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Prologue - Nightmares of a Time Forgotten1,973 words
The Summit3,843 words
From the Cave of Harmony to the Mountain of Turmoil3,215 words
War between ancient Races2,788 words
Weapons of Harmony2,788 words
Betrayal4,453 words

Betrayal

“With the elements granted to our mother and uncle, the war came to a stalemate.” Celestia continued. “The elements made an impenetrable barrier around the city whenever the draconequui tried to approach it. But that left the rest of Equestria vulnerable and the draconequui went on rampages through the land and eventually settled in the Everfree forest. They knew we couldn’t stay inside forever.”

“Ah’m guessin ya meetings with Discord stopped after this.” Applejack guessed.

Celestia shook her head. “No, I still went to see him whenever I could.”

“That must have been risky.” Cadance imputed.

“Yes and it was no surprise that I was eventually discovered. But it was a good thing that I was discovered when I did.”

“What do you mean, princess? How could it have been good to have been discovered?” Twilight asked.

“Yea. I can imagine you must have gotten the worst scolding ever.” Rainbow Dash supplied as she had started to hover again.

“Because that day I had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting Discord’s mother.” Celestia lit her horn once more and another image appeared showing herself hiding behind her mother who was standing in front something that almost all ponies would have ran screaming away from.

It was a draconequus three times the size of Celestia. It had a grey pony head like every other draconequus, but it was more sleek and predatory like a snake’s. Its eyes, yellow and red like Discord’s but they had that predatory gleam that made them seem dangerous instead of comedic. Its mane was purple and on its back were two massive wings. Both were of a bat, but one was orange and the other pink. Its front limbs consisted of a black bony tiger paw with green stripes with long claws and a long purple crocodile claw. Her back limbs consisted of a cloven hoof and a bird claw. She also had a black dragon tail with orange spines. In other words, she looked terrifying. Behind her on the image was Discord hiding behind her hoof.

Rarity gulped. “Well, she looks friendly?”

“I can assure you, she is not.” Luna replied to her comment. “Eris was Discord’s mother and she was feared among our race. She was cunning, manipulative and a born tactician from what our mother told us. Above all else, she was known as the strongest draconequus, both in magic and sheer strength.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Wait, didn’t you just tell us that they all had the same amount of magic? How could she be stronger if they were all equal in magical strength?” She asked.

“Magic works in mysterious ways, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna answered. “But it is a fact that magic works different from creature to creature. It bonds and reacts differently. One that is more aligned with their magic has an easier way of controlling it.”

“What do you mean by ‘aligned with their magic’?”

“What we mean is that ponies magic fits its user. Unicorns use orderly magic. They need to have full control of it to be comfortable using it. This comes down to the user. The more orderly they are in mind, the easier the have it controlling such magic, but orderly magic in itself is very weak.”

“Very few unicorns and alicorns can go beyond the bounds of their orderly magic and use harmonic magic in its place.” Celestia took off from Luna. “Unicorns like Starswirl the bearded and you, Twilight, are some of those few.”

“And just like ponies, the draconequui were also restricted by their own minds in the use of their magic.” Luna finished.

“Wait.” Twilight interrupted. “How was I able to use harmonic magic as a unicorn, what made me different from others?”

“Harmony is the concept of a balance. Good and evil, light and dark, Chaos and Order.” Celestia answered with a small smile appearing on her face. “And as orderly you are, Twilight, there have been quite a few episodes with you being random and chaotic despite your nature.”

“Oh…” Twilight replied, a blush appearing on her face.

“Yeah!” Pinkie supplied.” Like that time you had forgotten to write a friendship report and went total nut job and, OOMPH!” Pinkie didn’t get to talk further as Twilight quickly stuck her hoof in her mouth, wanting to leave that embarrassing episode as far away from her mind as possible.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “What is this tale of Twilight going ‘total nut job’? I don’t believe I have heard it.”

Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Its nothing, princess Luna.” She said and removed her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth. She should have let it stay.

“Are you kidding?” Pinkie asked, her ridiculously big smile having returned. “That day was so fun! I especially like how you enchanted your old Smartypants doll so that everypony fought to get i, OMPH!” Another purple hoof was stuck into her mouth.

Luna chuckled. “That sounds quite amusing.” She received a small glare from her sister. “Uhh, anyhow, back to the story at hand. Where were we?”

“You were telling us that the draconequui were also restrained by their own minds to use magic.” Cadance reminded her.

“Ah yes.” Luna said and continued her explanation. “As our magic abilities depends on our minds and souls to embrace order and harmony, the draconequui were forced to use its opposites to draw upon the magic of tree of Turmoil. Their magical capabilities were dependent on how chaotic and disharmonious they were as beings.”

“So they had to be jerks all the time?” Rainbow asked with crossed hooves.

“Not exactly.” Celestia answered. “They were born to be disharmonious and chaotic, but like every other creature they could resist and combat their nature and act differently. In the time I knew Discord, he was only chaotic in the sense of playing and the occasional prank he played on me and Luna.” Celestia smiled fondly at the memory. “Other than that he was very sweet and caring.” Her violet eyes seemed to drift away for a few seconds as she reminisced the happy times of her youth and her smile only widened.

Cadance picked up on Celestia’s apparent drift from reality and also the widening smile. “Aunty Celestia, did you have feelings for Discord?”

“Cadance don’t be silly.” Twilight said with a weird look. “There’s no way Celestia could have feelings fo--”

“Yes I did.”

“What?” Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“You had feelings for Discord?” Twilight asked, quite disturbed at her words.

“Are we talking about the same Discord?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I have a hard time believing that ruffian could win the affections of a mare such as yourself, princess.” Rarity said.

“Ah’m with Rarity, it’s hard ta believe.” Applejack said.

“I think it’s kind of sweet.” Fluttershy said, much to the rest of her friends surprise.

“If I could get chocolate rain everyday for being with a stallion I would totally be in love with him too.” Pinkie Pie said with a smile and a slight drool at the thought of chocolate rain.

“I think you misunderstand, my little ponies.” Celestia continued with a raised eyebrow. “This is in the past. I don’t have feelings for him any longer.” For he is no longer the draconequus I used to know. Her thoughts finished.

“Oh…” All of the guests said simultaneously.

An awkward silence arose in the room. The topic they had just been through was a sensitive one. More sensitive than most of them even knew. Twilight broke the silence. “So, uh, what happened next?”

“Our mother was growing restless due to the stalemate while the draconequui roamed and spread chaos across Equestria, and she eventually started recruiting scientists to help her use the elements differently than first intended.” Luna continued from her throne.

“In what way different?” Cadance asked.

“She wanted to use the elements as weapons instead of a defence.” Celestia answered.

“And after a years time she succeeded.” Luna Continued. “All alicorns could use the elements to an extent, but they needed to be used together and to want to use the elements for a single purpose in order to use them to their fullest potential.”

Celestia took over. “Our mother seeked to use the elements to completely wipe out every draconequus at the same time in order go around their rule of shifting power.”

The room of ponies gasped at Celestia’s revelation. The very thought of a pony even thinking of such a plan was beyond monstrous in the minds of guests..

“Luna and I overheard their plan. On the next day they would lower the sun and use the darkness as a cover so they could use the elements on the unsuspecting draconequui that had set up new capital in the Everfree forest.” Celestia continued. “The second I found out, Luna and I came up with a plan and I ran as fast as my hooves and wings could take me out of the beacon so I could find Discord.” Celestia lit her horn and nodded to Luna, who also lit her horn. “This is also something I need all of you to see, but this time it will be better, like you are all dreaming.” Light expanded from the two princesses and reached the guests.

The guests once again found themselves in the void, but this void was different. It was not only darkness. There were spheres of light, dancing through the infinity of the void. The guests could see each other and they could even move, but they couldn’t speak.

One of the spheres came close to the mares who were in the void and it suddenly expanded like the light that had first consumed them and they found themselves in a meadow. The same meadow they were in the first time, but this time, the sun had already gone down, but there was no stars or moon in the sky. They were also much closer to the Everfree forest this time, only a little over eighty feet from it. The very air seemed still, and unnaturally cold. It was almost as if the world had stopped moving altogether.

Out of thin air, a slightly taller alicorn than the one they saw in their first time being there appeared, running towards the forest. She looked wiser, and she was probably in her late teens, but she also looked frazzled. Her mane was disheveled, there were dry spots from tears beneath her eyes. She suddenly stopped and bit her lip as if she didn’t know what to do yet she kept staring into the dark forest in front of her, contemplating what to do. She used her hoof to remove the dry spots beneath her eyes and began slowly walking towards the forest, a sad, uncertain and quivering frown on her face. Her eyes kept glancing back over her shoulder, as if expecting someone was following her. But she kept going until she stopped at the edge at the forest and spoke.

“Discord?”

The instant the name left her mouth, she began to hear rustling in a nearby tree crown. And just as he usually did, Discord jumped down from the tree, a big smile on his face as he looked at the alicorn in front of him.

“Ah, there we have the most beautiful pony in the world.” He said, keeping his smile. “I was starting to think you had forgotten about me.” He gave a small warmhearted laugh which stopped abruptly as he noticed she hadn’t joined him. He stepped closer, his expression having changed into a compassionate and sly grin. “Celestia, is something wrong? You look sad…”

Celestia bit her tongue. She knew what she had to say. She had to tell him what was coming, but she knew him… She knew that if she told him, he would stay and he would die. Celestia couldn’t let that happen, no matter what, she was not going to let him die. She had to go through with her plan even though she wished there was something else she could do. “I’m tired of all of this, Discord. Lets just go, leave it all behind. Away from this war, and all of this hatred. Lets leave and live happily together someplace far away from here.” She said in a frustrated tone.

The draconequus before stood with mouth agape, shocked at her words. After minutes, words found their way to his mouth. “But what about Luna?”

Celestia hesitated for a moment, but quickly dismissed her thoughts about what she was doing being a bad idea. “S-she will be fine.” Celestia answered, stuttering at first. She calmed herself, it had to seem natural, or as natural as it could be. “I told her where she can find us, so she might meet us sometime later, but she said she had to think about it first.”

Discord stood there for half a minute or so before nodding. “Okay, Celestia, lead the way. Where you go, I will follow.” He smiled warmly at her.

Celestia quickly turned away, not wanting to see his smile. He was trusting her, blindly, and it was tearing her apart inside that she was abusing that trust. Tears began to roll from her eyes as she spread her wings and began to fly towards their destination. They began to fly east, over forests, hills and mountains, eventually arriving at the sea where they continued onwards over the vast ocean.

They had been flying for hours, in the middle of a storm, closing in on their destination when something happened.

“Ugh!” A painful groan sounded behind Celestia and she turned her head, though not slowing her flight. It was Discord. He was slowing down and he looked pale.

Celestia slowed her flight until she was flying beside him. Thats when she noticed just how awful he looked. His eyes were twitching, his body was shaking and blood was dripping from his nose. “Discord what’s wrong?” She yelled, trying to out volume the howling wind around them.

“I-I don’t…” Discord stopped mid sentence and his eyes suddenly widened, he clutched his head and let out a bloodcurdling scream, after which he started to fall towards the ocean beneath them all while screaming.

“Discord!” Celestia screamed and dove after him. She barreled through the clouds that were in her way and she eventually spotted the surface of the vast ocean. It seemed endless. The dark water revealing nothing but an endless black. There were massive waves crashing through the water. Celestia looked desperately after her friend, but she couldn’t spot him, the star and moonless night only making it ten times harder to see. She ignited her horn to get some light and called after him, but her yells were out volumed by the waves crashing through the water and the howling wind. She began flying over the water, searching for any signs of him between the waves.

Water was washing onto her, carried by the wind and the violent clashes between the water. She was soaked to the bone and cold. She could feel herself starting to struggle to stay in the air under the wind.

She was starting to lose hope and she thought about if she should continue, but those thoughts were quickly dismissed as she noticed a mismatched shape in the water.

Celestia flew closer to the shape, while yelling his name, but he didn’t respond. To Celestia’s horror, he was unconscious. She silently cursed at the whole situation and began to focus her horn, trying to levitate him out of the water, but the wind kept her from concentrating as she was almost blown into the water several times. Without further thinking, she dove into the water and up to Discord while still yelling his name. But again with no result. “Come on, come on, come on!” She yelled while focusing her horn, wanting to teleport, but again, she couldn’t focus with all that was going on around her.

A wave washed over her and she was pulled under water. She gasped as she finally reached the surface only to realise she had lost Discord somewhere between the wave hitting her and her going under. She began to search frantically while calling his name only to be answered by sea water washing into her her mouth and strangling the call. She coughed up the water and continued looking and she found him, floating away from her, his face against the water.

Celestia swam as fast as her hooves could take her after the draconequus. She refused to give up, she refused to leave him. Even when another wave washed over her, she kept going. Despite her body’s aching and prayers to relax, she kept going.

She reached him and pulled him onto her back, after which she ignited her horn and created a bubble around herself and Discord. The bubble emptied of water and Celestia began to flap her soaked wings only to have a wave crash down onto the bubble, almost popping it, but Celestia kept focusing and she slowly rose into the air and eventually made it out of the water’s reach.

“I-its okay now!” She yelled, not bothering to look back at Discord. She kept flying and exited the storm. She sighed in relief. Her wings were aching and she would have to find a place to land, but at least they were both sa--

Celestia’s eyes widened as she realised something. Discord hadn’t moved since she fished him out of the water. And that is when it hit her. From his position, stretched across her back, she should have been able to feel his heartbeat, but she couldn’t.

Starting to panic, Celestia landed on the nearest island she could find. It was a small island, filled with sand, rocks and a few trees. She splayed him out on the ground and checked his heartbeat. There was none. Celestia’s eyes widened. “No, no, no, no, no, no!” She yelled, thinking about what to do. She began to perform CPR, but it had no effect. She tried to use her magic to restart his heart, but this also had no effect, it looked to almost bounce off of him. Several minutes passed as she tried to do everything she could to bring him back, but nothing she did had any effect.

Her heart sank and tears started to flow from her eyes. “Please… Don’t leave me.” She muttered, her tears falling onto the body of the pale draconequus. There was nothing she could do. He was gone.

Celestia sat there for hours, letting tears fall from her eyes and eventually laid beside him, hugging the lifeless draconequus tightly as she buried her face in his chest. That is when she heard it. A low, but steady beating inside of his chest. First she thought her mind was playing tricks on her, but the beating got louder and faster. She stood up in disbelief and looked at the lifeless draconequus. There was something off about the way he looked, but she couldn’t place it.

Celestia jumped as Discord suddenly sat up, gasping and looking at his front limbs, flexing them. Then he looked to Celestia. “W-what happened?”

He didn’t get to ask further questions as he was tackled to the ground by the sobbing alicorn. Discord looked oddly at her before settling in and smiled at the sobbing alicorn who had buried her face in his neck, and started to stroke her pink mane while holding his lion paw on her back.

“H-how?” Celestia managed to ask between sobs.

“How what?” Discord answered, slightly confused at her question.

Celestia rose from his neck and looked into his eyes, tears still trickling from her own. “N-nevermind.” She eventually settled on, finding it hard to tell him that he had been dead for several hours. Thats when she noticed what was off about him. There were wounds after his own claws and talons on the sides of his head. Long red deep wounds she somehow hadn’t noticed before. Celestia’s eyes widened as the marks began to glow a dark purple and then closing, leaving no trace of ever being there.

“Celestia, what’s wrong?” Discord asked as he noticed the weird look on her face.

Celestia quickly looked away and shook her head in confusion before looking back at Discord. “Nothing’s wrong. Come on, we still have some way to go before we reach our destination.” She said and turned away, spreading her wings.

Discord raised an eyebrow at her after which he decided to leave any questions he had to some other time and joined Celestia who had now flown into the air.

They flew for what seemed to be hours and eventually came to an island. It was a large tropical island with palms, white beaches, and even a volcano in the middle of it. The pair landed and fell asleep in each others arms and hooves under a palm to the soothing sound of the waves softly crashing against the shore.

The guests who had been following the memories saw everything come to a stop. The time itself seemed to seize to exist in the picture of the draconequus and alicorn laying, sleeping peacefully on that island.

Then it resumed, but faster than it had before. Time accelerated in the picture, the guests being able to see the waves crashing against the shores much faster than it should. The sky was dark, its stars not visible and the moon wasn’t there. The only thing that hadn’t moved in the picture was the couple that was sleeping in the sand. As the seconds went by, the guests could see a light ever so slowly starting to rise in the horizon. That was when time resumed itself and the guests could see a serene white shape with golden mane and tail approaching the island.

“Celestia, daughter of mine, wake up this instant!”

Celestia scrambled awake to the familiar voice and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the angelic shape of her mother, land in the sand in front of her, the sun blending in perfectly behind her giving her a fearsome appearance. “Oh, no.” She whispered, hoping that what she was seeing was just a terrible nightmare and she was about to wake up.

Discord also scrambled to his mismatched feet, not sure of what was going on until he saw the angry mother of Celestia standing in front of him. He immediately took a step back in fright as his mind began to understand the gravity of the situation he was in.

Celestia gulped. “M-mother, h-how did you find us?” She stuttered, avoiding her mother’s angry gaze.

Harmonia flared her wings, causing Celestia to flinch at her sudden action. “Be silent, you disobedient, foolish filly! I caught your sister as she was about to leave and she told me where you were after a little persuasion! You are to return to the Beacon at once!”

Celestia looked up at her mother with shaky eyes. “N-no, mother. I’m staying here with Discord.”

Harmonia snorted. “What did you say? Do you truly wish to ruin your family’s celebration of victory with your impulsive flight?”

Celestia got a horrible feeling. She knew exactly what her mother was going to say. “Mother, please don’t…” She begged, but Harmonia ignored her.

“You truly wish to stay with the last of an extinct race? You wish to abandon your people? You, Celestia, are to be the next defender of our noble race and bringer of the sun! You will not remain with the last of those monsters left on our world! I will not allow it, we will-”

“Woah, hold on a second!” Discord interrupted, a confused look on his face. “What do you mean by ‘the last of an extinct race’?

Harmonia looked back at Celestia with slight surprise. “So you didn’t tell him, Celestia? Why you wanted to flee?”

Celestia quickly shifted her gaze between her mother and Discord, who looked confused at her.

“Celestia, what is she talking about?” Discord asked.

Celestia gulped once more and settled her gaze on her mother with begging eyes that were starting to tear up. That was when she noticed something odd about her mother. She was sweating, her ears were splayed back and she was standing in a defensive formation, as if awaiting something. “Mother, no, don’t-”

Harmonia stomped in the sand, causing Celestia to flinch once more and silencing her. “Foolish filly! You, draconequus colt, your people has been rid of this earth! Celestia fled with you because she knew we alicorns were to eradicate them in the battle of the Darkest night! She clearly desired to save you, and you are now the last draconequus.”

Discord’s eyes widened and he looked to Celestia with begging eyes who couldn’t look at him. “Celestia, tell me it isn’t true…” He begged, but Celestia kept her gaze away from him.

“I…” Celestia couldn’t say anything more. It was as if her mouth refused to turn the air in her lungs into words. Tears dripped down her cheeks as she finally forced the words out of her mouth.” I’m sorry…”

Time seemed to stand still as those words left her mouth. The only thing changing being Discord’s expression. It first turned into one of doubt and he shook his head, then realisation as he took his arms to his head, and lastly he gritted his teeth in anger.

“Celestia, return with me now and I will allow him to live, but only if you come with me now!” Harmonia ordered, sweat beginning to drip down her forehead and her hoof was starting to shake.

Celestia hesitated and looked back at Discord with teary eyes, his own alit with fire as a maelstrom of emotions swirled through him. Celestia bit her lip and spoke. “Discord, I-”

“You lied to me!” He interrupted with a shout.

The palms behind him’s trunks cracked as the shout reverberated through the air.

Harmonia glanced nervously behind Discord as the landscape also started to change, but quickly snapped out of it, not wanting to show her apparent nervousness.

“Go! Leave and never come back! I never want to see you ever again!” Discord shouted.

Celestia flinched at his words and her lip started to quiver. She turned away with heartbroken eyes and slowly took flight, Harmonia following suit.

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