“That’s impossible.” Luna says. “There’s no way Discord could be of your world.”

“Why not?” Dante asks. Luna doesn’t give an answer. “Perhaps I should hear the history of Discord? You two fought against him over 1000 years ago, correct?”

“That’s right.” Celestia says, walking up to Discord’s statue. “When Luna and I were born, Discord was ruling Equestria in a state of chaos. The citizens tried many times to overthrow him, but they were unsuccessful every time. One day, my sister and I discovered the Elements of Harmony when we were researching spells to defeat Discord. After discovering the Elements, we used them on Discord and turned him into a statue.”

“That doesn’t tell me anything I don’t already know.” Dante says with a sigh. “What about before that, when he first ruled over Equestria?”

Celestia and Luna exchanged looks before Luna spoke up.

“We don’t know about then. History keeping wasn’t a focus at all back then. No pony was able to figure out where Discord came from. We thought he may have once been a dragon that got exposed to incredibly powerful magic, but we honestly don’t know. Have you heard the story of how Equestria was founded?”

“No, but I assume it has something to do with Discord.”

“There is no mention of Discord. That is the only other piece of history we have about him: sometime after Equestria was founded, Discord came about and took over.”

“Hmmm. About how long ago did you two imprison Discord?”

“About 1400 years ago.”

“I see. That falls in good time with a bit of history from my world, assuming time flows the same between our worlds.” Dante opens up the book again, turning to the page with the crude drawing of discord. “He who warps the world, or ‘Discord’ as you call him, was a powerful arcane magic user. The few that know about him believe he was a wizard, but I find that unlikely. After all, 1500 years ago, wizardry had only just been born. I believe he was a sorcerer, or possibly a dragon, but I digress.

“Discord had sought out the power bestowed upon outsiders, who, as I’ve mention, are made of essence from planes other than the material plane. He killed many outsiders, good and evil alike, and fey, creatures of magic, binding their essence to his body and soul. History says he lost control of his power and his mind, striking out against everything that was around him. He was even able to battle the gods. Fearing his strength, the four elder gods banished him from the material plane and all the inner and outer planes, forcing him to drift on the astral plane for all eternity. Since he was never seen again, it was believed he drifted so far on the astral plane that he erased himself from existence.

“However, while he was still in control of himself, he gifted his lieutenants with the wild and evil magics he had attained, taking parts of their souls in the process. Since then, all descendants of the lieutenants have had the gift, or curse, of eldritch magic. In exchange for this magic, every warlock born is missing a part of their soul. But I suppose that’s okay. It’s not like we notice the difference.” Dante finishes with a smile.

Celestia and Luna didn’t know what to say. They both just stood there, staring at Dante.

“I know that’s a bit much to put together, never before hearing about outsiders or fey.”

Celestia took a step towards Dante. “So, do you still intend to release Discord?”

“Are you deaf?!” Dante shouts at Celestia. “Didn’t you hear what I just said?! Discord could challenge the gods! No, he’s staying right where he is. I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid.” He takes a few steps, heading towards the vault entrance. “We should probably get back to the throne room. We’ve probably got them thinking we started another fight.”

Agreeing, Celestia and Luna both leave Discord where he is, closing the vault as they exit. The three of them, plus Raven on Dante’s shoulder, teleport back to the throne room.

Upon re-entering the room, they see Iatril consoling the group.

“—and they’ll be back any moment now, with all of them perfectly unharmed and OH THANK THE GODS YOU’RE BACK!” She yells, seeing the royal sisters and Dante appear.

“I’m sure that surprised yell was really just your way of saying how you knew I wouldn’t start a fight, right?” Dante asks, walking over to Iatril. “Or maybe you were really just trying to convince yourself?”

“Regardless.” Iatril dismisses his words. “What about Discord?”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” Dante says, turning in place as the two sisters return to their thrones. “Never work with someone crazier and more powerful than yourself.”

“That doesn’t seem to be the case with you two.” Cadence says, earning a glance from Dante. He just cracks a smile at her.

“I do hope I end up working with you.” He looks over at Celestia and Luna. “Now, all things considered, I will give you a time frame of one week to decide whether or not to work with me.”

“Only one week?” Celestia questions. “Considering your…approach to us, don’t you think more time to investigate your claims would be appropriate?”

“Nah.” Dante says, turning his back, walking towards the doors. “Rulers have been able to make up their minds in an hour, based solely on my approach. If you need me, I’ll be wandering around that garden I noticed outside. Go, Raven.”

The bird flies off his shoulder as Dante teleports from the room before anyone can protest. Raven flies over and lands on Flurry’s back, half his body hidden by Flurry’s fur.

“Is he serious?” Luna asks Iatril. “One week to decide whether or not to work with some creature like him?”

“Actually,” Raven says quickly, interrupting Iatril, “this is incredibly lenient for him, Nightmare Moon.”

“Raven!” Iatril shouts. Luna only looks down at the avian with contempt.

“Sorry, Iatril. Dante’s orders. I must refer to her as ‘Nightmare Moon’ until he says otherwise. Anyways, from what I’ve seen and heard, Dante only gives people a day at most to make this sort of decision.”

“Then why give us a week?” Luna asks. Raven looks over at Iatril.

“Because,” Iatril says, “you surprised him.” She gestures to Princess Cadence. “At his age, almost nothing surprises him anymore. Besides…” She looks back over at Princess Luna.

“What?” Luna asks.

“It’s nothing. I…need to go speak with Dante for a while. Afterwards, you may consider my services at your disposal. If you’ll excuse me Princesses, Fluttershy, everypony.” Iatril turns to leave, Flurry stepping in line behind her. Raven grunts as he hops off of Flurry’s back and onto the ground.

“Dante has ordered me to stay nearby so I may deliver your answer to him immediately, whenever you should make that decision.” Raven says, walking closer to the throne. “I am also to answer any questions you have, or call for Dante should I be unable to answer anything.”

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

‘Ah, what a lovely garden.’ Dante thought to himself.

All around him were flowers and trees of various color and size. Some flora he was familiar with: tulips, roses, sunflowers, a multitude of other ‘pretty’ flowers, as Dante called them. Sure, he knew they had other purposes in nature—as Iatril had told him many times—but that didn’t change their appearance. Though he knew much about the topic, flora wasn’t particularly interesting to Dante. What really got Dante’s attention was the fact that these plants had magic flowing through them.

‘Such intricate patterns. From the roots, up the stems, and to the petals; circle around in the petals a few times, then out into the air. But what if…’ Dante leans over to pluck a sunflower from most of its stem. ‘Aha! The magic stops coming out, circling around much more slowly inside to preserve itself. Ingenious. Much different from the walls of that cave, where the magic just clung to every surface. It seems every living thing contains some amount of magic; even the stone walls have magic over them, though that’s probably not natural. I think that’s just from all these ponies being near them. Or, possibly, the magic from the princesses is so intense it just spreads out and settles on everything in the area. I should figure that out sometime.’

Looking up from the decapitated flower, Dante sees a pair of unicorn royal guards watching him from the outside corridor. Their hard stares, however, don’t even faze the warlock.

‘Bah. As if they could do any lasting damage to me. Not like those princesses.’

Dante looks down at his twice burned hand, observing the two burn lines on his palm.

‘Quite peculiar. The burns from the Elements remain, as is expected. I can regenerate almost any form of damage on my body. Good magic is one of two things that can permanently harm me, without magical healing of course. The other is a weapon forged with cold iron and infused with good magic. The fact that these Elements can harm me is one thing, but the princesses were able do the same thing with their magical blasts. It’s been a long time since I had to actively heal myself with my eldritch magic. My demonic powers have been quite good at healing…my demonic powers. I almost forgot about that. Maybe plants can be used. I’ll have to experiment a little while I wait. Maybe that forest Iatril mentioned will help out and—’

“Dante!” Iatril called out, dropping from the second floor window of the castle to the garden.

‘I was wondering when she would show up.’ Dante turns to face his companion, who was walking around a patch of tulips to meet him.

“What is it?” Dante asks, playing with the sunflower in his hand.

“Just thought I’d check on you; make sure you weren’t getting into any trouble.” Iatril replies, stopping in front of him.

“Psh. Beating up two princesses and five members of a royal guard is enough for me.”

“Yeah, right.” Iatril says, rolling her eyes. “Uh, Dante?” She asks, pointing to the flower in his hand. “What’s that?”

“…a sunflower?” Dante says, rather unsure. “You’re the druid. Shouldn’t you know this? Maybe you’re going senile!” He says with a laugh.

“Why a sunflower?”

“It was nearby and…” Dante stops, thinking for a moment.

‘Do something with it.’

He steps around Iatril, lifting her braided hair and sticking the stem in between the braids.

“What was that for?” Iatril asks, looking back at the sunflower.

‘Say something.’

“Sunflowers are your favorite, aren’t they?” He says, stepping back in front of her.

Iatril looks Dante up and down before speaking again. “Are…you okay, Dante?”

“A fleeting moment of clarity can be wondrous, can’t it?” Dante asks, walking over to a small stream to gaze into.

Iatril stands there, staring at him.

“Dante?” Iatril finally speaks.

“Hmmm?” Dante turns around to face her. “Oh, Iatril. When did you get here?”

“…just a moment ago. I…wanted to talk to you about…your plans for the other nations.”

“You alright?”

“Yeah.” Iatril says, wiping away a tear before it even leaves her eye. “I guess I’m just a little tired. I’m fine to talk, though.”

“Well, alright then.” Dante says, clapping his hands together. “But let’s walk while we talk.” He passes her, noticing the sunflower in her braid. “What’s with the sunflower?”

“I just thought it would be a nice addition to my outfit. You know, more plants.” She says with a smile. “Besides, they’re my favorite, remember?”

“Huh. I guess.” Dante says, continuing his walk, not noticing the silent tears from Iatril as she follows behind him. “So, about the griffons…”

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Evening rolled around without much incident. The three princesses discussed what should be done about Dante and his proposal. There were simply too many different possibilities. For instance, he could be lying to them about this ‘Aselith’; he may not even exist, and if he does he may be the one trying to stop Dante from taking over the world. Based on Dante’s behavior, it wouldn’t be that far of a stretch. A problem with that is Iatril. While Dante was something of an enigma for the most part, Celestia had no trouble reading Iatril’s emotions. She was genuinely concerned about the princesses’ well-being and was aggravated by Dante’s behavior.

Wanting to get a better idea of their visitors, the princesses asked Twilight and her friends what they thought, as they had spent some small amount of time with Iatril. Luna was absent from this meeting, as she needed to rest before night court started. Each of the six had something to say about Dante or Iatril, or both.

Twilight thought Iatril was alright, but wouldn’t even consider Dante to be anything remotely good.

Rarity believed Iatril was good as well, considering how she brought them right to the capital when they were needed.

Applejack wasn’t keen about trusting either of them; Dante for his violence and Iatril for her lying.

Fluttershy believed whole-heartedly that Iatril had their best interests at heart. She was even willing to trust Dante if Iatril did.

Rainbow, with similar reasoning as Fluttershy, refused to trust either one of them. Dante was apparently working with her brother—whom she refused to talk about—and since Iatril was with Dante, she didn’t trust her either.

Pinkie thought Iatril was a good pony/person/dragon/thing and Dante was okay too, despite her still being tired from his spell.

With the varying opinions of Dante and Iatril, Celestia felt it was wiser to validate their claim, rather than their trustworthiness. She set Crescent Moon on the task of scrying for Aselith, having been given a general idea of what he looks like. Raven mentioned the futility of such an action, but Celestia felt it was better to try this anyways. Not wanting to rely on magical detection alone, she had Shining Armor put together a search for Aselith. Raven couldn’t give any advice as to where to search, as Aselith hid in all manner of locations, from barren wastelands to populated capitals. That evening, twenty groups of two pegasi were sent out in every direction to gleam any information they possibly could.

As the hours rolled on, Iatril offered Spike and the mares from Ponyville a ride back to their homes. Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash wanted to stay behind for their own reasons, but Celestia convinced them to head home and rest. Iatril said she would stay in Ponyville for the night and come back tomorrow to make repairs to the castle. Cadence selected a pegasus to act as an envoy to the griffons to alert them of Aselith. The pegasus would leave first thing in the morning, arriving in the griffon kingdom two to three days from now. Flurry, at the request of Iatril, stayed at the castle with Dante, who refused to leave the area. Raven also stayed behind to be near one of the princesses at all times.

After Iatril took everypony back to Ponyville on the back of her cloud-like transmutated body, Luna held her night court. Raven perched himself in the garden to sleep, leaving Luna to do her work in relative peace.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

“No, there is no dragon attack on Canterlot.” Luna said to the fifth citizen that came before her to inquire about the subject. She never before had as large of a crowd as Celestia in her night court, but the crowd tonight was even larger than that. Likely, every pony who couldn’t come during the day felt they needed to come immediately that night, and most of them had similar questions: ‘Why did a dragon come to Canterlot?’ ‘What was the creature that was brought in by the guards?’ ‘Is Canterlot under attack?’ Of course, these questions were important, but their repetition started to wear on Luna’s nerves too quickly. Almost as quickly as something that didn’t belong in the court.

After the last pony came and left, Luna had her night guards leave the room. She sighed and looked around the room from her throne.

“How long are you going to skulk around in here?” She calls out to the room.

“Hmmm, you sensed me.” Dante replies, his form slowly appearing next to the grand doors of the throne room. “When did you realize I was here?”

“Since you came into the room, when night court started.”

“I was under the impression you needed to use your horn to find me.” He said, strolling up to the throne.

“I may not be able to see you, but I can sense the evil in you quite easily.” Luna said with a hiss.

“Heh.” Dante flops onto the adjoining throne, more laying on it than sitting. “Yeah, I suppose it is pretty easy to sense your own, isn’t it, Nightmare Moon?”

Luna doesn’t even change her expression. “You’re just going to keep calling me that, aren’t you?”

“Probably.”

“I may as well get used to it. I don’t feel as though I’ve gotten the hatred I deserve from everypony, so maybe this is making up for it.”

“Awe, don’t say that. Now I’ll have to try harder!”

“Do what you will. I know I deserve it.”

Dante looks over at the princess of the night, eyeing her warily. “Iatril told you how to deal with me, didn’t she?”

Luna smirked. “She may have given me a piece of advice or two.”

“Damn her!” He says, sitting up. “She just had to go and ruin my fun.”

“I don’t suppose this means you’ll cease these foolish taunts now?”

“You aren’t getting off that easy!” Dante says, turning to face the princess. “I’ll stop calling you that once I think you’ve earned to be called something else.”

“*sigh* I thought as much. When do you think that will be?”

“Don’t know. If you decide not to work with me, it won’t be a problem. If you do…well, time will tell.”

“Speaking of time, shouldn’t you be asleep? It’s almost midnight.”

“I’d say the opposite about your sister being asleep. Then again, I’ve known outsiders who need to sleep and eat. Regardless, thanks to a freak accident over a decade ago, I no longer require true sleep.”

“An accident?”

“Yeah. Suffice to say I was trying to obtain immortality, and I ended up with youth and a shorted time needed for sleep.”

“Really? How old are you then?”

“Physically, I’d say about twenty-five. In terms of my years spent alive, about one hundred. If I don’t get myself killed, I could live another three hundred, maybe more. And, before you ask, humans generally live to be about ninety or so, assuming disease doesn’t kill us. If it does, sixty to sixty-five.”

“That’s quite impressive.” Luna says, here interests piqued. “Why were you trying to become immortal?”

“Let’s just say I still had work to do in the world of the living and leave it at that. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” He says, standing from the throne, “I think I’ll retire for the night.”

“I thought you didn’t need more sleep.”

“I don’t, but I’m hungry and have found this conversation to bore me. Goodnight, Princess.”

Before she can reply, he disappears from sight.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Dante sets up his mansion in the garden and enters it, closing the portal behind him. Once inside, he tries contacting Shade Strider.

“Shade, how’s the trip going so far?”

“What did you do to my sister?! I swear, if you hurt her in any way, I’ll find a way to hurt you! You wanted—”

‘Apparently, he forgot about the twenty-five word limit.’

“Twenty-five words, Shade. She’ll be fine. I only made her tired, like I said before. She’ll be fine in the morning. Now, your trip?”

“…the trip is going fine. I stopped for the night. I should arrive tomorrow night or early the next day.”

“Excellent. Have you considered my proposal to work for me?”

“I’ll need more time to decide.”

“Sure, sure. In the meantime, I want you to deliver a message to the griffon king for me.”

“I’m not working for you yet. Call me tomorrow night and I’ll make up my mind then.”

“Okay, fair enough.”

With that, Dante decided to leave that problem for later. Instead, he turned his thoughts to the day’s events. Discord turned out to be the first warlock ever. Quite a bizarre thing to be found here of all places, but that did fill Dante with some hope. Should the fighting with Aselith turn out well, returning to his own world seemed more possible.

Another thing on his mind was Iatril. She seemed more distracted than usual. He could have sworn he saw her crying, but he said nothing about it. He thought he understood why, though. Lately, she’s been saying things that haven’t actually happened, like a conversation or an event.

‘Maybe.’ He thought. ‘Maybe she’s losing her memory.’

END CHAPTER

Author's Note

Hey everyone. I'm going to start updating this story once about every 2-3 weeks for a while. Stuff piling up, work to do, yadda yadda. Just a heads up for y'all.

Also, the Spell Guessing Game is still going on for Chapters 8, 10, and 12. You can do it!

And...I believe that's everything. See you later!