"Concentrate your mind...let no thought provoke any emotion...let no emotion drive any thought..."

The pony's warm breath in front of him became more frantic as the struggle to follow directions became ever the more obvious. He didn't need to be in physical contact with her to feel her trembling. The darkness of the small room remained a barrier of protection to him, but it was no doubt an ever more constricting hand upon her. The dim and dancing candle flame illuminated a small part of her brow, and he could see a single drop of sweat roll down it as the breathing intensified before he shut his eyes and went to her aid.

"I.....I can't.....I.....impossible!"

"Control!" He reminded her and, without opening his eyes or causing her's open, he grasped her hoof with his own hand, tightening a firm grip around it.

"Please!"

"Control...yourself..."

"Snape! Help me! I can't fight this-"

And Cadence was back. She practically jumped from her seat and immediately began to pace in the pale moonlight that was refracted through the only window in the small room. Snape was still sitting beside her spot, eyes closed, breathing so shallow he could have passed for a corpse.

She pushed back the lump in her throat and let her the side of her head hit the window, and her mane pushed down into the upper corners of her eye. The window was clouded by her heavy breathing and she could scarcely feel anything but the cool temperature of the glass on her head.

How could something so mysterious and so unknown be so real and so frightening? At first she thought coming to Snape to help her with this problem was a good thing, but now she was beginning to have second thoughts about it. Snape's cold and reserved air was not just a pretext, but rather the composition of his very nature; that much she had learned in the short time they had been working together, and inside, he scared her... just a little bit. Not as much as whatever phantom was haunting her, certainly, but Snape was a figure that chilled her spine, and she didn't think that was something she could get over easily.

All was quiet for a moment, then Snape got up from his position, eyes running over Cadence's emotionally wounded figure as she spoke.

"I felt a great shadow...pressing down upon my soul...reaching to drag my spirit away and possess me completely...it was an evil I felt I knew...but one so twisted I can hardly think to dwell on it even now...oh, Snape...what do I do?"

In that moment, when her eyes threw themselves in desperation at him, he began to move forward and broke his quiet analysis of her.

"You can start by clearing your mind, as you were told," The man in black replied and joined her by the window, hands together behind his back, posture lean and rigid.

"The shadow was nothing of my own!" Cadence snapped, then regained her composure, "I...It was something else...something heinous...something that doesn't know true love..."

"No, I never doubted it was, but it was clear to me that the entire time your mind was not trained on combating it, Princess. Whatever this...shadow is, it will not leave you rest nor refuge of your own soul if you do not deal with it while you still have the chance. I must leave very soon, but we will continue when I return; plan on making time for another session in a couple of days."

"I'm sorry, Snape," Cadence apologized as the man opened the door to exit the room and enter the silent hallway.

"If you really are...you'll work this concentration issue out. I, frankly, don't care whether your husband understands or not; you have come to me, and I am fulfilling your wishes as a personal favor....please find it within yourself to commit entirely to casting out this...shadow."

With that, Snape exited and closed the door on Cadence, leaving her abandoned in the small, shadowy room, tears welling up in her eyes and a sniffle threatening to break the stillness of the dark morning air.

Snape's eyes darted across the dim fields of the early morning as he exited the interior of the castle to head back to his room while the sun rose from under the horizon. He had special plans for the day, and the last thing he needed was to waste time in Canterlot, after all, he only had so many opportunities to leave the city during school sessions.

He mentally ran through his list of things that needed to be taken care of while he was away one last time. He had locked down his office at the school and had planned out a rather extensive assignment to make up for his absence. He also put a few spells in place to prevent anyone that didn't need to know about the devious deeds underneath the school from finding out. Mass hysteria and panic would not suit his plans for the mission well, nor would being held in suspicion or contempt by the Princesses. If things got out of hand he could always take more active measures, but for now he was satisfied with monitoring the grounds and keeping the curious types away; without a certain snooping child around, it was almost surely bound to be easier than he anticipated.

He made sure he had all he would need for the day with him and ran through his room to ensure that nothing that was even remotely revealing of him was left for any prying eyes. For a land of bright colors and almost unfathomable cheer, the land brought out an unnatural stirring and deep suspicion from him. He stumbled upon a scroll from Twilight Sparkle as he entered his room, but put it on his desk, ignoring the message for the time being. He had many things to do, and he was only one man. Twilight Sparkle could wait for the time being.

He shut the door and locked it, placed a spell on it, and headed out towards the rising morning light. In front of the exit stood Princess Celestia, who was only now returning from her royal duties as Snape approached, and she went out of her way to put herself between him and the exterior of the castle. He inwardly groaned.

"Good morning, Severus, I do hope you can spare a moment before you take your leave," Celestia greeted with a keen look engraved in her eyes, causing Snape to halt before he reached the sunlight that penetrated the shadows of the halls.

"I...can spare one moment, Princess," He replied, turning to face the ruling monarch.

"I trust that your new life is off to a good start here."

"I've been keeping myself busy."

"Yes, I am aware of your activities in Ponyville, Severus...and I trust you will put a stop to them."

The air shifted in an instant, and Celestia's welcoming and bright exterior was altered into a stiff complexion. This was not a wish or a plea, but an order.

"I can only do so much, Princess...if Twilight Sparkle-"

"If Twilight Sparkle or her friends are harmed-or even put in danger by you once more-then I will take action, Snape. You've brought many benefits to Equestria, and while I know little of your past, I can tell you that acting like this...will not suffice in my Kingdom. Make it a point to play by rules, or leave."

"No...you're right. You know nothing of me, Princess."

"Tread lightly, Snape."

"Don't you think that if Twilight Sparkle had a problem, she'd come running to you first and foremost? That has not happened, unless I am mistaken...now, if you'll excuse me..."

An awkward silence ensued and the two stood their grounds while time froze around them. Neither showed any signs of weakness as their eyes glared back at one another. Celestia let Snape walk by after a few seconds of the unsettling quiet and unspoken battle had passed, and she hung her head slightly as she too went about with her business. The guards who happened to see the confrontation let out a sight a relief or wiped the bead of sweat from their brows.

For all his time in Equestria, Snape's biggest goal, and no doubt his most grievous challenge, was to ensure that when the time came for the final showdown, when the traitor revealed herself, that he was able to take action without any problems. If he could execute his final plan, whatever it was going to be, without a hitch, then he could find whatever it was that lay beyond this land. Thus, he dedicated most of his free time to gaining leverage in that matter.

Having studied Equestria and the main points of its past, he knew that the task could be accomplished easily enough, assuming a few key figures did not interfere. From the very moment he learned of one such figure's existence, he had committed himself to finding said figure, and ensuring his cooperation in Snape's mission...through force, if need be.

Oddly, as the one creature that was truly out of place in such a fantasy world, he was probably the only one who knew the truth. Even the Princess, he believed, were in the dark on this matter. Snape had almost missed it himself, but his skills of analyzation were well kept, and so he set forth on the auspicious quest.

If his knowledge of the realm sufficed and his ability to predict the nature of his foe was accurate enough then he was close to finding the elusive individual, perhaps even catching him by surprise. He readied his wand from within his robes.

The mountain was cold, the peak was snowy in fact, despite the weather being a fine summer warmth, and yet this obeservation seemed to escape so many ponies down below. It wasn't surrounding big cities like Canterlot, but it was still hard to miss...unless, apparently, you were of the equine species. He pulled himself over a large, black rock and found the entrance to a small cavern with the sound of an underground river leaking out.

The air coming from the cave was unusually warm and rather than the calm, dripping sounds one would expect to find in such a place, the singing of birds met his ears. The solid, black expanse of the cavern was absolute, at least, and he crept forward with the extremest of care. With an opposition as masterful as this, how could he not?

Snape's eyes, enhanced by his magic, glowed like those of a cat lurking on the streets after a midnight gale and he stepped farther into the cave, descending with the cavern floor with each step. The sound of the river became louder, but the air got warmer and the chirping of birds more surreal.

He jumped back into one of the walls, wand in hand, as something fell from the ceiling beside him and splattered on the dark stone floor. The substance remained motionless for a moment, then it began to pulsate and vibrate and creep away towards the sunlight protruding in the distance. Snape tip-toed forward after it for a few steps, but he let it go when a wild laugh exploded for only a moment in the far distance. He once again readied his wand and continued onward in a dueling stance.

"Show yourself," He commanded upon giving up on spotting the owner of the laugh; even with his magic at work the force he faced was a step or two ahead of him.

No response came but he could sense that whatever faced him was now afoot, lurking behind the shadows, perhaps behind even the stoney walls and stalactites above him. He continued forward and his foot plunged into the river, which he discovered, was not composed of water at all; at the same moment the high pitched laugh erupted once more, from behind him this time, and he crossed the river, made of a creamy substance, to face it head on.

Yet it did not come, and he lost almost all sense of the presence that toyed with him, leaving him little choice but to advance forward as the warm air turned hotter and hotter and finally assaulted him with a blazing heat while the birds became the source of a searing headache. The shadow in front of him was particularly dark and deep, and he could not fathom either its source or its end, but he caught on right as he stepped into it.

Instantly the cave and the mountain were replaced with a twisted version of Equestria; the grass was altered into a plane of soap and flowers releases bubbles periodically; clouds turned different shades of pink and blue and chocolate milk rained down from the loopy skies. The hills and mountains all seemed flat and structured like the backdrop of a film set; the trees, which would explode every few seconds in a dust storm of rainbow color, then revert back into trees through the whirl of a small tornado, fit right in. The chirping birds turned out to be flying books that vomited out some ink once every 20 seconds or so.

Snape had been expecting an environment more fantastical and distorted than the normal version of Equestria, and yet even he had to take a small second to wonder at how deep and strong the roots of chaos had dug into Discord's mind. Supposedly, Discord was born as the embodiment of disharmony and unrest, conceived of the very same emotions that kept ponykind from achieving complete peace and understanding. It made as much sense as many things in this realm did.

Yet, even with the psychological mastery Discord possessed that so many creatures here lacked, the fact that a good deal of his power was sealed away in the statue, his carbon copy clone in Canterlot, meant his powers had languished over time, though Snape was sure they were slowly returning with the passing of time too. Underestimating any opponent, however, was a fool's tactic, and Snape was no fool.

The ebbs and flows of the very air around Snape lead him through the fields and hypnotized him into taking the next step without his full consent. He allowed this hypnotic disease in the air to guide him and he focused his energies on finding the source of the chaos all the while protecting his own mind and soul from any unharmonious influences that pined to affect him. Based on Twilight's written account, which unknown to her he had read, Discord would lull him on and wait a while before trying him. A fair gambit, no doubt.

He began to slide down a soapy hill when a vortex of chocolate milk sprung from beneath the ground, then morphed into a monstrous wave that devoured him and pulled him through the ground. He began to act out in defense, but the experience seemed to end almost before it had begun. He next realized that he was on his hands and knees on the top of a hill. The sky had grown dark and the raining cotton candy clouds had vanished, but otherwise he appeared to be in the same area, although rather than a filming studio, he now seemed to be lost in some odd expanse that stretched past beyond what any logic could fathom.

He pushed himself to his feet and spun around twice, searching the limitless wilderness around him for any signs of escape or salvation. Rather than walk, he chose to fly, heading in the direction he believed to be East, but then again no one could be sure when Discord was in charge? It took less than a minute before the light returned in the sky, and he landed once more, looking out to see any possible changes in the landscape that enveloped him, but none were to be found.

Snape almost let himself fly off again, and just as he decided it would be more sensible to take a different course of action he heard a scream in the distance.

"Stop! Stop! St-ha ha ha ha-p!"

He apparated in the direction of the cry and found several ponies wiggling on the floor and laughing to the point of tearing up. Each pony was held in place on their backs by a long yet bulky and bulging blue carrot that was anchored to the ground by the green stem in the far distance. Nothing else was in the immediate area, so he figured it was the strange vegetable that was forcing their laughter. He approached slowly and methodically, trying to sense out the area with his mind.

"C-Can you ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-help!?" An earth pony mare requested as the entire group of hostages looked at Snape with a mix of strange distrust and pleading anxiety.

Snape stared every one of them down and examined the whole situation before his wand peaked out of his sleeve. He pointed it at the carrot and, without speaking, quickly raised his wand and flung it back into its original position. The carrot shrank down to a reasonable size and at once and freed the ponies, all of whom took a minute to compose themselves and wandered over to the human with some hesitance; Snape surmised that none of them had encountered him before, which of course meant they were being held against their wills for a while, possibly even since Discord's first "defeat" at the hooves of Twilight and her company.

His expression was fixed somewhere between expecting of an explanation and in harsh denial of their existence. The earth pony mare, introducing herself as Golden Glitter, was the only one brave enough to speak to Snape.

"Thank you...we've been tortured like that for what felt like an eternity...I don't even know how long we've been here..."

"Where is Discord?"

"Why," Golden Glitter asked with a curious and perhaps even amused face, "are you looking for him?"

"My business is my own," Snape replied with steely eyes and a stern lip.

"We'd love to help you, really, but we have no clue where that maniac is, and we don't care; we're escaping this nightmare of a mountain as soon as possible."

They began to leave, but the command of Snape's voice stopped each one from advancing more than a few steps away, "None of you are leaving."

"What do you mean?" Golden Glitter inquired, the nervous edge of her voice breaking through the attempted indifferent facial expression she wore.

"I cannot allow you to flee just yet, my...little ponies..." He worded the group identity with a type of disdain that he was not as used to using as he had been back on Earth.

"Who are you to keep us?" One of the ponies from the group demanded, though the stallion's timid posture broke through his tough facade when Snape moved his eyes directly on him.

"You will not leave until he arrives; it is imperative that the two of us speak, and is for your own good, believe it or not," Snape informed them, moving up until he was face to chest with Golden Glitter.

"That's not fair, we've suffered enough!" Golden Glitter objected, though Snape ignored it and turned his body to the gathering breeze in the air. It seemed the bait had already begun to work.

"My, my, my, my!" An as-of-yet unspoken and menacing voice called from the invisible shadows of the light, "the one and only Severus Snape! Come to see little old me!"

"Hey, there you go!" Golden Glitter told Snape in a panic, "here he is! Please! Please let us leave now! Please!"

"Go." The command was void of emotion and he had not bothered to face the group, only backing up so the Master of Chaos could reveal himself. The fearful whimpers of the equines broke the silence of their meeting, but they were soon lost in the expanse of Discord's maze.

He finally appeared before the wizard, arriving in a white flash and a bowing pose, one arm on his chest, the other extended to his side.

"At your service," Discord greeted, a large and raving smile stapled on his face. Snape's face remained as solid as stone and his eyes did not stray from the very centers of Discord's evil pupils.

"Discord..." Snape acknowledged slowly, beginning the verbal and psychological game of chess they had entered into with discretion, and it was fairly obvious that they both relished in it as well. Discord remained fixed in his bowing stance until Snape had finished greeting him, at which time he flashed away and reappeared behind Snape with his hands together, leaning to the left in an oddly effeminate stance.

"You know, I really wish you hadn't gone and let them go. How do you expect me to enjoy the beauty of my chaos when there aren't any innocent pony souls to torment?"

Discord had now shifted his pose and placed his knee on a rock that sat directly in front of him and bounced up and down a few times like jello when he pressed his weight on it; his hand moved to rest under his chin and a devious smile devolved into a frown with a feigned sadness. Snape merely turned himself around and stepped forward in a confrontational position.

"I'm sure Princess Celestia would like to know what you've been up to," Snape remarked in a casual yet lethal reply.

"And I'm sure she'd just explode if I showed her the 'abracadabra antics' under her precious little school, you know, the same ones you've not been telling her about.....or I suppose I could send a pie instead..." Discord floated up into a position of lounging and placed his paw beside his head, daydreaming about the aforementioned explosive, possibly lethal gag.

Snape remained silent and in place, so Discord flashed away behind him again, still in the air but now leaning down to whisper into Snape's ear with a devilish sneer, "Geez...you just can't stay away from secrecy and lying to those who get close to you...can you?" he then pushed himself back a bit and flipped a few times in the distance, "then again, who am I to talk? I've been an addict for anarchy for as long as I can remember."

"You know more than I'd think..."

"I know things you don't even know about yourself," Discord taunted as though he was showing Snape tickets to a concert of their favorite band, "trust me, some of those YouTube comments...hoo hoo, boy!"

"I know enough about you, though, Discord, like how your powers, though gaining lately, are significantly-lower-than normal," Snape stated and took many steps towards the draconequus, who in return lowered himself back onto the ground, arms folded atop his chest and his smile was literally erased with the back of a pencil, then the pointed lead drew a frown in its place.

"Yes, yes, yes...very true...but then again, with just one," he snapped his fingers and Snape's wand flashed into Discord's possession, "little flick of the wrist," Discord spun his wrist around once and now held the wand in his hand before he pushed it together from each side until it vanished within his index fingers, the same wide smile back on his face, "you're powerless!"

Snape remained unphased externally, but he felt Discord knew he was struggling to keep himself composed on the inside.

The two held their places for a moment and all the while Discord was barely able to contain his laughter until he finally broke, reeling back into a half back-flip and and making Snape's wand reappear in the wizard's hand. Discord faced away from Snape for a moment, seemingly talking to nothing at all for a moment, "Did you see the look on his-oh...no, no you didn't! (But I did!)"

The Master of Chaos broke out laughing again and forced a straight face on once more as he levitated down and began to walk around Snape in a circle, humming happily and waiting for the human to make his next move.

"Well well," Discord taunted after Snape gave no response to his antics, "stumped already? It must have so boring in your last lifetime...I can hardly stand to think about it, urgh, dreadful!"

"I've come here only to secure your cooperation," Snape said with hidden ire, rigid as the statue form Discord's clone was stuck in at the very moment.

"Oh, that's right, I'd almost forgotten about your new, top-secret mission; come to Equestria to stop total chaos from erupting after an inside job in the throne room....hhhmmmm...'fraid it's just not in my best interest to help you out, sorry champ!"

"And what if I changed your mind about that?" Snape asked, innocently enough, as his eyes followed Discord constantly as the embodiment of anarchy circled around him. The venomous snort that was Discord's reply made Snape sprout a very small smile.

"Just think of this, though," Snape lulled and dashed in front of Discord before he could make another step, "suppose I helped you...increased your power bit by bit and led the Princesses on while you grew stronger? When I averted the assassination, and subsequently left, you would have ample opportunity to take over."

Discord seemed intrigued, so much so that he put his face right up against Snape's for a moment so that their eyes connected; Discord's fathomless pits matched Snape's endless tunnels for a single moment before Discord broke off and returned to a relaxing position on a pink cloud he flashed into existence a few feet away and above Snape's head.

"Not even you would let these silly ponies suffer if you could help them. Your heart's too big," Discord dismissed with a lounging wave of his arm and a sigh of ease.

"You underestimate me. What do I have to gain by saving them? They don't matter to me at all, not so long as I save a Princess from death; then I can leave this realm forever."

"Really? IS that so?" Discord questioned with a sneer but did not move himself, only smiled widely from beyond Snape's piercing gaze.

"What would you say if I proved it to you?"

Discord did not answer Snape's question, but did teleport himself in front of the wizard with a bright white flash, standing with his arms folded and an amused smile of derision glaring down on Snape. Snape let Discord see the same small smile that had broken through his exterior a moment before.

With a swift wand motion Snape brought the runaway captives back before Discord, who was lifted off the ground by the stunning gesture of appeasement on Snape's part. The Master of Chaos, a shocked smile forming on his face, wasted little time and proceeded to trap the ponies again, but his eyes never lost their keen edge and they were never taken off of Snape.

"What happened? No! NOOO!!!" Golden Glitter screamed with the other captives, pleading again for salvation, but Snape did not move, he didn't even blink.

"Satisfied?"

Snape's question was more of a statement than anything else. Discord didn't know quite how to react, and Snape knew for the first time the advantage was totally his. The draconequus cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders in an effort to loosen himself up, and, with a scathing sigh, he teleported the two away from the hills, leaving the screaming and frantic ponies to their restored fates.

The two were teleported to a different place in the mountain, where the hills were replaced by a sea of balloons and they stood on a giant cake that appeared to be in the sky. If he had to venture a guess, Snape supposed this was Discord's temporary throne within the mountain.

"So you're willing to let me have my fun with a few ponies hardly anypony else is missing...but what about this...'aiding me in gaining power' part? How do you plan on doing that, Sevvy?" Discord demanded, reclining on a flexible blue candle that perfectly cushioned him and conformed to the impression he made on it; he sat rubbing his chin with his slender hand as he awaited the human's reply.

Snape stood facing Discord, another blue candle to his right and a view of the balloon sea to his left. He did not bother to give a verbal response, rather he raised his wand and pointed it directly at Discord. The Master of Chaos did not give much more than the slightest physical clue that he felt at all threatened, but Snape did not acknowledge his opponent's subtle fear.

Snape inhaled deeply enough for Discord to hear and moved forward very slowly, his wand still aimed at Discord, but then Snape paused, and simply gave an order: "You will not interfere with my work here...ever."

Discord stayed quiet and still, his posture less relaxed and more curious. Snape kept up his stance and his wand steadied so that any spell would hit the Master of Chaos directly in the heart.

"How..." Discord began with an inquisitive look, paused when Snape's wand got an inch closer, and then continued when he felt it right, "should you supply me with your power then? Do I just drop a line?"

"I will make it a point to increase your strength...from time to time."

"Then you have my word...liar to liar...that I won't interfere if you don't back out of your end."

"Agreed."

Snape's eyes shut for only an instant. His speedy inhalation was exhaled just as swiftly, and a silent, golden beam shot from the end of his wand. Discord fell off the candle and gasped loudly for air while he ran his hands all around his body, twisting and turning on the top of the cake, smearing he icing around and knocking over the candle he had just been reclining on. He soon feel silent, but continued to wiggle and worm, and then he slowly fell still, eyes closed, breath shallow. Snape stood looking on him with a sort of pity and a clear detest of the creature.

Snape shook his head and looked out at the sea of balloons, patches of red and blue and yellow and green and orange and white balloons that almost presented an exit way. He walked to the edge of the cake and tried to find the floor beneath them, but he could not. Finally, he spun back around and focused again on Discord.

"Well, are you going to get up and get me out?"

Discord's limp form flashed away and the Master of Chaos reappeared on a pink cloud beside the cake, laughing and lounging once more. It took him a moment before he could properly speak to Snape again.

"That was great," Discord cackled, "let's do it again soon!"

"I'll get to you when I get to you, now answer my question."

"You're a capable and strong wizard, why should I be forced to strain myself and get you out of my mountain. You got yourself in, didn't you?"

Snape's eyes narrowed for a moment, and Discord continued to rest himself on the cloud without presenting any signs of care towards Snape, but he soon gave a groan of distaste and complied with another flash of white light, "Fine!"

Celestia's sun was set to lower soon when Snape began to tread up the stairs of Canterlot Castle. The stone stairs beat with his every motion and the ponies he passed in the city and the guards in the castle, even those who had seen him before, seemed more frightened than usual. Rather, it was not so much fright that forced them to move, but anxiety. It was not fear of something they saw or felt, but something they could only just sense about him that caused their panicked movement.

A stroke of wind blew his curtain-like hair into his eyes and he paused momentarily to wipe it away. When he adjusted it, Princess Luna stood before him, an expression that mirrored his own callous and uncaring mood was on her face. He had to admire the contrast she brought to the land.

"Good evening, Severus."

"Princess."

"I heard you had the day off, may I ask how you spent it?"

"I spend all my free days the same...working."

"Oh," she acknowledged and lost her expression for a moment, "well, maybe next time?"

"Perhaps."

It was clear she wanted to start a conversation, yet all he desired at the moment was to be alone. He was exhausted more than he thought he would be, and that spell had put an extra strain on him.

"How are Cadence's sessions going?"

He could not completely restrain the widening of his eyes at her remark. No one was supposed to know, not according to Cadence at least. She caught his expression of confusion, small as it was, and added onto her statement with a small chuckle, "I advised her to see you about her...problem."

"I see."

"You seemed to know how to handle it, or at least none of us could, not effectively. Besides, I knew I could trust you to help her."

"Knew...did you?"

"We have more in common than one might think, Severus. Like you, I once played the role of the pariah."

Snape did not comment, and so once again Luna gave him more to work with.

"I don't know any specifics, and I sense that you wish to keep much of your old life private. I can respect that, but after 1,000 years of being the dark, I know what someone who struggled with the same thing looks like."

"How keen of you."

Luna's face dropped, much like her sister's early that morning as he walked away, and he refrained from moving on, letting her vent instead.

"We all know about your trip to Ponyville the other day, Severus. Twilight Sparkle told us of the way you...bonded. I was hoping that I would have the honor of cementing your place here, though-given the circumstances," she added with a coy smile, "I'm not quite as upset as I might have been."

Whatever aspect of these creatures made them desire the bonds of friendship above almost anything else still baffled him, but he was adapting, he supposed, and he gave a reply and turned to face the Princess of the Night.

"You have found a creature that shares the same darkness you do, it is only natural to feel that way, but believe me, Princess, I have lost the capacity to form as deep a bond as you ponies would-"

Snape stopped short and stepped in front of Luna with a puzzled and bewildered look on his face. There was no chance...it simply could not be that he was seeing what he thought he was. Luna was confused and looked down in vain to gaze upon what had transfixed Snape so completely. She tried many times, retracing her view to match Snape's but the object of such astounding interest to him did not register with her.

"Snape...are you alright?"

Snape remained quiet for a minute, then quickly caressed his temple with his hand before muttering a reply, "Yes...yes, of course."

"Are you sure? What happened?"

"Excuse me Princess, we will have to speak another time."

With that sudden and swift parting, Luna was left alone to stare out into the distance of the city beneath them, wondering what had captured Snape's attention so masterfully. It took her a minute or two to remember that she was on her way to raise the moon and begin her watch over Equestria.

She flew off towards the castle's tallest tower, contemplating whether it would be appropriate to enter Snape's dreams. Though she considered it for a moment, she soon decided that would be unjust and an invasion of the privacy she knew Snape wished to withhold from others. If he was having trouble sleeping, it might be another matter, but...until then, she could only hope to find the same level of friendship with Snape that Twilight had through the same means.

Severus Snape was a most unusual creature to everypony in the land, but to Luna, he was so much more; if she ever needed a confidant or a strong will to help her, she would want it to be him, because even if he tried to hide or dismiss it, in her heart she knew they were very much the same, yet that only made the missing connection between them all the more painful.

Snape sulked into his room and shut the door with gusto. He thrust himself onto the edge of his bed and gazed out at the moon as it illuminated the dark floor of his room, painting bright images that played out like memories in Snape's mind. He could almost see the faces of the tortured ponies calling out to him from below. The Guide was right, enigmatic and cryptic as he was. This was the very same evil he had known in Great Britain, but here, it went by the name Discord.

In the end, though, Snape knew it would turn out alright. Casualties were always a surety when facing an opponent of high caliber, and it seemed this rule did not change. Even in Equestria the rules of warfare were adamantine.

Despite this, there were many differences between the worlds, and he would give a lot to be able to wake up in Spinner's End or Hogwarts again. He missed the dreary atmosphere, really; it was much harder to work here, so many oddities, so many unsettling things to see. He'd always been a recluse, but recluses here were not at all like recluses at home.

But then there were far more troubling things than home-sickness afoot. If he had really seen what he thought he saw...he might have to re-evaluate his entire plan. Seeing what he thought he saw was so jolting he lost his composure for a moment, but who could blame him? It boggled the mind to think that even someone like him would not be troubled if they saw-

"Snape, you miserable lout, get out here!"

The malice within the voice was familiar, as was the harsh knocking on his door. Was it possible for Cadence to do anything right?

The door burst open with a red tinted magic and Shining Armor trotted in with authority alongside three other guards, each some of the finest stallions he had yet seen in the employ of the castle. Snape stood up and drew his wand, keeping it concealed but ready as the three guards stepped forward and stared him down.

"What is the meaning of this!" The wizard demanded and froze each guard in place with one well timed spell.

"Princess Celestia is too kind to you," Shining Armor spat as he moved closer to the still human, "you go behind my back and see my wife without telling me when I hardly know whether or not to trust you, you disrespect the wisest of the Princesses, and to top it off, you go to my little sister's town and fight her and her friends into submission! You're not a wizard, Snape, you're a monster!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't seem to be all that perfect yourself, after all, you're supposed to have a warrant before you break into my living space with any charges."

"I make the warrants, and around here I'm the law."

"I'm sure Celestia would love to hear that...or maybe your wife instead."

"You're pressing your luck!"

"Didn't your mother teach you not to play with danger?"

"You're not better than me in any way. I already told you exactly what you are, Snape, a monster. A horrible, hideous, monster."

Snape did not dignify the accusations with a verbal response. He only apparated the two of them to the wall of the castle, Shining Armor's back to the long drop to the ground, Snape's in front of the castle wall. Shining Armor immediately brought his face into Snape's and exhaled viciously.

"Hmm. Your emotions dictate your every action, thought, and word. Do you know what I call that? Weakness. You are weak, you are a weak guard, a weak husband, and you will be a weak father."

Shining Armor's eyes went wider than Snape had thought possible and the Captain of the Guard shot a fast and powerful beam of magic at the sorcerer's face, though Snape managed to duck down and move to the side to put a few feet between them.

"I hate you," Shining Armor sneered through gnashed teeth and straining facial muscles, "I hate you more than anypony or anything else in this world!"

"As I said, weak."

"I will see you banished yet-if you're lucky! If I have my way you'll never make it back to your home; you should have never left in the first place."

The two stood in opposition for a long while, tensions high. The surroundings seemed to echo around the fear and soon enough many guards had come to their captain's assistance, or simply to watch the strange foreigner in action. Even Princess Luna soon caught wind of the confrontation and flew down to put a stop to it.

"Enough!" She commanded as she descended through the cool night air, landing between the two.

"Princess, please, trust me when I say that this...menace...deserves to be detained and disciplined," Shining Armor tattled.

"Have you proof of his supposed treachery?"

"No. No he doesn't," Snape answered in the white stallion's place, "and he would do well to remember that even if he is the Captain of the Guard, I am-"

"You're a citizen of this land, subject to it's rules and laws," Luna finished for him, though even she could tell that her legs were shaking...ever so slightly shaking as the two males shot daggers at each other with their eyes.

"I have probable cause and suspicion that he's been troubling my wife and therefore harassing a Princess," Shining Armor accused, several guards moving to stand behind their leader.

"Can you explain?" Luna asked Snape.

"If he knew anything about his wife he'd know she was having problems before I showed up."

Shining Armor's face went red.

"Furthermore," Snape interrupted his rival from objecting, leaving him all the more furious, "despite his implications that I have been tampering with Princess Cadence's mind, I would like it to be known that she came to me, and I agreed to help her out of the kindness of my heart."

"You're a scheming, lying, motherbu-"

"Silence!" Luna bellowed in her Canterlot voice and flew up above their heads for a moment as lightning flashed in the dark skies that belonged to her before descending again and finishing in a calmer tone, "I believe this was a big misunderstanding...now, I advise both of you to return to your business before I take further action."

Shining Armor grumbled and left with many of the guards while the others went back to their posts in silence. Luna remained behind with Snape and took the opportunity to speak with him once more.

"You're welcome."

Her tone was far from arrogant or proud, but it was not a teasing tone either. Snape nodded slightly, and began to walk off, but Luna had one final attempt to hold him back.

"Please," she said somewhat loudly, "try not to judge him so. He is going through a tough time, being put under so much pressure. We were at least somewhat expecting a foal...but not you; you were a complete surprise."

"Understandable. I do not hate him, I hate his inability to think and act accordingly under this great pressure. I might be willing to move on from it, but he makes that quite hard, doing stupid things like breaking into my quarters and confronting me so."

"I can only respect you for purposely taking the confrontation somewhere it could die down, rather than heat up. You are remarkable, Severus, and in time Shining Armor will see that too."

"Perhaps."

"He does mean well, I assure you. I know trust is hard, but you can trust me, if no one else."

"Trust can be misplaced, you know."

"True enough..." Luna admitted with a small frown, and Snape took the opportunity to take his leave, apparating away without another word.

Author's Notes:

Happy Winter Holidays to all! This was the longest chapter yet and I've already planned the next two chapters out, though I can't say for sure when they'll be out yet. Never-the-less, consider this my early Christmas Present to all of you wonderful readers out there on Fimfiction! You stay awesome.

Glad to have this part out, and let me tell you, I feel like a lot of work went into it, and at the same time, I think it came out really well (even though it was a bit more difficult to write out, as I'm not much of a Discord expert). Anyways, I think it should be affirmed if you haven't realized it: this is an alternate reality, aka, my world. ;D

Thanks for reading, and be alert for the next chapter: Return to the Status Quo!