Chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 13:1

Chapter 1

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”—1 Corinthians 13:1

Discord pulled his sunglasses down to the tip of his pierced nose so that he could gaze over the tops of them at his surroundings. He was sitting upside-down on a pool lounge chair that was floating on the ocean facing a Haywaiian beach. Tropical fish were swimming through the air and the sand was slapping about like waves. The ocean was bubbling like a pot of soup—though the water that splashed his upside-down face was refreshingly cold—and every once in a while the bubbling water would spit sub-sandwiches up onto the heaving sand.

This particular beach would ordinarily have been swarming with tourists, but his arrival had quickly changed that. Typical. So typical.

He pushed his sunglasses back up over his eyes, fished a hayfry out of his nearby fruit drink, and turned back to the book he had been reading.

Irregular Shapes in Mathematics.

So far it was proving to be a rather disappointing read as the so-called “irregular” shapes didn’t look nearly as interesting as he had hoped they would.

“This book is a pack of filthy lies,” he muttered, tearing several pages out of it. “They call those ‘irregular’ shapes? I’ll show them ‘irregular’ shapes.” Letting go of the book so that it floated nearby, he began folding the torn-out pages this way and that, constructing them into what looked like a six-winged, two-headed parrot. He released the piece of origami which promptly folded its six wings and dove into the bubbling water below. Rolling over onto his stomach, he looked under the chair and raised his sunglasses to see the paper parrot swimming away toward the horizon, jumping in and out of the water like a flying fish.

Ah, life was good.

Then several locks of his black mane fell into his face and he swiped them out of the way before replacing his sunglasses and pulling his head back out from under the chair. He had spent the past year traveling Equestria and in that time he had let his normally short, bristly mane grow out. Now it fell in shaggy waves over either side of his long neck.

Looking back toward the beach, he tore another sheet of paper out of the floating book, and began folding it into an oddly-shaped box. He swiped the box down over his much larger fruit drink, causing the drink to vanish into the box. Rolling onto his side and pulling his body farther up onto the chair inchworm-style, he tapped one of his talons on the side of the small oddly-shaped box and a peppermint stick fell out of it to land in his paw. Twirling it about in his fingers, he took a contented pull on it, closed his eyes behind his sunglasses, and jetted cotton candy from his nostrils.

Ah, yes. No doubt about it. Life was good.

Then why do you feel so miserable? a small voice in the back of his head asked, and his eyes popped open.

“I am not miserable!” he snapped even though there was no one around to hear him save the fish. Well, actually not just the fish because his dragon tattoo suddenly pulled free one of its front legs, reached up, and smacked the back of Discord’s head, knocking his mane back into his face. Twisting his neck around, he glared down at the tattoo, then changed the peppermint stick in his paw into a flyswatter and began whacking at the tattoo where it covered his back and shoulders. The dragon tattoo retreated, slithering down his long body until it was coiling around his waist.

“I’m not miserable,” Discord muttered, tossing the flyswatter away. But as he gazed once again at the beach and the improvements he had given it, he had to admit that his old hobby just wasn’t as satisfying as he remembered it being all those centuries ago. Oh, it was still enjoyable, there was no doubt of that, but now his pleasure in chaos-creation just didn’t last as long as it once had.

He slapped his long mane out of his face again irritably. For the life of him he couldn’t remember what had prompted him to grow it out like that in the first place, and he’d become rather fed up with it. He conjured a pair of clippers and buzzed his mane back down to its usual line of spiky bristles. Flashing the clippers back out of existence, he shook himself and scratched the back of his neck to dislodge any loose hair. Magically stilling the water, he looked down into it to check his reflection ... and caught a glimpse of the tattoos that covered the sides of his neck.

Ah, that was why he’d allowed his mane to grow out like that; to hide the wasp tattoos on his neck. Or rather the former wasp tattoos. He had awaken one day to find that they had shifted into the shape of butterflies. He had tried to will them back into the shape of wasps, but had only succeeded partway. Now they looked more like moths than anything else.

Reaching up, he clamped his paw over one of the tattoos and, as it struggled against his fingers, peeled it off his neck. Maybe it was time for a more hands-on approach to repairing his ink. Scowling down at the writhing tattoo through his sunglasses, he began stretching its plump body out into a more wasp-like shape. The tattoo thrashed about as he peeled its moth wings off, then suddenly whipped around its stretched-out abdomen (now tipped with a long stinger) and jabbed the stinger into his finger, causing him to yelp and let go of it. The tattoo’s wings and body landed beside him on the lounge chair in separate pieces.

The moth tattoo snatched up its torn-off wings and lobbed them at Discord’s face, where they splattered against his sunglasses in a shower of ink, blinding him. He yanked the sunglasses off in time to see the wingless moth leap into the air like a flea and come down to splat itself against his throat. Discord coughed at the force of the blow. Looking down, he saw the moth tattoo, now sporting a fresh set of wings that had burst from its body when it had smashed into him, gliding across his throat to the side of his neck.

Discord made a noise that was half-snort, half-sigh, deciding that trying to fight with his tattoos wasn’t worth it today. Besides, they weren’t even the true source of his current mood.

No, he knew full-well what was. He had been denying it for the past year and there was no point in trying to deny it any longer.

He missed that shy, soft-spoken pegasus.

Back in Ponyville, the pegasus in question was currently sitting outside the post office, surreptitiously watching one of its boxes.

She and her friends had spent the past year tracking down any friends and loved ones of Cotton Candy, Strawberry Swirl, Triple Treat, Sparkleworks, Glitter Glide, and Sunny Daze—six ponies whose murders Applejack had stumbled across over a decade ago, and whose killers had forced her to go into hiding both for her own safety and for that of her friends and family—to inform them that the long-unsolved murders had finally been solved.

They had managed to locate all the close friends and loved ones of the dead ponies except one: Sunny Daze’s fraternal twin sister Skywishes. They hadn’t found a home address for her in any city or town, but they’d finally managed to find a mail box under her name at the Ponyville Post Office of all places. They’d learned from the mail ponies that Skywishes usually just let her mail pile up in the box for days on end before popping in about once a month to collect it. She never came in on a set date or at a set time, so Fluttershy and her friends had spent the past several days taking turns watching the mailbox just in case Skywishes should choose to appear one of those days.

Now as Fluttershy watched the box, she found herself thinking about the similarities between this mystery regarding the elusive Skywishes and the mystery she had become involved in regarding Applejack the year before. Just as she had wondered how Applejack could have vanished without a trace for ten years, now she wondered how Skywishes could have a mailbox in Ponyville, yet managed to remain so far below the radar that not even Pinkie Pie knew her.

She also wondered how the search for Skywishes might have gone if she’d had Discord’s help—

“You weren’t waiting for me, were you?” said a male voice from behind her, startling her. She whirled around. Could it be—?

But her heart promptly sank at the sight of the speaker, a tall lean earth pony stallion with a postcard tucked in one hoof. As stallions went, he wasn’t a bad-looking one. His coat was a pale golden brown, while his mane and tail were jetty black. He also had an equally black circle beard. His thick dark eyebrows slanted upward in a way that should have made him look worried but his smile canceled that out. He was wearing close-fitting pants with a pattern of red, yellow, and blue flames on them; a sleeveless black shirt that exposed muscular sloped shoulders; and both his forelegs were wrapped in athletic tape bandages.

“N-no,” Fluttershy said quickly, blushing at how uncertain she sounded. Yet the way he was eyeing her—as if they had met before when she was quite certain they hadn’t—was making her uncomfortable.

“Oh, you wound me!” he said dramatically before going up on his hind legs, making a show of clutching his chest, and falling over backwards with his eyes closed, his front legs crossed over his chest, and his back legs sticking up in the air. He held the pose for several seconds before opening one eye. “Am I overselling?”

Before Fluttershy could think of a response, he shrugged and swung his hips around to bring his feet back under him, pushed himself back up and trotted into the post office. He emerged a few seconds later, grinned, and pointed at her with a hoof before going on his way.

When he was out of sight, Fluttershy turned her attention back to the mailbox, but inside she was feeling embarrassed over the way her heart had leaped at the sound of that strange stallion’s voice; a country twang but with noticeably clipped diction rather than the conventional drawl. How could she have even briefly mistaken it for Discord’s? It hadn’t even sounded close, and Discord’s voice had been the one thing he never changed regardless of what he did with the rest of his appearance. Was she just so desperate to hear his voice again that she was now projecting it onto any available one?

These thoughts were put on hold when she saw a coral-colored pegasus pulling a cart covered in camouflage-patterned tarps toward the post office. Fluttershy had never actually met Sunny Daze but she had seen pictures of her, and she remembered that the murdered pegasus had been white with a sun-shaped cutie mark, and an orange mane and tail both streaked with yellow and magenta. This coral-colored pegasus had a kite-shaped cutie mark, and her mane and tail were streaked pink-and-purple, but apart from that her features were almost identical to those of Sunny Daze. Reaching the post office, the pegasus unhooked herself from the cart’s harness, entered the post office, and walked over to Skywishes’s box.

Fluttershy quickly got up and approached her. “Um, Skywishes?”

The pegasus jumped a fraction but quickly recovered and turned in Fluttershy’s direction. As their eyes met, Fluttershy noticed another difference between this pony and Sunny Daze. Both ponies’ eyes were the same shade of green, but whereas Sunny Daze’s eyes had had a loopy dreamy look in them, this pony’s eyes just had a flat vacant look about them.

“Yes?” Skywishes’s voice was as flat as her eyes.

Fluttershy fidgeted. While she’d gotten better at talking to strange ponies over the years, she still often found it hard, and the way Skywishes was studying her with those dead eyes wasn’t helping, so her words came out in a mumble. “I’m here to talk to you about Sunny Daze.”

“Beg pardon?”

“I’m here to talk to you about Sunny Daze,” Fluttershy repeated, this time louder and clearer. “Your sister.”

At the words ‘your sister,’ Fluttershy thought she saw a spark of emotion flicker in those vacant eyes, but before she could be sure, they swiftly resumed their dead look.

“What about her?”

“Can we go talk some place more private? Maybe ... maybe my house?”

Skywishes glanced outside toward her tarp-covered cart. “I have to get that stuff home before it gets dark.”

“You live in there?” Fluttershy asked incredulously. She and Skywishes were standing on the edge of the Everfree Forest.

“Mm-hmm,” Skywishes grunted, digging about under one of the cart’s tarps. Fluttershy glanced at her then back at the forest. In all the years she and her friends had ventured into the forest they had never known Skywishes lived there. Granted it was a big place but still—

Skywishes reemerged from under the tarp with two large camouflage-patterned coats. “It’s still light enough that we can probably get by without full camo but we’ll want something to keep from standing out.”

She tossed one of the coats to Fluttershy before swinging the other one over her own back. It was large enough that it covered her pink-and-purple-streaked tail like the skirt of a dress. She wrapped a camouflage-patterned scarf around her neck, using it to cover most of her mane, and pulled a black knit cap onto her head to hide her forelock. Then she offered Fluttershy a similar scarf and hat. Bundled up thus, the two pegasi proceeded silently into the forest. Fluttershy thought she saw a path that led to Zecora’s home but Skywishes was leading her off in another direction. She wondered if Zecora had known that Skywishes shared the forest with her. It had never occurred to Fluttershy to ask the zebra as she and the rest of her pony friends had just figured Skywishes lived among other ponies.

Finally Skywishes stopped in front of a huge tree with reddish bark. “This way,” she said, unhooking herself from the cart again and flying up into the tree branches. Fluttershy quickly followed her. They flew past the main canopy and up toward the branches of the redwood tree high above. As they neared those branches, Fluttershy saw that hidden among them was what seemed to be a large treehouse. It circled the tree trunk as if somepony had dropped a giant donut down around it, and the treehouse was painted in greens and browns and covered with branches to hide it. She’d never have known it was there had Skywishes not been leading her directly to it.

Skywishes slid a panel open on the underside of the treehouse and wiggled inside. “Come on in.”

Fluttershy followed her and gazed around the treehouse’s interior, which was rather dark. Skywishes pulled camouflage-patterned curtains back from some windows and sunlight streamed in to illuminate the treehouse’s interior.

“You can look around but don’t touch anything,” said Skywishes. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Turning back to watch Skywishes, Fluttershy saw her sliding another panel open to make the hole in the floor larger. Then she pushed what appeared to be a hot air balloon basket suspended on a complicated pulley system toward the hole. Hopping into the basket, she began working the pulleys to lower it toward the ground. Fluttershy peeked over the edge of the hole and quickly retreated when the height made her feel dizzy. To distract herself from the fact that she was up so high, she began checking out her surroundings again.

The room was full of papers of what seemed to be sketches and calculations; coils of rope; bundles of camouflage-patterned material; and books on construction, gardening, water management, and several other subjects. The ceiling was covered with a network of pipes and tubes, most with tags on them, and the walls were covered with bright colorful paintings.

Then a photo hanging among those paintings caught her attention and she moved to get a better look at it. Two fillies, one white and the other pink, both with green eyes, were gazing at a large sheet of paper spread out on the floor in front of them. There were crayons scattered around them, and they seemed oblivious to the camera trained on them. Beside the photo, in a heavy-duty frame bearing the title Prototype, was a large drawing of a treehouse similar to the one she was in now. The drawing was in crayon, but its lines were much neater than the shaky disjointed ones most young ponies produced. At the top of the drawing was the word “TreeHAB,” and in the corner where an artist’s signature usually went were the words “For Sky, from Sunny.” Underneath this drawing was a framed blueprint of the same treehouse with the words “Revision A. For Sunny, from Sky” stamped on its frame.

Then Fluttershy heard several grunts behind her and turned to see Skywishes had pulled the basket back up into the treehouse. Securing the pulleys, the coral-colored pegasus jumped out of the basket and slid the floor panels underneath it shut. The cart she’d been pulling earlier, now with its tarps thrown back to reveal bags of soil, was in the basket.

“What are those for?” Fluttershy asked, indicating the bags of soil, as Skywishes stripped off her camouflage-patterned clothing.

“The greenhouse,” Skywishes grunted as she tugged one of the bags out of the cart with her teeth.

Fluttershy glanced around the treehouse again. “Up here?”

“Mm-hmm.” Skywishes slung the bag of soil onto her back. “You want to talk while I work?”

After shucking off her borrowed camouflage, Fluttershy ended up helping Skywishes carry the bags of soil to the “greenhouse,” which was a section of the donut-shaped treehouse that seemed to consist mostly of glass, except for the floor, which was wooden and covered in rows of deep boxes all full of soil.

At Skywishes’s direction, they began stacking the bags of soil off to one side of the greenhouse area, and as they worked, Fluttershy explained the events of the past year that had led to her staying in an old cabin at Sweet Apple Acres, how after a rough start she and Discord had begun investigating Applejack’s disappearance, and how in the process they had learned of Sunny Daze’s murder as well as that of five other ponies.

Throughout the whole story, Skywishes kept her dead-eyed expression, only nodding and making soft “hmm”-ing sounds to indicate she was listening. It wasn’t until Fluttershy mentioned Twilight deciding to use Applejack’s idea of creating a potion that would allow the drinker to see through changeling disguises that Skywishes interrupted.

“Did the potion work?”

Fluttershy hesitated. “Well, she did make some potion but we haven’t found any changelings to test it on.”

After Applejack’s return, they had put all of Equestria on alert for any sign of transparent changelings, or for any strange behavior from family and friends that might indicate disguised changelings. But apart from the two that had attempted to kill Fluttershy (and were now dead themselves), there had been no hint of changeling activity anywhere.

“What about your partner? What happened to him?”

Fluttershy felt her throat tighten up. “I don’t know,” she choked out, looking away. “The day after we found Applejack, he just ... left.” She swallowed hard, trying to hold back the tears that had suddenly sprouted in her eyes. Ever since Discord had left her almost a year ago with no explanation she’d reviewed their time together again and again in her mind, trying to figure out what had gone wrong and had yet to come up with an answer.

In an effort to distract herself, she voiced a question of her own. “Skywishes, if you don't mind my asking, what does ‘Tree-H-A-B’ mean?”

“TreeHAB?” Skywishes repeated, pronouncing it “tree-hab.” They had been walking back to the main room, and her eyes flicked toward the photo and the two framed drawings on the wall.

Fluttershy followed her gaze. “Is it something you and Sunny Daze came up with?”

Skywishes didn’t answer right away. She moved closer to the photo as if she’d forgotten it was there and only now just noticed it.

“Yes,” she finally said, still studying the photo. “It was her idea back when we were little. She was always coming up with odd ideas. That one was a self-sustaining treehouse that would supply everything we needed. Food, water, you name it.” She let out a small snort that was almost a wry laugh. “We called it our ‘Treehouse Above and Beyond the Usual.’ Or just our ‘Treehouse Above and Beyond.’ And after a while we just shortened it to ‘TreeHAB.’”

Glancing out the window, Fluttershy gasped when she saw how low the sun had gotten. She hadn’t realized how much time had passed as she’d told her story. “I’m sorry Skywishes, but I have to get back home.”

“Hmm, it’ll be dark soon. It might be safer if you spent the night here.”

“I can’t. I have to check on Angel Bunny.”

Skywishes studied her briefly with those unnervingly dead eyes, then moved to gather the camouflage coats they’d worn earlier. “In that case, I’ll go with you.”

It was dark by the time they reached Fluttershy’s cottage. Once they were inside, Fluttershy pulled off her camouflage coat and hurried over to check Angel where he lay on his bunny bed. He didn’t look up when she approached him, but he flinched when she touched his face gently with her hoof. She held her hoof still and let him sniff at it, as that was one of the few ways left for him to identify her. Over the past year his eyesight had gotten so bad that now he was virtually blind, and Fluttershy suspected he had also lost most of his hearing. But despite that and a host of other age-related problems he still clung stubbornly to life.

He nuzzled his head against her hoof and she gently lifted him so that he could snuggle against her shoulder. Turning, she saw Skywishes moving back toward the door. “Skywishes, wait.”

Skywishes halted and looked back at her.

“You’re not planning to go back into the forest all by yourself, are you?”

Skywishes shrugged, her voice matter-of-fact. “Where else would I go?”

“Why don’t you stay here for tonight? You can use my bed. I can sleep on the couch.”

There seemed to be a quick flicker of surprise in Skywishes’s eyes at the offer. “Well, if you’re sure.”

Later that night Fluttershy lay on the couch, wrapped in a blanket with Angel at her side, burrowed cozily in a little nest she’d made for him from another blanket. Lying on her back, she absently stroked his thinning fur and she thought about her encounter with the pegasus now asleep in her bed.

She wasn’t sure what to make of Skywishes. In some ways, her flat voice and dead eyes reminded Fluttershy of Pinkie Pie’s older sister Maud, but whereas Pinkie could translate her much-more-reserved sister’s reactions, there was no such interpreter available for Skywishes. She hadn’t shown much of a reaction to the news about Sunny Daze ... but on the other hoof, she seemed to have spent who-knew how much time making her sister’s childhood dream a reality...

Like so many other things seemed to, these apparent contradictions reminded her of Discord and her last day with him. Things seemed to have been going so well between them ... she’d even begun to suspect she might be in love with him ... and then she’d come home to find him gone and the Hearth’s Warming gift she’d given him in the trash.

She squeezed her eyes shut. How had he gone from scooping her up and cuddling her whenever he got the slightest opportunity to suddenly wanting nothing to do with her? Had she misread him so badly? How could you even make sense of the actions of someone who seemed to pride himself on doing senseless things…?

It was a warm sunny day and she was trotting around the yard, searching for her animal friends. It was perfect weather for them to come out in, yet there seemed to be no sign of them. She called out to them, in case they were hiding, but there was no reply.

Suddenly she thought she felt a breath on her back, lightly ruffling her feathers, and swung around to see who was there, only to find no one.

Then she noticed that the scenery around her was blurring and contorting, many of its soft earthy tones turning to loud neon ones. Above her the blue sky was suddenly obscured by garish orange clouds. Then she felt the ground tilt beneath her; not enough for her to lose her balance but enough to make her feel uneasy—

“Fluttershy,” a disembodied voice breathed, seeming to come from all around her. She looked about, hoping to see the speaker but there was no one there.

“Fluttershy,” the voice repeated, louder this time and drawing her name out more. The voice was distorted by echoes but she recognized it all the same. Then she felt invisible fingers stroke her under the chin. Any other time she would have jerked away in fright, but now she shut her eyes and tried to focus on the shape and texture of those fingers. They were long, thin, scaly, and tipped with sharp talons that tickled gently against her coat. Then she felt a second hand, a paw this time, brush against her shoulder. She reached around to put her hoof where the paw was, but it pulled away before she could touch it.

“Wait! Wait!” she cried as the taloned fingers against her throat were withdrawn as well. “Please don’t go!”

His gleeful chuckle rolled over her. “Who said I was?”

Then the branches of one of the nearby trees swayed even though no wind was blowing. A long leafless branch lengthened and dipped down toward her like a wooden snake. The end of it stopped right in front of her face. There was a flash of light and where the branch had been there was now an arm, an eagle’s limb with a barbed tattoo around its wrist, though far longer than any normal eagle’s limb would ever be.

The hand beckoned for her to take it. She looked from it, up to where the arm emerged from the tree. It was rather disconcerting to think of taking that hand while it seemed to be attached to a tree rather than its rightful owner, but after a moment’s hesitation, she reached out and put her hoof in the hand. The fingers immediately closed around her hoof, and Fluttershy let out a startled squeak as the barbed tattoo on the hand’s wrist suddenly whipped up from its host’s skin and snaked around her fetlock, cuffing them together. Discord’s disembodied voice chuckled again, but the hand’s thumb stroked her pastern, rubbing over the skin and down to the hoof in a reassuring way.

Then it pulled her up off the ground, swinging her up into the orange clouds above. Fluttershy suddenly felt weightless even though she wasn’t beating her wings. It was much darker in the clouds then she’d expected and she could barely see the hand she could feel still gripping her hoof. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the shape of a long snake-like dragon glowing against the darkness. It glided closer to her and moved right underneath her. The hand holding her hoof suddenly moved above her and caused her to spin as if twirling her during a ballroom dance. Moths swirled around her before hovering in a cloud above the dragon.

Fluttershy felt a familiar paw against her back, pushing her forward until she was pressed against a chest. The segment of a long furry body coiled around her middle, and suddenly he was there in front of her. It was still quite dark, but she could see his yellow eyes glowing, and the faint light glinting off his earrings and facial piercings.

Where have you been?! Why did you leave me?! Why are you here now? All these questions and more poured into her head, but all she could get out of her mouth was his name.

“Discord!”

His eagle claw released her hoof and the tattoo cuffing them together snapped off of her fetlock to melt back into his skin. She flung her forelegs around his body, pressing her cheek hard into his chest. She felt him shake with delighted laughter as he stretched his upper body back away from her face. Before she could press her cheek to his chest again, he cupped her face in his hands, tilting it up toward his. The look in his eyes was tender and Fluttershy felt her heartbeat speed up with excitement. He brought his face down toward her, his mouth lining up with hers—

Then just when their lips were inches apart, his whole head morphed into a cascade of water that struck her full in the face. The furry coil around her body burst like a punctured water balloon and the hands that had been cupping her face dissolved into water as well.

Discord woke, choking as water filled his throat and nostrils. He heaved his long body up into a sitting position, coughing and snorting to force the water he’d inhaled back out.

He’d been sleeping on a mattress composed of water floating on the surface of a Haywaiian lagoon. He hadn’t been getting wet while lying on his “waterbed” but in his sleep he had twisted about so that his head had slipped off the edge of the mattress and plunged into the lagoon.

Once he’d gotten his coughing under control, he thought back to his interrupted dream and let out a growl of frustration.

He had been so close!

Fluttershy woke panting and shaking. It took her several seconds to realize where she was. Patting at her face, she half-expected it to be drenched, but it was not. She felt her blankets and saw that they too were dry. She slumped back against her pillow, reaching over for the lumpy wadded-up scarf she’d tucked next to it, the scarf she’d given Discord for Hearth’s Warming. Ordinarily she kept it on her bed, but tonight she had opted to take it with her to the couch. Now as she ran her hoof over its lumpy texture, she thought back to the dream.

With a sigh, she pushed the scarf away. She needed to try and stop having such dreams. Discord was gone and he wasn’t coming back. The sooner she accepted that the better.

She reached down to pull Angel closer to her, hoping to draw some comfort from stroking what was left of his fur. But as soon as she touched him she realized that would not be possible.

“Angel?”

At a glance the old bunny appeared to be merely sleeping. But when she lifted him in her hooves, his body was limp, cold, and unmistakably lifeless.

Chapter 2. Proverbs 17:22

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Chapter 2

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones."—Proverbs 17:22

Skywishes woke the next morning to the sound of soft but still audible sniffling. She padded into the main room to see Fluttershy crying and cradling Angel's limp body. The coral-colored pegasus walked over to the couch and just stood there, silently waiting to be noticed.

Realizing she had an audience, Fluttershy looked up, wiping at her eyes and intending to explain things. Before she could, Skywishes spoke.

"You planning to bury him?" Skywishes's brisk, matter-of-fact tone helped snap Fluttershy momentarily out of her grief.

"Oh, um, yes."

"Where?"

"In my garden. There was a spot there he liked."

"Hmm." Skywishes pushed herself up onto her hind legs and put her front hooves onto the couch on either side of Fluttershy, looking down at them as if measuring the space between them. Then she lifted one hoof so that it was near where Angel's head tipped back limply over Fluttershy's foreleg. At first Fluttershy wondered if the other pegasus intended to pet Angel's head, but Skywishes just kept her hoof in the air several inches away from him, her vacant eyes flicking back and forth between them for about five seconds. Then she dropped back onto all fours. "If you show me the spot where you want him buried, I can dig the hole while you say your goodbyes."

A few minutes later, Skywishes was outside, digging a hole with her hooves while Fluttershy got a box to put Angel in. With tears trickling down her face, she laid him in the box and tucked one of his favorite blankets around him. The grief in her heart over losing him was painful, but as she finished wrapping him in the blanket and gazed down at his face one last time, that pain was suddenly tempered with a strange sense of relief.

As Angel had gotten older and feebler over the past year, there had been many days when he was clearly in pain, and she had sometimes wondered if it would have been kinder to put him down rather than prolong his suffering. Yet every time those thoughts had crossed her mind she just had to go to him, stroke his thinning fur and look into his cloudy, but still determined eyes. She knew he would resent her making that kind of decision for him and he wasn't about to go anywhere until he was good and ready. Now that he had finally moved on, she wouldn't have to worry about his discomfort any longer. While part of her longed to be able to hold him one last time and bid him a proper goodbye, his dying peacefully in his sleep was really the best way he could have gone.

Now, as she gazed down at his motionless face, she thought of the various ups and downs they'd had over the course of his life. There had been times when he had been unpleasant and demanding, but there had also been many times when he had taken care of her as much as she had taken care of him.

And last year he had even helped save her life—

The memory sent a sharp jab of pain into her heart because with it came the confusion she now felt whenever she thought of Discord.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to force any thoughts of the draconequus away. This isn't the time to think about him. Think about Angel. Opening her eyes, she looked back down at him and fresh tears filled her eyes. She wanted to tell him how much she loved him, and how much he'd meant to her, but all she could choke out was a soft, "Goodbye Angel. I'll never forget you." Then she kissed the top of his head one last time before covering his face with the blanket, and putting the box's lid in place.

Carrying the box outside, she saw Skywishes still pawing away at the soil like a machine. As Fluttershy drew nearer, she noticed that the hole looked just about the right size to hold Angel's box, and she wondered if Skywishes had calculated those dimensions when she'd been moving her hooves about on the couch earlier.

Fluttershy cleared her throat, and Skywishes looked up from digging, her eyes flicking to the box and back up to Fluttershy's face.

"I—" Fluttershy set the box down and wiped at her eyes. "I said my goodbyes."

Skywishes nodded and flapped her wings just enough to lift herself up onto the ground next to the pile of earth she'd dug up. Fluttershy laid the box in the hole and Skywishes shoved the pile of earth back over it, patting the mound down with her hooves. Since winter was on its way, there weren't many flowers around, but Fluttershy found some leafy carrot tops and used them to mark the grave instead.

Finally the two pegasi moved back to study their work.

"Thank you for helping with that," said Fluttershy, trying to hold back more tears.

Skywishes shrugged, then looked around as if not sure how to respond. "Well, I should probably get back to the TreeHAB." She pushed off the ground and flew to the cottage. "Sorry about your pet, but thanks for telling me about Sunny."

"Skywishes wait!" Fluttershy cried and flew after her. "Before you go, would you like to come meet the rest of my friends?" Considering the time it had taken to find the coral-colored pegasus, it didn't seem right to just let her go off without giving the others a chance to meet her.

Skywishes had been tugging on her camo, but at Fluttershy's words she paused and gave the yellow pegasus a considering look. At first Fluttershy thought she was going to refuse, but then Skywishes replied with: "Sure, I'll go meet them."

Fluttershy decided that Sugarcube Corner was their best bet to meet up with any of her friends. Most of the other five ponies had spent the past year traveling about, making it much harder to get together like they had always been able to before, but over the past couple of days Pinkie Pie had been staying at Sugarcube Corner more often than usual. The Cakes had gone away on a family vacation and she was minding the store for them.

However when Fluttershy entered the bakery, she saw not only Pinkie Pie, but also Twilight.

"I've got it narrowed down to High Winds and Haystings—" Twilight was saying when Pinkie Pie's head suddenly went up.

"Hi, Fluttershy! Care to join us?" Then she frowned. "Are you okay?"

Before she and Skywishes had left the cottage, Fluttershy had washed her face to hide the signs of her crying, but on the way to the bakery she hadn't been able to stop fresh tears from spilling out.

"I will be," she said, her voice trembling with the effort not to break down. "It's just that ... well ... Angel died last night." She sniffed hard and swallowed. "I knew it was probably going to happen soon ... but it's still hard..."

Her two friends got up from the table, moved to her side, and pulled her into a comforting hug. In the ten years that had passed since Applejack's disappearance, Owlowiscious, Opalescence, and (much to Applejack's regret) Winona had all passed on as well. Now that Angel was gone, Tank and Gummy were the only two surviving pets. Realizing that most of her friends had also experienced the loss of a pet helped sooth Fluttershy as much as Twilight and Pinkie's embrace did.

"Thanks, girls," she said, pulling back from them. "I'll be all right. I just ... need to focus on something else for a bit now." She glanced over at the paper Twilight had left on the table. "What were you talking about when I came in?"

"Oh, we were trying to figure out who Rainbow Dash's mystery pen pal is, and I brought a list of all current and former Wonderbolts," said Twilight.

"You're looking for all the ones who start with H?" asked Fluttershy, a small smile tugging at her mouth, as she thought of the mystery the rest of her friends had been trying to solve involving a postcard Rainbow Dash had accidentally dropped almost a year ago.

"Oooh, who's that from?" Pinkie had said as she scurried over to the card. She had started to read it out loud, but was interrupted by a loud "Give me that!" from Rainbow Dash, as the blushing blue pegasus snatched up the card.

At the time, this little event was far overshadowed by the news of Applejack's return, but later on Rainbow Dash's friends (with the exception of Fluttershy who had been too consumed with confusion over Discord's sudden departure to feel curious about much else) had started to wonder why she was so determined to keep that card's contents a secret.

According to Pinkie Pie, the card had said:
Ray,
See you at the usual place at the usual time.
—H

They had guessed that Ray must be some sort of nickname H had given Rainbow Dash, but they still hadn't been able to figure out who H was, nor why Rainbow Dash seemed so determined to keep him or her a secret. They had noticed that Rainbow Dash seemed to be unusually sneaky with some of her letters, which made them suspect the letters were either to or from H but the girls never got a chance to check this for sure.

At the thought of mail, Fluttershy suddenly remembered who was still standing outside the bakery, waiting for the signal to come in. "Oh, girls, sorry. I forgot to tell you—"

"You found Skywishes?" Pinkie Pie guessed.

"Yes, and I brought her with me." Fluttershy motioned with her head to where Skywishes was still standing outside, but Pinkie had already shot past her out the front door and was now pushing the camo-clad pegasus into the bakery.

"Welcome to Sugarcube Corner, Wishie! Can I call you Wishie?"

Skywishes looked a bit disoriented by the fact that she was now sitting at a table with several other ponies, but before she could figure out how to respond, Pinkie had plonked a cake down on the table and showered the pegasus in confetti.

"Happy-short-notice-much-delayed-welcome-to-Ponyville!" said Pinkie, grabbing Skywishes's hoof and pumping it up and down enthusiastically.

Skywishes leaned as far away from Pinkie as she could with the energetic pony still holding her hoof, and squinted down at the cake. "That thing says 'Happy Birthday Gummy.'"

"Does it?" Pinkie looked down at the cake. "I was wondering where that went. Oh well, he won't mind if we use it anyway—"

Twilight cleared her throat pointedly.

"Oh, where are my manners?" Pinkie let go of Skywishes's hoof and tapped herself on the chest. "I'm Pinkie Pie. This is Twilight Sparkle," Pinkie gestured toward Twilight who raised a hoof in a small wave. "You've already met Fluttershy, and—" Pinkie suddenly stopped and frowned at Skywishes. Apparently it had just occurred to her that she hadn't actually made sure this pony she'd snatched from outside was the right one. "Uh, you are Skywishes right?"

The pegasus in question was busy shaking the confetti out of her mane. "That'd be correct."

"Oh, good! That would have been weird if you weren't. And that's Gummy." Pinkie pointed at the floor and Skywishes looked down in time to see a tiny alligator just as he clamped his jaws around one of her forelegs. Cocking an eyebrow, the pegasus raised her foreleg so that the gator was dangling from her sleeve. She gave the sleeve a small experimental shake, not as if she wanted to get him off, but as if she wanted to see just how firmly he was stuck there. Suddenly he let go of her sleeve and snapped at her face, causing Skywishes's normally dead eyes to go wide then slam shut as she jerked back with a startled yelp.

"It's okay," said Pinkie. "He doesn't have any teeth."

Skywishes opened an eye to study the gator now dangling off her forelock. Then her mouth twitched in what was almost a smile. "I used to have a pet reptile too. A chameleon. Well, technically he started as my sister's but we ended up sharing him. ... Until she died and I just kind of took over..." That faint smile slipped for a second, then she made a noise that was half-laugh, half-snort. "His name was Mittens. Can you imagine that?"

Fluttershy looked at the other pegasus with new eyes. She hadn't really expected this laconic dead-eyed pony to be a pet-owner and was curious to know more. "What happened to Mittens?"

"He died several years ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Eh, don't be. As chameleons go, he had a good long life."

Just then the bakery door creaked open, and they looked up to see Applejack peeking in.

"Hi, Applejack," said Pinkie, waving for her to join them. "Come on in. We found Skywishes. Well, Fluttershy found Skywishes. Did you know she used to have a pet chameleon named Mittens?" As Applejack moved slowly into the bakery, Pinkie noticed that her eyes were red as if she had been crying. "What's wrong?"

Applejack hesitated and when she finally spoke her voice was thick. "Granny Smith died last night."

Her three friends all moved to her side, voicing their condolences.

"The four of us were planning on a family outing today," Applejack went on in a choked voice. Ever since her return, she, Apple Bloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith had been spending nearly all their free time doing things together as if to make up for a decade's worth of lost time. "But when I went to get her this morning ... she didn't wake up." She drew in a shuddering breath before collecting herself enough to go on. "I reckon it's probably the best way she could have gone. Falling asleep looking forward to our outing the next day ... but it's still hard..."

"It's never easy," Skywishes muttered from where she was still sitting at the table. "No matter what their age." The seriousness of her statement was a bit undermined by the fact that she still had Gummy hanging off her forelock, but Applejack didn't seem to notice.

"What about Apple Bloom and Big Mac?" asked Twilight. "How are they taking it?"

"Well, we got in touch with some ponies to take care of the funeral—"

Pinkie sighed. "Why do funerals have to be sad?" she mused aloud then brightened. "When I die, everypony is going to love coming to my funeral. I'm going to put the 'fun' in 'funeral.'"

"Uh, Pinkie, I don't think now's really the time to joke about that," said Twilight.

"Who's joking? It'll be my funeral, so I'll want it to be every bit as fun as any of my other parties. There will be balloons and bright colors, and bouncy houses, and I'll be laying there with a big bowl of candy on my chest." She leaned back with her eyes closed, and her front hooves up as if they were holding a large bowl. "And when the dancing gets underway, I want them to pick me up and make me crowd surf," she added as, still leaning back with her eyes closed, she began walking backward on her hind legs with her front legs stretched out in front of her with the hooves flopping about. In spite of recent events and the rather sobering subject of funerals, the other ponies couldn't help laughing at Pinkie's antics. Even Skywishes couldn't hold back an amused snort. Satisfied at having coaxed some smiles out of them, Pinkie stopped the routine and moved back to join the group. "What were we talking about?"

"Why Applejack was here instead of with her family," said Skywishes.

"Well, after we made the funeral arrangements, we didn't really want to go on that outing without Granny, so Apple Bloom and Big Mac went to see their friends, and I decided to see how y'all were doing."

"Twilight and I were talking about Rainbow Dash's mystery messenger, but now we're getting to know Skywishes. Speaking of which..." Pinkie Pie went eyeball-to-eyeball with the coral-colored pegasus, bumping Gummy in the process and causing him to swing over Skywishes's head so that he and her forelock were now dangling back into the rest of her mane. "Where have you been hiding all these years? I know everypony in Ponyville, but I've never seen you, and you'd think with all that camouflage on you'd be easy to spot. What gives?"

At that moment Gummy let go of Skywishes's forelock and she reached one hoof behind her to catch him. "Maybe it's because I don't live in Ponyville," she said, using her free hoof to paw her forelock back into its proper position. "I only come here once in a while to get my mail and a few supplies I can't get other places. Also I generally don't wear my camouflage around town because here it's a bit of a misnomer. And until yesterday, I've never even had a pony try to talk to me unless I asked them something first."

Fluttershy could sort of understand that last one. While the look in Skywishes's dead eyes had never been openly hostile, it didn't exactly scream "Come over and talk to me!"

A two-minded pony gets twice the headaches.

Discord had seen that written somewhere once and he was currently experiencing it.

When he'd first awakened, half of him wanted to dive right back into the dream and try to finish it, while the other half was berating him for once again dreaming about Fluttershy.

And what's wrong with dreaming about her?! the first half demanded. In my dreams she's always happy to see me so why can't I indulge?

Yeah, and keep waking up disappointed afterward? sneered the second half. Forget it! In fact, why are you even "indulging" in that sort of thing? You don't NEED her! You don't need anypony!

Making a sound that was half-groan, half-growl, he snapped his talons, instantly undoing all the improvements he'd given the Haywaiian beach. A bubble wand flashed into his paw and he swiped it down over himself, somehow squeezing his head, neck, body, and tail all through the wand's much smaller hole. He came out the other end encased in a large bubble. Flashing the wand away, he sent the bubble spinning down into the water and didn't stop until he was down in the depths of the ocean.

He sighed, leaning back against the bubble's wall. How in the world had he sunk this low?

Easy, you dove down here, said a small snide voice in the back of his head.

Ha. Ha. I need a change of scenery. He conjured a map and tacked it to the bubble wall in front of him. Deciding he could use some more light, he pumped his horn and antler down then up again like a pair of levers, and his tattoos all lit up. That was better.

The map was covered in a multitude of checkmarks indicating the places he had already visited. As he gazed at them, he grinned and felt a swell of pride at the fact that he'd gotten away with stirring up chaos in so many places. When he'd first started his travels, he had been tempted to try taking over Equestria as he'd originally planned, but had quickly decided against it. With Applejack restored to them (ironically thanks to him) the Element Bearers now had the power to turn him back to stone, and they would likely be on their guard if he tried to trick or brainwash them a second time.

No, straight-up hostile takeover had been out of the question ... but that didn't mean he couldn't work out a system to still have some fun.

His method of travel had involved choosing a place at random, flashing himself there, and turning things upside down both figuratively and literally while there. Then as soon as news began to spread that he was in that location, he would change things back, teleport away, and do the whole thing over again in another location. While it often pained him to undo his improvements, it beat being turned to stone.

His grin faded as he continued studying the map and realized that he'd visited just about every corner of Equestria.

Except one.

Ponyville.

For the past year he'd told himself that he'd been avoiding Ponyville because it was the most likely place for the Element Bearers to be. But deep down, he knew that there was more to it than that. Visiting Ponyville meant he would risk running into Fluttershy and that was currently the last thing he wanted to do.

Before he could stop it, his cinematic memory dredged up the last time he'd seen Fluttershy. She was sitting at an outside restaurant table, smiling and laughing ... and he hadn't been the one sharing that table with her, and inspiring that smile and that laughter.

He groaned at the jumbled feelings that memory always stirred in him. Since that day when she'd broken his heart, there had been many times when he wanted to hate and loath her with every fiber of his being, but try as he might, he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Maybe it was because deep down in his heart, he knew that she hadn't intended to hurt him. If she had knowingly two-timed him, then maybe he could have hated her, but as it was he couldn't deny that apart from those times Fluttershy had declared herself his friend they had never really discussed their relationship. There was that one time he had sprung the statement "I love you, marry me." on her, but that was just to see her reaction. A wry laugh trickled out of his throat at the memory. At the time, he hadn't meant the words even though he had come to love and value her as a friend—as in fact, the only friend he'd ever had in his lifetime. It hadn't dawned on him until several weeks later—when faced with the prospect of leaving her—that he was in fact in love with her. Even he had trouble believing it at times. The very idea that a powerful, reality-bending master of chaos could fall in love with a simple, quiet, shy, soft-spoken pony was absurd even by his standards.

And yet fall he had, and fallen hard.

And she had picked some plain ordinary pony over him.

Then why not turn yourself into a pony? the little voice in the back of his head suddenly piped up. You could even be any size, shape, or build that she—

I don't want to turn into a pony! he mentally snapped. I hate looking like a pony!

And yet you can't seem to get that particular pony off your mind even though you haven't seen or spoken to her in a year, the little voice pointed out.

At those words, Discord's head came up as a new idea suddenly popped into his head. It was true; he hadn't seen Fluttershy in over a year. He had only dreamed about her again and again ... but what if that was part of the problem? What if he had been building her up too much in those dreams? Seeing her the way he wanted her to be as opposed to how she really was? After all, he hadn't found her attractive when they first met. Maybe ... maybe instead of trying to avoid her, he should go see her and—if he could convince himself that he felt absolutely nothing for her—he could finally be free of her.

Eager to try this, he jumped up, pumped his horn and antler down then up to switch his tattoos back off, and yanked the map from the bubble's wall. As the tacks pulled free of the bubble, air whooshed out of it, and it shot back toward the ocean's surface with Discord still in it. As he rose, he began magically pulling water up with him, stirring it into a frenzy.

Oh, yes. To show just how little he cared, he wasn't just going to flash himself to Ponyville. He was going to arrive in style.

"Why'd you get a mailbox in Ponyville if you didn't plan to stay here?" asked Twilight.

"It was the closest option I could find near the Everfree Forest."

"Why'd you want to build the TreeHAB in there?"

"Oh, several reasons. For one I found the perfect tree: big, tall, plenty of branches to build on and thick bark to protect it from possible forest fires. Also the weather isn't controlled in the forest and I wanted the HAB to be able to hold up in any weather. But mostly because it was the best place to avoid kibitzing. I can't stand that."

The four friends had been getting to know Skywishes over cake until Pinkie had excused herself to go fill some baking orders. Now Twilight and Skywishes were deep in a discussion about what had gone into designing and building the TreeHAB. At first Fluttershy had expected Skywishes to be close-mouthed and unsocial, but the camo-clad pegasus actually seemed to enjoy talking about her project.

"Of course, the trade-off to not having other ponies poking around telling me how to do my job, is that the whole thing is on me so the HAB's got a ways to go before it's completely functional. So far the only thing I've had much success growing up there is tomatoes."

"Hmm, maybe we should help you get in touch with Strawberry Swirl's old partners," said Twilight. "They're still doing her experiments to combine different plants together."

"Ahh, you might have something there," said Skywishes, rubbing her chin and squinting one eye at the alicorn speculatively.

Up until that moment Fluttershy had just been passively listening to them, but at the mention of the late Strawberry Swirl's botany experiments her mind pulled up the memory of Discord first telling her about them.

"She should have put me on that job," he'd said scornfully. "I could have gotten results—" Then he'd snapped his talons, instantly conjuring up several samples of hybrid fruit. "—like that."

Now she began to wonder if he'd ever conjured up more hybrid fruit since he'd left her. She'd heard reports of him popping up and wreaking chaos in different locations throughout Equestria, but he never left behind any physical evidence of his activities. All they had to prove he'd been there were eyewitness accounts and she couldn't remember any of them mentioning hybrid fruit.

Then her mind shifted to the dream she'd had of him the night before. She'd been having similar dreams on and off ever since he'd left. Why couldn't she stop having such vivid dreams about him when it was clear he wanted nothing to do with her?

She glanced toward Applejack, who had also been listening to Skywishes and Twilight converse. Despite the part Fluttershy had played in finding Applejack, she had seen surprisingly little of the orange earth pony over the past year. While Applejack no longer used her Amberlocks disguise, she had continued managing the Orchard she had started in the Crystal Empire. And though Apple Bloom and Big Mac had been able to keep Sweet Apple Acres afloat in her absence they had been quite happy to let her resume management there as well. Thus, Applejack had spent a good chunk of that year traveling back and forth between the two orchards.

Still, considering what Applejack owed her and Discord, she was probably Fluttershy's best candidate for discussing her mixed feelings about her former partner.

"Applejack, can I talk with you alone?" she whispered.

"Sure," Applejack tipped her head to Twilight and Skywishes. "Excuse us." They nodded to her and Fluttershy before going back to their own conversation.

Applejack and Fluttershy moved to the other side of the room.

"What did you want to talk about, Fluttershy?"

"Well..." Fluttershy hesitated, trying to come up with a way to explain her feelings without mentioning her dreams. "Well, it's been almost a year since Discord left, and ... well ... I still miss him ... but I'm not sure if I should. ... I thought we were friends; I really wanted us to be..." I even thought I might be in love with him. "But now I wonder if that was just a lie to get his freedom, and I'm not sure I should want to be friends with somepony like that." But I do want to be with him. Maybe I shouldn't, but I want it so much.

Applejack was silent for several seconds, pondering what Fluttershy had told her. Then she sighed and put a foreleg around Fluttershy's withers. "Sugarcube, I wish I could tell you what to do or how to feel... but all I can really think to tell you is: If somepony shows you who they really are, believe them."

If somepony shows you who they really are, believe them.

Who had Discord shown himself to be?

He had tried to break apart her friendship with the other ponies, but he had later helped her track down Applejack. He had tormented her mercilessly, but he had also cleaned and bandaged her injuries with as much care as she would have shown one of her animals. He had a definite knack for spotting patterns and fitting them together logically, yet he seemed to thrive on doing just the opposite. When they had been together he seemed to relish her attention, and yet he had spent this past year completely avoiding her.

Fluttershy mentally sighed in frustration. Applejack's normally good advice just seemed to fall apart when she tried applying it to her former partner. Sometimes she had felt so sure that she knew and understood him, but other times he was just as much of an enigma as the case he had helped her solve.

At that moment Rainbow Dash was flying toward Ponyville. She hadn't needed to fly with the Wonderbolts that day and had decided to use her free time to check in with her friends on their search for Skywishes. Maybe she would take a turn watching the mailbox, and while she was there she could check if there had been any letters from—

"Hiya, Ray!"

The voice jolted her out of her thoughts, and she spun awkwardly in the air as she tried to turn in the direction of the voice. Looking down, she saw an earth pony standing on his hind legs and waving up at her. His coat was a light golden brown, while his mane and tail were jet black. He wore close-fitting pants with a pattern of red, yellow, and blue flames on them, and a sleeveless black shirt that revealed a pair of forelegs wrapped in athletic tape.

Rainbow Dash quickly looked around to make sure there were no other ponies nearby before folding in her wings and swooping down to hover in front of the stallion. "Screwjob, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, come on, Ray. Is that any way to—"

She covered his mouth with her hoof. "Don't call me that."

Screwjob ducked out from under her hoof. "Why? I thought you liked it?" Then he quirked one thick dark eyebrow at her. "Or do you only like it when he calls you that?" he asked in a teasing voice.

"Will you keep quiet," Rainbow Dash snapped. "I don't want anypony to hear you."

He looked around. "I don't see anypony else." Then he grinned back at her. "You know you can't keep this a secret forever."

"I know," Rainbow Dash said in a resigned voice. "I'm just trying to figure out the right time to tell them."

"Well, you better tell them soon because if you don't ... I will!" Screwjob said in a sing-song voice.

Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"

"You mean he didn't tell you? We're both out on medical leave, so we're sticking around. And while we're sticking around I want to meet the rest of the lovely ladies, so if you don't tell them—What the hay is that?!"

Rainbow Dash whirled around to see what he was looking at and saw what appeared to be a tornado consisting of tomato sauce and spaghetti spinning straight toward them!

Discord cackled as the spaghetti tornado whipped him about. He was up near the top of it, and didn't see when a nearby gray pegasus lost control of her flight and was sucked into the pasta vortex. Nor did he notice the two unicorns—a pink adult one and a light purple one in her mid-to-late teens—running toward the tornado, trying to pull the pegasus out of it with their magic only to get sucked in as well.

Their screams were drown out by the wind and the sound of wet noodles slapping together, so it wasn't until the smaller of the two unicorns collided with Discord's head that he realized his ride had picked up a few extra passengers. Startled he tried to shake her off, but the unicorn hung on. Then the other two ponies smacked into his stomach. Without thinking about what he was doing, he grabbed them and teleported himself and the three hitchhikers out of the spaghetti cyclone.

As they reappeared several yards behind the still spinning tornado, he somersaulted over the tomato sauce-covered ground, dislodging the three ponies in the process. Sitting up, he wiped the tomato sauce from his face and turned to see who had so rudely interrupted his ride. The three ponies were all stumbling around dizzily and coated so thoroughly in sauce that he couldn't tell what color they actually were. Then the pegasus turned in his direction, and despite the fact that the pupils of her gold eyes seemed to be skidding off in different directions he got the impression that she was studying him.

"Hey, I know who you are," she said, a woozy smile spreading over her muzzle.

He snorted. "Well, of course you know—"

"You're that guy who helped Fluttershy."

For once Discord was at a loss for words. That was not quite the title he had been expecting. "That guy who helped Fluttershy" could certainly have applied to him a year ago, but it was a long way off from the Spirit of Chaos, the Patron of Pandemonium, or the Mucky-muck of Mayhem.

Then the pegasus licked the tomato sauce from one hoof. "Not bad, but it could use some parmesan."

Author's Notes:

As always, a big thank you to Nightwalker for his suggestions and editing.

Fun Fact: Sometimes I wish I had a pet chameleon just so I could name it Mittens.

Another Fun Fact: Like Discord, my version of Skywishes was largely inspired by a certain Sci-fi character. (Albeit a much more recent one.) Please let me know if you can guess who it is.
Hint: The character is a dude, he was in a sci-fi movie that came out 2015, and it wasn’t Star Wars.

Answer: It's Mark Watney from The Martian.

Oh, and credit for the "fun funeral" goes to the great Tim Hawkins.

To my fellow Fluttercord fans: Sorry you guys had to wait so long for this chapter considering it had no fluttercord moments in it. But then again we have to get the players into position for the main plot and I can promise there will be some fluttercord moments in future chapters.

Chapter 3. 1 Corinthians 13:2

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Chapter 3

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."—1 Corinthians 13:2

Deciding to ignore the pegasus's comment, Discord vanished in a flash of light, causing the sauce he was covered in to suddenly fall to the ground. He reappeared, now sauce-free, floating in midair with his back to the three ponies, looking in the direction his spaghetti cyclone had gone. It was still whirling away toward Ponyville, expect that now without him controlling it, it was rapidly disintegrating, flinging globs of sauce and clumps of pasta in all directions, and would likely collapse as soon as it reached its destination.

Not quite the entrance he'd had in mind.

Feeling a tad irritated at that, he turned to scowl at the three ponies. However, his mood brightened when he saw them trying unsuccessfully to wipe off their own coatings of sauce, and he thought of a way to give them a bit of payback.

Swooping down closer to them, he conjured a spray bottle, held it above them and squeezed the trigger. The spray bottle did not merely spray, but squirted water in a steady jet that would have done a hose credit. The ponies squealed in surprise and tried to jump away but by then they were already drenched. On the plus side, though, they were no longer slathered in sauce. Once they'd been sprayed down, Discord tossed the spray bottle aside, pulled a hairdryer from behind his back and turned it on them as well. The three ponies braced their legs against the blast of warm air, and in the space of a few moments they were dry.

"Hey, thank—" the pegasus started to say, but before she could finish, her coat, mane, and tail suddenly poofed out in all directions, making her look as if she were built entirely of gray and yellow puffballs. A second later, the same thing happened to the two unicorns.

"No trouble at all," Discord chortled as he switched off the hairdryer, and vanished a second time.

Meanwhile at Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy suddenly heard the wind kick up. Had a storm been scheduled for that day? She hadn't thought so, but maybe—

Then she heard screams and the beating of hooves outside. A scheduled storm wouldn't normally cause that much panic so what could—?

"Take cover, everypony!" Rainbow Dash suddenly shouted from outside.

What everypony in the bakery did was look up in time to see her shoot through the bakery door's open upper half, carrying a stallion in her front legs.

"Ow!" the stallion yelled, as his dangling back legs banged into the closed lower half of the bakery door. He leaned forward, trying to tuck his back legs up away from the door, and the movement caused Rainbow Dash to tip forward as well, sending them into an unplanned somersault. As they tumbled across the floor, Rainbow Dash pulled herself free, jumped into the air, and flew back to the door to slam its top half shut.

It wasn't a moment too soon, as the slamming of the door was followed by a loud splatting sound from outside, and Fluttershy saw what appeared to be ... globs of tomato sauce and strands of spaghetti smacking against the windows. Before she could do much more than squint out the nearest window, trying to make sense of what she was seeing, the splatting sound stopped.

"What's going on?" Pinkie asked, poking her head out of the kitchen and catching sight of the new window decorations. "Hmm, that's not very nice. Pelting the windows with tomatoes. But at least the spaghetti's well-cooked."

"That stuff came courtesy of a tornado, not some rude pony," said the stallion from his spot on the floor. He had ended up on his back near Fluttershy and Applejack, and now as she looked down at him Fluttershy realized it was the same stallion she'd seen at the post office the day before.

"Who are you?" Pinkie asked, trotting over to him, followed by Twilight and Skywishes. Gummy had latched onto the front of Skywishes's coat collar and hung there like a large scaly brooch.

"Ah, the name is Screwjob, ladies," said the stallion. "Now don't tell me your names. Let me guess them. Let's see... Twilight Sparkle." He pointed up at Twilight and she nodded.

"Pinkie Pie."

"That's me."

"Uh..." Screwjob frowned at Skywishes, clearly drawing a blank.

"That's Skywishes," said Twilight quickly. "We just met her today ourselves."

Screwjob nodded and moved on to Fluttershy. "Hello, Fluttershy. Nice to see youuu—" As his gaze shifted to Applejack, he suddenly seemed to lose control of his tongue and the last word came out as gibberish. He rested the back of his head against the floor and blew his breath out in a half-sigh, half-whistle. "Mercy me, get a load of that beautiful girl."

Applejack arched an eyebrow at that.

Then Rainbow Dash called from over by the door. "Hey, girls, what about this stuff outside? Don't you think we should check it out?"

"Oh, come on, Ray," said Screwjob. "We're getting to know each other—"

"I really think we need to see what's going on out there," Rainbow Dash interrupted, her tone emphatic.

"She's probably right," said Twilight. "We can finish our ... introductions later." As she moved to follow Rainbow Dash outside, she glanced quickly at her friends and Fluttershy could guess what she was thinking: Screwjob had just called Rainbow Dash "Ray."

And he had a postcard with him when I saw him at the post office yesterday…

These musings were interrupted when Screwjob started to sit up and winced. "Uh oh, I think I hurt something when my legs smacked into that door."

"Here, let me take a look at them." Fluttershy started to move toward him, but he waved her away.

"No, no, I don't need that. I just need somepony to help me get back on my hooves. Somepony strong enough for me to lean on for a bit. Hey, how about you?" He pointed at Applejack. "You look good and strong."

Applejack gave him a slightly suspicious look and a raised eyebrow, then shrugged and moved to help him. She let him hang onto her withers as he eased his hind legs underneath him. As he pulled himself up, he kept grunting and wincing as though in pain, but when his face was turned away from Applejack, Fluttershy noticed that his expression didn't seem to match the sounds he was making. Judging by his expression, he actually seemed to be enjoying hanging onto Applejack.

After Discord disappeared, the three pony puffballs just stared at each other for a couple of seconds.

Then the pegasus finally spoke up. "Well, girls. I guess we better get home and wash this stuff down." She patted at the fuzz now sticking out from her foreleg.

Unknown to the three ponies, Discord had reappeared a short distance away, now hidden so that he could watch them unobserved.

The pegasus looked down at herself and felt her side, her hoof vanishing into the poofy hair. "Where's my mailbag?"

"It must have gotten blown off in that tornado," said the pink unicorn.

The three ponies all spread out, apparently searching for the mailbag. Finally the pink unicorn discovered it in a clump of bushes and pulled it out with her magic. The pegasus took the bag and peeked inside.

"Oh drat," she muttered mildly. "All the mail blew out." She looked to the pink unicorn. "Amethyst, you wouldn't happen to—"

"Of course I made a list of your deliveries, Mom." The pink unicorn sounded like she might be smiling. "Don't I always?" Then she sighed. "Of course I left it back at home, so we'll have to wait until we get back there to check it."

The pegasus slipped the bag's shoulder strap over her head, having a bit of trouble getting her poofy mane under it, and the three ponies spread out again to gather up the mail that had gotten scattered in the tornado's wake. Amethyst and the smaller unicorn did most of the gathering, grabbing up the mail magically and sending it back to the pegasus.

As he watched them, Discord gave the unicorns' magic levels an experimental prod and discovered that they were both pretty low. He doubted either one could do much more than float things about. Then a new idea occurred to him, and, grinning, he snapped his talons, causing the static in the three ponies' hair to act like a magnet on the scattered letters. The mail came swarming through the air from all directions, and Discord snickered as it covered the three ponies from head to hooves.

As they struggled to get the mail off their coats and into the bag, Discord decided to follow and continue amusing himself with them while he formulated a new grand entrance for Ponyville.

That tornado's probably reached Ponyville by now, and they're probably expecting me to make some big show of it. But I am the Undersecretary of the Unexpected, therefore, I won't show up! I'll just let them wonder where I am for a while.

Yes, build up a lot of suspense, then I’ll show up when I’m good and ready, and they’re least suspecting it.

Screwjob still had his forelegs draped across Applejack's back when they and the rest of the ponies ventured out of the bakery and began taking in the sight of the spaghetti piles strewn throughout the town.

"Hey, get—OFF ME!" Skywishes shouted.

Is she yelling at Gummy? Fluttershy wondered as she spun toward the other pegasus. Why would Skywishes suddenly start yelling at Gummy to get off when she'd been patiently letting him gnaw on her ever since he'd first latched onto her sleeve?

But no, there was Gummy just standing there on the ground while several feet away Skywishes struggled with ... what was that thing? It seemed to be orange, black, and white but was flapping about too much for Fluttershy to make out any details.

"Get off! Get away!" Skywishes shouted as the flapping thing rammed itself into the side of her head before she managed to swat it away. Now Fluttershy saw that the object appeared to be a six-winged, two-headed parrot made of paper stained with tomato sauce. It swooped down on Rainbow Dash, then Pinkie Pie, then Twilight, forcing each of them to swat it away as Skywishes had. Then it flew toward Applejack's head, but before it could reach her, Screwjob suddenly flipped himself over her back and kicked out at the "parrot," sending it spinning away before it straightened itself out and shot back toward Skywishes.

The coral-colored pegasus rolled her dead eyes skyward. "Oh, for—"

Then on a sudden impulse, Fluttershy thrust herself between Skywishes and the attacking origami. The parrot smacked into Fluttershy's forehead, making her wince, but instead of pecking at her like it had Skywishes and the rest of the ponies, it hooked its upper wings over her ears, wrapped its middle wings around her head, and let its last pair of wings fold in as it nuzzled her forehead with its two heads, smearing her all over with tomato sauce in the process.

As she reached up to cautiously pat the odd piece of origami, Fluttershy felt a mixture of disbelief and nervous excitement course through her as one thought drown out all others.

He's back!

Applejack gave Screwjob a disgusted look and tried to step out from under him.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he hung on and moved with her. "I need you to help me keep the weight off my legs."

"Give me a break. If you can kick and flip around like you just did, there's nothing wrong with your legs."

"That was an adrenaline rush! And I'm already feeling the pain of it. Look." He shifted his weight back and forth from hoof to hoof. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch—Hey!"

Applejack had suddenly ducked her head—causing her hat to fall off in the process—and backed out from under him. Screwjob thrust his front hooves down to catch himself before he fell on his face.

"I thought so," Applejack muttered as she moved to pick up her hat. "You were faking it."

Screwjob looked embarrassed, but quickly covered it up. "Hey, it's called 'selling an injury,' okay? I'm a wrestler. I need to be good at that sort of thing. You don't want me to get out of practice, do you?"

Putting her hat back on, Applejack gave him a Do-you-really-want-to-go-that-route?-look, and Screwjob flung his forelegs in the air.

"Oh sure, blame a guy for trying."

Meanwhile the rest of Ponyville's citizens had begun coming out of their homes as well. They must have guessed the unusual weather they had just experienced signaled Discord's return because they were muttering uneasily among themselves. They knew the draconequus had played a part in helping Fluttershy find Applejack a year ago, but since then he hadn't really done anything to endear himself to the rest of Equestria. If anything, he had managed to purge any goodwill most ponies might have been willing to give him.

Noticing this unease, Twilight flew up above the crowd where they could all see her. "Everypony don't panic. Just try to go about your business while I let Princess Celestia know about this. She'll know what to do."

With that, she flew off in the direction of the library to collect Spike and send her message. But as she flew she began to wonder just what Celestia would advise her to do.

Especially considering what had happened a year ago right after Discord had left Fluttershy...

It was the day before the planned "Welcome Back Applejack" party.

She had just gotten back from helping Applejack get things sorted out at Amberlocks' Orchards, and was going through some of the information the earth pony had collected on changelings during her years in hiding, when Fluttershy had shown up. The pegasus's face was blotchy, her eyes were red from crying, and her voice had trembled when she told Twilight that Discord had left with no word of explanation.

When Twilight had explained the situation to Celestia later on, Celestia had told her to bring the Elements of Harmony and she would show Twilight a spell to summon Discord with them.

It had sounded like a good idea, but unfortunately when Twilight went to get the Elements of Harmony out of the case she had been storing them in, they were gone. Thinking she might have misplaced them at some point, she and Spike had proceeded to turn the place upside down looking for them, but after a long unsuccessful search, the pair had called it a day and gone to bed, planning to continue looking for the Elements the next morning.

However, things didn't go quite as Twilight had planned that next morning.

Twilight had been slowly coming awake when…

"Gooooood morning, Princess."

She had heard that mocking voice only a few times before but there was no mistaking it. Startled awake, she turned to see Discord lying in the bed right next to her!

Twilight shrieked and tried to fling herself out of the bed, (How long had he been there?!) but the sheets suddenly seemed to come to life and wrap around her, pinning her wings and legs against her body so that she couldn't move. Discord smirked at her efforts to escape.

"Let me go!" Twilight shouted, now more annoyed than frightened. Her horn flared with a magenta glow as she pointed it at him, but before she could fire off a spell, he reached over and pressed down on the end of her horn with a finger. Her horn bent as if it were made of rubber and suddenly the tip was pointing down at her face instead of his. Realizing that any spell she shot off would just hit her, she quickly extinguished her magic.

"What do you want, Discord? Fluttershy—"

Discord's gleeful expression suddenly hardened. "Shut up!"

Twilight had never heard him sound that angry before, and that shocked her into silence more effectively than any spell would have.

Discord's expression twitched as if he were in pain, but then he resumed smirking. "I suppose you've been looking for the Elements of Harmony," he said, studying the talons on his eagle claw.

"How did you—? Wait ... you stole them, didn't you?!"

"Stole them?" he repeated in a mock injured tone. "No, I'm just borrowing them for an indeterminate amount of time.."

"That's the same—"

"THAT ... is not important right now." His voice suddenly lost its cheerful tone. "I'm here for one reason. I've got places to go and I don't want you or any of your friends using those pesky things to yank me back here like a yo-yo. Understand?"

Twilight glared back and nodded.

"You can have the Elements back on the condition that you don't try to summon me with them. Do I have your promise?"

Twilight hesitated. What should she do? Should she promise not to use them? What would happen if she didn't? What would—?

Discord glanced down at a watch he hadn't been wearing until just then. "Not to pressure you, but if you don't give me an answer, I'll just take the Elements with me when I go. So by all means take your time weighing all the possibilities. After all, you've still got about..." He glanced down at the watch again. "Five seconds… Four… Three..."

That decided it.

"All right!" Twilight shouted. Whatever else happened, she couldn't let Discord just waltz off with the Elements. "All right. We won't use the Elements to summon you."

He quirked a pierced eyebrow. "Promise?"

"I..." Twilight grimaced. "…promise."

"Pinkie Promise?"

How did he know about that? Still, she recited it.

"Excellent. Au revoir, Princess Twilight." Then as if to get in one final shot, he flicked her bent horn—causing it to snap up straight again—before vanishing. The sheets binding her loosened, but she continued to lie there, wondering just what she'd agreed to.

Until Spike came in a few minutes later to inform her that the six Elements had somehow materialized in his bed while he was sleeping.

Later when Twilight had gone to Celestia to explain this new situation, the princess had seemed surprised at Discord's actions but had decided that they would not try to summon the draconequus and instead wait and see what he planned to do.

"In the meantime, Twilight, I want you to leave the Elements with me, and don't tell your friends about the summoning spell."

Those requests had puzzled Twilight but she went along with them anyway.

After all, Celestia must have had a plan to deal with Discord if he put a toe or talon out of line.

The draconequus must have been thinking the same thing because since that day, he had been keeping both feet firmly behind that line ... but with his long neck and body stretched as far out over it as he could without magically extending them.

Discord watched the three ponies through binoculars he had conjured as they made their way to a house on the edge of Ponyville. He could see the results of the cyclone covering the town and while those spaghetti strands sticking to things were an interesting effect, he decided he didn't really like the tomato sauce splattered all over the place. Messes generally didn't bother him, but that just looked a bit too much like a murder scene. With a snap of his talons, all the tomato sauce turned to pesto sauce.

That's better, he thought as he tossed the binoculars aside and teleported to the house the three pony puffballs had just entered.

As Twilight flew away, Fluttershy gently peeled the two-headed parrot from her face and allowed it to walk along the back of her hoof like a regular bird would.

Skywishes eyed it with dislike. "You better hang onto that thing, seeing as you're the only one it hasn't tried pecking to pieces."

At the sound of her voice, the parrot turned in her direction and seemed about to launch itself at the coral-colored pegasus, but Fluttershy quickly put her other hoof over it. The parrot relaxed, then began butting its paper beaks playfully against the underside of her hoof.

"Dinner is served," said Pinkie, setting down two plates of spaghetti in front of Fluttershy and Skywishes before moving on to set three more out in front of Applejack, Screwjob, and Rainbow Dash. "Dig in," she said, sitting down with one last plate of spaghetti in front of her.

She was just raising the plate to her muzzle when the tomato sauce promptly turned to pesto sauce.

"Awww." Pinkie put the plate down, crossed her forelegs, and scowled at it. "I don't like pesto."

"I'll bring you back some TreeHAB-grown tomatoes," said Skywishes, though her dry tone made it hard to tell if she was joking or serious.

Pinkie brightened. "Oh, would you?"

"I've got to use them up somehow." Skywishes popped the cape-like collar on the back of her camo to pull it up off her wings.

"You mean you're leaving?" Fluttershy asked as the paper parrot (whose sauce stains had changed from orange to pale green) squirmed out of her hooves and used its beaks to haul itself up her mane onto the top of her head. As it settled itself there she scarcely felt its weight.

"I want to check on the TreeHAB. When I designed the thing, I didn't really factor in spaghetti storms."

"Ooh wait, wait, wait!" Pinkie shot into the bakery and a few seconds later emerged with several bakery boxes. "Just a little something for you to enjoy on your way."

Skywishes raised her eyebrows a fraction. "That looks more like a lot something."

"You can never have too many cupcakes and cookies," said Pinkie, setting the stack of boxes down between Skywishes and Fluttershy. "And don't you worry, Wishie. I know just how to pack them."

Skywishes grunted skeptically, but didn't protest when Pinkie began slipping the boxes into the large pockets on the camouflage coat. Exactly how the pink pony managed to fit that many boxes into the various pockets was a mystery to the ponies watching her, but somehow she managed. When she stepped back from Skywishes, the pegasus looked a good deal lumpier than usual, but when she tried taking off, the extra weight didn't seem to hamper her. She flew in several wide circles, rolling her body this way and that, even flipping upside down a couple of times.

Rainbow Dash squinted one eye as she watched Skywishes. "What's she doing?"

"Probably testing how well she can move with that extra weight before she actually goes in the forest." said Fluttershy.

Apparently satisfied with her little test flight, Skywishes swooped around to face the other ponies. Pulling up to hover in front of them, she raised a hoof to wave goodbye.

The other ponies returned the gesture and Pinkie even threw in a couple of bounces.

"Come back soon, Wishie!"

"I plan to."

And with that she turned and flew toward the Everfree Forest. No sooner was she out of sight then Pinkie Pie turned to Rainbow Dash, who was hovering nearby.

"So, Rainbow, is Screwjob your mystery pen pal? He called you 'Ray' just like the postcard did, but if he is, how come he signed the card 'H?' There's no H anywhere in 'Screwjob.'" She paused briefly, raising an eyebrow and twisting her mouth in thought before turning to Screwjob. "Unless you spell it S-C-H-R-E-W-J-O-B or S-C-R-E-W-J-H-O-B or—"

"I spell it the conventional way, and as it turns out, I'm not this H you speak of." He gave Rainbow Dash a sly sidelong glance, a wickedly teasing grin on his muzzle. "But I know who is."

Rainbow Dash swatted at him with one of her wings and he dodged. Then she turned resignedly to her friends. "All right, all right, you might as well know. H stands for Highflyer."

"Who?" The name was met with blank stares from her three friends.

"Wait ... I think I remember somepony named Highflyer..." Fluttershy tilted her head in thought and, remembering the parrot perched on her head, put a hoof up to catch it if it slipped. But there was no rustle of paper or the feel of anything moving about on her head. Frowning, she felt her head with both hooves then looked around. "Hey, where'd the paper parrot go?"

The other ponies looked about for it as well. Pinkie even grabbed the edge of Fluttershy's mane and shook it to make sure the origami wasn't hiding there, but there was no sign of it anywhere. Had it flown away when they were busy watching Pinkie Pie load up Skywishes or had it just magically vanished? None of them could say.

Sudden tears pricked Fluttershy's eyes at the realization that the parrot was gone. With its arrival had come the hope that Discord was nearby, but now it had left with as little warning as he had over a year ago. Had the draconequus sent the little messenger to taunt her with the idea of his return only to cruelly snatch it away again?

"You all right Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash flew over to her and tried to peer down into Fluttershy's face.

Fluttershy quickly wiped at her eyes. "It's nothing. I just ... got some oil from the pesto sauce in my eye." She wiped at the sauce still smeared on her forehead. "Does anypony have something I can use to wipe this off?"

Screwjob clamped his teeth down on some of his bandages and yanked a napkin out of them. "Here hoo ho," he said, his voice garbled by the napkin clenched in his teeth. Fluttershy briefly wondered why he had such a thing stuffed in his leg bandages, but accepted the offering.

"So you used to know Highflyer?" Screwjob asked as she wiped the pesto from her face.

"A little," she said, grateful for the return to subject. "I didn't know him that well personally, but I used to think he was so cute." She couldn't help blushing at the memory. The Highflyer she remembered from flight camp had been light brown with big blue eyes, a dark wavy mane and tail, and very small for his age.

Screwjob snickered. "Well, he ain't cute anymore. He grew into one ugly dude. A good wrestler though." He paused then added. "But don't tell him I said that, or he'll get a swelled head, his mask won't fit, and his career will be over. And if his career is over, who am I supposed to spend my time beating up?"

"So why's this Highflyer fella sending you postcards?" Applejack asked Rainbow Dash. "And why didn't you want us to know about it earlier?"

"It's a little..." Rainbow Dash looked up at the sky as she searched for the right word. "...complicated. You know how Scootaloo still can't fly?"

They nodded. Scootaloo had been trying to fly for years without success, and now as a young mare she had been forced to accept the fact that she would never be able to fly.

"Well, she was feeling pretty down about that, and..." Rainbow Dash glanced over her shoulder at her own flapping wings, and suddenly pulled them in, dropping lightly to the ground. "I couldn't really tell her that being flightless was no big deal because..." She trailed off but rustled her wings, making her meaning clear. "So to encourage her, I started looking for other flightless pegasi who've done awesome stuff in spite of that, and that's how I found out about Highflyer."

Applejack chuckled. "Wait, his name is 'Highflyer' and he's flightless?"

"As flightless as you or me, Apps," said Screwjob.

Applejack glared at him. "What did you call me?"

"Apps. You like it?"

"No."

"Awww." Screwjob pouted but it seemed a tad over-exaggerated, making Fluttershy suspect it was fake.

"Anyway," said Rainbow Dash. "I managed to get in touch with him, and he agreed to meet Scootaloo."

"It was either him or Brimstone," said Screwjob, apparently done with his sulky act. "But then again Brimstone is kind of cuckoo so he's probably not the best example of a successful flightless pegasus. Even with the pyrokinesis."

"Anyway," Rainbow Dash gave him a stop-interrupting-look. "After he and Scootaloo met, we ended up sort of staying in touch." Her expression softened. "He's even been teaching us how to wrestle."

Screwjob raised a hoof as if he were a colt in school.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "You can talk now."

"Thank you." He turned to the other ponies. "The wrestling lessons are where I come in. High's got a certain wrestling style not everypony can pull off so he let me in on things to offer my ... expertise."

"But that doesn't really explain why you didn't want to tell us about this," Fluttershy pointed out, addressing Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash looked uncomfortable again. "That's the complicated part."

Once the three pony puffballs were inside, the pegasus pulled off her mailbag and fumbled about in her fuzz to remove her mailpony uniform, leaving them in a neatly crumpled heap on the floor. Then she and the two unicorns went into the bathroom and began running water in the tub.

"You sure this'll work?" asked the purple unicorn.

"No, but it can't hurt to find out." The pegasus dipped a hoof into the water, probably to test its temperature, and a burst of static sparks crackled where her poofed-out hair touched the water. She jerked her hoof back with a yelp, accidentally scattering drops of water on the other two, who yelped as static flashed where the water touched them.

"Whoops, I guess I was wrong. Sorry girls, I—Hey, look." She held up her damp hoof which was no longer hidden by poofed-out hair.

The three ponies covered the floor with towels, climbed in the tub, doing their best to ignore the static shocks, and took turns dunking themselves underwater. None of them noticed the image of a draconequus that was peeking out from the edge of the mirror, watching them. When any of them looked up, the image quickly ducked back out of sight.

"Ahh, that's better," said the pegasus as they climbed dripping out of the tub.

That's what you think, Discord mentally chuckled as the three ponies began rubbing themselves down with towels.

Amethyst was the first one to notice something was wrong when she glanced in the mirror. "Uh, Mom? Dinky? Is your hair sticking out all weird?"

"Huh?" The other two ponies yanked the towels off their heads and joined Amethyst at the mirror. All the hair that made up their coats, manes, and tails was standing out like the quills on a startled porcupine.

Then a fourth face poked into view behind them in the mirror; a face with piercings, a scruffy beard and eyebrows, and a large fang jutting down from one side of its mouth. The three ponies jumped back with startled cries, knocking into each other and falling to the floor in the process. They looked over at the spot near them where the creature casting the new reflection should have been, but there was no one there. A booming laugh came from the mirror and, looking up, they saw the draconequus reflection in the mirror doubled over with laughter before he collapsed against the side of the mirror, clinging to it for support.

"Have you been following us all this time?" asked Amethyst. "Making our hair do all this weird stuff?"

"I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count," he told them between giggles, wiping tears from his eyes. Then he reached out and grasped the edges of the mirror, his fingers emerging from it to curl around its frame. He pulled himself forward and emerged from the mirror as if he were pulling himself up out of water. His long tattooed body coiled back and forth as it emerged until the tufted end of his tail whipped out of the mirror. The ponies all ducked as he swung the lower half of his body about and settled his rear end on the counter. "I must say, that's a good look for you three."

The light purple unicorn looked up at him, alarmed. "But we can't spend the rest of our lives looking like this!"

"Ooh, I don't know. Maybe you'll start a new fashion trend." This was met with several seconds of uncomfortable silence. Discord sulked and threw his head back, letting out a loud, persecuted sigh, like a teenager who had been asked to clean up their room for the tenth time. "Fine, hand me a comb." He held his hand out and the three ponies scooted back nervously. "Oh, never mind. I brought one."

A rubber currycomb flashed into his paw and the pegasus suddenly disappeared from her spot on the floor, reappearing on his lap. She looked bewildered at this, though that might have been mostly due to her pupils still pointing in opposite directions. Discord wrapped one arm around her, trapping her in place, and started rubbing the currycomb over her back in hard brisk circles, digging the rubber teeth deep into her coat, and causing the long spikes to morph back into short close hair.

"H-h-hey, that feels kinda n-n-n-nice," said the pegasus, her voice coming out in a stutter as his movements jostled her. The unicorns had moved forward as if they'd intended to pull her away from the draconequus but halted at those words, and watched the scene in front of them with wary fascination.

As he smoothed her coat down, Discord began noticing little details about the pegasus that he'd missed both when she was covered with tomato sauce and when her coat was all poofed-out.

I've seen this pony before! It was the same mailmare that had delivered Fluttershy's letter to Twilight over a year ago! The letter Twilight never knew about because he had swiped it.

"I d-don't think we've r-r-really been intro-d-d-d-duced," said the pegasus. "I'm M-m-muffins, but y-you can c-c-call me D-derpy. Every-p-pony does."

Discord began dragging the currycomb through her tail. Normally it wasn't the ideal tool for combing a tail but such things never stopped him before. Since his brushing was no longer jostling her, Derpy pointed to the two unicorns.

"And these are my girls: Amethyst Star and Dinky Doo." She glanced back at the draconequus. "And we know who you are, but where have you been? And what are you doing back here now?"

"Later. Tell me what's been happening since I've been gone?"

As he worked his way through rubbing down the three ponies, he quizzed them on what had been happening over the past year. He learned that Twilight had made several potions to see through changeling-windigo-hybrid disguises, but had no way to test them to see if they actually worked; Pinkie Pie had been swapping recipes with the ponies who had taken over Triple Treat's bakery, and exchanging party planning tips with the ones who now ran Cotton Candy's business; Applejack had taken on Rarity as a partner at Amberlocks's Orchards—Applejack took care of supplying the orchard's cider while Rarity handled the social side of marketing it to the upper class—though there had been talk about them training Apple Bloom to take over when she was a little older; Rainbow Dash had been getting and sending mysterious letters and postcards (several of which Derpy had delivered personally); and they had all been searching for the seldom-seen Skywishes.

"You are certainly an unexpected font of information about this town," Discord mused, shooting Derpy a cagy squint, as he worked the comb through Dinky's mane.

The pegasus shrugged her wings. "What can I say? Ponies often treat me like I'm part of the background and act like I'm not there at all. My job takes me around town a lot and I see more than most ponies expect."

"So I see." He wasn't sure how intentional her now very pronounced wall-eyed gaze was. Finished with his grooming chores, he set down Dinky and leaned back on the counter as he flashed the comb away. "And Fluttershy? She's still with that what's-his-face, I suppose." He took care to keep his tone bored.

"I'm not sure which 'what's-his-face' you're thinking of," said Derpy. "The only date I've ever seen her on was about a year ago, when I saw her around town with Big Mac. I asked her about it later, but she said they decided it wasn't for them. Pretty sure he's with somepony else now and Fluttershy still just has her animal friends."

"What?!" Discord's voice came out in a rather uncharacteristic squawk but he couldn't help it. He could still recall in painfully clear detail the sight of Fluttershy smiling and laughing with Big Mac. He had been so sure ... but now ... now to learn that nothing had come of that... Well, thanks a heap, Fluttershy! I spend all this time preparing myself to see you with another stallion and you can't even do me the courtesy of being in a relationship! Wait a minute, what am I saying?!

Then he noticed the three ponies were staring at him and quickly forced a chuckle. "Startled you there, didn't I?" he said, putting his hands on the back of his neck and twisting it as if trying to work out a kink, but really using the movements to disguise the fact that his moth tattoos were darting about, acting as discombobulated as he felt.

Fluttershy had a lot to think about when she got home that evening.

For one thing, Rainbow Dash had not revealed what was so complicated about her relationship with Highflyer ("It'd probably be better if you heard it from him as well as me."), but she had promised to set up a meeting with him as soon as possible. Fluttershy tried to imagine what the tiny colt she had once thought so cute looked like now, but it wasn't easy when Rainbow Dash and Screwjob had provided so few details.

Then there was Granny Smith's death. Fluttershy could still remember over a year ago when the old earth pony had confessed she didn't have much longer to live and she wanted to know the truth about Applejack's disappearance before she died. How might things have gone if she had not been desperate enough to turn to Fluttershy? At least she had gotten to enjoy one last year reunited with her once-thought-dead granddaughter.

Before she went inside, Fluttershy glanced toward the Everfree Forest and wondered if Skywishes had made it back to the TreeHAB yet. What if she hadn't? What if she was out there in the dark forest all alone?

Fluttershy shook her head. I'm sure she's fine. She's spent a lot of time in there, and knows her way around. So why couldn't she completely shake this uneasy feeling?

Once inside, the sight of Angel's empty bed brought sudden tears to her eyes. Looking for something to wipe her tears on, she spotted Discord's thrown-away scarf wadded up on the couch, and the sight of it brought even more tears. Knowing that Angel was gone for good was hard enough ... but coupled with the fact that Discord might be nearby and hadn't shown himself... How could he feel so close and yet at the same time so far away?

Curling up on the couch, she gathered up the scarf and buried her face in it.

Discord, where are you?

Discord's ears twitched as he thought he heard a faint whimpering sound. Just a few moments ago he had lain down on the bed in Derpy's guestroom. Now he was sitting in the middle of a vast, featureless, almost colorless expanse. Most creatures would likely find such a situation terrifying, but Discord was only intrigued, partly because he knew he was dreaming, and partly because his dreams usually had a lot more going on in them. Pushing off the ground, he glided through the empty dreamscape, watching to see if the scenery would get more interesting and trying to figure out where the whimpering was coming from.

For several minutes he saw nothing but the emptiness around him, then far below him, he spotted a pale yellow pony with a pale pink mane and tail. He hadn't seen any sign of her before that, she was just suddenly there. Dropping down so that he was floating just a few feet above her, he saw that she was hunched over with her face buried in her hooves ... she was the source of the whimpering ... and she was Fluttershy.

He circled her, but she didn't seem to notice him even when he stuck his pierced face close enough to hers that they were almost touching. Earlier he had kept telling himself that he would feel nothing for her when he saw her again, but now he felt a sudden urge to take her in his arms and soothe her crying. He even started to reach toward her, when a new thought made him halt.

Why do you even care that she's crying?! She's just one more pony in a vast herd of them! She's not even worth your notice!

I can't help noticing her when she's crying like that!

Then conjure a remote and put her on mute!

But I don't want to do it that way! I'll shut her up the way I want to! Besides, this is just a dream. What can it hurt?

Fluttershy was still crying into the scarf when it suddenly started moving. She pulled it away from her face and noticed that her surroundings had changed. She could no longer feel the couch underneath her and it was so dark she could barely see.

Then she felt the scarf slipping out of her hooves as it slid over one shoulder, across the back of her neck, and down over her other shoulder. She trembled under its touch but did her best to stay still, torn between fear at the strangeness of this situation, and hopeful excitement at what it might signify. Then she felt the part of the scarf touching the back of her neck being pulled away from her. She started to turn to see who or what was pulling on it, but one of the scarf ends suddenly wrapped itself around her chest while the other end caught her face, turning it so that she was looking ahead again.

But they weren't scarf ends anymore…

The one across her chest was now a furred arm, and the one holding her face was a taloned hand! Oh, please let it be him! She twisted about, this time in the same direction the hand holding her face was moving, causing the hand to lose its grip on her. Reaching out, her hoof came down on a familiar shoulder, and she was suddenly face-to-face with an equally familiar dragon tattoo emerging over that shoulder. Pulling back slightly, she realized that she and Discord were currently face-to-throat, and tipped her head back to see his face. But that and his neck from the dragon tattoo up all seemed to be hidden in shadow.

There, she stopped crying. Now send her away.

Discord moved his hands from around Fluttershy and placed them against the front of her shoulders, intending to push her away from him. But his dragon tattoo suddenly lunged forward, pulling itself free of his neck. It shot out past Fluttershy and he felt its long body spooling up and off his own. Before either of them could react, the tattoo wrapped around them multiple times. Discord then felt it sink back into his skin, leaving Fluttershy pinned against him chest-to-chest. He tried to teleport out of their bonds but it didn't work. He tried to phase through Fluttershy but that didn't work either.

"Discord what's going on?"

"How should I know?! Uppity tattoos."

She looked up at him with a puzzled expression.

Fluttershy could feel the tattoo pressing against her like a damp rope, but it didn't melt into her skin as it had Discord's.

"Discord what's going on?"

There was no answer and she looked up, hoping to read his expression but once again saw only darkness where his head should have been. She tried to spot any tell-tale glint from his eyes or facial jewelry but there was none.

Is his head even up there? It would have been a strange thing to wonder if it had been anyone else, but considering what she'd seen him do in their time together the fact that he might literally not be all there was a distinct possibility.

One of her hooves was still on his shoulder, and now she moved it to his neck. As she gently slid her hoof up toward where his neck disappeared into the shadows, it reminded her of that night before they'd confronted Amberlocks, when he'd turned himself invisible and she'd had to locate his face by touch.

What would she do now if she found nothing where his face should be? Before she could give this much thought, his neck suddenly flinched away from her touch, and he seemed to be trying to pull away from her. She tried to hang onto him, but then her eyes snapped open and she was back on the couch in her cottage, tangled in the scarf. Letting out an almost inaudible scream, she buried her face in the couch cushion and beat her hooves against it in frustration.

She'd been taken in yet again by one of her dreams!

"Oof!" Discord was jolted awake when something smacked him in the face.

"Let Mom go!"

"Wake! Up!"

Wha—"Oof!" He was smacked in the face again. He shook his head, then looked up to see two pillows, one encased in pink light and the other in yellow, floating above him. The pillows came swinging down toward him and he swiftly snapped his fingers, causing the pillows to shoot away from him and toward their wielders. He heard startled cries followed by a pair of thumps and turned to see Dinky and Amethyst each pinned to the wall by the pillows. The two unicorns were trying to pry the pillows away magically, but the constricting cushions held them fast.

Then he became aware of something squirming against his chest and looked down to see Derpy lashed against him via his dragon tattoo. Heaving himself up into a sitting position, he seized a section of his dragon tattoo where it was stretched across Derpy's back and yanked hard, snapping the tattoo in half in a spray of ink. The tattoo squealed but he ignored it, grabbing another section and snapping that in half as well. Finally Derpy was free, the dragon tattoo's head and front limbs were straggling off Discord's back while the rest of it was strewn about in broken segments on the bed, and the vast majority of the room was drenched in ink.

Discord studied the scene for about five seconds, then stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled. All the ink began sliding off whatever surface it was stuck to, and rolling into balls that trundled about gathering up more ink the way a snowball would gather snow. These ink balls positioned themselves between the dragon tattoo segments, gluing them back together. Then Discord peeled off the fragment of tattoo still stuck to him and jammed it into one end of the reassembled tattoo. He swung the repaired tattoo over his shoulder and let it wrap around his body like a whip, before turning his attention to the still-trapped unicorns. He snapped his talons and the pillows floated away from the wall, allowing Dinky and Amethyst to drop the short distance to the floor. Derpy ran over to make sure they were all right.

"Care to explain what prompted that pillow assault?" Discord asked, crossing his arms and cocking an eyebrow.

"We heard Mom yelling and came to see what was going on," Amethyst said irritably.

"I don't know what happened," said Derpy. "I heard you tossing and turning and muttering in your sleep so I came in to check on you. Then your tattoo just jumped out and wrapped around me."

The dragon tattoo ducked its head as if it were embarrassed, and Discord felt his body tense. What had he been muttering about?! Had it just been gibberish or had the words been clear enough to understand?!

"Well, that's what you get for barging in on a creature of chaos unannounced!" he snapped to cover his unease before vanishing in a flash of light. The skylight above the three ponies flipped open, and they saw a second flash of light outside before Discord poked his head in through it. "Next time knock!" And with that he pulled his head back out of sight as the skylight slammed shut.

"Hmph, what a grouch," Amethyst muttered before yawning and clumping back off to bed.

Derpy gave her younger daughter a nudge. "You should get back to bed too."

Dinky took a few steps toward her room, then glanced back at her mother. "What about you?"

Derpy glanced at the clock. "Oh, since I'm up, I think I'll get that mail from yesterday delivered. Don't want it to get lost in today's mail."

Dinky leaned in to give her a nuzzle. "Alright. Good night, Mom."

Meanwhile up on the roof, Discord conjured a GPS and used it to look up Fluttershy's house in relation to his present location. It wouldn't take very long to fly there, and even less time to teleport, so why did the idea of going there suddenly feel like such an impossible journey?

He looked up from the GPS and toward Fluttershy's house. The dream he'd had moments ago had stirred up his already muddled feelings. He longed for clarity and that made him irritable. Holding Fluttershy for those brief moments in the dream had filled him with a longing to hold the real Fluttershy. Yes, she had chosen some other stallion over him, but had apparently changed her mind about the whole affair. So why did he still feel so reluctant to see her?

Because it wasn't just the fact that she'd chosen some other stallion over him. He realized that now.

It was the fact that her choice had affected him so strongly.

He had let her into his life and in doing so, had allowed her to have too much power over him.

"Mind if I sit down?"

The draconequus almost jumped out of his skin, both figuratively and literally. He whirled around in the direction of the voice to see Derpy, now dressed in her mailpony uniform and with her mailbag slung over her shoulder, flapping next to him. He shrugged and she landed next to him. She peeked curiously at the GPS screen, clearly never having seen such a thing before, and he quickly switched it off before tossing it away.

Derpy frowned after it, then looked back up at him. "You look confused."

For some reason the gentle understanding in her tone irritated him. "I do not. Look who's talking."

"You're not sure what to do, are you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He disappeared and reappeared further down the roof's length with his back to her, a not-so-subtle hint that the conversation was over.

But Derpy pressed on anyway. "Discord, do you know what I sometimes try to ask myself when I'm not sure what to do?"

Still not looking at her, he raised his arms in a shrug. "Doesn't matter to me one way or the other."

"Do I do something to be loved, or in order to love?"

Discord was looking in the direction of Fluttershy's house again and only half-listening. Then his head jerked up as Derpy's words fully registered. "Wait a minute!" He whipped around to face Derpy ("Who said anything about love?! I didn't—!"), and found himself addressing an empty spot on the roof. Looking up, he saw the gray pegasus flapping off toward town.

"Hey!" he shouted, but she must not have heard him because she kept flying. He briefly considered flashing up in front of her and demanding to know what she had been talking about, but decided against it, not wanting her to know she'd confused him. Besides, he could always replay the scene via his cinematic memory.

Chapter 4. Proverbs 15:1

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Chapter 4
"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."—Proverbs 15:1

Derpy's extra early morning mail delivery was uneventful until she reached Sugarcube Corner. She had just landed near the bakery's mailbox and was checking through her mailbag when she heard a scuffling sound coming from behind the bakery. Squinting her oddball eyes, she glided around the building to see what was causing the noise, only to see Pinkie Pie trying to pull a large covered cart out through the bakery's back door.

"Pinkie?"

The earth pony let out a startled screech and jumped about two feet in the air.

"Oh, sorry!" Derpy folded in her wings and dropped to the ground. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her chest, taking deep breaths and laughing weakly. "Oh, Derpy. Didn't see you. What are you doing here?"

"I had some mail leftover from yesterday and didn't want to get it mixed up with today's mail." She looked toward the cart. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I got a note from the Cakes asking if I could meet up with them and bring this cart to help them carry back some extra supplies they brought."

Derpy raised her eyebrows. "That's a pretty big cart. You could probably fit three or four ponies in it. What kind of supplies are they bringing back?"

Pinkie shrugged carelessly. "All I know is that's the cart they told me to bring in the note."

Derpy nodded thoughtfully. "Speaking of that note, when did you get it? I don't remember seeing any notes from the Cakes the last time I delivered mail here."

"It was a little itty-bitty note tucked in with a lot of other mail so you must have missed it when you put it in the box."

"Ah," Derpy nodded again. "Well, I have done that before with other mail. I need to be more careful about that." She moved closer to the cart. "Um, would you like some help moving that?"

"No, no, I got it!" Pinkie moved quickly between Derpy and the cart, took the pegasus by the withers, spun her around, and pushed her back around to the front of the bakery. "You've probably got a lot of deliveries to make and you don't want to be late! Go ahead, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me!"

"Pinkie, are you okay? You seem a bit nervous."

"Well, you did just spook me," Pinkie said in a 'Thank-you-Captain-Obvious' voice.

Derpy blushed. "True. Sorry about that." She glanced from Pinkie to the rest of Ponyville then back to Pinkie. "Well, if you're sure you don't need any—"

"I don't! Thanks! See ya!" And with that, Pinkie zipped back around the building. Derpy frowned after her, debating whether to follow the pink pony back behind the bakery or continue on her mail route. After a few seconds the mail route won.

The sun had just started peeking over the horizon when Derpy flew to Rainbow Dash's cloudominium, intending to drop off her last piece of mail, a postcard from Rainbow Dash's mystery penpal.

She was just musing on the fact that it would be a bit of a squeeze to deliver it, return home to grab some breakfast, then get to the post office to collect that day's mail, when Rainbow Dash suddenly flew out of the cloudominium and pulled up right in front of her, causing Derpy to flap backward to put some space between them.

"Woah! Rainbow, didn't think you'd be up this early."

"I didn't think you'd be either."

"No, actually I'm late. This is leftover mail from yesterday."

Rainbow Dash shrugged dismissively. "Eh, whatever. Is there any for me?"

"Yep, that's why I'm here." Derpy started reaching into the bag. "Another postcard from your mystery buddy H."

Rainbow Dash suddenly looked a bit nervous. "Uh, Derpy, about that... Can I talk with you inside real quick?"

Derpy paused in reaching for the postcard to give Rainbow Dash a puzzled look, then shrugged. "Okay."

"What did you want to talk about?" she asked when they were inside.

"Well, my 'mystery buddy' as you called him—"

"Ahh, so it's a 'him.' I was wondering."

"Yeah, well, about him. He ... well ... his name's Highflyer."

Derpy's eyes widened and temporarily straightened out. "Highflyer? The Highflyer? That wrestler who's also a flightless pegasus? That Highflyer?"

"Wait, you know who he is? I didn't think you were into wrestling."

Derpy shrugged. "Normally I'm not, but I've heard about Highflyer and how he's used his 'weaknesses,'" She made a hoof gesture for quotation marks, "to his advantage. I admire that."

This surprised Rainbow Dash considering the fact that Derpy never tried using her vision problems to get special treatment. Few ponies were even aware that Derpy's crossed eyes were a true handicap because she rarely talked about them.

Years ago when they had first met as fillies, Rainbow Dash had just written off the then-named Muffins as an annoying klutz, and had saddled her with the title "Derpy" after the gray pegasus had accidentally spoiled several of Rainbow Dash's flying stunts. However this changed when Rainbow's need for speed had once sent her headfirst into a wall and left her with her eyes crossed for several days. During those several days she had gotten a taste of how Muffins saw the world on a daily basis, and just how hard the gray pegasus had to work to compensate for her poor vision. By the time Rainbow's sight had returned to normal, her annoyance with Muffins had been tempered with empathy, and she now felt rather protective of Muffins, or Derpy as the other ponies had started calling her by then.

She was pulled away from these recollections when Derpy said, "Hey, if he's writing to you ... does that mean you've met him?"

"Yeah, I have actually." Rainbow Dash quickly explained her situation with Scootaloo and why it had led her to contact Highflyer in the first place.

"Hmm, I've kind of had that situation with Dinky and Amethyst a couple of times. Except it's more the fact that they're such low-level unicorns that gets them down. Hey, maybe you could introduce us to Highflyer the way you did with Scootaloo. I'd like to meet him and I think the girls would too."

"I think he'd be up for that," Rainbow Dash sounded a bit uncertain.

"Is something wrong?"

Rainbow Dash looked about as if to make sure nopony could overhear them before leaning in to whisper, "Derpy, the reason I was up this early was because I was waiting for you to show up. I've got a bit of a ... situation and you were the only one I could think of to talk to."

"Oh. Well, what is it?"

Rainbow Dash hesitated, then blurted out, "How'd you know you were making the right choice when you got married?"

"Huh?! How'd I—? Uh, well..." Derpy fidgeted. "Rainbow, I'm probably not the best pony to ask, considering I've been widowed longer than I was ma—" She broke off as she suddenly went still. "Wait..." She narrowed her eyes at Rainbow Dash though the effect was a bit spoiled by the fact that only one eye was focused on Rainbow Dash while the other was pointing at the ceiling. "Did Highflyer propose to you?"

"No!" Rainbow Dash blushed at her own outburst and quickly lowered her voice. "No, he didn't, but..." She looked down at her hooves. "We ... kind of ... like each other." She looked away and rubbed the back of her neck. "Okay, it's more than kind of, and even if he hasn't proposed, I..." She lowered both her hoof and her gaze. "Think he ... might."

"Okay..." Derpy said slowly. "Is that a problem?"

"Well, I'm a Wonderbolt and he's a wrestler. It's hard enough just getting letters to each other because we both travel around so much, and ... well..."

"You think one of you would have to give up your career if you wanted to be together?"

"Yes!" Rainbow Dash whipped her head down in an emphatic nod, her expression relieved. "That's it exactly! I'd love to be able to spend more time with him, but I've also dreamed of being a Wonderbolt all my life. I can't just give that up, but I also can't ask Highflyer to just give up his career." She hesitated then added almost under her breath, "And that's before even adding foals into the mix."

Derpy's crossed eyes widened in surprise. "Do you want foals?"

"Well, it's not that I don't like them, but..." Rainbow Dash looked up and there was fear in her eyes as her voice came out in a whisper. "What if I'm no good at being a mom? What if I make the wrong choices? What if—?" She groaned and let her head droop in frustration. "I don't know! I just don't!" She chanced a peek up at her cross-eyed friend. "What do you think I should do?"

Derpy didn't answer right away. She gnawed on her lip in thought as each of her eyes rolled in opposite directions like a chameleon's. Then she sighed. "I'm not really sure what you should do, Rainbow. I didn't really have to make a choice like that when I got married..." She trailed off, then brightened as a new idea seemed to occur to her. "Rainbow, have you ever heard that saying: Don't marry somepony you can live with; marry somepony you can't live without?"

"I think I've heard that somewhere before."

"Do you feel like you can't live without Highflyer?"

Rainbow Dash hesitated. "I ... I'm not sure. I mean I really like him and everything, but I don't know if he's at 'can't live without him' status."

"Well, unless you're absolutely sure he is at that level, don't give up being a Wonderbolt to be with him. I wouldn't have married my husband if I—" She halted as moisture suddenly welled up in her crossed eyes. She sniffed and her voice came out choked. "—hadn't been sure I..."

"Couldn't live without him, huh?" Rainbow Dash muttered, brushing a wing against her fellow pegasus in a comforting manner.

"Yeah, I guess it didn't really work out that way." She sniffed again and wiped at her eyes. "Sorry, that just hit me kind of hard." She forced a shaky smile. "The girls helped me so much after he died. You know it was his idea that we adopt Amethyst after we'd been told I couldn't have foals." Her shaky smile steadied at the thought of her first daughter. "And we loved her as our own from the first day we brought her home." A soft affectionate laugh bubbled up from her throat. "And then just a few years later I got pregnant with Dinky. Happiest accident that's ever happened to me. I wouldn't trade my two girls for anything in the world. You know I can still see bits of him in both of them. Dinky obviously got some of his looks, but I can also see some of his manners in Amethyst, so in a way it's like he's not completely gone." At this point one of her eyes drifted toward the clock. "Oh my goodness, I've got to get home if I want breakfast! Maybe we could talk about this more some other time?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," said Rainbow Dash as Derpy started moving toward the door. Then the blue pegasus remembered something else. "Oh, wait Derpy!"

Derpy halted. "Hmm?"

Rainbow gestured toward the mailbag. "You didn't give me the postcard."

"Oops, my bad. Forgot it was still in there." Derpy fished the card out and handed it over.

Rainbow Dash frowned at the oily stains covering the card. "What happened?"

"Oh, it blew out of my bag and got covered in sauce when I got caught in that tornado yesterday. I thought I cleaned that up—"

"You got caught in that spaghetti tornado?!"

"Yeah, me and the girls." She smiled affectionately. "They tried to pull me out, bless them. Ended up getting sucked in themselves. Don't worry. Thanks to Discord, none of us were—"

"Wait, Discord! You saw him?!"

"Yeah, we crashed right into him in the tornado actually, and he was kind enough to teleport us out."

Oh, "kind" was he? Rainbow Dash mentally sneered. Just like he was "kind" to Fluttershy when he ran out on her last year?

"Um, Rainbow are you okay?"

Rainow Dash shook herself, realizing that the sneer wasn't all mental. "Yeah, just ... uh, thinking on something."

"Oh, well, I gotta go. I'll see you later!"

"Yeah, later."

After Derpy left, Rainbow Dash looked down at the postcard to read its contents:

Ray,
Meeting with the S's at work this Wednesday. Hope to see you there.
—H

Well, I guess that takes care of setting up a meeting time with Highflyer. I can just bring everypony to the gym today.

Crud, I should have read that card sooner, then I could have told Derpy to go there.

Then another thought occurred to her and she added, Double crud, I should have asked her what Discord did after teleporting them out of the tornado since he wasn't in it when it reached Ponyville.

Derpy looped past Fluttershy's cottage on her way home. As she flew over the garden, she noticed that it was mostly bare, save for an arrangement of cut-off leafy carrot heads marking a small mound of earth. Wondering why Fluttershy would put such a thing out when nearly all her animal friends were in hibernation for the coming winter, Derpy flew to the cottage and peeked in the window. She spotted Fluttershy lying curled up on the couch. The pale yellow pegasus was asleep but her face was blotchy and tear-stained, and a lumpy multi-colored scarf was wrapped loosely around her body. There was no sign of Angel Bunny either in his bed or near his owner.

By the time Amethyst shuffled into the kitchen that morning, Dinky was already up and frying potatoes on the stove. Amethyst yawned and rubbed at her eyes as she sat down at the kitchen table. She wasn't much of a morning pony normally and the little incident the previous night (or maybe earlier that morning) had thrown her internal clock off by several hours. She heard the drip-drip-drip of coffee in the coffeemaker, and looked about blearily for a coffee cup, but before she could locate one, Dinky slid a plate of cookies in front of her.

"I made some coffee-flavored cookies. See if they wake you up before you try the actual coffee."

The kitchen timer pinged and Dinky pulled a batch of muffins out of the oven. Setting them on the counter to cool, she went outside to see if her mother had returned yet. No sooner had she stepped outside then a pink cloud drifted down in front of her face. She tried to bat it away but it stuck to her hoof. She tried to pull it off with her teeth and when the taste of sugar filled her mouth, she realized the cloud was made of cotton candy. When she had finally freed herself from the sticky fluff, she stepped farther outside to see where it might have come from.

She spotted Discord pacing back and forth on the roof, apparently deep in thought and sucking on a candy stick clamped between two of his fingers. Pausing to take the candy stick from his mouth, he tipped his head back and blew a stream of cotton candy into the air. He glanced back over his shoulder, but Dinky wasn't sure what he was looking at. Then he flicked the candy stick away almost absentmindedly, and it sailed out over the edge of the roof. Dinky caught the stick magically and brought it close to her face to study it. It looked like just a regular old candy stick and after a brief hesitation she put her tongue out, intending to give the candy a tiny experimental lick.

"What do you think you are doing?!"

She jumped and looked up to see Discord's face just a couple of inches above her, his long neck stretching down over the edge of the roof. She quickly tried to hide the candy cane behind her back.

"I just wanted to figure out how you did that cotton candy thing." No sooner had she said this, then Discord's eagle claw stretched down next to his head. She felt the candy stick vanish from her magic's grasp, then saw it reappear in Discord's hand.

"Well, don't. It's a disgusting habit."

"Then why do you do it?"

"No idea." And with that, he parked the candy cane in his mouth, took a long pull on it, and sent a particularly large cloud of cotton candy pluming into the air before letting his arm and neck snap back to their usual lengths like a pair of tape measures.

While her head was still tipped back to watch him, Dinky caught sight of her mother flapping toward them out of the corner of her eye, and turned to wave up to her.

Derpy waved back. "I'll be down in a bit, Dinky, but first I need to talk to Discord."

"Okay, I'll see you inside."

As Derpy neared him, Discord plucked the candy stick from his mouth with the tufted end of his tail, "No, you don't!" and spun around so his back was toward her.

Derpy flew around in front of him and hovered at his eyelevel. "You still look uncertain and confused."

He reached over and pulled her eyelids, which he transformed into tiny window shades, down over her eyes. "And you still need your eyes checked because I am most definitely neither."

She shook her head and the tiny window shades turned back into regular eyelids as they opened. "Discord, do you want my advice?"

"No." He turned his back to her again.

"Okay, here it is."

Discord whipped his head back around to face her, intending to cut her off before she could offer her unwanted advice—

"Go to her, Discord."

At those words, the tufted end of his tail tightened on the candy cane, shattering it. The broken pieces slipped out of the loosening tuft, but he didn't seem to notice as he stared at the cross-eyed pony.

"Go to who?" he asked, trying to feign ignorance. "Who are you talking about?"

Derpy's eyes straightened just long enough to give him a 'Don't-play-dumb' look that all mothers are famous for. "I think you know."

Discord attempted a scornful laugh but it just came out sounding nervous. "I can assure you I don't."

"Fluttershy, Discord! Go. To. Fluttershy." She leaned in until they were almost eyeball-to-crossed eyeball, her voice soft but firm. "She needs you."

The draconequus extended his neck so that he put some space between them, before turning his head back around to the front to free his gaze from hers. In the process he found himself once again looking in the direction he knew Fluttershy's cottage lay. Derpy's words seemed to echo in his head. She! Needs! You!

He shut his eyes and shook his head so hard his multiple earrings clattered against each other. Well, I don't need her! I don't want her!

Oh yes, that was quite obvious in your dream last night, the little mocking voice in the back of his head scoffed.

I don't want her!

Then the words he had been puzzling over earlier floated through his mind: Do I do something to be loved or in order to love?

What difference does it make?! I don't want to be loved or to love! I've never needed either one before and I don't need either one now!

But she needs you.

Suddenly Derpy put a hoof on his shoulder and he flinched.

"Maybe you should join us for breakfast first," she said. "You'd probably feel braver with something in your stomach."

Discord tried to act scornful again. "Tuh! I don't know what gave you that impression. ... Buuuut I wouldn't object to some breakfast."

Dinky and Amethyst were sitting at the kitchen table, eating toast and fried potatoes when their mother and their draconequus guest joined them.

"Morning girls," said Derpy. "What's the meal plan?"

Dinky looked embarrassed. "Well, I have a whole batch of orange mint chip muffins." She tipped her horn toward a dozen orange-tinted muffins sitting on the counter.

"Orange mint chip muffins?" Derpy repeated, her muzzle wrinkling in uncertainty.

Even Discord raised an eyebrow. "That sounds fascinatingly disgusting."

Dinky's expression was a half-grimace, half-rueful grin. "Yeah, they are. That's why I still have a whole batch."

Discord raised a hand with the palm upward and one of the muffins flashed into it. He turned the muffin this way and that, examining it before taking a curious bite. He gagged and spat the bite out.

"I know, I know, they taste like toothpaste soaked in orange juice. You don't have to be so melodramatic." Dinky muttered, rolling her eyes as the draconequus flung the muffin back onto the counter, grabbed his forked tongue, pulled several feet of it out of his mouth, and began scouring those several feet of tongue with a freshly conjured belt sander.

"Um, what prompted you to make orange mint chip muffins, hon?" Derpy asked.

"I didn't plan for them to turn out that way! I wanted to surprise you and Amethyst with some orange chocolate chip muffins, but..." She levitated an empty brown plastic bag for her mother to see. At a glance, it might have been mistaken for a chocolate chip bag, until one noticed that it had the words "mint chips" printed on it. "I grabbed the wrong bag of chips," she muttered dejectedly.

At this point the belt sander disappeared. Discord let go of his tongue and it reeled back into his mouth. He turned back to the muffin-covered counter and snapped his talons, causing the muffins to briefly be obscured by a flash of light. When the light vanished, he picked up the muffin he had bitten into earlier and took another bite. "There. Much better."

"What'd you do?"

In response he tossed a muffin toward Dinky, who caught it with her hooves. "See for yourself."

She took a cautious nibble and her eyes widened. "You fixed the chips!"

"Well, I had to get that taste out of my mouth somehow." He took another bite of muffin, and flashed himself closer to the table. "So, what else is there for breakfast?"

Amethyst took a sip of her coffee before rattling off the list. "Fried potatoes, coffee cookies, pancake cookies, and toast."

Discord eyed the "toast" curiously. "Sugar and peanut butter on burger buns?"

Dinky shrugged. "I used what was left of the butter to fry the potatoes, and there was no jelly in the fridge or regular bread in the breadbox, so I had to improvise."

Derpy grabbed several muffins and cookies, stuffing them into a small shoulder bag that had been sitting on a counter. "I'll eat these on the way to work."

Amethyst downed the last of her coffee and backed away from the table. "I have to get going too," she said, sticking two of the muffins and several coffee cookies into a saddlebag before throwing it across her back. "See you later," she added, giving her mother and sister quick hugs, and acknowledging Discord with a nod before galloping outside.

Derpy slipped the small shoulder bag over her head so that its strap crisscrossed with the strap of her mailbag. Then she pulled her younger daughter in for a quick hug. "Love you Dinky." She released her daughter and turned to go. "Oh, and Discord..." She paused at his side. "Think about what I said."

At that point Discord had been lifting a pancake cookie toward his mouth, but at her words he froze in mid-gesture and his expression, which until that moment had been mostly neutral, promptly soured. "Yes, yes," he said irritably.

After Derpy left, the draconequus noticed that Dinky was squinting at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he snapped.

Dinky winced then glared at him. "What'd Mom say to suddenly make you all edgy?"

"I am not edgy!" No sooner had he said this (in a decidedly edgy tone) then his dragon tattoo pulled its head free and head-butted the side of his neck. He slapped at the tattoo in retaliation and cleared his throat. "I am not edgy and what your mother said is between me and her," he said in a much calmer voice before cramming the pancake cookie—which turned out to be a sugar cookie with swirls of maple syrup baked into it—into his mouth to dissuade the young unicorn from trying to question him further.

This turned out not to be necessary because after an uncomfortable pause all Dinky said was "Well, thanks for fixing those muffins."

Swallowing the cookie in his mouth, Discord responded with a dismissive "Oh, it was nothing." But deep down he felt an unexpected bubble of pleasure at the young unicorn's gratitude. Helping himself to another pancake cookie, he watched as she moved about the kitchen, looking into the fridge and different cupboards, before pulling out a stack of cookbooks. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out what to make for lunch, supper, and possibly dessert." She set the cookbooks on the table and began paging through one. "Amethyst will probably like something with peanut butter in it..." she muttered, evidently thinking out loud. "Maybe peanut butter brownies? No, you need butter for those. Hmm, there's a recipe here for chocolate avocado cookies that don't need butter... And it'll probably be garbage stew for supper."

Discord cocked an eyebrow. "Garbage stew?"

Dinky started at the sound of his voice, then quickly explained, "It's basically stew that's made out of whatever stew ingredients we happened to have in the house at the time."

Discord flashed himself into a standing position behind her and made aprons and chefs' hats appear on them. "Well, let's see what you have then."

"Wait a second. You want to help me bake?"

He chuckled. "You may have scratched the surface when it comes to unusual combinations, but now you are in the presence of a master. Watch and learn."

Fluttershy was awakened by a knock on her door. Stretching and rubbing at her eyes, she plodded over to the door, and opened it to see Rainbow Dash.

"Hey, Fluttershy, I just wanted—" Rainbow Dash broke off as she caught sight of her friend's disheveled appearance. "Ooh, you don't look so good."

Fluttershy quickly ducked her head so that her mane fell on either side of her face. "I guess I didn't sleep all that well last night."

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, wrapping her friend in a warm hug. "Missing Angel?"

Fluttershy nodded as she returned the hug. "Yes, and wondering where Discord is now."

Rainbow Dash felt a pang of guilt over not thinking to ask Derpy about Discord when she had the chance, and quickly tried to cover it by bringing up the reason she had stopped by in the first place. "Well, I just wanted to tell you I found out Highflyer will be at the gym today so if you go there after lunch, I can introduce you to him."

Fluttershy forced a smile as she pulled back. "Okay, just give me some time to freshen up, and I'll meet you there later."

It didn't take Dinky long to realize that Discord's alleged mastery of strange combinations was largely in his own head. He certainly had no shortage of creativity, but unlimited creativity did not automatically equal edible food. At least not edible by pony standards.

Her eyes widened when she saw him pushing pieces of silverware into a pan of peanut butter brownie batter they had mixed up. (He had conjured extra butter and a few other necessary ingredients.) "I don't think that's a good..."

She trailed off as Discord raised one of the remaining forks and casually bit the tines off it.

"Well, I guess those can be your special brownies," Dinky said quickly. Maybe we can dig that silverware out after they're baked. I can call them ... demolition brownies!

By lunchtime the garbage stew was simmering on the stove, the brownies were in the oven, bread dough was rising on the counter, and several types of cookie dough were chilling in the fridge.

"Whew!" Dinky pulled off her chef's hat and ruffled up her forelock in an attempt to cool off before putting her cheek down against the table top. "Do you want anything for lunch? I'm not even sure what we still have."

"Might I interest you in some hors d'oeuvres?" Discord asked in a mock snooty voice as a large tray of what looked like small fancy sandwiches appeared in his hand.

"What's in those?" Dinky asked, lifting her head from the table as he set the tray down.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he chortled as he picked up one of the sandwiches and tossed it, toothpick and all, into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully. "Hmm, needs more salt."

Dinky selected a sandwich that seemed to have lettuce poking out of it. She peeled the layers apart to check its contents, but decided against trying it when she saw that its insides were soaked in hot sauce.

The two chefs worked their way through the sandwiches. Discord scarfing them down without checking their contents, while Dinky went much more slowly and cautiously. Finally she found a sandwich she decided to chance trying. She bit into it tentatively and her eyes widened in surprise as she chewed.

"Hey, this one is ... surprisingly good. I need to remember this recipe."

"Ohhh?" Discord grinned, stretching out the syllable as he leaned across the table toward her. "Which one?"

She held up the sandwich for him to see and his grin fell. "Oh."

Dinky frowned at his tone. "Is something wrong?"

Discord seemed to be fumbling for words. "I ... uh ... I'll be right back. I need some air." With that he vanished, leaving Dinky sitting there, holding a half-eaten peanut butter and pickle sandwich.

"Was it something I said?"

Discord appeared outside the house, now no longer wearing his apron or chef's hat.

Think about what I said. Derpy's words rang through his mind, seeming to mock him.

He had been trying to do just the opposite by distracting himself with the baking, and for a while he had succeeded. But then he saw Dinky enjoying that peanut butter and pickle sandwich he had inadvertently conjured up, and memories of Fluttershy enjoying the very same sandwich had come rushing back. And with those memories came the words: Go to her, Discord. She needs you.

She needs you.

She needs you!

She! Needs! You!

The draconequus groaned and kneaded his forehead with both hands, feeling torn between wanting to go to Fluttershy, and wanting to feel completely indifferent to her situation.

"Discord!"

Startled at the sound of the sharp voice behind him, he whipped around to see Rainbow Dash hovering just a few feet away from him, her expression fierce.

"What are you doing here?!" she demanded. "Why aren't you at Fluttershy's, explaining why you decided to just abandon her last year?!"

Abandon—?! I didn't abandon her! She's the one who broke my—

He abruptly cut this thought off because finishing it would mean admitting to just how strong a hold he had allowed Fluttershy to have over him. He glared at Rainbow Dash. What with her accusations and Derpy's unasked-for advice, he suddenly wanted to avoid Fluttershy simply out of sheer contrariness.

"What are you playing at?!" Rainbow Dash stormed. "Do you have any idea how hurt she was by your leaving?!"

"No, and I don't care, because I never want to see her again!" No sooner were the words out of his mouth then he suddenly wished he could snatch them back. They startled Rainbow Dash into silence and that gave him a brief flash of satisfaction, but that satisfaction was swiftly buried under regret. However he was not about to let Rainbow Dash know that, so before she could recover he vanished in a flash of light.

Rainbow Dash stared at the spot where Discord had been mere seconds ago. She hadn't intended to pick a fight with him. She hadn't even expected him to suddenly appear outside Derpy's house, but when he did, the sight of him had reminded her of all the pain and confused misery his disappearance had caused Fluttershy the year before. Pain and confused misery Rainbow Dash had been unable to fix, and her angry frustration at this had prompted her to verbally lash out at Discord on Fluttershy's behalf. But now her anger began to cool and she started to wonder if her harsh approach might have been a mistake.

Then another voice calling out caught her attention. "Discord, are you—?"

Rainbow Dash looked down to see Dinky Doo, dressed in an apron, walking out of the house. The teenage unicorn jerked in surprise at the sight of the pegasus. "Oh, hi, Rainbow Dash. Have you seen Discord?"

Rainbow Dash bit her lip nervously. "Y-yeah, he appeared out here for a few seconds, but then he disappeared again." She dropped down to land next to Dinky. "Why were you calling for him?"

Dinky quickly explained how she and Discord had ended up doing some baking together; she even invited the pegasus in to see the results of that baking.

"Then when I showed him which sandwich I was eating, he went all weird, said he needed some air, and disappeared. He did say that he'd be right back though..." she trailed off doubtfully, realizing that Discord had not put in a return appearance in the several minutes it had taken her to tell her story.

Rainbow Dash shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to mention her possible part in Discord's disappearance, and quickly tried to change the subject. "Dinky, the real reason I came here was to see if your mom was here." Then she gave a quick version of how she had met Highflyer and how Derpy had mentioned wanting to meet him. "I was going to see him today, so I wanted to see if you guys wanted to come along. But I guess your mom and sister are both at work now, huh?"

Dinky nodded. "They should be back around suppertime though."

"Well, would you like to come meet Highflyer in the meantime?"

Dinky hesitated, glancing toward the stove. "I'd like to, but I've kind of got some stuff on the stove and in the oven that I can't really leave right now. But maybe some other time. Hey, maybe you guys could stop by for supper?"

When Fluttershy arrived at the gym later that day she saw Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Twilight, Spike, and Rarity waiting for her.

"Where's Pinkie Pie?" she asked, glancing around for her energetic friend.

"She left a note at Sugarcube Corner saying she went to meet the Cakes and would be back later," said Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, speaking of notes, we also got one back from Princess Celestia," said Twilight. "She wants us to wait and see what Discord does before we decide what to do."

Fluttershy thought she saw a flash of guilty discomfort on Rainbow Dash's face, but before she could be sure, Rainbow Dash's expression brightened and she asked, "So, who's up for meeting Highflyer?"

"That room is reserved!" shouted one of the gym's staff as the group of friends moved through the gym to a set of double doors.

"That's fine." Rainbow Dash called back. "We're meeting with the ponies in there. They won't mind. You can just throw us out if they do."

As they drew closer to the doors, Fluttershy heard a thumping and scuffling sound coming from behind said doors followed by the loud smack of a body hitting a mat.

"Nice takedown, girl. Now go for the cover," said a voice Fluttershy recognized as Screwjob's when Rainbow Dash pushed the doors open for them. Applejack groaned softly and quickly dropped to the back of the group as they entered the room.

The room's floor and walls were covered with padded mats and there was a wrestling ring in its center. Fluttershy saw Screwjob perched on top of one of the ring posts, watching as two other ponies grappled with each other in the ring below him. She recognized the pony on top as Scootaloo, dressed in a blue-and-yellow top and shorts, but she couldn't see much of the other pony except for a small pair of kicking hind legs covered in long black pants with a blue-and-yellow design on them.

"Keep him on the mat, Loo," said Screwjob. "No, don't let him get his legs around you or he'll—" Whump! "—do that."

Now Scootaloo was lying on her back and her opponent was up on his feet, legs braced apart in a defensive crouch. He was a tiny light brown pegasus with zebra-like stripes on his back, dark markings on his forelegs, and wearing a mask that covered his whole head.

"Is that Highflyer?" Rarity whispered up to Rainbow Dash, and at the sound of her voice, Screwjob looked up from watching the two ponies in the ring, spotting the newcomers.

"Woah! Time out you two. We've got company," he called, raising his forelegs in a time out gesture.

Scootaloo raised her head from the mat, and her masked opponent relaxed his stance as he turned to see who their company was. His eyes swept quickly over the group, his expression impossible to read through the mask, before they settled on Rainbow Dash hovering a bit above the other ponies.

"What's up, Ray?" he asked in a soft raspy voice before laughing and adding, "Besides you?"

Rainbow Dash swooped down into the ring and landed next to him. His head barely reached her shoulder. Nudging him toward the group with a wing, she said, "Highflyer, I'd like you to meet my friends."

"Screwjob finally blackmailed you into it?" he asked, his tone joking as he bumped his hip against hers.

"I heard that!" Screwjob shouted from his spot on the ring post.

Highflyer shrugged his flightless wings. "I said it for you to hear." Then, looking over at where Scootaloo was still lying on the mat, he added, "Good bout, kid. You can get up now."

"Thanks, High," said Scootaloo, swinging her back legs up into the air above her head and twisting her hips almost one hundred and eighty degrees to bring her back hooves down on the mat and spring up onto all fours.

"Hey, that's my hip-swivel you're doing!" Screwjob shouted.

"You don't own that move, Jobs," Highflyer said mildly. "If you didn't want her using it, maybe you shouldn't have taught it to her."

"Good point. Hey, Loo! From now on when we work out, do as I say not as I do. You got that?"

Scootaloo saluted. "Clear as mud."

"Smart-aleck. High, is she learning that from you or me?"

Highflyer ignored Screwjob's question, focusing instead on Scootaloo as she dove under the lowest ring rope, and landed neatly on the floor mat. Chuckling he glanced up at Rainbow Dash. "She's already exiting like a wrestler," he said, sounding almost like a parent proud of his child. Then he sprang up onto the top ring rope and from there jumped to the floor, landing in front of Rainbow Dash's friends.

"Showoff," Screwjob muttered, spinning around on the top of the post, so he too could also jump to the floor.

Rainbow Dash fluttered out of the ring, landed next to Highflyer, and began introducing him to each of her friends, starting with Twilight and finishing with Fluttershy.

Highflyer's eyes seemed to narrow thoughtfully behind his mask as he peered at Fluttershy. "I think I remember you from back in Cloudsdale. Tall, long-legged, not a very good flyer." Glancing back at his own wings, he laughed ruefully and added, "Then again who am I to talk?"

"Yes, that was me," Fluttershy admitted, blushing as she studied him. He was still small and his eyes under the mask were still bright blue, but apart from that he was unrecognizable as the tiny colt she remembered seeing in flight camp. What she had first thought were zebra stripes were actually a highly detailed tattoo of a spine and ribcage covering his back from neck to tail; both his forelegs were also covered from shoulder to fetlock in tattoos; and one even circled his throat like a necklace. As a colt, his dark wavy mane and tail had been even longer than hers, but now his tail had been docked down to a stump, and from what she could see of his neck, his mane seemed to have been sheared off to the point of being non-existent.

The mask he was wearing was black with blue and yellow trim on the forehead and around the eyeholes, and with a blue-and-yellow lightning bolt on each side of his face. At least Fluttershy thought they were lightning bolts at first glance, but on closer inspection, she realized they were actually stylized falcons.

Her gaze drifted back toward his wings, noticing that they didn't seem to be an odd shape or size, or have any other visible indicator that they didn't work. "Um, Highflyer, can I ask you something a little personal? If that's all right."

He shrugged. "Go ahead."

"How come you can't fly now if you used to be in flight camp?"

He laughed sheepishly. "I wasn't there long. When I was younger I used to be so small and skinny I weighed next to nothing. I managed to fool everypony for a while by jumping really high and letting the wind blow me about like a leaf." He glanced down at his still-small, but now-heavily muscled body. "I can still do the high jumping, but that getting-blown-about-like-a-leaf business is over. Of course even back then it didn't fool them for long. Word got out that what I was doing wasn't genuine flying, and that's about when the teasing started." He ducked his head as if embarrassed, adding softly, "And that's actually how I first met Ray. I was getting picked on and she ... stuck up for me."

"Oh, was that how you two became friends?" Fluttershy asked, remembering how Rainbow Dash had stuck up for her when they were fillies.

Suddenly Screwjob burst out laughing. "Not even close!" he howled, burying his face between his forelegs in a vain attempt to suppress his laughter. Rainbow Dash blushed and swatted at him with a wing but the wrestler just continued cracking up.

Fluttershy looked from him to Rainbow Dash to Highflyer and back again in confusion. "What's so funny?"

Suddenly Screwjob stopped laughing, sat up, grabbed Highflyer in a headlock, and rubbed the smaller pony's mask between the ears, as if ruffling the now-nonexistent mane. "Believe it or not, when your friend stuck up for him, this little shrimp was not one bit grateful. Told her to go jump in a lake."

"I told her I didn't need somepony else fighting my battles for me," Highflyer grunted as he squirmed about in Screwjob's hold.

"Eh, same difference—Oof!" Highflyer had just jabbed him in the ribs. Reaching up, the tiny stallion wrapped his forelegs around Screwjob's neck and yanked him forward, causing the bigger stallion to flip over him. Screwjob landed on his back on the mat and Highflyer promptly twisted one of his forelegs up into a submission hold.

"Ow! Hey, we're supposed to be taking it easy! No wrestling!" Screwjob shouted, trying to tap out by pounding his free hoof against the mat.

Applejack smirked. "Rainbow, I like him already."

At the sound of her voice, Screwjob twisted his head around in her direction. "Ahh, there you are, you lovely flaxen-haired thing, you—"

Highflyer snorted as he released the bigger stallion. "Give it up, Jobber."

"Jobber!" Screwjob rolled onto his feet, and went nose-to-mask with Highflyer. "You shopping around for a pair of black eyes, pal? Because I'm giving out free samples."

Highflyer coolly sidestepped him. "No thanks. They'd clash with my mask."

"Your mask is black!"

"But trimmed with blue and yellow." He gestured toward Rarity. "We're in the presence of a famous fashion designer. At least try to pretend you have some sense of style."

Screwjob rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, the pony who wears a mask every day of the year is going to lecture me on fashion. I don't think so."

"Hold on a second!" Spike interrupted, silencing the two wrestlers. "If you're not supposed to be wrestling, then what were you doing with Scootaloo when we came in?"

"Well, 'technically,'" Highflyer seesawed his hoof back and forth. "We're supposed to be taking it easy to let some injuries heal up more fully, so 'technically,'" He repeated the seesawing gesture. "We're not supposed to be doing any actual matches. But we can show somepony else how to practice certain bumps and submission holds, which is what we were doing when you showed up."

A few minutes later, Scootaloo left to meet up with some of her friends and Highflyer went to change out of his wrestling gear.

While he was in the locker room, Applejack turned to Rainbow Dash. "He seems like a nice fella. Why didn't you want us to know about him before?"

And how come you never mentioned that you knew him in flight camp? Fluttershy wondered.

Rainbow Dash looked uncomfortable. "Well, after that whole thing with the bullies, I ... just kind of let them pick on him. I never tried to help him again even when they started beating him up. And after he dropped out of flight camp I never even bothered to find out what happened to him until Scootaloo started feeling depressed... And I'm not really proud of that."

"Well, it did sound like he didn't want your help the first time," Twilight pointed out. "Did he ever ask for it later?"

"No, but..." Rainbow Dash sighed. "Part of me just feels like I should have helped him back then anyway. You know, showed I was the bigger pony."

Screwjob snickered. "Everypony is the bigger pony when you stick them next to Highflyer."

Rainbow Dash fidgeted with her mane nervously. "And I guess I was worried that if you found out I used to ignore him and let him get beat up, and only became friends with him now, that you'd think I just latched onto him because he's famous now." She blushed and quickly added. "Which I guess I kind of did, but not for the usual—"

Before she could finish this sentence, the rest of the girls and Spike pulled her into a group hug.

"We'd never think that about you," said Twilight. At these words, Rainbow Dash looked both relieved that her fears had turned out to be groundless, and at the same time rather embarrassed that she'd given her friends so little credit.

"Did I miss something?" asked a soft raspy voice behind them, and they turned to see Highflyer trotting back from the locker room. He was still wearing his mask, but had swapped the wrestling pants for a sleeveless black shirt similar to the one Screwjob was wearing, except that Highflyer's shirt had slits for his wings, and the back sported a blue-and-yellow falcon identical to the ones on his mask. The mark on his now-exposed hindquarters was an identical falcon design.

As he neared them, Applejack frowned at him. "I think you forgot something."

Highflyer halted. "What?"

Applejack gestured to her face, and Highflyer patted his masked forehead.

"Nope, I'm not missing anything."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "You're planning to go out wearing that wrestling mask?"

"Why, of course he is," said Screwjob, feigning shock. "Can't have him traumatizing you ladies by forcing you to look at his ugly mug now, can we?"

"It can't be that bad..." Fluttershy said tentatively. Highflyer hadn't been an ugly colt, but then again—

Highflyer snorted and rolled his eyes. "Don't I wish."

"Oh," Fluttershy suddenly felt sorry for him. "It ... is that bad?"

The tiny stallion laughed. "Worse. I've been told I look extremely cute without the mask, and as long as that's the case, it's not coming off."

Spike smirked. "Not even to sleep or shower?"

"Only if I'm changing it out for another mask. Well, how about it, Ray?" He bowed in her direction. "Shall we?"

She bowed back. "Ready when you are."

With that, Highflyer sprang into the air and landed on her back, wrapping his forelegs around her neck, and his hind legs around her middle. He noticed the surprised looks on her friends' faces and lifted his head long enough to say, "Oh, didn't Ray tell you? We have a deal. I teach her and Scootaloo to wrestle, and in return she takes me flying."

"Hang onto your mask, High," said Rainbow Dash, snapping her wings open. Then she and her passenger flew out through the room's side door, causing it to swing open dramatically and bang shut equally dramatically.

Spike glanced at Twilight. "You think those two are serious?"

Screwjob snorted. "He's not. He just wants somepony to chauffeur his runty rear all over the sky." He glanced toward Applejack. "Unlike me." Climbing back up onto the edge of the wrestling ring, he stretched the ropes up to make an entrance. "How about it, Apps? Care to step in the ring and see if you can take me?"

Applejack glared at him. "I don't want to have you."

"Earlier you said you weren't supposed to wrestle," Spike pointed out dryly.

"Hush! Come on, Apps. I'll go easy on you."

At that, Applejack's stance tensed and her lips pulled back from her gritted teeth. "I don't need you to go easy on me!"

Screwjob's grin turned devilishly gleeful. "Prove it."

Incensed, Applejack started charging toward the ring, but Twilight suddenly yanked her magically off her feet, and held her floating in the air. "Hey, Applejack, don't you have some urgent business to discuss with Rarity?"

Rarity frowned at the alicorn. "No, she—" Twilight nudged her and she quickly caught on. "Oh! Oh, yes, darling, we do have some urgent, um, urgent things to discuss. Yes, very urgent! Can't wait!" She beamed at Screwjob. "So sorry, but we really must get going. It was wonderful to meet you. Bye-bye now!" She and Twilight started hurrying toward the door Rainbow and Highflyer had left through earlier, with Applejack floating along after them. After exchanging a quick glance, Fluttershy and Spike followed them.

"Aww, come on, Apps! Just one quick round! I'll even let you win!"

"I wouldn't need your help to win!" Applejack gritted through clenched teeth, but it was more to herself than to anyone else, and she made no move to struggle out of Twilight's grasp.

"Think about it, Apps! You know what some ponies would give to say they took on Screwjob Superstar Showstopper and won?!"

"You heard Rarity!" Applejack shouted back to him. "We got urgent business! This will have to wait!"

Up until that moment, Screwjob had been looking crushed, but now his expression brightened. "I'll hold you to that, Apps!" he called just as the door banged shut.

Applejack looked over her shoulder at Twilight and Rarity. "Thanks for getting me out of that," she whispered.

"No problem," said Twilight, setting her down. "Though you might want to get out of here before he gets suspicious."

"You don't have to tell me twice," said Applejack, galloping away toward Sweet Apple Acres. Shortly after she left, Twilight and Spike flew off toward the library, and Rarity was about to head to her boutique when she noticed that Fluttershy was just standing there looking lost.

"Is something wrong, Fluttershy?"

"Oh, I guess I don't really want to go home just yet."

Rarity drew closer to her. "Is it because of Angel?"

"How'd you know—?"

"Rainbow Dash told me earlier. Darling, I'm so sorry." She put a foreleg around Fluttershy's withers and the pegasus leaned into her friend's embrace.

"That's part of it," Fluttershy admitted, and Rarity pulled back a bit to study her.

"Only part of it? What's the other part?"

Fluttershy hesitated, ashamed of her feelings, but also longing to confess them. Finally she blurted out, albeit in a very soft tearful voice, "I think I'm jealous of Rainbow Dash, and I don't want to be. I want to be happy for her, but I just... seeing her with Highflyer..."

"Did you have feelings for him back in flight camp?"

"No, it's not like that. I mean, I used to think he was cute in flight camp, but not in a crush way, more like a baby-animals-are-cute way. And I don't wish he was with me instead of Rainbow Dash or anything like that. I just..." Fluttershy trailed off as she struggled to put her feelings into words. Maybe it was the fact that Highflyer now had all those tattoos, maybe it was the fact that he and Rainbow Dash had not started out on the best of terms, maybe it was both those things and more, but whatever it was, watching them had reminded her of her relationship with Discord. Or at least of the one she had once thought she had with him.

Rarity mulled over what Fluttershy had told her. Such a situation would normally call for a round or two of intensive ice cream therapy, but with the weather getting steadily colder, the idea of ice cream currently didn't sound very appealing. But if they had something else sweet... "Fluttershy, how about we head over to Sugarcube Corner and if it's open let's get something nice, sweet, and freshly-baked to eat while we discuss this?"

The idea of visiting with Rarity while enjoying some warm cake or cookies certainly had its appeal, and Fluttershy managed to smile through her tears. "Let's do that."

The sun had started sinking as the two friends made their way to Sugarcube Corner. They could see the lights on in the bakery and felt this meant there was a good chance the Cakes and Pinkie Pie were back.

Rarity knocked on the door. "Hello?"

"Wh-who's there?" said a shaky voice that it took Fluttershy a moment to recognize as Mrs. Cake.

"It's Fluttershy and Rarity, Mrs. Cake," said Rarity. "Is Pinkie Pie there?"

"I-I don't think now is a good—"

Rarity frowned at Mrs. Cake's tone. "Is something wrong in there?" She pointed her horn at the doorknob, intending to twist it to see if it was locked. Not only was it unlocked, but the door swung open much faster than Rarity had expected it to considering she had barely pushed it. As the door swung open, a powerful smell hit the two ponies. Not the warm inviting smell of baked goods, but the stench of blood.

"Don't come in!" Mrs. Cake shrieked. "It's too horrible!"

Fluttershy took one look at what was inside that bakery, and one look was far too much. She felt her legs suddenly go weak and she stumbled backward. She was vaguely aware of Rarity beside her, also stumbling back, but her eyes were glued on the terrible sight in front of her, no matter how hard she tried to wrench them away.

"What-what h-h-happened?" It took her a second to realize that question had come out of her throat.

The Cakes peeked over the counter, their eyes wide with horror.

"It was him!" Mr. Cake squeaked. "It was Discord!"

"He just flashed in here with no warning and ... and ... and murdered Pinkie Pie!"

Author's Notes:

*Takes in a deep shuddering breath* One down. Man, this was a tough chapter to write emotionally. Considering I’d planned this out over a year ago, you’d think I’d be a lot more hard-hearted about writing it, but this was the ending of TDwtDT all over again in terms of having to psyche myself up.

Please use spoiler tags if you mention anything about Pinkie in the comments.

As always, thank you Nightwalker for your suggestions and editing.

Regarding Highflyer: *Laughs nervously* Any similarity between him and a certain existing person is probably intentional.

Regarding sandwiches: Has anyone here ever eaten a peanut butter and pickle sandwich? *Raises hand*

Since I kept you wonderful guys waiting so long, I decided to include a few little extras with this chapter. First here are some links to pictures I did of some of the OCs:
Skywishes (even though she’s not technically an OC)
Screwjob
Highflyer

Second since this chapter was low on Fluttercord moments, let me recommend checking out my friend MissKoiFishPony’s fanfic The Elusive Mask. (If you haven’t checked it out already, that is.) For those of you that don’t know, it’s a cute fun little Fluttercord piece she wrote based on an idea I had about casting Fluttershy and Discord as Christine and the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera (though with a slight twist.) Thank you again Missy for writing it.

Chapter 5. Jeremiah 8:18

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Chapter 5

"My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken."—Jeremiah 8:18

Fluttershy staggered back from the bakery's front door and sat down hard on her haunches. She stared up at the sky, feeling dizzy with nausea. Nearby she heard a nasty gagging sound and jerked her gaze around to see Rarity bent over the shrubbery near the bakery, retching into them. Part of Fluttershy felt she should go to her friend's side, but the majority of her was in too much shock to move from her current spot. She shut her eyes, but it did nothing to block out the gruesome sight that had been seared into her mind.

Pinkie Pie murdered?! And by Discord?! She clutched her head. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't be happening!

Then she dimly heard a familiar voice above her. "Hey there, Fluttershy."

She looked up to see Rainbow Dash circling overhead with Highflyer on her back. Rainbow Dash swooped down to land near her friend. "I heard some ponies mention they saw the Cakes and Pinkie Pie come back here a little while ago, so I thought we'd drop in for a bit to see her. Give her and Highflyer a chance to meet," she added as the tiny pegasus jumped down from her back.

See her...? Fluttershy thought dazedly. See Pinkie Pie...? Then the statement fully registered. No! No, you can't see her! Fluttershy's gaze snapped back around toward the bakery door and she saw with a modicum of relief that it was now shut, blocking the sight of Pinkie Pie's remains.

At that moment Rarity let out a particularly unladylike heave, catching both Rainbow Dash and Highflyer's attention.

"Is she all right?" Highflyer asked, his expression hidden under his mask, but his tone concerned. "I hope that's not from something she ate here."

Rainbow Dash fluttered to Rarity's side. "You okay?" She drew back with a grimace as a splattering sound came from behind the shrubs.

Rarity slowly raised her head and wiped her mouth on the back of one trembling hoof. Her normally white face now had a sickly gray tinge to it.

"I'll get you some water to rinse your mouth out," said Rainbow Dash, flying to the bakery door.

This helped Fluttershy shake off her stunned state. "Rainbow Dash, don't—!" she started to say as Rarity shrieked "No!"

But it was already too late.

As the door opened, Rainbow Dash gasped, her wings froze in mid-flap, and when her hooves hit the ground she staggered to stay upright.

"Woah, easy there, Ray," said Highflyer, darting forward and pushing his masked head into her chest to give her something to lean on. In the process, he also saw what was inside the bakery.

"What—?" Before he could finish the question, Mr. and Mrs. Cake galloped around from the back of the bakery, pushed past him and Rainbow Dash, and slammed the bakery door shut.

"Sorry, we're closed—" Mr. Cake started to say, then halted as he seemed to recognize Rainbow Dash. "Oh, you—" He glanced uneasily at the closed bakery door.

"What happened?" Rainbow Dash's voice was faint and her blue face looked almost as pale as Rarity's.

"We had just gotten back," said Mrs. Cake. She, her husband, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Highflyer had moved a short distance away from the closed bakery. "Pinkie was at the front of the store, and we were in the back, taking inventory when we heard Pinkie suddenly shout Discord's name. We peeked over the swinging doors, and saw him standing in front of her with his back to us. I don't think he knew we were there. He said something that sounded like 'This will show them.' Then he snapped his fingers and..." Mrs. Cake looked as if she were trying not to be sick. "And ... and it turned Pinkie inside out." She shuddered at the memory but tried to push on. "Then he disappeared and she just sort of ... exploded."

Fluttershy swallowed hard. Even though she had already seen the aftermath of what Mrs. Cake had described, it didn't make it any easier to hear about it. Judging by the expressions on Rainbow Dash and Rarity's faces, (and possibly on Highflyer's, though she couldn't actually see it) they were trying to do the same. Actually, Rainbow Dash looked even more shaken than Fluttershy felt if such a thing was possible.

Staring at the ground, the blue pegasus shook her head in disbelief, murmuring almost to herself, "Oh, I knew he was ticked off, but I never thought he'd do something like this."

The words sent a jolt of surprise through Fluttershy. "Wait! What are you talking about? What do you mean you know he was ticked off?"

Rainbow Dash jumped at the question, apparently just realizing she had voiced her thoughts aloud, and looked guiltily at her friend. "Fluttershy, I ... I saw Discord at Derpy's house earlier today. Right after I went to your place."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me?"

Rainbow Dash squirmed. "I was trying to find the right moment to, and ... well ... earlier just didn't seem like the right time, but now..." She gulped as she looked back toward the bakery before turning back to her audience. "When I saw him, I kind of yelled at him about leaving Fluttershy, and he..." She turned uncomfortably to Fluttershy. "Said he never wanted to see you again."

At those words, Fluttershy felt something inside of her break. All day she had been watching and waiting for any sign of Discord, hoping it would give her a chance to finally sort out what had gone wrong between the two of them. But now it seemed that Discord had never intended to contact her at all.

How can you even think about wanting to see him?! a tiny voice in the back of her head shouted incredulously. He just murdered one of your best friends!

"What if this is my fault?" Rainbow Dash's uncharacteristically tearful voice yanked Fluttershy out of these thoughts. "What if I got him so mad he took it out on Pinkie Pie?!"

"Rainbow Dash, no!" Rarity exclaimed. "You didn't know this would happen. None of us did!"

"That's true," said Mr. Cake, his voice taking on a hard edge. "The only one whose fault this is, is Discord!"

In spite of her grief over Pinkie, a small part of Fluttershy suddenly felt an urge to jump to her former partner's defense. But how could she deny what the Cakes had seen with their own eyes?

Unknown to the small group of ponies, their chief murder suspect was currently miles away in the Everfree Forest, banging his head against a tree trunk.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! he mentally cursed with each thump. Banging one's head against a tree trunk for an extended period of time is generally bad for one's health, but in Discord's case the whole exercise was a bit undermined by the fact that curtesy of his magic this particular tree trunk was currently only about as hard as the average pillow. Still he continued the activity in a vain attempt to drown out the words lodged in his head.

I never want to see her again!

It wasn't so much that he regretted saying them to Rainbow Dash, but the fact that the instant he had uttered those words, he suddenly realized just how false they were. Never wanted to see—He did want to see her! He wanted to see her so much it hurt!

Maybe that's because of all the head-banging you're doing, that snide voice in the back of his head pointed out.

He promptly stopped the head-banging and just stood there, leaning his forehead against the tree, his face sinking into its soft trunk as Rainbow Dash's sharp accusatory voice rang through his mind.

Do you have any idea how hurt she was by your leaving?!

No, he really hadn't. At the time, he had been too consumed with his own pain to even consider how his disappearance would affect Fluttershy. And over the past year whenever he thought of her he had just assumed (with a great deal of resentment though he wouldn't admit it) that she was still happily going out with Big Mac. It had never really occurred to him that Fluttershy might have ... missed him in the time he had been away.

She had said she enjoyed working with him, but...

On a sudden impulse, he flashed into his cinematic memory of the day he had left. He saw his past-self and Fluttershy's past-self outside Carousel Boutique.

Past-Fluttershy moved toward the boutique's front door, then paused and looked back at Past-Discord questioningly. "Aren't you coming with me?"

"No, you go ahead and have fun with your friends. I'll be fine."

"Well, if you're sure..."

Past-Fluttershy started to turn back to the door, but then Past-Discord snatched her up and pressed his forehead against hers.

"I'll just be waiting for you back at the cottage," Past-Discord's face took on a sly seductive expression as he added, "with a surprise."

Did I really lay it on that thick? Present-Discord mentally cringed.

Past-Fluttershy frowned at his past-self. "Discord, what are you—?"

Past-Discord's expression went back to light cheerfulness. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough, my dear. Now run along." Drawing his face back from hers, he kissed her with a loud "Mwah!" on the nose before setting her down.

Discord paused the memory just before his past-self flashed away to Fluttershy's cottage so he could study his former partner's expression. She looked startled but not in a disgusted way. That playful smooch on the nose had been their last real interaction with each other in over a year, and only now did he start to wonder what sort of message she might have taken from it.

On a second impulse, he flashed himself to the memory of seeing Fluttershy and Big Mac together. His past-self looked so ... exposed without the tattoos on his body and the piercings in his face. He saw the shock on his past-self's face and even though he now knew that nothing had happened between the two ponies, he still found it hard to watch them together. Then he watched as his past-self flashed back to the cottage. He saw the tattoos slithering out across Past-Discord's back as the draconequus wrenched off the scarf Fluttershy had given him and flung it into the trash. Present-Discord flashed back into the real world, and buried his face in the soft tree trunk.

"What have I done?" he moaned, then repeated in a slightly-hysterical-albeit-muffled voice, "What have I done?!"

Go to her Discord!

But how could he?! How could he ever face her again after just leaving her like that?! Oh, she must think the surprise he had hinted at was that he had intended to throw her aside as soon as he had gained his freedom!

And why should that one sniveling pony's feelings even matter to you?

Shut up.

Letting yourself care about her is what got you into this mess in the first place.

Shut! Up!

Only when you figure out what you're going to do about this!

Groaning, Discord pulled his head out of the tree trunk and floated backward in a reclining position. He absently peeled the spiral tattoo off his right shoulder and began twisting and weaving it into various shapes as he tried to analyze the situation.

He wanted to see Fluttershy—No! He needed to see her! But if he saw her, and she found out why he had left in the first place ... why he had, to quote Rainbow Dash, hurt her … what if she decided she wanted nothing more to do with him? His avoiding her had been one thing. At least then he had not given her the chance to reject him to his face, but if he gave her that chance now...

Oh, if only there was some way to satisfy his Fluttershy-craving and at the same time be absolutely sure she would be nothing less than thrilled to have him back! Then he had the solution. His dreams! The Fluttershy in his dreams might not be the real one, but he could always count on her to be glad to see him. And this time, he would not permit any outside disturbances to interrupt things. He would enjoy this dream through to the end even if all he experienced in it was fake.

Letting go of his spiral tattoo and allowing it to glide back up his arm to its usual place, he straightened his long body into a standing position so that his feet came to rest on the wide tree branch he had been floating above. He snapped his talons and was suddenly surrounded by a bubble that hid him from the rest of the world and would prevent any weather or nearby creatures from disturbing his sleep. Underneath him, a bed complete with blanket and pillow popped out of the tree branch. Pulling the covers up over himself, he conjured a mallet and conked himself on the noggin with it, falling asleep almost instantly.

"I guess all we can do now is let the mayor know what's happened and keep everypony out of the bakery until a ... clean-up crew can go through there," said Mr. Cake, standing up.

Nodding, his wife stood up as well. As they turned to go, she told the other ponies, "You might want to leave before we get back. You've all had a pretty bad shock and if you stick around, you'll probably have to spend the rest of the night answering painful unpleasant questions."

"Yeah, maybe we should do that," Rainbow Dash murmured faintly as the Cakes cantered away. "You ready, High?"

"You sure you're okay to fly, Ray?"

This question seemed to touch a nerve. "Of course! Why wouldn't I?!" Rainbow Dash snapped, but then her face crumpled and she burst into tears. She flung her forelegs around the tiny stallion and buried her face against the top of his head. The sight of their normally tough friend sobbing so brokenly triggered tears in both Fluttershy and Rarity's eyes as well. They each laid hooves on her withers, also weeping for their murdered friend. Highflyer didn't seem to be crying, but he did reach up to pat Rainbow Dash sympathetically on the back of the neck.

After several minutes Rainbow Dash managed to get her crying under control, and pulled back from Highflyer, wiping at her eyes. "I'm okay now," she said in a quavery voice, turning to Rarity and Fluttershy, who were wiping up their own tears. "Thanks you two." Then she looked back down at the top of Highflyer's now-tear-soaked mask. "Oh, I'm sorry, High. Now I've gone and gotten your mask all wet."

"Well, I guess that's one less one I'll have to wash."

Rainbow Dash smiled weakly at this feeble attempt at humor before turning to Rarity and Fluttershy. "We should probably go."

"Yes, we ... probably should," Rarity said faintly, still wiping at her ruined makeup. "I ... I think I need to go home and lie down. Or have a hot bath. A long, hot bath." She seemed to have forgotten about the plans she had made earlier with Fluttershy, and the pale yellow pegasus didn't have the heart to remind her.

I don't think I could even look at a cake or cookie right now without thinking of—Fluttershy couldn't bring herself to complete the thought. Addressing the ground, she said, "I should probably get home too." Out of habit, she almost added "To check on Angel," but caught herself as a sharp pang reminded her that she would never check on him again.

Fluttershy managed to hold it together until she reached home. However seeing Angel's grave marker in the garden caused her to break down once again, because not only did it remind her that her beloved pet was gone, it also reminded her of Pinkie talking about how she would put the "fun" in funeral. Now it looked like that funeral would be held far sooner than any of them had ever expected.

There wasn't even enough of her left intact to crowd surf. Fluttershy choked out a shaky laugh at this absurd thought, and the fact that Pinkie could still make her laugh even after death just made her feel worse.

Running to her room, she collapsed on the bed, sobbing. As she buried her face in the pillow, she felt something soft and lumpy. Pulling back, she saw that Discord's scarf had been placed on the pillow. How had it gotten there?! Then she remembered folding it up and placing it there before going to meet her friends at the gym.

She could still remember how awestruck Discord had seemed the night she had given him the scarf. It had also been the night she had officially declared herself his friend.

And later he had thrown the scarf away as if it were worthless garbage. Fluttershy felt a sudden urge to hurl the scarf away. She should want nothing nearby that reminded her of Discord! He had just murdered one of her closest friends!

So why couldn't she bring herself to fling the scarf into a far corner of the room? Why did some part of her still long to see her former partner? Overwhelmed with grief and confusion, she gently brushed the scarf off the pillow onto the bed beside her and with a heaving sob, buried her face in the pillow.

Fluttershy wasn't sure how long she cried, but finally her sobs tapered off to hitching gasps. She lay there, waiting for her breathing to go back to normal, when she suddenly heard a familiar giggle. Pinkie?! She sat up as she heard the giggle again, eerie in its cheerfulness. She looked about but there was no sign of the pink pony even though the giggling continued. Fluttershy slowly eased herself off the bed and moved about the room, trying to pinpoint exactly where the giggling was coming from.

"Pinkie? Is that you?"

The giggling seemed to get fainter, as if whoever was making it was moving away. Fluttershy ran to her bedroom door, pulled it open, and went through only to suddenly find herself standing outside on a low hill under an overcast sky. She turned back toward her bedroom door but it had vanished.

Then she jumped as a fresh bout of giggling burst out right behind her. She whirled around to see no pony behind her. But the sky above her was now full of colorful balloons, most of them various shades of pink. One of the pink balloons suddenly bobbed down closer to Fluttershy. It bumped against her forehead, but instead of bouncing away, it burst like a full water balloon, showering Fluttershy with blood! She flinched back with a shocked squeal, trying to paw the blood from her face, and in the process she bumped into a second balloon that had drifted down behind her. This balloon burst as well, this time splashing blood across her wings and back. Letting out a startled scream, she spun back around in the direction of the second attack.

The giggling increased in volume, taunting her and, as if on command, all the balloons in the sky swarmed down on her! Some struck the pegasus, splattering her with more blood, while others burst on the ground around her, creating steadily growing puddles. Fluttershy tried to flee but no matter which way she turned a balloon seemed to come flying at her!

Then her hooves slipped on a particularly large puddle of blood and she went sprawling on her stomach. Before she could push herself back up, ropes of blood whipped up from the puddle and wrapped around her hooves. Then they began pulling her legs deeper into the puddle!

Panic seized Fluttershy! That's not possible! The blood puddle couldn't be more than a fraction of an inch thick, but she seemed to be sinking into it as if it were quicksand! A tiny part of her mind remembered that to avoid sinking in quicksand, ponies must spread their limbs apart as if trying to float. But her limbs were already spread out and she was still sinking! She tried to pull her hooves free but they were stuck fast! She tried flapping her wings, but that didn't work either. Then she sank down even farther and her wings smacked into the puddle on a downbeat, getting stuck as well!

As she continued to sink, she tried to raise her head to keep her muzzle clear of the blood and it was at that moment that she saw a patch of blackness among all that crimson blood and brightly colored balloons. One of the blood puddles nearby the one she was trapped in was turning black! Not the way blood often does when it dries, but as if the blood had transformed into ink.

Then an ink-coated arm shot up out of the center of this ink puddle and came down, clawing its grip into a patch of dry ground. This arm was then joined by a second thicker one. The two hands briefly kneaded the ground, then spread apart so that they were emerging from opposite ends of the puddle. Shoving their palms against the ground, the arms levered themselves into a vertical position as if performing a pushup, and a pair of dripping shoulders rose out of the puddle. A long torso and equally long neck also began rising on either end of the shoulders.

Fluttershy lay frozen in horrified fascination as this strange ink-covered shape emerged from the puddle. She didn't even notice the giggling still echoing around her nor the blood-filled balloons still raining down. As more of the figure's long inky body rose out of the puddle, the puddle shrank, almost as if it were transforming into the figure.

The figure towered over Fluttershy. It raised its dripping hands to its dripping featureless face, as if wiping a pair of non-existent eyes. Fluttershy watched, terrified, yet unable to look away.

The slick, warm lap of blood on her chin caused her to twitch and try to jerk away, a reminder that she was still trapped and sinking. Her efforts were in vain as the blood continued to pull her under. She shut her eyes and sucked in a huge breath, bracing herself for the awful sensation of being completely submerged under that blood—

But then a paw clamped onto the scruff of her neck! This startled Fluttershy into opening her eyes and exhaling. She tried to swing her head backward to get another breath while her muzzle was still above the blood, but the paw on the scruff of her neck prevented this. She writhed desperately, trying to get away—

"Woah-ho! It's all right, Fluttershy! I've got you now!"

She froze at the sound of that familiar gleeful baritone. Other times it might have sent a hopeful thrill through her, but now...

Then she was yanked up and out of the puddle that had been trapping her. She found herself face to face with the inky figure from before. Except that now its formerly featureless face had eyes! Yellow eyes with different-sized red pupils now gazed at her through a mask of gleaming ink.

Then a blood-filled balloon burst right on top of her head. She felt her rescuer throw her over his shoulder, and she wrapped her hind legs and forelegs around him reflexively, not wanting to risk slipping off and getting trapped in another one of those puddles. Pushing her blood-soaked mane out of her face with a free hoof, she saw that she and her rescuer were now floating high above the balloons. Then she noticed that most of the ink that covered her rescuer's body was receding to reveal a familiar combination of scales, feathers, and fur, while what remained of the ink was taking the shape of tattoos.

She buried her face against his shoulder. I'm dreaming! He can't really be here! Rainbow Dash heard him say he didn't want to see me. I shouldn't want to see him either!

She tried to will herself to fly away from him, but her limbs refused to obey, just clinging to him all the more desperately. Maybe it was just a fear of falling back down into one of those blood puddles. Maybe—

She heard a snap behind her, and lifted her head from his shoulder to see all the balloons below them seeming to turn on each other, slamming together until every balloon had burst, and the ground was soaked with blood. Then she realized that the eerie mocking giggling had stopped.

"Now let's get you cleaned up," Discord's voice said behind her. She heard another snap, and all the blood both on her and on the ground turned to water.

"Admittedly not one of my most creative changes," Discord said conversationally as he floated both himself and the pegasus wrapped around his shoulder back down to the ground. "Blood to water. I'm sure that's been done before. Or vice versa. But I suppose it will do for now."

It had taken him quite a bit longer to find Fluttershy than he had expected and when he did, she was trapped in what seemed to be a pool of blood, with blood-filled balloons bursting all around her. A bit more on the macabre side than he usually preferred things, but never mind that now. The important thing was that he had found her. And doubtless she would be very happy to see him after the way he had just rescued her.

He started to lift Fluttershy from his shoulder so they could see each other face to pierced face, but halted when she let out a whimper and grasped two hooffuls of his bristly mane.

"I can't believe you did it, Discord!" she sobbed against his shoulder. "I don't want to believe you did it, but they said you did!"

Caught off-guard by this, he reached around to grasp his mane several inches above where she was clutching it and pulled it around so that it was now on the front of his neck rather than the back, taking Fluttershy with it. This sudden change in position startled Fluttershy into letting go of his mane and he caught her bridal-style.

"Did what? What are you talking about?" he asked as his mane slid back across his neck into its usual position. In his mind he added: And why aren't you happy to see me?

Fluttershy had curled up reflexively when Discord's arms wrapped around her shoulders and haunches, but at his questions, she raised her head. The thick coat of ink that had hidden his features earlier was gone now, leaving only his facial piercings for him to hide behind.

You murdered Pinkie Pie! Fluttershy howled inside her head, but before the words could come out of her mouth, she saw the distressed look on his face, and her throat suddenly seemed to close up. How could the same creature that had murdered her friend so callously, now look at her with such obvious concern? Fluttershy struggled to spit the accusation out but her tongue refused to cooperate.

After what felt like hours, but was probably only seconds, she lowered her head and asked in a voice that held no accusation, only confusion, the only question she could bring herself to. "What are you doing here? You said you never wanted to see me again."

Discord's breath hitched at this question. How did you know about that?! Then he mentally smacked his forehead. Of course! I'm dreaming and my mind just put those words in her mouth.

Shifting his grasp on her so that he was cradling her in one arm, he ran the fingers of his free hand lightly over her damp mane. "Oh, I didn't mean it, darling," he cooed. "I've said things I didn't mean when I was upset before. You know that."

Fluttershy stiffened both at his touch and his words. It was true! She could even recall one specific instance when Discord had done just that. It was back when their investigation into Applejack's disappearance had led them to dip into Fluttershy's memories in their search for clues, and this particular memory had been of Fluttershy's own attempted murder. Discord had been against the idea, only agreeing to do it on Fluttershy's insistence, so when she had reemerged from the memory shaken and terrified, he had been far from thrilled.

"Don't ever ask me to do that again! If you do, I'll take you right back to that root cellar and string you up myself!" That furious declaration had been promptly followed by a remorseful: "Oh, forgive me, Fluttershy. I didn't mean that."

These thoughts sent Fluttershy's mind spinning back to memories of Applejack's supposed murder, of Angel's supposed murder ... and now a wild new idea started to take shape.

What if ... what if Pinkie wasn't really murdered?! I didn't actually see it happen, so what if it was fake?!

But the Cakes said they saw it happen!

But what if they were fooled somehow?! What if—?

These thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud insistent knocking, and Fluttershy jerked her head up, causing it to collide with the palm of Discord's hand. "Oops, sorry. What's that?"

"What's what?"

"That knocking sound."

Discord swiveled his heavily pierced ears about. "I don't hear anything."

"Are you sure? Because I can hear it so clearly."

As she said this, Discord noticed that her body seemed to be turning transparent. "What are you doing?" He tightened his grasp on her, causing her to squeak in surprise, but her image still continued to fade. "Don't disappear on me!"

Fluttershy looked down at herself, but her body and limbs looked just as solid as they normally did. "What are you talking about Discord? I'm not disappearing. I'm right here."

"Fluttershy, you get back here! I'm not finished with you yet!" The words were commanding, but his tone sounded frightened.

Before Fluttershy could respond, she was suddenly back in her room, lying on her bed. It was light outside and there was a steady insistent rapping coming from her bedroom window.

Discord stared at his empty arms. Then he began feeling about for Fluttershy and calling her name. This was the first time this sort of thing had happened in one of his dreams. Other times something from the outside world had often woken him up but he had never had Fluttershy just fade away right in front of his eyes. That sort of departure had always been more his department.

After getting no answer, and feeling about for her without success, he forced himself to shrug. Well, so what? This is my dream and I can make it go any way I want, with whatever I want. And what he wanted was more time with Fluttershy, and he didn't intend to wake up until he got it. He snapped his talons and there she was, standing before him and beaming.

"Hello, Discord!" she said happily.

The draconequus opened his mouth to respond, then paused and frowned at Fluttershy. Something was wrong. This version looked and sounded the same as the one he had found earlier, but at the same time there was something off about her. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something seemed to be missing.

Rubbing sleep from her eyes, Fluttershy sat up, looked in the direction of her window, and let out a startled squeak. For one brief frightening moment, she had no idea what was looking in at her, but then she realized what it was. Blue eyes were peering at her from behind a mask identical in design to the one Highflyer had been wearing the day before, except that instead of being black with blue-and-yellow trim, this mask was green with black-and-red trim. Hurrying to the window, she opened it to see Highflyer clinging to the bottom edge of the frame.

"Oh my goodness! What are you doing up here? And how did you get up this high?"

"I climbed."

"Quick! Get in here before you fall," said Fluttershy, moving aside to give him more room.

The tiny stallion glanced down at the ground below, shrugged his wings, and pushed off from the branch he was balancing on. He dove through the window and landed in a summersault that brought him back up onto his hooves. Fluttershy noticed that he was wearing a shirt that matched his new mask's color scheme.

"Thanks," he said, turning to face her. "Sorry about that," he added, tipping his head in the direction of the window. "I hope my mask didn't scare you too badly."

"Oh no," Fluttershy said quickly. "It just startled me a bit. But why were you up there anyway? Why didn't you just knock on my front door?"

"I did knock on your front door for about ten minutes, but you didn't answer, so I decided to see if you were up here."

That seemed a bit rude to Fluttershy. "Why did you do that?"

Highflyer ducked his head sheepishly. "I was wondering if you could give me a ride to Ray's place. She was supposed to meet me today over an hour ago, but I haven't seen her. She was pretty torn up about..." He paused, apparently searching for the right words before settling on "what happened last night. And I wanted to make sure she was okay." He looked up and added. "I'd just go check on her myself, but the fact that I can't fly kind of complicates that."

Fluttershy's heart softened at this, though she couldn't help asking, "So why didn't you hire a balloon?"

"Oh ... I, uh, didn't think of that." Judging by his tone, Fluttershy suspected he was blushing. The tiny stallion turned to the door. "I'll just show myself out. Sorry to bother you—"

"No, no, it's okay," Fluttershy said quickly. "I'll be glad to give you a ride there."

Giving Highflyer a ride turned out to be more of a workout than Fluttershy expected. For such a small pony he was surprisingly heavy. Still the flight gave Fluttershy plenty of time to think back on her dream involving Discord. The night before she had been in too much shock to do much more than numbly accept what the Cakes had told her about Discord murdering Pinkie, but ever since waking up from that dream—and thinking back on her own experiences with Discord during their Applejack investigation—she had been having these little niggling doubts both about Pinkie's death and Discord's guilt.

You just don't want to believe he's guilty because you used to be his friend, the cynical voice in the back of her mind sneered.

Fluttershy had to admit this was true and it troubled her to think she might be blinding herself to the truth about her former partner.

But what reason would he have to murder Pinkie Pie?

He's the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony! He doesn't need a reason!

But it just ... doesn't seem to fit with what I know about him.

Do you know him, Fluttershy? Do you truly know him? Did you ever truly know him?

She had been wrestling with these conflicting thoughts the whole flight. She didn't want to chase a false hope, but she couldn't shake off the idea of Pinkie's murder being faked the same way those changeling hybrids had faked Angel's death over a year ago. Could a changeling have disguised itself as Discord to frame him? She made a mental note to run these various ideas by Twilight later on as the alicorn would probably be the best authority on such magic.

Landing in front of the cloudominium, she let Highflyer dismount before she went up and knocked on the door. Suddenly there was a loud bang on the other side of the door and it flew open as a green blur shot out. Fluttershy dodged out of its way, but Highflyer leapt up and tackled the green blur, which Fluttershy now recognized as Tank strapped into his flying gear. Highflyer's added weight brought both him and the tortoise back down on the clouds. The propeller strapped to Tank's shell continued to whir, but Highflyer hung onto him, looking as if he were trying to hold a beach ball underwater.

Fluttershy heard a relieved sigh behind her, followed by a male voice saying, "Good. He shouldn't be out in this cold weather."

She turned to see a pegasus standing in the open doorway but it wasn't Rainbow Dash. It was a taller older-looking tan-colored pegasus dressed in a slightly rumpled Wonderbolt jacket.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Oh, Captain Haystings."

Fluttershy remembered Rainbow Dash mentioning a Captain Haystings a few times, but Fluttershy had never actually met him. According to Rainbow Dash, he had been a Wonderbolt until a wing injury had forced him into early retirement. Nowadays though he could still fly, his wings no longer had the stamina required to perform most Wonderbolt maneuvers. However, he was still on good terms with the active Wonderbolts and often assisted the reserves by acting as an unofficial coach/mentor (usually advising against attempting the stunt that had cost him his own career). According to Rainbow Dash, this position had prompted some of the Wonderbolts to affectionately stick the title "captain" onto his name even though he had never officially made that rank.

Highflyer came forward with both his forelegs still wrapped around Tank's shell. He bobbed his head toward the former Wonderbolt in acknowledgment. "Nice to meet you. Is Ray—" He caught himself. "I mean Rainbow Dash here?"

At this question, Haystings shrunk back and shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Well, you see..." He scraped one of his front hooves uneasily against the other and as he did this, Fluttershy noticed that there were red smears on his hooves. Then she noticed there were similar red smears trailing behind him into the cloudominium.

Oh no. Fluttershy felt her stomach clench at the sight of those smears, and on a sudden impulse, she scooted past Haystings into the building. The two stallions might have called out to her, but Fluttershy was too focused on following those red smears to listen.

Please no! Please no! Please no! Fluttershy pulled up sharply as she reached her friend's bedroom. The door was open and there was a crimson stain slowly oozing out the doorway. Please no! Not Rainbow Dash too!

She felt her hooves carry her forward, and her neck leaned forward to look inside the room.

It was like looking into Sugarcube Corner all over again. Except that this time written in blood on the wall were the words:

So she thought I wouldn't do something like this, eh?

Chapter 6. Psalm 34:18

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Chapter 6

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."—Psalm 34:18

Fluttershy stared at the words. Was this some kind of horrible joke?

Then she heard the soft uneven patter of hooves and turned to see Highflyer hurrying to her side. He still had one of his forelegs wrapped around Tank's shell, but as he saw what was in Rainbow Dash's room, he froze and his grip on the tortoise loosened. Tank landed on all fours and promptly took off, flying toward the front door. Before he got very far, Haystings caught him and pulled off the tortoise's flying gear. He set Tank down in an empty room and quickly closed the door before the tortoise could get out. No sooner had he shut the door, then there was a slow but insistent thock-thock-thock on the other side, as if Tank were knocking his beak against it.

Haystings sighed and shook his head. "The poor guy should be getting ready to hibernate, but instead he's been flying all over the place, trying to find Rainbow Dash. He didn't see what happened to her. He doesn't realize..." He trailed off and motioned for the other two pegasi to move back away from the bedroom. "Come on. I accidentally stepped in that blood earlier, and we don't want to contaminate things in there anymore."

"Did you see what happened?" Highflyer asked as he and Fluttershy moved numbly away from the bedroom door. Then his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And why are you here? Ray didn't mention having anypony over—"

"There was a Wonderbolt meeting real early this morning that she didn't show up for," said Haystings. "I wasn't busy, so I volunteered to go find out what was keeping her. When I got here, I found her crying on her bed and she told me about what happened to Pinkie Pie." He bowed his head briefly. "I'm sorry. Dash asked me to keep an eye on Tank while she collected herself, and I had just put him in the living room when I heard a male voice in Dash's bedroom say 'Surprised to see me?' The door was half-open and I ran over and peeked around it to see Discord standing right over her. Then he snapped his fingers and her body just, well, morphed inside out." Groaning, he shut his eyes and shook his head. "Oh, hearing about something like this is one thing, but seeing it..." He took in several deep breaths through his mouth to steady himself. "Discord shielded himself with an umbrella when she exploded, then used his paw to write those words on the wall before disappearing."

Highflyer made a noise that was half-sigh, half-moan, putting a hoof over his eyes.

"We have to get some police tech-ponies over here," Haystings said brusquely. "Could you two make sure nopony comes in here while I get them?"

Fluttershy and Highflyer sat by the front door, watching and waiting for Haystings to return with the tech-ponies. Tank had stopped knocking, and Fluttershy wondered if he had gone to sleep. Whether he had or not, she felt no desire to open the door and risk him seeing his owner splattered all over the bedroom.

Is she really splattered all over that bedroom? asked a small voice in the back of her head. What if it's fake? What if Pinkie's murder was faked as well?

Fluttershy had no answer. With what seemed to be Rainbow Dash's remains so nearby, the idea that they were fake felt absurd, and yet at the same time she couldn't completely bring herself to dismiss the idea. This left her in a sort of emotional limbo that an outside observer might have interpreted as shock.

"She never even found out what I look like," Highflyer said suddenly, startling her.

"What?"

He shook his head as if only just realizing he had spoken out loud. "I just realized I never took my mask off around Ray. All our wrestling lessons, all our flights, all our secret visits ... and she never saw my face."

Fluttershy knew that what he was saying wasn't completely true; she and Rainbow Dash had both seen his face when he was a colt but that had been well over two decades ago. Who could tell how much his features had changed in that time? Still, in light of his obvious grief, she didn't bother to correct him.

Highflyer let out a short derisive laugh that was more of a cough. "Why am I even thinking about a silly little thing like that when she's dead?!"

Fluttershy laid a comforting hoof on his muscular back, debating whether she should tell him her suspicions about Rainbow Dash's death being faked.

These thoughts were interrupted as she glanced out the window and saw Haystings flying toward them, towing a hot air balloon with several ponies—who she guessed must be the police tech-ponies—in it.

"Highflyer, look." As the balloon landed and the ponies jumped out, Fluttershy blinked, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Is that Twilight and Spike? As she and Highflyer hurried outside, she saw that she had not been mistaken. There stood Twilight and Spike at the front of the group. Fluttershy noticed that the clouds seemed able to support Spike's weight and she guessed that Twilight had put a spell on him to allow him to walk on them.

"Why are you two with the tech-ponies?" she asked after greeting them.

"I'll explain later," Twilight yawned, and Spike quickly poured her a cup of coffee from a thermos he was carrying.

"Thanks," said Twilight, floating the cup out of his claw and toward her mouth. Spike just yawned and nodded. Fluttershy noticed that both the dragon and the alicorn were looking decidedly sleep-deprived. That was probably why Twilight had ridden in the balloon rather than flying under her own power.

"I need to check something real quick," said Twilight, taking a quick sip of her coffee before going into the cloudominium.

Spike yawned again, swaying on his feet as he screwed the top back on the thermos.

"You all right, Spike?" Fluttershy asked, putting out a foreleg to steady the tiny dragon. Despite the fact that age-wise he was now technically a young adult rather than a baby, he still wasn't much bigger physically than he had been when she had first met him. Whether this was due to the fact that living with ponies had discouraged his hoarding nature, or if he was just genetically inclined to be undersized, or if it was a combination of both these factors was unknown, but whatever the reason, he seemed to have accepted it.

He yawned wide enough that sparks popped out of his mouth. "The Cakes told us about Pinkie, and we were up all last night looking up spells to help the tech-ponies." His eyes drifted shut as he leaned his head against Fluttershy's chest. Looking down, she noticed that there were tear tracks on his scaly cheeks and she wondered if they were due more to a lack of sleep or to the news about Pinkie and Rainbow.

At that moment Twilight came back out of the cloudominium. "I'm finished in there," she told the tech-ponies, motioning for them to go inside.

"I should probably go let the Wonderbolts know what's happened," said Haystings, who had been standing off to the side.

"Yeah, you do that," said Twilight, sounding as if she were trying to hold back tears. Haystings spread his wings and flew off while Twilight made her way over to Fluttershy, Spike, and Highflyer.

"Spike!" The dragon in question had been nodding off but now jerked awake at Twilight's command. She pulled a quill and paper out of the hot air balloon and floated them to him. "I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia." Was that a tremor Fluttershy heard in the alicorn's voice? "The same kind as before, only about Rainbow Dash instead of Pinkie Pie."

Spike seemed to deflate some at this news, but he put the coffee thermos down, and took the quill and paper without comment.

Letting go of him, Fluttershy moved closer to Twilight. This seemed as good a time as any to question her regarding magic.

"Twilight, do you remember last year how those changeling-hybrids faked Angel's death? I know it might sound crazy but I've been wondering... What if the same thing happened with Pinkie and Rainbow? What if this is another one of those simulacrum spells?"

Highflyer's head snapped up at this, but Twilight just looked away. "Fluttershy, that was the reason I came here with the tech-ponies. That was why Spike and I were up all last night, we were figuring out how to detect simulacrum spells..." Her voice tightened up on the last word, as if the next sentence was physically painful to say, "And there weren't any here ... or at Sugarcube Corner."

Fluttershy got a sinking feeling in her stomach. "You mean...?"

Twilight looked up with tears in her eyes, her voice shaking. "They're not fakes, Fluttershy. I hate to say it, but I'm afraid Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie really are ... dead."

Dead! The word seemed to echo in Fluttershy's skull. No! No, they can't be! She swung away from Twilight and her eyes landed on Spike, who was rolling up the scroll he had finished writing. He sighed a flame onto it with none of his usual energy, and a small part of Fluttershy figured he must be sending word of Rainbow Dash's death to Princess Celestia. Meanwhile the rest of her was reeling as if she had been kicked in the stomach. Even though she had been afraid to completely get behind the idea of her friends' deaths being fake, she now realized just how much hope she had staked on that idea.

And now all that hope had been dashed.

Then Highflyer slammed one of his front hooves into the cloud they were standing on, disintegrating a large portion of it. With startled cries, he, Fluttershy, Spike, and Twilight suddenly found themselves plunging toward the ground. Fluttershy grabbed ahold of Spike, hugging him to her chest, and he responded by wrapping his arms, legs, and tail around her as she beat her wings to halt their descent. Twilight also managed to halt her descent with a good bout of wing flapping. Highflyer was not so fortunate. Looking down, Fluttershy saw him flailing his useless wings in a desperate attempt to slow his fall. Then a magenta glow surrounded his sawed-off stump of a tail and yanked him back up above the clouds. Twilight magically slung the tiny wrestler back toward the cloudominium, away from the hole he had punched in the cloud layer. As she released him, Highflyer rolled into a sitting position.

"Sorry about that," he said as Twilight and Fluttershy landed next to him, with Spike still wrapped around Fluttershy. Highflyer's expression was hidden by his mask as usual, but his tone was chagrined. "I'm used to stomping on surfaces a lot sturdier than clouds. I was just thinking of that-that draconequus murdering Ray and Pinkie like that and I just..." His voice suddenly hardened. "Want to kick his chaotic skull in!"

"But what if he didn't do it?" Fluttershy asked tentatively.

"Huh?!" Spike unlatched his limbs from around her and dropped back onto the cloud layer, staring at her incredulously.

At the same time Highflyer's eyes widened to the point where they probably would have popped right out of his skull if they weren't being held in by his mask. "Are you crazy? Eyewitnesses saw him do it!"

"But what if they were fooled?" Fluttershy looked to Twilight, unable to keep the desperation out of her voice. "What if a changeling disguised itself as him and did the murders to frame him? What if—?"

But Twilight just shook her head, her face full of anguish. "I'm sorry Fluttershy! I know you were his friend, but he's the only one who could have done it!"

"But—"

"Fluttershy, when Applejack spent those years researching changelings, and when I analyzed those two hybrid corpses, we found out that they are best at taking the form of something close to their size and shape. Ponies are the easiest to imitate, and while Spike might be a bit harder to copy because his shape is different, he's still pretty close to us in size. But Discord's size and shape are both too different for a changeling to imitate. And the spell that was used on Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash—" Twilight suddenly looked nauseated, and didn't complete the sentence.

"What?" Fluttershy asked, both afraid to know what had caused Twilight to stop like that, and at the same time desperately curious.

"You don't want to know," she said weakly.

"Yes, I do," Fluttershy insisted, even though a small voice in her head warned her that she probably didn't. "Please."

The 'please' seemed to do it. Twilight drew in a deep breath to steady herself, then spoke in a halting voice. "Fluttershy ... when Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash got turned inside out, they ... they were alive the whole time. ... Right up until they exploded."

Fluttershy felt her hoof fly to her mouth, and nearby Highflyer groaned.

"Just turning a pony inside out would be hard enough," Twilight went on miserably, "but also being able to keep them alive the whole time... one changeling wouldn't have that kind of power, even if it could take Discord's form. And that's not even counting the fact that Discord had a motive. Without Rainbow and Pinkie, we can't use the Elements to summon him or turn him back to—"

"Wait! Summon him?!" Fluttershy repeated, her previous nausea suddenly forgotten. "What do you mean summon him?"

"Oh, I ... uh..." Twilight groped for a reply, then slumped as she realized that since the proverbial cat was already half out of the proverbial bag, she might as well let the rest of it out as opposed to trying to stuff it all back in. She proceeded to spill about the summoning spell Princess Celestia had told her about, and the little visit Discord had paid her afterward.

"You mean we had a way to contact him all this time, and you didn't tell me?" Fluttershy asked, sounding as stunned as if Twilight had just hauled off and slapped her across the face.

"Princess Celestia asked me not to!"

At that moment Spike quickly turned away from the ponies and belched up a scroll. Twilight caught it magically, unfurled it, and read it.

"It's from Princess Celestia," she said. "She wants to see me and Spike right away."

"Then I'm going with you," said Fluttershy in a voice that left no room for arguments.

Discord gritted his teeth and snapped his talons, causing the latest version of Fluttershy he had conjured to vanish. He had conjured her up again and again, each time with unsatisfactory results.

What was going on here? Every version he had conjured had looked, moved, and sounded like Fluttershy, so why did it always feel like there was something missing from them?

Wait a minute. He hadn't just snapped his fingers to make the first one appear. He had searched around in the dream for her. Yes, that must be it! Just making her appear in front of him instead of finding her the old-fashioned way must have been a form of cheating.

Well, I don't make the rules. Come to think of it, I don't have any rules.

And with that, he proceeded to search his dream for Fluttershy.

Little did he know that the object of his quest was currently flying toward Canterlot with Twilight and Spike. The alicorn was flying under her own power, having left the balloon back at the cloudominium for the tech-ponies to depart in. They had left Highflyer back there as well after his assurance that he could find his own transportation later. Fluttershy suspected he was probably still embarrassed at the way he had caved in the cloud underneath them. Spike and Twilight had lost their thermos of coffee in that impromptu tumble, but on the flipside the scare also seemed to have jolted them awake more effectively than the caffeine had.

But this was not the foremost thing on Fluttershy's mind during the flight to Canterlot. All year she had thought there was no way to contact Discord, and now to learn that not only had there been a way, but Twilight had known about it all this time, she felt betrayed. She glanced over at Twilight, who briefly met her gaze, then quickly looked away. Fluttershy felt a flash of satisfaction at Twilight's obvious discomfort, but it was immediately replaced with guilt. Deep down she knew she was being unfair to Twilight, who had only been following Celestia's orders, but it didn't make the fact that her friend had essentially been lying to her by omission all this time hurt any less.

Then there was Celestia herself. Why had the princess forbidden Twilight from mentioning the summoning spell in the first place? Why would she task Fluttershy with reporting back to her on Discord's behavior, then make it impossible for Fluttershy to obey?

And last though far from least there were Discord's actions. Why had he been so adamant about them not contacting him? And if he hadn't wanted to be turned to stone, why had he given the Elements back rather than just hanging onto them? Why had he left in the first place? Why had he come back? Where was he now? Why couldn't any of his actions just make sense?!

By then they had reached Canterlot Castle. As they entered and pushed open the huge double doors that led to the hall, they saw Celestia and Luna standing in the middle of the hall, deep in a whispered conversation.

"...what happened during the nightmare?" whispered Celestia.

"I'm not sure. I couldn't reach her. He blocked me ou—"

At that moment the double doors creaked and Luna promptly went silent as she and Celestia looked up to see who was coming in.

"You wanted to see me and Spike, Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked as she hurried to the princesses with Spike behind her, and Fluttershy bringing up the rear.

"Yes, I did," said Celestia. If she was surprised to see Fluttershy with them, she did not show it. Instead she turned to her sister, saying, "We'll finish this later. For now, why don't you get the charms while I explain things?"

Luna nodded and hurried down the hall.

Celestia turned back to her audience. "What do you have to report, Twilight?" she asked in a calm, neutral voice that did nothing to betray her feelings about the situation.

Twilight stood before her fellow princess and began to relay the events of the morning much as she had done with Fluttershy. However, Fluttershy couldn't help but notice the cool and composed manner that Twilight was using. She was talking about the death of two of their friends and treating it like another one of her old-time friendship reports to the princess!

"Fluttershy? Is something bothering you?" Celestia asked, her gaze having left Twilight. The way she said that so calmly was the final straw for Fluttershy!

"Yes, something is bothering me!" Fluttershy snapped, not even noticing that her lips had curled up in a snarl or that her wings had fanned aggressively away from her body. "Why didn't you let Twilight tell me about that spell to summon Discord back when we could have used it last year?!" she shouted, causing both Twilight and Spike to cringe.

"All this time!" she went on, flying right up into Celestia's face. "All this time you had a way to call him and you didn't use it. All this time you just let him run amok across Equestria, and for what?! Why would you do such a thing, Princess? Why would you hide it?" Her gaze was becoming more watery the longer she yelled, but she couldn't pull away from the great white alicorn. "And now look what happened. They're dead! Two of my best friends are dead because of what you did!" It was finally too much and the sobs that had been threatening to break through finally did. Fluttershy landed heavily upon the throne room carpet before she collapsed on her haunches, unable to see through the torrent of tears as she cried.

It was too much, all too much too soon after Angel's death. As painful as losing him had been, at least he had been ancient by bunny standards which had given her some time to resign herself to his eventual death, but her pony friends... they had still been so young, had still had so much ahead of them, had still been so full of ... life. Rainbow Dash had been there for her the longest, ever since their first days at Flight Camp, and Pinkie Pie... Pinkie Pie had been the glue that held their group of friends together through all the years, with her parties and celebrations, her optimism and unending quest to cheer them up whenever they felt down.

And now all of that was gone.

When Fluttershy came back to herself, she noticed there was a warm, soft wing wrapped around her back and a pair of forelegs hugging her neck. It felt so much like the times when Rainbow Dash had held her... but when she blinked and pulled away, she saw that it was Twilight she had been crying against.

"I'm sorry, Fluttershy," Twilight mumbled. Pulling away, Fluttershy saw that Spike had been hugging her too, from the side opposite Twilight, and both her friends' faces were stained with their own tears.

"I should have insisted we do something about Discord sooner," Twilight went on. "Maybe if I had pushed for something after what he—"

"No," Fluttershy cut her off with a gentle hoof to the chest. "It's not your fault." She spared Celestia a quick glance. The Princess of Equestria was sitting on her haunches like the two ponies before her, her head bowed not in shame but as if she were acknowledging that Fluttershy's anger was understandable. Fluttershy turned back to her friend and swallowed, trying to come up with something to help ease her friend's guilt over the whole horrible situation. "Maybe it's no pony's fault. He is the Spirit of Chaos after all. None of us could have predicted his actions."

So why are you so insistent in thinking that you could have prevented this if you could have just talked to him? a little voice in the back of her head asked.

"Fluttershy," Celestia asked softly, not lifting her gaze to meet the pegasus before her, "what do you think of me banishing my sister to the moon for a thousand years?"

This caught Fluttershy off-guard and effectively replaced her heartache with confusion. "Um, well, I'm sure you had a good reason to..."

"Just tell me what you think of the idea personally. I won't be offended."

"Well..." Nightmare Moon had been terrifying, but still ... banishing one's own sister to the moon for a thousand years seemed like a pretty stiff sentence. "I guess it seemed a bit harsh...?"

"And what do you know about my bond with the sun?"

"Um, I know you raise and lower it," Fluttershy said tentatively, wondering what this had to do with the current situation.

Celestia nodded. "And I'm also bound to it in a way I've never been bound to anything else. When the sun eventually dies, I will die with it. ... And if I die, the sun goes with me. Luna is bound to the moon in the same way, but there is more to the bond than that. The moon reflects the sun's light so without the sun there's no moonlight. My sister and I are bound together in the same way."

"Wait," said Twilight. "Are you saying that if Nightmare Moon had succeeded in killing you...?"

Celestia nodded. "Luna would have died too shortly after I did. I couldn't explain that to her when she was Nightmare Moon. She was so full of anger and jealousy she wouldn't have believed me. That's why I banished her to the moon. I hated doing it. Hated condemning her to centuries of loneliness up there, but at the time it was the only way to save both our lives and by extension the sun and moon."

"I don't remember reading that in any of my history books," Twilight said softly.

A slight smile twitched across Celestia's mouth as she lifted her head fully. "I haven't shared it with many ponies... But that's a discussion for another time. We have other things we need to take care of now. Spike, would you come here please?"

Spike looked startled at being singled-out but hurried forward.

"Hold still," said Celestia and lowered her head until the tip of her horn touched his chest. Golden light flared from her horn and engulfed the little dragon. Then, just as quickly, the light vanished and Celestia lifted her horn away.

"Huh," said Spike, touching his chest and looking down at his front, then bending his neck around to check his back. "That was a bit underwhelming. Do I look any different?" he asked, turning back to Twilight and Fluttershy. "I don't feel any different."

"You don't look any different to me," said Twilight.

"Me neither," said Fluttershy.

"Twilight, do you have a scroll with you?" asked Celestia.

"Oh, yes." Twilight pulled a scroll from behind her wing and hurried to Celestia's side.

"Spike, see if you can deliver this," said Celestia, taking the scroll from Twilight and floating it to Spike.

"Just ... deliver it?" he asked, taking the scroll and studying it. "The usual way?"

Celestia nodded.

Spike moved about twenty feet back from where Twilight and Celestia were standing side-by-side, and flamed on the scroll. It vanished and a few seconds later appeared next to Celestia and fell down, blunking Twilight on the head in the process.

"Sorry!" Spike called.

At that moment Luna returned, floating a large basket beside her. Inside the basket were pink heart-shaped charms a little smaller than the average pony's hoof. Celestia levitated two of the charms out of the basket and asked Twilight and Fluttershy to hold out their right front hooves.

"We're going to give one of these to every pony in Equestria," she said as she attached a charm to the underside of each of their raised hooves, "and tell them to keep their eyes open for any sign of Discord. If you see him, don't try to approach him. Just slam your hoof with the charm on it down hard. When the charm breaks, it will set off an alarm that will show us your location, and give us a chance to capture him."

Twilight looked doubtfully at the charm wedged into her hoof. "But what if we break these things by accident while walking or galloping?"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, there was a small gleam of amusement in both the royal sisters' eyes.

"You can pound your hoof against anything and that charm won't break unless you decide you want it to break when you slam your hoof down," said Celestia.

"Observe," said Luna, fastening another one of the charms to her own hoof and stomping very hard on the floor several times with that hoof. Then, lifting her hoof, she showed them that the charm was not even cracked.

"But what will happen after we set the alarm off?" Twilight asked. "How will we control Discord if we can't turn him to stone?"

"Leave that to me," said Celestia with her usual composed authority. "For now, get these charms distributed to everyone in Ponyville. Then as soon as that's done, Twilight, I'll need you and Spike back here for another task."

The three from Ponyville picked up the basket and said their goodbyes.

"Oh, Princess Celestia," said Fluttershy as she turned back. Her head was lowered almost to her hooves and her tail tucked in close in shame. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. That was uncalled for."

"Don't concern yourself with it any further, my little pony. I've had hurt ponies say worse things to me in the past, and I expect to experience such again in the future."

Spike, Twilight, Fluttershy, and the basket of charms flew to Ponyville in a chariot pulled by some of the royal guards. Twilight and Spike's lack of sleep the night before had caught up with them so they spent most of the ride dozing, while Fluttershy spent most of it thinking back over her audience with the sun princess.

Celestia had never really explained why she had kept the knowledge of that summoning spell a secret.

Or ... had she?

Had that story about her reasons for banishing Luna been her explanation? Was she trying to tell Fluttershy that there were things going on she didn't currently have time to explain? Was that why she hadn't told Fluttershy about the spell over a year ago?

Fluttershy glanced down at the charm now attached to the underside of her hoof. Last year, when Discord had smugly informed Celestia that all six Element Bearers would be needed to turn him to stone, she had mentioned something about there being other less merciful ways to imprison him.

What if smashing this charm allows Celestia to use one of those "less merciful" methods? Fluttershy wondered fretfully, then caught herself. How can I be worried about Discord when he just murdered two of my best friends—?!

"Gangway!" shouted a female voice, startling Fluttershy out of her thoughts. Looking up, she realized that the chariot was close to landing. Then she saw Derpy plow face-first into the ground ahead of them. The mail pony came to a sharp halt but her mailbag continued on its trajectory and flipped her over onto her back. This forced the guards to swerve back up into the air to avoid running her over. Fluttershy grabbed her dozing friends to keep them from being flung out of the chariot, but the basket of charms was not so lucky. Out of the chariot it went, the charms spilling from it like pink pieces of hail.

"Sorry!" Derpy called, trying to detangle herself from the mailbag strap. As the chariot landed a short distance away from her, the rest of Ponyville's citizens came racing up to surround it, all shouting frightened questions. It seemed that the news about Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's murders had spread to everypony in record time.

Twilight flew above the crowd, waving her hooves for their attention and shouting for them to be quiet. "Everypony," she said when the noise finally settled down, "I know that you're all scared," she paused, struggling to get the next words out. "That you all must miss Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie... But Princess Celestia has a plan to find and catch their killer." She floated one of the charms that had been scattered on the ground up to her and explained its purpose. When she was finished, she added, "Make sure that everypony gets one of these charms."

"You heard her, ponies. Line up!" Amethyst Star called, pushing her way through to the front of the group and motioning for them to start forming a line. "Come on. Line up."

As the ponies hurried to obey, Fluttershy saw Dinky break free from the group and run to her mother's side. Only then did Fluttershy realize that not only had Derpy not moved from the spot where she had crash-landed, but she was holding her head with one hoof.

"You okay, Mom?" Dinky asked.

"Ice. I need ice," Derpy lamented, pointing at the top of her head with her free hoof. Dinky peered at the section of head her mother was pointing to and nodded.

"Okay, I'll get you some. You just sit tight," she said, hurrying off to find the requested ice.

While Derpy sat there, holding her head, Spike and Fluttershy both moved to join her, and a few seconds later—once she was satisfied that Amethyst was taking care of organizing the crowd—Twilight dropped down next to her as well.

"You break something?" Spike asked, walking around Derpy to check her from various angles.

"No, I'll be okay. I just need to put some ice on this lump I got. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know if anypony lost a coffee thermos, would you?" Derpy asked, pulling a thermos out of her mailbag.

Spike's eyes widened at the sight of it. "Uh, maybe...? Where'd you find that one?"

"Oh, it was weird. I was just flying along earlier today, minding my own business, trying to catch up with my mail delivery schedule, when I thought I heard somepony yelling and then the next thing I knew I got belted on the head with this." She raised the thermos. "It's how I got this," she added, tilting her head and pointing at the good-sized lump showing through her mane. "Why do you ask?"

Spike looked uncomfortable. "Because it's ... mine. Well, technically it's Twilight's and I was hanging onto it."

One of Derpy's eyes focused down on him while the other swiveled around in Twilight's direction. "Then why'd it drop out of the clouds and hit me on the head?"

At that moment Dinky pushed back through the crowd that was still forming itself into a line.

"Here you go, Mom," she said, handing a fancy stemmed glass to her mother.

Derpy aimed one eye curiously at the glass's contents and squinted. "Uh, Rinky-dink, this is an ice cream sundae."

"I know, but I couldn't find any ice. Here. Just hold it against your head."

Derpy shrugged. "Okay, thanks honey," and did as her daughter directed. While she was trying to get both her head and the glass into the proper positions without spilling the ice cream, Amethyst came over and joined her as well.

"When you two have a minute, put these on," said Amethyst, floating a pair of charms to her mother and sister.

Suddenly Derpy lowered the sundae, and, still holding it in one hoof, pulled both her daughters into a tight hug, shuddering.

"You okay, Mom?" Amethyst asked, squeezing her mother around the shoulders to return the hug, while at the same time trying to lean away to see her face.

"Oh, it's just hearing about these murders," Derpy breathed, rubbing her forelegs over her daughters' backs. "And to think I didn't even think twice about just leaving the two of you in the house with Discord."

"And then I actually cooked with the guy," added Dinky, her tone suggesting she had just done something obscene. "Makes me want to throw all that stuff we made out—"

"Don't you dare do that!" said Amethyst. "We're not throwing out a bunch of perfectly good—"

"How can you stand to eat any of that stuff knowing Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's murderer helped make it?!"

Up until now there had been a steady low hubbub from the crowd as they passed out charms and checked who had them and who still needed them, but at Dinky's shouted words, everypony went silent.

Everypony that is except Amethyst.

"Because you also helped make it! And you actually stuck around to make sure it cooked right, so it's really more your food than his."

In the silence that followed this statement, the two unicorn sisters and their pegasus mother suddenly noticed they had an audience.

Then a soft voice that suddenly seemed so loud broke the silence.

"W-what are you talking about?" asked Fluttershy, her stomach tightening with an emotion she couldn't quite place. Rainbow Dash had mentioned seeing Discord outside Derpy's house, but she had never said anything about him interacting with the small family.

For a moment, Derpy and her girls exchanged uncertain looks. Then turning back to their audience they began to explain how they had gotten caught in the spaghetti tornado, how Discord had teleported them out, how he had followed them home and ended up spending the night, and how he had stuck around the next day, helping Dinky with her cooking.

"We were just taking a break, eating some sandwiches he had conjured up," said Dinky. "And then he suddenly got all weird and disappeared when I told him I liked a peanut butter and pickle one he'd made."

Fluttershy felt her stomach clench tightly at this news. She could still remember when she had first been introduced to the peanut butter and pickle sandwich courtesy of Discord. She had tasted it by accident and had not expected to like it, but the peanut butter's sweet creaminess and the pickle's sour crunch had complimented each other surprisingly well. So well in fact, that she had continued to make them herself even after Discord was gone. Why had Dinky liking the same kind of sandwich seemed to have affected him so strongly?

At this point, the crowd of ponies were now muttering uneasily amongst themselves and Twilight felt it was time to take charge of things again.

"Look, it doesn't matter if Discord was staying at Derpy's house yesterday or the day before, the fact is, he's not there now, right Derpy?"

Derpy nodded as best she could with the sundae glass once more pressed to her head. "I haven't seen him since yesterday morning."

"Right," said Twilight turning back to the crowd. "Which means we have to keep our eyes open for any sign he might be coming back." After a pause for consideration, she added, "But we probably shouldn't be too obvious about it, so try to carry on with things as you would most days."

At this the crowd slowly began to disperse. As Twilight had suggested, they tried to be casual about it, but an air of tension and frightened bewilderment hung over them so thickly you could bite into it.

"Thanks, Twilight," murmured Derpy. "Oh, and I think this is yours," she added, holding up the coffee thermos. "By the way, how'd it end up falling out of the clouds? Spike never got a chance to finish telling me."

Twilight glanced back toward the still dispersing crowd. "Uh, can we find someplace more private to talk?" she whispered.

"Sure, how about my place?" Derpy whispered back.

They ended up giving Derpy and her daughters a ride home in the chariot after all the charms had been distributed and the now mostly-melted ice cream had been taken care of by Spike and Dinky. On the way there, Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy all filled them in on how they had come across the murders.

"That would explain why Rainbow Dash and Highflyer never joined us for supper last night," Dinky muttered after hearing their recounting. "I can't imagine being able to eat after seeing something like that."

They soon reached Derpy's house and the family disembarked. Twilight offered to give Fluttershy a ride home before heading back to Canterlot, but Fluttershy politely refused.

"I think I'll spend a bit more time with Derpy's family."

So Spike and Twilight both hugged her tightly, reminding her that they still had Applejack and Rarity, and that they would get through this somehow, before departing for Canterlot once more.

As the chariot took off into the sky, Fluttershy followed Derpy's family inside. Once there, she drew Derpy aside.

"Derpy, I wanted to ask you something." Fluttershy swallowed. "When he was here, did Discord... did he mention why he was back?"

Derpy considered. "No... when I asked him, he just ignored the question... But he did ask about you, Fluttershy." Derpy suddenly smiled at the memory. "He said he figured you were dating, and was pretty shocked when I told him you weren't." Then her expression grew troubled. "And I told him to go see you... Oh, I'm so sorry Fluttershy. I thought I had him pegged. I never thought he'd do something like this. That he'd murder Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie." She sniffed as tears started to fill her crossed eyes. "I saw them both just yesterday morning," she whimpered, trying not to break down completely. "Pinkie was heading out to meet the Cakes, and Rainbow Dash..." Derpy let out a shaky laugh. "She wanted to ask me for marriage advice. Can you imagine that? Rainbow (I Am Awesome) Dash asking me for marriage advice?"

Had Highflyer proposed to Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy wondered.

"Then she wanted to ask me about kids," Derpy went on. "And I just brushed it off for another time, and ... and ... and that's the last time I saw either one of them." Her muzzle scrunched up as she fought harder to hold back the building tears.

Fluttershy tried to remember the last time she had seen Rainbow Dash alive. It had been last night when they had been sobbing over Pinkie's death. What was the last thing I said to Pinkie? She tried so desperately to remember but she just drew a blank.

It was so much like that time over a decade ago when Applejack had vanished, only this time it was much worse. When Applejack had first disappeared and they had started searching for her, there had been the anxiety of not knowing what had happened to their friend, but there had also been the hope that they would eventually find her. Granted losing that hope had hurt, but it had been a slow gradual thing as they had adjusted to the fact that they might not see Applejack again.

Now in less than two days Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had each been reduced to nothing but piles of bloody scraps. There was no hope that she could search Equestria to find them because she already knew where they, or rather their remains, were.

She would never form any more memories with them. She would never have a chance to say a proper goodbye. Suddenly all the time they had spent together seemed woefully inadequate. There's so much I never told them. So much I should have told them.

Then Fluttershy finally broke. She collapsed with her face buried in her hooves, sobbing as she had never sobbed before. Unlike in the palace, she wept not for the loss of her friends and the memories of what they had done, but for all that they could have and should have done, but now would never be able to. They had been with her for so long that the thought of them no longer being there, of going forward without them, was just overwhelming

She was vaguely aware of Derpy, Amethyst, and Dinky pulling her in and holding her as they too cried for their lost friends, but it did little to ease her own grief.

By the time Fluttershy got home that evening, her eyes were sore and swollen from all the crying she had done, she felt completely drained, and she was starting to get a headache, making her suspect that she was dehydrated. Getting herself a glass of water, she went to her room, got into bed, and began sipping the water as she tried to get her mind to settle down.

But that was easier said than done.

Why had Discord asked about her? And why would he care whether or not she was dating?

She thought back to the one "date" she had gone on with Big Mac and about the feelings it had made her realize she had for Discord; the feeling that she might be ... in love with him. The idea still rattled her and it wasn't just because he was a completely different species, it was because he ... well ... it was because he was just so different from everything she had ever expected to be attracted to in a stallion. When and if the right stallion came along, she had always figured it would be somepony very similar to herself. Somepony quiet and shy and ... well ... now that she really thought about it ... somepony like Big Mac. And yet she had known Big Mac for over a decade and had never really been interested in him as anything more than a friend.

Looking back she realized that the subject of dating had never even come up during the time she and Discord had been investigating Applejack's disappearance. Granted that had probably been due mostly to the fact that they had been focused on solving the mystery ... but there was also the fact that when she was with him, she didn't feel the need to look elsewhere...

Why are you still thinking about him that way?!

Setting down her now-empty glass, she groaned and buried her face in her hooves. What was wrong with her?! She should hate Discord for taking Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash away. Why couldn't she?!

Because you still don't believe he did it, said a small voice in the back of her head. Or was it in her heart? All that evidence, and deep down you still don't believe it.

Though there was no pony around to see her, Fluttershy nodded miserably. Why couldn't she just accept the fact that he was guilty and move on? They had all the evidence to convict him. They had it all lined up and it all fit together. And all she had to go against it was this little niggling feeling!

Your honor, I don't believe he's guilty because I have this feeling he isn't, even though all this evidence and all these eyewitnesses say he is.

Yeah, right! Even in her own mind the argument sounded ridiculous. But ... murder just doesn't feel like his style...

Perfect reason for him to do it then. No pony would expect him to do it, and he specializes in not being predictable.

Yes, but even when he was trying to be unpredictable, he still...

Fluttershy struggled to organize her thoughts. Her mind kept going back to that idea of a changeling framing Discord. It would explain so much but Twilight had already explained how and why that wouldn't work.

Fluttershy leaned back, massaging her aching temples. Was she missing something? She felt as if she were trying to construct a puzzle without looking at its picture and she was beginning to suspect that some of the pieces might not even belong to that particular puzzle.

Finally, too worn out to think on it anymore, she drifted into an exhausted sleep.

In her dream, she felt as if she were stuck in the middle of a storm. It was so dark around her that it made no difference if her eyes were open or closed. Wind seemed to buffet her from every direction, and rain pelted her, drenching her coat and forcing her to keep her eyes shut. She tried to beat her wings against the wind but she had neither the strength nor the energy for it. She reached out with her hooves, trying to find ground, a tree branch, anything to hold onto but there seemed to be nothing around her but the incessant wind and rain.

Discord had lost track of how much time he had spent roaming the dreamscape, looking for Fluttershy, when he chanced a glance upward and saw a small pink and yellow shape tumbling down through the air high above him. Was that her? He teleported himself up right underneath the shape, catching it neatly.

In the darkness, Fluttershy felt herself collide with something and then arms went around her. She was too tired to feel startled, or even wonder what had grabbed her. She only flung her forelegs around it and hung on, grateful to have something to cling to in the storm.

Yes! Discord thought as his arms closed around the falling pegasus. This one was right! He could sense it! He couldn't explain it, but somehow he knew that this one had whatever the other versions he had been conjuring up had been missing. He grinned as she flung her forelegs around his neck. Ahh, that's more like it!

Then he actually got a good look at her face. Her eyes were squeezed tight shut, and she was twitching about as if deep in a dream.

Fluttershy could still hear the wind howling and the raindrops spattering, but the arms around her seemed to be shielding her from both. Worn out, she rested her cheek against whatever had caught her, and felt short close hair, similar to the kind that made up her own coat. Then she vaguely thought she felt a paw and a taloned hand caressing her spine. As she drifted off to sleep, she made a little noise that was half-moan, half-sigh. This felt so much like that time Discord had held her after rescuing her from those changelings. As terrifying as that night had been, she now found herself wishing she could go back to it. Back to the time when her feelings regarding Discord were so much clearer.

Discord's first impulse was to shake Fluttershy awake. He was just moving one of his hands from her back to her shoulder when she let out a soft half-sigh, half-moan, and gently rubbed her cheek against the hollow of his throat. Looking down at her again, he noticed just how exhausted she looked and found that he didn't have the heart to wake her just yet. Still, as he held her, he was suddenly reminded of that night she had cried herself to sleep in his arms. She had been covered with scrapes, bumps and bruises at the time, and he had promised he would never allow her to be hurt like that again.

But now he began to wonder ... had he broken that promise? He might not have hurt her physically, but if his leaving had hurt her emotionally ... did that count?

He tried to shake this uneasy thought away. Well, who cares if she was hurt?! Better her than me, right?! Right?!

Yes, yes, of course right.

So why was it he couldn't seem to quite believe that?

Author's Notes:

First off, a thousand apologies to every one of my readers for forcing you to wait so long.

Second, a big thank you to Nightwalker for all his suggestions and editing. Much appreciated.

Regarding Changeling abilities: This is a case of me making stuff up for the sake of the story. There's probably something in canon that confirms these rules/limitations are pure baloney, but I've got to stack the evidence against Discord somehow.

EDIT to add: In light of the Season 6 finale... Yes, this is pure baloney. But it is also necessary baloney, so I'm afraid it must stay. Plus, this is Alternate Universe, so neener neener neener.

Regarding the bond between Celestia and Luna: Again there's probably something in canon that proves this idea is pure baloney, but when the idea popped into my head, I couldn't resist pitching it out. Plus, it just seemed to work with where this story is going.

And my apologies to the Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie fans out there. I didn't want to do it, but for the story I'm afraid I had to.

Chapter 7. Lamentations 5:15

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Chapter 7

"Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning."—Lamentations 5:15

Fluttershy whimpered in her sleep but quieted as Discord cupped the back of her head. He twined his fingers into her mane, pondering this new situation. He had dreamed about her many times over the past year but in his previous dreams she had always been awake. Why was it different this time around?

While he was considering the various possibilities, she suddenly began stirring as if waking up. Looking back down at her, he saw her stretching her forelegs as her eyes began flickering open.

But wait! Why was her body going transparent again?! He tried to hang onto her but once again she vanished right before his eyes.

"Oh, come on!" he howled, pulling at his face in aggravation. "All I want is to dream I'm with Fluttershy without having to worry about explaining why I left! Is that so much to ask?! Honestly!"

She had invaded his dreams constantly for the past year no matter how hard he tried to keep her off his mind and now when he did want to see her, he seemed to hit nothing but snags!

Fluttershy slowly stirred awake, feeling oddly refreshed. She couldn't remember many details from her dream the previous night, but she could remember a vague sensation that had almost felt like Discord holding her.

Then she lifted her head from the pillow and felt a familiar sense of disappointment as she realized that it was only her blanket wrapped around her. This was swiftly followed by a mixture of grief as the memory of her friends' murders came rushing back, and guilt that she could find the thought of their accused murderer's embrace comforting.

It's because your stupid heart still doesn't want him to be guilty. But what actual proof do you have that he didn't do it? She leaned back and covered her eyes with her hooves. She wanted to cry but her eyes felt dry and scratchy, as if she had used up all her tears the night before. Massaging her eyelids, she tried to remember details from the two murder scenes. What if there had been some clue back there to his innocence? Some clue that she had been too shocked at the time to recognize.

But all she could picture in her mind was a sort of gruesome haze. It was as if her mind had blocked out all the details to spare her the pain of having to see them again. Any other time, this might have been a blessing but now...

Now to think that there might be some vital clues in those scenes that she just couldn't remember was maddening!

You'll have to ask Discord to come help you take a look at those memories, a small sarcastic voice in the back of her head muttered as she thought longingly of that day when her former partner had first helped her discover clues that had been hidden in her own memory while they were investigating Applejack's disappearance...

Fluttershy's heart skipped a beat. Had Applejack been in the crowd the day before?! What about Rarity?! She couldn't remember seeing either of them and the thought sent an unpleasant chill rolling down her spine. Were they all right? Or would she later discover that they had been murdered in the same manner as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash?!

She sprang out of her bed and raced outside, spreading her wings and flying off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. Was it cooler today than it had been yesterday, or was it her own anxiety making her shiver? Either way, she was panting and trembling by the time she reached the farm and knocked on its house's front door. For a few tense seconds there was no answer, but then the door opened to reveal a surprised-looking Applejack.

"Fluttershy, you all right?"

Fluttershy visibly slumped with relief at the sight of her friend. "Yes, yes, I'm just glad to see you. I didn't see you or Rarity yesterday in town when..." She trailed off, wondering if Applejack had heard about their friends' murders and Discord's supposed guilt. How could she bring something like that up if Applejack hadn't heard?

At the moment Applejack held up her right hoof, revealing a pink heart-shaped charm attached to it. "When Twilight was giving these out? I wasn't there. I was hiding out here." Her tone took on an annoyed edge. "Trying to avoid a certain stallion that can't take a hint." Then her tone went back to normal. "But Big Mac was there and he brought an extra one of these charms back for me."

"So ... you know about Rainbow Dash and Pinkie?"

Applejack nodded sadly. "Rarity told me about Pinkie yesterday when she stopped by to take Apple Bloom to Amberlocks' Orchards."

That must have been why I didn't see Rarity yesterday, Fluttershy thought.

"And I heard about Rainbow Dash later from Big Mac," Applejack's voice cracked on the last syllable, but she didn't break down and cry. Instead she briefly looked away and shook herself before turning back to Fluttershy. "Say, you, uh, want to come in? It's pretty chilly out there."

"Sure." Now that Applejack pointed it out, it was rather cold. As Fluttershy came in, she noticed that there was a bunch of papers spread out over a nearby table. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, going over arrangements for Granny Smith's funeral."

"I'm sorry, Applejack," Fluttershy said, brushing her friend's shoulder with a wing.

"It's all right," Applejack murmured. "I'm just thankful Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and I all got to spend one last year with her." She hesitated a bit then added, "To be honest, I think I'm kind of glad she wasn't around to hear about Rainbow and Pinkie... It's ... kind of hard knowing they won't be there."

"Applejack ... do you really think Discord murdered them?"

Applejack looked at her questioningly. "Are you saying you don't think he's guilty?"

"I..." Fluttershy hesitated, then plunged on. "I don't want to believe he did it! I just... He saved my life, Applejack! He helped me find you—" And he also ran out on you right after that, a little voice in the back of her head pointed out.

"I know how you're feeling," Applejack sighed. "I'd likely still be hiding out at the Crystal Empire if it weren't for him, so I don't like the idea of him murdering two of our best friends... but I just don't see any other explanation."

Fluttershy lowered her head. She wasn't sure exactly what she had expected from Applejack. Maybe support considering that like her, Applejack was in the unique position of owing the draconequus. But it looked like Fluttershy was alone in her doubt regarding Discord's guilt.

"Say," said Applejack, trying again to break the awkward silence that was stretching between them. "I was just going to take a break from this," she gestured toward the papers on the table, "and make some cider. Would you care to join me?"

"Okay."

When she followed Applejack into the kitchen, Fluttershy noticed several cups and saucepans of cider along with several bottles of powdered gemstones.

"Are you making Sparkling Cider?" Fluttershy had thought that was a product Applejack made only at Amberlocks' Orchards, wanting to keep its high-class association separate from her simpler farm life at Sweet Apple Acres.

"Sort of. I'm trying to make some with extra gem powder in it called Dragon Edition. Rarity suggested it a while back as a gift for Spike since he likes the regular Sparkling Cider so much. But if I put too much powder in, it'll be like drinking wet sand so I haven't figured out what's the right amount to add yet. You'll probably just want regular cider," she added as she took two tankards from where they were drying by the sink. As she lifted them, Fluttershy noticed a tiny alligator was standing behind them, staring out the window.

"What's Gummy doing here?"

"Oh, Rarity brought him when she came to pick up Apple Bloom. One of us is going to try and take him back to Pinkie's family at some point. He's just been staring out the window like that since he got here. I think he might be watching for Pinkie."

Just like—Fluttershy's eyes went wide. Tank! Oh no! Oh dear! With everything else that had been going on yesterday, she had completely forgotten about Tank! Was he all right? Haystings had mentioned the tortoise was supposed to be getting ready to hibernate. Had the tech-ponies found him or was he still shut up in that room?

What kind of animal-caretaker are you to just forget about a poor tortoise like that? Fluttershy thought, mentally calling herself every foul name she could think of, which admittedly by most ponies' standards wasn't very many.

"I'm sorry, Applejack, but I have to go. I just remembered I need to check on something."

"Oh," Applejack looked surprised but quickly recovered. "Well, see you later then."

Fluttershy flew as fast as she could to the cloudominium. It was closed up with police tape, but several tech-ponies were coming out of it.

"Excuse me," said Fluttershy, landing in front of them, "but did any of you see a tortoise in there yesterday or today?"

"Oh yeah, we brought him out and that little masked pony offered to take him off our hooves."

Ah, so Highflyer must have Tank. But where was the wrestler keeping him? She didn't know where Highflyer was staying, but maybe she could check the gym. If he and Screwjob had been reserving that one room to work out in, maybe they had to give the gym some address or point of contact.

When she got back to Ponyville, she noticed that there seemed to be no ponies out and about. It also seemed much drearier than usual and the police tape closing off Sugarcube Corner didn't help.

The gym was open, but seemed to be mostly empty.

"Hello?" she asked, poking her head in. There was no answer, but then her ears picked up the drumroll of rapid blows punctuated with grunts coming from the direction of that room towards the back where Rainbow Dash had taken them...

Had it really only been two days ago?

She padded softly over to the room's double doors, and cautiously pushed one open. Peeking inside, she saw Highflyer at one end of the room, standing up on his hind legs in front of a punching bag, grunting as he throttled it with his front hooves. He had replaced his green mask and shirt from the day before with a mask and wrestling pants that were red with black-and-blue trim.

"No! No! No!" a voice Fluttershy recognized as Screwjob's suddenly shouted from the other side of the room. "That one goes there! That one goes there!"

She swung around in the direction of his voice to see him on a large practice mat with his purple-and-turquoise spandex-clad rear in the air and his bandaged forelegs stretched out in front of him. Scootaloo was sitting next to him with her forelegs around his neck. Suddenly in a move Fluttershy couldn't quite follow, he yanked his head out from under Scootaloo's foreleg, knocked her backward, and rolled her up, wrapping his forelegs around her hind ones in a way that prevented her from kicking out of the position.

"When you get bigger guys like me down on the mat, you have to flatten us out and you have to do it fast if you want to lock that hold in! Come on, Loo! Focus!"

"I'm trying, but it's not easy to concentrate on this after what happened to Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo's voice was sharp but there was an undercurrent of tears in it.

Screwjob sighed and realeased her. "You know, maybe you should go find something else to do, kid. Rainbow Dash's death has made you too upset to focus on your wrestling moves."

"Highflyer's working out," Scootaloo muttered as she rolled into a sitting position.

"Yeah, but that's Highflyer. He always works out. If he's happy, he works out. If he's sad, he works out. If he's bored, he works out. If he's tired, he sleeps until he can go work out some more."

At this point, the tiny stallion in question suddenly made a noise that was half-grunt, half-growl, swapped ends, and began kicking the bag with one hoof and then the other, back and forth, back and forth, his tiny legs blurring with the speed.

Screwjob glanced over at him before turning back to Scootaloo. "He's a professional, kid, so all that working out is in his job description, but it's not in yours."

"I know, but I don't feel right just letting it slide after all the work Rainbow Dash went to finding him and getting things set up."

Then both their attention and Fluttershy's was jerked back onto Highflyer as he slammed both back hooves into the punching bag at the same time, causing it to swing even farther back than it had earlier. Fluttershy was afraid it would smack into him, but the tiny wrestler just spun around, leapt up and front-kicked the punching bag before bouncing off it and landing on all fours out of its reach. He was breathing hard and his wings were spread out from his body, rising and falling with each breath.

"Besides, what else have I got to do now?" The pain in Scootaloo's voice was obvious and Screwjob could only sit back on his haunches as well, unable to add anything. Watching Highflyer seemed to harden Scootaloo's resolve. "If he can keep going, so can I."

"Good, I knew you'd be able to," said Highflyer, giving the first indication that he had heard their conversation, and bounded toward the wrestling ring. He leapt up onto one of the top ropes and balanced there for a second before jumping down onto the mat. There was something almost defiant in his movements as he paced back and forth, waiting for Scootaloo to join him.

"High—" Screwjob started to say as Scootaloo climbed into the ring.

"Can it, Jobs," the masked pony snapped.

"O-kay."

As the two pegasi circled each other, looking for an opening, Screwjob glanced around the room, and noticed Fluttershy still poking her head in through the door.

"Ah, Fluttershy, come in," he said, going over to her. "What can I do you for?"

Fluttershy stepped into the room. "Actually I was here to see Highflyer," she glanced over at the ring where the two flightless pegasi were now grappling. "But it looks like he's a bit busy right now."

"Hmm, yes, busy," Screwjob murmured, looking back toward the ring as well. His thick black brows were furrowed in their usual upward worried slant but this time there was no smile to balance them out.

"Screwjob, do you think they should be sparring like that?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean you told Scootaloo that you didn't think she should while she's upset, and Highflyer... well—"

"I know. Considering he spent all last night breaking a stack of boards down to a pile of splinters, I wouldn't say he's taking your friends' deaths well." He glanced over at her. "Sorry to hear about that by the way. I liked those two."

Fluttershy nodded in acknowledgement before looking back toward the ring in time to see Scootaloo and Highflyer wrench apart and start circling each other a second time. Despite the fact that they couldn't have been sparring for more than a minute or so, both were already breathing heavily. And maybe it was just because he was wearing that red mask with the black lining around its eyeholes, but Highflyer's normally warm summer-sky blue eyes now looked icy cold.

Then the two ponies came together a second time and Scootaloo managed to catch Highflyer in a headlock. She was trying to force him down onto the mat, but instead the smaller pegasus was dragging her about as he tried to get loose, ramming both of them against the ropes and ring posts, almost as if he didn't care how much of a pounding he and Scootaloo both might get in the process.

Fluttershy winced at the sight. "Screwjob, don't you think you should get in there and stop them?"

"Maybe, but I never stop Highflyer when he's sparring. He's a pretty even-tempered easy-going guy except when it comes to two things. One is somepony playing mix-and-match with his wardrobe, and the other is somepony trying to tell him how far he can push himself physically. I can call him names and insult him with impunity, but if I implied that his emotions are preventing him from performing at his usual level, I'd get a kick in the head for my trou—"

At that moment, Highflyer twisted free of Scootaloo's grasp. She went after him, apparently intending to grab him from behind, but the masked pegasus ducked under her reach, brought both his hind legs up, and delivered a fierce kick. Screwjob and Fluttershy both gasped as the tiny wrestler's hooves slammed into Scootaloo's side with a loud Crack! The young mare cried out as the force of the blow lifted her clear off her hooves. She fell back to the mat in an awkward heap, moaning and clutching her side.

"Hold it!" Screwjob shouted, shot forward, and—despite his lack of wings—virtually flew over the ring ropes. In this time, Highflyer had spun around and gasped at the sight of Scootaloo lying there curled up. Then Screwjob tackled him.

"Get off!" Highflyer shouted but the bigger stallion just pinned him down.

"Fluttershy, check if that kid's okay!" Screwjob called over his shoulder. His command snapped Fluttershy out of her state of frozen shock and she hurried forward.

"Get off!" Highflyer shouted again.

"Forget it, pal!"

"Get. Off. Jobber!"

"Okay, one more peep out of you, and I'll bust that surgically-repaired spine of yours!" Screwjob shot back. "Fluttershy, how's the kid?"

"It's not so—" Scootaloo started to say as she tried to sit up, but then fell back. "Ow, ow, ow," she half-whispered, half-groaned, clearly trying not to scream.

"Don't try to move," Fluttershy warned her. "You've got some pretty nasty bruising where you ... got kicked."

At these words, all the fight seemed to go out of Highflyer and he slumped in Screwjob's grip.

"We should probably get a doctor to look at her," Fluttershy said, turning to the two wrestlers. "To make sure none of her ribs are broken or anything like that."

"Right," said Screwjob, letting go of Highflyer and jumping out of the ring.

The masked pony stumbled toward Scootaloo, then winced and looked away when he saw the bruises forming on her side. "Oh, kid, I'm sorry."

"Here, help me get her on my back," said Screwjob, walking over to the side of the ring. He had several towels draped over his back like a makeshift saddle. Together Fluttershy and Highflyer lifted Scootaloo through the ring ropes and settled her on Screwjob's broad back. They tried to be gentle, but Scootaloo still couldn't keep from crying out as they moved her.

"Kid, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Highflyer kept repeating the whole time.

Once Scootaloo was settled on Screwjob's back with her forelegs around his neck, the tall wrestler took a few experimental steps to see how quickly he could move without bouncing her about too much. Highflyer hooked his front hooves over the top rope, as if intending to pull himself up onto it and from there launch himself out of the ring, but then Screwjob turned around and shook his head.

"Uh, uh, you stay there. Fluttershy had something she wanted to talk to you about. Oh, and just to leave you with a little dignity," Screwjob leaned down, causing Scootaloo to groan as her position on his back shifted, ("Sorry, kid.") picked up one of the extra towels that had fallen to the floor, and tossed it so that it landed on Highflyer's head. "There," he said in a clipped tone. "You're covered. Now hand it over."

Fluttershy wondered what he was talking about, but then Highflyer reached under the towel now covering his head and neck. She heard the rip of Velcro strips being pulled apart, and when Highflyer brought his hooves back out from under the towel, one of them was holding his mask. He dropped the mask over the ring rope into Screwjob's waiting hoof.

"Thank you," said Screwjob. Transferring the mask to his mouth, he turned and headed for the room's double doors.

Fluttershy wondered why he had demanded his fellow wrestler's mask, but before she could ask, Highflyer turned his towel-covered head in her direction and pushed the towel back enough so that he could see out from under it, but not enough so that she could see his face. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I was wondering if you knew where Tank is."

"Oh, he's here. Over by the water cooler. Come on, I'll show you." He hauled himself up on the rope again, and this time jumped to the floor, somehow managing to keep the towel on his head. Fluttershy fluttered after him. As they neared the cooler, she noticed a red, black, and blue lump next to it. She guessed the lump was one of Highflyer's shirts and this turned out to be correct, but the reason it currently looked so lumpy was because Tank was underneath it. The tortoise seemed to be asleep but as they reached him, he jerked awake, blinking and yawning.

"I'm worried about him," said Highflyer. "I tried taking him outside yesterday so he could hibernate, but all he did was keep wandering about, nodding off for a bit, then starting awake like that again. I tried to explain to him about Ray being ... you know, gone, but I don't think he understood. Maybe you can do something with him." Highflyer started to reach toward the tortoise, but then pulled his hoof back, retreated several steps and sat down. Trembling, he pressed his front hooves into the towel where Fluttershy guessed his eyes must be.

"Highflyer, are you okay?"

"I don't know." He sounded confused. "I've never just snapped and lashed out like that before."

"You mean with Scootaloo? Highflyer, that was an accident. Everypony makes mistake—"

"I don't! At least ... not like that. Not when I'm wrestling."

"Oh, now that's just ridiculous." Fluttershy said impatiently. "I may not know as much about wrestling as you do, but even I know accidents can happen and ponies can get injured." As she said this, Fluttershy suddenly wondered why she was defending Highflyer. Shouldn't she be angry with him for injuring Scootaloo?

Highflyer sighed. "You don't get it, Fluttershy. When I'm sparring or wrestling. I'm always focused and aware of what I'm doing. I have to be. I might not be that big, but my kicks can do some serious damage if I'm not careful to pull them. You saw what I did to her! I'd be worried about Screwjob if I gave him a kick like that and he's trained to handle it! What if I broke her ribs?! I've had my own ribs broken before and it's not pleasant."

"Maybe you should try doing something other than wrestling and sparring for a bit," Fluttershy suggested, trying to steer him onto a different, hopefully less upsetting, topic. "Like Screwjob mentioned to Scootaloo."

There was another sigh from underneath the towel. "I don't really know what else to do. Working out is how I've always gotten my mind off things in the past, and I was trying to do it now to get my mind off Ray..."

"But it's not working?" Fluttershy prodded gently.

"No, not really," he admitted, massaging small circles into the towel over where his eyes must be. "Ray and I had so many plans for how we were going to spend my time off and now there's just ... nothing. I had so much I wanted to tell her, and ask her, and—"

"Um, Highflyer, can I ask you something a bit ... personal?"

"I guess so."

"Did you ask Rainbow Dash to marry you?"

His head jerked up. "What makes you ask that?"

"Well, do you know Derpy?"

"No, but Ray mentioned that she wanted to meet me."

"Well, she told me that Rainbow Dash went to her for marriage advice, and I just wondered—"

"No, I didn't ask her to marry me, but I... Well ... I was planning to ask her to ... wait for me."

"Wait for you?"

"I know what being a Wonderbolt means—meant—to her, and I didn't want her to feel like she had to choose between that and me. So I was going to ask her if she'd be willing to wait on our relationship until I retired from wrestling."

Fluttershy raised her eyebrows. "Until you retired?" Highflyer wasn't that old—in fact, if she remembered correctly he was actually a bit younger than both her and Rainbow Dash—so how long had he been expecting her friend to wait? As if sensing this unvoiced question, Highflyer laughed wryly.

"I'm in pretty good condition considering what I do, but the fact is my body is beat up, Fluttershy. I've had to have surgeries on all four of my legs, and various other parts of my body, my joints and back often hurt, and I have to spend a lot of my mornings just trying to limber up."

This admission surprised Fluttershy, considering that over the past few days she had seen Highflyer tumble about with all the skill of a well-trained gymnast. "You don't move like your body hurts."

"Eh, high pain-tolerance," he said, shrugging his wings. They were hanging limply at his sides rather than folded in against his body, providing an unobstructed view of his spine and ribcage tattoos. Now as Fluttershy looked at his back—really looked at it—she noticed for the first time that underneath all that ink it was a virtual map of scars. "And I'm used to working through it, but it doesn't change the fact that my body takes a lot of punishment."

Fluttershy's gaze continued to roam over his scars. "Then why do you keep wrestling?"

He shrugged again. "I like it, strange as that might sound. I like it and I'm good at it. But I'm also aware of the fact that at some point I won't physically be able to do it anymore." He let out a shuddering sigh. "And I honestly thought I'd be out of it long before Ray retired from the Wonderbolts," he added almost to himself.

Fluttershy put a comforting hoof on his back, understanding how he felt. She and her friends had faced many dangers together over the years, but deep down she had never really expected a situation like this current one—that two of her friends would be ripped away so suddenly and violently—to happen.

At that moment the double doors opened and in came Screwjob with Scootaloo at his side. The young mare's middle was wrapped in bandages, and she was wincing and leaning against the wrestler, but at least her injury didn't seem so bad that she couldn't walk. Fluttershy noticed she was holding her wings low to her sides but then caught the edge of what were most likely ice packs held under them. Highflyer hurried over to the pair, and after pausing to pick up Tank, shirt and all, Fluttershy followed him. Screwjob tossed Highflyer's mask back to him. The tiny stallion caught it, and put it on underneath the towel before shucking off said towel. Fluttershy couldn't be sure but she thought his eyes looked wetter and shinier than usual.

"How bad is it?" he asked Scootaloo.

She forced a smile, but it came out looking more like a grimace. "Hurts."

"The good news is her ribs aren't broken," said Screwjob. "You gave her some serious bruising and maybe some cracks—we won't know for sure without x-rays—but nothing was actually broken as far as I can tell. Still, she should probably go rest at home and not do any more sparring until she's healed up. Which could be several days, if not weeks."

At that moment one of the double doors behind them eased open, and Tank—who up until then had been trying with little success not to fall back asleep—was suddenly wide awake and thrashing about, shaking the shirt wrapped around him off, and shoving his stumpy legs against Fluttershy's chest as if trying to get free of her grasp.

The four ponies looked to the door to see one of the gym's staff ponies poking her head in the room. "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear you mentioning that one of you might not be able to work out for several days, and if that's the case, you can probably get a bit of a refund by changing this room's reservation from 'reserved for three' to 'reserved for two.'"

"In that case, you can change it to 'reserved for one,' since I won't be working out here either," said Highflyer.

Screwjob raised one impressive eyebrow. "And what exactly do you plan to do with yourself in the meantime?"

"Leave Ponyville before I do something else I'll regret."

Scootaloo stared at him. "You're leaving?! You can't just leave now!"

Highflyer backed away from her, the expression in his eyes uncomfortable. "After what I just did to you, I'm not sure I can trust myself around other ponies right now."

"But what about Derpy and her girls?" Fluttershy asked, looking up from trying to hold onto the squirming turtle. "They really wanted to meet you."

Highflyer shook his masked head. "I don't think now is a good time for me to visit them."

"Oh, come on," said Screwjob. "You'd probably just talk with them. It's not like you'd suddenly flip out and start throwing kicks and punches."

"Up until today, I'd agree with you," Highflyer muttered, his eyes going to the bandages circling Scootaloo's midsection, before turning back to the pony still poking her head through the open door. "Change this room's reservation to 'one' if Screwjob's planning to stick around."

"Will do," she said, pulling her head back out of the room. As the door shut, all the fight seemed to go out of Tank, and he just hung from Fluttershy's grasp. She wondered if being so close to the open door had prompted him to try escaping outside to continue searching for Rainbow Dash.

"Fluttershy," Scootaloo said, jerking her out of these thoughts. "Can I take Tank home with me?"

Fluttershy's first impulse was to say no, that Tank would be best off with her, but this response died in her throat as she looked up to meet Scootaloo's gaze. The young mare had just lost her hero and been injured by a friend—even though Highflyer clearly felt nothing but regret for what he had done. Maybe ... maybe she needs Tank right now more than you do.

"Alright," said Fluttershy, setting Tank down next to Scootaloo. "You can take him for now, and I'll come check on him later, okay."

Highflyer retrieved the shirt that had fallen to the floor, and pulled it on before coming over to pick up Tank. "Come on, kid," he said, turning to Scootaloo. "I'll help the two of you get home. It's the least I can do."

"He is rattled," Screwjob muttered as the two flightless pegasi exited the room. "He never just throws a shirt on like that without changing out of his wrestling trunks. The trunks are business and the shirts are casual. He never wears them together."

"You're not just going to let him leave like that are you?"

"No, I intend to go talk some sense into his little masked noggin."

After leaving the gym, Fluttershy considered taking the train to see Rarity at Amberlocks' Orchards, but her visits with the other ponies had left her feeling oddly drained. Plus she kept thinking back to how Applejack believed Discord was guilty. Considering the fact that last year he had tricked Rarity into being the opposite of her true self, Rarity had even less reason to question Discord's guilt.

Now she lay on the floor of her cottage, staring up at the ceiling, wondering what to do. On the one hoof, she longed for the comfort and company of her friends, but on the other hoof the thought of being around them also reminded her just how alone she was in her feelings regarding Discord's innocence. Feelings that had no concrete proof to back them up!

Oh, if he's guilty, then please take this feeling away from me. Or if he's not, at least help me find some clue to prove it.

"Excuse me, gangway, coming through!" Screwjob cantered through the train station, dodging other ponies and keeping his eyes out for any sign of his masked friend. Finally he spotted Highflyer's trademark falcon motif in the bright reds, blacks, and blues the tiny stallion had opted to wear that day. Highflyer had changed out of his wrestling pants and was now sitting on the platform next to a trunk that Screwjob knew was loaded with even more pants, shirts, and masks of varying colors.

"High!" he barked, and Highflyer whipped around to see him. "Still set on leaving I see," said Screwjob, trotting up to his friend. "You feeling any better yet?"

"Shut up."

"Didn't think so. And you're not gonna feel any better getting on that train."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because you're a natural-born face, High. You can't run out on other ponies without feeling like a louse. And that's just what you're trying to do now, running away with what's left of your sawed-off tail between your legs like a grade-A heel. And that's not who or what you are, son. Take it from somepony who's made a whole career out of being a heel. My advice to a face like you: Go visit that Derpy pony who wants to meet you. It'll do you some good. Plus, I think she might have inverted eye-crossarosis. How can you pass up an opportunity to see that?"

Highflyer sighed, and when he looked up there was a mixture of indecision and resignation in his blue eyes. "Thanks for the advice, Jobs, but I've already bought a ticket and the train's leaving in a few minutes. There isn't time to pay her a visit."

Meanwhile Discord was buried deep in his dream, trying to find Fluttershy yet again and getting more and more frustrated by the minute.

Alright! I'm not letting you disappear on me again! When I find you, I'm going to—

Boom!

Suddenly with no warning whatsoever, the draconequus was flung high into the air and came slamming down on a very uneven, very uncomfortable surface. Then he was snapped awake by sharp jabs of pain all over his body.

What was going on?!

Then he realized the tree he had been sleeping in had fallen over and since his bed had been straddling one of the tree's branches, the falling limb had taken the bed and his protective bubble down with it. The movement must have caused him to fall out of bed, and as he tumbled about in the protective bubble he must have flashed it away instinctively. And as if to add injury to insult, he had landed right in a large patch of brambles.

Upon realizing this, he flashed himself out of the brambles, but they had already given him plenty of scratches. Also all his tattoos had swarmed up his body to avoid the brambles and were now crowded together around the very top of his neck.

"Ugh! This is not my day!" he grumbled as he slapped at his tattoos to get them back into their usual locations, before he vanished in a flash of light.

Boom!

In her cottage, Fluttershy felt the same tremor that had rudely awakened Discord, though due to the fact that she was lying down on the floor, the results were not as dramatic.

What was that? An earthquake? Fluttershy rolled over onto her stomach and braced herself for another tremor, but none came.

At the train station, Highflyer and Screwjob also felt the tremor as did all the other ponies there.

"Woah! What was that?" asked Screwjob, looking around.

"I don't know," said Highflyer, also looking around. None of the other ponies around them seemed to know what was going on either.

Then the train's conductor came forward to address the crowd. "Everypony, I'm sorry, but it looks like the train won't be leaving for several hours while we send some ponies out to check that none of the tracks got torn up by that freak tremor."

At this news, Screwjob slowly turned to Highflyer, a smirk stretching across his face. "High, what was that you were saying about the train leaving in just a few minutes?"

"Shove it, Jobs," Highflyer muttered, but Screwjob's grin just widened. He could tell from Highflyer's voice that he had won.

"So you planning to spend the next several hours sitting here, twiddling your hooves, or you want to try paying Derpy a visit?"

"Well, there's just one problem with visiting her. I don't know where she lives."

Several minutes later Fluttershy got a knock on her front door and opened it to reveal Highflyer and Screwjob.

"Oh, come in."

"Can't stay long," said Highflyer even as they stepped inside and closed the door behind them. "We just came to get directions to Derpy's house."

"Then you are going to visit her?"

Highflyer nodded. "Me and Screwjob."

"Oh, that's so nice of you, Highflyer. She really has been wanting to meet you."

"What about me?" Screwjob asked in a mock-injured tone.

"And it's nice of you, Screwjob, to go along with Highflyer for moral support."

"Who said anything about supporting Highflyer? I'm just going for Derpy. I want to meet her and her eyes. You know I've never actually seen a pony with inverted eye-crossarosis before?"

"Jobs, that's not even a real medical condition," Highflyer muttered.

"It is so. My Aunt Moonshine has seen and cured multiple cases of eye-crossarosis. Both normal and inverted."

Highflyer snorted. "Yeah, and your Aunt Moonshine also doesn't believe in unicorns even though she is one."

Discord was far too ticked-off to put much thought into where he teleported to, and this turned out to be a mistake because when he appeared in the new location he was buried up to his ears in gemstones. On top of that, several parts of his anatomy had materialized through the gemstones! Not exactly the most pleasant experience so soon after getting raked by thorns. Yelping from the pain, the draconequus clawed his way to the top of the gemstone layer before teleporting out, leaving the gemstones that had gotten embedded in his body behind with the rest of the jewels. Floating above the pile of gems, he glared at them as he massaged his sore limbs and torso. His peripheral vision registered the fact that he was in a cave, and he felt an urge to start flinging the offending gems at the cave walls.

Oh, but that would be too good for them! he thought furiously and snapped his talons, causing half a dozen boots to appear and proceed punting the gems into the walls. While the boots did his grunt work, the draconequus allowed his feet to lower gingerly onto an undisturbed section of jewels.

His insides boiled with frustrated rage at the fact that he had been robbed of his opportunity to imagine he was with Fluttershy. He was angry at the way she had been snatched away from him not once but twice, and he was furious that he had been forced back awake before getting what he wanted. How had that happened anyway? What had caused—?

In the middle of this thought, he heard a deep rumbling growl behind him. Then he noticed that the boots were slowing their wild swinging down to an almost guilty prodding before stopping altogether. Discord grabbed his eyebrows and pulled them around to the back of his head. Each of his eyes moved with their respective eyebrows so that he was now looking behind himself without having to turn his head. Behind him were two large dragons, both of whom looked extremely angry at being awakened by his racket.

As he watched them, a sly smile crept across his muzzle. Perfect.

He let go of his eyebrows, and both they and his eyes snapped back around to the front of his head before he turned slowly on his heel to face the dragons.

"I know what you're thinking of doing, but I urge you to reconsider trying to eat me," he said conversationally. "Don't let this svelte physique fool you." He gestured sweepingly down at his long serpentine frame. "I may not look it, but I am loaded with nothing but saturated fat."

This did not seem to dissuade the dragons because one of them suddenly drew in a deep breath and launched a barrage of flames at the draconequus. All Discord's tattoos screeched and went scrambling down his body onto his hips and tail as the flames engulfed the top two-thirds of him.

Discord then proceeded to make a big show of running this way and that, comically screaming, "I'm on fire! Put me out! Put me out! Put me out!"

Finally he came to a sharp halt and dissolved into a pile of ashes. The dragon who had flamed on him snorted dismissively and started to turn away when the pile of ashes suddenly shot into the air and floated there like a cloud of flies before zooming up the dragon's nostrils. The dragon let out a loud sneeze that sent a second blast of flames through the cave and scattered gems into the cave's corners. The cloud of ashes reformed and glided toward the second dragon, who growled and swatted at the cloud with a wing. The ashes scattered out of the way only to reform their cloud seconds later. The cloud darted this way and that, jabbing tauntingly at the two dragons as they bit and swatted at it.

"What's the matter?" Discord's voice jeered, seeming to come from all around them. "Can't you hit me?"

Both the dragons roared furiously, and Discord responded with a mocking laugh.

"Oh, you can do better than that. Here, let me help you."

The ashes clumped together in a blob that unrolled into the draconequus. Scarcely had he straightened his long body out, then the second dragon lashed its claws out and seized him around the middle. The dragon growled in triumph, then suddenly realized it was holding only a clawful of fur and there was a half-naked draconequus floating just a short distance away.

Discord looked down at his de-furred body, shrieked in mock horror, and wrapped his arms around himself in false modesty. "Why of all the lowdown—I guess I'll just have to tail wrestle the pair of you." While he was saying this, one of his hands grasped his dragon tattoo and pulled it over his shoulder. Both the dragons bared their teeth and claws, ready to pounce on the draconequus as he pulled his tattoo hand-over-hand off his body. As the two dragons lunged, Discord gave the tattoo a sharp yank and it split into two dragon tattoos. Holding a tattoo in each hand, he drew them back like a pair of whips and swung them out toward the actual dragons. He released the tattoos and they shot past the dragons, snagging the two by their tails on the way. The dragons' jaws snapped shut just inches from Discord's head before they were suddenly yanked backward and flipped over by the tattoos. Each dragon tattoo morphed into a net that completely covered its respective dragon, before the two nets merged into one. Discord walked over to the trapped dragons, grabbed a corner of the ink net, and yanked it away. As soon as they were free of the net, the two dragons tried to lash out at him but neither of them could move!

"You didn't really think it would be that easy, did you?" Discord chuckled as the net shrank and morphed back into his dragon tattoo before he swung it over his shoulder and allowed it to wrap around his body. "Don't worry," he said as he retrieved his fur from the cave floor where it had gotten dropped during the tussle. "You'll be able to move again..." He swung his fur around his shoulders like a cloak and began doing it up in the front as if it had a line of buttons, then added with a chuckle. "In a couple of weeks. You might as well sleep until then."

Adjusting his fur, he marched over to the dragons—both of whom were still snarling in impotent rage—and bowed. "Well, it's been a pleasure, but I must be going now." As he straightened, a leather jacket appeared on his body and a motorcycle flashed into existence right next to him. He climbed aboard the motorcycle and a pair of folded sunglasses flashed into his hand. He opened the sunglasses with an exaggerated flick of the wrist and slipped them over his eyes. The motorcycle roared to life as he stepped down on the starter.

"Now if you ladies will excuse me, I have things to go and places to do," he said before he and bike vanished in a flash of light.

Chapter 8. 1 Corinthians 13:3

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Chapter 8.

"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing,"—1 Corinthians 13:3

"Thanks for the directions," Screwjob called back to Fluttershy as he and Highflyer exited her cottage. They were just about to head down the winding path from her front door when Highflyer stopped.

"You know," he said thoughtfully. "If we jumped over this little fence, down to that bridge, it would save us some travel time."

Screwjob looked where he was pointing. "Hmm, in that case... Race you!" With that, he knocked Highflyer backward and bunched his own body up in preparation for jumping the fence. However, due to his small size, Highflyer was already so close to the ground he just bounced right back onto his feet when knocked down. Before Screwjob had even reached the fence, Highflyer clamped his teeth onto the taller stallion's long black tail, and yanked him off balance. Screwjob crashed chest-first into the fence, and hit the ground hard.

"You're on," said Highflyer as he leapt over both his downed friend and the fence.

"You little sneak!" Screwjob shouted as he scrambled back onto his feet. "I'm gonna hang you by your own tail!"

"What tail?" Highflyer retorted, landing neatly on the bridge, and shaking his docked tail before taking off at a brisk canter.

"Your sawed-off one, runt!" Screwjob shouted, backing into a crouch again before shooting forward. This time he cleared the fence successfully and landed on the bridge right where Highflyer had been seconds earlier. "And then I'm going to smother you with your own mask!"

Not slowing his pace, Highflyer swung his body about so that he was running backwards, facing the oncoming pony. The fact that he was able to do this without stumbling was a testament to his athletic ability. "You're welcome to try, but you'd better step it up, slowpoke."

"I'll slowpoke you, stubby!"

Highflyer just smirked at this before whirling back around and putting on an extra burst of speed. Screwjob raced after him, quickly closing the distance between them, but when he had almost reached Highflyer, the earth pony suddenly seemed to check his speed.

Almost as if he wants Highflyer to win, Fluttershy mused as she watched them go.

Derpy had finished her mail deliveries for the day and was now weaving unsteadily toward home. The lump she'd received on her head yesterday had been throbbing on and off all day, making it even harder than usual for her to focus on flying straight. As she neared the house, its front door opened and Amethyst poked her head out. The pink unicorn looked up, saw her mother, and ducked back inside. As Derpy dove down toward the still-open front door, the window beside it opened as well. And not a moment too soon because despite her best efforts, Derpy missed the door and shot through the window instead. She skidded a short distance before crashing face-first into a conveniently-placed pillow. Looking up she noticed that there was a similar pillow in front of the open front door as well.

"Did you put these here?" she asked Amethyst, gesturing to the pillows.

"I did."

"How'd you think to open the window as well as the door?"

"Daughter's intuition," said Amethyst as she shut first the door and then the window. "And the fact that you were looking kind of wobbly when you flew off earlier today," she added as she floated the pillows back to the couch. "Want me to take your bag?"

After their crying session with Fluttershy the day before, Derpy and her daughters had been trying to cope by maintaining a forced cheerfulness and focusing on their usual daily tasks.

"Yes, please," said Derpy, shucking off her mailbag, and massaging first one shoulder and then the other to get some of the soreness out of them. She'd had an unusually big haul of mail to carry that day, and wondered if it might have been due to many ponies sending letters to family and friends, warning them to watch out for Discord.

Despite her determination not to think about it, she couldn't help shivering inwardly at the memory of leaving her daughters alone with him. To think that he could have murdered the two of them just as quickly and easily as Pinkie and Rainbow if he'd wanted to—

"Amethyst, is Dinky here?"

Amethyst had just been pulling the mailbag strap over her head, intending to go put it away, when she caught the anxious tone in her mother's voice. "Yeah, she's in the kitchen."

No sooner had she said this, then Dinky's voice rang out from said kitchen. "Hey, Amethyst! Can you help me drain the beans? My hooves are full."

"Sure, I'll be there in a minute." As Amethyst moved to put the mailbag away, Derpy headed toward the kitchen, trying to fumble out of her mail pony uniform at the same time, and thus being forced to travel in an odd hopping gait.

Once in the kitchen doorway, she stopped and just stood there watching her younger daughter work. Dinky was standing on her hind legs, back toward her mother, mashing something in a bowl on the counter. Though Derpy loved both her daughters equally, she always enjoyed seeing some of herself in her biological one. Of course there were the obvious physical traits like her gold eyes, and her blonde mane and tail, but there was also her love of culinary arts. Derpy's job as a mailpony had forced her to give up the time she had once devoted to cooking and baking, so she had been delighted when Dinky had expressed not only an interest in it, but shown a talent for it. So much talent in fact, that the family had fully expected her to one day get a cooking-related cutie mark. But instead Dinky's flanks were still as blank as the day she had been born.

"Excuse me," said Amethyst, scooting past her mother, and moving toward a soup pot on the stove which Derpy guessed must contain the beans Dinky had mentioned earlier.

Dinky looked up from her work to see her sister, and noticed her mother there as well. "Hey, Mom. We're having veggie loaf and barley bean salad for supper."

"Mm, sounds good. I'm going to go wash up. Might take a quick shower."

A chilly breeze ruffled Highflyer's feathers as he spotted Derpy's house in the distance, and he unconsciously spread his wings to beat them against it. Doing this meant he would be fighting a lot more wind resistance while running, but it was also the closest thing, apart from his wrestling acrobatics, that he could ever get to flying under his own power. He wondered, not for the first time, if the doctors, flight experts, and various other ponies studying the plight of flightless pegasi would ever be able to isolate and fix whatever defect kept ponies like himself and Scootaloo from being able to fly. While he had long ago come to terms with the fact that such a thing might never happen, he also hadn't completely given up hoping for it. Now he realized somberly that even if such a thing happened, he would never get the chance to fly beside Rainbow Dash rather than having to accept a ride from her.

He was suddenly pulled out of these thoughts when two pegasi appeared over the top of Derpy's house, one pale blue with a sweptback navy blue mane, and the other yellow with an orange-and-yellow streaked mane. That looks like two of Ray's Wonderbolt friends. Let's see, what were their names? Oh, yeah. Soarin and Spitfire. I wonder what they're doing here.

At that moment the two pegasi fluttered down from the roof, and Highflyer noticed the blue one, Soarin, seemed to have something on his back, though with all that wing-flapping he couldn't get a clear view of it. Then as the two pegasi landed beside the house, the thing on Soarin's back jumped to the ground, revealing itself to be a third, much smaller pegasus.

At the sight of that third pegasus, Highflyer slammed on the brakes and skidded to a sharp halt, eyes almost bugging out behind his mask.

The pegasus looked exactly like him! Right down to the shirt, mask, and tattoos!

Then Screwjob ran into him from behind, but he hardly noticed, he was so fixated on what was in front of him.

"Oof!" Screwjob grunted. "High, signal next time you're just going to stop like—" he broke off mid-complaint as he looked up to follow Highflyer's line of vision. "Uh, High? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

But Highflyer was already back on his feet and streaking toward the house, now moving far faster than he had earlier.

Dinky was kneading mixed vegetables into the veggie loaf, and Amethyst was draining the beans over the sink, using both her hooves and magic to balance the large soup pot, when they heard a knock at the front door.

"Who is it?" they unintentionally chorused.

"It's Rainbow Dash's friend, Highflyer," said a soft raspy male voice on the other side of the door. "I thought I'd stop by for a bit, if that's all right?"

The two sisters exchanged startled looks. Granted they and especially their mother had been eager to meet the wrestler who had used his tiny size and lack of flight to craft himself into the perfect underdog, but they had never counted on it happening right while they were in the middle of preparing dinner, and their mother was in the shower.

"Um, hold on," Dinky called toward the front door, then still standing on her hind legs since her front hooves were smeared with veggie loaf, she hurried toward the stairs, and leaned against the wall to call up them, "Mom! Highflyer's here!"

"Now?" Derpy asked between splutters. "Well, invite him in and I'll be down soon."

Still keeping her front hooves up so they wouldn't brush against anything, Dinky hurried back to the kitchen. "Mom said to invite him in. Can you move that pot away from the sink? I don't want to answer the door with veggie loaf gunk on my hooves."

"How about I answer the door while you wash your hooves?" said Amethyst, moving the pot of beans back to the stove.

"That'll work."

As Dinky stuck her hooves in the sink, Amethyst hurried to the front door, opened it, and tried not to stare at the pony in front of her. She had known he was small but had never realized just how small "small" was until now. She mentally shook herself and forced a smile. "Hi, come on in, Mr., um, Highflyer."

"Thanks. If you don't mind, a few Wonderbolts also came with me." He tipped his head toward the side of the house, and Amethyst looked in that direction to see Soarin and Spitfire peeking around the corner at them. The two Wonderbolts smiled and waved.

"Oh, well..." Having one extra pony join them for supper was one thing, but three extra ponies... "I'm not sure we have enough for—" Amethyst was just turning back to Highflyer when she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. As she lifted her head to get a better look at it, the words died on her lips.

Racing toward them was a second stallion that looked identical to the one right in front of her! As if sensing something was off, the masked pony in front of her turned to see what she was looking at.

Just before the second masked pony tackled him.

Amethyst jumped out of their way, colliding with the door frame in the process and uttering a sharp yelp of mingled pain and surprise.

"Amethyst?" Dinky must have heard her sister cry out because she raced out of the kitchen, leaving a trail of wet hoofprints wherever her front hooves touched. She froze at the sight of the two Highflyers rolling about, punching, kicking, and flailing their wings. By then Screwjob had reached the house as well, and stopped out of reach of the fighting ponies. The two Highflyers were moving so fast he could no longer tell which one was his, and thus could not jump into the fight to help. Soarin and Spitfire evidently were having the same problem as they hovered nearby, looking anxious.

Then one of the Highflyers managed to get the upper hoof and pinned the other one down. "Alright, you imposter!" he snarled and clamped his teeth onto the forehead of the other pony's mask, trying to tear it off. The other pony let out a scream of pain so loud that a window on the second floor opened, and Derpy—her mane still damp and straggly from her shower—poked her head out.

"What's going on—?" Derpy trailed off as she took in the sight of one Highflyer trying to unmask another.

Suddenly pale blue flames erupted from the downed Highflyer's body, and the Highflyer on top felt something sharp slice into the inside of his cheek as the downed one snapped its head to the side, flinging him off. Highflyer landed on his side, but rolled back onto his hooves a second later, spitting blood from his cut mouth.

The flames surrounding the other pony extinguished, revealing a half-pony, half-insect looking creature whose black body was swiftly fading to glass-like transparency. Except for its horn which was coated in bright red blood. The revealed changeling sat up, wincing and rubbing at its forehead near the base of its horn.

Where I bit it! Highflyer realized, just before Screwjob lunged forward and pounced on the changeling, pinning it down once again.

Watching the fight from above, Derpy saw Soarin and Spitfire swoop forward. At first she thought they were going to help the earth pony stallion subdue the changeling, but instead they went for her daughters.

"Come on, we have to get you away from that changeling!" Spitfire shouted as she grabbed Dinky, Soarin grabbed Amethyst, and they pulled the girls outside. Most ponies might not have thought this suspicious, but it triggered an alarm in their mother. Why pull them out there? she wondered. Why not tell them to get back inside and lock the door behind them while you take down the changeling? The two of you outnumber it four-to-one if you include Highflyer and that other pony.

"Put them down!" she shouted at the two Wonderbolts as they started to take off with her daughters, but they ignored her.

Then Highflyer leapt into the air after the rising Wonderbolts. They both swerved away from him and for a moment Derpy thought he was going to come crashing back to earth, but he twisted about and managed to snag the end of Soarin's tail in his teeth. Both Amethyst and the Wonderbolt cried out in surprise as the sudden extra weight yanked them down, and Soarin beat his wings furiously to stay aloft. Glaring down at the little hitchhiker now dangling from his tail, Soarin tried to shake Highflyer off, but the masked stallion was already hauling himself further up the tail and onto Soarin's back.

"Get off me!" Soarin shouted, still trying to shake free of the unwanted rider who clung on like a colorful oversized bur.

"Worry about that later!" Spitfire shouted. "We have to get these two," she gestured to Dinky and Amethyst, "out of here fast!"

"But what about our mom?" Derpy heard her girls shout as the two Wonderbolts shot away with them. She didn't hear if the Wonderbolts responded though, because at that moment the changeling still pinned on the ground burst into pale blue flames again, startling its captor enough to knock him off. When the flames cleared, Fleetfoot, a blue pegasus mare with a sweptback white mane, now stood in the changeling's place. The earth pony rolled onto his feet and tried to go for another tackle, but the disguised changeling flew up out of his reach before zipping off in the same direction as the other Wonderbolts.

Then Derpy made a snap-decision and launched herself out of the window. She landed stumbling next to the earth pony, steadied herself, and crouched. "Get on."

He gaped at her. "What?"

"Get on!" she barked. "I need your help."

"You sure you can lift me?"

She nodded rapidly. "You put enough letters in one mailbag and you're essentially carrying a whole tree trunk. Now shut up and get on!"

He got on, and Derpy began racing after the fleeing ponies, beating her wings wildly to get herself and her passenger off the ground.

Highflyer felt hooves on his wings, and looked over his shoulder to see a pegasus that looked like Fleetfoot trying to pull him off Soarin's back. He might have bought the disguise if it weren't for the smear of blood across her forehead right where the horn would have been on a changeling. Twisting about, Highflyer reached behind himself, wrapping his forelegs around Soarin's middle so that they were back-to-back, and delivered a fierce double kick to Fleetfoot's chest, sending her spinning away through the air.

Then Soarin tried to shake him off again, this time nearly succeeding, but Highflyer rolled back around onto his stomach and managed to hang on. They were now flying so fast that hanging on was all he could do. Chancing a glance down, he saw that they were passing over the Everfree Forest and headed straight for Ghastly Gorge. He saw Spitfire swoop down into the gorge with Dinky, and a moment later his own ride followed. He steeled himself for the gorge's infamous quarry eels to start lunging out of their holes and snapping their huge jaws.

But strangely no eels appeared.

Quarry eels don't hibernate, do they? Highflyer wasn't sure but he didn't have much time to think on it before the two Wonderbolts dove into one of the larger holes in the gorge wall. They didn't fly very far down the tunnel before flinging Dinky and Amethyst to the floor. Then Soarin flew toward the side of the tunnel and rammed his remaining passenger against it. Highflyer cried out as the rough surface scraped his back through his shirt, then locked Soarin's neck between his tattooed forelegs and twisted, forcing the bigger pegasus to turn. As they spun away from the wall, Highflyer lost his grip on Soarin and went tumbling across the ground. Instinctively he wrapped his wings around his masked head to protect it. Coming to a stop, he moved his wings enough to see that he was now facing the tunnel's entrance.

And flying toward him was Derpy with Screwjob on her back!

Suddenly Soarin and Spitfire shot past him, placing themselves between him and the oncoming ponies. Blue light flashed from the Wonderbolts' foreheads and surrounded Derpy. As if sensing this was bad news, Screwjob flung himself off Derpy's back, landing cat-footed on the floor below. This turned out to be a wise move because one minute Derpy was flying under her own power and the next she was hurling through the air past the Wonderbolts to smash into the tunnel wall! Her crossed eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed. She would have fallen to the floor itself if a narrow shelf of rock didn't catch her.

Soarin and Spitfire (Soarin-and-Spitfire changelings, Highflyer mentally corrected himself.) turned their attention to Screwjob, light flaring from their foreheads once again, but before they could attack, Highflyer sprang to his feet, leapt at the highest point he could reach on the nearest tunnel wall, twisted about, and launched himself off it at the two Wonderbolt-changelings. Seizing their manes, he bashed their heads together with a loud Crack! that made even him wince. Then the Fleetfoot-changeling from earlier was suddenly there, ramming into him from the side and knocking him away from the other two. Highflyer and the changeling hit the ground, Highflyer on his stomach, and the Fleetfoot-changeling straddling his back. He gritted his teeth in pain as her hooves dug into the raw scrapes that the wall had left on his back. He tried to swipe at her with his wings but she avoided them.

Then she was suddenly gone and, rolling onto his side, he saw Screwjob up on his hind legs, holding the Fleetfoot-changeling by the tail with his front hooves, and swinging her about like a club. The wrestler used his "club" to strike down the other two Wonderbolt-changelings, who were still reeling through the air, clutching their heads. In the space of just a few seconds, the Soarin and Spitfire changelings lay unconscious on the tunnel floor and Screwjob dropped the now-equally-unconscious Fleetfoot-changeling beside them.

Lowering himself back onto all fours, Screwjob turned to his fellow wrestler, his breathing hard but steady. "What's up?" he asked as casually as if using a disguised changeling to clobber other disguised changelings was something he did every day.

Highflyer was still trying to take in the fact that the fight had ended so quickly. His back was smarting, and he vaguely registered the fact that his shirt must have gotten torn when the Soarin-changeling had mashed him against the wall. Suddenly he caught movement in his peripheral vision and whipped about in that direction, wing feathers bristling out aggressively. He relaxed when he saw it was just the unicorn girls getting unsteadily to their feet, looking about as shell-shocked as he felt. He started to move toward them, but stopped when they tensed up just as he had seconds ago.

"Hey, it's okay now," he murmured, trying to reassure them. "Screwjob and I are the real deal." He paused then added, "Of course, I guess a changeling could also say that." He frowned, trying to think of something he could do or say that would prove he was the real Highflyer. "I suppose I could take my mask off to prove it's really me..." he mused aloud. "But you probably don't know what I look like without it, so for all you know I could be any old pony claiming to be Highflyer."

This observation coaxed a couple of laughs from the girls and both relaxed a bit as well.

"I believe you're who you say you are," said Amethyst and Dinky nodded in agreement as they came forward. The older unicorn sucked in her breath as she caught sight of Highflyer's back. "You're hurt! Your back—"

"It's not bad," he said quickly, then added, "We can worry about that later. It probably looks worse than it really is." Of course, considering he couldn't see his own back, he couldn't really verify if that claim was true, so he hurried on before anypony could point this out. "I guess you know my name—and now Screwjob's—but I don't think I ever got your names. What were they again?"

"Oh, I'm Amethyst Star, this is Dinky Doo," she indicated her sister, "and—" Looking up, she noticed the way her mother's head and tail were dangling limply off the ends of that narrow rock shelf. "Mom!" She and Dinky raced over and skidded to a halt beneath the ledge. "Mom, can you hear me?! Mom!" they shouted, but there was no response from the pegasus above them.

"Shh!" Worried that their shouts might wake the unconscious changelings or draw the attention of any quarry eels that might be hidden farther down the tunnel, Highflyer motioned for them to quiet down before taking a running leap toward the shelf. He caught hold of it with his front hooves and would have hauled himself up onto the shelf completely, except that there didn't seem to be enough room for both Derpy and himself. So he just hung there by one hoof while using the other to check for a pulse. Finding one, he let go of the shelf and allowed himself to drop to the floor, spreading his wings to help slow his fall.

"She's alive but unconscious," he told the girls. "Why don't you see if you can float her down from that ledge while Screwjob and I see about getting down out of this tunnel? I don't know if quarry eels hibernate during the winter, and that's why none have shown up yet, but I'd rather not stick around to find out."

The other ponies thought this sounded like a good plan and proceeded to go about their respective tasks. When they reached the tunnel entrance, Highflyer and Screwjob found themselves looking down an almost sheer drop to the gorge floor far below.

"Well, looks like climbing down isn't an option," said Screwjob after they had surveyed the gorge wall below them for several seconds.

Highflyer straightened up and turned to see Dinky and Amethyst hurrying over to them, but with a noticeable lack of Derpy. "Where's your mom?"

"She was too heavy for our magic to lift," said Amethyst.

Screwjob straightened up from where he had still been peering at the ground and gave the girls a considering look. "Hmm. I don't suppose you could float any of us down to the ground then, huh?"

Amethyst glanced quickly down at the gorge floor, then shook her head. "I don't think we want to try that."

"No," said Highflyer pensively. "But maybe your mom could fly us down. If she could carry Screwjob, odds are she could carry the rest of us. One at a time at least. If I jumped up on that ledge again and pushed her off this time, do you think the three of you could catch her?"

"We could do that," said Amethyst and Dinky but Screwjob didn't respond.

Highflyer glanced over at his fellow wrestler. "Jobs?"

But Screwjob had turned around completely so that he was now facing into the tunnel rather than looking out of it.

"Jobs, what's—?"

Screwjob's only response was a low "Uh oh," but that "uh oh," pretty much summed up the situation. Because as Highflyer turned around, he found himself looking not only at the Wonderbolt-changelings still sprawled unconscious on the floor, but at the shimmering outlines of what seemed to be at least a dozen more semitransparent changelings now blocking their path to Derpy.

For several long seconds the four ponies could do nothing but stand there, staring at the group of changelings. That is, until two changelings at the front of the group tipped their heads down and blue light flared from their horns, surrounded Dinky and Amethyst and yanked them toward the group of changelings. The two unicorns tried to get free—the pink and yellow glows of their magic turning the auras around their horns purple and green in the process—but their magic was no match for that of the creatures holding them.

Suddenly a red blur shot past them toward the changelings. Highflyer sailed through the air to drive a flying kick into the head of the changeling holding Amethyst. The changeling went down, causing Amethyst to get flung into the air before the aura surrounding her vanished and she fell to the floor. In the meantime, Highflyer double kicked the second changeling in the head as well—forcing it to release Dinky in the same manner—before several other changelings pounced on the tiny wrestler.

Screwjob raced in to help. He managed to yank one changeling off Highflyer, only to have it turn on him, hissing and trying to shove him away with its magic, but he hung on, dragging it from side-to-side in an attempt to keep the rest of the changelings from reaching Dinky and Amethyst where they were lying behind him. This was only partially successful because as he chanced a glance behind him at the unicorn girls, he saw their magic flickering feebly as they struggled against a couple of changelings that had managed to get by him.

Unable to reach them at the moment, he had to settle for shouting encouragement. "Come on, girls! Don't bother with magic, and don't fight fair either! Fight dirty! Hit them! Kick them! Twist their snouts! Chew on their ears! Throw dirt in their eyes! Anything you can think of!"

Then glancing down at Highflyer who was still struggling under two changelings, he added, "Hey, High! If you've ever wanted to be a heel ... now might be a ... good ... time!"

"Oh?" Highflyer grunted back from between the changelings. "And what about all that stuff about being a natural-born face?"

"Oh, like you actually bought any of that?"

"Well, when you put it that way." Highflyer suddenly chopped one of the changelings in the throat and it staggered away, choking. Then turning his attention to the other changeling, he got his hind legs up around one of its forelegs and flipped over onto his feet, taking the changeling with him. His hind legs came up, then down, both his back hooves slamming down on the changeling's outstretched foreleg, snapping it like a twig. The changeling screeched and flew out of the fight, favoring its now-injured limb.

"Very good," said Screwjob, chopping his own changeling in the throat as well before hurling it into the crowd. It was at that moment that he noticed the shimmering outlines of even more changelings pouring up out of the tunnel. Leaning down so that he was on top of Highflyer, he hooked his forelegs under those of the smaller stallion. "Now just do that about five-hundred more times and we'll be good to go."

"Oh, sure. Make me do all the work, you lazy bum."

"You know me so well," said Screwjob, rearing back to lift Highflyer off the ground so that the masked pony could kick them a path to the unicorn sisters.

Screwjob's advice to the girls about not fighting fair seemed to have worked because they were now on their feet and back-to-back. Unfortunately the changelings seemed to have decided to use that advice as well because several of them were now flying above the rest (out of the girls' reach both physically and magically) and using their own magic to pelt the unicorns with stones pulled from the tunnel walls to herd them back toward the changelings still on the ground.

"Toss me, Jobs!" Highflyer ordered, and Screwjob adjusted his hold on the smaller stallion to give him an extra boost as Highflyer leapt off him into the air. Highflyer wrapped his forelegs around the neck of a flying changeling and spun around it, kicking out at the others nearby and forcing them to abandon their rock throwing to deal with this new attack.

The rock throwing didn't stop quite soon enough though because at that moment a particularly large one came flying right at Screwjob's face. He ducked and the rock that likely would have broken his nose, glanced off his forehead instead. Then a changeling knocked him to the floor, but the wrestler brought his hind legs up and sent the changeling flipping over him onto its back. With his hind legs and the back half of his body still in the air, Screwjob swiveled them around to put himself back on his feet, taking the changeling with him and suplexing it on top of several others behind him before getting back-to-back with Dinky and Amethyst.

He swiped at his face with a foreleg, and at first the girls thought he was wiping sweat out of his eyes, but when his foreleg came away with its athletic tape wrappings bloody, they realized he was bleeding where the rock had struck his forehead earlier.

"Oh, of all the nerve," he muttered, sounding more annoyed than freaked out at the sight of his blood as he glared at the changelings surrounding them. "Busting me open when you're not even paying customers!"

Meanwhile Highflyer continued his battle with the airborne changelings. He kept jumping from one to another, using the many moves in his wrestling repertoire to kick, throw, or otherwise send them crashing into the walls and floor. But he was also beginning to tire. Granted he would often be flying about like this in a wrestling match, but there was a big difference between bouncing off a mat, and bouncing off stone tunnel walls. Not to mention an even bigger difference between working a match with an opponent who, despite all appearances, was actually taking care to protect you, and trying to take down an opponent that was actively trying to injure you. It also didn't help that any time his back got struck it sent needles of pain shooting through his whole body. He might have had a high pain-tolerance, but that didn't mean he could block it out forever. He had just sent another changeling hurling to the floor, and jumped clear of it, when two other changelings landed on either side of him. The next thing he knew the changelings had each seized his wings and given them a savage yank. He felt something pop and tear in both wings and the pain he had been feeling in his back was now nothing compared with the new pain in his wings.

Screwjob's ears snapped up at Highflyer's scream of agony, and he turned to see the masked pony trying unsuccessfully to tuck in his now-grotesquely twisted wings.

Then Screwjob's normally warm brown eyes went icy cold. "Okay, that does it! You can bust me open, but nopony maims High except ME!"

In that moment—with his eyes so cold, and his face so covered in blood it looked like a gruesome parody of Highflyer's red mask—Screwjob was nothing short of terrifying, and suddenly he was on top of one of the guilty changelings, seizing its wings in his front hooves, rolling back so that it was on top of him, and delivering a savage double kick that would have rivaled one of Highflyer's to its spine. The changeling went flying into the far tunnel wall without the aid of its wings.

Wha—?! Highflyer's eyes widened as the changeling fell to the ground and he realized that, in fact, it now had no wings! His gaze snapped back around to Screwjob and he saw the insect-like wings, their torn-off bases dripping some sort of clear fluid, (Is that changeling blood?) still clutched in Screwjob's hooves. But the earth pony was already flinging them aside, tackling the second changeling and giving it the same treatment. Despite the fact that they had just injured his own wings, Highflyer found himself cringing in sympathy for the two changelings. The idea of having one's wings ripped off like—

Screwjob swung around toward the rest of the changelings, the look in his eyes making it clear he intended to deal out the same fate to as many of them as he could, when he was suddenly surrounded by a green light that yanked him off the ground and sent him hurling through the air. His head struck the tunnel wall with a sickening Crunch! and he fell to the ground where he lay face-down in an unmoving heap. Highflyer didn't even have time to gasp before the same green light surrounded him and he too was flung against the wall. The pain this sent through his wings and back almost made him pass out as he landed on top of Screwjob. Then Amethyst and Dinky, both covered in bruises, were thrown on top of Highflyer which didn't do his wings or back any favors.

"Watch them," said a new female voice, and Highflyer looked up to see a new changeling—taller than the others with none of their semitransparency—who could only be their queen, Chrysalis. The rest of the changelings quickly formed a semicircle around the ponies, pointing their horns at them.

Then they all heard a groan above them.

"Oooh, I think I got another lump," Derpy moaned.

The changeling queen glared up at her, then magically plucked the pegasus from the ledge and dropped her next to the other ponies.

"What—?" Derpy started to ask but halted as she noticed how beat-up her daughters and the two wrestlers looked, and the way the changelings were surrounding them. Her eyes were drifting drunkenly about in all directions though Highflyer wasn't sure if that was due to her getting knocked out earlier, or if they just did that normally.

"Why did you bring that other wrestler here?" Chrysalis demanded of one of the changelings. "I told you we only needed the masked one. And why didn't you sedate any of these ponies?"

"We didn't bring along either of the wrestlers," the changeling snapped, but quickly bowed its head respectfully as if to make up for its tone. As it did this, Highflyer noticed the drying blood on its horn. "I was disguised as the masked one when we went to capture that family and the real pony just came rushing in out of nowhere." The changeling looked up, and now there was a mixture of irritation and uncertainty under the respect in its voice. "Your highness, I thought he was supposed to be captured on the train."

Highflyer's ears twitched at this, but he quickly tried to look as if he were in too much pain to notice what they were saying. He didn't have to act very hard. The taste of blood in his mouth, the scrapes on his back, and the pain that ran through his wings with the slightest movement gave him plenty to focus on.

"He was," said another changeling. "We were right there in the boxcar, ready for him, when we heard that the train was going to be delayed and when we looked out to check on him, he was gone. What's it matter anyway? We've got them here now, so—"

This seemed to touch a nerve in the changeling queen. "It's no good to have any of them here now, thanks to—!" she choked off the words, clearly furious, and yet that anger didn't seem to be directed at anyone in particular currently there.

"Your highness," another changeling piped up. "As long as they're here, can't you at least use the spell on them? He at least deserves it for this!" it added, pointing at Screwjob's motionless form before turning to display the stumps where its wings had been.

Chrysalis looked down at the stumps and Highflyer expected her to fly into a rage over the damage that had been inflicted on her subjects, but instead she just brushed the wingless changeling aside irritably.

"Oh, stop complaining about your wings. They'll grow back and we have more important things to think about now—" she broke off suddenly and gave the group of ponies a considering look. "Still..." she murmured almost to herself. "We might as well find out what happens when the spell is done on several ponies at once. Stand back!" Her subjects parted just enough to give her a clear shot as she leveled her horn at the pile of ponies.

The changeling queen's horn flared with light but before she could fire, a gray blur shot toward her and shoved her horn up toward the tunnel ceiling, causing the beam to miss its intended target. Chrysalis tried to bring her head down, but Derpy had her forelegs wrapped around the queen's horn, using it like a handle to keep her head forced back. Chrysalis swung her head about, trying to throw Derpy off. The beam continued to shoot from her horn and the changelings scattered to avoid accidentally getting struck by it. The beam's light enveloped Derpy, shining so brightly she could barely be seen, but she hung on, beating her wings wildly, putting everything into keeping that beam aimed away from her fellow ponies. For their part, Dinky, Amethyst, and Highflyer could only huddle where they lay, trying to make as small a target as possible. Underneath them, Screwjob still lay where he had fallen with only the blood leaking from his forehead indicating that he was still alive.

Suddenly the beam died away and Chrysalis succeeded in throwing Derpy off. For the second time that day, the cross-eyed pony slammed into the wall and dropped to the floor in a heap. Chrysalis staggered as if the spell she had just tried to cast had taken a lot out of her.

Meanwhile Derpy was trying to push herself to her feet, but one of her back legs kept giving out on her. Frowning, she rolled onto her back and raised her hind legs to get a better look at them. One seemed to be swelling and shortening in a way that just didn't look right. Without even really thinking about it, Derpy pressed her other back hoof against the swollen one, as if to flatten it back into its proper shape. But the moment her hoof touched the swollen area it seemed to fuse there. Suddenly her hind legs twisted and molded together in an impossible way. There was a wet slapping sound and Derpy suddenly found herself looking not at a pair of gray legs, but at a mass of glistening ... insides?!

Unable to comprehend what she was looking at, Derpy reached forward with one hoof to try and find her legs, but the moment that hoof touched the glistening mass it seemed to fuse there too and began morphing the same way her legs had. Now she felt the same sensation traveling slowly but surely up her body as well—

A horrified scream burst from Derpy's throat as she suddenly realized what was going on. The next moment she was dragging herself about on the tunnel floor with her one free hoof, screaming in a blind panic as her body continued magically folding in on itself; veins, arteries, and tendons whipping up and snapping back down on the outside of her body, wrapping it like gruesome twine.

"Mom!" Her daughters' voices cut through Derpy's panic and she looked up to see them racing toward her. Then Highflyer lunged after them. He caught a hold of Dinky but Amethyst dodged out of his reach.

"Lemme go! Lemme go!" Dinky screamed at Highflyer, striking out at him with her hooves, but he countered by swiftly putting her in a submission hold that kept her from being able to strike or kick him, but also wouldn't injure her worse. She continued yelling at him to let go, and the gold glow of her magic briefly flickered on his limbs, but she couldn't even make them twitch much less release her.

Meanwhile Amethyst had reached Derpy and was now pulling desperately on her mother's free hoof, as if trying to pull her out of quicksand rather than from the mass that was her own inside-out flesh.

Seeing her daughter so close suddenly replaced Derpy's fear for herself with a much stronger one. What if any of that transforming flesh touched Amethyst and started working the same terrible spell on her?! "Amethyst let go!"

"I won't!"

"You could get pulled in too, Amethyst, let go!"

Amethyst shook her head, tears flying from her eyes as she hauled on her mother's hoof again. "I won't, Mom! I won't! I won't! I won't!"

"Amethyst Star, you do as you're told!" Derpy's normally soft voice went as hard and sharp as a whip crack.

Amethyst looked up at her mother with tears rolling down her face. "Mom..." she whimpered, her voice no longer that of a young adult but of a small frightened filly.

Derpy's gold eyes straightened long enough to lock with her daughter's purple ones. "I love you, sweetie," she whispered in a quick desperate voice. "Now let go."

Amethyst squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to release her mother's hoof. She fell backward onto her rump and her eyes popped unwillingly open just in time to see a large wet fold of inside-out flesh crash down over her mother's head and still-outstretched hoof.

"Mahhhhhh-om!" Amethyst heard Dinky wail behind her, but she couldn't take her eyes off the mass of bones, blood vessels, and internal organs that had been her mother just seconds ago.

"No!" she heard herself howl, now up on her feet and frantically circling the pulsing mound of body parts. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" You don't deserve this! she mentally screamed at it. You can't die like this! It's not right! It's not right! It's! Not! Right! Why?! Why couldn't I have stopped this?! Why do I have to be SO SUBPAR AT MAGIC?!

These words had scarcely gone through her mind when her whole body was jolted by a giant surge of magic. A blinding light erupted from her horn and with that light came an explosion that knocked everyone around her, ponies and changelings alike, clean off their feet. Dinky and Highflyer were thrown backward onto Screwjob's ribcage, forcing a loud "OOF!" from the unconscious earth pony, and a half-groan, half-gasp from Highflyer as his injured wings accordioned painfully against his back.

The light from the explosion vanished, revealing ... no sign of either Amethyst or the mass of inside-out flesh that had been Derpy.

Highflyer was still staring at the empty spot where Derpy and Amethyst had just been, when he heard a groan behind him and turned to see Screwjob slowly pushing himself upright, rubbing at his head, and blinking dazedly through a layer of blood. "Huh? What happened?"

"Those three have to die," said Chrysalis, jerking Highflyer's attention over onto her. She still looked drained from the spell she had done, but she was on her feet and glaring at the three ponies. "They've seen too much. Feed off them first if you want, but kill them."

"With pleasure." As the changelings stalked toward them, the three ponies scrambled to their feet and backed away. Several of the changelings laughed as they forced the three ponies to retreat toward the tunnel entrance. "That won't do you any good."

Tell me something I don't know, Highflyer thought bitterly as he felt something grind painfully in his wing joints, a cruel reminder that even if he had been a proper pegasus capable of flight, his damaged wings were currently worse than useless. His eyes flicked to his fellow ponies. Dinky was trembling with every step, probably still in shock over what had happened to her mother and sister, while Screwjob was looking decidedly punch-drunk under the blood still running down his face.

Then one of Highflyer's back hooves slipped on the edge of the tunnel entrance and he realized they had run out of room to retreat! The smiles on the changelings' faces stretched. They seemed in no hurry to kill him and the other ponies, choosing instead—at least for the moment—to savor their prey's helplessness like a gourmet meal.

And it was in that moment that Highflyer suddenly found himself faced with two options. One was death for himself and his fellow ponies at the hooves of the changelings, but the other ... well, the other would still spell death for him, but there was a slight chance—a very, very, very slight chance, but a chance nevertheless—that his fellow ponies might survive. But he would have to act fast.

With no warning whatsoever, he grabbed Dinky and Screwjob by the tails and leapt out of the tunnel into empty air! The next moment they were all falling toward the gorge floor far below. Hoping Screwjob's muscle memory would kick in even if his memory memory didn't, Highflyer let go of the earth pony's tail, twisted about and kicked him higher into the air, willing the tall wrestler to get his feet under him so that he would land like a cat.

You know even if he manages to do that, a fall from this height will likely shatter his legs, if it doesn't just bust him like a watermelon, don't you? He did know, but it was too late to rethink this jump off the cliff.

"Get behind me, kid!" he shouted to Dinky as he swung her around onto his back, and began beating his wings—which made the poor appendages scream in agony—in an attempt to slow their fall. Out of his peripheral vision he saw Screwjob fighting air resistance as he tried to spread his limbs out.

Suddenly both wrestlers were surrounded by a yellow aura that flashed to green as it slowed their plunge.

Oh no! thought Highflyer. The changelings must have recovered from their surprise and were now hauling their prey back magically! But then the aura around him began shifting wildly between yellow and green, and he felt himself being jerked back-and-forth and side-to-side as if he were the rope in a tug-of-war game. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder, he saw that Dinky was surrounded by the same aura as he and Screwjob. Her body was curled in a tight ball and her eyes were squeezed shut in concentration as yellow light pulsed from her horn.

Suddenly the aura around the trio turned completely yellow and they flew forward as if propelled by a slingshot. Dinky had her hooves jammed hard into the sides of her head, her whole body trembling with the effort of lifting herself and the two wrestlers. They shot up out of the gorge, past the shimmering outlines of several startled changelings, and went rocketing over the Everfree back towards Ponyville.

But while they were still over the Everfree, the aura around them began to flicker. Dinky strained even harder to maintain it, groaning as if trying to lift a hundred-ton load, but the aura went out like a lightbulb blowing and the three ponies went crashing through the trees below.

Highflyer yelped as branches smacked against his already battered body before he cleared them and went tumbling along the ground. Which turned out to be cold wet mud. By the time he came to a stop in a small clearing he was coated from mask to tail in the stuff. Sitting up slowly and painfully, he spotted his equally mud-covered companions nearby. Screwjob was easing himself into an upright position with one hoof clutching his head, while Dinky lay on her side, eyes closed and face slack.

Then Highflyer heard a fierce rustling in the direction they had just come from getting steadily closer. Judging by where they had landed, he doubted whatever was heading their way was friendly, and judging by his own aching body it didn't look like running was currently an option. "Quick, Jobs! We have to find a place to hide!"

"How about over there?" Screwjob groaned, pointing with the hoof that wasn't currently clutching his head.

Highflyer looked in that direction and saw a large tree with sections of its roots showing above the mud. "That'll have to do." Moving gingerly to Dinky's side, he shook her shoulder, but she didn't respond. "Come on, kid!" he whisper-shouted, slapping her cheeks to wake her up, but that didn't work either.

All the while that rustling was getting nearer and nearer.

Giving up trying to wake her, he lifted her under the forelegs, and—feeling grateful that she was one of the few ponies still slightly smaller than him—he dragged her to the tree roots and shoved her as far under them as he could. Screwjob stumbled after them, still looking woozy under the blood and mud on his face, but at least having the presence of mind to sweep his long tail back and forth through the mud to hide their tracks. The two wrestlers squeezed under the roots next to the unconscious unicorn, and huddled down, hoping the layers of mud would camouflage their colorful spandex.

The rustling got louder and louder until its source burst into the clearing. Flashes of blue light lit the outlines of semitransparent changelings as they swooped about, blasting the leaves off trees and bushes and peering into the freshly exposed branches.

"They landed somewhere around here," Highflyer heard one mutter. "They can't have gotten far."

Don't think to look down by the roots! Don't think to look down by the roots! Don't think to look down by the roots! Highflyer mentally begged, squeezing his eyes shut as the changelings drew nearer and nearer to their hiding spot.

Suddenly the rustling of leaves was interrupted by the snapping of twigs and the sound of something hurrying away.

"After them!" Highflyer heard a changeling shout.

"It sounds like they're splitting up!" said another one.

"You go that way! We'll go this way!"

This was followed by a furious rustling and Highflyer's eyes popped open in time to see two groups of changelings flying off in different directions, still blasting leaves out of their path.

For several moments after the changelings had disappeared, the ponies just stayed where they were under the tree roots, scarcely daring to believe their narrow escape.

Fluttershy was in her garden, checking on Angel's grave, when she heard the faint patter of hoofbeats behind her a moment before she was slammed to the ground and one of her forelegs was pulled back painfully.

"Why didn't Screwjob's Aunt Moonshine go to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns?" a low voice rasped in her ear.

"W-what?" Fluttershy stuttered before a hoof grabbed her mane and pulled her head back, forcing her to look up into her captor's face. Sky-blue eyes glared down at her from behind a mud-splattered mask.

"Why didn't she go to that school when she was talented enough to easily qualify?" Highflyer demanded, increasing the pressure on her foreleg. "Answer me!"

A tiny whimper of pain escaped Fluttershy's lips as she searched her mind frantically for an answer that might make him stop. Why wouldn't Moonshine have gone to that school? I don't know! I didn't even know she existed until today! I don't know anything about her, except—

"You said she didn't believe in unicorns! Why would she go to a school for them if she doesn't believe in them?!"

At those words, the eyes under the mask immediately softened and he released her. "I'm really sorry about that," he said, gently—if a tad awkwardly—patting the foreleg he had just been twisting. "But I had to make sure it was really you."

"Really me? Highflyer, what are you talking about?"

But the tiny stallion had already turned from her and was waving urgently toward the Everfree Forest. "We're good! It's her!"

A second later another mud-splattered pony staggered out of the trees towards them with a third much smaller pony draped across his back. As he got closer, Fluttershy recognized him as Screwjob and the pony on his back as Dinky.

"Oh my goodness, what happened? How'd you three get all muddy? Where are—?"

"Went to ... Derpy's house..." Screwjob panted, sinking down onto his stomach as he reached them. "Ran into a bunch of changelings that tried to kill us... Fought them off... Just barely escaped."

Fluttershy gaped at him. "What?"

"Not out here," said Highflyer. "Those changelings are still hunting for us and could show up at any minute."

This news snapped Fluttershy into action. "Quick, let's get the three of you inside." Once she had ushered them inside, she quickly went around, locking the doors and shuttering the windows before turning back to her three guests. Screwjob was sprawled on his stomach again, now with both front hooves pressed against his forehead, while Highflyer was hunched over Dinky's unconscious form, his wings sticking out at awkward angles.

"Let's, uh, let's get you three cleaned up." While she wanted to pump them for information, it didn't feel right to do that while they were dripping blood and mud all over the place. Lifting Dinky onto her back, she motioned for the wrestlers to follow her. "This way," she said, leading them toward the bathroom. "Highflyer, Screwjob, you can use my bathtub to wash up, and I'll take care of Dinky."

While Screwjob and Highflyer peeled off their muddy clothes, Fluttershy pulled out a wooden tub she normally would have used to give one of her larger animals a bath and filled it with warm water. As she worked, she kept her eyes averted from the two wrestlers. She wasn't really sure why she did this, but for some reason the idea of watching them strip down seemed rude.

"Jobs, watch the wings!" she heard Highflyer snap as the shower curtain rings rattled, the curtain itself swished open and shut, and the showerhead turned on. Looking over at the bathtub, she saw no sign of the wrestlers—unless one counted a pile of muddy spandex and strips of discarded athletic tape—but she could hear them splashing about behind the shower curtain, arguing about the water temperature, and describing each other in less-than-flattering terms. However, she felt now might not be the best time to call them out on this.

Turning her attention back to her own work, she gently lifted Dinky into the wooden tub. The unicorn didn't react to the water even when she was submerged up to her neck. On a hunch, Fluttershy soaked a washcloth with cold water from the sink and sprinkled it on Dinky's face to see if that would wake her up. Dinky's eyelids twitched minutely as the water droplets landed on them, but didn't open. Fluttershy wrung the washcloth, causing more water to pour over Dinky's forehead. The unicorn still didn't wake up but the water that struck her horn sizzled as if it had been dropped on a hot stove, causing Fluttershy to jerk back in surprise. Then she noticed that the water she had poured over Dinky's forehead had washed a good bit of mud out of the unicorn's mane, revealing that a large section of the blonde hair around Dinky's horn seemed to have been burned away.

Did the heat from her horn do that?

Dinky spent her whole session in the tub unconscious, so when she was clean, Fluttershy ended up carrying her back to the main room and setting up a cot for her to lie on. Fluttershy had just finished gathering up the wrestlers' clothes and tossing them in a washtub to soak, when the wrestlers in question emerged from the bathroom, each wrapped in a towel. Highflyer had been unable to get his towel up around his injured wings, and thus had been forced to cover his face with his hoof.

With all the mud scrubbed off them, Fluttershy was able to check them over more easily for injuries.

In addition to an impressive collection of bumps and bruises, and the fact that he still seemed woozy, Screwjob was bleeding rather badly from a split left eyebrow.

"Looks like we'll have to get that sewed up," said Fluttershy, before moving on to examine Highflyer.

"Well, what's the damage, Dr. Shy?" the tiny stallion asked after she had spent several minutes looking over his back and wings.

"I can't be sure without an X-ray, but I think your wings are broken. I can splint them and tape them down against your sides. I've done that before with my animal friends, but you'll still want to go to a real doctor before too long."

Highflyer laughed ruefully from behind his hooves. "You might as well just chop them off for all the good they do me."

Screwjob had been using a rag to put pressure on his split eyebrow, but now raised it to blink blearily at Highflyer. "And rob me of the countless opportunities to mock your flightlessness? How can you be so selfish?"

"Learned it from you."

Fluttershy ignored their jabs at each other, as she continued studying Highflyer's back. "Fortunately these scrapes don't look bad enough to be life-threatening, but I'd better put some ointment on them and bandage them so you don't get an infection."

As Fluttershy set about sewing up Screwjob's eyebrow (which they all agreed was the injury that currently required the most attention), Highflyer began telling her what had happened since they had left the cottage earlier that day. He described seeing and fighting his double at Derpy's house, the flight to Ghastly Gorge, and the battle in the quarry eel tunnel.

He got to the part where Chrysalis showed up just as Fluttershy finished bandaging Screwjob's now-freshly-stitched eyebrow.

"I don't remember that part," said Screwjob.

"You were too busy being unconscious." Highflyer looked away, and, judging by his tone, Fluttershy suspected he was grimacing behind his hooves. "I can still remember the crunch your head made when she smashed it against that tunnel wall."

"You sure that crunch came from my head and not the wall?"

Highflyer groaned the way one does at a bad joke, then yelped as Fluttershy's hoof touched his wing.

"Sorry," said Fluttershy. The story-telling had to be put on hold for several minutes as she and Highflyer went about the painful process of setting and splinting his wings. Fluttershy tried to be gentle, but Highflyer's wings were so smashed up it was no use. The tiny stallion whimpered behind his hooves as tears leaked from his eyes.

Finally Screwjob got up and stumbled over to the washtub where their clothes were soaking. He fished out Highflyer's mask, and began wringing it out before clumping back over to Fluttershy and Highflyer. He forced the still-damp mask over the smaller stallion's shaved head, and Highflyer's hooves sprang away from his face. Even with the mask's straps dangling loose, having it back on seemed to strengthen something in the tiny stallion, as he braced his front hooves against the floor, and his whimpering lessened.

"Thanks," he breathed at Screwjob.

"Big whoop." Screwjob muttered, stumbling over to the couch and collapsing on it, burying his face in the nearest cushion. "I just want to know what happened while I was knocked out," he added, his voice muffled by the cushion.

"Sure you do."

As Fluttershy moved from splinting his wings to bandaging his back, Highflyer went on with the story. But when he got to the part about Derpy's sacrifice he had to pause again, the nausea on his face clear even through the mask.

"Now I understand what Haystings meant about it being one thing to hear about a pony being turned inside-out and another thing to actually see it." But he soldiered on, describing Derpy and Amethyst's sudden disappearance, his own suicidal escape attempt, the ride Dinky had given him and Screwjob, and their final inexplicable deliverance in the Everfree. "I don't know what those changelings ended up chasing after, but I'm grateful to it, whatever it was. Once the changelings were gone, Screwjob and I knew we needed to get ourselves patched up, and get Dinky somewhere safe, but we were afraid to go to a public place like a hospital in case it was being watched. Then I remembered that those changelings knew about me going to the train station, but hadn't expected me and Jobs to show up at Derpy's place. And the only pony we stopped to see on the way there..." his gaze met Fluttershy's. "Was you."

Despite claiming he had wanted to hear the rest of the story, Screwjob had fallen asleep towards the end, and, upon noticing how dark it had gotten outside at that point, the two pegasi decided to let him keep sleeping. None of them were in any shape to brave going outside the cottage to find help, not at night with those changelings running around. Fluttershy finished securing the last of Highflyer's bandages around his middle, and they moved to check on Dinky, who was still asleep on her cot.

"Based on what you told me, I think she over-exerted herself magically when she lifted the three of you out of the gorge," said Fluttershy as she put a cold cloth on the young unicorn's forehead, taking care to avoid her horn. "She's always been so low-level magically that doing something that big would be like asking a couch potato to suddenly run a mare-athon, and she collapsed from the strain."

"Will she be all right?" Highflyer asked, taking Dinky's limp hoof between his own.

"I don't know," Fluttershy admitted. "All we can do is try to get her fever down, and wait to see if she wakes up."

"She's got to, Fluttershy. Can you hear me in there, kid?" he asked, leaning down until his masked forehead was pressed against the crown of the teenage unicorn's head. "You've got to wake up."

But what would she be waking up to? Fluttershy found herself wondering. Where were the young unicorn's mother and sister now? Were they even alive? Or would Dinky wake up to find herself facing a life without her family?

However, Fluttershy felt now was not the time to bring these questions up.

"Highflyer, you need to rest," she said, putting a hoof on his tattooed shoulder. "You won't do her or anypony else any good staying up now. Why don't you use my bed? I'll stay here, and keep an eye on Dinky and Screwjob."

Highflyer followed her reluctantly to her room, but didn't protest when she boosted him up onto her bed, making Fluttershy suspect he was actually a lot more exhausted than he had been letting on.

"You'd probably be more comfortable sleeping with your mask off," she said, tentatively touching the back of his still-soggy headwear.

"No!" Highflyer shouted, flinching away from her touch and wrapping a foreleg protectively over the top of his head. Then his ears went almost as red as his mask, making Fluttershy suspect the same could be said for the face under it. "I, uh ... I-I'd rather keep it on."

"Ok, that's ok," said Fluttershy, quickly raising her hooves in surrender. "If that's what you want." She started to leave the room, but paused at the door to look back at him. "Highflyer ... do you think ... do you think Discord still murdered Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie after what you saw happen to Derpy?"

Highflyer made a noise that was half-sigh, half-groan. "I'm not sure what to think anymore."

Fluttershy decided not to question him further, but as she made her way back to Dinky and Screwjob, her mind was churning.

Twilight was wrong! Discord isn't the only one powerful enough to do that spell! But what about the rest of Twilight's information? Could it still be trusted? And what about the eyewitnesses who said they had seen Discord? Hadn't Twilight said that even if a changeling was powerful enough to do that spell, it still wouldn't be able to mimic Discord's shape? Or had it been the other way around? Try as she might, Fluttershy just couldn't remember the exact phrasing and so much hinged on that. Had Twilight said that one changeling wouldn't have had that kind of power? Then how had the changeling queen managed to become powerful enough to do such a spell?

And what could this mean for the rest of Equestria?!

Chapter 9. Luke 16:13

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Chapter 9.

"No one can serve two masters."—Luke 16:13

Discord cruised through the air on his conjured motorcycle. He didn't really have any particular destination in mind so he just kept moving, letting the wind blow his ears about and enjoying the high he was still feeling from baiting those dragons.

But that high was suddenly blotted out when he felt a surge of magic so strong it sent shivers running up and down his spine. This in and of itself was not so unusual for him. With all the unicorns in Equestria dying, being born, or just experiencing magical surges every day, the world's magic levels were constantly shifting, and though he felt every one of those shifts, he had long ago gotten used to ignoring them and just treating them as a sort of magical white noise. He would, in fact, have ignored this particular surge as well if it weren't for one important fact.

He recognized this surge's magical signature! He had learned to identify it just a few days ago in fact!

Amethyst!

But what could have caused the low-level unicorn's magic to suddenly spike up so far beyond what he would have thought possible for her? Then just as suddenly Amethyst's magic plunged down to almost nothing. Without thinking about it, Discord automatically used his own magic to latch onto the tiny thread of Amethyst's magic to trace where it was coming from. Both he and the motorcycle vanished in a flash of light.

He reappeared—now invisible and minus the sunglasses, jacket, and motorcycle—a moment later in the location where he had traced the magic. Scarcely had he materialized then he was knocked flat by a crowd of screaming ponies. The draconequus uttered a series of pained 'oof's as the ponies trampled over him, apparently too panicked to either notice or care about the invisible squashy mass under their hooves. Then Discord managed to fling the last few ponies off and shot into the air so fast he pancaked his body against a ceiling he hadn't noticed earlier. Prying his head away from the ceiling enough to look down, he saw that he was in a hospital waiting room and all of its occupants seemed to be scrambling away from something in the middle of the room.

Looking over in that direction, he saw a battered-looking pink unicorn with the same purple hair and triple gem cutie mark as Amethyst collapsed on her side next to what seemed to be a mound of bones and internal organs snarled in pulsing blood vessels. Discord's eyes had scarcely widened at the sight when his head snapped back as he felt a new surge of magic spike just as Amethyst's had earlier. Except that this surge's signature matched Dinky's, and while not quite as strong as her older sister's had been, it was still much stronger than he would have thought the teenage unicorn capable of. The magic flared brightly for several seconds before sputtering and quickly dying down to a miniscule flicker. He started to throw a tracer out after it as he had done with Amethyst's magic, but Dinky's faint signal was suddenly drown out by the roar of much more powerful unicorn magic much closer to him.

Looking back down, he saw that several doctors and nurses had swarmed around the unicorn and the gruesome bundle of bones and organs next to her. Light flared from the horns of several unicorn doctors and an almost-opaque multi-colored magic bubble surrounded the mass of organs, hiding the horrible sight from view. Meanwhile the remaining doctors were examining the pink unicorn.

"We need two stretchers in here!" one of the doctors shouted, and seconds later the requested stretchers were pushed through the crowd. The bubble-encased mass was levitated onto one stretcher, while the unicorn was lifted onto the other. When she was settled on her back, Discord got his first clear look at her face and saw that it was indeed Amethyst. But she looked pale under her pink coat, her bruised face was slack, her eyes were closed, smoke was curling up from her blackened horn, and the purple hair that made up her forelock seemed to have melted!

"Everypony stay here until we can get your statements!" one of the doctors ordered the waiting room's frightened occupants as the two stretchers rolled out of the room. The doctor turned and hurried out of the room after her fellow staff members, completely unaware of the invisible draconequus who had detached himself from the ceiling and was now gliding silently after them.

At first the two stretchers rolled along side-by-side, but then the one carrying Amethyst veered off down a different hallway. Discord briefly debated which stretcher to follow before opting to go after Amethyst's. However he didn't intend to lose track of that other rather intriguing ... patient. He swiftly peeled one of the moth tattoos off his neck. Once it was completely separated from his flesh, the moth became visible, but all the ponies below seemed far too focused on the stretcher contents in front of them to notice the animated ink beating its wings above them. Discord quickly molded the moth's wings into the shape of ears, and smeared the patterns on its top wings into a pair of eye spots before releasing the moth. As it shot after the larger group of doctors, he continued following the ones bearing Amethyst's stretcher.

Amethyst was wheeled into a room and several nurses set about transferring her from the stretcher to a bed. Once she was settled, a curly-maned nurse who looked younger than the rest approached her with a pair of tweezers.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" the nurse asked, giving the melted forelock a tentative prod with the tweezers. "I didn't think it was possible for hair to melt."

"It shouldn't be," said a unicorn stallion doctor, checking Amethyst's pulse. "But if she lost control of her magic, the backlash must have caused her hair to react to the magically-generated heat in a way that's normally impossible."

At that moment the nurse accidentally bumped her tweezers against Amethyst's horn and swiftly yanked them back as their tips hissed.

The doctor quickly leaned in and fired a spell at Amethyst's horn, encasing it in what appeared to be ice. "Still it's unusual. I've seen unicorns with their forelocks burnt off as a side effect of their horns overheating when they try to do too big a spell, but I've never seen one manage to melt her hair before." He turned back to the nurses. "I need you to cut that melted section of her mane off, and to treat any burns it might have given her, while I run some tests to find out how badly she's overstrained herself."

Despite their efforts to remain professional, several of the nurses couldn't help grimacing as they used fresh tweezers to pull the sticky clumps of melted hair off Amethyst's forehead, revealing painful-looking burns underneath. As they cleaned and bandaged said burns, the unicorn doctor felt all four of Amethyst's legs, then lifted each of them one at a time as if weighing them before carefully lowering them back onto the bed. He fired up his horn and swept the beam that emanated from it up and down Amethyst's body. Frowning, he hurried out of the room, and returned a few moments later with a clipboard of papers that he kept checking as he swept the beam from his horn over Amethyst's body a second time. Amethyst remained deathly still through the whole ordeal; only the minute rise and fall of her chest indicating that she was still alive.

Finally the doctor stepped back and the nurses—who had finished treating Amethyst's burns and were now tending to her bruises—looked up to hear his verdict.

"It seems she tried to do a teleportation spell," said the doctor. "That fits with what the receptionist told me. Apparently everything was business as usual in the waiting room when Amethyst and that mass of organs just flashed into existence right there in front of everypony." He looked down at a chart on the clipboard. "Normally I wouldn't consider a coma fortunate, but considering how low Amethyst's magic levels have always tested out during her checkups, it's a wonder she's still alive."

"She's not the only one," said a unicorn mare doctor as she stepped into the room. Right behind her came a third unicorn wearing a tech-pony's vest.

"What do you mean?" asked one of the nurses.

"We've got that blob of organs as stabilized as possible for now," said the female doctor. "She's hooked up to a life-support system, and we've replaced that earlier emergency bubble with a stronger one that will protect her from outside elements."

The young curly-maned nurse's eyes widened. "You mean that ... that ... thing from earlier was still alive?!"

The female doctor nodded. "I know, ordinarily that should be medically impossible but the spell that turned that pony inside-out kept her magically alive through the process."

"That's not all," said the tech-pony. "I checked that spell against the information Princess Twilight gave us earlier ... and it's identical to the spell that was done on Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie."

Discord wasn't sure what they were talking about, but he noticed a definite chill seemed to sweep through the group at these words, and several of them raised their right front hooves, looking uneasily at pink heart-shaped charms they all seemed to have pressed into the undersides.

"Still," said the female doctor, lowering her hoof and inhaling deeply as if to settle herself. "We're fortunate we got that pony hooked up to that life-support system when we did, because the life-sustaining part of that inside-out spell was wearing off. I really think if we'd gotten to her even just five minutes later ... she'd have died on the stretcher."

"So ... that's good isn't it?" the curly-maned nurse asked, her voice cautiously hopeful.

But the female doctor didn't smile. "Unfortunately none of us know any spells to safely turn her right-side out again. It's a delicate enough operation just keeping her alive as it is. If we tried the wrong spell by mistake, it could end up killing her."

"Are you saying...?"

The doctor nodded grimly. "She could be trapped in that inside-out state forever unless we can find the right spell to reverse it."

"You keep saying 'she'," said a nurse with a white coat and a pale pink mane and tail. "How can you tell it's a mare?"

"We took blood and tissue samples for DNA testing and found a match." The doctor hesitated a moment before going on. "That inside-out pony is Muffins."

The curly-maned nurse gave her a puzzled stare. "Muffins?"

"Derpy," said the male doctor.

"Oh!" said the nurse, stretching out the syllable in realization as her eyes darted back toward Amethyst.

The male doctor nodded. "Yes, she's Muffins on her birth certificate and official records, but apart from that, everypony seems to call her 'Derpy' for some reason that's never really been explained to me."

A nurse with a light blue coat and an aqua green mane and tail shuddered. "Oh, that poor thing. She let that draconequus stay at her house, and this is how he repays her?"

What?! Discord could not have been more flabbergasted if one of the ponies had suddenly leapt up and kicked him in his invisible face. What in the world had prompted them to think he had done that to Derpy?! Granted turning ponies wrong-side out might prove to be an interesting, if overly gruesome way to toy with them, but—

He was snapped back to reality when the tech-pony suddenly spoke up.

"He must have tried to murder Derpy, but before he could actually make her explode, Amethyst must have managed to teleport her mother away from him."

"And then collapsed from trying to use such a powerful spell," the male doctor added.

"But then ... what do you think happened to the younger daughter, Dinky?" asked the curly-maned nurse.

"I'm not sure I want to know," said one of the older nurses, lowering her gaze.

Humph! You might not, but I do! Discord mentally muttered as he teleported to Derpy's house. He had lost track of Dinky's signature in the confusion of earlier, and unless she produced another equally powerful surge, he would be unable to find it again, so he felt checking the house for clues to her whereabouts was his best bet.

He appeared floating in front of the house. By then it was well into evening but he still took care to keep himself invisible. Once his eyes had adjusted to the dim light, he noticed that both the house's front door and one of its second story windows were wide open. Then as he glided up to the house, he saw that the ground around the front door looked churned up as if several ponies had been rolling about on it. And there also seemed to be ... small spots of dried blood here and there...

Shrinking himself down so that he wouldn't accidentally brush up against anything that might be a possible clue, he glided through the open door. Once inside, he noticed a trail of damp patches that looked like hoofprints leading from the kitchen to the front door. Too small to be Derpy's or Amethyst's, he mused. Must be Dinky's. He followed the trail into the kitchen where he found a bowl of half-finished veggie loaf getting stale on the counter, and a large pot of drained beans scorching on the still-warm stove. They must have been in the middle of getting dinner ready...

He moved silently through the house, carefully examining each room but finding neither Dinky, nor any signs of a struggle that would result in the kind of bruises he had seen on Amethyst. Finally he came to the last room and flashed himself inside without opening the door. He found himself in the bathroom which also turned out to be the room with the open window. The bathroom looked as untouched as the rest of the house, except for a couple of damp wadded-up towels tossed carelessly on the floor. There were several long blonde hairs stuck to the towels, and Discord wondered if they might be Dinky's. He snapped his talons and the towels instantly smoothed themselves out as wrinkle-free as if they had been flattened by an invisible iron. With them spread out like that, he noticed that there was also a good deal of short gray hair stuck to them, and decided that the blonde hairs must belong to Derpy rather than to her daughter. He snapped his talons again and the towels quickly re-wadded themselves into their original shape.

The draconequus allowed himself to drift backwards out the open window, toying absently with the ring in his lower lip as he mulled over what he had seen in the house. Dinky must have run to the front door, but why? It looked like there had been some sort of scuffle, but had that happened before or after Dinky had run to the door? And what about Amethyst and Derpy? He still had no idea why those ponies at the hospital had seemed so convinced that he was behind that attack on Der—

Wait a minute! The tech-pony had mentioned something about a spell identical to the one that had turned Derpy inside-out ... also being done on Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash!

Discord promptly teleported himself back to the hospital, intending both to retrieve the tattoo he had sent to trail the patient he now knew to be Derpy, and to see if he could find out more about these alleged attacks on the other ponies.

Fluttershy soaked a washcloth in cold water and pressed it against Dinky's forehead, taking care not to let it brush against the young unicorn's still burning-hot horn in the process. It was past midnight by now, and she had spent the last several hours bathing Dinky's forehead in hopes of breaking the unicorn's fever, taking only occasional short breaks to check on the two sleeping wrestlers. Now she moved to check on Screwjob once again. She had covered him with a blanket earlier but somehow he had managed to get most of it stuck underneath him when he had rolled over onto his back. She gently tugged the blanket out from under him and covered him with it again. She had just finished tucking it in when she heard a low groan come from her bedroom.

Highflyer?

There was a pause, then another groan. Another pause, then another groan. As the groans got louder and louder with shorter and shorter pauses between them, Fluttershy padded quickly but quietly to her room.

"Highflyer?" she asked, peeking around the door.

The lump under the blankets halted mid-groan. "You heard that?" The end of the lump closer to the head of the bed twitched, and let out another groan.

Fluttershy hurried over to the side of the bed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm stuck," said the blanket-covered lump.

Fluttershy frowned. "What do you mean you're stuck?"

Grunting and groaning, Highflyer tossed his head until he managed to shake the blanket off it. "I mean I'm stuck. I can't roll over and I can't make my limbs move. They've been stiff when I've woken up before but never this bad."

"Hmm." Fluttershy moved around the bed so that she was behind him and lifted the blanket, studying his bandaged back and splinted wings.

Highflyer tried to look over his shoulder at her, but couldn't seem to turn his neck that far. "What are you—? Ahh!" Highflyer cried out as Fluttershy suddenly rammed her hooves into his back right between the shoulder blades and the wing joints, forcing him to roll onto his stomach in the process. He cried out a second time as she pulled his forelegs back behind him and he felt something pop in both shoulders. If anypony else had tried doing this to him, he would have gotten his hind legs up (never mind the pain) and kicked that pony into the far wall. But the fact that the normally gentle Fluttershy was doing it left him too stunned to fight back. She suddenly let go of his forelegs, and wrenched his neck about as if she intended to twist it clean off—when he suddenly felt his cramped muscles loosen.

As Fluttershy released his neck, Highflyer's cry of pain immediately turned to one of relief, and he rested his masked forehead against the mattress, breathing hard.

"Ooooooh, I don't know what you did, but thanks." He sat up, carefully turning his head from side to side. "Ooh, that feels so much better." He rolled each of his tattooed forelegs about in their sockets, enjoying the easy movement. "Where'd you learn to do that? A chiropractor?"

"Helping out a couple of bears actually."

Highflyer's eyebrows went up so high they made visible creases in his mask.

Fluttershy quickly changed the subject. "Um, do your back and wings still hurt?"

He squirmed about experimentally for a few seconds before answering. "Yeah, but I can live with that now that I can move again. By the way, how are Screwjob and the kid doing?"

"They were still asleep when I came in to check on you."

Highflyer's limbs trembled as he got them under him, but when he jumped off the bed, he landed solidly. "I want to see them."

The unicorn and the earth pony both seemed to still be asleep when the two pegasi padded back into the main room. Highflyer watched as Fluttershy checked the cloth she had left on Dinky's forehead.

"She's still feverish, and her horn's still too hot to touch," Fluttershy reported, tucking a blanket in more firmly under the unicorn's unmoving chin, before she and Highflyer both went over to examine Screwjob.

"I'm surprised my hollering didn't wake him up," Highflyer muttered. "If it had, he probably would have made some crack about it being music to his ears." The tiny stallion tried to keep his voice light, but it came out sounding tense and forced.

"Highflyer ... what's wrong? Are you worried about him?"

Highflyer looked up at Fluttershy. "You saw the way he was stumbling about earlier. How out of it he seemed. What if Chrysalis gave him a concussion? A really damaging one? I mean this," he gestured to his own bandaged torso and splinted wings. "This is nothing. It can heal and I can go right back to wrestling, but the brain damage you can get from a concussion..." He looked away, shaking his head. "I've seen so many wrestlers who are still in great shape physically forced to retire because they've been concussed one too many times. I've even heard of some dying from it."

"Now, Highflyer, let's not get too worked up about this," Fluttershy said quickly. "After all, he was walking and talking under his own power earlier. I don't think he would have been able to do that if he'd been concussed very badly." At least, I hope not, she added in her thoughts. She couldn't really blame Highflyer for being concerned as she had privately been having similar feelings, but she also knew that anxiety wouldn't do the tiny stallion any good at the moment. "Let's give a doctor a chance to look at him before we start worrying about something we can't control."

"I know, it's just..." Highflyer suddenly reached out and stroked Screwjob's black forelock with surprising tenderness. "The idea of Jobs having to retire like that... He's not just any old wrestler, Fluttershy, he's ... he's..."

"He's your friend?" Fluttershy suggested as he struggled to put his feelings into words.

"Oh, he's more than that, Fluttershy." Highflyer turned to face her more fully, allowing his hoof to slide off Screwjob's head. "When I was first trying to get into wrestling, no company would take me. It didn't matter how many times I whopped ponies three or four times my size, every manager took one look at me and laughed at the idea of me being a wrestler.

"But not Screwjob. Somehow he saw potential in me that nopony else did. And you gotta understand when it comes to wrestling: Screwjob's got it all. Good looks, great technical skill, big enough to work a brawling-style match, but also agile enough to work a high-flying one. Every company wanted him and was ready to start handing him championship titles on diamond-studded silver platters. But instead he urged them to take me on. Practically told them he'd quit if they didn't give me a chance."

"I had to get you in there and established as a face, or those companies would have tried to bill me as a face. Blech!"

"Jobs!" The two pegasi looked back toward the couch to see Screwjob sitting up and blinking his one visible eye at them.

The earth pony yawned and stretched. "High, as much as I like hearing how wonderful I am, I refuse to let you spread propaganda. I pushed for them to take you on because it would allow me to maintain my heel status. No more, no less. And as for that alleged brain damage..." His head dropped back onto the pillow and he let out a second yawn before continuing. "Son, haven't you realized by now that my handsome head is solid bone?" His visible eye drifted shut as he murmured "You can't damage what's not there."

"Well, his mouth came through unscathed if nothing else," Highflyer muttered as Screwjob seemed to fall back asleep. Then he glanced over at the clock and frowned. "Fluttershy, have you gotten any sleep?"

"Not really," she admitted, fighting a sudden urge to yawn.

"Hmm, I don't really want to go back to sleep just yet, since my muscles will probably start cramping up again if I do. Why don't you try and squeeze in a few hours of sleep before morning? I can watch Jobs and Dinky."

When Discord reappeared in Amethyst's room, he noticed that it now seemed to be empty save for the unconscious unicorn in the hospital bed, and a burly security guard sitting in a nearby chair. Though Discord had made sure to stay invisible and to omit the usual flash that accompanied his teleportation, the guard's head still snapped up at his arrival. The tough-looking pony peered suspiciously around the room, as if some sixth sense was warning him of the unseen intruder. Discord was not intimidated by the guard's size or appearance, but he didn't want to risk alerting anypony to his presence until he could find out why they thought he had attacked Derpy. So he phased his invisible body through the nearest wall and found himself in a dark room that was empty apart from a vacant hospital bed and a couple of bedside chairs. He glanced over at the door and it promptly locked itself. Satisfied that he wouldn't be disturbed, he snapped his fingers and an ink moth the size of a serving platter appeared fluttering on his paw. Realizing he had forgotten to de-shrink himself from earlier, he hastily corrected this, and plonked his behind into one of the available chairs.

"Alright, let's see what you got," he muttered to the moth, which was now its usual more manageable size. Rolling the tattoo up into a cone, he stuck the tip of it into his ear, and smacked the wider end several times as if it were the bottom of a ketchup bottle. Then he unrolled the cone and stretched the tattoo's wings across his face like a mask, lining the wings' eye spots up with his own eyes.

Immediately his ears were filled with the cacophony of several ponies shouting directions, and through the eye spots he saw the doctors from earlier racing down a hall with the stretcher bearing the large opaque bubble. Every now and then the bubble's membrane would flicker from opaque to translucent, giving a brief glimpse of the gruesome sight inside, but each time a unicorn would swiftly lean in and fire magic into the bubble, returning it to its opaque state.

However none of the sounds were matching up with the images and Discord had to spend several moments twisting the ends of the tattoo's wings back and forth to get the sights and sounds synchronized. By the time he had succeeded, the doctors were wheeling the stretcher into an operating room. Deciding to hurry things on a bit, he pulled the tattoo tighter across his eyes and the images sped up while the sound turned squeaky.

Unicorns darted to and fro, shooting their magic into the bubble surrounding Derpy, while the remaining ponies maneuvered pumps, tubes, and bags of liquid into position. Several long syringes were jammed into the bubble's membrane, and presumably into the blood vessels pulsing beneath it, judging by the crimson liquid that shot up into them. The syringes were swiftly withdrawn and replaced with tubes attached to various machines. Soon the doctors were joined by several tech-ponies who began running their own tests and spells on the blood samples the doctors had collected.

Then as the activity seemed to die down slightly, Discord thought he heard his name mentioned amidst the high-pitched chatter. He quickly rewound the scene enough to hear that bit at normal speed.

"—contacted Princess Twilight, and she's looking for a spell to turn Derpy right-side out again," said a tech-pony to the doctors. "In the meantime you just focus on keeping her alive."

"But what if Discord shows up before then to try and finish the job?" asked a nurse fretfully.

"In that case, don't hesitate to set off your alarm charm." The tech-pony paused, as if a new thought had just occurred to him, then added, "You do have one right?"

"Of course," said the nurse, and briefly raised a hoof to reveal a heart-shaped charm identical to the ones Discord had seen earlier on the other ponies' hooves.

After that little exchange there were several moments of silence—broken only by the beep of a heart monitor, and the hiss of a pump feeding oxygen straight into the lungs now outside Derpy's body—before a tech-pony examining a blood sample spoke up. "You know the only thing I don't get is why would Discord go after Derpy in the first place? I mean Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash I can at least understand, considering they're two of the Element Bearers that could apparently turn him back to stone. With them out of the way, he's free, and who knows when those two Elements will choose new Bearers?"

"What ponies would even agree to be new Bearers if it meant Discord might try to murder them?" a doctor muttered, and Discord bristled.

You honestly think I'd stoop to something as mundane as murder to take out my opponents?! Well, I for one am insulted! I'm much more creative than that!

"But Derpy," the tech-pony went on just as if the doctor hadn't spoken. "She's just kind of a nopony who can't see straight. Why would he consider her a threat?"

The ponies pondered this before a pink-coated nurse spoke up tentatively. "You don't suppose he attacked her just to make a point that it doesn't matter even if you invite him right into your house, he'll still cheerfully murder you when he's through?"

Oh, honestly—!

Before Discord could finish this scornful thought, he was interrupted by a yellow-coated nurse. "Is it really that surprising considering how easily he tossed Fluttershy aside last year?"

Easy! You think that was easy?! I—!

Suddenly a new realization snapped into place, causing him to halt mid-rant.

Fluttershy!

Fluttershy was an Element Bearer just like Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, and she had allowed him to stay as her houseguest just as Derpy had!

Tuh! Coincidence! he tried to convince himself. Mere coincidence!

But what if it's not?

It is! And even if it isn't, who cares?! She's just one easily disposable pony in a whole world of them. I don't care about her. I don't need her! I don't, I don't, I ... I...

He tried to continue, but his moth tattoos were swarming up and down his neck and his dragon tattoo was twisting itself so wildly over his body, he could barely think.

I ... don't...

At that moment his dragon tattoo reached up and dug its claws into the back of his head. Suddenly the image of the operating room in the moth tattoo's eye spots was replaced with another one: Fluttershy lying on the ground with fresh noose marks digging deep furrows in her throat. He saw his own hand gingerly shaking her by the shoulder, and heard his own voice desperately urging her to breathe, but she just continued to lay there, limp, unbreathing, lifeless. Then after what was probably only seconds but felt much longer, he saw his trembling hand lift away from her shoulder. A moment later his other hand came into view, and both hands gently scooped up his former partner, cradling her close.

No! That's not what happened! Discord ripped the tattoo away from his face, scarcely noticing or caring as it slipped out of his grasp and lighted on his neck where it melted back into his skin. The draconequus squeezed his eyes shut but it did nothing to block out the image in his mind of Fluttershy lying dead in his arms. That's not what happened! She survived! I know she did!

At that moment the pony in his arms moved but not in the way he had been hoping for. Her limbs were slowly starting to contort, to fold back and turn inside—

No! As his eyes snapped open, the dark room around him vanished, and he suddenly found himself floating in front of Fluttershy's cottage. He shot toward the nearest window, but it was shuttered tight, preventing him from being able to see inside. He darted about, checking the rest of the windows but found them all covered as well.

Not that that would stop him from seeing inside.

A pair of x-ray glasses flashed into his upraised paw, and he quickly slipped them over his eyes as he pulled to a stop next to Fluttershy's bedroom window. Peering in, he felt his chest tighten when he saw Fluttershy lying in bed, looking just as horribly still as she had been in his imagination. Whipping off the glasses and tossing them aside, he teleported into the room, touching down right next to the bed.

As he lowered his head to get a closer look at Fluttershy, he now noticed that her closed eyelids were twitching minutely but constantly, indicating that she was deep in a dream. It was such a simple little thing, those tiny muscle movements around the eyes, but at the sight of them, Discord quickly let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding until then. Yes, maybe the similarities he had noticed between her and the victims were just a coincidence, but still...

He shoved the thought away. She was alive, and that was what mattered. Now, as he gazed down at the pony he hadn't seen in over a year, he found himself wishing he could just drop his invisibility, wake her as casually as if he had never left, and they could pick up things right where they had left off. But deep down he also knew it couldn't be that way. She would doubtless want to know why he had left, and if he told her he had thrown their whole relationship away for what now felt like the flimsiest of reasons...

He let out a soft half-groan, half-growl of frustration at this current conundrum. That he could be so close to this pony he loved—not just a dream version of her, but the real flesh-and-blood deal—and yet still feel so completely cut off from her. He slumped dejectedly, unconsciously putting his invisible hands on the edge of the bed for support. This caused that side of the mattress to shift down and as it did, Fluttershy's foreleg on that side slipped off her blanket to dangle over the edge of the bed. Discord caught a glimpse of something pink on the underside of that hoof, and the sight of it hit him like a punch in the gut as he realized it was a charm identical to the ones carried by the ponies at the hospital.

His eyes slowly rose from the charm to Fluttershy's sleeping face. Does this mean you think I'm as guilty as they seem to?

Learning that the ponies at the hospital viewed him as a murderer had been a shock but it hadn't hurt the way it did when he thought of Fluttershy holding that view.

He looked from her face to the charm and back again, feeling torn between wanting to wake her up and declare his innocence to her, and terrified of the accusation he might see in her eyes at the sight of him. You ... you can't really think I killed your friends. Can you?

Of course there was no reply from her except soft breathing broken occasionally by a soft moan or snuffle. Her eyes were still darting about under their closed lids and he wondered what she could be dreaming about. Then a new idea occurred to him; a way that he could find out both what she was dreaming about, and whether or not she thought he was guilty, both without her ever being any the wiser.

He gently slid his invisible fingers over the sides of her head, willing himself to dive into her dream.

When Fluttershy had gotten into bed earlier, she had shut her eyes and tried to sleep. But her brain refused to settle down. So much had happened since that day when she had waited at the post office for Skywishes ... four days ago? And the information Highflyer had given her hadn't so much answered earlier questions as it had added new ones.

Where had these apparently new changeling hybrids come from? Why had they waited so long to strike? Why had they gone after Derpy's family? Did that attack clear Discord? Was the attack even connected with him? What had happened to Derpy and Amethyst? How much of Twilight's information could be trusted?! Couldn't the eye-witnesses have somehow been mistaken?! Could the changelings take Discord's shape or couldn't they?!

Fluttershy began to feel as if all the questions were physically crowding in on her, all shouting to be heard. Oh, how she longed for the aid Discord had given her with Applejack's disappearance! She tried to cower down, but it felt as if there were ropes wrapping themselves around her body and limbs, trying to pull her in every direction.

As he appeared in Fluttershy's dream, Discord found himself surrounded by darkness. He felt a wave of déjà vu as he heard a chorus of disembodied voices coming from all directions and shouting so many different things it was impossible to focus on any one of them. Looking down, he saw Fluttershy just a short distance away, writhing on the ground as flaming ropes wrapped around her, all trying to pull her in different directions. Though he knew it was all a dream, the sight of her trapped like that galvanized him into action. Allowing his invisibility to slip away, he gave his talons a particularly loud snap.

Suddenly the voices around Fluttershy died down, and she felt the ropes binding her loosen and slide off. She opened her eyes, blinking against the bright glow of the flame-like ropes as they coiled on the ground around her. Then a scaly tail with a tufted end suddenly emerged from the darkness, slid between her front legs and lifted her onto her feet. She looked up in the direction the tail had appeared from and noticed that the flaming ropes had started slithering toward that spot. As soon as they reached the spot, they began floating up into the air where they coalesced into a ball. And below that ball Fluttershy saw the beckoning fingers of a hand being held palm upward. A very familiar scaly hand with a barbed tattoo around its wrist. Fluttershy's eyes widened as the ball of fire grew larger and more pieces of the draconequus became visible.

Looking further up to where his head should have been, she couldn't make out his facial features but she could see his yellow eyes glowing in the dark, fixed on her. At the sight of them, Fluttershy suddenly felt self-conscious. What a mess she must be. She quickly brought her hooves up to wipe at her face and push her mane back.

But as her hooves reached her temples, they encountered something that shouldn't have been there.

Fingers! Short furry ones on her left side, and long scaly ones on the right!

The fingers flinched at her touch and the taloned hand holding the ball of fire jerked.

What—?! Suddenly Fluttershy's eyes snapped open and she was back in her bed.

And above her was—!

As Fluttershy ran her hooves over her temples, Discord felt something unseen bump his fingers, and seconds later the dream around them suddenly dissolved.

He was floating above Fluttershy with his fingers pressed against the sides of her head, and her hooves covering those fingers. Her eyes were staring up at him, so wide he could see his reflection in them.

His reflection...?

He must have accidentally dropped his invisibility in the real world as well as the dream one!

Realizing this, he promptly vanished in a flash of light.

Fluttershy flinched as the sudden flash of light seemed to punch her hard in both eyes. She was still blinking rapidly when there was a series of quick knocks on her bedroom door, causing her to flinch a second time.

"Fluttershy?" Highflyer asked, easing the door open enough to poke his masked head around it. "Hey, sorry to bother you, but Jobs woke up again, and he and I are feeling kinda hungry, so I was wondering if—?"

"Oh," Fluttershy stammered, blushing. "Y-yes. Sorry, I didn't think about that earlier. Th-th-there's food in the kitchen. Just help yourselves to whatever you want."

"Thanks. Oh, you don't have to get up," he added as Fluttershy moved as if to do so. "We can take care of ourselves."

At that moment Screwjob demanded loudly from the main room, "High, where the hay are my pants?"

"They're drying on the stove," Highflyer called back over his shoulder before turning back to Fluttershy. "Thanks again," he said before shutting the door.

Fluttershy lay back in the bed, but didn't shut her eyes. Instead she stared up at the ceiling.

Just about where she had seen Discord earlier.

Had she really seen him? Or had it just been the remains of her dream?

It must have been the remains of the dream. Yes, that knock at the door had woken her up, and...

But no. She had been awake before that knock on the door... Then she remembered the way his fingers had flinched in the dream at the very same moment she had felt those fingers on the sides of her head. Was it possible that...?

She scrambled quickly but quietly out of bed and found a pencil and paper.

Discord, she wrote, but she was trembling so hard, it was difficult to keep the pencil steady. We need to talk. It's urgent. Pinkie and Rainbow have been murdered and ponies think you're behind it, but I think something else is going on.

She proceeded to describe what Highflyer had told her about his and Screwjob's trip to visit Derpy, their encounter with the changelings, and how they and Dinky had ended up at the cottage. She finished up with:

I think these attacks are connected but I'm not sure how. I don't know what happened between us, but I desperately need your help now. Please.

Signing her name, she folded the paper and labeled it For Discord. She climbed back into bed and lay there with the letter in her hooves, trying to will herself to sleep.

But a nagging voice in the back of her head prevented that. What are you hoping for? That you'll take that letter into your dream and he'll be waiting there for it? That he'll come back and read it while you're asleep? You're desperate, Fluttershy. And you know it.

She raised the letter and stared at it through a haze of growing tears. She had been taken in by her dreams so many times before, and this was just one more time. She rested the letter on her chest, and let out a shuddering breath, fighting not to cry.

"Where are you, Discord?" she murmured toward the ceiling, wondering at the same time why she insisted on torturing herself with that question when she knew full well she would never get an ans—

"I'm right beside you, Fluttershy."

The voice was a gentle whisper in her ear, but Fluttershy reacted as if a bomb had gone off, flinching away with a loud gasp that was close to a scream. But the sound hadn't even gotten fully out of her mouth before an unseen paw quickly closed it.

"Shh!" the voice hissed urgently into her ear. "Don't—"

No! No, this wasn't possible! She was imagining it! She was dreaming! Dropping the letter, Fluttershy pinched her foreleg hard enough that it forced tears from her eyes, and she sobbed into the paw covering her mouth. Oh, she was most definitely awake now!

But then ... why did she still feel that paw on her mouth?!

"Please," his unmistakable voice pleaded. "D-don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you."

Discord could feel Fluttershy's breath sucking rapidly against his paw pad as she fought not to hyperventilate into it. His eagle claw began stroking her mane in what he hoped would be a calming way as he mentally cursed himself for ending up in this unplanned position.

He hadn't intended to reveal his presence, but when he had heard the pain in her voice he had felt a sudden urge to ease it, and the words had slipped out of his mouth before he had even realized what he was doing.

Fluttershy raised her hooves toward her face, and he felt them press against the back of his paw, but not as if she was trying to pull it away. In fact she seemed to be trying to press it even closer to her face.

Fluttershy tried to steady her crashing heartbeat, but it refused to cooperate as her hooves traced the shape of the invisible paw pressed against her face, relearning the texture of its fur. Then she noticed the taloned fingers running gently through her mane, lightly scratching her scalp but taking care not to break the skin.

Just as those same fingers had done over a year ago in a small cabin at Sweet Apple Acres!

He was here! Her former partner had finally returned!

Then she thought of the wrestlers downstairs. Had they heard her? Had they heard Discord? What if they used those charms on their hooves to set off the alarm before she could get a chance to talk with Discord?!

She strained her ears to hear what was going on below.

"High, are my tights done yet?"

This question was greeted by a snort. "Done? Are you kidding, they are done to a crisp. Good luck trying to shimmy into these."

This was followed by the rustle of spandex, and Fluttershy relaxed slightly. Then she felt Discord's hand slip away from her face and she tried to cling to it.

"No, don't go!" she whisper-shouted.

"I'm not, I'm not," he whispered back, a moment before his paw suddenly vanished from her grasp, and his talons just as suddenly vanished from her mane. Fluttershy's chest went painfully tight, (He's left me again!) but then the letter she had dropped on the bed flipped itself open. There was a flash of light and an illustration of a draconequus walked into view across the paper. He looked up at the words written above him, and Fluttershy wondered if he had had a chance to read them earlier.

"Discord," she whispered. "Do you know—?"

He turned back to her, keeping his own voice low as well. "About the murders of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie? Yes. And the attempted-albeit-unsuccessful murder of Derpy."

"Wait, why do you say unsuccessful?" Fluttershy asked, scarcely daring to hope. "Do you know what happened to Derpy and Amethyst?"

"I saw them both in the hospital just a few hours ago."

"H-how are they? Are they all right?"

"Oh, Derpy's on a life-support system so she's reasonably stable considering her whole body is currently inside-out," he said with studied casualness.

"And Amethyst?"

"She's in a coma," said Discord, studying the claws on his paw. "Overstrained herself doing a teleportation spell."

Fluttershy felt a mixture of relief at the news that Dinky's mother and sister were still alive, and worry at their current medical conditions.

Discord glanced up at her sidelong, the expression on his illustrated face difficult to read. "You know, all the ponies at the hospital seemed under the impression that I tried to kill Derpy and Amethyst. Just as I apparently did with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie."

"Discord..."

He turned to face her fully. "What would you do if it was me?"

Fluttershy hesitated. Why would he ask something like that? "Do you ... mean if you were behind the attacks?"

He gave her a single deep nod.

"I ... I don't believe you did it, Discord." She looked down at the charm attached to her hoof before balling her hoof into a fist to hide it. She turned back to the illustrated draconequus. "I know for a fact that you didn't go after Derpy, and I don't believe you killed Rainbow or Pinkie either." The conviction in her voice strengthened. "I believe you're innocent."

This whispered proclamation was met with a patronizing chuckle. "Oh, my dear girl, you of all ponies should realize I am far from innocent."

Fluttershy felt her breath catch at this. Was he saying that he—?!

"But no," he went on, all amusement now gone from his voice. "I didn't kill Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie. You can rest easy on that account."

I didn't kill Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie. As those eight words replayed in her mind, Fluttershy felt as if a weight had suddenly fallen away from her. It had been one thing to feel in her heart that Discord was secretly innocent, but to hear her former partner come right out and say he didn't do it...

"Oh, Discord, you don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that..." She quickly wiped at her eyes and sniffed to hold back relieved tears. "But we don't really have time for that just now. You're being framed. I don't know how much of my letter you read, but I think the changelings who went after Derpy's family are behind it. I'm not sure how, but they've figured out some way to make it look like you murdered Rainbow and Pinkie in front of eye-witnesses."

"Hmm, I see," the illustration murmured, stroking his beard pensively. "And who exactly were these witnesses?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Cake said they saw you murder Pinkie Pie, and a retired Wonderbolt called Haystings said he saw you murder Rainbow Da—"

"That's all I wanted to know! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lead to check out."

"What—?!" You're leaving?!

"Stay put and don't let anypony in the house—your current downstairs company excepted—until you hear from me, I'll be back soon."

"No!" she choked out. "Please, don't leave me!" The last time he had left her, she had not heard from him for a full year!

"I'll only be gone a couple of hours at the most this time, Fluttershy." The illustration leaned forward. "I promise I'll come back."

"But—"

"Au revoir, darling." With that the illustration blew her a kiss and vanished in a flash of light.

"Wait, Discord!"

But it was too late. He was gone. Fluttershy stared at the blank portion of the paper that the illustration had occupied just seconds ago. She began to wonder, no, to fear that she had just imagined the whole encounter, when—

"Fluttershy, who are you talking to?" Screwjob suddenly asked, startling her as he poked his bandaged head around the door.

Fluttershy scrambled for an answer. "Oh, uh, nopony."

"Then how come I heard a guy's voice in here?"

Fluttershy's heart skipped a beat. "Y-you did?"

"Correct-o. And—"

Suddenly Fluttershy lunged off the bed, and pulled the wrestler into a tight hug. She hadn't imagined Discord was there! She couldn't have if Screwjob had heard him as well! She suddenly felt giddy enough she could have kissed Screwjob right on his bearded mouth, but quickly checked herself when she saw the terrified expression on his face.

"Woah! Hold it right there! Halt! Stop!" he shouted. "Off! Off! Off!"

She released him, and he—looking decidedly shaken at receiving such an affectionate gesture from the normally shy pegasus—set about straightening the black shirt he must have reclaimed when he had collected his wrestling tights.

"Look, honey, you're a nice pony and all, but I prefer blondes." He glanced at her coat. "Oh. I guess you're kind of blonde... Uh, what I meant was—"

Fluttershy had to smile at his fumbling. "You're still holding out hope for a certain country mare?"

"Ah, yes, as a matter of fact I am. So what's the idea of jumping all over me like that?"

Now it was Fluttershy's turn to be uncomfortable and fumble for an answer. "Oh, I, um, I'm just glad that you're up and about, since Highflyer and I were both worried about you. Say, how come you're over here instead of in the kitchen?"

"I came to ask you if you have any sports tape." He raised a bare foreleg. "I can't go around with naked forelegs. It's indecent. So I marched myself over here, and I hear not just your voice but some guy's voice as well. Now who were you talking to?"

"Um, couldn't you tell who it was by what we were saying?" she stalled.

"No, you were both mumbling and it was all muffled through the door," said Screwjob, leaning down to peek under the bed.

"Um, well, that other voice was, um ... that was probably just me talking in my sleep."

Screwjob's head came up fast, and whipped around to face her. He arched his intact eyebrow, but the effect was spoiled a bit by the fact that the other one was hidden under bandages. "You expect me to believe that decidedly masculine voice came out of your mouth?"

Fluttershy blushed, remembering an incident long ago involving some poison joke. "You'd be surprised."

Chapter 10. Proverbs 27:5

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Chapter 10

"Better is open rebuke than hidden love."—Proverbs 27:5

Since they kept baker's hours, the Cakes woke well before dawn, and made their way downstairs to look over the bakery. All the ovens had been shut off, depriving the kitchen of its usual inviting warmth. Most of Pinkie's remains had been cleaned up, but they still hadn't gotten all the bloodstains out of the woodwork, and thus the place still stank of blood. They definitely wouldn't be reopening anytime soon. Moving to one of the front windows, they parted its curtains to find the window itself coated in frost. They each wiped a section of the window clear and peeked outside. The streets were deserted but the fear and tension emanating from the other houses was so strong the Cakes could almost taste it.

Letting the curtains fall back in place, they started to turn away from the window...

When a lion's paw and eagle's claw seemed to emerge from thin air in front of them and clamped over their faces!

"Guess who!" a gleeful baritone jeered a moment before the Cakes were plunged into darkness.

Fluttershy watched Screwjob nervously, wondering if he would buy her explanation, when the tall stallion suddenly looked away and lowered his head, massaging it with his hoof.

"Are you all right?" she asked, hurrying to his side.

"It hurts," he groaned. "Oh, how it hurts."

"You mean your head?"

"Affirmative."

She quickly offered him a shoulder to lean on, and guided him back to the main room. As they entered, Highflyer looked up from sponging Dinky's forehead with a cold cloth.

"Jobs—?"

Screwjob took his hoof away from his forehead and thrust it out in a gesture for silence. "Headache," was all he got out before pressing his hoof back over his forehead. Highflyer watched anxiously as Fluttershy steered his friend over to the couch. The tall wrestler leaned back, groaning with his hooves pressed over both his bandaged eye and his exposed one.

"Is the light bothering you?" Fluttershy asked.

"Uh-huh."

She picked up the blanket she had wrapped him in earlier, and draped it over him so that it now covered his head and upper body.

"Hank you," he said, his voice slightly muffled by the blanket.

"I'll get you a cold pack for your headache." Fluttershy started to turn away from the couch and almost collided with Highflyer, who had come up silently behind her. As the tiny wrestler skipped nimbly out of her way, Fluttershy noticed that not only had he put his now-dry shirt back on, but that it was almost completely ripped down the back with only a scant inch or two of material at the neck and hem holding it together. "And I'll see if I can find you some more intact clothes to wear," she added.

His eyes darted over her and a wry grin twitched across his mouth. "I don't think you have anything in my size, but you're welcome to look."

Going to the stash of supplies that she normally would use on her injured animal friends, Fluttershy found a cold pack, then added a roll of bandages just in case Screwjob still insisted on rewrapping his forelegs. Carrying the supplies to her bedroom, she was about to look through her clothes when she noticed the letter she had written to Discord lying on the floor. She must have dropped it when he had startled her earlier.

Setting down the supplies, she moved to pick up the note. There was still no visible evidence that just a few minutes ago her former partner had turned himself into an illustration on that paper to speak to her. Now as she gazed at her written words, her throat went tight. Her earlier euphoria at hearing from him had faded to be replaced by anxiety and uncertainty. Where was Discord now? He had said he would come back soon, but...

Looking up from the letter, her eyes landed on the scarf she had knit for Discord lying among her blankets.

...But he had also said he would be waiting for her to come home, only for her to come home and find him gone with that very scarf thrown in the trash.

"Wakey-wakey! Eggs and bakey!" The baritone voice, now sounding obnoxiously over-cheerful, yanked Mr. and Mrs. Cake back to consciousness. Then a bright light snapped on above them, making them flinch. They tried to put their hooves up over their eyes, but couldn't move their forelegs. Blinking painfully against the light, they started to lower their heads to see what was hindering their movements, but froze when they felt ropes press into their throats. They heard a moan to their left and both cautiously turned their heads in that direction to see a tan-colored pegasus in a rumpled Wonderbolt jacket. He was tied up with a noose around his neck just as they were, and looked every bit as frightened and confused as they felt.

"You didn't even try to guess who earlier," said the baritone voice in a falsely petulant tone. The three ponies looked about wildly, taking care not to pull against the nooses around their necks, but also desperate to find the source of the voice.

At first they could make out nothing in the darkness beyond the bright light that shone down on them, but then as their eyes adjusted, they noticed a faint glow in the darkness. They focused on the glow and realized it was coming from a barbed tattoo circling the wrist of a taloned hand with a candy stick pinched between its first two fingers. As they made out the shape of the arm connected to that hand, they saw that it was dangling over the armrest of a high-backed chair facing away from them.

Suddenly the arm moved itself up out of sight, and the chair turned slowly to reveal its occupant.

The three ponies' eyes widened at the sight of the long serpentine body. Its tattoos were glowing a deep sinister red just bright enough to reveal the mismatched limbs and a black leather jacket covered in rivets.

But the most frightening thing was the face above that body.

It was covered in white paint that caused it to stand out starkly in the darkness. His glowing yellow eyes were ringed in black that made them appear even more sunken in than normal. The piercings in his face and ears were all smeared in red as if they were oozing blood, and a brilliant crimson stripe stretched across the ghostly mask that was his face from the left ear down to where his single fang protruded from the right side of his mouth.

He looked nothing short of demented.

"Quick!" Mrs. Cake shouted to her fellow ponies, while at the same time trying to free one of her bound hooves. "The charm! Smash it! Smash it!"

"Ah-ah-ah! Keep those hooves right where I can see them." Discord snapped his claws almost lazily and three hooves bearing charms promptly shot out in front of their owners. The ponies each tried to lower their hooves but the appendages remained frozen in midair. Then three oven mitts marched into the spotlight on their cuffs, leapt into the air, and slipped themselves over the extended hooves. A roll of duct tape soon followed, wrapping around the mitts and securing them in place.

"And don't bother trying to call for help," the draconequus added, studying the claws on his paw. "Where we are, no pony can hear you scream. But it will annoy me. You wouldn't like me when I'm annoyed. After all, you've all seen firsthoof just how quickly and easily I can kill a pony..." Keeping his head lowered, he looked up at them from under his blood-matted brows. "You don't want to give me an excuse to repeat that performance, do you?"

Three mouths clamped tight shut and three heads shook furiously.

"Gooood." Discord leaned back in his chair, which had suddenly morphed into a recliner. He started to take a draw on the candy stick, only to pluck it from his mouth and frown at it. He turned it around in his fingers a couple of times before snapping his fingers, causing a flame to appear on his thumb. He held the flame to the end of the candy stick before taking another long pull on it, this time jetting a large cloud of cotton candy from his nostrils. The three ponies' eyes widened as the flame on his thumb continued to burn, spreading to the rest of his paw, but the draconequus didn't seem to notice or care. Not even when the flames reached his jacket sleeve and the smell of burning material filled the air.

Turning his attention back to the three ponies, he pretended to do a double take. "Oh, don't be so stiff and formal on my account. Relax."

He snapped his claws and the ponies' chairs suddenly slid backwards out from under them. Despite their earlier resolve, the Cakes and Haystings all let out involuntary screams, expecting the nooses around their necks to draw tight. But instead they all floated up into the air and hovered there like balloons, the nooses around their necks holding them in place. At first Mr. and Mrs. Cake each felt a rush of relief that they weren't dead, but this swiftly wore off as they realized they had no way to control their movements as they floated about in midair. In fact this lack of gravity was actually even more unsettling than being tied up on chairs. Beside them, Haystings was no better off as his wings were bound tight to his body.

"Why are you doing this?" he wheezed at the draconequus below them.

Discord turned his head slightly as he exhaled another cloud of cotton candy, causing it to drift over his burning paw. The cloud caught fire and dissolved in a shower of sparks that lit his painted face up horribly.

"Well," he began conversationally. "It seems that according to the three of you, I murdered Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. But the odd thing is..." His voice suddenly went from jovial to sinister. "I don't remember doing it. Think you can explain that? Mm?" He cocked one crimson-coated eyebrow expectantly, but was met with only silence as the three ponies darted fearful glances at one another.

"Well, if you want to play it that way..." Tossing his candy stick aside, the draconequus raised his right arm, and, paying no attention to the flames still climbing up it, pulled on his paw as if it were the stem of a banana. Suddenly his right arm split into two arms. He repeated the pulling gesture on one of the paws and that arm also split into two, leaving him with three burning right arms. "How about I just go poking about in your little pony brains?" Without getting up from his chair, he reached those three right arms out toward the floating ponies.

The Cakes and Haystings felt the blistering heat of the flames, and tried to squirm away, screaming in panic. Discord seemed impervious to those flames, but there was no way to know if the same could be said for them. Especially with the way his jacket sleeve was being consumed. As they screamed and struggled, Discord just yawned into his eagle claw and let his right arms stretch out like rubber. The flames got hotter and hotter as the paws got closer and closer to their floating targets.

Then just before he reached them, pale blue light flashed from the three ponies' foreheads and shoved Discord's paws back, forcing his three arms into an upraised position!

Discord's eyebrows went up, then as he grunted and pushed back against the auras now encasing his paws, his mouth stretched into a triumphant grin. "Well, isn't that interesting?"

"Nice scarf," Screwjob deadpanned when Fluttershy returned to the main room with Discord's scarf wrapped around her neck, and a cold pack, bandages, and a blue winter vest tucked under one wing. Screwjob's earlier bout of light-sensitivity must have faded because he had pulled the blanket down enough to peek out over the top of it. "Will you sell it to me?"

Fluttershy's hoof flew to the scarf. "No!"

Highflyer, who was sitting next to Dinky's cot again, looked up at her sharp exclamation. "Hey, what's with that scarf anyway? It's not that cold in here. And with all due respect, that particular scarf doesn't really seem to fit your style. I mean, it stands out more than most of the stuff I wear, and that's saying something."

Fluttershy fumbled uneasily with the scarf as she mentally scrambled for an answer. She couldn't very well say: This scarf used to belong to my former partner, who everypony but me now thinks is a murderer, and I'm using it to secretly carry a letter he talked to me through. "Well, it might not feel that cold to you, but it does to me. And this scarf may be gaudy, but it's also comfortable." Looking back toward Screwjob, she added, "And it's not for sale."

"Hm. Shame. If I swaggered into the ring wearing that, I'd outrage every fashionista in the audience. Talk about drawing heat."

"If we even have careers after this," Highflyer muttered darkly. "Getting busted up when we were supposed to be taking it easy."

Screwjob snorted. "The company's not going to throw out a couple of cash cows like us." He pulled the blanket up to his forelock, and continued with his voice coming out slightly muffled. "Why do you think they put up with all of Phenom and Brimstone's antics? Their sparkling personalities? Or lack thereof? No. It's cause they rake in the bits. Pure and simple..." His voice trailed off, and the hooves gripping the blanket loosened.

"Highflyer, could you please see if this vest fits you?" Fluttershy asked, turning back to the masked stallion, and pulling the vest out from under her wing. She had noticed earlier while bandaging him up that even though Highflyer was shorter and smaller than her, his tiny frame was also bunched with enough muscle that he was proportionally much bigger in the shoulders than she was. However she was hoping the sleeveless vest would cancel out this tailoring problem.

"Hey, it's the same shade of blue as I've got on my mask," Highflyer commented as he took the vest. "Nice."

While he stripped off his torn shirt and began easing the vest over his splinted wings, Fluttershy moved past him to the couch and lifted the blanket to peer at Screwjob's face. He seemed to be asleep and she debated whether to still put the cold pack on his head. He doesn't seem to have any bumps, she mused as she gently parted his black mane to peer at the skull beneath it. Yes, despite getting his head slammed into a stone wall, Screwjob strangely had no lumps like the one Derpy had gotten courtesy of a falling coffee thermos, nor like the one Fluttershy herself had gotten over a year ago via a tree branch. Suddenly she remembered how he had faked an injury back at Sugarcube Corner. Would he try to pull a stunt like that again at a time like this? She didn't like to think so, but...

"Highflyer?" she asked uneasily. "Do you think Screwjob's really asleep? You don't think he's—?"

"He's not selling an injury," said Highflyer as he finished tugging on the vest. He couldn't fit his splinted wings through the vest's wing slits, so it bulged out at the sides, but otherwise fit him surprisingly well. He moved over to join Fluttershy beside the couch, and reared up to get a closer look at his fellow wrestler's face. "I know a Screwjob Sell when I see it..." He lifted one of Screwjob's limp forelegs, as if feeling for a pulse. "...and this conk out isn't an act."

Fluttershy felt both relieved that Screwjob wasn't trying to pull some sort of cruel joke, and at the same time even more worried about his condition. She could remember getting headaches on and off for several days after getting a tree branch slammed into the back of her head, but they hadn't been as debilitating as the ones Screwjob seemed to be getting. What if ... what if the reason he didn't have any lumps on his head was because all the swelling was happening on the inside of his skull rather than the outside?! And then there was the way he would be awake enough to carry on a conversation one moment only to drop off into unconsciousness the next... Was that normal for an injured wrestler? She had never paid much attention to the sport but didn't it involve getting hit with chairs and slammed through tables on a routine basis? Did that kind of treatment make Highflyer and Screwjob tougher physically than most ponies, or far more vulnerable to injury?

I really need to get him to a doctor. She glanced from the two wrestlers to Dinky, who still lay unmoving on her cot, a washcloth covering her forehead just below her horn. I need to get all of them to a doctor.

But what about those changelings that might still be out hunting for them? Fluttershy looked toward the cottage's tightly shuttered windows. Even if the windows had been open, it would have been almost impossible to see any changelings in their semitransparent state, and her house guests—both conscious and unconscious—were in no condition to run or fight for their lives if they should encounter said changelings.

Then her eyes darted toward the front door and she noticed a bundle of camouflage-patterned material. The coat Skywishes lent me. Maybe she couldn't get her three patients to the hospital, but maybe she could sneak there alone and bring back help. In the dark, that camouflage coat might help her stay unnoticed ... but if she waited until daylight, there would be a much better chance of spotting the changelings' semitransparent outlines.

While she was still weighing these two options, Discord's words suddenly came back to her. Stay put and don't let anypony in the house until you hear from me. She reached into the scarf around her neck and felt the folded letter she had tucked into it. He said he would come back soon... But even as the feel of that paper brought cautious hope, so the feel of the scarf's much softer texture raised nagging doubt. If Discord could go from seeming awestruck at her gift only to fling it in the trash later, was it that much of a stretch that he would promise to come back, only to never return? Oh, she wanted so much to trust him, and believe he would return but she just couldn't shake this growing distrust.

And on top of that, there was also the welfare of Highflyer, Dinky, and Screwjob to consider. Could she keep them here, dependent on her guesswork to treat their medical needs, while she waited for Discord to show up? Was it really fair to jeopardize their wellbeing because of her conflicting feelings for her former partner?

"We'll talk, alright!" shouted the three ponies, or rather the three disguised changelings. "We'll talk! Just keep those paws away from us, and stay out of our heads!"

The draconequus retracted his three right arms, grasped them by the wrists with his left hand, and twisted them together like a couple of wires, causing them to turn back into one single limb. Then he grabbed the tips of his burning fingers and tugged on them as if they were the fingertips of a glove and pulled the fire off his arm in the same manner. The fur revealed underneath wasn't even scorched, though the jacket sleeve on that side had been reduced to ashes.

Each of the disguised changelings let out an audible sigh of relief when the flames disappeared, but tensed up again when the draconequus turned his attention back to them.

"Well?" he drawled, folding his arms over his chest, and eyeing them expectantly.

The three prisoners exchanged uneasy glances.

"Come, come," he said briskly. "Don't keep me in suspense. I am on pins and needles." And with that, he leaned back and his chair promptly transformed into a bed of giant pins and needles that he floated an inch or two above. At the same time a carpet of pins and needles also burst through the floor right below the three floating prisoners, who whimpered nervously at the sight. If Discord suddenly decided to bring back gravity...

"I'm waiting!" the draconequus growled.

"We lied about seeing you murder those ponies!" said the Mr. Cake-changeling, who had apparently opted to act as spokespony. "We killed them! Or rather our queen did."

"How?"

"We captured the Cake family while they were on vacation. Then we snuck back to Sugarcube Corner disguised as the parents, surprised Pinkie Pie late Tuesday night, bound her up with changeling webbing and smuggled her out of the bakery in a cart. I hid in the cart with her to make sure she didn't break through her gag or the webbing."

"That skew-eyed mailpony saw us coming out of the building," muttered the Mrs. Cake-changeling, "but I managed to get her away."

"When we got Pinkie Pie to our queen," the Mr. Cake-changeling continued, "she cast this spell that turns ponies inside-out, but it was a special delayed action version of it. That gave us time to smuggle Pinkie Pie back to the bakery while she was still intact and right-side out, so we could plant her there and make it look like the spell had happened right inside the bakery. Then we just waited for customers to show up, and put on a big performance of grief and shock when they did."

"It was the same situation with Rainbow Dash," said the Haystings-changeling. "We captured this pony," he aimed his eyes down at his own body, or rather up at his own body as he was floating diagonally. "Because we needed somepony who could come and go among the Wonderbolts but who wouldn't be missed if he suddenly didn't show up. I used him to get close to Rainbow Dash, knocked her out, and tied her up. Then some of my fellow changelings smuggled her out of her home while it was still dark, and brought her back later for me to plant the evidence. We can't take your shape, but I was able to force my hoof into the shape of your paw long enough to write a message on the wall in Rainbow Dash's blood, so the tech-ponies would find your prints in the crime scene."

Discord squinted one eye thoughtfully. "Why all the smuggling? If you wanted it to look like the spells were cast right where the bodies were found, why didn't your queen just fly herself to those places and do the spells there?"

"That wouldn't work, she's not strong enough to do that kind of spell."

Discord arched one pierced brow, and the changeling scrambled to clarify its earlier statement.

"What I meant is, she's not strong enough to do that kind of spell alone. None of us changelings are. But when a large group of us are together, the queen can draw power from all of us and combine it to do spells she wouldn't ordinarily be able to do. But she couldn't just fly the whole swarm into Ponyville because even if we can go almost invisible, that large a group of us would risk attracting attention."

Discord floated up into the air as the light suddenly snapped off, leaving only the dull sinister glow of his tattoos to illuminate things. He circled the floating changelings, sticking his ghostly face almost muzzle to muzzle with each of their frightened ones.

"And what exactly was the point of framing me?"

"To ... to throw Equestria off the trail. To get them so focused on you as a threat that they wouldn't notice us snatching ponies and replacing them with changeling doubles until it was too late."

"And why kill Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie specifically?"

"To make ponies despair! To fill them with the kind of emotions we can feed on through our windigo essence. Pinkie Pie to take away their ability to smile and feel hope, and Rainbow Dash to take away the trust one builds through loyalty."

"Why did you wait so long to do this?"

"Because the ponies were all on alert for us last winter. And it turns out animals can sense our windigo essence. Even if they don't understand it, they try to flee when we're nearby. So we needed to wait for winter to come again when there would be fewer of them out."

"And what about Derpy's family? Why go after them?"

"I don't know."

Discord raised an unseen paw in front of him, and it burst into flames.

"I swear I don't know!" the Haystings-changeling screamed in a panic.

"He doesn't know! None of us do!" shouted the Mr. Cake-changeling.

"Maybe it was because you spent that night at their house!" the Mrs. Cake-changeling babbled. "We don't know! Chrysalis didn't tell us! She only told us to frame you for the murder of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie! That's all! I swear that's all we know!"

Both the flames and Discord's tattoos went out, leaving only his glowing eyes and painted face visible.

"And what about the other Element Bearers? Any plans for them?"

"No," the Haystings-changeling said hesitantly. "But ... that might change. Chrysalis still has a grudge against Twilight for foiling her plans back in Canterlot, and taking out the remaining Element Bearers might satisfy that nicely..."

"Well, she can just rethink that idea," Discord sneered, and his prisoners tensed as the Cake-changelings felt his hands slide over the back of their necks just under the nooses, and the Haystings-changeling felt the tufted end of Discord's tail brush the back of his neck. Both the hands and tail left behind a cold sensation that sent chills down their spines but quickly faded.

Then the three prisoners suddenly plunged toward the unseen floor!

They screamed, expecting to either be strangled or dashed against spikes, but instead they landed gently on something soft. They heard Discord's amused chuckle above them before lights suddenly snapped on. Squinting as their eyes tried to adjust, they saw that they were bound to chairs in Sugarcube Corner.

Then Discord, still wearing that rivet-covered jacket, touched down lightly in front of them and walked over to a water barrel. (Had that been there earlier? the Cake-changelings each wondered.) He stuck his head in the barrel and made quite a production of gurgling. His neck arched back up into a vertical position but his head didn't come up with it. Then after gurgling and splashing about for several minutes, he fished his dripping head up from the water and jammed it back on his neck. He knocked the side of his head with his paw, and water shot out the opposite ear with the force of a firehose before he turned back to his three prisoners. All the paint from earlier was now gone, and his piercings looked cleaner, albeit still painful. The soaking had also plastered his shaggy eyebrows down and turned his beard into scraggly spikes. In theory, this more clean-scrubbed appearance should have made him look less intimidating, but it did nothing to ease his prisoners' apprehension as they watched to see what he would do.

What he did was hold out his paw and cause a flute to flash into it. He played five quick little notes on the flute, followed by two louder ones, and the nooses around the three changelings' necks suddenly untied themselves, and dropped unceremoniously from the ceiling onto the bound changelings' heads.

"Just play that tune again, and it will untie the rest of your ropes," said Discord.

"You mean you're ... you're letting us go?"

"Mmmmm, only on the condition that you skedaddle back to your queen and inform her..." His tone promptly went from cheerful to sinister. "...that the Master of Chaos doesn't appreciate being framed. And don't think you can get out of telling her that, because I'll know if you don't." He stuck his face right down in front of theirs. "Know what I mean?"

They nodded fearfully.

A smile far wider than his face could normally hold came to Discord. "Excellent." With that he straightened, turned, and dropped the flute in the middle of the room, in a spot where the changelings could reach it, but not without a little work. Then a motorcycle flashed into existence beside him, and he mounted it before slipping his sunglasses back on.

"Toodles," he called over his shoulder to the three changelings before he and the motorcycle vanished in a flash of light.

For several moments the three changelings just stayed where they were. Then when they felt fairly certain the draconequus was gone, they all exchanged small self-satisfied smiles. Granted the interrogation had been frightening while they were going through it as there was no way to predict quite what move the draconequus might make, but in the end they had played their cards right, and come through unscathed.

"I can't believe that actually worked," commented the Haystings-changeling, keeping his voice low as though from fear that the draconequus might pop up unexpectedly behind them.

The Cake-changelings swept furtive glances around the room, obviously thinking the same thing, before they once again shared small, victorious smiles.

Just one more step on the ladder toward the Hive's ultimate goal.

Fluttershy was still trying to decide what to do when she heard a soft moan behind her, and turned to see Dinky stirring. She started towards the cot but Highflyer was quicker. He darted forward and lifted the washcloth off the unicorn's forehead. Seconds later Dinky's golden eyes slowly flickered open.

"Whhhaa..." she groaned, squinting up at the ceiling. Then her gaze slid over onto Highflyer and she flinched away.

"Woah, woah, don't be scared," he soothed, gently putting a hoof on her shoulder. "It's okay."

Dinky simultaneously relaxed and frowned at the sound of his raspy voice, as if she felt she could trust it, but wasn't sure why. She looked down at the hoof on her shoulder, saw the tattooed limb connected to that hoof, then looked back up at the stallion's masked face, squinting in disbelief.

"H-highflyer?"

"Yeah, it's me, kid. How you feeling?"

"I, uhh..." Still looking confused, she reached up toward his face, but stopped a few inches away, her hoof trembling uncertainly. Highflyer leaned forward a fraction, silently granting her permission to touch his mask, and after hesitating a moment longer, she traced one of the falcons that flanked his cheeks. Her eyes widened as she seemed to realize she wasn't just imagining the wrestler at her bedside. "How can you...?" Then she noticed the second pegasus there as well. "Fluttershy? What am I doing at your house? And why's Highflyer here?"

"You collapsed from the strain of using your magic to lift yourself, Highflyer and Screwjob out of Ghastly Gorge," said Fluttershy.

"Not that surprising," Highflyer muttered, pressing the back of one hoof against the side of Dinky's forehead to check her temperature. "Considering Jobs and I aren't exactly what you'd call featherweights."

I can vouch for that. At least regarding you. Fluttershy thought, remembering her own experience carrying the small but solid wrestler. "Then after you collapsed, the two of them brought you back here."

Dinky nodded absently at this, but still looked confused.

"Do you remember anything about what happened?" Fluttershy prodded gently.

"I—?" At that moment Dinky caught sight of Screwjob lying unmoving on the couch behind them, and it must have triggered something in her memory because her eyes suddenly went wide with horror and she seemed to be having trouble breathing.

"Dinky?"

"Kid?" Highflyer put his hoof under the unicorn's chin and turned her face back toward him. Dinky's breath stuttered out as her gold eyes met his blue ones.

"Highflyer..." she croaked. "Do you know...?" Tears welled up in her eyes. "What happened to my mom and Amethyst?"

He lowered his gaze. "I'm sorry, kid. I don't."

Dinky's face crumpled and she rolled over, burying her face in the pillow.

"Ohhh, kid, I'm sorry," Highflyer crooned, wrapping a tattooed leg around Dinky's shoulders as her body shook with her muffled sobs. The sight made Fluttershy long to cry out: Dinky, your family is alive! But how could she possibly explain knowing this without mentioning Discord?

Then she flinched as one end of her scarf suddenly flipped itself up into the air and draped over the top of her head. The movement should have caused the scarf to tumble off her head, but instead it just clung to her, pressing itself against her ear ... where she heard his voice.

"Fluttershy..."

Discord! She darted quick glances toward the other ponies, but Screwjob was still out cold, and Highflyer seemed too focused on comforting Dinky to notice her scarf's odd behavior. Still, she should probably get away from them before trying to talk to Discord.

"Highflyer?"

He glanced up at her, but if he noticed that her scarf had changed positions, he didn't comment on it.

"I'm going to go get Dinky something to eat. Can you stay with her?"

"Of course."

Fluttershy hurried into the kitchen, and once she was sure the other ponies wouldn't see her if they happened to look in that direction, she took the letter out of the scarf, and smoothed it out on the counter. Immediately the portion of the scarf stretched over her head loosened, and the illustration of Discord flashed into existence on the paper. Fluttershy gazed down at him, the ache in her heart from earlier now gone. He had returned to her just as he had promised!

But now was not the time to celebrate.

"You'll have to be quieter this time, Discord," she whispered, putting her face near the paper. "Screwjob heard you talking the last time."

The illustration popped a piece of gum into his mouth and chewed furiously for about ten seconds before blowing a bubble. Words appeared in the bubble: Is this better?

Fluttershy considered. That would solve the problem of the other ponies hearing Discord, but what would they think if they overheard her? "Could you make it so that they can't hear either of us?"

He shrugged and snapped his claws. "Try calling them."

Fluttershy crept to the doorway, and peeked out at the other ponies. Screwjob was still asleep, and Highflyer was still stroking Dinky's back, his masked head down next to her exposed one.

"Highflyer?" Fluttershy called out softly, but the masked pony didn't look up. "Highflyer!" Still he didn't look up. Satisfied that she and Discord could now talk without being overheard, she returned to the letter on the counter, and its illustration proceeded to tell her what he had learned while questioning the disguised changelings.

"Discord!" she exclaimed, shocked at his interrogation methods. "What if they had been the real ponies?! You—"

He snorted. "Please. I never intended to actually hurt them. Just throw a good scare into them to see if my suspicions were correct. And they were."

As he said this, Fluttershy belatedly remembered how he had tested whether Apple Bloom and Big Mac were the real ponies by chucking a fireball at them that turned out to be harmless.

She also gasped when he revealed the news that animals could sense the changeling-hybrids' windigo essence. Her mind flashed back to when her animals had gone crazy over a year ago. Now it suddenly made sense! Then she remembered how Tank had acted at Rainbow Dash's house. Had he really been searching for his owner, as Not-Haystings had said, or had he been trying to get away from the disguised changeling? Then there was also the way he had struggled in her forelegs when that one pony had opened the gym room door, only to go limp again when the door shut. She had thought the opened door was prompting him to make a bid for freedom to continue his search for Rainbow Dash, but now she wondered if that pony had been another disguised changeling whose proximity had triggered Tank's instinct to get away.

"That was their plan," Discord concluded. "To keep everypony focused on me while their pony-snatching goes unnoticed."

A chill ran through Fluttershy at the realization that she had unknowingly run into at least three, possibly four, changelings in the past three days. How many more ponies out there had also been replaced by changelings?!

Oh, what if I'd gone to the hospital, and brought a changeling disguised as a doctor back here?!

"Fluttershy?" Discord's voice snapped her back to reality.

She looked back down at him, still shaken at the idea of how close she might have come to handing the three ponies in her care right back to the changelings out to kill them. She unconsciously fumbled with her hooves and felt the charm attached to one of them. The same charm that so many ponies were now waiting to use at the first sight of Discord. Unless...

"Discord..." She swallowed. "About the changelings trying to frame you... This is hard to say, but I think..."

The draconequus leaned forward, his illustrated ears perked up and his illustrated eyes extra-large.

Fluttershy drew in a deep breath. "You have to give yourself up, Discord. It will be all right. I'll explain—"

"I am not going to go crawling to the Princesses over a crime I didn't commit!" he spat indignantly, then added under his breath, "I probably wouldn't even go crawling to them over a crime I did commit."

"Discord, listen to me. You can't stay hidden forever. Sooner or later somepony will see you, or hear you, or ... notice you some other way. And when they do, any of them can smash their charm to alert Princess Celestia, and—"

"And what? What is your 'Oh-so-Powerful Princess,'" he made sure the words came out oozing sarcasm. "planning to do?"

"I don't know, Discord! I don't know, but the way she talked, it sounded like she had something planned! Something that could hurt you!" Fluttershy felt tears in both her eyes and her voice. With a colossal effort, she held them back and forced herself to speak more calmly. "But if you turned yourself in willingly, I think she would be open to hearing why."

He cocked an illustrated eyebrow. "And suppose she doesn't?"

"Then I'll vouch for you. I'll ... I'll demand that she hears you out. I'll—"

He chuckled. "As entertaining as that would be to witness, you'd better forget it."

Fluttershy felt her ire rise at his brushoff. "Discord, will you listen—?!"

"I said forget it!" he snapped, no longer sounding amused.

"Let me help you, Discord!" Why couldn't he understand that?! "You saved my life, and now I'm trying to save yours!"

Then she flinched as his mocking laughter burst out all around her, seeming to come from everywhere but the illustration.

Save my life?! Discord mentally howled. My dear girl, don't you realize that thanks to you, my life is already more or less over?! He wasn't really laughing at her words so much as this whole strange situation he now seemed trapped in.

"Discord, I'm not your enemy!"

At these words, the laughter promptly died in his throat. Oh, why did you have to say something like that, Fluttershy?! he mentally groaned, feeling unexpectedly touched that she still seemed to care about him even after all their time apart. And yet at the same time, this actually made things worse. She might care about him now, but would she still stand by him so steadfastly if she knew how callously he had thrown their relationship away?

Fluttershy stared down at the now silent illustration, wishing she could read his expression. Then the illustration suddenly blew another speech bubble. This time he popped it, and as the bubble burst, the draconequus vanished in a flash of light.

"Discord!" Fluttershy screamed, but already knowing she would get no answer. He had left her once again!

That's when she noticed there were words in the splattered remains of the speech bubble: You're the only friend I've ever had. And the only one who believes in my innocence. Thanks for being my friend.

Fluttershy felt her heart skip several beats at the sight of these words. She couldn't fully explain it but there seemed to be a chilling sense of finality in them. A sense of saying goodbye—

"Ahhh!"

Fluttershy almost jumped out of her skin as a loud wordless screech suddenly rang out from beyond the kitchen walls. This was immediately followed by more yells and the sounds of scuffling.

"Get the legs, High! Get the legs!" she heard Screwjob shout as she raced back into the main room.

Highflyer and Screwjob had vanished, while Dinky was still huddled on her stomach on her cot, peering over her pillow at the wide open front door.

"Ow!" a female voice shouted from outside. "What are you trying to do?! Break my shoulders?!"

"No, just separate them!" Screwjob grunted.

By then, Fluttershy had reached the open door. However, she couldn't go much farther outside because the path was being blocked by the two wrestlers and a third pony they had pinned face-down on the ground between them. A third pony hidden under so much bulky mud-stained material that it was impossible to tell if it was a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony.

"What—?" Before Fluttershy could finish the question, something smacked into her forehead. A something that hooked two papery wings over her ears, two more around her head, and began nuzzling her. Feeling a sudden wave of déjà vu, she slowly reached up, and peeled the thing away from her face.

There on her hoof was a six-winged two-headed parrot made entirely out of paper! Albeit now much more ragged and dirty than when she had last seen it. Now the thing began turning around and around on her hoof as if trying to find the most comfortable spot.

"Well, I guess that means you're the real Fluttershy," grunted the female voice from earlier, and Fluttershy looked up from the parrot to see that the pony Highflyer and Screwjob were holding down had managed to shake her bulky clothing back from her head enough to reveal a mud-caked face, a shock of pink-and-purple streaked hair, and a familiar set of dark green eyes.

Chapter 11. Luke 15:4

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Chapter 11

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?"—Luke 15:4

Fluttershy took an automatic step toward the pinned-down pegasus when a new realization caused her to halt. What if this wasn't the real Skywishes? What if Skywishes had been a disguised changeling from the first time they had met?! What if—?!

No, wait a minute! Fluttershy forced her panicked thoughts to slow down as she remembered the way Gummy had spent the whole time they were at Sugarcube Corner contentedly gnawing on Skywishes. Surely he wouldn't have stayed that close to her all that time if he could sense windigo-essence in her... "I might be the real Fluttershy, but how can I tell if you're the real Skywishes?"

Highflyer glanced up at that. "You know this pony?"

"Alleged pony," said Screwjob.

"One way to test that," said Highflyer, seizing a hoofful of Skywishes's camo and giving it a fierce yank.

"Hey!" Skywishes yelled as the material tore and several folded-up empty bakery boxes spilled out.

"Well, this ain't a changeling disguise," said Highflyer, waving the large chunk of torn fabric about before dropping it to the ground.

Skywishes tried to lift her head and chest, but Screwjob just pulled her front legs further back, forcing her to stay down. "Hold it. How do we know you're not just a changeling who caught the real Skywishes and stole her clothes?"

"Oh, for crying out..." Skywishes grumbled against the ground before turning her head enough to look up. "Fluttershy, ask me something only I would know!"

"Um ... how are things at the Tree-H-A-B?"

"Okay, first of all, I already told you it's pronounced 'tree-hab.' Second of all, I don't know how things are there, because I never made it back there! I've been dodging changelings ever since I left you—mmf!" Her voice had been getting steadily angrier with each word until she was almost shouting. Probably in an attempt to lessen her volume, Screwjob had put more of his weight on her back, forcing her muzzle to smoosh against the ground again.

Only the real Skywishes would know that she already corrected me on the TreeHAB's pronunciation. "Let her up, guys. She's the real thing."

Immediately the two wrestlers released their prisoner, and Skywishes scrambled away from them, her ripped camouflage now flapping in two large strips on either side of her body. Fluttershy quickly backed out of the way as the coral-colored pegasus darted into the cottage. Highflyer grabbed up the discarded piece of camouflage, then he and Screwjob punted the discarded bakery boxes through the door before hurrying inside as well.

As Fluttershy locked up behind them, she heard Dinky gasp, probably at Skywishes's ragged mud-caked appearance, and hastened to reassure her. "It's okay, Dinky. She's a friend."

"More or less," Skywishes grunted. Rubbing at one of her sore shoulders, she glared back at the two wrestlers. "You didn't have to try and break my shoulder blades like that," she muttered.

Highflyer's expression was inscrutable behind his mask, but Screwjob looked completely unrepentant. "Dislocate. Not break. There is a difference. And what did you expect us to do when we noticed you sneaking around the house all suspicious-like? Offer an engraved invitation, no questions asked? It just so happens there's a pack of changelings roaming around out there, intent on killing us."

"So I noticed. What changelings do you think I've been trying to avoid?"

Screwjob let out a rather dimwitted "Huh?" before Fluttershy cut in. "Um, Skywishes, maybe you should explain."

A split second after Discord had left his final message on Fluttershy's note, he reappeared, albeit still invisible, on a cloud high above Equestria. A quick scan of his surroundings revealed no ponies nor any other creatures nearby, but he still decided to maintain his current invisibility.

The moth tattoos on his neck were all vibrating furiously. They had started back while he was still an illustration on Fluttershy's note and that was what had prompted him to leave when he did. Now he smacked both hands down on the vibrating tattoos, stilling them. Taking his hands away from his neck, he brought them together, cracked his knuckles, and when he spread his hands apart, a saw appeared between them. He began using said saw to cut a circular hole in the center of the cloud. He tapped the cut-out center of the cloud with a toe and it dropped out of the cloud to float away. Slipping the saw into his bristly mane, he leaned over the hole to look down at Equestria far below. He ran a paw around the edge of the hole and the image of the land below seemed to zoom in. He adjusted it until Ponyville was filling most of the hole. Three dots were moving away from Sugarcube Corner and through the town.

It seemed his prisoners had finally gotten themselves free. He chuckled. Little did they know that during the interrogation he had turned three of his moth tattoos invisible, peeled them off, and pressed one against the back of each changeling's neck, where they were now acting as trackers—

He was jerked out of this smug gloating when he felt a new and different prickling sensation along his back.

"Hey! Stop right where you are!" he shouted, reaching over his shoulder and seizing his dragon tattoo by the throat. The rebellious thing was trying to fade from his body and sneak back onto Fluttershy's note!

The tattoo hissed angrily and thrashed about in his grip.

"I said stay where you are!" Discord snapped, stretching his neck back to glare at the tattoo. "We're not going back there! Not yet!" The tattoo spat a stream of ink at his face and he dodged before mashing its head down against his back fur. "We're doing this my way! Got it?!"

The dragon tattoo flung its front legs out with an exasperated snarl, but stopped trying to get back to Fluttershy's note. Discord released its neck and the tattoo slumped down with its back to his, crossing its forelegs sulkily. Discord meanwhile turned his attention back to the hole in the cloud to watch the changelings' progress.

Odd. Based on what Fluttershy had told him earlier, he had expected the changelings to start heading toward Ghastly Gorge, but they seemed to be heading off in the opposite direction.

Oh, well. No matter. He smacked one end of the cloud with his tail and it began drifting in the same direction as the dots were traveling. Settling back, he continued watching the dots, waiting for his moth tattoos to vibrate a second time; the signal that the changelings had reached their queen. He didn't really care whether or not they gave her his message. He just wanted to find out where she was hiding so he could capture her and the rest of her subjects. Once they were caught, he was sure he could force a confession out of them before dropping them off at Canterlot gift-wrapped for Celestia to deal with.

Then and only then did he intend to go back to Fluttershy.

And what if she's still angry with you? You heard how she called your name just before you left. His heart quavered at this thought, but he quickly tried to dismiss it. Surely she wouldn't be able to stay upset with him if he told her he had only left her this time to bring in her friends' real killers. Then a grin stretched across his face as another idea occurred to him. Maybe he could claim he had suspected those changelings were out there all along and he had left her over a year ago in an attempt to lure them out of hiding!

His dragon tattoo snorted contemptuously at that idea, and he glared over his shoulder at it.

"You don't have to be so rude. I realize she'd likely ask why, if that was my plan, I didn't just tell her before I left."

Still the idea had possibilities...

Skywishes's explanation ended up getting delayed when she opted to get cleaned up a bit first. Fortunately her camouflage coat had taken the brunt of the mud, so once she stripped down, cleaning up involved mostly scrubbing the mud from her face, mane, and tail. When she reemerged from the bathroom, she saw that Screwjob was now sitting in front of the couch, wrapping his front fetlocks in sports tape. The tiny stallion with the mask, tattoos, and splinted wings (High, Screwjob had called him) was using a damp cloth to sponge the forehead of the young unicorn on the cot. (What had Fluttershy called her? Dinky?) Then Skywishes noticed Fluttershy approaching the cot, carrying a bowl of what appeared to be soup. Scarcely had the butter-colored pegasus reached the cot when her long mane fanned out and the origami parrot shot out of it, landing on the unicorn's head. Seizing the cloth in both his beaks, and jerking it out of the stallion's grip, he began alternately smacking Dinky on the head with it, and trying to spear it on her horn. She yelped and tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to shake him off.

"Scat!" the stallion snapped, swatting the parrot off, only for it to go after him, slapping at his masked head with the cloth. Setting down the soup, Fluttershy hurried over and snatched the parrot out of the air. He thrashed about briefly, but quickly settled down and dropped the cloth when he noticed who was holding him. Both his heads were now soggy from the cloth so Fluttershy tried to be careful not to tear them as she gently petted them. Eyeing the parrot warily, the masked stallion sidled over to the soup bowl and picked it up.

"Wait," said Dinky as he extended the bowl to her. "Let me see if I can feed myself." As she pushed herself up into a sitting position, her horn sputtered feebly and a very faint yellow glow appeared around the handle of the soup's spoon. She strained for several seconds, trying without success to lift the spoon, before the glow vanished and she fell back against her pillow, exhausted. "No good," she groaned, wincing as she rubbed her temples with her hooves. "My magic's still shot. I don't think I could lift so much as a toothpick."

Fluttershy started to move toward the cot again, probably to help feed Dinky, but the masked stallion shook his head. "I'll help her." His gaze flicked down to the paper bird still in Fluttershy's hooves. "You should probably keep an eye on that thing, as you're the only one it seems to like."

"Yeah, so far," Skywishes muttered, catching their attention as she yanked a comb through her tangled mane. Fluttershy winced in sympathy as the comb came away with large knots of pink-and-purple hair snagged in its teeth.

"Um, would you mind if I combed your hair out for you?" she asked, moving over to Skywishes.

The coral-colored pegasus winced again as she jerked the comb through her mane a second time. "I wouldn't, but Max there might."

"Max?"

Skywishes jabbed a wingtip in the direction of the parrot Fluttershy was still holding. "Mache Max," she clarified before yanking her wing back as the piece of origami tried to snap at her feathers with one of its beaks. "After the first day or so, I started calling him that. It just seemed to fit."

Fluttershy looked down at the parrot. "Um, Mache Max?" One of its heads jerked up to study her. "Will you behave yourself and stop bothering the other ponies please?"

The parrot made an "eh" sound, hopped onto Fluttershy's back, and buried both his heads under her wing.

Keeping her flat eyes trained on what was still visible of Mache Max, Skywishes surrendered the comb. Fluttershy took it and began gently combing through Skywishes's mane, starting at the ends and working on tiny sections a bit at a time so she wouldn't pull it painfully.

"So, what was it you were saying earlier about dodging changelings?" Screwjob asked as he finished securing the tape on one fetlock and flexed the joint experimentally.

"Oh. That," Skywishes grunted. "I hadn't gotten too far into the forest before I decided to stop and check just what Pinkie Pie had packed for me. I landed on a tree branch, opened a box of what turned out to be cupcakes, and lurking in there among them was Mache Max."

So that's where he disappeared to, Fluttershy mused. He must have slipped into one of those boxes while we were busy watching Pinkie load up Skywishes...

"No sooner did I open that box, then he flew out and started pecking at my head. Then Fluttershy showed up."

Fluttershy froze mid-brush. "Me?"

"That's what I thought at first. You came flapping toward me through the trees, calling for me to wait, when Max suddenly hurled himself toward you and started trying to peck your eyes out. I almost went over to help you, but the fact that he hadn't acted that way toward you earlier made me think something was off. So on a hunch, I dropped the cupcake box I was holding and shot away from you into some bushes where I could hide but still watch things. You called out to me and kept swatting Max away, but he just kept coming right back, and I of course stayed silent. Finally you seemed to get fed up with Max harassing you, and light shot out of your forehead, knocking him to the ground. Then you turned into one of those semitransparent changelings you had mentioned, and several more of them came into view as well. If you can call it that considering how easy it is to miss their nearly invisible outlines if you're not watching for them. They started to spread out, looking for me. I wasn't sure what they wanted, but based on what you told me about them, I doubted it was good so I snuck away from there as fast as I could.

"Unfortunately, all this pink-and-purple hair," she flicked her forelock with a hoof for emphasis, "tends to stand out in the forest, and one of them spotted me. I took off. They gave chase, and almost caught me until I flew into a swampy area and got myself covered in mud that helped me hide better.

"I don't know how long they chased me, but I finally managed to give them the slip. I was hiding under the hollowed-out part of a fallen tree—wondering what I was going to do, considering I wasn't sure exactly where I currently was in the Everfree—when a mud-covered Max made his reappearance by flying right into my face. I was about to shoo him away, when I remembered how he had known that changeling-Fluttershy was fake. I then wondered aloud how he had managed to find me, and if he could possibly do the same with other ponies.

"I wasn't really expecting an answer or anything, but then Max hopped out of the tree and started galloping across the forest floor. He stopped about twenty feet away, looked back at me, then flew back, and uh ... goosed me out of the tree." This was greeted with a couple of snickers from the audience and an eye-roll from the narrator. "I got the message that he wanted me to follow him, and—figuring he probably couldn't get me any more lost than I already was—I followed."

By then Fluttershy had finished combing out Skywishes's mane, and now moved to start working on her tail. As Fluttershy shifted, Skywishes glanced back to make sure Mache Max was still situated under her wing.

"Turns out he wasn't exactly the easiest guide to have—" Skywishes went on, her tone loaded with dislike. "—as he seemed to get a kick out of tormenting me anytime we were alone." Then her tone suddenly shifted to grudging respect. "But on the flipside, any time changelings got near our hiding places, he would dart away from me and made noise in a different location to lure them away until I could escape. I don't know how he always managed to find me again afterwards but he did.

"Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, I probably owe him my life." Then her mouth briefly twitched in what was almost a smile. "Well, him and all those cakes and cookies Pinkie gave me. I didn't want to risk getting caught while foraging, so that's all I was eating for the past days. By the way, remind me to tell her that we'll have to take a raincheck on those TreeHAB tomatoes I promised her."

The other ponies all exchanged uncomfortable looks that were not lost on Skywishes. "Is something wrong?"

Fluttershy felt trapped. How much should she tell or not tell Skywishes about ... well ... everything?

Before she could decide, Screwjob spoke up, all humor gone from his voice. "Skywishes, I'm afraid Pinkie's not around anymore."

Fluttershy wouldn't have thought it was possible for Skywishes's eyes to go any flatter, but that's just what they did now. "What happened?"

Once again the other ponies unknowingly came to Fluttershy's rescue as they filled Skywishes in on what they knew. Highflyer described how he and Fluttershy had found out first about Pinkie's murder and later about Rainbow's. Dinky told of how she had spent a day cooking with Discord and how shocked she had later been to hear he had committed murder. Then the two wrestlers told of how they had gone to visit Derpy and her daughters only to get dragged into a desperate battle that had ended in an equally desperate escape.

When they got to the part about crash-landing in the Everfree and hiding under tree roots, Skywishes's mouth once again twitched in what was almost a smile. "Hm. Well, that explains that."

"What do you mean?"

"Max and I had managed to shake our hunters off. Again. When you three came crashing down right near our latest hiding spot. I wasn't sure if you were ponies or disguised changelings at the time so I stayed hidden, and Max did the same. At least until a couple of changelings blasted the leaves a little too close to our hiding place and we had to get out of there. I went one way and Max went the other."

The spoon fell from Highflyer's hoof as his eyes widened behind his mask. "So it was you that lured them away from us."

"Not intentionally, but apparently."

Highflyer set the soup bowl down and pushed himself up onto all fours, dipping his head in her direction. "I guess we owe you one then."

Skywishes grunted noncommittally, before glancing back at Fluttershy. "How's the tail coming?"

Fluttershy started. "Hm?! Oh, i-it's done." She had actually finished combing all the tangles out of Skywishes's tail a good several minutes before the coral-colored pegasus had asked. While the other ponies told their stories, she had been so deep in thought she had just continued combing the tail automatically.

Now she set the comb down and pulled Mache Max out from under her wing. The parrot was preening his paper feathers, and Fluttershy reached up to fluff the still soggy ones on his head while she mentally readied herself for what she felt she must do.

"Everypony."

Two pegasi, one unicorn, and one earth pony all looked at her.

"I ... I need to tell you something important. But before I do, I need you to—" She broke off mid-sentence.

Screwjob raised his intact eyebrow. "You need us to what?"

Fluttershy gulped. "I was going to ask you to ... Pinkie Promise not to set your charms off when you hear what I have to say ... but I just realized that might not have any binding power if ... if Pinkie's..." Though she couldn't bring herself to say the last word, the other ponies seemed to get the gist of it.

Screwjob sat up a bit straighter. "If you're not sure about the Pinkie Promise, we could always make the Screwjob Stipulation instead."

Fluttershy, Skywishes, and Dinky all gave him questioning looks so he recited: "Cross my heart, hope to die, may High hit me right in the eye, if I lie." He winced and rubbed at his bandaged eye. "Which given my current condition, could be fatal."

Skywishes raised both her front hooves. "I'd promise, but I haven't got any charms ("You got that right." "Shut it, Jobs."), so I couldn't set them off even if I wanted to."

Fluttershy turned her attention to Dinky and Highflyer.

"Would just straight-up promising be enough?" asked Highflyer.

Fluttershy considered. "I ... suppose so."

The teenage unicorn and the masked wrestler both promised.

Fluttershy drew in a deep breath. "Okay. I'm not quite sure how to say this, but ... Dinky ... your family's still alive."

Dinky sat up as if she had just been jabbed with an electrical prod. "What? How? Where are they?"

"Amethyst teleported your mother to a hospital." Fluttershy swallowed hesitantly before going on. "I'm afraid your mom's ... still inside out—but the good news is the doctors have a way to keep her alive while they figure out how to safely reverse the spell."

"And what about Amethyst? Is she all right?"

Fluttershy hesitated again. "Well, she's ... Dinky, she overstrained herself doing that teleportation spell, similar to how you did when you—"

"Are you saying she's dead?!"

"No, no, Dinky! She's not dead, but she's ... well ... she's ... in a coma."

Dinky just sat there looking stunned, clearly not sure whether to be relieved that her family was alive or worried that they were still in such precarious positions.

Then Highflyer reached over and stroked her singed forelock before looking back up at Fluttershy, his blue eyes as sharp and cold as icicles. "And how exactly do you know all this?"

Fluttershy couldn't really blame him for being suspicious of this new information, but hearing the distrust in his voice still hurt. Well ... time to test those promises they made.

"Discord told me. He flashed himself into my room earlier this morning and—"

"I knew it!" Screwjob shouted, causing her to flinch. "I knew I heard a guy's voice in there! Ha! I never quite swallered that 'you-talking-in-your-sleep' non—Oof!" Highflyer had just kicked him hard in the side. Screwjob coughed, cleared his throat and turned back to Fluttershy. "Eh-hem! Continue."

"Well..." Fluttershy started, trying to regroup her thoughts after that interruption. "You were right. That was Discord you heard in there—But just hear me out before you do anything!"

That last part had been directed at Highflyer, who had shifted position almost as if he intended to slam one of his front hooves down hard on the floor. The tiny wrestler looked up at her, his eyes still icy cold. Then, in a decidedly deliberate manner, he got up, walked to the wall, pushed himself up onto his hind legs, and leaned back against the wall with his front legs crossed over his chest. If the position put pressure on his injured wings and back, he didn't show it. He just glared at Fluttershy from under hooded eyelids.

"I'm listening," he said in a frosty 'you'd-better-have-a-real-good-reason-for-making-me-promise-not-to-use-that-charm' tone.

Fluttershy drew in a deep breath to settle herself. "Okay. I admit I tried to hide his visit from you earlier. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I was afraid that if you knew he was here, one of you would set off the alarm before I could explain anything."

"Uh-huh," said Highflyer in a 'keep-talking' tone.

Fluttershy proceeded to tell them what she knew about how Discord was no more guilty of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash's murders than he was of Derpy's current situation, and about how he had discovered he was being framed to keep attention away from the real threat.

"That's quite a story," said Highflyer when she finished. "But if you got all that from Discord, how do you know he wasn't just lying when he claimed the eye-witnesses lied?"

"Because what he said fits with what the rest of you told me and with what I've seen for myself. Think about it, Highflyer. Didn't you find it odd that Rainbow Dash would have a Wonderbolt meeting scheduled on the same morning she was planning to spend with you, and wouldn't tell you about it?"

This seemed to catch Highflyer off-guard, and the cold look in his eyes thawed a fraction. "Well ... I suppose that was a bit ... odd."

"I bet there wasn't even a meeting that day. I bet that changeling just said that to explain why he was there."

"Hmm..." Highflyer looked away from her, and Fluttershy suddenly wished he wasn't wearing that mask as she couldn't read what little of his expression was currently visible through it.

She turned to the other ponies. "Dinky, you spent a whole day with Discord. Did he ever give you the impression he would murder somepony?"

"Well ... no..." Dinky said uncertainly. "But he might have just been putting on an act."

"I don't think so, Dinky. Discord could have easily killed any of us Element Bearers back when he first got out of his stone prison. But he didn't. He may have been cruel and treated us like his playthings, but cold-blooded murder wasn't his style even back when he was evil."

But he did kill those two changelings back at Sweet Apple Acres, a small voice in the back of her heard pointed out.

That was different! He didn't mean to kill them.

So he said—

"Shy." The raspy voice was soft, but still managed to startle her. She spun back around to meet Highflyer's blue eyes with her turquoise ones. "I believe you."

Screwjob was stretched out on his stomach with his hooves pressed over his eyes as if the light was paining them, but now he lifted the hoof covering his unbandaged eye. "Well, if that's good enough for High, it's good enough for me."

As Fluttershy turned to give him a grateful smile, she heard Skywishes and Dinky murmur, "I believe you too." "Me too."

"But where do we go from here?" Highflyer asked. "Sure we believe you, but what are we supposed to do about it?"

Fluttershy's face promptly fell. "I ... I don't know," she admitted. "We have to clear Discord's name and let everypony know what's really going on..." she turned back to Highflyer. "You and Dinky are the only ponies who saw what really happened to Derpy. Screwjob might back you up—"

"Roger that," Screwjob muttered.

"—but—"

"But there's also the fact that a bunch of changelings currently want the three of us dead, and they can disguise themselves as pretty much anypony they want to?" Highflyer guessed.

"Yes," Fluttershy breathed, involuntarily shuddering as she remembered how close she might have come to unwittingly getting these three ponies killed.

Noticing this shudder, Highflyer's eyes suddenly narrowed behind his mask. "If they used that retired Wonderbolt to get close to Ray, and the Cake family to capture Pinkie ... do you suppose they've been doing the same thing with other ponies as well?"

Fluttershy gulped and nodded. "That's what I'm afraid of." Was this what it was like for Applejack? Wanting to get the word out, but not sure who to trust, when anypony could be a disguised—? "Wait a minute! The changelings can't disguise themselves as Discord! They openly admitted that! He's the one we can trust not to be a fake!"

Skywishes let out a wry laugh. "Unfortunately it sounds like they were counting on that little factoid to make the case against him seem ironclad. Plus even if we could trust him, we don't know where he is."

During this conversation, Fluttershy had stopped stroking Mache Max's wings, and now the parrot nibbled gently on her pastern, apparently wanting her to resume the activity. Glancing down at him, a new wild idea occurred to her. It was a long shot but...

"Mache Max?"

He cocked both his heads up at her.

"Discord made you, didn't he?"

The parrot grabbed a long lock of her mane in each beak and began bobbing each head alternately up and down.

Fluttershy decided to take this as a yes. "If you knew how to lead Skywishes back here to me, do you think you could lead me to Discord?"

Mache Max paused in playing with her mane. Then he flew up into the air, tugging her mane in the direction of one of the windows. When Fluttershy stood up and leaned in that direction, he let go of her mane, dropped to the floor, and hopped to the window, where he turned back and watched her expectantly.

Fluttershy glanced over at Skywishes. "Do you think that means he can find Discord?"

Skywishes's eyes flicked from Fluttershy to Mache Max and back again. "Considering what he's managed to do so far, I wouldn't be surprised."

Behind them, Highflyer cleared his throat. "Shy, you do know that even if you do find Discord, it won't change the fact that as far as most of Equestria is concerned, he's a killer whose word isn't worth spit?"

Fluttershy sobered at this. "That's true ... But if the four of you back me up, maybe we can convince the rest of my friends that he's innocent as well."

"But what if the changelings already got to them?" said Dinky. "How in the world would we know—?!"

"Hold on," Skywishes cut in, turning to Dinky, Highflyer, and Screwjob. "Just yesterday, you three managed to expose several disguised changelings, and I—with Max's help—managed to get tipped off even before that. What could we use from those situations to spot changelings in other situations?"

"Well, if a pony's wearing clothes, you could try ripping them off," Highflyer suggested. "I decided to try that with you, since when I tried to rip my changeling-double's mask off, I couldn't since that was part of its skin."

Screwjob smirked at his best friend. "I knew making you wear a mask twenty-four seven would pay off someday."

Skywishes however, was not so amused. "Hmm. That might work in some cases." To the wrestlers she added under her breath, "Like with you two. But unfortunately most ponies don't seem to wear clothes on a regular basis."

"True," said Highflyer. "And if we go that route, we'll probably just end up with a bunch of honked-off ponies if it turns out they're not changelings."

"Hm. That kinda makes me want to do it now," Screwjob muttered under his breath.

"Fluttershy, you mentioned animals can sense the windigo-essence in these changelings," said Dinky. "What if we got a bunch of your animal friends and see how they react when you put them near different ponies? If the animals try to get away from the ponies, that could mean they're disguised changelings."

"Yes ... but all my animals have either gone south or are hibernating now. That's one of the reasons the changelings waited as long as they did to set this up." Fluttershy rubbed her forehead. What can we do?! Those changelings seem to have thought of everything!

"What about him?" Dinky gestured to Mache Max who had started strutting back and forth in front of the closed window. "He could tell the real you from the fake one."

"Don't think that'll work too well, kid," said Skywishes. "He might treat the real Fluttershy a lot nicer than a fake one, but when it comes to other ponies, real or fake, Max seems to be an equal opportunity annoyer."

Screwjob sighed. "In other words ... he's about as reliable a changeling-detector as Big Tim."

Fluttershy frowned at him. "Who?"

"His aunt's pet rattlesnake," said Highflyer, and Screwjob shuddered violently.

At the mention of a pet snake, Fluttershy suddenly remembered two other pet reptiles: Tank and Gummy!

"That's it," she murmured.

"That's what?!" Screwjob squawked in alarm. "You can't seriously be thinking of using Big Tim! Trust me, even you wouldn't want anything to do with that ... 'snake.'" He almost gagged on the word.

"What? Oh, no, I wasn't thinking of him. I was thinking of Tank and Gummy. I don't think either of them are in hibernation yet, so they could help us tell real ponies from fake ones. Let's see. Tank is with Scootaloo, and Applejack mentioned that either she or Big Mac was going to take Gummy to the Pie family Rock Farm..."

Screwjob immediately brightened. "I volunteer to go get Apps and Gummy!"

"Oh, that's gonna work out great," Highflyer muttered. "Jobs, if you so much as show your face around that farm, she'll throw you out on your ear."

"You might not have noticed, High, but we ain't exactly overburdened with options."

"Unfortunately he's right," said Fluttershy. "We need to get Applejack from Sweet Apple Acres; Twilight and Spike from Canterlot; Rarity and Apple Bloom from Amberlocks' Orchards; and Discord from wherever he is."

"There, ya see," said Screwjob. "Plus, if any of the rest of you volunteer to get Apps, I'll deck you. I don't care if it makes me look like a bully. I'm a heel. I can get away with it."

Highflyer responded to this with a snort and an eye-roll.

It took some discussion but it was finally decided that Fluttershy and Mache Max would look for Discord; Skywishes would fly to Canterlot to get Twilight and Spike; and Highflyer would go find Tank and Scootaloo, before sneaking on a train to the Crystal Empire where he would collect Rarity and Apple Bloom.

Which of course left Screwjob to go round up Gummy and the remaining Apple siblings at Sweet Apple Acres.

Dinky was still too drained to travel, so it was decided that she would stay at the cottage to let the other ponies in when they arrived.

"But how will I know if any of you are ponies or disguised changelings without Tank or Gummy?"

"We'll need something else to identify ourselves," Fluttershy mused. "Some code word, or name, or something..."

"Cardinal," said Skywishes.

"What?"

"That'll be my code word." She turned to Dinky. "If you look through the peephole, and see a pony that looks like me, don't trust her if she says 'It's Skywishes.' Only trust her if she says 'It's Cardinal.'"

Dinky frowned at her. "What's Cardinal have to do with anything?"

"Nothing. That's why I'm using it." She turned to the other ponies. "And Cardinal is only going to be my code word. The rest of you will have to come up with your own."

"Hmm." Fluttershy paced about, trying to think of a code word. It would have to be something easy to remember, but not so easy to guess. Butterfly? No, no, that's too obvious. But what's similar to butterflies? Moths? Then she remembered how in her dreams Discord always seemed to have moths tattooed on his neck rather than the wasps he had in real life.

"'Wasp' will be my code word," she said aloud. When the other ponies looked at her curiously, she added, "I don't think it's something most ponies would immediately associate with me."

"Ha, that's for sure," Screwjob muttered, then grinned at Highflyer. "Hey, High, here's a good one for you: High-senberg."

Highflyer seemed less than impressed. "How'd you come up with that?"

Screwjob shrugged. "I don't know, I just heard it somewhere. So what do you think?"

"Nnno," said Highflyer flatly.

"Well, what else would you use?"

"Falcon."

"Falcon? You can't use Falcon! It's too obvious! It's practically your trademark! You've got falcons on your shirts, your pants, your masks! You've even got a pendant of one on a chain tattooed around your neck for crying out loud!" He thunked Highflyer in the chest, right where said pendant was tattooed, for emphasis.

The tiny stallion didn't even flinch. "I'm still using Falcon. We've got to throw a few obvious ones in there to keep them guessing, and if you want Highsenberg so badly, you use it."

"Hmm, maybe I will."

"And my code word will be 'Whistler,'" said Dinky. "Because I'm hopeless at whistling."

This was met with uncomfortable silence from the older ponies. Under most circumstances, Dinky's comment might have earned some amused laughs, but now it only highlighted the fact that even though she would be staying in the cottage, she was still—in her own way—facing every bit as much danger as the rest of them.

Then Mache Max—who had been impatiently pacing back and forth in front of the window—suddenly let out an ear-piercing shriek that startled all of them. Jumping down from the window, he bounced away into the kitchen, screeching all the way. Springing up onto the counter, he grabbed a loaf of bread that was sitting there, and hurled it at the ponies. They all ducked behind the cot, except Dinky who flattened herself against the top of it. The bread thumped against the wall and fell behind the couch. Then Mache Max followed up the bread with a plastic honey bottle.

"Alright! Alright! We're hurrying! Quit being a brat!" Skywishes snapped, poking her head over the edge of the cot.

The parrot responded with another loud shriek, then began looking about for more ammunition.

Fluttershy darted out from behind the cot, snatched him off the counter, and began shushing him frantically. Once again Mache Max immediately settled down, but the five ponies stayed tense, straining their ears to catch any sound outside; any sign that possible enemies had heard the parrot's hollering. Then Skywishes padded over to a nearby window and peeked cautiously outside.

"Okay," she finally said in a low voice after several long minutes of peering outside. "It doesn't look like anything is coming to investigate his screaming. Where were we? Oh, yeah." She turned back to the ponies. "I'm Cardinal."

She pointed to Fluttershy. "You're Wasp."

To Dinky. "You're Whistler."

To Highflyer. "You're Falcon."

"And you?" she asked Screwjob.

He shrugged. "Highsenberg."

"Okay. We know how to identify each other. Now we need to figure out some way for the three of us," she gestured to herself, Highflyer, and Screwjob, "to convince your friends," she turned back to Fluttershy, "that you sent us, that they can trust us, and that we're not disguised changelings."

"Maybe you could tell us something about them we wouldn't normally know," suggested Highflyer. "Like when I quizzed you about Moonshine."

"Let me think..." Fluttershy murmured. It sounded like a good idea, but she didn't know how much Rainbow Dash had told Highflyer and how much of that he had shared with Screwjob. And she also couldn't remember exactly how much she and her friends had told Skywishes.

Then Mache Max stretched his beaks toward the counter, and Fluttershy automatically stroked his back while she looked to see what he was trying to reach. It was a pile of apples and at the sight of them a new idea occurred to her. Tucking Mache Max back under her wing, she grabbed several of the apples, and began peeling them with a nearby knife.

"What's going on?" Dinky asked, leaning out of the cot to try and see.

"Shy's ... peeling some apples," Highflyer reported.

"Just give me a minute." Once Fluttershy had finished peeling three of the apples, she arranged the peelings into the rough shape of roses and tucked them into three small jars. "When you're sure you've found my friends," she said, turning to face Highflyer, Screwjob, and Skywishes. "Give them these." She offered each of them a jar. "And tell them: Fluttershy said to tell you, 'It's happening again.' They'll understand."

Skywishes studied the jar she'd been given. "Might be a good idea if we each had a saddlebag or something to carry these in."

Which prompted them to start searching the cottage for saddlebags.

"And while we're at it," Skywishes added. "We might want to find some way to disguise ourselves too. Just because changelings are looking for us, doesn't mean we have to make it easy for them."

Several minutes later, Fluttershy stepped back to study her work. Not only had she found saddlebags for the other three ponies, but she had dressed them in three of her cloaks—blue for Skywishes, and green for the two wrestlers—in hopes that it would make them harder to identify while outside.

Skywishes was similar enough to Fluttershy in size and build that outfitting her hadn't been a problem, but the two stallions had posed a challenge. Screwjob's cloak hid his muscular body and broad sloped shoulders, but did little to conceal his long legs.

Skywishes tilted her head down to study them. "That sports tape is drab enough not to catch one's attention, but the same can't be said for those purple-and-turquoise tights."

"Well, I ain't ditching the tights. I may need them later." And with that, Screwjob rolled up the cuffs of said tights until they resembled short shorts—which Highflyer snickered at—but no longer showed under the cape.

"Hey, this ain't a fashion show," he muttered to Highflyer. "Plus, it's not like you don't have wardrobe problems of your own."

Highflyer's snickering faded at this. He was so small that Fluttershy's cloak hid him completely from the neck down with extra material even pooling around his hooves, but unfortunately it did nothing to conceal his most prominent feature above the neck, aka his mask.

Fluttershy frowned at him. "Can't you just take the mask off? Or keep the cloak's hood pulled up far enough to hide it?"

Highflyer pulled the hood up over his head. "I could, but this thing is so big, I'm worried about it slipping off if I have to move fast."

"But that shouldn't be a problem if you take off the mask, considering nopony," With the possible exception of Screwjob, she added in her thoughts, "has seen you without it for years."

"True, but not a lot of ponies seem to go for the shave-headed look like High does," Screwjob pointed out. "And combine that with the shrimpy size, even with that cloak hiding the muscles and tattoos, someone might put two and two together..."

At that moment, Mache Max jumped down from Fluttershy's back, walked around to her tail and began plucking at it, weaving it into a sort of braid. Watching this sparked a new idea in Fluttershy's mind.

"How about this?" Reaching down, she gently took her tail away from Mache Max, who surprisingly made no fuss about being deprived of his toy, and simply scampered off to explore another section of the room. Unfastening her tail extensions (which drew a couple of raised eyebrows from the observing ponies and an embarrassed blush from Fluttershy herself. "Yes, I wear tail extensions."), she held them out to Highflyer. "If you took your mask off, you could tuck these into the back of your collar and use them as a sort of makeshift wig."

Now it was Screwjob's turn to snicker. "That I gotta see."

"Ha. Ha." Highflyer deadpanned, then added under his breath to Fluttershy, "Though just between the two of us, I think that disguise might work."

Fluttershy gave him a grateful smile, then turned to survey the other ponies. There didn't seem to be anything else that needed to be—

"Fluttershy?" Dinky suddenly croaked as she struggled to sit up. "Before you guys go, could I ... could I have a knife from the kitchen? In case the changelings get in here and—"

"I'll get it," said Highflyer, reaching under his cloak to tuck the extensions into his borrowed saddlebag. While he moved to the kitchen, Fluttershy went to the cot to examine Dinky. The young teenager's horn still felt warm but the forehead around it was cold and clammy.

Then Highflyer was there with the same knife Fluttershy had used to peel the apples.

"Thanks," said Dinky, taking the knife and tucking it under her pillow. She started to lie back down, when Highflyer caught her by the shoulder.

"Show me how you'd pull that knife out, if a changeling came at you." He and Fluttershy both stepped back to give Dinky some room. She resumed lying down, and shifted about to get one of her front hooves under the pillow. Then she suddenly shoved herself upright and brought the knife up in front of her, ready to jab it forward.

Highflyer took one look at the knife, and immediately shook his head. "Nope, you're holding it wrong." He deftly plucked the blade from her hoof. "Do it like this." With surprising ease considering his lack of fingers, he spun the knife around so that the blade was parallel to his foreleg with the sharpened edge outward. "Trust me, this way you can inflict more damage, but it's also harder for them to turn the blade on you."

How do you know that? Fluttershy wondered as the masked stallion flipped the knife back around so that the handle was now extended toward Dinky. "Try again."

She tried again and Highflyer gave her some more pointers, but even these did little to hide the fact that Dinky was still badly weakened from her magical overexertion. In just a few moments, even though she had done little more than lie down and scramble up a few times, she was already trembling and breathing hard.

If any changelings find her, she won't stand a chance! Fluttershy fretted. She's too weak—!

"You having second thoughts?"

Fluttershy started and turned to see Skywishes watching her with those flat dead eyes.

Fluttershy sighed and looked back toward the cot. "I'm not sure about leaving Dinky alone anymore. Maybe one of us should try to take her with us. I mean, even with that knife, she—"

Skywishes halted Fluttershy with a hoof on her shoulder. "Considering what's out there, if we tried to take her with us, we'd probably just be taking her into a lot more danger than we'd be taking her out of. I know leaving her isn't an easy or pleasant option, but it's the best one we have out of a long list of bad ones."

You know she's right, a small voice in the back of Fluttershy's head pointed out.

Yes, but maybe... "Dinky?"

The teenager looked questioningly past Highflyer to Fluttershy.

"Dinky, if you think you hear any of us outside, don't trust it's us unless we give our code names before anything else. In fact, don't even call out to us unless you hear those code names."

"And if you think you hear Scootaloo out there," Highflyer added. "Don't trust her unless she uses the word..." He paused a moment in thought. "'Kestrel.' You got that? Kestrel."

Dinky nodded grimly. "I'll do that, but I need you guys to promise me something too." She looked around at the four older ponies. She swallowed uneasily, but then her resolve seemed to harden and she took the plunge. "If you make it back here, and give your code names, don't come in unless you hear me give my code name back. If I say anything else, or if you don't hear anything, don't come in. Assume I'm already dead, and get away fast."

"Dinky—"

"Promise me you'll do that!"

Hearing the desperation in the young unicorn's voice, Fluttershy found herself nodding, and making the terrible promise. She was vaguely aware of the other ponies around her doing the same.

"Okay," Dinky sighed, seeming to relax now that she had gotten the promise they would abandon her if necessary. She scooted further under the covers and lay down. "I'm going to ... try and get some rest. You should ... probably get going now."

The fact that the young unicorn was facing the possibility of being found and killed with this almost stoic resignation was somehow more troubling to Fluttershy than if the teenager had dissolved into a terrified sobbing wreck. She felt a sudden urge to go to Dinky, to pull her into a hug, and tell her everything would be all right. But she just couldn't seem to make her limbs move, or her lips form the lie.

Then Skywishes's hoof pulled on her shoulder to get her attention. "Come on. She's right, and we're wasting time." Fluttershy turned numbly to face Skywishes, and was startled to see the expression in those dead eyes soften a fraction. "We can do a lot more to help her out there, than we can in here."

Fluttershy nodded and pushed herself up onto all fours. As Skywishes turned from her and headed for the front door, Fluttershy murmured, "Take care of yourself, Wishie."

The coral-colored pegasus suddenly flinched as if the words had been a physical blow, and looked back over her shoulder at Fluttershy, something unreadable flickering in her dark green eyes. Then Fluttershy realized that she had unthinkingly used the nickname Pinkie had given Skywishes the first—and now unfortunately the last—time they had met.

Skywishes's mouth moved as if she wanted to say something, then she looked away from Fluttershy toward a corner of the room. "Max."

The paper parrot had his rear end in the air, and his heads buried underneath Fluttershy's borrowed camouflage coat. At Skywishes's voice, both his heads popped up to face her.

"You keep Fluttershy safe or so help me, I'll hunt you down and set you on fire. You got that?"

Mache Max just swung one of his heads around and around while letting out a long drawn-out "Wahhhhhh!"

"Well, you better." Skywishes muttered before pulling her hood up and throwing the front door open. Cold air rushed in and Fluttershy felt a sudden rush of déjà vu as she remembered that time over a year ago, when she had braved the cold to search for an enemy and had returned with an ally. Now she was once again heading out in hopes of finding that same ally.

"Well, guess that's our cue to exit," said Screwjob as Skywishes took off flying toward Canterlot. Turning to Highflyer he added, "Take care of yourself, you pint-sized palooka. I want to mock your pretty pink hairdo for years to come."

Highflyer let out an amused snort, and cracked a faint smile. "Yeah, you take care of yourself too, Jobs. You know I look awful in all-black, so don't make me have to wear it."

"Ah, there might be an idea for a future feud in that. Me throwing all your clothes in tar."

Despite its light-hearted tone, this banter brought an unexpected tightness to Fluttershy's throat. When Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had died, there had been no warning, no chance to prepare for the fact that she would never see them again. But now—in that odd read-between-the-lines way of theirs—Highflyer and Screwjob were acknowledging the fact that this might be the last time they would see each other alive. She felt a sudden urge to do ... what? Pull them into a hug and tell them she loved them? She had known them for only about a day or two, maybe three at the most. Yet in that brief time she had come to regard them as friends. But before she could decide what to do or say, Screwjob was already out the door and moving away in a sort of half-canter, half-stumble. Watching this, Fluttershy suddenly remembered how he had kept dropping off to sleep without warning. Granted he had held up pretty well since Skywishes had shown up; he had rubbed his head on-and-off as if he had a headache, but had still stayed conscious the whole time. But what if he dropped off on his way to Sweet Apple Acres, and just lay there in the open for who knew how long, completely defenseless? And even if he did make it to Sweet Apple Acres without passing out—

"Highflyer?"

The tiny stallion had turned away from her so he could remove his mask unobserved, but now paused in unfastening the straps.

"D-do you think it was a good idea to send Screwjob to find Applejack? I mean it seemed like our only option earlier, but—"

"No," he said, pulling his mask off, and tucking it into his saddlebag before pulling out the tail extensions. "Considering how she feels about him, that mission was pretty much set up for failure."

Fluttershy gaped at the back of his shaved head as it disappeared under the extensions. "Then why didn't you say anything earlier?!"

Securing the extensions, and tousling them to make them look more natural, he pulled the cloak's hood up before turning to face her, keeping his head noticeably bent so that she couldn't get a clear view of his face. "Because it's the same situation as leaving Dinky alone here, Shy. It's a bad idea, but it's the best bad idea we have."

The best bad idea we have, Fluttershy mused as she flattened herself against a large boulder, straining her eyes to try and catch the faint shimmer that would indicate a semitransparent changeling was nearby.

Yes, that about summed things up.

What was that?!

She tensed as she thought she caught a glimmer to her left, hoping the camouflage coat she was wearing would live up to its name. Then her muscles relaxed as she realized she had only seen a beam of sunlight poking through the cloud cover. False alarm.

But how many more of those false alarms would she face? And what if the next one turned out not to be false?

She glanced wearily over at Mache Max. Ever since they had left the cottage, he had been leading her in a winding journey around the edges of Ponyville with frequent pauses to hide behind trees, bushes, and rocks. Wearing the camouflage had actually been his idea. When Fluttershy had gone to get some of her more conventional winter clothes, he had screeched and tugged on the camo, giving her the impression he wanted her to wear it. She had done so, but had also chosen to keep wearing Discord's scarf underneath it. Now she unconsciously reached into the coat's hood to stroke a section of the scarf around her neck, thinking about the note that Discord had left her.

Thanks for being my friend.

The phrase seemed innocent enough on the surface, but it troubled her. Did it mean 'being my friend' in the past tense? As in he no longer considered them friends? It would explain why he had avoided her so thoroughly the past year. But if that was the case, why had he bothered to come back at all?

She was jerked out of these thoughts when Mache Max suddenly shot up into the air and darted away. Scrambling after him, she had to start flying to keep up. They were heading toward Foal Mountain. Mache Max landed on a high ledge and waited for her to reach him. Fluttershy landed next to him, and looked back to see the way they had come.

Her cottage was no longer in sight, but she could still see most of Ponyville and the surrounding landscape. It looked so peaceful, such a contrast to the events that had happened over the past few days. She tried to spot any telltale shimmers but the now-overcast sky made that almost impossible. She also could see no sign of Highflyer, Screwjob, or Skywishes. Did that mean they had managed to stay hidden, or that they had been caught? There was no way to know.

Then Mache Max suddenly bumped her hoof, startling her so badly she almost fell off her perch. Turning toward him, she saw him fly to a ledge higher up and look down at her expectantly.

You can't do anything to help the other ponies right now, Fluttershy thought as she flew up to the next ledge. Not until you find Discord.

But what if you find him, and he just flashes away from you? For that matter, how do you even know if Max is leading you to him and not just on some ... wild parrot-chase—?

She had just pulled herself up onto the ledge—which turned out to be more of a path leading toward a cave—when Mache Max suddenly shot forward and seemed to collide with an invisible wall. There was a startled "What the—?!" as the parrot seemed to perch in midair and began whooping like a siren. Then there was a single sharp snap and Mache Max's noise was promptly cut off as he rolled into a ball of crumpled paper that fell to the path and lay motionless.

That startled "what the—?!" had been all Fluttershy needed to identify the voice's owner and she ran forward, expecting—hoping—to slam into an invisible body. But she ran right past the crumpled ball that had been Mache Max without bumping into anyone or anything. Skidding to a stop, she looked about wildly. "Discord? Where are you?"

Then she looked toward the cave. Could he be in there?

She took a few cautious steps toward it, when she was yanked off her feet by an unseen force and hung suspended in midair. "Discord?"

"What are you doing here?!"

How did you find me?! Discord mentally screamed as he stared at the pony paddling her limbs in the air as if treading water. He had thought that last message in their note would be suitably free of clues to make her stay put until he returned. Unless ... wait a minute. What if this was some sort of changeling trick? But how could they know he had trailed them here when he had taken care to stay invisible the whole time?

"I followed him," said maybe-Fluttershy, pointing down at the crumpled ball of paper. "You made him, didn't you?"

His gaze flicked down to follow the direction of her pointing hoof. He hadn't given that six-winged, two-headed piece of origami so much as a thought since it had gone skipping off across the water just seconds after he had made it. How was it possible that...?

"Didn't you?" Fluttershy repeated when there was no answer.

Then she heard a low coughing sound, as if he were collecting his thoughts. "Never mind that now." His voice hardened. "How do I know you're the real Fluttershy?"

How do you know that's the real Discord? Fluttershy suddenly thought. The changelings can't mimic his shape, but what's to stop them from imitating his voice while staying out of sight?! No sooner had her brain asked this terrifying question, then it immediately produced an answer. There's no aura around me even though I'm being held magically. Changeling magic produced a glow just like unicorn magic did, but Discord's magic didn't always follow this rule. Sometimes it was as flashy as that of the showiest unicorn, but it didn't seem to require this anymore than Discord really required his wings to fly.

No. Out of all the things she now had to worry about, the idea that the being currently immobilizing her wasn't her former partner thankfully wasn't one of them. But how could she convince him it was really her...?

"I'm missing my tail extensions," she whispered in what she hoped was his direction. "If I was a changeling, I could just make it look like I still have them. Take off my coat and see."

She heard a snap of claws and her coat pulled its sleeves off her front legs, stood itself up on her back, turned around and swan-dived off to splat itself comically on the path.

That's definitely Discord, she thought, a small amused smile tugging at her mouth in spite of everything. She had yet to meet anyone else who would use their magic to animate clothes to remove themselves when simply stripping them off would have been easier.

But his next words immediately wiped the smile from her face. "You shouldn't be here. I'm sending you back home."

"Don't you dare!" she shrieked. I didn't come this far, and abandon a weakened filly just for you to throw me back there! "Not unless you come back with me!" If the changelings had broken into the cottage by now, Discord would be her only hope of possibly getting herself and Dinky out alive.

"Keep your voice down!" he hissed in a fierce whisper.

But Fluttershy had had enough! Grief for her murdered friends, anxiety for the ones still in danger, fear that they would be killed, fear that they might already have been killed, and the conflicting emotions she had been feeling toward this maddening draconequus for the past year had finally reached the boiling point!

"Stop hiding and face me, Discord! If you dare teleport me away, I'll fly back here! If you take my wings away, I'll walk back! And if you take my legs away, I'll find some way to crawl back, but so help me, I'm not leaving unless you go with me!"

She heard him sigh. "In that case, sorry to have to do this, dear."

Then there was a glowing ball of light floating right in front of her. Blinking, she threw up her hooves to shield her eyes. The light zipped toward her and she saw the outline of a taloned hand in the middle of it. Then the hand clamped over her forehead, and she was overcome with dizziness.

Discord! What are you doing?! She tried to shove his hand away, but it stayed put. She tried to fly backward but his magic still held her in place!

"Stop!" she cried out, her struggles becoming more desperate as she felt even more overcome with vertigo. "Please stop!"

"Fluttershy!" His voice sounded pained. "Don't ... fight me!"

Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and her wings went limp as darkness closed over. The glowing hand withdrew from her forehead and disappeared. Unconscious, she began to fall toward the ground far below. But before she could fall very far, an eagle's claw and lion's paw appeared beneath her. As they caught her, the tattooed arms attached to them appeared as well, followed by a chest and shoulders. Below them a long body began to take shape, while a long neck did the same above them. Finally Discord's head appeared, his pierced face right above her unconscious one.

Having her in his arms like this was the closest they had been in over a year, and yet he was completely unable to enjoy it. Not after the way she had struggled against his spell.

"Darn it, Fluttershy!" he cursed, no longer caring if he might be overheard. "Why did you have to come after me?! Why couldn't you just stay put until I fixed everything?!" He couldn't get the sight of her frightened face out of his mind. A fear and desperation his actions had put there!

But what other choice did he have? It was for her own good. He couldn't risk her getting hurt if he took her with him to face the changelings, and he also couldn't risk sending her away. The fact that she had even found him like this in the first place had planted the nagging worry that she might find other ways to bypass any other obstacles he put in her path.

No, no, putting her temporarily to sleep like this was much better.

Right?

Of course it was.

Then why didn't it feel right?

Tucking her into the crook of one arm, he used his free hand to brush her mane back out of her face. Her expression wasn't peaceful, as he had been hoping for. True, her facial muscles had relaxed, but they still seemed etched with the fear he had seen there when she was awake.

And she still had his first Hearth's Warming gift with her. He had noticed it earlier back at the cottage, and though he hadn't commented on it, the realization that she had retrieved and kept the thing even after he had callously thrown it in the trash managed to make him feel simultaneously better and worse.

Groaning, he slid his paw up under her head, lifting it so he could press his forehead against hers. Considering what his magic was capable of inflicting on a pony, knocking her out like this had been a fairly minor thing so why did it feel like he'd committed some sort of terrible violation against her? Even though he knew she couldn't currently hear him, he felt an urgent need to justify himself.

"I didn't want it to be this way, Fluttershy! Can't you understand that?!" He pulled his head back to get a clearer look at her face. "I wasn't trying to hurt you! I—!" His voice suddenly dropped into a choked whisper. "I love you." Yes, he realized. Even after all this time apart, I still love you. Deep down part of him had been secretly hoping their time apart would cause his feelings for her to lessen, if only so that the idea of her rejecting him wouldn't seem so painful. But now he was finally forced to admit he had been deluding himself with that idea and her power over him had not weakened in the slightest.

As he gazed down at her unconscious face, it occurred to him that he could kiss her right now, right on her mouth. He could find out what that would feel like. It would be so quick, so easy...

But something held him back. He wanted to do it so much, yet at the same time he just couldn't bring himself to. Then he noticed his dragon tattoo was trying to sneak closer to Fluttershy, and he smacked it back into its proper place with his free hand before wrapping his arms more possessively around the pegasus. The tattoo promptly retaliated by kicking him in the rear end with its back feet, and whether by intention or by accident, this kick in his nonexistent pants made the draconequus realize that just floating there, bemoaning the situation would fix nothing.

It was time to get to work. He snapped his talons and a shimmering bubble appeared in front of him.

He looked back down at Fluttershy. He still couldn't bring himself to kiss her on the mouth, but at the same time he couldn't just leave her without some form of goodbye. So he kissed her softly on the forehead before gently shoving her through the bubble's membrane. Once he was sure he had her settled comfortably, he pulled his hands free of the bubble and allowed it to drift down onto the path. Once it touched the ground, both it and the pegasus inside seemed to vanish, but Discord knew they were both still there. Now Fluttershy would be safe until he had dealt with things. As long as she was in that bubble no one would be able to see or hear her. Not until he came back to let her out.

Now he turned and straightened to face the cave entrance. After all the yelling and him shedding his invisibility, the changelings he had followed here probably knew he was now outside their hideout. But that idea only brought a sadistic smile to his face as he rubbed his palms together. Just let them try and stop me.

It was time to end this.

Chapter 12. Proverbs 16:18

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Chapter 12

"Pride goes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall."—Proverbs 16:18

"Hey, kid!"

At the sound of the voice behind him, Highflyer froze, fighting the urge to throw a hoof up in front of his face.

"You better get home!" said the pony who had called out to him. "It's not safe out here!"

"I-I know!" Highflyer squeaked, trying to disguise his voice by pitching it higher than usual. "I'm hurrying!" He mentally grimaced. Normally he was quite proud of his croaky voice but now it was just one more hindrance in his attempt to pass himself off as a much younger colt. Ironic that he had spent so many years trying to bury any vestiges of the tiny adorable colt he had once been—chopping off his wavy mane and tail, covering his small body in tattoos, and hiding his still youthful features under a mask—only to now wish his efforts to reinvent himself hadn't been quite so enthusiastic.

He began to move forward again, wondering if the pony would call out to him once more, but when that didn't happen, he chanced a quick glance over his shoulder.

When he had first reached Ponyville several moments ago, the streets had seemed deserted, but as he snuck further into town, he noticed a couple other ponies (or at least what appeared to be ponies) hurrying between the buildings. Fortunately the weather had gotten cold enough that nearly everypony seemed to be wearing some form of winter clothing, and his oversized cloak didn't look too out of place. And so far—apart from that pony that had just called out to him earlier—he had been mostly ignored. Still he kept his head down, and did his best to avoid eye-contact. He longed for his mask. Even with the extensions tumbling over his forehead, and the cloak's hood pulled far forward, he hadn't felt this exposed in years.

Finally he reached Scootaloo's house, which seemed to be shut up as tightly as the other houses. He glanced back again to make sure no ponies were observing him, then dove into the shrubbery of a nearby house. Feeling a bit more secure in his new hiding place, he peeked out at Scootaloo's house again. It looked undisturbed, but was that a good sign or a bad one?

Without really thinking about it, he reached up and began twirling an extension around his hoof as he peered at the house, trying to decide on his next course of action. Despite all the plans he and the other ponies had discussed back at Fluttershy's cottage, there had simply been too many variables in each of their intended missions to plan for every possible scenario—

At that moment the extension he'd been winding around his hoof came free of his collar and fell in front of him like a pink cord.

Oh swell, High, he mentally groaned. You haven't had a mane in over a decade, and you're already twiddling your hair again! It was a habit he had struggled with ever since he was a colt. He had tried to quit when he realized how cutesy it made him look to other ponies. But it seemed that whenever he started thinking, his hoof came up to scratch at his head, and that scratching always turned quickly into hair twiddling. It got to the point where he finally gave up and buzzed his mane down to a crewcut that was impossible to twiddle. Later on he had ended up shaving his mane off completely to allow more ventilation under his masks, and his habit of messing with his mane had stopped. But now it seemed he hadn't kicked the habit as completely as he had once thought. However as he looked down at the twisted-up extension, an idea began forming in his head.

Still keeping his hood up, he tugged the rest of the extensions out, and twisted them together with the one he had already pulled out. He braided them into a make-shift rope and gave it several experimental tugs. When it didn't break, he tucked it into the strap of his saddlebag, and pulled out his mask. Slipping it back on under his hood, he suddenly felt like himself again.

Keeping the hood still pulled forward, he quickly checked that no one was around before jumping out of the shrubbery, and sprinting to Scootaloo's front door. Checking around him once more, he rapped on the door.

"Loo?" he called out softly. "Kid, you in there? It's Highflyer."

"High?" said a voice that sounded like Scootaloo's. "Hey, come on in."

"Is it just you in there?"

"No, Rainbow Dash's parents are here too."

Alright then, Highflyer thought. Time to spring this possible trap.

Meanwhile, deep in a tunnel of Foal Mountain, Discord's three former prisoners, now minus their pony disguises, had rejoined their queen and fellow changelings. Now all of them, the semitransparent crowd and their solid black leader, were huddled together with their eyes trained on the tunnel's entrance.

That was until Discord's three former prisoners all let out startled cries. Glowing bands had appeared around their necks. These bands pulled themselves free and morphed into the shape of glowing moths before flying up into the air. Several feet above the crowd, the glowing moths seemed to strike an invisible surface and vanished.

Then a sinister chuckle reverberated around the tunnel.

"He's here," Chrysalis breathed.

"How observant of you," said the mocking disembodied voice.

Loosening the cloak clasp at his throat, Highflyer grabbed a hoofful of cloak hem and held it up by his face as he pushed the door open and stepped inside the house. He saw Scootaloo sitting on the couch next to an older blue pegasus mare who he guessed must be Rainbow Dash's mother. Then two huge forelegs were flung around his neck from behind! They hauled him off his hooves, and as he dangled in the air, the forelegs began tightening mercilessly around his throat, as if intending to crush it!

But the attacker's forelegs had not only wrapped around Highflyer's neck, but around his hoof holding the corner of the cloak as well. Which was just what the tiny stallion wanted! Grabbing the free corner of the cloak in his other hoof, Highflyer yanked it upward, forcing the two forelegs away from his throat in the process! He dropped to the floor, leaving his pre-loosened cloak behind and darted around behind his attacker, a big periwinkle blue pegasus stallion with a multicolored mane identical to Rainbow Dash's. Before the big stallion could turn to face him, Highflyer leapt up and drove both back hooves into the other pony's spine. The force of the blow caused the stallion to stumble forward, and as his head snapped back reflexively, Highflyer bounced up a second time to land on the other stallion's shoulders. Small as he was, his added weight was still enough to keep the bigger stallion off-balance. As they fell forward, the masked pony yanked the braided extensions out of his saddlebag strap and whipped them around his opponent's neck. When they hit the ground, the big stallion tried to get up, but Highflyer twisted the ends of the braid together, tightening it into a make-shift garrote. The big stallion fell back, choking and pawing at his throat.

"Stay down, buddy!" Highflyer growled in his ear.

"Let him go or she gets it!" shouted an unfamiliar female voice. Highflyer looked up to see the blue mare now holding Scootaloo in a choke-hold almost identical to the one he had been in just seconds ago.

"Windy, what are you—?" Scootaloo's question abruptly turned into a gasp of pain as the older mare used a wing to strike her hard in her bandaged ribs.

Then Highflyer's attention was yanked back onto his own opponent as the bigger stallion tried to get up. "I said stay down!" He punctuated this by giving the hair-garrote a warning tug.

"And I said let him go!" The older mare followed this up with a second blow to Scootaloo's ribs; this one producing a choked sob from the younger pegasus. Highflyer's eyes flicked back up to them. Scootaloo was trying to loosen the choke-hold on her neck, but she wasn't in full-blown fight mode yet. Her expression was equal parts shock, pain, and confusion, all of which seemed genuine, but how could he be sure? He had announced his name earlier in hopes that any disguised changelings would jump at the chance to finish him off. Just as the stallion he was currently holding down had. The fact that Might-be-Ray's-mom was threatening a pony she likely normally regarded as a second daughter made Highflyer suspect she was also a disguised changeling. But what about Scootaloo? Was it really her, or a third changeling playing the victim to trick him into releasing his current hostage by trying to come to her aid?

This dilemma was suddenly taken out of his hooves when a green blur shot into the room. It was Tank in his flying gear! He hurled straight toward the two mares. They ducked but he managed to snag one of the older mare's wings in his beak!

Highflyer didn't get a chance to see what happened next because at that moment the other stallion surged to his feet, taking the tiny wrestler with him. Highflyer frantically tightened the garrote but the big stallion had managed to get a wing tip in between the rope and his throat. And Highflyer could feel the noose being forcibly widened! To hinder this, he began kicking furiously at the other pony's wing joints. The big stallion let out a choked cry of pain and tried to smack Highflyer away with his free wing, but couldn't quite bend it back far enough to reach his much smaller opponent. He backed toward the wall, and went up on his hind legs, evidently intending to squash Highflyer against it. But before they hit the wall, Highflyer jumped off the bigger stallion's back and, still hanging onto the garrote, swung around so that he was now in front of his opponent. The big stallion gave him a startled look right before Highflyer pulled up both back legs and kicked the other stallion in the head. The big stallion growled and tried to grab at Highflyer, unwittingly moving away from the wall in the process, but Highflyer swung back out of reach onto the other stallion's shoulders. The big stallion tried to slam him against the wall a second time, and once again Highflyer swung around to the front. But this time the big stallion was ready for him and clouted Highflyer in the face!

There was a sharp pain in Highflyer's mouth! He tasted blood, and his brain registered the fact that the blow must have reopened the cut he'd gotten on the inside of his mouth back when he had bitten that first changeling the day before. Then he lost his hold on the garrote and found himself tumbling through the air to crash-land on his back. The pain in his mouth was immediately eclipsed by the pain of his injured wings and back striking the floor. Groaning, he tried to roll over onto his feet, but the bigger stallion was already on top of him, grabbing his vest front, hauling him up, and slamming him spine-first into the nearest wall. Highflyer cried out as this second blow sent fresh waves of pain through his back. He struggled to breathe as the huge hoof pinning him to the wall began crushing his chest. His back legs kicked uselessly at empty air while his front hooves scrabbled against the much bigger one on his chest, trying to force it away. But it was clear the bigger stallion was the stronger of the two. Chuckling at his opponent's helplessness, the big stallion threw a punch at Highflyer's head. But the masked stallion threw up one of his forelegs, knocking the incoming blow off-course enough that it slammed into the wall beside his head.

"Why, you—!" Furious that the tiny wrestler had managed to avoid the punch even while pinned to the wall, the big stallion leaned in closer, putting more of his weight behind the hoof crushing Highflyer's chest. He could hear the tiny stallion straining to draw breath, and the masked pony's kicks now seemed much feebler than they had earlier. Confident his next blow wouldn't miss, the big stallion drew back his free hoof again...

And Highflyer spat a mouthful of blood straight into his eyes!

The big stallion recoiled with surprised disgust, and when his hoof jerked away from Highflyer's chest, the masked stallion did not let himself drop to the floor, but rather wrapped his own forelegs around his opponent's much bigger one. As the big stallion tried to rub the blood-and-saliva mixture from his eyes, Highflyer swung his back legs up, and wrapped them around his opponent's foreleg as well. Shimmying backward up the limb until his back hooves came into contact with the big stallion's shoulder, Highflyer braced himself against said shoulder, and yanked backward. This caught his opponent off-guard, and the big stallion over-balanced, landing on his back. Highflyer was now lying on his back with one of the big stallion's wings underneath him, and one outstretched front leg above him. Highflyer groaned. Even with his wings splinted and bound tight against his sides, all this slamming about wasn't doing them any favors. The one thing that kept him going was his wrestling training; the countless times he had forced himself to get back up and continue working a match, even when all his body wanted to do was curl up in a fetal position until the pain went away. Now, as Highflyer felt the huge foreleg being pulled away from him, that very same conditioning kicked in. He tightened his own tiny forelegs around the big one, trapping it in a wrestling hold known as a front-leg-breaker. Once again planting both back hooves against the other stallion's shoulder, he began pulling backward. The big stallion thrashed about, trying to get free, but Highflyer forced himself to block out everything but pulling back on that captured limb. Then there was a sharp snap and his opponent howled in agony! Highflyer shoved the now-limp foreleg away and rolled onto his feet.

The blue mare still had Scootaloo in a choke-hold and was trying to free her wing from Tank's beak. But the tortoise held on, the propeller on his flying gear buzzing furiously as he tried to pull the blue pegasus away from the orange one. Suddenly light flared from the blue mare's forehead and a similar aura appeared around the flying gear. The gear was magically wrenched off Tank's shell and flung aside. It sailed high into the air where it smashed against the staircase with an audible crunch. The blue mare whipped her wing about and this time she succeeded in throwing Tank off! The tortoise hurled across the room, struck the far wall, and tumbled to the floor.

However, the mare didn't have any time to savor this triumph because at that moment Scootaloo threw her forward in an over-head judo throw.

Nice move, kid! Highflyer mentally cheered as the older mare landed on her back with a thud. Then he darted forward, swung his little body up in the air, and drove both hocks (the sharpest points on his body) into the older mare's gut. Her breath went out in a whoosh. In the meantime, the big stallion had been getting to his feet while at the same time trying to keep his weight off his injured front leg. While the mare was still trying to get her breath back, Highflyer darted around behind the stallion, and leaped up, kicking him right in the injured shoulder so that he crashed down on top of the downed mare. While the injured ponies (Disguised changelings, he mentally corrected himself.) lay in a groaning pile, Highflyer turned to face Scootaloo. Tears were leaking from her screwed-up eyes, and she was rubbing tentatively at her sides. After all that had happened, he was pretty sure she was the real pony, but just to be certain...

Wincing several times himself, he hurried over to where Tank had landed. The tortoise was on his back, paddling his legs in the air as he tried unsuccessfully to right himself. He looked a bit rattled, but his shell seemed to have protected him from serious physical injury. At that moment, Highflyer both heard a gasp, and felt a tail brush against his rump. Spinning about, he saw that Scootaloo had backed into him. Looking beyond her, he saw Not-Ray's-parents slowly untangling themselves while shooting the two pegasi murderous looks.

In split seconds Highflyer's brain reviewed his options: Fight or (non-aerial) flight? If he were facing the changelings alone, he would have picked the former, but with Scootaloo and Tank also in the equation...

"Up the stairs, kid!" he whisper-shouted, wrapping one foreleg around Tank, grabbing one of Scootaloo's hooves in his free one, and running toward the stairs on his hind legs. He was almost to the top when he felt something seize his hind legs and yank him off them. As he pitched forward, Tank squirted out of his grasp and went tumbling haplessly across the top stair. Highflyer felt himself being dragged back down the stairs, and grabbed wildly for the banister to halt his descent. He heard Scootaloo scream behind him and, realizing he had let go of her hoof, looked down to see her also clinging to the banister below him with her hind legs encased in the same pale blue light as his own!

Straining against the hold on his legs, Highflyer lunged forward, seized the shattered remains of Tank's flying gear on the stair above him, and flung them down the stairs in the direction of Not-Ray's-parents. He heard a pair of startled shouts and the hold on his back legs suddenly disappeared. Then he and Scootaloo were racing up the stairs again, Scootaloo scooping up Tank in the process. They dashed into Scootaloo's bedroom, where Highflyer slammed the door behind them, and locked it. Looking over at the young mare, he noticed Tank wasn't struggling to get away from her, which was the final proof he needed that she was the real Scootaloo.

He drew a deep breath. "Loo, you've probably guessed this by now, but those ponies weren't Ray's parents. Or even ponies for that matter."

Scootaloo nodded shakily. "Yes, but how'd you figure that out when you first came in?"

"I can't really explain everything right now, but long story short, Discord didn't murder Ray or Pinkie."

"What?!"

"A bunch of changelings did it and framed him to keep us ponies distracted. They attacked Derpy's family, they had plans to capture me, and now they want me, Dinky, and Screwjob dead because we know too much."

"But how—?"

At that moment there was a hard blow on the other side of the door. It shuddered but didn't burst open.

"No more time to explain," said Highflyer. "I came here to stop you and Tank from getting captured and that's what I'm going to do."

Somehow... he added in his thoughts as he took in their surroundings. He was still wearing his borrowed saddlebags. Maybe he could fashion them into some sort of weapon to hold off the changelings while Scootaloo snuck away with Tank. Some of these thoughts must have shown even through his mask, because Scootaloo began looking about as well.

"The window," she breathed. "We could climb out the window while they think we're still trapped in here. I could use one of my workout shirts to carry Tank on my back."

As she grabbed up one of said shirts, Highflyer noticed a couple of dumbbells, and a water bottle lying nearby. He had a brief memory of suggesting she should start pumping iron. Apparently she had taken his advice to heart.

And unknowingly given him an extra battle strategy.

The door shuddered from another blow.

"Loo," said Highflyer. "You go out the window. I'll hold those changelings off as long as I can so you can get away."

Scootaloo paused in tugging the stretchy spandex shirt over her head. "But you're wings, you're hurt—"

"I'm used to working hurt, kid!"

The door shuddered again, this time straining audibly, and Highflyer forced himself to soften his voice. "Look, there's no time to argue. Head for Fluttershy's cottage, and when you get there, say the word 'Kestrel.' You got that?"

"Kestrel?" Scootaloo repeated, albeit a tad uncertainly.

Highflyer nodded. "Then if you hear the word 'Whistler,' it's safe to go in. If you get any other response or no response at all, get yourself away from there and find a place to hide.

"And whatever you do, keep Tank with you. He can sense the windigo-essence in these changelings, so he'll try to stay away from them if he can. The fact that he hasn't tried to get away from you is how I know you're not a disguised changeling."

Scootaloo looked down at the tortoise who had been staying near her ever since she had set him down to get her shirt. "He did try to hold me back when I first went to let Bow and Windy in..." she murmured in dawning realization.

With the banging on the door getting more furious and flashes of magic showing around its edges, the two pegasi hurried to the window and opened it.

"Be careful, kid," said Highflyer. "There's no telling how many ponies out there the changelings have replaced so far."

Scootaloo looked back at him with Tank tucked into the back of her shirt, so that the tortoise seemed to be riding her piggyback. "You too, High."

Then she was out and climbing down the wall. Highflyer shut the window behind her. Better not to give the changelings too many clues as to her escape route.

Shucking off his saddlebags, he took out the jar of apple peelings—which miraculously hadn't broken in the earlier tussle—and replaced it with a couple of the dumbbells. Then facing the door, he chugged some water from the bottle to clear the blood from his mouth.

Okay, ya punks, he thought as he spat the water out. Let's see what you can do now.

Discord could sense Chrysalis drawing furiously on her subjects' power, filling herself with it. Good luck with that. At a flex of his magic, the changelings were all yanked away from their queen and each stuffed into a brightly-colored (and magically-reinforced) package heavily trimmed with bows. After all, no need to deliver them to Celestia with their dignity intact. Considering their queen had just graciously taken away their power for her own use, there wouldn't be any chance of them breaking out of their clownish prisons any time soon. And now to wring a confession out of that queen.

"We don't have any quarrel with you, Discord," Chrysalis sounded scared as she looked around wildly for him. "This was between me and Twilight Sparkle!"

"And I might have believed that," came the sarcastic reply. "Were it not for the pesky way you tried to frame me for murder."

"I'm serious! Both those murders were to hit Twilight where it would hurt the most!"

"And the attack on Derpy's family?"

Chrysalis seemed to fumble at that. "Well... okay, that was just because you stayed with them, and we couldn't have them voicing any possible doubts about—" Her tone suddenly went from sheepish to accusatory. "Why do you even care?! You spent the past year kicking any goodwill the ponies might have held for you into the compost heap, so what difference does it make if they think you killed a few of them as well?"

"I prefer to earn my own animosity, thank! You!" At those words a tape recorder popped into existence, floating in midair. "Annnnd your confession has been duly recorded!"

The changeling queen snarled at being tricked. "That won't do you any good! I've already got the rest of my changelings in place, and we're going to unleash a wave of anarchy that will make your reign of chaos look like a small foal's temper tantrum!" Her face blanched, apparently realizing she might have gone too far.

His contemptuous laugh echoed around the tunnel. "You! Outdo my chaos?! Ho, ho, let's see you say that to my face!" And with that, Discord flashed into existence right in front of her. He was upside down, holding a sign that declared: Direct your voice here, with an arrow pointing down at his face. He was sure that at the sight of him, the furious queen would attack, and he was ready for it. Ready to repel the attack back at her and make her look absurd into the bargain.

Go ahead, do it! he mentally urged her. Oh, the look on her face when he—

"Now!" Chrysalis shouted, and Discord's glee suddenly turned to confusion when the expected attack didn't come. Instead the changeling queen's magic level plunged down to the barest reserves without firing off so much as a single attack.

What—? Before his mind could even finish forming the question, Discord felt a huge surge of magic behind him, a second before that magic punched into his right shoulder! The force of the blow was so great it sent him whirling tail-over-teakettle in midair. His shoulder on fire with pain, he struggled to right himself and a second blast caught him in the left hip, spinning him around. Now he was facing the parceled-up changelings. But one of them had burst out of its prison and unleashed the blast that had struck him! Through his curtain of pain and shock, he sensed another surge of magic behind him, and realized it was coming from Chrysalis a moment before a blast greater than either of the other two struck him right in the head! The pain in his hip and shoulder was blotted out by the pain in his head ... before his world went black.

Scarcely had Highflyer emptied his mouth, then the door broke open. Not-Ray's-mom was in the lead and Highflyer met her by swinging one end of the loaded saddlebag. The blow knocked her down, and he swung the saddlebag back around to strike Not-Ray's-dad as well. Before either changeling could recover, Highflyer was raining blows down on both of them, striking their backs, sides, anything to ensure they wouldn't get up. Fortunately they didn't seem to have either his high pain tolerance, or his experience when it came to working through it. Still Not-Ray's-dad tried to swipe at him with a hoof that suddenly transformed into long talons.

Guess they don't care about trying to keep up the pony act now, Highflyer thought, grasping each of the saddlebag-encased dumbbells and wrapping the resulting loop of the saddlebag around the swinging claws. Yanking the claws toward him, he rolled underneath them, sending them into the mare's side. Not-Ray's-mom screamed in pain, and Highflyer released one end of the saddlebags before ducking out from under the big stallion and leaping up onto the bed. From the bed, he dropped the loop of the saddlebag straps down around the changelings' necks, and jumped back down to the floor. He shifted one end of the strap from his hoof to his teeth, reached around the base of one bed leg, grabbed that section of the strap in his hoof again, and cinched the straps around said leg.

The stallion changeling had managed to pull his claws from the other's side, but when he tried to get up, he found himself fastened to the base of the bed leg by the saddlebag looped around his neck. The other changeling's attempt to get up was met with identical results.

Highflyer saw light flash from their foreheads and swiftly snatched the dumbbells out of the saddlebags. "Try grabbing anything with your magic, and I'll beat the both of you unconscious with these." Despite their earlier success as an impromptu flail, the little dumbbells were far from an ideal bludgeoning weapon, considering both floggees were still conscious.

The big stallion must have guessed this, because he started to sneer, "You couldn't do it with those—" but stopped mid-sentence when Highflyer pressed the weighted end of one dumbbell warningly against his forehead just under the multi-colored hair.

"You wanna find out?" As much as he'd rather not go through with the messy business, he wouldn't hesitate if they forced him.

Apparently this was crystal-clear to each changeling, because they made no move to stop him when he backed away. Still keeping his face toward them, he moved to retrieve the jar of apple peelings from its hiding place.

"You won't get away with this!" the mare snarled.

Highflyer spat, partially to clear his still bleeding mouth, and partially to show his contempt at this threat. "Yeah, enjoy telling your queen you got your tails kicked by an injured pony less than half your size. I'm sure she'll be so proud of you."

"All your posturing didn't do Ray any good, did it?" said the stallion.

Highflyer froze at that.

"Yeah," said the mare, joining in. "You might have won this battle, High-Flyer," she emphasized his name so that it almost sounded like an insult. "But nothing you do will ever bring old Ray back."

Highflyer felt his lips pull back from his teeth. He had developed a pretty tough skin when it came to insults (one of the side effects of having Screwjob as a best friend) but hearing that nickname—that special nickname he had given Rainbow Dash and that he alone used—coming out of their mouths, got to him in a way no insult to himself could! With Rainbow Dash dead, that nickname was all he had left of her!

"Don't you dare use that name! Nopony calls her that but me!"

"Just try and stop us from saying it," the stallion taunted.

Highflyer was about to march right over and do just that. But the look of triumph that flashed across the changelings' faces as he made a move toward them caused him to halt. Considering he had just incapacitated them, and warned them he could hurt them further, they logically shouldn't be trying to goad him. Most ponies might not have noticed this, but Highflyer did because it was a tactic he had used many times himself: egging an opponent into attacking you, and then revealing your trump card.

So rather than getting any closer to them, he snatched up the jar of apple peelings in his mouth and leapt out through the broken door.

"Running won't do you any good!" he heard them shout after him as he slid down the banister. (He didn't want to risk taking a tumble down the stairs with both his mouth and front hooves occupied.) "We've already got the changelings we need in place!"

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, Highflyer dropped the dumbbells to the floor before jumping down himself. He spat the jar into his now-free hooves and unscrewed its lid. Tipping his head back, he pulled his mask away from his nose and dumped the apple peelings inside, shaking a bit to get them settled against his forehead. Not the most enjoyable way to carry things, but with the saddlebags currently doing duty as neck-cuffs, he might easily lose the jar if he needed his hooves and mouth free. And Fluttershy had given him the impression that the apple peelings were more important than their container.

"Just give it up, pony! You're too late anyway!"

I don't do giving up! Highflyer mentally shot back as he released his mask, allowing it to snap back into place against his face. Grabbing up his cloak from the floor, he swept it on, pulling the hood over his masked head. Snatching up the pink hair garrote (which he felt would be an easier-to-conceal-and-carry-not-to-mention-practical weapon than the dumbbells), he bolted out the front door, and started heading for the train station, feeling that familiar urge to keep fighting—to succeed if only for the satisfaction of proving his detractors wrong.

But oh, how he hoped they were lying when they said he was already too late.

Chrysalis stepped cautiously toward the downed draconequus. He lay sprawled out face-down on the cave floor, his only movement a spasmodic twitching in his fingers. Smoke and the smell of charred meat rose from his shoulder and hip, while her attack had left a huge wound sparking magic right between his horn-and-antler. Being hit with that much magic would have killed a pony and it seemed to have done the same with the draconequus. Still it would be best to make sure he was completely out of the picture. She fired up her magic once again, and aimed her horn at him a second time.

Stone began appearing on the end of his tail and creeping up his body. In seconds he was completely encased and Chrysalis stepped back to study her work. Satisfied, she poured most of her remaining magic into her imprisoned subjects and they used it to burst out of the presents.

"Well done," she told them, before looking back toward the stone draconequus. Though she and her subjects had been forced to use up quite a bit of their magic to take him down it had been well worth it. Going up against him had been extremely risky, but now that it was over, she felt almost giddy, thinking back to how he had bought first her supplicating act, then her furious one. A smile tugged at her lips as she remembered the orders she had given the three changelings Discord had interrogated. They had told him the truth about how she could draw on all their power to accomplish spells ordinarily out of her power range. But they had carefully neglected to mention that she could also take that collected power and channel it through any one of them if she chose to. She had been counting on Discord to expect all the big attacks to come from her alone, and he had fallen right into the carefully laid trap.

All in all not a bad way for things to play out.

Granted there had been some setbacks. First Applejack had stumbled upon those dead ponies. Her sudden disappearance soon afterward had been worrisome, but it had also sown much distrust among the Apple Family members. Distrust her subjects had fed on those ten years until they had enough power to start that blizzard. The blizzard that would isolate the ponies as they tried to wait it out, and make them easy prey for her subjects when the changelings came disguised as friends and loved ones needing shelter. It had all been so perfect.

Who would have guessed that Fluttershy would end up befriending Discord and that his accepting her friendship would result in a blast of magic powerful enough to break the blizzard!

At that thought Chrysalis felt her smile slipping, as she looked back down at the draconequus. She had not considered him a threat initially. That stone-cold heart of his that loved nothing but himself should have left him completely defenseless against their windigo powers. Should have—it had left him defenseless! But then that sniveling pegasus had to go and mess it all up!

"What did she see in you?" she demanded even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "You never gave her any reason to care for you. You treated her as less than dirt, so what prompted her to try and save you?!"

"Your highness?" said one of the changelings. "What do we do with him now?"

Chrysalis shook her head, remembering where they were. "Leave him here. Let the ponies go on thinking he's still out there, waiting to attack them at any moment. It will make them cling even more desperately to their loved ones." It will also simultaneously give us more fear to feed on through our windigo-essence, and love to feed on as we keep replacing more ponies.

She turned away from the draconequus. With that particular obstacle out of the way, they could get back to focusing on the other important phases of her plan.

"We'll go give ourselves a quick recharge, and once that's done, I want you out looking for that young unicorn and those two pesky wrestlers. Kill them at the first opportunity you get."

"Yes, your majesty. And what about the mailpony and her older daughter?"

"Ah, yes. Leave them at the hospital for now. Since the staff probably think Discord will go there to finish those two off, they'll be heavily monitored. If they suddenly died, it might look suspicious. Anyway they're only a danger to us if the unicorn wakes up and remembers what happened, so keep an eye on her at least. At the first sign of her waking up, we can arrange an accident, but for now they're more use to us alive than dead. As news of their conditions gets out, it will make every pony's fear of Discord even worse, and will keep them focused on him."

She chuckled. "That is, until we've captured so many of them that they'll be powerless against us when we finally reveal ourselves.

"Oh, and when you find those two wrestlers and that unicorn, don't bother dumping the bodies some place where they might be found. Just arrange for them to vanish discretely, and let the ponies spin whatever horror story scenarios they can to explain those three disappearances."

Author's Notes:

You know, if it wasn't for the whole murdering ponies thing, I might almost feel sorry for Chrysalis. That has got to be so annoying to have your plan completely botched by a couple of goofballs who didn't even realize that's what their budding friendship was doing at the time.

Also on another note: Man, both my OCs are savage.

Screwjob: "Hey, we're stallions, not geldings. What did you expect?"

As always, thank you Nightwalker for your suggestions and editing, and thanks everyone else for your patience in waiting for this chapter. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to work on the next one.

Also please check out the lovely fanart fussyqueen
did for TDwtDT Chapter 9
https://img00.deviantart.net/62da/i/2018/187/3/9/flutter2_by_catsrii-dcgf3lg.jpg
and TDwtDT Chapter 13
https://img00.deviantart.net/6388/i/2018/187/2/d/flutter_by_catsrii-dcgf3ji.jpg
Thanks again fussyqueen for drawing them.

Chapter 13. Proverbs 14:12

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Chapter 13

"There is a way that seems to be right, but in the end it leads to death."—Proverbs 14:12

I've forgotten how much I hate clouds, Skywishes mentally grumbled even as she ducked down into one. Give me a good solid tree branch any day. She had been away from clouds for so long in fact, that she had actually forgotten just how wet they could be. One of her main reasons for disliking them was that she had never managed to master the knack most pegasi seemed to have for handling clouds without getting wet. She had been diving in and out of them so many times that now she was soaked through and shivering. Still her hiding in the clouds seemed to have paid off so far when it came to avoiding detection.

Now parting the cloud's bottom layer, she peered down at the castle below. Okay. Step One: Make it to Canterlot without getting caught. Done.

Step Two: Find Twilight and Spike. Also without getting caught.

She studied the ponies moving about far below her. Many of them were wearing pieces of winter clothing so her borrowed cloak wouldn't look too out of place ... but the fact that it was soaking wet might attract attention. Considering how long it would take for the cloak to dry, and that there was no way of telling how much time she had to look for her quarry, it might be better to ditch the cloak ... but if any of the ponies down there were secretly changelings, and word of her description had been passed around ...

The coral-colored pegasus huffed out a frustrated breath. If only she had some other form of disguise that—

Then she noticed that one set of guards had taken over from another set.

Bingo.

With their queen walking in the lead, the semitransparent changelings all either walked or flew farther down the tunnel until they came to a section where it widened. When Chrysalis stopped in this section, her subjects flowed past her to form a semicircle around a column of glowing light. Floating in that column was a small skeletal-looking equine; its body covered with a ridged black exoskeleton rather than hair like a pony.

One of the changelings struck the column with a hoof, causing the creature inside to revolve helplessly. Though there was no change in the creature's expression, the changelings all felt her hatred for them surge, and they fed on it through their windigo essence. Granted the power they could draw from her was paltry compared to what they could get from Equestria's pony population, but it would do in an emergency or if they were in a hurry.

The little equine tried to glare at her captors but of course she couldn't so much as make her orange eyes twitch. She could only seethe.

What did they want with her? Were they here to mock her again with the fact that they were free and she was trapped? Hadn't they tired of tormenting her yet? When would they finally let her die?

Skywishes landed on the roof of a guardhouse and watched as several armored ponies went in, then re-emerged minus their armor. Two of the guards stationed themselves outside the house and didn't seem to be in any hurry to move.

Drat! Well, I guess it was too much to hope for that they'd just leave their armor unguarded. And with that, Skywishes tucked the trailing edge of her cloak into her saddlebag straps (to minimize dripping), pried a tile off the roof, and flung it into the distance where it shattered against the stone. Both guards looked in that direction, so she chucked another tile that way as well. When it shattered, the guards moved forward to investigate the crash. As soon as they were several feet away from the guardhouse door, Skywishes swung down from the roof, and used her back hooves to work the door handle. The door swung open, and she dropped inside with a faint rustle both of wet cloak and of wings. She quickly ducked around the door and flattened herself against the wall. The guardhouse seemed to be empty save for several neatly arranged piles of armor, so Skywishes used one of her back hooves to slowly ease the door shut.

"Hey, didn't we close that door?" said a male voice, and she froze. She heard the clatter of hooves coming closer and tried to press herself even flatter against the wall. Had her cloak dripped all over the ground despite her effort to prevent that? Would the guards notice? Would she be able to stay hidden if they—?

Then she heard somepony fiddling with the door handle.

"Hmm. Must not have latched it all the way," the male voice muttered. "I keep telling maintenance to look at this thing, but noooo." Then the door was pulled shut with a firm bang, and given a few little experimental pushes to make sure it was well and truly closed. Skywishes heard the guards outside shuffling back into their proper positions, and when they eventually quieted, she relaxed just a tad, grateful that once again she had managed to avoid detection. Now she eased cautiously away from the wall, moving to examine the sets of armor. After eyeballing them for a few quick seconds, she chose what seemed to be the smallest one.

It was a challenge to move the pieces of armor without them clanking together, but traveling through the Everfree with often-cumbersome supplies had forced Skywishes to become an expert on moving potentially noisy objects while making scarcely a sound. Shucking off her wet cloak, she tucked it into one of her saddlebags before dragging on some body armor. The armor was designed for somepony with a bigger girth than her, but the saddlebags helped her fill it out a bit. When she pulled her tail through the appropriate hole, she kept the bottom half of it tucked under, so that it at least appeared to end in a straight military cut. Then she smeared her tail with some armor polish to hide its pink streaks, making it look a more uniform purple-brown. She had seen several guards of varying colors but was still worried that the pink-and-purple streaks composing her mane and tail would be too noticeable. Fortunately the helmet was large enough to hide her mane completely so she didn't have to worry about concealing those pink streaks.

She started to slip her hoof into one of the armored shoes, then almost yipped when it came down on something squashy. Oh, please don't let me have squished a mouse or something, she mentally groaned as she turned the shoe upside-down. What fell out of it was a wrapped (and now-misshapen) sandwich.

For several seconds she just blinked disbelievingly down at the food item. What a weird place to store your lunch. Then she examined the other three shoes, but found no surprises in them. However when she tried them on, she found another issue. Just as with the armor, the shoes were designed for a bigger pony, and her hooves kept slipping around in them. Just my luck, I pick the one armory that outfits all the elephant-footed guards. And with that, she kicked the shoes off (but made sure to catch them before they crashed against anything.) Hopefully everypony will still be so focused on Discord, they won't notice one shoeless guard.

Then she glanced down at the misshapen sandwich, debating whether to put it back or commandeer it. Her stomach rumbled. Well, it's all squished up now anyway which could raise questions... And with that, she unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite.

Hmm. Pimento cheese. A nice change from the dessert she had been living off of for the past few days. Tucking the rest of the sandwich in her saddlebag for later, she crept toward the door and listened. She could hear the guards shifting about, and decided she couldn't chance exiting that way. Which meant she would have to try getting out through a back window.

And once I'm out, I have to figure out how to find Twilight. Let's see. Fluttershy mentioned that she was looking up medical spells...

To an outside observer, the stone draconequus looked like nothing more than a large lifeless rock. But deep inside it, Discord was slowly regaining consciousness.

Where am I? Why is it so dark? ... And why does my head hurt so much?

He tried to focus but his brain didn't seem to want to cooperate.

Then he remembered. They shot me! The little insects shot me! And then their queen shot me again when my back was to her!

He didn't know who he was more outraged at; the changelings for tricking him, or himself for falling for it.

It was at that moment that he realized where he was!

No! He couldn't be trapped in stone again!

No! He drove his magic into the stone in front of him like punching a fist into a wall!

No! He did it again!

No! And again!

No!

Despite not having seen the Canterlot Library since she was a filly, the massive ornate structure looked as imposing as ever to Skywishes. Breaking out of her awed reverie, she cast a quick glance around. The few ponies around her didn't seem to have noticed her, focused more on reaching their next warm destination. With a shake of her head, causing the ill-fitting helmet to slide around a bit, she quickly trotted up the stairs.

Skywishes wasn't a unicorn and didn't know much about their magic, but the library seemed the most logical place for her to start looking for Twilight. She vaguely recalled reading somewhere that Princess Twilight was quite a bookworm. Her biggest challenge now would be finding Twilight in a place this size.

I mean, what would I do? Just go up and ask somepony?

It turned out that in all those years, Skywishes really had forgotten just how huge the Canterlot Library really was. Inside, standing in the main foyer, she could see at least three different levels, and a hoofful of different staircases.

"May I help you, soldier?"

The curious voice at her side made Skywishes flinch and she quickly turned to the elderly gray mare with reading glasses that had appeared at her side. She was about to blurt out that no, she was fine and didn't need anything, when she caught herself. This could save her a whole lot of work.

"Maybe you can," she said hesitantly. "Can you tell me if Princess Twilight Sparkle is in the library today?"

The librarian smiled and nodded. "Oh, yes indeed. She's in the medical section. She's been there since yesterday."

"Thank you very much, ma'am," Skywishes returned the smile and added a grateful nod, eager to get away before the librarian saw through her simple disguise. There was just one more thing... "Um, just where might I find the medical section?"

"That's easy, dearie. You just take the stairs over there," the librarian instructed, gesturing with a hoof, and adding several turns and corridors to the directions.

"Thank you again, ma'am!" Skywishes said, quickly moving away.

"Always a pleasure to help the royal guard," the librarian said, before adding something that made Skywishes's blood run cold. "If you hurry, you should just be able to catch up with your colleagues."

Skywishes snapped her wings open and shot toward the stairs, her hooves not even brushing them as she flew up them. As she followed the rest of the directions the librarian had given her, she began to worry that they might be sending her farther away from Twilight rather than nearer. But it was also the only set of directions she currently had.

When the coral-colored pegasus finally reached the library's medical section, she skidded to a halt, clamping her wings tight against her armored sides so they wouldn't fan out and make her attempts to catch her breath more noticeable. Okay ... now ... to find ... Twilight. Oh boy.

That last unenthusiastic thought was a reaction to the fact that the medical section seemed to be both wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. But then she peered more closely at the top of the bookshelves. Hmm. Maybe not quite floor-to-ceiling... She spread her wings again and flew silently up to the top of the nearest shelf. There was indeed a few feet of space between it and the ceiling! Pulling her wings in, Skywishes grabbed the edge of the shelf with her front hooves and pulled herself up on top of it. In that position she couldn't flap her wings without them striking the ceiling, but she could scuttle along the top of the shelf, peering down at the aisles on either side of her, covering a much larger area than she could from the floor. And also much less likely to be noticed by the few ponies browsing the bookshelves.

Finally she spotted a familiar purple alicorn and a small equally purple dragon, who she guessed must be Spike, at the end of an aisle. The pair were pouring over a tall stack of books, marking pages, and scribbling notes, completely oblivious to the world around them.

But how can I be sure that's really them? Skywishes mused. Then she noticed two unicorn guards moving down the aisle toward the two researchers. Could they be the "colleagues" the librarian (or might-be-librarian) had mentioned? The two guards looked about, and Skywishes quickly pulled back from the edge of the bookshelf in case they happened to look up. When she chanced a second peek down, she saw both guards standing right below her, with their horns pointed at the oblivious alicorn and dragon. Pale blue-green light flared from those horns.

Oh, I hope I don't regret this, Skywishes thought as she seized one of the largest books below her—which turned out to be a fairly hefty medical textbook. Please let those brain buckets do their job if I'm wrong, she prayed as she held the book out above the two guards, and let it drop. It missed one of the guards but struck the other squarely on his helmeted head! As he went down, his aim was knocked off-course and the shot from his horn whizzed over Twilight's head, making her mane stand on end in the process. It struck the wall beyond her with a sharp Crack! Meanwhile the other guard's shot struck Spike, and he collapsed with a startled cry.

Twilight whirled around, saw her assistant lying face-down on the floor, ("Spike!") and looked up in time to see the still-upright guard fire a shot at her. Her own return blast intercepted it.

"What are you doing?!" she demanded, but the guard only responded by firing a pale blue-green beam at her and she was forced to counter with a magenta beam of her own. The two beams collided and the two ponies dug in their hooves, straining as they each tried to force the other's beam back.

While they were locked in this stalemate, Skywishes was climbing as quickly and quietly as she could backwards down the bookshelf, so that the structure was now between her and the dueling ponies. She caught a glimpse of the guard between the books, and realized she was right at his height.

Hope I don't regret this either, Skywishes thought before she slammed the flat of one hoof into the books in front of her. This blow forced the books to shoot out from the shelf like the drawer on a cash register, their spines striking the side of the guard's head in the process. This threw his aim off, and Twilight's beam struck him, knocking him to the floor. Then almost as if to add insult to injury, the books Skywishes had pushed tumbled the rest of the way off the shelf and landed on him.

"Alright, who's there?!" Twilight shouted and when Skywishes peeked through the new gap in the shelf, she saw Twilight's still-glowing horn aimed in her general direction.

"Don't shoot," she called to the alicorn, trying to project her voice without technically shouting. Then her ears pricked up as she heard distant hoof beats coming from all directions. Oh, great. "I—" At that moment she saw a mouse scuttling along the bookshelf. She was pretty sure the Twilight out there was the real deal but just to make sure... "Hold on."

She lunged forward and her hooves closed over the mouse. The tiny creature squealed and writhed, trying to get free as she lifted it.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," she tried to reassure it, but it just continued squirming and squealing. And all the while those hoof beats were coming closer. She didn't have time to try and earn this animal's trust! "Oh, how does Fluttershy do this?" she groaned. Then a new idea occurred to her. Still hanging onto the mouse with one hoof, she fumbled under her armor for her saddlebag, pulling out the sandwich half she had saved. She held it out to the mouse. "Here, you see this? See? Sandwich." The mouse quieted and stopped struggling to sniff at the food. "Look, I just need you to do something real quick and the sandwich is yours, okay?"

The mouse gave her no answer, but neither did it resume struggling, so Skywishes decided to take that as consent. Looking up, she saw that Twilight had stepped around the bookshelf and was now just a few feet from her. The alicorn was frowning at her curiously, but at least her horn wasn't glowing anymore.

Skywishes thrust the mouse toward Twilight's face, and the alicorn jerked back in surprise. Or rather she tried to, only to have Skywishes grab the back of her head with a wing to hold her still. The mouse looked startled at its sudden trip forward but it wasn't squealing or struggling, so Skywishes released Twilight.

"Hold on," she told the alicorn before tucking the sandwich half into her mouth to free up one of her front hooves. She scooted past Twilight, giving her wings a quick flap to land her in front of Spike. She held the mouse down next to his head, and when it got the same results as Twilight, she withdrew it. Now she was pretty sure those two guards were disguised changelings, but just to make absolutely sure...

She held the mouse out toward them, but this time the little creature began thrashing about and squealing at the top of its tiny lungs. Quickly bringing the mouse back in close to her chest, she began backing away from the guards, toward Twilight and Spike when—

"Ouch!" The mouse bit her right where her hoof joined her flesh. This caused her to reflexively drop it, and the sandwich she had been holding in her teeth fell from her mouth as well. No sooner had the mouse landed, then it grabbed the sandwich and bolted away with it.

"You're welcome," Skywishes muttered after the retreating rodent, massaging her bitten hoof. But her annoyance was short-lived when she saw several pony-shaped shadows appear at the far end of the aisle. Throwing herself backward she grabbed Spike and Twilight, yanking them with her behind the bookshelf. She peeked through the books and saw several ponies come into view. They might just be innocently curious ponies, but they could just as easily be more disguised changelings. And considering her impromptu changeling-detector had split...

"Twilight," she whispered. "We can't let them see us here."

Twilight looked up from cradling Spike's head, her eyes suspicious. "Who are you?" she demanded, though to Skywishes's relief, she did make an effort to keep her voice low. "How can I trust—?"

Skywishes lifted her helmet enough to reveal her pink-and-purple streaked forelock. Twilight did a quick double-take. Her eyes flicked from the pink-and-purple mane to the purple-brown tail and back again.

"Skywishes?!" she whisper-shouted. "How—?"

"I can explain everything, trust me," said Skywishes, jamming the helmet back on her head. "But not here with that crowd on the other side of the shelf. Come on!" And with that, Skywishes pushed off the ground and flew up to the top of the bookshelf. Scrambling onto it, she peeked over the edge to see several ponies crowding around the downed guards with more appearing from other aisles as well. She heard a rustling behind her, and her head snapped around to see Twilight scrambling up next to her. The alicorn used her magic to float Spike's unconscious body up next to them as well.

"Skywishes, what's going on?" Twilight whispered.

"I told you I can explain everything, but we have to get away from the crowd down there first." Turning, Skywishes jumped across the aisle to land on another bookshelf. Looking back, she was relieved to see Twilight following her in the same manner, using her magic to keep Spike draped across her back. Now if we can just put a bit more distance between ourselves and those ponies without getting caught...

While her subjects fed off the cadaverous little equine's hatred, Chrysalis was funneling off power from each of them in turn. At least the little failure was good for some—

At that moment Chrysalis heard a cracking sound. It wasn't very loud, but it was enough to get her attention. It was followed by a soft crumbling sound, like gravel spilling down a hill. She flicked her ears about, trying to locate which direction the sound was coming from...

When the cave was suddenly filled with a blinding light!

The light vanished a second later, and in its place was the familiar figure of Discord!

But now so different.

The draconequus was crouched on all fours. His tattoos were writhing as if trying to rip themselves from his body. There were chips of stone embedded in his fur and scales. His right shoulder and left hip were each a charred smoking mess, and his face was covered in blood flowing from the head wound Chrysalis had given him. Somehow the fact that he bore such obvious marks of their attempt to destroy him was actually far more frightening than if he had appeared without so much as a scratch. Especially when his eyes narrowed under the blood on his face, and his mouth twisted up into a sadistic grin.

"Miss me?"

Then he shoved himself up on two legs, swiveled his long body about and brought both hands smacking against the nearest wall. At his touch, the cave walls all seemed to either melt or burst. The changelings shrieked in panic as they were forced to wildly flap their wings while the floor under them split open and gravity seemed to break its own law by causing them not to fall down, but sideways toward the now-bubbling walls.

Chrysalis managed to get herself straightened out, but the other changelings saw genuine fear on her face for the first time that day. Not merely the nervous tension she'd had earlier when confronting the draconequus, but full-blown terror. This had most definitely not been in the plans!

"We have to get out of here!" shouted Chrysalis, and took off flying toward the cave entrance. Needing no second urging, her subjects shot after her, desperate to put as much distance between themselves and Discord as they could.

As the creatures she hated so much fled, the little equine could do nothing but stare on helplessly as the world around her imprisoning force field became more and more distorted and bizarre. If the magic that held her hadn't prevented her heartbeat from speeding up, the organ probably would have burst with fright.

Discord pushed himself away from the wall, intending to go after the fleeing changelings, but his legs suddenly gave out and he collapsed face-down on the ground.

He lay there, stunned at how weak he suddenly felt. He tried to blink the blood out of his eyes but couldn't summon up even the strength to lift his head. In his mind he heard Fluttershy asking: Are you immortal? and himself replying: I don't know. He hadn't lied to her. He was familiar with the average lifespan of ponies, dragons, and many other creatures in Equestria, but he had no idea what his own lifespan would be. Or even if he had one. Then there were those centuries he'd spent as a statue. That had been torture. Being able to hear the world around him, but unable to interact with it. Existing but unable to truly live.

Now he had a gaping wound in his head that would undoubtedly have killed a pony, and was causing him more physical pain than he could ever remember.

And he still had no idea if it would kill him. He only knew that he felt weak and tired. He just wanted to close his eyes and never open them again. Somehow he managed to turn his head enough so that one of his cheeks was pressed against the ground. The light coming from that odd shimmering column with the small skeletal shape in it hurt his eyes and he let them drift shut. This relieved some of his physical pain but also allowed him to dwell more fully on his emotional pain.

He thought of Derpy and her daughters and suddenly found himself wishing he had put some effort into helping the skew-eyed pegasus. Who knew how much longer she could survive in that inside-out state? If anyone had enough power to reverse such a situation, he did. But he just didn't make the time. Now it pained him to think his inaction might soon leave her daughters orphaned. Despite a rather uncomfortable start, the little family had welcomed him into their home, and only now did he realize just how poorly he'd repaid them.

Then he thought of Fluttershy lying out there invisible to the world. Without him to retrieve her, would she lie there unconscious until she starved to death? Or would she wake and try to get out, only to find out that nopony could see or hear her? Would she die in that bubble while the world around her moved on?! He couldn't let that happen! He tried to summon up the power needed to reverse what he'd done to his first and closest friend. But the power that ordinarily came to him as easily as breathing now seemed to be gone! He tried to channel it, tried to dissolve the force-field he had surrounded her with, but the power sputtered out and died. He tried to grasp it again only to find it slip away into nothing. Mentally cursing, he tried yet again, but he was like a blind pony groping about in the dark! Finally exhaustion forced him to give up, still having no idea if his attempt to free her had worked.

How had things all gone so wrong? He had just wanted to repair things between himself and Fluttershy, and instead his actions had condemned her to a slow painful death. Tears spilled from his closed eyes, washing thin clean trails through the blood that coated his face.

Fluttershy ... forgive me.

Chapter 14. 1 Corinthians 13:13

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Chapter 14

"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."—1 Corinthians 13:13

The little equine's frozen eyes watched as the strange mismatched creature collapsed. She saw his claws kneading at the ground and his arms trembling as if trying to push himself back up onto his feet, while the cave around them seemed to tear itself apart.

For the first time in her life, she found herself wondering desperately if the force field imprisoning her might protect her from the outside world rather than simply cutting her off from it.

Finally the strange creature stopped struggling to rise and turned his bloody face in her direction. Every nerve in the little equine's body screamed to move! To get out of his line of sight before he transformed her as he had their surroundings!

But of course as always she could do nothing, nothing but hang there suspended and helpless to defend herself.

Yet the expected attack never came. Instead the strange creature's eyes closed and he seemed to go limp. Was he dead? She hoped so if it meant that the chaos around her would stop.

That's when she felt a tremor snap through her prison, one far stronger than any of the ones caused by the changelings' blows! The force of it knocked her back, spinning her helplessly in the force field.

At that very same moment, Fluttershy was jolted awake as if she had been slapped. She found herself staring up at an overcast sky and wondered what she was doing outside. And where exactly outside was she? She sat up, blinking and rubbing at her eyes.

Looking around she saw that she was on a mountain path leading toward a cave opening. Then her confusion was suddenly replaced with terror when she saw the dark shape of the changeling queen shoot out of the cave. Right behind the queen were the shimmering outlines of semitransparent changelings. All heading straight toward her!

Fluttershy sprang to her hooves and tried to flee, but she bounced off an invisible barrier. Scrambling back up, she felt frantically about with her wings and front hooves to figure out where the barrier started and ended. It seemed to curve all around her. She looked fearfully back at the approaching changelings, but they just flew over her like they hadn't even seen her. Maybe ... maybe they couldn't see her? But how—?

Then she remembered. Discord! He must have done this! Put her to sleep and encased her in this ... this ... whatever it was!

She looked back up to see the shimmering swarm of almost-see-through changelings and their much-more-visible leader disappearing into the distance, when a tremor from behind her shook the ground under her hooves. Turning back toward the cave entrance, she saw its dull stone changing to bright garish colors while plant roots erupted from the ground, and unusual-looking plants sprouted from its ceiling.

She had a pretty good idea who was behind those alterations, and who had also caused the changelings to flee from the tunnel.

The little equine felt nauseous as another blow struck her prison and caused her to spin about yet again. Was this what was finally going to kill her? She had been wondering earlier, almost hoping, that her captors would finally just let her die. But now when faced with the idea that that might be about to happen, all she could think was: I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I Want To Live!

As her body mercifully steadied, she saw a spider web of cracks race over the surface of the force field.

Then it shattered!

The little equine plunged toward the floor and when she struck it, her world went black. For a brief terrifying moment, she thought she had gone blind. Then she blinked and the truth dawned on her.

She had shut her eyes! She could open and close her eyes! Could she move anything else? Was she actually ... free?! She tried to move her skeletal limbs. They were stiff and painful from over a decade of forced inactivity, any movement sluggish and jerky, but her muscles met none of the resistance she had felt in the force field. She wasn't trapped anymore! She was finally free at long last!

But her delighted wonder promptly turned to terror when the ground underneath her ripped free of the cave floor and floated upward, bringing her back to the reality of the chaos around her.

For the first time since the changelings had imprisoned her, she made a noise.

She made the harsh rattling trill that was the closest thing she could produce to a scream.

At the very moment the little equine had been set free, the bubble around Fluttershy turned opaque and shattered as well.

Fluttershy took a few experimental steps over the now-dissolving bubble fragments and when nothing halted her progress, she spread her wings and flew straight into the cave. Ordinarily she would have had reservations about flying blindly into an unknown cave with strange things happening to it, but this time she was sure Discord was in there, and she was determined to find him. As she flew, she found herself seething at her former partner.

The nerve of that draconequus! Putting her to sleep, and now goofing around while three ponies were risking their lives to find her friends, two more ponies were lying helpless in the hospital, and a weakened filly was trying to stay hidden at her cottage! Didn't he realize what was at stake?! She couldn't remember ever feeling angrier at him, not even when they were enemies.

The little equine clung to the drifting chunk of earth as it wove around the cave. She cringed as she was bombarded with icy blasts and waves of heat. She flinched as great, glowing rips appeared in midair, displaying images she had never seen before and didn't understand. How could she possibly escape this?! She might be free of her old prison, but now she would almost have rather been back in there than in this new chaotic one.

That was until she noticed one of those glowing rips opened onto darkness. Her instinct to hide in the dark kicked in, and she made a lunge for the opening. As she shot through it, her direction changed sharply and she landed on damp spongy ground. Looking back up at the glowing rip above her, she saw it close, erasing all trace of her old prison.

Fluttershy fumed as she raced down the tunnel. Oh, just you wait till I reach you, Discord! I'll—!

But her mental rant died mid-thought when she finally did see him—not floating about, reveling in the anarchy he was creating, but collapsed on the ground, unmoving with his face covered in what could only be blood.

The sight was so unexpected that for an instant Fluttershy froze in midair. Then she dropped to the floor and landed in a stumble. Her right front hoof accidentally went into a puddle of unknown liquid that had oozed up from a crack in the floor. She yelped as the liquid burned her hoof and shot back into the air. She flew to Discord's side, and landing next to him, gently nudged his neck.

"Discord?"

There was no response, so she shook him harder.

"Discord!"

She was desperately hoping that he would suddenly jump up with a "Gotcha!" That the stone encrusting his body, and the wounds on his head, shoulder, and hip were all just show. After all he had always seemed so much more resilient than she. He had been completely encased in ice, and he was back on his feet seeming none the worse for wear in less than a day, while she had taken much longer to recover from her stint in the cold. And that was not even counting all the other things she had seen him able to do that she would normally consider impossible.

But when he still didn't respond, she began to think of how he could also be hurt if he was caught off-guard, like when he teleported half through something by mistake. But he always treated that like it was a minor annoyance, not like it was a serious danger! she thought, frantically trying to convince herself that his injuries weren't as bad as they looked. After all, his magic wouldn't still be affecting their surroundings if his life was in danger. Right?

It was at that moment that she heard a sharp hissing sound and she looked down to see the liquid she had stepped in earlier flowing uphill and eating into the side of Discord's neck, down near his chest!

Spurred into action, she hoisted his neck over her withers in a sort of firepony's carry. Beating her wings wildly, she managed to get off the ground, and half-carried, half-dragged the much larger draconequus away from the burning liquid. While she was still in midair, struggling under his weight, Discord's paw suddenly shot out and clamped onto her shoulder! With his claws out.

Fluttershy cried out in both pain and surprise before she felt his magic surge down into the base of her wings. Then her wings vanished and she fell back to earth! As she scrambled out from under Discord's neck, she saw that he had landed on his back. His eyes were open, but they were rolling about drunkenly in their sockets, and she wasn't sure if he could see her. And his claws were still stuck tight in her shoulder as his grip crushed it!

"Discord, you're hurting me!"

At her desperate cry, the fingers on her shoulder suddenly sprang open. She gasped as the claws pulled free of her flesh. Looking back down, she saw Discord blinking up at her through the blood on his face. He seemed to be trying to focus on her. His paw came down on her shoulder again, but now he only caressed it gently, and though Fluttershy winced as it touched her puncture wounds, she couldn't bring herself to fully jerk away.

"Discord?" she breathed as she felt his paw move to the back of her head, pulling her closer to him. His mouth moved as if trying to form words, and she quickly leaned in to better hear them.

She thought she heard her name on his lips, but then his eyes drifted shut.

"Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no," she whimpered, fighting back tears, as she felt his paw's wrist for a pulse. It was there, but it was frightfully weak and erratic. Then his head dropped back to the ground, and his grip on her loosened. Pulling the scarf from around her neck, she pressed it against his head, trying to stop the bleeding. But as she applied pressure, she could already tell this wound would require a lot more than just a bandage.

Please no! she begged as the tears ran hot down her cheeks. Please, I just got him back! I can't lose him again! Not like this!

And it was in that moment that she acknowledged a truth she had been wrestling with for the past year.

She loved him! She had known all this time that she loved him as a friend, but now she was finally forced to admit that she not only loved him, she was in love with him! His leaving her hadn't changed that, as much as she had tried to convince herself that it had. Now she knew that even if he no longer wanted anything to do with her, it didn't lessen her love for him, and because of that, she didn't intend to abandon him now.

But what good can you do him now? a little voice in the back of her head sneered. You can't fly, you can't carry him out of here, you have nothing apart from that scarf to treat his injuries, if you try to go for help, he'll likely die in the meantime, and you wouldn't even be able to tell if the help were real ponies or disguised changelings! Besides, considering that they currently think he's a cold-blooded murderer, it's not like anypony would even want to help him!

I know all that! Fluttershy mentally snapped back, raising her right hoof to swipe at her tears. The gesture sent a jolt of pain through her hoof and she pulled it away to examine it. The hoof looked almost blistered, and it was at that moment that she remembered it was the one that had landed in that burning liquid.

But those blisters weren't the only thing she noticed on that hoof. There was also something pink on its underside.

She stared down at the heart-shaped charm. She hadn't dared use it earlier, because Celestia had never told her what would happen to Discord if she did. But now...

"I'm sorry, Discord," she murmured to him. Then she raised her hoof and slammed it down on the ground, willing the charm to break!

"Alright, Skywishes," whispered Twilight, as they landed on a bookshelf near the medical section's entrance, away from the gathering crowd, and she lowered Spike from her back. "What exactly is going on?"

Skywishes checked down either side of the bookshelf to make sure there was no one else nearby, before turning back to the alicorn. "Okay, I know this is probably going to sound crazy, but those two guards back there were disguised changelings, and I think they were trying to capture you and Spike."

"What?!"

Skywishes instantly clamped her hooves around Twilight's muzzle, shooting the princess a stressed, angry glare, a silent admonishment to be more quiet. She let go after Twilight's sheepish nod and reached under her armor, wrestling her saddlebags around so that they looked more like a combination of backpack and fanny pack. She reached into the front pouch and fished out the jar of apple peelings. "Fluttershy said to give you this and tell you—"

At that moment there was a blaring alarm. Both ponies ducked down reflexively, and Spike groaned, curling up and burying his head under his arms.

"Five more minutes!" came his muffled voice from under his arms.

"What is that?!" Skywishes demanded, stuffing her ears down inside the helmet's earholes in an attempt to block out the noise. This time she didn't care that she was shouting; the blaring alarm was loud enough to cover up anything else.

Twilight held up her right hoof, exposing a heart-shaped charm that was now flashing pink and white. "I think somepony's found Discord."

"Oh boy," muttered Skywishes. "Twilight, Fluttershy wanted me to tell you we found out Discord was framed. He didn't kill your friends." She held up the jar again. "She said to give you this jar of apple peelings and tell you 'It's happening again.'"

"What is?" Spike asked, uncurling and rolling into a sitting position with his head in his claws. He had scarcely gotten settled in this pose when Twilight lifted him onto her back with her magic.

"Hang on, Spike," she directed, and as woozy as the small dragon seemed, he still had the presence of mind to obey. Turning to Skywishes, Twilight added "Come on, Skywishes. We need to let Princess Celestia know about this." She jumped off the bookshelf, spreading her wings to slow her fall.

"Twilight, wait!" Skywishes called, as she wrestled her saddlebags back into their proper position. "There's still more I have to tell you!" They couldn't be sure the changelings hadn't gone after the other princesses yet. Better to regroup with the few ponies she could identify by their code words and figure out a plan from there.

"Tell me on the way!" Twilight called back, and Skywishes had no choice but to jump down and fly after her.

They emerged from the library to see unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony guards dashing about in every direction. At a first glance, it looked like complete chaos—especially with the alarm still blaring—but on closer inspection Skywishes noticed that there seemed to be a pattern to the guards' movements, as if this were a drill they had rehearsed.

"What are they doing?" she asked Twilight, who had stopped to take in the sight as well.

"I don't know. Celestia didn't say what would happen when somepony used their charm, but she must have given the guards some order when I wasn't around."

"Get in formation, soldier!" a male voice behind them shouted, and they whirled to see a pegasus guard glaring at Skywishes.

She shot Twilight a panicked look, and Twilight quickly put a wing over her armored back. "This soldier is my escort, Captain. She stays with me."

For a moment, Skywishes was afraid the guard would call their bluff, but apparently the princess's orders out-ranked his, because he nodded, told her "Very well, your highness," and moved past them to join several other pegasi.

Twilight was about to take off to continue her search for Celestia, when Skywishes grabbed one of her wings, halting her. "Wait, Twilight!" she whisper-shouted, even though she was pretty sure any passers-by would be unlikely to hear her over the alarm. "If you go to Celestia, how are you going to know she hasn't been replaced with a disguised changeling?!"

Before Twilight could respond, Spike suddenly tapped both ponies on their heads. Well, Twilight on the head, and Skywishes on the helmet.

"Uh, guys." He pointed out a nearby window and they looked to see Celestia and Luna flying at the head of a fleet of pegasus guards who were towing chariots and carriages bearing unicorn and earth pony guards.

"Come on," said Twilight, moving as if to fly out the window, only to get jerked to a stop by Skywishes still hanging onto her wing.

"But how do you know—?" Skywishes started to ask, when Twilight turned back to her.

"I don't know if that's really Celestia and Luna, but we'd probably be wise to keep them in our sight until we can figure out a way to make sure it's really them."

"Fair point," said Skywishes, releasing Twilight's wing, and following her out the window.

The alarm must have been linked to the hoof charms because Twilight, Spike, and Skywishes could still hear it blaring even when they had left Canterlot Castle. They followed the troops at a discrete distance, so they could keep an eye on all of them as well as the Royal Sisters. The trio saw the group flying toward Foal Mountain. Then the Royal Sisters split away from the rest of the group. They flew up the mountain side, while the troops flew down toward its base.

Skywishes glanced toward Spike and Twilight. "Well, what do you say? Do we follow the princesses?"

Twilight nodded and they flew up the mountain side in time to see the princesses disappear into a neon-colored cave opening with strange plants twisting all around it. Twilight was about to follow them, when she saw Skywishes dive down toward the path in front of the cave. The coral-colored pegasus picked something up off the path and Twilight dropped down to get a closer look. It was a bundle of camouflage material similar to the coat Skywishes had been wearing when they met at Sugarcube Corner. Suddenly a rough-looking pebble on the path a few feet away from them twitched, shot into the air, and zipped right under Skywishes's helmet.

"Hey!" she shouted, dropping the camouflage, and yanking her helmet off to see what had flown under it. What had flown under her helmet did not come off with it. Instead it stayed buried in her mane. Skywishes slapped a wing over her head, and raked the primary feathers through her hair, removing the offending object. Jamming the helmet back on her head, she looked down at the object, only to have several paper wings smack enthusiastically against her own larger one.

She glared down at the owner of those wings. "Max," she gritted through clenched teeth. "Where. Is. Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy clung to Discord as the chunk of earth they were on floated this way and that. The instant after she had smashed her charm, it had crumbled off her hoof into dust, leaving her with no options but to pray and continue using her scarf to put pressure on Discord's head wound.

That is until she saw the dark and pale shapes of Luna and Celestia respectively, flying toward her.

Knotting the scarf around Discord's head to keep it in place on his wound, she wrapped one foreleg around his head and waved the other wildly toward the princesses. "Over here! We're over here!"

As they flew closer to her, she began babbling, "Your majesties, we were wrong about Discord! He's innocent! He didn't—!"

"There's no time to discuss that now, Fluttershy!" Celestia cut in. "Right now we have to stop him before he tears all Equestria apart! Quick Luna!"

And with that, each princess used her magic to open a small pouch strapped to her chest that Fluttershy hadn't noticed until just now. They each lifted out what looked to Fluttershy like some sort of gold bracelet or bangle. The two bracelets, one encased in gold light and the other in periwinkle, flew through the air to snap around Discord's wrists.

Immediately Fluttershy felt a strange sensation, as if some magical faucet that had been running full blast had suddenly been turned off. Then she and Discord were both surrounded by the princesses' magic and lifted off their floating island. She clung to Discord's head, partly to keep the pressure on his wound, and partly because her new lack of wings had doubled, if not tripled her fear of falling.

Suddenly the blaring alarm that Twilight, Spike, and Skywishes had been hearing since they were in the library's medical section went silent. The three all shook their heads and felt their ears to make sure they hadn't just gone deaf from the sound.

Then they saw a limp mismatched figure encased in gold and periwinkle light float out of the cave. Clinging to his head was a butter-colored pony with a long pink mane, and an extremely short tail.

At that moment Mache Max literally tore himself out of Skywishes's grasp, leaving her holding one of his six wings, and shot toward the butter-colored pony, wrapping his stained and ragged wings around her head.

Skywishes grabbed Twilight's shoulder. "That's got to be Fluttershy," she whispered.

Then the Royal Sisters emerged from the cave. If they were surprised to see Twilight, Spike, and an unknown guard on the path, neither of them showed it.

Celestia just nodded, and used her magic to shift Discord's head. "See to your friend, Twilight."

Scarcely had Fluttershy registered the fact that something had landed on her head, when she felt herself being pulled away from Discord. She tried desperately to hold on, but was jerked magically away and zoomed through the air to smack into an armored chest. A pair of forelegs went around her, holding her fast.

"Take him away," she heard Celestia say, and looked up to see several guards coming up the path with four stretchers bound together into one long one. The guards murmured their assent, and the unicorn ones used their magic to take Discord from the Royal Sisters.

Fluttershy cried out in protest as the guards flung the injured draconequus onto the stretcher, making no effort to be gentle about it. Then the ponies around the stretcher were strapping him down with a ferocity that showed they felt no more compassion toward this murderer than their fellow guards did.

Fluttershy struggled blindly against the forelegs holding her, desperate to reach her partner, when the guard holding her grabbed her face and turned it so they were muzzle-to-muzzle.

"Cardinal," the guard snapped out, albeit in a low voice.

For a brief moment the word confused Fluttershy. But then she met the flat dark green eyes under the guard's helmet, and remembered her own code word.

"Wasp."

Skywishes nodded, then reached down and swung the discarded camouflage around Fluttershy, murmuring, "I don't know what happened to your wings, but we better hide your present lack of them."

Fluttershy nodded numbly, then gave a little jump as she felt Mache Max crawling down the side of her head, gently nibbling at her cheek. With her brain still in too much shock to register the fact that he was back, she automatically reached up to lift him from her head, and holding him in one hoof, began stroking both his paper heads with the other.

"Are you hurt bad, Fluttershy?" she heard Twilight ask, and vaguely felt herself shake her head, though the truthfulness of that head shake was debatable.

Bundled in the camo, with Mache Max in her hooves, and Skywishes's forelegs still around her, Fluttershy felt her gaze being drawn back to Discord. As she watched him being dragged away, she began to wonder if she had made the right choice in sounding the alarm that had led to his capture.

"A friend loves at all times."—Proverbs 17:17

The Ponies who Played with Fire

by A M Shark

Prologue

Chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 13:1

Chapter 2. Proverbs 17:22

Chapter 3. 1 Corinthians 13:2

Chapter 4. Proverbs 15:1

Chapter 5. Jeremiah 8:18

Chapter 6. Psalm 34:18

Chapter 7. Lamentations 5:15

Chapter 8. 1 Corinthians 13:3

Chapter 9. Luke 16:13

Chapter 10. Proverbs 27:5

Chapter 11. Luke 15:4

Chapter 12. Proverbs 16:18

Chapter 13. Proverbs 14:12

Chapter 14. 1 Corinthians 13:13