Seeing the Light

by Animalman57

Escaping the guards

Unaware that the royal guards were after them, Discord, Posey, and Angel were standing in the secret tunnel. Discord cracked his spine and started glowing like a glow stick to help light the way. Posey looked around nervously, not liking how dark and creepy it looked in here, even with Discord's light. Angel pet her mane to try and calm her down while glaring at Discord. Angel thought this was all that draconequus' fault. He felt like he was right to be suspicious of Discord wanting to cheer her up earlier. He just wanted his stupid satchel back.

Discord, for his part, completely ignored the, in his opinion, misnamed lagomorph. While Angel was right to be untrusting of him, Discord didn't particularly care what a dumb bunny thought of him. He didn't really care what anyone thought of him. He was utterly fantastic from head to toe, after all.

"So, where does this tunnel lead?" Posey said, interrupting his thoughts. Discord opened his mouth, before closing it, unsure of how to answer that question. He walked forward, leading the way. Posey followed him, not wanting to be alone. It took him until she caught up that he decided to answer her question honestly, a rare moment indeed.

"No idea, but the way I see it, this is the best kind of adventure. One that throws you curves balls and isn't straight forward? I couldn't ask for anything more chaotic, except maybe cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate milk."

Posey smiled slightly at the silly image. "Or maybe pigs with wings?" she suggested. Discord smiled at her making such a chaotic suggestion and decided to keep listing chaotic things to see if she had any other ideas.

"Or perhaps rabbits with long legs and hooves?" he said, staring down at the grumpy lagomorph on her head. Angel squeaked, while Posey's smile only grew as she realized his game and decided to play along.

"What about ballerina bison, or h-how about sneezing piñatas?" Discord smiled, really enjoying that she decided to play along.

"Oh, teapots with wings." She said as she started giggling. This is fun!

"Oh, you like tea, huh?" Discord asked as he and Posey stopped walking. "Fine. Let's go for some proper tea, like green rose hip tea that turns your hips into roses and turns you green!" He turned himself different shades of green depending on his body part and his hips grew into red and blue roses as he struck a pose to complete the gag. Posey busted out laughing at his antics, making Discord feeling all warm and fuzzy at the fact he was making her laugh. He was also amazed that she had such chaotic thoughts hidden behind that timid personality.

Discord clicked his horn like a lever, which washed the green off him like it was just paint. At the same time, the roses rotted and fell off his hips, landing in a messy brown pile. He simply watched as Posey finished her laughing fit, before she looked up at him with those big teal eyes that shot through his heart. He turned his head and coughed into his paw.

"Well, I suggest we get going, then. We're wasting daylight." he said while walking forward to try and ignore the rising heat in his cheeks.

"How do you know it's still day?" Posey asked, obviously acknowledging the dark cave they were in as she went to follow him.

"Internal clock." Discord simply replied as he pulled an alarm clock from his chest and shook it. Angel rolled his eyes at Discord's visual pun. Posey meanwhile giggled.

The three of them continued to walk as the cave fell into silence. Posey's thoughts were drifting towards the draconequus next to her. No one had ever made her laugh like that before and she loved the feeling of laughing like that. She looked over towards him. In the illuminating light, Discord looked strangely handsome. He had a rather strong jawline, a bit like the stallions she's read in her fairy tales. His black mane wasn't the most groomed, but there wasn't a single strand of hair sticking out of place. Of course, there was his striking eyes that locked them in a gaze back at the tower. Though it was a color combo that was used for the villains in her tales, Posey didn't find them frightening, but rather inviting and perhaps the most attractive part of him. She noticed something on his right side, however, that made her curious. She looked over and saw something she never noticed before. There were a trio of slashes against his neck. She never noticed before due to them being old and mostly faded. Posey shivered. From what she has seen of him, he was very powerful and wasn't easily hurt. He seemed to have completely recovered from Tempest's blast from earlier with no lasting damage, so what in Equestria was able to give him scars that he couldn't heal? She almost didn't want to know.

Discord's ear twitched as he heard noises coming from behind them. They turned and saw guards coming down their way.

"There they are!" One of them yelled and they rushed forward.

"Run!" Discord yelled as he pushed Posey and ran alongside her. The two of them ran for a good minute until they found their way out of the cavern, only to be cornered by a cliff. The royal guards pushed through.

"Discord, who are they?" Posey asked.

"Well..uh..they don't like me." Discord responded. Twilight pushed through and glared at Discord.

"Who's she?" Posey asked.

"She really doesn't like me." he said, more irritated by her presence than frighten by it.

"End of the line, Discord." Twilight announced, spreading her wings out wide. "Surrender quietly, or we will use force."

"Oh really? I'm supposed to take orders from a pseudo-alicorn who didn't even earn her wings without learning about the magic of friendship." Discord said, while making quotations with his fingers on the words, 'magic of friendship'.

Twilight's eye twitched before she yelled, "Guards, get them!" The all rushed forward. Posey screamed but Discord rolled his eyes.

"I think you've forgotten something, Princess Bookworm." At that moment, he teleported from the cliffside to a wooded beam across the way.

"Discord!" Posey yelled. She saw the guards closing in on her and realized she had to get outta here. Looking to where Discord was, it seemed to be in jumping distance. I can do this. She took a deep breath, walked backwards to get momentum, and ran forward, kicking up dust as she went, blinding the guards. She kept running as Angel held onto her mane for support until she hit the edge, closed her eyes and jumped. For a minute, she actually enjoyed the feeling of adrenaline and wondered if this is what it felt like when flying. When she opened her eyes, though, she saw she misjudged how far the jump actually was as Discord looked in concern. Against her better judgement, Posey looked down and saw it was a 50 foot drop between her and the ground. She and Angel screamed as she fell down.

"Posey, flap your wings!" Discord screamed.

"I'm trying!" She yelled as she furiously flapped her wings, knowing she couldn't fly, but hoping to at least slow her descent and minimize the pain. Twilight saw her falling and opened her wings and glided down to go after her. Just because this mare seemed to be an associate of Discord, it didn't mean Twilight was going to let her die. Discord saw Twilight diving towards her. He didn't want Twilight to arrest her, so he dove after the both of them.

Posey kept flapping her wings in desperation as Twilight came to her.

"Grab my hoof and I'll fly us out!" Twilight screamed as she extended out her hoof. Posey looked to the hoof, realizing how fruitless what she was doing was and started reaching out her own hoof. Just at the moment their hooves touched, though, Discord grabbed Posey by her midriff with both hands and snapped his tail feathers, both teleporting them to the ground and creating a strong gust of wind that changed Twilight's trajectory. She yelped and focused her magic to teleport. She succeeded just as she hit a wooden beam. She reappeared back on top the cliffside with a strong pain in her chest from the impact, as brief as it was. She looked down and saw Discord, holding a blushing Posey underneath his eagle arm. Giving a salute with his paw, he ran off.

Twilight growled, but soon heard the cracking of wood. She looked up and saw the beam she collided with breaking from the impact. It snapped, causing the whole dam to burst and all the water to be released. Discord and Posey noticed and ran faster. They entered a cave that soon was closed by several rocks that were from a pillar that fell via the torrent of water. Twilight stared on disbelief. Discord was trapped in a cave with seemly no way out. While she much doubted he will drown, she wondered how he'd get out of this situation. And just who was that pegasus mare? Why was she with Discord and why did she seem to not be able to fly? And why did Discord save her, when his attitude has usually been 'I look out for me, myself and nobody else'? The more this chase was going on, the less things made sense, which while it may've been perfect for Discord, it was frustrating the living daylights outta her.

---

Meanwhile, in the cave, Discord and Posey were in deep trouble. The water was flowing through the cracks in the wall and it was quickly raising up.

Posey moaned, "Oh, this is bad. This is bad. This is bad. Bad bad bad bad bad." Discord rolled his eyes.

"I know it is, just let me think of a way out."

"Well, hurry! The water's rising!" She screamed as they went to the highest rock in the cave. As it rose higher, Discord stepped on the rock with her, and his antler and horn were pushed against the ceiling of the cave, hurting his neck.

"Ah, these things always get in the way." he complained as he unscrewed his antler and horn off his head so he'd have some head space. He placed them in the pockets in his chest fur so he could retrieve them later. He looked at the rising water and how quickly it was coming up.

"Alright, here's the plan." He said confidently, causing Posey to look at him. "First, can you swim?" Posey shook her head as the water hit her hooves. "Right, dumb question as you never left that tower of yours and you can't even fly. Not a problem. I'll hold you. Take these." He handed her two small little disks.

"Breath mints. My own invention. Pop one in your mouth, and you can breathe underwater for hours. I can do it for a long time without them, but you and your little bunny pal probably won't be too good at it. While we are underwater, look for a way out of here. Got it?" She nodded and put a mint in her mouth while handing Angel the other. Discord took a deep breath and dove under the water, which was up to her chest right now. She then was yanked underwater, causing her to scream. Once underwater, she tried holding her breath until she remembered the breath mint and took a deep breath, finding she could, in fact, breathe underwater. She then noticed she was pressed against his chest as his tail swished around in the water, keeping him steady. She blushed at the close contact but didn't object, instead wrapping her hooves around his paw for support.

Discord swam using his powerful tail like a serpent, gracefully gliding through the water. Most of the potential ways out were blocked by rocks. He soon felt a nudge against his arm. He looked down, seeing Posey poking his paw. Once she had his attention, she pointed to an opening in the rocks below them. Discord smiled and swam forward. Eventually, they found themselves swept up in a current and got pushed out an opening into a river. They swam to the bank and crawled out, Posey still against Discord's chest as he crawled out on all fours and she shivered from the cold of the water. She was gently placed down as Discord stood back up on his two legs. He placed his antler and horn back on his head before he looked around.

"Well, I don't know about you, but today's been going on forever. The sun's setting, so why don't we camp here for the night?" Posey, in no condition to object, just nodded.

---

Author's Note:

Listening to the Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom soundtracks as I write this chapter. I'm a huge fan of the Jurassic Park franchise and I can't wait for Jurassic World: Dominion this year!

Also, the faded scars on Discord's neck is a homage to Celestial-Rainstorm's comic where Discord gets slashed by timberwolves defending Fluttershy and her friends. I adore this comic! You can read it here: https://www.deviantart.com/celestial-rainstorm/gallery/58870786/heart-of-the-draconequus-mlp-comic

The reason his scars exist will be different in this story compared to their comic, but I thought adding that homage would make this story a true AU from the main series and help give Discord a slightly different backstory to Eugene from Tangled.

Bless Twi for trying to save Flutters, even if Discord had to take her hero moment and replace it his own.

Comments

[AstralFlare42]

If you need an OC if you go into the show, just let me know.

[ChubbyNia]

Wow! And they didn't even need any magic to get out! I can't wait to hear Discord's backstory, props to Twilight for trying to save Posey/Fluttershy.

[Starlight Nova]

Who's going to be Cassandra?

[Animalman57]

11156339
I don't think I'm gonna do the series, mainly cause I've never watched it and I wanted to do the movie specifically. If I had to cast someone, though, it might be Rainbow. I probably would've used Starlight if I planned to do the series, but she ended up being in the pub, so I'd probably go Rainbow Dash.

[Animalman57]

11156335
Not much magic, anyway, since those mints were magic, but yes, they mostly used sheer ingenuity to get outta of there. I feel like it'd be a bit cheep if I just used Discord's magic to get them outta there and remove all possible tension from that scene.

Also, Discord's backstory is a tearjerker, so prepare your tissues.

Yes, Twi is good girl, but Discord is a bit territorial with his girl. Only he can save her XD

What do you think of Discord and Fluttershy's little game of mentioning chaotic things?

[Star Hope]

Discord an Fluttershy naming chaotic things was so cute. Also yay Twilight! for trying to save Fluttershy

[Animalman57]

11156956
I thought it was fun to have them list a bunch of chaotic things (all of which references to things he's done in the show) to help them bond and to show Flutters has a more bold and creative side past that timid personality that Chrysalis had practically forced her into with fears of the outside world and that her time with Discord is helping her come out of her shell.

[Eragor14]

This has been a really fun story so far. I really love the way you are ponifying the Tangled story.
Also, Heart of the Draconequus was one of the first Fluttercord stories I had ever read, and the first Fluttercord comic I had ever read. It holds a very special place in my heart, so it is really awesome to see you referencing it. Can’t wait to read the rest of this amazing story!

[Animalman57]

11160065
It was one of my first Fluttercord stories, too. I really enjoy it and I just love Celestial-Rainstorm's universe in general.

[Kikio3000]

Just cause this mare seemed to be an associate of Discord, it didn't Twilight was gonna let her die.
Maybe "mean" goes after didn't and before Twilight.

That was nice, Twilight!

The breath mint and took a deep breath, finding she could, in fact, breath underwater - breathe.

Discord swam using his powerful tail like a serpent, graceful gliding through the water. - gracefully.

Posey, in no condition to object, just nooded. - Nodded.

How they got out makes sense since FS's hair is not magic here, but Discord is. :)

[Kikio3000]

11160157
Celestial Rainboom is the best!

[Kikio3000]

11156502
The naking up chaos game was cute and interesting!

[Animalman57]

11160451
I fixed them. Thanks for the tip.

[Animalman57]

11160452
Yep.