"What are you doing?!" Twilight yelled. She was also backing away slowly, positioning herself at an equal disance from both Lyra and Discord. "This isn't what the letter said we should do!"
Lyra paid the complaint very little attention. She glanced at Twilight every now and then, but only to make sure the magician wasn't doing anything stupid. The draconequus was her only true concern.
"Did you just threaten to do me in... with snow?" Discord raised an eyebrow. He didn't bother hiding his opinion; he raised a claw and drew small circles in the air next to his head.
"SnowY," Lyra sighed wearily. She furrowed her forehead and took a deep breath. She realised: she was getting ahead of herself and needed to slow down.
I'm not even sure what I was thinking, she ceded silently. Unless Discord is another master, he won't be able to see Snowy... much less know her by name.
"Anyhow, I see you're not taking me seriously yet." Lyra flashed a wry, humourless grin. "Well, do allow me to demonstrate."
In a surreal moment of complete confusion, Discord and Twilight glanced at one another, both seeming to expect the other to start explaining. They blinked at each other for a little longer, then turned back to Lyra, with Twilight being the faster to speak up.
"Demonstrate... what?" she asked, squinting and keeping her head low. She didn't seem very nervous, only dumbfounded - and perhaps curious. "Speak clearly already! I can't follow any of this!"
"Glad to hear. It's better for all of us this way," Lyra forced an awkward smile, masking how nervous she was.
She may have engineered Discord's release, but she still had the option to go back on her plans. She could still choose to pacify the laughing chaos god. That was also the path which her conscience wanted to take. Her instincts screamed against the mere idea of siding with the draconequus. She had always been taught that Discord needed to be restrained, kept under control. She knew she was ought to work with Twilight - to solve the matter at hoof with as little pain as possible.
To preserve harmony.
To make everypony happy.
Happy...
Blowing hot air from her nostrils, Lyra cast those doubts away, the brief moment of hesitation turning into mild anger. She was annoyed at her inability to discard those outdated, foolish notions. Always trying to make everypony happy, all the time - such a simplistic, narrow-minded goal. She could only liken it to clawing away at a head-high wall, refusing to back off even one step. Always so near, yet never actually getting through.
To fix a halfway flawed song, sometimes you need to throw the entire sheet away, she whispered to herself and cracked her eyes open. Yes... I can't falter now. Not if I want to make this world perfect.
"Snowy... your master orders you," she muttered and turned her gaze to Celestia's favoured student. Lyra felt a knot forming in her throat and her voice faltered; she barely managed to utter the actual command. Those weak, powerless words were still enough to set everything in motion though.
"Erase Twilight Sparkle - from all the minds of this entire world, except you and me, and, uh... and Discord!"
Lyra had barely finished talking when she collapsed, her mind reeling from the massive backlash.
The Source narrowed its dual-coloured eyes. The hooded pony was sitting on the outermost bastion-top of Canterlot Palace, all its attention focused on the Garden underneath.
So you've done it, the game master hummed at the scene. I should be happy that you've finally committed yourself, I guess. So why am I...
Safely hidden by the powerful magic that so very few in this world could rival, the Source casually lifted a hoof, bringing it out of the green robe's cover. The faint light of the Moon gave the limb a grey tint, but the Source could well imagine the original colour anyway. Because despite the night colours, despite the lossy coat, despite the flaking skin... the Source could still remember the original picture.
A vivid purple coat should have been there - or rather, used to be. Right until it began rotting away; a side-effect of gaining omnipotent magical prowess.
Twisting the leg left and right, the Source allowed itself a wry smirk. The actual relationship of deteriorating health and unnatural magic was so much more complex, of course. But even so, standing at the top of Canterlot Palace and comparing that ugly limb to the wonderfully intact Twilight Sparkle below... there was a wonderfully simple way to sum up the whole equation.
Such is the price of my own cheat.
A dry chuckle rang out, and the damaged leg disappeared back into the cover of the robes.
These negative thoughts don't help at all, the game master chided itself. Stop this. It made no sense to start wallowing in self-pity; not when the game was finally so close to coming to an end.
Because self-pity those thoughts had to be; the Source couldn't peg them down as anything else. There was no way those dark thoughts were triggered by seeing Twilight Sparkle cease to be. That pony had already been offered a great boon: she had remained an outsider, unaffected by the game. This despite her being a magical prodigy.
You're a lot better than what I used to be, the Source mused, the face under the robe distorting in envy. And despite that, it's still me burning away up here, not you!
Light flashed from below. It was only for a fraction of a second, but the windigo glowed with the brilliance of the rising sun. A strange and completely unnatural light - one that burned the Source's eyes, yet didn't illuminate the night Garden. The game master scowled in the cover of the hood and sat down, gently rubbing its damaged leg with the other. Blood trickled onto the roof tiles, drawing a few red dots on the golden surface. Even after centuries of experience and continuous refinement, granting such spells to the servants still didn't come lightly.
Tearing a strip from the robe with a sigh, the Source wrapped the green fabric around the trembling leg. This bleeding had to be stopped. Showing weaknesses to anypony would undermine the carefully constructed image of the omnipotent Game Master.
Coiling the torn rag around its leg, the Source returned its attention to the Garden below - just in time to see Lyra getting back up.
At least it's not for long now, the game master gave the stumbling Lyra a tired grin. Despite how unsightly you look, you are still the perfect answer to all my woes. Yes... as long as you don't falter, you'll be able to put an end to all this.
A faint whine escaped the Source's mouth as it tightened the torn rag around the bleeding leg, reassuring its long-time conviction that the end couldn't come soon enough. Should the damage keep piling up, the after-game activity would pose real dangers. The would-be pursuers were kin, after all; the same breed of magicians as the Source. Escaping them promised to be a hard task, even without the various injuries.
Lamenting about that possibility, the Source almost wished the game would never end.
Almost.
Shakily rising to her hooves, Lyra first thought wasn't that of triumph. She simply felt cheated. She saw Twilight still standing upright, despite having been the target of Snowy's complete wrath. There was no attack more severe than erasing somepony from the collective memory of Equestria.
And even so, Twilight was still standing.
Lyra, on the other hoof, felt barely conscious. A dull, pervasive throbbing in her skull; she could liken it to her drowsier mornings, the ones which left her fighting with teeth clenched to keep her eyes open.
Dhhh... dammit! she cussed silently. She had difficulties standing; she began veering to the left almost instantly. I... ugh. This backlash... I wasn't expecting it to be this bad...
"Wait a second! Are you serious?!"
Squinting with one eye to ease the numb buzzing in her head, Lyra gave the draconequus a long, mostly absent-minded stare. It was only after several seconds that she realised the question had been aimed at her. Her head dipped; a half-hearted and weak nod was all she had to say regarding the matter.
Discord didn't seemed very satisfied with the answer. His eyebrows were raised high, drawing deep crevasses on his forehead, his paws pressed against his temple.
"Just who the heck are you, then? And why would you do this?" he mumbled. The grip of his paws tightened, the sharp, gryphon-like claws digging into the grey coat just over his ear. "Weren't you ponies supposed to be on the same team?!"
That claim was enough to make Lyra force a weak grin. There was something deeply ridiculous about Discord's outrage. Something ridiculous... and very sweet. The chaos god's confusion tasted like a sweet nectar, even in the midst of the dizzying pain.
Funny how godly beings aren't immune to the same mental shortcuts as us.
"Master is not allied with the current student of Celestia," Snowy growled and stepped ahead, passing and moving in front of Lyra. "If you were expecting protection from high places... I'm afraid we have to disappoint you, Mister Discord."
Oi! Don't go saying things on your own! Lyra grit her teeth at the windigo. There was no need to get too worked up yet, though. She still had no idea whether Discord could even see or hear Snowy.
"What happened to this place? This is all nuts," Discord giggled and slid his palms down the side of his head. "Did I really snap? Though, considering the way Celestia rules... how would I even tell?"
"Madness is no longer funny when it's not down to you, is it?" Lyra shook her head with a dry chuckle. She grabbed the parchment lying at her hoof - she must have dropped it when the backlash hit her - and held it in the face of the draconequus again. "Your signature... please."
In spite of the tacked-on word, there was very little courtesy in Lyra's voice.
"Contrary to popular belief, being a psychopath is not the quickest way to my heart." Discord frowned and tapped his temple with a claw of his right paw. "Besides, just what made you think I'd jump on an unknown deal with a stranger who throws her own kind under the bus? Do I look that stupid? Ah... wait. Did Miss Shiny Sunbutt tell you that I'd do that? She kept slandering me in my absence, didn't she?"
Lyra hummed and gave her Gies scroll a piercing glare. As Discord's complaint seemed reasonable, she didn't see any sense in arguing the with the draconequus. She wanted nothing more than this whole farce to be over as soon as possible. Preferably before things could slip out of control.
Tsk. Lyra clicked loudly with her tongue. I do need him to sign this scroll himself, out of his own will... and he isn't the careless clown I thought he'd be. Guess this won't go as simply as I'd hoped.
Running her tongue over her dry lips, Lyra finally realised that she had no choice but to humour Discord. She could have threatened him with Snowy, but doing so could have escalated into a difficult situation; and while Snowy was instructed to avenge her should anything befall her, Lyra was partial to surviving the encounter pony-shaped. It would have been difficult to save the world if she got magically morphed into something weird.
With all that in mind, she set the threats aside - for the time being.
"Slander, huh? I wonder about that! You see, it seems to me that Celestia has been telling the truth after all. You are an ungrateful pain in the rear," she declared in a dry tone. The scroll in front of her furled up, her magic floating the paper back to her side. "I thought freeing you would get me some benefit of the doubt... but here you are, accusing me of all sorts of things."
A flick of her magic, and Lyra made the scroll do a brief dance in the air. The rolled up piece of paper bobbed back and forth; to an outside spectator, it would have seemed as if she was simply fiddling around.
In truth, it was a signal - one which made Snowy back away a little, giving Lyra a clear view of the draconequus.
"Well, excuse me! The last time I was freed, it was only so I could answer the same old questions again and again." Discord smirked and extended an arm, pointing a claw at Lyra. "Well, there you have it! My answer remains unchanged. I may have no use for it, but I'm still not handing my servant over. Especially if Sunbutt no longer bothers to demand it personally. Seriously, sending such a half-baked flunky like you..."
Oi, oi, oi... he said 'servant' just now. He totally said 'servant' just now! Lyra steeled her face, bottling up a forming growl. Well, figures. Of course someone as powerful as him would be involved. But...
The gears spinning in her head, Lyra found herself stupefied by the other revelation.
"What's that about your answer being unchanged?" she squinted and cocked her head sideways. "Celestia tried to ask for your servant already?"
Discord pulled his arm back - slowly and reluctantly, stopping several times along the way. His paw ended up around his white goatee, his claws absent-mindedly running down the white strands of hair.
"What's with that face? Didn't you - oh. Oh! You actually don't know!" he mused loudly, his sharp claw dividing his white goatee into two. "Is that really possible? You weren't sent by her? Though now thinking about it, Geis was never the style of Tia. And... neither was betraying her own underlings, huh."
Going to great lengths to keep her indifferent visage, Lyra clenched her teeth. She could have said a lot on that last subject.
"I wouldn't be so sure," she sneered, her words so full of loathing that she almost wound up spitting.
"Oh, I definitely am. I know her way too well. She isn't the type to change her colours." Discord rolled his eyes and waved his chubby paw dismissively. "No... her stupid and stubborn head is bound to remain the same way forever. Just like her oversized white rear is."
"Whoa. Mister Discord, have you no shame?" Snowy gasped. "Talking so casually about an acting monarch..."
Moving in small, staggered motions, Lyra turned her head to her servant.
Please tell me you didn't forget that we're working to knock that crowned bastard down a peg, she huffed, silencing the windigo with a piercing glare.
"Right back at you." Discord straightened up. It was that moment his true height became evident - he towered above Snowy and Lyra. The duo were awed by the sight of the draconequus blotting the stars out.
Discord didn't allow the moment to go to waste. He snapped his fingers and a crown appeared on his head right away. A quite fancy one, too; solid gold and rubies that glittered, shining brilliantly even in the weak amber light of Lyra's magic.
"Ooh." Snowy exhaled, huddling the ground as she backed away. "So... is it Your Highness from now on?"
Lyra shook her head and chuckled dryly. That was a pretty impressive parlour trick indeed. But while it may have worked wonders on her gullible servant, it took way more than that to intimidate her. Discord was no more king than she was a queen.
Well, aren't you full of yourself! Even you should know that a crown a liege does not make, she thought to herself as she took a breath death. Meh. Seems I got way too cautious... I won't get him to cooperate like this. Guess I need to be a tiny little bit more forceful...
"Discord, Discord, Discord... I engineered your release precisely so I can kick Celestia where it hurts. I've even showed you the power I wield!" she giggled, her lips parting to a trembling, nervous grin. The furled-up scroll bounced around her head, the amber magic leaving quickly fading contrails into the night darkness. The paper's mad dance came to a stop afterwards, pointing at the blankly staring Twilight.
That was one pretty obvious sign. Discord sighed and folded his arms on his chest; Snowy cleared her throat and took a more combative stance.
Twilight, on the other hoof, simply blinked repeatedly and looked around, unashamedly searching for whatever Lyra could have been trying to draw attention to.
"Now that I know you're a fellow master, I've got even less incentives to keep you... well, yourself." Lyra continued, her Geis-scroll wandering to the other side of her head, pointing at Snowy. "Do you want to keep playing this stupid game of yours, Discord? Do you really want to test my patience?"
Discord opened his mouth, but a loud whistle rang out before he could answer. The noise was distant, but cut through the silent night like knife sailing through fine silk. Several others followed; all of them coming from the same direction. Only the overlaps betrayed how they were coming from different sources.
The Guard! Lyra clenched her teeth. Tsk! You're always so useless, why are you so competent THIS once?! Just when I'm in the middle of something that really shouldn't be interrupted too...!
"Seems we've got company." Discord shook his head with a tired sigh. "You said you weren't with Tia, right?"
Lyra frowned in open dismay. After all the talk she had given, the answer to that question should really have been obvious. Even so, she had to reply somehow; so she simply prodded with the furled-up scroll in the direction of Twilight.
"Right. Then there's no need for the extra audience," Discord shrugged and snapped his fingers.
Lyra felt like asking what he was doing, but the whole scheme became self-evident a mere moment later. The grassy ground disappeared from beneath her hooves and all the lights went dark around her. She had the idea to scream - but could only grunt when her chin smacked against the wooden floor.
"Home sweet home!" Discord exclaimed with completely unwarranted jubilation.
Wherever your home may be, Lyra held a hoof to her nose. Her whole torso had felt the impact, but rubbing her ribs didn't offer doing as much good as rubbing her nose did. Ugh... I knew he was a fairly competent mad god, but to do a teleport with just a snap...
This was beyond her expectations. They were teleported; they had to be, judging by the wooden floor which hurt her so much. There was no wood in the Canterlot Palace Garden - only rocky paths, flowers and grassy meadows.
This was a pretty remarkable feat. Lyra could easily recall what extreme concentration Twilight had required for this trick to work; but Discord accomplished the same with but a snap of his fingers. Without the side-effect of bleeding ears, too.
He really does twist reality as he wishes, Lyra gulped as she pushed herself off from the floor. Damn it! He could have done me in any moment he wished. He wouldn't even need to do anything special! He could just teleport me high up and watch me go splat.
She shook her head to get rid of the mental image. Focus, girl. This trick, while certainly impressive, did not change matters. She had always assumed Discord was dangerous... even if not to this extent.
Besides, this was also reassuring, in a roundabout way. Her still being alive meant that Discord had no reason to want her out of the way. Not for the moment, anyhow.
"Home?"
Cracking her left eye open, Lyra gave the source of the meek question a passing glance. Twilight had also been caught in the teleport, as she was still with them. The purple unicorn was sitting on the wooden floor, moving her gaze around slowly. She was quite obviously not looking for anything in particular; she only seemed to be confused and lost. There was hardly anything special left about her. Even her golden diadem was gone - it must have fallen off earlier.
"Yep, home. You know, where the heart is!" Discord spun around. He wound up pointing both his paws at Twilight and snapped his fingers again, pointing his two index-claws at the flabbergasted pony.
Lyra shuddered and closed her eyes out of reflex. She waited a few seconds and opened them again, meekly - and found that nothing had changed around her. That move was either a dud, or Discord was simply using body language in the way it was normally meant to be.
"I always believed the heart was located in the chest cavity." Snowy scratched her head. "How would a heart outside the body function anyway?"
Of all the things you keep forgetting, these insanely detailed details somehow never seem to wind up among them, Lyra rolled her eyes with a groan.
"Home," Twilight repeated in a faltering voice, oblivious to the reason why Discord slapped himself on the head a second ago. "I... have no idea where that is... do you know where my home is?"
The question was honest. The tone which betrayed a hint of hope, the eyes which glistened with expectation; those left no doubts. Those were also which stopped Lyra dead in her tracks. No matter how much she had wanted to settle her matters with Discord, she didn't have the heart to interrupt the scene. She couldn't force herself be so rude to a pony who remembered nothing - a condition she was all too familiar with. She grabbed the scroll from the wooden floor, turned away... and gasped silently.
As it had turned out, Discord was lot more literal than what Lyra had assumed he had been.
Lyra found herself facing a golden telescope, with the houses Ponyville in the background. She was standing on the topmost floor of the Golden Oak Library, her eyes level with the rooftops.
"Hmm. How should I know of your home if you have no idea yourself?" Discord sighed and patted Twilight on the head. "I'm a connoisseur of practical jokes, not some all-knowing oracle."
"It's there," Lyra raised a leg, her hoof pointing at a building in the distance - the one with the fake flame on the top. "It's called the Sugarcube Corner. You'll remember everything once you get there."
Lyra had to give herself an imaginary pat on the back. She sounded really confident; much more than she should have been. She had no idea who or what was at the Sugarcube. She only remembered that she had wanted to send Twilight there for some reason. It was part of the plan... or well, somepony's plan. Perhaps hers. She wasn't sure on the details.
"Sugarcube..." Twilight echoed, almost mechanically. "Is that home?"
"Yeah." Lyra nodded, speaking without bothering to look at the other pony. "I'm sure you will remember... something there."
"You're weird. First you mind-wipe Twilight... and then you send her to that Sugarcube place to get her restored. Because that's what you're doing, isn't it?" Discord scratched his head. He was leaning on the railing of the Golden Oak's observatory floor, his crimson eyes following the departing figure of Twilight on the ground below. "Did you want to give me a demonstration that badly?"
Lyra frowned and shrugged. She was a little confused on the matter herself, but there was no way she could admit that. She didn't want to reveal how badly Snowy's powers had affected her own self.
"A bit of this and a bit of that. I had to convince you somehow," she mumbled. In the end, revealing her plan to Discord carried the least amount of risks; especially since her memories related to the plan seemed to be the most intact ones. "Getting rid of Twilight was also paramount, though. Well, was... and still is, if you get what I'm saying."
"Stop hammering it home already. You're going so far that I could imagine putting your picture next to 'character assassination' in the thesaurus!" Discord chuckled. He lifted his chubby paw and took a good, long look at the scroll he was holding. "Seriously, using me to erase the servants' memories of Twilight and to erase her from written documents..."
"Mind the details, please. All servants except Axiom... whoever they may be. And all documents except my diary." Lyra gave a correction in a disinterested tone. She was pretty sure that Discord didn't forget the contents of the Geis scroll during the span of a few minutes, but she had to make sure that he understood the nuances properly. There must had been a reason she put those exceptions there, so she was sticking to them.
Lyra couldn't help but feel annoyed at her bad luck. The backslash of using Snowy had thrashed some quite important memories of hers. It was annoying, remembering the nuanced points of her plan but not knowing just why the plan was designed that way. She had no choice but to blindly trust her own decisions.
Discord nodded and breathed in loudly, a sour expression on his face. He sank into his thoughts, absent-mindedly fiddling with the scroll, rotating and tossing it between his paws. He didn't say anything.
Lyra eyed the draconequus, her mane moving as a light wind began ruffling it; a cold breeze blew across the night-time Ponyville. The mighty branches of the Golden Oak didn't even respond to the change in air currents. Only the leaves rattled around, some tearing free to dance in the air, tumbling around on their way down. One in particular drew a shallow circle above Lyra's nose, shortly before veering sharply to the left and disappearing in the night sky.
"There's an old phrase for what you're doing... damnatio memoriae." Discord switched to musing out loud, running his chubby paw down the sides of the furled up scroll. "It's strange, though. This wasn't something that I had intended as a diversionary tool. Makes me wonder - did my old self lack imagination?"
"This is something that YOU had invented?" Lyra jolted.
I hope I didn't settle on this because it was famous for Discord, she pushed a hoof against her forehead, shuddering at the mere possibility. Even I couldn't be this stupid, right? This is just one big coincidence, right?!
"Surprised? What, you thought I'm such a nice guy that I couldn't do such a thing? D'awww, that's really nice of you." Discord gave Lyra a sly wink. His brief enthusiasm was soon enveloped by a more melancholic mood though. He turned his gaze back to the sleeping Ponyville, his arms resting on the wooden railing. "Though then again, it's probably just great minds thinking alike. It's not exactly a difficult wheel to re-invent... once you can start making ponies forget, that is."
A muffled hiss escaped Lyra's mouth, the noise suppressed by the rustling of the branches around. Compliment or not, she found no joy in being compared to Discord. Still, she did see one benefit in the aloof admiration of the draconequus.
"If our thoughts are so aligned, then surely you could scribble your name onto my scroll now," she muttered in a wavering tone. It was an uphill battle, keeping herself composed. Time and again, she had the urge to just scream at Discord.
SIGN THAT PAPER ALREADY, YOU INSIPID, RAMBLING DRAGON-PONY-LION-WHATEVER!
She fought off all those outbreaks so far. Even she could see how they wouldn't do her any good - quite the opposite, most likely. She couldn't help but keep thinking about the possibility, though.
Who knows. He IS the most unpredictable creature in Equestria. Maybe he'd find my courage impressive... provided that he mistook my nervous breakdown for a sign of courage, heh.
Discord was showing a whole different face than Lyra. He didn't appear to be in any hurry. He gave Lyra a long, almost bored stare... then he groaned and lifted his chubby paw into the air, carrying one end of the scroll with it. The other dangled freely, and moments later gravity unfurled the long piece of paper. Discord then squinted at the magical contract. He wasn't reading anything; he was obviously staring into the distance, lost in his thoughts. Right until he cleared his throat.
"Thinking alike... I wonder about that," he muttered and turned his head to Lyra, his long white eyebrows flailing as the wind caught them. "Let's see whether we really are on the same page. Tell me - why do you think anyone would resort to this extreme punishment? Banishment from all memory, that is."
Lyra grunted and glanced away. Of all the things Discord may do to her, odd personal trivia wasn't high on her list of expectations.
She gulped; she had absolutely no idea about Discord's past, his motivations, or his goals - or whether if he had any in the first place. The only thing she had managed to dig up on the draconequus is that he was incredibly powerful and criminally insane.
Huh. Now that I think about it... she blinked openly at Discord. Aren't you a little too lucid for an insane god on an ego trip? And by that I really mean, WAY TOO LUCID. Seriously, giving me a quiz? Why are you being so cautious about singing a stupid paper?!
Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Lyra was confident that there was only one right answer in her situation: biding her time and hoping that an awesome idea appeared in the meantime.
"Let me ask you something first," she cracked her right eye open, cocking her head to the opposite side. "When Snowy complained earlier, you grabbed a crown out of thin air. Was that another of your jokes, or were you really a king?"
"Is that really a question?! Oh gods, I truly weep for the youth of today." Discord moaned and straightened up. One of his arms rested on his forehead, a laughable attempt to cover the pained grimace on his face. "I've always told 'Tia, but noooo! She never listens. See, this is what happens when you have more banquets than history lessons!"
Lyra couldn't help but make a face. Maybe it was a shortcoming of hers, but she couldn't really see Discord as a champion of proper education.
"But anyway, yeah - I used to be a king. Long ago. Before I got a little bit too involved in the Grand Game." Discord snickered. He crossed his arms behind his head and quickly gave his back a miniature stretch. "I used to go under a different name, you know? And I wasn't this kind of a jigsaw puzzle either. Old times - weird times."
The draconequus moved his arms above his head and stretched.
"Not that I remember too much of it now... not there is much reason to," he continued with a yawn. "The end was the funniest, though. I made the wrong kind of joke to the wrong kind of monarch... then she repaid the favour in kind, making the wrong kind of wish to the wrong kind of servant. It was all sorts of ridiculous! Too bad this windigo wasn't called Snowy back then... that would have certainly upped the humour factor, haha!"
Lyra didn't appreciate the attempt at humour. In an ironic twist of fate, she found herself remembering only one specific part of her visit to the Sugarcube: the accusation which Axiom levelled at Snowy. Nix has destroyed entire nations, she recounted the words in her head. It seemed like a made-up threat at the time, but hearing Discord's story...
All the hairs on her back standing up, Lyra absent-mindedly noted how chilly the night air had suddenly become.
Kgh! One misstep and this can end reeeaaally badly.
She had already realised the chance of such risks, of course. But it was a lot different thinking about a theoretical possibility, compared to something that had actually happened.
"I guess there's a moral in there... but it beats me what it was. But enough on wishes and irrelevant kings of long-gone!" Discord broke into an abrupt cackle. He grabbed the crown from his head - surprisingly so, as Lyra was pretty sure the headgear wasn't there a moment ago - and tossed it over the wooden rail of the Golden Oak. The shiny rubies of the crown glittered in the moonlight, but their weak twinkling disappeared into the thick foliage mere moments later. His pupils in the corners of his eyes, Discord accepted the fact with a sour grimace; then he pointed a sharp claw at Lyra, and resumed in an upbeat tone. "Still waiting for my answer, o' great saviour of mine."
Thinking as hastily as she could, Lyra had only managed to realise two things.
First of all, Discord wasn't doing her the favour of letting her sidestep the question.
Secondarily, he wasn't doing her the favour of spilling any useful information either.
I have to guess a fancy answer to this one, she glanced away with a frown, her amber pupils resting on the distant, dark rooftops. Why would you ever want to erase somepony of memory... or out of existence, really. Extreme circumstances aside, I... I... uhhh, I...
"I have no idea," she said, biting onto her lower lip after she was done talking. In the end, she couldn't come up with any plausible scenario where that punishment made sense.
Discord withdrew his extended arm and shook his head.
"Sure you do! There's at least one case you could base your answer on," he flashed his eyes at Lyra, his glare a pure beam of accusation. You lie - that was plastered over all his grimace. His words were only a tiny bit more refined than that. "You've just made use of this very punishment just now, after all!"
Hrmph. Lyra narrowed her eyes. And you were complaining about slander earlier...
"This isn't punishment. This is merely an extraordinary case," she declared firmly, her gaze meeting that of the draconequus. "I'm only doing this to save the whole world, Twilight included. I would never do this otherwise!"
"To save the world... hoo, that's one fancy goal." Discord whistled. He turned around fully and leaned back, his back resting against the wooden guard. "What does that make you then? A hero?"
Lyra bit onto her tongue. She had failed to realise, but she was blabbering again, saying things she hadn't thought through.
"Who knows," she whispered in a faint tone. She was a little surprised at how hard the admission was. "I may just be."
Shouldn't I be proud that I'm doing all this for the betterment of everypony...?
"Whoa. You really are half-baked." Discord snickered and leaned further back over the railing. He was looking at the starry sky, most of his snake-like body hanging over the darkness below. "You know, I've seen... haha, talked to a great deal of extraordinary individuals over my life. And they were always adamant in working towards the betterment of something."
Lyra drooped her ears and listened. She didn't really feel like enduring the lecture, but she didn't have the luxury of choosing either.
"Some of those fools were fighting to better their own lives. Those were my favourite kind!" Discord cackled. His voice was becoming strained; leaning over the guardrail wasn't a comfortable posture. "Other, more lunatic heroes fought to better society... somehow. These were always the murky, 'I am plenty sure my arbitrary goals will help ponies I've never even met' types. Crazies, all of them... throwing away their own happiness for the sake of others'."
He took a bit of pause there. He closed his eyes and breathed in loudly.
"And then, there was the last bunch: those who fought for mere ideals. The most dangerous lot," he formed the words as he squeezed the air from his lungs. "Ideals are really just abstract concepts, you see? And once it's but mere thoughts sitting at the top, the followers neither care about ponies, dragons... or even gods."
"Guess you're safe then. You never seemed like the idealist to me," Lyra gave the draconequus a sly grin and a dry snicker. "You're an egoist, through and through."
"Bwahah! Guilty as charged, your answer IS right! When I ruled, I erased those who betrayed me!" Discord broke into hollering laughter. He pushed himself up from the wooden railing and held his paw to his chest. "Quite honest of me, don't you think? Really proud of that, I am! Unlike the ordinary folks, I never made a big secret of it."
Lyra shook her head, a wry grin on her face. She had no idea how anyone could be so happy about being unashamedly self-centred.
"But as I've said, enough of long-gone kings! Let's talk about the heroes of today," Discord raised his right eyebrow, his chin resting in his paw, his mouth curling to a grin. "What would you think of a hero who fights not for herself, nor for her country?"
Jolting and gasping, Lyra snapped her head back to the draconequus. No names were said, but it was clear that it was she who was being examined.
"Imagine a pony who couldn't be fighting for herself, as she has done everything that would make her a public enemy." Discord thrummed his claws on his nose as he wondered aloud. "But this very pony couldn't be fighting for her country either, as she has just betrayed everything Equestria stands for... not to mention making enemies of those in charge of the place."
"I am helping Equestria!" Lyra lashed out, her angry words accompanied by a generous amount of spit. She yanked her hoof to her mouth; for a moment, she had completely forgotten who she was talking to.
"Oh-hoho! Surely you jest. You helped me - which, by definition, is rather bad news for pony-dom." Discord snickered. His scaled paw rested on his temple, a claw fiddling with his long eyebrow. "Were you helping Equestria, you would have brainwashed me even before I was released... instead of, you know, trying to rope me into escalating this trick into a full-blown crisis."
Eyes wide and ears drooping to horizontal, Lyra finally understood the accusation Discord was making.
"I am not an a weirdo fighting for some outlandish idea!" she blared, no longer caring if she was openly hostile to a godly draconequus. She had a long day behind her and her patience to act was running dry. "I am doing this to help everypony! To make everypony happy!"
"Everypony? You mean, both the bloke down the street who wants to stuff himself full for free... and the baker who hopes to get some bits for her hard work of making sweets?" Discord giggled and cocked his head to the side a tiny bit, just enough to showcase his curiosity.
Lyra closed her mouth and blinked silently. Such simplistic situations had never entered her scope. That having been said, she was sure there was a working solution to the problem - it only eluded her for the moment.
"I'm pretty sure they could... I've no idea! Couldn't they talk to each other or something?" she muttered and hung her head low. "Look, I know I'm not one hundred percent done with this plan yet. But I know it's going to work - it has to work. That's why I'm no fanatic. All I want is-"
"-make everypony happy. Yeah, yeah... think I've heard that already." Discord groaned. His head tilted backwards, his back bending over the guardrail; the countless stars of the night were reflected in his crimson eyes. "But true enough, you're no fanatic. Any of those would be tripping over their hooves by now, trying to win me over to their cause. You, yourself? You look as if you were waiting me to confirm your belief. Undecided much?"
Despite the very solid planks of wood beneath her hooves, Lyra felt ready to sink through the Golden Oak and disappear into the ground underneath. She couldn't bring herself to answer the question. She knew there was little point in lying, for Discord had already called her bluff. And this upset her. Her own behaviour upset her. That after all the preparations, after sacrificing Twilight Sparkle, despite the wonderful things she was striving to achieve... she was still wavering, despite everything.
The short-lived nature of her resolve bothered her. She understood: had she not locked herself into a set path by her abuse of Twilight, she may have backed off at that moment. Which was, of course, part of the reason she had settled on such a drastic path. She was going down the slope already, the momentum of her own actions driving her on with the plan.
She couldn't admit any of that, though. Confessing to her self was tough enough. Anypony else... no way.
"You're not self-centred enough to be a sociopath... but you don't have the faith to really believe in other ponies either. Whether they might offer a country or some whacky spiritual crutch," Discord kept on wondering aloud, spreading his arms along the guardrail to stabilize his awkward posture. "No matter how I look at you, all I see is an act. A half-baked pony who has a grand vision based on nothing, doing her darnest to hide that."
Lyra puckered her mouth. That claim was way off base. Her vision wasn't based on 'nothing'! She only wished that - that she hadn't seen how easily greed and egoism could break the thin sugar-coating on reality.
"Discord, I have been pretty patient so far..." Lyra rose her head. Her mane was waved around by the mild breeze, her voice more akin to a guttural growl. "But I don't need to keep listening to your insults if you don't-"
She was interrupted by the whole world going dark around her. No magic was involved this time; the sudden lights-out had been caused by a long piece of paper landing straight on her face. Cussing under her breath, Lyra yanked the unexpected piece of junk off her face - and gasped when she realised that her own Geis scroll had been flung back at her.
With no less than two signatures at the bottom.
"There you go. I look forward to seeing what a pony of your... ahem, 'moral backbone' can do with this sort of power."
Lyra yanked her head around, her amber eyes darting around in a frantic bid to locate the draconequus. She heard him talk just now, that was for certain; but Discord was nowhere to be seen anymore. Though frankly, a disembodied, ethereal voice was hardly a big surprise when dealing with Discord.
He could have turned invisible for all I know, Lyra shook her head with a frown. She then peeked once more at the signed Geis scroll - and shrugged, this time with a much happier expression. That alone made it worth to bear the verbal abuse of the draconequus. Besides, she had been fearing the possibility of Discord turning her inside out. A few harsh words were pretty tame in comparison.
Now she simply had to head down, grab a few maps of Canterlot and run as fast she possibly could, away from the draconequus.
"Hop to it, Snowy!" she barked and turned to the stairway leading down, back into the library. "Might as well grab the maps we need, since we're in the library and everything. You take the first floor, I scan the ground one!"
"Can't believe you're doting on her of all ponies." Discord groaned, his paw slowly sliding down his face. "I was fine with being rejected - I wouldn't court myself either. But to think you've rejected 'Tia, only to choose this indecisive dunce! 'Tia was at least completely believing in all that happy-fuzzy-world nonsense."
The remark was clearly not meant for Lyra, who had taken the stairs down already; the intended recipient seemed to have recognised that as well. The air on the opposing side of the observation roof began to wobble and distort; the straight lines of the wooden guard-rail shifted and bent as they took the shape of a long robe.
"It's still hard to believe that you can actually see me," the Source chuckle as it appeared out of thin air. "I really thought the last iteration of the invisibility spell would work. I guess I still need to hone my magic."
There was only way Discord could respond to that commendation. He sighed and rolled his eyes. Hard.
"Save your tongue. You should only lick hooves when it actually makes a difference," he stretched and pushed himself back to standing. "There's no need for the flattery when talking to me. There's hardly any fame in besting a lesser version of myself."
The dual-coloured eyes behind the robe narrowed to a slit.
"I am no lesser version. Did you forget it was me who had created you?" The Source stated, hints of pride appearing in the otherwise shamelessly flat tone. "Had I known my messing with this reality would be the cause of your existence here..."
"Created… hah! Still taking credit even where it's not due, huh?" Discord raised his eyebrow. "I still remember your surprise over the fact. Hardly according to plan, was it?"
"How much would you be willing to bet on that?" the Source sighed and turned away, its head tuned towards the Sugarcube in the distance. "Perhaps most of it was."
"Bwhaha! You do never change," Discord cackled wryly and folded his arms on his chest. "So how much is this according to your plan? Going by the last time 'Tia put me to sleep, I didn't expect to wake up in the middle of a mess."
"Didn't I tell you to ignore the unsightly details?" the Source's robe quivered as the pony shook its head. "All these sacrifices are for a specific purpose."
"Oh my. And now I understand how that Lyra wound up the way she is! Just look at you… such a lovely display of blind fanaticism!" Discord laughed and snapped his fingers. "Anyhow, would you mind buggering off for a sec? I've got this funny feeling I need to erase that Sparkle from everything written down... and from the servants' minds. Ah, sorry - all that, except the pesky exceptions."
The draconequus licked his lips and cocked his head sideways, a smile on his face.
"What an amusingly specific tingling this one is, the one in my head... do remind me that I really need to get in on this whole Geis-scroll business."
"You can't do that." The Source tried to interject. There wasn't any power behind the attempt, however; the game master was already in the process of sitting down, its tone more bored than upset. "Touching other servants by the means of a servant is impossible... and besides, memories are off-limits to you in the first place. Your servant can only modify matter."
A roaring laughter cut through the night. Had the magical silence not been in effect, half of Ponyville would have woken up rather early.
"Bwahahha! When was the last time I followed your rules, again? Oh right - before I got stronger than you!" Discord guffawed, using his arms to keep his rocking chest from hurting too much. "Dearie... your, quote-unquote, 'servants' are nothing but a fancy way of channelling your power. Just why would I resort to them now? We've long established that anything you can do, I can do better."
"You've agreed to not interrupt my game." The Source shook its head again. "And neither to break it."
"Oh quit yapping. If it's that silly old promise you're worried about - well, I'm still keeping to it! Heck, your newest little pet even put it into her Geis scroll. I am forbidden from wreaking havoc until Lyra either wins or... well, retires." Discord spread his arms wide and threw a wink at the game master. "But you see, I've got things to do before that vacation is in effect. Can't help it; the same fancy scroll binds me to carry out her wish. Besides..."
His chubby arm dropping back to his side, Discord pointed a clawed at the robed pony.
"You wouldn't mind me upsetting Equestria a little more now , would you? I would be sorely disappointed if this wasn't part of your plan already."
A toothy grin flashed beneath the game master's robes, the sickly light of the moon highlighting the set of white, draconian fangs.
"Well, what can I say? I am you in a lot of ways."