Discord smiled. He was overjoyed at the sheer amount of chaos that he and his newly found partner Tirek had caused. He stood and watched as the small homes and shops that covered the ever so cheerful town of Ponyville began to burn away. He watched as Tirek's beams of red energy shot out of his horns, demolishing the tops of buildings and causing them to crumble apart like a house of cards. The air was thick with smoke, and the only noise that could be heard were the sounds of screaming ponies. The flames that would start in one house quickly spread to the next, and all of the innocent little ponies who were trying to save their precious loved ones would either fail miserably or join them under the broken rubble. It was the same pattern with every new noise they heard. First came the sound of crackling flames, then the explosion could be heard shortly after, followed by screaming, pleading, the collapse, and finally; silence.

Tirek trotted over to Discord, his massive hooves crushing every cart and barrel beneath him. He placed his arm around Discord's shoulder and grinned. "Enjoying yourself, I see."

"Oh, you have no idea." Discord replied, wrapping his paw around Tirek in the same notion. "We really should do this again some time."

"Twilight, please! Stay with me! Please, Twilight! You...you can't die!" the yellow pegasus cried as she held onto her friend's hoof with care while Twilight struggled to keep her eyes open. All she could feel was pain. She was now trapped under the several tons of broken wood that was once her library, which was slowly crushing her spine along with all internal organs. She looked up at her teary eyed friend with despair. She felt even worse for Fluttershy, who would be forced to watch her friend die this way. She knew how emotional Fluttershy was, and that this experience would absolutely destroy her. She already knew that there was no hope for survival at this point, so all she could think to do now was to get Fluttershy to head somewhere safe.

"Fluttershy. L-Listen to me." Twilight used as much strength as she could to get those small words out as to make it loud enough for Fluttershy to hear. "You...have to...to..." she suddenly coughed out a mouth full of blood and continued talking. "...get out of here. You'll die. Don't...d-don't worry about...me."

"Shut up!" Fluttershy cried, her tears endlessly flowing out of her eyes. "You're gonna make it! We all are! We'll all make it out of this alive together!" she screamed, already well aware that all of her other friends were already long dead. She could not loose Twilight. She would not loose another friend.

But what was she supposed to do? She had already tried lifting the broken tree off of her, and there was no pony left around that could help. For all she knew, they were the only two ponies left alive in all of Ponyville. Or at least what used to be Ponyville. She continued to scream, the tears almost blinding her vision as she held all the tighter onto Twilight's hoof, which she could tell was quickly loosing strength.

"Fluttershy...please...let me go." Twilight used every bit of strength she had left to say those last few words before finally giving in to the pain. With one last breath, her head fell to the side and her eyes slowly shut for the final time; the image of her only living friend crying over her being the last thing she would ever see.

Fluttershy was broken. She had nothing now. Everyone she cared for, everything she loved; gone. How could he do this? How could he just betray them like the way he did? Why? Did she do something wrong? Was she not able to reform him like she had hoped? Was she not nice enough to him? She was the Element of Kindness for Celestia's sake. She did everything she could to keep him under control. To be his friend. To show him the kindness that only a true friend could show someone. Was this all it was for? Was everything she had done for him; all that she had ever known to be true kindness; was it all for not? Was this what she deserved for failing Celestia? Was this the price she paid for not being able to reform him? For not being able to show him true kindness?

Fluttershy held the head of her lost friend tightly between her hooves, holding onto it with all the strength she had left. Her tears mixed with the blood that covered Twilight's head and mouth. She could feel her friend's fluids against her cheek as she caressed her corpse, but she didn't care. She just needed someone...anyone to be next to for right now. Twilight was all she had. She was all she would ever have again. There was no point in leaving her now. Life was pointless now. She would be by her friend's side until the very end; no matter what.

"Oh, how deeply touching." a hauntingly familiar voice called out from behind her. She recognized that tone of voice anywhere. Peering above her head, she saw the grey faced draconequus looking down over her, a small tissue wiping a fake tear out of the corner of his sinister eyes. Fluttershy's eyes widened as she stared at Discord's sick expression, making her feel several different emotions of anger and sorrow. After disappearing and instantly reappearing beside Tirek, who she saw had been standing there behind them with his arms crossed, smiling and watching this entire time, Discord patted his new companion on the back and laughed.

"Look at this, Tirek. Lonesome Fluttershy crying over her beloved Twiligth Sparkle. You know, it's moments like this that really get to me." he said in his jokester like tone, blowing his nose into the piece of tissue before it vanished in a flash of white light.

Fluttershy choked her next words out as slow and as forceful as she could muster. "How could you do this?" she cried, holding her friend's head all the more tightly up against her tired chest. "I thought we were friends."

Discord shrugged, keeping his usual cocky smile across his face. "Oh, we were. But Tirek offered me so much more than just silly tea parties. Surely you saw this coming?"

Fluttershy could not bare to look at Discord anymore. She kept her eyes closed as she pressed her face against Twilight's dead body, hoping for it all to be over. "I didn't. I really didn't."

Taking a few steps forward, Tirek looked down at the small pegasus with a demonic glare, bringing his front right hoof up and lifting it over the sobbing Fluttershy. She closed her eyes and waited. She knew that there was no escaping this time. Whatever death would bring, the idea that it could be anything worse than this was no longer possible. With one final victory shout, Tirek brought his hoof down on the broken Fluttershy. The sound of crushed bones echoed through the streets of the burning Ponyville as a thick splatter of blood stained Tirek's black hooves.

Tirek and Discord laughed. They laughed and laughed.

Fluttershy shot herself upright in a horrific scream. Her eyes quickly dotting around the dark room she was in. The sound of crickets chirping outside her window over Angel's snoring was all that she could hear. She let out gasps of air as frantically as possible, her cotton pillow wrapped tightly around her shaking hooves. Looking up at her wooden clock, she saw that it was now four in the morning. A full minute passed by before she was finally able to lay herself back down on her bed. She felt her bottom lip begin to quiver as fearful tears quickly choked themselves out of her.

FLuttershy had already lost count of how many nights it had been that she had had the same exact nightmare. Discord's betrayal truly had scarred her. She wanted the nightmares to stop more than anything. She had already gone to see Twilight on when she thinks they would cease to keep her awake, but even she could not say for sure. She had tried every sleeping method she or any of her friends could think of, but still nothing worked. This was torture. This was worse than anything Tirek could have done if Twilight had not agreed to give up her magic in exchange for Fluttershy's freedom. Whatever Tirek was planning to do with her and her friends, even if he would eventually decide just to kill them, at least it would be less painful than having to watch it over and over again each and every night.

"Still awake?" a comforting voice whispered from inside the house. Jolting her head up, she peered to her left to find the lone draconequus curled up inside the hole of her window. A frown covered his face as eyes that clearly indicated grief looked back at her. Fluttershy's heart began to race, as she never had any idea when he was going to pop up unexpectedly, and now of all times was probably the worst moment for him to arrive.

"Oh...Discord. I'm...sorry that I didn't see you there. I was just...well, Angel Bunny kept me up for quite a while wanting some extra attention, and I just now succeeded in getting him to..."

"You don't have to lie to me, Fluttershy." Discord cut in. He quickly positioned himself as to sit upright against her window sill as he placed his claw over his chest. "I had a little chat with Twilight Sparkle today and she told me everything. About your sleepless nights, about your nightmares, and of course, about me."

"O-Oh..." was all Fluttershy could think to say in response to Discord's sudden confession. After learning this news, he must now think she considers him some kind of monster. There was no doubt in her mind that Discord was here to try and explain to her how he had finally changed for the better, and probably offer her some kind of sleeping spell like he did the last time he heard that she was having trouble falling asleep. Unfortunately, she was asleep for a full two weeks the last time she had agreed to that, so she wouldn't be so easily persuaded this time.

In a flash of light, Discord removed himself from the edge of the window sill and instantly reappeared sitting beside Fluttershy on her mattress, switching places with Angel Bunny to try and comfort her. "Fluttershy, you have to remember, it has already been a full month since Tirek was re-imprisoned. He can't cause you, your friends or anypony else any more harm." he spoke in a calm and collected tone, placing his paw over her shoulder, only to have it immediately pushed off.

"And what about you?" she said, refusing to make eye contact with him. "You betrayed us. You betrayed me. How do I know that I can trust you anymore?"

"Fluttershy, I know I did some terrible things, but I would never even consider going back if I were given the chance! You know that more than anypony! You saw me give Twilight her key with your own eyes! I've learned from my mistake! You have nothing left to fear! So why are you letting these dreams get to you!?"

Fluttershy didn't respond. All she did was sit there silently, hoping that he wouldn't notice the small water droplets forming in the corner of her eyes. She quickly brushed them away, but by that time, she had a feeling that Discord had already figured out that she was beginning to sob.

After receiving no response from his aching friend, Discorded sighed in defeat and stood up straight, not bothering to use his powers of teleportation as he made his way towards the door. "I understand. You need a bit...more time to think about these things. I guess I'll just leave you alone then." Discord said, slowly creaking the door closed as he kept it open just wide enough so it would fit his head through the crack.

"Goodnight." was the final word he spoke before bringing his head back and shutting the wooden door. He stood just inches outside the front door, silent for just a few seconds before the painful sound of Fluttershy's crying filled the inside of the cottage and escaped through the open window, moving out into the world and straight into Discord's ears. His heart began to ache at the sound of her innocent tears. He felt bad for what he did, but having hurt her just as much was something he just could not bare.

'Damn. How could I have been such a fool? I should have known better than to join forces with that Tirek bastard. Now I've not only lost my feeling of self worth, but the trust of my closest friend. I deserve this, I suppose.' he thought before his right paw suddenly detached from his arm and hovered in front of his face, smacking him across the cheek and vanishing in a burst of white light. Discord shook his head frantically at his own wake up call.

"What am I saying!?" he announced. "I'm Discord for crying out loud! I can't have myself acting all sappy like this!" he began stroking his beard in deep thought. "Come on, Dissy! There's got to be some way to fix this."

The sky was endless. The air was almost unbreathable. The cold wind flew straight through the cage's metal bars, their echo bouncing off of the floor and ceiling. A small red centaur stood inside the secluded prison, his only company being his own shadow and the flesh hungry watchdog that guarded him. Having been sent to Tartarus for the second time in his long and unforgiving life, Tirek used this time to think over his previous actions and how it all lead up to this.

'How? How could I let myself be imprisoned again?' he thought, sitting on his hind legs with his back against the metal bars, his fists clenched tightly around his front legs in a curled up position. 'I became the most powerful being in existence and STILL managed to fail. It's like those damn ponies are simply unbeatable.'

This thought was quickly pushed aside. 'No. I let this happen. I should have just re-imprisoned Twilight and her friends the moment after I stole her magic. I may not know where they got those strange new powers from, but I doubt they would have been able to defeat me if I hadn't let them go. Hell, why didn't I just kill those wretched ponies instead? I could have just crushed them all under my hooves once they were out of magic. But I was a fool. I was too confident in myself this time around and didn't think my plans through enough. Well I swear on my life, the next time I break out of here, I'll make sure that every pony who I steal magic from dies immediately after. I don't even care if I won't have anyone to rule over once they're all dead. Better to be safe than sorry.'

Tirek slowly lifted himself up from the cold metal floor and trotted over to the edge of the cage where he got the best view of Cerberus. 'Now that only leaves the question of how I'm going to get out of here a second time. There's no way that overgrown fleabag would be stupid enough to ditch me twice.'

"If you have patience, your freedom will come once more."

An eerie, unfamiliar voice echoed through Tirek's mind, making him slightly jump in surprise. Quickly rotating his body while standing in the center of the cage as he did a quick scan of the dark world around him, he found nothing that could have made the sudden comment anywhere in sight.

"Who are you!" Tirek called out, knowing that what he heard could not have been in his imagination. The voice just had far too much volume and depth to not have been real. Someone was talking too him and possibly listening to him without his knowledge. After waiting a full minute and not hearing any response from the strange voice, Tirek slowly began to question his own senses. Was the voice really just his own mind playing tricks on him? Could he be going insane? Or was this some kind of new punishment forced upon him by the ponies who sent him here, giving him his own secondary person that he would be forced to listen to for his new eternity trapped in Tartarus?

"Do not worry. You are not losing your mind. At least not yet."

Tirek's eyes sprung open at the voice's return. Now having heard its strange call for the second time, he knew for certain that whoever it was that was talking could not be existing only in his own mind. Someone, somewhere was speaking to him.

"What do you want!? Where are you!? SHOW YOURSELF!" he screamed madly into the open yonder, Cerberus making no effort to pay the centaur any major attention.

"That does not concern you for now. We will meet eventually, but until then I can only speak to you from here."

"And where is HERE?!"

"My home, of course. I cannot tell you anything about myself until the time is right. Just know that we will be getting to know each other for quite a while."

Tirek began to shiver, which was something that he could not remember doing since we was just a small child. This voice carried a disturbing weight to it. Tirek could not explain it, but something about the tone and the feel that this strange voice gave off sent chills down the red centaur's spine.

"You still haven't answered my question." he reluctantly continued. "Who are you?"

"You may call me whatever you like. To be honest with you, I don't really have a name. But that does not mean that I am unaware of yours...Tirek."

Discord hovered over the sleeping yellow pony, his chest burning as he watched her wildly and unpredictably turn from left to right in a panic. He could hear her frightened moans as she attempted to scream in her sleep. She had returned her to usual nightmare world and now Discord could really see the repercussions of what he had done.

'Sorry about this Fluttershy.' he thought as he lifted his claw up and raised his index finger out. 'I can't risk losing you. Not because of this.'

He brought his claw down over her head and gently poked the center of her forehead with his finger. And just like that, Fluttershy stopped shaking.