//------------------------------// // Brain-storming // Story: An Alternate Ending to A Canterlot Wedding // by MeadowRosePony //------------------------------// "So Discord..." Twilight started. "Oh right!" Discord snapped his fingers and they were standing in the ancient throne room. Well, Discord was standing. Twilight had collapsed next to him. Twilight shook her head to rid herself of the visions of her cutie mark flying around her head. Discord sighed. "Here." Discord offered her a glass of water he pulled from mid-air, "I guess inter-dimensional teleportation does take a little getting used to." Twilight gratefully sipped the water as her vision cleared and the room stopped spinning. Literally. Discord had been spinning the room in the opposite direction of her flying cutie marks. "It evens out." Discord said with a shrug as Twilight glared at him. Suddenly Twilight gasped and bounced to her hooves, nearly running in place as panic filled her. "Ohmygosh,ohmygosh,ohmygosh, what time is it?!" She yelled, seeing the sun start to set in the sky. "Oh, around sixish." Discord said nonchalantly as he magicked up a large assortment of various timepieces. "Why?" "But that means...How long have I been here?!" Twilight demanded, leaning towards Discord with a manic expression on her face. Discord poofed up a calculator and his chalkboard and did a few complicated equations. Most of which were comprised of various cartoon doodles of pony heads, much to Twilight's annoyance. "Well?!" Twilight demanded. "Fine..." Discord sighed and poofed away his toys. "About two days. Give or take." "What?!" Twilight started to pace around the throne room frantically. "Everypony must be so worried about me. What must they be thinking? They'll think I ran away! But what if they noticed that Discord is gone?! What if they figure out that I was the one who let him out? I can just explain. But I ran! Running always make you look guilty! And what about Shining Armor? What if they figure out that he helped Discord escape too? He'll be kicked out of the Royal Guards! Or banished to the moon! We both will! Or worse! Sent back to Magic Kindergarten! But he's marrying Cadance. She'll pardon him! But what about me? Princess Celestia won't even talk to me! I'm doomed! I..." "Twilight." Discord stopped her pacing by teleporting in front of her. "As much as I enjoy seeing ponies run around in a panic, this won't help our situation. You're not the only one in trouble, remember? I'm the one who will be sent back to living the rest of my life as a lawn ornament." Twilight took a couple of deep breathes. "You're right, Discord." She sat down in the middle of the throne room, only for Discord to levitate her to one of the thrones. "You can't sit on the floor, the stone will leave you sore for a week!" Discord explained when she looked at him in confusion. He settled himself on the throne next to her. "But Discord, the thrones are made of stone." Twilight pointed out. "Technicalities." Discord magicked up a popcorn bag filled with what looked like black pebbles and began eating them messily. "Want some?" He offered. "Umm, no thanks, I prefer regular popcorn." Twilight said with a small smile. "Ehh, suit yourself." Discord shrugged and poofed up some lightly buttered popcorn for Twilight. Speaking around his mouthful of (pebbles? Burnt popcorn kernels? Twilight decided not to try and figure that one out.) he continued, "Even if Princess Celestia pardons you for some reason, she certainly isn't going to let me go free." Discord slumped in his throne and pouted as he munched on his strange snack. "Well, you did try to take over Equestria and plunge the whole world into chaos." Twilight pointed out as she absently ate a few pieces of popcorn. Discord humphed, "That was nearly a thousand years ago, Twilight. Let it go! After all," He quickly amended, seeing her frown, "I've already spent a thousand years as a statue. Isn't that enough?" Twilight looked thoughtful as she munched her snack. "Have I hurt anypony since I've gotten out?" "Well, no..." "Have I done anything evil?" "Not that I know of..." "So suspicious!" Discord shook his head. "Have I been anything but kind to you since the moment you freed me from that awful statue?" "Actually, you did drop..." "Yes, but I apologized, didn't I? Are you going to begrudge a friend some harmless fun?" "Well..." "In all seriousness, have I done anything worse than what you and your friends do on April Foals Day?" Twilight thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. "No..., you've actually been kinda... sweet" She smiled as she looked down at the Twilight alicorn puppet that had appeared on her lap. "Do I really deserve to be imprisoned back in stone without even having a chance to redeem myself?" Discord looked at Twilight pleadingly as he offered her a bouquet of daisies and white tulips. Twilight smiled as she accepted the flowers. "You're right, Discord. You at least deserve a chance!" Twilight stood up and started to pace again while Discord magicked up a vase for the flowers. "But how are we going to convince Princess Celestia of that?" "What we need is to get her alone. Someplace we can talk to her in private." Discord mused. "Whoa, dejavu!" "Well we could always wait in her chambers. I know a secret way in." Twilight blushed, "...I used to sneak into her room whenever I had nightmares." "Perfect! Now if only there was a way to keep the guards from interrupting us." Discord said. "Well... if we waited until nightfall... after Princess Celestia has dismissed her guards for the day... we'd only have to worry about the two at the door...and a simple sleeping spell should take care of them." Twilight said slowly as she thought about a plan. "Excellent!" Discord clapped in glee. "Now we just need to take care of your friends...and Princess Luna of course." He looked at Twilight expectantly. Twilight sighed. "What's wrong, my dear?" Discord asked as he curled around her. "You were doing so well! Why the long face?" "It's just that...it just doesn't feel right to go behind my friends' back like this." She sighed again and pulled her tail around her. "Oh Twilight, I know how it feels to be betrayed by somepony you thought was a friend. I thought at least Luna, if not Celestia, was my friend, but she turned on me and helped her sister turn me to stone. I guess old friends simply can't help but band together and turn against new friends when there's a disagreement." Discord held up a paw to cut off Twilight's protests. "Now, I know what I did was wrong, but we could have at least attempted to compromise. Maybe given me my own small section of land to spread chaos as I please. That's all I want. But Celestia wanted me to quit cold turkey! Chaos is what I do! How could she expect me to just...stop." Discord turned to Twilight, who was listening intently. "It'd be like telling a pony to turn their back on their cutie mark and give up their special talent. (Well cutie marks are already on a pony's backside, but you know what I mean)." Twilight nodded. It would be horrible if somepony ordered her to give up her magic. "We're not going to hurt your friends, just distract them or make it so they can't turn me into stone, or you either for that matter. At least until we can get this sorted out." Discord said comfortingly as he patted Twilight on the back. "How would they be able to turn me to stone? The Elements need all six of us to work." Twilight asked in confusion. "The same way Celestia was able to use them to send her sister to the moon, even though they had needed to work together to turn me to stone. Magic." Discord said yawning. Suddenly he grinned, as though a thought had occurred to him. "Of course!" Discord exclaimed as he bolted upright. With a snap of his claws his chalkboard reappeared. "Even if they don't need all of the ponies for the Element of Harmony to work, they still need the Elements of Harmony for the ponies to use them!" He finished his doodling with a flourish and showed off his plan to Twilight. "All we need to do is hide the Elements!" Twilight smiled, this plan didn't involve anypony getting hurt and was simple enough to actually work! If you left out the sleeping gas, the explosions, and the various high tech gizmos and disguises. Discord pouted when she pointed out that they could just teleport in, get the Elements, and teleport out. "You're no fun!" Discord complained. Princess Celestia smiled and brushed some confetti from her coat as she waited for everypony to settle down. "Pardon me, Lieutenant." Princess Celestia said, "I did not mean for my amusement to come at your expense." "No, it's fine, Your Majesty!" Lieutenant Cherry Fizzy said, bowing low before the princess. Princess Celestia smiled kindly as she bid him to rise. "Now, what was it you needed to report to Captain Shining Armor?" She asked, signaling by her words and the use of his title that the fun was over. "Captain Shining Armor, Sir!" Lieutenant Cherry Fizzy snapped to attention. "Is there news about Twilight Sparkle?" Shining Armor asked. "No Sir. Sorry Sir." Cherry Fizzy knew how worried Shining Armor was about his sister. And as Shining's friend, he dreaded having to bring him more bad news. But as a soldier under Captain Armor's command, he knew he had delayed in his report for too long. "Discord has escaped."