Discordant Embrace

Queen Chrysalis whipped around. "You! What are you doing here?"

Discord humphed. "Well, after you so kindly left me behind, I decided to follow you. Look, Chry-"

"Well, what do you want then?", Chrysalis interrupted.

"... I was getting to that. Look, everything I said back at the clearing, I meant it! Honestly!"

"How do I know I can trust you? What's your motivation for helping us? Do you want us to owe you?"

"Of course not! I did it... I did it out of what little goodness my heart has. You make me feel as if I've never lived before. Please, what can I do to prove it? I swear I have no ill will toward you or your people."

Chrysalis thought. She so wanted to trust him. There was just something... charming about about him. He picked her up when she had fallen, and helped her people. He couldn't be that bad, could he?

Chrysalis eased up. "There is a spell I know of. It allows me to... peer into the soul of my choosing. It's quite complicated, and since I'm still recovering, it could talk a while for me to perform it..."

Discord leapt at his opportunity. "Is there any way I can help speed up the process?"

"There is one way... I'll need to tap into your immortal energy for the spell. I could do it right now, but you'd be out for a little while. You've been building up energy for months, waiting to escape your prison of stone, have you not?"

Discord did not even think twice. "Anything you need. When shall we begin?"

The queen smiled. "The sooner the better."

Discord nodded and opened up his flow of magic. Queen Chrysalis' horn glowed a neon-green and she touched it to his chest. Immediately, a whole store of magic opened up to her mind. It seemed limitless, almost threatening to draw her in and keep her there. The queen, however, only took what was necessary and brought her horn away. She immediately started her spell while Discord lay unconscious on the ground.

She brought the spell to mind, ancient runes and words flowing through her mind, and her horn. Dark purple magic held Discord upright and locked him in place. A green bolt of magic floated off of the queen's horn and bobbed to Discord's chest.

The green bolt morphed into a rectangle and attached to the draconequus. The green magic transformed into a pane of spell-glass, and she cut the flow of magic. She peered inside.

She was overwhelmed by what she saw. Anything and everything was visible. A beach with calm, lapping waves turned into a storm of lava and lightning as a volcano appeared suddenly in the background. The scenery changed again, and this time it turned into a blizzard or unrelenting force.

Then, it all went black. The queen panicked. Did she do something wrong? What happened? In the glass, she appeared. Rather, an image of her appeared. In it, she was smiling, a purely happy smile. She was giggling. Chrysalis then felt something she had not felt in it's pure form, but rather through others.

Love.

Pure, unbridled love assaulted her mind. And it was all for her. She basked in its radiance, feeling unsurmounted joy. It made her so happy, to know. To finally have peace of mind. Discord really was telling the truth! He really did... he really did love her.

She withdrew her vision and the spell ended. Discord was flat on the ground. She smiled at him, her hard gaze softening for the first time in years. She pranced around a little bit, then blushed and looked around to see if anyone had seen.

She used her magic to float the unconscious creature to a spare bedchamber. He would wake in a little while. One of her sentinels came up behind her and whispered in her ear.

She nodded and said, "Go get everyone ready. Bring all civilians to the emergency bunkers... Tell everyone else to prepare."

The sentry nodded, and with a bow, exited with, "At once, Your Majesty."

She glanced over to the sleeping Discord, looking totally at peace on the bed. She sighed. When he woke up, he would find his newfound peace threatened. She hoped he could handle it. Queen Chrysalis left the room and closed the door. She had work to do.

Discord woke to the sounds of chaos. He could hear doors and windows slamming, and changeling citizens screaming. He shook his head to clear his disorientation. What was going on?

There was a window in the room he was in, and he decided to look out to assess the situation. What he saw stunned him. There was a large magical barrier, a deep emerald green, surrounding the city. Chrysalis could be seen up in the air, surrounded by changelings; she was holding up the barrier.

The changelings around her darted to and fro, not sure what to do. Discord flew out of the window and up to Chrysalis' side.

"Ah, my darling, you are awake. Just to fill you in, my spell worked," the queen said.

"Does that mean you believe me?" Discord asked.

"You're still here, aren't you?"

"Good point. So what's going on? Why is everyone panicking? Why are you holding a barrier?"

Chrysalis nodded towards the sky. "That's why."

Discord peered through the semi-transparent magic and saw hulking masses of magic hurtling toward the barrier. They crashed against it without a sound. The color faded a bit, and the queen grunted. She put more concentration toward her horn and the barrier rejuvenated itself.

"Let me take care of that." Discord offered. He lifted a claw into the air and fed the barrier from his pool of infinite energy. The barrier turned a solid green and the queen's magic faded from her horn.

"Thank you. However, I fear it may not last."

"Why not?"

"After I performed my spell, I took you to the chambers that you woke in. One of my sentries came to me and reported that a scouting party had seen a large force moving toward us. So, I erected that barrier. Just in time, actually, for as I finished the first layer, the magic started flying. Even now, it pounds against the shield, threatening my people."

They both looked to the solidified green wall. Spiderweb cracks lined the protection. Discord glanced over at his love. "So, what do we do?"

"We find out who they are and what they want. We wait."

Unfortunately, they did not have the luxury of waiting. For at that moment, another mortar of magic had slammed against the barrier, shattering it. Discord saw another salvo on the way and shouted to the queen, "Go get your people to safety! I'll hold off the assault!"

Discord flew off to confront the mortars and the queen flew back into her city, urging everyone into the bunkers, made specifically for emergencies.

Discord conjured some of his trademark cotton candy clouds and set them in the paths of the blobs of fiery magic. The rounds hit the clouds and disappeared along with the clouds. A brown mist hung in the air, obscuring view. Discord looked left and right, on edge.  He wouldn't let a single projectile through.

The chocolate started to settle. Discord thought he saw a figure silhouetted in the dark fog. He was joined by the queen as the fog dispersed.

And who else would be on the other side but Celestia and the six ponies who had defeated him not long ago.