A/N: Hello and welcome to my first MLP fanfic! I've been stewing on this for a while. Oh, and the credit for the cover art goes to Ghoustlygirl from Wattpad.

12:15 a.m. | Discord's POV

It was raining hard and he was cold. So cold. Stumbling haphazardly through the dense forest, Discord tripped over everything, frantically looking over his shoulder every few seconds. The sound of pursuit echoed behind him and he picked up his pace. He could see the lights of the town and his hope swelled. Almost there! he thought. Tirek wouldn't dare chase him once he was in the town, he knew it.

As Discord ran for his sanctuary, he could hear his captor yelling for him to surrender, that he would suffer less punishment if he did as he was told. Gasping for breath, Discord muttered one word: "No…" He'd gone too far to just give up. This was probably his only opportunity to escape his tormentor's clutches. So he continued to run, slimy mud sticking to his legs.

He was nearing the town when he heard something whistling through the air, a horrible pain engulfing his leg. An arrow. He'd been shot by an arrow! The razor-sharp arrowhead was buried to the shaft in his calf, the sheer pain causing his leg to buckle, with him falling to the muddy ground. Discord crawled to the streetlights at fast as he could. He could make it… he could make it! Tirek was almost upon him when he finally threw himself onto the street, looking back at his captor, speaking as they locked eyes.

"If you try to grab me now…" Discord coughed out in a hoarse voice, scooting further back into the light. "…I'll scream, and you'll be caught."

Tirek seemed to weigh his options, then growled. "This isn't finished." he hissed before retreating.

Once Discord was sure he was gone, he collapsed into the mud out of sheer exhaustion, losing consciousness.