Broken Spirit

by Cryssy-miu

Chapter 9 - The Secrets Of The Royal Children

The marble walls inside the palace were different, newer, in better condition. There were hardly any stained glass windows, signifying history hadn't even begun yet. Light still continued to pour through the open windows, Aegeus's sun pouring its rays throughout the lonely palace hall. All was silent. All was calm.

Suddenly, the multi colored, multi beast baby scampered down the halls on all fours, his tiny little horns mere nubs sticking out of his head, his felt-like ears lopsided from having slept on them all night. His wide scarlet eyes sparkled mischievously, a giggle escaping his lips as an angry voice shouted out promises of time outs and spankings in his general direction.

"No! I don't wanna be clean!" the five year old draconequus shouted, grinning when he realized he was managing to outrun his caretaker. The baby took a hop into the air, fluttering his puny, still developing wings.

Of course a child at that age couldn't quite grasp the concept of weight yet and thus the baby's weak little wings couldn't carry his tubby body very fast. He went tumbling through the air, crashing into the long red rug with a sniffle.

The sudden poker faced king of the sun appeared before him, his fire mane crackling angrily as he glared down at his adopted son. Any desire to punish the miscreant faded as the tiny creature tried 'the face', while handing his father a small green lollipop.

Aegeus wasn't able to hold back the pesky grin as he shook his head, picking the baby up by the scruff and trotting towards the elderly mare with a stern, admonishing frown over her wrinkled muzzle. Right when she was about to take the youngling into her own mouth, Discord wriggled free of the King's grasp and scurried back down the hall in giggles.

Hearing the angry clopping of two pairs of hooves on the tile ground, the baby picked up his pace, scampering down another corridor, until finally hearing the familiar sounds of his friends as they sat in their own tub of soapy water.

Astraia barely had the chance to shriek out in surprise as the infant spirit took a flying leap, landing in the large porcelain tub with a thundering splash, nearly flattening two frightened fillies.

"Dissy, the water is everywhere now!" a small white filly scolded as she poked her head out from the bubbles, wagging a scolding hoof at her younger friend. She gasped dramatically, pressing her hooves to her face when Discord blew a childish raspberry at her with his tiny serpentine tongue.

"Mama!"

"I saw," Astraia sighed, her azure, star covered mane dipping into the water as she bent to get a sponge. She tried to ignore Discord's bouts of disobedience; he was still a baby - it didn't necessarily mean the elders were correct. Of course he wasn't the incarnation of demons.

Crystal Pendulum simply reads too many mythology books, Astraia thought with an eye roll, turning away from the tub, far too lost in her pondering to hear her daughter's squeals of surprise.

"Mama, the water is brown!" Celestia gasped, wading to the side of the tub and staring at the brown water Discord was currently blowing bubbles in. The blue newborn foal beside her sniffed at it and took a ginger lick.

Astraia took a deep, cleansing breath as she readied a large towel to scoop up her kids. "Now, Discord, hunny? We've been over this: the bath tub is not where a young colt does his business. We use the lavatory for - ....Is this chocolate milk?"

"What?" Aegeus deadpanned, reluctantly making his way over from where he had been watching the show in the sidelines, letting his wife deal with the kids. He swiped a hoof through the creamy brown mixture and licked it. Face dropping to a flat look, he nodded, speaking out of a crack in the corner of his mouth.

"Yep."

"Hey – hey, Tia, look!" Discord spread his arms up high over his head, wiggling his kitten claw and talon menacingly. "Blargh, I am the chocolate milk monster! I am going to eat you, because – because-" He pursed his lips, pondering for a reason.

"Because you taste chocolatey – RAWR!" He leaped on Celestia with a large, wet splash, drenching his guardians as he climbed on and gnawed the squealing princess's ears with his milky white teeth.

Aegeus and Astraia could only exchange helpless looks, evidently trying not to see the kid beast as what he was meant to be and think of the inevitable. The King and Queen only settled by the tub, watching the children roughhouse in the thick brown cream as the bathhouse rang out with the warm sounds of their gentle laughter.

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The resonating sounds of nostalgia from from the most cherished fragment of his childhood dissipated into the air, replaced by the steady, repeated mumbles of "stay with me", and the nearly choked "don't die." Discord tried to weakly open his eyes a splint, but he saw a quick, wet flash of red and only felt a blinding pain upon doing so.

His head was black and foggy, and he felt his lungs desperately try to take a swoop of air they couldn't reach. He was just about to go when the breath was suddenly forced down his throat, in a gentle, cool pulse, entwining with his lungs and bringing them to life.

She was so gentle; it was as if a mere rose petal had innocently drifted from above and delicately landed on his lips. Discord disregarded the agony, pushing it from his thoughts as he attempted to draw her in, a twitching, weak paw trying to wrap around her without coherent thoughts to tell it otherwise.

Just like that, her mouth was wretched from his, leaving only the ghost of her lips and tearing away what was, at the moment, his source of comfort.

"I-I got him breathing!" The princess's thin frame was shuddering with a barrage of mixed emotions, her hoof at her lips, still feeling the touch of his soft lips against her own. She shook it off, numbly assisting the doctors that had come running out, and helping to lift the motionless creature onto the stretcher.

"Keep him awake!" an infirmary stallion's voice gruffly ordered, turning back to glance at the princess and spirit as he galloped with his team. "Keep talking to him!"

Celestia was thunderstruck and baffled on what to do. Talking to the creature made her feel utterly sick, but doing it under these circumstances, for the sake of keeping him conscious and alive was simply terrifying. None the less, the princess mumbled out shaky whispers, that grew louder and more confident as she spoke.

Discord heard the heavy bang of the steel doors and felt himself being laid on something cotton and soft. The comfort went away abruptly as he felt rapid, quick stings on his twitching eyelids, and he gurgled out a moan as they extracted the glass from the sensitive skin.

With the shards removed his eyes could open freely, and they slowly focused on the bright flash of silver hovering in a cloud of magic. Beside himself, the spirit's claws latched deep into the cotton and he felt his body trying to bolt up, but firm, stern white hooves held his desperately wriggling form down.

The poker hot pain weaved in and out of his wounds like fire all over his torn up body. Discord's locked in screams gradually became voiced in an anguished wail as the needles worked to mend up his mutilated skin. Tears seeped through his shut eyes, and everything faded to a warm gray.

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His crimson mane flared in stress, its embers crackling, forming a synchronized melody with the gentle patter of the brown rain. Aegeus flinched fiercely as a streak of pink lighting brightened the skies and sent the garden ponies running for shelter, screaming in fear. The blanket of pink cotton candy in the sky only reached past the castle, but its power was severe.

"You can't keep doing this, Discord." Aegeus hadn't turned to his son yet, but he heard the quiet whisper chanting a mantra of words, and the brewing storm of milk over the castle roof came down in a steady, thundering pound. When the stallion finally mustered the courage to turn to the draconequus he reared in fury.

Discord's twisted grin of pleasure was ripped away with the book hovering in his golden sphere of magic. The draconequus flared his mane, snarling and turning to his father. "Hey!"

"Alicorn's Power," Aegeus read the title in awe, his eyes frozen to the image of a black shadow illustrated on the cover with blood red eyes. "I thought we managed to lock this away in a seal!" He turned to glare at his estranged son, who was leering all the more balefully at him. "A seal you couldn't break!"

"Oho, Dad, please," Discord snorted, settling his muzzle in the palm of his paw and smirking widely at his father's ridiculous assumption. "There is no seal of yours that I can't break. I figured you were intelligent enough to see that by this point."

Aegeus stomped his hoof in warning, giving the draconequus "the look", and one that would usually have Discord cowering and covering his rump with a submissive look on his face, but not this time. The spirit met that glare with one of his own, far more menacing.

"You really think that will work on me?" Discord laughed, floating up over the throne, and attempting to draw the spell book to him with a tendril of golden magic. Aegeus caught onto this and strengthened his vice grip on it with his own.

"Maybe rendering you unable to sit for a week or so will," his father threatened darkly, angrily snapping the magic force field back, glaring fiercely at the malicious creature. All that met that was an amused gaze, followed by a howl of laughter as Discord collapsed onto the ground.

The smoldering mane burned all the brighter with the heightened rage of the king, and he contemplated flipping the impudent brat over his knee then and there, but he calmed his nerves with a quiet, deep breath, attempting a different tactic.

"This," Aegeus's voice gruffly boomed, gesturing to the madness at hand, "is not what we as the keepers of Equestria stand for. We maintain the balance and order of this land, we do not destroy it, son."

From where Discord had his body hung over the arms of his father's golden throne, he smirked, putting a pointed claw of his talon half way in his mouth and making a gagging face. "Come now, Dad, enough with the cliche – order is not for me. If I had the throne-"

"If you had the throne you would only plunge this land into madness! Your views are deluded, Discord! You do not use your powers the way you should!"

"Because it's so boring. Why would I use such an amazing ability to maintain balance when it's so much more fun to destroy it~? What harm is there in twisting the laws of physics and laws of..everything, really?" He smirked, rolling his body up enough to focus gleaming red eyes on the stallion's blazing orange ones. "I'm far more fit to rule then Tia or Lulu.."

The stallion gritted his teeth, like he had done so often with this brat. It was a wonder he hadn't chipped any yet, though he probably ended up destroying some enamel. "We have been over this, Discord. Celestia and Luna are next in line and the ONLY in line, because-"

"Because I'm not your real son," Discord said venomously, narrowing his eyes hatefully, "and apparently two prissy, perfect, sensitive little angels are more suited for future rulers than I am. At least I won't douse the land in lip gloss..."

The king heavily rolled his eyes, approaching his estranged son and fixing him with a deadpan look. "That is not what they are going to do. They're also next in line because-"

"Yes, I get it!" Discord suddenly snapped, the golden coating on his mismatched hands flaring with yellow flames. "They have better visions than I do and know how to run this kingdom, and they're just so damn perfect that you fuc-" He was cut off, yelping as he received a harsh slap across the muzzle from the enraged stallion.

The posture of the spirit became far more childish, a very low growl vibrating his throat, and an angry glisten in his eyes as the stallion left him without another word. Discord straightened himself, palms so hot now the crackling fire threatened to burn his skin. He extinguished it, also using the back of his paw to wipe his eyes as he sunk into his father's throne, letting one single tear sizzling with his anger drip onto his dimly lit paw.

"I'm not fit for the throne, father?" the draconequus murmured, using one talon to easily summon another spell book, while his feline paw remained clutching to his tender, crimson marked muzzle. "I'm not strong enough?"

He smiled, letting his eyes roam over the pages of the book, chuckling madly as he found the spell he was looking for: the magic debilitating spell. "I am far stronger than you can ever hope to be.."

He clasped his paw and talon together, watching the colossal orb of gold engulf his hands, stream from his being and collect in what would be the most fatal spell he would ever cast. The room darkened as if every source of light was ripped from it, instead collecting into the deadly spell.

"And I'll remind you all of that~"

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"Fluttershy, please calm down," Twilight murmured, desperation easily detectable in her tone as she tried to calm the hysterical pony's whimpering cries, and soothe the terrified trembles with a few hugs. It hardly did anything. "He'll be alright! The best doctors in Equestria are working on him, trust me, he'll be alright."

"I have to see him," the pegasus whispered determinedly, and she was already advancing towards the hospital door. Twilight was about to reach out a hoof to stop her, but a firm doctor's beat her to it.

"Not right now you can't," the doctor said quietly, pulling the distraught pony back from the door and gently unclinging her from the frame. "He should be alright.. We had quite a lot of glass to take out, and he'll be in a couple casts..but he should be fine."

The doctor's slightly red stained hoof pulled the door back a bit, revealing the restless spirit sleeping on his back. "He's sleeping now though. You may come back to see him in the morning."

The girls watched as the doctor calmly trotted off with a hovered clip board in a bubble of magic at his side. The stallion disappeared down the dark corridors, into total blackness as he retreated back to the out patients.

"I didn't even realize how long we've been waiting," Twilight mused softly, watching as Luna's elegant silhouette could be seen from the balcony, the tendrils of blue, star dust magic swirling around her horn as the luminous orb rose into the sky to start the night. "It must have been hours now.."

There was no response except for the heavy clank as the metal door behind her shut, and no sight of the pony except for the dusty pink tail as it slipped through the door. Twilight heaved an exasperated, moaning growl as she slipped through Discord's door.

"Fluttershy! Oh, are you ever going to listen to the doctors?" Twilight sighed, wriggling in through the open crack and over to the spirit's bed. She was taken aback by his condition. Between the blood seeping through a few need-to-be-changed bandages, the casts, and his all in all injured form he looked awful.

"Sweet Celestia," Twilight breathed, wincing as she came closer and saw a few evidently sewn ladder stitch patterns in his flesh. "Guess the princess's green house idea wasn't really a success."

The saffron pegasus wept into the spirit's uninjured side, nuzzling into the warm fur and pressing her cheek against the side of his face. "Oh, the poor, poor little baby!" she sniffed, prompting Twilight to mumble a "little? Baby?" to herself.

"Fluttershy, I know you're upset.." Twilight needed to be careful with her words as she tried to gently drag the pony away. "The doctors know what they're doing though. They can help him better than we can, trust me."

With gentle tugs on the pony's hooves and tail, Fluttershy finally began to reluctantly back away from the bed, before finally turning hoof and following her friend from the room, her head low. It was then the spirit gave a sudden abrupt, rasped scream as the usual demons of his subconsciousness began to haunt him once more.

Twilight shook her head when Fluttershy shot her a desperate, tearful look. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." She glared in silent fury at the distressed chimera. Why now? Why of all times now in a hospital room did he start having these stupid nightmares? It wasn't as if the unicorn had fabricated a believable excuse to prolong her spell any longer. Plus, this dumb spirit was completely knocked out from his medicine. He would not wake up.

Stupid, stupid, STUPID Discord, Twilight thought angrily, mentally stamping her hoof and narrowing her eyes at the troubled creature. Fluttershy was already waiting patiently by his bed, giving his limp paw a nuzzle now and then.

"I guess this is it then," Twilight murmured, muting the room with a spell so the doctors wouldn't hear Discord's screams or any noise the spell might make. She took her position beside Discord's head, closed her eyes, and let her horn glow.

The wind erupted from her horn with a loud roar, rippling Discord's blankets to the point Fluttershy tried to push them against his body to keep them from flying off. The curtains rippled fiercely, flapping against the wall with a dull thud as the room was filled with a vibrant purple light.

The light traveled its way up Discord's calming, gradually stilling body, engulfing his entire form. Fluttershy fought to grip onto the bed rails, but unconsciousness's fingers pulled her hooves off, and her and Twilight landed with a thud to the hard ground.

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They appeared on the plush, long stretching royal red carpet, the dingy white hospital walls banishing from their sight. The windows were substantially newer, not yet dusty. The walls were plain, save for a few paintings. There were no stained glass windows.

In the dim, blurred dream cloud, Fluttershy noted a tiny, fuzzy little form sauntering his way through the palace corridors, looking bewildered and confused. His ruby red eyes quivered childishly, glistening with shiny tears that made the hearts of anyone that looked at him crumble.

The young entity of chaos looked only to be around five or six, the nubs of horns barely peeking out of the fluffy gray fur as he fell onto his rump in the middle of the carpet. the brimming tears began to spill over and make Twilight hold Fluttershy back to keep her from running to the baby.

The tot raised into the air, his chubby and jiggling belly making his wings struggle to flap and carry him off through the room. There was a look of determination set over the tiny muzzle, both to fly and both to find whatever he'd been searching for.

Nearing the end of one of the twisting corridors, Discord descended to the ground, landing on all fours and continuing his endless trek. His kitten paw pads and chick talons padded softly down the tile floors, further through the darkness. He had never been to this part of the palace before.

Distant murmurs drifted to his droopy little ears, perking them in curiosity as the baby spirit's walk turned to a scurry to find the source of the sounds. The youngling entity skid to a stop before one of the servants' doors, barely peeking his wide, curious eyes in.

"I question Aegeus and Astraia's judgement for taking in that thing. What do they expect to do with the spirit of discord? Nurture it, teach it to love and rule this land in as much prosperity as they did?!" a servant exclaimed angrily. "If I was a ruler of Equestria-"

"Don't go speaking treason of our King and Queen!" another servant hissed, a small explosion of light igniting from her horn as she engulfed it around a pillow, pounding it to rid it of dust.

"You know our majesties," another servant mumbled, "pure hearted – it wasn't like they could leave the kid to die out there, even though that's what the seer told them to do..drown it." No one heard the squeaking gasp from around the door.

"I heard their royal adviser is raising him, and that he's betrothed to Princess Celestia. I sometimes see them playing outside, but most of the time he's in the library with the adviser."

"Their quarters are in the library?" A blue unicorn servant plopped onto her newly made cot, staring up at the other ones inquisitively. "Why don't they live closer to the princesses?"

"For the most part, the old mare reads to him day by day, night after night. I think she's trying to cement the focus of harmony in his head, since he's supposedly, ya know, the exact opposite.. The nights I don't see him through the library window he's in King Aegeus and Astraia's care, sometimes sleeping in the same room of the princesses."

Another servant snorted. "Yeah – I saw him in the library once. He turned one of the adviser's books into a bushel of oranges. She wasn't too pleased of that."

"Well, she can't stop him from what he's destined to be, and what he's..destined to do."

Discord finally drew back from the doorway, trotting his way back into the hall, confusion etched across his face. Their words and the meanings of them were lost on his five year old mindset, and any attempt at trying to decipher them was interrupted by the sudden angry shout:

"Discord!"

"Hi Nanny-" The child yelped as the mare gave him a swat across the rear with her hoof, invoking a sniffling cry as the elderly mare glared down at him.

"Where in Equestria have you been? Do you realize how long I've been searching for you??" The child cowered under the grate of his nanny's shouts, lowering his eyes and rubbing at his sore rump with a paw. She picked him up by the scruff, trotting down the palace corridors.

"I was looking for Tia and Lulu," Discord mumbled, watching the scenery as it went by him. His eyes finally spotted the distant figures of the princesses out in the courtyard, gathered underneath a tree as their father read to them from books. Discord briefly considered trying a spell at turning the book into a pineapple.

"The princesses are busy with their lessons right now, dear, and you are late for yours," Honey Dew told him, tossing the baby belly down onto her back as she kept walking. "You know all three of you need to attend to your studies every day."

"What are their studies?" the baby inquired, gnawing absently on the mare's folded back, gray ear. "Do they learn about harmony and stuff as well?" He kept his eyes plastered on the princessses' forms, wishing so bad he could go out and join the two.

"No. Well, maybe.. For the most part the princesses learn how to run the land, and they practice on how to raise and lower the sun and moon. They're basically taught all there is to know about ruling Equestria."

"Maybe I could help them," Discord piped, unintentionally causing chills to rise up Honey Dew's spine, and make her skin tremor underneath her fur coat. The mare tried to disguise how uncomfortable his innocent suggestion had made her, and she smirked, nuzzling the bottoms of his feet and electing a squeal.

"First, you need to attend to your own lessons before you consider.." She tried not to let the smile waver off her face, "..helping them." After all, he didn't realize. For all the youngling spirit knew he just had a great amount of magical power with the capabilities to do anything.

Anything...

The two continued the trek down the sunset lit halls, disappearing around a corridor and out of the sight of the two ponies, who, unbeknownst to them, had been watching the entire time.

Fluttershy and Twilight exchanged searching looks of confusion, the servants' conversations cemented in their minds. 'Drown him' would forever haunt Fluttershy, and Twilight could already tell that the pegasus badly wanted to get back to the hospital room, probably to make sure he was still alive.

Twilight gazed up at her horn that was still pulsing with a purple magic, and she briefly considered casting an escape spell. What would that do though? Other than getting a glimpse of the spirit's childhood and finding out that the castle inhabitants wanted to drown him, they had accomplished nothing. No source of nightmares, nothing.

Yet it seemed answers were to come a lot sooner than either realized, as the floor beneath them began to twist into a distort of colors. Fluttershy panicked briefly, but the unicorn reassured her she could not be hurt in the dream.

The canvas of multi colors continued to twist in the air around the two ponies; the throne room fading out, being replaced with luscious grass underneath both girls' hooves; the white, shining ceiling tiles and chandeliers now an azure blue sky.

Celestia and Discord looked to be young adolescents, while Luna still seemed to be a filly. Celestia's long, pink mane trailed after her as she galloped through Canterlot's gardens, chasing the madly laughing draconequus, cheeks puffed out in rage.

"Discord, when I get my hooves on you!" It was then the two, startled dream visitors noticed the princess's coat...was a pale shade of green.

"Oh come now, it isn't MY fault you used the wrong shampoo this morning!" Discord shouted back, laughing as the moss green mare tackled him into the grass, shrieking as her cotton candy tail assaulted his belly. He fought against her hold, wrestling with the young alicorn there in the grass.

"Do it now, Luna! Douse him in water!" Celestia shouted back to her younger sister, who stared at them both in confusion, igniting her horn in a soft blue glow. Celestia waved frantically for her to do the spell while she still had the kid beast pinned down.

"Come on, I showed you how, remember?" Briefly, the princess made the fatal mistake of letting go of the spirit's legs, and Luna barely had time to scramble back before her sister hit the dirt in the spot she had been in. Discord sat on her legs, driving his feline paw in through the pastel mane and fiercely messing it as Celestia laughed and protested.

"That's foul play!" the teenaged girl squealed, pounding her hooves into the dirt and laughing. "It's foul play, Discord, ya big BULLY!"

"Foul – oh please, you two were just asking for – YAH!" Discord gave a gargled scream as a a sudden downpour of water sloshed from a glowing cloud above him, instantly making the young draconequus tumble off his best friend and fall into the soft grass.

"Hey, Celestia, I did-" Luna gave a squeak of surprise as Discord retaliated with a downpour of chocolate milk, soaking her azure mane and dying it brown. She spluttered, coughing out droplets of the liquid and wiping it from her eyes.

"All is fair in love and waaar~!" Discord sang cheerfully, about to summon a giant marshmallow when he was suddenly slammed into the grass, pinned by two mossy hooves. "Tia-!"

"All is fair in love and war," the princess muttered with a smirk, the most vengeful grin on her face. The moment Discord braced himself for an attack, her tongue lapped affectionately over his cheek. The love bitten teen's tongue lolled out as his head fell back against the grass in pure bliss as the girls giggled.

"Are you sure you should be making marital plans already, your majesty?" an elderly, wrinkled mare asked softly, concern well upon her face as she observed the children at play in the gardens.

"Already?" Aegeus chuckled softly, his crackling mane blazing in the sunlight as he took a step back from the shadows of the tree. "We've made marital plans for Celestia and Discord ever since the two were toddlers! It's important they start spending more time together."

"With all due respect, your majesty," Honey Dew hastily said, "you betrothed the face of harmony with the face of chaos. I do not feel that is very beneficial for the kingdom." She sighed, a gentle smile falling on the wrinkled face. "Despite how much the two love each other and how they are..inseparable."

The king was un-wavered from his standing decision, as he had been a decade ago when first introducing the three year old entity and the five year old princess. "One side of a coin cannot exist without the other, Honey," he said sagely, already beginning a dignified trot to the palace.

"Besides, Discord has been under your wing his entire life, and he's been under your teachings. I'm sure you've steered him well enough.

Now, see to it that Discord is fed dinner and – as always – his lessons. How are they coming along, Honey? Try teaching him about the Elements and how they balance Equestria. Or, have you already?"

The mare bit down on her lip, concealing the truth of just how well Discord's lessons had gone, and how he totally never transformed most of her books into candy and soft drinks. Oh no, not at all.

"They're going wonderfully, your highness," Honey Dew muttered, keeping her head low so her King wouldn't see the lies in her pained, hazel eyes. "I'm certain we needn't any longer fear for the safety of our Kingdom, and perhaps you are right and Discord and Celestia will be.." A thin smile came to her lips. "A match made in heaven."

"Indeed they are." The king cast a final, gentle look to his eldest daughter and surrogate son, sauntering his way back into the palace, his robes following behind him.

Twilight and Fluttershy shut their eyes tightly to try and stand against the sudden overpowering dizziness as the colors around them tangled once more; the canvas of blue melting into darkness. The two girls began to cough and gag as a sudden smoky odor assaulted their noses, burning their air passages as the smoke attacked them.

When the two finally opened their eyes they saw nothing but blackness, and they heard only the demonic chanting of a mantra of words. The two were still coughing, suddenly feeling the stinging vapor around them. Twilight latched her mouth around Fluttershy's wing, yanking them both out of the black cloud. So much for coming to no harm in the dream.

The room held a sense of darkness and evil. Twilight instantly recognized the black hazy cloud over the King and Queen's bed as black magic, and she started to pull the confused pegasus back with her, backing up to the entrance of the door and regarding it cautiously. Someone had cast black magic on the King and Queen.

A golden talon, illuminated by the silver moonlight, reached through the thin veil of black mist and extracted Aegeus's crown off the nightstand, chortling in amusement as he twirled it around on his arm like a hula-hoop.

"You know father, I remember you always used to reprimand me on touching your precious crown, because you were afraid I'd break it." A sneer twisted up over the gray muzzle as Discord lashed forward with playful venom, dangling the crown in front of Aegeus's sleeping face.

"I'm touching your crown, I'm touching your crown! Na-na-na-na-boo-booo!" Discord's paw flew to his mouth to stifle the giggles, before he collapsed onto his back in mirth. "Ohoho, why am I trying to be quiet?" He snickered, floating back up into the air, through the black cloud.

A talon coated itself in a yellow hue, sifting through the pages of the book that was forever burned into Twilight's mind: "Alicorn's Power."

The unicorn's vibrant, lavender coat was drained to a pale white, her knees buckling, frozen eyes locked on that book. That horrible book.

"Step one, put into a deep sleep," Discord murmured, reviewing the text. A mismatched, red eye slowly glanced over at the two suspiciously, and both girls suppressed their squeals of surprise as the draconequus whipped out a pair of cymbals, bashing them over the still alicorns' heads. Every painting, every tile trembled from the deafening clang, but the King and Queen made no movement.

"Fabulous," Discord laughed, returning to his book. "Final step – dear me, this is a short spell – magic is disabled. Ha! When they wake up they'll be as weak and helpless as infants!" A sickening cackle sounded from his throat as he descended, landing gently on the bed.

"Too weak to handle these spells, Dad? I think not." He snorted, adding an afterthought. "I'd love to see you attempt to raise that switch over me though. Now that would be a sight." A nervous look came to his face. "Of course, the spell doesn't hinder your physical state, so I better keep my mouth shut," he shuddered, cringing at the thought of receiving a spanking from his surrogate father. Ha, that was if the King could even function without using his magic.

The spirit slunk his serpentine body off the bed, pressing himself against the door and regarding the sleeping faces with satisfaction, twirling the crown up to his finger tips and catching it in the palm of his hand, curling his sharp claws around it.

"Not to worry, Mother, Father," the spirit hissed icily, spitting the words with disdain. "I'll take wonderful care of Celestia and Luna." The black fire in his eyes faded, replaced with the last gentle, solemn and promising look that the world would see from the entity in thousands of years.

"You know I would never see true harm come to any of you." And he left, his robe spilling onto the floor behind him as he made his way back to the throne room. Unaccustomed to the foreign, older hallways, Twilight and Fluttershy hurriedly followed after him on trembling limbs.

A sudden darkness followed their every step, engulfing the twisting corridors in a sea of black, darkening everything, extinguishing candles. Panicking, the two ponies increased their speed, but the back of the cantering spirit also disappeared in blackness.

The girls gripped onto each other for security, trying to adjust their eyes in the total blackness. Twilight's legs froze to the ground in fear, but she fought will her will power to keep from summoning a spell to illuminate the darkness. Any attempt at another form of magic would compromise the spell. Besides, Discord wouldn't just continue to dream of a dark void.

A soft melodic wail of anguish began to drift through the air, somewhere from the blackness. The girls gripped at each other, feeling tears stain their coats at the sheer heartbreak in the very distinguishable cries.

"Discord," Fluttershy sobbed, clinging to the lavender forelimb offered to her and drenching it in tears. Twilight's hoof gently rubbed at her back, asking her if she was ready to leave, and earning only a hostile "no" in return.

The girls braced themselves for the gruesome scene they were sure would meet their eyes, but nothing could have possibly prepared the two for what they saw. A single ember cut through the blackness, and it was quickly followed by more lit candles. Twilight and Fluttershy choked back the tears as the scene unfolded.

An infirmary pony gently draped a silk, white sheet over the lifeless bodies laying in the bed, eyebrows furrowed in grief and frustration as he and the other group of ponies mourned the loss of their King and Queen. Any attempt to wrench back the undesired tears was shot when Twilight's eyes lay on the young alicorns by their parents' bedside.

Tears slipped down the ivory and blue faces, soaking into the white sheets as the bewildered princesses looked on with a mask of horror and anguish. And above all, shock. Luna's breathing, the girls could tell, came out in sharp inhaled pants as she harshly sobbed. Yet, even as the rest of the room joined in on the synchronized sobs, even as the scene once more faded to black, all the girls heard were the haunting, rasped sobs from a certain draconequus somewhere off in the distance.

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And it was over. The light from Twilight's horn slowly extinguished, the rippling wind ceasing to nothing, making everything fall back into place. The two ponies could only stand there, millions of thoughts twisting in emotional turmoil.

Twilight could already tell Fluttershy was about to scream, and her hoof clamped fiercely over the saffron muzzle as the pegasus muffled her cries of anguish into her and drenched the lavender hoof with glistening tears.

"We need to get out of here." Twilight wasn't even sure if she spoke the words, her ears ringing. She still felt the sting of the black mist, and she still saw their lifeless faces. It was clear Fluttershy was going through a similar situation.

The unicorn fought to blink and suppress the deceased alicorns, the glint of malice in those red eyes, the chanting of the spell that ended their lives, and above all, Discord's haunting anguished cries – as she and Fluttershy promptly stumbled from the room, slamming the silver metal door behind them, leaving the spirit to his restless, memory plagued slumber.

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(WHOO! Sorry it's been so long. XD I don't really have an excuse because this story was already pre-written to chapter 10 before signing up on this site. ^^; I guess the new review I got pushed me to finally update.

Yep. Pretty much just flashbacks here and snippets of Discord's past. Not to worry, there are maaany more to come.

Next chapter: A busy Fluttershy needs to run some errands and leaves Discord with Applejack for the day. She's unsure if Applejack can handle him, but quickly learns her friend can do just fine!

Their back stories have been altered slightly, and even though Discord was taken in by the King and Queen, he was mostly raised by Honey Dew, nanny to the kids and the second mother to Discord.)

Comments

[atraiyu]

Hey there! I just discovered this story today, and wanted to let you know it's been a joy to read. Sometimes "character nursing enemy back to health" fiction can get a bit contrived, but I honestly think you've pulled it off well, and have kept very true to the characters! I can't wait to see the additional layers you add to the relationships between Celestia, Discord, and Luna. I was so excited I found this on the day there was an update too, ha.

And oh my, poor Fluttershy. I hope she doesn't have a broken heart after all this is over.

[Bridgebrain]

Yay! So happy for an update, so sad for its content Why must it all be so saaaad
But yes, excellent chapter. Did Celestia use her powers to try and bring him back, or was that basic CPR?

[Toolkit]

418777 I believe it was mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

[110calligraphybrony]

It said discord wanted to wrap his arms around celestia when she was kissing him