Under The Blue Sky

"What the hell happened?" Rainbow shouted, a little angry.

"I don't know. One minute I was with you guys, and then the next I'm in some white place talking to Discord."

"Wait, you spoke to Discord?" Twilight quickly added, beginning to circle Alfred with the others.

"Yes, we spoke, but not for long. I'm not even sure if I remember most of it."

"Darling, what did you talk about?"

"He told me, he told me that he brought me here."

"What do you mean, sugarcube?"

"Apparently, he was the one who brought me to Equestria."

"Why?"

"He wanted me to serve him as his 'secret weapon' against you."

"'Secret weapon'? What does that even mean?"

"It means that he's planning something, something big," Twilight said nervously. The others all looked to her confused, except Alfred who continued to stare to the floor. "We need to leave right now." Pinkie leant inwards in shock.

"What? Why? I thought we were visiting Zecora?"

"That'll have to wait. If Alfred's right, this could be a huge problem. Alfred, are you sure that that was all you talked about?"

"Uh."

"Alfred, this is serious. If there was anything else you talked about, anything at all, we need to know."

"Yeah, I know! It's just, I'm having a hard time remembering."

He didn't know what to do. He knew full well that they had talked about other things, but did they really need to know about that? Did they really need to know that his family was threatened? Alfred wasn't comfortable sharing this information to the group but Twilight seemed pretty desperate. Alfred, suddenly overwhelmed by his thoughts, stumbled towards a nearby tree. Rainbow quickly went to support him.

"Uh, no, no. We didn't talk about anything else. He just mentioned that he wanted revenge, or something."

"Oh no, this isn't good."

"Twilight, what are we gonna do?"

"First of all, you need to get Alfred home and let him rest, he won't be able to tell us anymore in this state. I'm going straight to Celestia, hopefully to try and warn her."

"Warn her? Oh no, do you think Discord is ready?"

"I think he could be, after all he told Alfred."

Twilight began to gallop away through the forest, while the others helped carry Alfred down the path back home. He gradually regained his strength and walked by himself, still in a whirlwind of confusion. He repeatedly ran his right hand through his hair as he trudged alongside his worried friends. They could see that he was acting strangely, breathing heavily and fidgeting, so they decided to try and ease him. Rainbow was particularly concerned.

"Hey, Alfred, you okay?" Alfred continued to shake but slowly managed to respond.

"Yep, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? It just looks like you're mighty scared." Alfred suddenly stopped walking and stared at Applejack, a little angry.

"I said I'm fine." Rainbow quickly flew down and tried to calm him down by rubbing her hoof on his back. Alfred just raised his hand to his head and took a deep breath in, trying to slow his mind down.

"Come on, let's get back home."

"Yeah, sorry Applejack, I'm just a little stressed out."

"Dont worry, hon, I understand. I bet what you just went through must've been really weird."

"Yeah, it was."

"Do you believe him?" Alfred took his hand away and looked down to Fluttershy, who was eagerly standing to his side. He knew that Discord wasn't lying, how would he know about his family, or the white place for that matter?

"What?"

"You said that he brought you here, right, so do you think he's telling the truth?"

"Unfortunately, I do." Everyone came to a halt except Alfred and Rainbow, who continued to wander slowly down the dirt path. They were all legitimately frightened of what Discord could be planning to do, and Alfred knew it. He looked back to the group, standing still in subtle shock, and began to speak.

"We'll talk about when we get back."

Alfred stared to the ceiling of his room, with Rainbow Dash by his side as always, and sighed. After a few brief sessions with his friends and Celestia about his little chat, him and Rainbow were now finally alone together in bed again. After hearing what Alfred had to say, Celestia made sure to send her guards out all over the place. She looked very irked by what Alfred had said, which made him wonder if Celestia and Discord have any history. After all, they did seem to be important and powerful so it would've made sense if they were close at some point.

He didn't have time to think about it, well actually he had tons of time to think about it, but his mind wouldn't let him. It was too invested by what Discord had told him, about his family. Alfred knew that he shouldn't care anymore, but it was still a large part of him and he didn't know if he could let it all go now that his family could be hurt. There was also the other problem of why he even came to Equestria in the first place. He had been snatched up to be used as a slave for Discord, to do his dirty work for him.

It was now late into the night, and Alfred was upset. Rainbow had noticed that he wasn't particularly happy throughout the day, so she wanted to make it up to him.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Rainbow whispered sweetly as she let Alfred play with her mane.

"Okay, I guess. I just honestly don't know what to think."

"You seem pretty tense, mind if I try to cheer you up a little?" Rainbow said seductively, gesturing to his lower area.

"Uh, not tonight Rainbow."

"What? Okay, something is definitely wrong."

Alfred sat up while Rainbow made her way onto his lap, sitting down and kissing Alfred on the cheek softly.

"What's wrong, babe?"

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"For putting you all in danger, none of you deserve this."

"Hey, we will be fine. You didn't put anyone in danger. If Discord actually has some balls and decides to show, which I bet he won't, we'll be ready. We've beaten him before, and we can do it again." Alfred gave a small smile to Rainbow after hearing this. He loved her confidence.

"It's not just that."

"Hmm?"

"He threatened my family."

"He did what?"

"He said he would kill them if I didn't serve him. He told me that he would murder my son."

"Oh, that's horrible."

"That's not the worst part..." Rainbow could see that he was starting to tear up a bit so she rustled her head up against his chin and tried to comfort him.

"Do you want to tell me what the worst part was?"

"I told him to do it." Rainbow pulled her head up and looked at him, stunned. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I did it without thinking, like an animal."

Alfred was now balling in tears, and Rainbow felt awful. She knew that his conversation with Discord had upset him, but she would've never guessed that he would stoop that low. She immediately reached for Alfred's head and tried to caress him to hopefully calm him down.

"Nothing is wrong with you. You haven't done anything bad."

"No, I think I have. My family is in danger, and it's all my fault. I can't help them."

"It's not your fault. Discord would've said anything to get to you. I'm sure he was lying about hurting them, he was trying to win an argument."

"That's not what it felt like. I think he meant it."

"No, no he didn't. Alfred you can't blame yourself for something like this, you didn't put anyone in danger. It's okay."

"No it's not, Rainbow! I've gotten my whole family killed because I chose to leave them all behind."

"You didn't have a choice! Please, stop hurting yourself over this, Discord didn't mean it."

"I don't know why.." Alfred didn't finish his sentence before grabbing Rainbow Dash. He sobbed loudly into her shoulder, causing her to cry too.

Alfred was appalled with himself, he felt like a monster. How could he be so foolish? He had now doomed his family because of his own selfishness. He didn't want anyone to be hurt, no one needed to die. His mind was divided into separate chunks of madness. One part of him wanted to forget about his life completely and leave everything behind, but another part just wanted to hold his baby boy again. He was utterly lost from within, and didn't know what to do with himself.

He and Rainbow just laid there, holding each other until they both fell asleep. Rainbow was very distraught by Alfred's behaviour. She was confident that Discord didn't actually mean what he had said, or at least she hoped. Alfred couldn't go on like this, being constantly reminded of his family back home. They had made so much progress throughout the year and a half since he had received the news, and Rainbow wasn't planning to let it all go to waste because of Discord. Rainbow swore to herself, and to Alfred, that she would make Discord pay for what he had done to Alfred. He didn't deserve this.

Alfred didn't deserve to be the victim any longer.