These Dreams

by lorettafox

Chapter 18

Back at his post in Canterlot, Shining Armor was walking around the palace grounds to make sure everything was in it's proper place and that nothing was amiss. He was wearing all his necessary armor when he passed one of the guards.

"Have you heard any word on Twilight Sparkle?" Shining asked.

"Nay, sir. Celestia has gone to Manehattan looking for her. She has not been recovered yet." the guard replied with a hoof up in salute.

"At ease, solider. If you or ANY other officer hear ANY change at all, I must know immediately." he said.

"Of course, Captain. You'll be the first to know." the guard said in another salute.

"You may now go back to your duties, solider." Shining said as he walked past him before letting out a sigh. He was worried that Celestia actually was going to be able to find Twilight and put her under the sleeping spell.

Without realizing it, Shining Armor wondered into the Canterlot Gardens where many statues of famous ponies rested among the many flowers that grew here as well. This is where Discord used to be kept, until Twilight had broke him out, of course. Shining walked over to the pedestal where Discord's statue used to be. What laid on the pedestal was still a bunch of rubble in which the cleaning crew hadn't seemed to got to yet.

He walked over to the pedestal and shoved off some of the debris off. Making a clear spot, he sat himself on the pedestal and looked out over the garden. The garden seemed rather peaceful at the the moment, the plants just blowing peacefully in the breeze. Shining Armor took the moment to relax and think about his baby sister.

How was she doing right now? Was she in Ponyville or perhaps her friends found out about Celestia's plan and took her away from Ponyville? Maybe Appleloosa or perhaps Cloudsdale? Twilight could fly now after all. Would she be able to stay under Celestia's radar so she isn't put to sleep permanently? The last thing Shining Armor wanted was his little sister to become the living Sleeping Beauty.

Would Discord keep her protected from Celestia if she did find them? Is he even a good pony for her? How devoted was he to Twilight? Would he help her if she were in any life threatening danger or would he simply abandon her? Shining Armor shivered at the thought, but he couldn't help but wonder just truly how much the spirit of disharmony had changed.

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Celestia and Luna arrived in Manehattan with several of their guards with them. They landed right in the middle of Neigh Square, many ponies walking past each other in a hurry to get to their destination. Many ponies quickly took notice of the princesses but the guards quickly went to work saying that the princesses were on important business and could not speak to anypony at the current moment.

"Sister, where could Twilight Sparkle be? This city is so big, we'll never find her! Perhaps you know of a tracking spell of some kind?" Luna suggested.

"I know of one, but it only works so far, Luna." Celestia replied.

"Can it scan, Manehattan at least?" asked Luna.

"It can, but it does take alot of magic." Celestia warned.

"If it wears on you, dear sister, I'll perform the spell myself. I'm sure I could easily figure it out since I am almost as powerful as you."

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"I know you are, Luna. Come now, we need to go and find Twilight and Discord. We need to protect Equestria's safety." said Celestia.

After practicing some moves at the practice courts, Photogenic and Photoshoot had to leave for another photoshoot that was going to take place in Winterwood Woods. They said their goodbyes and walked away from Rainbow and Twilight, leaving them alone.

"Now what? That's all the moves I can think to show you today." Rainbow said.

"How about we visit Cloudsdale library? I could always use a good read." Twilight said happily.

"The library? We come to Cloudsdale, the greatest city in the sky, and you want to visit the library. Even though I like reading now, that's not exactly what I planned on us doing when we came here." Rainbow complained.

"We're going to be here at least a week, right?" asked Twilight.

"Yeah..." said Rainbow in slight annoyance.

"Why not spend some time in the library then? It's good to exercise the mind just like it is the body, Rainbow."

"I know but I didn't exactly plan on going to the library, Twi."

"Come on, it'll be fun. You could find some Daring Do books to read." Twilight smiled at her.

"I guess." Rainbow said with a groan, but unknown to her, Discord let out a groan as well.

After a quick flight, they reached Cloudsdale library. It was a rather good size and made completely out of clouds, naturally. They walked into the front doors and immediately made their own ways through the library. They had agreed to meet each other in the front in an hour since they were going to attend an earlier Wonderbolts show then they had originally planned.

Twilight made her way to the History part of the library. She began walking down the aisle that contained the Equestrian history from just before Luna was transformed into Nightmare Moon. Twilight kept looking at the books, deciding which part of history she wanted to learn a little more about. Unicorns and Pegasi Relations...not that one...Nightmare Moon's Transformation...not that one either...Chaos Reign.

Twilight stopped instantly when she saw the title of the book. Chaos Reign. It must have been about Discord when he ruled over Equestria over a thousand years ago. Celestia had told her that he was much more cruel back then then he was now, it still made her wonder just exactly how he was when he and Celestia were dating one another. Using her magic, Twilight pulled down the book and found a slightly dark seating area and opened up the book to begin reading it's contents.

The reign of Discord was a terrible time for all breeds of ponies. Pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies all suffered under his rule. He made each of the pony races make pay terrible taxes by making them give him their items, only leaving them just enough to live on so they could continue to pay his terrible taxes. If anypony refused to pay the tax, the punishment was quite severe and every pony had to suffer.

An example of these punishments was that if an earth pony refused to pay the food tax that was enforced, he would have the crops destroyed by swarms of bugs and have the land then go rotten so more couldn't be planted. The only way this could be reserved is that the earth pony that refused had to give up their freedom (they had little freedoms to begin with) and become his slave, in which he would work the poor pony in horrible conditions, which usually led them to their deaths only a few weeks later.

Twilight gasped in horror at what the book stated. She closed the book and looked at the author. It read Boomworm Mare. Twilight was familiar with Bookworm. Her work was always true since Bookworm always wanted to make sure her work was accurate. She knew Discord had been horrible in the past, but she didn't know he had been so cruel. She was glad that he changed so much from that sadistic monster to a child-like prankster. Twilight opened the book back open and flipped the pages until she reached a page that's header read 'Ways That The Ponies Suffered.'

Discord did not only impose these horrible taxes on ponykind and dish out terrible punishments for those who didn't pay them, but he also enjoyed making the ponies just suffer, even if they had obeyed his laws and paid the high taxes. He often would make it rain boiling hot tea, causing any ponies that had to be caught in it great pain. Any ponies that were able to avoid these hot tea showers by going indoors or by flying above the storm were not safe either. Any ponies that got caught indoors during these hot tea storms would have some of the storm be teleported inside the building and start training on the ponies inside. There was no hope of getting out of it since the storm was outside as well.

For the ponies that were able to fly above it, they were able to avoid hot tea, but they still suffered just as much as the ponies in the hot tea storms. For the ponies that were above it, a special surprise awaited them. The clouds that were holding the hot tea weren't just made of hot tea themselves, they also shot lightening upwards towards space as well. The lightening was let off at least around every few seconds, and with so many clouds, lightening was always being shot off, zapping the poor pegasi that were flying above the clouds. If the pegasi tried to land on the clouds, their hooves would be burned since the clouds were made of hot tea as well.

If these hot tea storms weren't bad enough, he also sometimes would wipe out ponies' crops for his own amusement. A full harvest could be happening and instantly, it could be wiped out instantly, not a seed left for replanting. He would return the crops for a price that a few ponies become his personal slaves for his amusement. Most ponies would give themselves just so that their families could eat again and live on.

Twilight closed the book again, but this time permanently as she couldn't continue reading the book. Celestia had told her that he had been quite a sadistic ruler, but Twilight couldn't believe just how evil he truly was over a thousand years ago. Twilight got up from the seat she was sitting in and levitated the book back in it's proper place. After placing the book in it's place, she could feel Discord's presence wrap himself around her neck in comforting matter. She quickly took notice and sported a small smile on her face. She knew he had changed his ways and would never hurt another pony like that ever again.

Twilight walked to the front of the library where Rainbow Dash was sitting in a chair that was just a little bit off to the side. Rainbow lit up when she spotted Twilight.

"Let's get out of here. All the Daring Do books they had anyways are the ones I've already read. We cannot be late for the Wonderbolts show!" Rainbow said happily.

"It doesn't start for another hour and a half and we'll be there in ten minutes. Relax, Rainbow." Twilight giggled.

"But this is the Wonderbolts! There could be a special pre-show or something! Let's go!" Rainbow said as she and Twilight walked through the doors and took to the skies towards the Cloudsdale Stadium.

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The Wonderbolts show was at intermission and both Rainbow and Twilight were admiring all the great stunts that the Wonderbolts had been doing.

"I can't believe Spitfire left a trail of fire right behind her! That's so awesome!" Rainbow said excitedly.

"I know! Want to get some snacks? There's a five minute intermission right now." said Twilight.

"Sure. Gotta keep my energy up when I cheer even harder for the Wonderbolts!"

Twilight smiled as both she and Rainbow left their seats and headed down towards the concession stands. They were half way there when Twilight spotted a young baby pegasus flying towards the open arena with no pony going after him.

"Rainbow! We gotta stop that baby before he hurts himself!" Twilight panicked as she opened her wings and flew immediately after the baby. Rainbow quickly followed suit, quickly forgetting about the snacks.

The two ponies flew after the baby, who managed to fly himself onto the open obstacle course. The crowd quickly took notice of the two chasing the baby and began to mutter began themselves how in Equestria that a baby was able to get on the obstacle course. The baby did indeed know he was being chased by Twilight and Rainbow, but he thought they were playing with him, so the baby flew through the obstacle course with the two flying ponies directly behind him, somehow he was a flying master.

They kept on chasing the baby, even when the Wonderbolts returned to keep on performing their show! The Wonderbolts didn't take notice as they were too focused on their show to pay attention. Twilight made her wings flap abit harder and she was able to grab the flying baby, but not too long afterwards did she crash into Soarin, whose part of the show was to complete the obstacle course.

"What in Equestria?" Soarin asked confused. "What is a non-Wonderbolt doing on the obstacle course?"

"I'm sorry. This baby managed to get on the course and Rainbow Dash and I had to stop him and we apparently became a part of your show as well." Twilight apologized.

"You saved that baby? Totally rad!" Soarin smiled before turning to the crowd. "She saved a baby through the obstacle course! Cheers!"

The crowd cheered loudly as Twilight blushed. "It was nothing. I had to stop him before he got hurt."

"I guess Soarin doesn't have to do his trick anymore since somepony else did it for him!" joked Spitfire from above as she just finished performing her move. "I know you. You're Rainbow Dash's friend, right? She helped you save the baby, right?"

Rainbow instantly appeared behind Twilight, shocking the two Wonderbolts as they had no idea where she came from. "I did indeed, Spitfire. All in a day's work." she spoke admirably.

"That's cool. Well, our show is over since the whole baby thing. We can reschedule next week anyways. You guys wanna hang with us since you're baby savers and all?" offered Spitfire.

"OMMGOMGOMOMGOMGOMGOMG!" Rainbow said excitedly.

"I guess that'll be a yes." Spitfire laughed. "Come on, just follow me. I can get you into the dressing room."

Comments

[lorettafox]

693391 What's that?

[WinterSpeed]

693431Hunger games because of nightmare moon. Also noticed a cupcakes reference

[lorettafox]

694039 That was completely unintended.

[lorettafox]

703843 Thank you.

[ace_attorneyfan800]

Mysteries
1.)The Riddle:Solved
2.)Twilight Sparkle:Solved
3.)New Magic:Solved
4.)Twilight's Coltfriend:Solved
5.)Discord:Solved
6.)Discorded Love:Solved
7.)Princess Conflict:Solved
8.)Twilight's Location:Unsolved

9.)Old Discord
Status:Unsolved
Twilight's Thoughts:
"The Discord from the past sounded like a crule person to be with, I hope discord has changed from before."