Deja Discord

by Ckat_Myla

8. These Questions Like a Whirlwind Carry Me Away

"Alright, so I need to be up top with the other pegasi, and obviously you can't come along for that,” Rainbow rattled off to Discord as if she had prepared this excuse in her head while on the way to pick him up.

She slowly flew slightly above him as she led Discord to the center of town. It seemed Rarity's outfit was still doing its job of keeping him incognito, or perhaps it was the ponies' imminent doom that caused them to not notice his meandering through their square.

As was now typical Spike accompanied them, the early hour not mixing with the dragon too well this time around either. He carried his mug of tea with him – clutching it tightly with both hands – and if it was possible he was actually walking slower than Discord was.

"So I'll let you be in charge of the 'optimal' thing. Twilight said it pretty much worked by itself, but that we might need some pony to watch it every now and then.”

At the very center of the square – given a berth by the town's ponies of a few meters around – was an odd contraption that vaguely resembled a barrel. It stood vertically with a small hole at the top, and a gauge showing numbers measured out in different ways on either side of the needle. Currently the needle was near the exact half of the gauge, and none of this did anything to inform Discord about what this thing was.

Rainbow Dash seemed to notice this, her tone suggesting that she knew about as much as he did, and that she found that ignorance frustrating.

"I think Twilight called it an 'optional dumb ceelo-something',” the pegasus tried to explain, only then noticing a small yellow note stuck to the machine's side. The word 'Rainbow' clearly visible on the folded page. She snatched it as she landed and unfolded the paper.

"Oh, ok,” she said as she skimmed the words, then reading them out loud. “It's an 'optical drum ceilometer. It uses triangulation of a spot of light projected onto the base of a cloud to determine its height.' So, it's how she's been able to keep an extra eye on Cloudsdale's progress from down here.”

Discord tapped the ceilometer with a front hoof, watching the needle jiggle for a moment before stopping again somewhere near the middle. Along the outside edge of the gauge it looked like Twilight had added a color code of green, yellow, and red to make the severity a tad simpler to identify. While the needle may have been near the center, it seemed to be slowly edging farther down the yellow section.

"So yesterday it was a lesson in physical tedium, and today it's the mental variety,” he said. “And yet another friend of Twilight's who is far too busy to actually help out.”

Dash's expression didn't change as she shrugged dramatically. “This is helping, or at least the best I can do right now. What do you want me to do? It's not like you can go up top with me.”

"Who says?”

"Uh, gravity for one,” she scoffed.

"Never have been a fan of that particular force,” Discord dismissed.

"You can't fly. You can't walk on clouds. This'll at least keep you in one place and out of trouble.”

"But if you really want my help with this whole mess, shouldn't I be allowed to see the problem from all angles?”

"We didn't ask for your help with the clouds,” Rainbow said with an annoyed flick of her wings. “Well, ok that's not exactly true. Because you were actually supposed to start spell duty with Rarity today, weren't you? You know, the thing that all the other unicorns are doing?”

"Plus, Twilight did specifically mention that you should do that,” Spiked piped up cautiously.

“Exactly, and I’d think you’d wanna at least give that a try. You haven’t been here more than three days and all I’ve seen you do is mope and complain.”

“Then isn’t it a nice change of pace for me to go along with you.”

Rainbow shook her head and scoffed again, clearly holding back what she actually wanted to say. She looked to Spike as he took another sip from his mug, and Discord thought she might have been considering the situation. She was certainly deliberating something.

“What happened a few months ago - what you did to back up what Twi was saying - that was actually pretty cool. I mean, once I understood it,” The pegasus sounded more controlled, but also more guarded. Like these words weren’t easy to say to him.

“You mean once you finally decided that her words were her own and I wasn’t coercing her.”

“Once Twilight showed us that, yeah,” Rainbow answered. “It was pretty cool of you… if you look at it the way Twilight does,” she continued with confidence.

“The way I see it though, I don’t think you would have stuck your neck out like that to prove her right if it hadn’t been your tail on the line. Because that was the only way you saw of getting what you wanted.”

“Mostly what I wanted,” he specified. “Where you are mistaken is that I saw no way of getting what I wanted.” He had seen no scenario where he would have walked away from that stand-off free, no matter how convincing his new ally was, or what he chose to give of himself. He hadn’t even really believed Twilight’s plan would work. But he had chosen to go along with the one pony that hadn’t completely written him off. The one that had given him hope.

“So you agree that you owe Twi, but… then what have you been doing? You might not actually care about her like she thinks you can - and if you really aren’t massively pranking us - you should at least understand that. I keep thinking that if it weren’t so unpleasant for you to be like this and so crucial to you to get back to your old self, you wouldn’t be playing along at all.”

"Well those are the only reasons I could possibly have. Either I’m only in this for myself, or this is all one big joke on you.”

“Your attitude hasn’t exactly said anything different,” she said, her frown intensifying. “Especially if you keep skipping out on what you were actually asked to do. And now that your foal sitter’s not here you’ll just do the bare-minimum until she comes back and deems that you’ve learned your lesson.”

Just what made her think that he didn’t understand or appreciate what Twilight had done for him? Even if it hadn’t been hammered into him by Celestia, Discord wasn’t as dense about the matter as every pony seemed to believe. Of course he understood it. He tried to show his appreciation in his own way, the only way he knew. This pony really didn’t know much about anything. If she’d been around for that last argument he and Twilight had had, Discord doubted she would think Twilight would be so willing to just hand over a good grade when she returned.

“What makes you think she would do that, then?” he asked.

Rainbow Dash looked far away for a second, losing her frown momentarily as if she were visiting a memory that she still did not quite understand.

“Because she’ll want to. She believes there’s this potential in you to do the right thing without having an agenda. I dunno how right she is but… she does.”

Ah, the faith that Twilight had in him. Had… it could very well be in the past tense now. That had given him a sense of hope that he’d tried to hold onto ever since those words had left her mouth. If Rainbow Dash here didn’t believe Discord to truly care about that faith in him that came along with Twilight’s friendship, was that what she had begun to think as well? It wasn’t much of a leap to take, considering how things had been between them lately.

“We gave you the choice today to go with Rarity, but you opted out, I dunno why AJ thought that would be a good idea but you made your choice. So it's either sit here and watch this thing or go make that horn of yours useful.” She gave his horn a poke for emphasis, much to Discord's annoyance.

"Let me go up there with you, and I’ll consider it,” Discord offered. It was the best he could muster, for he did not want to attempt that spell today, and not for the reasons this pony thought. Not as if she would believe him in any case.

“If you really want to go with her, there's always that spell Twilight used once to help ponies walk on clouds,” Spike mentioned with a look to Discord. “That's only if you're really interested in seeing it because you wanna help, not to get away from spell duty.”

The dragon appeared to see through his plan, or part of it anyway. It was true that Discord was attempting to avoid joining in with the other unicorns... not due to any lapse in his confidence to perform the spell; it merely seemed like a waste of his talents... as did most of the chores set to him lately. It seemed that the life of a pony was filled with many bouts of activities that just weren't fun, but done anyway.

It wasn't that entirely however. If this whole crisis concerning these two towns was causing Twilight so much stress – enough to add to it by leaving – there was a part of Discord that was curious to observe it more closely. He might be able to do something that was closer to his actual field of capability.

Rainbow was about to take off when Spike spoke, and she slumped a bit as she re-folded her wings. “Yeah there's that spell, but... do you really think he has the magic skills to keep it up?”

"As he is standing right here and he has controlled magic far beyond any form of basic unicorn magic, I'd say he has a pretty good shot,” Discord butted in. “It can't be that difficult.”

"More difficult than putting together a foldable bed?” Spike prodded only a bit sarcastically. “I'll go and get the book, but you're really gonna have to focus on it.”

"Yeah, or you'll be getting acquainted with gravity real quick,” Rainbow added, seemingly caving. “If you can actually get the spell to work and I don't have to save your tail, then I'll find a chariot or something to take you up in. We're not taking the balloon, its way too slow.”

Both pegasus and dragon headed off in different directions as Discord still stood, wondering how long it would take them to realize they had actually left him alone – something which he was sure they absolutely did not want to do.

“One, two, three...” he counted under his breath, one gleeful moment thinking they might actually have left him by himself for a few minutes. That was until he got to three and they both came zipping back.

Rainbow was muttering something and Spike had one clawed hand to his face, both noticing that the other had left him as well.

“You take him,” Rainbow said to Spike.

“Just wait here,” Spike said to Discord at the exact same moment.

Just as eager to get this show on the road as they were, Discord decided that he might as well follow the young dragon. The Pony Boy had the spell he needed anyway.

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Twilight's entire day had been spent in the lofty balcony that was the Meteorology and Pegasi Studies section of the Crystal Empire's library. By the time the sun was sinking below the horizon to bring on the night she had nearly gone through the whole section twice. Building a nice little fort for herself out of the books, the unicorn stacked them across several tables in order of relevance.

A part of her felt actually almost peaceful as she was able to spend hours on end just reading, although the usual zen that her research gave her couldn't be completely achieved. With every new volume Twilight would feel a surge of hope, or potential and opportunity, which would slowly die away as she flipped through their pages. The basics she knew would not be all that helpful, but in a few books she did manage to find some interesting methods.

Casting in the Clouds offered something in the way of an atmospheric lifting spell. Although it read more like it was the atmosphere that would be lifted more so than the clouds.

In a similar way to how the pegasi had lifted the water up to Cloudsdale to make the supply of rain, the unfortunately-titled Breaking Wind: How to Tame the Air mentioned a group flight maneuver that could create an updraft powerful enough to ease the city back upwards. With the unicorns keeping it steady with their spell it was conceivable... if only they could find some way to keep it in its normal place once they got it there.

And she concluded that 10 Things You Didn't Know About Weather Magic & What You Can Do Now You've Wised Up should probably get a title change, for it seemed that all ten things advertised she had found in many of these other books.

She had seen Cadance for a brief time after Mrs. Dusthooves had found her and her brother to inform them of the library's closing. It took them a while to replace all of the books to their proper shelves, but Twilight kept the few most relevant ones she had uncovered on a table.

Her next day began with only a bit less resolve than Twilight had on her first day there. Finding the books she had set aside to leave at the front with the librarian, the unicorn set her sights on another section. It was only an hour or so of burying herself in the section on Contemporary Magical Theory that she realized her brother was not with her.

Marking her place among the new forest of shelves, Twilight walked around the section in search of him. She then went to the adjacent section, still no Shiny.

The echo of Twilight's hooves in the smooth crystal floor had become background noise to her, but eased back into the forefront as she listened out for another set of hooves. Once she had reached the front where Mrs. Dusthooves still sat with her own stack of books, Twilight had to accept that Shining Armor wasn't there. She couldn't blame him, she had given him an out the previous day. Twilight was grateful and a little surprised that he had stuck with her for this long.

"Looks like I lost my research partner,” she said in part to Mrs. Dusthooves, partly to herself.

"Oh yes, the prince mentioned for me to tell you he was going to see if the princess had any time free, and that he would return later to 'help me kick you out for dinner',” the librarian answered, a small nervous laugh escaping her as she quoted Shining.

Twilight chuckled too. “That sounds about right. Thanks for telling me,” she thanked her as she turned back towards the section she'd come from, her mind all ready to set itself back into scan-mode.

The sun shining through the crystal ceiling often sent tiny rainbows off in various directions, and sometimes they would randomly land right in Twilight's eye when she least expected it. As she turned her head, a sudden blinding of her right eye caused her to wince and turn away from her chosen direction. Once out of the way of the stray beam, the unicorn's eyes landed on the darkened doorway a bit further behind where Mrs. Dusthooves was busily stamping books. The one that had caught her eye earlier upon their arrival.

She didn't see a placard indicating what section they might lead to, but the fact that the carved opening concealed a set of stairs that seemed to move downward did give Twilight's curiosity a tiny nudge.

Twilight's wonder about this new set of stairs found her nearly passing the librarian's desk before she halted.

"Excuse me,” she lifted a hoof to the desk to get Mrs. Dusthoove's attention. “But where does that stairway lead?” Twilight pointed with her other foreleg to indicate the opening.

Mrs. Dusthooves peeked around the corner to where Twilight was pointing. “Oh, that leads to Ancient History and World Mythology.”

It didn't immediately sound like an area that would present any results for her search, and the stairs descending into the dark didn't exactly give it much of a friendly feel, but something about it had sparked an inclination inside her to check it out. Twilight did want to be thorough in her search after all, and since she had already gone up, going down sounded like a natural next step.

Lighting her horn, the purple pony headed downwards into the cool of the darker section towards wherever her curiosity was leading her.

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Discord surprised every pony by being able to sustain his footing on the clouds. They felt different beneath these hooves, less substantial than he recalled when lounging on clouds in his favored form. It was taking more concentration than he'd assumed it would, but at least it was getting somewhat easier.

Spike assumed it must be because he was getting used to this way of magic focus, and while on one claw that might have been a good thing, Discord couldn't help but find that equally negative. He didn't want to be 'getting used' to it, because that might mean that he was intending to stay in this form for longer than he absolutely must.

Sure, there was a certain sense of accomplishment and maybe even pride in figuring this whole horn thing out, finally getting the hang of something seemingly so rudimentary to ponies yet he had never done.

Proving he could do it, that was something. Although it also continued to reinforce his appreciation for how his natural powers worked - or rather - allowed him to not have to work.

This cloud-walking spell did not allow for more than his own weight to be supported, so Spike was much to his regret left behind again to wait in the chariot.

"Don't worry, Spike," Rainbow Dash said as she unhitched herself from the harness. "We won't be staying long, or at least you two won't be."

Once free of the straps, the pegasus walked around to give her scaly friend a playful punch. Then with a side glance to see if he wasn't looking, she leaned in to whisper to Spike, "I'll betcha two bits he loses hold of that spell in less than twenty minutes."

She really hadn't needed to lean in, she did not appear to be all that skilled at whispering. Discord heard her clearly enough. Well, he didn't imagine much in the way of votes of confidence from the mare, he did notice that Spike did not accept the wager.

The cloud city was - as explained - empty but for the few pegasi manning the weather factory and the number of their fellows high above the cirrus-y spires trying to pull the clouds up. Literally pulling, with ropes and everything. Part of Discord just wanted to begin a slow clap and deem this idea positively precious. Further out he could spot other winged ponies directing other flight traffic around and away from Cloudsdale, and every so often the ones holding the most-likely magical ropes gave a flutter, shudder, or a tug as they continued to pull and stay upright.

Watching a dark blue pony directly above them lose his grip for a moment only to flip out and flap hysterically to regain his altitude, Discord tried to stifle a laugh. His covered snort instead came out even louder than he'd planned.

At this, Rainbow Dash whipped around to his eye level faster than it took him to stop himself and re-focus his spell (for in his tiny fit, he'd lost his concentration and had felt his hooves begin to sink into the cloud).

"Hey, what exactly makes this so funny? This isn't a joke Dissy," she reprimanded, putting am emphasis on Pinkie’s nickname for him. Wonderful, Discord was so glad that was catching on.

"You wanted to see the damage up here and the efforts we're taking. Well, here it is," she added, with a sweeping of her hoof to show the scene before them. "Look around and see if you've got any better ideas." Her frowning face looking away from him now, he saw Rainbow's eyes turn back to the pony Discord had been laughing at. The stallion did look fairly exhausted. He followed her gaze to the ponies in place near him, noting that even the ones wearing the armor were showing signs of fatigue. Sighing, Dash shook her head at the sight.

Discord thought he could recognize something now in the blue mare's expression, and it was a small consolation to get the impression her frustration was not completely due to his 'tagging along'.

The rope the pony was struggling to grip was secured at a place close to where they stood. The width of the cable was almost the same as the average pony's leg, and made of some material Discord had never seen. At the base it was reinforced by the same silvery substance somehow melding with the cloud.

"We knew we needed something with some more reliability then regular rope,” Dash said before he could ask. She must have caught his questioning expression from the corner of her eye. “So we got these from a forge in Las Pegasus. They're mostly Celestial Diamond, which is great since it can be melded with pretty much anything. They also added some stuff they found in the north outside of the Crystal Empire that's supposed to absorb vibrations. We hoped that might help with the pulling... so we wouldn't feel the forces at work as much.”

She continued to watch her fellow pegasi instead of Discord, disappointment clearly evident even in these specially-formed magic ropes she was explaining.

"This was supposed to be a temporary measure until Twi could find something else to fix things, but every day it's just getting wor-" a sudden shudder rippled through the clouds beneath their feet, and both of them were jostled from their stance.

Rainbow was quicker to brace herself than Discord, who had not been expecting the cloudy 'floor' beneath him to be so violently yanked. So after the shaking had stopped as quickly as it had started, Rainbow was still standing with only a few feathers out of place while Discord was splayed with his hooves in all directions, trying to right himself and maintain the spell.

"So much for those things absorbing anything.”

Dash smoothed her errant feathers back down, grumbling a bit still as she shook her head again. "Yeah... shift change. We always get kinda tossed around when it's time to switch off."

They both looked back up to see the dark blue stallion doing the aerial equivalent of limping away as another pegasus took his place with the rope.

Passing by the weary pony was a recognizable yellow mare, who became temporarily distracted from her flight by the stallion, pausing to give him a concerned pat on the shoulder.

“Oh for the love of-- is any pony going to do what they’re told today?” Dash complained with a hoof to her face upon noticing her friend. She waved a hoof and shouted up to her.

“Fluttershy!” She called up authoritatively. The sound of her name caused Fluttershy to jump and shy away from the pony she was comforting. When she had found the source of the call, the mare brightened however hesitantly.

Dash rolled her eyes as the mare fluttered down to meet them. “Aren’t you supposed to already be up with the flight traffic crew?”

Fluttershy looked apologetic, which was mostly how Discord typically saw her. “I know, I was just on my way when that shudder happened. I wanted to find you and make sure you were okay.”

The blue mare’s frown softened at her words into a smile that clearly meant she should have known. “Yeah, I’m fine. This guy’s fine, I’m sure Spike’s fine too if he stayed in the chariot,” she nodded her head in Discord’s direction as she listed whom had come along with her.

After landing in front of them, Fluttershy straightened her curtain-like mane from her face. She blinked when her eyes turned to Discord (who was mildly losing interest now) but she seemed to have recognized him before Rainbow pointed him out.

“Oh, and you brought-” she started, halting her sentence before quickly looking around as if someone might overhear. “Discord,” she whispered his name with a look to Dash. How the pony managed to somehow get her voice even quieter than it already was Discord didn’t know.

“I didn’t bring him, he just up and decided that he was going to come with me today,” Dash said. “Aaand I was just about to take him back where Spike’s waiting so---”

"What's the rush?" his question cut the blue pegasus off. "Weren't you waiting for me to accept your challenge?"

"That wasn’t a challenge,” Dash said.

“You’re right, I’m sure it wouldn’t be much of a challenge for me, even in my current condition,” he smirked. “Though I do understand your backing out, clearly you wouldn’t be able to handle any helpful ideas I could conceive.”

Discord took a moment to appreciate how he almost felt like his old self for a moment. He’d concluded that there was just no way of getting to do what he wanted in any straight path with this one. If it weren’t for Spike he doubted Rainbow Dash would have even taken him up, so outright offering his brain to add to the proverbial storm wouldn’t be met favorably. He had to play to her sense of competition.

“Do you have an idea?” Fluttershy surprised both Discord and Dash by piping up, looking a little bit hopeful.

While he watched Rainbow Dash stew in her conflicting mind, Discord considered this. “Not as yet, but if you really want my input…”

“Dash, maybe we should let him try,” she said. Her meek appeal not appearing to aid the blue pony in the battle going on in her head.

“Yeah Dash, come on,” Discord goaded with an emphasis on her name this time. He probably didn’t need to add anything more, Fluttershy’s doe-eyed plea was doing more in his favor than he could have imagined. Too bad that trick wouldn’t work if he tried it.

It took some time, but the stubborn rainbow pony finally realized that she had lost the battle.

“Ugh, fine. If you really think you can think of something, then yeah sure, Let’s hear it. ” she spat her aggressively reluctant agreement as she took to the air again. “But only cause I hate seeing every pony like this and we’re getting desperate. And only if you can think and walk back to the chariot at the same time.”

“Challenge accepted, then,” he said as he began at a snail’s pace back towards where Spike was waiting. It wasn’t a long walk, and Discord wanted to take as long as possible. It would give him more time to think, and it was already having a very enjoyable second benefit of frustrating the speed-obsessed Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy walked with them, staying on the cloud floor beside Discord and not seeming to mind his pace. She also did not appear to mind avoiding her appointed duty either. Although the temporary pony felt that it was less to do with his reasoning and more likely out of that natural kindness of hers.

Quite slowly they passed a few more bases of the magical ropes being held by pegasi. Discord took a good, long look while re-considering one as they walked.

"What might happen if you weren't using these things to pull?”

"Um, you just felt it,” Dash answered, referring to the shudder, “Even with the unicorns pushing from below, it's not enough to keep it up without us.”

"But it seems to still be sinking despite your unnecessarily strained efforts,” he indicated the pony holding up the rope nearest them. “You all just keep trying to push or pull the thing to slow it down, and how has that been working out for you?”

Rainbow Dash’s whole body drooped at Discord’s remark. She landed with an exhaustive look and turned back to him.

"Oh this’ll be good,” she scoffed. “You have an idea, then?”

"What do you do when normal clouds start falling to the ground?”

"I think you mean fog, and that’s when their density becomes too great and we have to come and dissipate it.”

"So what’s wrong with doing that?” he asked.

"And how do we do that, smart guy? Cloud density is not the problem here,” Rainbow said obviously. “It’s not like this is a normal cloud, its magic is supposed to keep it in the sky at all times. Dissipating won’t to a darn thing – other than possibly make all our buildings sink through or fall apart - because it’s not just made of water.”

"Then you just change what it’s made of, simple as that.”

"Oh yeah Dissy, we’ll get right on that,” Dash said sarcastically, using that nickname again. It was just so first-thought. Given some time Discord felt he could think of a much better one. She must have known he wasn't fond of it. “Because we can totally do that, or haven’t you heard?”

"All I’m saying is that you’re all approaching it from the wrong direction,” Discord said with a shrug. “The keeping-it-from-sinking as opposed to seriously focusing on the pulling-it-back-up part.”

"We haven’t been able to find a way that won’t harm one or both towns,” Fluttershy explained. “That’s why we’re hoping that Twilight can find something.”

“But I don’t think whatever she finds is gonna involve pulling,” Dash gave another glance up to the ponies above from Fluttershy’s other side.

“It just does not seem to be such a problem to manipulate them. Whatever they’re made of, they should be malleable to some extent,” he argued.

“You sure do have a lot to say about what we should do, given that you haven’t done squat about it yourself,” Rainbow Dash leered in suspicion. “The way you’re talking now it could make some pony wonder if you had something to do with causing this problem in the first place.”

Discord raised a hoof in mock-realization. “Wait wait, I do believe I’ve heard this one before. You should think about getting some new material.”

"Um, but Twilight said she didn’t think he would do anything like this,” Fluttershy spoke up. “We should probably give him the benefit of the doubt.”

"Yeah well, Twilight’s not here and even if he didn’t cause this, he’s supposed to be helping us fix it without bugging me to come up here,” Rainbow shook her head and took to hovering again.. “Why don’t we get you back to Ponyville so you can go and find out when you’re on spell duty while we continue our ‘futile’ efforts from up above?”

Her patience with him gone as far as it could go apparently, Rainbow zoomed off towards the chariot. Not exactly sporting, Discord thought. Although that did not mean that the ‘challenge’ was over.

He smirked at her form shrinking as she flew away, leaving him with only Fluttershy who still walked alongside him. She too watched Rainbow go, her face falling as if it had been she who had caused Dash to leave.

Rainbow had of course brought up that spell of theirs again. If it was so important then why couldn’t it be used to move the cloud city up instead of keeping it stable or whatever it was doing?

“Do you know what the actual specifications of this whole spell business is?” he asked Fluttershy offhandedly.

Fluttershy shook her head. He didn’t actually think she would know, but he had been surprised before recently.

“So you don’t know if they could maybe just put some extra effort into it or something. Eat some bran or magic moon mushrooms?”

“It’s really not that easy,” she said. It was a few more minutes of walking before she lifted her face from the cloud floor to address him again, at least sounding more hopeful. “But I have seen Rainbow Dash spin some clouds back up to the sky… though that was a lot smaller.”

They were within sight of the chariot now, Rainbow already wriggling into the harness and having a wrestling match with one of the buckles. Spike was still in the carriage, leaning over the side to speak to Rainbow but not seeming to get a reply.

“What would be the problem with doing that then? Get your little pegasus band together and whip the thing back upwards.”

“Like when we pull the rain water up to the weather factory?” Fluttershy asked. Discord had no idea what she was talking about, but he assumed from her expression this was a fair comparison.

“Uh… sure. Whatever that is, why not do that?”

They were now within earshot of the other two, Spike turning their way with a smile while Rainbow was still going pony-to-pony with the harness.

“Well… I don’t know,” Fluttershy said, sounding a bit like it made her wonder too. “I mean, I don’t know how close this problem is to that.”

Spike appeared to have only caught the tail end of the conversation as they approached, but chimed in nonetheless. “That takes a lot of wing power though, right? Didn’t you need about four-hundred wing power or something to get the water up here?”

“Eight-hundred!” Rainbow struggled to latch the final latch and correct Spike at the same time. “And you’d need a whole lot more than that to even attempt what you’re thinking. Like, over three thousand.”

“Oh my, do we even have enough ponies to do that?” asked Fluttershy. They watched Rainbow straighten up with a groan.

“No-- maybe,” she answered. Little patience seemed to have been recovered. “I dunno, it’s not like we’re even gonna do it, that sounds risky at best and downright moronic at worst.”

“I don’t think it sounds that bad,” the yellow mare lowered her ears at her friend’s words.

“You’d have to find a way to keep every pony and everything in Ponyville from getting uprooted and flying away though,” Spike brought up. “But it is an idea.”

“Not that great of one,” said Rainbow. “You just said it, how do you expect to keep everything below stabilized? That’s even if we could get enough pegasi to get to three-thousand WP.”

“Details,” Discord waved his hoof in her direction.

“Those are some pretty big details for you to be hoof-waving away. Why don’t you just get your tail in the carriage with Spike, Mister Idea Pony?”

The mare seemed to be beyond tired of indulging him, this entire excursion up on the cloud surface couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes, it couldn‘t have taken up that much of her day. And after he tried to rise to the ‘challenge’ by trying to help too. Though the pegasus was most likely determined to ignore any ideas Discord might think up, he thought that he had at least gotten the hard-headed pony to think outside her normal and immediate pool of thinking.

Relieved to be able to stop holding the spell, Discord climbed into the chariot with hardly a complaint. He had a brief glimpse of Fluttershy beginning to wave them goodbye when Rainbow Dash took off like a shot. The ride back down looked like it was going to be a lot bumpier than going up. The rainbow pony zooming up for a minute to bypass the boundaries of Cloudsdale and have a clear shot for their descent back to Ponyville.

A brief moment of stability gave Discord time to sling his forelegs over the side of the carriage and observe the view below, Ponyville sitting almost smack dab in the center of this impending bullseye. What was it about looking down from this height that somehow made this whole crisis of theirs to feel more real. It might have been the lurch in his weak pony stomach at the view, or that his pony eyes could take in nearly the whole shadow Cloudsdale draped over the land.

“She’s about to dive, I’d hang on if I were you,” he could hear Spike just over the wind that had picked up (no doubt having no effect on the city). He had barely registered what Spike had said before Rainbow took a jarring swoop downwards, knocking the chariot and its inhabitants for a loop. Banging into the dragon and knocking his hooves from their resting place, Discord tried to brace himself in some way as Rainbow Dash took another hairpin turn to avoid hitting something he couldn’t see.

Losing his hold on the chariot’s edge was not the best thing to do, because the next turbulent bump of the pegasus’s hectic scramble to get him back to town had flung him directly out of the carriage. As he felt himself falling away from the safety of the small contraption, an involuntary panic coursed through his body. Without realizing what he was doing his hooves grasped fruitlessly for a hold on the edge as it sped the opposite direction from where the wind was taking him. His horn even managed to send off a spark or two, as if even his limited unicorn magic was attempting to put his tail back where it new was safe.

This body of his grasped the whole concept of its own mortality much faster than Discord’s mind it seemed. It was only as he began to notice how very fast and very solid the ground beneath him was beginning to look that he even began to catch up with himself just how mortal this form of his could be.

But, it wasn’t as if he’d really be hurt, was it? There was no way he could die while stuck like this, was there? The surge of panic he was unable to quell appeared to believe so. But just as he was about to give in to screaming and flailing about helplessly, he heard a woosh above him as a yellow streak met him in midair. The pony caught his right foreleg with both of hers, the sudden yank of which causing some exceedingly excruciating pain to shoot up from his shoulder as the pink-maned pony flapped her wings to reduce their speed.

Another fun involuntary reaction was the scream Discord let out the instant he was caught. He had yet to feel physical pain in this body, so he had no idea that such an already-unpleasant concept would or could possibly be so magnified.

Fluttershy winced at his cry, folding her ears and looking like she might let out a cry herself. “I’m so, so sorry. I tried to catch you properly but you’d started kicking and turning, I was afraid to try until you held still.”

“Gaah! So you didn’t mean to pull my leg off?” he shouted up at her, which only made her look of guilt intensify. She squeaked and sniffled, shaking her head as their speed continued to slow.

“I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry. I-I just saw you fall out and I knew Rainbow Dash hadn’t.”

“What are you apologizing for?” they heard the pony in question call as she swung the chariot around underneath them for Fluttershy to safely deposit him. “You saved his flank, he should be thanking you.”

They were much closer to the ground, but once Fluttershy had released her hold on him, Discord’s pain only felt worse. New stabs of it shot up with every slight movement, he winced as the pony let it go and it dramatically flopped to his side. “I’ll thank her after we can somehow get my leg re-attached.”

Spike came close to him to inspect Discord’s problem. He pulled his leg away, holding it with his other foreleg to keep his shoulder from moving.

“Are you seriously hurt? Let me see,” he asked with some air of actual softness, actual caring. At this moment it didn’t do all that much for him, but Discord at least acknowledged that it was there.

“Rainbow, land over on that cloud please, I want to see how badly he’s hurt,” Discord heard Fluttershy quietly plead to the mad-mare driver.

Rainbow Dash looked reluctant for a moment, but did seem to realize that Discord was not faking. He admitted to being able to pull off a ruse, but even he was not that good an actor.

She landed the chariot on a nearby cloud barely big enough for it and her. Fluttershy hovered above while she and Spike tried to coax Discord into relinquishing his hold on the injured appendage.

The yellow mare looked frazzled, unsure of herself as Discord tried to find a way to make it hurt less while still not letting his leg move any more than he absolutely had to.

“Oh my goodness, um, can you try to touch your other shoulder?” she asked. The pseudo-pony was at that moment attempting to not pass out from the pain, so trying to touch his shoulder with this thing that used to be a working leg felt almost laughable.

“Are you kidding?” he moaned through gritted teeth, only just now managing to move his good foreleg away from the one that somehow could look so useless and cause such intense pain.

“Just try,” coaxed Spike, wincing from him a bit as well at the sight of his injury.

Letting out an exhaustive breath, he took another and held it in, only to let it out again with another yelp as his foreleg only moved a fraction of the way across his chest, absolutely nowhere near the opposite shoulder.

“Oh, oh no. I was hoping that it wasn’t that bad. Oh, I am so sorry,” Fluttershy began to babble her apology again without giving a solution. “I think you might have dislocated it.”

“I might have?” he growled, but groaned with pain again from the sudden movement to turn towards her. Seeing the meek pony look like she really would cry this time, he was able to think through the blinding pain enough to consider that she had saved him, and she had been the one to get Rainbow Dash to listen to him for a moment. “Alright, alright. Sorry, and thanks for catching me I suppose. But I'll be much more grateful if you can fix this!” the last part of his sentence grew in volume as the pain shot through him once more. He groaned again from the pain as well as having to distribute an apology and a thank you on top of it during this ordeal.

Fluttershy at least stopped tearing up, and appeared to be returning to her frazzled nurse mode.

“What can we do for him?” Spike gave a concerned look up to the Pegasus. Fluttershy’s ears drooped again, sending the message that whatever it was Discord would not like it.

“We’ll um.. I mean, I’ll have to… we don’t have another unicorn here to do it magically so… I have to try and pop it back in.”

Yup, that sounded exactly as fun as Discord had thought.

Instructing Spike to help hold him down, Fluttershy gingerly took Discord’s injured leg, earning another yowl from him and both pony and dragon another wince as he did so right next to their ears. He hadn’t thought Spike’s extra weight on him was necessary until he felt Fluttershy put even the smallest amount of pressure on him and he flinched so hard it could have been mistaken for convulsions.

Minutes passed feeling like hours to Discord as Fluttershy kept trying to slowly and easily fix the problem resulting in only stronger bouts of pain and more apologies from her.

It was only after he himself felt as if he could take no more when he heard the gruff tones of the other pegasus in the group turning to them. “Alright, that’s enough! I know you’re trying to be gentle-like Fluttershy, but this is not what he needs. Here, let me try.”

Discord’s eyes widened slightly, and he tried to protest, but this irksome body was weakened now from all the waves of pain and he could only barely shake his head as Rainbow came into view.

“Oh, but Dash, do you know how?” he heard Fluttershy ask while Rainbow muscled her way past her.

She shrugged. “It can’t be too hard. His leg fell out, we just pop it back in.” Her tone was not comforting.

With a much firmer grip, Rainbow Dash grabbed his foreleg sending fresh pain through him, and with one of her own forelegs on his shoulder for steadiness, lined his foreleg up and proceeded to jam it back into the hole with a muffled squelching, almost cracking noise. That noise was barely registered over Discord’s loudest shout of protest yet, especially due to the rough manner she used. Like she was using his foreleg to stab him.

But once his shout had ended, the pain began to subside, and he had full control of his leg again. Discord nearly collapsed with the exhaustive relief, his mind begrudgingly registering that he probably owed the blue Pegasus a thank you now as well. If he could remember to after he woke up from passing out, he might get around to it.

Comments

[Kapuchu]

Looks like Discord just learned a little bit about what it means to be pony. He learned of mortality, something he's probably never even considered.

[Ckat_Myla]

3573285 That Discord on Cloudsdale part just kept getting longer, I wanted to show more of what's being affected and how they were reacting, and it was sort of obligatory to show how he can be injured in this form (sort of a tentpole brought over from the episode).

[Kapuchu]

3574155
And he did get injured
I also kinda like how he automatically feels obligated to thank Rainbow after she puts his leg back in place. Or rather, how he thinks that he's now supposed to thank her since she helped him.

Tiny steps forward, but still steps.

[Xion_Stellar]

Once again this was another good chapter to read and I do look forward to the next one!

[Jadeile]

Ah, I finally had the moment to read this~ I was ecstatic when I saw that you posted a new chapter but I've been tired and busy lately so I couldn't read it right away. After all, chapters for this fic should be read with no distractions so I can give them the attention they deserve

It was worth the wait

I'm such an evil person that I just love it when Discord gets hurt in fics in some meaningful way, so this chapter has all my Yes~ Also, Fluttershy

[Mr Stargazer]

3613564 I could go into an analysis of what it says about you that the method of delivery is more important than the content. That however would be a waste of time.

Though I will admit its kind of a funny typo.

[JeromeSaur]

3614029 I mean, I agree with what he/she says, but...
DAT TYPO

[MrSpartan]

Forgive me if I feel more like punching RD in the face for causing a dislocation with her reckless flying then thanking her for cleaning up her own accident.
th04.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2013/301/2/9/accord__i_am_disappoint_by_smashedatoms-d6s3zzj.jpg

[Lazysteve]

Must say good job on capturing Rainbows character perfectly... In that of being a total fucking asshat that cares only about herself or things she considers hers.

On a completely unrelated note was it said as to why they couldn't direct Cloudsdale away from Ponyville and land it in the open field?
Or why it was so close to Ponyville to begin with?