Harmony's Flower

by Serenity Rising

Rating: everyone
Tags: Discord, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad, Original Character
Length: 6366

The origin of the Ponies, Discord, and the Giver of the Elements wrapped within the history of two deities and their loneliness of a billion years

Not everypony handles the coals of loneliness with a tender grasp, and when flesh begins to blister it helps to have the cool hand of friendship- Friendship that can be hard to find in an abandoned universe when your brother is Discord and his chaos eradicates what life is found.

Published 2014-08-16 01:30:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-08-16 01:30:03 UTC

Harmony's Flower

Harmony's Flower

Amidst the heart of the universe, amidst the blood of creation which whirled between dimensions, the line between immortals and deities was set. And amidst the potential of the universe itself, which ran in spirals so thick and tight that to simply gaze was to be lost to infinity, she flowed. Like a current through the ocean, more felt than seen, so subtle in her existence even time almost passed her by, she carried on, bobbing with the energies around her.

“Equestria, how you are growing,” A swarm of fractals fragmented space as her voice vibrated, a sphere of endlessly magnifying patterns expanding from her as the charged atmosphere scrambled to birth anything within the sound it consumed.

Her fleeting shape weaved through the air, shimmering in perfect unity with her surroundings, but had a pair of eyes been present and pierced the flickering umbra which laid upon space like mother of pearl, her form would have made itself known from the owner's intentions. With the tranquility of the gentle breeze, her thousands of alabaster feathers, each zipped into its neighbors as if preened individually, would alight her massive wings sweeping past her mane and tale, both prismatic as if a rainbow had been blended without muddying and poured onto either end of her to make up for the white canvas between. Every evanescent strand would melt away, each hair flowing indefinitely, buoyed up on the blood of creation and dancing about her until slowly stitching into space, perhaps even past the horn which leapt from her forehead like a pillar of burning magnesium, setting alight her eyes like melted gold pooling onto a painter's palette. No flashes of gems or precious trinkets would have cast scintillating patterns from near her flesh, her existence was a decoration the universe wore, such corporeal splendors would seem tarnished upon her fur of fresh snow and early sun.

But no eyes sought her here, and so she dissolved into the air, an effervescent ambiguity shrouded amidst unborn thoughts, worlds, and galaxies like a drop of dye into an ocean.

And she slept.

For

One

Thousand

Years.

She awoke with no fanfare as if she had closed her eyes merely to cure their dryness, taking in the changes of Equestria as a mortal might yawn upon the morning's break.

Luna is banished... She will escape herself. The elements of harmony will protect the Ponies, She noted. They will work.

The very elements she forged a thousand years ago, fabricated from her own being to defend the Ponies from the chaos which hunted them, from the chaos which shattered the safety of homes by breathing life into the walls and trapping just the youngest inside, from the chaos which covered roads in ice so hips and skulls would crack and filled the sky with cotton candy clouds so Pegasi would  plummet a thousand screaming feet before their tender bodies shattered into a crimson painting of failed order, from the chaos which by a snap of its fingers transformed every defense the Ponies claimed ranging from horns to horseshoes into balloons harboring cruel smiles until the sun failed to shine through their masses, and the chaos which fed the ponies, whose rib cages were washboards to the wind after the crops withered, only cakes and sweets solely to taint a pleasure they once shared. She brought the elements forth from her bosom to let the ponies fight back against the very same chaos which shared her creation. Her twin. Discord.

A thousand years of slumber befell her for imparting the elements to the Ponies below, such power did it require to counter a spirit of entropy through concordance, however condensed it might have been. Such is the way of the universe's tilted scales, a constant she choked on in her earliest days as she fought for planet after planet only to lay drained as the last of a species passed in its sleep, its eyes scrambling through dreams and nightmares as reality slipped through its cracking lips. It was never climactic. They never even knew they were the last of their broken kind, passing from the universe like a dandelion blown too hard to hold any majesty in its wish, fading on a wind of desperation and promises to too many gods and a tear torn to mist as if there were enough pieces of it to mourn for every tragedy.

Yes, She would come to realize as she watched the last Great Arachnid curl in dehydration meters from a silent spring, My brother is much stronger than I.

Yes, She would come to acknowledge as the grandest Humble Worm city collapsed with a muted slosh and no ear to hear it, Entropy is a ceaseless foe.

Yes, She would come to notice as the continent of Farosha and its seventeen ancient countries were vitrified by a cleansing spell cast in hatred, It is easier to destroy than to create.

No, She thought with serenity like a fetter to his inheritance as she stared into Discord's eyes from her dimension, his soul locked into an effigy of common stone as cold as his games, You will not win.

The Pony Diarchy had succeeded in using the Elements and nullifying Discord by imprisonment, even if the victory was temporary, yet even with their respite from the spirit of chaos, the pervasive favor of the universe fell to him while she lay sleeping.

The rot of Luna's heart drove her to madness eight hundred years ago, warping what might have been a normal Ponie's incoherent malice into the wrath of one fancied a god. But she was no deity anymore, her godhood traded for the power to desolate a people who never before feared the night, to bind the sun below the horizon, and to murder those she swore to protect, making the only light she allowed be the shivering flames of corpses which dove into her eyes like it could pull back her soul.

It took just a week for the temperature to fall below freezing, three days more to trap ponies around their fireplaces, and all ten days to convince the Princess of the Sun to destroy this aberration which had been her sister. After an engagement which ground the city surrounding their Castle into history books and whose onslaught of spells were so potent as to lay Equestria itself with a cancer, the Everfree, the Elements of Harmony were once again brought to bear.

The tragedy was not in Luna's banishment to the moon, but in the starvation brought on by a nonexistent crop, in the invention of the nightlight, in the first nightmare, and in the fact that had Luna spent every one of her three hundred and sixty-five thousand days on the moon mourning a life extinguished by jealousy she would not be finished upon her release.

To strengthen and uplift her Ponies after Discord's reign had taken Celestia generations with her sister's aid, but to repeat the promises of a united Equestria to a betrayed people felt like citing a burned out building as stable. She denied herself the chance to mourn her sister as she watched the orphaned, widowed, and childless forced to rebuild or perish also, and she denied herself pity as she found the castle stores to be ash, instead pleading with surrounding countries only to find their fields also littered with rotten husks of life, each one a meal none could share.

But time can be merciful, and it did not linger unduly like Pegasi around a crash to gather every detail. Celestia watched as her little ponies struggled to their previous greatness over five hundred years, and reveled as new foundations of might were birthed by their determination to thrive.

I too am delighted, The Giver of the Elements thought passingly, Survive.

The history of Equestria continued to soak into her flesh like a tattoo, each prick a life blended into a mosaic of their species, an illustration in grayscale illuminated by the sharp hues of the Ponies, any pain dulled by the anesthetic of time.  As the painting continued to manifest itself the tragedies wrought by the madness of Luna ebbed through the generations into a nighttime parable against jealousy and hate, then into a scary story told around the warmth of a fire, then into ancient books on dusty shelves and the singular memory of the Princess of the Sun.

Luna, unlike the people she brought to anguish, never had the mercy of poor memory, whittling away one thousand years in a judgment of her transgressions, the weight of so many sins hooked through her heart that to float once again on the ocean of life was to drown wrapped in cold, sharp steel. There was no forgiveness to be spared- every hook was barbed. There was no mercy to be found- her own heart retched at the thought of her name.

The warm embraces of her subjects were to forever be a dream out of reach, her name and likeness the symbols which made children run home screaming in a land which had once held her tender heart. But now her heart was too scarred to be held by anything with gentle hooves, and was destined to rot in a life of dark rooms and locked doors when she returned. Not even Celestia could forgive the sorrows she had sown in Equestria's fertile fields.

When finally the last year came it was eclipsed by a shocking inevitability like the last day of school, her hopes turning tepid with fear as she contemplated how she would be scorned.

A month before her release she lay motionless, paralyzed as if time would stop if she promised to do so as well, and left her eyes pinned to an unfocused horizon. Three weeks before her freedom, tears began to trail down her cheeks, evolving through the days until she formed a sobbing heap of degradation and hollow hopes, trembling past when her eyes failed to make new tears. With two weeks left she raged and kicked and thrashed, screaming that she wanted to remain, and wailing through the night that she didn't want any of it to change, that she liked where she was. On her final week she stood in rage glaring at Equestria, a broken being whose hope had long ago dissolved, and vowed that if she could not be forgiven she would be the monster they wanted her to be, yelling until her voice gave out that if there was to be no mercy, she too would show none.

And so it was that her sanity boiled away under the flame of despair until her mind once again snapped like cool glass heated too quickly, twisting Luna's mind with untempered anguish into into the same monster which stained her past. On her last day, she once more became Nightmare Moon.

How strange it was then for her to return and have none claim memory to her name, for the Ponies only to run when she threatened them with eternal night, ignorant of her power, and for Ponyville to not think her a curse until she declared her spite for them. It was impossible, yet she was forgotten.

The enormity of her mistake, rising like bile in her throat, drove Nightmare Moon from the town she had thought to burn, her confusion twisting the path she followed until the castle she had once shared lay exposed before her. Did they truly not know her?

When the Bearers of the Elements came for her she called no leveling magic, boiled no flesh, and trapped no souls within her stars, fighting as if she had some obligation to fulfill, using illusions and erratic lightning as if a foal.

In the end, she all but surrendered to the rainbow magic cast by the Bearers, the peace of harmony weaving through her like a candle in the night, casting a shadow of hope large enough to vaporize the remnants of the Nightmare.

Through all this the Giver of the Elements had slept, but felt upon her awakening, years passing on as Luna realized how thoroughly Celestia had erased her from history just to give the gift of a second chance. But no amount of censorship could replace Luna's power, grace, or stature, the warping of her godhood through insanity trimming her existence like too many branches from a tree, leaving her like a week old balloon. It was a soft punishment.

The Giver of the Elements turned away from Equestria, pulling on time like a ball of yarn and feeling for disturbances, seeking like a blind pony through an empty book for one word of braille.

The word was Discord, and his prison of stone was fading like a brakeless carriage, an avalanche in slow motion crashing towards the Ponies. His freedom was impending, his bonds which had been made vulnerable by Luna's madness rusting beneath the drops of chaos afforded by Nightmare Moon. When three friends exchanged blows beside the draconequus of stone it was enough to dissolve his cell.

The Giver of the Elements relaxed, condensing her body like fog into rain, and did nothing else. This dimension, like a valley in drought, needed but a spark of magic to erupt out of control, words alone causing it to smolder. She knew Discord could use no magic here.

“My my, sister, over a thousand years and this place is as dreary as ever.” Discord's deep voice sent shapes and fractals meandering through the air of creation behind her, his body beginning to appear.

She turned to face him as he continued, “All this time and not even a little welcome party, it makes one question if he is wanted.”

She smiled ,“You know you are always welcome Discord.”

His eyebrows dropped, “Your humor is worse than Celestia's, Harmony. You had them trap me in stone. Oh, sure, it was only a couple thousand years but you've never heard of the Canterlot Garden's chronic ant problem.”

Her mind flinched at the mention of her name but she answered without pause, “The spirit of chaos bothered by ants?”

His lips raised in a crooked smile, “Oh, yes, I forgot you called that particular breed Ponies, how forgetful of me. You can only play with so many species before they start to blend together you know.”

Memories of arguments flowed through her thoughts, “I do not wish to have this conversation again, it grew old long ago,” she turned to walk away.

Discord's eyes flicked left and right, his mouth opening the slightest bit, “Where are you going?”

“Away until you can be kind,” She admonished.

“Why do you always do that!?” Discord  yelled.

“Do what?”

“Pretend to be the good one! Pretend to be so righteous and untouchable!”

“What if I'm not pretending?”

“Just because they liked you more doesn't mean anything.”

“Oh really Discord, you just get back and start this again? They loved us both and you know that has nothing to do with this.”

“Oh yeah, like they didn't fawn over everything you did. I tried to make things too you know, it wasn't my fault they always liked yours more. 'Oooh Harmony, you did such a good job'. Like it even mattered.”

“I worked for a century on that one planet just trying to help life start and you expected the same praise when you showed them your amoebas-”

“But all you had were stupid jellyfish, that's all you helped grow, just another set of ants and they kept talking about it-”

“Because I spent time doing it!”

“Because you were their favorite!” Discord yelled.

“And then you just destroyed them after all the work I did, just like you always do. Did you want Mom and Dad to praise you for that too?”

“See! You make me the bad one!”

“The only thing I ever accused you of was being lazy! It's always easier to destroy than to create, you don't need talent for that! We were created equal. Leo and Lilly. You made us Discord and Harmony, not me!”

“I told you not to call me that!”

“It doesn't change who you are! You're just like those 'ants' you hate, the only difference is-”

“I'm not like them at all!”

“Maybe not, they actually accomplish things.”

“I mastered chaos, I made it an art. That's an accomplishment.”

“Elegant destruction? Really? Does it matter if the end is the same every time?”

“You're just upset because I beat you.”

“I'm upset because you trample my work and pretend you did something Leo!”

“I said stop saying that!”

“Well why don't you try! It's been what, four hundred and fifty, four hundred and sixty million years?”

“Oh yeah, and just hop right into herding ants with little miss Harmony-”

“Its little miss Lilly, and why are you so afraid of our names? Hate being reminded that there's nothing about you you didn't choose to be?”

“There's nothing wrong with what I chose,” Discord defended.

“The word 'lonely' ringing any bells?”

“I'm not lonely.”

“Well where are your friends Leo, 'cause I'd love to meet them.”

“Trust me, I'm just as sorry you're the only other I know in this damned universe!”

“Have you even talked to them?” Lilly asked. “Have you even had an actual conversation with them?”

“They're ants-”

“These are Ponies!”

“They are a waste-”

“So you haven't talked to them.”

“Oh we've had plenty of conversations, its precious how they end up begging.”

“Begging because they love each other, which is more than anyone can say about you.” Harmony sniped, freezing the moment.

Discord drew his head back, “You don't mean that.”

“I don't know anymore Leo. All I ever asked was for you to talk to them. Just give them a chance. Look at them. I worked so hard this time,” her voice faded.

“But you do...” he looked at her, nodding his head.

“Yes, Leo, of course I love you. You know that,” she soothed, “You're my brother.”

His shoulders fell and his eyes trailed around her. She gave him a smooth smile, “Hey, just talk to them. That's all. Besides, what good is chaos if you do the same thing every time? Huh?” She waited until his eyes met hers again, “You can even have fun, just give them a chance. You're just like them, only with more power.”

Discord rolled his eyes, “Whatever.”

Harmony continued her gaze.

“But I'll have some fun with them,” He continued.

“Of course,” She smiled.

An hours worth of conversation passed between them before he was gone again, this time to fulfill the agreement he had made, leaving Harmony alone.

Her eyes focused on the point he had occupied, her eyes which held the color of molten gold now radiating the heat thereof as if to sanitize his existence from her domain, her eyebrows furrowing in time with the meshing of her teeth.

Damn him.

Discord's escape from stone came to fruition only by the madness of Luna and her break from the elements, only by luck while Harmony had been recovering from the Elements' demand on her. She continued her searing gaze.

This time, she glowered, he will not escape. These bearers will not fail like Luna. He will have a little 'fun' and talk to them, and they will use the elements against him. He doesn't know he was set free by Luna's madness, he'll let them do it. He thinks it will only be a couple thousand years, she exhaled in a somber smile, It will be eternity.

The lives she nurtured would finally have the chance to thrive, to spread their roots and drink deeply of the peace denied by her brother. They could laugh and play and earn their cutie marks all without fear while she fertilized the land for their growth, and when the Ponies held harmony in every heart, she could raise up the other species. She could bring the Dragons and Griffons peace while sharing unity with the Minotaurs, she could hold herself like an umbrella over all of Equus instead of just the Ponies with the absence Discord's malice raining upon her fragile fabric.

And then, she dreamed, I can walk with them and my name will be Eon Lilly, and we will be friends. Maybe even family.

She watched as Discord began spreading cotton candy clouds, floating houses, and fear throughout Equestria. And she watched as the Bearers of the Elements were called together. And she watched as Discord talked to them about chaos, which really didn't count as talking. And she watched as he grew bored and let them get the elements. And she watched as the Bearers stood before him. And she smiled as he let the rainbow crash into his flesh, knowing it would be the last thing he ever felt with skin not made of common rubble.

And so ends Leo, one who fancied himself a spirit of Chaos, She thought, a pang of sadness chiming like bells in her heart, But now to work.

The crop that year stretched like tiny prayers to heaven, each plant a picture book example of the joys of country life, while technology steam-rolled over barriers considered impassable jut the year before, the health industry all but eliminating infant mortality. A peace summit was underway in the Griffon Empire and the Minotaurs were requesting the aid of the Ponies in the creation of a centralized government, all while Luna continued to find confidence in her role as princess, a now fond companion in the dreams of her subjects.

Harmony stood amidst the untarnished furniture of Celestia's chamber, the sun having descended fifteen minutes prior, while her heart bubbled like a can of soda finally allowed open, her smile just as sweet. She could feel Celestia beyond the threshold, and heard her wishing fair nights to the guards outside, her aura of magic lighting upon the door, moving it open with all the constancy of the sun's path over Equus.

Harmony let her aura splash against the white walls, the energy lapping at the drapes and rushing through the widening doorway as if she were a soothing spring. Harmony heard the soft intake of air from the princess, her hoof pausing for a half-second before lighting upon the tile once more, continuing into her room.

“Princess Celestia,” Harmony greeted, her voice flowing past Celestia like a breeze through summer's grass.

The princess stopped, warmth burrowing into her bones, and closed the door, “That was you I felt you in the hallway.”

“Yes.”

Celestia waited for more, but continued when the air became too charged with expectancy, “Who are you?”

The Giver of the Elements took four steps closer, “I am Harmony, Celestia.”

The princess's eyes widened, “Harmony? The embodiment of the elements?”

Harmony gently laughed, “No, I created them. They are an embodiment of me.”

“The elements were obtained from the Tree of Harmony,” Celestia trailed off slightly.

“They were, but I created the Tree as well.”

A moment passed.

“Why have you come?”

Another moment.

“Truthfully Celestia, because I am lonely.”

Celestia's eyebrow curled, “If you are really Harmony you have always been welcome. Why have you waited?”

“Because of Discord.”

“He was trapped for over a millennium,” Celestia sounded her thoughts.

“It was only temporary then,” Harmony explained, “because of Luna's disconnection to the elements when she became Nightmare Moon.”

“And he is trapped without limit now? As long as the bearers don't similarly falter?”

“They won't. I am here now.”

“Which brings us back to why you couldn't be here before.”

“Yes, it does,” she sighed, “To make it quick, I only gave you, the Ponies, as much attention as you required to flourish. If Discord ever noticed me walking among you it would have been a warrant for your extinction. Eventually, he found you anyways, and that is when I made the elements for you and Luna to use against him. But making the elements forced me to sleep for a thousand years, and during that time I was unable to sooth Luna's heart. When she broke and became Nightmare Moon it shattered her connection to the elements, and the added chaos set Discord on the path to freedom. By the time I woke up it was obvious he would escape, and I did not want to meet you until I was sure-”

“That we would be safe,” Celestia finished, her eyes soft.

Ten seconds passed.

“How about some tea? It seems we have much to discuss,” The princess offered.

Harmony glowed the slightest bit, “Tea?”

“It is the best kind.”

A tear laid a trail down Harmony's cheek, sparkling for a moment in the same solitude its owner had held and startling Celestia, before being joined by a steady stream and ragged breaths. Without hesitance Celestia's muzzle found rest upon her withers, and Harmony's sobs echoed like a mare rescued from an island, her own muzzle wrapping around Celestia's neck as the princess's wings blanketed her back.

After a minute Harmony's breaths found deeper purchase, and silence trickled back into the room. With one final inhalation Harmony pulled away, her face dry and immaculate.

“I'm sorry. It's just... tea sounds wonderful.”

Looking into Celestia's eyes, Harmony knew she understood.

A couple hours passed between the two mares, billions of years of history unfolding from Harmony's words like crumpled origami, the frayed edges of the paper, her memories, dulled by so many years cuts were of little risk.

She told Celestia of her parents' disappearance and Leo's chronic self-loathing, of how she would urge life to grow and nurture it so Leo could knock it down, like setting up blocks for a toddler, of how much she loved her brother.

“But it changed,” Harmony continued, “Like I said, I didn't mind in the beginning. We were both hurt and confused, and we coped together. He was the only thing I had in the universe once they left,” nostalgia teased a breath from her lungs.

“And then I created life. Real life. Not instinct driven cell bunches which happened to be organized, but life which could think. Life which over the centuries started communicating. They were so simple, so fragile, but they worked together as a colony to grow and be more together. Sure they were simple ants, but to me they were so new and beautiful, I saw potential in them.”

Harmony's sweet grin soured, “So I showed them to Leo. I wanted him to share the discovery, to help me raise them, but he was too impatient, too harsh, like a virgin lover.”

Her eyes made it seem as if the past was painted on the wall, “He tried to increase the fertility of the queen and accidentally killed her, sending the ants into a panic, scrambling from the colony in complete chaos. He was so angry, at himself really, but instead yelled at the ants, calling them stupid and a waste, closing them beneath the earth and vitrifying the whole colony.”

Harmony looked up, “Needless to say, the next time I nurtured life to intelligence I kept it to myself. This time they were bees, but I stayed too close and he saw them when he came to me. You've seen Leo- Discord. The bees thought him some horrible predator and stung him. He yelled that they were just another set of stupid ants, imploding the colony on itself before vanishing.”

Her head swayed side to side gently, “And it continued this way for a couple million years, life takes a long time to begin you know. By this time I had grown used to residing in the dimension of creation while tending to life, it was harder for him to find the species I was working on.”

She became still, “And then my life began to speak. They made such horrible noises, mostly tonal communication for conveying moods, but it evolved into language. It was the birds, actually. They were the first to truly pronounce words as you know them. And I realized, this is it. This was the way out. This was the answer to our loneliness.”

Celestia's eyes remained unwavering as Harmony continued, “The potential! It was so exciting I broke my rule and began talking to them, taking the form of a bird. They thought me a god. Everywhere I went, peace and prosperity was said to follow, and eventually they took to calling me Harmony. I didn't even worry about Leo, I was sure this would be enough to open his eyes, and when he came I rushed to him to share my joy. But he argued with me, accusing me of trying to replace him, of trying to replace our parents. He didn't even try talking to them, just smiling as they ran screaming 'Discord!'.”

The last sip of tea was drained from Harmony's cup, “After that he began calling himself Discord and me Harmony. I don't know if it was to escape from the past or to justify his actions, but he did it. From then on I tried to get life as far as I could before he found it, each time progressing, and each time my bond with him souring.”

Harmony stood up and walked to the window, looking into the pricks of light above, “But you probably guessed, this was it. You. The Ponies. Equus. Half a billion years after the first birds. You've wondered why the Ponies are such a peaceful race compared to the other inhabitant of Equus, why you prosper so greatly.”

She turned to look into Celestia's eyes once more, “I focused all my time and ambition on you. You ponies wanted a herd, you wanted to come together and triumph, and I wanted a herd too. I helped shape you into the colorful ornament that this world carries. But the threat of Discord haunted me every day, I knew time marched only to the day he would find you, and whatever compassion I had left for him trickled away until there was finally none left. I gave the elements to you. You were to remove him forever, to scrub him from this universe. After he broke free he came to me one last time and we argued. He denies it but he is just as lonely as I am, so I lied to him, told him I loved him, and tricked him to coming back to Equestria,” Harmony huffed.

“ I told him to talk to the ponies. I knew what his idea of talking would be, and I knew that to placate me he would let the elements be used against him, just to say diplomacy had failed. He didn't know there would be no escape this time.”

Harmony sat down near Celestia, “And now I am here, and he is not.”

Four minutes passed before Celestia's voice chimed “What is your name, Harmony? Your real name.”

“Lilly,” Harmony hardly spoke, trying out the syllables, “I always dreamed of being called Eon Lilly though, once I introduced myself. The names of ponies are a little different.”

Celestia let a soft chuckle bounce through the room, “Eon Lilly,” She repeated.

Both mares lay on down feather pillows, their legs neatly tucked underneath them as they conversed, two legends sipping tea steeped in the past.

Celestia rolled over slightly and extended a wing, “Lilly, come here.”

Lilly's eyes ricocheted between the offered wing and Celestia's eyes as if looking for a missed signal, earning a nod from the princess to her side. Her mouth opening slightly before sealing once more, she planted her hooves and rose, taking the three steps which separated them. She lowered with hesitance as if her bones were hydraulic, coming to rest over a yard from Celestia, her head and eyes anchored to some distant shore.

Glancing over she saw Celestia move and suddenly felt soft fur pressing against and warming her own, a delicately toned wing sweeping over her side like the fire of a womb, her rigid legs and barrel kneaded by the warmth and salved by the comfort.

“All those days,” Celestia quietly soothed, “All those years spent alone in your dimension, helping us grow,” Celestia laid her neck over Lilly's withers, “this is how you made us feel.”

Drops began to condense once more in Lilly's eyes like marks in a checklist, each one plummeting to splash against Celestia's hoof, crossing off an ancient dream.

“This safety, this comfort, this friendship- this was your gift to us, and now it can be ours to you,” Celestia quietly promised, “Do you sleep?”

“No, but I should like to,” Lilly laid her cheeks upon Celestia's forearms.

“Then do. There are a few hours  left until morning,” Celestia guided, Lilly wrapped under her wing and neck.

For the next four hours Celestia hardly moved, her eyes unfocused but open beneath drawn brows, her mind taking in the night, pondering the adopted child of the universe which slept on her hooves.

Lilly felt Celestia rise, the feathers of the princess leaving her back like a swarm of fireflies fleeing the dawn, waiting for the sun to spill into the room as Celestia beckoned it over the mountains.

Once the rays began to prick the wall behind her, Lilly stood, staring into the sun while the tinkling sounds of china laughed through the room, the air filling with spices and fruit. She closed her eyes and felt the entirety of the moment soaking into her like a perfumed bath.

“I made some morning tea,” Celestia's announced, her voice complimenting the silence rather than breaking it.

“Thank you, Celestia,” Harmony took the offered cup in her own magic.

“Lilly, I thought about what you said last night,” Celestia paused, “About you and Leo. Harmony and Discord,” She breathed in, her lips shifting, “We need to release him.”

Lilly frowned, “I thought you listened last night.”

“I did, to everything,” Celestia reassured, “It made me think of Nightmare Moon. Of Luna.”

“It isn't the same. I see the connection, but Discord has no ties to your race. It isn't the same.”

“How so?”

“Luna felt guilt for her actions. The only reason she returned as Nightmare Moon at all was because she thought she would return to be scorned and hated, forever unforgiven, and the despair devoured her in the final moments of imprisonment,” Celestia's ears perked, “She didn't know you had all but erased her from history, so when she returned and found hope, the part of Luna that was buried let herself be defeated. She had guilt, and in the end she had hope. Discord has neither. He is a spirit of chaos,” She finished bitterly.

“But he's not, Lilly. He's Leo. He became Discord out of loneliness, just like Luna became Nightmare Moon from neglect. Remember her fall to madness? Do you remember how I thought she would 'get over it' and gave her space, the opposite of what she needed?”

“I tried to include Discord- Leo. I wanted us to work together. I showed him every new discovery.”

“But you weren't there for him. Even in the beginning, when you set up primitive life for him to topple, you were on a different project when his turn came.”

“Leo becoming Discord isn't my fault, no more than it is yours that Luna fell, you know that.”

“No,” Celestia's head swayed, “It is not your fault. Though I often imagine how differently our lives might have been had I thought just a little more on what she needed. Would Discord have been too rough with the first ant queen had he been taught by his sister?”

A minute passed.

“You can't let him go,” Harmony almost whispered.

Celestia remained quiet.

“He'll torture all the life on Equus with his games until there's none left. I just got a herd, I won't lose it like that.”

Celestia walked to Lilly, meeting their shoulders, “Eon Lilly, that's who you are. You're not Harmony, you are the Giver of the Elements.  Harmony is life- an abundance of life working each day to make the next even better. Leo is not Discord, he simply has discord in his heart. Maybe you can't change him, but friendship and life can.”

Celestia waited before continuing, “Remember when you said you focused all your attention on Equestria? You instilled in us such profound peace and love we have ponies who are pure enough to use concentrated harmony as a magic. Leo is hurt and alone, let him experience that magic- the magic of friendship.”

Lilly stood still for five minutes before answering, turning away, “I'll talk to Leo.”

“Wait,” Celestia said immediately after, pausing until Lilly was looking into her eyes, “When you told Leo you loved him, you weren't lying. If you hated him you wouldn't have listened to me.”

Lilly looked away, almost ashamed, “I know. He is my brother, my family. Maybe...” she trailed off. Taking a deep breath she finished, “Maybe he can be Leo again.”

Lilly and Celestia met halfway and embraced like old friends.

“I hope so.”

They both nodded.

“I'll be back,” Lilly promised, then vanished.

One year later Eon Lilly stretched around Equus like a hidden sun, her rays lifting wilted hopes, soothing peace talks, and guiding the lonely, feeling the plethora of life beneath as if spread over a beach, her roots sinking down to touch every grain, nudging them like bugs to help them walk a straight line.

She smiled as she caught sight of Leo, who held onto the name Discord, helping Fluttershy with her animals, the two giggling over a rabbit pun while handing out carrots.

In this universe where entropy rules, where everything is unwinding like a music box, tines counting their last notes, life fights back. I'm not harmony, the Ponies are, and eventually all life can be. I am the vessel from which Harmony pours, the Giver of the Elements, and Lilly. Like the flower of my name I float through time, and make my home a little more beautiful. And now I'm not alone.

End

By WA0nderer