//------------------------------//
// Palace Life 
// Story: Healing Hearts 
// by KidatHeart5 
//------------------------------//

	There he was again…Scorpan…He was just as Tirek remembered him: the gargoyle who was his devoted younger brother. The centaur tried calling out to him, but no voice came from his mouth. He tried to wave at him, but Scorpan looked around as if Tirek was invisible.
The gargoyle started to sing, “Who will rescue me?”
Even though Tirek had no voice, he screamed in his thoughts, Brother, I am right here! Why can’t you see me?! I’m standing right here!
Scorpan sang again, “Who…will rescue me? Who…will rescue me?”
Suddenly, a black shroud loomed over them and an inky arm stretched from the darkness and grabbed Scorpan.
The gargoyle screamed, “Help! Tirek! Where are you?!”
Tirek ran to him as his brother was being lifted in the air. He shouted in his mind, I’m coming, brother! Don’t worry!
Scorpan continued to shout with tears streaming down his face, “Tirek, save me! I need you!”
The centaur jumped as he reached for his brother’s paw, but to his surprise, his hand went right through. He crashed into the ground and looked up to see Scorpan being taken by the shroud of darkness.
Tirek screamed with his voice now regained, “SCORPAAAAN!”
He woke with a start in his bed of blankets. It was the same nightmare he’d been having for the last week. The resulting insomnia made him a force to be reckoned with around the castle. He didn’t understand why he kept having that dream, but he had a pretty good idea. The last the centaur saw of his brother, Scorpan stayed inside Midnight Castle while Tirek ran for his life. The centaur regretted his decision ever since then and wanted to rectify the great wrong. However, his lust for power as a prince prevented him from going back to Equestria to find Scorpan. For many years, guilt hung over him and became his burden and his alone.
Tirek sang softly, “I’m at a loss without a friend…” As he got up from his blanket bed, he continued to sing, “This nightmare…Will it ever end?” He went to the window forlornly and sang, “Who…will…rescue him?” His front legs then rose up on the window seat as Tirek put his hand on the window and sang, “Rescue him…” He leaned against the window as he finished sadly, “Rescue me...”





It had been a couple of years since Salene’s passing. Even though the kingdom healed from the devastation, some hearts were still raw with pain. Alpheus felt as if he could never get over his wife’s death, so he became stoic and more distant from his sons. To him, the princes reminded him of Salene because of how much she loved them. Only a few of the brothers healed from the tragedy, but it was only mostly. 
Sometime after the queen died, Discord and Bill Cipher went back to their carefree ways. Although they still missed their mother very much, they wanted to keep her memory alive. However, they found out the topic was a touchy issue with most of their family, so they only ever talked about the good times with Zeb and sometimes Aku. Because of this, Zeb’s heart was able to heal considerably, but the queen’s death had made him more mature and aloof.
For Aku, Salene was the only mother he’d ever known. Her death had devastated him past the point of tears. He felt so empty inside that he wasn’t able to cry even if he wanted to. Soon after the funeral, he became detached from almost everything he knew, save for a lukewarm relationship with Discord, Zeb, and Bill Cipher. Aku made himself promise to never love anyone else but his mother ever again. In his view, to let himself love once more would mean risk putting his heart through more pain. He could not take that chance for fear of being irreparably broken.
Though Negaduck could not feel the pain as deeply as Aku did, he loved his adopted mother just as much as any of his brothers did. Salene’s death reopened a wound in his heart that was made when he had to leave the Negaverse. Leaving his family and the life he’d known behind was the hardest thing Negaduck had to do and it pained him every day since. Now that he lost another person he loved, he closed off his heart and turned angry and sour. He may have had become someone to fear at the castle, but there was one other being bitterer than he was.
Tirek had been separated from his family when he was a teenager, so he was familiar with the pain of losing a loved one. Despite the experience, though, it was still as unbearable as ever. He was afraid of opening up to his adopted family and look where bonding with them got him: back in the same situation he had been in over a decade earlier. His uncertainty about whether or not any of his biological family members were still alive stopped him from taking off on a search. As much as he wanted to leave Venupil, he had virtually no leads to go on. Being stuck where he was at made him grumpy and unapproachable. 
Life at the castle changed from happy and blithe to dull and gloomy. Although Discord and Bill Cipher tried to invoke fun around the place, their attempts failed most of the time. The people and both princes wondered if there would ever be joy in the palace again…
It was a bright and sunny day, but Aku’s room was as black as pitch – save for a small beam of sunlight that flowed in from a crack between the curtains. He had to try again. He just had to. If there was only one way for Aku to communicate with his mother’s spirit, then this had to be it. It was the one moment when Aku would find out whether or not his magic training paid off. He sat on the floor with his legs crossed, extended his hand, and concentrated on the crystals in front of him.
He began to chant in Japanese, “Shisha no sekai ni ikite iru no sekai kara, watashi wa kono messēji o sōshin shimasu. Watashi wa watashi ni kite saren, Venupil no joō no tamashī o yobi. Watashi ni kite, watashi no tangan o kikimasu. Watashi ni kite, watashi ni kite, watashi ni –“
“All right!”
The sudden voice broke Aku’s concentration and the floating crystals immediately fell to the floor. He opened his right eye in agitation before closing it again.
Once he calmed down, he levitated the crystals and chanted again, “Joō saren, watashinohaha wa, watashi o kikimasu. Watashi ni kiite, mōichido watashi ni hanashimasu.”
“Got it!”
Another voice ruined his focus. Aku growled and stood up, having enough interruptions. He grabbed the curtains and shoved them aside. He looked out the window and saw Bill Cipher and Discord playing tennis in the courtyard while Zeb acted as referee. 
Aku opened the window and shouted, “Do you mind?! I’m trying to concentrate here!”
Zeb said, “We’re just having a little fun. I don’t see any harm in it.”
Discord agreed, “Yeah, we’ll show you.” He tossed the tennis ball up in the air as he shouted, “Think fast, Bill!”
When Discord swung the ball over the net, Bill readied himself, saying, “Here comes a high one!” The triangle then swung with all his might and the ball flew up into the air. 
Discord remarked, “That is a high one.”
Zeb warned Aku, “Aku, look out!”
The trio closed their eyes and braced themselves for the impact the ball would have on Aku.
Whump!
When they opened their eyes, they were surprised to discover that Aku had caught the ball a mere three inches from his face. Despite the amazing catch, the demon still kept a stern face.
Bill exclaimed, “Wow! Now that’s what I call a lucky shot!”
Aku said in an unamused tone, “Yes, and you all will be lucky if you can evade this shot.” 
He morphed his right hand into a tennis racket and swung the ball towards them. The ball rocketed at nearly lightspeed and smashed into the ground with a burst of dust. The trio looked into the newly-formed crater and saw that the tennis ball was wrecked.
Zeb said as he started to walk away, “Come on. We can tell we’re not wanted here.”
Bill said as he followed the Lasat, “Yeah. Let’s head to the beach. I could use some rays.”
Discord was about to join them, but he looked back to see Aku closing his window. Feeling dismayed, he followed his brothers to the beach.





Fortune Beach was a popular place to be in Venupil when travelers would come in from all sorts of places and dimensions. The beach was known for its gleaming white sands and lovely spots to set up a picnic. Sometimes, the tide would bring in pieces of gold and priceless jewels, rumored to have floated up from a treasure chest buried deep in the waters. When people would come to the beach, they usually searched for such valuable pieces that probably washed up on the shore the night before. That was what Zeb was doing at the moment as he and his brothers were at Fortune Beach. Bill Cipher was sitting on a beach chair while holding a tanning mirror to catch some sunlight, and Discord was just lying on his stomach and drawing shapes in the sand with his talon. Zeb knew the look on the draconequus’s face all too well. Whenever Discord’s ears drooped and he looked downwards, the Lasat knew something was bothering him.
Zeb sat down beside Discord and asked, “Doing okay, Discord?”
The draconequus sighed, “I don’t understand. We were a happy and close family one day and the next, we’re not. It’s like everything went wrong when Mom died.” 
“Yeah, I know how you feel. I felt like fate messed me over when most of my people were massacred on Lasan. I was lost, confused, angry even. But then I found Venupil and a loving family to give me a new home. I may never forget my old life, but at least I found something that’s become close to my heart.”
“Well, this is the only place I’ve known. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else but here. I went to Equestria one time and got ridiculed and jeered for my appearance all because I wasn’t a pony like they were.”
“Hey, if they couldn’t see you for who you are, then it’s their loss. Count your blessings you live here instead of Equestria.”
“Yeah. I’d rather have just one person who’s unsettled by me than a crowd who acts the same way.”
Zeb put his hand on Discord’s shoulder and said, “We’re peas in a pod, Discord. Peas in a pod.”





Aku walked down the long hallway in silence. His attempt to contact his mother from beyond had failed. He pinned the blame on the brothers who were out in the courtyard when he was trying to concentrate. He had tried again after the others went to the beach, but no matter how hard he tried, he did not succeed. He could not dwell on his despair for long. He needed someone to talk to, even if the other being wasn’t exactly chatty.
He entered Negaduck’s room and saw that it was empty. Aku knew that Negaduck had to have gone off somewhere…and he knew exactly where. He tilted his brother’s bed at the foot and put it against the wall. On the floor beneath where the bed used to be was a circle tiled with a round red center and two rings of letters, the larger of which held the first 14 letters of the alphabet. All of the princes had a circled lock like this underneath their beds. Whenever they entered a code – i.e. their names – a panel would slide open and a secret stairway would be revealed. Only they and their mother knew about it. Aku entered Negaduck’s name in the tiled lock and the stairway was exposed.
In his secret workshop, Negaduck was underneath his motorcycle doing mechanic work. Suddenly, he heard the panel in the workshop creaking open. He froze in case someone besides his brothers discovered his secret place.
A voice said, “It is only I, Negaduck.”
Negaduck released the breath he held and rolled out from underneath his motorcycle. He sat up to see Aku at the bottom of the stair. Aku saw that Negaduck’s regular attire was on a hanger and his fedora was on a hat stand. The mallard himself was wearing black overalls with yellow buttons and a red shirt, not to mention a few oil spots here and there. 
Negaduck crossed his arms and said, “Why are you down here?”
Aku answered, “My attempts to contact Mother’s spirit have been...less than fruitful. If what I assume is correct, you might just find something to help me succeed.”
“And how would I do that exactly?”
“You have your motorcycle, don’t you? I take it you’re not planning on going on a joyride in it, are you?”
“No.” Negaduck put his hand on his motorcycle and continued, “I’m sprucing this baby up for after the Quincentennial Ball. When the festivities are almost done, I’ll enlist Tirek’s help in teleporting me and my motorcycle outside the castle gates and then I’ll make my clean getaway. You know, it’s surprising you’ve never left the palace once after Salene died, considering that you can teleport anywhere.”
“I have left the palace, time and time again. You just never seem to notice.”
“Oh? Then how come you never actually moved out?”
“I’ve nowhere else to go. Besides, my destiny is here as heir apparent. As for my short departures from the palace, it was in search of a way to communicate with Mother…” His eyes slit at Negaduck as his voice dripped with venom, “…whom you call Salene.”
Before Negaduck could retort, a voice came in through a pipe, “Your Highnesses, it is time for dinner. Your father requests your presence.”
Though the page in the hallway did not know it, pipes were connected to the vents that dotted the hallway outside the bedrooms. It served as an advantage to the princes whenever they were in their secret rooms.
Negaduck gritted his teeth at Aku and said, “We’ll finish this later.”