Chapter 8

"Arrival of Scorpan"

By the time that Discord had been ordered to Canterlot, Celestia had already lowered the sun and Luna was assuming her duties as Princess of the Night. She had a lot of visits with her subjects lately since they were still carrying nightmares surrounding Tirek's rampage. But, an example of what their subjects were feeling when Tirek's first victim was doing his nightly routine of carrying out two baskets of fruit on his back. He was walking out into the streets when he saw a cloaked figure walking towards him. Remembering when Tirek drained his magic and left him powerless, the unicorn stepped back in fear, thinking that it was Tirek again.

"Lord Tirek," he whimpered as he stepped back. "Go away! I will not let you take my magic again, you hear me?"

He then got down on all fours and whimpered for the moment when he thought that he would lose his magic again. But, the creature stepped forward and instead of feeling the magic being drained from him, the unicorn felt a soft yet hairy touch on his back. He looked back up and was surprised at this development that he was experiencing.

"Why would I take your magic?" remarked the cloaked figure, chuckling to himself. "I mean you no harm, my friend. I was onyl wondering if you would direct me to Canterlot castle."

"It's that way," whimpered the unicorn and the figure thanked the nervous young colt and made his way towards the castle. But then, he was still unsure of whom he was talking to. "Are you sure that you don't want my magic? Please take it and leave me alone!"

The figure then turned back towards the young unicorn which only made him tremble even more. But, he was very sincere with what he said next.

"I say to you, young colt," he said in as calm a voice as possible. "I am not here to take your magic or anypony's magic. I am here to see justice carried out."

This caused the unicorn to feel better slightly as he knew that his magic was safe. However as the cloaked figure walked through the dark streets of Canterlot, ponies trembled in fear whenever he came across their paths and this made him feel unwelcome to an extent, but more of anger deep in his thoughts.

"This is your entire fault, brother," thought the figure. "When I am done with you, you will wish that you were never born of our parents whom you killed."

He continued to make his way towards the castle when he saw what appeared to be a night guards pony guarding the castle entrance. The figure stopped and raised his arms out at the guard who then scowled at him.

"Who goes there?" snapped the guard, raising his lamp at the figure. "In the name of the royal sisters, I order you to remove your cloak and identify yourself to me, now!"

Heeding the orders, the figure raised his arms and placed his hands on the hood of his cloak and revealed himself to be a large monkey like creature with long brown bat like wings and fur on his head and upper part of his body. This caused the guard to lower his lamp and then to the creature's surprise, the figure began to transform and once the transformation was complete, the guard revealed himself to be nothing more than Discord himself.

"It's only you, Scorpan," sighed Discord, slightly relieved at this. "But, what are you doing here? Canterlot is under heavy guard."

"I was going to ask the same question about you," replied Scorpan, stepping over towards Discord. "You know what you did when you were aligned with my brother. I have great respect for these ponies and if there is one creature who should suffer with my brother, it's you."

Scorpan glared at Discord and this caused him to shrink down in fear. Discord had no idea that Tirek's brother had admired the ponies for who they were and was very protective of them. At this point, Discord came clean with Scorpan.

"I am sorry for what I did, Scorpan," whimpered Discord as he produced a halo and harp. "I hurt so many ponies and I intend to redeem myself for what I have done."

Scorpan was not sure of this, for he knew that Discord would sometimes only put on a façade to truly get what he wanted. Nevertheless, the draconequs and the gargoyle stood there for a moment face to face, one suspicious of the other. After a few moments, the two gave up their staring contest and walked into the castle.

"I know who you are Discord," said Scorpan suspiciously as they walked into the castle. "If this is some trick of yours that you are trying to pull…"

"It's not, Scorpan," snapped Discord, glaring down at Scorpan as they walked. "Everypony close to me knows that I am sorry for what I have done. Why can't you see the same way?"

"If you are truly sorry for what you did," retorted Scorpan as they got nearer and nearer to the throne room. "Then you must prove it to me, here, tonight and in front of my closest friends, whom were sent in my brother's place to Tartarus because you failed to stop him."

Discord gulped nervously as he knew that Scorpan was not going to be easy to convince in regards to his actions. He wanted to prove to Scorpan that he wasn't whom he was when he was with Tirek. Of course, Discord had not just Scorpan to convince that he was truly reformed, but all of Equestria as well and based what he saw in his mirror, that too was not going to be easy as well.

Soon, they approached the throne room doors where they were now repaired after Tirek broke them apart during his rampage. Discord was nervous at this, but he knew that he wanted to set things right with most of Equestria and Tirek's non-violence brother.

"This is it," thought Discord as the doors opened to reveal Princess Celestia sitting on her throne. "My chance to correct my mistake is at hand."

With that, the ex-master of chaos and the brother of Equestria's most dangerous enemy walked towards the elder princess of Equestria.