The New Gods

Discord ran, his serpentine body a stream of red, brown and green through the marketplace. Some ponies gasped as he blurred past them, until he cast his invisible aura out to silence their minds to his presence. He was invisible. He was unstoppable. He was making a massive dick of himself.

When he reached the edge of the orchards he rushed up a thick apple trunk as nimbly as a squirrel, and into his secret little abode. Looking back, he watched the ponies scurry about wildly in the disorder he’d left behind him in between the stalls, and threw himself to the floor, laughing wildly. This was great fun, after many a dull week of not getting into any trouble. He was cutting loose, a bit!

A wry chuckle came from behind him, along with a light weight upon his shoulder, nestled in his thick yellow fur. He spun his head about. “Oh! You!”

SHE laughed lightly again. “Come now, Discord, you know better than to do that! You know that if they keep seeing you do it, you’ll eventually get in big trouble. I don’t want you to do anything foolish! Such powers as you have are not to be taken lightly! You know that!”

Discord sighed at the being, who he held in the esteem of a master and parental figure. “I know, I know! But I can NOT just sit here endlessly with nothing to do! I forget that I am alive, sometimes.” Unable to find work or connection among the ponies, he had taken to stealing the things he needed (or wanted). He placed his catch upon the floor in front of him: a shiny little trinket that had caught the morning light with a gorgeous shine.

SHE smiled understandingly, and put an arm about him. “Young one, there are many things in this world you have not encountered yet. I so worry that friendship may be top of that list.”

Her apprentice snorted, waving his long tail into a curlicue behind him. SHE sighed to him knowingly. “You know it hurts me deeply yet at once gives me joy to see you alive, Discord. I feared for a long time for your species. I shed a tear for every great loss that occurs, and your kind was a big one. Your people fascinated me and I longed to know more about them, and suddenly, they were gone.”

“Huff.” Discord rolled his large fiery eyes. SHE saw, and smiled.

“We do not live as islands, Discord. You, ironically, know that, possibly better than any pony else on this planet. You sense the connective energy between ponies and know the webs of interaction between others. You know that these energies are vital to life, whether you’re a changeling or a draconequus. You are not an exception to the rule, Discord. You live, you breathe, and you need the support of those around you.” SHE breathed out slowly, and sensed a new truth: “If you get yourself in trouble with this world using the powers you have, no pony, not even me, could save you from your fate. Being powerful won’t keep you alive and well, any more than laughing to disguise hurt will make you happy. What you need… is a… different outlet for your creative energies. You need to find a way to put aside your differences and find harmony in your life. Your energies will be unbalanced otherwise…”

SHE looked out at the gloriously blue sky. “I’m leaving, Discord.”

His eyebrows lowered into a confused frown. Already?

“I have taught you much, in this short time we have known one another. You have made me more than proud. And I fear that other duties call for me…”

His eyes opened wide. “So… a long time this time…”

A tear rolled down her face, unseen by her student “… Yes...”

He twisted up, scratching at a loose scale with his lion claw. It began to dawn on him what was meant by a long time. SHE was ancient. He turned away into the small wooden space of his tree house, and stared blankly at the hoarded little treasures hanging from the wall, glinting in the soft light. He squeezed his eyes shut, and avoided the temptation to cackle. He was trying not to cry.

SHE walked over and scratched the poufy shock of hair between his long ears. SHE would miss him, and she did not make this feeling unclear. Neither did he. Turning about on his hoof, he gathered his wise teacher up in a massive bear (or rather eagle-lion) hug, and nestled his odd face one final time in her kindly neck.

When he finally released her, SHE gathered up her small, plain brown bag and lightly stepped to the hidden doorway between the great branches of the old apple tree, before turning for the last time to the young draconequus, who stood forlornly on all fours looking back at her with the eyes of a lost sheep, fluttering his wings slightly.

“Take care, child.”

Celestia stepped gently through the meadow, taking care not to crush the more delicate flowers under hoof. She breathed in deeply, taking in the fresh, heady scent of the world. Since the birth of her dear little sister, she had grown at a faster pace than before, apparently due to the reflective qualities of Equestria’s beautiful new moon. She thought fondly of the tiny, dark bundle awaiting her at the palace. The infant filly would be asleep in their royal quarters atop the tower now, as she always was during the day; and Celestia would sleep soundly through her little squeals and cries come nightfall, much to the despair of Softhorn and the night guards. She recalled the dramatic birth of her glittering and mysterious little sister.

At around the time that Aeon announced and explained her pregnancy to her bemused little daughter, the mages across the Equestrian landmass announced some terrifying news: Due to a cataclysmic astronomical event, a vast meteor shower would be hurtling past their world, placing an asteroid the size of a small planet in a path of almost certain collision with their own. It was the stuff of nightmares. The ponies readied themselves for the end to arrive in the year-long window of opportunity to do so.

When the round lump of Queen Aeon’s belly had been slowly growing for several months, she began to experience the pains. Royal doctors and nurses were called, and when no explanation could be found, a request was sent out to all the doctors of Equestria, but none could find a single good explanation for the complications that had arisen within her. Some ponies took it as a sign that she was dying, and braced themselves weakly for the coming apocalypse, when not just their world, but their queen, would be destroyed.

But for all the dark, restless terror of that year, when the night finally arrived on which worlds would collide, nothing more than a sweet, innocent little foal arose from within the queen, to a breathtaking backdrop of the enormous asteroid hurtling through the outer thermosphere in a single fiery sweep, tearing the heavens apart above them and leaving a sudden, vast dome of infinite sparkling beauty above the land of Equestria.

When the mighty pale orb had finally settled into rhythm around this world after a grand looping path about it, several weeks later, the sickly little foal finally began taking milk regularly from her mother, bringing colour to her cheeks and to those of the tense and tired queen.

Celestia was upset and exhausted by the whole experience, but remained dutifully by her mother’s side throughout the hectic early weeks of almost constant cries from the new arrival. As for the new arrival… It was love at first sight for the pink-maned filly. This foal was here for her to guide and to love, and she would not let her new little sister down.

The carefree 25 year old was finally looking older than a child. Just. Tossing her long pink veil of a mane in the breeze, her bright white face caught the sunlight that was streaming down from her rich blue heavens and the leaves and flowers of the orchard meadow seemed to bend toward her, stretching to catch some of her warmth and beauty for themselves. Some puffy white clouds blew past overhead. She was glad to have found herself alone in this place, no guards to clank about.

Her horn tingled suddenly, and her ears pricked right up at the soft snap of a small twig. She was not alone. She looked up, and gasped.

There he stood, the draconequus of her first ever mission. Even if he wasn’t the only specimen of his kind, she would never fail to recognize him, though he had grown. She would know that face till her dying breath. He was staring at her, intently, with red-gold eyes, and she felt slightly… abashed. No pony would usually dare to look so hard and so long at their princess. This harsh, solid stream of eye contact began to get to her, and her face glowed a little with some unwarranted warmth as she blushed. The beast grinned a lopsided grin and shook a little with some soft, silent laughter at the delicate-looking guest to his little grove.

After the initial shock of seeing one so… different, she began to realise that he wasn't as hideous as the reports of him had made out. A wild shock of scruffed hair died back into a neatly-cut black mane descending from between his twisted, gleaming, odd-matched horns to the space between his shoulder blades. His surprisingly graceful dove-grey-furred neck in turn gave rise to the brown feathers of his body. His eagle’s talons glimmered against the grass, and his powerful lion’s paw rested softly between the rough fur of his donkey’s leg and the emerald scales of his dragon claws. As he rose his naked bat’s wing and fluffy blue one in response to the silent interrogation being received from the princess, his ruby tail glittered like a discarded necklace of fine jewels upon the grass. He was… beautiful, she realised. This was a most wondrous and special creature before her. She wondered how any pony had thought him no more than a hideous monster before. Then he spoke.

“I suppose you want me to apologise for so daring to grace your perfect pony presence with my own hideous visage?” He hissed through his fangs, ice cold. He menacingly ran his knife-like talons through the grass.

Celestia was hurt “You cannot apologise for existing, draconequus. I am your princess, and as such your presence is as valuable to me as any of my subjects.”

“Discord.” He ignored the stupid sound of her official response.

“I… am sorry?”

“The name. It’s Discord.” He laughed a husky laugh at the slender young beast before him. She was pretty, this unicorn. Prettier than most. He was glad she was going to take her time with formal polite conversation before going to avoid rudeness. He didn't show any sign of it, but her company was warming of his soul.

“Ah. My sincere apologies, Discord. I meant no offence!” Her sincerity was unquestionable. It poured out of her in waves. She was the most sincere damn animal he’d ever met. “… Ahh… Celestia.”

She held out a glittering gold-clad hoof. Taken aback, he hesitated before clasping it in his lion’s paw. How surprising. She genuinely seemed to want to introduce herself to him. He’d never encountered such a pony in all his life!

Suddenly, it hit him, and a couple ice blocks rolled down his spine as a hot lump of dough seemed to rise in his chest with an almost audible shiver. He knew her, he realised. He was embarrassed to find a heavy blush seeping out of his cheeks before he was able to stop it.

She smiled. “Princess Celestia, yes.” Her soft white brow creased a tiny bit, and he realised she was unhappy for him to have found this out. He was so transfixed by the alabaster-carving of a sweet frown that he did not notice that she was pulling her hoof away, until she prodded him gently with hoof unclad, silently motioning for him to return the empty gold shoe now clasped in his mighty paw.

“Oh! Right!”

The princess looked about. “You live here?” She could smell his presence here. Suddenly knew what that strange smell had been that had made her feel so giddy a minute ago.

He ignored the princess’s question.

“You’re the princess of the sun.” She nodded. It wasn’t a question. “Shouldn’t you be guarded at all times?” He seemed to back away a little into the shadows as he said “guards”.

Celestia blushed, again. What was wrong with her? “I… ah, left without my guard today. I wanted to be alone.” Why was she telling him this?

Seriously? “Why?” How strange.

“I wanted to appreciate the scenery in silence”.

“It isn’t silent here.” He seemed ridiculously calm to be speaking so directly and without formality to the princess, aside from the sweet blush gracing his face softly from beneath grey fuzz. “Listen to the birds.”

She listened. Her heart began to sing with beauty as the light sounds washed over her, and her sun shone a little brighter, warming her flowing pink mane. He watched and wondered. “How lovely!” she exclaimed. He had to agree.