Chapter 2: Consultation

It was early afternoon, and Pinkie was on her way to the Canterlot Castle.

She galloped all the way to the front gate, making a quick stop and turning to smile at one of the guards. The town hall meetings haven't started yet, so regular ponies weren't allowed inside quite yet. The guard however recognized Pinkie and nodded with out a word, having the gate opened for her to go on inside.

She made her way to the throne room to find Luna sitting on the main throne, Pinkie guessed that Celestia was off doing something, leaving Luna to once again try her hoof at the town hall.

Luna smiled at Pinkie as she entered. "Greetings Pinkie Pie, Why have you come to us on this afternoon?"

Pinkie pranced her way to the throne and looked up at her. "It's about Discord, he says he's been having nightmares."

Luna nodded in acknowledgement. "It has been a while since I have consulted Discord about his dreams.." She said, Putting her hoof on her chin.

"Where is he right now?" Luna asked.

"He's at home, he apparently hasn't left his house for a few days." Pinkie responded.

Luna looked a little concerned. "That doesn't sound like Discord." She quietly said to herself.

She stepped down from her throne and began to think on where exactly she would have to open a portal too. Luna has yet to be in the chaos realm before, and wasn't too eager to visit. She thought Discord's dreams where disorganized enough. But she counted Discord as her friend in some regard, and dealing with nightmares was her specialty.

Luna opened a portal to the chaos realm, and it's destination began to fly around as it searched around for where Discord might live. Pinkie watched next to her in awe. Luna continued to search until a question came to her mind, she turned to Pinkie and asked.

"How do you get to the chaos realm?"

"A magical pool in the Everfree Forest, I just assumed everyone knew about it." Pinkie answered.

Luna considered just going using Pinkies method until the portal guided itself right to Discord's house, as if it did the job for her. Pinkie pointed at the house through the portal.

"Yep, that's it! I'll talk to Celestia for you when she gets back."

"Thank you Pinkie, I shouldn't be gone long." Luna flew on through the portal into the chaos realm, gravity there was a little weird but she adjusted to it and landed at Discords front door. Before she knocked, she heard a voice come from inside the home.

"Come in Princess Luna."

Luna slowly opened the door to see Discord, slumped over onto the bottom side of a couch, facing away from her. She stepped inside, closed the door behind her, and then approached him.

"Are you alright Discord?"

"Barely." He responded, as he continued to stare off in front of him. She waited a bit before sitting down near him.

"Pinkie told me that you have been having nightmares. Do you know what has caused them?"

Discord remained silent and still.

"... Can you tell me what they are about?"

Discord shifted a little, but didn't speak.

"It would be helpful if you told me something about them... I would already have an idea but I didn't see your dreams for the past few nights."

"And you aren't going to interrogate me about that?" He said, turning his head to look at her. Luna hesitated to respond.

"Discord, we trust you now. We know that you won't make a mistake like what you did with Tirek again. I just want to help you, not because I have to, but because I count you as a friend."

Discord looked at her for a few seconds, he sighed and spoke up. "None of you ever asked where I came from, I would have at least expected one of you to get Fluttershy to force it out of me. Why is that?"

Luna had to think of a good answer to his question. "Celestia has been telling us to hold off on asking you until the time is right. She was scared that.." The two exchanged a look for a few seconds before Luna finished.

"It.. wouldn't be the happiest story ever told."

Discord looked down and turned away from her, Luna came closer to him and sat next to him trying to comfort him.

"Discord, we have never met a being even close to your levels of power and magic. The only reason we can refer to you as a Draconequus is because you told us that's what you are. Celestia is still trying to figure out some things about you, like how in Equestria Twilight was able to beat Tirek when he stole your magic, even with the combined power of four alicorns. That throne that Chrysalis had, we have had ponies looking over the pieces of that thing for more than a year now, every pony agrees that it only absorbed pony magic."

"I faked it." Discord admitted, watching the ground.

Luna stopped for a moment. "... We thought that you where all about having the spotlight to yourself."

"In most circumstances, you would be right. But I care about my friends more. Every pony knows they worked harder for it then I ever have." Luna sat there next to him, she put her hoof on his neck as if it was his shoulder.

"I respect what you did."

"Don't tell Twilight or the others, I don't think they would take it well."

"My lips are sealed." Luna said, giving a slight smile at him.

He looked at her momentary before shutting his eyes again. "You wanted to know what my nightmares were?"

"Discord, I can guess that you did some things you regret, but-" He cut her off before she could finish.

"The damage you did as Nightmare Moon was minuscule, the only real creature you hurt was your sister. Even then, emotionally, it was Celestia hurting herself, she wished she could have used the elements better to release you straight away, or helped you before you even turned into Nightmare Moon..." Discord opened his eyes and looked out infront of him.

"What I did... was far worse."

The room was quiet for a minute, Discord eventually stood up and faced her. "Twilight told you about Zecora's Potion that allows you to see fragments of the past, correct?"

Luna responded. "She saw Celestia and I turn you to stone, and my banishment to the moon."

A flask would appear in his hand. "This will let you see one fragment of the past per day, you will know you have seen all there is too see on the day it stops working."

Luna would levitate it over to her, examining it. "Others can drink from it too if you want them to see the past as well." Discord continued. "After that... Maybe we can sort out my nightmare problem."

Luna stared at the flask, curious as to what she might see in the coming days. She looked up to ask Discord something, but he was gone. In his place was a portal back to Canterlot. Luna stepped back into the throne room as the portal closed behind her. Pinkie pranced up to her.

"You still got a few minutes before the town hall meetings start. So, did you help him out?"

Luna was silent, she turned and walked up to the royal throne and sat down, levitating the flask next to her. She spoke to the nearest guard.

"The town hall is canceled for today."

The guard nodded and went to inform the other guards throughout the castle. Pinkie looked up at Luna curiously, she finally caught the familiarity of the flask she was levitating.

Before Pinkie could intervene anymore, Luna closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and took a sip from the flask.