***

“Let me in… and I will make everything perfect once again.”
The Darkness, The Avatar of Albion.

***

Canterlot never changed.

It was almost reassuring in a way that the palace was exactly the same as it had always been, but at the same time it was not. Discord could have lived with it if the palace’s decor had become dark and gothic and overtly evil, if soldiers in black armour with glowing eye holes had marched all over the place like evil automata, if ponies in shackles had been shuffling along the roads surrounding it.

Instead… Canterlot was normal. It was more than normal: it was cheery. Ponies still talked and laughed in the streets - albeit slightly more ponies than before. Shops still sold produce and luxuries, albeit ponies sometimes exchanged ration tokens instead of bits. The odd poster with a white-armoured Guardspony promised to save Equestria from the enemies of the Empress, but they were few and far between and as prone to being ignored as any other paraphenalia.

This place was just like home.

That's what makes it scarier, Discord thought quietly.

He was invisible as he walked around the city - he didn't like being invisible. He liked being big and loud, changing things as much as possible, being fun and kooky and weird. However, though very few ponies would have believed it from him, he did practice the virtue of restraint. Occasionally.

He had come here to learn about Astra Solamina Maxima. He had already felt an unsettling pit forming in his stomach when he thought of her, something like his twelfth sense going off, but he still needed to know for sure. His Celestia had embroiled them in a war with her now - he had (from a certain point of view) already helped her dispatch soldiers to help the embattled humans.

Now he just needed to know. To know what his senses were trying to warn him about.

The palace interior was no different, either: it was just like walking through the palace he had just left, except perhaps a tiny bit emptier. There were no visitors. A few guards wandered around, but there was no sign of Luna, no sign of Twilight Sparkle…

And then he arrived, invisible and intangible, at the throne room.

She was standing by a window, pensive and silent. She wore golden battle-armour and a glaive was held at her side, but apart from that she looked no different than the Celestia he had left behind. He wondered precisely what had happened to her to make her do what he knew she had. Some war he had missed, or…?

“Hello.”

He paused, his eyes widening in shock. Solamina had spoken. He blinked, trying to relax. She couldn't have been talking to him. She couldn’t have been. It was impossible. He was powerful enough to hide himself from anyth-

“I can’t see you, and you’re clearly trying very hard to not be sensed in any way,” she said quietly, cutting off his train of thought. “So much so that I don’t even know exactly where you are. But you are close, that much I know for certain.”

He didn’t move. He felt an irrational urge to run.

“Nonetheless,” she continued, “you do not need to be afraid. You are a stranger to this palace, after all… at least, this version of this palace.”

How? How can she know these things? Alicorn or not, Celestia is in no way powerful enough to -

“You must be wondering how I am able to do these things,” she added, still not turning. “Surely, you are thinking, she is not powerful enough to see through my defences, to scry past my shields.”

She turned, and she stared right at him.

“You're wrong,” she said, her voice taking on an odd tinge. “Whatever you thought I was, I am more. I have grown. You have not.”

Discord stumbled backwards, desperately trying not to panic. He knew what this was - he knew all too well.

She gave him a vicious grin.

“You are afraid, aren't you? I can feel it. Your terror permeates the air.” her expression shifted into a mocking sympathetic simper. “It's alright, there's nothing to be ashamed of. It is only natural to feel fear.”

It can't be that. Please don't let it be that.

“I grant you one chance to leave,” Solamina said with an unsettling smile. “If we meet again, however, you will be destroyed. Begone.”

And Discord ran. He ran as far away as he could, not caring how many dimensions he ran through, not caring how much dimensional noise he made between the worlds. He ran until he was outside Fluttershy’s house in his home dimension, and he simply slumped to the ground, eyes wide.

We are all going to die.

Author's Notes:

Hey all :-)

With this Interlude setting up Astra Solamina's darker secrets, the next arc will concern the diplomatic efforts back on Equus.

Cheers, all

Jed.