Much of what had recently happened laid heavily upon my mind. The Night's Eternal was in ruins, more soldiers' lives had been extinguished, and a general feeling of despair seemed to blanket the remaining crew of the Solar Siege. And while true we did destroy the rogue vampire faction, hopefully once and for all, the cost was nearly too heavy to bear. A near hollow victory if there ever was one. But in light of all this my mind did not focus on such things for long as I had a more pressing matter at hoof. Namely the greater worry that Twilight had gone longer than I had planned without a recharge.

Her body was sluggish as I more or less carried her through the narrow halls of the Solar Siege. And amusingly I noticed the bags under eyes were almost as great as mine. Though this could be noted it was most likely her fatigue that was finally catching up her and not her lack of energy. But these points were of little concern to me. No, what was more concerning was her slow heart beat as she leaned on me. However, with some luck I could soon rectify this condition if not the others.

So with purpose in mind we continued our walk until I had located one of the spare officer's quarters. I then leaned Twilight on the wall next to me and with some effort I pushed on the room's stubborn door until it swung open. Afterwards we walked in giving way to a small to medium sized bed and little else. It was what one could expect given the space constraints on an airship. As such these rooms were not designed for luxury. Just a simple bed and a small enchanted light that dimly lit the small space. They were meant merely as a place to rest on extended missions. And even then this tiny room could be considered a perk for officers in terms of size as regular soldier rooms were somehow smaller.

A quiet chuckle left my lips as I remembered times past in these stuffy little rooms. But I pushed those memories aside as I borderline dragged Twilight into the room before I snuffed the little enchanted light above us. I then attempted to gently place Twilight on the bed, but my balance slipped and she flopped down with an audible thump. She let out single groan of displeasure as she fixed herself in such a way to glare at me.

I pursed my lips and stated, "I apologize Twilight, but I am probably not fairing much greater than you are currently," as I crawled on top of her.

"Yeah well at least you don't feel like you're dying all over again," she replied back with a weak grin.

I rolled my eyes in response. "Almost out of energy and yet you still possess enough strength to mock me. I am one luuuucky stallion," I snarked back but I frowned when I saw the purple light in her eyes start to fade. In turn I wasted no more time as I lowered myself on her and I opened my mouth. I then glided my fangs over the base of her neck before I sunk them in.

A quick breath left her lips before she let out a long partial groan, partial moan. Then just as the first drop of arcane charged blood touched my tongue I let loose a surge of death energy. In response her back arched and her body squirmed as if gleefully accepting the energy injection. And while normally I would have noticed more, my mind had soon became awash with a dark pleasure that drowned out most thoughts.

But after a few minutes of this I felt my body grow numb as hers seemed to strengthen. And with the satisfaction that her heartbeat had returned to normal, I pulled my fangs out. Twilight barely made a reaction to such as she began to snore. It seemed somewhere along the line her body had reached its limit and she passed out. I could not help but smile despite myself as I closed the wound on her neck and laid down next to her.

My eyes soon closed afterwards but right when sleep was just about to take me I heard something that filled me with dread. Well I suppose dread was not entirely correct. I was only first filled with dread until a seething irrational rage had quickly consumed it. If looks could burn my single open eye could have immolated the room door that somepony had dared to knock on. A long and low hiss streamed from behind my clenched teeth at the sheer burning fury that had grown inside me. And if I was a lesser pony I would have made that unfortunately soul knocking on the other side of the door rue the day they were born.

But eventually upon not hearing a response I assumed they decided to knock a second time. And with that I could not fully keep the absolute malice out of my voice as I hissed the word, "Yessss?"

Their reaction was almost instant when I heard them fumble backwards a few paces and it also seemed two heartbeats began to race. Then soon afterwards a whimpering and stuttering muffled voice came from the other side of the door, "L-l-lieut-t-t-t-tenant G-g-general s-s-sir. T-t-the princesses and G-g-general Black W-w-wing r-r-request for you-u-ur and P-P-Princess-s-s Twi-i-ilight-t-t Spa-r-rkle's p-p-presence on-n-n the f-f-flight d-deck."

The request did little to quell my rage. In fact it probably only served to add more fuel to the flames. And while I admit there was much I needed to discuss with the princesses and Black Wing, every fiber of my being screamed for sleep by this point. But regardless of my overwhelming desire to sleep I slid out of bed and stomped up to the room door. I then yanked it nearly off its hinges and leered at the two unfortunate solar guards that in all likelihood drew the short straws to summon me.

What fear they held in their hearts before seemed minute compared to the wide eyed terror they stared back at me with. I also believe the one on the right may or may not have soiled themselves. At least the small puddle under them gave evidence to such. But I did have to give them credit when the one on the left still managed to repeat her previous message to me. Though the second time was saturated with an overwhelming amount of apologies and the like.

And while it was amusing watching these two sputter in front of me, I eventually began to feel somewhat rotten for frightening the moonlight out of these two. They looked like they were just a pair of new recruits fresh out of training. A pair of recruits that did not deserve to be the outlet of my ire. So with that I rubbed my face a few times, acknowledged the summons, and sent them on their way. A response they seemed to embrace fully while they sped down the hallway to get away from me.

I shook my head at such a display with a slight grin but unfortunately my expression soon changed to a scowl. Their summons was not just meant for me. It seemed that Twilight's presence was just as equally desired. And while normally this would be of little issue as she was often invaluable for input, but this time it was different. This time she was almost two step away from her demise and was probably fatigued beyond imagining. And by Tartarus even I was not even remotely at peak condition. But regardless of all that, I had my orders and such orders must at least attempted to be heeded no matter my displeasure. So with a small sigh I turned around and raised a hoof to wake Twilight.

But as I gazed at her the will to commit such an action withered and faded into nothingness. She truly was exhausted. It was not only apparent on her face, but also how deeply she had slept. I just did not have the heart to wake her. There was no need for both of us to suffer though our fatigue. And while I would probably be scolded because of this I had firmly made up my mind. So without a second thought I lifted the bed covers to her neck with my magic before softly kissing her on the cheek. The small smile on her lips was all that I saw before I turned around and departed for the flight deck.

And so I begun my trek into what I assumed to be little more than a "dressed up" interrogation from the princesses and Black Wing. Said discussion would probably revolve around but one simple point. And that was how I knew everypony was going to be ambushed at the Night's Eternal's crash sight. An explanation that made me both enraged and yet uneasy. In response I quickened my pace if nothing else but to calm my mind.

Eventually I arrived at the flight deck of the Solar Siege without issue. Well minus what had happened next that is. For this simple point seemed to slip my mind up until now. And that was what time of day it was. Needless to say I discovered this fact quite quickly when I opened the doors to the flight deck only to bathed in sunlight.

A long hiss followed a high pitched shriek in response to such horror. And while my semi-liquid dark iron armor blocked most of it, enough got through to be unbearable. As a result I had to shut down my armor's suppression field before I summoned my scythe to help support my weight. But this only helped somewhat as I more or less hobbled over to where the Princesses and Black Wing were.

"Ahh there they...Hmm where's Twilight? I thought I summoned both of you?" Celestia inquired as I walked closer.

"You are correct, but as she is still recuperating from her low energy levels I respectfully advise letting her rest," I replied straining to form proper sentences and added, "Especially in the sunlight"

Celestia pursed her lips and looked back and forth a few times before casting some sort of spell. In an instant the ambient sound around us silenced immediately and Celestia let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry for putting you three out in the daylight like this but this was the least crowded place on the ship. And at least the spell I cast will seal in sound and surrounds us in an illusion that should keep out any remaining prying eyes and ears. Now it won't last long so we'll need to be brief. Black Wing has already informed both me and Luna that you knew we were going to ambushed before it happened, Blood Moon. How did you know this?" she questioned hastily.

I took a deep breath and look over at Black Wing and Luna before I replied. Each of them did not look to be fairing any better than I in the sunlight. It was probably only their pride that prevented them from appearing as ragged as I did. In a strange sort of way it was comforting I suppose.

But in turn I sat down and let out a long sigh before stating, "As you all may or may not know I sort of have a telepathic link with Death. To 'Lay everything on the table' as it were both Death and Life can somewhat sense future events. I believe he was attempting to warn me right before I got interrupted by a certain draconequus..."

The rest of my explanation went about as well as one could assume. The three of them went through various levels of shock, confusion, and then followed by a burning rage. Though interestingly their anger manifested in different forms. Black Wing clenched her teeth so hard together that her gums were bleeding. Luna's body quaked with barely contained fury and I believe she burst a blood vessel in her right eye. And Celestia seemed to be scorching the wooden planks under her while her eyes narrowed to mere slits.

Silence reigned for a few minutes until the three of them gathered themselves enough to formulate a plan. A plan that did not sit well on my stomach, but we had little other option. Discord had obviously committed an act of treason against the kingdom and cost numerous soldiers their lives. He would be made to answer for his actions. Though I knew such things were easier said than done.

'Easier said than done. Easier said than done,' I stated over and over in my mind. It was a statement that was echoed numerous times and I doubt just by me. The implications were clear, Discord was usually not one to be trifled with. Even after these several years we more or less just had an uneasy truce with him. A truce that was upheld mainly due to the existence of Fluttershy. And because he was usually too occupied enjoying himself to do anything overtly harmful, well up until now. Either way I doubt both of those reduced any of his potency or his unpredictable and dangerous nature.

But regardless of any nervousness I possessed, we needed to act and soon. If nothing else we needed information on the location of Gore Gash and Discord may be the only one who knew. But luckily we did not need to face Discord outright per say, just merely keep him conversing long enough to let any important details slip. Which in turn brings us to where I was currently. In the Reaper arena, sharping my scythe, under an illusion spell made by Celestia, while getting ready with several others.

"Sooo are you going to tell us what we are doing here? You said we weren't going to like it, but why?" Twilight stated nervously.

I stopped sharping my scythe and placed the wet stone to the ground with a deep sigh. Then just as I was about to speak Luna interrupted me. "The traitorous cur known as Discord betrayed us and conversed with our sworn enemy Gore Gash. In turn we require information as to why he did this. And we are going to...retrieve...that information by force!" she said in a tone full of malice and dark glee.

"WHAT?!" echoed a chorus consisting of Twilight, Spike, the other elements, Cloud Streak, and finally Night Fang.

Night Fang soon dropped her knives in shock and leaned closer to me. "Discord...you mean THE "Discord". The Discord that's the lord of chaos and all that?"

"Correct," I replied flatly.

My blunt response just left everypony, but Luna, Celestia, Black Wing, and Black Hammer, in various states of bewilderment. Well up until Fluttershy got up with a quite annoyed look on her face and walked over to Celestia. Then whispered something into her ear that seemed to confuse her, but she complied anyway.

The illusion spell dropped and not a second later Fluttershy bellowed out, surprisingly loud I might add, "DISCORD! GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE!"

And just like that Discord appeared right in the center of all of us as if he had always been there. "You raaang?" he replied sitting on a lawn chair of some sort and sipping out of a coconut I believe.

Fluttershy stomped up and glared at him. "You got a lot of explaining to do mister! How could you talk to that big meanie Gore Gash!" she scolded.

Discord half narrowed his eyes and lazily sunk lower in his chair. "Ahh so the cat's out of the bag hmm? Well I admit that little chat didn't go according to plan," he said in a flat tone.

"And what plan was that exactly?" Celestia growled in response.

"Oooh Tia, you and Lulu were always sooo much fun down the years. And while that little monster of mine did her job admirably in really getting your goat she has unfortunately slipped from my control. Now as you can guess I can't allow somepony using my borrowed powers without my permission. Its bad for my reputation having an underling disobey me. Now before you all foam at the mouth I'd tried to give her a piece of useless information in order to get her guard down and get close enough to steal her powers. Little did I know you all would linger at that amusing crash site," Discord stated in-between slips from his coconut before adding, "And in my defense I did try and warn you."

"Your warning was not hasty enough, Discord. Dozens of our finest now lay in shallow graves or worse because of your folly," Luna snapped.

"Dozen ha, and how many of your precious little ponies' lives do you think I'd have saved if my plan actually worked hmm? Surely more than a dozen?" Discord retorted as the false warmth in his voice faded.

"WHY YOU-" Luna snarled before I stepped in front of her and stopped her from doing something foolish.

And while I kept Luna held at bay I decided on taking the more diplomatic approach this time. "I am sorry but regardless of your intent Discord your plan failed and more lives were lost. Now as you cannot seem to put down that thorn in our collective sides perhaps it would be best for all of us if you let us do it? As in how do we stop her? And where is she currently located?" I said still struggling against Luna.

"Ahh so that's why you needed me? You want answers..." He replied rubbing his chin before adding, "Okay fine. The answer to your second question is easy. Her and her pack are held up somewhere in the Badlands. They move around often so you'll have to act fast if you want to catch her. As for the first question..."

He then went silent for a moment and when I grew tired of his irritating grin I said "And the answer is?" while trying to hold out the anger in my voice.

"Oh ho ho ho I think I'll have some fun with this one," Discord cackled out in reply before stating the following,

"On the setting of the moon a curse shall end,
with source so great that none can mend,
But like the tallest mountain or the longest beach,
It seems so close and yet so out of reach."

And then his parting words were simply that he will remain at a distance until this all "blows over" with a final statement of "Tootles!" before he disappeared.

Dumbfounded and thoroughly bewildered from Discord's responses I had nothing to say. But luckily I did not have to. Because eventually Rainbow Dash blurted out what everypony probably had on their minds and that was "Great! Another fucking riddle!"

Next Chapter: Chapter 46: On The Setting of The Moon, A Curse Shall End: Part 3 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes