Dark tendrils encase you in what seems to be a black cocoon. Panic flares inside you as remember the same sensation of the cocoon used by Chrysalis. You instinctively try to power up your horn, only to meet a powerful magic suppressor. You try to quell the even bigger panic attack, only to settle into an awkward breathing stage. As you run your hoof across the cocoon, whispers began to rise from all over. Hundreds of voices all whispering. You strain your ears to listen, only for them to move farther. You let out a frustrated sigh, and slam your hoof on one of the walls. You feel something move behind you. The last thing you see is a familiar set of serpentine eyes.

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Luna sighed and stared at the bed with disdain. Her arrival in the capital was less than friendly, but still it wasn't that which had disgusted the diarch. It was the insistence of the monarch to have battle and determine the betterment between ponies and griffons. As much as she had wanted to fly all the way to Equestria and sing on and on about how wrong Celestia was, the hoof of the matter was still there. With the emergence of a stronger, younger, and more ambitious general, the thirst to prove himself came as a threat. With him at the lead he had of course pushed for a more violent display, eagerly wanting to prove himself and set himself apart from the rest. How she had wished to smite him down. "Less annoyances and fewer enemies then" she mused to herself as she lay on the bed. She decides to look at her room to clear her thoughts. The room was much different from her own, but it was set lavishly.
Blue curtains, with a soft velvet floor. A huge vanity mirror lay facing the bed. which was in the middle of the room, while a small balcony was the highlight of it all, giving a wonderful view of the land as it lay sleeping. Luna had often given lands she had visited the gift of her dream-walking, even though it was part of her duty. Often times they would gift her something valuable in return, or at least something of gratitude. It had been a long standing tradition on their part, which had continued before her banishment.
Luna sighed before walking outside to the balcony and lighting her horn up, making the soft moonlight shine even brighter. She spreads her wings, careful to avoid damaging the walls. She sighs and looks at the peaceful sleeping capital. She knows war would arrive soon, and she wonders how long she can keep her mind off of the topic.
Again she sighs before jumping off the balcony. She spreads her wings and soon glides on the cool air. She flaps her wings and soon finds herself higher, nearly touching the clouds. She tilts herself to the right and arcs around the castle. She notices the griffon soldiers poised at the entrance of the castle and laughs quietly as they fail to notice the diarch.
She flaps her wings again and she soon finds herself higher in the atmosphere. She frowns as she lands on a cloud, watching the stars twinkle sporadically and hearing them sing songs of mourning. She closes her eyes and begins her annual dream walking ritual. If the time came for war, she might as well give everypony a nice dream.

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Being frank, was sadly one of the most doubtful traits Discord has. He states this, and ironically is quite truthful. As much as he wanted to deny it, he knew the time has come. As the the curtains raise and his shackles are tightened a small cry catches his attention.

"Not him" the voice whimpered.

He grimaced but decided not to say anything and opted to stare at the jeering crowd. They had begun throwing different objects at him, nothing lethal but it was a salt to the wound. The master of mischief, the lord of chaos, reduced to nothing but a jester with nothing to defend himself.
He has his mismatched "hands" and "feet" shackled, magic suppressing runes carved into the stage. He winces as he instinctively tries to use magic to heal himself only to be zapped by the runes. The same voice which had been crying earlier is now jeering at him from the crowd. The once soft cerulean eyes, were replaced by a dark blood red shade. Long tendrils of white string like things attach to her. Like the rest of the crowd, it was there and it led to the sky, where a giant puppeteers cross was held aloft.
A dark laughter, like a knife scraping the rough ground, rolled across the stage. It chilled the entire place and the crowd all paused. A claw extends from the crowd, wrapping itself around Discord.

"My child" the cold voice rolls once again.

Discord squirms under the grip but it was like iron. He wheezes but the claw tightens its grip. Dark tendrils began to snake up its way into every orifice. He tried to let out a scream only to find a tendril shoved deeper into his mouth. As he thrashed around, dark thoughts began to gnaw at him. Voices, all speaking a hushed soothing tone, telling him to relax and sleep. Thoughts and feelings he had long thought he had made peace with came rushing towards him, and a dark cloud began to fester in his mind.
Fears, pain, loneliness, anger, betrayal, jealousy, all began to chant around him. He tried to move, to scream, but a dark feeling of foreboding settled into him. He knew what was coming, he knew it was soon but never this fast. He tried to reach out, his mind trying to fight off the presence that was trying to corrupt his mind.

Tears began to form in his eyes and for the first time he felt the mortality that he tried to deny that existed. He wanted to live, he wanted to feel, he wanted to BE.
As he tried to fight, another magical power entered the fray. Discord could barely keep himself together as the demon tried to sap his will away. As he struggled to open his eyes a familiar aura wrapped itself around him, stopping the darkness that tried to drown him. The voices were silenced and Discord found himself floating in an expanse of white. He had tried to sit up but only found himself with the strength to float.
He tried to muster a sizable amount of magic, only to produce a breeze. Discord sighed as he realized he was in his innermost mind, a sanctuary that was the core of the chaos lord himself. He had always wondered when he was to use it again, finally learning his answer. As he drifted in the white expanse of peace, the horror to occur churned his stomach. Chaos and order had always been at odds against each other, as they would need to weigh each other equally. But the equality was disrupted when order overstepped their bounds, chaos justly threw them back before any lasting damage could occur. Discord let out a sigh and for a long time he had spent time in his sanctuary thinking of nothing.

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Princess Celestia smiled as another diplomat greeted her and left to join the others in the library. Princess Celestia was never fond of being impolite or anything not perfect. She isn't a perfectionist, but with the long years spent on this plane of existence, she had inadvertently tried to be a paragon of perfection. Looking back she had often times did not regret the decision, but there were times that these things caused more problems than joy. Now here she was, doing the very same thing that her mother had done all those centuries ago. Her mind drifts to her mother, one of the very first alicorns to fall. She could always remember that day clearly, when the smoke had been thick, and the miasma was just close to being tangible. Many had fallen, and the acrid smell of rotting and burning flesh was just reeking that day. She was sure Luna was too young to remember too much of it, but the harsh reality of all it was too hard to hide.
It was a long run, and she could still remember watching the last stronghold fall, and hearing the screams of the ponies who were unlucky to have survived that long. She could still remember it so clearly, that it had been one of the nightmares she had experienced most frequently. When Luna had been banished, she hadn't gone completely over the edge, managing to ease Celestia's nightmares despite being on the moon. Celestia gave mental sigh as she continued down memory lane. As the centuries began to pass in a blur, she had often found herself drifting off into deep thought or reminiscence.

"Princess Celestia....?" a quiet voice asked shyly.

Celestia snapped out of her revere to find Raven, her trusty assistant, holding a quill and parchment up, scribbling furiously.

"Princess, Twilight Sparkle and her friends have arrived. They request an audience with you" Raven said as she continued writing on the parchment "You can only entertain them for 5 minutes, unless of course you are cancelling the meeting with Prince Blueblood" she continued a tone of annoyance underlying the forged professionalism.

"Very well. Send a guard escort to bring them to their rooms and tell them I will meet them in the Library in a few hours"

Raven nodded and began jotting it down on another set of parchment before ringing a small silver bell. A few seconds later a guard entered the throne room. He wore the standard golden armor, and helmet. He was a chestnut brown unicorn stallion with jade eyes.

"Ah, Capt. Emerald please send this to the Princess's protege and her friends" Raven said to the bowing stallion.

Celestia smiled and nodded her head as he accepted Raven's scroll before saluting to her and leaving in a hurry. Celestia gave an inward sigh as she noticed the admiration he had in his eyes. Celestia never found herself worthy of praise, even if she had been THERE, she had never taken the time to thoroughly think it threw.
She patiently waits as Raven begins rescheduling a few meetings and prepares herself for the long line of delegates she is to meet. As her mind begins to wander and reminisce a part of her wishes and begs that they had enough time to achieve easing the problems that erupted this time. She gives another internal sigh before the doors open and Raven calls out a name.

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Starlight struggled to keep herself from being jittery as they entered the castle. A small part of her was guilty for all the things she had done before and another part of her was just plain flat out worried. With the amount of stress an fear that gnawed at her, she was pretty sure she was a shivering mess. Yet oddly enough they didn't seem to mention it or even ask her if she was okay. Fluttershy, who usually asked or noticed something was off, seemed to be in a deep conversation with Rarity and the others. She wonders if she was avoiding her, after the train thing, but she pushed down the lump in her throat.
Twilight was with the others, showing them sights and pointing out to a few tapestries and glass windows here and there. She had found it odd how they seemed to be acting as if she didn't exist. She had always had a sneaking suspicion that if Twilight hadn't been in some occasions, they would have excluded her or tried to be as cordial as possible. She wasn't even comfortable with them at most, opting to hide away in the castle's library and buried herself into the advances made by Equestrian society after her self imposed isolation. Of course she wasn't too surprised with the advances, as she had been out of the loop for a few years. But it had just been a few, and the most that she had heard of was the return of Nightmare Moon, The Release of Discord, The Changeling Invasion, and Tirek. Of course she had heard the finding of the elements and the newest princess. Which then began her ambition and her thirsting for a grander design of what she had achieved in her "perfect world".
As she was lost in her thoughts, she didn't realize she was lagging behind until a stallion soldier cleared his throat. She quickly sped up, to catch up to the group, who was waiting for her ahead.

"Sugarcube, you alright?" Applejack asked as she trotted up to her and placed a hoof on her forehead "You seem fine" worry was clear in her voice and Twilight and the others began to chime in.

"Maybe she's feeling sick from the train?" came the quiet suggestion of Fluttershy

"Hey Starlight you sure you didn't eat anything?" Rainbow Dash asked as she poked the unicorns back.

"I-i-i m fine" Starlight stuttered as she tried to disentangle herself from her friends.

"Did you get enough sleep from the train ride?" Rarity asked as she looked at her from head to hoof.

"Yeah"

"MAYBE SHE NEEDS MORE PARTIES" the pink ball of energy screamed.

Starlight shook her head and managed to avoid being tackled by the pink pony. A few sighs went around to which Twilight just looked at her strangely.

"All right then, if you are sure Starlight" Twilight said halfheartedly.

Starlight nodded and then all of them turned around and continued down the hall. She stared at the floor as she tried to stop the embarrassment from reaching her. She didn't notice the yellow wing draped over her until Fluttershy made a small sneeze.

"Oh, I'm so sorry" came her quiet apology.

She was pawing her mane as she shied away from the confused unicorn. As Twilight and the group went on ahead, they didn't realize they had left the 2.

"No don't be. I guess I haven't been acting like myself" came Starlight's automatic response.

The 2 awkwardly stood there not looking at each other.

"Hey, thanks for not leaving me behind" Fluttershy smiled and blushed before nodding and replying with a meek you are welcome.

Soon they decided to go catch up to the others and as they walked Starlight couldn't help but notice that their bodies were close enough to touch. As they walked she also couldn't help but wonder how long they could keep this up, until the war came. She had begged and prayed that it wouldn't happen, but she could feel it. The stirring in the air and the shifting in the magical winds. She had asked Princess Luna about it which she had given a reply that it was a "gift" she had bestowed on the young unicorn.

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"A dark storm rolls over Manehatten and it's denizens seem so unprepared" a cold dark voice cooed "So much has gone uncorrected when I had slumbered" another clap of thunder, this time much louder than the previous one "The unworthy run around creating unfathomable damages to the balance" a streak of lightning and soon a few heavy drops of water falls on the city "They will soon flee" and this time the rain had fallen.
As the storm rolls over nopony notices the dark fog that had began to settle down on the city. All except for the show mare who was just leaving the city.

Author's Note

This has to be the longest chapter I have written for this story. Also please comment if you want me to change anything or you want to just be random. Please leave constructive criticism.