Questions

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Slender fingers flipped through page after page of dry legal language, checking the bottom of each page to make sure it had been filled out properly. Princess Twilight Sparkle sighed. Even for her, this was tedious work, but she knew it was important. This latest treaty with Maretonia would ensure the safety of Equestria for as long as it remained in effect, and may one day lead to the elimination of the Disharmony movement.

No one remembered the beginning of the Disharmony movement, except for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Even Princess Cadance was too young to remember a time before the invisible threat had closed its grip around Equestria. History books told of days long ago when people were free and happy, when they could live without fear, when Celestia could rule by simply raising and lowering the sun each day, instead of being forced to martial law in an attempt to protect her subjects from the agents of Discord, the evil and destructive ringleader of the Disharmony movement.

Discord was the phantom menace that plagued Equestria. He had never been captured, never been photographed, but legends said that he was practically omnipotent, that he had magic even stronger than Celestia's, that he could destroy Equestria with a snap of his fingers if he chose, but preferred to let it rot in chaos instead. He had eyes and ears everywhere; nobody knew who might be an agent of Disharmony.

Celestia did not take this internal threat lightly. It was impossible for the average person to detect a Disharmonizer, but Celestia had magic that could identify them. If someone suddenly vanished from their home, their neighbors would whisper about how glad they were that Celestia had caught the traitor, and wondered how much the Disharmonizer had already told Discord about them. No one was safe while Discord was still on the loose, and his reign would never end peacefully. Discord was immortal, like the Princesses, and he had been threatening Celestia's reign for over a thousand years.

Hopefully, Twilight thought, as she ran a hand through her purple bangs, this new treaty with Maretonia would bring an end to Discord's reign of terror. Maretonia's biggest export was heavy weaponry, enough to blow the entire Disharmony movement right off the map.

"Twilight." A voice made the princess look up to behold her ruler, Princess Celestia. The woman was nearly six feet tall, with broad shoulders that seemed to carry the weight of the world. Her skin was pale and the hair that tumbled over her shoulders was striped with pink, blue, and green. She wore a flowing white dress, decorated with a golden sun at the hip. Her face was grim, and the pink irises of her eyes flashed with worry. Twilight frowned.

"What is it, Princess?"

The monarch crossed to the stained-glass window on the other side of the room and gazed down at Canterlot. "Reports of new riots breaking out in Ponyville."

Twilight winced, setting the treaty aside. This was the third riot in as many months across Equestria. It stung even more to know that these were happening in her hometown. "I'll go at once and calm things down."

Celestia nodded, and Twilight headed for the door, but before she could reach it, the princess called to her again. "Twilight?"

The purple-haired woman turned to look back at her leader, who still stood with her back to her.

"Am I doing enough to stop this?"

Twilight opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

"My subjects resent my security measures. I am beginning to think I am as feared and hated as Discord."

After a moment's hesitation, Twilight shook her head. "Princess, without you to protect them, Discord would destroy everything. Even if they don't understand, they're alive because of you."

Celestia sighed, and turned to Twilight with a smile. "You're right," she murmured. "I will continue to do what is best for my subjects, even if they object."

Twilight smiled at her for a moment longer, then turned and hurried out the door.

In Ponyville, hundreds of people were pressing against the doors of Town Hall, where Mayor Mare had barricaded herself. Fists pounded against the walls and windows, and angry voices chorused, "Let her go! Let her go!"

"I can't!" the mayor wailed, although she knew no one could hear her. "She's a Disharmonizer!" She glanced back to where two burly guardsmen were holding a struggling child, who couldn't have been more than seven.

In a flash of magic, Twilight appeared on the steps of the Town Hall bellowed, "STOP!"

The citizens of Ponyville were silenced, and stared at their princess. She glared down at them. "What's going on?"

"They took Twist!" the crowd shouted. "They're going to kill Twist!"

Twilight blinked. Why on earth would they have taken Twist? She motioned to the crowd to wait, and teleported herself inside the Town Hall, in front of the Mayor, who had broken down into nervous tears at this point. When she saw the princess she screamed. "Your highness! Tell them to stop! I am only doing my duty!"

"Kidnapping children?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"She is a Disharmonizer!" Mayor Mare wailed. "It's my duty! My duty to Princess Celestia! To Ponyville! I must protect my citizens from Discord!"

The princess looked over at the little redheaded girl, whose purple-rimmed glasses had been broken in the struggle. "She is too young for the usual punishment," Twilight declared. "Send her to Canterlot under heavy guard for Princess Celestia to sentence. But make sure she is closely watched."

"Th-thank you, printheth..." Twist gasped as the guards turned and carried her away.

Twilight pulled out her handkerchief and wiped away the makeup that was streaming down the Mayor's face. "You are very brave. Doing your duty even when it is unpleasant is the sign of a good leader." Then Twilight turned and walked out the front door to face the crowds.

"The traitor will not receive the usual sentence," she announced, to the relief of many faces in the mob. "However, as she is still a traitor, she will be taken to Canterlot, and Princess Celestia will judge her case." To the roar of protest, she said, "Celestia is just and fair! She will not allow anyone to suffer needlessly! But we cannot allow Disharmonizers to go unapprehended, no matter their age or importance! If we allow her to remain among us, she could bring Discord down on the entire city."

The discontent quieted, and although many faces were unsatisfied, they seemed to accept that Twilight spoke the truth, and slowly dispersed. The princess sighed, and trudged home to her own castle.

A green-haired teenager with enlarged canines greeted her. "Did they take Twist?"

Twilight nodded silently, dropping into a chair and burying her face in her hands.

"Are they going to shoot her?"

"I don't know. Celestia will judge her case individually. Spike, how can a seven-year-old girl be a Disharmonizer?"

Spike shrugged. "Little kids are a lot more capable than we think, sometimes. I've broken up gangs with kids younger than her in 'em."

Twilight groaned. "Is this what Equestria is coming to?"

"You talking about Twist?"

Both of them looked up to see a woman with rainbow hair and a tattoo of a lightning bolt on her bicep leaning against the doorframe.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash," Spike said. "Yeah, it's pretty weird, isn't it?"

"It's bullshit, Spike." Rainbow marched in and took a seat next to Twilight. "Twi, the Crusaders knew Twist really well. They swear she never even mentioned the Disharmony movement, and she can't keep her mouth shut about anything. There's no way she was an agent. There's been a mistake."

Twilight frowned. "What?"

"She's not a Disharmonizer, Twilight. I don't know who reported her, but it's a pack of lies."

"Yer darn right it is!" A broad-shouldered muscular woman with a sun-darkened face stomped into the room in muddy cowboy boots. "Apple Bloom hasn't stopped cryin' since they took her! I've met Twist a few times myself, and she ain't no Disharmonizer!"

"Sweetie Belle has assured me of the same thing!" announced a pale, slender woman with impeccably styled purple hair. "If they shoot that darling little girl--"

"Nobody's shooting anyone!" Twilight screamed, at her wits' end. "She's being taken to Canterlot for a trial and a sentence--"

"As if that'll stop her from getting executed?!" Rainbow Dash demanded.

"Um," a tiny voice piped up, and a petite pink-haired woman poked her head in the door. "If she's having a trial, that means there can be witnesses, right?"

"Yeah!" squealed a voice behind her as a woman with masses of pink curls bounced into the room. "She can have people defend her!"

Applejack stomped her boot. "Well, Apple Bloom'll testify!"

"So will Sweetie Belle!" Rarity announced.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "I bet I could get Scootaloo to come, too."

Twilight stood up. "Well then, we'd better get to the train station before they leave for Canterlot."

Hijacked

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The train was empty except for the last two cars, the first of which held the six women, their sisters, and Spike, all of them agitated and nervous, and the final car, which held the prisoner and six heavily armed guardsmen, all watching her every move. The last car of the train had been specially designed as a prison car, and was used to transport traitors and criminals who were either too young or too old to receive the standard punishment, or those who were considered special threats and would be taken to Canterlot for questioning.

Rainbow Dash was still furious. "This is ridiculous. Twist is harmless."

"Celestia doesn't accuse people for no reason, Dashie." Fluttershy kept her eyes on her hands, which were folded in her lap. She hated seeing people dragged away for treason, but the fear of Discord and the Disharmony movement silenced any protest she might have. The shy young woman lived her life in a perpetual state of paranoia, forever fearful that she might fall victim to the invisible threat that stalked their streets. Dangers she could see were bad enough. One that was unseeable, but always there, breathing down her neck...it gave her nightmares.

"Ah think there's just been some kind of mistake. Twist ain't done nothin' wrong, and once we clear it up with the Princess, we'll all be able to go home." Applejack comfortingly ruffled her little sister's red hair, which Apple Bloom immediately reached up to straighten and adjust the red bow that always adorned her ponytail.

Even Pinkie Pie was less bubbly than usual. She had seen Twist frequently at Sugarcube Corner, where the little girl had asked for ingredients to make her own candies. Now the pink-haired woman stared out the window, absently playing with the hem of her sky-blue t-shirt. She was running through every conversation she had ever had with Twist in her head, trying to figure out if she had accidentally revealed anything incriminating to the child. If Twist informed on her...well, no one knew what happened to somebody once the Disharmonizers got ahold of them. Stories told of people cut apart and their pieces scattered all over their city like some kind of sick Easter egg hunt. Some people said that Discord drank the blood of his victims, others that he hung them from the ceiling by hooks in their skin until they rotted and fell out. None of the stories were pleasant, and Pinkie's vivid imagination did nothing to help the matter.

Rarity was brushing Sweetie Belle's pink and purple hair with obsessive precision, keeping her mind occupied with making sure every curl was perfect instead of thinking about the current situation. It was terrifying, really, to think that such young children might be pulled into the Disharmony Movement. Twist was no older than Sweetie Belle and her friends. What would she do if her little sister joined the rebels? It was a horrifying thought. Her darling sister, whom she loved more than anything, could possibly be secretly plotting the downfall of all Equestria? It just didn't seem possible.

Twilight hadn't stopped pacing the length of the car since they had boarded. She was worried what seeing Twist would do to Princess Celestia. The ruler had been stressed already, and now she was about to be presented with a seven-year-old girl who had been swayed by the Disharmonizers. The usual sentence for the crime of disloyalty was immediate execution by a shot in the head, but when someone was exceptionally young or old and they were found to be traitorous, they were taken to Canterlot for individual judgement. Twilight had never been present for these trials, and did not know the outcome, but none of those accused had ever returned to their homes, so she assumed it was some kind of imprisonment. No matter who they were, traitors couldn't just be set free. Discord would find them, and their punishment for being caught wouldn't be nearly as merciful as a swift bullet to the head.

Twilight groaned. The last thing the Princess needed right now was to have the heroes of Equestria show up in defense of a young traitor. It would have been better if they had just sent Twist by herself. Celestia would be just, as always. It was highly unlikely that they would be able to alter her sentence in any way.

In the last car of the train, the little girl sat in a chair in the center of the car, her hands cuffed to the arms. The world was blurry since the guards had broken her glasses, and her wildly curly red hair kept falling in her face. She had to toss her head or blow on it to try and move it because her hands were secured, and the guards didn't care. Under her falling bangs, the skin around her left eye was turning purple.

When she whimpered, one of the guards growled. "Quiet, you."

Her nerves snapped. "I didn't do anything!" she wailed, bursting into noisy sobs.

Her wails turned to screams when one of the guards slapped her. "Shut up!"

Twist fought to contain her crying, and the men surrounding her restrained their abuse.

A heavy thud on the roof of the car made them all look up. In the preceding car, everyone jumped up and pressed their faces to the window. They gasped in unison.

The train was surrounded on both sides by masked people on motorcycles. Some of them were carrying two passengers, and these were pulling close to the train, the backseat riders standing on their toes on the seats. When they were close enough, they jumped from the bikes to the roof of the train with more thuds.

"It's the Disharmonizers!" Sweetie Belle screamed.

Footsteps on the roof indicated that the boarders were headed to the engine of the train. Rainbow Dash spun and bolted to the door of the car, forcing it open and jumping up to follow the Disharmonizers. They were several cars ahead of her by the time she got to her feet, and she gritted her teeth, sprinting after them.

The black figures jumped into the cabin of the engine car and disappeared. By the time Rainbow caught up with them and swung into the window of the car, she was confronted with the barrels of three pistols.

"What the hell?" Rainbow looked from the guns to those holding them, all of them glaring at her out of black masks, to behind them, where conductor was sprawled on the floor, either unconscious or dead.

One of the masked faces shook their head at her, and put a finger to their lips. Another one of them spoke, as the third went back to the controls of the train. "We have everything under control up here," an oddly familiar voice drawled sarcastically. "You may return to your seat, ma'am."

Rainbow Dash glared at them. "I'm not going--"

"Perhaps you misunderstood, ma'am," the Disharmonizer's tone didn't change as she took a step forward, her gun aimed directly between Rainbow Dash's eyes. "It will be my pleasure to escort you back to your seat." She grabbed Rainbow by the arm and, still keeping her gun trained on her head, led her to the back of the car, through the door, and down the train to the car where her friends were waiting in mute terror.

When the door opened, everyone started up, but a quick shout of "Everyone hold still or this one's pretty rainbow will be all red!" froze them all in their place. The Disharmonizer thrust Rainbow Dash through the door and released her arm, shoving her towards her friends.

"Now then, welcome everybody to the Disharmony Express. I will be your stewardess for the evening, and we hope you have a pleasant ride. We will be directing your journey from this point forward, so if you have any questions you may direct them to me."

General confusion erupted in the car, some shouting protests and threats at the Disharmonizer and most of the younger ones screaming in terror. A gunshot through the ceiling silenced everyone.

"There is no need for alarm. None of you will be hurt if you cooperate."

"There are six guards in the next car!" Twilight screamed.

As if on cue, six gunshots erupted behind them. The Disharmonizer nodded. "Not anymore."

Apple Bloom started crying.

"Oh, don't worry, honey, Twist is fine."

"So she IS a Disharmonizer!" Rarity gasped in horror.

The masked face seemed to smile. "We couldn't let you ladies send her to her death, now could we?"

Twilight wanted to scream that they were trying to save her life, not take it, but she knew it wouldn't change anything. So instead she asked something that might help them. "Where are you taking us?"

From behind her gun, the black figure shook her head. "All I can tell you is that you'll have plenty of company."

Just a mile ahead, more dark figures were switching the tracks, guiding the train away from Canterlot and straight into the Everfree Forest. The tracks didn't go straight into the forest, of course, but passed close enough to the treeline that it was safe enough to stop the train and dash to the safety of the forest. After that, it was a few hours' walk to the center of the forest, where, in the crumbling ruins of the ancient castle of the royal sisters, Discord was pacing in his throne room.

He was a tall, lanky man, with glossy black hair pulled back in a ponytail. His pointed chin was decorated with a salt-and-pepper goatee, and when he pulled his lips back in a grimace it showed one grossly overgrown canine tooth. He clenched his left hand into a fist, his knuckles protruding from underneath the tattooed eagle claw that overlaid his own hand, the talons extending on his own fingers. On the opposite bicep, a tattooed lion paw tore painted holes in his skin with its claws. Under his filthy black t-shirt, his back bore two mismatched wings, one a light blue feathered wing, and one a purple bat wing. His left calf sported a horned goat's head, and on his right foot, an iguana wrapped its tail around his ankle. He had one other tattoo, one that practically no one had ever seen, a red tail beginning directly at his tailbone and coiling around his right thigh.

Around him, people scurried busily to and fro, organizing weapons and papers, yelling questions and instructions at each other from across the rooms and hallways of the old castle. Discord had been using the old castle for centuries, ever since Celestia moved to Canterlot. He had cast a spell around it so that it looked abandoned to outsiders, and even though the Princess had sent search parties to comb through the ruins several times, his lair had remained undetected. Most of it existed underneath the castle, in the catacombs and in tunnels below that Discord had dug with his magic. Not many Disharmonizers actually lived at the castle; they stayed in their own homes in cities across Equestria. Only high-ranking officers of the Disharmony Movement, those most wanted by Celestia, stayed in the rebel base.

"How many of them are there?" Discord called without looking up from his pacing.

"Eleven, sir," answered a blonde woman that stood nearby.

The Disharmony leader cursed under his breath. "There was only one accused! Who are the others?"

The woman blinked, her golden eyes vaguely off-center. "Princess Twilight and her friends intended to defend the accused at her trial."

Discord's pacing stopped, and he turned to stare at her. "What did you say?"

"Princess Twilight and her friends--"

"PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE IS ON THAT TRAIN?!" Discord roared, grabbing the woman by the front of her shirt.

"Y-yes sir."

He dropped her. "We're bringing a PRINCESS and the HEROES OF EQUESTRIA straight to the CASTLE?!" His eyes flashed red in anger. "Why don't we just set off fireworks from the tower that say 'Rebels, inquire within!'? What kind of hairbrained--" Suddenly, he paused, thinking. "Wait a second. Did you say they were on their way to defend the one accused?"

Derpy stood up and brushed herself off. "Yes, sir."'

Discord started pacing again, this time energetically in eager thought as he hatched an idea.

The Rebel Base

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The cars were silent as the hijacked train hurtled down the tracks. The masked woman had used her magic to close all of the curtains when she caught Applejack squinting out the window, trying to figure out where they were headed. As the train started to slow down, the Disharmonizer pulled ten blindfolds out of her bag and magically secured them over the eyes of all of her passengers.

Scootaloo, who refused to act scared, asked skeptically, "What's this for?"

"It will be much safer for you if you don't know how to get to where we're going."

Sweetie Belle whimpered.

"And where are we going?" Twilight asked calmly, keeping her eyes closed behind the blindfold.

"Where Twist will be safe."

"She's safe with us!" Applejack shouted.

The Disharmonizer tilted her head. "Until she gets to Canterlot, sure."

"She would have been safe there too!" Rainbow Dash countered.

The woman just chuckled. "Are you sure about that?"

"YES!"

"I'll let you discuss it with Discord when you meet him."

A collective gasp left all the blindfolded ponies. Tears soaked into Fluttershy's blindfold, and she choked, "We're meeting D-d-discord?"

"Yep. When he heard the Heroes of Equestria were coming, he just couldn't resist extending you an invitation."

Fluttershy whimpered silently.

The train came to a stop, and after a moment the doors to the cars slid open, with more Disharmonizers waiting to conduct everyone into the Everfree Forest. Once they were safely inside the treeline, they were loaded onto four jeeps that drove easily over the rough terrain of the forest trail and cut the trip to the castle from a few hours to just a few minutes.

When they reached the castle, more Disharmonizers helped the blindfolded women out of the jeeps and led everyone into the throne room. Then, with a swish of magic, the woman who had been with them on the train removed their blindfolds.

Everyone blinked and then stared around themselves in awe. From the inside, the throne room was completely restored to the way it had been when Discord had first arrived, with a few changes. The princesses' thrones had been replaced with a throne of Discord's own design, and the tapestries of Luna and Celestia now sported drawn-on mustaches and monocles. For the moment, the throne at the head of the room was empty.

"Welcome, everybody, to the Disharmony base," said the Disharmonizer that had stepped in front of them. She reached up as she spoke and pulled her mask off, shaking out her wild mess of chunky blue hair and grinning at them with red-irised eyes.

Rainbow Dash gasped. "Vinyl? You're a Disharmonizer?"

Vinyl Scratch grinned. "Oh yeah, man. I've been fighting for my freedom for years now."

"Freedom?" Applejack repeated.

"That's exactly what you're fighting against as a part of the Disharmony movement! You're helping an evil overlord to overthrow Celestia, which would end everybody's freedom!" Twilight started forward, but stepped back when she realized that at least six assault rifles surrounded the little group of captives.

Vinyl shook her head. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"Get what? How you betrayed Equestria?!" Rainbow's hands both clenched into angry fists.

"We betrayed Equestria?" One of the other Disharmonizers pulled off her mask, letting long black hair fall over her shoulders.

"Octavia? But...you disappeared last year!"

The cellist stood next to her DJ friend and smiled bitterly. "And Discord is the only reason I'm still alive."

"If anyone has betrayed Equestria, it's the Princess," Vinyl continued. "What kind of leader allows her subjects to be shot on the spot without even a trial?"

"She's protectin' us!" Applejack insisted.

"She has magic to detect traitors! They don't need a trial!"

"Do you really believe that?" asked a masculine voice, and everyone gasped as the lanky figure of a man materialized on the throne before them. Fluttershy screamed. He smiled. "It seems I don't need to introduce myself. And neither do you, my dears. Everyone knows the Heroes of Equestria, and who could forget their adorable sisters? And this one," he motioned to Octavia and she brought Twist forward, still simpering in fear. "You must be the accused."

"Don't hurt her!" Scootaloo shouted, fists clenched angrily by her sides.

Discord chuckled darkly as he slid off his throne and approached the young captive. "It seems I don't have to. Celestia's guards have already done a fair job of that." Placing a finger under her chin, he turned Twist's face this way and that, taking in the damage. Her left eye was dark purple by now, and her right cheek was red and swollen from where the guard had slapped her. He squinted at her nose, where a tiny cut caught his attention. "What's this one, child?"

Twist whimpered under his touch, and stuttered, "Th-they broke my glatheth..."

Without turning around, Discord called, "Derpy?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Do we have any spare glasses in the supply room?"

"Yes, sir."

"Bring me a pair."

The Heroes of Equestria watched in horror as the hand that he held Twist's chin with started to glow. Applejack had to restrain Rainbow Dash from rushing to stop him, but as quickly as it had come, his magic faded. Twilight frowned. It didn't seem like he had done anything. Then Twist reached up and brushed her hair away from her face, and they gasped. Discord had healed her injuries.

The redheaded girl stopped snivelling and stared at him in shock. "Th-thank you..."

Derpy returned with the glasses and Discord magically shrunk them to fit her head. She adjusted them on her nose and smiled.

The women watched in confusion, then whispered among themselves.

"What is he doin'?" Applejack asked. "Is he just tryin' to convince us he's kind to his followers?"

"I don't believe any of it!" Rainbow Dash insisted, loud enough for the room to hear. "Everybody knows what he does when he finds out that a Disharmonizer got caught!"

"A Disharmonizer?" Discord repeated, as if shock. "Did I say this girl was a Disharmonizer?"

"Well duh!" Rainbow retorted. "Why else would we be taking her to Canterlot?"

Discord raised one eyebrow, then looked down at Twist. "Tell them the truth, child. Have you ever seen my face before?"

Twist shook her head vehemently.

"I knew it," Pinkie whispered.

"He might have told her to say that..." Fluttershy mumbled.

"Who knows how much you torture your followers to maintain their loyalty!"

"She's probably afraid for her life if she tells the truth!"

Discord scowled at the indignant women, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. But Twist spoke up in her own defense. "It'th true! I didn't even know Dithcord until jutht now!"

"Then why are you accused?"

"I thaid thomething mean to Diamond Tiara. She wouldn't leave me alone, and tho I thaid..." She looked around at all the confused faces, and took a deep breath. "I thaid that 'if the Dithharmonizers come to Ponyville, I hope they get you firtht'..." She finished in a rush and buried her face in her hands when she finished.

The women gasped. Even Discord frowned.

"Then when I got home the guardth were waiting for me."

There was a long silence.

"And they were gonna SHOOT YOU for that?!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"That Diamond Tiara," Rarity growled. "I always suspected her father was an informer." Her grip subtly tightened on Sweetie Belle's shoulder.

"Are you trying to tell us that you've never been a part of the Disharmony movement, Twist?" Twilight asked, looking at the girl seriously.

Twist nodded. "I never meant anything, I jutht wanted Diamond Tiara to leave me alone..."

"If she wasn't a Disharmonizer, why did ya bother bringin' us here, Discord?" Applejack demanded.

Pinkie Pie gasped. "It's because we were on the train! He wanted to kidnap us!"

Fluttershy whimpered.

Discord shook his head. "On the contrary, I didn't want to have you brought here. But we couldn't let you send Twist to her death, so we hijacked the train to keep her safe."

"If she's not a Disharmonizer, why do you care?" Twilight demanded.

Discord waved a tattooed hand. "Oh, call me a sentimentalist, but I don't particularly enjoy seeing children shot."

"They weren't going to shoot her!" Pinkie screamed.

"We were taking her to a trial!"

"We were trying to get her acquitted!"

Discord crossed his arms. "Do you know of anyone who has ever been acquitted of treason?"

There was silence as all of the women hesitated. Finally, Applejack answered, "No."

"Would you like to know why that is?" Discord asked.

"I have a feeling you're going to tell us anyway," Twilight said.

"Those 'trials' that you think the special cases get are nothing more than a private execution," Octavia said. "Taking them to Canterlot is just to get them out of the public eye, so that there won't be a scandal when they're shot. Celestia never even sees them."

"WHAT?!" all of them screamed at once.

Twist started crying.

"Celestia would never allow that!" Twilight insisted.

"She doesn't know about it!" Vinyl replied. "The guards do it all behind her back! We think they're getting payoffs from some third party, but we can't figure out who."

"Who could possibly have convinced the guards to go against Celestia's orders?" Rarity wondered aloud.

"We don't know," answered Octavia. "And we don't have anyone in Canterlot who's close enough to find out. We need someone on the inside."

"I don't suppose you ladies would be interested in taking a look around for us when you arrive in Canterlot?" Discord asked.

Fluttershy squealed in terror at the idea.

"Are you serious?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Spy on Princess Celestia for you?"

"Not on the Princess," Discord replied smoothly, "On her staff and those around her. See if you can find out who is pulling the strings with the guards. You'd be doing her a favor if you could identify a threat so close to her."

"He actually has a point," Pinkie mused.

"You'd just let us go?" Twilight asked skeptically. "What about Twist?"

"We'll take good care of her, don't you worry," Vinyl Scratch said.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all objected. Applejack piped up, "No way are we leavin' her alone here with you! She goes with us!"

Discord groaned. "If you're so eager to see this one executed, very well, take her." He pushed Twist back toward the group of women, and her friends rushed to embrace her.

"I'm afraid, however..." Discord continued, holding up one finger. "That we will need some form of security to ensure that you don't just run to Celestia and tell her where we're hiding."

"Security?" Rainbow repeated.

"One of you must remain here with us until the rest of you return." He grinned a dragon-toothed grin at them, and clasped his hands behind his back. "Any volunteers?"

There was dead silence in the room. Then, from the back of the little group, a soft voice said, "I'll stay."

Everyone spun to see Fluttershy staring at her feet, with one hand lifted timidly into the air.

"No, Fluttershy, you don't have to. I'll stay," said Applejack. Apple Bloom instantly squealed and clamped her arms around her sister's waist.

"No, I will." Rainbow Dash offered, but Scootaloo screamed in protest.

"I think I should remain here," Rarity announced, but Sweetie Belle was already in tears holding onto her sister's hand.

"No." Fluttershy said firmly, and looked up at them. "All of you have other people who depend on you. I don't have anyone who will need me while I'm gone. Besides, you girls will be back for me soon. I--I'm not afraid." She did her best to hold her head high as she walked past them to face Discord. "I volunteer to stay behind."

Discord grinned. "Excellent." He put an arm around her shoulders casually, and snapped his fingers. Blindfolds reappeared on all of the women's faces. "Escort the Heroes of Equestria back to the train and set it back on its original course. Let them see for themselves how Celestia's justice is done."

As they were led away, Twilight called back, "Don't worry, Fluttershy, we'll be back for you before you know it!"

Fluttershy tried to hold in her tears until her friends were out of earshot.

Inquiries

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Fluttershy whimpered as she watched her friends being blindly led away, back to the train, to Canterlot. At least she hoped that's where they were going. That was what Discord had said, but if the stories about him were true, there was nothing stopping him from simply marching them outside, lining them up against a wall, and gunning them down where they stood. Discord was heartless and powerful, and that meant he could be as cruel and unpredictable as he pleased. But Fluttershy heard no gunshots as she stood pitifully in the throne room of the Disharmony Headquarters, only the engines of the jeeps that had brought them all there.

"Well now," Discord said suddenly, causing Fluttershy to jump, "While we are waiting for them to return, would you like a tour of our humble camp?"

The small woman opened her mouth, but the only sound she could make was a strangled squeaking. Discord frowned, studying her. Fluttershy was easily the shortest of the group, although he found her figure was unquestionably pleasing. Her light pink hair was long and soft, and Discord's eagle-claw-tattooed hand clenched at his side as he stifled an unexpected urge to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her teary eyes were large and glassy teal, with a manner about them that suggested infinite kindness. The butter-yellow sweater that hung off of her shoulders was too big and worn thin in places, as if she rarely wore anything else, and the too-long sleeves hid trembling white hands with bitten-off nails. She certainly didn't look as sleekly groomed as Rarity did, but she had a soft prettiness about her that for some reason made it difficult for Discord to look away.

Finally, Derpy cautiously leaned over to Discord and whispered, "Maybe we oughta let her have some time to herself..." The woman shrank when her boss spun to glare at her. "Y-you know, so she can catch her breath. She seems a little--" she stole a glance at Fluttershy, "--scared."

Discord looked from his assistant to Fluttershy. Of course she looked scared; this woman never stopped looking scared. Instead of pleasing him, however, as he had hoped, her fear just weighed on him, like a stone on his chest. His frown deepened. Making such a beautiful pony cry should have delighted him, not bothered him. The Master of Chaos sighed. "Clean out a guest room for her."

"Yes, sir." Derpy motioned to a few other Disharmonizers, who hurried downstairs. The odd-eyed assistant put a hand on Fluttershy's shoulder. "Why don't you come with me, Miss Fluttershy? I'll show you to your room."

Fluttershy squeaked again, but allowed Derpy to lead her away.

When they were out of sight, Discord returned to his pacing, grinding his teeth. He walked a thin line having this one stay in the camp. He wanted to make a good impression on the Heroes of Equestria; they had seemed almost receptive to his ideas. It might be possible to turn them to Disharmony, and if it worked, they would be the most valuable spies he'd ever had. But he knew he had a lot to overcome. And then, when he required someone stay behind, he got stuck with the most frightened of all of them. It would be impossible for him to sway her while she was too scared to even speak to him.

He looked up at Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, who were still standing nearby. The two were conversing happily, like always. The two of them had come to the Movement as a pair, and were always inseparable. It made him wonder, because the two women couldn't be more different. Octavia was sleek, refined, and cool, while Vinyl was hotheaded, messy and wild. And somehow the two were the best of friends.

"Excuse me ladies?" he said suavely, sauntering over to them. "I have a rather personal question. I can't help but notice that you two seem to be quite fond of each other?"

The women looked at him blankly. "I mean, yeah, dude, we're best friends," Vinyl said.

"And yet you have such differing personalities," Discord observed, false innocence dripping from his voice. "How do you like someone who has is so utterly different than you?"

Both of them raised their eyebrows, looking to each other. "It's not about being different or similar," Octavia finally said. "Vinyl has been there for me when no one else has."

The DJ grinned. "Yeah, and Octy always has my back. Like that time when I broke my shades and couldn't afford new ones, she went and bought me a new pair with the money she'd been saving for a new cello!"

"Or the countless times in high school that you got into fistfights with those boys who stole my lunch money!"

"Or when I go out and get drunk, I can always count on you to pick me up!"

"Even when I have a big audition in the morning," Octavia added through her teeth, gently nudging Vinyl's arm.

"I said I was sorry about that one."

"I know." The two hugged and looked back at Discord happily, who was squinting at them in confusion.

"So...the two of you are friends beause....?"

"We take care of each other," Octavia finished.

"And we take care of each other because we're friends!" Vinyl added.

"So it's just a repeating cycle? That's helpful." Discord ground his teeth, clenched and unclenched his fists, and finally turned back to the girls and inquired. "How would one go about entering into this repeating cycle with someone with whom one has not previously engaged therein?"

"What?"

"HOW DO I MAKE FRIENDS?!" Discord realized he was shouting and looked around to see most of the room staring at him.

Octavia and Vinyl Scratch exchanged a look. "Have you tried talking to them?"

"Yes!" He stomped his lizard-tattoooed foot. "It didn't work!"

"Were you nice to them?"

"Yes! I was polite and welcoming and--"

"You know, chief, there's a difference between being welcoming and taking someone hostage."

Octavia screamed as Discord lifted Vinyl off of her feet by her shirt. He held her in the air for a moment, then realized the truth of what she had said, and dropped her. "Fine, fine," he growled, pacing a short distance and returning, containing his anger. "How would one go about overcoming the trepidity of one who may feel a slight timidness toward one?"

"What--"

"HOW DO I MAKE HER NOT AFRAID OF ME?!"

Vinyl and Octavia looked doubtfully at each other. "Um...try being nice to her?"

"Like what? I can't get near her!"

"Give her stuff? Stuff she likes?"

"Do you know what sort of things she likes?"

"No. Why would I?"

"Do you know anything about her?"

Discord sighed. "She's one of the Heroes of Equestria, represents the element of Kindness, afraid of everything, got lots of press coverage for her work with stray animals. Animals!" He perked up. "That's it!" He snapped his fingers and a tiny kitten appeared in his palm.

The women blinked. "I still can't get used to the magic part," Vinyl commented. To be able to summon a kitten out of thin air was not a common ability. But Discord wasn't around to hear; he was running downstairs, kitten clenched eagerly to his chest.

Back on the train, the rest of the women pulled off their blindfolds to discover they were nearly to Canterlot, and that every Disharmonizer had vanished. Princess Twilight stood up and began to pace the car again, eventually stopping to address the group. "When we get there, I think we should proceed as if nothing happened on the way here."

"Why?" Pinkie asked, holding Twist in her lap.

"If we let on that the Disharmony movement captured us and that we think someone is manipulating the Princess, whoever it is will know we're trying to find them out and they'll be on their guard and not let us find anything out. We need them to think that we don't suspect a thing."

Applejack nodded. "Good idea, Twi. We'll go in like all we wanna do is talk to the Princess about Twist, and then just start casually askin' questions while we're there. If someone is goin' behind Celestia's back, we don't want them to know we're lookin' for 'em."

The women nodded.

"But what about Twist?" Rarity asked. "She was under heavy guard when we left Ponyville; we can't just hold her hand on the way into the castle. Everyone else still thinks she's a Disharmonizer."

"But we can't risk letting her near any guards!" Rainbow Dash protested. "If Discord was right and the guards really do shoot the suspects before they get to the castle, we'd be putting her in danger by letting them guard her!"

Twilight thought. "I have an idea." She went to the back car of the train and took one of the sets of handcuffs that had bound Twist to the chair. Bringing them back to where Twist was sitting, the purple-haired woman put the cuffs on the little girl. "There," Twilight said. "Now we're the guards. Rainbow Dash, you and Applejack carry her off the train, one on each arm. And look mean. I'm sorry, Twist," she said, "But it's much better than being dead."

The redhead nodded vehemently.

When the train pulled to a stop, Twilight exited first, holding her chin in the air and looking coldly at the guards they passed. Rainbow and AJ followed, holding Twist aloft with rough grips on her arms. Pinkie Pie and Rarity flanked the prisoner, and when one of the guards questioned them, Pinkie said in her most theatrical voice, "This one almost got away! Princess Twilight and the Heroes of Equestria are bringing her to Princess Celestia for a trial! No, we shall guard her ourselves. This one is special to us."

"Why?" asked the guard. Pinkie gave him a withering look. He backed down.

In this manner, with Pinkie and Rarity both making up nonsense about how Twist had a dark history with the Heroes, or had specifically threatened the Princess, or was personally intimate with Discord, the odd little group eventually made it to the palace. The guard at the throne room asked what they wanted, and Twilight answered, "We are here to bring a Disharmonizer to trial."

The guard frowned. "There is no need to bother the Princess with that, your highness," he said. Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged a meaningful glance, and Rarity cleared her throat.

"You are addressing the Princess of Friendship, my good sir. Surely Celestia is not so busy that she does not have time for her former student."

His frown deepened. "If it is simply a disloyalty trial, that is not considered important enough to be brought before the Princess."

"Do you mean to tell me that most special cases don't even reach Princess Celestia?" Twilight demanded, trying to keep the expression of horrified realization from showing on her face.

"Not anymore, ma'am. They have become too common."

"Well this one is not common," Twilight insisted, "And I am not leaving until I have spoken to Princess Celestia."

The guard looked dubious, but eventually opened the door to the throne room, royally announcing, "Her highness, the Princess of Friendship, and her friends, the Heroes of Equestria."

Princess Celestia looked up from her throne with a surprised smile, walking down the steps to greet her former student. "Twilight Sparkle, I had not thought to see you again so soon."

Twilight hugged her mentor affectionately, but then pulled away urgently. "There's been a bit of a mix-up, Princess. This little filly has been accused of disloyalty," she looked back to where Rainbow Dash was already removing Twist's handcuffs. "But when we asked why, she told us that it was because she had gotten into an argument at school. I've studied enough Equestrian law to know that hateful words do not qualify as treason."

Princess Celestia's pale brow furrowed in thought, and she knelt to look into Twist's face. Twist looked back at her hopefully, silently begging her to understand. Finally, Celestia stood up, and looked out the stained-glass windows to where the sun was setting over the distant Equestrian horizon.

"It is late," she said finally. "In order to treat this matter thoroughly and fairly, there will need to be an extensive investigation and trial. We will begin directly after I raise the sun tomorrow morning. For now, I suggest you all get some rest." She motioned to some guards, who came forward to escort the women out of the throne room. When they tried to pull Twist away from the group, several voices raised in protest.

"Let go a her!" Applejack shouted.

"She's not dangerous!" Pinkie Pie squealed.

"Couldn't it be possible to try her now, Princess?" Twilight pleaded. Everyone had the sense not to say it out loud, but they feared that if they allowed the guards to be alone with Twist, that the trial in the morning would be irrelevant.

But Princess Celestia shook her head grimly. "I'm afraid these matters are too serious to rush through. A fair trial takes time." She nodded to the guards, who forcibly pulled Twist away from the group and led everyone else to the guest wing of the palace.

When the heavy throne room doors banged closed, Celestia motioned to her head guard. He approached, and she lowered her voice. "Why would they bring a traitor themselves instead of sending her with guards, like they have for every other special case?"

"I don't know, your majesty," the man replied, pulling his helmet off to reveal messy blue hair. "I tried to explain to them that you did not need to be bothered with a treason case."

The expression on the Princess's face darkened. "And they insisted?"

"Yes, your majesty."

The monarch walked slowly to a window, watching the sun set. "I think we may need to have a discussion with them tomorrow."

"Your majesty?"

"Post a guard in front of their rooms to monitor their activity and to keep them safe. Do not let them leave the guest wing until the trial is set to begin tomorrow morning."

"The trial? For the little traitor?"

Princess Celestia turned to look at her captain.

"Then who is the trial for, your majesty?"

She turned back to the window. "For the Heroes of Equestria, of course. I want to know why they're acting this way. We can't risk them turning traitor. All of Equestria would follow them."

"And the little girl?"

"Give her a room for tonight, but keep a close watch. We will pass judgement on her case in the morning, with everyone present, since Princess Twilight wants so badly for her to have a proper sentence."

First Impressions

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"I hope you will find this comfortable," Derpy said, as she showed Fluttershy into one of the guest suites on the fifth floor below the surface underneath the old castle. The floors were numbered in opposite order, so the first floor was the top, the one closest to the surface. Fluttershy hadn't spoken a word on the elevator ride down, but now she wandered her room, and found it wanting for nothing. The bed was soft, the windowsills were clean, everything was comfortable. She turned to Derpy and nodded. "Thank you."

The blonde woman turned to leave their guest alone in her new quarters, and nearly ran headlong into her boss as Discord came flying down the corridor. Derpy dove aside just in time, and Discord burst into Fluttershy's room, causing her to squeal in surprise.

"Fluttershy! In order to demonstrate how welcome you are among our little band of rebels, I have brought you a gift!" And he held out the kitten in his hands, which looked up at her with terrified eyes after being carried at top speed down five flights of stairs.

Fluttershy blinked at the little creature, then silently took it from Discord's hands, gently cradling it against her chest. Discord watched her with an eager smile on his face, admiring how graceful and delicate her little hands were with the furry animal.

She looked up at him and murmured, "Thank you." Discord did his best to hide his disappointment when no smile appeared on her face.

"Yes, well, I'll leave you two alone then. Dinner will be at seven. I'll arrange a private meal for the two of us so that you won't feel overwhelmed by meeting everyone at once."

Fluttershy just nodded silently, looking back down at the kitten. "What's its name?" she asked.

"Uh..." Discord had forgotten most people name their animals. "I'll let you name it, my dear. It's yours, after all."

This, finally, had the desired effect. She offered him a weak smile. He grinned back at her, then started for the door.

When she was alone with her new friend, Fluttershy looked down at the kitten and considered it. She decided to wait to name her until they had gotten to know each other a little better. Letting the kitten jump onto the bed, she sat down next to it and took a deep breath. It had been a long day. Her train had been hijacked, she had been threatened at gunpoint, she had met Discord, the most feared man in Equestria, and he had given her a kitten.

It was odd, but it seemed as if Discord actually wanted her to feel safe and welcome at the Disharmony Headquarters. Fluttershy looked down at her new friend, who was curiously exploring the bed. Why would he take such trouble to make her feel comfortable? Shouldn't a hostage be kept in fear of their life at all times? The tattooed man could snap his fingers and kill her just as easily as he had offered her a gift, invited her to dine with him. She shivered at the thought of being alone with Discord, and glanced nervously at the clock. It was already past six.

At ten minutes to seven, Derpy knocked gently on her door, and waited patiently until a pale and shaking Fluttershy opened it. Derpy frowned. "Are you all right, Miss Fluttershy?" she asked, as she began to lead her down the hall to the elevator.

"Y-yes," Fluttershy whispered, but it was far from convincing.

The blonde woman smiled gently at her as they entered the elevator and descended deeper into the earth. "You don't need to be afraid of him, Miss. He won't hurt you."

The look in Fluttershy's teal eyes said she didn't believe her.

Derpy sighed and shook her head. "You'll see," she said finally. "There's a reason his followers are so loyal to him."

The elevator doors dinged open to reveal a lavishly decorated dining hall. Fluttershy gasped and stared around at the decor, wandering further into the room as her eyes trailed over every wall.

The room was not extremely large, but every wall was covered in dark red velvet draperies, which came together in the center of the ceiling, with a spiral crystal chandelier hanging from the center. On the end of the room opposite the doors that Fluttershy and Derpy had just walked through was a huge ornate fireplace with a magical fire blazing in it, the dancing flames a light purple instead of orange. In the center of the room stood a glossy wooden table, its four legs carved into four different designs: a goat's hoof, a lion's paw, a lizard's claw, and an eagle's talon. The chairs were equally grand, with the same mismatched legs, and in the center of the table stood a golden candelabra, whose blood-red candles each burnt with purple flame.

As Fluttershy stood in awe, Derpy backed out of the room and Discord materialized beside the table, dressed in a sleek black suit, which appeared to be made out of some kind of snakeskin. He bowed deeply. "Welcome, Miss Fluttershy. I'm so delighted that you're here." He straightened up and looked her over, raising an eyebrow. "Hm." Vanishing and reappearing beside her, he circled her critically. "My dear, you simply cannot dine wearing that."

She stared at her feet, color rushing to her face. It hadn't occurred to her that she might be expected to dress up to have dinner with the Lord of Chaos. But Discord was smiling. "We'll soon fix that!" He snapped his fingers and a trio of mirrors surrounded them. "Let's see, what would look best on you?"

Discord snapped his fingers again, and Fluttershy gasped as a slinky black evening dress appeared on her body, made of the same snakeskin material as Discord's suit. She wiggled uncomfortably, blushing furiously at the low neckline and tight fit of the dress. Discord frowned. "No, huh? Well, we could do..." he snapped his fingers again and a voluminious golden gown appeared on her instead, with long gloves that passed her elbows and a golden tiara in her hair. Fluttershy opened her mouth to protest, but he was already shaking his head. "No, that won't do. Not for a first dinner. How about..." One more snap of the fingers and Fluttershy gasped. She was dressed in a high-waisted gown, with a pink flowing skirt with a short train. The bodice was a soft spring green, decorated with a garland of real lillies that formed a modest neckline and floral straps over her shoulders. Her hair had been pulled up and decorated with matching lillies, and on her feet were a pair of green sandals.

"Discord, it's..." She trailed off, staring at herself in the mirrors.

"...perfect," he finished for her, smiling as he watched her admire his handiwork.

She turned to smile at him. "Thank you."

The gesture caught him off-guard and Discord suddenly felt as though his knees might give out. He reached up to adjust his tie, his single oversized canine glinting in the candlelight as he smiled back at her. Seeing her in that dress had already made him uneasy, but nothing could have prepared him for how incredibly beautiful that woman was when she smiled. Her simple expression of gratitude nearly swept him off his feet. It was a long moment before Discord realized he should probably say something. "Oh, um, you're welcome, not at all, yes." He swallowed. "It fits you beautifully."

Fluttershy blushed a little and went back to looking at herself in the mirrors. After a while, she looked around at the room again. "Did you make all of this, too?" She asked, gesturing to the draperies and the chandelier.

Discord nodded, looking around. "Mhm. Might have gone a bit overboard with the red..." He snapped his fingers and the red draperies were covered with embroidered golden rose vines. Fluttershy gasped again and covered her mouth with her hands in delight. "Wow," she whispered. "I never knew your magic could do things like that..."

"What sort of things did you expect, my dear guest?"

"Well..." she trailed off, staring at her feet.

He frowned. "What is it?"

Fluttershy hesitated, afraid of what might happen if she offended him. "Th-they say you can use your magic to...hurt people."

"So can Celestia."

Fluttershy looked up, appalled. "But she wouldn't!"

Discord crossed his arms. "And who told you that I would?"

She stared at him, caught. Her mouth closed and she looked down, ashamed. "E-everyone says so."

"Everyone? Has anyone who's actually met me said so?"

"I don't know anyone who has actually met you."

"But you have met me yourself. Have I hurt anyone to your immediate knowledge?" He subtly waved the mirrors away so that they were alone once again in the dining hall, not even their reflections to see them. She looked up at him, confused. She could name no one; every person that she thought he had harmed was here, and seemed happier for it. His eyes met hers and almost involuntarily, he took a step towards her. "I wish to give you no reason to fear me, my dear."

Fluttershy stared up at him, though whether she was paralyzed from fear or something else she couldn't say. There was something in the quickness of his eyes as they darted over her face, lingering on her lips, before meeting hers again that fascinated her. Her own teal eyes slid down to glance at his fanged mouth, but immediately snapped back upwards when she felt something pull at her gut, something she'd never felt before. It frightened her.

Discord fought to keep his hands at his sides; they twitched to reach for her but he restrained them. She was so close he could smell her; she smelled like flowers and cat hair. When her eyes fell to his lips he almost leaned forward, but when she looked back up at him there was fear in her eyes again, and he closed his mouth. "Shall we dine?" he asked smoothly, gesturing to the table, which was suddenly set with the most succulent feast Fluttershy had ever seen. She gasped and hurried to her seat, filling her plate with salad, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Discord watched her curiously, then offered her a leg of lamb.

Fluttershy looked up. "Oh, um, no thank you. I'm a vegetarian."

Discord raised his eyebrows in surprise, but smiled anyway. He snapped his fingers and the meat dishes were replaced with pasta, legumes, and tofu. "And if there's anything you want that you don't see, you just ask and it's yours."

She offered him a brave smile. "Thank you, Discord. You've been a very gracious host."

He grinned brightly, taking his seat and filling his own plate. "Of couse, my dear. You deserve nothing less."

Color filled her cheeks and she looked down at her plate as butterflies flooded her stomach. She fought for something to say, but ended up just stuttering, which she finally ended by putting a forkful of green beans into her mouth and chewing silently, staring at her plate.

Discord watched her with curious delight. What a funny thing she was, this woman. He had never seen anything more beautiful, and somehow at the same time she could be awkward and shy, unused to ay kind of attention. She was obviously terrified of him, and yet here she was, having dinner with him, being perfectly kind and even smiling for him. He'd never met anyone quite like her.

She could feel his stare and her blush deepened. Keeping her eyes on her plate, she tried to act as though she didn't notice his eyes on her, but the heat on her face only worsened. Her embarrassment only deepened when she felt the same heat not only on her face, but in her stomach. What was he doing to her? Was he casting some kind of spell on her?

Discord was thinking the same thing about her, wondering if her delicate beauty was some kind of enchantment, if that was why he couldn't seem to look away from her. When she still refused to meet his gaze, he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Tomorrow, if you like, I can have Derpy show you around Headquarters. Better yet, I can show you around!" He grinned excitedly at his idea. "How does that sound?"

Fluttershy finally looked up at him, her face still burning. "That sounds lovely, Discord. Thank you."

"I dug everything out myself, you know. Well, not with my hands, of course, but with my magic." He tried to give a flippant laugh, but it ended up sounding squeaky and nervous.

The pink-haired woman managed to give him an impressed smile. "Wow," she breathed. "You really are all-powerful, aren't you?"

Discord laughed heartily. "Oh, not at all, my dear. I am indeed very powerful, but there are things in this world much more powerful than I." He looked at her curiously. "The Elements of Harmony, for example."

Fluttershy gasped and blushed again, looking down at her plate. "I--I didn't--"

He cut her off. "It's all right, my dear. As I told you before, you are in no danger here, and I trust you to extend to me the same courtesy. Not that you could use the Elements until your friends get back anyway." He smiled at her, confident that she could do him no harm.

Fluttershy looked relieved to know that he did not view her as a threat.

Eventually, they both finished eating, and Fluttershy suppressed a yawn.

Discord saw it and set down his wine glass. "I think it might be time for bed, my dear. May I see you back to your room?"

Fluttershy was glad to hear that it was bedtime, but paused at his request. He wanted to walk her to her room? Normally, she would think he was just being a gracious host, but something stirred in the pit of her stomach and she bit her lip. "Y-you may," she whispered.

He rose from his chair and stood at her side, offering his arm. Her slender hand shook as she accepted him, letting him help her out of her chair. He led her to the elevator and pressed the button, silently wondering if it was acceptable to continue to hold onto her arm. Fluttershy silently wondered why touching his arm made her feel so...strange. What made even more strange was that she didn't want to let go. They stood in the elevator arm in arm, neither daring to look at the other, both just trying to prolong the thrilling sensation of standing so close together.

When he opened her bedroom door for her, the kitten hurried out of it, mewing indignantly at Fluttershy for leaving her alone for so long. Fluttershy reluctantly let go of Discord's arm to bend down and pick up the little creature.

"I'm sorry, it was only a few hours," she said, to which the cat mewed even more loudly.

"Well, she's quite the spoiled little princess, isn't she?" Discord asked, scratching the kitten's ears.

Fluttershy giggled. "Say, I think that's what I'll name her! Princess!" She turned to smile up at Discord, not realizing until too late just how close to him she was standing. They were inches apart as he smiled down at her. They both realized it at the same time and awkwardly took a step back, both of their faces bright red.

"W-well, good night, Discord," she whispered, disappearing behind her door.

Discord stood still for a very long time, staring at her closed door. What had just happened? What was wrong with him? Why was she so tantalizing to him? Finally he turned and made his way back toward the elevator. He rode it down to the very bottom floor, Floor 13, and stepped out into his personal bedroom. The first thing he did was go the sink and splash cold water on his face, but it didn't help. Her teal eyes still floated before his eyes, her soft musical voice played in his ears, and the place on his arm that her hand had touched still tingled.

Discord looked at himself in the mirror, concern beginning to show on his face. "This isn't good."

Betrayal

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When Princess Twilight poked her head out of her guest room door the next morning at Canterlot Castle, she was surprised to see the hallway patrolled by more than the usual number of guards. She blinked, but said nothing, greeting the other women as they emerged from their rooms, too.

“I hope Twist is okay,” Pinkie murmured quietly.

“They couldn’t possibly shoot her before her trial, could they?” Rarity asked. “I mean, they know that Celestia is waiting to try her; if she didn’t show up, it would look awfully suspicious.”

“That’s true,” Twilight agreed. “Hopefully the guards know that, too.”

Applejack shivered. “I hope Fluttershy’s okay. I feel just awful for leaving her alone there with Discord. Who knows what he could do to her by the time we get back.”

Rainbow Dash growled and cracked her knuckles. “If he lays one hand on her, I swear I’m gonna—“

“You know he could turn you into gravel with a snap of his fingers, right?” Applejack interrupted.

The rainbow-mowhawked woman glared at her. “I don’t care! Nobody touches Fluttershy and gets away with it! I don’t care if he’s the Lord of Chaos!”

“You probably should,” Pinkie pointed out. “I mean, you probably wouldn’t be able to join the Wonderbolts if you’re a pile of gravel. How would you fly the jet?”

“If I could get ahold of one of their jets, we could probably bomb their hideout!” Rainbow suggested.

“A jet wouldn’t have the firepower,” Applejack corrected.

“Besides, most of the base is underground, darling,” Rarity reminded her.

Twilight looked up. “If the treaty with Maretonia goes through then we’ll have all the firepower we need to turn the entire Everfree Forest into one big crater.”

“How soon until you know if that goes through?”

“Not long. I already proofread the treaty; now all it needs is to be filed and they can start shipping the warheads to us.”

“And then we can blow Discord to smithereens!” Rainbow cheered enthusiastically.

Pinkie suddenly gasped in horror. “What if they blow up the base while Fluttershy is still there?! Or Vinyl? Or Octavia?” she screamed.

The guards at the end of the hallway looked over at Pinkie’s outburst, causing the group to chuckle nervously. They stood as casually as they could, looking innocent, until the guards finally went back to their own conversation. Twilight glared at Pinkie.

“We need to keep it down,” she whispered harshly. “We don’t know who might be listening to us. Now come on, it’s almost time for the trial.”

Everyone nodded, and headed for the door. The guards fell into step with them as they left, escorting the little group back to the throne room. One of the guards briefly caught Twilight’s eye, and the two of them both looked away quickly.

Celestia was waiting for them in the throne room, the sun shining beautifully through the multiple stained-glass windows decorating the walls. The princess looked equally beautiful and intimidating, her tall figure looming over the little group as they approached the steps.

All of them breathed a silent sigh of relief when a guard escorted Twist into the room from another door. She looked terrified, but she was alive. It took all of Pinkie’s self-control not to run and embrace the child.

The guard led the little girl to the center of the room, where she stood alone in front of Princess Celestia, visibly shivering.

“Twist,” Celestia began solemnly. “You stand accused of the highest crime against Equestria. Have you anything to say in your defense?”

Drawing a shaking breath, Twist began. “I’m not a Dithharmonizer. Yethderday, on the playground, Diamond Tiara wath making fun of my glatheth, and I thaid to her, ‘I hope the Disthharmonizerth get you firtht.’ I don’t really want them to take over Equethria or anything, I jutht wanted her to leave me alone.”

Celestia listened gravely, pressing the tips of her fingers together. “Do the witnesses have anything to say?”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders, who had been silent until now, came forward, with Applejack standing supportively behind them. Celestia looked down at them patiently.

“We know Twist real well,” Apple Bloom started.

“She’s not dangerous!” Sweetie Belle insisted.

“Yeah! And she’s really bad at keeping secrets, so we would know if she was a Disharmonizer!” Scootaloo announced, causing Twist to look back at her questioningly. She shrugged apologetically.

Everyone looked at the princess with pleading eyes, begging her to understand and release Twist. After several moments, Celestia sighed and rose from her throne, seeming even taller than she was. She descended the steps until she stood in front of Twist, looking down at her maternally.

She looked up at the witnesses. “You really believe her to be innocent?” she asked somberly.

Eight heads nodded vigorously.

The Princess of the Sun looked from Twist to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, back to Twist. “And you are willing to swear your loyalty to me and to Equestria?” she asked.

Twist nodded. “Yeth, Printheth.”

“Hm.” She turned and looked at Flash Sentry, who stood guarding the little group.

“I’ve ruled Equestria for over three thousand years,” she began, turning her back on them and pacing slowly. “For the last two thirds of that time, Discord has been a constant threat, lurking in the shadows where my sun cannot reach, turning my citizens against each other and causing chaos.”

She looked back at them. “As the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, you have contributed to the peace and safety of the population of Equestria. Your efforts are immeasurably valuable to me and to the cause of protecting our homeland.

“Sometimes, as a leader, I feel as though I do nothing but battle the Disharmonizers, fighting to keep them in the shadows, to keep them out of your homes and your lives. But that is my duty, and however unpleasant, I have sworn to keep my subjects safe from any threat.” Celestia turned to Flash again, then put her hand out to him. He drew his pistol and handed it to her. “Even when that threat comes in the most unassuming of forms.”

Before anyone could move or think, Celestia had aimed the pistol at the side of Twist’s head and pulled the trigger. The little girl’s body toppled over, lifeless.

The hall erupted in screaming. Guards rushed forward to hold back each of the women as well as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were all crying hysterically. All five of the adults struggled against their restraints, confused and horrified at the princess’s action.

“Take them to the dungeon,” Celestia instructed her guards, turning coldly away from her subjects. “We will deal with them later. I want information from them before they are executed.”

The guards dragged them away, all of them kicking and screaming, and locked them into the highest security prison cell in the Canterlot dungeons.

“I can’t believe she shot her,” Scootaloo mumbled, her eyes still wide with shock and terror.

“I can’t believe she would do that in front of the girls!” Applejack burst out. “They were scared enough as it is without seeing their friend get her brains blown out by Princess Celestia herself!”

Rarity sat soberly, holding Sweetie Belle in her lap. “It wasn’t the guards we needed to worry about,” she said finally. “They’re perfectly loyal to her. It’s the Princess that has betrayed Equestria, not the guards.”

Twilight was numb with shock. She couldn’t understand it. She had been Princess Celestia’s student for years and had never suspected that she wanted anything other than what was best for Equestria. This couldn’t possibly be what was best. This was the opposite of what was best. She and her friends were trying to help save an innocent life, and Celestia had taken that life without so much as batting an eye, and right in front of three young girls! Surely she didn’t think that was what Equestria needed.

As soon as the guards left them alone, Rainbow Dash set to work kicking at the door, trying to force her way out. She stepped away quickly, however, when Flash Sentry approached their cell. Twilight recognized him as the one who had caught her eye earlier. She stood up and approached the bars.

“Is that what happens to every special case that we send to Canterlot?” she asked, although she already knew the answer.

He nodded. “There is no room for disloyalty, even among the very young or the very old. The princess does not personally execute each and every one of them, of course, but since you all were so insistent that she be given a trial…”

All the women stared at their feet. So they had only delayed Twist’s fate.

“Wait!” Pinkie cried. “That means Mr. Waddles?”

“Executed.”

The pink-haired woman wailed in grief. The old man had been her particular friend, but he had disappeared about two months ago, shipped to Canterlot for a trial, and to be shot.

“What do you want with us?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

Flash pulled his helmet off, running a hand through his blue hair. “Was Twist telling the truth?”

“Of course she was!” Rainbow yelled. “No kid that young could lie about something that big!”

“Twist couldn’t even keep a secret about a birthday party!” Apple Bloom piped up.

“It’s true,” Scootaloo added. “She has a really big mouth. Well, she had a really big mouth…”

Sweetie Belle started crying again.
Flash frowned, as if he were working out difficult problems in his head. “Look, Celestia wants information out of you. She thinks you’re all Disharmonizers, and wants to know everything you know about the movement.”

“But we’re not!” Apple Bloom insisted.

Rainbow Dash glared at the wall. “Honestly, after seeing Celestia blow Twist away, I think I’d rather be a Disharmonizer.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight scolded. “Saying that is enough to get you killed!”

“They’re gonna kill us anyway!” She retorted.

“Not before they get that information,” Flash said grimly.

“That information that we don’t have?” Rarity questioned.

“And what if we just don’t feel like telling you?!” Rainbow asked defiantly.

Flash looked at her, with something in his eyes that resembled fear and regret. “You’ll tell us.”

Applejack tightened her grip on her sister. “What’re you gonna do to us?” she asked, afraid of the answer.

“You get tonight to think about it, but tomorrow morning they’ll start pulling you out of here one by one for interrogation.”

Pinkie Pie swallowed. “Are they gonna…”

“Only if you don’t give them what they want.”

“I’ll never talk!” Rainbow insisted.

Flash just looked at them. “Yes, you will.”

Twilight frowned. “If the interrogations don’t start until tomorrow, why are you down here now?”

He looked at her, took a deep breath, and said, “Look, I’m gonna be the one escorting each of you to the interrogation room tomorrow. There’s a chance I can help you, if you let me.”

“And why should we trust you?” Rainbow Dash asked suspiciously.

Flash never took his eyes off Twilight. “Because you’ll never make it without my help.”

The prisoners exchanged glances, wondering if it was safe to trust him. Eventually, Applejack shrugged. “It’s not like we got anything to lose at this point, y’all. We might as well take whatever chance we can get to try and make it out of here.”

“What do you propose?” Twilight asked.

Flash looked around at all of them. “I’ll take each of you out of the cell one by one, as your sole escort to the chamber. At one section of the dungeons, there is a weak point in security. When we reach that point, all you have to do is overpower me and escape. It’s risky; the guards will be after you in seconds, but I think it’ll give you enough of a headstart to get away.”

“And why are you helping us?” Rainbow asked suspiciously.

Flash sighed. “Because I don’t like seeing my ruler gun down young children any more than you do.”

Twilight looked at him seriously. “You know what you’re risking by doing this for us?” she asked soberly.

He nodded. “I do. I hope you can make my sacrifice mean something.”

“Sacrifice?” Rarity echoed.

“When Celestia finds out who helped us,” Twilight said.

“The punishment is extremely severe,” Flash admitted. “You have to be the ones who make this worth it.”

Twilight stared at him for a long moment. He stared back.

“We won’t let you down,” she whispered.

Flash Sentry put his helmet back on, snapped a salute, and turned away, leaving the prisoners alone again.

After a while, Rarity spoke. “But even if he gets us out of here, where can we go? We can’t simply return to Ponyville.”

Twilight frowned. “I think I know where we have to go.”

Jailbreak

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No one in the Canterlot dungeons slept a wink that night. Sweetie Belle drifted off a few times in the arms of her sister, but she awoke screaming when images of Twist’s shattered skull filled her dreams. Rainbow Dash, unwilling to depend on Flash to free them, spent the night trying to kick the door open. Soon her mowhawk was plastered to her head in sweat, but she worked tirelessly against their confinement. Applejack sat with one arm around Apple Bloom and the other around Scootaloo, trying to get both of them to stop crying, but she couldn’t tell them it would be all right, because she couldn’t believe that it would be. Even in such dire circumstances, she couldn’t lie to the girls to comfort them.

Twilight couldn’t stop thinking about Flash Sentry. Why was he so willing to help them, even though he knew what would happen to him for it? How was he planning on getting all of them out before the guards were alerted to their absence? Why had he looked at her like that?

There was no way of telling time in the dungeon; no sunlight penetrated into the underground prison complex. They could only wait for Flash Sentry to return and lead one of them away to face who-knows-what at the hands of their princess. It seemed like weeks before he finally appeared.

He removed his helmet, looking at all of them somberly. “Celestia would like to question the princess first,” he said, taking a key from the ring on his belt and unlocking the prison door. Twilight stepped forward with her head held high, adamant that if she were to die, she would do so with whatever dignity she could muster.

Flash took her arm and led her down the dark hallways. Neither of them said a word, until finally they came to a point in the hall where no other guard could see or hear them. He nudged her gently. “See that door? It goes to the stairwell. Just follow it up one floor and use the emergency exit.”

Twilight held his eyes for one second longer, then darted away from him and burst through the door into the stairwell. Much to her dismay, she found a guard leaning casually against the emergency exit door, a cigarette dangling loosely from his lips. Twilight cursed under her breath. Of all the times to find a guard on a smoke break!

She tried to get back through the door before he saw her, but he was already reaching for his gun. Twilight barely had time to dive out of the way before he loosed a shot towards her. The bullet connected with her left thigh and she hit the ground with a grunt of pain as the guard started toward her.

Flash heard the gunshot and was at her side in an instant, his own pistol aimed at his fellow guardsman. With one clean shot, he put a bullet through the man’s wrist, causing him to drop his gun and fall to his knees in pain, holding his arm. Flash grabbed Twilight and pulled her arm around his shoulders. “Hang on!” he ordered, and she obeyed, as he practically dragged her through the emergency exit and out into the blinding sunlight of Canterlot.

Without so much as pausing to think about it, Flash carried Twilight to a car that was parked at the curb, kicked open a window, unlocked the car from the inside, and put Twilight in the passenger seat. She tried to protest, but the pain in her leg and the bloodstain that was already growing on her jeans kept her occupied. Flash ran to the driver’s side of the car and hopped in, reaching under the dashboard to pull out a handful of wires, which he rearranged until the car roared to life. His foot slammed on the gas and in less than an hour they were out of Canterlot.

“We need to get that bullet wound taken care of,” Flash said, when they finally had room to breathe.

Twilight was pressing her hands against the wound as hard as she could to try and stop the bleeding. “We can’t just pull up to a hospital and ask them to fix it!” she insisted. “All of Equestria must be on high alert by now!”

“There must be something we can do.” Flash looked over at her. “We need to stop the bleeding. Did the bullet exit your leg or is it lodged in you?”

Carefully, the princess lifted her hands so she could look at her leg. There was no exit wound, and the pain suggested that the bullet was in fact still in her leg. “It’s lodged.”

The guard frowned, but didn’t let off the gas. “We need to get that out if we want it to heal.”

“And how do you propose to do that?” Twilight asked, gritting her teeth in pain, pulling her sweatshirt off and pressing it against the wound to stop the bleeding. “And what about the others? What’s gonna happen to them?”

Flash shook his head. “I don’t know. Things didn’t really go according to my plan.”

“We have to go back for them!”

“No can do, princess,” he replied resolutely. “I’ve gotta get you someplace safe first.”

“Safe? Where would be safe for us now?”

“I don’t know,” Flash said. “We can’t go into a city; the whole country is going to be looking for us.”

Twilight sighed in defeat. She knew their only option, she had known it since last night, but she feared that it would be just as dangerous as Canterlot. “Head south,” she ordered. “Towards the Everfree Forest.”

“The forest?” Flash repeated. “Why?”

“To the Disharmonizer base.”

Flash Sentry almost drove the car off the road. “WHAT?”

“Just do it!”

“I thought you weren’t part of them!”

“I’m not. Or, I wasn’t.” She supposed she might as well be one, now that she was on the top of Celestia’s wanted list.

“Then how do you know where the base is?” Flash was watching her suspiciously. Just because he didn’t approve of Celestia’s methods did not mean that he wanted Discord to plunge Equestria into eternal chaos.

Twilight sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“It’s a long drive.”

“On the train here, the Disharmonizers hijacked it and took us to their base. They said they were trying to save Twist’s life, and that someone close to Celestia had taken the special cases and executed them without the princess’s knowledge. But my friends and I didn’t believe him.”

“Him?” Flash repeated. “You met Discord?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. He healed Twist from the injuries the guards had inflicted on the train and even gave her a new pair of glasses because hers had gotten broken in the struggle…” she looked down in shame, remembering how she and her friends had insisted on taking Twist to Canterlot instead of leaving her at the base. “She’d probably still be alive if we had listened to him.”

Flash Sentry turned on the windshield wipers as raindrops started to patter against the windshield as they sped down the highway.

Lifting her sweatshirt to check her wound, she groaned to see that it was still bleeding. “We left Fluttershy with him, because he wanted to make sure we wouldn’t tell Celestia the location of the base. She’s still there. Even if Discord won’t help us, Fluttershy will.”

“What can she do?”

“She could get this bullet out of my leg, in any case,” Twilight replied, grunting in pain as she tied her sweatshirt around her thigh, trying to keep it in place. “I just hope she’s okay.”

Flash sighed. “Well, she can’t be in any more danger than your other friends.”

“Once we get me fixed up we’re going back for them.”

“By then it might be too late, princess.”

She glared at him. “Don’t you say that. We’re going to get them out of there. And quit calling me princess. My name is Twilight.”

“Whatever you say, Twilight.” He didn’t let off the gas for an instant.

Back in the dungeon, the other prisoners heard the two gunshots and feared the worst.

“Do you think they got her?” Apple Bloom asked quietly.

Applejack tightened her grip on her sister. “I don’t know, sugarcube. I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.”

They didn’t have long to wait before half a dozen guards stormed up to the bars of their cell, their guns drawn. “WHERE IS SHE?!” they demanded.

“Where’s who?” Rainbow Dash asked sarcastically.

The guards were in no mood for her attitude, and promptly unlocked the door of the cell and yanked her out, clanging the door shut behind her. One guard held Rainbow’s arms behind her back while another one landed a solid kick in her stomach. Scootaloo screamed.

“How dare you hurt Rainbow Dash! She’s the coolest person that ever—“ She cut off when the guards turned to glare at her and Applejack squeezed her shoulders to silence her.

Rainbow Dash crumpled to the ground, clutching her abdomen and gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of her.

“You’re next, traitor,” one of the guards growled, roughly pulling her back to her feet. She struggled bravely, trying to pull out of his grasp, but another guard flanked her and held her other arm, and between the two of them they dragged her down the corridor and out of sight.

Scootaloo dashed forward and pressed herself against the bars. “Rainbow Dash!”

They could hear her protesting and threatening the guards all the way down the hallway.

Rarity looked up. “I guess that means Twilight made it out,” she whispered. The others nodded. It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

“I wonder what happened to that guard,” Sweetie Belle asked, looking up at her sister. “Do you think he’s okay? Or did they get him?”

Applejack shook her head. “I don’t know, sugarcube. I doubt we’ll ever find out.”

“Either way I don’t think he’s coming back for the rest of us,” Rarity observed.

“What’re they gonna do to Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked, large tears starting to roll down her face.

“I doubt they’re gonna throw her a party,” Pinkie Pie said grimly.

At the Disharmonizer base, Discord had finished showing Fluttershy around every corner of the underground building, all except the 13th floor. She had taken Princess with her and carried the kitten all day long, for the little creature meowed and cried so plaintively at being left alone. Fortunately, Princess was small enough that she fit into the breast pocket of her sweater, where she rode quite contentedly. Now Discord dropped her back off at her room, with enough time to change for dinner.

“You should find everything you need in your closet,” he told her, offering her a warm smile and leaving her alone to change.

Fluttershy put Princess down on the bed and went to her closet. When she opened it, she found a wide array of beautiful dresses, all exactly her size, each more elegant than the last, with plenty of shoes and accessories to accompany each outfit. In a cabinet to the right of the closet, Fluttershy found a dazzling array of jewelry, and in the bathroom was a box full of makeup. She looked over everything carefully, then turned to her kitten.

“What do you think, Princess?” she asked. “What should we wear tonight?”

The little feline looked at her curiously. Fluttershy shook her head. “Now, be nice. He’s been nothing but kind to us since we got here. Now help me pick out a dress.”

First, she held up a dark blue gown, which glimmered like the night sky with tiny rhinestones. Upon further inspection, she discovered that they were not rhinestones, but diamonds that studded the dress. She looked at it in the mirror, swishing the skirt around. “What do you think, Princess?”

The kitten mewed. Fluttershy nodded. “You’re right. It’s much more Rarity’s style than mine. Let’s try something else.”

She went back to the closet and pulled out a yellow dress with a halter top and a skirt that hung just above her knees in the front, and brushed the ground in the back, but she shook her head almost immediately. “I think I ought to look a little more formal than this. This is more of a sundress.” Princess meowed in agreement.

Finally, Fluttershy found a rosy pink gown with a full skirt and golden lace trim on the bodice and the sleeves, which hung loosely off her shoulders. After one look in the mirror, she nodded decisively. “This one.” She pulled a pair of golden high heels and bauble earrings to go with it, then braided her hair and coiled the braid around into a bun on the back of her head. She didn’t normally wear makeup, but a touch of blush and a little mascara completed her evening look.

“All right, Princess,” she said, twirling in the mirror. “You need to stay in here while I’m at dinner.” The kitten mewed in protest, but Fluttershy shook her head. “No, just wait here. I won’t be long.”

When she walked into the private dining hall, she gasped to see it decorated completely differently from the previous night. Instead of red draperies, the walls were adorned with golden art-deco style molding, covered in what she was sure was real gold leaf, with royal blue accents. The table was light oak wood with a glass tabletop, and the chairs had high, ornate backs, covered in the same gold leaf. Hanging from the ceiling was a chandelier, but it looked nothing like last night’s. This one was a complex arrangement of mirrors that reflected the light from blue candles.

After a moment, Discord appeared at her side in a white suit with a blue tie, smiling suavely down at her. “My dear, you look absolutely stunning.”

Fluttershy blushed and giggled shyly, holding her hands behind her back. “You look nice, too,” she said, wishing she were more adept at flattery. He always seemed to know just what to say.

They passed their meal chatting like old friends, talking about everything either of them could think of. Discord asked about her animals back at home, and Fluttershy took great delight in relating to him the different personalities of each of her furry friends. She asked him about the extent of his magic, and he made a miniature fireworks display that crackled overhead while they ate.

When they had both finally had enough, a single violin appeared in the air behind Discord’s head, playing a lilting waltz. He grinned and rose from his chair. “May I have this dance, Miss Fluttershy?” he asked, offering his hand to her.

She blushed and looked down at her lap. “Oh…I don’t know how.”

“I’ll show you,” he whispered, helping her to her feet and snapping away the table and chairs, leaving them with an empty floor. “One hand stays in mine, and the other goes here,” he instructed, gently placing her left hand on his shoulder. He slid his free hand around her waist, pulling her closer to him. “Now,” he whispered, smiling down at her, “just follow my lead.”

He began to lead her around the floor, stepping to the beat of the violin’s song. Fluttershy became vaguely aware that the instrument was now accompanied by a cello and a piano, and she smiled timidly up at him, trying to follow his footsteps.

“There, you’re catching on,” Discord encouraged. “Just one-two-three, one-two-three, that’s perfect. Are you sure you’ve never danced before?”

Fluttershy shook her head modestly, and he made a face of disbelief. “For someone as beautiful as you, for no one to have taught you to dance, it’s positively criminal.”

She flushed dark red, but even her embarrassment could not stifle the smile that seemed to have permanently brightened her face. Discord couldn’t take his eyes off her, and pulled her closer with every step. In the background, the music slowed, and he started to lean forward. Fluttershy closed her eyes...and suddenly Derpy burst through the door. “Discord!”

They both looked up in surprise, and Discord glared daggers at his assistant, who immediately realized what was happening and tried to hide behind the door, just in case her boss decided to throw actual daggers at her.

“What is it, Derpy?!” Discord demanded, reluctantly letting Fluttershy leave his embrace.

The blonde woman hesitated, but eventually replied, “We have some unexpected visitors, sir.”

Joining

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Discord’s hands balled into fists, and he growled, “What do you mean ‘visitors,’ exactly?”

The blonde woman hesitated.

“Who is it, Derpy?!” he demanded angrily. Fluttershy flinched, slowly backing away from the two of them. She stopped dead, however, when she heard the answer.

“It’s Princess Twilight and General Flash Sentry!”

“WHAT?!” Discord’s fists ignited into flames, and he started pacing the room aggressively. “I should have known that little brat would run straight to Celestia. How many did they bring with them? Hundreds? Thousands?” The flames climbed his arms, singeing his white suit. “How dead are we, Derpy? How many are there?”

“None.”

“Worse than I thought! Evacuate the—wait.” He stopped dead, the fire beginning to consume the rest of his suit. Looking around in confusion, Discord caught the look of terror on Fluttershy’s face at his violent anger. The flames that surrounded him vanished, but her look did not change. Fighting off the icy weight that settled in the pit of his stomach, he turned to Derpy and repeated stupidly, “None?”

Derpy nodded. “Yes, sir. It’s just the two of them. And the princess is wounded. They came to us for help, they said.”

Fluttershy rushed forward. “Twilight’s hurt? How bad is it? Has it been tended to? What happened to them?” Derpy had to throw her hands up in self-defense to end the concerned woman’s barrage of questions.

“She has a single bullet wound in her leg. She specifically asked to see you, Miss Fluttershy. She said you could heal it.”

Fluttershy flushed a little. “I don’t know what I can do, but I’ll see her immediately! Where is she?”

“In the infirmary, Miss. I’ll show you,” Derpy took her arm and led her out of the room, leaving Discord alone in the dining room.

He stood paralyzed, the look on Fluttershy’s face still floating before his eyes. It had bothered him before when she was frightened of him, but now it killed him. Discord had thought that being kind to her would be enough to ease her fears, but obviously he was wrong. He groaned, stomping his foot in frustration. What else did she want? Maybe he just hadn’t been kind enough. He could do more. Eager to make it up to her, Discord hurried after them toward the infirmary.

The nurses were just untying the sweatshirt around Twilight’s leg when Fluttershy burst through the door. “Twilight!” She cried, rushing to her friend’s side and dropping to her knees to examine the bullet wound. “Oh, it needs to be cleaned first; I can’t see anything!”

A nurse hurried up with a wet rag and reached forward to clean the wound. Twilight caught her wrist. “Wait! Don’t you have any anesthetic or something?”

The nurse shook her head. “I’m sorry. You can bite down on this.” She handed Twilight a small towel.

“Or you could just say please,” called a voice from the doorway. Discord approached Twilight and snapped his fingers, vaporizing the shrapnel and instantly healing the flesh around it. He even removed the bloodstain from her jeans and sweatshirt. The princess looked blankly from her leg to Discord, then slowly a smile spread across her face. “Thank you,” she said, standing up and testing her weight on it. She grinned. “Thank you!” she repeated joyfully.

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief, then beamed at Discord, who had to fight down a flurry of butterflies from seeing her smile again. She rose to her feet to hug Twilight again, but when Fluttershy looked past her friend, she gasped quietly. In the corner, Flash Sentry was dangling between two armed guards, either unconscious or nearly so. “What’s going on?” she demanded. “Let him go!”

The guards looked at each other and then back to Fluttershy. “He’s Celestia’s top general. He’s a threat.”

Discord saw Fluttershy’s horrified face and immediately stepped forward. “I will take custody of the general. Thank you, gentlemen.” The guards released Flash and he dropped straight to the ground like a sack of lead, groaning in pain. Apparently he was still conscious, but only just. But a snap of the fingers from Discord and he was perfectly healthy again.

He stood up slowly, very aware of the two guns still pointing at him. “Thank you.”

Telekinetically, Discord gave the general a quick once-over to check for weapons, but the guards has already disarmed him, so he was practically harmless. Besides, if he tried anything, Discord’s magic was strong enough to prevent any unarmed attacks.

Once he had gotten to his feet, Flash immediately went to Twilight to see that she was all right. He breathed a quick sigh of relief and looked back up to Discord. “Your work?” he asked, pointing at where the bullet wound used to be. Discord nodded. Flash almost smiled. “Thank you again. I didn’t believe the princess—I mean Twilight,” he corrected himself when Twilight gave him a look. “—when she told us that you were this friendly. I thank you again for helping us.”

Discord nodded cordially, his single fang showing as he smiled. Fluttershy smiled up at him again, and his smile turned to a grin. She was pleased with him. Maybe that would be enough to convince her that she had no reason to be afraid of him.

Twilight hugged Fluttershy again. “Oh, Fluttershy, Discord was wrong. It’s not the guards who are corrupted, but Celestia herself!”

That caught Discord’s attention as well as Fluttershy’s. “What?” they asked together.

“Fluttershy, it’s just awful! It wasn’t the guards, it was the princess! Celestia—she,” Twilight took a breath. “—she shot Twist. Right in front of everyone. Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

Fluttershy gasped in horror. “That can’t be! She’s our protector!”

“No, she isn’t,” Discord replied grimly. This report only confirmed his suspicions. Celestia had been behind it all along.

Twilight looked at Discord. “We should’ve listened to you. Twist would still be alive if we had left her here with you like you wanted us to.”

“We told you we were trying to save her life.”

“You were right.” The princess hung her head. “She would’ve been safer here.”

Fluttershy was still pale and shaking with disbelief. “She shot her?”

“Right in front of all of us.” Twilight sighed. “I’ll never forget it. The way she just fell over…” she trailed off, and Flash Sentry put an arm around her shoulders to comfort her.

Fluttershy looked from Twilight to Discord and back to Twilight. “Does she kill everyone we send to Canterlot for special trial?”

Twilight nodded. “No one is spared.”

Fluttershy’s eyes filled with tears. Then a realization struck her. “Where is everybody else?”

“They’re in the Canterlot dungeons, being held for questioning. Who knows what Celestia has done to them by now.” The princess looked up at Discord. “Is there any way we can rescue them?”

Discord looked down at her, then at Flash Sentry, and then to Fluttershy, who was looking up at him with pleading eyes. “We can certainly try,” he said.

Rescue

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The rebel base was equipped with an invisible air base, hidden by an illusion of trees and overgrowth to the point that it looked exactly like the forest surrounding it. On the airfield stood six sleek black jets, each with a camouflage spell cast on them to make them blend in with the sky in which they flew. It would be these jets that would get them to Canterlot to rescue Fluttershy’s friends from the clutches of Celestia.

Discord, Fluttershy, Twilight, Flash Sentry, Octavia and DJ Pon3 would be going on the mission together. Each jet had a three-passenger capacity, and they would need the extra space to get everyone back to the rebel base. Each of the six of them would pilot their own jet, giving them more than enough seats to fly everyone out. The plan was to fly into Canterlot, find the emergency exit that Twilight and Flash Sentry had used to escape, and get in and out from there.

As they put on their body armor, Discord could see that Fluttershy was visibly shivering. He realized how absolutely terrified she must be over the idea of facing Celestia’s guards in the dungeons of the Canterlot castle. “You don’t have to come with us if you don’t want to,” he said to her in a whisper.

Fluttershy shook her head. “N-no, I want to be there to rescue my friends. This is too important.”

Twilight smiled at her friend proudly, and Discord felt a similar expression tugging on the corners of his mouth. Every one of them was brave to go on such a dangerous mission, but it was especially brave of the timid Fluttershy to place herself in harm’s way for the sake of her friends. She must love them more than Discord had originally thought, which only raised his esteem for the painfully shy woman in his captivity.

In the Canterlot dungeons, Scootaloo dashed to the bars of the cell as the guards dragged Rainbow Dash around the corner. She was barely conscious, breathing heavily, and covered in cuts and bruises in the most painful areas, like her inner elbows and solar plexus. They tossed her back into the cell and she curled up on the ground, tears running down her face.

“Rainbow Dash!” everyone cried, rushing forward and pulling her up to a sitting position. They crowded around her, trying to support her, but she simply toppled back over and curled into the fetal position, hugging her knees in pain as though someone had just knocked the wind out of her. From the look of her, she had had the wind knocked out of her several times over.

“What did they do to you?” Applejack asked. Rainbow just kept crying, her body jerking violently with every gasping breath she took. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both started crying, too. They could hardly stand to see the invincible Rainbow Dash look so beaten down and defeated.

The agony on Rainbow Dash’s face wasn’t just from the obvious torture the guards had put her through. When she was finally breathing well enough to speak, she sobbed, “I told them everything…”

Some of the other women gasped. No one would have expected the loyal Rainbow Dash to sell out her friends, even in the face of torture. Whatever they had done to her must have been horrible beyond imagination. Her face was cut and scarred, and the back of her shirt was cut in enough places for them to see signs of where a bullwhip had been used on her back.

Outside the palace, in the dark of night, three practically invisible jets landed on the roof of a building across the street. As they disembarked, Twilight and Flash Sentry took the lead, showing the little group where the entrance was that they had used to escape the dungeons only a day earlier. They tried the door and found it predictably locked, but a snap of Discord’s fingers took care of that. In all honesty Discord probably could have gone by himself on a mission like this, but the others so wanted to help in rescuing their friends that he had made it a group mission after all.

Flash and Twilight hurried down the stairs with the rest of the group close behind them, all of them with pistols drawn ready to defend themselves against any guards they encountered on the way. Each pistol was equipped with a silencer so as not to alert the entire building the second one shot rang out into the echoey hallways of the dungeons.

Once inside they started searching the cells of the dungeon one by one, but found them all empty. No one else was being held downstairs because all other traitors to the crown were simply executed on the spot instead of imprisoned. It was a grim reminder of the totalitarian regime that Equestria had found itself under.

Finally they reached the one occupied cell in the dungeons, and Twilight whispered happily, “Girls!”

The women rushed to the bars of the cell, all of them whispering excitedly.

“Twilight! Flash!” Rarity fought to keep her voice down with excitement.

“How did you get out?” Sweetie Belle asked in a whisper.

“How did you get back in?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Boy howdy are we glad to see you!” AJ waved from where she held Rainbow’s head in her lap.

“They tortured Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo wailed quietly.

Fluttershy’s eyes filled with tears when she saw the state of her friend, bloodied and bruised. Discord snapped his fingers again and unlocked the door to the cell, and they all came piling out, with Applejack scooping up the completely disabled Rainbow Dash and carrying her out with them.

“Come on,” AJ whispered. “There’s no time to lose!”

They dashed toward the exit, but as they rounded the corner the found themselves face to face with at least ten armed guards, on their way back to the cell to pull out the next torture victim. Immediately the six that had guns unleashed a barrage of bullets, some of which found their mark but some of which simply bounced off their armor.

Unfortunately, the guards were much more heavily armed than just silenced pistols. They pulled out their assault rifles and rained down bullets on the little group. Fluttershy screamed as a bullet connected with her stomach, and immediately Discord’s mind blanked with rage. The pistols weren’t doing the job. They had hurt his Fluttershy. That was enough for him to take over. He snapped his fingers.

Every single one of the guards suddenly burst into flame. The hall erupted in screaming as the guards scattered, running in panic as they tried to put themselves out, banging into walls and running into each other, all of them wailing in pain as they burned alive.

The little group collected their thoughts after the initial shock of the fire, and shoved through the panicking crowd of guards and headed for the emergency exit. As they hit the stairwell the encountered more guards rushing down the stairs to investigate all the screaming, and instantly they were all aflame too. The yells echoed through the stairwell as the group forced their way out the door and into the night of Canterlot.

Those who were still capable rushed up ropes that led to the jets, then quickly flew them down to street level so the injured could board as well. Applejack loaded Rainbow Dash into the jet and strapped her in, hopping in beside her. Discord helped Fluttershy into their own jet, and the others who had sustained bullet wounds crawled into the passenger seats while Octavia and DJ hopped into the cockpits and in a roar of engines they were zooming off into the night sky.

As they approached the forest, however, they found the sky already full of jets. They circled around to not be spotted, squinting through the dark to see Celestia’s seal on all the planes, and realized with horror that the forest was ablaze with fire. They were bombing the entire forest.

The Disharmonizers

by ApplauseJunkie

Questions

Hijacked

The Rebel Base

Inquiries

First Impressions

Betrayal

Jailbreak

Joining

Rescue