A Repentant Draconequus on the Equestrian Throne

by DungeonMiner


4-Judge, Jury, and Executioner

Chapter 4

Evening was beginning to creep over Canterlot, and the moon was beginning to rise. The darker part of the sky, dressed in stars, was clear, only a handful of clouds floating across the twilight.

Despite the serenity of the scene, Canterlot was a different story.

The Elements of Harmony had been gathered, and the Bearers now surrounded the Draconequus in the palace.

Discord sat in the middle of the throne room, wrapped in massive chains. The chains, forged from a grey metal to form massive links, glowed green with the ghostly runes that had been engraved into them.

When Twilight asked, Celestia had told her that they had been forged in Tartarus by Death.

It wouldn’t hold him long, but it would be long enough to allow the girls to use the Elements.

Shining had been summoned. After the ragged looking stallion had passed of the infants to Cadence. After family matters had been taken care of he quickly put Discord under a bubble shield. Hardly a match, they knew, but if they could keep face, it would certainly keep the guards in line. Speaking of, just beyond the circle of the Bearers, the Royal Guard stood, spears at the ready.

Celestia and Luna sat in their thrones, staring down at Discord as he sat, chained, in the middle of the room.

Not once had he spoken.

Even when they had chained him, he hadn’t moved a muscle. He just sat there, silent and complacent.

Celestia glared down at him from her throne, while Luna looked on, a glare half-formed on her features. The younger Princesses’ eyes, however told a different story. There was quite obviously the glint of hatred and bitterness from the betrayal of Harmony, but at the same time, concerned curiosity began to rise up in her.

Discord did not act like this.

Even if it were some twisted trick, he’d be smiling about it.

Alan, who stood at the foot of the thrones, looked up to Celestia, waiting for a signal.

Celestia did not look down at him, instead her eyes stayed completely on Discord.

Silence hung over the room, and that silence was the only thing that kept panic and chaos from crashing down on the gathered guards.

When the Princess spoke for the first time, it was almost as if the throne room shook, startled at the sudden sound.

“Discord,” Celestia said, authority and power in her voice. “Why are you here?”

The draconequus lifted his head for the first time, showing off the cerulean orbs that were his eyes. “Harmony,” he corrected. “Or what’s left of him, at least.”

Celestia sneered, but kept her voice even. “Harmony? After all you’ve done you would dare to claim that name?”

Harmony sighed. “Am I to believe that this is my trial then?”

“Yes,” came the Princess’ simple reply.

“Then I am my own defense?”

“You are.”

Harmony sighed and nodded, before looking up again. His eyes crossed over Luna, before turning back to the floor. “Then may I begin my testimony?”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed as she stared at him. “Proceed.”

Harmony nodded, never making eye contact with the younger Princess. “Then I suppose I should start at the beginning.”

<<<|Ω|>>>

“No! No, no, no!” Harmony cried, tossing his papers to the side. He sat in the dark of his room, lights illuminating his desk as he threw out the latest series of calculations.

“It won’t work! Why won’t it work?!” he roared, his hooves flying through page after page of notes and research.

It just couldn’t happen.

For the longest time, unicorns had thought that their Council had control of the sun in the days before Celestia’s rule. The truth, though, was almost so embarrassing, that Celestia never could correct them. Their Council barely got the sun to budge, it was an alarm clock more than anything, they couldn’t even move the moon.

And that was his problem.

He needed to find some way to automate the moon. If he could do that, then Luna would be free of her responsibilities, and then they could be together without having to be drawn away all the time.

But...but it just couldn’t happen. He had tried everything, from starting his own council to take care of the moon, to using powerful spell gems. Even the gems which had come from the Tree of Harmony, the Elements of Harmony, a tree he had sworn Faust to protect.

Nothing could do it.

Only another alicorn could, and they all had their own duties.

He…

He sighed, and slumped in front of his desk.

He couldn’t do it.

All this time, and there was nothing.

He needed...he…

“Poor thing…” a voice whispered.

Harmony’s head snapped up, and his cerulean eyes fell down onto this small cloud. It looked like a section of the night sky, plucked from the Aether itself.

“Working so hard with no reward,” it spoke, sympathy filling it’s wispy voice.

Harmony took a long look at the cloud. Never before had he seen such a creature. “What are you?” he asked, curiosity in his voice.

“I am a living piece of magic,” the cloud said. “And I see that you are having problems.”

Harmony blinked. Living Magic? Faust...well...she always spoke of how her world was alive, perhaps she meant literally? “I have been,” he replied, “but what brings one of your kind here?”

“Sympathy. I have your answer, Harmony.”

An answer? After all this time?

It...it couldn’t be that easy, could it?

“Truly?” he asked.

“As true as I am before you,” the cloud replied. “I can give you the power to raise and lower the sun on a whim. The laws of the earth would be yours to write and rewrite, and in return, all I ask for is a home.”

“A home?”

“In order to give you my gift, I need to reside in you. Be one with you. Do this, and I can give you the answer to be with the one you love.”

Harmony looked down at the cloud.

It had to be a gift from Faust. It had to be.

<<<|Ω|>>>

“It was no gift,” Harmony said, “and if I had been thinking with a clear head, I would have known that. As the thing then entered me, it transformed me into what you see now. However, I was given one mercy yet, for he could not dominate me as he had planned. Instead, our minds were joined, and I lost myself as he had lost himself.”

Harmony sighed. “I am responsible for this,” he said. “All of this has been my fault, even when I held no control over the beast. And so, Princesses, I submit myself to your judgement.”

“So you had no control,” Celestia said, cooly, “yet you have perfect control now?”

“Not perfect,” Harmony said. “I had to fight for control, and I am not sure he is done fighting.”

“Then why didn’t you fight before?” Celestia asked, her mane smoldering slightly. “Why did you not fight when you betrayed my sister and I? Why did you not fight when the world was breaking at your own hand?”

Harmony cringed under the verbal assault, before saying simply. “I did not fight because I did not exist.” He looked up for the first time, staring at the Pendragon with sad, blue eyes. “But when the Pendragon wounded me with his blade, something happened in me. We were split again, myself and the cloud, and the creature you knew as Discord was no more. For the first time, I had the chance to fight.”

The others said nothing, and there was utter silence in the throne room.

Harmony dropped his gaze again. “That was the power the Elements of Harmony imbued his sword with. It has the ability to separate those that do not work together. That sword saved my mind, but also ruined me.”

“How did it ruin you?” Luna asked, speaking for the first time.

Harmony cringed at her voice.

The draconequus did not answer at first, but eventually, he spoke. “I am ruined, because now I must take responsibility of my mistake.” He looked up, at Luna for the first time since he had entered the room.

Their eyes met, and it seemed to Alan that a hundred words passed between them in that moment. A million apologies, and a thousand questions.

Harmony gulped. “All of my mistakes.”

Luna turned away from him, her face stoic.

Harmony dropped his gaze again, staring at the floor once more.

Alan and the gang stayed silent, looking between each other as a general sense of uneasy awkwardness came over them. Alan himself felt like a mouse sitting between three snakes, each waiting to strike the other, or him, if he stepped out of line.

Silence ruled over the throne room.

The elder sister continued to glare, her patience only a thread away from snapping and unleashing her fury on the bound creature before her. Then, with a snort, she stood. “Discord,” she said, addressing him by the older name. “You have been found...um…” Celestia trailed off as Luna suddenly walked past her.

The younger Princess walked past the older, approaching the draconequus with no small amount of caution.

But still, she approached.

“Harmony?” She called, only for their captive to flinch at the name.

He did not answer her.

“Harmony,” she said, sterner this time, standing directly in front of him.

He looked up at her, catching her in the edge of her vision, not daring to raise his head fully.

She brought her hoof up to his chin, forcing his to stare her directly in the face.

She stared directly into his eyes, her gaze boring into his soul.

Harmony looked back, tears welling up in his eyes. Her cyan eyes met his cerulean, and it seemed another conversation happened between their eyes.

Then she let his head drop, removing her hoof from his chin before turning to face her sister. “He is forgiven.”

Had the older sister been drinking, the resulting spit-take would be heard across Equestria. “What?!”

“He is forgiven, and absolved of his crimes,” Luna repeated.

“Luna!” Celestia yelled. “What are you talking about?! This is Discord! He is trying to tri—”

“Those are Harmony’s eyes,” Luna said, simply. “I have not seen those eyes in thousands of years, but I know them.”

“But—!”

“I forgive him.”

“He is a monster!” Celestia accused.

“So was I,” Luna replied quietly.

There was no rebuttal.

Celestia blinked, before taking a step back.

Luna stared at her sister, neither hate nor malice in her eyes. “I, too, was a monster. I, too, was mislead. I, too, had made mistakes, and I have not yet forgiven myself of it. So while you may wish to condemn him for his mistakes, I will not. If you can forgive me, then I can forgive him.”

Celestia opened her mouth, searching for some kind of argument.

Yes, there was truth in her words, but something in her bones told her that this was a bad idea.

She couldn’t let this happen, she had...had...too…

“Now, now, Celestia,” a voice whispered in the back of her mind. “If she is right, she’s right. And Faust always said you needed to learn mercy.”

“But...but this doesn’t feel right…”

“What would you do, Celestia, if it had been Death in those chains?”

The question snapped her mouth shut, and the fiery feather in here mane now seemed to weigh a ton.

She looked back at Harmony, bound in chains, who simply stared at the ground.

She looked back at Luna.

“Well, Celestia...what will you do?”

Celestia bit her lip.

“I...I…”

She sighed. “Very well, Luna.”

Alan moved to speak up. “Princess…”

And then a voice whispered in his head. “So quick to judge, Pendragon? After your lesson about second chances, I thought you’d be a little more open to the thought.”

Alan faltered.

“Let him go,” Celestia said, “Take the chains off of him.”

Harmony looked up. “Celestia, I—” He froze, before blinking. “Th-thank you…”

<<<|Ω|>>>

Alan and the others made their way to the train. Celestia walked next to them, their royal escort, as promised, even with this new player on the field.

Still, neither he, nor Celestia could not help but look back at the palace, half expecting it to erupt in macaroni flames, or something similar.

As they stepped onto the station platform, Celestia turned to them. “My little ponies, I’d hate to ask this of you right after your wedding, Pinkie, but...could would you mind coming back, and perhaps staying in Canterlot for a few days?”

The ponies looked to the newlyweds.

Soarin spoke for them. “I think we can make arrangements, Princess.”

Celestia smiled. “I cannot thank you enough, I will make sure that you have everything you need. All you’ll need is to ask.”

“It will be our pleasure,” Alan said.

As Celestia left, giving her thanks once more, the ponies began to file into the private train that she called for them.

“Well, there you go Soarin,” Alan said.

“What?” the pegasus asked, confused.

“Shining gets an invasion, I die, and you get the return of the possibly most evil thing seen by modern eyes,” Alan said, forcing a smile.

Soarin blinked, before giving a forced laugh. “Well, if they don’t say anything about Canterlot weddings, they should now.”

<<<|Ω|>>>

Luna led Harmony through the castle of Canterlot. They did not walk together, Harmony simply followed as she led him in silence. She did not look back at him, nor did she speak. No guards walked with them, leaving only the clop of her hooves on cold tile floors sounding in the hallway.

Her face was as impassive as stone.

Harmony walked behind her, standing on his hind legs and never once speaking. His eyes merely stared at her back, watching as she moved with grace and elegance befitting a Princess.

As she came to the end of the hall, she opened a nearby door. “You are to stay here,” she said, her voice sounding ever-so-slightly cold as she gave the order. “Come and see us on the morrow when we break our fast, and then perhaps we can have some of the royal magicians to take a look at your body.”

“Yes,” Harmony said, quietly. “Of course.”

She did not turn to him as she stood by the door, but watched him intently as he entered his new room. He seemed incredibly out of place in the simple room, his long, miss-matched arms hovered over a desk as his eyes scanned the empty papers.

“Everything to your liking?” Luna asked.

Harmony turned to her. “Yes, thank you.”

She began to turn away, only to stop halfway through the door. Her profile left a pony-shaped shadow hovering over the floor, surrounded by a column of light. She kept the door open for a second or two, but did not say a word.

Their eyes met once more.

Neither of them said a word.

A long second passed.

And then, with just the ghost of a sad smile, Luna whispered. “It is good to have you back, Harmony.”

And with that, she turned away, and closed the door behind her.

Harmony sat in the darkness of his new room.

And then he smiled.

<<<|Ω|>>>

That night, Alan dreamed.

He dreamed of many things as he lay in his bed.

He dreamed of blades and spears.

He dreamed of screams and chokes.

He dreamed of blood and water.

He woke up screaming.

--------------------------------

I know! I know! It’s a short chapter, I know!

“We want more! We want more!”

Pinkie?

“We want more! Yes?”

Where did you get that pitchfork?

“From your Uncle’s!”

But...my Uncle isn’t a farmer…

“Are you going to question a man about his pitchfork?”

I...um...no, I…

“Good! Now back to work!”

Ow! Alright! Alright! I’m going, I’m going!

“More will be coming soon! Pinkie Promise!”

See you all soon! Ouch!

“Bye!”