Defenestration
“Surely you can't mean this?” asked Discord. “How could giving Twilight a rusty knife possibly be of any use to you?”
“It would amuse me,” replied Tirek, “to see one of these... friendly... ponies mutilate a former friend.”
“But she couldn't, even if she wanted.” objected Discord. “I'm taller than her, I have better reach, and more hands. I could get the knife away from her before she could seriously hurt me with it.”
“And if you do that,” said Tirek, “if you take the knife away or injure her in any way that prevents her from defenestrating you, then I will make you regret it.”
“But I helped you!” objected Discord. “Why are you punishing me?”
“If I rewarded you,” said Tirek, “you'd use the reward to break out and betray me. Besides,” he added with a malicious grin, “I'm not the one who will be punishing you for that. The purple princess is.”
“But you're preventing me from stopping her from cutting my eyes out!” wailed Discord.
“Oh, I didn't say that.” said Tirek, his grin widening. He snapped his fingers, and the ropes holding Twilight and Discord to his throne suddenly grew a lot longer. “You can run,” said Tirek, “as long as your ropes allow. And you've got until she catches you to talk her out of it.”
“But I've never seen her as angry as she is now!” complained Discord, as Shining Armour trotted in with the handle of a rusty knife in his mouth.
“That's your fault.” said Tirek. He took the knife from Shining Armour, and handed it to Twilight. “Thank you, guard captain. You may leave.”
Only when Shining had left did he remove the silence spells from the ponies.
“Well, then,” said Tirek, looking down at Twilight. “You have your opportunity now, purple pony. Will you take it, I wonder?”
Twilight growled, stepping away from Tirek and towards Discord. Since her back was to Tirek and he couldn't see her eyes, she took the opportunity to give Discord a reassuring wink.
“Now, listen,” said Discord, backing away, “I'm pretty sure you haven't thought this through. I mean, I wouldn't be much use to anypony if I were defenestrated, would I?”
The knife in her mouth made talking difficult, but Twilight managed to growl something that sounded vaguely like “Daring Do”. She stepped around to one side, forcing Discord to start moving around Tirek's throne to keep away from her..
“Yes, I know about Daring Do.” said Discord. “She was just here. But, listen... everypony saw me helping Tirek earlier. If I'm blind, I won't be able to find anypony who would help me across the street. But you're an alicorn princess – everypony would help you across the street. You'd have a much easier time with defenestration than I would. Why don't you give me the knife, and I'll defenestrate you?”
Tirek burst into laughter at the sheer audacity of Discord's proposal, almost falling off his throne.
“Manehatten cousin.” said Twilight, speaking quickly. “She could do it.”
“Exactly!” said Discord, quickly. He'd completed a full revolution around the throne by now, and it was clear that Twilight planned to keep forcing him around the throne until the remaining unwound length of rope was too short for Discord to escape. “Your cousin could help you cross the street!”
Tirek stopped laughing and stared. “She's actually considering it?” he asked. “This... friendship... must be more insidious than I'd thought!”
“Besides,” continued Discord, glancing at Scorpan's amulet, “if you ever needed a place to stay, well, you'd have a key. I wouldn't have a key, I'd have to sleep out in the open. I still think you should be the one defenestrated.”
“You deserve it.” growled Twilight.
“Oh, so it's all about that, now, is it?” asked Discord. “Just because you gave up your magic to save your friends, and I gave up some information to save my friend, you think you're less deserving of defenestration than I am?”
Twilight growled.
“Trust me when I say that you are far, far more deserving of this than I am.” said Discord. He stopped backing away around the throne, and tried to dodge to the side instead; but Twilight had the knife in front of him, blocking his path, before he could take more than a single step. Then she twisted aside and attempted to stab Discord, once, twice; but a simple twist of his snakelike body, and Discord evaded both strikes.
Twilight glanced, briefly, at the large stained glass window directly behind Discord (the one showing Twilight's ascension to alicorn); and then, quite suddenly, spun around and gave him a good, two-legged buck. Somehow, despite the ease with which Discord had dodged her previous attacks, he didn't seem to dodge this one at all; he flew back, smashing into and through the window in a shower of glass.
The rope, looped around Tirek's throne, wasn't quite long enough to allow Discord to hit the ground; instead, he swung into the palace wall, hanging uncomfortable a mere few feet above the ground, but stretching the rope taut. As Tirek, suddenly worried, stood up from said throne, Twilight lowered her head to the tightly-pulled rope and sliced through it with a single swipe of the sharp but rusty knife.
There was a thump from outside, as if of a body hitting the ground.
Tirek pulled the knife away from Twilight with his magic, and stepped forward to look out of the window. He was just in time to see the tuft at the end of Discord's tail vanish into a nearby manhole.
He turned away from the window. And he was very clearly displeased.
“Guard captain!” he called.
Shining Armour limped in “Yes, sir?” he asked.
“Shining!” said Twilight, quickly. “Rememb-”
With a snap of his fingers, Tirek threw silence spells over all his remaining prisoners.
“Guard captain.” rumbled Tirek, angrily. “There is a dragonequus loose in the Canterlot sewer system. Go, take your men, find Discord wherever he flees and bring him back.”
“Yes, sir.” Shining Armour saluted, turned around, and limped out to go hunting for Discord.
Tirek levitated Twilight up in front of his face. “Removal via a window.” he said. “Not removal of a window. I don't know how you could possibly still think of Discord as your friend after he betrayed you twice, but I am going to make you regret that.”
Twilight glared defiantly up at Tirek, but didn't say a word.
And Tirek suddenly put two and two together. “He... didn't betray you a second time, did he? Discord lied to me.” He spun around, and hurried to the throne room door. “Guard Captain!” he called out. “I have new orders for you. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are not headquartered in Manehatten. Separate the Guard into groups, leaving only a skeleton staff at the castle. Search every other major city in Equestria. Including Canterlot. Wherever Celestia's elites are hiding, find them, and I will reduce their miserable headquarters to molten slag! Ignore Discord for the moment. Without his magic, he's no longer a threat in any case.”
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Well the good news is, Discord's free. The bad news is, he's still got no magic to defend himself from the guards.
The bad news is, Tirek knows he's been duped. The good news is, he still won't be looking for fillies.
Ignoring Discord, Tirek? Bad idea. I smell a Discord CMC team up afoot!
Magnificently done on all counts, from the hidden communication to the successful defenestration, and most especially Tirek's misguided consternation. Eagerly looking forward to more. Tirek's days are definitely numbered.
Oh, Tirek, you dumb fuck.
AHAHAHAHA, Defenestration! Favorite family word
I still think Babs Seed and Manehatten branch of CMC would be awesome
You had to say it.
5670128
Of course. After all, what could Discord possibly do without his magic?
“If I rewarded you,” said Tirek, “you'd use the reward to break out and betray me. Besides,” he added with a malicious grin, “I'm not the one who will be punishing you for that. The purple princess is.”
-What I said earlier about ropes being a poor choice might become relevant, especially if Shiny has enough mercy left in his heart to ensure that while MOST of the blade is rusty, the EDGE is razor sharp. I can't see how getting just one person free does any good or even all of them, but with more than one they might be able to split up so he can't catch all of them. He doesn't seem dumb enough to LEAVE her with the knife... which reminds me, I wonder how sharp Discord's teeth are.
-Also, I find myself needing to double-check that Spike is there. He is, he just doesn't seem to have gotten to do anything that wasn't part of a collectively described action, or I overlooked him. If I had to guess I'd expect him to be hugging Rarity to comfort her and Twilight (to be comforted by her) most of the time, although "glare at Tirac with pure hatred" may also be getting a good amount of time.
“Oh, I didn't say that.” said Tirek, his grin widening. He snapped his fingers, and the ropes holding Twilight and Discord to his throne suddenly grew a lot longer. “You can run,” said Tirek, “as long as your ropes allow. And you've got until she catches you to talk her out of it.”
-Sadistic but I now see how they will get out of this... Twilight and Discord's acting skills versus Tirac's ability to read people. good writing... and my previous guess about what Discord might hint to Twilight still applies. Oh! And the one thing Tirac never DID do in that battle was teleport. She could have time to cut his rope, and MAYBE even time for her own. Or she could try to slight of hand stabbing at him but missing to cut one or both ropes (probably near the neck), so they wouldn't be immediately obvious as being cut, but that a sharp tug would do it... and I will also note that Discord has hands, so the only thing Tirac is doing with the ropes, even if "hoof-hands" requires magic, is slowing them down. I wonder if he has any measures in place to prevent that from happening in his sleep? Might just be that the windows are tough enough to not break when Dash crashes into them, and he has them all locked somehow (just too high up for Discord to reach?). Which brings me to my final point: That window is still open, and it MIGHT not be too far down to the ground especially with a rope... Discord could rappel down with the rope still tied to him, Twilight follows, and then they have a few seconds out of sight to make the partial cuts.
She stepped around to one side, forcing Discord to start moving around Tirek's throne to keep away from her.
-Or just behind the throne if Discord comes back into his view quickly, but Twilight pauses? That way he doesn't get up to keep them in view as would happen don't get the point of what Twilight mumbled, unless One of the potions allows switching two people while disguising them as eachother, which seems unlikely for a potion... or maybe the crossbow bolt is more than it appeared and penetrated to behind the throne? Then again, isn't Celestia's throne flush up against the wall? I forget...
“Manehatten cousin.” said Twilight, speaking quickly. “She could do it.”
-Reference to Babs? Reminding him that he didn't pick an ideal lie since their really is a CMC member in Manehattan? And/or did they work out some code-words while Tirac was asleep? Or maybe the silence spell actually keeps sound from reaching HIM but doesn't keep them from hearing EACHOTHER and he keeps it on them frequently while he is working so they don't, for instance sing "The Song That Never Ends"? I suspect not.
He'd completed a full revolution
-Okay so my memory of the lay-out of the throne room was wrong... they can't possibly be planning on tying Tirac up without him noticing to buy time to make a break for it can they?
“if you ever needed a place to stay, well, you'd have a key. I wouldn't have a key, I'd have to sleep out in the open. I still think you should be the one defenestrated.”
-Definite subtext... perhaps discussing whose rope to cut first, and who gets to be the decoy by being the second? Still doesn't seem to offer a real chance of escape, except maybe if he is too lazy to chase them and sends the guards to do it.
Twilight glanced, briefly, at the large stained glass window directly behind Discord (the one showing Twilight's ascension to alicorn); and then, quite suddenly, spun around and gave him a good, two-legged buck. Somehow, despite the ease with which Discord had dodged her previous attacks, he didn't seem to dodge this one at all; he flew back, smashing into and through the window in a shower of glass.
-I can't BELIEVE I didn't see that one coming...so she was telling him to go to Manehattan? Also the sharp edges of the glass might cut the rope?
Twilight lowered her head to the tightly-pulled rope and sliced through it with a single swipe of the sharp but rusty knife.
-So that will be her excuse rather than the truth? I wonder if Shiny rigged the knife the way I said?
“Shining!” said Twilight, quickly. “Rememb-”
-Trying to get through to him through the brainwashing, or has he broken free on his own or via that potion I mentioned?
“I have new orders for you. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are not headquartered in Manehatten. Separate the Guard into groups, leaving only a skeleton staff at the castle. Search every other major city in Equestria. Including Canterlot. Wherever Celestia's elites are hiding, find them, and I will reduce their miserable headquarters to molten slag! Ignore Discord for the moment. Without his magic, he's no longer a threat in any case.”
-So, at what point did they guess/know that the core CMC would have gone to Babs? Maybe they worked it out based on their being more Ponies to recruit in Manehattan, or maybe one of the guards passed them a message? Or maybe Twilight meant "Go to Babs" but the CMC really AREN'T working out of Manehattan? Also, I wonder what the CMC are actually doing? Are they figureheads who stay at base, actually in command, or what? If Scootaloo and Applebloom have discovered the talents we all THOUGHT they were going to get (I assume this story was at least STARTED before they actually got their marks), then they may get them as soon as the magic returns, on the basis of Scootaloo going "Scooter Ninja" as part of her missions, and Applebloom being "James Bond's Q" and/or "MacGuyver"
(Never mind, that was the end of the chapter.)
...oooh. Yeah. Keeping track of this many characters can be tricky... he is there, though.
Also note that Twilight is wearing a key around her neck at this point, which both Discord and Twilight are smart enough to recognise, even if it doesn't look like one.
At no point. Twilight was warning Discord that Babs could lead Daring to the original CMC, and that Daring is good enough to track down and follow a clue that obscure.