Celestia XVII: The Broken Princess

by brokenimage321

14: "The Devil in the White City"

“Beside his own person and his own interests, nothing is sacred to the psychopath.”

The gravel crunched underhoof as we walked down the path towards the hedge maze. Towards the crater. Towards Discord.

I wore my regalia—or, what was left of it, at any rate. My crown was perched on my head, and my horseshoes were on my hooves, but I felt strangely naked without the Peytral around my neck. I’d wrapped myself in a scarf that Aunt Velvet had knitted for me, just to have the weight of something there, even though I was pretty sure Luna herself was going to disapprove. To my astonishment, she hadn’t said a word.

I risked a glance at Luna. She walked beside me, head held high. There was no trace left of the weak, frightened pony she’d been a few minutes ago. Now, she walked with purpose, like a martyr to the pyre.

I shook my head. No, that wasn’t how it was going to go. Not for very long, anyways.

As we drew closer to the crater, the roaring of the storm grew louder, and the wind began to pick up. Soon, the breeze was strong enough to whip my mane around my face. I closed my eyes and turned away—but Luna kept walking, staring straight ahead.

We reached the edge of the crater. I shielded my eyes from the wind, then looked down—and my eyes widened. In the center of the crater hung that point of light that I’d seen from the balcony, but, from this distance, I could see it wasn’t alone. A dark shape, hanging in midair, huddled around it—a dark shape that I’d bet my wings was Discord.

Or, I would have bet, if I hadn’t already lost them.

It took me a second to realize that Luna was still moving. She had paused, like me, on the edge of the crater, but she had waited only long enough to pick out a path downward. By now, she was almost halfway down to the crater floor. I gulped, then hurried after her, slipping and sliding on the loose soil.

As we drew close to the center of the crater, my pace slowed, then stopped, and I stared, open-mouthed, at the scene before me.

Discord hung in the air, his tail curled beneath him in a half-circle. He held his claws in front of him, palms-up—and, just above them, hung the Sun Stone. It shone a brilliant, burning white, so bright the stone itself had turned from its native purple to a bright lilac. Around the Sun Stone orbited six smaller lights: the six Elements of Harmony, freed of their golden settings, swinging about the Sun Stone in complex, inscrutable patterns. Discord hunched over the stones, watching them with a mad gleam in his eyes.

I stood there, the wind whipping my mane, until another bolt of lightning split the sky with a deafening crack. I shrieked and shied away—but with a jolt, I saw another, smaller figure: Luna, still walking steadily towards Discord. I almost cried out for her to come back, but then I remembered our plan. I bit my tongue, and galloped towards her.

“Discord!” she cried, her voice loud and clear. “I have come to make you an offer!”

Discord turned and shot a haughty glance at Luna.

“Ah, Your Highness,” he purred. “How kind of you to finally put in an appearance.” He glanced up at me. “And Your Other Highness,” he added, a faint snarl in his voice. “I didn’t expect to see your true colors again for some time, yet…”

“I am the one here to treat with you, not she,” Luna interrupted. Discord turned to look at her, one eyebrow raised. “I know what you really want, Discord,” she continued, louder. “And I am here to make a trade.”

Discord raised his eyebrows, then leaned down towards her with a crazed sort of hunger on his face. “Indeed,” he murmured. “Well then—now you have my attention.”

Luna lit her horn, and, with only the slightest effort, pried the Moon Stone from her Peytral. She held it up towards Discord, where it glowed, silver-white like the moon.

Discord’s eyes widened. “Ah,” he said gently, reaching out a claw to take the stone. “You are here to finally give me what I tried to take from you this morning. You know, all this heartache could have been avoided if you’d just left your Peytral on the nightstand for five minutes, like dear old Celestia here…”

But, before he could take the Stone, Luna pulled it away.

“I shall give it to you,” she said, “in exchange for the Elements of Harmony.”

Discord drew back as if stung, and let out a little snarl.

“We both know what you are after,” she said, “and the Elements are mere trinkets compared to the Stones.”

“You are asking me to trade power for power,” he hissed. “I generally have a policy of not giving my enemies the means to overthrow me.”

“True,” Luna shot back. “And yet, which do you crave more: gems powered by the whims of the hearts of their holders? Or the Stone that gives absolute power over the moon itself?”

Discord looked suddenly thoughtful. I swallowed nervously as I watched his expression. Luna had said that he’d give his right arm to have the Moon Stone; if that was true, then hopefully he’d give us the Elements without knowing what they really were. If he did that, then we could take them and form a resistance of some sort. Get Twilight and her Ponyville friends back together, convince them to give it another go, and see what happened next.

A bead of sweat rolled down my neck. That would be the idea—but, if what I’d seen in Ponyville was any indication, what we would probably end up doing was finding another group of friends, one that Discord hadn’t twisted, and giving them the Elements. They’d figure them out and come to the rescue. Probably. Maybe even before Discord destroyed Equestria.

I snapped back to reality when Discord chuckled in a deep, bass rumble. “You have quite the tongue, Your Highness,” he said. “It almost makes me wish I hadn’t been so hasty in our previous dealings…”

A muscle in Luna’s neck twitched, and I frowned.

“Very well,” he continued. “I give my word: the Elements of Harmony for the Moon Stone. Do you accept?”

“I do,” she said.

An evil grin split Discord’s face. He passed the Stones he held to his left claw, and, with his right, he reached carefully, almost longingly, for the Stone Luna held.

From where I was standing, I could see the whole scene: Luna, holding up the Moon Stone like a talisman. The blinding light of the other Stones, held in Discord’s left claw. The massive, epileptic storm swirling overhead, drawing power from the Sun Stone. Discord reaching with his free claw to take the Moon Stone from Luna. And the manic grin, full of perverted glee, carved into his features.

My heart stopped. Something was wrong.

“Luna, don’t!” I cried.

But it was too late. Discord plucked the Stone from the grip of her magic, then held it aloft.

“Ah, Luna,” he said, “I’m going to miss how idiotically gullible you are.” He sighed. “I’ll remember your fondly, though, after I’ve conquered the world.”

Comments

[badninja]

I think I see Luna’s plan. You need order to use both the sun and moon stones. Discord is about to have major power issues and the girls will have the Elements back and they will have a nice target to bring into harmony.

[Comickook]

REALLY good job on this chapter. The exchange, characterizations and future chapter set-up are all well done in all the right places. I have to admit that, right now, it looks like Luna made a pretty bad deal, but as badninja said, it's possible that Luna is counting on Discord being too chaotic to be able to use both the Sun AND Moon stones. If that's true, then hopefully Celly and Luna will be able to get the girls back to normal before Discord realizes that he has been tricked and go even crazier than he is already.

Anyway, I'll very certainly be looking forward to more of this.

[Zuabug]

9929723
Ooo, I didn't realize her name was spelled different in the show! (And that explains why I can never spell Cadance/Cadence correctly at work...)

[Zuabug]

9932764
... Why is this comment here???? Weird.

And also--!!

*Throws popcorn bucket.* BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!