The morning dew was cool, almost so much that it brought a chill to the air. With the fog laying low across the glade, it would slowly disappear as it came closer to the sleeping dark Alicorn that lay in its center. The soft glowing mane of the stallion putting forth an unfelt warmth that would eliminate the moisture that would normally be surrounding him as the sun began its climb into the sky.

As the sun continued its climb, Flame would find that the light that was slowly illuminating the glade he lay in would make things feel far more comfortable than he was used to. Throughout the night he had slept more peacefully than he had ever thought possible. The morning light however....

"Good grief it's bright this morning." Flame groaned out as he gave a stretch, popping and cracking a few joints and his spine as he gave a delighted shudder. Giving his eyes a little rub to wipe away the sleep, then squinting as he pulled a wing up to shield his eyes from the sun that was cresting over the tree line.

"Must have slept later than usual too... wait... I actually slept, and I wasn't murdered?! That's a surprise." He chuckled. "Still though, I should..." He trailed off for a moment as a wisp of green smoke flew through the trees to in front of him, collapsing and then reappearing as a scroll before falling to the ground in front of him.

Taking a step back, he gave the scroll a queer look as he raised a hoof, using what chaos magic he could control to pull it up and to him, unfurling it and looking at its contents.

Flame,

Lying to Discord the other day was a big mistake, it caused quite a bit of headache, but was ultimately resolved. You, however, have another problem to worry about. Sure hope you're ready for some fun.

Signed,

Your better half

"Why that arrogant little prick! What the hell does he mean I have a new problem?!" Flame snapped as he crushed the scroll into oblivion.

"That problem, would be me." Came the disembodied voice of Discord as it echoed coldly around him. Flame snapping into a defensive stance as he began to look all around himself to determine where the voice was originating from.

"Do you want to know something?" Discord let out a chuckle as his voiced continued to echo around the glade. "I wasn't aware of it until after I had already spoken with Charlie boy, but you used my chaos magic against me... well played."

"Took you that long to figure it out did it?" Flame chuckled. "I'd figure you to be a little more quick on the draw my frie....." He was quickly cut off as he was unceremoniously slapped across the back of the head causing him to bolt forward, and turn around to face his attacker, only to stop as a growl escaped the draconequus.

"Don't you dare attempt to finish that sentence!" Discord snapped. "Midnight would never do what you did with my chaos energy... Manipulating your memories to show me something so horrid that it would even make my stomach turn. Why would you even want to show me something like that?!"

"To turn the tides in my favor you idiot! If that human dies, then I get to remain amongst the living and have the life I deserved!" Flame bellowed, flaring his wings out threateningly. "I deserve happiness, not that idiot other half of mine!"

"Why would you deserve it rather than Charlie? What have you done that has been worthwhile enough, to say that you should remain in my friends place?" Discord continued his growl for a moment, pausing as he watched and waited for an answer. As he waited though, he watched Flames stance become more relaxed as he took a seat onto the soft green grass, his head lowering as tears began to well up in his eyes.

"Because... because..." He trailed off once more before quickly taking in a sharp breath as a taloned paw was at his throat, pulling him from the ground and quickly being coiled around like a snake by the draconequus who was now snarling in his face.

"Because what?!" He yelled, causing Flame to give a weak smile.

"Because I went to hell for him... for his sins... He was never meant to go to heaven... Not for all of the evil he has done." He choked out as the tears now began to fall freely from his face.

"What? What are you saying?!" Discord choked out in surprise.

"I think he is saying something that we all thought may have been a possibility." Charles began as he exited the shadows of the Everfree and into the light. "But I think I'm starting to realize something that I should have realized a long time ago."

"Now you figure it out?! Tch, and I thought everyone else was slow." Flame smirked, halting as Discord squeezed his neck threateningly.

"If I wasn't so confused right now I'd tear you apart. However, I can wait..." He sent a sidelong glare toward his human friend. "But not long."

The human gave a sigh as he walked up to the two entangle beings, giving Flame a glare as he nodded toward Discord. "Set him down, we need to talk."

"What?! After all he has done?! Are you insane?! That's even more chaotic than I could do in a week, and you want me to just set him free?!" Discord choke out in utter disbelief.

"Yes." Charles spat causing Discord to twitch before releasing the Alicorn and throwing hi arms up in the air.

Taking a seat nearby, Discord crossed his arms in a grump as he listened to the two begin their stories. Waiting anxiously for his moment to start pounding the dark Alicorn into the ground, hoping that he would do something to cause the draconequus to come to the rescue, and ultimately beat some flank.

"Alright, I think I'm starting to understand now why you've been such a thorn in my side all this time. But would you care to clarify?" The human asked as he crossed his arms, glaring toward his darker half.

"Still with the playing dumb? You are either a complete moron, or I was the one to acquire all of our logic when it comes to common sense." Flame sighed as he took a seat on the grass across from his better half. "Fine, I'll put it into layman's terms so you'll both understand." He chuckled. "I am you... or rather... your darker half."

"Explain..." Charles hummed as his hand began to rub his chin inquisitively, wondering what he meant.

"I'm sure you remember all that time ago when we were infected with poison joke right?" Flame asked, seeing the human nod, he continued. "When you absorbed the chaos energy before, along with the poison joke, it caused us to split in half, since you were never really cured of it. You did inhale it after all, which put it in your bloodstream. So in order to get rid of it, you would need to ingest the cure, not just bath in it."

Both Discord and Charles sat there in stunned silence as Flame continued, everything finally starting to click into place as the story brought so many things to light.

"But I did ingest the cure after I almost died."

"But you had taken over my body when you did so, which I am currently residing in." Flame smirked seeing Charles' eye go a little wide. "So technically I have ingested the cure, but you never have."

"So that's why you're so fucking crazy and I'm not!?" Charles shouted in surprise.

Flame sighed, face hoofing pretty hard as he began once again.

"No, I'm so crazy, because I'm your darker half, while you are the lighter half. You know, good and evil?" Flame smirked again seeing the human cock a brow. "Tell me something, were you this calm, cool, and collected when you were on earth?"

"No... I was a dick a lot of the time." Charles stated sheepishly.

"Right, and all the time you spent fighting that war, then coming back with all the mental health problems..."

"You mean... all this time... that I wasn't affected by those memories..." Charles trailed off seeing the dark Alicorn nod.

"Was because I took them with me, along with all of your sin and darkness." He sighed back plopping down onto the ground. "Now do you realize why I was willing to do anything to stay here?"

The human gave a saddened nod as he took a seat next to the Alicorn, leaning against him as he began to think out loud.

"Then how would you like to stay?" Charles asked, surprising both Flame and Discord.

"WHAT?! Are you serious?! After all the crap he's pulled, you're just willing to up and give him permission to stay?!" Discord yelled out in a fit of rage.

"Discord, he is me. Getting rid of him would in essence, be killing a part of me. So I'm not willing to do that, even if you beat the hell outta both of us." Charles smirked back defiantly.

"But I still want to know something..." Charles began again as he looked back to his darker half. "Why'd you go nuts back then and fight me, before I won and stole your body?"

"The poison joke affected me too moron." Flame sighed. "I may be a dick right now, but at least I'm not trying to kill you and everything on this planet, right?" He asked, seeing the human nod. "Like you, I am logical, but I am prone to anger far easier. I am also willing to give up, unlike you." He laughed seeing the human blush slightly.

"So that explains..." Charles began only to cause Discord to finish.

"All the times you've went down fighting, never giving up for any reason unless there was no other choice?" He chuckled.

"Yes... geez you guys are making all this shit so difficult." Charles groaned, pausing as something else came to mind.

"What about all of these recent spurts of anger?" He asked, staring blankly toward Flame as he raised a hoof.

"Guilty." He chuckled. "All a ploy to get you to do what you did in order to cross over to apparently cool off.

"You prick!" Charles shouted as he slugged him in the shoulder. "Do you realize the hell I went through to get back here?!" He paused seeing the dark Alicorn deadpan. "Right, sorry." He sighed.

"So then, what now?" Discord asked as he tapped his hoof on the ground impatiently.

"There is only one thing left to do. Somehow get us to recombine into a single being." Charles chuckled, only coming to a stop as both Discord and Flame looked at him in complete shock.

"Don't give me that look! You two know perfectly well that this would have had to have been done in time anyway. Flame?"

"S-sorry, I'm just... a little in shock that you would even submit to the idea of that, after all that I've already done." Flame sighed looking away.

"Hey, you did what I would have done had I been in your place. Well... to a certain extent anyway." He chuckled. "So what do you say? Want to be whole again?"

Without another word, Flame quickly tossed the human onto his back and spread his wings, ready to take flight as he spoke. "What do you think?" He asked, giving a large smirk as he bolted into the sky, Discord hot on their heels as he grumbled quietly to himself.

"And there goes my chance to beat him to near death.... But at least I get to see what kind of chaos this will cause shortly." He giggled to himself.

XXX

As the trio began to fly quietly through the sunlit sky, they began to talk more about the various times that Charles had been getting more and more out of control of his anger. To the humans surprise though, it had all been Flames doing from within Tartarus.

"Wait, so you're telling me that all the times I was getting angry, even over the smallest of things. You were the one that was somehow manipulating me into losing my cool? And all just to come back into the world of the living?" Charles groaned out, finally realizing what had been going on this entire time.

"Yea, and Satan isn't too happy that I played him either. I promised him a lot of lives in return for having the permission to influence you like I did. Right now, I would take a guess that he is on a warpath for having been played like that. So when our time comes, be prepared for a world of hurt from him." Flame groaned out, thinking of the torture and pain they would endure when they passed on.

"If we go to Tartarus that is. I'm sure that we can salvage our immortal soul with enough time and forgiveness. I mean, I already have several beings that had forgiven me when I was down there, and we all somehow disappeared and reappeared in Asgard, AHHHH! OH SHIT!" Charles screamed out as Flame suddenly halted in mid air, sending the human flying off of him before quickly being caught by the Draconequus that was flying next to them.

"What the hell?! You almost killed me you idiot!?" Charles continued shouting, only to pause as he watched Flames eyes begin to pour out in tears. "Hey... what's wrong?"

"You.... said you were forgiven? But who, and how?" Flame asked as they continued to hover there in mid air.

"Screwball and a couple of her friends came after me in hell. We talked and all was forgiven. Then we ended up in Asgard, and God sent me down here." Charles continued, only to watch as Flame quit flapping and began to freefall toward the ground below, Charles jumping from Discords grasp and falling after him, quickly catching up as he began to shout over the wind.

"What are you doing?! Spread your wings you idiot!"

"Free... I'm finally free..." Flame spoke out as tears flew from his eyes as they continued to fall.

"DISCORD! Little help here!" Charles shouted, but coming to a stop as their descent came to a halt within a large bubble.

"I really wish you would think these things through before putting your life at such risk." The draconequus grumble. "Now how about we get back on track and hurry toward Ponyville. I'm sure that once we're there, things will quickly return to normal." He sighed, releasing Flame from his bubble only to watch as he began to freefall again. "Oh for Petes sake!" He yelled, catching the Alicorn once more and pulling him toward the two of them.

"Aren't you going to fly at least?" He yelled toward the Alicorn only for him to shake his head.

"Nope, heh, I am way too happy right now to even attempt to fly." He chuckled. "How about we walk instead?" He asked, causing the two to look at one another in slight worry.

"Happy? From just hearing about me being forgiven?" Charles asked.

"Not only that!" Flame bolted over, placing his hooves on either side of Charles' head and looking directly into his eyes. "But knowing the fact that now we will no longer go to hell if we die sooner rather than later."

"Wait, so you're happy that we won't go to Tartarus? I figured that would be a given."

"You don't understand... You won't until you've spent as much time as I did there." Flame sighed. "I've spent almost a hundred years there."

The two looked back to Flame in shock for a moment as he continued. "You don't realize it, but time passes by differently in the other realms. In Hell, one day here is a week there."

"So that would explain why It took me so long to finally get free from there, and so little time passed here." Charles hummed in thought.

"Yea, so the five years you were in stone, plus all the time after you took over my body, plus the time you were freed..." He trailed off causing Charles to literally turn a pale white.

"That... was quite a bit of time." Charles sighed. "But now that we've been redeemed." He smiled.

"We no longer have to worry about it, at least, until we do something evil...." Flame sighed.

"We won't, so don't get your panties in a wad. We'll be fine, we just need to find a way to recombine and everything will be normal again."

"As normal as it can be considering." Discord chuckled.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Charles asked, giving a slight glare.

"Well my boy, I'm not sure if you realize this or not, so I'm going to lay it all out there for you to put together." He snickered.

"You son was created when you were whole correct?" He asked, causing the human to blush brightly.

"Y-yea, so?" He rubbed his neck sheepishly.

"What about your other children that have yet to be born?" Discord smirked slightly seeing Charles face turn even white that Raritys coat.

"That means..." He trailed off as his the hamster running on its wheel within his mind broke it, sending it flying off into the sunset at Rainbow Dash speeds. The result... him passing out from shock.

"Ooooo, I do believe I am going to enjoy the show once he tells his little mares." Discord snickered.