Back in the garden, back among the carefully grown flowers, the expertly shaped hedges and trees, the finely crated stone walls...

And one could not forget the statues of course.

It was oddly calming, walking through the bastion of tranquility that contained what had once been her and her sister's greatest foe.

Perhaps it was the quiet serenity of it all, mainly due to the fact that nopony but her ever seemed to visit. Of course there were the occasional, and rare, field trips headed by the schools, but after what happened with the last she wasn't quite sure about letting them continue...

She shook her head of that thought, those three fillies were in no way responsible for the shattering of the seal, it had begun to weaken long ago when the Elements had left her and her sister's control. Their fight had merely been...the final push.

However, she knew the calm did not originate from the silence of the garden, if she wanted silence to match this there were countless areas in the castle should could retreat to, and if she was truly desperate there were several spells to dampen all the noise around her, which she often put to good use when the endless needs for foreign dignitaries were too much for her..

What really brought her peace of mind was the simple view of a statue situated in the very center of the garden. Discord, his face frozen in an expression of pure shock and terror.

It was a constant reminder, a wonderful truth, which showed that even against a god of chaos, one of the most powerful creatures in all of Equestria, the magic of friendship could still prevail.

That the world was in capable hooves, that if she fell...somepony would be able to rise up after her.

But she was not here in an attempt to achieve some sort of zen, she was here for something far different.

"Good afternoon Discord," this was not the first time she had attempted to contact the captured god. Ever since the events with Sunny he had been completely silent. A very strange development. "Are you ready to talk yet?"

Silence.

"I know you're in there Discord. I'm not going to let you hide in there forever," her horn sparked as the spell intensified. "I am very tired of waiting. I you I could make you talk if I wanted to..." she waited for a few seconds before she felt something shift inside the stone. Almost like a great yawn.

"Would you really do it Celestia? Would you use your magic and 'make me talk?'" Discord's smooth voice droned from inside the stone. "More likely you would think better of it and continue to drone on and on about you precious little students like you have for far too many days. Though to be honest, that would probably be worse. Will you just explain why you've been keeping this up and be done with it?"

"Well...why do you think I've come?" a tiny smile crept onto her face as Discord groaned.

"Don't you even start with that Celestia. Forcing someone to find a lesson for you? Only the lowest sort of teachers resort to that kind of tactic," a long sigh. "But I'll humor you, if only to end this faster. I'll bet that you want me ask for forgiveness for what I did? The thousand years of torment I put those ponies through, followed by my latest attempt to take over Equestria? You want to hear some hint that I'm not 'completely lost.'"

"That...that would be encouraging to here," Celestia admitted.

"Well you're not going to!" the sudden shout startled her, the statue almost seemed to shake with it. "I have nothing to answer for, nothing to beg forgiveness for.,,"

"You tormented the citizens of the Everfree Forest for over a thousand years, you then conspired to break a part of yourself free in order to take over Equestria!" her shouted echoed through the garden. "How can you sit there and claim there is nothing to answer for?"

"Well first off, you haven't left me much choice in the matter. Secondly what else did you expect me do besides configure a plot to escape this prison?" she could almost feel him shrugging. "I am Chaos, it's in my nature to rebel."

"You really think that's enough? When you were freed you immediately attacked my student Twilight and her friends. It was because of you that they lost one of their newest companions," Discord's rumbling laugh echoed throughout her head.

"Truly? I remember being stuck here for all of that, relaxing in the glow of that silly magic shield you thought would protect you," another short laugh. "As the Princess of the Sun I really thought you'd be a bit more observant."

"It was still you that committed those crimes, even if it was just a part of you," Celestia tried to argue.

"If you remember, that was a part that was locked away from me for over a thousand years. He may have been me...but I was not him. It's not my fault he went a little...power mad," Discord said. "You leave someone alone too long with no supervision and a great amount of power, there is quite a high chance they may give into some...temptation. I believe your sister is very well versed in that subject." Celestia stared at the statue in silence for a few moments, her gaze stern.

"We are not talking about my sister..." she finally said, her tone low.

"No...I suppose not. You wanted to hear me apologize for something I was not at fault for, a part of me got loose, caused some havoc, and your little ponies stopped it," Celestia could picture Discord shaking his head at her. "But...I don't think you ever really expected to get anything..."

"No..." a short pause. "But I had some hope for it..."

"Hope is a dangerous, foolish notion," he seemed to turn away from her. "I'll bet those silly ponies are hoping their friend is going to come back."

"He won't you know..."

"And how can you be so sure of that?" her voice held a hint of desperation. Sunny's fate had been on her mind ever since his and Discord's disappearance.

"I can see many things in this world, even trapped within this cold stone. When that part of me was freed from the Everfree Forest I found that I could see through his eyes as well. I saw all of his actions, up until the very end." his tone turned dark.

"They...you saw when Sunny took-" she started.

"Yes, I was there when that fake pony gave himself up to stop a part of me. I was there to see what waits...beyond," he finished almost with a sneer.

"I don't suppose you may have had some revelation after seeing what awaited-" she stopped at Discord began to laugh again. He laughed and laughed and laughed, deep and loud, directly at her.

"Don't even try playing that card Princess. How old are you exactly? A thousand? Two thousand? Probably more at this point, you wear your years better than most, but not nearly as well as I do," Celestia felt a small frown form on her face. "Still, as the centuries drag on and on and on...creatures like us always find ourselves wondering what happens when it all comes to an end. What is waiting for us afterwards?"

"Well I'm pleased to say...I knew what awaited me long ago. So many tried to warn me of the punishment that awaited...and I didn't care one little bit. If the world sought to punish me for following my nature, then it could go ahead and try." Discord sounded so sure of himself, but a part of his speech seemed...off.

"And what you saw, it was what you expected?" Celestia found herself asking.

"Hmm...not entirely, and I've yet to decide if that is a good or bad thing," Celestia felt his gaze focus back on her. "But I will tell you one thing...one thing I've still yet to puzzle out."

"What would that be?" There were few things Discord was ever puzzled about.

"That impostor pony, Sunny or whatever silly name he called himself, must have thought he was so clever. He had to have known that making that part of me look into his fate would have had echoes in the real world, but what he didn't realize is that I could see what awaited him as well..."

"You know what that faker was made of don't you? All those final hopes and dreams...all that hatred and love that passes through the mind in its final moments bound up together by your silly magic of harmony. I suppose it could be called a life, in a loose definition, but there is one thing it could never be called," he paused like some dramatic story teller.

"A soul. A true soul like those the rest of your subjects happily carry around, hardly even realizing it. It may pretend to be...but it can never truly be that. And do you know what awaits something with no soul?"

Celestia did know.

"Nothing..." after all, what else could it be? "Sunny...when he took that part of you away, did he know?"

"Yes!" Discord nearly shouted. "That is what refuses to make any sense to me! Not only did he give himself up, but he gave himself up to nothing. You may try to imagine such a fate, but you can never grasp the enormity of it. He will be trapped for all time, beyond time, in an abyss of nothing. Nothing to see, hear or touch. He will reach out for help, for someone, but no matter what he tries, there will still be nothing!"

"Why would he do that? He could have waited, escaped with your student and those silly friends of hers, they may have even been able to bring up a plan to stop that part of me." he was almost fuming now.

"Would they have stopped you without any difficulty? Without any chance of harm to themselves, or to the ones they cared about?" Celestia cocked her head to the side.

"That would be...very unlikely. That part of me was rather...determined to win this little game of ours. But facing such a small chance is still better than where he sent himself."

"If what you said is true, then what is faces truly is terrible. But my student was able to rescue his from a similar situation before."

"You did not see what I saw, there is nothing like this. He is trapped there for no good reason."

"He is trapped there...because he wanted to protect his friends, because he thought his sacrifice would be worth it," she tried to argue, but even as the words left her mouth, Celestia knew Discord would not listen.

"There you go again, prattling on and on about friendship. I'm never going to believe somepony would do anything just for the sake of a silly connection like that."

"It is far more than just a connection...it's..." she stopped herself, staring silently at the statue. Continuing this conversation right now would be pointless. "Never mind." She stood up from the soft grass, turning her back to him.

"Oh don't tell me you're leaving already? Surely you've got more to say about 'The Magic of Friendship,'" Discord called as she began to walk away.

"Not today, but I thank you for telling me what happened to Sunny," she gave him a quick nod.

"You shouldn't, now all you know is that he's not going to come back." Discord's presence pulled away from her, he was done talking.

"We'll see...until next time Discord."

"Until next time Princess Celestia."

With a final flash from her horn Celestia broke the spell between them, and the garden fell once more into silence.

"Perhaps, if you can still find yourself trying to question friendship, you aren't completely lost yet..."

Satisfied, at least somewhat, she left the garden behind.

Author's Notes:

Mostly because I like the idea that Discord could still be redeemed in this strange spin-off thing of MLP I've created and secondly because it contains an important plot element for the next, and most likely last, part of this story.

This was interesting to write...but I really wish it was better. I am never ever satisfied with my writing, and I should really get a proofreader...ah well, maybe next time.

Also, while writing this I accidentally hit the publish button early and now I feel very very badly about all the new views for this story and the last. I apologize greatly to you all.

See you, most likely, in the final story of Sunny.