//------------------------------// // Chapter Five // Story: An Assistant // by samstermlp //------------------------------// One hour later Discord tapped his cloven hoof impatiently. He and the princesses had asked various ponies, but hadn’t gotten anything. Celestia had needed to return to the throne room to deal with her usual stuff, like greeting dignitaries and sorting out problems, but Twilight was going with him to check out the clearing where his wife’s body had been found. He sighed impatiently. “Are you done yet?!” Twilight was putting magic tracing gear in a big cardboard box. “I’ve just finished.” “Finally,” Discord muttered under his breath. He snapped his claw and they were in the forest field where, ten years ago, Discord had felt the first shreds of torture from his beautiful wife’s murder. He did his best to hold back the pain that the memory brought, but he could still feel it, waiting to overcome him. Twilight noticed, and said gently, “I think we should start where...she was.” Discord nodded, understanding. They walk over to where Fluttershy had taken her last breaths. Twilight set down the box, which she had been levitating behind her, and opened it up. She couldn’t help a little yelp when a small gray unicorn horn popped out of the box. She recovered quickly, and glared sternly at the little head that followed the horn. “Musica!” The little filly looked down, guilt in her eyes. “Musica?!” Discord exclaimed, noticing her. “What are you doing here?! I forbade you from coming!” Musica trembled and looked at the adults pleadingly. “Please don’t send me back! I want to help!” Discord glared at her. “You don’t even know what we’re doing here!” “I know it something to do with Fluttershy!” Musica blurted. She covered her mouth with her hoof. She hadn’t meant to say that. Discord became very still. “And how do you know that?” he asked, deceptively quiet. Musica took a deep breath and began to talk very quickly. “WellIoverheardyouguystalkingaboutfindingunusualmagicandyousaiditwasapersonalmattersoIwenttothelibraryandI..” “Whoa, slow down, Musica! We can’t understand you when you talk that fast!” Twilight exclaimed. Musica nodded, and began again at a slower, if slightly faster than necessary, pace. “ I overheard you all talking about finding unusual magic and Discord said it was a personal matter, and when he wouldn’t tell me why you and Princess Celestia were involved, I was curious. I was in the library and scanned some books and found out that Fluttershy was Discord’s wife and got murdered by the queen of the changelings. So I did so thinking and figured he had found a really good lead on Chrysalis. And I really wanted to help, since I’m his assistant and I hate mean ponies like Chrysalis.” “So you thought that we had found the queen of the changelings, who you just found out murdered a mare, and decided you wanted to come?” Discord asked, one bushy eyebrow raised. Musica blushed and looked down. Discord continued, “Well, you’re lucky you were wrong. Otherwise you would be in major trouble. You still are, in fact.” Musica glanced up, surprised. “I’m wrong? So what is going on?” “Nothing you need to worry about, especially since you’re going right back to the castle.” Musica gasped, looking pleadingly at the purple alicorn who was rummaging through the box. “At least she had the sense to shrink my instruments instead of taking them out of the box.” Twilight commented. Then she turned to Discord. “But I don’t think it can hurt for her to come along.” Discord opened his mouth to argue. “I know, she isn’t supposed to be here. But still, since she’s here, she might as well get some experience out in the field.” Discord sighed. “I suppose you’re right.” Musica squealed and hopped up and down. “Don’t get to excited, Musica. You’re still in trouble.” She drooped, but still couldn’t help being a little excited. Other than her magic lessons with Discord, she hadn’t done much as his assistant that had involved being outside or using magic. “Let’s get started.” Twilight said. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Musica was bored. This isn’t nearly as fun as I thought it would be. Discord and Twilight had looked at an odd looking thing-a-ma-bob and written some stuff down. Then they walked a few hooves and did it again. Sometimes, they frowned and walked around a bit until they seemed to find something again. They didn’t seem to be following any particular pattern, zigzagging here, backwards there, and at one point they went upside down. Or rather, Discord had. For some reason, the randomness of where they were going seemed to encourage Discord. Every time they went in a random direction, or when he and the princess looked at the weird device, Musica saw another flare of that weird determination on the eyes of the draconaquus. Weird. Even though watching this phenomenon was interesting, it got old after the first twenty times. Deciding to break the silence that had surrounded them since the clearing, Musica asked, “What exactly are we following?” Without looking up from her device, Twilight answered, “Some indications of where a helter-skelter of a half-breed may have decamped.” Musica looked at the purple alicorn blankly. Discord rolled his eyes. “We’re following a magic trace. Normally, we wouldn’t need the instruments, but this trace is very old.” “But why are we following it? What’s so important about it?” Twilight looked up. She looked at Discord. After an immeasurable silence, he gave a tiny shrug. Then he took magic tracer from Twilight and walked ahead a few hooves, where he stared at the device and made some notes. Twilight turned to Musica. “As you said before, Discord and Fluttershy were married. And of course, he was desolated.” Musica tilted her head in confusion. “Devastated?” Twilight tried. Musica nodded. She knew that one. “So Discord was devastated. But there was more than that. Not only did he lose his wife that day, he lost his unborn child.” Musica gasped, horrified. Twilight nodded, pain in her eyes. But then the pain was replaced with a determination that reminded Musica of Discord. “But I realized recently that we never checked for certain that the child died within her. I looked at some photos and discerned that she was no longer pregnant in death.” Musica furrowed her brow, confused. Then her eyes went wide in realization. “So the kid might still be alive?!” Twilight shrugged. “We don’t know. Chrysalis may have killed the child like she did Fluttershy, or she may have not known Fluttershy was pregnant in the first place. But don’t get your hopes up. More likely than not, the child was murdered along with the mother.” Then the princess trotted ahead to where Discord was frowning at the device, and moving it up and down. Musica trailed after her, still digesting what Twilight had told her. Even though Twilight had told her that the kid was probably a murder victim, she couldn’t help but disagree. After all, she thought, why leave Fluttershy’s body but not the kid’s?