Discord Daze

Chapter 7: Loyalty & Betrayal
Part 2

Copper Arrow appears before Discord on the mountain, once again. He looks around, distraught. His coat, mane, and all of his armor and weapons are completely grayscale. He sees Discord before him, but he struggles trying to figure out what to do. He knew he was telling the truth, and he knew that his friend had betrayed him.

"So, now you see," Discord says as he leans down over the alicorn, "Starry isn't your friend. He's only using you. Always has been."

Copper sniffles a little bit, refusing to look up.

"Oh but don't worry about that." A talon touches Copper, holding his shoulder and trying to comfort him. "Now comes the fun part."

"Fun?"

"Yes, loads of it! Now comes the part where we get to watch him fail on the most important quest of his life."

"Fun?" Copper mumbles, and then lunges at the Dragonequus, shoving him off. His magic draws a series of sharpened arrows from his quiver, and draws them, one at a time across his bow. As the arrows fly, Discord dodges, moving with great craft and landing in humorous poses. When he runs out of arrows, Copper draws a curved blade and charges his foe.

"Oh you're just no fun, are you?" Discord says as he easily avoids the attacks, teleporting out of the way of each swing. "I offer you the chance to watch your backstabbing friend fail miserably, and you reply with violence." With another snap of his fingers, Copper is hanging upside down by his tail from a rogue cloud over the edge of the mountain. His weapons fall to the ground, and tumble down the mountainside.

"Let me go! I'm having loads of fun!"

"Well alright, if you insist." A snap of the dragonequus's fingers and the cloud wraps around Copper's wings, pinning them tight to his sides as it turns into a form of rope.

After hanging in the air for a few seconds, like a cartoon character that doesn't realize it's walked off the edge of a cliff, Copper drops and tumbles down the mountain after his weapons. Armor clatters and splits off as he falls. When Copper finally comes to a stop, he looks up, and Discord is casually floating down by means of umbrella. Bruised and beaten by the fall, he barely manages to stand.

"Why the long face?" Discord asks, and then snickers at his own joke.

Copper looks around, and notices something frightening. All around him were weak and wounded alicorns. His own troops were scattered across the field. "You . . . You monster!" He moves to charge, but is too weak, trips on a rock and collapses.

"Oh, but I haven't even shown you my best trick!" He snaps his fingers again, and suddenly it appears as if there are thousands of Northern warriors in the field. Discord then flies over to one of them, and waves his hand through it, showing that it was like a hologram.

Copper picks himself up again, and turns to look in the direction that the false army was facing. In the distance was a large wall. "Castelle?"

"Indeed. Tootaloo!" Discord then vanishes. Suddenly, a huge boulder crashes into the earth, shaking the ground and leaving a small crater.

Copper panics and looks to the sky. More boulders. A siege from Castelle, defending itself from the threat of the huge army. "No," he then mutters as he looks at his helpless army scattered across the field. More boulders rain down, crushing them one by one. "No!" Copper makes a run for the field, towards the closest soldier to try and pull him away. His efforts are in vain, however, as a rock comes crashing down on the both of them.

"So, what's the plan?" Iron Sword asks.

Starry looks to the Queen, thinking for a few moments before speaking. "My Queen, you stay here. If the King returns, send word as fast as you can to me. I'm going to go find the prince, so that we at least know his whereabouts. Iron, I need you to search for the Queen."

"Sir," the sunraiser says, "If there is any way in which I may be of assistance."

"Possibly," Starry says, "Rally the sunraisers and the moonbringers. If it comes right down to it, we may need an army of powerful magicians to fight Discord."

"Sir, we're not an army—"

"You're the only thing we'll have. No time for questions, now go!"

"Yes, sire!" The alicorn then races off. Iron Sword follows after him on his own journey.

"My queen," Starry says, not yet leaving, "Crystal is half-asleep, possibly awake by now. Keep her and the foal safe."

"Did you think I wouldn't?"

"Of course I didn't think you wouldn't, it's just—it's looking desperate." Starry then leaves, flying out the door and into the sky.

Sly sits in the window of Starry and Crystal's bedroom, watching her sleep. He sighs, seeing if she stirs. When she does, she looks at him and jumps back. "Who are you?"

"Princess Crystal," he starts talking, staying in his spot, "I worked for your brother."

"You!" she shouts.

Outside the door, the queen approaches. She hears the shout and calls some guards down the hall.

"Please!" Sly says as he tries to calm her down. A candle stand is flung at him, and he catches it, setting it on the floor as he steps inside. "I feel the need to tell you something. Something about Starry Knight."

Outside the room, the Queen stops the guards, and listens in closely.

"Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it!"

"I wouldn't tell you if . . ." he sighs and shakes his head, "Your foal. My father broke my family apart. And I just—I feel that if we had known sooner."

"What?"

"Starry Knight is seeing somepony."

"What." Crystal's tone hushes, and she listens, scared to hear anymore.

"It's more than that though," Sly says, "This other mare. She's pregnant."

Silence. Sly leaves that moment.

Crystal slams the door opened. The queen moves out of the way just in time. "Starry!" Crystal shouts.

"He just left." Her mother gets her attention.

"What? Where?"

The Queen takes her daughter into her hooves and holds her close. "Don't worry about that now, we can take care of this for you."

"No."

"Hush, darling. You won't need to see him further."

She pushes away, and shakes her head. "No, I want to talk to him."

"Crystal?" an alicorn with the appearance of Starry says as he trots toward the bedroom.

Crystal lunges toward him, and shoves at him, crying. "Please tell me it isn't true."

"What?"

"You know what!" Crystal pushes him away and turns to herself. "Mother," she says, looking to the Queen, "Could I have a moment?"

The Queen nods and orders the guards away, and then leaves herself.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about," Starry says.

"You cheated on me!"

Starry sighs and nods. "Yes, I did. I was just coming to confess."

"You were?" Crystal looks back, confused.

"Yes," he says, his eyes flashing yellow for a split second while nopony looks. "I can't live this lie anymore. I was just on my way to tell you that I'm leaving you."

Crystal turns a few shades darker, Discordian magic washing over her form. "What?"

"I'm sorry. But I don't love you." Discord had to resist the urge to laugh.

Crystals appearance instantly becomes gray. The next moment, it appears as if the disguised Discord has teleported away.

As Starry flies towards the west, he considers again everything he knows. He thinks aloud as he juts across the sky. "The King or the Prince. We have the king who has been nothing but bad for this kingdom from the start. Discord said he didn't have to be taking over the whole time, just at least once. The prince, on the other hand, has proven that he's willing to manipulate ponies to get his way. And he's good at it. He's proven it before by poisoning . . . the king."

He stops. "That's got to be it. Discord wouldn't have been able to be poisoned. Money's on the prince!" He charges through the air.

Touching ground on the western coastline a few moments later, Starry heads to the nearest command post to begin asking around. "Where is the prince?" His voice is demanding.

"He left back for the capital. Teleported, actually."

"When?"

"About thirty minutes ago."

Prince Silvercoat appears in the court of the castle. "Mother," he says in greeting as he arrives, "You'll be pleased to know that the ships seem to have backed off. Chances are, all fronts are clear."

"That's good news," she says in response.

Crystal Clear slowly trots down into the court, sobbing softly.

"Crystal?" Silvercoat says, approaching her, "What's wrong?"

"Starry . . . he left."

"Oh don't worry, he'll probably be back soon. Discord's threats seem to have been empty."

"No. He left me."

"What?" The Queen approaches. "Where is he?"

"He teleported away."

"That's terrible. But," Silvercoat sighs, "I have to admit, I saw this coming."

"What do you mean?" the Queen asks.

"I had a spy sent after him."

"All the good that did," Crystal says, "Do you know who he did it with?"

"Moonlight Serenade. What was he doing back here to begin with?" Silvercoat seems oddly smug in this rather dark time.

"He had the strangest notion that Discord was one of us. We are all nearly certain that if it's true, then it's the King."

"Isn't his time up already?"

"It can't be too much longer."

"If we have reason to believe that he's Discord, couldn't we just . . ." He makes a gesture, implying offing the King.

As the Queen considers, a dark color washes over her form. "It's doable, I suppose. But I'm much too weary to take the throne. Crystal. Do you think you could take on this responsibility."

Crystal Clear looks up, and nods slowly. "I could. No, in fact, I'd love to. There's so many things I'd want to change around here."

Silvercoat smiles, and trots upstairs. "Very well then. Just don't go changing the name, I rather like the sound of Alicorn Kingdom."

"Aww," she says, sniffling a little, but cheering up, "So I can't call it the Crystal Empire? Drats."

Silvercoat yawns as he keeps moving. "I need to go to sleep. Hope you feel better, my sister."

Just as Silvercoat enters his room, Starry uses his magic to light a candle. "Hello, Discord."

Silvercoat laughs, and in a puff of smoke, he grows into a dragonequus. "You finally caught me! Congratulations, you won!"

Starry looks sternly at him, and, with his magic, draws a sword and shield. "Withdraw your forces, or I'll finish you."

"Very well," Discord snaps his fingers, "Oh wait, I already did that."

"What?"

"You see, I just knew you would win. Now here's a little surprise." Discord snaps his fingers, and suddenly, the both of them are in the besieged plains north of Castelle. A boulder moves, and reveals a crushed pair of alicorns. Copper Arrow is one of them.

"You bastard!" Starry lunges, attacking.

Discord teleports out of the way. "Ah ah ah," he says, "You wouldn't want to start a war, now, would you?"

"You killed him!"

"Not true," Discord says, "He killed himself, trying to save his fallen comrade. I have to hand it to him. He was a fine warpony."

"You turned him against me."

"With the truth!" Discord points out that nothing he said was false. "I haven't had this much fun in ages. I don't think I've told a lie all day." He snaps his fingers and suddenly they're standing in the middle of the encamped army. The entire army is perfectly still, unmoving.

Starry looks around, and swings his sword through one of them. It vanishes the second his sword touches it.

"I'm just full of surprises, aren't I?"

"There never was a threat."

"Did you really think that I, on my own, could control whole armies of ponies?" Discord leans forward, displaying the most sarcastic face Starry could imagine. "I'm flattered, Starry. But no. Why waste my time and effort launching a full-scale assault when I can send your entire kingdom into panic with a few simple tricks?"

Starry sheaths his sword and shield. The whole army disappears. "So what was the point of all this, then?"

"More surprises to come. Forgive me, though, you'll have to get to the big one on your own."

"What did you do?"

"What did I do?" Discord raises his hands, taking a defensive tone. "I didn't do anything, except tell the truth."

"You—you didn't . . ."

"Oh, I did. Oh, well of course, there was a few little white lies here and there for this part of my grand finale. Well, your grand finale, actually. Oh but before that though, one more surprise."

Starry finds himself displaced again. This time, they're standing in the town square of a northern city. The ponies walking around seem to be going about their lives as usual. They're all colorful, and seem to be getting by just fine. At the same time, none of them seem too distraught by Discord's appearance, though some take extra measures to avoid trotting near.

"They they look normal."

"Indeed. I've been so busy with the Alicorn Kingdom that this place has been relatively calm and uneventful for the years."

"But you're their enemy."

"I was their enemy. They surrendered. And now, I'm their master, whether they like it or not. Are you ready for the biggest surprise of all?"

"Bite me. "

The next moment, Starry is standing in front of the castle. Discord has vanished.

Starry walks into the court of the castle. The Queen and Crystal Clear stare at him. They despise him. He sighs. "Yeah, I've . . . got some explaining to do."

"As the acting ruler of this nation." Crystal Clear speaks up, standing proud and strong against her husband.

"I know, Crystal—Wait. Acting ruler?"

"Yes. You, Starry Knight, are hereby stripped of your rank. Your title as Prince—"

"Wait," he says, "What did Discord say to you?"

"Silence!"

"Crystal."

"I said quiet!"

Starry Knight stops talking, and listens. Hi coat grows a bit darker.

"You are not worthy of any of them. You are not worthy to live in this kingdom any longer. I banish you from it. Now get out."

"Crystal, please listen to me."

"She asked you to leave, Starry. I suggest you take this punishment and consider that she's been extremely lenient," the Queen says.

"But—Discord." As he tries to defend himself, a wave of magic washes over him, darkening him further.

"Don't make me execute you!" Crystal says. Some tears form in her eyes as she speaks.

Starry opens his mouth, but doesn't speak. After a few moments of standing still, hushed, he says, "Please, just let me speak."

"What is it that you think is so important?"

"Prince Silvercoat is Discord."

"Cute. Now leave."

"You don't believe me?"

"How can I believe anything you say after what you've done?"

"I swear, I never wanted you to know. Things got out of hoof. I love—"

"Don't you dare try to say that now." Crystal cries a little bit, turning her head away. "I hate you!"

A final wave of magic washes over Starry's form, and he turns completely gray. Silently, he turns, and leaves. As he trots out the door, his magic removes his armor, and leaves it there. When he is no longer burdened by it, he unfurls his wings, and flies away.