***

Discord awoke in a hospital bed oddly enough, and he wasn't alone.

"Discord...!" the melodic voice of Pinkie Pie sang, "Wakey wakey sleepyhead..."

Discord groaned, "I'm up..." he sat up and saw Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash circled around him, "Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital..." Twilight muttered.

Discord could see Twilight looked exhausted and tired, her wings were molting and her flank and hair looked askew and ill. It was as if she was in a fight and was drained of all of her magic. He could see that the rest of the ponies were tired, drained, and sullen.

Rainbow Dash's eyes looked tired and dull, her flank was torn and scratched, and feathers were falling from her wings exposing her pink flesh.

Rarity's beautiful mane had twigs, split ends, and mud coating it and her lovely white fur was scratched and dusted with dirt.

Applejack's hat look burned and falling apart, she had a large cut across her back and the rest of her fur was coated in dust.

Pinkie Pie was the worst of all. Her bouncy hair was straight and embedded with twigs, her eyes were dull along with her body. She wasn't Pinkie Pie, she was Pinkamena.

"What...happened to you girls?" Discord questioned with a slight gasp, "You all look like you need a trip to the spa!" he snapped his fingers and a pool of warm bubbling water appeared.

Pinkamena was the first to jump into the pool, the others fallowed accordingly, each of them sighing in content.

Discord smiled softly, but the smile soon faded when he remembered what had happened to him. The nightmares, Luna, Velvet Crystal, and Sombra. Fluttershy as a statue burned in his memory like a flame and he snapped. Discord got up from his bed and ripped the IVs from his veins, "Fluttershy!" he exclaimed, "I need to get back out there!"

"I wouldn't jump out of bed just yet..." a familiar deep voice said from the doorway of the room.

Discord turned to the doorway, "King Sombra!" he braced himself for an attack from the villain.

Rainbow laughed, "Relax, he's a good guy now!"

Indeed the look in Sombra's eyes was not evil, exerting purple mist from his glowing green-red eyes. Instead his eyes were merely red. Sombra was no longer wearing his long regal cape or spiky metal crown, instead he had no attire. Sombra was a regular unicorn once more.

"I see..." Discord muttered as he stood up, "You nearly killed me though...I think an apology, possibly a meal, is in order."

Sombra rubbed the back of his neck, "Relax...I'm paying the medical bills..."

Discord smiled, "Good enough..."

Pinkamena's hair inflated into her bouncy pink curls and transformed into Pinkie once more, "Sombra saved you!"

"He did?"

"He did," Twilight said as she left the tub and grabbed a towel Discord gave her, "Luna told us that you were in danger, so we ran into the Everfree Forest and searched for you."

Rainbow Dash stretched her limbs and relaxed as the bubbles worked away the knots of her spine and wings, "We found you knocked out in a big patch of dirt, Sombra was looming over you!"

"We saw him as a threat and tried to attack him," Rarity continued as she ran a brush (courtesy of Discord) through her curling purple mane, "But that all changed when a pack of Timberwolves chased us off a cliff!"

Applejack brushed her hat free of dust, "And just as we fell, Sombra teleported us here, and here we are..." she frowned, "He told us stuff that ya need to know Sugarcube..."

"But first...you might want to get back in that bed and put in your IVs..." Sombra said.

Discord groaned, "But I'm fine! I feel great!"

Applejack sighed, "Trust me, you won't feel great for long..."

"And pray tell, why?"

Sombra sat down, "Well...you see...Tirek...he...h-he's planning to brainwash Fluttershy and make her be his wife..."

Discord's eyes widened, "WHAT?"

"At first, he was only using Fluttershy to get you to join..." Sombra explained, "But when you refused and he kept Fluttershy, he fell for her..."

"THERE IS NO WAY IN TARTARUS THAT I'M GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN!" Discord yowled in rage, "WHERE IS HE? WHERE IS TIREK?"

"T-Tirek is...Tirek is..." Sombra tried to speak, but he began to wobble side to side and eventually collapsed.

Discord caught the fallen king, "Sombra! What's wrong?"

Sombra panted, Discord could feel the king's breath become shallower and shallower within each second passing. Sombra's voice was soft, "Freed...from immortality...body...aging..." he gasped out.

Discord gasped, "No! There must be something I can do!"

"Cannot...stop this now...no time..." Sombra panted, "Listen...Tirek has a castle...in the center of the North Everfree...it's lined with traps...Fluttershy is in throne room...Tirek guards her...free her...with your...y-your..." Sombra began to age into an old stallion and decay into dust, in a matter of seconds there was no trace left of the king.

Discord just stood there in his own shock, silent as ever.

Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder, "He was immortal due to the dark magic spell he was over...when he was free, his body compensated for the years he didn't age...which was over 1,000 years..." she smiled, "At least he told us what we needed to know...and at least he is finally free..."

Discord merely nodded, "I agree..."

***

In a castle of red and black deep within the northern part of the Everfree Forest, on a black and grey throne sat Tirek. With the crystal Fluttershy...

"You will bear my child...pegasus..."

Author's Note

Thank you for reading!

The next part will be the final part! (excluding the epilogue )

Stay tuned! )