Silence.

Silence? That's not right...

Silence. Only silence.

The battlefield from just moments ago... gone.

Where was I? What...

I tried to look around, but found myself unable to as I stared into pure blackness. My head appeared stuck in place, locked straight forward, and neither my hooves nor my wings nor my magic seemed to obey me.

Actually... why can't I feel my hooves? Or... anything?

I again tried to wiggle and move, but still to no avail. There was only me - or my thoughts in this case - and seemingly my eyes, which still stared straight.

Nothing. Void.

It was like... a dark nightsky, but robbed of all the stars and the moon. There was only darkness here.

And then, there was a sound.

A snap?

I tried to move yet again but, somewhat expectedly, failed at achieving it once more. A snap, a most familiar one at that, had just crashed the supreme silence of this... this realm or plain. My eyes, if I even had any in my seemingly bodyless form, widened at the realisation.

I can't believe I forgot about him...

"Well, I certainly have to say you put up a good effort, Princess."

Anything but this.

"I would say... mmm, a solid 8 on execution but a measly 3 on planning. What do you think?"

If I had been able to, I would have averted, closed, or even just rolled my eyes as the draconequus strolled into view, coming up from behind me.

I want to die.

"Well?" he poked with a light shrug. "Oh," he added, perking up, "right, apologies."

With another snap of his fingers, I found myself... whole again. More or less.

"Haaaah!" I gave out in an immediate attempt to gasp for air... which I evidently must not have been doing all that time.

"Do you want me to put on some tea for this?" Discord asked with a grin. I recovered from barely avoided asphyxiation just in time to see him snap a tea cup into existence which floated in the void besides him. "Or a hot brew of coffee?" He did the same thing, and there was then suddenly a cup of coffee over his other shoulder, steaming hot.

"Dis... Discord..." I gasped, still somewhat out of breath. "What is the..."

"Meaning behind all this?" he interrupted. "Hohoho, you're a funny mare, you know that? Well, for a bookworm, anyway."

"Did you really think I would sit idly by as somepony intends to rearrange the world?"

My eyes widened, perhaps in full realisation, or perhaps in sheer annoyance at the God of Chaos.

"I studied and worked hard for years to help Equestria! It was the only way to save it, and the world, from the blight of the Princesses!" I resisted.

The draconequus sighed as if he had somehow heard the same thing a hundred times before.

"Yes, yes. You consume more and more knowledge and power until, eventually, you think you are everycreature's saviour by killing or erasing all of them from existence."

He drilled a claw of his into his ear and removed a whole-sized carrot before tossing it aside.

"You and Sombra would make great roommates, you know," he added.

"Discord! Release me from... from whatever this is!" I commanded, but again to no avail.

"Or what? You're going to yell me to death?"

"Or I will... will....."

I paused. Then I froze, if such a thing was even possible when locked in place in the literal void. My eyes travelled upwards... but...

there was no horn.

Panic was quickly afoot as my breathing grew faster and faster. In a hurry I tried to unfold my wings but...

Nothing. Again, they weren't there either.

"Discord!! This isn't funny!"

To this, it seemed, the chaos magician seemed to take offense.

"Not funny!?" He repeated. "Oh please! And how do you think I should treat the pretty princess that destroyed Equestria? That butchered dozens, in the name of friendship no less?"

"It was all because-!"

"Ohhhh, and you couldn't even stop yourself from doing the same to your best friends!" he rebelled. "Nopony was safe from you, and you think I'm trying to be funny here?"

I said nothing.

"You nearly killed Fluttershy."

His otherwise so unaffected, casual and comedic voice was now dry, and dead serious.

"Were it not for me she would have..."

He held himself back, straightening himself out and patting his chest down to create an absurd amount of dust as if he was wearing a 60-years old jacket.

"What I'm trying to get at is," he continued, calm this time, but still far from his usual tone, "you've gone too far, Twilight. Or, I suppose it is Midnight now?"

Again I said nothing as I watched him with darkened demeanour. He was seriously backing the princesses? Those... blatant parasites?

"And I believe you know what happens to 'villains' in Equestria, do you not?" He made the air quotes himself, and shot a glare at me.

"What, you're going to turn me to stone and place me in Celestia's backyard? Is that what this is all about? Some sort of 'divine intervention' to save the plague that-"

"Oh-hoho, nonono," interrupted the draconequus, half-laughing as he did. "Not that. That's pretty much trademarked to Celestia, anywho."

Wait.

"I was more thinking of..."

He doesn't mean...

"Banishment. Too many stone statues as of recent, so why don't we balance the budget a little?"

"You realise I will return no matter where you send me, don't you?" I clarified with remaining dedication.

"Oh, yes, I suppose that is a good point indeed. Hence why it's not here at all!"

He turned around and, from out of sight, raised a blue cap and placed it on his head to look just a little bit like he was out on a sightseeing trip. He then revealed a large, foldable map of sorts in his claw and paw, shuffling it left and right, back and forth as if trying to decipher something on it.

"Aha! Yes, there it is!" he triumphantly exclaimed.

He turned and showed... not a map at all. It was a drawing - a bad one at that - of the mirror portal. Curiously, it was not the machine back in my castle either... it was the plinth of the monument in front of CHS, in the other world.

"You're..." I struggled to mutter.

"Tssk, tssk, tssk," Discord interrupted, looking at an impossibly large, silver watch around his wrist which depicted no sensible time at all, what with 12 hands and all. I realised only a moment later how the cap he had worn and the map he had held had suddenly vanished. "We're on a bit of a schedule, my dear Midnight, and I'm afraid I have many important appointments just after this, still."

I huffed out a puff of warm air - or would have if 'air' was a real thing in this dimension of sorts.

"Why? Why are you even doing any of this? Even if I was the maniac you claim, would you, the god of chaos, not-"

"Please, we've been over this, have we not? I'm a different creature now, you see?"

The god of chaos suddenly appeared with puppy eyes, holding a large lolipop in one hand like some innocent child.

"That, and I owed Celestia."

"Owed her? For wha-"

"Aha, time is up I'm afraid," he interrupted again, causing the lolipop to disappear before snapping his fingers to cause the mirror portal and the machinery attached to it to appear right in front of me.

"You realise that I know how to find my way back... don't you?" I asked warily.

"Of course. Let's just say I'm putting on child locks for now. Oh, and-" he added as I began to feel myself hovering forward without my own doing. "-I should probably have mentioned this sooner, excuse moi, but..."

I stopped, my snout just barely avoiding the mirror surface now.

"Hm. Actually, nevermind. We'll keep it a surprise."

I opened my mouth to respond, to do anything at all, but I felt the inevitable coming.

"I don't mean to say 'good night, Midnight', so... tataa, friend!"

There was a thundering snap that rippled through the very fabric of existence it seemed, echoing through my whole body, and the next thing I knew was the rainbow-induced spiral that laid past the mirror.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed the read (and hope you've verified your clock!

In case you haven't heard from my blog post, a sequel to this is confirmed. So if you liked this (and the prequel), then why not leave a like and watch to stick around?

I'd be glad to have you! Thanks again!