BUT NOT LEAVING ALONE (Odd_Sarge)

A shuddering cough wound its way through Discord’s guts. Guts that were variably well-defined and put-together. He felt each and every part of him unnervingly settled into place. It moved a sneer onto his mouth, but even that, too, felt just too right.

Though his grip felt stiff, he moved to snap claws.

And their hollow click echoed throughout a realm of vacuous nothing.

He remembered voices and a crowd in a prior moment that felt so near, but none of them belonged to individuals who could drain his magic. It was unthinkable, but there was ‘reason’ to the draconequus’ state: his magical reserves had fled. His body was failing to maintain its chaotic luster. This was a state brought on through his own doing. But Discord didn’t recall casting any sort of magic.

Laying crumpled against cool stone, Discord breathed slow. He tried to recall further, well past the events leading to the untimely undoing of his unnatural physique. The furthest egress he could recall was a point in Canterlot, when he had departed for Ponyville under that dreadfully boring disguise as a grimoire, to be brought to one magical focal point, and advance his plans…

Plans that, even without proper recollection, no doubt required magic. Magic he no longer had.

There were cultists situated at the focal point. Cultists of Nightmare Moon. And apparently ones with plans. Had they cast a spell to take advantage of his de-powered state? Could such silly little ponies—without precious magical artifacts—even accomplish such a feat? He’d been defeated before, but this didn’t feel like much of a defeat. And those silly little ponies had been focused on that useful idiot of a mailmare, that Derpy…

In truth, as Discord opened his eyes and weakly rose on all fours, it appeared to be more of a banishment.

The dark dimensional space around Discord was totally devoid of fun: there was just a little too much sense. Sure, the implacable staircase of chiseled gray stones seemed to emit their own ambient light, but they were built too carefully. They curved up at a steeper, faster inclination, as if they were a path of stones ascending the slope of a hill… if such a hill could be made out of the void. When Discord glanced down at where he’d awoken, he found himself curiously placed at one end of the path. His hindlegs stood on black, empty space. It felt solid, if without texture.

Standing back to a bipedal posture, Discord started down the path.

The only sound that rang up from his effort was each step against stone. There was no wind, or smell on the air. No ponies leering from the sidelines through glass walls and fences. No alicorns on the air bearing jewelry of virtuously imprisonistic intent. Just Discord.

Quickly, the stones were joined by… more stones.

“Oh, how grand.” His voice was tired, monotone and meaningless.

He wasn’t looking for meaning, right now, just some form of stimulation. Anything at all.

But the stones joining stones upon stones gave way to stone structures and architecture. At the crest of the voidlike hill, a great gateway greeted him: featureless in all but general shape, beneath a stone portcullis, and heading abandoned streets. Curiously, there were no walls to the city of stone beyond that great first gate, and only one central path to follow.

Lining the main street, what would have been shops and stores for Equestrians (or perhaps, whatever civilization could have lived here), were nothing more than faceless blocks. Nothing could have carved and moved such stones, but many were lined and grouted as if built brick-by-brick. A smirk jumped to Discord’s lips as he passed by an umbrella and table outside of what could have been a café or bakery—all of it made of stone, of course. The smile faded with each block of the stone city he passed through; each section became just as uniform and routine as the previous.

Eventually, another grand gate appeared on the path. There was no sun or moon in the black sky to illuminate the grand entrance, but it was at least joined by proper walls and ramparts. As he passed through the gate, his eyes caught onto a detail he’d missed his entire ascent: the stones had not always been there. Faintly, he saw bricks and chiseled blocks flying in from the void, leaping quick to their places, as if assembling the city before him.

And then the stony silhouette of familiar towers erected themselves.

Towers that belonged to Canterlot Castle.

When Discord glanced back at the long path he’d traveled, he realized that the rest of this phony stony Canterlot had invested the time in disassembling itself. Even the stone path he’d tread was gone.

And when he looked forward again, Canterlot Castle was gone, replaced instead by circles of white sunlight, pouring in through two holes in the void.

In a genuinely stunning act, Discord paused. He shifted his body and eyes left and right, checked over his shoulder once, twice, then coiled back forward with a cough. Bristling at the silent, cosmic joke being played on him, he shambled forward.

The light against the darkness played out like that of windowpanes: a playful bokeh. As he drew closer, colorful shapes became visible against a blurry bouquet of greenery. Closer still, blue skies, white clouds. Pastel and cheerful, there was a rather pleasant day on the other side. Closest yet, there was no sound, but plenty of ponies plodding along their own path. Some even seemed to peer up at his two windows, only to rush away. He stopped just short, staring out at the hedges and skies, and visitors and keepers, and statues and plaques…

Discord stopped. He placed a claw against the black frame of the portent window before him, then through the frame. There was no feeling, but sunlight appeared on his claw. The other circle of light played a near identical view, but his claw didn’t come out through the left iris. He physically peered around the two garden-watching portals, but there were no backs to them. And infuriatingly, there was still no sound.

But he knew this view. He stepped back, pondering it with a pointed paw. Yes, Discord knew this view quite well. Hundreds of years well. But it wasn’t quite as up-to-date as it should’ve been, unless the castle’s groundskeepers had decided to move that awful statue of the one called Ano—

“Discord.”

“DRAW!” He spun on a dime, hurling out his claw and paw in a pointed gesture from the waistline. “Gotcha!”

Of all the ponies to appear, Princess Luna leveled a stern glare with him. “Do you believe that now is the time for games, Discord?”

“There is always time for games, my little pony.” Straightening out, he gestured at the alicorn with an open paw. “To what do I owe the displeasure? Come to gloat at your minions’ successful banishment?”

“Minions.” Luna blinked, her fierce look going blank. “Banishment…?”

Discord frowned. “Oh, come now, Miss Moonstuck. You can’t seriously expect me to believe that this—” he stepped aside, waving out the portals, “—is supposed to be scary. I’ve seen far more wholesome eldritch abominations in far darker holes.”

“…What?”

With Luna balking in full force, Discord strode confidently. He leveraged an arm over her, pulling Luna in like a stuffed alicorn toy.

“Where do you believe we are, Discord?”

“I’m sorry—well, not really.” He trailed a claw down the bridge of Luna’s muzzle. “But I don’t recall consenting to an interrogation.”

She didn’t move to shrug him off, but she did pout up at him. “You are not well.”

“Of course not! Not to a pony such as yourself.” Discord slithered away. He was surprised by the warm impact Luna’s closeness had on his previously cold and clammy skin. He pinched at himself and internally grimaced.

Luna turned in place, her hardness turning to that typical pony mush. “We… I truly mean that you are not well. We are not well.”

“Oh really, now?” Discord ultimately gave Luna his full attention (only because there was nothing better to do): he crossed his arms, and leaned back. “What gave you that impression? Was it your own little thousand-year vacation?”

Much to Discord’s surprise, Luna simply shook her head. “Perhaps amid your antics, you have not realized it, but this is a cage, and it is just as much my own.”

“Ah, so it is a prison.”

Luna sighed. “Indeed. Much to our shared misfortune—”

“Debatable.”

“—there is a greater existential threat to our world. One that seeks to pit us against one another, and spell our demise.”

A yawn leapt out. “Don’t bore me, princess.” Discord impatiently tapped. “Let’s cut to the chase. Would it happen to have anything to do with those cultists of yours?”

“I have seen no such cultists… or minions.”

Discord rolled his eyes. “When I arrived at the magical focal point—tell me, you do know what that is, right? Nevermind. When I was finally delivered to the Whitetail Woods, there was quite the gathering of nightmare-loving acolytes. Are you blind? How could you have missed them?”

Ears flopped down as Luna sank. “Discord, there is no guarantee that what is occurring in the waking world is a shared experience for us. I did not even expect the ancient unicorn ruins surrounding the focal point I visited to be capable of such dimensional traps. How does a god of chaos fail to see that not all appeals to reason?”

That got Discord a little riled under the claw. “I don’t fail to see it. And if you want me to prove it, then I can take your little ‘reason’—” he threw his arms wide “—and roll you out like a crepe!”

Luna stomped. “Silence.” Her voice was just shy of a full shout. The crack of her hoof against the void thundered across the timeless space. “We tire quick of these games. We have already told you that something else seeks to pit us against one another. We are not your enemy. I am not your enemy.” She leaned back with a heavy huff. “What is real and true, is that you have been stripped of your power just as I, have you not?”

Discord crossed his arms again.

“Please, Discord.” Her ears sank again. “Work with me. I would not wish to stay here forever.”

“…Very well, I suppose I can… ally with a pony. Briefly! Ugh, briefly.” He barely managed to hold back even the slightest retch. “The world would be much better off with me in it.”

A thankful smile graced Luna. “Why our magic is gone is just as much unknown to you as it is to me. However, this realm, in truth, belongs to dreams.”

“I’ll say it a little differently than I did before.” Discord gestured at the circles of illusion-made sunlight. “I hope this wasn’t intended to be a nightmare.”

“No, holding us here was the greater goal, I’m sure. I can feel three points in this realm. I was called to one, and you through another. It stands to reason that the last holds for my sister.”

Discord raised a brow, glancing around. “Celestia is here?”

“Thankfully, no. The focal points of this realm remain open. Were my sister to arrive, it is my fear that we would lose any and all opportunity to escape.” Luna peeked over at the open circles of sunlight, still displaying its awfully tasteless Discord-o-vision of the Canterlot Gardens. “I was able to dispel the illusion shrouding my arrival. This scene from your time in stone is made of much the same magic as the false vision of the moon and stars chained to me.”

“Of course, even dream magic plays favorites. They couldn’t even be bothered to give me a proper sky.”

Luna ignored his comment, instead raising a hoof to the portals. “Because of this, I believe I can convince the realm to release us.” She closed her eyes, slipping into a quiet, focused state.

As tempted as Discord was to interrupt again, he had to realize that there was little use in drawing the ire of the one pony willing to break him out of his prison. Well, it was their prison, but that was hardly important. What was important, was that he would be out again, and hopefully re-energized. If his magic hadn’t come back to him on the way in, then it had to come back on the way out, right? It was all the more reason to play nice with little Luna.

While the alicorn’s eyes were closed in concentration, he watched out through the old memories playing before the two of them. Sure, they weren’t fond by any means, but they made him think. Luna really was the closest being he could come to calling ‘relatable’, with the shared toll of eternity between them. Maybe, just maybe, instead of fleeing as soon as his magic was back, he could stick around for a while. No, reform was certainly not an option on the table, but there was something in Discord for Luna that felt like… fondness.

Urgh.

Luna jerked, though her eyes stayed shut. “What was that?”

Discord swallowed his disgust. “Nothing.”

No, he would definitely run off at the first sign of trouble, especially while this weak.

Definitely. Of course. Totally unpredictable.

…Although, it would be quite the cover for future antics, granted they defeated whatever was threatening Equestria… together. He certainly wasn’t in a rush to be turned to stone again.

Luna stepped back, her eyes finally reopened, and fresh magic pooling on the tip of her horn. “Discord, I believe I have broken the binding on our magic.”

Suddenly, strength jumped to Discord’s limbs. His fingers felt limber, and he instinctively snapped. A cacophony of noise exploded around them as his summoned orchestra struck a note out in victorious symphony.

“Ha! Well done, Luna!” He coiled up, earnestly clapping. “Let me just get us right on out of here!” He held his paw up, a great grin streaking across him.

“Wait! Discord, allow me to—”

He snapped.

And then the circles of sunlight smashed into one blinding flash across everything.