Princess Twilight Sparkle lay in the enormous regal four poster, fluffed pillows beneath her head and wrapped in luxuriously soft thick covers. And she could not sleep. She had been lying awake in her new bed for half the night, her eyes taking in the unfamiliar room around her by the moonlight that fell gracefully through the wide window of the palace bed-chamber. She gazed at the high-reaching palace walls, following them as they climbed into the darkness above. In the dim light of the moon she could only just make out the pointed roof, which was almost lost in the purple depths of the ceiling. The vastness of the place unsettled her; she knew it was far too big for one pony, and coupled with the regal four poster bed and the rich tapestries lining the walls, the room only served to remind her how much her life had changed.
She was a Princess now; true, she had been a princess for quite some time, but now that she had realised her role in Equestria as the Princess of Friendship, and had been granted a castle of her own, the weight of the title had finally taken hold in her. And while still optimistic about her ability to rule, even determined to push herself and grow into her new role to begin actively helping Equestria, the transition was not easy.
Not to mention her home had been destroyed. She knew she shouldn’t complain; she had a palace now, after all. But she missed her tree-house: she missed her old bed, worn and small but just her size and right next to the bookcase where she kept her favourite books; she missed living in the library, every surface covered in books and quills; she missed her home. The library had been the first place in ponyville where she felt like she belonged, and filling the role of town librarian had been a foalhood dream come true; but that time, and that place was gone now, and she felt the absence dearly, a dull ache that pounded in the depths of her chest.
A snort broke her reverie; there was a flash of green from beside her followed by a thin plume of smoke.
Twilight leaned over the edge of her enormous bed and smiled down at the curled form of the sleeping dragon, huddled in his old basket, the only thing of his they had managed to salvage from the charred wreck.
On the first night after the defeat of Tirek the two of them had been so exhausted they had fallen asleep together at the foot of Twilight’s bed. The following day however, the two of them had found a room for Spike near Twilight’s, smaller but just as ornately furnished. He was not a baby dragon anymore after all, as Twilight knew, and he had begun to sleep by himself quite some time ago.
But, as the moon rose earlier this evening and the night took up reign of the sky once more, the young dragon had appeared in her doorway, dragging his old basket behind him, scorched slightly at the edge.
‘Twilight? Would it be okay if I stayed in here tonight? My new room’s nice and everything, it’s just-’
Twilight had held up her hoof and smiled. ‘Of course Spike,’ she had told him, ‘to tell you the truth, I’d feel a lot better with you in here too.’
That being all the assurance he had needed, he had soon settled down beside her like when he was younger and promptly fallen asleep. Twilight wished she shared his ease. Determined to try and get at least some sleep in the hours that remained before sunrise, she breathed deeply and lay down. Twilight let the stillness of the night wash over her, calming her thoughts and easing her into dreams. As she lay there, listening to the familiar sound of Spike snoring peacefully by her side she imagined the bed around her shrinking, the royal purple bed sheets soaking to a midnight blue, and soon her old bedroom flooded her thoughts. She smiled, a warmth spreading outward from her chest to her all as she found herself in her old room once more, fooled in all the gullibility of the dreaming. A twinge of pain, a homesickness so sharp it hurt pulled her back to the waking world and the image drifted from her mind like ash. She sighed deeply, resigning herself to getting no sleep tonight, and climbed out of bed.
Her hooves clopped loudly as they hit the hard crystalline wood of the floor, sending a dulled echo throughout the still room. Cursing herself, she made sure Spike was still asleep, then made her way carefully across the room. She crossed over the large symbol of her cutie mark, the element of magic, the ingrained pink six pointed star which stretched across most of the floor space until she reached the exit, where she slipped out into the dark hallway. At least, Twilight had expected it to be dark; but as she stepped between the rough-cut but grand crystal walls, she noticed that along the walkways length their shone a faint glow, a dim purple hue that beat beneath the Palace wood. The effect was calming and yet eerie; it reminded Twilight of the feeling she got sometimes in the light of her lamp after awakening from an unsettling dream; a curious mix of comfort and anxiety, as if perhaps there had been more to the dream, after all.
From the hallways of the inner palace she walked through the throne room, the great stone seats of the Elements of Harmony encircling her imposingly, before descending the ornate winding staircase that ran through the heart of the castle. Now, as she stood before the looming palace doors that marked its entrance, Twilight hesitated. The sensible thing would be to go back now, to try and get any sleep at all. She could feel the ache in her body, still recovering from the events of two days ago. She raised her hoof to the palace doors and held it there, wavering.
You have to move past this. You have to let it go.
Across her vision their shone a streaking flash and a burst of red flame. The heavy crystal doors glided smoothly open, like welcoming arms, as the young alicorn walked out into the night.
* * *
The night sky hung clear and bright above Ponyville, Luna’s stars and moon basking the town in a silvery glow. Through the dusk soaked streets the princess strode. She had not realised how long the night had worn on during her sleeplessness; she was the only pony out in the early morning, the steady clopping of her own hooves all she could hear as she passed through the quiet streets. Following the ghosts of hoofsteps that had trodden this path a hundred times over, she cut through the town square and down Manestreet, took a left at Quills and Sofas, and dove down the winding cobbled passage that would take her to the great tree of Golden Oaks Library.
But that was then; now as she left the shadows of the passage all that waited for her was a twisted wreck of charcoal, of blackened roots and bark, all that remained of the old oak. Twilight walked to where her door had used to stand, shifting the burned remains with her hoof, leaving soot trails across her path. As she stirred the remains a waft of dried wood-smoke flared up to meet her, and she snorted forcefully. She had used to love that smell, but now it burned acrid in the back of her throat. She stumbled through to what had been her living room, where she had had her welcome to ponyville party, courtesy of Pinkie Pie, the first of many; where she had sat and talked with her friends for days uncounted. Where, at her desk by the window she had spent most of her nights, researching and reading and simply enjoying the moments of quiet the night afforded.
A familiar sound broke the silence; the loud rap of someone knocking on a wooden door. Twilight glanced up in confusion to the space where her door had stood, sure the sound had come from there. Again, the knocking sounded, loud and clear in the emptiness where a home had once stood.
‘Hello? Anybody home? You know princess, it’s not exactly friendly of you to leave your guest waiting’ drawled a dry and cheery voice, a voice Twilight knew, but was surprised to find here.
‘Discord?’ she asked of the air around her.
She heard a door handle squeak, and then a lion’s paw appeared in her no longer present doorway. It waved, before the empty space swung open wide, and the Draconequus stood hunched before her, crouching down to fit under the doorframe, which was not there.
‘I do apologise for dropping in on you like this, but duty calls, you understand I’m sure’ he said from outside the wreckage, not yet moving further in.
Twilight blinked in confusion, not quite processing the appearance of the spirit of chaos at the site of her home’s destruction. She still wasn’t sure how she felt around him; she had forgiven him, true, but she had not forgotten the role he had played in Tirek’s rising either.
‘I- what are you doing here?’ she stammered, confused and wary of his sudden arrival.
Discord seemed to take no notice of her tone, laying his griffon claw across his chest and proudly proclaiming ‘I’ve been given the honour of disabling the remaining magical imbalance caused by Tirek’s magic by our beloved benevolent rulers. Me! Can you believe it Twilight? If I’m not the luckiest Draconequus in Equestria then I don’t know who is.’ His claw clenched the fur of his chest for a moment as his smile turned grim. In a lower voice, he added ‘besides, it’s the least I could do after… after all I did to help him,’ and Twilight was struck briefly with the feeling that it was she who had found Discord tonight instead, alone in the dark.
Discord’s yellow eyes brightened as he faced Twilight once more. ‘And what, princess, are you doing here, hm? Feeling homesick are we?’
Twilight turned herself away from the grinning face and the mock-question, answering with her silence. She heard a rustling, and then Discord’s fang-lipped smirk appeared upside down before her eyes.
‘Well it seems I’ve hit the mark with that one! But what have you to feel sorry for? After all you’ve a castle now, and a title to match! What else could a pony dream for?'
At Twilight’s sharp look Discord’s face softened and pulled away, righting itself as the rest of his patch-work frame came into view, rotating from the space above Twilight’s head. As his mismatched feet touched upon the soot smeared ground before her, he said ‘oh dear, I seem to have upset you. What could I have done wrong?’ Twilight opened her mouth to speak, to tell Discord she was leaving, wanting to remove herself from the unwanted meeting and forget she had ever come out here, but Discord pressed a talon to her lips.
‘No no, don’t tell me, I can work this out myself.’ He leaned back on his dragon tail and adopted an overtly quizzical look, the talon pushed to Twilight’s mouth popping from his claw as he did so to remain where it was. He raised his paw to his chin, slowly pulling his tuft of white goat’s fur and ‘hmm’’ing as his remaining talons scratched his head in confusion. ‘Was it something I said? But what? What ever could it have been?’ Several more talons and paws joined the others, Discord lowering his own and placing them on his hips as he began to pace back and forth in front of Twilight. In spite of herself, a small laugh escaped her pressed lips, and she felt the resentment of the moment pass. Discord grinned, his illusions snapping out with a blink as he bowed.
Twilight smiled, then sank down among the blackened remains in the gutted bowels of the tree.
‘You’re right,’ she told him in a quiet voice. ‘I miss my home. Everything is changing for me now, I have a place, a purpose. But what does it say of my capabilities as a Princess if I let this affect me this much? If I can’t accept that things have changed?’
Discord viewed the dejected pony with a sombre look, and as she looked into his eyes Twilight thought she could believe, for the first time since she had met the God of Chaos, that he was as old as she knew he must be. It reminded her of the way Celestia sometimes looked, of a distant sadness deep within eyes that had felt the years pass before them; that had seen too much, and forgotten nothing.
‘Well,’ began Discord as he joined Twilight on the floor, lying awkwardly on his uneven legs beside her. ‘I don’t know about you personally, but I’ve always found that everything staying the same is terribly boring. Granted I’m probably bias, speaking as a creature of chaos here,’ he said, wriggling his talons and lion claws, ‘but change is not something to be ‘accepted’ as you so put it, but celebrated!’
He wrapped his bird claw around Twilight’s shoulders, gesturing widely with his lion pad as he talked. ‘I mean can you imagine a world without change? Where everything stayed exactly as it was and that was that? I know I couldn’t live there, and I’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who could. Even our wise and royal Celestia,’ he said, smirking, ‘paragon of order and propriety, would agree I’m sure.’
Discord lowered his paw, and his words took on a softer tone. ‘But yes, change also comes with consequences. It maintains the balance of the entire world, ordains the un-ordained, lining all action and re-action. For every good thing it may lead to, it leaves something equally bad in its wake. Chaos does not discriminate between the two, I’m afraid.
‘And with that in mind, it can certainly be simpler to return to what we are used to, to what is comfortable.’ Discord looked down to the pony beside him, and Twilight was surprised to find him smiling warmly. ‘But hopefully you’ll be as lucky as I was, and have somepony to show you how much happier you can be if you move forward to something new. ’
Twilight stared at the trickster god, baffled and touched. She felt lighter, less weighed down with the loss of what was gone; ready, perhaps, to begin moving forward. Discord grinned sheepishly at her, and then chuckled.
‘Yes well it is my, ah, ‘element’, if you will. You can’t imagine being a god of chaos for thousands of years without learning a thing or two, can you?’
The princess shook her head and laughed. ‘I think I’m more surprised that you’re actually trying to help me.’
Discord’s mouth opened wide in mock distress, but Twilight could see the joke did not reach his eyes.
‘Discord, if we’re going to be friends, and I mean actual friends this time, you’re going to have to forgive yourself for what happened with Tirek.’
Discord said nothing, only snorted. Then, he covered his eyes with his front legs and sighed.
‘You’re right, dear Twilight! Of course you are! I must forgive myself for all my wrongs if we are ever to move on in this, my most treasured friendship,' came the muffled response.
A loud trumpeting noise sounded, followed by twin jets of tears. When Discord finally raised his eyes to check Twilight’s reaction, he was met with a flat, level look from the impatient alicorn.
‘I mean it, Discord. I told you, we forgive you, and if I’ve learned anything in my years in Ponyville, it’s the importance of trusting your friends.’
He turned from her, then, and spoke lowly. ‘You trusted me before, and it did not exactly turn out in your favour, you know.’
Exasperated, Twilight sighed forcefully. ‘And I would trust you again! I wouldn’t exactly be the princess of friendship if I didn’t give my friends second chances would I?’ She reached a hoof out to touch his shoulder where the rough leather of his eagle arm met with the coarse brown fur of his coat. ‘And after tonight, I feel like I can really call you a friend. Nothing anypony has said has made me feel better about losing my home, but tonight you changed that. I’m willing to try being friends, real friends, if you are.’
For a long moment the air hung silent, Twilight’s hoof on Discord’s shoulder moving slightly with his breathing. Still he turned away from her, and still she held her hoof there. She began to worry that he had not believed her, that perhaps he would not answer her at all when she felt him grip her tightly by the fetlock. Discord’s lion paw was warm in the chill morning air, and as the dawn broke around them it seemed to Twilight that the charred ruin of her home fell away, leaving only the beginning of the day as the purple sky gave way to blue, and the steady warmth of her friend beside her.
The silence broke, then, with a sound Twilight had never expected she would hear from the ever-grinning trickster, but she said nothing, only stayed exactly where she was. An idea came to her and her mouth quirked wryly at the thought of it.
A spark of violet light, and then a little glass of water floated through the air to rest before the draconequus. A pause, before Discord’s laugh echoed boomingly. It was not his usual, sarcastic snicker Twilight noted, but a warm, throaty chortle that she had never heard from him before. He turned to her, beaming.
‘My dear Miss Sparkle, there may be hope for you yet!’
Twilight giggled, pushing Discord lightly.
‘Come on, I’ve got to get back to the castle and try and get at least some sleep before the day starts, and I’m sure you have more ‘remaining magical imbalance’ to diffuse.’
Discord stared at her quizzically for a moment, before regaining his self-assured smile.
‘Ah, yes, well I suppose you’re right, what will the princesses think of me? Until the next time, Twilight- I mean, Princess,’ he gave her a mock-salute, to which she nodded solemnly, before sticking her tongue out at him.
With a few flaps of his mismatched wings he was rising through the air. Before he had gone too far, he caught her eye and waved, just a bit self-consciously. Twilight waved eagerly in return, then strolled down the cobbled streets of her town as it woke to the new day, back toward her new home. She did not look back.
