."
"Well, I'm personally hoping I'm right and not you, because if Tirek kills any of you, Twilight will go berserk, and a single-powered berserk alicorn is a terrible thing. One with the power of four alicorns... it will be much better for Twilight's sanity if she surrenders and then runs off and starts a resistance movement with you six backing her up than if she holds out nobly and has to see you die."
"How about a little help here?" Pinkie said. She and Spike were gamely trying to wrench the bars again, pulling them inward. Discord blinked. What Pinkie was doing shouldn't be possible; pony hooves simply didn't bend that way. And Pinkie had lost her magic, so how... nevermind.
"All right. Several of you sit on me to hold me in place and I'll pull," Discord said. "The bars can't bend outward, but they can bend in and sideways, so Spike and I can pull. Applejack, you're the strongest--"
"No Earth pony magic, remember?"
Discord rolled his eyes. "You work on a farm all day, you'd be the strongest even without magic. You should hold onto Spike so he can pull with his paws, since he can't get in there to push like he did before."
"Why are we listening to you exactly?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Because I built this cage, so I know its weak points. And if we can get it open... listen, Tirek is hunting for Twilight right now and if he defeats her he's going to kill you all. We've got to try to get the cage open. The only thing we can do to help Twilight is make sure Tirek doesn't have hostages."
"Maybe you should have thought of that before you took us hostage," Applejack said sarcastically, but she braced two hind legs against two separate bars and sat with Spike wrapped in her forelimbs, leaving him free to use his opposable thumbs to yank at the bar with all the strength in his small body. Pinkie was kneeling in a half-reared position, almost bipedal -- if there had been clearance for her to stand on her hooves rather than on her back knees, Discord was sure she would be going bipedal -- pulling on the same bar, but over Spike's head, by hooking her front legs around it and pulling back with all her weight.
Discord himself wrapped his tail around a bar in the back, allowing him to brace himself with his strongest muscles as he pulled as hard as he could with the weaker ones in his arms. He couldn't breathe well. It was just as well that the other mares hadn't followed his instruction to sit on him; he could brace better with his tail than with their weight, and they'd have impaired his breathing. Did his circulatory system actually depend on magic? Was he going to have a heart attack or something? No, he'd been to dimensions where his magic didn't work and he'd lived. He must just be exhausted from the magic drain, he thought.
"So what exactly makes you think Tirek will let us free if Twilight defeats him and he has to use us as hostages?" Rarity asked.
"We... bet... on it."
Rarity sighed. "And of course he has proven his trustworthiness and truthfulness to you."
Discord shook his head. "It's... different. Betraying an ally... and taking their power is... expected. Normal. I... know the... Evil Overlord mindset."
"Takes one to know one?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"If you know it so well how come you never saw this coming?" Applejack demanded.
"Never... mind that. My point... is. Going back on a wager... when you really don't lose anything... if you lose... is... pathetic. It says... you can't even win... a game... without cheating. He'll... keep to... the bet. Once... Twilight's magic... is gone... he loses nothing... to let you go. But he... loses face... if he kills you anyway."
"What was the other half of the bet? What if he wins it? Huh?" Pinkie demanded. Unfairly, she was nowhere near as out of breath as either Discord or Spike.
"Then... he kills you all. So if Twilight wins and he has to use you as hostages, and she surrenders, you go free. If he defeats her and takes her magic... he'll kill her. And... all of you."
"What happens to you?" Fluttershy asked quietly.
"What... do you... mean?" he panted, pulling with all his strength. The bar was barely budging even after all this time.
"You've said that if Twilight wins, we all go free and if she loses we die, but you keep saying 'all of you', not 'we'. So, um, what happens to you?"
"Kills me... too... if I lose the bet."
"But if you win he lets you go too? Along with us?"
She sounded hopeful. Why did she sound hopeful? He'd betrayed her horribly, he'd made her cry. She should want him to die horribly. He opened his mouth to tell her that it didn't matter either way, and closed it again. He was a dead draconequus walking unless Twilight won against Tirek so thoroughly and completely that he didn't have time to use his hostages, but if Fluttershy actually cared about his fate, he couldn't hurt her by telling her there was no hope for him. "He's... not going to let me go. He's worried... I'll get my powers... back... so probably... he'll put me in a dungeon. Or... turn me... to stone." He shuddered at that thought. At least that wasn't actually likely to happen. Tirek would probably kill him swiftly, a fate he was less afraid of than centuries of paralysis again.
"Oh," Fluttershy whispered.
"Can't say you don't have it comin' to you, traitor," Applejack said.
"I... know."
"Well, if you know so much then why in tarnation did you do it?"
There was a distant explosion, and a column of smoke in the distance.
"Oh no," Spike said. "No no no no that was where our tree is no please..."
"Hey, it's gonna be okay," Pinkie said, still pulling. "Twilight's too smart for Tirek. No way could a big dumb meanie like him just take her out easy-peasy like that! She's still fighting, you can bet on it!"
"That's right," Rainbow Dash said. "Twilight's tough. She's gonna kick his flank, just you watch."
Discord held his tongue. Which was probably only possible because he was straining so hard to bend the bar in his paws that he could barely get enough air to breathe with, let alone talk. But he'd just flung himself into his task with even more desperation than before, because if Tirek had just killed Twilight... no, no, he couldn't let that happen, he couldn't let Tirek kill Fluttershy, or the others, he couldn't let his betrayal mean their deaths. Bad enough that he'd doomed himself, but... Applejack and Rainbow Dash were right. He deserved whatever Tirek did to him. His only hope for ameliorating any part of his crime, for making up for any part of his stupid, stupid mistake, was to make sure the others were saved.