The Beast Within

by Arreis Of Avalon

The Story

The nurse trotted to the next room for the check up, her muzzle buried in her clipboard reports. “Alright, alright… Mixed species, coma patient next…” She sighed. “Why do I have to be the one to check all the brain-dead patients?” With a groan of boredom, she opened the door to his room.

Only to drop her clipboard in surprise as the draconequus before her stood and brushed some dust from his arms.

“W-wha-”

“Oh, hello, there.” Discord grinned. “Would you be so kind as to send for the princesses? I dare say they’d like to know what I’ve been doing this past… How long have I been?”

The mare stuttered and stumbled over her words, her eyes wide. “I-I- p-princesses - A-a week and a half, s-sir…”

“Hm, a full week and a half. Not too long then. And, yes, please send for the princesses.”

“R-right away, sir.”

Discord smirked as she galloped out, her clipboard forgotten on the floor. He picked it up and glanced it over with a small, woeful frown. “My my - how rude of them to call me a vegetable.” With a small wave of his claw, the clipboard disappeared. He stood, stretching, before throwing open the curtains at his bedside window, taking in the bright and sunny Canterlot view. He gagged. “How… orderly.”

He bent backwards, popping his back, but more importantly glancing at the floor behind and below him. His eyes narrowed and his mouth curled into a fanged grin. The floor behind him was bare.

“Rest well, Shadow,” he whispered to himself, chuckling.

*~*~*~

Princess Celestia trotted through the hospital, her face void of any emotion; behind her, her sister followed, worry etched into her face as she watched her older sibling walk. Behind her, the 6 elements of harmony followed, each with their own fair share of emotions. Relief, concern, happiness and fear all mingled and intermixed with each other. Nurses and Doctors made way for the Princesses and their entourage as they walked through the hallways. Celestia paid them no heed; there was a much more important reason for her being here, now.

Celestia’s horn began to glow. In a flash, the hospital doors to Discord’s room sprang open, and she trotted in quickly. “Discord.”

Discord sat on the bed, stretching out, yawning. “Ah. Why, hello, Princess,” he said, bowing lightly in his seat, no hint of sarcasm in his voice. Celestia raised an eyebrow as everypony else shuffled in. Discord smiled at them all. “Hello, you all… My, it’s nice to have so many loving friends caring about me.” Everypony glanced at each other; he seemed completely, 100% genuine.

Fluttershy flew up quickly and tackled him in a hug, tears streaming down her face. Discord looked rather surprised, but hugged her back tenderly. “D-don’t you ever do that again,” she said, sobbing into his fur.

Discord chuckled softly, stroking her mane. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy; I won’t be causing any trouble anytime soon.” He gently rested his head on hers, holding her tenderly.

Twilight stood back from the group, taking in every aspect of the seemingly fine ‘god’. Something seemed… off. Of course, things seemed off about him all the time; maybe this was just one of those normal off things about him. But she couldn’t shake that nagging feeling that something was well and truly wrong with him. Perhaps it was the way he was acting? Glancing to her side, she saw to her surprise Rarity of all ponies doing the same she was. Her lip was pouting and her gaze was centered, strangely enough, to the floor. Twilight didn’t get a chance to see what she was looking at before she was tied back into the conversation.

“Me, Luna and Twilight have all been at counsel, trying to derive what caused you to be in this state,” Celestia was saying. Fluttershy moved away from him, wiping away her tears on her hooves. “You have caused all of us great worry, for our safety as well as yours.”

“I’m sorry to have been a bother, truly…” Discord sighed, slumping over slightly where he sat. “I swear to you, I have a perfectly reasonable explanation of why I did what I did.”

“Would you care to share it then, Discord,” Luna said, scowling. Discord shared a glance with her, to which Luna met with a steely eyed gaze. Twilight glanced between the two of them curiously; why was there so much animosity between the two suddenly?

“Well... We'd have to start at the beginning then. The beginning being when Tirek stole my powers." He sighed softly, leaning against the wall. "When I lost my powers, I grew terribly weak. So weak, a darker side of me emerged... Not the one that betrayed you, but... Well, the one that wanted to kill me."

“Kill you,” everyone seemed to gasp - even Celestia looked surprised.

“Yes… You see, when I was turned to stone, the first time, I was… dark. Evil. Far more than you have seen me, my little ponies. As my body was encased in stone, something else happened. That evil part of me and that… well, ridiculous part. We were separated. Not in the sense you think of. More like… another personality. Another soul inside one body.”

“One soul, two bodies?” Pinkie held her head as her eyes rolled around. “That sounds so, well, discord-y! No wonder you’re so crazy!!”

Discord cracked a small smile. “Yes, that certainly does explain a bit. You see, he and I… well, we rather hated each other. Being split down the middle like that, it’s traumatic, and I absolutely hated that cruel man. He was the embodiment of every harsh feeling, every bitter thought... I wished to make ponies see the joy in the random, circumstantial comedy. He just wanted to see them burn.” He sighed again, shaking his head.

Rainbow crossed her hooves. “You were really no better. Actually, you were kinda more annoying since you weren’t totally evil - you just weren’t very funny.”

Discord chuckled. “No, they weren’t.” He stood, flapping his wings and whispering something in Dash’s ear. The pony’s eyes widened before cracking up, guffawing at whatever he had said. “But that was.” With a smile, he sat back down, flapping his outstretched wings still. Rainbow giggled, wiping away tears. “See? Funny.”

“And what did you do,” Rarity asked, “when you encountered your doppelganger?”

“Well, we fought in my stone prison for years. We grew bitter, but eventually, we began to talk. Eventually… we made a deal. I would let him remain free in my body, meaning some of his evil tendencies leaked through. In return, I would maintain primary control, and he could only suggest things. Meaning, nopony was burned alive.”

"So... You're sharing your body with a more sinister version of yourself," Twilight asked.

“Correction - was. You see, going back to Tirek… when he took my magic, he also took away the only thing holding back the other Discord. That was why I was so quiet through that all… I knew something had left me. Tirek had gotten the evil part of me, when he took my magic - but he came back when Tirek was defeated. That’s why I was so genuine when I gave Twilight the necklace - it was well and truly me doing it. For once, all my anger, every pain... vanished."

Twilight gulped. “So because of me, you became evil again?”

“Don’t think of it like that, Twilight. You had to bring magic back to all - without it, how would we survive?” Discord smiled at her. “Besides… it’s all solved now.”

“What do you mean,” Celestia asked.

“Well… That’s why I asked so many questions about right from wrong… I had to be sure, when I put myself in my coma, that I could best the wrong side of me. And I did.”

“HOLD IT!” Pinkie glared at him, straight in the eyes. “You put yourself in a coma to fight the big bad meanie pants Discord, and you didn’t tell any of us?!”

Discord absentmindedly patted her on her head. “Yes, I’m afraid I couldn’t tell you. He would know what I was planning, then. As it was, he only had a faint idea what I might do. It came as a surprise to him that I would put myself into an actual coma, just to regain control.”

“So… He’s gone,” Applejack asked.

“Well and truly gone, friends. It’s the real me at last,” he said with a grin.

Author's Note:

Finally got that chapter done. Sorry guys! I have so much homework and I've just been so busy!!!
Hope you're still following this story~

Update: Edited a bit more~

Comments

[Spiritofchaos227]

DON'T TRUST HIM! *Groan* It's so frustrating to know something nobody else knows. Also, wonderful chapter!

[Arreis Of Avalon]

5556738 Thanks!~

[TheStratovarian]

The first chapter, just clicked so very rightly, to this just hitting so jarringly that I just stopped. I'm sorry, the rest may have been right, good, and wonderful. But this just completely broke the immersion you built up in the first chapter. It was elucidean and mercurial, and so very right, and yet so rightly wrong. Good luck on writing this to completion.