Piece by Piece

by Eltirions

Chapter 32: Awakening 4

13 December 1008

Despite her wishes, Nightmare couldn’t fully commit to the search for Twilight. She still had a country to run, and her powerbase was too fragile to risk losing. So back to Manehattan she went, for a few hours. She still had that appointment with Sweetie, of course.

The country had not stood still while she went on a trip to Ponyville, obviously. Still, the pile of communiques, letters and reports on her desk - carefully sorted by her secretary in order of priority, of course - was more than a little disheartening to return too.

Nightmare sat herself down and began to work her way through the paperwork. The highest-priority pieces, and thus the first she got her hooves on, were reports informing her about the state of the prisoners that had tried to escape while she was away from Manehattan. They weren't sure yet, but Nightmare doubted it was a coincidence. Now they’d been placed in prisons across the Eastern Seaboard - including a high-security one that also held generals that had sided with Celestia, for one particularly rowdy Southeastern Earth Pony - so they shouldn’t be an issue anymore. She’d have to inform Sunset of the new locations of her little playthings, but that could wait.

‘’I think she’d resent that comment.’’

‘’Discord,’’ Nightmare greeted with an even tone, looking up to see the Draconequus lazily lounging in the air. ‘’What do you want?’’

‘’Nothing much, dear Moony,’’ Discord replied, sounding as unconcerned as ever. ‘’Can’t a Draconequus pop in every now and again to see his allies?’’

‘’We spoke yesterday,’’ Nightmare couldn’t help but point out.

‘’That we did,’’ Discord acknowledged. ‘’Do you know how long ago that was?’’

‘’Do I want to know?’’

‘’No, you don’t.’’

‘’How intelligent of you.’’

‘’One tries.’’

Nightmare sighed. ‘’Why are you here, Discord? I need to rule a country, if you hadn’t noticed.’’

‘’And I’m here to talk about that,’’ Discord said. ‘’Or well, close enough. You’re aware that Rarity’s touring the Crystal Empire with Flurry Heart?’’

Of course I know that. Does he really think that…

‘’You suspect something.’’

‘’Flurry Heart is Twilight’s last family aside from her parents,’’ Discord pointed out bluntly. ‘’You might want to look at the security around her.’’

Something cold took hold of Nightmare’s heart. ‘’If she tries-’’

‘’Calm down, tiger,’’ Discord said, holding his claw up. ‘’I’d go up there myself right now, but the Crystal Heart doesn’t like me very much and I’d rather not mess with that at the moment. If I tried to teleport there I’d get tossed into a snowheap.’’

Nightmare didn’t bother asking what he’d done that made the Heart dislike him; the list of things would probably be too long to finish in time. ‘’I’ll send a message north immediately.’’

‘’And then what?’’ Discord asked. ‘’I could be wrong, y’know. Maybe Twilight will go for her parents first, or maybe she’ll try and free Sunbutt. But if she is after Flurry…’’

She considered for a moment, then decided that she had very little to lose.

‘’Sunset found something amidst her notes,’’ Nightmare said. ‘’Twilight was working on several things at once and we can’t be sure yet if she finished any of her projects, but here’s the notes that concern me.’’ She retrieved the papers from her desk - secured behind a magical lock anyone but she would waste days on trying to open - and hoofed them over to Discord.

‘’What the fuck, Twilight.’’

Nightmare nodded. ‘’My reaction exactly.’’

Discord growled, an unnatural sound that sent every single one of her senses on edge at once. ‘’What will you do when you find her?’’

Truth be told, she didn’t know yet. ‘’Anyone else would be executed,’’ she replied instead of answering the question.

Discord nodded after a moment. ‘’Of course. How can I help?’’

‘’If you were to fight Twilight right now, who would win?’’ Nightmare asked back.

‘’Me,’’ Discord said after a long moment, ‘’probably. I can’t tell what she’s going to do if she’s sunk to this, but I’m not going to play fair either in this case.’’

‘’Fair enough. In that case, your assistance would be appreciated. Talk with Sunset, she’ll be heading the investigation, partially at least. Your skills will be best-used there. And contact me if there’s any development you feel needs my attention.’’

‘’I will, don’t you worry.’’ Discord said. ‘’We’ll catch Twilight, Moony-Moon. And when we do, she’ll have a lot of explaining to do.’’

If that isn’t true, I don’t know what is.

|-x-X-x-|

13 December 1008

‘’Not feeling conversational?’’ Twinkle inquired.

Sweetie gave him a side-eyed glare. On the other side of the room, Applejack and Big Mac were conversing rapidly with Applebloom, while Scootaloo was speaking with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Sweetie could already guess the topic of both conversations: their encounter with Twilight.

‘’As you may have noticed,’’ she said icily, ‘’I have no one to talk too. And you don’t count.’’

‘’Hurtful.’’

‘’Bah.’’

Sweetie wasn’t feeling like having a conversation at the moment anyway, even if anyone suitable had been there to hold it with her. She was still stewing over her meeting with Nightmare, both the past and future one. After all, one doesn’t get offered to become an alicorn’s apprentice every day.

I’d be the new Twilight.

Urgh, Twilight… Sweetie wasn’t sure how to feel about her either. She was clearly insane, anyone with half a brain could tell that, but was that really her fault? With a few exceptions, she’d always seemed as sane as anyone in her position would be, given everything that’d happened to her. But then again, maybe those exceptions were just proof of what was truly hiding underneath…

No. They would have figured it out before if she was always this insane, right?

Right?

‘’Oh Moon,’’ she suddenly heard Twinkle whisper-curse next to her.

‘’What?’’

Twinkle nudged her to look over at the door, just in time to see it close behind an amber-coloured unicorn mare with a red and yellow mane, dressed in dark blue robes. ‘’Good afternoon,’’ she greeted the room at large, getting similar responses back, before she proceeded towards Sweetie and Twinkle.

‘’You’re Sunset Shimmer, right?’’ Sweetie asked as soon as she was in suitable range.

‘’That I am,’’ the mare confirmed. ‘’And you’re Sweetie Belle. A pleasure.’’

Sure. ‘’I’m guessing you want to talk about Twilight?’’

‘’Straight to the point, I see. But yes. The Empress has already told me most of it, but I’m curious if there’s anything she’s left out.’’

Sweetie raised an eyebrow. ‘’And how would I know what she did or didn’t tell you?’’

‘’That’s why I’m here,’’ Sunset replied, ‘’so I can get your story straight from the source. Not that I don’t trust our great Empress,’’ she added with a slightly-sarcastic drawl and a daring look at Twinkle, who looked decidedly nonplussed at her presence, ‘’but it’s good to confirm these things. Make sure no details got lost in translation, and all that.’’

Sweetie nodded. ‘’Of course.’’

‘’So, if you wouldn’t mind starting from the beginning…’’

‘’It was less than a day ago,’’ Twinkle cut in. ‘’Give her some time to process it, would you?’’

Sunset gave the stallion a dismissive look. ‘’Agent Twinkle Flower. Perhaps you would like to give your account, then? You were up before any of the mares, if I have my facts right.’’

‘’I was,’’ Twinkle confirmed, ‘’and I’ve already given my report to the Empress. It’s also been written down and sent off to headquarters. You can request a copy of it there.’’

Sunset scowled for a moment, before smiling. ‘’Very well then. I’ll do that. Until then, if you’re so opposed to your charge conversing with me about this topic, why don’t we pick a different one?’’

‘’Such as?’’ Twinkle asked dryly.

‘’Sweetie’s sister, perhaps?’’

‘’I haven’t had contact with Rarity since she became Governess,’’ Sweetie admitted. ‘’I was on my way towards Crystal City and stopped here for a few days.’’

‘’Well you’d have missed them, given that they’re touring the country,’’ Sunset mused aloud, ‘’but laudable initiative. I assume you two had a fight over her change in careers? Makes sense, I suppose.’’

How do you know so much?

‘’In any case,’’ Sunset said, ‘’I’ll be leaving then, since I have an investigation to help organise. But before I go, is there anything that you think Twilight might do now that’s she roaming through the nation?’’

That wasn’t a question Sweetie had really asked herself, given other matters. ‘’I’m not sure,’’ she said. ‘’Give me a moment to recall what she said.’’ It was hazy, partially because of what happened, partially because she didn’t want to remember it, but she managed. ‘’She was saying that all of her friends were traitors. That’s it.’’

Sunset looked around the room. ‘’If we assume she’s talking about the other Elements of Harmony, then we’ve got three here in Ponyville, but she wouldn’t try anything with Discord and so many soldiers here…’’

‘’But Governess Belle and Commander Dash are touring the Crystal Empire with only a small protection detail…’’ Twinkle trailed off.

‘’Oh stars,’’ Sweetie whispered.

Sunset’s reply was much less foal-friendly.

Author's Note:

Two updates in one day?

We do that.

Comments

[Advisability]

Neat

[Eltirions]

11493144
thanks!

[The Great Scribbly One]

Nice little bit of fourth wall leaning from Discord there