Shining Armor stood on the balcony over the front gates, his face a stony mask as he stared out across the palace grounds. He longed to be doing something, anything to find Twilight. But until they actually had at least some semblance of a plan, some idea of where Twilight and Discord could be, there wasn't anything he could do. No matter how many soldiers you had to throw at your enemy, it didn't do you any good until you knew where to throw them. And it was frustrating Shining Armor immensely.
But no matter how frustrated he was, he wasn't going to let it worry his soldiers. Any pony that happened to look up and see him there just saw a commander reviewing his troops and planning out the next course of order. At least, that's what the random guard or civilian saw. Any pony who really knew Shining Armor knew that his mask was just that, a mask. Cherry Fizzy was one of those ponies.
Shining Armor saw Cherry Fizzy approach out of the corner of his eye and bit back a sigh.
"What is it, Lieutenant?" Shining Armor asked stiffly, hoping this was just business, but knowing otherwise.
"It's just us, Shining." Cherry Fizzy said, reaching out a hoof to his friend.
Shining Armor stepped back and saluted, requiring Cherry Fizzy to do the same per military protocol in case any soldiers were watching. For while they may have been out of hearing range on the balcony, they weren't out of sight. Seeing their commanding officer salute his lieutenant and the lieutenant snubbing him would have created a lot of confusion and worry amongst the ranks.
Cherry Fizzy frowned slightly as he lowered his salute. (No worries there, it was a common enough expression in the guard.)
"Fine." Cherry Fizzy said, narrowing his eyes. "We'll play it your way." He stood at attention and snapped, "Sir! Captain Shining Armor, Sir! First Lieutenant Cherry Fizzy, requesting an audience! Sir!"
Shining Armor frowned back, "Don't be like that Fizzy. You know we have to keep up appearances for the troops. Especially with Discord loose."
"Sir! Repeating request for an audience, Sir!" Cherry Fizzy repeated, fully in Royal Guard mode.
Shining Armor sighed, "Fine". Putting on his Captain of the Royal Guard stare, he faced his friend square on. "Request Granted, Lieutenant!", he barked.
"Sir! Permission to speak freely, Sir!"
"Permission Granted, Lieutenant!"
"Sir! Permission to utilize section 109 B of the Royal Guard Interrelations Code! Sir!" [1]
"Permission Granted." Shining Armor fairly growled the words as he glared at Cherry Fizzy.
"Sir! I believe you are holding yourself responsible for the actions of your sister, Twilight Sparkle! Sir!" "Explain yourself, Lieutenant."
"Sir! You are not to blame for the actions of your sister! Discord is!" Cherry Fizzy said, meeting Shining Armor's scowl and returning it two-fold.
"She is my little sister! She looked up to me! She adored me! And I forgot about her! I ignored her and I let her down! How can you tell me I'm not to blame?! Discord may have been the one to manipulate her, but he wouldn't have been able to if I hadn't broken her heart in the first place!" Shining Armor's voice cracked as he yelled, his face inches away from Cherry Fizzy's.
"Sir! You need to get your head out of your plot and buck up! Yeah, you messed up. You messed up big time." Cherry Fizzy was no longer using his guard voice, but the words hurt, none-the-less.
"Seriously dude, how could you forget to tell your little sister you were getting married?" At some point during Shining Armor's and Cherry Fizzy's (admittedly loud) discussion, Silver Shield and Bronzewing had shown up.
"Lieutenants, I do not need to tell you, that as your commanding officer, I can, and will, assign both of you to KP Duty until your hooves fall off." Shining Armor had also lowered his voice, to that of the menacing tone all recruits fear.
Bronzewing wisely decided to shut up. [2]
But if Cherry Fizzy was anything, it was stubborn. "Shining Armor, if you don't stop beating yourself up over Twilight, you're never going to be able to save her!"
Shining Armor opened his mouth to object (and probably make good on his threat), but Silver Shield interrupted him before he could. "I know it hurts, Shining, but Fizzy's right. You need to let go of the past."
"Yeah." Bronzewing cut in, "So what if your little Twily is being manipulating by an evil lord of chaos bent on destroying our world. Even if she becomes some sort of Nightmare Twilight, she's still your little sister and we'll get her back. You'll see. Right guys!? Guys?" [3]
Cherry Fizzy and Silver Shield just glared at him while Shining Armor just groaned. He hadn't considered the possibility of his little sister becoming some sort of super villain.
"OW! What was that for?!" Bronzewing grumbled as he rubbed his head with his wing, glaring at Silver Shield who had just cuffed him upside the head. With armored hooves.
"For being an insensitive plothead, as usual." Silver Shield stated matter-of-factly while Cherry Fizzy nodded.
"I know how you feel, Twilight." Discord said softly, gently smiling down at her. "When Celestia and Luna betrayed me, I felt like my heart had been replaced with a heart shaped hole. I felt like disappearing, letting the earth swallow me up so I could hide away and drown my sorrow in chocolate milk and cotton candy.., " Discord slowly stroked Twilight's head, pulling her mane away from her eyes. "Then I realized that they were never my friends to begin with. They were using me. "
"How did you know?" Twilight asked bitterly, wiping tears of rage from her eyes.
"Because, Twilight, as wrong as Celestia and Luna are about so many things, there was one matter on which they were right about. Friendship. "
Twilight froze, looking up at him in confusion as he continued.
"They always said that true friends stick together no matter what. That they won't let anything get between them. And they were right. True friends don't let anything get between them. They don't forget their friends. They're miserable without them. They never give up their friendships. But they gave up on me. That's how I knew they weren't my true friends. They never were. The only friend I ever had was my chaos. It was never the same, never expected. So I never expected it to be my friend, and it never betrayed me."
Discord waved his paw around the cave as his claw kept stroking her mane. "I knew nopony would ever be my friend, but even though I wanted to give up, I just couldn't. So I tried to be happy on my own. Tried to keep to myself, but chaos magic doesn't do alone. It needs to be shared and enjoyed, just like all magic. That's really the only thing it has in common with other magic at all."
All around Twilight the caves were being transformed. The piles of charred and broken crystal sculpted and caverns shaped to Discord's will.
"Didn't your magic grow stronger when you thought you had friends? When you had a purpose?" Discord asked Twilight as he gently let go of her to float in slow circles above her.
Twilight nodded as Discord continued, "So did mine. It was too weak when I was alone. Soon I wouldn't even have been able to conjure up food. Then how could I have survived?"
Twilight stared in wonder as the caves were transformed. Instead of just changing their surroundings in an instant like he had at the Castle of the Two Sisters, this time Discord's magic moved slowly, showing every step in transforming the cave. It was enchanting to watch as Discord transformed the pitted and charred space around them into a thing of beauty.
"But when I tried to share my magic," Discord waved a claw across the air in front of him, revealing a screen like the ones he had used in the royal vaults. She stepped closer as it showed Discord being turned to stone by the Elements of Harmony.
"I was imprisoned in stone", Discord hissed, "made into a garden ornament for foals to laugh at during school field trips!"
The screen changed with a flash to show a group of young fillies and colts pointing at Discord's statue as a school teacher stood next to it. The screen flashed again and again as each new group of foals visited the castle gardens and listened as their teacher told them the story of Discord. Each new group paying less attention then the last.
CRACK
One of the sculptures cracked on its foundation. Twilight turned to look at Discord. For an instant, she could see the deep hurt and anger he felt. Then the emotion drained from his eyes until all she could see was sadness as he turned away.
Twilight could see the pain and sadness he was in. The sadness that echoed her own depression. Twilight froze as a thought accorded to her.
Her heart was broken. But maybe there was something she could do to help heal his.
Determination filled her as Twilight focused on her spell. She brought her magic to a point and aimed it at the damaged sculpture. Slowly and carefully, Twilight guided her magic in mending the crack, with only a thin line showing where the break had happened. But she wasn't done yet. Even as the break was fixed, she continued to direct her magic at the sculpture. The statue grew and rose with her magic, finishing its ascent to the ceiling and creating a pillar on the side of the new hallway in their underground castle.
Twilight smiled as she ended her spell. Twilight looked to her side and saw Discord staring at the new pillar. Gently, she placed a hoof on his shoulder.
Discord looked up at the touch to see Twilight holding her other hoof out to him in a silent question. Smiling shyly back at her, he placed his paw in her hoof. His smile grew to a grin as Twilight sent another spell to her side, growing more pillars out of the charred crystals to match the others. With a snap of his claws Discord sent strands of color wrapping around the columns, blending and bulging to create their own designs. When they had finished, each column was its own unique design. Each as different as snowflakes, only significantly more colorful.
Twilight beamed, turning around to share her excitement with Discord. But the corridor was empty.
"Discord?", Twilight asked, searching for the illusive draconaquus. Twilight turned in a circle, and saw a flash of light coming from the end of the hall. As she ran around the bend, she saw Discord grinning as he transformed more of the crystal caverns into an underground palace.
Discord stopped as he saw Twilight and waited as she examined what he'd done. The floor was still crystalline, knitted and fused together from the remnants of her temper tantrum. The walls had been carved out of the cavern and expanded. Multiple doors had been added, all of them closed, so she wasn't able to see what laid behind them. Twilight wondered if Discord hadn't gotten that far yet.
As she looked up towards Discord, who had gone back to floating around, she noticed the ceiling hadn't changed at all. Aside from the edges being sloped into the walls, that it. It still looked like the ceiling to any caverns, complete with stalactites hanging down. Albeit shorter than most, and made of crystal.
"Come to think of it..." Twilight sent a stream of magic above her. It hit one of the jagged crystals jutting out from the ceiling, encircling it in a soft magenta glow. The stalactite shrunk a bit before reforming in long strands connected to smaller crystal pieces. When it stopped glowing, a chandelier was now hanging from the ceiling where a stalactite had been before.
Catching on to her idea, Discord changed the next stalactite over. Now matching Discord's grin, Twilight switched to another chunk of crystal and transformed it. Laughing, Discord and Twilight rushed through the caverns, growing and sculpting to their whims. Together, they created an underground palace. It became a race to see who could transform more of the caverns. With points for creativity, of course.
And every now and then, one of them would add something solely for each other. Discord blushed when Twilight grew chandeliers sticking out of the walls and Twilight beamed as Discord showed her the new library. She would have to ask him how he had managed to create real books out of crystal. Then again, Lord of Chaos.
For hours, they carved and sculpted, oblivious to the passing of time. Each new spell caused a small streak to bleed from the flower in Twilight's mane, following the path traced by Discord's claws.
Finally, their underground castle was finished. Twilight spun in a slow circle, adding some finishing touches to the ceiling. The room started spinning faster, in and out of her vision. Which was funny, since she was sure her legs had stopped moving. She giggled a little maniacally as she fell to her side. A smile on her face, despite how her head pounded and the room spun.
With an audible poof, Discord appeared by her side. Twilight struggled to focus on him as her vision faded.
Discord frowned. "I can't have my princess sleeping on the floor!" he declared, swooping down to cradle Twilight in his arms.
Twilight lifted her head wearily as he teleported them to another part of their new palace. Despite her exhaustion, she could tell this was a room she hadn't been in before. It must have been one Discord had made. Twilight felt her eyes widen as she looked around her. Above her, the ceiling was checkered with what looked like white marble. The walls were covered in brilliant tapestries of all designs, no two were alike. Some of them seemed to be depicting something, but she couldn't tell what. Others just looked like abstract design. Or maybe they all were. It was hard to focus through the haze. Twilight tilted her head to look at the floor. It was made of dark violet crystal stones. Though appearing smooth on top, they were cut in many different shapes, creating a cobblestone or cracked glass appearance.
Twilight let out a gasp as Discord carried her up a dais to a pair of thrones resting on top. Though the same size, the two thrones had very different designs. The one on the left was as black as coal, with red gems laid into the back and arms of the throne. The one on the right looked like it had been made out of many pieces of broken and charred crystal, fused together in beautiful design to make a throne that resembled the glass windows of Canterlot. Only much darker, with a brighter sheen. Set in the back of the throne was Twilight's Cutie Mark, craved from a single crystal into a perfect replica of her mark.
Discord placed Twilight on the crystal throne and took his place beside her.
"A tribute to your grand idea." he said as Twilight looked at him in confusion over the burnt and crumbled crystal sculpted into a throne to rival Celestia's.
"Thank you, Discord," Twilight said with a smile as she settled onto her throne. "It's perfect."
[1] Section 109 B of the Royal Guard Interrelations Code as written by Her Royal Majesty, Riser of the Sun, Diarchy of the Day, Princess Celestia, Crown Princess of Equestria states: 'A Royal Guard of any rank is authorized, so long as the setting is private and out of hearing range of any other Royal guards or civilians not privy to the matter of which is to be discussed, and without the intent to humiliate, undermine or disregard any authority, to convey to a Royal Guard of higher rank, including, but not limited to: Team leader, Sergeant, Major, Lieutenant, Commander, General, First Captain; Including Captain of the Royal Guards and Princess of Equestria, so long as they are in a commanding position and it relates to the command decisions or behavior in question, to state or express disagreements and or concerns about command decisions, demeanor and or habits that may or may not have a derisive effect upon the section or branch of command and or the royal Guards as a whole, without fear of demotion, disciplinary actions, and or other acts of ridicule or demeaning nature to said Royal Guard'
[2] Don't look so surprised. All that training did mange to teach Bronzewing how to shut up after saying something stupid.
[3]They're still working on the not saying something stupid in the first place part. They're pretty sure its a result of brain-damage from crashing into other ponies one too many times.