When the world returned, Spike was still sitting on Discord's neck, but now they were in the heart of the Everfree Forest.
"Ohhh no," Spike said in almost a moan, looking around himself. "This isn't good."
"What's not good?" Discord asked, panting.� "Get off my neck, I can't breathe."
Spike rolled off Discord and got to his feet.� "We're in the Everfree! Do you have any idea what's happened to the Everfree?"
"Huh." Discord got to four feet, wobbling slightly, and craned his head around. "From the look of it, I'd say the plunder vines came up."� He licked one of the digits on his lion paw and stuck it in the air... then started to fall forward, unbalanced. Discord cursed.� "Can't believe... how weak I am. Give me a moment."� He pulled himself to two feet, using his claws in the bark of a tree as leverage, and then wrapped his tail around the tree and leaned back against it. "Didn't... really expect them to do this. I'm not thrilled by the new look, to be honest."
"You did the vine thing too?"
Discord looked down at Spike with an eyebrow raised. "You do know they were planted over a thousand years ago, right?"
"Uh... no, no, I didn't.� It's not like our Discord ever explained himself."
"It's not like you ever gave him a chance, Mr. Hammer Happy."
The words stung. They shouldn't have � Spike had spent so long facing his regret for what he'd done.� Discord's flippant comments were nothing next to the lectures he'd endured from Twilight about his actions.� But it still filled him with so much shame that he'd killed someone, even someone who'd deserved to die.� "It wasn't like I wanted to.� I just thought I had to.� Sooner or later he'd break out again, and then what?"� He scowled at Discord.� "We don't have a kind Fluttershy anymore who could have reformed him."
"He regretted everything, you know," Discord said. "Before you killed him. He ruined everything that made him happy. If you'd let him live and he'd broken out again, he wouldn't have been looking for revenge; he hated everything the world had become."
"Everything he turned the world into, you mean," Spike said sharply.� "And I thought you said you had nothing to do with him!"
"Still don't. But it turns out you can learn a lot about a guy from nibbling on his dead body."
"How was I supposed to know that?" Spike asked, taking refuge in anger so he wouldn't have to feel horror. If he really hadn't had to kill Discord... if the Discord he'd killed had regretted everything he'd done, and wouldn't have sought revenge... "And how do you even know this?� You said you didn't know anything about why our Discord did the stuff he did!"
"Did I say that?" Discord shrugged. "I suppose I probably did.� Things are different now, you know. I have a little bit of magic back." He pushed off from the tree with his tail, uncoiling it.� "We've got something to find, and then I'll use the rest of what I've got to find my friends and free them."
"Something to find?"
"Are you just going to question everything I say?"
Spike ground his teeth.� Discord was so irritating.� He didn't seem to have any humility or any further remorse for trying to destroy the world, and for a moment Spike regretted helping him... but only for a moment.� Being irritating didn't mean he'd deserved being tortured, or... that other thing he'd said about what Fluttershy was doing to him. �Also, if Spike had never helped him, he probably would still have ended up cracking and trying to destroy the world, but no one would have stopped him like the alternate Fluttershy did.� "I can't help look for it if I don't know what it is," Spike said.
"It looks like a tree branch."
Spike looked around.� "We're in a forest.� A tree branch isn't going to stand out much."
"This one will be rather distinctive, trust me."� On two legs, Discord half-walked, half-staggered forward, plainly having difficulty staying upright.� His body swayed in every direction.� "Pretty sure it's this way."
"I could help look if you could give me some more details..."
"I don't need you to look," Discord said.� "I can feel where it is.� What I need you for is to pick it up, since I'm not going to be able to touch it."
"Why not?"
Discord sighed.� "You ask a lot of questions. Doesn't that ever get tiring?"
Spike followed him in as close to a trot as a biped could manage. �"No, not really[AR1] ."
Discord almost fell over, catching himself against a tree. "Amazing... what months of being chained in quadrupedal position... will do to your balance. And your glutes. I've practically wasted away to nothing."
"Why don't you walk on all fours, then?" Spike asked.
"Would you, in my position?"
"Probably."
"I've never seen you walk on all fours."
"Dragons my size aren't designed to. I think. You can do both, though. That must be convenient."
Again Discord almost fell over. "Not right now it's not."
An animal called, somewhere in the distance. Spike shivered. "Let's try to get this done before nightfall." It was mid-afternoon; night was still a long way off, but the very idea of being stuck in this forest when it happened was terrifying.
"Your message to Celestia bounced. I'm not at all sure night is falling."
"Wait." Spike frowned. "Are you saying... are you saying those other Bearers, the ones from your world, they're strong enough to hurt Princess Celestia?"
"They defeated both me and Nightmare Moon, why not Celestia?"
"Uh, because they did those things with the elements of harmony?"
Discord smirked. "My Twilight isn't any stupider than yours just because she's an alicorn now."
"But... they wouldn't really hurt Celestia, would they?"
"The note she sent said she had a use for Twilight, and she'd let the others go. If that use for Twilight was, shall we say, less than healthy for Twilight, I would imagine her friends would have provoked a confrontation, if they could. And if Twilight was defending her friends from a maddened Celestia? I put nothing past her when it comes to defending her friends."
There was a time when Spike's Twilight had been that pony. He swallowed against a sudden tightening of his throat, a sudden burning in his eyes. "Well, the sun is still where it's supposed to be... more or less..."
Discord shrugged. "Means nothing to me. I have no idea what time it's supposed to be."
"It's maybe around 3 pm?" It was summertime, so the sun stayed high in the sky for a good long time, but... it still looked wrong, even for summer. "So... Princess Celestia can't really be all that distracted by a fight or something�"
"No. The sun automatically moves, all day long, as long as Celestia isn't incapacitated. It's an unconscious function of her magic. Her being distracted wouldn't stop the sun from moving. It would take her being unconscious, or not on Equestria anymore � say, for example, banished to the moon, or Tartarus � or dead. Now, I doubt very much Twilight and company would kill Celestia, or that they even could... but a nice spot of banishment might be just the thing for her."
"But the sun is still where it should be... I think..."
Discord took a deep breath. "Let's just say I'm pretty sure that's exactly where it's going to stay, for a while."
"How do you know?"
"I sense fluctuations in magic." He closed his eyes. "I'm not sensing any sun-bearing alicorns anywhere in the world. And I'm paying attention. I didn't notice Luna being gone, when I first got here, because I wasn't really paying attention. But I can sense alicorns. The only one I can feel is my Twilight. So she's alive, and still in this world, but Celestia's... not one of those things. Like I said, I suspect she's alive, but banished somewhere."
"If they did that, then who would move the sun?" Spike asked, somewhat panicked at the thought. "If the sun doesn't move, we'll all burn!"
"Oh, you'd be fine. You're a dragon."
"I'm not okay with all the ponies dying!"
"Somepony will figure something out, I'm s�" Discord tripped and hit his head on a tree branch, hard enough that he fell backward on his tail. "Ow! Why didn't you warn me about that tree branch?"
"Dude, you are ten times taller than me. I can barely even see the branches that might hit you." This was an exaggeration; Spike could see them just fine, if he craned his head up, which he didn't want to do.
"I suppose you're right," Discord sighed. He sat there for a minute or two, not moving.
"Don't you think we ought to get going?"
"Everything hurts," Discord whined. "I ache, all over. It's so hard to get up... it's so hard to keep walking..."
"But you have your magic back, don't you? Can't you heal yourself?"
He shook his head. "I don't have that much magic. Only what was in the piece of my statue you gave me, and teleportation took a lot of that. I have to save it. I might need it for something."
"Oh, yeah, you said you were going to use it to rescue your friends."
"Yes, or removing my own ears if Fluttercruel or your Twilight turn up, so I can't hear anything they order me to do."
"Huh. That's a good idea. But you still don't want them to show up here before we find the thing we're looking for, do you?"
Discord shuddered. "No." He got to his feet and staggered forward.
"Why don't you do all fours? You wouldn't hit your head so much, or trip."
"No," Discord said again, despite the fact that it still looked like he could barely keep himself upright.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, before Discord spoke again. "Do you know anything about what I am? About Chaos, or chaos magic, or the avatars? Anything at all? Did Twilight share anything with you?"
Spike's eyes narrowed. Why did Discord need to know that? "What're you asking for?"
"To know how much I need to tell you."
"About what?"
"Well, if I knew how much I need to tell you, then I could tell you, and you'd know what."
Spike rolled his eyes. "That's helpful."
"Isn't it? I thought it was very helpful."
"Maybe by your standards." But he had to admit he was curious. "What did you need to tell me?"
"So you don't know anything?"
"About Chaos? Not much. I know that Twilight found out in the research she did in the Crystal Empire that there was something called the Diadem of Order that supposedly has the power to beat you because it's imbued with the Spirit of Order the way you're the Spirit of Chaos and the Elements of Harmony form the Spirit of Harmony."
"Not exactly accurate, but go on."
"Well, it did enable her to beat you � other you � because of something about balancing out the harmony?"
"Each of them were fused with their opposite," Discord said. "For five, that's disharmony � Cruelty, Disloyalty, Greed, whatever you'd call the kind of manipulation Applejack does, and I have no idea what you'd call Pinkie. Corrupted Laughter? Psychotic Laughter? The Element of Evil Clowns?"
Spike shuddered slightly. "Let's not talk about Pinkie, okay?"
"Mm, yes, I agree, let's not." This time Discord managed to duck the tree branch that would have smacked him in the face. "But Magic isn't inherently harmony. Magic, at its base, is chaos. Chaos magic is raw magic, uncontrolled by the structures of Harmony. Reverse chaos, and what do you have? Order. Joining herself to a fragment of Matrisse must have made it possible for her to harmonize with the others, because then they'd all be bound to their opposites."
"What's Matrisse?"
"I'll get to that. No one likes an impatient dragon."
"We don't have all day, you know. Fluttershy said they can't track you in the Everfree, but the moment Twilight realizes she can't track you, she'll know that the Everfree is exactly where you are."
"It's a rather large place."
"Yeah, but even still. We're trying to save the world. If Twilight catches you�"
"Yes, yes."
"If you don't have all your magic you're no match for her even if you take your ears off."
"Yes, I know. Really. How can I tell you anything if you're chattering at me all the time?"
"So tell me something then. Something useful."
"What I'm going to tell you... is something I rather hope won't be useful."
Spike frowned. "Then why are you telling it to me?"
Discord stopped and looked down at Spike, something he hadn't done yet the whole time they were walking. "Because if you do need it I want you to have it. No one had it for me. The one who could have given me anything died when I was a small child and he wanted this for me, anyway. I... don't want it for you. You won't handle it well. No one does, but you'll be particularly bad."
"Handle what?"
"Chaos," Discord said.
"Why would I�"
"Shhh, there's a grownup talking. Listen. Chaos magic is raw magic. It's the hardest to use and the most powerful. Very, very few chaos mages are actually any good at doing anything other than blowing themselves and their friends up. It's almost impossible to master, but it was my special talent. Like ponies have their cutie marks. So I was a chaos mage, and I was good at it. I knew the Tree of Harmony existed�"
"Tree?"
"Yes. It's a tree. The Elements are just... mmm, seeds? Not exactly, they can't plant a new Tree, but the Bearers can manifest it when they use the Elements. So I knew the Tree of Harmony existed, but I didn't know about Matrisse and I didn't know about the chaos avatars. I was a mortal draconequus, a powerful chaos mage but nowhere near what I eventually became."
"I still don't know who Matrisse is."
"The Spirit of Order. It was a mountain. It went crazy more than a millennium and a half ago, and tried to remove magic from our world. Dragons wouldn't even have existed anymore, you need magic to live. Ponies would have existed but no more manipulating tools with their hooves, no more flight, no more magic in their horns � it would have destroyed them. So... I destroyed Matrisse. At great personal expense, I might add." He sniffed.
"Sure, I bet you deserved a medal," Spike said skeptically.
"I did! But that was after I became the chaos avatar. The Spirit of Chaos. You see, I � I died, to be honest. And they told me, when I was floating in that place between life and death, they said � you can rest. You can continue on down the river, you can go to the Shadowlands and pass on to the world beyond. Or you can take up the burden. You can be Chaos' avatar, Chaos' representative in the world. You can be the one who stokes the engines that keep magic moving. Because that's what I do, Spike. Magic needs there to be chaos. With magic, it's possible to make life more regimented and controlled than any non-magical society could dream of... but order makes magic fade. There has to be someone who keeps chaos going."
This sounded rather like self-serving horseapples to Spike. "So how did magic survive when you were trapped in stone?" he asked. "Or after I, uh... after you were..."
"After you killed me, you mean?" Discord grinned mirthlessly. "Oh, don't fret. My predecessor died when I was 2, or 4, or something like that... I'm not good at math. And I know I was at least in my 20s before I ascended. Maybe 30's. So there were decades without a chaos avatar. Magic fades slowly; there's a lot of it. And a thousand years in stone would have been a problem except that it was Harmony that did it, and Harmony needs chaos and order both; it let magic flow through me, like I was porous. I couldn't hold any of it or use it, but it could purify itself, turn back into raw uncontrolled magic by passing through me. Eventually it would have been a problem, though, and Harmony would have had to let me go... or Chaos would have picked another avatar. There's usually a backup plan. Or 27. Chaos likes to keep its options open." He was breathing hard, but Spike didn't know if that was exertion or emotion.
"Okay, so... why are you telling me this?"
"Chaos chooses randomly most of the time, but there are two exceptions. I was one of the types of exceptions. The child of the previous avatar gets first right of refusal. My predecessor... fathered me. Well, he wasn't any kind of a father to me, I only even met him once � twice if you count the time travel � and he was a completely awful draconequus and I hate him, but he was my biological father. And the other exception... is if someone kills a chaos avatar. If there's no descendent, no heir, then the choice comes to the one who killed the last one."
A chill went down Spike's spine. "You mean... chaos is going to make me into something like you?"
"Oh, don't sound so horrified. Godlike power is nothing to sneeze at. Of course, you have a much more orderly mind than I do, so it'll probably drive you insane, and that's before the loneliness, because it's almost impossible for chaos avatars to have friends, and... oh, yeah, your Twilight is practically an avatar of order now that she's taken up a piece of Matrisse and joined it to her soul, which would turn you into her eternal nemesis. So I guess there are downsides, for you."
Spike shook his head frantically. "No. No. I don't want that. I don't!"
"It's always a choice," Discord said. "But it's a rigged choice. I'd just been killed, in a war, and I had every reason to think that � that the others in my family, that the one I loved and her sister, had been killed as well, and I wanted to come back to protect the ones that my family had cared for. In their name. And, well, it didn't go according to plan because chaos never does." Discord took a deep breath. "It'll come to you when you're vulnerable. When it seems like everyone you love will die if you don't accept, or the world will end, or something, and you just. Need. Power. You're helpless and everything's on fire and you want the power to save the world, or your loved ones, or yourself, and that's when it will come and it'll say, 'do you want this? Do you want to take up the burden, and carry the power?'"
He stopped again and leaned down, face close to Spike's. "Say no. You won't want to. You'll be terrified of what will happen if you don't. But find another way. Say no."
"I � I thought you loved chaos."
"I do. I love chaos. You don't. It'll tear you apart, because you'll try to use it to create order, and you can't use it like that. There was another dragon, she was the avatar once, many millennia ago. She wanted the power to save females of all species who were being oppressed by the males of their species. The overreaction to her attempts was so severe, there are now places in the world where they destroy their daughters' minds and make them into unquestioning slaves, because they followed a way of life that Ar brought into existence by trying to create the opposite. I don't want chaos misused that way, and I know it'll pick someone else." He sighed. "Not Brightest Star, though. I think she's dead, here. And I hope it doesn't go for Pinkie Pie... I think she's too damaged."
"I think I'd be a better choice than Pinkie Pie," Spike said, laughing nervously.
"That's because you have no idea what depths a lonely omnipotent dragon who craves order and friendship and now stands for the destruction of both could fall to." Discord snorted. "Pinkie Pie... well. I don't need to admit to you how much she, uh, bothers me."
"Yeah, you were crying just because she was in the room with you."
"I am not under any restriction not to hurt you. Don't make me kick you for being rude."
"But it's true, though. She's... she's really awful."
"Yes. But she'll get over that. She'll kill and eat a few hundred ponies and decide, naah, that's boring, let's find something else fun to do. Eventually she might even heal from the corruption. I'm not saying she'd be a good choice, and the fact that chaos avatars don't have friends, that would probably break her, but she's still more chaotic than you are. So say no. Don't get all noble and think you have to take it or it'll go to Pinkie, she's not the only chaotic being on this planet and it won't even go to a pony by preference unless it decides it would be funny, or something. Chaos... is rather impulsive."
"I've noticed," Spike said dryly.
Discord shook his head. "I don't even know why I'm bothering. The noble ones are awful. Chaos'll get you to say yes if it really wants to, because it'll ask you when you're at your weakest and you'll be too noble and self-sacrificing... and admittedly, too greedy for the glory of being able to save your friends yourself � to say no."
"Are you sure this world's Discord never had a kid?"
"Positive. I'm sure you know a few things about the birds and the bees."
"Uh, yeah, and I don't need to be talking about them with�"
"Dragons and draconequui are compatible, but dragons and ponies are not without magic � for reproducing, anyway � and draconequui aren't fertile with ponies without magic, and while I've been with a few lady dragons in my time, I..." He hesitated. "I didn't want a threat to my power. I didn't want the risk of creating an heir, so Chaos might possibly cast me aside for my own child. I was careful. And with ponies, there just wasn't a chance unless I wanted it, and I didn't."
"But he was different�"
"Not different enough," Discord said, looking away. "Not nearly different enough." He sounded upset about it.
"So... I'm going to be forced to become the chaos avatar someday if I'm not strong enough to say no when the chips are really down and things are really bad?"
"More or less. Yes."
"I'll just... say no. I'm pretty sure I can do that. I mean... I've had to have a lot of self-discipline lately."
"We can only hope," Discord said. "Let's go. Shards of Harmony trees don't find themselves."
That was the first indication Spike had of what they were looking for. It reassured him. This wasn't a wild goose chase, and Discord hadn't lied to him; this was going to help save his friends. A shard of Harmony sounded like it could be very helpful.
The sun didn't move at all, the whole time. So Spike had no idea how long they were traveling through the forest, Discord staggering like a drunken pony and almost falling over a few times, and Spike's feet and legs getting tired from trying to keep up with Discord, because even when staggering and unsteady the draconequus still had much longer legs than Spike. Eventually, though, they stopped. "It's here."
"Where?" Spike asked, somewhat irritably. After marching through this forest with Discord for what felt like it had to be at least an hour, he wasn't much in the mood. "I don't see anything."
"Sparkly crystal tree piece. Right there." Discord pointed at the ground ahead of them.
Spike moved forward so he could see better, and whistled. "Okay, yeah! That is definitely a sparkly crystal tree piece!"
It looked delicious, honestly. It shone like a diamond, but it was shaped like a tree branch. It had facets, smooth and polished. Spike found that he wasn't quite drooling, but his mouth was definitely watering a bit.� It had been so long since Twilight had allowed him to eat a gem. Days. "I... don't suppose it's safe for me to take just a tiny nibble?"
Discord laughed. It wasn't a mocking laugh or a sardonic laugh, it was the full-bodied laughter of someone responding to a joke. "Oh, that's marvelous, Spike, I needed that," he said. "Eat a piece of the Tree of Harmony!" And then he was laughing again.
�"I'm guessing that's a no."
"Oh, stop, stop. I've thrown up too many times recently, my ribs hurt, my whole abdomen hurts, I can't stand laughing this much! Please stop being so funny!"
Spike made an exasperated noise. "Okay, what do you want me to do with it?"
"Just carry it. We're going to find my friends and give it to them, and I can't touch it."
"Why, what happens to you if you do?"
"In my weakened condition, without being able to fight back? I have no idea, but it won't be good." He shuddered.
Spike shrugged, and picked the branch up. It was a little too large for him to fit it in his pocket, unfortunately, and the pockets on his skin were uncomfortable if they were forced open. But the branch wasn't heavy or hard to carry. "Got it. What do we do next?"
Discord sat down heavily. "Now I use my magic to figure out where my friends are. If they're safe, I'll contact them and let them know where we are. If they're in danger... I guess I'll see if I can teleport to Canterlot."
"You are not looking like the kind of guy who's healthy enough to teleport to Canterlot."
"I'm not." Discord closed his eyes. "I doubt I'd make it, but they came for me and that's why they're in danger. I have to do something about it."
That was a sentiment Spike understood. He sat down as well. "Don't suppose you could use your magic to find some gems? I'm feeling really peckish right now."
"I don't find gems." Discord glared at Spike. "When I'm at my full power, I can make gems, but finding them? Pff. I have better things to do."
"Just in case anyone forgot you were a jerk for a single solitary moment," Spike mumbled.
"Do be quiet. I need some concentration for this." He closed his eyes again and breathed deeply.
"I guess I'm just supposed to sit here," Spike said to no one in particular.
Twilight blinked groggily.� Fluttershy was screaming.
As she came awake, she realized the scream wasn't of pain or fear, but of rage. Twilight shook her head, trying to drive the sleep from it. How had she fallen asleep?� Had somepony drugged her? What had happened here?
She was in her workroom. Fluttershy was here too, with bolt cutters... and Discord's chains, hanging empty.
"He teleported!" Fluttershy screamed at her.� "You told me he couldn't possibly do that! You said he had no ability to use any of his magic unless one of us ordered him to!"
Twilight got to her hooves. "You lost Discord," she said dully.� The full extent of her so-called friend's failure hovered right outside her comprehension, waiting to hit her like a ton of rocks.� "You lost him.� He wasn't allowed to break his own chains, he wasn't allowed to go through the door � how did he get out?"
"I told you! He teleported! Something you told me he couldn't possibly do! And he took Spike with him, not that you care anymore since you turned into such a cold bitch!"
Discord had his powers.
Discord had his powers.
"You absolute moron," Twilight hissed, taking refuge in anger to try to hold off the growing panic.� Not the days of chaos again. No, please. She couldn't bear it.� Discord couldn't possibly be free and at full power... not when she was so close to ending any threat he could ever be, and saving Princess Celestia, and protecting all of ponykind from death itself. No. "You fought with Rainbow Dash, didn't you? Was that the last straw that broke our harmony as friends and let him get his powers back?"
"Oh, no, that was you," Fluttershy snarled. "You think I could be friends with someone who goes behind my back to kill my�" She hesitated, sentence unfinished.
"Your what? You were only supposed to be holding him prisoner and training him! You weren't supposed to develop feelings for him!"
"Well, too bad! You were happy to exploit those feelings when it let us distract him from destroying Equestria, or when it let us put him in stone, before your assistant murdered him!� If you forgot about how I felt about Discord, that's your problem, not mine � it's not as if the others didn't take every possible opportunity to taunt me about it!"
"This one isn't even the same Discord!"
"I know! Because your pet dragon murdered the one I�cared about!� Did you think I was really going to let you kill the other one, after by some miracle I had a chance to have another one?"� Fluttershy shoved Twilight � not particularly hard; she was still the physically weakest of all of them, for all her new viciousness.
Twilight scowled at her and shoved her back, with magic. "Don't touch me. This is your fault. You knocked me unconscious and � bolt cutters. You were going to cut him free. How did you plan to get him out past the fact that I forbade him to leave this room?"
"I'm not stupid, Twilight," Fluttershy sneered. "I was going to knock him unconscious."
"And what, carry him out by hoof?" She had to think. This was a disaster. "No. I don't have time to argue with you. Where did he go?"
"How would I know? He just said 'Go' � uh, a very bad word, and then 'yourself', and then he vanished. With Spike! Don't you even care?"
"Of course I care! If he has his powers back�"
The door banged open. "The what now?" Applejack asked. "Did you just say Discord has his powers back?"
"He teleported out of here! After Fluttershy knocked me unconscious! And where's Rainbow? She's not here! She was here before!"
"She went to check on Princess Celestia. Spike tried to send a message and it bounced, it didn't go anywhere. We thought it would be better if Rainbow checked on the Princess. Discord said�"
"Discord said! You believed anything he said? If he has his powers back, he could be lying�"
"How in tarnation does Discord have his powers back?" Applejack shouted. "Twilight, you had one job!"
Rarity and Pinkie Pie crowded in behind Applejack. "Discord's powers are back?" Rarity was hyperventilating. "This is the worst possible thing!"
For once, Twilight couldn't disagree with her. "We need a plan. Princess Celestia? Does anyone know what actually happened to her? Did Discord do something?"
"Are we sure Discord has his powers back?" Pinkie asked. "Because I don't see any chocolate milk or flying fish or any kind of crazy chaos anything!"
That brought Twilight up short. "That's... a good point." She could believe that maybe Discord might refrain from launching his chaos right away. The other one had held off for three days between taking the Elements from them and tricking them into becoming corrupted. This one probably could lay low without chaos for a while. But she wouldn't believe for a moment that he would forego any kind of revenge. If he had his full powers back... she and Fluttershy wouldn't be free to be having this conversation right now. She shuddered.
"It's unrealistic to imagine that Discord wouldn't attack us for revenge if he was at his full power," she said. "Fluttershy. Describe to me exactly what happened, including the issue that made you think that Rainbow needed to check up on the Princess."
"Well. After you took your restful nap, which I'm sure was very good for you after you've been working so hard�"
"You ordered Discord to put me to sleep, didn't you."
"It's not at all harmful for an overtired, stressed mare to get some nice, healthy sleep for once," Fluttershy said, smirking. "Rainbow got bolt cutters after I realized that you had spelled the latch on his collar shut, and we started cutting through the chain. I was worried about the rest of our friends and why they hadn't gotten here yet�"
"We were on one of the slower trains," Applejack said impatiently. "Every stop between here and Canterlot."
"And it never occurred to you to order the train to skip the other stops and go straight to Ponyville?" Twilight snapped.
"Ain't like any of us thought you were gonna lose Discord if we didn't hurry," Applejack retorted.
"Um, excuse me, if I might finish?" Fluttershy's voice was hardly louder than it had been in the old days, before Discord, but it had a poisonous edge to it under the sweetness. "I had Spike send a message to Princess Celestia, asking when you had all left... but it came back immediately. Discord said that meant that something was interfering with the signal, so we decided that Rainbow should go and check on the Princess, after she got the heaviest of the chains cut for me. Spike volunteered to hold Discord down so he wouldn't have a seizure, since it was very difficult for him to hold still when your orders were to stop anyone from removing his chain with lethal force, but the loyalty spell prevented him from harming me."
"I would imagine," Twilight said drily. "We're all still alive and not being tormented, though, so how did he get away? You didn't cut his collar by accident, did you?"
Fluttershy shook her head. "No. I don't know how it happened. I was cutting through one of the smaller chains, and he said to me, 'Can I tell you something, Mistress Fluttershy?' So I said go ahead, and he..." Tears welled in her eyes. "He said something very rude to me, and then he vanished. With Spike still on top of him!"
Okay, Twilight. Think. Discord couldn't have his full power back... unless. Could it be that the loyalty spell was holding, but the spell that kept him from using his power wasn't? Then he wouldn't attack... but he probably would turn the world upside down. He wasn't known for subtlety. Could Spike have accidentally opened his collar? It was designed to stand up to dragon claws, though... Twilight hadn't been able to take the risk that Discord couldn't get his dragon foot in position to rip the collar off.
If the collar had come off, Discord wouldn't be an issue for much longer. His chaos magic would feed the crystals inside him and rip him apart within half an hour, maybe less if he used a lot of magic. But if the collar was still on but just not working properly... would the same thing happen? It depended on what part of the spell had failed...
"Why don't you scry for him?" Fluttershy asked. "You used to do that all the time."
She had. Back before the Diadem. For what little good it had done; knowing where Discord was had never been all that helpful, when she'd had no hope of stopping him. But it hadn't occurred to her now... or rather, she realized, it had. Somewhere in the back of her brain, she'd thought of it and rejected it, because chaos magic disgusted her profoundly nowadays. She didn't want to touch it with her brain, even to the extent of scrying for it.
But there was no help for it. Twilight sighed and began the preparations. They needed to know where Discord had gone. Also they needed to know what was going on with Princess Celestia. Where was Rainbow? Why wasn't she back yet?
"Do any of you know what was happening with Princess Celestia?" she asked.
Rarity rolled her eyes. "We would hardly be so irresponsible as to leave Princess Celestia if we had any inclination that there might be any sort of problem. When we left her, our counterparts were in her hooves and accompanied by the Royal Guard, so we had no reason to believe there might be any sort of difficulty."
"But what did she do to restrain the other � the alicorn?" The thought of verbally recognizing that the other was her counterpart, was her, was too much. "She's got to be very powerful! She's an alicorn!"
"Last I checked, so's Princess Celestia, and a lot older and wiser to boot," Applejack said.
"Something's gonna happen," Pinkie announced.
"Something...? That's hardly helpful," Rarity said.
Pinkie shrugged. "I don't know what's gonna happen! Pinkie Sense isn't exact like that! But something's gonna! Something big."
"Good or bad?" Twilight asked.
"Dunno! Just big!"
The door banged. "You are not gonna fucking believe this," Rainbow Dash said, panting hard, plainly out of breath. And then, "Hey, where's Discord?"
"We'll know in a moment," Twilight said, preparing the spell. "What's happened?"
"Their Spike got big. Like big big. There's a huge fight at Canterlot. Right now. I couldn't even get close enough to tell where Princess Celestia was, I didn't see her but the air was full of changelings. Figured I'd better tell you what was going on. As much fun as it would've been to get in there and kick some butt, the entire airspace was lousy with bugs and I couldn't have gotten through without breaking some shells. And they're supposed to be allies so I figured I wasn't gonna do that."
"What do you mean, their Spike got... big?"
"I mean you remember that red dragon whose butt we kicked up on that mountain, back before Discord?"
"You mean the red dragon that I saved you all from because you were all being idiots?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yeah, the one you were being a major league coward about until you finally grew some at the end. Anyway... their Spike is as big as that guy was. He was getting swarmed by changelings, but... he was big."
Now that was completely unfair. She was an alicorn and her assistant was a full-grown dragon, not the useless child Twilight herself was stuck with? Twilight took a deep breath. As much as she wanted to race off to Princess Celestia's rescue � she was sure the Spike dragon wouldn't be any match for her magic combined with Princess Celestia's and Shining Armor's � retrieving Discord and getting him back under control was the higher priority. She cast the scrying spell.
It came back blank. Nothing. No large concentrations of chaos anywhere but the Everfree, which was always a large concentration of chaos. Which meant he was in there, somewhere. Using the chaos of the Everfree to hide his signature, the same way he used to.
Think. The Everfree was a huge place. It might be days before they found him. If his collar wasn't broken and was still restraining him and the teleport was something he'd managed to pull off by trickery... except that if the alicorn found him first, she could easily magically remove his collar, and if it was in a few days, he'd have passed the crystals out of his body and there'd be nothing whatsoever stopping him.
If the alicorn found him... but she would. Because both she and Discord knew the location of the portal back to their own world. And the alicorn was riding a giant dragon.
"He's in the Everfree," she said.
"The Everfree? We can find him then!" Fluttershy said. "Can we go now?"
"The Everfree's too big to search by hoof... or wing, for that matter. But he'll be going to the portal he created, the one that leads back to his home... and our counterparts came through that portal. They know where it is... and a giant dragon is hard to miss." She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, I want you to patrol the area of the Everfree along the shortest flight route from Canterlot. As soon as you see their Spike again, hide until you're behind them, then follow them secretly until they meet up with Discord. He can't leave this world right away or the crystals inside him will kill him."
"Do we know that?" Applejack asked. "Your spell was supposed to keep him from teleporting. I ain't sure we can know for a fact that anything you did is working right."
Twilight forced down her anger. Losing her temper wouldn't help now. "It's most likely that he took advantage of a momentary glitch in the spell. Fluttershy siding with Discord to knock me unconscious won't have done anything good for our harmony as a group."
"Yeah, her fighting with me probably didn't help either," Rainbow Dash said, casually, as if she and Fluttershy hadn't caused a spectacular failure that could end up destroying their world.
"In any case. We can't take anything for granted, but if all they do is simply leave our world... then all we need to do is knit the portal shut." That would take some research, but with the help of the Diadem, Twilight was sure she could figure out how to do that. "If they're planning anything else... they won't leave before Rainbow can get back and let us know where they are."
"Darling. Rainbow is hardly the stealthiest of ponies," Rarity said. "And while under most circumstances I might imagine Fluttershy would be better at concealing herself, her current degree of, er, emotional compromise would seem to rule that out."
"I could go!" Inexplicably Pinkie was dressed as a ninja. "I can be super stealthy when I want to!"
Rainbow gave her a look of disbelief. "You can't fly, Pinkie."
"I'll give you some sort of item. A magical flare, of sorts. Follow them to Discord and set it off some distance away from them, so we know where they are but the alicorn doesn't notice. Don't engage them in combat until the rest of us are there. They've got a dragon and possibly Discord with his powers on their side. Our only hope is the element of surprise."
"Then we shouldn't use a magical flare," Fluttershy said. "Discord told me � the first Discord, I mean � that he can sense fluctuations in magic." She took a deep breath. "I'll go with Rainbow. And I'll stay behind, watching them to make sure they don't leave, while Rainbow goes and gets the rest of you." She looked into Twilight's eyes. "I won't let you kill him," she said earnestly, "but that doesn't mean I don't remember our friendship. I remember you were the only one of all of us who didn't treat me like garbage for feeling for Discord the way I did."
That felt like a lifetime ago. Twilight was fairly sure that Fluttershy's proclivities had disgusted her, even then, before the Diadem... but she'd been better at hiding emotions like disgust then. Or maybe it hadn't been the thing with Discord that had disgusted her. It was hard to remember what it had felt like to not have her fur crawl at the very thought of Discord and his chaotic magic, but back then... what he'd been doing had horrified her, she'd hated him, but his magic hadn't nauseated her the way it did now. Fluttershy might be remembering it correctly; maybe it had been her rapist tendencies that had appalled Twilight, then, and her thing with Discord had at least been consensual. And useful, considering that it had been key to defeating him.
She swallowed. She didn't care about any of them the way she had back then... because now, she'd fully accepted that they were monstrous. They weren't going to change back to the mares she remembered. But that was partially her fault. With the skill in understanding and analyzing magic that the Diadem had given her, she was fairly sure she could have separated the girls from their corrupted Elements... but it would have meant either giving up the ability to harmonize with them, or giving up the Diadem. And Twilight was never going to give up the Diadem. It made her so much smarter, so much better at magic. She'd defeated an alternate self who was an alicorn with it. Plus Discord. Twice.
Given that she'd done nothing to undo their corruption when she was finally smart and skilled enough to try it, given that she wasn't going to do any such thing... could she really hold the fact that they'd become terrible ponies against them?
"I, uh... I remember our friendship, too, Fluttershy. What you're suggesting... it's probably a good idea. Go ahead with Rainbow Dash."
Of course, given her vitriol toward her other self, Fluttershy would probably kill the alternates the moment Rainbow left, if Discord had his powers and she could take control of him. But that was all right. If he didn't have his powers, Twilight could trust her not to do anything rash.
In the tree that formed Golden Oaks library, in the eaves, Fluttershy crouched, covered entirely by the leaves of the tree, trying to control her breathing.
The train to Canterlot took anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour to and from Ponyville, depending on whether it was an express. The average pegasus could do the trip in half an hour without working up much of a sweat, considering that the train had to go through numerous switchbacks to get up the mountain that a pegasus could avoid. Rainbow Dash had been known to make the trip in 10 minutes when she was pushing herself, but not to Sonic Rainboom levels.
Fluttershy had, once in a while, managed to match Rainbow Dash, but only when the life of a friend was at stake.
From the top of Canterlot Palace, high up the mountain, the thermals and the direction of gravity favored very high speed. Fluttershy had pushed herself as hard as she could to get here. Originally she'd planned to go get the bolt cutters from Pinkie's basement first, but then she'd caught sight of Rainbow Dash, in the distance, heading toward Ponyville, and she'd known it was the Opposition side's Rainbow. Instead of going to Sugarcube Corner, she'd followed their Rainbow, knowing that Rainbow never bothered to look behind her when she was flying, always too focused on getting ahead.
And now she was in the eaves of Golden Oaks, wanting to pant and gasp because of how hard she'd pushed herself, and not daring to. She felt like she was on the verge of fainting, like her heart was pounding so hard it would explode out of her chest. Like her blood was boiling in her veins. But she didn't dare breathe hard enough to get the air she so desperately needed to stock up on, out of fear that they'd hear her downstairs.
From here, she could hear the conversation in the evil Twilight's workroom, clearly. She'd come in late, but it was plain that Discord wasn't here anymore. He'd gotten away, somehow. Fluttershy was sure that he wasn't at full power, because if he was at full power, he'd have teleported her to him, rescued their friends, and gotten them all out of there... but at least he was free. He was safe, for the moment. And when it became clear that he had to be in the Everfree, because their Twilight couldn't find him, she realized that she probably knew where he was.
Discord would know where the portal back to their own world was. And it was near the Everfree. Presumably, Discord was staying in the Everfree because he knew Twilight couldn't find him there... but he'd be near the portal, wouldn't he? It was the only thing that made sense.
Fluttershy knew where the portal was. Evil Twilight and her friends didn't.
Her own evil counterpart and the other Rainbow Dash were going to go try to intercept Spike on his way in from Canterlot � which assumed that he and the others had won that fight, but this Twilight seemed to be assuming that that would happen. Fluttershy was enough of a pegasus to know where someone flying down from Canterlot would most easily intersect the Everfree. It wasn't near the portal.
Once the two enemy pegasi had flown off, the other Twilight had directed her versions of Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity to get some sleep so they'd be in better shape for the upcoming fight. This started an argument, because the other Applejack wanted to go back to Sweet Apple Acres and the other Rarity wanted to start trying to salvage what she could from the wreckage of the Carousel Boutique. Under cover of the loud argument, Fluttershy finally drew in enough air that she felt she could breathe properly again.
She took off, heading for the Everfree, but not for the part of it that the other Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were heading to.
He still couldn't believe it.
He had wings. He could fly. He was flying right now. It was terrifying, because he had Rarity and Pinkie and Applejack's lives in his keeping, riding on his back, and for all of Rainbow Dash's coaching, he felt like the more he thought about flying, the more he was likely to screw it up. Already there had been one or two lurching drops, drawing terrified screams from his passengers (well, from Rarity and Applejack; Pinkie had been screaming "whee!") before he could get his flight back under control.
And he was huge. Ponies were riding on his back. He'd been this size twice before in his life, but he didn't remember his moment of hatching at all, and he could barely remember the greed growth. Why was this different? Why was his mind still clear, not hazed with possessive hunger like when the greed growth had happened? He'd been thinking that his friends were his, his possessions, when the fury had swept over him and he'd suddenly become... this.
To be perfectly honest, he was still reeling. He was huge, he had wings, and... he'd just killed, in combat, with his fire. His mind shied away from that. He was a killer. Spike knew from Discord's letter that the other Spike, his counterpart in this universe, had killed the alternate Discord, so he'd known he was theoretically capable of killing... but he'd actually done it. What was worse, he didn't feel bad about it.� Not like when he'd attacked Changelings in the forest, breaking carapaces and make them bleed. Then, the violence he'd committed had horrified him. Now? He felt sick at heart because he felt like he should care about the Changelings he'd burned... but he didn't. Chrysalis had tried to kill Twilight and Rarity, and if she'd failed it was only because of Twilight's power and skill, not any lack of intention. She'd deserved it. Her troops had deserved it.
He knew that was wrong, that he'd just done something awful. Necessary, but awful. Why didn't he feel guilty?
Maybe because he had to put so much focus into his flying.
"That's Ponyville up ahead," Twilight said. "Fluttershy went ahead to try to free Discord, right?"
"Right, but who knows if she'll have gotten anywhere," Rainbow said. "Flutters is great, but she can't exactly go hoof-to-hoof with alternate you, and the other Fluttershy and the other me left long before she did to try to save Discord from alternate you. Pinkie, I really wish you hadn't sent her."
Pinkie shrugged. "I bet it'll all work out okay," she said. "Look! Ponies are so tiny down there!"
"Tactically, it didn't make a whole lot of sense," Applejack said. "Did you get something from your Pinkie Sense that Fluttershy should leave then?"
"Yeah, it was just a hunch, but those usually work out for me!"
"Spike, is there something wrong?"
This was from Rarity, who apparently was the first to notice Spike's discomfort. There was a scritch in his throat and a queasiness in his belly, similar to the feeling that he was about to get a scroll... but he didn't want to think about what would happen to his passengers if he had to rear up and burp out flame, up here.
"I'm... not feeling great, but I've got it under co�hrrgkk!"
The flame that came out of him felt like vomit and looked purple and black, shot through with sparks of yellow... nothing like his usual flame at all. It had a strong taste, like a combination of black licorice, contaminated gems, and sour chocolate milk.
A large unfolded... something... it was more like a tapestry or a tablecloth than a parchment... materialized. It started to fall, but before it could, Twilight caught it with her magic and held it up.
It was a map. A very idiosyncratic map where Sugarcube Corner was represented as a gigantic cake, not to scale whatsoever, and all sorts of wild animals were inexplicably on top of the trees in the Everfree, not to scale either. There were multiple images of ponies, including a scowling Twilight face with the helpful legend "Evil" under her at Golden Oaks, a Fluttershy and a Rainbow Dash in circles with red diagonal lines thru them more or less straight ahead on his flight path, and a giant X marking what looked like the general area of the portal where they'd come in. There was a grinning Discord face above the giant X, his talon visible in the image and his thumb pointing up.
"Guys! Do you think maybe Discord sent this to us? Maybe he knows where the other us are and he's warning us!" Pinkie shouted, standing up on Spike's back, which made him very nervous.
"Pinkie! Sit down!" he and Rarity shouted at once, though his was louder.
"Gee, I do wonder," Applejack said, in that flat tone that made Spike quite sure she had an eyebrow raised, even though he couldn't really see given that she was on his back.
"We can't be certain," Twilight said. "The other me could be sending us a fake map that looks like Discord made it, to lure us into a trap."
"But, Twilight, that didn't look like Spike's usual flame at all. If you were casting the spell to send a message to Spike, wouldn't it look roughly similar to when Princess Celestia does?" Rarity asked.
"I'm pretty sure it came from Discord. Ugh." The taste wasn't as bad as it had been when he'd sent the original letter that started this journey, but that didn't mean it was pleasant. "So should I head for the portal, Twilight?"
"Maybe I should fly ahead and check?"
"Uh, egghead... that's not your job." Rainbow flew ahead of Twilight and hovered in front of her. "If anyone's gonna fly ahead and check, don't you think it ought to be me?"
"But you're coaching Spike in how to fly!"
"It looks to me like he's gotten it down pretty good."
"Uh, I'm not so sure about that," Spike said. "Maybe we should just all go together? I mean, what if it was a trap and somepony flew ahead? You'd be going right into it! But if we all stick together then we won't be outnumbered!"
"I think you're forgetting something, Twilight," Applejack said. "Maybe your evil twin came up with a clever plan to fool us, but it seemed to me like she was... how'm I gonna put this... she didn't seem like the kind of pony who's all that great at understanding what other ponies would likely feel. And the idea that she could figure out what kinda thing Discord would draw on a map just don't feel�"
"Likely," Rarity said. "Or possible, to be perfectly honest. She was a terrible pony, Twilight. I don't think for a moment she could imagine what Discord would come up."
"Uh, you're all missing the other really obvious thing," Rainbow said. "We have a huge dragon on our side! I betcha bits to bagels she's got no idea about our Spike dragoning up like this!" She slammed her forehooves together with a wide grin. "I just can't wait to get a look at her face when she sees him like this, if she tries to come back and give us trouble again."
"You have a point," Twilight said. "Pinkie, any hunches?"
Pinkie shook her head � which Spike was only able to tell because she did it so vigorously it twisted her whole torso back and forth slightly. "Nopers! I might've broken the hunch factory just a little bit," she said, sounding oddly embarrassed.
"All right, then I guess we'll trust that this map does come from Discord and he's telling us where to find him. Fluttershy must have gotten him loose. Though I don't know how he has enough power to send us a map..."
"So is that where I'm going?" Spike asked again. Flying had been a thrill when he first started, but now his wings were aching and he was really, really nervous about being up so high with ponies on his back.
"Yes. Let's do that. Head for the portal."
"All right! The sooner we can get back down to sweet, sweet ground and I don't have to be worried about ponies getting killed if I mess up doing this thing that I don't even know how I know how to do and I just started doing it like half an hour ago, the better!"
"You ain't fillin' me with confidence here, Spike," Applejack said.
So little power, so little strength. His body ached everywhere. Especially the muscles of his abdomen, when he stood upright. Being forced to walk on all fours, never being allowed to stand up straight, for two months, while being starved... it hadn't done anything good for the muscles that held his flexible body up against gravity. But he'd forced himself to stand upright anyway, even though it made him go slower and it made him vulnerable to being whacked with tree branches and he kept almost falling over, because he could, now. He was free. Weak, with very low magic, and with crystals in his belly that would kill him if he was freed all the way, so the option of, say, asking Spike to bite through the lock on his collar wasn't available. Not safe. But free.
And his friends were coming for him.
The scrying spell took a lot of what he had left. He didn't waste power making an external focus to look into � he just pulled the images directly into his mind's eye. Fluttershy was on her way to the portal back to their universe. The rest of the team � he still wasn't sure he could call any of them his "friends" aside from Fluttershy, but they'd come here to rescue him and that counted for something � were flying here... on Spike's back.
Spike � the Spike from his universe, presumably, since the other one was here by his feet, grumping about being bored � was a full-size dragon.
Discord grinned.� Oh, was that ever going to get Order Twilight's goat, if she had the opportunity to see it.
He visualized a map. With his mind's eye positioned high above the Everfree, he could see much of Equestria, sprawling out beneath him as if he was flying. He located Fluttercruel and this world's Rainbow Dash, flying toward the edge of the Everfree, on the inverse of the trajectory Spike The Giant Dragon was on. He observed that Order Twilight and her minions were still at the Golden Oaks library.
Then he spiraled out, looking for potential allies, searching for anyone, anyone at all, with magic sufficient to make a difference in the fight between the Opposition Elements and the Harmony Elements. "His" side had the advantage, with Spike's sudden growth, but he couldn't count on that, not when Order Twilight had demonstrated the ability to defeat Alicorn Twilight despite the power differential between an alicorn and a unicorn, and not when he knew the Opposition Elements all had years of combat training that his Bearers didn't. He had to make sure that no one could come into the fight on the Opposition side to tip the balance, and he had to see if there was anyone he could call on to help his side, before he ran out of the stored magic from his alter ego's shattered stone antler.
Ignore everyone outside Equestria. The Dragon Lord, the hippogriffs, the reindeer... none of them could possibly respond to a call from Order Twilight fast enough, or from Celestia if she somehow came back. Confirm Celestia's absence from the entire world's thaumosphere, not just from Equestria. Eventually that would be a problem, but not his problem, so he didn't care. Luna�yes, there was her magically preserved body, right where his alter's memories placed it, but as perfect and undecaying as her corpse was, it was a corpse. No Luna spirit inside.
A flicker at Canterlot. Changelings in large numbers... a surge of magical energy. His mind delved into the catacombs below the palace. Something down there was blocking magic. He wondered how his alter had never noticed what was essentially a black spot in the thaumic field around Canterlot. Well, it wasn't truly black; it was more like it was in shadow. It didn't stand out; that was probably how he'd missed it. Nothing inside that field was within his reach, so he pulled back.
No alicorns. No umbra. No dark wizards of inordinate power. His friends would be on their own, but so would the enemy. Given that he couldn't cross the portal as long as those crystals were in him, this was almost certainly going to come to a fight. Their best strategy would have been to keep him hidden in the Everfree until the crystals worked their way out of his body, but Spike's sudden growth was going to make that difficult. Unless the Opposition Elements had killed one of the Everfree-dwelling dragons, there was probably nowhere to hide Spike... oh, wait, hadn't his alter thrown the red dragon from that mountain, the one who'd been defeated by Fluttershy in his world, into space? Maybe they could all go hide in that guy's lair.
But the important thing was for them all to gather together. With almost all the strength he had left, he created a map and mailed it to Big Spike.
Discord opened his eyes, breathing hard. "Okay. I know where we need to go now."
"Great. I'm all ears," Little Spike said.
"Spike, why do you have to give me straight lines like that when I don't have the power to do anything with them?" Carefully Discord pulled himself to his feet.
"I guess it's too much to ask where we're going?"
"Not in the slightest! We're going to the portal between the worlds. My friends came through it; they know where it is. All I was able to tell Twilight when she questioned me was that it was in the Everfree someplace. I can draw maps, but she had me tied down and she never asked me to draw a map, and I'm absolutely terrible at giving directions."
"So my Twilight doesn't know where this is, but yours does?"
"Yes. It's the perfect place to meet up."
"So you're not gonna need to teleport to Canterlot to rescue them?"
Discord shook his head. "They're on their way here." He thought of what this Spike's reaction would be to seeing his alter, and grinned. "Try not to die of envy when you see it."
"See what?"
"Oh, you'll know, trust me."
It would be easier to make his way to the portal on all fours. He was dizzy, and exhausted, and his abdominal muscles hurt so much, and he had always been capable of going faster that way. But when he thought of dropping to all fours, after being forced by Fluttercruel into that posture for so long, he felt sick. He could inch like a worm, or slither like a snake, but both would be a lot slower than walking.
"So, um."
When after a moment or two it didn't seem that Spike would be forthcoming with any more of that sentence, Discord prompted him. "Um?"
"I was just wondering..."
Again a hesitation. Discord sighed. "I am too tired for this, Spike. Spit your question out or forever hold your peace, I'm not going to keep prompting you."
"What's gonna happen to me?" he blurted. "I've betrayed Twilight for you�"
"You saved the world by doing that."
"Twilight won't see it that way. And Fluttershy will be angry I let you go."
"What, are you asking if you can come home with us? That's not my call. You'd have to ask my Twilight. Though I suspect our Spike might have objections."
"That's not � I don't want to leave my world, I just want to know what do I do?"
"You know what that shiny crystal thing in your paw is, right?"
"You said it's part of the Harmony Tree. What is the Harmony Tree anyway?"
"An annoying busybody, but necessary. Listen. My alter corrupted the Elements of Harmony, but that was only possible because they've spent so long being removed from the Tree of Harmony, it's substantially weaker than it should be. With this � a cutting from the Tree of Harmony from my world � it should be possible to reharmonize the Elements. Everypony but Twilight will be restored to their original selves. Twilight made her own decision to unite with the Diadem of Order; the Tree can't force her to give it up, but if she's the only one left with an Opposition Element, she'd have to give it up to be able to use the Elements of Harmony."
That wasn't what was going to happen. Oh, Discord could have some hope that the Tree would help the real Twilight escape the corruption of Order, but he wasn't at all convinced there was a real Twilight in there anymore. That was Matrisse, or a piece of it, looking out from behind Twilight's eyes. But he didn't want to tell Spike so. Let the kid have hope.
"So... so they're going to be restored to normal? To who they used to be?"
"I don't know," Discord admitted. "I'm pretty sure that's the plan, but it's not my call either. Twilight and her friends will make that decision, not me."
They would never be normal again. Undo the corruption, and they'd still have the memories of who and what they'd been. When he unbalanced ponies, there was a protective amnesia effect most of them experienced as it wore off, where for at least a little while they couldn't remember what they'd done, and when the memories came back, they'd be weaker. But that was caused by the impermanence of his unbalancing spells. These ponies had been the opposites of their true selves for years. They wouldn't forget. And remembering would probably destroy them.
He thought of Fluttercruel, and smiled thinly. He couldn't wait.
This was taking forever.
How slow could a full size dragon fly, anyway? Rainbow flew in restless circles around the place where Twilight had told them to wait, getting more and more frustrated. Fluttershy kept insisting they had to wait, that they didn't know where Discord was and that intercepting the other Spike was their best chance of finding him. Sweet cheese, but she was so sick of Fluttershy mooning over Discord. Wasn't even like this particular version of the butthole wanted to be with her like the other one had. It'd been bad enough that Fluttershy had been fucking the enemy, but what she'd started doing after he'd been turned to stone was sick and twisted, and what she'd been doing to this new version of Discord... well, better him than some innocent pet, but it was still sick and twisted.
Why was she even putting up with this? She didn't even like Fluttershy. Friendship was a crock and she couldn't figure out why some part of her still wanted to be friends with such a total diamond bitch. Not like any of them were all that much better.� But she guessed it was because it was what Equestria needed. She was still loyal to her nation and her city; Discord hadn't changed her nearly as much as he'd changed the other ones. Honestly she wasn't sure he'd done anything to her at all. When your friends turned into total buttwipes, did you really need to be warped by Chaos magic to decide you didn't like them or want to hang with them anymore?
The sun hadn't moved, and that was making Rainbow profoundly nervous. She'd gone to investigate if something had happened to Princess Celestia, and there had been so many changelings in the way she couldn't even do that, and now the sun wasn't moving. "I really oughta be going back to Canterlot to check up on Princess Celestia," she said. "Maybe I'll run into their Spike along the way."
Fluttershy rolled her eyes with exasperation. "If we recapture Discord, we can use him to make sure Princess Celestia is safe," she said. "But if we don't, then none of us are safe."
"And you're not worried about Twilight killing him anymore?"
"Hopefully Twilight understands now that killing him is a terrible idea and will just lead to the destruction of our world, because we won't be able to hold him without her help."
"Look." Rainbow hovered in place in front of Fluttershy. "This is taking too long. Something's gone wrong with the plan. I'm gonna go scouting."
"But if they see you, they could attack you! Discord might not be able to do anything to you because of the loyalty spell, but the others�"
"They aren't nearly awesome enough to be a problem for me," Rainbow bragged. "Only one who might even be a challenge is Spike, and I bet he's not all that. I mean, just because he got big doesn't mean his mind isn't still wimpy little Spike the baby. I can handle him."
"I think we should stick to the plan."
"I know what you think, but you're an idiot, so I don't know why you think I care. Listen." She cut off what was likely to be another furious nasty insult before Fluttershy could do more than open her mouth. "You stay here and watch for Spike if he comes in. I'm gonna fly a search pattern. Whichever one of us finds him first, we report back to Twilight."
"If I see him, I'll have no choice but to report back to Twilight because I won't know where you are, but you should report back to me first. We need to stick together as long as there's a chance that Twilight's still insane."
"Yeah yeah." She waved an impatient hoof. It was like Fluttershy just couldn't get it through her head that Rainbow didn't have to take orders from her, wasn't it.
Within moments, she'd left Fluttershy behind, perched in the trees at the observation station they'd been using, and began to fly a spiral search pattern. The Everfree was devastated by the vines, half empty in many places, a shell of its former self. A big purple dragon shouldn't be too hard to see.
She'd been flying for what she guessed was probably half an hour or more when she finally caught sight of something large and purple, off to the west. There. A quick flight to catch up, a dodge under tree cover � not like any of them were actually looking for her, or any other potential enemies. Idiots.
Rainbow got close enough to see the large purple dragon land in a clearing...� a clearing that already contained Discord, and Fluttershy with the wrong mane color, and a small purple dragon. Her eyes narrowed. Spike's body language didn't look like a prisoner's. Was he in cahoots with Discord? What had the draconequus promised him, to make him turn on his friends like that? Loyalty wasn't the be-all end-all of her life anymore, but she still wasn't a big fan of traitors.
Well. Screw Fluttershy. Maybe it was time she learned the hard way that Rainbow didn't have to take her orders. Rainbow turned and headed straight for Golden Oaks. As annoying as Twilight was... Twilight really was their leader. Fluttershy just thought she could tell Rainbow what to do because she always had. Well, Rainbow didn't have to listen. Twilight needed to know about this first.