+++
title = "Discord's Gift"
names = ["DCFTEF"]
date = "2014-04-27 09:46:08"
tags = ["M/F", "whip", "stocks", "bruises", "blood", "non-consensual"]
spankers = ["Guard"]
spankees = ["Twilight"]
posts = [""]
+++
 
There were certainly more enjoyable things to be studying.
Twilight Sparkle would have preferred to be reading up on the life of Starswirl the Bearded...the adventures of his student, Clover the Clever, or the early days of Celestia & Luna's reign, but instead there was serious work to be done. The annual Equestria Law & Justice Conference was just a few days away and this was Twilight's first year sitting on the panels.
This wasn't going to be a cloistered conclave of friends, like the recent Princess Summit in the Crystal Empire. That had actually been enjoyable once Twilight got over her nervousness. The Law & Justice Conference gave the young Princess reason to be nervous all over again. It had a reputation for being a raucous free for all, spawning impassioned shouting matches that sometimes Princess Celestia couldn't even control. There would be representatives attending from every major city. The Equestrian Military always sent a strong delegation. Every important judge in the nation tried to attend and those who couldn't sent an aide in their place. Pony civil rights groups were there in force...and outside there would be crowds of protesters on every side.
>"I am not looking forward to this one bit" Twilight muttered to herself.
She'd attended the conference before, as a page, but she'd never held an important decision making role. Whatever she did was sure to make some of the crowd happy and some of the crowd very angry at her. It was downright scary.

>"The only thing I can do to be prepared is study the issues" Twilight resolved, burying her muzzle back in the books.
What concerned her most was the Sentencing Limits panel on day two. She would be the only Princess in the room for that debate...the other three having played a quick game of 'Not Me!', leaving the most junior Princess with the undesirable job. There were a lot of issues to be debated; this meeting was sure to turn ugly.

At issue would be the maximum sentences judges were allowed to hand down for various crimes. Certain politicians pointed their hooves at unfavorable crime statistics and demanded harsher penalties like in the old days. Civil rights groups roared at such demands, pointing out that Equestria already allowed public whipping & paddling, and if it wasn't working a new approach should be tried.

Twilight Sparkle had always thought herself a kind and forgiving pony, but the more she read the more she found herself siding with the pro-punishment crowd.
>"But what would that entail? Where should the limits be set?"
Back in the Medieval days before Celestia's monarchy began the tortures inflicted on ponies were absolutely horrifying. Hoof splitting was a common punishment for Earth ponies. Pegasi could have their wings smashed with hammers, and Unicorns had their horns sawed off. There was even something called the 'Pear of Anguish' which was inserted directly into a pony's...well...the whole idea sent a chill down Twilight's spine and she had to turn the page without reading any more.
>"Well, obviously we aren't going to bring back any of that" she resolved.
But there were other ideas which sounded more reasonable. Longer stays in the Canterlot Dungeon? Public paddling for the first offense, rather than waiting for the second or third like present law required? Heavier & more painful punishment tools perhaps? Twilight hated the idea of making any pony suffer...but these were criminals after all, they'd made their choice to break the law.

>"Having trouble with your homework, my dear?"
That voice was unmistakable.
>"Oh no...not now...not today" growled Twilight, "I have too much work to do."
If only there was some sort of punishment that would make an impression on Discord.

The draconequus coiled himself around the annoyed purple alicorn, peering over her shoulder at what she was reading.
>"Oh, naughty, naughty! I had no idea you were into such things, Twilight."
She tried to shoo him away with her tail, as she would a troublesome fly, but it had little effect.
>"I'm not! I just have to become an expert in criminal justice before next Tuesday, so will you kindly find somepony else to annoy? Why don't you go see Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash? They never have anything important going on."
It was not that easy to get rid of Discord though, and Twilight knew it.
>"But you are the one who seems to need my help the most..." he said, "...many hands make light work after all."
Twilight Sparkle looked down to see that she had his eagle claw and lion's paw grafted onto her body alongside her own two front hooves.
>"DISCORD!" she snapped, waving all 4 arms in frustration.
With a resigned sigh the chimera snapped the toes on his lizard foot, restoring all appendages to their rightful place.
>"Such ingratitude" he sighed, "when all I want to do is help."
>"You could help by leaving me alone" Twilight muttered, "I still have a huge amount of reading in front of me."
Discord picked up a book and flipped through its pages.
>"These all say basically the same thing. What insight could reading a whole stack of them possibly provide?" 

The annoyed pony sighed. Discord obviously wasn't going to leave her alone. Maybe if she actually acknowledged his presence he'd get bored and leave on his own.
>"I'm hoping to find a some personal accounts. I want to know what it was really like back then."
>"Well there's much easier ways to do that than pouring over stacks and stacks of dusty old books."
Twilight froze. What exactly was Discord saying? She was wary of his tricks but her usual way of doing things was just not working...and time was running out.

>"What are you getting at?"
Discord's bushy gray eyebrows raised.
>"Well, you could just ask ME what things were like in the old days, before Celestia took over, I was there after all. Even if my memory is fuzzy I could just pop back in time, then come back and tell you how things went."
Twilight was skeptical; Discord always had an agenda.
>"I don't think I could trust you to be honest. I prefer to see things for myself."
The trickster shook his head.
>"That's really not a good idea. Some of the things you ponies did to each other back then were pretty dreadful...even by my standards."
>"Well yeah, I know that" replied Twilight, knocking over a stack of books with her hoof "and you're right. I don't want to witness a hoof splitting...or that horrible Pear of Anguish thing. But maybe you could show me what a whipping was like back then? Unless you don't have the power..."
It was a rather clumsy attempt to goad Discord into using his magic for her own purposes, but Twilight hoped he'd take the bait. To her surprise he hesitated.
>"I really don't think it's a good idea."

Looking back on it later, Twilight knew she should have proceeded with more caution. If a reckless prankster like Discord doesn't think something is a good idea...it might not be a good idea. But hours of pouring over old histories with little to show for it had worn away at Twilight Sparkle's patience. She decided to push, and goad Discord into showing her what a punishment from the Equestrian Middle Age was like.
>"Come on...there's no teacher like first hand experience."
>"You don't know what you're asking, young filly" he growled.
>"Are ya chicken?"
Discord snorted in derision.
>"I may be made up of many parts, but none of them are chicken."
Realizing she'd struck a nerve Twilight teased him a bit.
>"Scootalooooo...Scoot, Scootalooooooo..."
>"Whatever are you doing?"
>"That's how ya call a chicken."
>"Fine!" he hissed, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Discord placed his lion paw on Twilight Sparkle's head and she immediately felt dizzy. The young Princess fought to keep her eyes open, but she lost that fight. The floor seemed to evaporate away beneath her hooves, and she felt herself being carried away into a dream.

There followed a flash of light, and Twilight regained full consciousness along with a splitting headache.
>"Ooowww...Discord are you kidding me?"
It took her a few moments to realize where she was, but when she regained her bearings Twilight was shocked.
>"What am I doing in a cage? Why am I in chains!?"
She panicked, and struggled to get free, but the chains and bars were real.
>"What's going on?"
Nobody answered...Twilight realized she was alone, sitting in a cage on the back of a wagon. She tried to zap the chains with her magic, but to her horror nothing happened. She looked up...her horn was missing.
>"DISCORD!"
With a clattering bang the door of her cell opened. There stood an Earth stallion with unmistakable yellow eyes. It was actually a relief.
>"Discord, what's going on? Where am I and where is my horn?"
>"You're not you, my dear...you're a pony who lived 1,500 years ago and so am I. These are just shadows of the past. They're still around, if you know how to look for them."
Twilight rubbed her temples, at least the headache was fading away.
>"Okay, okay, I get it. Why am I in chains?"
>"Well isn't that what you asked for? First hand knowledge of a Medieval punishment?"
Twilight's eyes grew wide with horror.
>"Wait...I'M the one being tortured? No! This is not what I asked for! I only wanted to observe!"
Discord shook his head.
>"Princess Twilight, traveling through time is not an exact science. You're lucky I had the skill to place you at the correct date and time...you can't get picky about whose body you get to borrow. Do you think I wanted to be a lowly guard pony? I'd much rather be up on the dais sipping a nice goblet of wine."

Twilight looked up to where Discord was pointing. There on a platform sat a number of important looking Unicorns, one of which looked just like Princess Platinum from the Hearths Warming Eve legend. Her crown and robes looked remarkably similar to the costume from the pageant, although the Princess herself did not look anything like Rarity.
>"Wow...I'm...I'm really in the ancient past?"
Discord shook his head again.
>"Not really. You are still safe and sound in your egghead fortress. You are just experiencing a page from the life of a random pony who lived long ago. Unfortunately, a very unlucky pony, as it happens."
>"Wait...how unlucky? What do you mean?"

Twilight's questions were cut short by a loud crack and a scream. Although it was out of her view the young alicorn knew that a pony was being whipped nearby. The dignitaries watched with apathy, sipping wine and eating bits of fruit as the howls of pain continued.
>"Okay...I get it...I don't want to stay, take me home now!"
Discord frowned. Instead he grasped Twilight and pulled her down from the wagon.
>"I'm sorry, Twilight. We're both quite powerless until the spell runs its course. I can't escape any more than you can."
>"Discord, this is not funny!"
>"No, indeed not" he replied, "but it's what you asked for."

With a gasp, Twilight realized this WAS what she'd asked for. Temporarily disarmed by the shock, she allowed Discord to lead her to the center of a large crowd, where thankfully the screams had stopped, and a near unconscious young stallion was being untied from the flogging frame.
>"I'm very sorry about this, Twilight...but it's your turn."
Discord pushed the terrified mare forward toward the frame. Two more guard stallions stepped forward to assist him.
>"Discord, please don't do this to me! I get it...I've learned my lesson...send me home now...please!"

The other ponies seemed oblivious to whatever Twilight and Discord said, they went about their business strapping the terrified victim down for her flogging.
>"You ARE home, Princess. In a thousand or so years...give or take a century...an acorn will sprout on this very spot, and that acorn will grow into your library home."
He leaned in close and assured her.
>"I promise you will come to no harm, Twilight. I suppose you have no reason to trust me, but please try. No harm will come to you."
Twilight fought against her restraints, but she was strapped down tight. Without magic she was as helpless as a foal...but what she faced was not a punishment for foals.

A herald stood up and addressed the crowd;
>"Violet Vale; you stand convicted of stealing from the Royal storehouse and will suffer four and twenty lashes of the vine whip. If you wish, Princess Platinum, daughter of our King, will hear your final plea for mercy at this time."
Twilight looked to Discord, who seemed genuinely unable to do anything to stop this.
>"Princess, please! I'm not supposed to be here! It's all just a magical mix-up...Discord, please explain it to her! I'm not who you think I am!"
Princess Platinum turned her nose up and laughed.
>"You Earth pony peasants will say anything to get out of a rightly earned whipping. If you'd shown any genuine contrition for your crime I might have reduced your sentence by a few lashes...but now I am convinced that the penalty is correct. Begin the punishment."

Twilight Sparkle gasped in horror as she saw a Unicorn to her left uncoil the instrument of her doom.
>"Oooohh, the blackthorn vine whip" muttered Discord "I'd forgotten how popular that was in those days."
Twilight said nothing in reply, she was hyperventilating and struggling against her restraints. It was a vine like those that still grew in the nearby EverFree forest, covered in thorny barbs, dried out to give it sinewy strength.
>"Oh no...oh no...please...please don't do this to me! This can't be happening!"
The stallion wrapped the whip around his hoof a few times and swung it through the air. From their vantage point the audience gasped, pitying the poor filly about to be tortured for a seemingly petty crime. What she was really guilty of was challenging the authority of the Unicorns, and in this time period that would not be tolerated.

Tears of panic and terror were already streaming down Twilight's face as the stallion took his position behind her. He checked his aim, then with a nod to the dais delivered the first lash without warning.
Twilight gasped, unprepared for the burning agony...then she let it out with a scream. There was nothing else she could do. She had no magic, the restraints had her secured tightly and Discord seemed powerless to help her escape. A second lash tore across her rump; this time Twilight felt every thorn scratch her tender skin.

In modern times, ponies facing corporal punishment had their legs secured tightly together, to shield sensitive genitals, but no such courtesy was provided here in the Medieval era where Twilight was trapped. With her legs strapped down to either side of the frame her most delicate bits were exposed and the third lash caught them with a direct hit. The suffering mare screamed so hard a stringy wad of snot shot out of her nose, smacking Discord directly in the face. She felt dizzy and sick to her stomach but the terrible blows did not cease.

By the sixth lash Twilight's rump was a mess of terrible looking welts. Mercifully, only that third blow had caught her sensitive mare parts, but that was enough to inflame them painfully. The prisoner was only a quarter way through, and she was already close to throwing up from the pain. She earned no mercy though...not until the ninth lash when she actually did throw up.
Her executioner paused while Discord scrambled to lay fresh sawdust over her puddle of vomit.
>"I'm so sorry about this...just remember you won't come to any real harm."
Twilight coughed and hiccuped, tears and drool dripping from her muzzle.
>"D-Discord, pleeeeassseeee help me...I c-can't *hic* take it anymore!"
The stallion was getting impatient.
>"Guard! What's the delay?"
All he could do was give her a sorrowful look and step away. Twilight Sparkle's face twisted up into a grotesque mask of misery and terror as she realized the torture was going to continue.

The ninth, tenth and eleventh lashes ripped across the screaming mare's rump, and the twelfth caught her anus cruelly. It was so painful that Twilight convulsed and wrenched her back muscles against the restraints. Now even screaming hurt, but Twilight could not stop. The terrible whip felt like it was stripping the skin right off her behind...it was agony beyond anything she could have imagined.
>"Halfway!" shouted the herald.
Poor Twilight swooned. She could not imagine enduring even one more lash...much less twelve more. There was a short pause allowed, in which Discord was permitted to give her water. She drank deeply, but threw it up immediately.
>"Alright, get on with it" commanded Princess Platinum.

Helpless, Twilight moaned and whimpered in anticipation of the next cruel blow. She did not have to wait long...another searing hot stripe of pain ripped across her backside; this time she could feel tufts of fur being torn out by the root. It hurt so badly that there was little difference between the actual lashes and waiting for the next. She screamed in agony and even that hurt...her throat dry and burned by her own stomach bile. There was no misery in Twilight's experience to compare with this, and the greatest horror was that there was no escape. If somepony had demanded the tactical secrets of Canterlot Castle, or the hidden location of the Alicorn amulet Twilight would have blurted them out immediately...anything to end this terrible torture. But no pony was asking questions...there was no escape.
>"PLEASE, PLEASE STOP! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"
And then Twilight Sparkle passed out.

She awoke seconds later with cold water dripping from her face.
>"She's awake" muttered another guard.
Discord looked on disconsolately. In his present form there was nothing he could do to help.
>"We're on number eighteen" growled the Unicorn stallion.
Twilight wailed, begging for mercy;
>"No more...please no more...I can't do it, I'll die!"
She felt the warm trickle of blood running down her thighs...her rump had to be mangled by this point. She'd be scarred for life.

There was a brief discussion amongst the important Unicorns on the dais, and finally a decision.
>"The prisoner will be brought back tomorrow to finish" declared Princess Platinum. "She will pay for her reprieve by losing six counts. We start from 12 tomorrow."
The executioner flashed Twilight a cruel smile.
>"Looks like I get paid twice" he chuckled, loosening her straps.

Twilight Sparkle tried to stand, but her back was too badly wrenched...she needed to be carried back to the wagon. Discord stayed with her, laying a wet cloth over her bleeding rump.
>"Oh...noooo, how long am I stuck here? Do I have to stay until I finish the torture? Discord, please help me...I can't do this again...I'll die...I'll die!"
He petted her mane and tried to soothe the bawling filly.
>"Stay calm, my dear, you'll be alright, I promised you won't come to any real harm."
>"ARE YOU INSANE? I'm being ripped apart! They're killing me!"
>"Twilight, you're perfectly safe...look around you."

She lifted her head. She was back in the library. There were birds singing outside...her cup of tea was still steaming.
>"W-what?"
>"I told you" said Discord, "that was just a shadow of something that happened fifteen hundred years ago on this very spot. You never left the library."
>"But...the pain...it was so real..."
Shrugging his shoulders, Discord replied;
>"The pain was real...it just wasn't your pain. You were only borrowing what Violet Vale experienced all those centuries ago."
He snapped his eagle claw fingers and Twilight's body was multiplied six times, all arranged in a circle so she had a view of her own rear-end. It was unblemished.
>"I...I can't believe it..."
The fear, the torture, the pain...it all boiled over into rage and Twilight turned on Discord furiously.
>"YOU ASSHOLE! YOU CRETINOUS, VILLIANOUS VERMIN! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME!?!"
His eyebrows raised in genuine surprise and he replied calmly;
>"Because you asked me to."

Blinded by furious tears, Twilight Sparkle attacked Discord, pummeling him with her hooves and screaming obscenities until she had no more strength left. He took it stoically until she finally collapsed against him, sobbing in helpless rage. Then he wrapped himself around her, and held Twilight as she cried out the last of her fear and anger.

It took a long time for Twilight to regain her composure, but even after she did she remained curled up in Discord's embrace.
>"I suppose you enjoyed that" she sniffled, too exhausted to be mad anymore.
To her surprise he shook his head.
>"Not in the least" he answered, "I tried to warn you. I exist for for pure, uninhibited fun, and that was not fun for anyone my dear Princess."
Upon consideration, Twilight found that she was not surprised by his answer. It actually made sense.
>"So why did you do it? You could have refused me. Did you really go to all that trouble to teach me a lesson?"
He shrugged his shoulders and replied;
>"Pure selfishness I assure you. I never liked that period in history...far too much control & authority...not my cup of tea. Anything I could do to influence your opinions ahead of that silly Law & Justice Conference I consider effort well spent."
>"Pure selfishness?" inquired Twilight skeptically.
>"Yes" declared the draconequus, "I favor a more loose and lenient code of law...it's much more fun."
The purple alicorn let out a little laugh, the first since her ordeal.
>"So you didn't do it out of altruism, or any sense of morality?"
>"Certainly not" he scoffed, "my motives, as always, were 100% self centered."
Twilight snuggled her head deeper into his fur and whispered;
>"I don't believe it for a minute, mister."

Whatever Discord's motives, Twilight Sparkle felt like she had been given an important gift...a first hand insight into the cruel past which must never be allowed to return. She would go into the daunting Sentencing Limits panel armed with more knowledge that she ever could have accrued from books...knowledge that had come from the most unlikely source imaginable. Perhaps he didn't even know it, but Discord was a much better friend than he would ever admit to.

THE END