Discord's ear twitched to the faint sound of scribbling beside him. He could still feel the soft and comforting wing of the alicorn blanketing and protecting him. Dimly, the god realized he was cuddling something furry. Perceiving it to be Celestia, he opened his eyes – only to find he had a certain purple teddy bear snuggled up under his chin.
"Good morning, dear. Did you sleep well?" Celestia bent her head to lightly nuzzle her snout into the dozy spirit's bed fur.
Discord moaned and rubbed at his burning eyes. They were still incredibly puffy and red from the night's mass breakdown. For a moment, the spirit found himself wondering if it had all truly happened, until he touched his tender eyes.
"Ugh. Last night actually happened? I actually just...bawled like a baby? How embarrassing." He let out a loud yelp of pain as the princess's golden clad hoof slapped him upside the head, glaring sternly at him.
"Discord, last night was needed," the princess said sternly as the spirit moaned in pain and rubbed at the horseshoe mark on the side of his face. "Last night was something you have denied yourself for over a thousand years and it was something you had to do. There's no shame in what happened."
The draconequus decided not to protest her further (mainly not wishing to get hit again – that princess had one hard hoof!) and he simply crawled out slightly from the wing, poking his snout out from under the ivory save haven and watching as the alicorn scribbled on a scroll of parchment paper.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm writing back to Twilight. I got a letter while you were asleep, and she's requesting to meet with me immediately to talk about something. It sounds important." She sighed. "What is with these sudden important talks from everypony I know?"
"Oh now that's a little over dramatic, don't you think, princess~? Maybe she just wants to tell you she accidentally dropped your hairbrush in the toilet!" Yep, he was back to himself once more. "In any case, it will be delightful to see dear Twilight again. I have been saving a few pies to top her pretty mane."
"You will do no such thing," Celestia admonished and flapped her wings against the immortal's stomach, causing him to give a burst of laughter. "She sounds very upset and I'll not have your tormenting her the entire time she's here. Is that clear?"
"Alright, fine...but...just a little~?" He yelped, face falling dizzily into the earth again as she whacked him. That was a no. "I see the compassionate side of the oh-so kind, benevolent ruler has been used up for a while, hm?" he griped.
Celestia enveloped the draconequus in a magic bubble and placed him back on his feet, giving him a small nudge to the edge of the hill. "It's back to the medical wing with you. I know it's around this time the doctors have you take your medicine."
"Oh honestly?" Discord demanded incredulously, wings beating in annoyance as he hovered there in the sky and glared at the pain-in-the-flanks princess. "You're still ordering me around?"
A mischievous glint flashed across the princess's violet eyes as she smirked, absolutely delighted at the power she had over him. "My dear Discord, I will order you around and control you until the day you die~"
"In that case I pray it's soon," the god mumbled, ears giving a twitch of annoyance as the evil princess behind him emitted an impish giggle. As he turned to her however he noted there actually was a kinder and affectionate smile on her face, replacing the years of hostility he always saw. Something between them had finally changed.
"I'll see you afterwards, Discord," Celestia said kindly, as she gathered her stuffed bear and the remnants of her picnic blanket he hadn't ruined. "Go on and let the doctors tend to you. I believe Fluttershy has probably been looking for you. You've been here the entire night."
Oh, knowing that overprotective little clump of butter, she was probably flailing about in distress in the hospital room or hunting down everypony in the palace and demanding where he was, and ugh.
Discord was almost afraid to step through the window and did so with caution, poking his wary vermillion eyes up over the ledge. Nopony in sight. The room seemed vacant. It was right when the god pulled himself up into the room that the saffron and rosette blur tackled him to the ground.
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh—I saw you talking to the princesses and cuddling her and sleeping beside her and—EEEE!"
Discord's ears desperately perched back in agony at the shrillness of the bubbly, squealing pegasus's voice as she nuzzled and cuddled and squeezed him like he was her teddy bear. "Ow, Fluttershy, you've gone ultra sonic!" The pony's delight and giggles were infectious though, and Discord found himself rolling his eyes and giving a small snicker.
"Discord, I'm so happy for you!" the pegasus squealed, nuzzling into the spirit's warm cinnamon fur as he raked a talon lightly through the dusty pink strands of her mane, twirling the locks around his fingers.
"...And I'm happy for me too." And he meant it.
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Celestia stood atop the balcony once more, feeling her gut clench ominously as the approaching purple mare grew nearer. The princess could note how hesitant each step was, as if her dear student didn't even want to see her.
Please, Celestia...you're just a little frazzled from the night's events with Discord. Of course Twilight wants to see you. Why wouldn't she?
Wait, why was she worrying at all? The princess laughed at herself for her own idiocy. This was Twilight! The pony that freaked over forgetting a friendship report, the pony that thought Equestria was going to crumble because of a misinterpreted prediction her future self had told her. Discord was probably right and the silly filly was going to confess she had dropped her brush in the toilet or something.
The princess was still giggling to herself and shaking her head when the trembling and meek little steps finally made their way out to the balcony. As Celestia turned to her student, her smile instantly vanished.
Never had Twilight been in such condition: her skin color had blanched several shades to the point where it was nearly white, her mane was ruffled and messy and didn't look as if it had been brushed in ages; bags as black as night hung under tear brimming eyes, and the mare was shaking intensely. Coupled with the whiter skin and unsteady movements, she looked as if she was terminally ill.
"Oh my—Twilight, dear, you look j...just horrible!" Horribly blunt the princess realized, but there were really no other words to describe the cold shock she felt as she observed the child she raised.
Celestia moved immediately to the small unicorn, letting her lean against her as she led her to the edge of the balcony with her and sat her down. The mare immediately scrambled away from her the moment she could, and hurt flooded Celestia's face.
"P-princess, th-there's something I really need to speak to you about. It..." The mare's voice quivered impossibly as she began to sob. She felt those worried eyes on her, and it just made her sink further into the ground. "Y-you'll hate me..."
Celestia wedged a hoof under Twilight's damp chin and forced the tearful pony to gaze into her stern eyes. "I am physically incapable of hating you. Now, what have you gone and done now?" She meant it as affectionately as possible, but judging by the poor mare's increased cries it had not been received that way.
"Princess, there's something I-I've been keeping from you for a while..." Twilight's voice stuttered as she attempted to regain her composure, wiping away her tears and clearing her throat until she was satisfied no sobs were interrupting her.
"I'm listening." Celestia's voice was gentle and affectionate, trying to be as soothing as she possibly could with her poor student in near catatonics.
"A...a while back when Discord was injured by the greenhouse, Fluttershy and I visited him and he was having a bad nightmare. Fluttershy told me he had these nightmares every single night and wanted to help him."
Although there was no indications as to what these nightmares were other than her own assumptions, Celestia found herself questioning if it had anything to do with her parents for the main reason that Discord had fallen asleep tucked in her embrace last night and didn't once have a nightmare. If he did, he didn't react from it at all.
Perhaps those nightmares are what finally pushed him into talking to me.
"Continue..." When Celestia failed to receive a response from her pupil, she gave the trembling foal a nudge with her snout. "I said continue."
"W...we were—Fluttershy was desperate to find out what Discord was so afraid of, so I..." Briefly, the mare glanced up into her mentor's face and her heart twisted when she realized that, judging by the stony look of suspicion, Celestia was catching on. "....I used a spell from Alicorn's Power."
And it was there that Celestia lost all demeanor of gentleness from her tone, freezing up like ice and unwillingly piercing the girl with a glare.
"....You...what?"
Twilight wept like a chastised little girl, trembling into the tile on the balcony, as if she actually feared her mentor was going to slap her or something. She wouldn't be surprised if she did. She deserved it after all. She had been told—no, ordered to stay away from that book, and she had disobeyed.
Celestia rose from where she was standing, pacing in distress as she tried to make sense of this. She resolved to finally just deciding to explain calmly to her pupil, but calmness was all but what unleashed from her mouth in a snarl. "How could you use Alicorn's Power?! You were ordered to stay away from it! You were forbidden! The evil of that book is not something that can be tampered with!"
The younger mare cowered and trembled as the alicorn's slicing voice washed over her. She tried to fabricate a defense, but it warbled out to nothing as she wept into her hooves. "I-I did it for Fluttershy! For Discord! They needed my h-help!"
Celestia was about to unleash all of her wrath on the sobbing little mare, but was promptly halted by a royal guard that barged into the balcony, followed by a seemingly just as panicked draconequus.
"Your majesty," the guard panted, fighting to remain stable as he had obviously run the entire way. "Princess Luna has gone missing! No one in the palace has seen her since late last night!"
"What?" Celestia whirled sharply to the guards, slapping the stallion fiercely with her tail as she did, causing Discord to repress a snort by the pained expression on the guard's face.
"The princess has gone missing," the guard repeated as he rubbed his snout. "Nopony saw her leave, but we've had search parties throughout the palace earlier. She's nowhere in this palace."
"Why in Equestria didn't you tell me sooner?!"
"We would have, your majesty, but we wanted to make sure the princess wasn't simply in some wing of the palace before we raised a call for alarm!" The guard tumbled back before Celestia's authoritative and ordering hoof boomed against the tile as she thundered:
"Find her!"
The guards instantly scrambled back to their hooves and clumsily rammed into each other as they fought for the door, not waiting until the other one had galloped out to try and squeeze in, which resulted in them both getting stuck.
Celestia turned back to her student to put the lecture on hold, but found nothing more than a small, glistening puddle of tears where Twilight had cowered. A few faint tendrils of magenta swirled silently into the air and faded in the sky, indicating Twilight had teleported. So the princess went back to panicking.
"I don't believe this! Luna knows better than to go out in the day; her powers are not strong enough when the sun is out to protect her from a threat! It's the same as my powers at night."
"I wouldn't say that," Discord chided with a wry smirk, as he hovered over the frenzied alicorn's head. "You certainly kicked my butt well enough last night during our brief magic duel. You even managed to pin me there in the air."
"Soothing spells, weak blasts, and a small immobilization spell are not what I consider 'strong' in comparison to what I can do in the day. It's one of the reasons I had such trouble fighting those basilisks, and it's a reason Luna could be in grave danger!"
The draconequus's eyes rolled dramatically inside their sockets as he lashed downwards and seized Celestia by the hoof, starting to tug her along. "Well, what in Equestria are we waiting for? Let's go!" He blinked as she snagged him back by the tail with her muzzle, and dragged him down into the dirt.
"Oh, I don't think so," Celestia said sternly, placing a hoof on the furious Discord's back to exert her point. "You are going nowhere." She was unfazed by Discord's incredulous and enraged expression. "You are just starting to heal from those wounds and you still have fresh stitches! There is no way in Equestria that I'm letting you come."
The draconequus rose in the air; his temper was sizzling. "You can't be serious!"
"I am," Celestia said in a tone that indicated there was to be no further debate. "We have hundreds of palace guards and you are still injured. There is no way you can protect yourself out there. You barely have any magic right now, and I will have no way of knowing if you collapse somewhere in the wilderness. You are staying here."
"You can't do that!" Discord spluttered in seething rage. "I'm not one of your subjects you can just boss around! I'll make my own—Celestia, don't you dare!" His protests fell on deaf ears as the sun princess lowered her head and engulfed him in a bright flash of light.
Discord heard the spell zap him into the room, and stumbled back onto the cotton mattress in the middle of the hospital room, dazed. He gritted his teeth and watched Celestia's retreating back as she galloped off into Everfree. As he swooped towards the door and jostled the knob he found it locked by magic.
You really think that's going to keep me inside, Tia? What an amateur. Even Fluttershy would know to lock the windows as well. She often had to do that or else he'd sneak out during the night.
The god easily flicked open the window sash with a talon, giving a satisfied smirk as he wormed his gangly body through the opening and back into the warm air. Eyes darting left and right for guards or angry, frumpy princesses, Discord darted out into the sky.
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A quietly weeping unicorn was already halfway across Canterlot borders, despite having only teleported several feet away from the palace. The heavy burden of Twilight's guilt made it nearly impossible to trot onward to her destination. Wherever her destination was.
She hadn't stayed around to hear of her sentence (evidently thanking the Equestrian gods for the interruption), but she could pretty easily figure it was a pretty harsh one. The act of black magic was a capital offense in Equestria, and one where banishment or at least imprisoned for life was the outcome.
Not only did I use Alicorn's Power once, but I used it again after I was told not to! The painful revelation was accompanied by yet another round of tears, as Twilight just hastened her attempt to get out of Canterlot as fast as possible. And out of Equestria.
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She watched the crystal droplets of water eloquently descend into a puddle below with a resonating 'tink'. The water droplets each rolled off the tip of the stalactites and collected into a puddle below. Luna gazed at her reflection in it, realizing just how much older she had gotten since she had last come to these caves.
It was an old place Luna could clearly remember her parents taking her and her siblings to, ever since she was five. She remembered her father igniting his horn to illuminate the darkness, and her mother using her magic to locate the gems. Luna always marveled at the beauty of the diamonds, but her brother usually ate them all before she'd have a chance to really take a look at them.
My brother... Luna didn't want to remember a time where that heartless monster was her brother. In a way she did, if just to keep her heart from shattering completely when she thought of him. She wanted to love him again, but how could she?
Her watery gaze drifted back to the walls of the cave as she curled herself more into her rocky sanctuary. Celestia had deemed these caves as unsafe long ago due to the crumbling foundations of the damage it had sustained from time. Luna only came here because it was the only place she knew her sister wouldn't think to look.
The night alicorn's tear brimming gaze went back to watching the rhythmic pattern of water, and listening to its drips. It was calming, almost like rain water.
I want to hate him...but I just can't. They had been through too much. Discord was the one that always tormented her like an older brother was apt to do, but he was also the one to always wipe away her tears, hug or tickle them away. He read her stories, he took the blame for things she did, he taught her how to make a snowball, and he taught her how to swim.
Luna scratched absently at the cave walls with her hooves, and the dirty glass slippers unearthed a beautiful, gleaming ruby. Luna brushed off the brown mud, unintentionally smearing the guck across the gem, and creating a thin film. Even through the layer of dirt, Luna could still see the mismatched reflection beside her very own.
"Hmm, a ruby. I haven't seen one of them in ages."
The princess's navy eyes gleamed balefully and hatefully at the creature as she bent her head and aimed her horn at him. Discord made no reaction, simply standing there with an even look on his face.
"I knew I'd find you here." He walked a little closer to her, despite how she kept her horn bent and just inches away from his abdomen. "It was always your favorite place when we were kids. A shame Father didn't take us here much." He barely had time to dodge a weak blast of indigo electricity from her horn.
"Villainous wretch, thou dare call him father?! Thou no longer hast privilege to call him by that name!" Anger trembled in her words, and venomous, sizzling tears began streaming down her cheeks. She abandoned her old dialect as she shouted to him:
"You will never again have the privilege to call them Mother and Father! I know what you did! I-I heard it all, and I hate you even more now! I hate you, and if it was up to me I'd trap you into the deepest abyss of Tarturus where you belong!"
Discord's expression didn't falter, feigning indifference to her words. Inside, his heart was stinging. "I know," he said calmly. "I know I don't deserve to call them that. I know I deserve to go to Tartarus and I won't stop you." He held out his arms in an accepting gesture. "So fire that horn and send me there."
"The only thing stopping me is how much my sister cares for you," Luna snarled. "But if she didn't you'd be there in an instant, imprisoned forever! Just like you deserve!" A stronger blast of electricity and blue flames tore from her horn and singed his fur as he curled up his legs.
"Luna, I'm only here to bring you back to Celestia. You can't be this far from the palace in the day and you know that. Your magic is much too weak!"
Her horn sputtered with the effort of a much stronger spell it could hardly maintain, and the bolts of fizzing electricity were cast at the spirit once more. He made no attempt to fight her, dodging side to side and avoiding her blows.
"I am not weak! You think I can't take you?! I could destroy you here and now!" Her horn continued to sputter and spit, flashing on an off like a light losing power as it focused another blast on him. The speed of this one had Discord flying back several feet, as well as charring his toes.
Discord's eyes clenched shut in agony, feeling sick as he could smell the reeking, burnt calcium from his poor toenails. Drat! He was getting better too. Now he had another injury to recover from. "L-Luna, look, just let me get you home and if you want, I promise to never talk to you again."
"I will not allow you to take me anywhere! I will not allow you near my side!"
Discord glared, capturing his protesting and cursing little sister in a golden orb of magic and suspending her there in the air. "You know Luna, I do believe for something like this Tia would have your horn and flanks mounted to a plaque on her wall. Is there any reason big brother Discord shouldn't do the same?" he asked sternly.
It was then the translucent dome of magic shattered from the impact of her horn, the splinters of golden energy shooting out in all directions, and diminishing in a stream of glitter in the air as she broke free. Her horn smoldered with blue embers, the last of her magic she had in her.
"You think you still have the right to be called my brother? You aren't worth any title! You are lower than low! You don't deserve the title of scum! You deserve nothing better than death!"
The would-be fatal blast from the alicorn's horn slammed into the walls of the cave as Discord ducked, and immediately shards of rocks flew off the cave walls, followed by a sudden sound of thunder as bits of debris fell from the ceilings of the cave.
Luna realized what she had done far too late, and barely managed to hop back in time as a large torrent of rocks began tumbling down the cave walls, and even more fell from above.
"Lu-" was all Discord could utter before he was drowned out by the deafening crack as the rest of the cave walls split up the middle, and the rock avalanche completely obscured his little sister from his view. Discord could barely catch the flash of terrified blue through the blur of grey. He whirled around just in time for his only source of light to be destroyed as the rocks blocked off the entrance to the cave, and blackened everything.
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(The reason this chapter is so short (short my by standards) is because had I posted what was the entire chapter I realized it would be over deviantart's page limit. Therefore, I figured I'd split them here as well. I mean, this little nine page portion is only a quarter of what happens in the entire chapter, but I realized this stood well on its own.
I can almost guarantee you that the next chapter will be up tomorrow or Monday. After that there's only two or three more chapters to this fic, followed by the best epilogue EVER.)