Spike's Sacrifice

Chapter 3: Discord's Guilt Part 1

TWO DAYS LATER

It had been two days Since the funeral and six days since Equestria had lost Spike. Everyone was still sad, but they were trying their best to move on with what happened, just like Spike would've wanted them to do.

There was one creature who had felt more awful than anyone and found himself unable to move on. It was none other than Discord. Ever since he had heard about Spike's fate at the top of that hill, he'd never felt so guilty in his long life. He had tried to boost Twilight's confidence by banding the Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, and Tirek together under the guise of an ancient, Cornflower blue Ram named Grogar so the lavender Alicorn and her friends could get a confidence boost. Unfortunately, his plan went off the rails when the vicious trio found him out and stripped him of his chaos powers and the Princesses of their magic. Lucky for Discord, however, the Legion of Doom didn't get to overthrow all of Equestria, but that was because one of his closest friends had lost his life saving all of them. The Draconequus had no doubt in his mind that Twilight and her friends hated him unconditionally. Discord believed he was fully responsible for what happened and knew it was best not to make any contact with them again.

Hearing Discord's situation and feeling bad for him, Celestia and Luna had a spare room in the castle and offered it to Discord. He said yes without hesitation and made a mental promise to stay away from the Elements, Celestia, and Luna whenever he could.

THREE DAYS LATER

True to his promise to himself, Discord stayed as far away as he could from Twilight and her friends as well as the other Princesses. He had never felt so alone.

Celestia and Luna thought the ancient Draconequus would eventually snap out of it, but as time went on, the two Princesses noticed Discord seemed even more downtrodden with each day that passed. Finally on the third day, the royal sisters decided they had enough of seeing Discord moping around and blaming himself for something he couldn't have prevented. They decided that tommorrow, they'd pay a visit to The Friendship Castle.

THE NEXT DAY

The second Celestia woke up that morning and Luna was off duty for being Equestia's dreamkeeper, the two quickly freshened up, had a quick breakfast, and headed outside and headed outside and got in the enchanted chariot that was waiting to take the royal sisters to the Friendship Castle. They landed in front of the large building where Twilight and her friends resided. After ordering the Pegasai who pulled the cart to wait for them, they both slowly walked to the entrance of the Friendship Castle, looked at each other, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

Twilight was walking down the hall when she heard a knocking on the front door.

"I'm coming," she called as she rushed to the door.

She opened the door and saw the two royal sisters standing before her.

Hey, Celestia and Luna. What can I do for you?" Twilight asked. She did still seem a little sad.

"Hello, Twilight. May we come inside, please? We need to talk with you and your friends," Luna responded calmly.

"Certainly," Twilight smiled. "Can we discuss it in the map room?"

"Of course," Celestia replied.

With that said, Twilight rushed off to gather her friends and the Princesses headed to the map room and patiently waited inside. It didn't take them long to notice a stone chair smaller than the other six. On head rest was a picture of Spike, he was looking at the camera with a big smile. On the seat of the chair were several bouquets of flowers with a golden medal on the top, it was the Royal Advisor medal Twilight had given Spike no more than ten days ago. On the armrests sat two lit candles, one purple and one green, for each side. Below the picture sat a shiny golden plaque which was reflecting some of the yellow glow of the small candle flames. There were cursive letters carved into the plaque, they were easy to read with the help of the light of the candle flames.

Spike The Dragon

Beloved Friend, Brother, and Hero

The Princesses teared up a bit at the bittersweet sight of all the things that decorated Spike's chair. They heard a door opening as Twilight walked into the room accompanied by Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Starlight. They took notice of the Princesses staring at the Spike's adorned map room chair and they all began looking longingly at it, feeling all the good memories of their fallen friend come rushing back and hitting them right in their emotions. Not a word was said as the nine ponies all continued to stare at the perminantly vacant stone chair. If a pin was dropped, everyone would've heard it. After 45 seconds of pure, dead silence, Princess Celestia finally cleared her throat and got the other eight Ponies' attention.

"Ahem, now that we got that out of the way, there's something that I need to talk to you all about," Celestia spoke up.

"Sure thing, Celestia. What's up?" came the heavy southern accent of Applejack.

"It's about Discord," Luna started.

All seven ponies winced slightly as they heard Discord's name. If the truth be told, Twilight and her friends did harbor some anger toward Discord as they held him partially responsible for what had happened.

"What about him?" Rainbow Dash asked with a hint of bitterness in her tone.

"Well, you see, he's taken Spike's death just as hard as you girls," Celestia said.

"Hmph, I should hope so," Rarity huffed. "He's the reason why our Spikey-Wikey is gone in the first place."

"I don't even know why were even bringing him up in the first place," Applejack added.

"Because he was trying to help you. We miss Spike just as much as you all do, but clinging to the past won't do any of us any good," Celestia said curtly.

"Oh, and how did he "help" us as you put it?" Rainbow dash asked, the bitterness in her tone becoming a bit more evident.

"Remember how he realized his mistakes and how he promised to make it up to everyone?" Luna asked.

Rainbow fell silent, she remembered how Discord swore to them that he'd make it up to them, how the cyan Pegasus herself told him that, "it would have to be a pretty epic make-up". The ancient creature, however, was true to his word. He grabbed a crystal rock while trying to work out a bargain with the three fiends, eventually getting into a verbal fight with, and eventually angering Tirek to the point where the rejuvinated Cenataur tried to blast Discord. At the last second, Discord stuck out the crystal rock, Tirek's blast hit the rock, it ricocheted off of the object's reflective surface, and it ultimately obliterated the shard of Chrysalis' old throne that was subdueing Starlight in her cage, causing her to break free and the pink unicorn was able to break out every other creature. When Rainbow Dash, as well as her friends, thought about that way, they realized that while Discord may have gotten them into his mess, he managed to get them all out of it.

"Do you also remember what Spike said in his final moments about you all being hard on Discord?" Celestia added.

The seven ponies all joined Rainbow deep in their thoughts.

"Listen, please don't be too hard on Discord, alright? He never intended this to happen."

It was painful to remember his voice and seeing him dying on the ground right in front of them, but at the same time they realized that unlike them, Spike held no ill will toward Discord and knew that the ancient creature had good intentions.

"Huh," Said Applejack. "When you put it like that, I guess he did really try to help us, he just didn't plan for the villians to betray him so suddenly."

"Precisely," Celestia said. "Discord wasn't trying to bring you down. He just didn't think it through."

"He's in our castle right now in a guest bedroom. Celestia overheard him one time saying to himself that it was best if he never talked to any of you again," Luna added.

"Well, I think it's time we paid him a visit," Fluttershy spoke up, her meek tone replaced with a determined one. "He needs to know that his heart was in the right place and that Spike, like the kind, caring soul he was, held no hate towards him"

Everypony agreed. With that being said, the nine ponies raced outside to Celestia and Luna's chariot, climbed inside, and they rode back as fast as they could to Celestia's and Luna's castle, determined to go find Discord and sort things out with him.