Discord sighed as he opened his eyes. He felt... strange. A peculiar loneliness had surrounded him. Indeed, Discord felt well and truly... alone.
Now, it wasn't all bad. He could sleep and rest on clouds as long as he wanted. In fact, he was surprisingly comfortable. He fluttered his wings lightly, just to warm them up. Perhaps, just maybe, he would go for a quick flight.
Not a long one, just a quick jaunt. Surely that couldn't be too bad, right? It would warm him up, at least. He was rather cold. He even made a move to stand before falling back onto the cloud, sending little wisps of cirrus around.
He just couldn’t leave this wonderfully comfortable resting spot of his.
He sighed softly, watching the clouds above him drifting slowly past. It was relaxing, certainly, but… he longed for something else. Was it adventure? Or simply some company? It was starting to get to him… this loneliness. No amount of cloud watching could combat that.
He thought of his first option for why he felt peculiar - adventure. Maybe he simply longed to move from this little haven of his. But his Shadow had told him quite firmly that the world beyond his resting place was too dangerous for someone in his condition. He still wasn’t positive what that condition was, but why would his own Shadow lie to him? He was awfully tired most of the time, and usually had no desire to do much of anything.
That’s right! That had been the question he wanted to ask. Why did he feel so lonely and have such a great wanderlust now of all times? He thought for a moment; that wasn’t as hard a question to answer as he thought. It had been that voice he had heard earlier.
Had he told his Shadow about the peculiar voice? He couldn’t remember. He thought he had. He wasn’t positive, however - it was just so hard to remember things lately. Maybe he would tell him about the voice later.
He tapped his chin. It had been a very kind voice. Soft, like a flower. It reminded him of the taste of butterscotch, although he wasn’t sure when he had last had butterscotch. But it had seemed like the voice was crying. Like it was sad. He hoped the voice he heard wasn’t too horribly sad (although he wasn’t sure why he felt that way).
He thought about the voice for quite awhile. It made sense why he was so suddenly lonely. Even if he couldn’t respond back to the voice earlier, it had still been there. That was good. Great, even. He hadn’t quite realized how quiet his world here was.
But now the voice was gone. He had already tried calling to it, but it remained stubbornly silent. All he wanted was to hear someone, anyone’s voice…
But that was a dream for another day, he supposed. With a yawn, he settled down into the cloud again. He was still feeling just a bit tired. Maybe a small rest before he decided to take that big adventure was a good idea…
Yeah. Sleep… “What a lovely idea,” he muttered tiredly to himself before shutting his eyes and drifting off into another dreamless yet fitful sleep.
*~*~*~
Twilight glanced around the room. She had never been in this part of Canterlot castle before. It was an old war room, used in much older, much darker times as the place of war plans and peace treaties. She hoped they would never have to use them for that purpose again.
The room was rather bare, particularly on the walls. The only source of light were the dimly lit torches, which blazed with a peculiar teal flame. It shed a sickly light on the walls, reminding Twilight of an undersea dungeon more than a spartanly empty, abandoned room.
Although the room wasn’t totally empty. She looked now at the ponies sitting around her. Rarity was to her left in the circular room, resting on a bench while talking to Spike. To her right was Applejack, fixing her hat every so often and nervously glancing at the clock. Twilight couldn’t help but smile, knowing for almost fact that her friend was worrying about her little sister back in Ponyville. Lastly, she looked directly ahead at Princess Luna. The princess being there wasn’t too much of a shock. Twilight only wondered why Princess Celestia wasn’t here too.
Twilight made the choice to speak up about it - no one learns without asking questions, after all. She cleared her throat softly. “Uh… Princess Luna?”
Luna looked at her. “We pray of thee, Twilight, to not be so terribly formal. Thou may refer to us as Luna.”
Twilight sheepishly smiled. “Luna, then. I was just wondering, where is Celestia?”
Luna sighed, shaking her head. “We fear our sister is too… close to the topic we wish to discuss with thee. We believe it best that she remain uninformed of our conversation tonight.”
“Well then why don’t we go on and get this here meeting started,” Applejack said. “It’s gettin’ mighty late, Princess.”
Luna shook her head. “We are waiting for one more pony to join us.”
“Oh?” Rarity sat up a bit more in her seat. “Whom, might I ask?”
Luna smiled softly. Twilight tilted her head - the princesses smirk looked almost… conspiratorial? Like she knew something they didn’t. Which, obviously, she did; she knew who the final guest was. “We believe thou knows him well.”
“Him? Is it Shining?”
“No, dear Twilight,” Luna said with a soft little chuckle. “No, we think only Rarity has so much as spoken to him before.”
Twilight ran through a mental list of stallions in her mind. Not Big Mac, as Applejack was his sister. Certainly not Hoity Toity; there was absolutely no reason for him to be here. Fancy Pants? He had no more reason than Hoity would. She racked her brain, trying to think of any more.
There came a soft knock at the door. “Ah. It appears our final guest has arrived.” She stood and made as though she was going to the door, but stopped, glancing at Rarity. “Er… Perhaps, Rarity, thou could promise us not to scream when thou sees him?”
“Hm? Why in Equestria would I scream?”
“Simply try to avoid it,” Luna said, a small smile on her face. She opened the door, and the stallion who had knocked walked in.
Rarity’s eyes widened. Applejack couldn’t hold back a snicker. Twilight wasn’t even sure if she was supposed to bow or not. Luna giggled. “Might we welcome Prince Blueblood to this meeting, and get our business underway?”