A new dawn upon Equestria, the bright and life-giving Sun ever so slowly pushed upwards to its spot on the sky. Gently lead by the magic of its eternal servant, the Princess of the Sun, Goddess among Mortals – Princess Celestia.
The great alicorn stood on her balcony, the glow of her horn slowly dissolving after completing its deed of starting the new day. Her brightly coloured mane waving in a celestial wind, sparkling faintly in the gentle light of the risen Sun.
Her smile gentle and soft as always, so happy to once again feel the power of her element running through her, warming her from its core deep within her. Once again connecting her to the Sun pictured on her flank. It had been rough, for a while feeling so weak, so… mortal. But it had to be done for the better of Equestria and now things had once again gone back to normal. Equestria once again rebuilt, returned to its former glory if not shining brighter than ever before.
She was not perfect. She was not the goddess her little ponies sometimes seemed to like to see her as. It made defeat and mistakes so much harder to be bear but now… it meant nothing. Where she failed new ponies would stand to continue the fight. To prove nopony was perfect and that anypony could become something much greater than the eternal ruler of the Sun.
Oh, how far her Twilight had come. She could not be prouder. Unlocking such magic, such potential Celestia herself never knew of, never dreamt of. Not even the magic of dreams could hope to create… to create… to dream… dream.
The view over the kingdom she ruled began to shred and crack, the castle around her to go foggy. The Sun itself fell from the sky to break into thousands of glass like pieces which began melting into the hills.
No. Dream, she must dream.
Darkness spread from every crack in the reality around her, shapes and colours mixing together before dissolving into the dark.
Do not wake up, oh please. She couldn’t take it, do not wake up! No!
The sharp light shredding the last of the beautiful dream, to force her away from her heaven.
…
She forced her eyes to stay closed, refusing to see. Refusing to accept she had awakened. The thorns and vines wrapped around her slowly freeing her head. Still keeping her body in the never ending hold, a prison with no room to move. The prison of dark vines had grown smaller during her captivity, as her own form grew smaller. Thinner, as the muscles wilted and meat away from misuse. Starved yet she had stopped feeling the hunger so long ago. He didn’t need to keep her fed; he could keep her alive with the thought alone.
The Draconequus stood tall over the pathetic form of the alicorn. Her once beautiful coat more grey than white, the mane long ago lost its colour and light to simply hand lifelessly down her form, covering most of her face. A pitiful sight, but what to expect after more than a thousand years of imprisonment?
“Oh, Celly, I know you are awake. Wakey, wakey!”
A claw from his mighty paw placed under her chin forced the alicorn’s head upwards to face him. Weakly her eyes slowly opened, looking up at him yet seeing nothing. Unable to focus, unwilling to see nothing but the reality she chose for herself.
“You are looking absolutely dreadful, my dear,” the Lord of Chaos state matter of factly. It was the truth after all. Her breathing was slow but even now the panic of being awakened had gone, now replaced by pathetic apathy.
“This just can’t keep on, when will you see it? What is the sense in fighting for broken dreams? How many times have I already been going through this with you?”
Discord didn’t expect an answer, he never did. She had long gone stopped talking at all when not rambling feverishly to return to her dreamscape, to escape the harsh realities built upon her failures.
He didn’t really need to keep her entangled in the plunder vines; they had sucked out all her power and magic so long ago already. But at this point she couldn’t herself standing, she had no strength left in her at all. Sometimes he felt a bit bad about it, it just seemed… uncivilized sometimes. But he was a chaos entity of his word. He had given her a choice thousand years ago and she had chosen imprisonment over the price for freedom.
“Well, really I just wanted to compliment you on your latest creations. My, where do you keep come with those ideas from? One would think something like that would dry out after a few centuries!”
The Draconequus gently patted her cheek with a taloned hand. Discreetly using his magic to dissolve some dried up saliva from the corner of her mouth. Truly it didn’t do much to the overall picture, just a small gesture he would felt like during the occasional visit.
“Rainbow powers and destruction of a mighty foe! I truly must compliment you on those wonderful designs for those ‘rainbow power forms’ you came up with! It brings a tear to the eyes to stare directly into such colour displays.”
He sighed as he moved his paw away from her chin, letting a dark vine grow up to hold her head up for him. So eager to go back to her make-believe she was still not showing signs of registering anything around her. In the beginning it had been done in spite, now he was suspecting her mind had truly gone in favour for the made up reality beyond the waken world.
“Oh, Celly… How long have you been here like this? Oh, how the years fly by when you got no calendar to follow.”
Discord leaned back his tall, long serpent like body to fall back into a nonexistent lawn chair. They were in a dark, drippy cave. Filled with the black, thorny vines of his creation. Wrapped around a crystalloid structure shaped like a dead tree. No leaves, no fruits. Sucked dry from magic and light, never wilting simply a stature symbolizing decay and death. The sisters once thought they could harvest its magic like one harvested fruit from a tree, only to find it dying from the influence of the plunder vines. Before they got trapped themselves.
“Luna misses you, I think. In her clear moments. She believes I don’t notice, but she forgets nothing is hidden from me. Not even this place, which you thought you could use against me.” He had stopped asking himself why he would come to talk to a vegetable, as if the Lord of Chaos couldn’t find anyone who cared to listen to the wonder that he was. She wasn’t exactly one to make the conversation interesting, at least not after the first couple of centuries and now she barely showed signs of noticing he was there.
“You could join her at any time, the offer is still the same. But I guess that’s still out of the question, huh? The great and proud Celestia cannot accept a bit of chaos and disharmony! Cannot accept to be ruled by others, pfffh. And what did that get you?”
Had his tone gotten less mocking during the past visits? Probably. What was the point of mockery if it gained no reactions?
Ah yes, a reaction would make this much more interesting! Just to see how deep she was stuck in apathy. But how, when his very existence no longer angered no filled her with despair anymore? Ah, of course! He felt a tremble run down his spine, a chill from the devilishness of the very idea as he chuckled to himself. If this wasn’t going to get a reaction out of the old feather duster, nothing would!
The sound of hooves against rock ground echoed through the cave from the entrance, drowning the sound of his snapping claws and made Discord raise one of his ears. Leaping over thorns and vines, the little pony came running. Stumbling when one of the vines moved up to slap at leg and cause her to fall, tumbling down rocks and vines until the fall found its end not too far from the dead roots of the Tree of Harmony.
Ignoring her bruises the purple pony forced herself back up on her hooves. Her mane and tail a mess, scratches covering her from the thorns she had failed to avoid in her rapid run and escape.
“P-Princess!”
Seemingly not noticing the Draconequus as she stumbled towards the cocoon of vines wrapped tightly around the alicorn who no longer wore the royal crown on her head. The much smaller, purple alicorn stopped by the cocoon, raising her front hooves to rest up against it, to help her reach a height to be face to face with her past mentor. Her wings hanging limp by her sides, unable to carry her anymore.
“P-Princess Celestia, please…! I-I… I tried so hard, I’m so sorry! I failed you!” Tears streaming down her cheeks, as she leaned closer to Celestia’s face. The off-white alicorn’s eyes had grown wide. Finally a sign of recognizing, a reaction to the living world around her.
“Twi-Twilight…” Her voice was so hoarse, so weak. It hadn’t been used for such a long time. Not since the betrayal of her sister when she decided to embrace the chaos over eternal imprisonment. She could never forgive herself for the last words she had spoken before going silent. Nor for her own sister’s choice or the back she had turned her in reply to her cries.
“I-I’ll try harder, I promise! Just give me another chance! If I help, I’m sure you can make everything right again! Please, Princess! I beg you!”
“Tw-Twi…” Celestia’s voice was already failing her. Oh, how could her favoured student demand such of her? In her state she could barely keep herself alive without Discord willing it so.
“Because you do it so well, don’t you?” Twilight’s voice changed from the highpitch of panic. Gotten darker, calmer. “In those stupid dreams of yours where you just leave it all to me, right? Not even me AND my friends, just me!”
Celestia gasped liked she had been physically slapped in the face. That… That wasn’t true! Nopony was perfect, and she was giving somepony else a chance to shine above herself.
“Because you grew tired of your own perfect ideal, right? Oh wouldn’t it be nice to just leave all the work to somepony else for once, isn’t that right?” Twilight’s gaze was no longer begging or pleading. The tears was gone, no sign of any dampness on her cheeks. For a moment she looked enraged then became more neutral, looking at Celestia without interest. Pushing herself away from the cocoon of vines, to step away from the other alicorn and her thorny prison. Twilight’s wings now able to fold without a problem, her scratches and bruises now gone.
“If you absolutely had to create me, why make it so difficult for me so often? I’m getting tired of it, stupid old horse. If you have to keep on dreaming then keep those stupid adventures to yourself instead of living through someone else!”
With a snap of his talons Discord made the dream image disappear. He had finally awakened the old alicorn from her apathy. Her eyes big, filled with despair over being forced to face reality once more.
There never had been a Twilight Sparkle. No Fluttershy, no Pinkie Pie. No Rarity, no Applejack, no Rainbow Dash. No Princess Cadence, no captain Shining Armour. No nothing.
No Equestria in an eternal rule of harmony and peace, only disturbed by foes that could be defeated by simple magic and friendship.
No Nightmare Moon who could be cured from her betrayal and forgiven, to make up for her own terrible guilt over hating her own sister for being a traitor and leaving her here in the eternal darkness. No stone prison to the ruler of disharmony, as he had them both defeated before the Elements of Harmony could try their power against him.
Only… Discord and more than a thousand years tied up in vines and thorns because she refused to live under his rule. Refused to accept defeat. Refused to serve under someone else. Too proud. Too stupid.
“Ah, still home I see…” the Draconequus in question said, once again by her side. Gently stroking her cheek as he felt the tears staining them. Finally a reaction, although not the fun one he had hoped for. The angry and shouting one, cursing him to Tartarus and demanding to be released. No, this was the one of despair and regret, regret of facing the reality she had cursed herself to in her own pride.
“It’s okay, Celly. I stand by my word. One word from you and you’ll be free and back together with your dear sister. You only have to accept the way things are and the fact that they are staying this way. You can return back to your former glory, well, at the pace I allow you to as you earn it back.”
Hs long body coiled itself around the cocoon of vines, the side of his face squeezing up against hers in a display of lacking respect of personal space. “What will it be then? A no will only keep you here, that was the promise I gave back then.”
“Pl-Please…” Her voice so small, barely audible had he not already been so close to her mouth to catch sound of it.
“Hmm?”
“Please let me dream…”
The Draconequus sighed, unwrapping himself from the form. Her eyes already closing again, returning to her slumber as the vines moved up to cover her head once again. Hiding her form from the outside world, just a cluster of black and thorns by the foot of a dead tree made out of colourless, cold crystal.
“Next decade then,” Discord said with a shrug of his shoulder. The one pony he had yet to turn. She was broken all right, but preferred her small escape over being forced to face her own pride. A pitiful existence, really.
With a snap of his talons he teleported out of the cave, which had neither exit nor entrance for centuries. He had made sure to block that off a long ago. Nothing to disturb the eternal dreamer, as she began rebuilding the world she had created within her own mind.
A world where friendship could defeat anything, where everything was good and nopony questioned the beautiful ruler of their land.
Author's Note
I am such a sucker for alternative universes, of "what if..." stories springing from actual moments which could have changed everything so much if they had just gone different. The moment of Princess Twilight Sparkle episode where we see Luna and Celestia had been kept captured by the plunder vines the whole time had me thinking... that was Discord's plan when he originally planted those seeds? To capture the troublesome princesses and choke the life out of the Tree of Harmony? And then what?
So, here's a quick little one-shot, a sad little story about the possible defeat of the heroes Equestria had before the Mane Six.
I admit it hasn't gone through any proof reading, so feel welcome to correct my errors, typoes and fails. Thank you for reading ^^
