Chapters A Love Lost in History and Time
It’s been a little over three weeks since I first joined the princesses and Discord in the royal court overseeing the daily needs of ponies across Equestria, well three weeks and five days to be exact, but that’s beside the point. The point is, in my time of joining them I’ve noticed something rather peculiar. Princess Luna and Discord hardly acknowledge each other outside of usual greeting that are to be expected due to simple courtesy, which is strange because Discord likes to start each day with some sort of prank against either Princess Celestia or myself. Not once did he ever prank Luna, and I now I was determined to find out why. Only question now was how to go about it.
The first step on my quest for answers brought me to Luna’s room, just as I raised my hoof to knock the door opened and my hoof happened to tap across Princess Luna’s face, “Princess Luna! I’m so sorry; I didn’t mean to do that!”
“It is fine Twilight Sparkle, I’m sure your intent was not to tap my face quite so many times,” Luna stood there for a few moments longer as the silence surrounded us and she spoke again, “might I ask why you were outside my bedroom in the first place Twilight?”
I must admit it took me a few moments to recollect my thoughts as I stood there slowly registering that I was just asked a question, “Oh right, well Luna if you’re not too busy I’d like to ask you a few questions that have been on my mind for a while.”
I could already see the smile forming on Luna’s face as soon as I mentioned questions, “Well I was about to partake in my nightly stroll through the garden to give my stars a much needed rearranging, but I do rather enjoy our conversations pertaining to your everlasting thirst for knowledge. What is it that is on your mind this time?”
I smiled with glee as I fell in line next to Luna walking with her to the garden, notebook and quill floating in front of me ready to take notes, “Well Luna, I actually wanted to as you about Discord.”
Almost immediately I could sense a dramatic shift in Luna, as if the carefree nature she had just moments before evaporated into something much more serious, “We do not wish to speak about Discord at this moment Twilight Sparkle.”
Well that was very sudden, at the simple mention of the name Discord, Luna all but shut down entirely leaving me there in the hall in a rush to keep up with her now quickened pace. It was actually quite concerning, “Did he do something to you? Should I be worried? Maybe tell Celestia?”
“It is not of your concern Sparkle; please do refrain from questioning into this further.” With that Luna left me alone in the hall having teleported elsewhere.
“Well that was certainly strange,” Luna’s sudden departure and anger now had me even more curious than before. What was going on between her and Discord that she would act this way over a few simple questions?
With a sigh I knew I had to do the one thing I was hoping to avoid throughout this quest for answers, talk to Discord. Resigning to my fate I quickly made my way to where I knew his room to be, or rather where it’s last know whereabouts was. Discord made it a habit to shift his room around the castle for his own amusement and as a way to hide from doing any actually royal duties he had been given.
Not to be discouraged so easily I started the most logical way possible and asked guards as I went where they had last seen his room, but every time I arrived where they saw it last Discord had already moved elsewhere. It was like he knew I was trying to find him and was purposefully trying to avoid me.
“My my my, seems a certain pony princess is determined to find me. Most sane ponies would have given up the search after the first hour, but here you are still trying three hours later.” Discord materialized next to me haphazardly lounging over my back making himself comfortable. “It was amusing at first but now it’s just boring, so what do you need?”
Looking back over my shoulder I was met with Discord lopsided grin, which only made said grin grow. I figured my best plan of action was to get this over with as soon as possible so I could escape with as much sanity left as possible. “I wanted to ask you a few questions about Princess Luna.”
Again the effects were instantaneous as Discord righted himself before poofing in front of me with a raised eyebrow, “and what is it exactly that you want to know about Luna?” Shouldn’t this be something you should be asking your precious Celestia?” With a wave of his paw Discord summoned a rather luxurious chair and slouched up against it getting comfortable as he returned to his more chaotic natural state.
“While I am planning to question Celestia next, I wanted to ask you first since Luna already refused to answer my questions.” Already my quill and notebook were ready to jot down notes as I made a specific page for Discord.
“Luna already refused you say?” Again Discord slipped from his chaotic self to one of a more curious state, leaning in as if actually interested in my response.
“Well yes, she initially agreed to answer my questions but at the mention of your name she got angry and teleported away before I could ask anything.” My mind was working hard to make sense of this, but thinking wasn’t exactly easy with the physical embodiment of chaos sitting right in front of me intent on making basically everything more difficult than it should be.
Stroking his chin Discord seemed to be lost in thought for several minutes before finally cluing me in to something I could work with, though it was not something I wanted to hear, “this is a road I’d warn you not to travel princess, you may not like what you find at the end. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a moon princess to find.”
“Now hold on, can you at least explain something to me?” I wasn’t about to just let this go, and I was tired of everypony just leaving just as I was about to get started with my questions. “What do you mean this is not a road I want to travel?”
Discord let out a disturbing chuckle as he leaned in close to me, his voice dropping to a disturbingly bitter tone “you really want to know? Is your curious little mind willing to accept what you will hear? That your precious pony princesses may not be as perfect as you might think, and that maybe just maybe I was falsely accused and sentenced to stone for all those years?”
Now my mind was in hyper drive, how could this be? I studied for years about Equestrian history and all of my books said that Discord took over with a chaotic rule and made everypony miserable for his own amusement. There’s no way all my books could be wrong could there?
With a snap of his talon I was teleported into Discord’s room seated on an obnoxiously large and very overly plush bean bag chair that was slowly swallowing me whole, while Discord sat on his usual hammock bed strung between two large bananas from the ground. “Let me tell you the real story, not what you’re obviously thinking you know from your little history books. Though a note to remember young Sparkle, history is only written by those who remain to write it.” With a wave of his paw smoke began to flow in front of him shaping itself into a form of a much smaller Luna. “Thousands of years ago back prior to their rule or even my own a certain moon princess filly was rather foolishly exploring farther from her castle than she should have been. Needless to say this certain little filly got lost in the woods surrounding the castle, lost and alone the moon princess somehow managed to find her way to the very lake a certain draconequus happened to be at.” Again with a wave of his paw another smoke figure joined the previous one, this time in the shape of a much smaller Discord.
My quill was moving with every word Discord spoke, this was a gold mine of information that I had no intention of missing the tiniest detail on, “So you knew the princesses even as a foal?”
“It’s rude to interrupt Twilight Sparkle, something I thought your Celestia would have taught you,” Discord was shaking his head in a disapproving manner but still had his annoyingly large smile on. “Promise not to do it again?”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that, Discord was the last one to be chastising about manners considering what he did on a daily basis but I nodded regardless fearing he’d stop if I didn’t. “I promise so long as you answer my questions Discord.”
“Well I was getting to that, but you just had to be rude to me and now I’m hurt.” Putting his paw to his chest in mock pain Discord rolled back into his hammock only to right himself again as if nothing happened, “Right so where was I?”
Again I rolled my eyes as she tried to get comfortable in my chair, “Luna was lost and found her way to the lake?”
“Right!” With a wave of his paw the smoke figurines came to life once more as he began his story again, “so there I was minding my own business at the lake having my own chaotic fun with the animals that lived in or around the water when to my surprise this filly bumps into me and nearly screams my ears off in surprise before bursting into tears. Now never having met a pony before, needless to say I was rather confused as to why this creature would come up to me suddenly making these unbearable noises. Luna has quite the impressive set of lungs just so you know.” The smoke figure of Luna burst into tears right on cue as the smoke version of Discord watched with disdain and curiosity. “Now then, after a few minutes of the obnoxious noises I figured I had to make them stop one way or another so I did the most logical thing I could think of, chaos.”
Fascinated I watched as the mini Discord created chaos with everything around him, turning grass and trees into fruits and animals, freezing the lake over, and even summoned mountains of toys right next to him. Even when young Discord had amazing control of his power, something I made sure to note down for later.
“Naturally with how amazing I am, my plan actually worked and little Luna was soon happy and giggling. A sound I actually found myself enjoying at the time…” There was a distinct change in attitude as Discord went silent, as if he was lost in his own memory.
This had me even more curious than ever, flipping the page in my notepad I tried to get him to continue, “What happened after that?”
It took Discord a few minutes to finally break out of whatever trance he was in, but when he did he seemed to be genuinely happy for a split second before looking to me with disinterest once more, “well after that Luna finally, though reluctantly, told me that it was getting late and she needed to get home. Though she did not know where home was, being lost and all. That night I helped her find her way home expecting not to see this little filly ever again, but imagine my surprise when the very next night she stumbled upon my lake once again.” With a wave of his paw the shadow figures of Discord and Luna dissipated into the air.
Now that caught me off guard. Statistically speaking getting lost twice in a row and ending up in the same place is possible but highly unlikely, but it’s also possible and highly more likely Luna had purposefully sought out to find Discord again. “So Princess Luna willingly came back to meet you? Why?”
Discord simply shrugged as he chewed down on some cotton candy he pulled out from nowhere, “That you’ll have to ask her yourself. All I know is that from that night on your precious Princess of the Night came back to visit me at that very same lake every night.”
Something about this story wasn’t sitting quite right with me, if Discord and Luna were friends then why do they act the way they do now as if to avoid each other? Wait…. Friends? Immediately I looked back to Discord ready for my next question, “I thought you told Fluttershy you never had a true friend, weren’t you and Luna friends from what you are telling me?”
Discord shifting once again now looking up to the ceiling seemingly in thought over my current question, “The term TRUE friend is a tricky statement there Twilight Sparkle. In this sense between Luna and me, you can take it one of two ways.” Sitting up again he flashed me one of his signature smiles he always had before he would try and rattle my brain with something that, for lack of better term, was mind blowing. “Do you want the happy sense or the sad one?”
My curiosity was spiking at an all time high, I could see my quill quivering in the air in anticipation as I thought the question over before daring to ask what I really wanted, “Can I not have both?”
Discord smiled again as he reclined in his hammock, “Somehow I knew you’d ask that, so shall I just start from where I left off?” Surprisingly Discord waited for me to nod before continuing, something I was grateful for so I could change pages and get ready to start again with my notes. “So as I said Luna continued to visit me there at the lake every night after that initial visit, and every night we'd find something fun and chaotic to do to spend our time. Whatever it was we were doing nobody ever got hurt and nothing was ever damaged, the only thing that did happen was that we’d always end our night on our backs lying side by side laughing at whatever mischief we had caused that day. I was perfectly happy with the way things were, and I honestly thought nothing could get better.” Discord stopped and let out a wistful sigh, “how naïve and young I was. For you see, Luna soon proved me very wrong.”
My quill was moving quickly as I found myself enraptured by Discord’s story, Luna had proved him wrong? “But how? I mean what did Luna do to prove you wrong.”
“She kissed me.”
I could feel the gears coming to a complete stop in my brain as my notepad and quill fell to the floor, “WHAT?” This was incomprehensible; my brain was literally unable to hold this little bit of news together. “So does that mean you and her were…?”
“That’s right, Luna was my special somepony and I was her special somedraconequus. Sodo for short. This is your first sense by the way Twilight. Luna wasn’t just a friend, she was my marefriend.” Again the wistful smile had returned but was quickly replaced by something that looked a lot more bitter and angry, “Imagine my surprise when she tells me she wants me to meet her sister, whom she had not once ever told me about.”
“Luna kept Celestia from you? But why?” Again my brain was processing this information as fast as it could, but the more that went in the more questions it rose.
“Believe it or not Twilight, I wasn’t the one the most upset about being kept in the dark. Oh no, that honor belong to your dear Celestia.” We were getting into dangerous territory, I could feel the presence in the room shifting to something much darker and it was making me feel uneasy. “I could hear her shouting from outside the castle; it didn’t take a genius to know that Celestia was very against her little sister dating a “monster like me” as she so lovingly put it.”
This didn’t sound like Celestia at all; Celestia was always kind and benevolent. Always keeping the well being of others in mind before doing anything. Yet here Discord was, painting Celestia in a whole new light. Could it have just been a misunderstanding?
“Despite her objections and protests Luna and I stayed together for several years after that and had grown not only older, but closer. That of course until…” Again I could sense the change in Discord as he spoke, this time he carried a tone of sadness and lose as if....
“She broke up with you didn’t she?” I don’t know why I just said it, it kinda just came out and there was no taking it back.
“Celestia had gotten to her, I don’t know what she said but somehow she got to her. I suppose my talk with her the day before lit some fire inside that she needed to put an end to me in Luna’s life once and for all.” Discord has his eyes closed as he relaxed back onto his hammock, I could see him cringe as if he was reliving that day again in his mind.
Something about what Discord has said caught my attention though, something that made me curious, “You had a talk with Celestia the day before Luna broke up with you?”
Discord looked back to me finally snapping from his memories, “I never liked Celestia but I knew what she meant to Luna so I wanted her consent before I did what I was planning, but even still she had refused to give me her blessings.”
“Her blessings?” Again my mind was processing, why would he need Celestia’s blessings unless he was going to- “You were going to propose?”
Just at the mention of the word I could see Discord flinch, and I knew my question time was drawing to a close, “I never got the chance, Luna called me a monster and threw me out of the castle the next day. But in that I learned one thing and this is sense number two; Luna never was a true friend to me, she used me for her own entertainment. So that day I decided who needs love and affection when you have chaos and power. They already blamed me for the downfall of these two kingdoms off a short distance from their castle, so I became the very thing Luna and Celestia claimed me to be, I became the monster they feared.”
The dark presence was back in full force and I could feel my body trembling with how dark Discord seemed to turn, I needed to get out of there and let him cool down before something bad happened to me or anypony else. I could feel Discord's eyes on me as I got up from the bean bag, he was fully aware I was intending to get away from his darker chaotic side yet he did nothing but sit there and stare as I left. His inaction was a whole lot scarier than anything he could have done. Now I really needed to talk to Luna.
A Love Lost in History and Time
Finding Princess Luna turned out to be much harder than I had initially thought it would be. I started off in the most logical spot she had told me she would be at, but after a simple search through the garden it was evident she either never came here or had already left. Either way I was wasting my time here, and seeing no other option with how late it already was I decided to head back to my room for a much needed rest.
The walk back to my room was quiet, which was something I was actually rather thankful for. It gave me time to think over everything I had learned from Discord tonight. As I thought over my conversation with Discord a few things stood out amongst everything else, but the most prominent thing to stand out was, “History is only written by those who remain to write it.” What did Discord mean by that? This was a troublesome question, and I knew that it was going to plague my thoughts until I figured it out.
Entering my room I opted to head to my bookshelf of Equestrian history rather than to my bed like I had initially planned, fully aware that I would not get sleep until I thought this one out. Pulling my books down I quickly began to skim them for any sort of answer to my current question, there had to be an answer here somewhere. It wasn't until I set the third book aside and I reached for the fourth when my eyes finally caught on to something I was surprised to just be realizing now, every last one of my history books was written by Princess Celestia herself. Thinking about it now it wasn’t just my personal history books here, it was literally every history book ever written. One way or another Celestia had helped write them.
“History is only written by those who remain to write it,” again the comment floated through my mind, was this it? Was it really that simple? With Discord trapped in stone and Luna banished to the moon it does stand to reason that Princess Celestia would have been left with having to write out history on her own for future generations like myself to learn. Not only that, but with a thousand years of Celestia’s history being the accepted history, even if it was wrong, it would be near impossible to change it now. Knowing this now only left and sinking feeling in my stomach, just because she could have done it doesn’t mean she did right? Discord was probably just pointing out the possibility of it just to get to my head, like some sort of prank as usual. What reason would Celestia have to even change history for anyways?
Finally able to file this train of thought in the back of my mind at least until morning I decided to get my long overdue sleep, it didn’t take long to get comfortable and soon enough I could feel my eyes already starting to close and soon I found myself in Luna’s land of dreams. Looking around in my dreamscape I was surprised to find it empty. I was surrounded by nothing but darkness, which was a drastic difference from the usual colorful settings my dreams tended to have.
“Hello again Princess Twilight,” I couldn’t help but jump back in surprise as Discord materialized in front of me much like he had done before. “Your dreams seem far more boring than I expected you know.”
“What are you doing in my dreams Discord?” Looking up to him I was already getting tired of his antics but with a sigh I knew he was just getting started.
“Always so boring and to the point aren’t you? It’s always why are you doing this Discord? Why are you here Discord? What are you doing now Discord? Bah!” Crossing his arms Discord started to laugh again as he picked me up easily launching me over his head before catching me like some little foal. “Why, can’t you just cut loose and forget the whys for once?”
Spreading my wings I caught myself in the air when he tossed me again, easily coasting back to where Discord stood and highly unamused. I wanted to end his antics quickly so before he could continue with whatever crazy idea he had planned next I decided to retort back with my own questions, “Why did you tell me that story of you and Luna? Was any of it even true?”
Discord looked at me a little surprised at first with a raised eyebrow before suddenly throwing himself to the floor in a fit of laughter, “oh how cute, you think I made it up?” Looking up again he just smiled more as he saw how serious I was, “Oh, you’re serious? Allow me to laugh louder!” Sure enough that’s exactly what he did as he rolled around on the floor clutching his gut.
“Discord stop fooling around and answer my questions!” I was already getting annoyed and I knew he knew it, which if I knew Discord was exactly what he was after.
In a flash Discord disappeared and suddenly reappeared on my shoulder now the size of a bird, “You’re a very naïve pony Twilight Sparkle,” Walking forward I could feel Discord pushing his head over to my ear. “You’ve had Celestia in your ear almost all of your life; you believe everything she says without question. Never had you ever even thought of questioning what she says, that is of course until now.” Discord smiled at me in a way I was definitely uncomfortable with, “I’ve planted that seed of doubt in your mind now, and I know you’ve already seen for yourself that everything I have told you has the potential to be true. It’s high time Celestia “loyal” student finally got a mind of her own and found out the truth.”
Did Discord just insult me? Looking up to him I really couldn’t tell just how he meant that comment with the stoic expression he was giving me, but I wasn’t ready to just accept everything he was telling me, “I’ll admit you have a point that Princess Celestia could have changed history while you and Luna were away, but what reason would she have for doing so?”
In another flash of light Discord was standing before me again and waved his paw revealing a picture of Shining and Cadance sleeping together back in the Crystal Kingdom, “Would you willingly admit to chasing Cadance off and calling her a monster, which by the way causes your brother to get lonely and depressed to the point that he turns against you forcing you have to banish him to the moon for a thousand years?”
Images of my brother’s wedding flashed before my eyes; how I had treated Cadance under the suspicion she was evil. How I had harassed her constantly trying to prove that I was right. Granted I was right when it turned out to be Chrysalis rather than Cadance, but what if I had been wrong? Would I have been able to live with myself for costing him his true love, and if given the chance would I change history to forget it? I could feel my dream quickly turning to a nightmare as my brain frantically tried to make sense of itself, to find some way to prove Discord wrong. Nothing, I had nothing, could he really be telling the truth?
“Twilight, are you alright?” Looking up suddenly Discord was nowhere to be seen; instead I was looking up to the concerned eyes of Princess Luna.
“Luna, what are you doing here?” Shakily I managed to get to my hooves, having collapsed down at some point during my melt down. I was glad to see Luna though, her presence often helped put my mind at ease when I was stressing over something I couldn’t figure out.
“Your nightmares were calling out to me tonight Twilight, tell me what is plaguing your mind.” Luna continued to look at me with concern as she wrapped her wing around me much like Celestia did when I was smaller.
This was it; this was my chance to question Luna like I had wanted. I just hoped she didn’t run away like before, “I was just thinking really, about something Discord told me about your past.” I could feel Luna’s wing tense around me so I knew I had to tread carefully here. With a small sigh I looked up to Luna prepping myself for my first question, “Is it true that Celestia hated Discord so much?”
Luna sighed but she nodded, “Tia always hated Discord she never trusted him, and in such Discord never liked Tia. I even went as far as to force Discord into promising never to use his chaos to harm a pony or any other creature. Even that wasn't enough for Tia to trust him, she could only see him as a monster that was out to use me.”
My ears flicked at this new information, this was something I was going to have to write down as soon as I got up, “You got Discord to actually promise to not hurt anypony? But he’s known in all my history books for bringing chaos and destruction all over Equestria. What happened to the promise?”
Luna was visibly pained at the question from what I could tell; she was no longer looking to me as she pulled her wing back to her side. “He broke that promise. It’s….. It’s the reason I had to leave him. Turns out Tia was right and he was a monster.”
Now my curiosity was peaked and I was sorely disappointed that I was asleep and couldn't take notes, Discord failed to mention this part, “What did he do exactly?”
Luna let out a sigh as she lowered herself to lie on the floor looking up to nothing in particular, “You are aware of the history behind the holiday Hearts and Hooves Day correct?”
How could I not? Just by mentioning it to the Cutie Mark Crusaders some years ago, the whole town had suffered some sort of damage in one way or another. One pony even had her home moved halfway across town, “It started over a thousand years ago right, because of a love potion?”
Luna nodded to me as she took over, “the story goes that a prince made the potion to win the heart of a princes from a nearby kingdom correct? That’s not exactly what really happened; the real truth is that the Prince had approached Discord for help knowing that he had already succeeded in winning over the heart of a princess. In trying to help Discord gave him the love poison that you know of from history. The poison caused pain and suffering for both kingdoms overnight when both the prince and princess could no longer perform their duties for their kingdoms, hurting hundreds of ponies in the process. It was hard to believe at first, I didn't even want to believe that he had done it, but when I saw the proof I was forced to call things off and break up with Discord. Needless to say Discord was enraged, I’ve never seen him act the way he did when he left. Soon after Tia and I found out he had taken over the two fallen kingdoms and was spreading his chaos all over Equestria.”
Tears were starting to form in Luna’s eyes as she told me this, now it was my turn to wrap a wing around her while my mind worked to remember as much of this as possible. “Is that when you and Celestia turned him to stone?”
“He was going to propose you know, I found the ring after we had set him to stone. Truth is I would have said yes had he not broken my promise.” Luna cried softly as I held her with my wing, it wasn’t until sometime later that she finally spoke up again, “you know, Hearts and Hooves day isn’t the only holiday Discord invented. This is something nopony but Discord and I know.”
Now I was very curious, something only Discord and Luna knew about? This had to be big, “what about Princess Celestia? Does she not know?”
“Tia does not know, when I changed into Nightmare Moon everypony assumed it was just a form I took when the darkness consumed me…. That’s not actually true. Nightmare Moon was created by Discord, just not meant to be what it is now.”
My brain shattered once again as I took this in, “Discord created Nightmare Moon? But, how? Why?”
“When Discord came to me with the idea of Nightmare Moon it was a gift for our fifty seventh anniversary. He had planned it to be closer to what it is today, a prank of sorts to scare little fillies and colts. Nothing too harmful mind you, just a simple scare.” Luna actually smiled as she thought about it, as if she was remembering a fond memory, “It wasn’t until after I was banished to the moon that Tia took the idea of Nightmare Moon and made a sort of holiday about it.”
Could this be why Discord was upset? Had Celestia inadvertently stolen something that was his? Something he had created for Luna and then turned it into something ponies now fear? I still needed more answers, “Luna, if I may ask how did Nightmare Moon become something to fear is she was meant only as a prank.”
Almost instantly I could see Luna’s smile fade as she tensed up again, “When Tia and I sentenced Discord to stone, I was left feeling lost and lonely. I hadn’t realized it at the time but my time with Discord had severed my relationship with the common pony, they all saw me a the reclusive princess who wanted to rule from a comfortable distance unlike Celestia who walked among them as their friend. They all loved Tia but were weary of me, so without Discord I found myself lost and alone. With nopony else to turn to, I let that loneliness and depression take over and I reached out for something, anything to reconnect me with Discord in some way. So I became the one thing he created specifically for me, Nightmare Moon.”
By losing Discord, Luna had become Nightmare moon, suddenly Discord and Celestia feud made more sense. “Would you willingly admit to chasing Cadance off and calling her a monster, which by the way causes your brother to get lonely and depressed to the point that he turns against you forcing you have to banish him to the moon for a thousand years?” Again Discord’s words floated through my mind, I think I finally figured out what Discord was trying to get me to see. He blamed Celestia, not for his own banishment, but for Luna’s. This thought however did not bring me comfort.
I could feel my dream world starting to waver now so I knew I was going to wake up soon, but I still had many more questions. I knew I only had the chance for one more so I threw out the first one that came to mind, “Do you still love him?” I don't know why that was the first question to come to mind, but it was what I asked.
Luna looked to me with saddened eyes as she started to fade from my dream, “I fear his feelings for me are long gone. Despite how I feel he wont feel the same, not anymore.” Her words were fading with each word she said until they and herself floated away entirely.
And with that I woke up.
A Love Lost in History and Time
I immediately jumped out of bed as soon as I got up frantically reaching for my journal as the thoughts of my dream ran through my mind, it was so much to remember but I was determined to get it all down. Writing furiously I started on a fresh page to get down everything Discord has told me, if he was telling the truth then Celestia was hiding something. Something she deemed important enough that she had to alter history to hide. This was something that disturbed me greatly, what could possibly be so bad that she would have to change history?
Next came Luna’s portion of the story, this helped put my mind at some ease. Whatever it was that happened between Discord and Luna only happened because Discord had broken his promise with Luna, what did trouble me though was why? If he loved her like he said and had yet to actually hurt anypony up until that point, what would cause him to suddenly do so? It really just didn’t make sense, especially considering he was planning to propose.
The hours flew by as I sat there writing and thinking over what I knew, but there were still far too many blanks to fully connect everything together just yet. I only came out of my fixation on my notes when I heard a knocking at the door, and after a quick check it turned out to be a guard informing me I was late for breakfast. Stashing my journal away I got up and promptly made my way to head for breakfast.
As I walked into the dining room I wasn’t too surprised to not find anyone there, I was already late for breakfast and I could only assume Celestia and the others were off doing whatever it was they did before morning court started. With limited time to eat and prepare I opted for a simple bowl of cereal. With bowl and spoon in hoof I sat down to enjoy my meal, I always did prefer the simpler meals rather than the overly complex meals the cooks here at the castle could come up with. Not that I didn’t like them, I just preferred things simple. Now then, I should have seen it coming I really should have, but much to my surprise as soon as I scooped up my first spoonful the whole bowl exploded completely covering me with milk and bits of cereal. An oh so jolly draconequus was now on the floor clutching his gut in laughter, “Thank you Discord, I don’t know how I’d ever manage to go through one day without being tormented by one of your pranks.”
Discord simply smiled at me, “Probably the same way you did before I was released, boring and dull being an egghead and whatnot.”
“I am not an egghead, I’m well read!” I was really getting tired of having to clarify this; I had enough time dealing with it with Rainbow Dash. I really didn’t need Discord jumping on that bandwagon as well.
Discord took a seat where he deemed it to be his official dining hall seat, which wasn’t so much a seat but rather just Discord siting right in the middle of the table. Seeing him sitting there nonchalantly chewing down on what appeared to be a spoon and fork made me shake my head and roll my eyes, Discord just seemed incapable of doing anything normal or sane.
Discord seemed to smile as I continued to stare before finally breaking the silence, “I’ve already had one fling with a princess Twilight, keep staring at me and I may think you want a turn.” With his signature laugh Discord decided to also throw in a wink.
“What? No! Why in Equestria would I ever want to deal with you more than I already do?” I couldn’t stop myself at shuddering at the thought, me with Discord? No, no, no, one hundred times no! “You already cause me more headaches than Pinkie did when I tried to study her.”
“Oh stop Twilight, you flatter me” With a girlish giggle that make me cringe Discord playfully swatted his claw at me using his paw to hide his blushing face before suddenly erupting into another fit of laughter.
I needed to end this quick before I had to suffer through more of this nonsense and it ate up more of my time I was already rushing to catch up on this morning, “I talked to Luna last night in my dreams you know, she told me more about you.”
Discord looked at me with that usual smirk of his as he crossed his arms leaning on the table, “and what could dear old Luna have told you that I didn’t already say?”
I simply smiled t Discord as I mentally went over the details in my head, “She told me about the kingdoms you took over and all the chaos you caused there after she broke up with you,”
I realized quickly that I may have pushed too hard too fast, Discord visibly tensed up as he looked away, “Those kingdoms were already in chaos before I got there. I was accused of destroying them so I did just that. My chaos did not touch them until after Luna called things off.”
“Wait what?” This didn’t make sense and it was driving me crazy. I thought I had the whole story but something major was missing in the middle and I needed to find out what. “What about the love potion you gave the prince then? That actually turned out to be a poison, maybe you didn’t know it caused the downfall of their kingdom?”
Discord turned back to me his previous anger seemingly gone, “What are you talking about? I never gave a prince a love potion, or poison for that matter.”
I could already feel my head start to pound with a headache coming on strong, this wasn’t making any sense and that was the one thing I hated more than being wrong. “Luna told me that the day before she broke up with you, a prince had approached you for help on gaining the affection of the princess of a nearby kingdom.”
After taking a moment seemingly to think about it, visibly running through his memories, Discord finally nodded, “A pony came to me yes, that much I remember but it wasn’t a prince.”
I’d have to remember to note down the errors in our history books later, but right now I needed to make sense of the problem at hoof. “It wasn’t? All of our history books say that a prince had the potion and had given it to the princess, who did you give the potion to then?”
Laying back Discord simply floated where he was on his back waving his paw in the air as he thought, “I don’t really know, it was some cloaked white mare, she did have a light pink mane though that much I could see. Not that it really matters so I don’t see why you’re asking.”
“I’m trying to find the connection between your story and Luna’s, you’re claiming one thing but Luna believes the other. Obviously there has to be something that got lost between your two stories.” I knew I was getting close to the answer too; I just needed to keep Discord from teleporting away beforehoof.
As if reading my mind Discord rolled over and looked to me with a rather amused smirk, “I’ve been rather compliant to all your meddling questions, what do I get out of this? I must admit this little Q and A session you have going is getting a little boring.”
“Just a few more questions Discord then I won’t have to bother you anymore I promise. I’m sure I’ll have everything settled soon.” Oh Celestia I hope I’m right, having to come back to Discord would only result in him holding this over my head and possibly refusing to answer any more questions.
“That doesn’t answer my question at all Twilight Sparkle, aren’t princesses supposed to be good at listening? Especially eggheads like you.” Sitting upright I could see Discord looking down to me shaking his head in a disapproving manner.
With a sigh I could stop my eyes from rolling; this morning was turning out to be a rather trying one “How about because you’re my friend Discord? Will that be sufficient enough?”
Obviously my answer wasn’t good enough due to the fact that Discord simply turned his back to me, “You’ve never actually claimed to be my friend you know Twilight, and I’m hurt you only offer now when you want something from me.”
It took several deep breaths to finally come up with a response, although he was technically right it wasn’t how I intended it and he knew it. “Can you just answer one more question Discord?”
Turning back to me Discord was once again grinning like he usually did when he was up to something, and I didn’t like it one bit. “I’m not being very helpful to you am I?”
Well that was putting it mildly, but nonetheless I nodded my head.
“And how often am I ever actually helpful?”
With how he was looking at me expectantly I was surprised I had to think about it, and as I did I was surprised at the answer, “Almost none at all.”
“Bingo, though personally I’d drop the almost.” Sitting back Discord just smiled obviously pleased with the point he just made.
“I get it, no more questions. Thanks anyways Discord.” With a sigh I turned to start to head back to my room, hopefully I’d have time to think before it was time for court.
Just before I could take a step I felt a tug at my tail and immediately turned to see Discord holding my tail in his paw, “You really can be slow you know. We just established I don’t help others correct? And giving a potion, or poison, to someone asking for it would qualify as help would it not?”
Surprisingly Discord actually had a point, “That’s actually true, in a slightly ambiguous way. So long as you completely ignore the fact that giving them a love poison instead of a potion would be considered chaotic.”
Discord seemed completely unfazed by that fact, almost as if he expected it, “Which would be the expected thing to do would it not? And rule number one of Chaos is; Chaos is not expected.”
Once again, in a strange Discord type way, it made sense. “So if you didn’t actually give her anything, what-“
“I never said I never gave her anything.” Once again Discord was smiling as he looked to me, “but what I gave her was nothing more than rainbow colored sugar water and told her it was a love potion.”
Storing that quick bit of information aside for later assessment I had to tackle on the most prominent problem that came up now, “So all you gave her was a placebo?”
“Genius isn’t it?” Discord chuckled to himself obviously amused with his own handiwork. “Imagine it, how big of a fool they’ll look like when it doesn’t work but acts like it does.”
“So you could actually still be the reason that the two kingdoms were collapsing. By causing one to act a fool trying to win over the other they could have taken it as an attempt at poisoning and thus gone to war!” I had it, this had to be the final part of the puzzle and I could finally put this to rest.
Discord just looked at me obviously unamused, “I thought you said both kingdoms fell into chaos, if they went to war one side would have won in the end not both wind up collapsing. Try again Sparkle.”
That was impossible! There is no way I could have been wrong, what other solution was there? Yet again nothing was making sense and I was starting to think that the reason for that was Discord himself, “Alright, if you’re so sure I’m wrong then what really happened?”
“Now that is the question isn’t it? I must admit you at least have me a bit curious as to who would be foolish enough to try and imitate my wonderful chaos. Everyone knows you can’t imitate perfection.” Again for I don’t know what number of times I had to roll my eyes, but I stayed quiet and let Discord continue, who was now pacing in a detective coat and hat blowing pipes out of bubbles. “With the evidence we have gathered so far I think we can safely deduce that it was Colonel Mustard with the candle stick in the Ballroom!”
“Discord! Can you act serious for one moment?” I was quickly reaching my wits end here, I needed to end this fast. “If you didn’t do it, who would have? Sombra? Chrysalis?”
“Don’t be silly Twilight, Chrysalis didn’t exist then and Sombra was in the Crytaltopia or whatever doing his crazy unicorn thing.” With a simple nod Discord seemed to finally take it serious as he thought about it, “If your little history books are right, which I doubt but I’ll humor you, and the kingdoms were brought down by a love potion.”
“Poison.” I corrected
“Don’t correct me Twilight it’s rude and I’m on a roll here. Now then if they were brought down by a potion then we have to look at who are the only ones who knew how to make said potion back in that time right? And as far as I know it was only myself, Luna and….. Celestia….” Discord suddenly went very quiet as if the pieces finally clicked in his head and both his paw and claw suddenly clenched into a tight fist. “And she claims me a monster.”
In a flash of light Discord was gone and I had a bad feeling I knew where he was going which meant I had to beat him to finding Princess Celestia before something very bad happens.
