Starlight and Aurora: The First Step

The thought of going back to the home she'd once lived in was clearly a concern for Starlight. What's more, Starlight had made it clear that she was not going to be told what to do. In her mind, if she didn't want to go back home, then Aurora and Twilight were supposed to respect her wishes.

"Why can't they just see it?" Starlight asked herself as she went into Twilight's library, taking several deep breaths as she walked in. "I don't want to go back to that place where my nightmares began! I became the pony I used to be because of it! I don't want to go back to being that pony again!" Starlight continued to take deep breaths, as she tried to process all this through her mind. Finally sitting down on the sofa, she managed to pull herself together more or less. Suddenly, a flash of white light revealed Discord, wearing a necktie and playing a round of chess with some sort of sentient carpet, much to Starlight's surprise.

"Make your move," Discord said to the carpet and the carpet did, ultimately winning the game by placing Discord's king in checkmate, much to Discord's surprise. "That's a good move. I don't believe it, I'm losing to an old rug!" He said to himself.

"Discord, what are you doing here?" Starlight wondered. "And why do you have a carpet with you?"

"Well, a little birdie told me that you were having some issues," Discord answered, figuratively producing a bird chirping into his ear. "I was playing some chess with this friendly carpet here, when I heard you were having some issues. So I thought I'd drop by and see if I could help,"

Discord snapped his fingers and produced a psychiatrist's couch, which Starlight ended up lying on, as Discord donned a business suit.

"Now, care to tell me about your troubles?" He asked, much to Starlight's confusion. It took a moment for Starlight to find the words. "Start at the beginning and when you come to the end…stop!" Discord instructed.

"Actually," Starlight remarked, looking right at Discord. "I don't know if you're the right creature to ask, but have you ever had a family that you feel betrayed you because of their foolish mistakes and such?"

"Well, I'm a creature of chaos and have been around for centuries," Discord answered, who then produced a screen of himself as a pony. "But, I didn't start out that way. I was born like you, Starlight, as a pony. My parents were members of Canterlot's elite, with my father being a general for the Canterlot royal guard, which by the way, was one step up from what Shining Armor once was. He was respected along with my mother, and I looked up to him dearly. But then, the pressures of the job started to get to him and he became well, abusive, putting me and my mother down and such."

As she listened, Starlight couldn't help but think of the situation that Discord was once in. He was just like her: born into a family of respect only for the father to take it all away.

"Finally," Discord continued, who then proceeded to produce a flashback of him trying out different potions. "The abuse reached a breaking point, and I came to the conclusion that my father needed to be taught a lesson. Breaking into a potion's lab in Canterlot, I stole several potions meant to produce a spell capable of cursing a pony forever. I wanted him to suffer, Starlight, and the only way to make him suffer was to create a potion so potent, that it created consequences I still suffer from today."

"What was the potion?" Starlight wondered.

"Isn't it obvious, it was a potion meant to curse my father," Discord answered, snapping his fingers to produce what looked like the potion he might have used on his father. It was a lime green in color. "It was a cursing spell intended to make him disfigured and mismatched, like me. But, before I could use this, I began to think of the consequences. I decided that cursing my father was not a good idea and…"

Starlight's eyes widened upon realizing what Discord must've done! "You didn't…" She gasped!

"I did," Discord answered. "Rather than use the potion on my father, I used it on myself. I thought of this potion as a means to escape the nightmare I was in. As long as I remained a pony, I felt that the abuse my father would inflict on my mother and me would never go away. So, I took the potion and just like that, I became the creature of chaos that I am today. And now you know the shocking truth about my past."

It took a moment for Starlight to process Discord's story. Almost immediately, she began to realize that she and Discord had something in common: that they'd both came from broken families.

"But, I wanted all of Equestria to suffer as well," Discord added, showing random pictures of him causing chaos, and the final confrontations with Celestia and Luna as well as Twilight and her friends, before his reformation. "I wanted to hide all my pain by cracking jokes, making everypony else's lives chaotic without even a second thought, and I continued to be this way until I met your mentor and her friends who changed me into the more or less humble creature I am today."

"What are you trying to imply?" Starlight asked Discord. "Are you saying that…?"

"All I'm saying, Starlight," Discord answered, snapping his fingers and causing the screen to disappear. "Is that you can't hide from your problems forever. You need to face them and show off a humble side. I have a fun side that I share with everypony, even though they may not get it at first. If Princess Luna, Trixie, you, and myself could get a second chance, then why can't your own mother?"

Starlight took this all in and paced around the study, reflecting on all that Discord had told her. In her mind, Starlight had to remember that Discord was once like herself and that unlike Discord, Starlight would have a chance to reconcile with her mother and heal the pain her father had inflicted on her all those years ago. But did that mean it was worth risking reopening old wounds, wounds that Starlight was certain she had buried?