A normal day in Canterlot
It was a sunny day in Canterlot. Like any other day, the ponies worked in the stores of the city, others went shopping.
In the Canterlot garden, the princess of the night was taking a walk. Graceful, her hooves wandered over the grass, causing little drops of yesterdays rain to splash on her dark blue fur.
She enjoyed this, as for the lovely clean smell in the air. The first leafs of autumn fell and it was a little frosty. Still some of summers flowers still grew in all her beauty. Luna knew, that they would soon leave, from the cold that was coming ahead.
Suddenly, a snore interrupted the princess thoughts.
"What the-?" She thought out loud, looking around to find the source.
It didn't took long until she found Discord close by, sleeping. His head in the grass, while the rest of his body went up a tree, his tail holding on a tree branch, arms crossed on his chest. It looked ridicules, but it is Discord we are talking about.
Luna couldn't help but smile, because it was also looking kinda cute. But then, a little thought shot into her mind.
"I wonder what he dreams about" she thought "Probably something crazy, like his cotton candy clouds. Or maybe a changeling in a pink bear costume.". She giggled at that thought, but a little grunting sound from Discord brought her back to her little plan.
"It wouldn't hurt" She thought, as her horn began to glow.
And in a matter of seconds, she was gone.
Luna was surprised about what she saw in Discord's dream. Nothing.
Discord's dreamworld was hollow space. Only a faint, moon like light, filled this dark, slightly blue space. It even was a slight mystery to Luna that she could stand on this nothingness. With her wings ready to fly if there should be some sort of invisible abyss for her to fall into, she started to walk around.
"What could this mean?" She thought, looking around, hoping to find something, anything.
She slightly jumped as the sound of a couple of small stones were kicked. It really seemed to be that she probably was in an invisible cave. That would at least make a bit of sense, seeing this was Discord's dream.
She tried to kick those stones over again, listening for any sounds, before she heard a faint whimper.
"Hello?" She yelled out. No answer. Again, she listened closely into the darkness. Another whimper. Was it Discord?
She started to follow the sounds. As they got louder and louder, she was sure it was Discord. She ran towards the source to find what was going on. She froze in place as she saw the draconequs lying in front of a mirror, his eyes covered by his paw and claw. This scene was wrong to her. "Discord?" Luna said, calm so she wouldn't scare him out of whatever scared him.
"Huh?" He nearly yelled out, uncovering his eyes "L-Luna? W-What are you doing here?" "I found you in the Canterlot garden asleep. And... To be honest, I wanted to know what you dream about, so-" "You have to get out!".
His sudden interruption made her jump a little. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, but he just got on his feet and pushed her away, repeating "Get out!". She tried to reason with him, but he just wouldn't listen. So instead, she tried to get a view on the mirror, as for it being the only visible thing around, as for the looks Discord gave it in his panic.
The glass of it was pretty bright, for the dark environment. But there was some sort of dark liquid in the lower part of it.
But that was all she could see, because Discord pushed her further away and around an invisible corner. There, he finally stopped to push her around, even turned his back to her and looking at the mirror again.
"Discord, what is going on?" Luna now demanded in her Canterlot voice, but Discord quickly hold her mouth shut with his eagle claw, saying "This is not the right moment, you should leave.". Luna pushed his claw away and asked "And why?".
Discord gave her a quick look, then back at the mirror and gave a big sigh as he turned to her. "You know..." He started to explain "Back in the day, when I ruled Equestia, I made the life of everypony pretty miserable. But what you probably didn't know that long before you and Celestia came to stop me, I sometimes even ended someponies life. I got bothered a lot by other ponies who stood up to protect others and there was that nasty voice in the back of my head, that wanted them to suffer.
And as the fool I was back then, I didn't thought much of it. But at some point, I felt... bad about it. The voice wanted me to kill more and more ponies, but I didn't wanted to kill those who were so much fun to play with. But that voice didn't stopped, it bothered me, haunted me sometimes in my slumber until I sealed it away. Then, you and your sister came, I got turned into stone, got beaten by the elements again, reformation and blah, blah, blah. You know the rest..."
"What does that have to do with this?" Luna asked, slightly scared because she could think what the answer would be.
Discord's ears lay flat on his head and while he played around with his fingers, he looked around. He then said "It got loose again. And its more furious now then it was back then. Its like what happened as Dr. Jekyll stopped for a while to turn into Mr. Hyde.".
Luna looked at him confused, due to what he had said. Who was that Jekyll and Hyde he told about? But she got what he meant. "Don't worry." She said, taking his lion paw to comfort him "I am the princess of the night. I am sure that I can help you with that problem.". He looked at her with big eyes, smiling slightly. It was still a little odd for him to have friends who helped him, especially Luna who had defeated him and didn't spent so much time with him. But a new sound made him shiver in fear again.
A low, sinister laugh echoed through the hollow space, like they really were in a cave. And then, a pitch black, smoky paw and claw grabbed Discord at his shoulders and a similar voice to his own said "Oh isn't that lovely? The freak has found a friend.".
With that, a similar shadowy head just like Discords with glowing red dots in his eyes, also just like Discords.
From what you could make out, that thing was probably smiling brightly. "Don't just wanna cuddle and kiss?" It hissed and taunted.
Discord as for Luna blushed slightly at that comment, which made the shadow giggle.
"Oh no, I know she wont. Isn't she one of the many ponies who had beat you, Dissy?" It said, grabbing Discord by his beard and making him face it "You are so weak, aren't you? A coward who wouldn't defend his title by making ponies fear him and because of that, getting defeated twice and become even more softer then he already was.". Discord said nothing, he just stared into the glowing red eyes. The thing, lets call it simply shadow Discord or Shadowcord if you want, then turned to Luna.
"At least we have visitors! With that, I don't have to just play with Discord.". Luna backed away shortly, but then collected all her courage and stood tall. "What ever is going on in your head, forget it. The princess of the night will get rid of thee, who torture her subjects" She said brave, again in her Canterlot voice. But the shadow just smiled, letting go of Discord who was still frozen in place and fly towards Luna. Its eagle claw grabbed her chin, making her look up into his eyes and it smirked "Oh, feisty princess. Okay, the game may start then.". With a sudden fast action, it let go of Luna's chin.
Quickly, the paw and the claw hit her on her back, right where her wings where, making them disappear. As Luna looked shocked at her wingless back, the shadow licked over his lion paws thumb and then pressed it on her horn, pushing down until that was gone as well.
"Rules are the same like for the six." It then said, making a circle with its lion fingers and with a smooth motion of his eagle arm, made the separated horn appear in its hands. "No wings..." it continued, throwing the horn far up in the empty space above them "And no magic!". The horn flew far, far up over them, until it got stuck. And with that, an environment formed around them, of simple grass fields, a lot of forest and a sky full of clouds like a sunny day. The horn was stuck high up in the sky, which looked pretty ridicules.
Luna on her side, was a little surprised about what had happened. But the shadow smirked again "Well then, the game begins.". And with a laugh, it was gone.
As Luna calmed herself from the sudden actions she had been going through recently, she started to look closer at the new environment. She still felt the usual alicorn magic in her, but all she could managed to do was her earth pony strength.
She wouldn't be able to leave at the moment. She had to get her horn back to do so, but seeing it stuck so far up in the sky, made her growl in anger. She then spotted Discord close by. He was finally out of his trance, standing close to a tree and looking sad and scared at the ground."Discord?" Luna said, trying to not sound to mad "Everything alright?". Discord looked at her, then shook his head. "Hey, everything will be alright. I assure you" Luna said, trying to comfort him. But her words made him snap back at her with "HOW? That thing will never let you leave and it will harm the both of us!". His words made her jump, but she just repeated, now a little more shy "E-Everything will be alright.". Discord said nothing. He just let go of her, seeing as he snapped, he grabbed her and lifted her up, making her look into his eyes. Now he sat her down, facing the tree again. A deep sigh escaped his breath and he said, not even turning around "Well, as long as you get your horn back, you should be able to escape. Allicorn magic is strong, it is still weak." "If it is weak, I will regain my horn and banish it." Luna said, standing tall once more. Discord in the meantime, was climbing up the tree, his wings hanging depressingly at his sides. "You are cute, when you think like that, my dear." he said, still not facing her, as he went to one of the branches, standing on top of it "But its not that easy. Even now, it is watching us and started its nightmare upon us." "And how do you know that?" "Because it controls me right now...". He said that, finally looking at her from beneath the leafs like a predator looking down on its prey, yet still having a somewhat sad look. He then let himself drop from the branch, but his legs and tail made him just hang down. Every other motion had stopped, his look being now unreadable as a small wound suddenly appeared close over his lower body part. Pink flesh was seen and crimson blood started to color his brown fur slightly.
Luna looked at the wound in shock and surprise. Where did it suddenly come from? But just as she noticed that small hole, a line cut over the draconequses belly to his chest. Blood splat into Luna's face, which she wiped away as quickly as she could.
As she looked back at Discord however, he was replaced with a big blue fish, its tail nailed to the branch , yet it had the cut in its belly, making all the organs drop out. Seeing them made Luna nearly puke, but she managed to keep it in.
"D-Discord?" She yelled, hoping this was just one of his sick jokes. But the dark, sinister laugh of Shadowcord greeted her.
"Don't you like it?" He asked, his head appearing from the inside of the fish. The fishes head gave him something like a hat.
"S-Stop fooling me around!" She said "This is ridicules, Discord. And what made thee have such sick jokes?" "Oh... You don't like the way I am? You don't like my jokes? But you never liked his jokes, so why should you like mine? You are a real party pooper, Lulu." The shadow said, annoyed. With a snap of his fingers, he made a party set appear around them.
Colorful streamers were hanging in the tree, which had leafs made out of pretty big confetti and a couple of balloons had been growing out of the ground like plants. Luna even had a party hat and a party whistle in her mouth. It made that classic sound when a cartoon character blows in, only for it to sound pretty sad, because he was told something sad or depressing.
Luna quickly removed those things and said "Just wait until I get my horn back, Discord.".
He just laughed in a dark sinister way, that even was a little frightening to Luna. So she started to back off, then turn and run away. She had to get out. What ever that thing was, it was not like anything she had seen so far.