Divinity II: Return of the Damned

“So there I was atop a mountain as legions of the undead and demons, charged towards the cities of old back before your princesses were born. And Patriarch with his prowess, and  our help and some of the old creatures of back  pushed them back to the gates of hell!" The Patriarch watched as Fern told another story of when they had helped push the damned one back into tartarus, to the crowd of ponies both young and old.

He looked back at the two minor goddesses who were talking to the newer one who apparently had a panic attack. Smiling he reminded himself of how they reacted to how humans reacted to them, it was definitely a different, but a better reaction.

He stretched his wings again, feeling the coming of a cramp. As it subsided he let his wings fold back against his torso, as he waited for the royal highnesses to finish talking to each other, for what was a few hours or minutes to one whom lived for millennia longer than they? He let his eyes wander over the hills separating the capital Canterlot, from the rural town of Ponyville, and then he let his magic wander over those around him.

“Patriarch.” He inched his right eye open to see the Alicorns including the new one standing in front of him. He lowered his head until he was eye level with them.

“I take it you all are ready to talk?” The purple minituare alicorn nodded her head, or at least he think it was purple, it was either that or lavender.

Celestia smiled and pushed the same alicorn forward. “This here is my personal student Twilight Sparkle, element of magic, savior of Equestria three times, and recently made princess.”

Patriarch bent his wing so that one talon of it extended in front of young Twilight, she stared at it with a nervous smile. “I believed it was custom to shake the hoofs of a new pony?” Her eyes widened  and she reached out with her hoof and shook his talon. A slight smile reached his lips, showing his oversized teeth making her even more nervous. He turned his head slightly towards Celestia before speaking. “I’m glad to see that you picked a pony with so much potential, it has been a long time since I’ve seen somepony that wasn’t a god with her potential.”

The unicorn blushed at his comment before bowing her head. “And it’s nice to meet you ummm Patriarch.”

Nodding at her he turned his attention back to Celestia. “I was under the impression no more alicorns, or gods could be born. Due to your father’s… predicament.”

Twilight looked up at her royal mentor wondering about what he was talking about, to see a scowl on Celestia’s features. If it weren’t for the fact she had spent years around her she would’ve passed it off  as a trick of the light. “Well I’d rather not talk about him. As for Twilight, Starswirl another magically gifted unicorn made a spell to turn a pony into an alicorn.”

“But he was lacking two things, the magic of friendship and the amount of magic Twilight possesses." She blushed even more as they were talking about her as though she wasn’t there.

The patriarch nodded. “I thought it was possible to do such a thing, but I felt no need myself. Now this magic of friendship… I take it is the same magic you and your sib- er sister used a few thousand years ago?”

Celestia lowered her gaze as she remembered the time when they had found the elements the first time and what had followed. A cough from her sister reminded her that they weren’t in her private study or anywhere remotely private, she snapped her head back up and started talking ignoring the weird looks she was getting from some her subjects around her.

“Yes they are. I suppose your children already told you about my sister’s wander into the darker area of magic correct?” He nodded. “Well I used the elements of Harmony on her a thousand years ago.  And a year ago she broke loose.  My pupil Twilight and five of her friends harnessed the elements of harmony and expelled the curse set on Luna.”

The Patriarch looked over to Luna, who was currently sulking. “Luna.” Startled she looked up. “What has you so down?”

She rubbed her leg as she looked back down shamefully. “We are thinking about what we did when we were Nightmare Moon. And before you interrupt us sister it is our fault.”

“Tch. Tch. Look at me Luna, so I can tell you something.”  Luna looked back up at him, as he lowered his head even more. “I’ve seen the greatest of mages, kings, warrior fall to darkness. No one has ever been immune to dark magic and gods are no exception. Now before you say anything remember that I have lived long before you and have seen everything that has come to pass.”

“Still doesn’t pardon us.”

“I didn’t say it did." He raised his head back up slightly, and with a grin he said to Celestia. "Now if it wouldn’t be to rude to ask who are these other elements?”

Celestia nudged Twilight. “Please go get your friends Twilight. Patriarch would like to be brought up to speed on all the events I’m guessing?” He smiled at them. Looking back at Twilight she gave her a go on gesture. So Twilight left to do as she was asked.

“Ah such innocence it has been a long time since I’ve seen that. But yes please tell me what I missed in my slumber.”

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Discord watched as Patriarch was conversing with Sunbutt and Luna. Turning away from his cotton telescope as his mismatched feet clacked against the wooden floor of the balcony. Snapping his fingers the doors leading inside slid into the walls to show his own safe haven.

The floor was a literal rainbow of colors with the chandelier coming out of the corner before flipping upside down to actually point the right way. The left wall was made out of a miniature ocean complete with miniature whales and sharks, with the occasional hurricane, while the right was where his bed and other belongings somehow managed to stay attached to the wall.

And the ceiling… well it changed every five minutes and at the moment it was a desert, which didn’t mix well with the ocean on the left. Sighing he flopped onto his bed, which was double the size of any king bed, large enough to bed several ponies. Bouncing horizontally to gravity, he brought a glass of chocolate to his lips, drinking the actual milk for once. When he was finished with it he crumbled the glass into a ball and casually tossed it up and down.

“Here I was thinking that he was going to be asleep longer than a few thousand years. Oh well guess I have to deal with him too. Later though not in the mood.” A rope floated in front of him, giving it a light tug it rang the bell it was attached to.

After a second the door to his room opened, letting a blue coated and pink maned mare come in. He bowed as soon as he did, his entire body quivering slightly. “You rang?” A tickle on her nose caused him to open her eyes. Crossing them she noticed a piece of paper. Grabbing it with her hoof she read it, her eyes widening as she read it until she reached the bottom. Stuffing it in her mouth she bowed again then ran out to do as she was asked.

Discord sank further into his bed until only the tip of his nose was visible and even then, it was barely visible. After another few minutes the door opened back up, and he floated back up out of the bed, until he was the same way before his servant left. Grabbing the bottle from her he muttered a thank you and put the bottle to his face.

He peered into it as if it held the secrets of the universe he stayed that way for quite some time before he calmly unscrewed the top and put the lid of it into his nose. He took a deep whiff, making sure to savor the smell. Once the entire bottle was empty he handed it back to his servant. “Please make sure  to refill that when you pass by the gardens later.” She bowed before backing out of the room with the glass vial in her mouth.

His body relaxed, and the world faded away, along with all his worries. Now some would say if they saw him now that he was high on drugs. But he wasn’t high on drugs. He was high on the smell of some exotic rose in the garden he had stumbled across a month ago, it just seemed to relax him when nothing else can.  He let himself sink back into the bed as he entered his own little paradise.

He lay there for what seemed like only a few seconds to him, but he knew for a fact that when he was relaxed time seemed to fly by, when he heard Sunbutt call his name. With a huff he let gravity take over and make him fall out of his vertical bed, twisting in the air he landed on his feet. With a snap of his fingers he appeared in front of Sunbutt. Giving a little bow he straightened back up. “So what did you want Celly?” She pointed behind him, he gave her a weird look before turning around.

As soon as he did he remembered why he had taken a sniff of that rose, and that was because Patriarch was awake and here visiting. Discord gave the ancient dragon an awkward smile, which he was returned with a faceful of smoke. “Heh nice to see you again Patriarch.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Am I the only one who thinks this is awkward?”

The Patriarch lowered his face just enough so Discord could see the hate in his eyes, but still high enough so that Discord had to look up. "From what I remember you took after your father a bit too much... so what's this I hear about you reforming. Because if you ask me you're doing another one of your clever ruses.

Waving his arms back and forth Discord sputtered, “Hey look that was thousands of years ago! I’ve changed besides, I never hurt anyone!”

“Perhaps but you still brought onto this land even more chaos after we locked up the Damned one. And it doesn’t help that you were weakening the chains locking him up. Furthermore how can one change when they are locked away in stone?”

Discord started to back up, and the Patriarch responded by stepping closer. “Look power of friendship and that stuff!” He looked to his left and quickly added. “Look Fluttershy will vouch for me, she’s an element of harmony!” He quickly snapped his fingers making himself disappear.

A scowl came onto his lips but he did look in the direction Discord had pointed in, seeing the young alicorn with five other ponies and the young dragon in tow. He raised his head as they approached. “Ah so I take that you six are the new elements of harmony?” He said indicating with his wing.

The six ponies bowed, with Twilight standing up first. “Yes these are my friends from left to right, Rainbow Dash the element of loyalty, Applejack the element of honesty, Rarity the element of generosity, Fluttershy the element of kindness and… has anypony seen where Pinkie went?” The ancient dragon grinned, it had been such a long time since anyone had snuck up on him, much less when they were in his sight.

“I believe I know where this Pinkie is.” They all looked up at him to see a familiar mare bouncing on his head.

“Pinkie get down from there! He’s the equivalent of royalty!” As soon as Rarity finished her sentence Pinkie was encased in a bluish glow. She started to float into the air with Pinkie giggling as she was slowly put down onto the ground. As her hoofs touched the ground the glow slowly died off leaving her bouncing once more in place.

“And that’s Pinkie the element of laughter.”

Patriarch extended his wing to each of them shaking their hoofs, but with Fluttershy she required a bit of coaxing from her friends. After they had all shaken hoofs with his talon he turned his attention to Fluttershy. “From what I hear you’ll vouch for Discord’s redemption is that true?”

“Um yes I’ll vouch for him why do I need to though?”

With a poof of smoke Discord appeared next to Fluttershy. “He’s stuck on the fact that I caused so much chaos a few thousand years… are you okay Fluttershy?” He peered at the pink bowling ball that was Fluttershy. When she noticed it was him though she uncurled herself from her fetal position.

“Yes I’m okay but please don’t do that. And Mr. Patriarch I can vouch for him being redeemed.”

“I still doubt it, but it is not my place to decide what goes on, as this is not my kingdom. Now as for you six from what I hear you all saved Equestria twice?”

Rainbow Dash smirked and said before anyone else could, “Well Twily here helped save Equestria all by herself from the changelings a while back, well almost we all got caught before we could use the elements on those bugs! And we all helped save the Crystal Kingdom a month or so ago.”

Fully lowering himself on the ground he let his teeth show, in a grin. “Pray tell.”