Discord enlists the help of a long forgotten friend with a grudge against the princesses. This is the story of how old actions have consequences and can lead to true Regret
Discord enlists the help of a long forgotten friend with a grudge against the princesses. This is the story of how old actions have consequences and can lead to true Regret. The Elements, The Princesses maybe even Discord Himself will learn that when you give a Human magic and Happiness that they will do anything to hold on to it Or at least it's memory.
(starts during the season 2 opener) rating is subject to change
A figure materialized into the gloom of a darkened room, the only light emerged from the edges of a sturdy black curtain.
The figure did not arrive in a flash or a bang; no puff of smoke or swirling vortex signaled his entrance, he merely stepped from the air like a ghost, he even stood some inches from the ground, though any that knew him would say this was a normal thing for the spirit.
The figure was an abnormality; he stood tall, taller than most creature except the Others, who lived so far north that even the windigos would die from the sheer cold of the place.
However it was the rest of the creature that would stun any who set eyes upon him.
His own eyes were perhaps the most normal part of his entire body. They were each a bright yellow while the irises of each were a crimson red and his pupils, which in almost any other creature would have been black, instead they were an empty white as well as being off-centered giving him the illusion of looking at two places at once.
His body was long and serpentine and ended in a twisting red draconic tail and should he ever stretch himself out to his length it would add at least another foot to his already impressive height.
His head and upper neck were that of a goat while two mismatched antlers emerged from between his ears and a single canine tooth emerged from the right side of his mouth.
Further down his body two wings emerged from his both keeping with theme and being unalike. His Left wing was a light blue avian wing covered in feathers, while the other was a bat's wing of a deep purple coloration and was noticeably smaller than the feathered wing though both were far too small to ever lift one of his size.
His limbs were similarly anarchic , his left arm was the clawed talon of a golden eagle or some such other bird of prey of that size, while his right arm ended in the paw of some great cat, a lion perhaps or maybe a cheetah.
His left leg was the cloven hoof of a bison or other species of cattle and beside it stood a reptilian leg of a lizard though one of great size to provide such a leg.
In short this creature was a truly chaotic amalgamation of nearly a dozen different creatures and that was exactly how he liked to appear. For this Strange magical and utterly impossible creature, was Discord, a being of anarchy so powerful that some lesser beings, in their quiet whispers and hushed tales, referred to him with the title of God of Chaos.
And that was just how Discord liked it.
The Draconequus, as he referred to his own species, glanced around the dark room steadily and yet with great haste, he had no need of any sort of lighting as that provided by his own softly glowing eyes was enough.
His gaze passed over cobweb ridden furniture and empty wall sconces, their torches long since burnt out, while silently taking note of the disrepair that come to this room, before he finally settled his vision on the silhouette of a kneeling human.
It was easy to distinguish that the creature was a human the posture of it was hard to replicate except among the ape tribes of the western jungles and they did not possess the height of this creature which, if it were not kneeling, would stand almost 6 and a half feet in the measurements of his species.
"Oh so this is where you've been" the chaotic avatar began "I'm very upset with you right now. You know I just now escaped from nearly a millennia and a half imprisoned as a statue when you could have easily broken me out, and I am extremely annoyed that you didn't do so. So what have you got to say for yourself hmm?"
In response the silhouette of the human twitched slightly but an insignificant amount and if discord didn't have his great eyesight he would have missed it.
However the twitch was just that, a twitch and never for a moment did the human cease his silent vigil nor look up at the draconequus.
"Oh come now don't be like that it's not like I would actually do anything to you"
"well not anything that you wouldn't be able to reverse anyway" He added as an afterthought
Again the figure did not stir nor did it shift or twitch at the chaos "God's" speech, not a single signal came from the human to signify that it had heard anything at all.
Now the avatar of chaos was usually a fairly jovial spirit and found it off putting that his old friend was not reacting to his words 'usually he would have at least told me to go away by now.... something is wrong.'
Discord slowly began to move towards the human and as he did so was able to see what his silent friend was looking at.
Before the human, whose body was concealed by a large black hooded cloak, Discord knew that an enchantment woven into the hood meant that trying to look at his friends face to see where he was looking would just result in staring at a black void, however he didn't need to. The entirety of the humans body positioning indicated that he was staring at two piles in front of his person.
The two piles were near identical, one being slightly larger than the other was the only difference between the two but it was what composed these piles that took Discord aback.
Both piles were made up of dust and shards of bone, the Horns, being the sturdiest bone in the body of any unicorn or alicorn thanks to their existence outside the body, were clearly visible in the piles only slightly worn down by the ages that had turned the rest, of what was assuredly two corpses, down to piles of dust.
"Sandro?" The chaotic mastermind couldn't keep the fear out of his voice nor the concern he held for his friend "please... what is wrong"
"They're dead"
Finally Sandro broke his silence and his words added to the slowly growing discontent and confusion that now possessed a strong grip on the usually random mind of the draconequus.
Though he could barely bring himself to ask and fearing what he already knew Discord opened his mouth and managed to whisper his question "Who?"
"Who do you think Discord, the lights of my life, my...my poor" his words devolved into an onslaught of silent sobs that slowly increased in volume until, after reaching a crescendo that sounded like a shriek at the heavens he collapsed back into silence.
Discord, now in a solemn and sombre mood, slowly placed his clawed hand to rest on the shoulder of his last true friend his mind desperately running through scenarios in his head which could have brought this ending without the grim theory that he had built up in his head.
He could find none.
"Please tell me... who did this?"
The Human if he had not been still before was now a statue, it was if the question had the effect of a cockatrice on him, before he began to shake violently beneath Discord's grip.
"My darling sisters" His voice was filled with venom for a moment before all the energy seemed to once again leave him taking all of his anger with it leaving his voice filled with only sorrow and pain "how could they do this Discord? to their own flesh and blood, how could they live with themselves after doing this?"
"I don't known old friend, I truly don't" he was silent for a moment "But I promise you, even if it takes to the end of time, I will help you avenge them."
"Then you will be waiting an eternity, I have no interest in vengeance"
"what you can't be serious they killed your"
"I know, but when one follows the path of the avenger they should dig two graves, thus I have no interest in revenge for, while I would most likely succeed in my task to destroy them, I would also most likely die whether accomplishing my goal or soon afterwards from my wounds or some no name taking advantage of my weakened stat to slay me and avenge those I had just defeated."
He turned his hood to look up at Discord purple eyes burning so bright they were visible even through his hoods enchantment.
"And then what hmm? with both them and I dead the only evidence that my poor little stars had ever existed would be your memories, and can you honestly tell me that you would remember them for even a year without me around to remind you?"
"..."
Discord's uneasy silence was all the human needed as an answer, though the human had to give him credit, looking into the chaotic beings eyes he could see evidence of extreme internal conflict.
Finally he turned away from Discord and returned his eyes to his dearly departed "No I shall grieve and I shall remember, It is all I can do"
"Fight with me"
"What?" Sandro had expected Discord to disappear after his final words but it seemed that was not to be
"Fight with me against the princesses. Together the two of us could shatter Equestria and bring them down" then glancing again at the remains of the two lights of Sandro's life "we could set their souls to rest properly where they belong in the Golden Grove."
"Why would you need my help? I don't know how they defeated you last time but you won't underestimate them this time and you outclass them both in every way, even together." he batted a hand at the draconequus "Go, deal with them yourself and leave me in peace."
All this was said without emotion, just a constant droning monotonous speech that showed Sandro had lost all patience with talking.
"I know it is hard my friend, but you must do something, I would not be able to bear watching my last true friend wither away from grief" Sandro let out a short chuckle at Discords choice of words before returning to his empty tone.
"Then don't watch, Just leave me to my wounds"
"wounds? are you hurt as well"
"My soul is Discord. You know of those people who say that, after they lose someone close to them, that it's like they have a void in their heart." he was silent for a moment
"It's not like that...
The void Is always there waiting inside of us all, watching for a moment to consume you. And those people you care about, they're the bandages that hold you together, and, when you lose them that void starts growing and festering until it swallows you whole."
"And I am more than willing to let it" he finished.
The statement stunned the chaotic avatar, to see his once so lively friend sapped of all his previously endless happiness. 'just another reason to bring that prismatic haired bitch to heel, maybe banish her to that precious sun of hers for a few millennia while forcing her to watch everything we do in Equestria, that could be fun'
'No bad Discord' he both mentally and physically slapped himself 'You can come up with all of your punishments later, right now you last friend is in need of your help'
"You know Sandro, it's like in all those old stories, the ones that really meant something" the spirit of chaos took on a suspiciously Irish accent "full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy, how could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Sandro, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something."
"And what am I holding onto Discord? The pitiful idea that there is still some good in this world? that's a truly foolish notion. Any good that this world had left in it died with my daughters." He spoke with a certainty and conviction in his voice that any would be hard pressed to match. To him this wasn't and opinion, it was the truth and he had nothing more to say on the matter.
The draconequus sighed and massaged his forehead, taking sips from a glass of strawberry milkshake while he did so.
He needed a way to make his friend see things from his perspective, after all eve if he could defeat Celestia and Luna and the element bearers on his own(well the elements might has well be ticked off that list as he had already stolen and hidden those away) having someone on his side immune to the power of the elements of harmony and willingly.
However he also cared for Sandro like a brother, and his brother's pain was Discord's pain as well.
'How to convince him, he doesn't want revenge and he's given up on the world'
"So what will you do if the Princesses find out your alive and come here to finish you?"
"And what could they take from me? my life? that would be a mercy" he reached up a pulled down his hood, breaking the enchantment concealing his visage from Discord.
"Look at me Discord, look at what I sacrificed, What I did to myself so that I could live with them forever, so that I could watch my daughters grow up, So that I could be there for them"
"I've got nothing left to lose" His last words were barely a whisper.
Discord was stuck stunned and partially horrified at what his friend had become, however his mind finally caught up to what had been said. "Then what would you fight for, what would you give up your life for?"
Discord was getting desperate now but for Sandro...Those words triggered something inside Sandro.
"What would you give up your life for? beyond your fear of death what would you actually give everything to protect?"
"You, our sister... and our daughters"
That conversation had been so long ago before Discord had gone mad with power before his sisters had...
"I'm sorry but this has to be done, maybe one day you'll understand but it has to be done, do you hear me it has too."
Slowly Sandro rose from his kneeling position, turned to Discord and lifted his hood so that it once again covered his horrific visage.
"You really want to know what I'll fight for?" he paused "I'll help you, but on one condition... when we've beaten them when Celestia and Luna are broken at our feet and their precious little house of cards has come crumbling down, Before you kill them or whatever you plan to do with them, I want to be able to look in their eyes and ask them Why, no more no less, but I want to be able to hear why they did it, to see the truth in their eyes and know that why they did it was necessary."
"I'm right behind you on that old friend"
"then we have an agreement?"he asked extending his hand towards Discord
Discord's response was to reach out and using the claws of his feline created a small cut on his avian hand, before firmly grasping Sandro's extended Hand.
If one were to look at Princess Celestia as she listened to the final few visitors to that days court they would find her an unsettled mare. This was a fact the Canterlot nobility were more than happy to take advantage of, and in that week’s day court alone Celestia had stopped nearly double the normal amount of political schemes from the Canterlot nobility.
One petitioner had been so brass as to walk straight into the throne room and ask for the demolition of the orphanage across the street from his mansion as, he claimed it ruined his view of Celestia’s grand place.
Needless to say that particular unicorn would not be stepping foot in the royal palace for some time.
Strangely enough the normally serene alicorn’s mood had turned on the exact same day as a statue in the palace gardens, a statue of the disharmonious draconequus Discord, had been stolen, it’s empty pedestal now the physical reminder of its presence.
If one were to link the two of these things together then they would come quite a lot closer to discerning the reason behind Celestia’s rapidly decline peace of mind.
Discord was missing.
Now she didn't mean they couldn't find him now he’d escaped, no he had broken out months ago and yet other than on the very day of his escape, not a single chaotic event had occurred.
No chocolate rain, no cotton candy clouds, no ponies randomly swapping cutie marks, not a hint of chaos anywhere in Equestria and while normally this would be all the peace of mind Celestia needed, with Discord released it was far more unsettling that Chaos wasn't happening. “neither of you have the right to call this specific design of watch your own for it was in fact first created by a Pegasus a century back by the name of Time Flies and all credit for its design should go to him,” Celestia stated, finally putting an end to the last petitioners for the day.
The disgruntled unicorns, knowing better than to argue with the pony that controlled the sun, left quietly though that did not prevent them from giving each other their fiercest glares as they left (which would have been hilarious to watch for any non-pony to watch as all it accomplished was to make them look like they were pouting foals) while the rest of the day court ponies streamed out behind them, sans those of the royal guard.
With day court finally over Celestia gave a nod to her guards “please could you inform the kitchen staff that I will need a pot of their strongest tea and a large slice of cake delivered to my chambers for after my dinner with Luna”
The guards gave a short nod in return before trotting off to carry out their princess’ request.
Finally alone Celestia gave out a sigh and almost collapsed backwards into her throne magically removing her tiara, which she set down on the steps in front of her throne.
Once again her mind strayed back to her last encounter with Discord on the day of his escape.
She had discovered his release from his stone imprisonment and then called the Element bearers to Canterlot, she had explained to them about Discord and had gone to retrieve the elements from the vault in which they were stored only to discover it empty.
That was when Discord had appeared, floating through the stained glass windows of the hall, and had begun his usual monologue he had just been finishing his clue to the location of the elements when he had frozen mid-sentence.
Discord, he who could win any talking competition or argument in existence, had just stopped, mid-sentence, at the part that he usually found the most enjoyable.
Such a thing was unprecedented, it had never been done before and the way those eyes of his had looked when he stopped, he must have discovered something shocking.
And then every glass window in the entire hall way had shattered, all of them exploding out of the walls towards her and the element bearers. Celestia had managed to raise a shield in time to prevent any of them from getting hurt but it was what she saw in the split second before the windows had shattered that she could not remove from her mind, no matter how much she tried, shed even tried asking Blueblood to tell her his entire family history and how he was related to her (that he wasn't really) and even that mind bleaching endeavor had not managed to purge the image from her memory.
Discord, the insane creature of Chaos, the being who had ruled over pony kind for a thousand years of tyranny, the creature who had laughed all the way up to his sealing in stone by herself and Luna, had cried.
There was no mistaking it, it had only been a single tear, but it had been there and she had seen that tear, watched it with her whole being as it had traveled the few inches down Discord’s face it had managed before the shattering windows had destroyed it.
Celestia was roused from her thoughts by her sister’s entrance into the throne room.
She couldn't help but recognize that Luna was recovering well from her time as Nightmare Moon; she had fully regained her magic to the level she had possessed all those years ago, though a thousand years without any source of nutrition had stunted her growth so that she did not stand equal with her dear sister.
“Sister art thou well, we know that the present affair with Discord is a difficult one but thou has ruled Equestria for a thousand years and thou must have faced worse in such a time” Luna, the voice of reason in such a strange time as this, and yet…
Celestia couldn't accept that not at the moment. “I apologize Luna but I can’t shake the feeling that something is stirring something old and that I have to be on guard or else something terrible will happen”
Luna slowly ascended the steps up to the throne and settled herself on the step just below Celestia.
“What can I do to stop this feeling Luna, I can barely sleep from this feeling that should I do so then Equestria would not be the same when I wake up.”
“Dost thou truly have so little faith in us sister that thou believes that we would allow any such harm to befall our little ponies.”
“No, no Luna I would never doubt you but… it took both of us together to defeat Discord the first time, and this time we don’t have the elements, I simply fear that I won’t be there if you need me.”
“Well then Tia let us place thy doubts aside and summon the element bearers to Canterlot, If Discord should appear they would be here and under our protection whilst we search for the Element’s hiding place then thou wouldst be able to lay thy doubts to rest and at last get thy rest” Luna paused for a moment to fix Celestia with a small smirk “It has been too long since I hast seen the wondrous constructs of thy dreams”
Celestia stared down at her sister for a moment before shaking her head and slowly rising to her hooves, Luna rising soon after. “You swore that you wouldn't walk in my dreams after that time back when…”
“But Tia that wouldst deprive us of the perfect blackmail for if thou get too” but then Luna saw the look on her sister’s face “Celestia… sister what is wrong?”
Slowly Celestia returned to the present though she did so to the worried look on her sister’s face “I apologize Luna... I was lost in memories of another time”
“What time? There have been so many in our life time”
“One that I regret having to end… But nostalgia has no place in the here and now; I shall take your suggestion into consideration.”
With those words the two left the throne room walking side by side through the halls of the royal palace, though Celestia’s mind was busy on the subject of the Elements and where they could be ‘If only we could find where Discord hid them, everything could be fixed in an instant’ Together they made their way to the main balcony from whence they performed there daily roll of setting and raising their respective heavenly bodies.
Celestia watched as her Sun and all of its warmth and light slowly gave away to the horizon and Luna’s Moon rose into place blanketing the world in its pale luminescence.
The Solar Diarch began to leave the balcony however just for a moment she stopped to look back at her lunar counterpart.
‘Luna, you hide it well but you just as worried as me perhaps we both need something to relieve our paranoia’
“Luna, if you would dispatch a platoon of guards to The Grey Holds to make sure that nothing has escaped from their imprisonment, I shall personally see to the enchantments of Tartarus and would appreciate if you could organize a meeting with the ambassadors from the Griffin Principalities and Saddle Arabia to ensure that none of their less reputable can organize anything that could harm Equestria.”
“As thou wish big sister”
“Thank you Luna, perhaps I shall be able to get some sleep this night.”
“Oh Tia please make sure thou does, if thou art this nervous now we wonder how thou shall cope with thy dear Niece’s Wedding next month”
Twilight Sparkle was, as usual, buried deep into a book, though, she was currently in a very unusually perturbed state, meanwhile her faithful assistant Spike gorged himself on gems he had been saving up from his escapades gem digging with Rarity.
“I mean really Twilight If anything bad was happening, the Princess could handle it, and if she really needed you she’d have sent a letter.”
“But Spike, Without the Elements Princess Celestia might think that me and the girls can’t help protect Equestria from Discord, and if she thinks we can’t help then she might not send us a message, and then if she realizes she needs help then she might not be able to send a letter, and if we don’t come and help then she might get really angry or disappointed with me and send me back to magical kindergarten.”
Twilight was now urgently pacing the room pulling out book after tome after lexicon desperately searching for anything that she could use to prove her worth to her beloved mentor.
“Wait no” Twilight slammed shut the text that she had been reading once “I've been going about this the wrong way, I don’t need to know some powerful spell otherwise Princess Celestia would have just taught me it, I need to find the elements of harmony, But for that I need to know the rest of Discord’s clue. Urrgh this is all Discord’s fault!”
Spike once again got the feeling that anything that he said would be completely ignored, and so, for the sole gain of being able to eat more, completely zoned out the rest of Twilight’s rant, focusing completely on stuffing himself to the size of a cow with gems.
Twilight’s extremely one sided rant carried on for another few minutes, constantly contradicting herself, and even looping the entire argument a few times over.
Twilight’s self-destructive spiral abruptly came to an end when a knock at the library door forced her mind away from the subject to answer it. Opening the door with her magic Twilight was joyously greeted by the Smiling Ponyville mailmare Derpy her right eye fixing itself on Twilight while her ever wandering left eye seemed perfectly happy to fix on Spike who was currently near catatonic from overeating.
“Hiya Twilight I've got a package for you from someone called Anarchy Bringer” she began laying said large package on the ground in front of her, “he really wanted me to give this to you, he said it would cause all sort of fun, and then he gave me a whole plate of caramel kiwi muffins they were delicious”
“Thanks Derpy how much do you need for this” Twilight asked taking the package up in her magic.
“Oh no no no, I couldn't take any bits from you after he gave me such great muffins.”
“That’s very generous of you Derpy thanks”
“Bye Twilight” Derpy said before unfurling her wings and flying off… straight into Berry Punch’s upstairs window.
Twilight shook her head at Derpy’s strange antics before closing the door and returning inside where she laid down the package on the small table in the middle of the library.
The purple unicorn had to admit to herself though; her small chat with Derpy had helped clear her muddled head for the moment.
Without all of her paranoia over Discord and magical kindergarten out of the way, she now realized that ever since the trip to Canterlot where they’d met Discord, she had barely spoken with any of her friends, and she became determined to fix that.
“Spike, make sure nothing happens I’m going out” Twilight called out, not even noticing the unconscious baby dragon on the floor.
Deciding it would be quicker if she started with her furthest away friend first she set out across Ponyville for Sweet apple acres.
Queen Chrysalis of the changelings had been having a brilliant time for the last few months. With all Celestia’s attention fixed on Discord, her changelings had easily managed to infiltrate towns and cities across Equestria.
Even better she had successfully captured and replaced Princess Cadance, the alicorn of love, and was now feeding off of her poor sap of a stallion as well, with her species feeding off of love poor unfortunate Cadance had spent the last few weeks as a magical buffet allowing the queen to gorge herself on all that delicious love energy.
Truly life could not get better, well not by much anyway.
The plan was coming together nicely, with Cadance replaced and Shining Armour falling under Chrysalis’ power, the next step was to go through with the wedding and then arrange a little ‘accident’ for the love-struck stallion.
Accident as in having her subjects smuggle him, and hopefully Cadance off to the main hive while she played the grieving widow, after that it would just be a matter of time before ‘Cadance’ would ‘snap’ and fly off into the wilds never to be seen of again.
Truly, if she could pull it off then Chrysalis’s subjects would never go hungry again.
True Shining Armour didn't have the longevity of an alicorn, but by the time age claimed him, Chrysalis would have had plenty of time to brainwash Cadance into giving her changelings all the love they needed free of charge.
A month was all that separated the Queen from the third phase of her plan and she couldn't wait, she was practically salivating over the thought of all the love that she would possess once the plan was complete.
The only thing that could go wrong now is if Discord miraculously showed up right in the middle of the wedding ceremony and revealed her deception to Celestia and how likely was it that that would happen.
Meanwhile Twilight Sparkle was finally arriving at Sweet Apple Acres, the orchard that belonged to the family of her friend Applejack, who, at that exact moment was hard at work bucking down the apples from the trees.
“Applejack!” Twilight called out to her long-time friend.
“Oh hay there Twi, ya finally got out a that stuffy Library a yours?” the orange coated mare replied.
“Yes, well about that, I've come to realize that with all of the commotion with Discord that I've been ignoring you girls” the unicorn continued “and It’s just that I wanted to say sorry and hope that we’re still friends.”
“Well shucks Twi, you dint have to say anything like that, we all knew that Discord ticked ya off, don’t mean that we aint still all friends.”
Twilight found herself sighing in relief that her friend wasn't upset with her for the months spent shutting herself in her library. “I mean really whatever gave ya the idea that we weren't friends or nothin” The Stetson wearing cowpony went on “I mean back we all done things a bit silly every now an again but that don’t mean that your friends all leave ya cause of it”
With the element of honesty making it clear that there was no bad blood between them; Twilight began to feel just that little bit better about the situation, after all if one friend could forgive her leave of absence, why not the rest?
“Well then thank you AJ, if there is ever anything you need help with don’t hesitate to ask, now I've got to go a hope everypony else is as understanding as you are.”
“I assure ya Twi, they will be after all they are your friends” with those last few words the blond mare turned back to her apple trees, while Twilight set off in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage.
The walk didn't take long and soon she was hearing the tell-tale sounds of many animals, signalling to her that she had reached the home of the element of kindness.
Twilight slowly trotted up to the door and gave it a gentle knock.
After a few moments the door slowly opened to reveal the half concealed head of Fluttershy, the top of her head just poking around the door to look at Twilight.
Realizing who it was at the door Fluttershy slowly opened the door fully revealing the yellow coated Pegasus fully.
“Oh hi Twilight, I’m so sorry, I didn't realize that it was you, if I had I would have come straight away” The shy Pegasus spoke in her own soft voice
“Its fine Fluttershy, in fact I was visiting to say sorry to you, I realize that with all the time I've spent studying up on Discord and spells to defeat him that I've been completely ignoring all of my friends and I wanted to apologize for that.”
“Oh its fine Twilight really, I've been very busy lately.”
Twilight was about to speak again but was cut off by a rainbow colored blur barreling right past her and Fluttershy.
The Blur ended up coming to a stop on the inside of the cottage, sending creatures running for cover to avoid it.
Slowly Rainbow Dash Peeled herself off of the floor before turning to Fluttershy utterly unaware of the fear she had instilled in the other residents of Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Hey Shy have you got any of that stuff for my wing it’s a bit sore still” Rainbow began before finally taking notice of the mess she had caused, “oh sorry about all this Flutters, I would never crash if my wings hadn't started aching.”
Fluttershy, upon hearing of one of her friends in pain, instantly switched to mothering mode rushing to Rainbow’s side and began looking over her wings.
“Oh you poor dear, if your wings are hurting you really shouldn't be flying, it’s really dangerous and if anything happened to you.”
“I’m fine shy, really you don’t have to be so worried I do stuff like this all of the time when I’m practicing for the Wonderbolts.”
Rainbow seemed to finally notice Twilight’s presence “Oh hay Twi, It’s been ages since you came out of that dull library of yours.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, it has come to my attention that I've been ignoring all of my friends and I really wanted to come and say sorry to all of you”
Rainbow Stared at Twilight for a few seconds before replying “Okay, I’ll forgive you on one condition” She slowly moved closer to Twilight leaning forward so that she could whisper into Twilight’s ear.
Twilight Sparkle was somewhat unnerved by the proximity, even after all of the time with her friends, some aspects of social interaction were still above her pay grade.
“Twilight… would you… maybe… well...” Rainbow seemed to be struggling to find the right words, a look of uncertainty appearing on her face before she reverted to Rainbow-Dash-Special-Plan Number 3; be as blunt as possible and just blurt it out.
“Twilight do you have any Daring Doo book? I really, really love them but the book store in Cloudsdale only has the ones that I've already got.” Twilight was taken aback momentarily. Did Rainbow just ask her for a book? An actual proper book with words? Paranoia instantly took over and Twilight found herself scanning Rainbow with every spell she knew that could identify fakes.
Only when every spell came back confirming that this was the real Rainbow Dash, did Twilight finally shake herself out of her stunned state and finally reply to Rainbow’s apparently mind shattering question.
“Um if I remember correctly we have the whole collection back at the library.”
Rainbow became overjoyed jumping into the air with a whoop, her wings buzzing like a hummingbird as she did a quick lap of the room from happiness, sweeping down to pick up the jar of wing ointment that Fluttershy had just retrieved, before flying straight off back the way she had originally come presumably heading straight to the library, the only evidence of her presence being the quickly shouted Thanks and the scar left in Fluttershy’s floor from her crash landing.
A scar that ceased to exist a few moments later as Twilight used her magic to swiftly fix it. She said goodbye before trotting off into the Everfree.
Twilight could speak to her other friends when she got back but she knew for certain, thanks to past experience, that she would need some of Zecora’s special tea to help handle the headache she knew was coming after returned to the library and was forced to deal with the mess Rainbow would undoubtedly cause.
Inside the ancient tower of Lorekeep, plans had been forged, battles had been fought and some of the greatest works of magic to ever occur had been performed, it had even been at Lorekeep, albeit a twisted Discordian version of the tower, where the future princesses of Equestria had first defeated the Avatar of Chaos to end his thousand years of tyranny.
Now and for the past several months, Lorekeep had been reoccupied in the name of two beings united in their desire to bring low those who had wronged them.
In the central chamber of that esteemed Fortress, The human mage Sandro stood over a shimmering bronze basin staring down at the images reflected in its surface.
As he observed the sounds and sights the basin shared unto him, a plan began forming in his mind and he couldn't help but thank his good fortune.
If the princess had but spoken a few moments earlier he would never have known about such a perfect opportunity. But she had not spoken earlier and now with the moon risen the enchantments of the basin had allowed him to learn of the opportune time to begin the first steps of the plan to topple the diarchy that he... despised? perhaps but there was also pity. Pity for what they had done to themselves.
This was the scene a certain avatar of chaos materialized into, seemingly growing out of thin air.
Before the Draconequus could begin whatever it was that he came to do his attention was caught by a pained moan emanating from behind him.
Turning around he found himself gazing at an ethereal wisp, swirling and pulsing and infinitely collapsing inwards upon itself, seeming to emit an aura of pain on an extreme level making the very air around it hurt as it constantly fought to tear itself apart.
"What is that thing?" Even to an embodiment of all things strange and random this creature was twisted beyond measure an caused a feeling of wrongness inside Discord that he had never felt before... it was frightening.
And when something was warped enough to frighten Discord then you knew it had no business existing.
"Oh that thing is still here is it?" Sandro spared a glance towards the wisp-like creature before throwing out his hand towards it, the air in front of his hand rippled and warped before impacting with the creature.
The Wisp reacted violently pulsing with rapidly increasing fervor before letting out a shriek fit to shatter the ears of angels and demons alike before finally exploding outwards leaving a pile of steadily glowing powder to fall to the cold stone floor.
"To answer your question" the hooded magician began "I was attempting to raise the spirit of a human on this world, as you saw while I succeeded somewhat, once the spirit attempted to take shape, its own life-force and this world's natural magic emissions became locked in a battle that ripped the spirit apart leaving it as what you witnessed just now."
He lifted his right hand to his ...chin? it was impossible to tell thanks to his magic but it seemed like that was what he was doing "It must be extremely painful to the spirit, to have the very fabric of your being shredded continually and yet be unable to die, It must almost have been as painful as what I feel every day."
Discord seemed to accept this while writing off the last part as just something his friend would deal with in his own way" Your messing with necromancy, the last thing I heard you'd sworn to never use that black magic again after what happened the last time."
This seemed to not have the intended result, whatever that was it's always hard to tell with Discord, instead resulting in a roll of soft chuckles from the cloaked father. "I swore that oath to my sisters and I have no sisters anymore, what I once had is now lost to me and thus I see no reason to heed their restrictions."
Discord pulled out a sock puppet of himself which spoke for him while the full sized seemingly fell asleep "Well whatever you say, but how long are we going to have to wait, you've stopped me from spreading chaos for months and it's so boring"
"Well if that's what your after then I must commend your timing, for you have arrived at the most opportune moment" He beckoned for Discord to come closer before gesturing to the now still basin. "It has been brought to my attention, an opportunity that suits our purpose perfectly."
Discord's attention had been acquired from the moment it was hinted that he could finally free Equestria from its chaotic 'drought'; it was his nature after all. "Finally I was beginning to think you might be backing out... so when is this glorious occasion?"
Sandro slowly turned his head towards Discord and even through the hoods enchantments Discord could have sworn he saw a grin on the hidden face of his ally.
"Well that all depends Discord... How would you like to visit a wedding?"
