Hey there mah lovely readers! This is the last chapter of "A Discorded Love" before I bring forth the Epilogue, which will lead to the much-anticipated sequal. I haven't really decided on a title yet...
But let's get to it, shall we?
***
"I saw you kiss that stallion!" Discord said with distaste. Maria's eyes widened. He knew?! But how?
Earlier that morning...
After not getting a wink of sleep the night before, Discord was exhausted. His children were all sleeping in the livingroom, the twins lying on one side of the couch, while Screwball curled up on the other side.
Now having some time to himself, he sat on the end of the bed that he shared with Maria. He was fully aware that it was closing in on their seven-year anniversary, and he'd been pondering what to do for her.
Perhaps he could take her to the Gala? She hadn't been able to attend the past few years, and it would do her some good to spend a little more time away from the kids-seeing as he now understood how much patience she had. And maybe he could have their zebra neighbor, Zecora, who was also their godmother, foalsit the three while they were gone.
Discord was no longer tired as he planned out the night. He was in the middle of creating Maria's outfit when a voice interrupted him.
"Hello, old friend..."
"I thought I got rid of you," Discord growled.
His chaotic voice chuckled. "How foolish-really, I thought you'd be smarter than that," it said. "You will never be able to rid yourself of me. But that's not what I'm here to talk about."
"Then what are you here for? To say your farewell's?"
"Oh ha, ha, very funny, who are you Jerry Seinfield? (yes I did that on purpose...) No, I've come to tell you that your 'wife' is with some pony else."
"Oh that's rich!" Discord scoffed. "You're just trying to get me upset so that I'd unleash my chaos,"
"I'm afraid that's not the case this time. If you don't believe me, look into that magic mirror of yours,"
Hesitant, Discord summoned his mirror, asking to see Maria.
His blood began to boil as he saw that Silver Knight making out with his wife. He tossed the mirror aside, disgusted with Maria. But what he failed to see was the female draconequus slapping the guard.
He stormed into the living room, waking the fillies and the baby draconequus. Before they could say anything, Discord casted a sleep spell onto them, teleporting their sleeping forms into Screwball's room. When that was taken care of he waited for Maria to return, plotting his revenge.
***
"I didn't kiss anyone, Discord," she argued, trying to keep her cool. If she exploded on him now, there's no telling what he'd do.
"Oh really? Then explain what happened, and don't even dare try to lie!"
"Silver and I got into an argument, he got jealous, then he forced a kiss on me! Forced being the key word here," she explained.
Discord narrowed his eyes at her, sneaking into her mind while she was explaining. He accessed her memories, and sure enough, she had been telling the truth. His features softened, and he suddenly felt guilty, his anger at her fading.
"Oh," was all he could say.
"You should know this by now, Discord. I have, and always will, love
you, and I would never cheat on you," Maria said, stepping closer to her husband. He embraced her tightly.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I should know better than to accuse you of such things."
"It's al.right; you know the truth now."
"Yes, and now that I know he's at fault, I fully intend to teach him a lesson," Discord's voice had turned dark. Maria pulled away.
"What do you mean, 'teach him a lesson'?" she asked, or rather, demanded.
"You don't expect me to let him get away with this, do you?" he asked.
"What are you planning, Discord?"
"I can't say-it's a surprise," he suddenly picked her up bridal style. "To the roof!" he said with an odd tone of glee.
***
Chaos was the first to wake up. He yawned, sitting up and looking around. for some reason, he was in Screwy's room. He nudged for Random to wake up, and her eyes slowly opened. She let out a cute little sqeak as she yawned, then sat up to face her brother.
'Why'd you wake me up? I was having a good dream that had chocolate rain everywhere! It was delicious," The twins established a telepathic communication system while they were being developed in Maria's womb. That being said, they were able to talk to each other without really talking.
'Look Random, we're in big sissy's room!' Chaos pointed out.
'How'd we get here?'
'I think Daddy put us in here,'
'Oh,' Random said. 'Do you think Mommy's home yet?'
'I don't know,'
'There's only one way to find out,' the little purple filly struggled to climb down from the talk bed. Chaos watched her with vague interest.
'And what's that?'
'We go look for her ourselves. Big sissy can take our nap for us!'
'Good idea Random!' Chaos teleported to the floor, helping his sister down as well. Even in his early age, Chaos was almost as powerful as his father, but at times had difficulty controlling it. 'Where do you think she is?'
Random thought for a moment. 'I know! Maybe she's outside? She has been planting those pretty flowers in the backyard lately,'
'Then what are we waiting for?' Chaos asked. 'Let's go find Mommy!'
***
"Discord! What are you doing?!" Maria asked as he set her on her feet.
"Well, I thought you'd like a front row seat for the show!" Discord said giddily. He was too happy for Maria's taste, and she had a bad feeling about this so-called "show".
"What show? Discord, you tell me what you're planning right now!"
He let a devilish smile cross his features, and he let out an odd chuckle. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes,"
"You really, really wanna know?"
"Yes, Discord, I really, really, really want to know."
"Do you really, real-"
"Shut up and tell me already!" she burst. He chuckled again, leaning towards her like he was telling her a secret.
"I'm going to make Silver disappear!"
Maria gasped, "You don't mean-I mean you're not going to...?"
Discord's smile fell slightly. "You don't want him to pay? Don't want him to be punished for his wrongful doings?"
"Well yes, but..."
"But what?"
"That's a bit harsh, dontcha think?"
Discord stared at her. "Well," he said, thinking. "It seems we've reached an impasse. How shall we settle this...? I know!"
He snapped, and Maria's body suddenly felt heavier. She collapsed to the ground, weak. Discord knelt down, picking her up. He sat her in a chair.
"Now just sit there and watch, okay m'dear? I know what's best," he said, kissing the top of her head.
"What about your promise to me?" she said, hurt.
"Why Maria, I haven't taken your powers from you! Well, at least not all of them," he said. "I haven't necessarily broken any promise,"
He turned and inspected the area: they were on the highest part of the castle, which overlooked over half of Equestria. It was a platform of sorts, shaped like an 8, with a short stone wall covering the outside, allowing somepony to lean on it and peer down to the ground. A large stone hedge divided the platform into two parts, a small wooden door the only way to pass between. The opposite end of the hedge where Discord and Maria were was the small head of the 8, and over the years, had been been worn out. Too much weight, and the whole part collapses. Discord never bothered to fix it, seeing as it only added to the chaos that was his castle.
"Please don't do this," Maria pleaded.
Discord ignored her. "This would be perfect," he mused. He faced Maria, making the stallion at fault appear.
Silver Knight was hog-tied and gagged. Discord's excitement was masked with a grim expression. Maria was helpless to do anything.
"So you're Silver Knight. If you haven't already guessed, I'm Discord, Spirit of Chaos, as well as Maria's husband," Silver looked overly scared as he realized his predicament. "Now that introductions are done, I'm sure you're now realizing what a mess you've gotten youself into, aren't you?"
Silver began to struggle, feeble protests muffled by the gag. Tears began to form, and Discord felt an odd pride that he could still strike fear into ponies.
"If you're trying to apologize, don't bother," Discord said, setting the stallion onto the ledge. Silver was sobbing uncontrollably now, no doubt sorry for his actions.
Maria knew then what he was planning. "Discord..." she said. "Please don't do this..."
Discord turned, "What'd you say m'dear?" he looked over his shoulder seeing that his tail had knocked over the sea green stallion. A smile curled onto his face. "Whoopsie!"
Maria closed her eyes, which failed to block out Silver's screams as he fell, as well as the sickening thud as he landed. Tears pricked at her eyes.
She felt her magic return, but she didn't want to move. "Well now that's done," Discord said, brushing his hands together, "What's next on the agenda?"
"Why?" she muttered.
"Pardon me?"
"Why did you do that?" she demanded. "You didn't have to do that! You didn't have to kill him!"
"Well I certainly wasn't going to allow him to get away with that," he argued. "He forced himself onto you, what else was I supposed to do?!"
"Not that! That wasn't necessary!" she burst. "You went too far this time!"
"What do you mean? I think it was perfectly reasonable!"
"Reasonable? Reasonable?! You call throwing somepony over the edge of a castle reasonable?"
"...Yes."
"Why are you so difficult?" she growled.
"Me? Difficult? I highly resent that statement, for you are more difficult than I!"
"Oh really? And how's that?"
"Because...well...you know that one time you..." he trailed off. "You know what? You're just difficult, simple as that,"
"That doesn't even make any sense!"
"Does anything I do make any sense?"
"...Touché."
While their parents argued, Chaos and Random had finished searching the backyard.
'She's not here,' Random said sadly.
'Wait, I think they're on the top of the castle!' Chaos said with excitement.
'How do you know?'
'I feel Daddy's magic!'
'You could get us up there with your magic!' Random said excitedly.
'Umm, I don't know about that. I've never had to teleport that far before...'
'Come on! I know you can do it!'
'Well, I'll try.' Chaos held his sister's hand and focused on getting to the top. The two found themselves on the top of the castle. But their parent's weren't anywhere. All they saw was stone.
'They're not here!' Random said. Chaos didn't answer, and she looked over her shoulder to see her brother watching a butterfly. It's wings were like crystal, shining in the evening sun. She too, became intrigued with it, and the two of them chased after it. Chaos flapped his little mismatched wings, with no luck of gaining any altitude.
The butterfly flew a bit higher, causing the twins to put more effort into their chase. It landed on the ledge of the platform, and the two quieted down, like two predators on the hunt. Random crouched like a cat, ready to pounce. She leaped just after the butterfly began to fly, causing her to miscalculate, and she put more power into her jump. Her hooves slid across the stone, and her lower half hung over the edge. She screamed, pawing at the stone with hopes to gain leverage.
Maria's ears twitched. Discord was going on about something irrelevant to the topic in which started this whole mess.
"Shh!" she said.
"Did you just shush me?!" he asked, and she put up a hand.
"I thought I heard Random," she whispered.
"That's ridiculous! Random's in Screwball's room with Chaos and Screwy," Discord said.
Chaos had jumped onto the ledge with Random, and was trying to pull her up. A slight crackle sounded, and part of the ledge they were standing on chipped, a large chunk of rock falling. Chaos fell over onto his stomach, and Random was now hanging by her brother's hands. They both let out a terrified scream.
This time, both parents heard it. Maria's head snapped to the hedge that divided the two platforms together. She sent a glance at Discord, who was doing the same. The two dashed for the door, flinging it open. They gasped as they saw the twins hanging over the edge.
"Random! Chaos!" Maria shouted, attempting to run towards them. Discord pulled her back.
"You can't just go over there!" he said. "The platform's about to collapse,"
"Then what do you suppose we do?!" she panicked.
Discord looked over at his kids. "You stay here. I'll get them,"
Maria was about to protest, but Discord had already begun to carefully make his way across the floor. It cracked, but held just enough for Discord to make it close to the edge. He barely had time to grab Chaos's hand before the entire ledge gave out, and now both children were hanging by their father's hand.
Chaos whimpered, the weight of his sister straining his arm. Random shrieked as she saw how high up they were.
"Just hold on, my darlings!" Discord said, fully aware that the platform was crumbling as he laid there. Maria, watching in horror as he husband pulled Chaos up painfully slow. Chaos was slowly loosing his grip on his sister.
Chaos's pawed hand suddenly slipped as Discord pulled him up, and Random was thrust down. Maria wasted no time as she sprinted over the edge, and Discord watch both his daughter and his wife fall over the edge.
Random flailed as she fell, her terrified screams echoing off the building. Maria outstretched her arms, clawing the air in an effort to get closer to her daughter. Her hands grazed her daughter, and with another reach, had fully grasped the purple filly.
Maria pulled her close, Random clinging to her. She flipped her body so that it was like a cradle for her daughter.
"MOMMY!" Random screamed.
Maria shushed her, enveloping Random within her body. "Everything's gonna be okay," she whispered to her.
The ground came closer.
Maria's mind was filled with pain.
And then...darkness.