The Secret Side Of Discord

by Lemon Pegasus

Out in the open

Discord woke up in not the most comfortable state, you would too if you had to sleep on hard rock. It was smooth though, and the blankets helped. Not to mention that there wasn't exactly time to stand around and moan about it. He got to his knees groaning and stretching, Starswirl closely mimicking him. He ran his paw through his mane and smacked himself in the face, which he often did to help wake himself up if he wasn't feeling his best. Starswirl again mimicked him, falling over when his hoof slapped into his face. He quickly got up, unhurt by the mild slap.

None of the other ponies were fully awake, though they were just waking up, a couple of them rubbing their eyes as they got up to stretch their sleepy limbs. They were all snapped back into action when Laba informed everyone:
"We have to travel with more speed today," Discord's immediate thoughts were thoughts you would experience when given homework, "urgh!"
"We will be in the open for most of the day, and we will cross two railroads. If we are being hunted, this will be when we are most vulnerable."

Well that's just fantastic! Still, at least three of them knew good combat spells, they wouldn't be hopeless. Laba reached into the box of mysteries -aka the rations box- and pulled out some cans, which pictured boiled potatoes on them... Maybe they contained meatballs!

The fire from the previous night was now just a pile of ash in the middle of a circle of rocks. Sam and Friar collected the ash in a jug and chucked it outside while the unknown green pony poured water into a metal bowl, soon Laba followed by tipping in some small potatoes, making humorous watery drum beats as they landed in the pot. Discord caught a glimpse of Chrysalis as he looked around the stone room, who... Winked at him? Let the ship sail!

Friar, now back after emptying the ash, grabbed some logs from THE BOX OF MYSTERIES -aka the rations box- and placed them in the centre of the stone circle where the ashes once sat. Discord chipped in by clicking his fingers and igniting the logs. It suddenly became apparent to Discord that there was a digging sound in the room, like somepony was pawing away at some dirt. He looked beside him to see that Starswirl had found a patch of ground made from dirt and not rock, and he appeared to have found something... Sure enough, a small patch of metal was now poking up from the dirt, which was quickly lifted from it's grave as Starswirl used his magic to rip it from the ground. Starswirl now admired what he found, and so did Discord, it was a high value amulet!

It appeared to be an upside down metallic triangle with a ruby inside, with wings and a unicorn head with glowing red eyes also being depicted. It was no doubt an amulet that would sell good, clearly a lot of hard work had been placed in this piece of jewellery by the creator. And the ruby was very well cut, not to mention the whole thing appeared to be solid metal! Supposedly it would be worn around the neck with a black and red ribbon that hung behind the amulet's wings, though Discord had no intentions on wearing it, if it was damaged it would lose value!

The thing that troubled Discord was: who would bury an item that would sell for so much money? Was it dangerous? ...Probably not, maybe a pony just left it here and forgot about it. Starswirl seemed happy to hand over the amulet to Discord, smiling at his find. Discord gently took it in his paw and hastily hid it behind him when Spiral Dust called for him.

Preying Spiral Dust hadn't seen the amulet, he answered his address. He didn't want any pony to see it as they may take it for themselves.
"Have some water, we have quite the road ahead of us" crisis avoided! Spiral Dust approached Discord from across the room and handed... Uhm, hoofed (?) Him a bottle of water. Discord took the drink and, as oppose to taking a gulp, he gave it to Starswirl. The unicorn used his magic to hold the bottle and remove it's cap before drinking like a gentlecolt, that's a surprise, Discord thought he might drink thirstily. All well, good mannered foals for the win!

Discord noticed Laba removing a pot from the fire, and he then saw him serve up potatoes on small plates. "Breakfast is served" Laba announced, before handing out the meals. He must have added some sort of spices in there while Discord was admiring the amulet, they tasted pretty good! They didn't last long, Discord's mouth could easily fit in a dozen of these potatoes at one time, so chewing was very quick.

After Starswirl had eaten, Discord took a drink and got to his feet. It felt good to stretch his legs after he had been sleeping. They would be setting off soon, but what Discord hadn't thought about was how he was supposed to hide the amulet while walking. His mane certainly wasn’t thick enough to conceal an amulet of this size, neither was Starswirl’s at such a young age. Thankfully, Celestia had answered his imaginary calls. Yeah, no voice message like last time!

“There is a rucksack in here so that we may carry some goods,” started Laba “Discord, would you mind carrying it? You are the strongest.” Well, Discord loved to hear that! Not only did he now have a place to hide that amulet, but he was now labeled ‘The Strongest!’

“Well, since you are clearly in need of a being who is muscular and hench, I guess I’ll just have to step in.” Discord spoke in a proud voice. He was quite strong, after all he did lift that carriage and cow a while back, but right now he was pretending to be like an Arnold Schwarzenegger with wings. The ponies in the room giggled at his small joke as Discord placed the rucksack on his back, Starswirl hiding the amulet being his own back while he did so.

Discord returned to Starswirl carrying the bag and sat beside the foal. He then removed the bag and looked inside, secretly placing the amulet in a convenient hidden compartment. The bag had water, canned food and some blankets. Helpful, but only a day’s worth.

“We shall set off now” said Laba in a raised voice, a command that quickly had all the ponies to their hooves. Discord was already up, wearing the rucksack, carrying Starswirl. One by one, they all left the cave, Discord at the back, Laba at the front. The group continued trembling through the narrow passage that ran through this cliff, though it didn’t take long before they left the dusty walls and rocky ground and entered a forest. The trees were pretty far apart, it wasn’t a very dense forest. The grass grew pretty high thanks to the sunlight it received, and wildflowers were dotted all over the forest. Fungi grew from the occasional trunk, and once or twice a bird would take off. However, it was not a silent scene like you would expect. There was a distant sound, like... a battle!?

It must have been! There were sounds like swords clashing, cries and shouts of stallions, what else could it have been? Laba signalled for the group to be silent, before whispering to Discord:
“Can you go invisible and scout ahead?” Well he didn’t really have a choice, the well being of his friends PLUS his child were at risk! He didn’t reply, he dropped his rucksack, put down Starswirl, clicked his fingers and turned invisible. He didn't talk partly because he didn't want to draw attention, but also partly because he was kinda tired after walking through that canyon…

Now invisible, he soared above the tree tops to get a view of the scene. They was still around 30 yards of forestry to go through, after that there was a large patch of emptiness that stretched out as far as Discord could see. But, standing within that emptiness, was hundreds of ponies engaged in combat! Blue armored Pegasi swooped in on the yellow armoured unicorns and swiftly sliced into them, allowing them all to fall with quick, effort free swipes. The unicorns struck the pegasi with jolts of lightning sent from their horns, catching many of them off guard mid-flight. The unicorns seemed to have many advantages: better armor, ranged attacks, less effort required for said attacks. It just happened that these yellow armored unicorns were also the soldiers Discord’s group had been avoiding: The Celestial Guard.

He returned to the ground and made himself visible again, lifting Starswirl into his arms. He signaled for everypony to gather round, now huddled together, he explained the situation to his group.
“The exact guards we are hiding from are around 40 yards from here…” The group looked shocked at this, yet they didn’t gasp as to stay silent, “Plus, it’s completely open ground out there, there’s no way of going around them without being seen. But, I have a plan…” The ponies now depended on Discord’s ability.