The Long Way Home

They asked him if it was their grand-mare, Candy Claret, but Discord shook his head, for it had been nearly a hundred years since he'd run into the young mare, a whirlwind weekend in a dimension he liked to describe as “kitty-corner” to Equestria, but not nearly as riveting. Candy had been familiar with Equestria, for she was a crystal pony herself, but she had never been there and he had never invited her to go.

Who his parents were, Discord didn't know. In fact, his earliest memory was from a time when he was at least ten years old, and the memories of that era and place had always been obscure. Perhaps he had no parents. His powers of dimensional-hopping had jettisoned him into Equestria and, as a young land and being a young draconequus, it was an easy world for him to torment and eventually take over.

Then there had been that problem with two young princesses, Celestia and Luna. He preferred not to remember that event, or the thousand years that followed. He had long ago attempted to rein in his magic, often with disastrous results, but then again it was his natural calling. There had been times when he considered the weight of his actions, but no one ever stopped him, or if they tried to they weren’t able to. But it had been fun. He remembered much of those years with nostalgia, but there had been sad times, too. Bitter, lonely times. And one time so buried and forgotten and painful that in the last thousand years he had scarcely thought of it at all.

There was one other he remembered. Her name was Chrysalis, queen of the changelings. Fairly often a thorn in Discord’s side, but never a true threat, the changeling queen haunted Equestria now and again, always trying to overthrow the ponies but never succeeding. Even that time, she didn’t succeed.

Discord broke into a sweat, suddenly nauseated. Pain wrapped his body, sharp and binding. His arthritic joints always bothered him now, but this feeling was different. Different and from long ago, like a cold spectre watching him from the shadows.

There were eight, no, nine ponies at that time. Twilight Sparkle, who had recently become a princess, and her closest friends. She’d had a student, too, and the student had her own circle of friends. Something about them reminded him of magic. And the changeling, Chrysalis, was-

No. Focus on the ponies. What were their names again? One of them had something to do with an apple.

He'd gotten to know quite a few of them, but his very first friend was Fluttershy. Pale yellow, with a rosy pink mane and tail. And her eyes… what color were her eyes?

He shook his head as if clearing her from his mind. The fast one was Rainbow Dash, and the bizarre one Pinkie Pie. Pinkie had a lot of sisters, if he recalled correctly. And Rarity, the designer, and Applejack. That was it! She lived and worked on a farm, had a granny.

But what was it? What was the connection between them and Chrysalis? Something about being far away or disappearing. Something to do with being lost.

A memory flashed in his mind's eye, a dark and quiet night. He'd been knitting something, and then he’d gone on that ridiculous escapade to save Fluttershy and, he supposed, to help the other deadbeats out in the process. Who was he with? Some candy-striped-mane pony and her blue-haired friend. Starlight Glimmer and… he couldn’t remember the other one.

The first emotion he had felt was fury. Fury at Fluttershy being taken away, and even more so at how he had not even noticed. What kind of friend was he supposed to be? He even felt a little guilty not caring as much that ponies like Twilight and Celestia had also been taken, but for the moment he had to push that guilt aside.

If he hadn’t made such a joke out of the whole ordeal, lamenting Fluttershy’s loss as if it were some theatrical performance where he would play hero instead of a potential matter of life or death, he might have done something to help. For once, he could have at least tried to help. These days he was just so used to Twilight Sparkle saving the day, or somepony besides himself anyway, that it never really occurred to him they might fail.

They had made their way deep inside the hive when it happened: Discord was caught in a trap, and had even known it was a trap, but Fluttershy had been crying. Since he’d made her cry with that whole Tirek business, which he had tried every day since to forget, he promised himself he would never allow it to happen again.

Discord's legs and wings felt tied, though he could move his right arm without much difficulty. He was trapped upside-down in a strange organic cage, like a semi-transparent plant pod with a dull green luster. He'd come-to a moment ago, his head pounding, not even sure where he was. And Fluttershy was...

Discord rubbed his eyes and then held his head in his hands, thinking. But anything would be better than remembering that. Think about the good times, he thought. I had some back then, didn’t I?

And like leaves in the wind, old memories drifted to him. Parties, weekly teas, grand adventures. The ponies had put so much trust in him, even when he never believed he deserved it. They had chipped away at him, steady and careful, and he was able to learn what true happiness could feel like.

His favorite moments were those spent with Fluttershy, his best friend. Or at least it had started out that way. Come to remember, he’d always had a soft spot for her, ever since he first escaped his stone prison. She hadn’t been like the others. Her naiveté and gentle nature rarely left her frustrated or angry, aspects of her personality that had ultimately worn him down. He hadn’t tried to be a better draconequus only for the sake of being better, but because she had wanted him to be. And, eventually, he wanted to be for her, too.

It hadn’t just been that she had stuck her hoof out to be nice to him, and it wasn’t enough that he had softened with her touch; it was far more than that. Their bond had become immeasurable, their joy in each other always apparent, and he had become indebted to her
by her kindness that had saved him so many times.

He would do anything for her. He felt it when he saw her or thought about her. The idea that something truly terrible may happen to her never entered his mind. His reliance on her strength and familiarity had made him weak after all, for the one time she really needed him he was as useless as he had been when he had been imprisoned by Celestia and her sister. Chrysalis certainly thought so.

Fluttershy was gone. She and Twilight and the rest of their group had been ponynapped, along with Celestia and Luna and just about every other formidable pony in Equestria. Discord tried to move to relieve the knot in his back, but couldn't rearrange himself in the confines of the cocoon. He tested his magic again and again, to no avail. The one time Fluttershy’s life was truly in danger, he was rendered useless. Isn’t that a perfect reflection of who you are?

Changelings patrolled the prison cocoons, their black skin giving them the appearance of shadows. From what he could see, Twilight, Rarity, Celestia, and Shining Armor were nearly unconscious in their own respective pods. If he could work his way out of his bind, bit by bit, he might stand a chance. Where were Thorax and Starlight and Trixie? At least one of them had to be able to do something. Starlight had something of a head on her shoulders, after all. If only they could distract the changelings.

Discord blinked and jerked when he saw Chrysalis’s large green eyes staring at him. She had flown up to look him in the eye, but instead of looking angry she was smiling. “Discord, isn’t it? How long has it been?” She laughed, a loud sound that shook the chamber around them, and tapped her horn onto his cocoon, splitting it evenly from top to bottom. With one violent jerk Discord fell to the ground, his body too disoriented for him to move much. It was only by some miracle he hadn’t landed on his head, and he swiveled it up to see if he could find Fluttershy in one of the cocoons on the ceiling.

Chrysalis flew down to stand before him as he struggled to stand and dry his wings. He coughed, bringing up liquid from his lungs, and gasped when oxygen filled them again. “I’m here for one pony. She isn't here, so where is she?”

Chrysalis leaned down so her face could reach his. “One, you say? I wonder who it could be.” She straightened, looking thoughtful, then stamped her hoof into the ground. “That’s right. The little quiet one. My changelings told me about your caterwauling over her.”

Discord struggled to stand, reaching blindly for a wall he couldn’t touch. “Where is she?”

“I can’t say,” Chrysalis said. Her amiable voice was a harsh disconnect from her glare. “You outdid yourself. I never thought I could say that to you.”

Discord stretched to his full height, steadying at last. “She’s my friend.”

“All of this for a pony? Honestly? What about the rest of them?” She nodded to the ceiling where Twilight and her companions were held.

“Them, too,” Discord coughed. “But Fluttershy first.”

Chrysalis bowed to Discord and stepped out of his way. “Then by all means.”

As if on cue, in that moment of silence a blood-curdling scream rose from the distance. Discord, who had just considered creeping away from the queen, froze. As another cry crescendoed beyond the walls, he looked at Chrysalis in horror.

Chrysalis laughed. “Keep looking, Discord! She's waiting for you.”

“What are you doing?” Discord lunged toward her without thinking and was immediately blocked by changelings, one of which snared his right arm between its teeth.

Chrysalis nodded at the changelings. “Maybe you’d do anything for your beloved pony, but just remember I am their queen, and they will do anything for me.”

As yet another cry rose up, Discord wrenched his arm from the changeling, not noticing his skin tear. “What are you doing to her?”

“I’m right here,” Chrysalis said.

“Give her back!”

“I didn't take her,” Chrysalis smiled. “Tell me where Starlight is and my changelings might take pity on you.”

“Fluttershy would never hurt- she's innocent,” Discord begged, his anger dissipating and turning into exhaustion. “Please, just tell me she's safe.”

Chrysalis shook her mane and began walking in a circle around him. “She doesn't sound as if she's safe, does she? What has she done to you? I've never seen you soft.”

“She's nothing compared to Celestia or Luna or Twilight.” Discord kept his eyes level, fighting a strange urge to cry. “They can hurt you; Fluttershy can't.”

Chrysalis lunged at him. “How dare you threaten me so? In my home, you are nothing! Your friends, nothing! Wander around in here on your own for all I care! You're a bug, a cockroach under my hooves!”

“I'm not leaving without her,” Discord said.

“You're never getting out of here. Changelings!”

A wall of changelings appeared as if from nowhere, trying to form a wall between Discord and the queen, and his anger resurged. Why wasn’t somepony doing anything? Where was-

“Chrysalis!”

The voice was new and loud, and both Discord and Chrysalis turned to see Starlight Glimmer standing before them. Her anger seemingly matched Discord’s. “Let my friends go. Let all of them go.”

The queen’s smug face didn’t falter. “There you are.” With her last word she reared up and every changeling in the cavern flew to Starlight, and in that moment Discord ran to the nearest aperture he could find and slipped out of sight. He ran with every ounce of strength he had, not daring to look back, and found himself speeding through a myriad caverns and pathways appearing and disappearing without reason.

A maze, is it? It wasn’t so long ago I put Fluttershy and her friends in one. It didn’t do much good where Fluttershy was concerned. He slowed down, remembering his great plan, how he’d made them all despair and give up. Almost all of them.

Somehow he found the chamber without much difficulty, as if something had wanted to lead him there. Outside of it were claw marks in the stone. It looked as if something terrible had tried to get out but was overpowered and pushed back inside. As he reached for it, a swarm of changelings emerged on full attack. The handful of Chrysalis’ minions still chasing him also caught up, and he skidded to a halt.

He tried protecting himself by crouching on the ground, and just as he felt the changelings’ teeth sink into his flesh a burst of wild magic threw the changelings off of him. He stood again and worked his own magic on them, slicing heads and limbs from bodies in one clean blow. If he had been paying attention, he might have considered the generosity of his actions by not allowing any of them suffer before their deaths, but he was too consumed by terror to notice them at all.

Nearly tripping over himself, he entered the chamber and stopped short when he noticed the sulfuric, metallic smell that permeated it. Its strength was overwhelming and he had to close his eyes to keep them from watering. When he could see again he found a dark pool, and within it a small form, but he could not identify what it was. It seemed to him that he stood there for a long time before he realized it was a pony, but yet somehow he’d already known. A small pony, pale and female. She was lying on her side, her face turned away. But, no, it wasn't Fluttershy. It couldn't be.

Her body, yes; but not her.