Choices

by Styrofoam

Chapter Three

Discord’s mismatched eyes squinted as he peered down upon the mountain city of Canterlot from his cloud perch high in the skies. Discord was no fool. Contrary to what most ponies believed, he wasn’t just a dangerous ball of unpredictability fated to be resealed in stone by another crop of Harmony wielders a hundred years from now. He was Discord The Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony and a draconequus thousands of years old with both considerable knowledge and power. He could read the signs that something big was in the works. Something huge. There was a change in the air, and yet Discord could not figure exactly what it was…

“Hmm…” the draconequus hummed while thoughtfully tugging on his fluffy white beard.

Something was happening in Equestria, and Canterlot Castle was right smack in the middle. Usually, Discord never really cared about anything that befell Equestria, whether it was positive for the inhabitants or not. No matter what state the nation was in, its basic potential for chaos would never change. Chaos was such a beautiful thing. And yet something about the way the air even smelled caught his attention. That made no sense—the atmosphere over Equestria having a smell, but it did. In fact, it smelled purple, really really purple. And Discord smiled. Something in Equestria didn’t make sense, and it made quite a ruckus in doing so. The draconequus couldn’t wait to meet it.

Suddenly a purple pegasus shot past a hundred hooves beneath him, rousing Discord out of his musings.
“Now what is-” And then Discord’s eyes widened as he leaned forward, clutching the edge of his cloud in tension. He’d seen the horn, the dark straight mane with its lighter streaks billowing in the air. A crooked grin spread across his wide mouth.

“Well, isn’t this remarkable? Here am I sitting and pondering what’s going on in Celestia’s pretty little head when a birdie appears and just may lead me to the solution anyway.” He took another glance at the retreating lavender figure and sighed. “Oh well. Knowledge waits for no one. You there!” Discord rapped hard on the poufy cloud below him, creating an awkward metallic sound. “Follow that alicorn!” The cloud emitted a small ‘Beep!’ in response and shot off in high speed after Twilight Sparkle.

“Why, it seems as if my day just got more interesting…” Discord chuckled to himself, squinting his brows against the wind.

---

The force of the wind hurtling past chilled the sweat pouring off Twilight’s coat as she forced her wings to keep flying at top speed. Never again, she vowed, would she ever think lightly of Rainbow’s stunt flying. The chill of air at critical velocity was nothing to joke about.

Still, Twilight ignored the growing leaden sensation in her wings. She had to reach Ponyville as soon as possible. At every other second her mind returned to Fluttershy’s letter…

‘How could they?’ Twilight huffed inside her head. Her concern for her friends had long since evolved from shock into a fine blend of anger, fear, and worry. ‘Have they any idea what kind of trouble they could be in? Have they any idea what they’ve just done?’ Today, she had learned that two of her closest friends had decided to violate a direct order to present themselves before Princess Celestia, the violation of which just happened to be a crime. A crime! Twilight shuddered at the idea.

As the gray mountains beneath her body slowly transformed into soft fields and dark patches of forest, Twilight couldn’t help but think that this was a bit ironic. Two weeks ago she’d been heading towards Ponyville also but under almost completely different circumstances. It was supposed to have been a surprise party—one planned so carefully that nopony should have figured out the secret behind it, especially Pinkie Pie, but somehow Pinkie had found out the true occasion anyway in whatever strange way Pinkie did such things. By the time Twilight and her carriage arrived, the boutique had been trounced up with multicolored balloons and streamers. Spike had been teasing her for over a week with little notes full of vague hints, goading her into trying to figure out the purpose behind his surprise invitation. However, the palace had been in the middle of negotiating yet another peace treaty between the zebras and the griffins, and Twilight was too exhausted to do much more than dismiss his cheerful riddles with a sigh and an eye roll.

And then Twilight and the rest of the girls sans Pinkie were told the good news. By Celestia, Twilight barely could believe it. It was crazy, impossible, and-

At last Twilight spotted Rainbow Dash waiting for her above the outskirts of Ponyville, breaking the princess out of her train of thought. Immediately she let gravity carry her to the earth—that is to say she dropped like a stone.

“Whoa, Twilight…” Rainbow cocked an eyebrow as she flew forward and watched her friend collapse upon the grass. “You definitely need some practice with those wings.”

“R-remind me to never ever fly nonstop to Ponyville ever again,” Twilight huffed, breathing heavily.

Rainbow Dash smirked in amusement. “You know, if you would’ve just accepted some of the lessons I wanted to show you, you wouldn’t be in this kind of pain right now.” She flexed one sky blue wing in display of what a proper feathered limb should look like. “You can’t just expect to fly long distances without having trained-” However, Twilight’s burning glare stopped Rainbow short, and the pegasus sighed. “Oh alright, jeez…” She quickly floated down to offer Twilight a hoof.

As soon as Twilight was back on four hooves, it was time for business once again. “Okay…” Twilight began, steadying herself and repositioning her aching wings by her sides. “Where are the girls?”

Rainbow opened her mouth to answer before a small shadow passed across her face. “What the-?” Both mares peered up at the lone cloud drifting innocently above them, looking pitifully lonely all by itself. “We had orders for clear skies for the next three days! Who could have missed this?” She stomped a blue hoof in frustration. “I bet it was Thunderlane…” she growled. “He’s always slacking off on the job… Hold on, Twi.”

Twilight looked on as Rainbow rocketed into the air and broke up the offending cloud with a single kick in under ten seconds flat.

‘Wow,’ Twilight thought to herself. ‘Maybe I should have taken up those lessons.’

Neither of them heard the tiny “Eep!” from above as the cloud dissipated into nothing.

---

“Well?”

“I am afraid you were right, Lulu. They have left Ponyville.”

Princess Luna sighed. “I had thought so. You did not leave them much choice, dear Sister.”

Princess Celestia didn’t answer right away. For a second she thought of a night long ago where she caught two naughty little foals—or rather a unicorn filly and a dragon hatchling—in this very chamber trying to tiphoof their way out of bedtime…

“Sister?”

Celestia blinked and then cleared her throat. What she said next did not address anything her sister had stated previously, but Luna understood. “Twilight has gone to Ponyville. I believe she has gone to either discover their whereabouts or convince them to return.”

Luna seemed to consider this for a moment. A brief smile flickered across her face. “And do you believe she shall be successful?” Celestia looked away, and the lunar princess sighed. “So you do know. You know very well that asking our dear friends Rarity the Element of Generosity and Spike the Dragon to do this is akin to a complete stranger asking us to hand over Equestria. We would rather give up our lives than do such a thing. I declare this of myself, and I am certain that you also feel the same, dear Sister.”

There was a pause where Celestia almost heard the faraway whines of two young voices reluctant to go to bed. For a moment the princess smiled, a little melancholy smile, but soon she collected herself. She could not afford to dwell on such memories now. It was time to get serious.

“Indeed, we must protect Equestria.” Celestia’s voice seemed to become stronger as she went on. “Truthfully, I wish that this entire situation had never come to pass, and yet I cannot risk the safety of my entire kingdom to a few.” When she finished, her voice was strong, and suddenly she felt a hoof upon her shoulder. Slowly, Princess Celestia turned her regal head to see her sister beside her, a grim look of total support upon her dark face.

Terrible, yet necessary.

Celestia sighed.

“Call the Guard. Tell them that they have an assignment."

---

Far away, deep underneath the dark canopy of the Whitetail Woods, two figures packed up their gear quickly. One walked with a pronounced limp while the other stood strangely on two legs--a rare sight in the four hoofed land of Equestria. If one were to watch the two, one would note the sense of urgency between them, perhaps even a sense of panic. One of them carefully picked up the other, and off they went into the gloom.

Little did they know that white was a color easily discerned through a sea of brown and green, and it didn't help that the one being carried had a very clean shiny white coat. They had studied their map so often that the geography of Equestria was nearly burned into their minds; yet little did they know that the Whitetail Woods was almost directly underneath the pegasi city of Cloudsdale. Most maps placed the cloud city off to the side, almost above Ponyville, but anypony from Ponyville could testify to the fact that Cloudsdale was definitely not in viewing distance. However, the two figures did not know any of this, not having much camping or geography experience. What happened next was in some ways very fortuitous to our traveling couple, and yet in other ways....not.

Author's Note:

I know it's been months... Ah, please don't talk about it. I'll just say that a lot of stuff has happened--some of which may probably help me with this story.

And also, is it just me or is Nightmarity just an adult unicorn Diamond Tiara? Somehow this makes sense to me.
Nightmarity = adult unicorn Diamond Tiara

Comments

[Path_of_cloud]

I really hope Discord is the hero in all of this beside are two star-crossed lovers, of course.

[Styrofoam]

2631329

Ha! Do you think Discord would pass up a chance like this?

[Pia-chan]

Nah, Nightmarity is just a fabulous version of Nigtmare Moon. Fabulosity can come from just one pony!
I'm happy you updated! and hope seing more soon!

[Ignaltus]

Go, Discord. GO!

[Path_of_cloud]

2631371 A chance to one up the Princess; he'd have to be crazy, not insane to pass that up.

[Neutrinos are Magic]

Ooo...

[Myrandall]

couldn’t help but to think

*couldn't help but think

[mbpony 512]

This could be difficult, especially for the newly crowned Princess Twilight, whose loyalty may come into question.

Nice update towards a great tale as I cannot wait to see what happens next in this storyline of yours.

[DarkDMan]

Damn you and your cryptic story, your as bad as Celestia with that.
I with Discord though. I want to know what's going on.

[Styrofoam]

2631375

2631901
Lol! Just wait until Discord finds out what's truly happening...

2632020
Indeed, sir. Indeed.

2632509
Yep! Though I don't quite know what I'm saying "Yep!" to... Oh, well. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

[Styrofoam]

2632560
Thanks, but the typo is in which paragraph? I can't seem to find it. Which is probably how I missed it in the first place...

2632871
Thanks! And yep, Twi's going to have a few things on her mind...

2633659
B-b-but what did I do? Lol!
Thank you very much.

[Myrandall]

2634519 Ctrl+f

Chapter 3:

As the gray mountains beneath her body slowly transformed into soft fields and dark patches of forest, Twilight couldn’t help but to think that this was a bit ironic.

[Styrofoam]

2634689
Thanks!

[DanvilleBengal]

I'm sorry, but Celestia is acting like a straight up bitch here. For the lord of Solaris, why won't she just leave them alone? And really, was it really necessary that you have essentially made two beloved characters and heroes, mind you, into fugitives?

Have she even thought about the fact that because of her choices and the reactions for it, she may have put not only Spike and Rarity in danger from the Guard, as well as a few vigilantes, but potentially all of Equestria at risk? Luna has second thoughts, and we already know how Twilight feels about it (you're out of your Solaris-flamed bucking mind, Princess Celestia!!!)

[DanvilleBengal]

I think this is most aprops, considering what's happening now......

[youtube=PqPtdK3ysAE]

Yes, young unicorn and drake, the heat is definitely ON....

[LuminoZero]

2659618

Ah, but that is the true question isn't it? Celestia isn't being cruel, she's being what a ruler has to be. We don't know the situation that forced her hoof like this. I have a feeling more and more of it will be revealed as we go on, but something tells me it is much more complicated then 'Celestia is a jerk'.

I eagerly await seeing more!

-Lumino

[DanvilleBengal]

3227597

My friend, I know in the back of my mind that you are right.

But I still want to know what is going on...if Rarity is pregnant with Spike's baby, would it be even more of Celestia's stead that she would send for Spike and Rarity in private, so that nopony else would know or have the rumor mill begin to turn? Or even better, teleport into Rarity's home so that she could tell the two in person what's at stake--again for the sake of privacy?

It seems that this entire thing all started because Twilight blabbed the news--and even though Spike and Rarity wanted Twilight's confidence that this would not get out until they were ready, they now have to go on the lam.

Personally, those two would have been a hell of a lot better if they told Pinkie--her Pinkie Promise would guarantee the secret pregnancy until they are ready to expose it.

[Hillbe]

Thank you Nice story, Need to hoof it up a bit, A year has passed no up date?

[DesiestChangeling]

four years later still no update.....sucks, was an amazing story.