Chapters Between a Rock and a Hard Place
~Third Person POV~
Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were accompanying Discord to their castle for a formal meeting with the Mane Six about what they'd do with Discord's reformation. There were many stray rocks embedded in the ground from the last disaster that Discord had caused; an earthquake. The princesses had managed to fix most of the damage, but thought a few rocks here and there wouldn't be too problematic; after all, they had sculptures in many places inside of the Royal Garden. While the two sisters payed close attention to their surroundings, the chaotic draconequos had little to no idea where he was going; and frankly, he didn't care. Of course, he managed to trip on a small rock and land on a bigger one. Celestia quickly noticed this and urged Luna to go to the kingdom and call off the meeting, while she would have the royal guards see what they could do and try to fix the wound. For Discord, however, his experience was quite.. different.
~Third Person POV~
Fluttershy and Twilight were the first ponies to come and see what had happened to Discord; although Fluttershy pulled Twilight along. "Is he going to be okay?" Fluttershy asked. "I'm sure he'll be fine, Fluttershy." Twilight replied. "Now, let's go. I have a lot of things to attend to "
~Discord's POV~
It took a few seconds for me to be able to fully awaken, but not in any place I knew; not Canterlot, Ponyville, or even my old stone home. And it seemed Twilight had came too, for she was standing in front of me with the most confused look on her face. "Starswirl? Are you okay?" she asked. That was when it occurred to me that something was truly wrong; nopony in this era would ever refer to me as Starswirl... Or in any era.. What was that? I've never been referred to as Starswirl in my life.
~Clover's POV~
I titled my head and looked at Starswirl again. "Uhm, Starswirl? Are you okay?" I said. He seemed to have been thinking about something, but snapped out of it. I helped him to his hooves. "What happened here?" he asked. "Uh, well, I heard a crash, and I found you lying in here, unconscious." I replied. Jeez, he must be really out of it, I thought.
Get ready for this, cause there's going to be a lot of drama in this chapter; and of course, the Discord incident.. Pre-reform Discord will have a big part in these next few chapters.. Also, the young versions of Celestia and Luna are considered as young adult mares, not fillies.
~Young Celestia's POV~
"Luna, are you sure we should be going through with this?" I asked my younger sister. "We sayeth so! " she exclaimed in her Royal Canterlot voice, prompting me to giggle a bit. "Alright, if thou sayeth.." I replied, and knocked on the door to Starswirl's lab; quite loudly, in fact. I heard a few crashes from inside and slowly opened the door, Luna following close behind me...
~Young Luna's POV~
Looking over my sister's shoulder, we saw a mess of the lab, and Starswirl was nowhere to be seen. The animals were loose and running, their cages strewn about. Most were missing a limb or body part for unknown reasons. "What happened here?" we asked our big sister, Celestia. "I.. I don't know, sister.." she replied, nervous and quietly. We lifted up a piece of glass with some liquid on it. "Spell essence.." we thought. "Looks like Starswirl was trying to perform the amniomorphic spell.." Our thoughts were interrupted by a pounding from inside a closet door that had one door hinge broken off. The door was barely hanging on, and the other one was closed, as if someone were trying to hide...
Best paired with "Balloons" by MandoPony for some odd reason. Luna decides to show Discord his history.
~Discord's POV~
As the projected sun finally set, the lunar princess beside me stopped the projection. Looking over, I could see tears matted in her fur. "Oh, cheer up.." I said, summoning in a projection of her stars and moon. She looked up and managed to smile.
After having a short conversation with Clover, Discord manages to find what would be his room in this era..
~Discord's POV~
Shutting the door behind me, I entered what I guess was my bedroom, as it said "STARSWIRL" on it, surrounded by a few wooden stars. How was she acting so calmly around a draconequo.. I thought before turning to face the mirror I just passed by. Ah, good. You figured it out. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm the, in a way, actual Starswirl. I'm not really here. You see, by now, you should probably know that you're..how could I say this..me. Yeah, good job on not knowing how to figure anything out. Oh great, it's you. You know this jerk? Reform? You don't know about the time when the two sisters were overthrown? Of course I do, you nitwit. There are many draconequi in the world and frankly, most of them look alike. I only assumed it was one of many. Yeah, well, you assumed wrong. This isn't going to get anywhere if you fight. Now, if you could kindly stop acting like fillies, I'd like to know what happened.
~Princess Luna's POV~
I kept nudging the old draconequos in hopes of waking him up. After all, I needed to talk to him. But after a few minutes, he finally rolled over, waking up. "Good. I was worried whether my magic as an alicorn could support non-equine creatures or not." I told him. Dusting himself off, he made eye contact with me, looking incredibly tired. "I guess you needn't worry about that anymore. Say, where am I, Princess?" He lost his balance and quickly summoned in a few pillows to break his fall. I stifled and let out a smile across my face before explaining to him what had happened. "Starswirl decided the best way to return you to your own home was to put you back in your own mind, while he would take care of it for you. Unfortunately, a sacrifice had to be made, and the Chaos chose pre-reformed Discord. It stripped him of his good side and left his evil side to reign chaos in your mind." I said, feeling a bit depressed myself. Letting a tear shed, I continued. "Starswirl almost didn't make it out, and I had to interfere to save his life. Of course, that meant revealing myself to my past self and past sister; Starswirl's pupils. As of now, the essence of the amniomorphic spell is slowly transforming you into the creature you currently are; a soon-to-be chaotic monster who was sealed into stone for the safety of our fellow subjects." I sat down, facing away from Discord, projecting a rising sun over the garden with the Discord statue in its original place. Teardrops stained the ground as I struggled to go on. "Is.. Is Starswirl okay?" the draconeqous asked. "Y-yes.. Discord.. He's fine." I replied, sniffling. "You really miss him, don't you?" "Yes.. But I know he's still here.." Discord sat down beside me, watching the projected sun rising into the sky.
