Barely fifteen minutes ago, Discord had arrived at the hospital and snatched Matt away, surprisingly healing all his wounds before doing a one-eighty and trying to drown him before they left. The Elements were screaming and panicking, understandably assuming the worst. Rachel had fallen to her knees, sobbing quietly to herself. The doctors and nurses that had been barricaded outside the crowded room weren't sure how to approach the situation, but the head doctor had made it a point to tell his fellow colleagues not to let word spread around that a particularly vile villain had returned. No need to have a mass panic break out in Ponyville if they could help it, let alone the hospital itself.
Eventually, Applejack, who had remained mostly silent, staring in horror at the now-empty bed at where Matt laid for over a week, shouted over the hollering. "Everypony! Everypony, knock it off! Quiet!" The room went dead quiet, all eyes on her. "All this bickerin' ain't getting us anywhere. I-I think we...we need to get a hold of the Princesses. I have a feeling we're gonna need their help with this."
"Yeah. Yeah, that's not a bad idea at all," Twilight said. "Let's go. We don't have any time to lose."
As they stutter-stepped past the hospital staff, Rachel remained kneeling there on the floor, too mentally exhausted and broken to move. One of the nurses got Applejack's attention just before she was out the door. The cowgirl paused, seeing the emptiness in the heartbroken young woman's eyes. Sadly, the mare shuffled up to her and rested a hoof on her shoulder. Now was not the time for any rivalries to be anywhere near the surface.
"It'll be okay," Applejack whispered. "We'll find him. I promise."
Drying her tears, Rachel slowly got to her feet, nodded and joined them on their trek back to the library.
-----
Twilight couldn't understand it. If anypony knew where Discord might like to hide out, or where he kept any prisoners he may have ever taken all those centuries ago, Celestia and Luna would know where he'd be, and she had sent Celestia at least half a dozen letters by now. She knew they were received pretty much instantly. The Princess was always busy, sure, and she was aware of Discord's return, but surely she had enough tricks up her sleeve to handle herself in case he decided to stop by, right? She and Luna were okay, weren't they?
The couple hours of waiting for a reply was starting to worry them. Twilight's pacing around the library lobby wasn't helping matters either. Still, it wasn't like the Princesses to be unresponsive. Something must have happened.
Rachel was leaning up against one of the bookcases, fidgeting most of the time. It may not have been the most comfortable thing in the world on her back, but her stomach was tying itself more and more painfully into knots as the time passed. She wished there was something she could do, but they were treading in grounds of which she had absolutely no knowledge.
"Look, we can't just sit around waiting for the Princesses," Rainbow Dash finally groaned. "We know what he's like. Who says we can't find him ourselves?"
"It could take forever, Dash," Applejack countered. "Equestria's a big place, y'know."
"We could always look around Ponyville if nothing else," Fluttershy suggested. "He did try to make it the chaos capital of the world when we first encountered him. Maybe he's trying to hide in plain sight?"
"It beats sitting around here doing squat. I hate waiting like this."
The troubled unicorn stopped her circling and glanced over at the book that held their fabled necklaces and tiara. While she was usually patient with her mentor, with every second that went by, it looked more and more certain that they'd be forced to move ahead without her.
Gritting her teeth behind her lips, Twilight marched over to the bookcase and floated the thick novel from its shelf and over to the floor in the middle of her friends. They shared a tentative look, none of them particularly looking forward to hunting the demigod who easily tossed aside the Elements' power last time and was even stronger now. But, it needed to be done. They weren't going to give up on Matt, no matter what it cost.
The gems shimmered softly when placed on their respective owners' necks and head. Rachel reasoned they must have been those relics Matt talked about. They seemed so unassuming from what she was expecting.
Twilight turned to Rachel. "Things might get really dangerous. You don't have to come if you don't want to."
"To Hell with that," she said as she rose to her feet. "Ah...Ah know it didn't really do anythin' last time, but would it be possible if Ah went and grabbed mah piece over at Matt's place?"
"Your 'piece'?"
"Mah gun. Maybe...maybe if that bastard didn't see it comin', it'd do somethin' to him, I don't know. Worth a shot."
"Suppose any little bit may help," Applejack said with a shrug. "Guess we'll see."
-----
Rachel took the lead as they stepped into the vacant home and went straight for the bedroom. The girls waited quietly in the living room, looking over the little details of the room. Most of them stopped briefly when they came across the newspaper clipping with the barren rack above it. They hoped to Celestia Matt was alright. Dragging him out of a colossal bear's throat was bad enough. Now this...
In Matt's bedroom, Rachel went straight for the her target sitting on top of the dresser. She grabbed the gun and stared over the barrel hopefully. In a world full of magic, the idea that it would be terribly effective in most situations seemed laughable, but she had to try again. As she went to leave, she noticed her phone sitting on the night stand next to the bed. Another decent idea. Maybe if they got lucky, she could try and reach him, provided he even had his phone to begin with. She had no clue either way. Would she be able to get through to him if he had it? Another unanswerable question.
One that would be answered when she looked at the tiny screen and saw three missed calls.
She blinked and snatched the phone, sliding her weapon into her pocket. Her eyes went wide when the number she pulled up was the same one he had when he contacted her.
Selecting the number and hoping Matt was still there, she crept back out into the living room, the device in her hand with the speaker on. The Elements' own ears perked up upon seeing the phone possibly working. The first several seconds offered nothing but dead air, but eventually the line came alive, ringing for all to hear.
"Rache?"
"Oh God, Matt! Where are ya?! Are ya okay?"
"Yeah, I'm...I-I'm fine. Been trying to get a hold of you, but..."
"Ah didn't have the phone nearby. Listen, your friends have those jewel things you talked about. We're gonna come get ya. Now, where are ya?"
Matt went silent. Though they couldn't know, his stomach was twisting in knots when she asked that.
"Look...I know you're all worried, but...it'd be best if you just forgot about me. Don't come looking, okay?"
"What?" Rachel gasped. "Don't be ridiculous! We'll find ya, we'll get ya out of there! Now tell me where ya are, baby!"
"Even if I did want you to come find me...I-I don't know where I am. All Discord said was something about always ruling from here or whatever. I'm a court jester now, according to him."
Even over the speaker, Matt's brief stutter made Applejack lift a brow. Something was wrong, she knew it.
"Sugarcube, you know everything Discord knows. If anypony knows where he took you, it's you. Can't you tell us anything?"
He paused again. "I wish I could, alright? I'm sorry. Just...I know it doesn't make any sense, but you need to stay away."
"But why, Matt? Tell us, please," Twilight begged.
"Because I'm trying to keep you safe, okay?" he growled, nearly yelling. "S-sorry. He pretty much told me that he's not going to bother you. Guess he figures you can't touch him anyway, so what's the point? Look, I have no idea when or if he's going to show up again, so I better not stay on anymore. Don't want to give him a reason to come after you. Just let me go."
"Sweetie, don't talk like that!"
"I'm sorry. I love you all."
"Matt! Matt!"
The only response they received was the line disconnecting.
In his new home, Matt stared long at the device, already missing the ones he cherished. He didn't have a choice. He wasn't going to throw seven lives away for his. He went to throw the phone against the wall to destroy its existence but paused halfway. If Discord decided to stop by and saw it laying smashed on the floor, he may figure out what had happened and go after his friends out of spite. Instead, he simply shut the phone off completely and buried it in one of the drawers left in the dresser under some of the clothes Discord gifted him. Hopefully he wouldn't have any reason to look in there. With any luck, the furniture itself wasn't aware enough to alert him to its presence either in some bizarre way.
He looked over the destruction in the room, at a loss at what to do now. He felt physically sick and mentally exhausted. His normal life was over. Resigned to his fate, he crawled atop the mattress and flopped his head onto the pillows. As tired as he was, he couldn't fall asleep. Instead, he stared and stared at nothing.
Meanwhile, at his old home, six worried mares, and one distraught woman were left speechless at Matt's abrupt departure. While they exchanged frightened looks, Applejack never took her eyes off the phone, the long, low whine of a dead phone line piercing her ears. For a moment, she saw her parents laying in their hospital beds after the accident with a similar-sounding 'bweeeeeeee' emanating from the equipment. Her eyes rained down her cheeks at the memory just as they did when it actually happened.
"Oh gods, we gotta find him," she wheezed.
"But where are we supposed to look?" Fluttershy spoke up.
"We had decided to check around Ponyville first, right? Let's start there," Pinkie Pie suggested.
"And what if we don't find him, dear? Where do we go from there?"
"We'll just have to figure that out as we go," Twilight said. "Maybe we'll hit the Everfree afterwards, but we're not sitting around here anymore. Come on!"
-----
They had wandered and searched for at least a couple hours, every step they took being just as fruitless as the last. Nopony in Ponyville had seen anything out of the ordinary or even mentioned Discord. The hospital staff must have been keeping quiet as asked, but who knew how long that'd last? The only reason they could think of as to why Ponyville hadn't been turned on its head was because Discord had some new toys to play with and wanted to see how far he could push the envelope messing with the other humans around.
Twilight's mind was going a mile a minute ever since they left Matt's home. With their worst enemy returning, Matt being kidnapped to who knows where, and Celestia not replying to her numerous letters, no one could blame her. While she usually took charge and would've spoken to the denizens of the tiny town, she was far too distracted. In her stead, Applejack took the reins.
The unicorn kept replaying what Matt said on the phone most of their journey. Ruling from there and court jesters – it had to have a significance, even if their friend didn't realize it. Though it was doubtful Discord would have come right out and told him where he was, the menace loved a good riddle. She paused on their way to the Everfree Forest and narrowed her eyes, a hoof scratching at her chin.
"What is it?" Rachel asked as they came to a stop.
Without saying a word, Twilight slowly craned her head around, gazing at the strangely normal-looking, mountain-dwelling city in the distance.
-----
The train ride took far too long for Twilight's taste, even if it took no longer than it usually did. Her stomach was doing back flips as they approached Canterlot's platform. Even if they were unsuccessful in locating Discord in the royal city, at least she could track down the Princesses and ask why they never bothered to reply to them – as long as they were safe themselves.
They had expected the usually pleasant greetings from local guardsponies upon departing the train. What they got was a creepily barren station straight out of a horror movie. It made their flesh crawl – even Rachel's. There was no doubt anymore. He had been there. What exactly he had done was anypony's guess, but they were going to find out.
The mares took off in a sprint to the throne room with Rachel in tow, following their lead. Even on the way, no guards or advisors or anypony were anywhere to be seen, and their steps echoed loudly in the empty halls as they ran. After several minutes of racing, they finally arrived at the large double doors that led to the long corridor. They took a moment to let the less than physically fit catch their breath before they went in.
"You...you sure they're...gonna be in there?" Rachel asked between gasps.
"Honestly? No. But that'd be the first place to check. It's where they do most of their work from, so..." Twilight explained. The woman nodded as the purple mare willed the doors open. "Princess Celes–"
A collective gasp left their lungs. At the other end of the hallway stood the Solar and Lunar Princesses, their normally radiant coats having been replaced by dusty grey stone. Their faces were frozen in horror. The group cautiously approached the two figures, dumbstruck and holding back sobs. Twilight, however, was already crying.
"Those aren't just statues, are they?" Rachel inquired, though she already knew the answer.
"I thought he said once that he didn't turn ponies into stone," Fluttershy whimpered.
"He probably did this just to mix things up. You know how he is," Rarity retorted.
"And we still ain't any closer to finding Matt," Applejack muttered. "I mean, we still have the rest of the castle to look through, not to mention the entirety of Canterlot, and that could take all night! What're we supposed to do?"
Almost in response to her heartache, the Elements suddenly began to glow on their own, making the girls jump in surprise. Rachel took a few steps back, unsure if this was what the gems were supposed to do. Either way, she wasn't going to get in their way.
One after another, they began to channel a colored beam into a singular point of nearly blinding white light. After a moment, the orb fired a focused blast of magic past the powerless Princesses and came together with...something...a few feet in front of their thrones. The beam shifted to the right, then down to the floor, over to the left and returning back to its point of origin, drawing a rectangle. The ray then began to expand, blanketing the shape in luminescence and revealing what it found – a simple door.
"What's that doing there?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"It makes sense now," Twilight commented. "Discord's always wanted to rule Equestria. Where better to rule it from than a throne room? And as far as court jesters go, royalty used to have them before the Princesses came to power."
"You really think he's in there, dear? Maybe it's just more misdirection."
"Let's find out."
The purple mare galloped ahead and carefully took the knob in her magic. Didn't want to set off any potential traps. She took a quick look around to make sure everything was unaffected, and it seemed to be so. Steeling herself, she flung open the door to discover a tiny, hidden room. She saw see a familiar pair of legs in her immediate field of vision laying on a bed. The rest of the place looked like a hurricane had gone through it, but that wasn't a concern to her.
"Matt!"
He sat up quickly upon hearing the small equine. "No..." he mumbled to himself.
As soon as Twilight saw his face, she was immediately troubled. She expected to see joy but was instead greeted with misery; he looked as if he was about to break down any minute. She shook off wanting to ask what was wrong, figuring they just needed to get out of there first and foremost. Not wasting another second, she grabbed him with her magic and carried him outside past the door's threshold to their waiting friends. Rachel was the first to embrace him. Holding back tears, he squeezed her close.
"You've got to put me back," Matt demanded as he let his lover go. "Like, right now! He's gonna know!"
"What do you mean? We gotta get you out of here!" Twilight said, ignoring his pleas.
Unbeknownst to her and the others, however, Matt's assumption was correct. While Discord had taken a sabbatical back to New York to taunt and tease the people there, a flicker of magic hit him. An alarm had been triggered when the door was pried open. He had underestimated Matt and his little four-legged friends before; he wasn't about to make the same mistake again.
The monster glanced up in annoyed surprised. "No. No, it can't be! How'd they...?" With a snarl, he vanished from the metropolis and reappeared a few seconds later beside his enemies, glaring hard at them. "You girls really know how to put a damper on my fun, don't you?"
Rachel quickly snatched her handgun from her pocket, ready to go 'round two' with the demigod. Before things could get even further out of hand, Twilight thought quickly and lit up her horn, sending Matt and Rachel away and slamming the giant double doors.
"Really?" Discord said with a bored smirk as the mares snarled at him. "This is how it's going to go down? Well, I suppose I can have a little fun before I finish you." He continued, addressing the biggest piece of his puzzle from afar. "Oh, and Matt? I do hope you get a chance to say goodbye to your little girlfriend before I'm done with your pony friends. You better hurry though. This shouldn't take long."
He and Rachel popped into the world with the usual accompanying dizzy spell. It almost looked like they were still in the castle – and if Matt wasn't mistaken, the doors he saw behind them several feet away were the doors to the throne room. Maybe Twilight couldn't warp them across large distances? Either way, the pair heard the voice echo through the air as they came to their senses.
While they were struggling to stand, Discord grinned wickedly at his most irritating opponents and their gemstones. "First things first. A little something Matt showed me last time in that little illusion of his." With a wiggle of his finger, the Elements were ripped from their owners and crushed into dust. The mares froze up as they crumbled and fell to the floor in front of them. "May as well not take any chances, right? Was so easy to do when I'm brimming with all this chaos energy, not to mention the looks on your faces are gold!"
Outside, Matt finally managed to get to his feet, hollering at Rachel tearfully. "Why did you come?! I told you all to stay away! Wh-why didn't you listen?!"
His girl grabbed him by the hand, not answering his frustrated questions. "Come on, sweetie, we gotta get out of here!"
"It doesn't matter!" he growled, yanking his arm away. "I-it doesn't matter anymore."
He eyed the weapon in Rachel's grip and grit his teeth behind his lips. Before she could react, he wrestled it out of her hand and slammed the barrel against his temple – as well as his eyes shut.
"Baby, what're ya doing?!"
The trigger tickled his finger as he fought against himself. All it would take was a gentle squeeze, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Opening weeping now, he fell to his knees, his arms going limp and the gun slipping out of his hand. Not wanting to stir things up again, Rachel tentatively knelt down and took the gun away, her free hand rubbing his wet cheek.
"Matt, what was that all about?"
"It...i-it's all my fault," he sobbed.
"What? What is?"
"Everything. You, Discord, all the buildings and stuff...everything."
"What do ya mean?"
"Discord, h-he showed me what happened. He–"
"That monster? Ya gonna believe him after everything y'all told me about him?" Rachel groaned.
"Dammit, everything he and they said adds up!" he snapped back. "When he smashed me into that car, when that damn cat almost took my head off, everything went crazy! Everything that happened to you and everything else! Discord put me in that room so...so nothing would happen to me!"
"But how does that–"
"He was going to leave you all alone if you stayed away! Now he's...he's in there with them and...well, you heard him! He'll be after you next!"
She slowly rose to her feet, trying to look calm and unphased, but Matt knew her too well. He could see her subtle flinch, the slight bulge in her fearful eyes. He rose to meet her face to face, staring grimly at the worried young woman.
"Ya don't really think he'd...?"
His silence said enough.
"But...but, then what do we do?"
A muffled scream from the next room swung them around. Their stomachs twisted in knots. His eyes started to water again. Slowly, and with the heaviest of hearts, he turned back to Rachel. She prayed that Matt wasn't going to say what she was afraid of.
"I-I'm sorry."
He brushed down her arm, making his way down to the gun in her hand. She immediately jerked away, quickly catching on to what he was doing.
"No! Don't ask me to do that!"
His hand found her cheek, his thumb wiping away the first tear. "If you don't, he's going to kill you – and I'm not going to let him hurt you."
"Come on, baby, there...there has to be something we can do!" He remained silent and steadfast, frowning as she begged. "Please...Ah...Ah already lost ya once," she sobbed, her lips quivering.
A warm, reassuring smile crept across his face. "You had to move on once before too."
Any defenses she had left finally broke down. No amount of comforting words was going to make the inevitable any easier to bear. They stared at each other silently for a moment, their hearts already breaking as they reluctantly accepted the unacceptable.
"It's not fair," Rachel muttered.
"I know." Taking her cheeks in his hands, he leaned in and met her lips one last time. Once again, he reached down and rested her gun against his gut, holding her shaking hand firmly so she couldn't pull away.
Her finger refused to move. Whimpering, she broke the kiss and laid her forehead against his. "Ah can't. Ah j-just...Ah just can't!
Her hand was suddenly squeezed tightly for her, and a horrific, thunderous bang echoed through the hall. Matt's clenched face went limp as he was thrown off his feet. Rachel's world grinded to a halt while she watched her love – and his blood – spill onto the floor.
In just the next room over, the eyes of a single, multi-limbed amalgamation that was the Elements of Harmony went wide at the blast. Discord paused his theatrics, frozen in disbelief. He too recognized the sound from his visit to the Big Apple as well as Matt's numerous memories.
"What was that?" he mumbled as he turned around.
He received his answer by tumbling to the floor, wracked with pain and glowing with a familiar light as he faded in and out of existence.
Laying near Matt, Rachel was failing to maintain her solid form as well. Despite the agony she was in, she crawled the few feet to his side and laid her hand on his rising and falling chest. Ignoring his own searing torment from both his entrance and exit wounds, with the last of his strength rapidly leaving him, he reached up and tenderly took her hand. He apologized again with a final, solemn glance before she was ripped away altogether. His palm, now empty, fell lifelessly and slid onto the floor.
With no anchor left to sustain him, Discord let loose an ear-piercing shriek as his body dematerialized as well, fluttering into the air as a wave of flickering sparks. A few seconds after he vanished, the Elements popped back into their six normal forms, wings, horns, tails and the rest where they were supposed to be. Their gems then returned to their original, undamaged state in a flash of undone magic. The statues that were the Princesses began to crumble and break, eventually allowing them to break free from their stone prisons.
"Twilight! Thank goodness you're–"
The solar ruler paused as she watched her most trusted students bolt for the door one by one, Applejack wasting no time and leaving Twilight to bring up the rear.
"Where are they going?" Luna asked her sister. "And what was that noise?"
Celestia followed a few steps behind the group with Luna right behind. Just outside their royal court, they found six friends rooted to the floor, their jaws dropped in shock and eyes starting to water. The siblings came to a halt next to them, just as stunned as the others. Applejack dove for Matt's body as commotion began to stir.
"You sent him here?!" Rainbow screamed.
"I panicked, alright?! I wanted them out of there and it was the first place I could think of!"
"Why didn't they run?! And where's Rachel?!"
"All of you stop it!" Rarity screamed. Her outburst worked, leaving the only sound in the room to belong to a whimpering farm pony caressing his head.
"C-come on, Matt. You've been here before. Time to get up!" she said, chuckling slightly, desperately trying to bury her worst fear. When no response came, she laid her free hoof on his chest and waited – and waited. "Come on! Please don't go!" Breaking down in tears, she leaned over and cradled his head against hers, rocking back and forth.
Celestia suddenly sucked in a breath, her long horn glowing violently. All but one paid it any attention. In a burst of light, they were transported to the middle of the emergency ward of a Canterlot hospital, briefly shocking the staff and patients out of their wits.
"Your Highnesses!" a closeby doctor said with a bow. "Err, what brings–" The heartbroken mare on the floor told him everything he needed to know.
"Please, you have to help him!" the Princess commanded.
"Yes, of course!"
Applejack was lifted away from her love, clawing away at the air as she was moved. Rarity wrapped her forelimbs around the distraught mare, clutching her tightly. The farmer's struggling stopped and she went utterly limp.
With her out of the way, the doctor was allowed to do his work. He gently tore open the blood-stained shirt, revealing a large wet sea of red. A noticeable hole on the left side of Matt's abdomen, surrounded by a faint burn mark hidden under all the blood, greeted them.
"Piercing injury," the unicorn muttered to himself. Carefully, he lifted his new patient up and quickly felt the back under the shirt. "Exit wound too." He set Matt back down on the floor and placed his hoof on his chest, correctly assuming where his heart was. After failing to find a pulse, he called out for a stretcher.
Several painfully long seconds later, one came with a trio nurses in tow. He quickly hoisted the man up onto it, finding it to be a bit too small. Luna focused her magic and made the craft stretch to an appropriate size.
"Thank you, Princess Luna." The doctor addressed his assistants. "Get him to emergency room six. He has a severe piercing wound through his stomach. No pulse either."
As they carted their friend down the hall, the group of friends sat silently, their eyes wet and some covering their mouths in disbelief. Their stomachs twisted more and more as the staff fired off their jargon, the things they could make out over the whispered hum of the hospital crushing their spirits and breaking their hearts.