ES: Devastation = Domination

Chapter 3: Chaos vs. Light

“Without struggle there is no progress”

A poof and a roar of thunder signaled the master of chaos’ appearance in the castle. Celestia, seated in her throne room heard the voices of her guards as they unsheathed weapons at his appearance.

“Oh Please” Discord said with a smug grin, with a snap of his claw the spears that had been tightly placed in the two Solar Guard’s mouths suddenly squeaked like a rubber ducky.

“Chew on that for a bit would you boy?” he said patting one of them on the head before phasing through the gold doors.

Celestia remained at her seat, knowing what it was that the draconequus had come to question her on. It wasn’t long but a few hours ago just before the crack of dawn, as she raised the sun, and her sister lowered the moon had the two felt a sudden disturbance in the magical balance. A feeling that passed over them with such a force that it actually made Celestia shiver a bit.

Luna had offered to track the source but Celestia had instructed her sister to go to bed instead. She would deal with the oncoming issue herself. And that issue came to her later than she thought.

Once Discord had phased through the gold castle doors and walked on to the castle floors, he looked up at Celestia, the smile he had donned from messing with her guards slowly faded into a dour look.

“Celestia” he said with a slight wave of his hand.

“Discord” the regal alicorn of the sun said in return, her face remaining plane and simple as those red eyes locked on to her pale magenta’s.

Silence ensued as the two measured each other, before Discord took a few steps forward towards Celestia’s throne and conjured himself a seat.

“So Celestia. How has your day been?” he asked slightly surprising the alicorn by his statement.

“Fine, and you?” she asked.

“Oh you know just the usual” he said conjuring up an apple as it slowly turned into a orange.

“Just watching bits and pieces of chaos ensue now and then.”

“Discord?” she said in a questioning tone, but the draconequus immediately raised both arms innocently.

“Oh no, no I haven’t done anything at all Celestia” he said with a reassuring smile. “But I have been watching quite a bit of chaos occur recently” he said with a slight change to the smile.

Celestia’s brow raised in question.

“Oh come now. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this” and she did. She simply wanted to see where he was going with this.

“Well I’m sure you know our good friend Hailstorm don’t you? Nice lad really. A bit of a wreck but oh I’m sure you haven’t had enough time to notice hm?” he asked an annoying lift in his voice that made him sound more chipper than he was letting on.

Celestia said nothing waiting for the draconequus to continue, but Discord was silent watching Celestia’s reaction. Seconds passed and nothing, so he continued.

“Yes Hailstorm, Hailstorm. Quite a decent fellow don’t you think? Three months ago I couldn’t have cared for the stallion even if you threw clown makeup on him and called him Pinkie's cousin, but recently I’ve felt a bit closer to him don’t you?” he asked, snapping the orange-apple shapeshifting fruit away as he he leaned closer to her in his seat.

“What are you trying to say Discord?” Celestia asked calmly.

“Me?! Say something about you? Oh I wouldn’t dream of it!” he said holding his face in disbelief but the fur on his tail immediately  turned into fingers and crossed, stating otherwise.

Celestia frowned. “I suppose what happened this morning involves him does it not?”

Instantly confetti shot everywhere as it rained down upon the slightly bemused Celestia, who then lifted her head up to see a blinking light bulb dangle above her head.

“You got it! Great job Celes, would you like a cookie with that as well?” he asked in a slightly mocking tone.

Celestia stomped on the ground declaring she had had enough of his shenanigans. “Stop playing around and tell me what is wrong” she said in a stern tone.

Discord’s chipper smile faded. The confetti in the air, the light bulb and the pieces of decorative paper on the floor disappeared when he snapped his claw, whisking everything away.

“You’re right” he said his eyes half lidded as he stared down at the royal princess before him. “I should get to the point soon shouldn’t I?”

Celestia remained unfazed sitting tall in her seat as the draconequus placed both arms on his back pacing the floor before her.

“Let’s talk about Hailstorm shall we? I know I said I couldn’t have cared for the guy a while ago but things change.I changed, and well about a few weeks ago I paid them a little trip, and was surprised to see what I had found” he said taking another glance at Celestia who continued to stare in anticipation.

“You see Hailstorm and I were playing a little game of house” Discord said donning a dress and pushing a crib. “And then out of the blue my little Hailly-Storm suddenly began speaking to himself out of thin air.”

What? Celestia thought. That was certainly news to her. Not once during her observation of...Slingshot, had she ever found the unicorn to talk to himself out of the blue. Nor did she see it in any of the other descendants that the unicorn went on to have.

“What do you mean he suddenly started talking to himself?” she asked worry magnifying with each word.

“Exactly as I said Celestia” Discord stated. “And do you know why?”

“You know as well as I that that curse is something I’ve never seen before...not till I saw its effects for myself.”

“Well that curse is actually much worse than whatever you had thought it to be” Discord said plainly. “Do you remember the one time our fathers had gotten together for a trip? Father left with yours because of some urgent matter they needed to take care of in Grassy Meadows, and my mother and yours would often visit each other during the lengthy trip?”

Celestia nodded slowly. “Yes... I remember” her expression saddening as she recalled the times she had spent with her father, before she and her sister later grew to come and take over things for the unicorns. Shaking her head she saw Discord looking at her patiently waiting. “What about it Discord? Surely you can’t say our fathers have something to do with this curse.”

“If only that weren’t the case” he said gravely. “I did some digging” he stated snapping his claw and the old book titled Ancient Dark Arts & Curses fell into his lion paw. Flipping through the worn out pages the draconequus moved to the very back of the book and pointed to a very very faint smudge that appeared to be some sort of scribbling written on it.

Celestia squinted, got closer, and eyed the smudge carefully. But try as she might she could not see what the draconequus was showing her. “This is the book that Silver Caliber had been searching through for a cure...” she blinked the gears in her mind slowly turning. “What about it?”

An annoyed sigh escaped Discord’s lips as he conjured a magnifying glass that zoomed in on the word. “There better?”

Celestia moved forward peering through the enhanced magnifying glass  clearly seeing the words scribbled in at the end of the book. “Dominus Perdens?” she asked with a slightly confused look.

Discord nodded.

“Lord Ruin?”

Another nod was the reply he gave.

“Who is Lord Ruin?” Celestia asked lifting her head from the book as it and the magnifying glass disappeared into thin air.

“A relative of mine I thought I’d never hear of again especially not after so many centuries” DIscord sighed, his voice heavy with sadness.

“Ruin, was a relative of mine, and as you know draconequus all enjoy a good bit of joshing around here and there" he stated with a sly grin, but soon faded into a disappointed scowl as he continued. "Ruin however was a different case. While we were all causing chaos every now and then for kicks, Ruin unlike the rest enjoyed causing chaos for the complete and utter destruction it brought. The spontaneity of it all only gave that erratic fool more of a rush.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, - the magic I felt when Hailstorm was talking to himself. It felt like a small ounce of Ruin’s magic had latched onto him, or was more like a part of him.”

Celestia frowned clearly not liking where this is going. “Are you sure?”

Discord’s face became extremely solemn. “Celes, you never forget the sense of your kind’s magic. Especially when someone as potent as Ruin was freely messing around, whenever he could get the chance.”

Sighing Celestia placed her golden clad forehoof against her temple,as she leaned back in her seat. Of all the things she had wanted to hear, this was not one of them. The fact that her own father along with Discord’s had inadvertently played the hand in the complete distraught of an entire bloodline only added onto her stress.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt your stressing moment Celestia but I do have one question” Celestia opened one eye looking up at Discord in front of her. “Go ahead” she said sitting straight up again.

“Throughout the lives of each of Hailstorm’s ancestors do you recall any moments that, oh I don’t know were particularly bad?”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “Why?” she asked hesitantly.

“Because if Hailstorm is reliving the lives of his ancestor’s as he has told us. Then it’s only a matter of time before he hits a dark road that could do even more damage to him, than it already has. I mean think about it” he said walking behind the princess now.

“Everything, every moment of their lives. He’ll relive it. Good and bad, happy and sad” Discord stated. Celestia growing slowly uncomfortable as he continued.

“He’ll relive their darkest moments by force whether he wants to or not. He’ll be forced to feel what they feel. Forced to go through what they went through, and the only thing he has to do is stay awake or conscious long enough so that Misery and Anguish can’t corrupt him even more.

“If you ask me I’m amazed the stallion has managed to stay this sane for a good ten months! Normal ponies would have lost their marbles within the first three with the kind of things Fluttershy tells me he’s been experiencing. Guess we really can assume he’s not from this world huh?” he asked a small smile growing as he saw the look Celestia now shot at him

The two froze staring at each other in this manner. One with a small successful grin, the other glaring at her guest. Seconds continued as silence ensued between the two before Celestia rose from her seat and walked to Discord he leaned his face in closer to hers, their maws, inches from each other.

“Discord” she said with a hint of anger. “You didn’t come here to inform me of Hailstorm’s new problem. Did you?”

Discord gave an obviously fake gasp of shock as he slapped his hand to his chest. “Why Celestia! How could you accuse me of such a thing?!”

“Because I know you Discord” she said candorly. “And I know you’re here to make me feel guilty for what’s happening to him.”

Discord sputtered in both rambles of incoherence, some being disbelief, others being just plain hard to understand.

“Why Celes, that simply isn’t me! I’m a changed dragon. That’s something the old me” he said side stepping and revealing an evilly dressed version of himself with a black moustache. “Would do, how could you even-”

“Stop your excuses, immediately” Celestia ordered coolly.

Discord scowled.  “And so what if I am?” he asked.

“Fluttershy told me that you and Luna have been doing your best to help him. But ever since she told me you found out he was this Silver Caliber’s descendant. You’ve kept yourself quite busy. Haven’t you?”

“Of course I have. Being a princess isn’t fun and games Discord. It takes-”

“Responsibility. Yes, yes I know” he said rolling his eyes with a snide look.

“But if you’re so responsible then tell me why you haven’t done anything to help minimize this stallion’s suffering?”

Celestia was silent. “If Fluttershy has been telling you what’s going on then you must know that-”

“That there is no cure for this curse. Of course I know. Ruin really did love to live up to his name, so it doesn’t surprise me. But you have alicorn magic, magic that rivals my own. If you and Luna, along with the Element of Magic worked together, you three could just as well come up with a pain killer of sorts.

“One that could just as well minimize the dreams that this fellow seems to be having. Yet you haven’t. Why?” he asked his tone growing stern with spite.

Celestia stared into Discord’s red eyes. Wondering just what on Equestria was pushing him to do this. She’d seen the results of his reformation...they were corrigible and she had heard the draconequus had grown a bit closer, to the Element bearers as well. But his behavior now was far from what she expected.

Could it be guilt? she thought as the two continued to size each other up. But for what? Ruin may have been *his** relative but it was not his doing that brought about the curse on Hailstorm. It was Vindictive’s*, and if any should feel guilty of what they had done it should have been that alicorn.

Celestia soon caught something in Discord’s eye that made her sigh. What she saw was none other but concern. Something she honestly had thought Discord wouldn’t feel for a long, long time, aside for himself and Fluttershy at least.

Smiling weakly at him Celestia backed away from their stand off and got up to her hooves. “There is one thing I neglected in telling you when you asked about the worst thing I can remember happening to Hailstorm’s ancestors.”

Discord raised a brow. “That would be?”

“Aside from the curse” she paused as she descended from her throne and joined Discord on the marblestone floors. “The second worst thing that could have happened to one of his descendants would be Slingshot. A former Royal Guard, Imperial and Equestrian general.”

“Former?” he asked. “As in past tense?”

The princess nodded. “He was exiled for a crime he never meant to commit. And it’s my fault for pushing him away when he needed help the most.”

Returning from their walk around Ponyville, Spike watched Hailstorm carefully from his seat on Twilight’s back. Most of the trip from leaving the castle to crossing the small bridge had gone in silence till he started talking again before everyone slowly began conversations that lightened the mood.

Eventually after about a walk around Ponyville everyone split up, with Fluttershy needing to check on her critter friends, Pinkie Pie leaving to schedule a party for a group of foals tonight, Applejack and Dash leaving to work at the farm and Rarity off to add some finishing touches to her new dresses.

At the moment it was just Twilight, him and Hailstorm as they made their way back home. Both dragon and alicorn eyeing their friend who had once again gone silent when everyone had left.

Spike hadn’t said anything to anyone about what he had seen when Hailstorm let him into the bathroom. The slightly surprised look on his face he merely assumed had been from the fact he had slammed the door in the stallion’s face.

However there was something in the air around Hailstorm that gave the dragon the feeling that something wasn’t right with the bewildered expression their strange friend had made before his hasty rush into the bathroom.

It was strange really. How one stallion could go with hours and hours, days turning to weeks almost without sleep before collapsing. Multiple times the dragon himself had to spend a whole day with Twilight and helping her with tasks back when they were at Canterlot, even occasionally when they came to Ponyville.

However in this hazel stallion’s case he wasn’t studying, trying to discover something new or even make a change. He was suffering. And it pained Spike to see one of his friends in so much pain of their own, while he could do literally nothing to stop it.

It made him feel, incompetent.

Though he had tried finding cures, spells, remedies, talked with Zecora, even sent a few letters to the Princesses upon the first month of Hailstorm’s arrival Twilight and him had been unsuccessful in finding anything that could completely negate the effects of whatever curse bothered Hailstorm.

And now that they knew they couldn’t cure him no matter what they tried, well it just made him feel sad, bad really. Something Hailstorm had tried to prevent by making jokes whenever Spike came out at night to grab something to drink and saw he was up. Though it hadn’t done much to make the dragon feel better. He honestly was glad to see that Hailstorm’s mental state wasn’t fading or breaking into pieces though.

This past week was a different story. That morning when he awoke early before Twilight to prepare for his chores, Owlyiscious accompanying him, the two were distracted by when they saw Hailstorm laying at a random spot in the common room.

At first he’d thought it was just Hailstorm having one of his fits, but when he went to check on the guy he found to his horror, a dark line of black crawling up from the stallion’s hooves slowly spreading like spilt water all over his body.

It was like watching pure water have backwash from a project of paintings get poured into it and infecting the pure source of water down to its very core.

Owlysicious wasted no time as he recalled to fetch Twilight, Spike staying with Hailstorm in an attempt to wake him up, and while his attempts were less than successful he noticed that the dark patch from his hooves that had been forming not only stopped but began to seep back down to his hooves like they were being drained out of his very coat.

The sound of Twilight’s voice soon drew the baby dragon out of his thoughts. “Spike are you okay?” she asked. Now in the common room in the very same spot and day he had seen Hailstorm in such a bizarre state Spike quickly shook his head to fully return from his stupor.

“You’re not okay?” I asked from my standpoint.

“Uh no, no I’m fine don’t worry” he said with a weak smile. “I’m fine just a little hungry is all” he said hopping off Twilight’s back. “I’ll fix us something to eat, be back in a jiff.” he said with a slight nervous break of sweat forming above his brow.

I nodded dismissing it. “If I can eat good cooking then take as much time as you need. I got plenty of time” I called back with a grin.

Spike grinned back, watching Twilight and I head towards the library.

As he grabbed his apron and began getting the supplies he’d need to make dinner a horrible thought crossed his mind, one that made him drop the saucer, and almost the eggs he had been carrying.

“Everything okay in there?” Twilight called.

“Just fine!” he said reassuringly. “Just a little slip up is all.”

“Take your time Spike, we can wait” I hollered back.

“Thanks” he said, bending down to pick up the saucer and climb up to the stove. As he turned it on a worried look crossed his face as he glanced back to the library.

“But how long do you have?”

“You. Did. What?!” Discord asked for the fifth time in disbelief.

“Wait wait wait wait wait! You’re telling me. You’re friend who helped comfort you during-” he looked around as if the walls had ears and leaned in to Celestia, speaking in a quieter tone he said “During her exile.” He rose his voice,“That this Silver Caliber fellow’s son. Slingshot, was exiled because of the effects of the curse that was placed on him by Silver Caliber’s former friend Vindictive, caused him to do something that you know in your heart he never meant to do?” he asked the disbelief once again evident in his voice.

Although it pained her to do so Celestia nodded.

Discord gawked in both confusion and slight amusement. “And you say friendship is magic” was the only thing he could say after a few minutes of silence, but defensively remained silent when Celestia glared at him.

“Hey I’m just saying” he said with a shrug. “Sounds like to me friendship is what got old Hailstorm into this mess.”

Choosing to ignore instead of respond to that statement, Celestia turned her attention towards a nearby window and stared out to her kingdom in silence as old memories began to resurface.

She sighed, “What do we do about his problem Discord? I’m...I’m honestly not sure how to help him. And if my faithful student truly has found nothing after all these years then what can we possibly do?”

“Nothing” Discord replied plainly, and though it made Celestia wince she knew he was right. There was nothing they could do.

“But” he continued causing Celestia’s expression and ears to perk up. “We can do nothing but watch and see how he handles things.”

Her brightened expression turned into a sad frown. “I’ve been through enough to watch another fall into darkness, while I remain ignorant or incapable of helping” she said sadly.

A claw on her shoulder got her attention as she looked up to the calm and impassive face of the draconequus. “Well this time there’s really nothing that can be done to stop it. It’s up to him, to see how this all ends.”

Celestia let out another long sigh, and though she didn’t like it. She knew Discord was right.

“I suppose you’re right Discord, we’ll just have to wait and see if Hailstorm really can conquer the chaos that’s been stirring in him for so long. I just hope that in the end...he’ll be victorious.”