Militis Corde

by Sanguine Eyes

Chapter 5: Jussus

Jussus

"Ewww. Order magic."

Luna's eyes widened slightly as she lowered her head, looking from the Draconaquus to the frozen Griffon. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Order magic. You know, as opposed to Chaos magic. Boring, strict, annoying, stuffy… well, you know how I love myself some chaos magic? Order magic is well the opposite." Discord paced firmly up the wall, stroking his beard he stopped and looked down at the griffon. "But how did it get inside a griffon?"

He teleported the short distance and grabbed hold of Tyrin's tail, lifting him. To his delight and Luna's horror, Tyrin's entire body moved as if he was one solid piece of plastic. "What spell did he use?" She knew Discord normally acted like this, but she felt something was a little off, like he was not telling her something important.

Luna raised an eyebrow and Discord just chuckled. It was a few seconds before she sighed and responded. "I don't know, he just shouted something and stabbed himself with his talons. Now he's like this."

"Oh?" Discord's playful demeanor lit up as he rested Tyrin against the wall by his tail, making him look like quite the balancing act. "What, per se, did he speak before he did this?"

Luna glanced from Tyrin to Discord to the sleeping Iris in the corner. She grimaced and opened her mouth. "Carcere."
Discord chuckled before it turned into his signature soft laugh. "Carcere? That's old Equestrian isn't it? First century right? "
Luna looked a little disturbed. "No I think I think it's older than that. Something that came before the formation of Equestria."
"First century Equestrian predates Equestria. First century Equestrian is just what they call it now. But if you are unsure you can always ask our precious, trustworthy, knowledgeable Twilight or try your luck at the 500 plus libraries within ten miles of here."
She sighed and made a note of it to ask Twilight in private. "Can you break the spell he is under?"

"Hex! It's a hex. Order magic is an interesting thing, the user speaks a demand and depending on his or her willpower, magical power, nature of the demand, versus the target's willpower if any, the target's power, and then their size and density. The result is basically the spell running through these factors, if it fails, it will either not effect at all or have much less effect. If it passes, then the spell takes on a mind of its own and tries to accomplish the demand. Thus the user can actually perform magic to do things he would not naturally know how to do. Find a way through a maze, guess which card is the right card, if he gets good enough he could even learn things that would require some level of premonition." Discord's paw and talons waved about with each word, magically displaying the show for Luna. However, to his displeasure; once he looked up he noticed she was just staring at him with a face that said it all.

"If that were true, then we would have known and everypony from shore to shore would be eagerly digging their hooves into such a magic."

Discord scoffed and picked up Tyrin by the tail like a baseball bat. "Well that is where it gets complicated. This was back during the war- a very VERY dark time, and the magical Inquisition controlled the flow of proper knowledge. Only very high ranking military and royalty was permitted to know such things, you should remember that at least, you were a little filly then sure, but certainly you remember the gap. Peasants knowing close to nothing but how to serve and die. Very different from now when everypony goes to school, everypony is allowed to learn to read and write. All unicorns are allowed to advance as far as they like and are capable of. This magic, it's a relic of a much darker age and I am pretty sure you won't find it anywhere else. It was kinda banned for a very good reason." Discord's face turned dark away from his usual playful mischievous smile. Luna stepped back a little uncomfortably. Discord was an old bitter enemy, and he was always the trixter, Luna could not think of anypony who knew him well and would not be put off by ‘that’ look. "But I can’t spoil the surprise can I? If you want to know, you just ask your sister. I'm sure she can explain all this."

Luna sighed and let out an annoyed 'harumph'. Discord just chuckled, plopping Tyrin on the ground between them.
"Can you restore him?" She asked with mild irritation at his blatantly disrespectful treatment of the griffon.

"Can I? PffffffI think I'm the ONLY one in Equestria who can. Sure, Order magic is more powerful, and is quite effective against chaos magic, like soap against oil. But you oil up soap enough and it becomes Soapy oil as opposed to… you know, oily soap." Discord's paw came to his mouth in a yawn as his talons snapped firmly. A few buckets labeled 'chaos' appeared and promptly poured over the downed griffon. In a few moments he shot upright and took off in a wobbly run right into a wall. "Don't worry, that's natural. He should be sneezing out parsnips and farting hydrogen for a few days too."

Luna let out a long breath of relief and scooped up the griffon in her magic. "Oh thank goodness!"

Discord scoffed. "You are welcome but I would rather not be called 'goodness'," His eyes drifted to Iris and he smiled. "You do know about the little filly right?" He curled over, looking into Luna's eyes before she swatted him and rolled her eyes sighing at his usual antics
“I know enough, now its late this really REALLY wore on me please just go to bed. I'll be going to bed as well."

Now it was Discord's turn to 'harrumph'. "Very well. You enjoy your… catbird thing."

Tyrin mumbled and struggled to his paws. His wings came out to brace his swaying body as Luna steadied him trying to get him to stop moving.

"Tyrin, please,you had a bit of an accident. Slow down. We can just take this a little at a time."

"Yes yes yes, slooowwww it down." Discord chuckled tapping on Tyrin's forehead. But Tyrin did not smile. He simply froze, staring up at Discord. Tears flowed from his eyes and he mouthed a single word. Discord too stopped. His face turned sour and then it lit up with livid rage. He looked like he did not know what to do. He was shaking and gritting his teeth.

Tyrin wobbled and passed out once more into Luna's grip as she stared on in confusion and mild horror. "Discord? Wh- what is wrong?"

"Take your griffon and leave, NOW! And don't EVER let that thing near me again!" He pointed away from him and it looked like he was just moments from trying to force them to leave. "That thing is not what you think it is, Princess. Do NOT let it out of your sight. In fact, do the whole world a favor and kill it while you can!"

Luna's red flags were past waving and she quickly enveloped herself the little sleeping Iris and Tyrin with magic, winking them away with her.

---

Tyrin gasped loudly at the teleport, his eyes pin pricked and they rapidly darted back and forth until he picked out the source of his fear and with it, found the fear melted away. He scooped up Iris and his jaw clenched as he breathed hard. "I'm… I'm so sorry! I put you all at risk."
Luna placed a hoof on his shoulder and he flinched away from it, refusing to look at her, but she persisted.
"Tyrin, please. What did you say to Discord? I have never seen him react like that."

He shook his head and held the sleeping Iris tighter. "No! Please just… Don't make me think of it. I want no part of it."

She looked over his shivering form and sighed. Luna's horn gave a soft glow and she placed a hoof on his head. Slowly he stopped shivering and slumped forward. She sighed hoping she would not regret letting him sleep here if ever he returned to his old flirty self. Placing him on her bed and little Iris with him. Iris mumbled a little and cuddled deeper into his feathers as he instinctively held her tighter. She could see it so plainly, the little filly adored him and she looked so safe in those powerful arms. It reminded her of a time long past, before Equestria.

Luna swatted herself across the cheek trying to push back those same painful memories. They were beautiful once, but now they were only the most terrible bittersweet. She spent some time trying to find a way to explain this to Celestia if ever she found out.

Hopping up on the bed she ran her hoof over the feathered tufts that looked almost like ears. She smiled, the griffon was such a goofball. And yet he had so much love in him, love for this little lost filly, love for those he did not want his darkness to reach. Sure, he drove her crazy with how many poems about her butt he had written and how creative he was getting in sending them to her. But it was more silly than anything. She smiled planting a small kiss on his brow. She hoped he would get a good night's rest, It had been a long night and she was covered in dust and sweat, and her horn ached from the long range teleporting and the short tussle with whatever was inside Tyrin. She smiled wearily and hopped off the bed looking to get a bath and a meal.

"So that's all it takes? A few butt poems and he lands you?"

Luna turned bright bright red and whipped about at the sight of her sister's snickering. She opened her mouth to explain politely the conditions in which the griffon was in her bed, angrily, in the Royal Canterlot Voice. However, Celestia quickly raised a sound proof bubble around the Night Princess until she stopped screaming for her own sake, and for the sake of the others sleeping in the room.

The bubble dropped and Celestia, still smirking, poked her. "I am only kidding Sister, I felt your return and I can plainly see Iris. Also, I'm fairly certain you have higher standards than that."

Luna was still rather angered at the joke but she let out a sigh that seemed to accompany her blood pressure returning to normal. But Celestia's smirk faded into a frown.

"Sister?" Luna looked back to Celestia.

"Luna, I didn't just feel your return,I can feel something in him. It’s not somethin-"

Luna raised up. "Please, no. I am taking care of it. I am so close. There was no danger or anything, we explored and we learned some stuff. It was just really rough on him." She shivered, hoping desperately that Celestia would not easily see through her white lie.

Celestia raised her hoof for silence and Luna bit her lip.

"Sister, I will let you handle it. But promise me you will come to me next time there is anything like this. Even if nopony gets hurt, what will everypony think? That Griffon has some serious darkness in him. It won't matter if he hurts anypony, they see it and they will demand some sort of action. We might be able to just demand he be untouched but the ponies of Equestria won't have it. I have seen witch hunts before. It may have been a hundred years ago, but it's not like our culture has changed much since then."

They both shared an awkward moment of looking back on the griffon and filly. "Well Sister, if you need anything, I will be in the royal baths. I am in desperate need of a good cleaning before I turn in for the night." Luna smiled and began to trot away, but she hesitated at Celestia's frown.

"Sister, please promise me... please. Promise me you will let me know if anything happens. I need to know. I need to keep you safe, I need to keep the kingdom safe." She outstretched a hoof towards Luna but let it slowly drop as Luna turned back to face her.

"I will sister, but please trust my judgement. I suffered at the hooves of my own greed, loneliness and pain. I.. I just don't want him to suffer the same when it's not even his fault."

Celestia nodded but did not smile. She sighed and turned about to trot out, giving one last look at the griffon.

---

There was a firm press on his beak and Tyrin opened his eyes slowly. All he could see were large cyan blue eyes peering right back at him.

"Daddy? Are you awake now?" Iris had climbed on top of him and was watching intently.

"Yes, yes Iris, I am awake. Such a clever girl, how did you know?" His tone was thick with playful sarcasm.

She smiled brightly and sat up before falling off him as he rolled upright. "Well Daddy, I have been sitting on you for about half an hour asking if you were awake, I knew you would wake up eventually."

"I see... well. Good girl, now where are we?" He rubbed his head looking about. But he quickly got his answer as he looked at the bed, the sheets and the sleeping alicorn in the corner. "Oh dear um... Let's get back home Iris. Princess Luna needs her sleep."

Iris happily nodded and came to the balcony waiting for him. He started for the balcony as well but stopped. Turning back, he very carefully picked up Luna and placed her in his place on her bed. She mumbled and grumbled in her sleep, but did not wake. Plucking one of his feathers he dipped it in an inkwell and wrote a quick note and another bad poem, with a smile leaving it with his feather on her desk before quietly coming back over and scooping up the little changeling and flying back out of the castle.

"Is Princess Luna going to be my new mommy?" She asked, giving him a suspicious glance.

Tyrin sputtered and flushed with color. "Ahem... well... um... No... probably not. I would only be so lucky. But no little one. She's a princess, and I ..." His eyes looked vacant as he slowed and glided back towards ponyville. "... I'm a monster."

The little changeling filly swatted him on the head. "You are not a monster, you saved me and you love me enough to protect me. No monster does that. Don't say stuff like that about yourself!" She gave him her best stink eye and with a little surprise he smiled back at her.

"Still Iris, she's a princess. Not going to happen, trust me." He laughed and picked up speed towards their new home with a bright smile.

---

The old pub was bright and happy as the two brightly colored ponies talked happily. It was all smiles and laughter. One even bought two whole rounds for the entire house. Everypony was beyond happy and not wondering or asking why these two did not partake in any of the hard cider. They all just stayed back and celebrated as the two sat comfortably in their booth talking with bright and happy smiles.

"You don't say, a Griffon? Now that is interesting"

"Oh yeah, he takes her everywhere. Maybe you should let Mother Dearest know."

The bright yellow pony laughed, patting the other on the back. "Of course I should, I'll tell her as soon as I get back, she will get a kick out of it."

None took notice that their conversation, while sounding happy, was in a rehearsed tone. The purple pegasus laughed, giving his 'sister's' cider mug another clink. "Oh, she will love it! We can bring the whole family back together."

"Yes." They both smiled happily. "It might get rough, but family is supposed to stay... together." Her eyes flashed green and he could not help but to return the slight magical gesture.

"That it is, that it is.”

Author's Note:

Yet again I apologize for how long this took to finally publish.
We have been hard at work and there might even still be a little further editing but for the most part it's done and I shall begin chapter 6 immediately

Comments

[Pencil Melody]

Lel, that Tyrin/Luna relationship tho.
But yes, I'm very interested to see where this goes. Though I sort of already do, since you had shared ideas for the story when you were first coming up with it. Still, can't wait for the next chapter!
~Melly~