The Puppeteer And His Fabulous Marionette

Incantation stepped away from ‘Twilight’, her eyes widening with fear. 

“She has nothing to do with this.” 

The words left Rarity’s mouth as unbidden as they were immediate, her only concern at that precise moment being the panicked changeling beside her. 

Twicord looked at the changeling. “Leave, then,” he said. 

Incantation, bless her soul, did no such thing, and in fact stepped closer towards Rarity—not that either of them could do anything against Discord, but it was an appreciated gesture regardless. 

Twicord shrugged. “Or not.” 

His eyes landed back on Rarity, and a smile followed soon after. 

“Summon her.” When she did not move, he leaned in slightly, gesturing to her necklace with a hoof. “Summon her.” When again, she did no such thing, too busy trying to calculate the risk of attempting another teleport, he rolled his eyes as he transformed back into his usual self. “My gods! I just want to talk!” 

“Talk?” Rarity sputtered, shocked, and then enraged. “Talk?! You want to talk?!” 

“Yes!” he exclaimed wearily as if she was being the unreasonable one, somehow. “Dialogue! Converse! Exchange words!” He snapped his fingers. “Chop, chop! We haven’t got all day!” 

I must be going insane, Rarity thought. Truly, she must be. Maybe she died in Hollow Shades during the nightmare hellscape and everything since then had been a dying dream nestled in her last gasp. 

“I’m just here to talk! Not anything else. And even if I were, there’s three alicorns here,” he insisted, every word out of his mouth insanity. What? Talk? Just talk? “I had to separate them to do anything to them! You think they’re the ones in danger here? I’m not even here!” He waved a paw through his own body. “I’m projecting myself. Now, please.” He smiled politely. “Summon her. I’d have gone to her directly if I could!”

Discord, the single most vile creature Rarity could ever fathom, landed on the ground and then knelt before her. Beseeching. 

“Please,” he said. 

 “Please?” 

The word tumbled out her mouth. Please? Something was deeply wrong, on a level she couldn’t even begin to grasp or comprehend. Please? 

“She will want to know,” he continued. “It’s about Celestia.” 

“What about Celestia?” 

“Ah-ah-ah!” He stood up, wagging a finger at her. “I need to tell Twilight, not you.” 

“Tough. You will have to tell me,” she hissed. 

Discord shook his head, crossing his arms. “I will only speak to he—” His sentence died at the entire flowerpot hurled through his chest, which smashed against the wall into pieces. He looked at Rarity, unimpressed. “Well, really. How rude. But I forgive you.” 

“Forgive me?!” Rarity gasped. “You—?! Forgive—?! You motherless foul hellspa—” 

“Yes, yes,” he interrupted, rolling his eyes as he waved his paw dismissively. “Can’t you just call her? That is what that does, isn’t it?” He was eyeing her necklace. “I suppose that would do.” 

“You SUPPOSE—?!” 

“Wouldn’t he have killed us already if he could?” Incantation asked. 

“Yes!” Discord exclaimed, relieved. “Somepony who thinks, finally! Thank you.” He turned to Rarity. “Well? I’m not leaving until I speak to her.” He sat down on the ground, legs crossed. “Your move, my dear.” 

“She’s not your dear!” Incantation protested, appalled.  

“Incantation,” Rarity said, carefully. “Go to Twilight—” 

“And bring her here?!” Incantation gasped, immediately defensive. “He’ll do—” 

“Tell her,” Rarity interrupted, “to call me in private, and that if she loves me in any way, she will follow my orders and not act.” 

“I—! But—! Leave you alone with—?!” 

“Incantation,” Rarity said. “Please. He would have killed us already.” She ignored Discord nodding and felt instead a measure of relief when Incantation begrudgingly stepped away and then took off, safe from the beast. 

Once she was gone, Discord looked back to Rarity. 

“So,” he said leisurely, “pleasant weather, don’t you—” 

“Shut your mouth.” 

Thankfully, he obeyed, sitting there with a ‘pleasant’ smile on his lips while Rarity tried to decide what the hell he was thinking. Or doing. 

Of course, about half-a-second later, he stretched his arms to yawn and then blinked at the second flowerpot that immediately shot through him.

“I’m not here. This is a projection,” he said. “You’re just destroying perfectly good flow—” He fell silent when a third shot through him, grimacing at her. “You know, Rarity, have you considered axe-throwing? I hear stress relief does wonders for the complexion, and looking at you, why—”

“My STARS,” she gasped, “are you even capable of shutting up?!”

Thankfully for her sanity, a ‘ping!’ stopped him from answering, the bright pink of her necklace overriding the green. 

“Well?” he prompted when she didn’t immediately answer the call. “What are you waiting for?”

“Be quiet, you beast,” she hissed. “If you want her to hear even a word out your mouth, you will speak when spoken to.”

He did a zipping motion over his mouth in reply. 

She took a step back from him, trying to calm her mind as much as she could as she—with no small amount of fear—looked away from him, focusing instead on a lovely pot of flowers. 

She couldn’t be panicked. She couldn’t. She needed to be calm. 

She took a final steadying breath, did her best to empty her mind of Him, an—

Ping!

She felt it immediately, thoughts that weren’t her own, and a curious but slightly concerned apprehension. 

She visualized Twilight, thought of how much Twilight trusted her judgment, thinking how she needed to say something she was worried about, but would say trusting Twilight would act calmly and—

“Well?” came Discord’s voice, his voice crystal clear and overriding her own carefully placed thoughts. “Is she there? I’m waiting, Rarity.”

“Wait,” Rarity yelped, her mind sent into a panicked frenzy that was not her own. “Wait, Twi—!”

Ping!

She blinked at her necklace, the connection dead, before turning to him, infuriated. 

“You basta—!” 

It happened very, very fast. 

First, she heard the crack of teleportation magic. Then, she felt herself being levitated up and away from Discord, flailing helplessly in the air as Twilight appeared below her, wings flared, horn ablaze, murder in her eyes, all while Discord simply sat there, delighted. 

“Rarity?” Her voice was steady. So very steady.

“I’m fine,” Rarity yelped, with what was maybe meant to be a reassuring tone, which still failed to make Twilight so much as look at her. 

“Twilight!” Discord exclaimed, opening his arms as if greeting an old friend. “Thank you for—”

Twelve flowerpots. 

Twelve flowerpots, two uprooted pine trees, and the most powerful blast of magic an alicorn could conjure hurled toward him. 

Moments later, when the dust settled, she snarled to see him still standing there, unharmed and looking bored. 

“I’m not here,” he said. “As I told Rarity, I am projecting myself, but I do hope that made you feel better!” He looked up at Rarity and waved. “How’s the weather from up there?” 

“Twilight, put me down!” Rarity demanded, struggling against the alicorn’s magic. “Now.” 

Twilight’s eyes flickered just a second towards Rarity, and then back to Discord, clearly thinking about it. 

“Now, Twilight!” Rarity demanded, trying not to show she was frightened. 

Gritting her teeth all the while, Twilight finally did as asked and lowered Rarity right next to her, her horn sparkling with magic as a barrier immediately and completely encased the both of them. 

He smiled. “Excellent! Now, as I was—”

Two more magic cracks filled the air, and the two mares were now flanked by two other alicorns, their horns ablaze with offensive magic. 

“I’m not here!” Discord immediately exclaimed. “Before you get any ideas.” 

“Where is Celestia?!” Princess Luna snarled, wings flaring. “Speak, or you not being in front of me will be quickly remedied!” 

“Oh, wonderful, getting right to it. Efficient as always, dear Luna. Thank you.” He cleared his throat, and said, “She’s inside a cave under Canterlot Castle.” 

Rarity blinked at him. Twilight blinked at him. Princess Luna blinked at him. 

Cadance blurted out their common thought. 

“What?” she said, going pale. “Under the castle?” 

His lips twisted into a hideous grin. “No, but wouldn’t it be hysterical?” 

There was a second hesitation, before Twilight yelped and pulled back the unicorn who’d launched herself at him. 

“Rarity!” 

“Let me at him!” she snarled, practically clawing out with her hooves. “You vile, wretched—” 

He shrugged. “Well, I thought it was funny.” 

“What the hell do you want, Discord?” Twilight snapped. “You’re losing. We’re all getting out and—” 

“Yes, yes!” He nodded his head, clapping with delight. “Bravo, you are, and thank goodness for that! Genuinely, I’m happy for you all. Which is why—” 

“What kind of sick mind games are you playing at?!” Rarity demanded. “Answer me! Answer me, and—” 

“My lord! Will you LET me speak?! Can’t a draconequus get a full sentence in?” 

Another moment passed, the four mares looking at him with real intent to murder, until finally Twilight spoke. 

“What do you want, Discord?” 

Discord took a deep breath, and whatever joviality he’d displayed vanished. “You’re right. You are winning. Hurrah! Good for you. In fact, I’d like to help. You want to find Celestia? She is exactly where I told Princess Loveydovey here centuries ago.” He crossed his arms. “There. You’re welcome.” 

“Do you think I’m an idiot, Discord?” Cadance said, immediately, her own wings now flaring. She stepped forward, centuries of being driven mad searching for the others rearing its head. “That’s impossible. Emberwood Heights was searched before. Hundreds of times.” 

“But she IS! She IS there!” Discord exclaimed, throwing his paws up in the air, Rarity refusing to believe the distress in his voice was in any way genuine. “In fact, every single one of you has been exactly where I said they were CENTURIES AGO!” He pointed at Twilight. “The Everfree Forest!” He pointed at Princess Luna. “Foal Mountain!” He looked to Cadance, snarling. “And, tell me, Princess Denza, did I lie?” 

And one by one, the three princesses hesitated. 

“No.” Rarity looked at them all, and at Twilight most of all. What? No. Absolutely not. “You’re not actually giving him the benefit of the doubt. Twilight. Twilight Sparkle, after everything he’s done to—Twilight.” She looked back at him, struggling against Twilight’s magic restraint. “You think he’s helping you?!”

“But I am! I have been! Helping is all I have been doing!” he exclaimed, his paws curling into fists. “In fact!” The barrier thrummed as he rushed to it, stopping only just before slamming his fists on it, and then looking Rarity squarely in the eyes. “Starting with you.” 

Twilight’s wing immediately covered Rarity, shielding her from him. 

“What about her?” 

Discord stepped back, eyes widening. “What about her? It all started with her! She’s the reason any of you are even here, and tell me! You think she found your library by mistake? You think those obnoxious fillies went into that forest because they thought about it themselves?”

“You’re lying,” Rarity hissed, entirely done with him. “Sweetie never mentioned any of this.”

“Who do you think posed as a stallion and told her he’d seen a library in the forest?” he asked. “And then, the entire drivel about finding books to free Twilight. You know that was me, don’t you? And you think I made that up on the spot? Oh, no, no, no, my dear.”

He tilted his head ever so slightly. 

“This great rescue mission you thought you stumbled upon? I led you to it. I planned for  it! It was all me!” He leaned in, enunciating every syllable. “M. E.” 

And now, with horror, Rarity found herself hesitating. 

“But, but—” she stammered, because she did not—could not—would not. “You—! You led me to Cadance! You got all of us cursed! You—!” 

“You were going to be cursed!” he retorted. “You were going to be cursed no matter what, my dear. If I hadn’t led you to her, you would have found a way regardless. I just sped things along! I knew you’d break it.” 

Twilight’s grasp on Rarity evaporated, not that Rarity even noticed, too busy reeling over the fact that their entire relationship had been…

A set-up?

“You MEANIE!” From inside the castle, Pinkie banged her hooves against the window. “I don’t know what you’re saying, but you—! You SONOFABITCHFACEMEANIE!”  

“Little one!” Princess Luna’s head spun round. “I told you to stay away!” 

“Face it, my little ponies,” Discord continued, stepping back. “Everything I’ve done was to help.” 

Help, he said, as Rarity thought back to the godforsaken curse and the godforsaken first time she met him, how Discord goaded and enraged her into fighting her way through the curse. How Twilight told her the only reason she freed herself from the library’s chaos magic was because Discord had threatened Rarity herself. 

Everything they were… was because of him? 

“As it turns out,” he finished, “maybe I can do some good things, after all.”

The silence that followed after must have been just a few seconds. Really, it must have been less than a minute, less than nothing, but it felt like a lifetime to her, staring off into the distance.

“Leave.” 

Twilight’s voice, low and precise, cut the air as sharply as the knife Rarity felt she’d been stabbed with. 

“Leave? Well, I was going to, but don’t you want to even know why? I think—” 

“I don’t care what you think,” she interrupted, and when Rarity looked up at her—feeling completely mentally not there, to be frank—it was only knowing Twilight so well that she could hear the alicorn struggling to keep her voice controlled. “You’ve done enough. I don’t care where you think Celestia is. I don’t care what good for any of us you’ve lied yourself into thinking you’ve done. I don’t care about anything you have to say. Leave.”

“But—!”

“It’s one thing to mess with me, Discord,” Twilight said, voice trembling with rage. “It’s one thing to involve me, trap me, drag me into whatever the hell it is you think you’re doing. But to involve Rarity? To play your sick twisted mind games on her?”

“Now, Twilight—”

“Leave!” she thundered, her wings spreading out as her horn alighted with burning magic. “Before I find where you are and kill you myself!” 

And then, with a satisfied grin, just as he disappeared, he still had the gall to say: 

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle, I’m counting on it.” 

With that, he was gone, as always, as ever, again, and again, leaving devastation in his wake. 

Somehow, despite feeling like the world’s weight was on her back, Rarity stood up, blinking at the approaching alicorn through blurry eyes. 

“Hey,” Twilight said softly, looking her over. “Are you okay?”

“…Yes,” she replied, hating the slight hitch in her voice, and answering Twilight’s instant frown with a pointed look. 

Not now. 

And not now was the right choice, as Cadance looked back towards the closed doors leading to the garden. 

“He’s gone,” she called. “Come out.”

Immediately, the doors burst open and guards filed out, Rift Shield at the lead. 

“Princess,” he said, struggling to keep his voice steady. “You should have let us help.”

“I know what he’s capable of, Lieutenant,” Cadance said sternly. “Asking you to stay indoors was for your protection, not ours.”

“But—” He faltered, and when his eyes caught sight of Rarity, his teeth gritted until he relented. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“And tonight, we’re reinforcing the barrier around the castle and expanding it to cover all of Canterlot,” she continued. “This is never happening again.”

That said, she looked back towards the spot Discord had been and then towards Princess Luna, her ears lowering. 

“This… This wasn’t the welcome I wanted to give you, Auntie.”

“What do you mean?” Princess Luna’s wings settled at her sides, and a warm smile graced her lips. “Your welcome excelled, Cadance. This was only a slight interruption.” She glanced at where he’d been. “Insignificant snakes such as him are not worth a second of our time. Or our tears,” she added, looking at the unicorn tucked under Twilight’s wing. 

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said. “What was the point of any of this? Why tell us where Princess Celestia is? Or trick us about where she is, or—? What was the point?”

No one replied. What could they even say? No one knew the answer, and even if they’d made him stay long enough to question, every word out of his mouth was suspect. 

Why? Why had he helped get them out? He couldn’t possibly actually have been trying to help. But then if he wasn’t, them being free was helping him somehow, but how? Was he planning something worse? 

For the first time, they all had to confront the fact that nopony knew what Discord was planning, and it terrified her. 

Princess Luna spoke up again. “When is Spike supposed to arrive?”

“Spike?” Twilight frowned. “Tomorrow, I think.”

“Then tomorrow, we will address this when we can communicate with my sister,” she said firmly. “Meanwhile, my niece prepared a celebration in my honor, and I will not have anything or anyone interrupt it.”

“You’re right.” Cadance took a deep breath and then offered a smile, standing up straight. “You’re right! I didn’t spend all day helping in the kitchens yesterday for all those desserts to go to waste.”

Princess Luna nodded. “Well put.”

She was the first to march off, the guards following after her, and then Cadance who stopped by the doors, turning to Rarity and Twilight. 

“…Are you coming?” she asked, gently. 

“In a moment,” Rarity replied, detaching herself from under Twilight’s wings and smiling brightly at the princess. She was strong now. She was. “I just need a few moments to gather myself, is all! Rid myself of this positively strange desire I have to go off and commit murder.”

“We’ll be right there,” Twilight told Cadance when the princess hesitated, her brow furrowing with concern. “We just need a minute. It’s been a long day.”

“It’s been a long three weeks,” Rarity whispered, only for Twilight’s ears. 

First Dusk Star’s birthday fiasco, then Hollow Shades being trapped in a nightmare, and now this, one thing after the other. 

“…Okay,” Cadance relented. She moved to leave but stopped long enough to offer the couple a warm smile. “I’m glad you’re here, girls.” 

“We are, too,” they replied in unison. 

It wasn’t until Cadance was gone and the two were left alone that Twilight spoke, looking at Rarity. 

“Are you actually okay?”

Rarity looked away evasively. “No. Yes. I don’t know.” She fell onto her haunches, leaning on Twilight when the alicorn did the same. “I don’t know.” 

“Rarity…” Her tail wrapped around the unicorn. “Nothing he said is new information. We’ve always known he was messing things up.”

“Yes, I know, Twilight, but… But not to that extent!” Rarity stood up, hurriedly pacing back and forth before Twilight. “To think he—He led Sweetie and Scootaloo to you? And then me? What, has everything we’ve done just been what he wanted?” She stopped, jabbing a hoof on her chest. “And I’m just a—”

It was hard to say it. It was sickening to say, but the word still came out regardless, poisoned and toxic. 

“I’m just a pawn?”

“Rarity,” Twilight said, gentle but firm. “Stop that. You’re not a pawn.”

“But I am, Twilight!” Fresh new tears burned her eyes. “I am. A pawn in his attempt to… Denza knows what! It makes no sense! Does it make sense to you? Because it sure as hell doesn’t to me!”

“I don’t get it, either, no” Twilight replied.

“Stars.” Rarity sighed. “What if somehow you being freed IS exactly what he wants?” Rarity continued, her pacing resumed. “I can’t fathom why in Equestria he would want this, but what if? What if this is a trick? Hm?” She gestured to Twilight. “What if you four being freed is somehow good for him?”

Twilight’s brow furrowed. “That sounds wrong. I mean, how would that be good for him?”

“Well, I don’t know!” Rarity stopped. “I don’t know how his mind works. And to think I’ve been doing everything he wants? That he set us up? That he’s the reason we’re together?”

“That’s not true, Rarity. You’re letting him get to you,” Twilight continued, ever so slightly bristled. “We’re together because of us, not him. I made the choice to love you, just like you make the choice to love me.”

“But…”

“Rarity… He could be messing with us again. In fact, he probably is, and look!” She gestured at Rarity. “He’s getting away with it, too. We can’t let him. We shouldn’t believe him.”

“And if he isn’t, Twilight?” Rarity shot back. “What if it’s just as you said and—” 

She cut herself off abruptly, ears clamping against her skull. 

“Just as I said what?” Twilight pressed. 

“I… I hesitate to say.” Rarity looked to the ground. “It might upset you.”

“Okay. Say it anyway. What is just as I said?” Twilight continued when Rarity said nothing and simply stared at her, lips pursed. “Rarity…”

“Mmm-fine!” Rarity looked away. “What if it’s just as you said in the library. When the chaos magic possessed you. What if I am his revenge on you somehow?”

Twilight took this in a moment.

“I see.”

“See!” Rarity exclaimed. “You’re upset!”

“No, I’m not. I’m just thinking,” Twilight replied. 

“That you’re upset!”

“No, Rarity. I just—Look, even if that’s true, even if you were his revenge plan on me, then you know what?”

Rarity hesitated. “What?”

“Then he did a really bad job of it,” she said, “because my life has never been happier than when you came into it.” She smiled as teasingly as she was lovingly. “So, no, Rarity, I don’t think you are his revenge on me.”

“…You don’t think so?” 

“No.”

“Hm.” Unfortunately for Twilight, if she thought she’d calmed Rarity down, she was sorely mistaken, because the unicorn immediately resumed her pacing. “But then it makes no sense! Why is he doing any of this?! What’s his plan? Why involve me, why make us meet?”

“It doesn’t matter why,” Twilight replied, her wings rustling lightly at her sides even if her voice was level. “Even if he did make it happen, even if he is the reason, why does that matter? It doesn’t change our relationship, Rarity. He might have been the catalyst, but he’s not the reason we’re together.”

“I know that,” Rarity protested. “You’ve said that already.”

“Then why is it bothering you?” 

“Because it’s no longer special, Twilight!” Rarity whined, feeling a little bit petulant about it even if she felt it was true. 

It would always be true now. She couldn’t redo their meeting or make herself forget what she now knew. 

“The day I found you and the library is the most important day of my life, bar none,” she continued, tears filling her eyes again, “and now it feels—tainted. I feel used, Twilight. I thought it was destiny, and instead it was all this brute’s doing?”

She’d expected Twilight to understand, but she hadn’t expected Twilight’s lips to melt into a delighted smile. 

“Wait, is meeting me really the most important day of your life?” she asked, her tail excitedly thwapping against the floor. “Really?”

“Twilight Sparkle, that is not what you should have derived from what I just said! It’s ruined, Twilight. Ruined!”

“Only because you’re letting it!” Twilight insisted, only just now sounding frustrated, but still going over and nuzzling Rarity when the unicorn sat down and buried her face in her hooves to whine. “Rarity, it’s still special.”

“No,” she insisted with finality, her voice low. “It isn’t.”

Twilight finally said nothing, instead just holding Rarity with a wing. 

“Stars,” Rarity whispered, burying herself in Twilight’s chest. “None of this makes sense. He doesn’t make sense. What does he even want?”

And that was the million-bit question, wasn’t it? 

Everything he’d ever done, even as far back as centuries before Rarity, when he’d come into Twilight’s library to speak with her and convince her nothing was keeping her trapped. It all aligned with… well, with wanting her out, but.

Why? 

“Maybe he—” Twilight faltered. “It sounds crazy, but—”

“Twilight,” came Rarity’s muffled voice against her chest, “if you’re about to say he might have really turned good, I’m going to have a fit.”

Even if Rarity was absolutely justified in thinking that, Twilight still rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t going to say that. I just think… What if… What if something is wrong?”

“Wrong?” Rarity pulled back, blinking. “What do you mean ‘wrong’?”

“Like you said, it doesn’t make sense, but not just the fact that it looks like he’s helping, but—” There was no other way to put it, this question she’d always had but not until now had the mental space to think about it. “Why didn’t he conquer Equestria? Why hasn’t he conquered Equestria?”

At Rarity’s thoughtful gaze, she continued. 

“Think about it! He trapped all of us. He could have taken over Equestria at any time, but he hasn’t. Why?”

“Because he’s a psychopath, Twilight! Clearly, the only thing he wanted was to torture all four of you for millenia!” She gasped with horror. “My stars, that’s it! He must be bored, so he’s freeing you all so he can trap you again!”

Twilight’s eyebrow raised. “I don’t know about that. If that was his plan, why even tell us? We’d try to prevent it. We will prevent it—” She faltered. “Whatever it even is. Right?” 

Rarity took a beat, her eyes searching for something in Twilight’s, and finding nothing but a confidence they’d both gone through hell and back to earn. 

“You’re right,” Rarity conceded. Her eyes then drifted across the wreckage of flower pots and one tree all over the garden. She levitated several pieces of broken clay and gathered them into a pile. “I feel awful. Should we replace them? We should. There must be a dozen florists in the city. What a mess.” 

“We’ve always been a bit messy,” Twilight offered, laughing at Rarity’s indignant gasp. 

“Speak for yourself!” she said, finally regaling Twilight with a winning smile. “I’ve always been perfect in every way, Twilight Sparkle. Every way!” 

Twilight grinned. “What was I thinking.”

Thankfully, it seemed, there was no mess so big they couldn’t clean it up together.