Author's Notes:

Dark Heart will be a little out of character in some moments of this chapter.

Looks as though beauty really can tame the beast.

"So has my sister informed of another assignment yet?" Luna asked as me and her walked through the castle gardens. It has been a week since my encounter with Fratamantus and me and Luna confessed our feelings for each other but not once have I stopped looking for the Windigo Fortress. I have received a few minor assignments from Celestia and Luna but nothing that kept me all that busy for a substantial amount of time. Every couple of days or so Diamond Sky has managed to get into The Void though and we talk and hang out. We've invited Luna as well though she has only been able to make it a few times thanks to her duties plus she says that it's only fair that she get to spend some time alone with me as well since I can see her whenever I want while Diamond can only rely on The Void. I'm lucky Luna and Diamond had gotten along so well right off the bat seeing how when I brought up the idea of forming a herd with the two of them Diamond accepted the idea quickly as the prospect of gaining not only one lover, but two made her extremely happy.
At the moment though me and Luna are just spending some quality time together before she has to go back into court to deal with the Canterlot snobs. "No, why?

"Well I was wondering if you would like to go on a date this weekend. Me and Tia have scheduled some time off for ourselves so that we can attend to personal matters, though her more so than I."
"Sure though don't expect me not to make a fool of myself during it." Luna giggled at what I said and looked up at me.

"Come now Dark Heart, surely you don't believe that you'll mess up that badly do you?" She asked still giggling a little.

"I do actually." I stated seriously which caused Luna to step in front of me and stop our walk.

"Well if you're really that worried about it then why don't meet me in my chambers tonight and we can discuss our plans for the weekend and go no from there?" Luna asked me. I looked up at the sky for a moment as I thought about.
"Sounds like a plan to me though I have to admit I'm kinda surprised by how you're handling this."

"What do you mean?" She asked as she tilted her head cutely.

"Well I figured you would be ripping on me about worrying over a date." I answered honestly.

She gave a mischievous smile. "Well I figured I spare you from the torment seeing how everybody else will being doing that job for me." Luna stated before she began walking away.
"You know sometimes I wonder if a bit Nightmare Moon's evilness has lingered within you though I think I have my answer."

"Or maybe I have experience with being a harder ruler from a less pleasant time period."

"That too....... Luna could I make a confession to you about something and promise not to freak out when I do?" I asked with guilt welling up within me already.
"Well I can promise that I'll try but it depends on what it is exactly."

"I know I keep telling all of you that I turned down Nightmare Moon's deal because she was evil and that part is completely true, but if I have to be honest with myself I did find her to be sexy and I actually found have taken that deal were she to go after another kingdom with a maniacal ruler. I hope that doesn't you at all Luna." I tell her while sprouting a small blush and rubbing the back of my head.
"That's it?" Luna's casual response shocked me and I made sure she knew that."What? It really isn't any surprise that you think that part of me is attractive; after all just because she went by a different name doesn't mean anything when you know who lies beneath and judging by some of the looks I've gotten by the stallions in Ponyville during Nightmare Night, even if they feared me, they thought the same."

"So you really don't mind that I find your evil half attractive?" I asked Luna who responded by giving me a kiss on the cheek.

"No I don't mind and, if you want, when we take our relationship further I could change into her so that you can live out whatever fantasies you may have." Luna stated with half-lidded eye as she walked away with an extra sway in her hips.
"You know I don't take kindly to teasing Luna." I call out to her making her turn around to face me and I sprouted my sinister grin. Luna knew that look all too well and she began to back up which was a mistake as I made a black tentacle rise out of the shadows and spank her luscious ass. She yelped and jumped back away from the opposing limb and into my arms. She turned around to look at me with an adorable pouting face.
"Why did you do that, that hurt." She said in a sad, hurt tone and tears in her eyes while she rubbed her butt to emphasize her point.

I nuzzled her and moved her hands to her sides as I took over messaging her flanks, "Sorry babe but you need to know that it's not nice to tease ponies like that but if you're good then when I come back tonight then I promise to make you feel better okay?" She nodded into my chest as she stood there and enjoyed the attention to her flanks, I could even her shudder in pleasure as well, that is until the sound of somepony clearing their throat caught our attention. We both look to our rights where the sound came from and found Celestia with a sly grin across her muzzle.
"So I see you two decided to enjoy a stroll through the gardens as well though it looks as though you enjoyed more than I did." Celestia remarked and caused Luna to blush while I rolled my eyes.
"Oh don't worry about her my moon goddess, she's just jealous of you."

"Be that as it may I actually came here with intentions other than to embarrass my Lulu." Celestia said good-heartedly.

"And what would that be Tia?"

"Well I'm sorry to say but I need to borrow Dark Heart to discuss certain matters sister though you neither of you need not worry as it won't interrupt whatever plans you may have for the week."
"Does this have to do what we talked about a few days ago Tia?" Luna asked.

"Yes it does actually."
"Then I shall not keep him then, plus I believe it's time for me to return to court anyway." Luna said to her sister before turning to me and giving me a kiss. "See you tonight?"
"See you tonight." I tell her giving a quick peck and we part ways as she heads back inside and I join Celestia as she heads in the direction of the statue gardens. "So what is it that you wanted to talk about?"
"Well me and Luna have been discussing this since Twilight and her friends defeated King Sombra but we can't seem to come to decision as the wrong choice can be disastrous to Equestria."
"So you two need a third party to help you decide then?"

"Well that and to request your help but whether or not we'll need it depends on what you choose." Celestia states as we come to a stop in front of Discord's statue.
"So what are you two doing that makes this so difficult?"

Celestia sighs as she turns her attention away from Discord to me, "I want to release Discord and ask Twilight if she and her friends could help reform him. I believe if he could be taught the importance of friendship then he would become willing to use his chaotic magic for good instead of evil though this job will be most likely be more suited for Fluttershy the others will need to be there should he decide to forsake his teachings."
"And that is something you want my help with should I tell you that you should but why me. I know that you and Luna can't seal him away but you two would be able to keep him distracted long enough for the girls to do it so why do you need my help?" I asked as I began thinking of what Celestia wanted to do with Discord.
"Well I'm not sure if you know this but dark magic is unaffected by chaos magic so should Discord run you are more than able to defeat him without the use of the Elements of Harmony." Wait, what!? Chaos magic can't disrupt my dark powers, that is something I didn't know. Actually I can't since there's no way for me to test that without having encountered Discord or anything infused with chaos magic.

"How do you know that Celestia because unless my memory is off wasn't Discord defeated before Sombra rose to power?"

"You are right but one thing that you or anypony else knows is that me and Luna have dabbed a little in the arts of chaos magic to prepare for the day Discord returned. Of course this was before the Nightmare Moon incident and we weren't aware that we would become disconnected to the Elements when we had came upon this plan and so we had it when we fought against Sombra, hoping to use it to end our battle quickly but alas that didn't happen as the spells had no affect on him." Well that's interesting and if that reject withstood the effects then I can as well. Then again there's always the possibility that it may have been because their chaos magic wasn't on the same level as Discord's so he was able to fend them easier.

Uuuuugh, dammit, what do you two think? I asked Nova and Shadow.

"I'm not sure. Discord no doubt has a grudge against Equestria for even with his weirdness but I also see a possibility that he can be convinced to accept the 'blargh' magic of friendship." I felt him shudder as well as Nova's jaw drop after he said those words.
No, no, I never want to hear those words ever come out of your mouth again Shadow or I swear by the goddess I will end you the next time you even think of them. I tell as I get on him hard for daring to speak those three words while he's a spirit sharing my soul. Nova what about you?
"What .........oh, right, ahem. Well I think that you should go with it and actually help with his reformation. If you think about it Discord is a misunderstood soul just as you were and you were both sealed away because of that. If he has somepony who can understand what he has been through then maybe he can be convinced to change his ways, you can even try to show him what it's like to use his magic to help others then he might actually consider it." Nova does make a good point. Mine and his situations are similar enough to where we could get along better than anypony else and I can't see even him doing anything to Fluttershy. I may not consider her a friend but I don't consider her an enemy either which is better compared to how I feel about the rest of the girls besides Pinks.
"Alright Celestia I've come up with my decision, I think you should release Discord and give your idea a shot." I tell Celestia after I made up my mind.

"Really!?" She asked in shock.

"Yeah and I'll even help out. Having another who's gone through the same experience would go a long way towards helping him reform don't you think?"
"That's right, you and Discord have pretty much gone through the same thing, we've never even thought about that, thank you Dark Heart. I will go inform my sister of this and if things go well then we'll have to wait three months before we can see the results."
"Why wait so long when we can start now?"

"The girls have their lives to attend with right now and I would like them to be focused on helping Discord plus right now Rainbow Dash is at the Wonderbolts Academy training as cadet."
"Oh yeah, I remember Pinkie telling me about that. I take it Twilight is the one who informed you about it as well?" I asked and Celestia nodded. I was about to say something else when one of the many dark seekers I sent out to scour the lands of Equestria and beyond to search for the Windigo Fortress had sent me a message through the magic channels saying that Pinkie and the girls were in danger at the Wonderbolts Academy. I wasted no time in taking off towards the academy, performing many long range teleportations in order to make it in time.
When I made it to the mountain that academy was located I used my magic to levitate myself up the side as fast as I could until I spotted the girls be thrown out a balloon by a rogue twister. Not having any time to do anything else I displayed the levitation spell and punched my arm into the mountain in order to keep myself up as I used my dark magic to make a net to catch all of them. I spotted Rainbow Dash come out of a crevice a ways down and near a cloud. Guess she was going to use the cloud to catch them.
"I thought I never be this happy to see you around." She said as she flew up to me.

"No problem, just be lucky that my desire to help is stronger than my desire to watch any of you girls, besides Pinks, get hurt." I tell her as proceeded to start climbing the mountain side.
"Do you really hate us that much?" She asked solemnly.

"No, but with the way all of you treat me I'm not that far from it. I've trying to be nice and get along with all of you for Pinkie's sake for the past couple of weeks. I care about her more than I do for some petty grudge but it's getting harder and harder to tell myself that and have it actually work in getting me to keep going out to your outings but then I think of the how much the Crusaders are getting along with Brick Builder and Dazzling Gem along with you girls and I can't tell myself anything to tell me to just stay home." The progress up the mountain was slow but luckily the other Wonderbolt Cadets were flying down to get the girls so I wouldn't have to worry about holding the spell for much longer.
"You really do care about them don't you?" She asked as she hovers next to me.

"How could I not? Besides Cheerilee and Sun Spear I'm the only other pony they have to turn to. To them I've become a big brother figure and I plan treating them as I would have my own sisters if I had stuck around to be there for them a thousand years ago."
"You know Twilight doesn't really you right?" She said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah but she isn't all that fond of me either." I stopped as I let the pegasi take Pinkie Pie, Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack up the landing strip while Fluttershy flew over to us. I disabled the net once they were all up on solid ground and I took a moment to get a breather.
"Are you alright Dark Heart?" I heard Fluttershy ask.

"Yeah, I'll be fine I just need a moment to catch my breath is all." I just stayed where I was for about ten minutes with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy there the entire until I felt better. I kicked off the mountain side and started levitating myself again as soon as my arms were freed from the rock and floated onto the platform. I didn't have time to see of Pinks was alright before Rainbow Dash flew over to a teal pegasus mare with streaks of orange and yellow going through her mane and tail as well as wearing a cadet uniform which told me how Rainbow knew her. They were arguing about something though I couldn't hear what about as I heard a voice speaking to me.

"You are doing well in your attempts to make the ponies see the errors of their ways. Soon you will be granted even greater power at the rate you're going but try to force it. If you are to find the windigo king you must take you time and learn what it means to be chosen." The voice that sounded like my demonic one said as the world around me was shrouded by darkness that was unlike that of the void.
"Who are you and what do you mean by 'learn what it means to be chosen'?" I asked the darkness and got a chuckle from whatever was speaking to me.
"I cannot tell my name as I do not have one. As for my meaning all I can say is this, you aren't the first the be granted to power to wield dark magic so freely without the fear of consequence. If you want more answers you will need to find them on your own, it will be then that things will become your past, present, and especially your future will become all the more clearer." The voice said as it slowly started to fade away until I could no longer hear it and the darkness surrounding me gave way to the grass surrounding the academy's landing strip.
I got up and turned around to see Rainbow Dash talking to Spitfire with her bags with her. Seeing that the rest of the girls were still there I walked over to Pinkie to see what was going on. "So what did I miss?" I asked when I was beside her.
"Well Dashie was about to quit the Wonderbolts and go home but Spitfire stopped her before we left and it looks like the Lightning Dust is going to get the boot." Pinkie explained as sure enough the Wonderbolt captain called forth the mare Rainbow confronted earlier and took her badge before pointing off somewhere to signal her to leave. The dejected mare began walking away while being escorted away but not before turning her head back to Rainbow Dash and giving her a wing salute. After that Spitfire and Rainbow Dash exchanged a few words before she took off into the sky towards some of the other cadets and flew off.
"Wait, you didn't open your care package!" Pinkie shouted after her.

"Is that why you came up here?" I asked as I looked at the flatten box which must have been damaged from the twister.

"Yeah, Pinkie here got worried that Rainbow Dash would forget about us but didn't want to send her a letter because she thought it would get lost in the mail and wind up in somepony's elses hooves and that they would think she's Rainbow Dash." Twilight answered as I looked down as the downtrodden party pony.
"So just more of Pinkie's nonsense then?" I asked and received nods and murmurs of agreement. "Pinks, you do know that it'll take much longer than a week for her to forget you and the others right?"
"B-but what if something happens that makes her forget." I kneeled down to by at eye level with Pinkie before embracing her and it looked like she was about to cry.
"I doubt that will something that bad will happen but if it will make you feel better I have to come up here everyday for the next month anyway to talk to Spitfire so I can check up on her for you, does that make you feel better?" I told Pinkie who returned the embrace and sniffled a little just nodded her head as her muzzle was resting on my shoulder.
"It does, thank you Darky." As much as I despise that nickname I let Pinkie use it because she's my best friend plus I couldn't tell her not to when it's a sign of our connection.

"Did you say that you needed to speak with me?" I looked back to Spitfire who was now standing behind me.

"Yeah, though the princesses told me to stop by a little later but it seems other things drew me here sooner." I tell her while I help Pinkie Pie up and wipe the remaining tears away to reveal her smiling face.

"So you're the thousand year old dark magic user that the princesses found in the Crystal caves under Canterlot. I heard that you first threaten to kill the princesses when you were released from some big crystal that was found down there."
"I'm actually one thousand and nineteen years old and there was a little to my discovery and release than that but yeah, I did threaten to kill both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna I tell her casually much to her shock.
"How did you hope to accomplish that. With all the guards in the castle and their magic there's no way you could have even gotten close."

"Well then tell that to them when I had my blades pressed against their throats," I tell her and her shocked expression grew. "That doesn't really matter anymore since I've forgiven them and me and Luna are dating now." I say much to the shock of all those present, except for Twilight who had one of those 'ah ha' faces. "Don't even bother asking how things worked out like that because I ain't tellin. Besides me and you have things that need to be discussed." I say as I begin walking away before anypony could say anything with Spitfire flying over to catch up soon after. We walked into the academy and to her office and began discussions about finding a way to track Spirit's and the windigos' movements.