Some Love

Discord hummed to himself a jaunty little tune as he skipped over a crumbled piller, Meredith floating right along beside him.

“I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen such splendor before, Meredith,” Discord said, stroking one of the few pieces of the palace that was still standing upright. It only stood about six feet high, just a little bit shorter than Discord himself. “This is a mighty palace where everything concerning Equestria since the banishing of Nightmare Moon took place. I might have even tried to acquire it myself, were I still back in my conquesting days.” Discord chuckled to himself.

“Oh!” he paused in his stride, Meredith stopping behind him. “Before we head inside, I need to show you something... something you’ve likely never seen before.”

Discord turned 180-degrees on his hooves, and started to walk across the barren ground towards the ledge that he had passed by before. The dirt crunched and crackled under his feet, any water that had once been there having been sapped ages ago by the relentless beating of the sun and moon.

“I hope you don’t think I’m treating you like a rube, my dearest,” Discord said, walking ever closer to the ledge. “I just know you come from a sheltered life, and, well... I want to show you things in the world that you’ve never seen before.”

Discord stepped to the very edge of the ledge, and brought Meredith floating next to him. “And here’s the first sight of the day to amaze you, my lovely: Canterlot!”

Stretched out before them was where one could assume a city had once stood. Now, there was only a large stretch of a mountainside covered in sand and dust; large mounds, vast dunes, with the occasional ruin jutting out from them. The ever present cracked, barren earth reared its red-golden clay face where the sand and dust did not pile up, and the only movement was the occasional guest of dry wind.

The rest of the view was obscured by a noxious, brown-yellow haze that stretched over the entire landscape from the edge of the ruins of Canterlot onward, only stopping once it reached the sky, which was a deep, cobalt blue.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Discord sighed happily. “That’s all of Equestria, my sweetest. The green, rolling hills, the grey, cutting mountains, the brilliant blue seas, the dark, lush forests...” Discord smiling and pointed off at the haze. “And look! There’s Ponyville! Oh, I’ve had some great memories there... I gained my first friends there.”

Discord paused, his eyes growing vacant. The haze shimmered and shifted, and the loud static drone started again, getting louder and louder—

“But, as beautiful as it is, I won’t bore you with scenery the entire day,” Discord promised Meredith. “Come! Let us pay a visit to the Princess! No use in dirtying a suit for nothing...”

Discord took Meredith by the handle, and lead her back the way they had come. She was still floating, as to not scuff her yarn on the dirt below. Discord resumed humming his tone from earlier, adding a whistle here and there.

“I must say, Meredith, I feel like a changed spirit,” he said to the mop as they stepped over a pile of dirty, smashed glass. “I used to never find the beauty in simple things, ones that everyone takes for granted, but looking over that scenic view... it stirred something inside me. Could this be a part of my maturity? Am I more of a hopeless romantic than I first thought?” The draconequus chuckled to himself, and tickled Meredith’s shaft with his talon. “Who know, my love, who know...”

They were now standing where three section of the palace wall had once met each other; now, the far left wall had been nearly completely obliterated, a craggy, few-inch-tall line being the only evidence that a wall had once ever stood there. The two other walls were in various states of erosion, but each stood about four to five feet on average. Discord was scanning these walls when he stepped in something that clacked against his hooves loudly.

“Oh, pardon me,” Discord said, stepping to the side. Below him lay the bleached bones of a small form; they had obviously once belonged to a pony, and they looked oddly proportioned indeed. The head was a little bigger than usual, and the legs were short.

“Ah, the little foals are so hard to avoid,” Discord said, looking down at the bones. “Always getting under hoof! Well, run along, youngster, there’s nothing to see here. Just a draconequus and his lovely partner!”

Discord waited a few moments, and then looked around, as if checking to see if the foal was still there. Quickly, he darted his head forward and planted a kiss on Meredith’s shaft.

“Oh, hush. You’re just as skittish of showing public display as I am.”

Discord and Meredith walked over the shortest wall, into a place where many columns and stone support systems lay knocked over and vertical, crumbling into dust upon the blighted earth. He was not paying attention to the ruins here, however; what was more of interest to him was what lay before him within the ruins.

“Ah!” Discord called out gleefully, rushing across the dusty earth. “A piano! Come, Meredith, I’ll play you a little tune! I’ve had one stuck in my head for quite some time, as you could probably gather from my humming...”

The spirit of chaos walked up to the piano, which was strangely intact compared to... essentially everything else he had encountered. The bones of what was once most likely a composer lay slouched over the piano, still seated on the bench where he had perished.

“Sorry chap, it’s my turn to take stage,” Discord said to the skeleton, pushing it off the bench to the earth below, where it crumbled apart. “Let me show you, Meredith. There may only be a few spectators, but I shall give them a show nonetheless!”

Discord cracked his paw and talon together, wiggled his finger-like appendages on either one, and set them to work on the keys, plunking out the tune in his head. As the piano spilled music, just as well as it should have when it was new, Discord began to pick up on the melody, and before long he had broken out into song.

“Oh, when the dreary life below

Inside my lovely little grotto

Becomes a bit too much for us to bear

I move my hooves

Into stone grooves

And take us out for some fresh air!

Oh, my dear,

You should have no fear

Of pride or prejudices

Ponies here

Don’t care if relations are strange or queer

They find it best if everyone’s left to their own devices!

So my sweet,

Wouldn’t it be neat!

To have a lovely time?

We’ll drink and partake

And a leg we’ll shake

And soon we’ll have downed all the wine!

The earth will split at the seams

Monsters escape from fevered dreams

The gods of old escape and unfold

AND THE MOON AND SUN SHALL BATHE TOGETHER IN THE SKY—”

Discord’s singing had devolved to screaming at that point, and none of the keys he was hitting made any sense of a tune. The static had returned to him, and the droning in his ears were too much to bear.

Discord paused, removing his paw and talon from the keys. The static had died down, and all he could hear now was his heavy breathing.

“C-Come, Meredith,” Discord said with a slight shaking in his voice, standing up from the bench and giving the piano and apprehensive look. “I-I think that’s enough merrymaking for now. Why should we keep the Princess waiting any longer?”