An Investigation Into Chaos

by Forgoten Null

Chapter Fourteen: Burning Passion

Celestia squeezed between two low hanging branches, dropping into an awkward crouch to squirm through the tight passage. Once she was on the other side she stood up and looked around, searching for a point of light amongst the black brambles. She spotted the small, shimmering, orb hanging in front of a hole in the middle of the otherwise impenetrable wall of growth. She took just one moment to catch her breath, pressing forward and following the light.

Celestia followed the wisp through the increasingly dense undergrowth. Each step she took was more confident than the one before, emboldened by her progress.

When she first noticed the wisp she thought it might be a trick of her imagination, or even worse, she thought it could be a trap to lead her astray. Her gut told her otherwise. In the end, Celestia trusted her instincts and followed the light, if a bit tentatively at first.

Now she was moving as fast as her own fatigue and the overgrown vegetation would allow, the wisp guiding her through the mazelike brambles and showing her paths she wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. So she pushed through the brambles, across the streams and forgotten pools that lay untouched this deep in the forest. She slipped between the branches and charged over the grass covered hills.

It was visceral; with every step she took she could feel him getting closer. She knew that every step she took would bring her closer to their final confrontation, an end to all this.

The beasts that had dogged her every move before seemed so far away now, their howls were nothing more than distant sirens that called to her before they were silenced by muted explosions. The weariness and malaise that had clung to her shoulders and dragged her down was now replaced by a quiet confidence, a knowledge that she could push onward. The darkness that had clouded her vision was replaced by a soft, diffused, violet light that seemed to stretch on as far as she could see.

She silently thanked Luna and Twilight. She didn’t want to get them involved in any of this, but she was thankful they were there besides her, if only in spirit. They gave her the tools and opportunities she needed to push on; her progress was still slow, but there was a certain inevitability to it now. She would reach her prize.

Once again she found herself at what seemed like an impassable wall of brambles, but then a subtle flash of light drew her attention to the canopy above her. She only had to search for a few seconds before her eyes locked onto the wisp; it was dancing around the trunk of an ancient tree that’s head had been split by lightning ages ago. From where she was standing it seemed like there was just enough room for her to squeeze through.

Her legs tensed up and she shot into the air in one smooth motion. A powerful flap of her wings launched her up to the split in the tree and she landed with a clatter of hooves on hardwood. She took a moment to steady herself before dropping down on the other side of the tree. Finding the path ahead to be clear of any obstacles, she pressed into a full gallop.

Another howl rang out somewhere on her left side, it was interrupted by the sound of wood twisting and branches snapping violently. Other than the occasional clash such as this, the woods around her had fallen deathly silent. It was as if the forest was under some kind of spell to muffle all sound. The only sounds that remained were the sound of her labored breathing and her heart pounding in her chest, beating almost in time with her hoof falls.

There was no birdsong.

There was no buzzing of insects.

There was nothing, no sounds at all.

Despite the virulent overgrowth that surrounded her, it was obvious to her that the forest was well and truly dead.

The path she was on forked suddenly. She was about to break stride, to try and figure out which path to take, when she saw the familiar wisp of light shooting down the rightmost path. She quickly pulled off to the right to follow it. As she sped on the soft soil beneath her hooves gave way, quickly turning to rocky gravel. The hard rocks didn’t make for the most comfortable path, but they gave her the traction she needed to propel herself into a full sprint.

She knew she didn’t have much time find Discord. She knew all too well what would happen to him if he was left alone for too long in his current state of mind. She had seen it happen far too many times to far too many good Ponies. It was a sight she never wanted to bear again, she had been hurt far too many times to simply stand by and let him slip by.

Celestia knew that Discord needed her. She knew he needed her almost as much as she needed him.

This needed to end, and it needed to end soon.

---

“Explain to me exactly why I’m here again?” Dual asked with an exasperated sigh, shuffling around impatiently. He looked around the room that could easily described as the wreckage of a library after it was hit by a miniature tornado. Books, scrolls, and parchments were scattered everywhere, everywhere except for the carefully laid chalk lines on the floor. The lines beneath him wove together, forming into complex and nigh incomprehensible patterns that spiraled around, intersected with, and split off from each other at seemingly random intervals.

Dual stood, somewhat patiently, on a confluence of these lines at the edge of a large circle. A Pegasus and a Unicorn from the Royal Guard stood on similar confluences, the three forming a triangle around Twilight. Twilight herself had laid herself down in the center of an intricately traced piece of geometry that glowed faintly under its own power. Her eyes were screwed shut as she concentrated intently on the task at hoof.

Without moving or even looking in his direction, she shouted. “You’re helping!”

Her mane, tail, and fur flowed slowly, as if touched by some nonexistent breeze. Her horn glowed faintly and a white light was leaking out from behind her eyelids. Dual just rolled his eyes.

“And how exactly am I helping again?” Dual laid down on the floor with a huff. He propped his head up with a hoof, doing his best to look exceptionally bored.

“You’re providing a focal point for my magic to manifest itself as a natural talent,” Twilight stated matter-of-factly, “and you’re also acting a secondary power source for said magic.”

Dual traced a hoof around one of the spirals inlayed in the chalk. “Uh-huh.”

“I need you’re here so I can affect the flora of the forest while I’m astral projecting,” Twilight let out a frustrated sigh, “it’s important.”

“And why can’t you just use one of those ‘focus crystals’ you were talking about?”

Twilight sighed again, shaking her head with her eyes still closed. “Because those have to be purpose made for a specific task, and it takes a lot of time and effort to makes them.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We don’t have any crystals that I could use for this, so needed a real world analogue. Besides that, the Earth Pony variety is hard to come by to begin with.”

“So then explain to me why you can’t just use another Royal Guard for this?” Dual glanced at the other two Ponies in the room. The Pegasus on his right was just standing at attention, but Dual noticed he would look around whenever he thought no one was looking at him, shuffling his wings nervously. The Unicorn was sitting on his haunches, his eyes were shut and he had a serene look on his face while he channeled a white aura around his horn.

“I need somepony here to keep me tethered, so I can keep track of mind and Luna’s power output. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the Royal Guard’s aren’t exactly known for their conversational skills.” Dual caught the Pegasus yawing out of the corner of his eye, and he could swear that he saw the Unicorn smirking.

“Uh-huh.”

“This has to be the third time I’ve explained this to you, Dual, is it really that hard to remember?”

“No, not at all.” Dual sat up, holding his hooves in front of him defensively. “I just ran out of conversation topics hours ago and frankly I’m bored.” He quickly flopped back down on the ground and let out a long, melodramatic sigh. He looked back over to the Pegasus, who shot him a sympathetic glance.

Dual saw Twilight roll her eyes even though they were still closed. “I’m sorry, but you can’t move until this is all over.” She pursed her lips. “It shouldn’t be too long now.”

“Can I please do my paperwork now?” Dual asked, displaying all the tact of a foal asking for a cookie.

“No,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “You need to keep concentrating on your Earth Pony nature so that I can have a pure focal point to channel my magic from.”

“But my paperwork will me concentrate on it!”

“And how exactly will it do that?” Twilight asked, not amused by his antics in the slightest.

“Simple,” Dual said as he rolled over onto his back, staring at the ceiling, “another part of my Earth Pony nature is being stubborn.” The Unicorn guard tried and failed to suppress a chuckle, it came out as a snort of laughter. Dual tried to ignore him, but he felt a small smirk of satisfaction touch at his lips as he continued. “All I want to do right now is get my paperwork done, and you’re going to let me do it whether you think it’s productive or not.”

“I-I what!?” Twilight opened her eyes to reveal two shining white orbs that glowed brightly in the relative darkness of the room. She glared at Dual, who was still upside-down at the time, and he casually waved back at her. “Eugh, fine!” She glanced at the door and it popped open, causing a small mountain of parchments and scrolls to flood into the room. “If you really want to do your paperwork so badly…” Her horn light up with a soft white light as a good third of the pile floated through the air, stopping directly above him. Dual quickly closed his eyes and shielded himself with his hooves, prepared for the worst. “Then get to it already…”

Dual opened his eyes and looked around, surprised to find that the papers had sorted themselves into neat and organized piles around him. He rolled over and sat up on his haunches again, searching for something in particular. “Gladly, once I have a-” with a pop a quill and ink appeared n the floor in front of him, “quill…” He looked back at Twilight, noticing she had already closed her eyes again. For a moment, he just watched her eyes dart back and forth under her eyelids.

“Thank you.” He said politely, moving to pick up the quill and beginning the long awaited task of completing his overdue paperwork.

“You’re welcome.” Twilight answered back politely.

Dual took the quill in his lips and started the arduous proves of filling out forms and requisitions for two Princesses. The room slipped into a comfortable silence, broken only by the occasional shuffling of paper or the scribbling of his quill.

That and the dull humming sound that never seemed to leave the room.

As much as most Ponies would have abhorred the task of doing paperwork, Dual took great solace in it. The last few days had been filled with complicated plans, theories, and tasks that he understood at a basic level, but that he couldn’t fully comprehend no matter how hard he tried to; he understood what he needed to anyway, magic just wasn’t in his talent profile and he didn’t see any reason to change that fact.

Paperwork though, that was something he could really sink his teeth into. There weren’t any complicated arcane formulae or magical inscriptions to memorize, and there were no singularities or emotional constancies he needed to maintain. Instead he just had to deal with the convoluted machinations of nobles, aristocrats, and officials grinding up against each other to create an indecipherable jumble of words that spread themselves out across hundreds of different pages.

Dual snorted. To call it simple would be stupid, but at least it made sense to him.

So for a while he dove into the complex jargon with reckless abandon, sorting out the legitimate requests from the inane, and sometimes nonsensical, attempts to abuse the system. In a half an hour he had managed to work his way through more than half of the pile Twilight had given to him and about a third of the ink in the inkwell. He was about to pick up another request form when the Pegasus guard spoke up suddenly.

“Princess Twilight.” There was an air of concern in his voice.

Dual looked up from his papers and glanced at the Pegasus before looking to Twilight herself. She was lying on her side with her hooves pulled close to her body. Dual’s ears swiveled towards her and he heard her snoring softly.

“Twilight, wake up,” Dual shouted, “Twilight!” There was no response. Looking around Dual saw that the Pegasus guard was prancing nervously around his circle; a circle which he was under strict orders not to leave under any circumstances. The Unicorn guard was standing now, he looked around the room with an almost unnatural level of calm, and his horn was still shining brightly in the dim light of the room.

Dual decided to follow his example and tried to calm himself down. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes; he held the breath for a few seconds before he let it out slowly.

He opened his eyes again and looked around. Twilight was still asleep, but there was no concrete evidence she was in any danger, yet. There wasn’t any reason to panic, but it was his job to keep her “tethered” and he felt like he had let her down. He sighed and looked down; the form he was holding onto was crumpled up between his hooves. He carefully laid it out on the floor to smooth it out before he started skimming through it.

“…because of this fact it would be most efficacious to increase the water temperature of the public bathhouse by three degrees while simultaneously installing proper systems to cool the air in the buildings by no more than two degrees. This newly imposed temperature differential would ensure that incidents of tomfoolery would decrease by…”

Dual’s head fell between his hooves and he let out a frustrated groan. “I can’t deal with this right now!” He slapped the papers to the ground, crumpling them up in the process. He was about to throw them over his shoulder when an idea struck him.

He hefted the wad of paper in his hoof, tossing the ball up in the air experimentally. Then he looked over at Twilight, carefully judging the distance between them. He reared back and whipped the ball of paper at her as hard as he could. It flew straight and true, hitting its mark right behind her ear.

She didn’t even flinch.

Disheartened, but not deterred, he looked around for more ammunition. He quickly found another pointless requisition form and started wadding it up.

“That’s not going to work, you know.” Dual looked around for a moment before his eyes fell on the, previously mute Unicorn guard. “Alicorns are made of sterner stuff than that.”

Dual hesitated, trying to remember the guard’s name “Iron Clad, right?” The Unicorn nodded curtly. Dual looked down at the ball of paper he made and furrowed his brow. He had to admit that Iron Clad was probably right, but he didn’t have any better ideas. “Well I don’t see any better plans, and I have to do something seeing as it was my job to make sure she didn’t’ drift off.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Iron Clad said matter-of-factly.

“Excuse me? You heard what the Princess said; the reason I was here was to-”

“You were here to provide a focal point for her magic,” Iron Clad deadpanned. “I might be a few years older than you,” he hesitated for a second, “or decades, but I wouldn’t be a part of Celestia’s Honor Guard if my ears weren’t as sharp as the day I enlisted.” Iron Clad stood up looked around the room, searching for something. “At any rate, me and Stratos over there,” he jerked a hoof over at the Pegasus in question, “should have mentioned something when she started to nod off.” He shrugged.

“Personally I was too focused on my own magic to notice.” Iron Clad stopped for a moment, using his magic to pull a rather large book off a nearby shelf. “I don’t know what his problem is though, been twitching ever since we got in here.” Dual and Iron Clad looked over as Stratosphere who was doing his best to shrink into the ground beneath him. There was a moment of silence where the two stallions stared at the jittery Pegasus. Dual’s stare was full of curiosity whereas Iron Clad’s stare was full of authority and impatience.

Eventually Iron Clad sighed, shaking his head before shouting at him. “Well, speak up then! What’s your excuse?” Stratosphere froze on the spot, looking to Dual for support. Dual just shook his head.

Finally Stratosphere found his voice. “I-I have a thing about small rooms, OK!”

Dual looked around the cavernous chamber they were in, taking a moment to look up at the gothic style vaulted ceilings that must have been at least fifty feet high. Meanwhile, the sound of Iron Clad’s hoof smacking against this face was clearly audible.

Dual looked over to see the Unicom rubbing his hoof between his eyes, he couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or embarrassed. “At any rate, like I said, Alicorns are made of sterner stuff. Now word around the yard is that Luna is a pretty light sleeper, makes sense considering she’s the Princess of The Night. Celestia though, she’s an entirely different story.” He made a point of flipping through the book in his grasp before he went on.

“Every morning she wakes up at the same time, like clockwork. Now, normally that’s fine and dandy, but of course sometimes some crisis will rear its ugly head at midnight or some hotshot emissaries will demand an audience with her at some unruly hour.” He shook his head.” Anyway, it’s the Guard’s job to wake her up” He smiled, staring off into the distance. “I remember this one time, she slept through the whole routine; she even slept through the part with the bucket of ice water! Gale ended up bringing a thunderhead into the Royal Bedchamber.” Iron Clad chuckled to himself, scratching at the scruff under his chin thoughtfully. “Needless to say, the servants were not happy with us. Celestia made us clean it up.”

He closed his eyes and nodded. “It was worth it though.” Iron Clad let out a dreamy sigh.

“Does any of this have a point to it?” Dual snapped out.

“My point is that Celestia isn’t exactly easy to wake, Cadance was the same way, and, if my memory serves me, Twilight was just as bad before her ascension. Like I said, Alicorns are made of sterner stuff. They are certainly tougher than just about any Earth Pony you might find, no offence intended to present company.”

“None taken,” Dual said. “I’m a scholar, not a fighter.”

At any rate, you won’t get anywhere with them if you treat them with kid gloves all the time.” He smirked at some untold joke. “Sometimes, they just need a bit of tough love.” The book Iron Clad was reading snapped shut as he tossed it up into the air. He grabbed back onto it with his telekinesis and, with a flash of light and an explosion of sound, it shot down at Twilight. The book hit her square in the back of the head, knocking her over and sending the book spinning over towards the corner of the room.

“What in the name of Celestia did you do that for?!” Dual scrambled to his hooves, livid with disbelief. He looked at Stratosphere and shouted at him, pointing at Iron Clad with an accusatory hoof. “Aren’t you going to do something?! He just assaulted a Princess?” Stratosphere casually glanced at Iron Clad and shrugged. Dual found he was unable to do anything besides glare at the two, so called “Royal Guards.”

“Um, how long was I asleep?” Twilight asked the room as she stood up and rubbed her eyes. She blinked hard a couple of times, obviously trying to wake herself up. The fact that her eyes were still glowing made the action strange and eerie to watch.

While Dual was stunned into silence, Stratosphere didn’t miss a beat. “A few minutes at most, Princess.”

“Oh,” Twilight looked at Dual. “Dual, why didn’t you wake me?”

It took Dual a moment to register that she was addressing him, but eventually he managed speak. “But, I, um… Are you OK? Twilight?”

“I’m fine,” Twilight said as she sat back down and closed her eyes. “I was only out for a few minutes; it would take a lot longer than that for any of my wards to break down.” Her head started moving back and forth, like she was tracking something just outside the room. “Why, did something happen?”

“Um…” Dual looked over at Iron Clad. He noticed that the Unicorn was sitting down again; his eyes were closed as he continued to channel the white aura around his horn. “No, nothing happened.”

He could swear that the Unicorn was smiling.

The room went quiet again. Twilight went on with what she was doing and Dual went back to doing paperwork, though this time he was paying a bit more attention to Twilight.

Eventually he managed to finish off all the paperwork Twilight gave him and he lied down on the polished basalt floor. With nothing left to distract him from his boredom he stared at Twilight. He absently noticed how her eyes constantly shifted under her eyelid, the light behind her eyes flickering in concordance with every movement.

From where he was sitting it seemed almost completely random, but Dual knew better than that. He knew that everything had at least some kind of order to it; nothing was completely random because that would imply that it was perfectly random. Everything had a little bit of purpose to it, it some small bit of significance even if he couldn’t see it.

“Hey, Twilight?” he asked softly.

“Yes, Dual?”

“Do you think they’ll be alright?”

There was a long pause, Twilight’s face fell a bit as her lips contorted into a tight frown. “I don’t know. Celestia was pretty weak when we started, but she seems to be doing a lot better now.”

Something caught her attention and she sat up suddenly. She looked around quickly, her eyes still closed, but then her gaze fell on the wall beside him. She stared at the spot for a few moments, the light surrounding her horn grew more intense for a second and then her eye twitched. The light died down a bit, back to where it was before, and she sighed, lying back down as if nothing had happened.

“I honestly don’t know what will happen when she finally gets to Discord, but I promise that Luna and I will do everything in our power to keep her safe.” Twilight smiled, but the fact that she wasn’t looking at him made the gesture it a bit less reassuring. “I wouldn’t worry about her too much; she’s a lot tougher than she looks.”

“Celestia isn’t the only one I’m worried about.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight opened her eyes to look at him just when he turned away. “Oh.” Dual snorted, but otherwise he held his tongue. “You said that you worked for him before this, right?”

Dual rolled his eyes. “I said I worked with him, not for him. He was very clear about that when we wrote up the contract.”

“Of course,” Twilight replied automatically. Dual turned back around to glare at her, but her eyes were closed again and the frown had returned to her face. “Luna and I still don’t know what’s going on, but I think he is in a very dark place right now.” She paused for a bit, obviously concentrating on something else. Dual gaze fell a bit, his hoof tracing the around chalk inlay on the floor. “It’s hard to say why he’s acting like he is. Luna said that he always had his moods, but she’s never seen him like this before so she thinks something happened. The last Ponies who saw him before this were you and Celestia. We obviously can’t ask Celestia right now, so unless you have anything else that-”

“I already told you everything you need to know. If I told you anything more than that I would be breaching confidentiality with my client and more importantly it would be betraying the trust of a friend!” Dual realized he was standing again as he stared down at Twilight. He waited for an inevitable rebuttal, but she didn’t challenge him. He sighed and fell back down on his haunches. “Besides that, there isn’t really much more I could say. I never asked him about his private affairs and he never asked about mine. Believe me when I tell, you that if I knew anything that I thought might be important I would have told you already.”

“Dual, I’m sorry.” Dual’s ears perked up at that. “I know that you and Discord were friends and I know that he means a lot to you.” Twilight smiled, actually making sure to look directly at him this time. “I promise that I’ll do my best to make sure everyone make it out of this alright, including Discord.”

“Thanks, Twi, that means a lot.” He smiled back at her, but her smile fell away.

She stood up, gritting her teeth in a show of fierce determination. “He’s close.”

---

Discord was watching the scene unfolding in front of him with a detached fascination.

He knew what was happening. With the help of her sister and her protégé, Celestia was closing in on her final destination.

At best, he had a few minutes. Then she would burst into the clearing and it would all be over. He tried not to think about it. Instead, he distracted himself by thinking about every little twist of fate that had lead up to this moment.

He noticed how the forest around him had become tainted by his presence. Its verdant depths were twisted into macabre specters of what they once were, now filled with gnarled branches and choking brambles. It had a certain beauty to it, it was haunting really.

Of course, that was just the backdrop. The show playing out in front of his is what really grabbed his attention.

He watched Celestia as she pushed headlong through the tangle of the forest. He was captivated by her athletic grace, marveling at the way her body twisted and flexed as she pushed onward. He was enthralled by the way the determination etched onto her features clashed so beautifully with the tears that silently streaked down her face.

He thought about how far she had come.

He thought about how far he had fallen.

He thought about what she must have thought of him.

Really, he thought about anything he could to keep his mind off of what would happen next. Still, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, there was still a little voice in his head that would remind him.

“It’s only a matter of time now. It’ll all be over soon.”

---

Celestia slowed to a stop in the clearing, taking just a moment to catch her breath. The ruins of something surrounded her. Broken glass was scattered around, crushed and half imbedded in the ground around her. There were heavy beams of wood that looked like they had been thrown, like the discarded playthings of some bored foal. A thin veneer of ash covered everything; it felt gritty under her hooves. A subtle bit of motion caught her eye.

That’s when she saw it.

The brambles from the forest were slowly creeping towards the center of the clearing. The thorny vines clawed their way along the ground before converging, forming a pulsing mass at the center of the clearing.

She knew he was in there; it was the only place he could be.

She hesitated. For a split second she forgot why she was there, but then she pushed past her trepidation and started walking towards the intimidating tangle. As she approached it, she felt her resolve wavering. It seemed like every time she took a step forward it, the mound would writhe and expand outward. When she stopped, just a few feet away, the pile towered over her, it was well over twice her height.

She stared down at her hooves, watching as the brambles slowly crept past her, desperately trying to find her voice. She took a deep breath and she let it go, slowly.

“Discord,” she pleaded, “please wake up. I need to talk to you.”

There was no reply.

Celestia frowned, looking back up at the tangle. “Discord, after everything we have been through you know I can’t just leave it like this.” She took few steps forward, reaching out to touch the tangle, but stopping just before making contact.

She sighed.

“Please, I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me!” She pulled her hoof close to her chest, hesitating when she noticed her heart was racing. “I-I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry for everything I did. I just need you to understand why I did it. I swear to you that I’m not trying to make excuses. I just think that you do deserve to know what’s really going on.”

She waited for a response, but the only sound besides the sound of the blood pounding through her head was the rhythmic scraping of sharp thorns against the ground around her.

“Please?”

Still, there was no response. Her face started heating up. It occurred to her that he might not be able to hear her, or that maybe he was ignoring her. She didn’t know which thought upset her more.

“Would you just wake up!”

She felt something hot streak down her face, her eyes were burning. She was angry at Discord, for hiding from her like this. She was angry that he had made her come all this way just to talk to him. She was angry that he had just left her alone in her room like that. She was angry at him for making her worry so much.

She wiped away her tears with her hoof.

Most of all, she was angry at herself for crying.

She shouted, “Discord, I need you!”

Everything stopped and she stumbled backwards. The absolute silence caught her off guard. Celestia looked around and saw that the creepers that frozen in place all across the clearing. She looked around frenetically, desperately hoping that Discord had come out to talk to her face to face, but he was nowhere to be found. Finding nothing else to address, she turned back to the solid black mass in front of her.

“Discord, I need you right now. I need to talk to you.” There was still no response, but she was sure he was listening to her now. “Please, just let me say my piece. I’ll understand if you never want to see me again after this, but I’m not going to leave until I’m sure you understand.” She sighed. “I know you’re upset right now, and you have every right feel the way you do, but I’ve come too far and I’ve given far too much just to leave everything like this.”

Celestia waited for any kind of response.

Then something shifted. Before her eyes the mass in front of her was dissolving as the black briars started to pull away, slowly revealing the figure trapped inside.

But then, just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Celestia’s heart sank into her gut, the air shifted. The briars started pulling together again, twice as fast as before. Something was wrong.

She realized she was no longer safe here.

Celestia leapt backwards just as the mass exploded, clawing at her with a flurry of black tendrils. The vines shot out at her, only to collide in the air a few inches from her face. There was a burst of sound and a blinding shower of sparks. Celestia opened her eyes again to find the vines regrouping, recovering from the first impact with her barrier, only for them to lash out again and again. They threw themselves at the barrier, each time the sound and the sparks grew weaker as the pummeled the wall with increasingly powerful blows.

Celestia’s horn flared up with a brilliant white light as she materialized a barrier of her own just inside the other barrier. By this point the vines had covered the outermost barrier completely; the only light left was the light shining from her horn and the bright orange flames licking out from her own barrier as they scorched the ground around her.

She heard crack before she saw it. She knew she probably had just a few more seconds before Twilight and Luna’s strength gave out and the barrier failed completely.

She gritted her teeth as they finally burst through.

---

Discord desperately tried to figure out what had gone wrong as he tried to call off the impending assault to no avail. He hadn’t felt it happen, but it was obvious that he had lost control of the forest. He guessed it must have started pulling away from him when he first went asleep; it had to have happen some time ago for it to get to this point. He winced as the barrier around Celestia gave way and the vines around her were immolated by a searing flame.

“This isn’t right.”

He watched helplessly as the vines regrouped and started their assault again, waves of them slamming into Celestia’s barrier with reckless abandon. Celestia let loose a new wave of flames, once again reducing the vines to ash, but there were always more. More vines crawled in from the forest around them, some even shooting up from the ground around them, before they joined in the relentless assault. It didn’t take Discord long to realize that it wouldn’t be long before Celestia was completely overwhelmed. He watched as she fell to one knee, she looked so tired.

He glanced over to the side, noticing Luna and Twilight had materialized themselves in a desperate bid to pull the vines away from Celestia only to be blindsided by those damnable hounds. They quickly surrounded the pair, splitting them apart and isolating them completely. The sound of explosions and snapped timbres thundered through the clearing, but for every hound that they destroyed a half dozen would pour in from the darkness around the clearing.

The scene quickly devolved into one of absolute Chaos.

His powers still failing him, he tried to pour himself back into his physical form. He knew that if he could just wake up he could end this madness with just a snap of his talons. He made contact, only to be blocked by something. Dread and revulsion washed over him as he realized that his body had been possessed. Someone, something, had cut him off from his powers. He threw himself at the foreign presence, trying to overwhelm in an attempt to take back his body, only for it to shrug him off casually.

The world around him spun and twisted as the being assaulted his senses. He was completely overwhelmed as it stimulated all his senses, then it stopped as suddenly as it started. For a few seconds everything went black, and then there was a loud, discordant, buzzing sound. The world around him started coming back into focus as the sound shifted between different pitches and volumes. Slowly, the different sounds clashed together to form and impromptu voice. It lurched and cracked, but he could just make out what it was saying.

“What’s wrong father? I thought this is what you truly desired.”

Discord scoffed. “How could I possibly want this? Everything I ever wanted is being torn apart right in front of me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it!” Feeling defeated, Discord laid down on the ground.

“I don’t understand father,” the voice said innocently as it echoed through Discord’s mind, “you said you wanted to be free, did you not?”

“What does this have anything to do with being free?” Discord asked, sitting up and crossing his arms in annoyance.

“Think about it, with these three out of the picture, there is no one who can trap you again!” As the voice chimed out happily, Discord felt sick.

“Great,” Discord quipped sarcastically. “I’ve always dreamed about being outside my body for eternity by an insane forest spirit.”

Ignoring him, it continued. “In just a few more minutes there will be no one left to bother you; you’ll finally be free from all the bonds of this world. Then we can be together forever! Doesn’t that sound wonderful, father?”

One of the hounds broke off from the pack assaulting Luna and Twilight and raced over to Discord’s side. It jumped up at him, licking him while it wagged its willow tail happily. Discord looked at the creature with disgust, shoving it away from him. It looked back at him, looking genuinely confused and hurt. Discord stood up, sneering at the beast.

“Stop this madness right now. I may have wanted freedom, but I never asked for this!”

“Oh, won’t you please reconsider?” The voice said, pleading with him. “We were going to have so much fun together!” Discord just continued glaring at the beast; it sat down and glanced over to where Discord’s body was. “Oh well, it wasn’t as if you had a choice in the matter did you? Just sit back and try to relax, Ok? Believe me when I say that, it will all be over soon!” The hound suddenly shook its head before it shot up and sprinted at Twilight. He watched it as it leapt at her, exploding in a shower of twigs and tree bark.

Discord watched the scene play out around him. This isn’t how he wanted it to turn out, but he knew it was his fault that it had turned out like this. What was worse was that he could have prevented it if he hadn’t acted like such a child.

Still, he accepted the fact that there was nothing he could do about it now. He walked over to the barrier protecting Celestia, looking through it and watching her. She stood proud and defiant against the vines that sought to snuff her out. He knew she would probably fight to her very last breath; always holding out hope that something would come and turn the tide in her favor at the very last second. That was just the way she was, just the way Discord always remembered her.

“You really haven’t changed a bit, have you?” Discord chuckled at the irony. He finally found his answer, but now it was too late to mean anything anymore.

He knew she wouldn’t be able to hear him, but he continued regardless. “I wonder what could have happened if I hadn’t been such a fool. Perhaps we could have lived. Maybe we could have been happy, together.” He sighed.

“Celestia, I hope that come part of you will hear my apology someday. Before this is all over, I just want to say that I am truly sorry. I’m so sorry for everything I’ve done to you and I’d forgive you for everything you’ve done to me a thousand times over.” He pressed his paw against the barrier separating them, ignoring the pain for a moment. “I would give anything to make sure you could hear his, my last message to you.” He shook his head and sighed again. “I just wish I had something left to give…”

He pulled his paw away from the barrier, wincing at the sudden flash of pain. He looked at Celestia for just a minute longer before he looked down at his paw.

Then, he saw it.

He held his paw up in front of his face, marveling at the shining white flames that had engulfed it completely. It was still painful, but a sense of relief washed over as the flames licked at his paw. It felt lighter than before, like a weight had been taken off his arm. He clenched his paw experimentally; the flames shot down his wrist and flickered against his arm.

Holding his paw at arm’s length, he looked back to Celestia. A wicked crack had formed on the barrier, threating to shatter at any moment. Glancing over at Twilight and Luna, he saw that he couldn’t depend on their strength either. They were fighting their own battles; they wouldn’t be able to get to Celestia in time. There was only one way he could stop everything, one way to save her from herself, that was to end it all.

“Perhaps,” Discord said, pressing his paw up against his chest, “there is one last thing I can give to you, Celestia.” The flames spread slowly across the scruff on his chest, moving a few inches but no farther.

“No, what are you doing?” The voice shouted frantically. “You can’t do that! Stop that! That do you think you’re doing?!?”

Discord ignored the voice as it continued to scream at him and he took a deep, shaky breath. Taking a moment to appreciate what he was about to do, the more he thought about it the mores sense it seemed to make to him.

“I’m doing something I should have done a long time ago.”

He looked back to Celestia, even when she was fighting with all her might she was still the most beautiful thing in the world to him. He committed her perfectly sculpted face to memory; he wanted it to be the last thing he saw before it all went black.

He swallowed against the hard lump in his throat.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl and his heart was beating out of his chest. Every single instinct he had was fighting him, screaming at him to stop and reconsider what he was doing. With a grunt he pushed his paw into his chest, the skin parted smoothly by his well-manicured claws as it entered him.

He looked down to see his arm stuck wrist deep into his chest. He was half surprised that he actually did it. He blinked at it for a few seconds before he decided his remaining time would be much better spent looking at Celestia.

Part of him expected it to hurt, but instead he was filled with a feeling of warmth. The fire was inside him now; it latched onto his heart and shot through his arteries, spreading the warmth through his entire body. His body shook, rejecting what was happening. He struggled to keep upright, clenching his paw inside his chest. His vision started fading, the world around him grew darker as the dark red mist at the corners of his eyes threatened to swallow him up completely.

As the flames climbed over his face his world dissolved into a brilliant white, tinged ever so slightly pink.

Then, Discord did the most natural thing he had done in his entire laugh.

He laughed.

He was finally free…

Comments

[Forgoten Null]

Chapter Fourteen Comment
No unresolved cliffhangers I swear! If you are reading this and are mad at me for that I already published the next chapter. Just don't kill me!

You should probably go read that by the way.

Cheers, Null

[Fury of the Tempest]

.... Well... damn

[Luna Secret Stallion]

4427946 Your death will be swift!

“Twilight wake up,” Dual shouted, “Twilight!” There was no response. Looking around Dual saw that the Pegasus Guard was prancing nervously around the circle, which he was under strict orders not to leave

That part of this chapter was goes so good with the darker parts.

[NmB]

Well, I’m sad now