Discord's Garden

by ChaoticKindness

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, Discord, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad, Fluttershy
Length: 1416

Discord takes up gardening.

Lately, Discord had taken up gardening.

It was, admittedly, an unexpected hobby for the spirit of chaos and disharmony to pick up. But he'd easily justified it to himself--and everypony else who dared question--with the answer that chaos is being unexpected, and that true chaos is doing things that no one would have guessed, and so he was living perfectly up to his own nature.

He had created six unique varieties of flowers; they were completely unique to his little garden. Nowhere else in Equestria did one grow.

Published 2015-04-23 23:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-04-23 23:20:01 UTC

Six Flowers

Lately, Discord had taken up gardening.

It was, admittedly, an unexpected hobby for the spirit of chaos and disharmony to pick up. But he'd easily justified it to himself--and everypony else who dared question--with the answer that chaos is being unexpected, and that true chaos is doing things that no one would have guessed, and so he was living perfectly up to his own nature.

He had created six unique varieties of flowers; they were completely unique to his little garden. Nowhere else in Equestria did one grow. (Except for the purple flower, which grew at one other location, but...that shall come up soon.)

The first flower was the pink flower. It had large, puffy petals which curled inward, and long sky blue stamens that curled into great spirals. It was a sort of happy looking flower, one that made you happy just by looking at it; smelling it only doubled the happiness, as after you have intaken the aroma you find that it smells oddly like cupcakes. It was popular among the handful of ponies who were admitted into the garden.

The second flower was the blue flower. It had long, spiked petals, and a cluster of technicolor stamen poking out the middle which made up every color of the rainbow; indigo, violet, green, blue, red, yellow...every color was present. It grew up the fastest and stayed around for the longest, outdistancing the other flowers and sticking around well into the harsh frosts of Wintertime.

The third flower was the orange. It had alternating colors in its petals; they varied from darker orange, to middle orange, to a pale yellow-ish color. It wasn't the best smelling flower in the bunch, but for what it lacked in aroma it made up for in just about everything else. It was the hardiest of the flowers, and made out well (or at least better than the others) from all natural disasters; thunderstorms seemed to only make it shine brighter. Not only that, but if were to dig it up you would find a small, red fruit curled in between its roots. The fruit was good to eat, and was very sweet and juicy.

The fourth was the white. It was truly dazzling; a sight to behold. It had long, curled, beautiful petals which glimmered bright in the sunlight. The center was royal purple, and gleamed like a diamond. The white flower caught the eye of everyone who looked its way. Truly, it was impossible to walk by it without at least a moment's admiration of it. The aroma of it was heavenly; thick and perfumed, and left you feeling and thinking dreamy things.

The fifth was the aforementioned purple flower. It was a clever, smart little thing; easy to transplant, and it heartily plowed its way through any obstacle placed before it. The roots pushed easily past blockages in the soil, and it was easy for this plant to survive, even when planted in tough spots where the sun shone especially hard and the rain was especially scarce. At first, if you plant it among other flowers, it withers and almost dies. But, then, just as you thought that the flower was surely gone for, it springs back to life and blooms into the most beautiful, amazing flower that you would ever lay eyes on. It had six petals, which were spiked sharp at the edges and aligned perfectly in parallel with each other.

Someone close to Discord favored this flower greatly, and had begged Discord to let them grow one, just one, in their own garden. Discord had been unwilling at first--he'd made a rule up front that all of his unique varieties would always be just that, unique, to his special place--but the draconequus had soon caved in, surmising that rules were made to be broken anyway and had given the dragon permission to grow the purple flower.

The last flower was Discord's favorite; far favored among the rest, and the one which Discord took the most care and pride in keeping. It bloomed slowly, and was very delicate; in fact, it was the most delicate out of all the varieties and was easily killed and torn apart by the elements; cold weather, even relatively mild, would destroy it. It was easily battered in rainstorms, and would come out of thunderstorms looking like a cleanly shaved-down poodle; skinny, bent-down and sticklike.

The harder it was devastated one year, though, the more hearty and long suffering it would return the next. Animals also loved this flower. They would invade Discord's garden and rip apart the flower bed, just to get mouthfuls of the flower. It was sweet, and tasted like honey. Discord was upset at first that the animals enjoyed it so much--by the time he came out to enjoy the flower, it had already been taken up by the critters. At first he'd made a barrier around the garden so that animals could never, ever touch it again.

The animals had given him the saddest faces through that barrier, though. He'd tried to ignore them, and was doing quite well until the flower began to wither. He'd tried everything he could to bring the flower back, but nothing worked. Not even the strongest of magic could heal it. Soon, all of them had withered hopelessly and only one straggled survivor remained.

'Why? Why did you let this happen?' it seemed to whisper.

At the end of his rope, Discord had allowed the animals to come back into the garden. The last flower was soon destroyed, and Discord thought himself a fool for wasting it so. He couldn't find it in himself shut the animals out again, though, and let them roam as they pleased. the next season, though, the special flowers had grown back even more beautiful than before, and didn't succumb to such unhealable withering ever again.

This variety was clearly meant to be shared. Butterflies loved it also. There was hardly a moment when you couldn't see butterflies flitting around this variety; if they weren't sitting on the flower, they were flying around it somewhere nearby. This flower smelled wonderful, too; like some sort of mixture between honeysuckles and actual honey.

Discord would sit quietly among this flower; this yellow, delicate flower with soft, silky round petals. He'd lay in the flower bed, and stare up at the plants growing up all around him. He'd gently raise his paw--his talon was too sharp, he couldn't use that--and caress the silky petals. He'd inhale the deep honey scent, and fall to sleep among them.

One day, though, he was feeling particularly restless. He laid among the flowers, and stared up at them with wide yellow-and-red eyes. He could not find sleep, nor did he find himself wanting to.

He raised a shaky hand, and lifted it to a single yellow flower. He closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling as he stroked it. It was soft, so soft. So silky. It felt like her mane; he remembered running a paw through her mane; tussling it, and laughing good-naturedly at some joke he'd invented. How long ago that seemed, how long...

The smell of the flower filled his nose; warm fragrance, like honey. That's what she had smelled like. If not for this flower, he was sure that he might have forgotten that. He couldn't forget anything, though. He just couldn't, he just couldn't. He had to remember everything about her, no matter how many years went by.

He opened his eyes, swallowing hard. Dismay filled his face immediately, and his whole face, and ears, drooped.

He'd made a mistake; caressed the flower with his talon carelessly. He just hadn't been thinking. His sharp claws had torn the flower to shreds; it shuddered in the gentle breeze, seeming to taunt him.

'Why, why? Why did you do this to me?' the flower's broken remains seemed to whisper. 'You took care of me, I believed in you...why Discord, why?'

The draconequus broke down.

Loud sobs filled the quiet Spring morning, breaking the silence which had been his own. Hot tears streamed down his muzzle, and he was so far in his misery that he didn't even think to curse himself for being sappy, or sentimental.

He'd broken her; not the first time, but again; and it was too much for him to bear.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! No coarse language, flaming and/or cursing in the comments, please. :twilightsheepish: