Chapters “... and then Applebloom said: ‘when cows fly’, you should have seen her face when a whole flock appeared or should say flock of cows passing over her head! It was priceless!” Discord laughed happily on the sofa of Fluttershy.
"Oh, Discord," the yellow pegasus laughed softly as she heard the antics of the draconequs.
Despite his childish, mischievous and playful attitude, Discord had all the appearance of an adult, his face was elongated and thin with large dark circles in his reptilian red eyes, his cheekbones marked and a short white goatee beard, was considerably tall, fact measured a head more than Bull Biceps or Big Macintosh that each measured 1.80m-1.90m. He was also very thin which only made him look taller still. His way of dressing highlighted his title of god of chaos -as if his appearance didn’t reveal it enough- he always dressed combining the old and formal with the contemporary and informal.
No matter how you saw Discord was an errant shooting and his follies, although sometimes they went something far, they were never made with evil, that wasn’t his nature and Fluttershy knew it, that's why he was one of the few who gave him all their confidence or at least most of it, on occasion he could be a little... controlling and concerned only about his affairs no matter what it did to somebody else.
“Maybe next time you should come with me, it would be fun to go joking around with you,” said floating in front of the girl with a naughty smile.
“It would be lovely, Discord, but I'm not good at jokes... unless the target is me,” she whispered at the end. "But you could ask Pinkie or Rainbow, their third names are practically Joker, well it would be fourth name in Pinkie’s case.”
“I would prefer it to be with you,” Discord frowned.
“You can’t live only with me, you need to interact with others.”
Discord turned away annoyed, didn’t need anyone more than Fluttershy. Because the stubbornness of the lord of chaos, Fluttershy placed a hand on his face and forced him to look towards her.
“Please, even for once try, please.”
“All right,” after a sigh he accepted reluctantly. “I'll try,” he couldn’t say ‘no’ to Fluttershy, he loved her too much for that.
He loved her too much. He could never hurt her, when Tirek's was a terrible mistake and he wouldn’t repeat it again. He had betrayed the ONLY person who cared for him, he would never stumble on the same stone again. With that thought he devoted himself to enjoy the touch of the hand of his beloved Fluttershy against his face like a cat when they caress him.
But his enjoyment didn’t last long. When he was just beginning to feel comfortable a pressure in his chest was present. If he couldn’t breathe, it was as if his heart had been completely pierced by a stake the thickness of his arm.
"GAGH!" he shouted, falling to the floor and pressing reflexively to his chest where the pain was present.
"Discord!" Fluttershy hurried to check what happened to her friend. "A-Are those pains again?" she asked, terrified.
“Re-relax... I-I'm fine,” he lied, he didn’t want to see her worried but the pain only intensified.
Now he couldn’t really breathe, couldn’t even make a sound of agony and had bet that his blood stopped flowing in his veins for a moment. He was sweating as if had run a marathon without distorting reality, the view was clouded a few seconds, he couldn’t think of anything. He was about to faint when the pain, as he started, stopped.
When he regained his breath, he was sitting on the sofa and could hear the uproar that the altered Fluttershy was making from the kitchen.
“Something for the pain! Something for the pain! Something for the pain!...” she repeated over and over while browsing the section of medicinal foods in a cookbook.
“To be someone who speaks whispering you know how to make a big noise.
The pegasus calmed down a little when he turned around and saw his friend standing there at the entrance to the kitchen.
“You're fine!” she flew to hug him but being careful to not be ‘too rude’, after separating she spoke agitated “I was so worried. For a moment you almost lost consciousness. I didn’t know what to do.”
“And you thought about giving me to eat some medicinal recipe? Nah, it wouldn’t have served much.”
She looked at him somewhat confused until she remembered that Discord was also feeding on sheets of books. He had once mentioned that magazines and comics were like French fries or a snack while best-sellers used to know how only royalty chefs could prepare. In fact Twilight bewitched all the books in her library so that each time he tried to eat a leaf it taste worse than, in Discord's words, manure.
“I actually thought prepare one of the recipes...” was interrupted.
The seconds passed and Fluttershy still didn’t speak. After that pause uncomfortable her slight voice was present.
“Discord I'm worried,” he just looked at her with disbelief. “Those pains, since you've had them for several weeks and the more time goes by they get worse this isn’t normal...”
“~Of course, since I’m SO normal it is obvious that something is terribly wrong~,” he interrupted mockingly.
“Oh my! I'm sorry I didn’t mean to offend you or anything!”
“Haha! Calm down,” he tapped the naive one in the head. “I’m a being that emerged from chaos, probably all this increase in harmony in Equestria should be making me allergic. I just have to put some mountains on upside down, turn a couple of boring things into something more fun and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to finally figure out what happens if you use fertilizer in a timberwolf. Well I better go now, before I get another allergy attack. Bye.”
Before Fluttershy could do or say anything, Discord was already at the door and then off to Everfree.
"See you soon," she said farewell faintly.
The Everfree Forest was reputed to be unnatural and creepy, full of beings that assured you of a last hour of life from the first moment you set foot in this territory. Anyone would say that it would be necessary to be lacking in judgment to venture there alone and without some protection, but there was someone who still saw his home, or one of them, in this forest and right now he needed to look for something in the Castle of the Two Sisters.
Several minutes later...
The sun was close to hiding. Discord rested under a tree in Everfree watching a wild crop poisonous jokes around him, and while, he thought about his situation. He hated to lie to Fluttershy but he had no choice, he didn’t know what to do but there was something that at this point he did know: what was causing those pains in the chest. They started right after he betrayed the girls for Tirek, when he realized how much he cared about Fluttershy, although at the time it was very light and he thought it was due that he was somewhat weak after his magic was taken away from him but now he had it clear: that damn pain only began when he thought about how happy Fluttershy made he. Every time that girl made him throb it came like thunder after the lightning. If they had increased in quantity and severity it was because more and more he felt his heart jump out of his chest when he was that shy yellow pegasus, along with his thoughts about her.
But what did that mean? He wondered as he tore a poison joke off the ground. Maybe because love was like a synchronicity, a harmony between two hearts and he was a being born of chaos he couldn’t similar that emotion and rejected or faced in a very bad way. If it was that then, couldn’t he love Fluttershy? The flower in his hand withered quickly with that thought. Bigger was his anger when he noticed that he had thought his feelings for Fluttershy weren’t possible and the blessed pain didn’t make an appearance. With the increase of his fury the life of the tree behind him and some of the flowers around him ended.
If each time he expressed his feelings meant that he was going to suffer then he was in a dilemma: he could forget his feelings for Fluttershy and forget to love anyone in general or follow his heart until it stopped and provoke the girl an eternal sense of guilt for be the indirect cause of his death. By the time his thought was over there wasn’t a single living plant left in more than 3 meters around, the same ground already seemed somewhat more like desert sand.
“AAAHG! By Exodo!” he shouted to the sky. “Would you mind telling me what your brilliant idea is, Almighty Lord?! Why the hell did you allow me to be create if my existence has to be so miserable?” there was no response, as expected. “At least you could have given me a finite life but nooo, I have to spend the rest of eternity without being able to love nobody if I want to keep my skin intact. Agh!” he let himself fall in frustration on the dead floor covering his face with one hand. “A tip: The next time you believe a universe try to be a little fairer, okay?”
Until the sun went down he didn’t do anything, he just lay there, thinking about it, he had literally put all his thoughts on a wheel and kept it spinning for the last half hour -it's not that it has solved much, honestly-. Anyone would have accepted the reality but, he was the God of Chaos, to the reality he broke it, he twisted it, he doubled everything because he didn’t accept it. The problem on this occasion is that he didn’t know how he could alter this and it wasn’t that he hadn’t tried, he thought that if he altered his form everything would be fixed but it was like melting a glacier using matches: useless and a complete waste of time, even he were transformed into an alicorn or an earthly he would still be a draconequs, the living manifestation of chaos and disharmony, born from it.
He was interrupted from his existential philosophy by his stomach that demanded to be filled immediately. As he wasn’t in the mood for a salad of dry poisonous jokes -and going back to Fluttershy's cabin wasn’t a good option- maybe he could do some shopping at the Castle of the Two Sisters, its old books weren’t thrilled by Twilight so he would have no problem eating about 200 or 300 pages. Well, don’t leave for later what you want to do now, with a simple snap he was transported to the deteriorated entrance of the ancient castle, but before he could put a foot in its devastated interior something caught his attention: A white light shone in the background from a corridor with something very close to it projecting a shadow in it. Before he could do anything the shadow moved down the corridor following the light.
“I always wanted to go to a ghost hunt,” he said to nobody specifically with a mischievous smile while taking from a random place a butterfly net big enough for an adult man to enter without problems.
And walking on tiptoes foolishly followed the light through the corridors, turning in this corner, continuing through that section, in short, chasing it for a few minutes without having even an idea of what he was pursuing, although is not like Discord was famous for follow the common logic. Soon he was in the library of the ruins.
“Well, for something I came here at the beginning” he threw his net and started to check the shelves closest to the exit. “I'll hunt ghosts another day.”
He barely noticed that the light had also stopped in the same place just a little more inside the library, he didn’t even give importance to what he was doing whoever were who were projecting the shadow. He had his affairs and Mr. Little Light had its, period. He was about to bite a page when...
“... it... here…,” he heard and ignored. “... it has to be here…,” this time it was more audible, it seemed to be a female voice. “... it has to be here...,” he was almost sure who that voice belonged to, and now that he paid more attention, her owner seemed to be recording the books. “... it has to...,” she broke off.
At this point Discord was more curious than hungry, he was just going to ask what was her looking for so hard when a book fell, or rather was thrown, in his direction. It was a very old book, seemingly older than the same castle where it resided, the edges of the lapel were covered with gold and precious stones that had miraculously remained intact despite the passage of centuries. A very appetizing delicacy for the draconequs. Miss Wanderer could wait a little longer, first she needed to see if that beauty tasted as good as it looked. He tore up a page with enthusiasm and with it he put it in his mouth, how great his surprise at noticing the taste.
“PUAGH! What a disgust!” he coughed and spat several times. “Not only does it tastes worse than Twilight’s books but I almost choked,” the truth is that since it entered his mouth had left a terrible feeling of suffocation and sore throat almost as if it had been sanded.
“Who's there?”
She discovered him. That day only improved and improved, note the sarcasm. He listened to her footsteps approaching and soon she was next to him.
“Oh, it's you, Discord” she sighed quietly.
“Hello, Celestia.”
Author's Note
This is the first fanfic I publish and also I'm not a native English speaker so if you find any error in my writing you have the right to correct me, I would appreciate it very much.
“What are you doing here?” the white woman asked.
“I could ask you the same question,” said the chimerical being, jumping up, as light as a feather.
“I asked first,” insisted she.
“The ladies first,” he mockingly bowed.
“I remember you that this place is my property,” he spoke confidently.
“As far as I know, this place was abandoned a millennium ago, for something is in ruins after all, so although this place once belonged to you today is a place without owner that anyone can visit out of curiosity, as your dear ex-student,” he said to the princess with a confident smile, almost boastful, staring at her face.
Celestia said nothing at first, she stared into his eyes, those eyes of mischievous and rogue boy. After a few seconds, she sighed in defeat.
“All right, Discord, you win.”
“Point for me,” drew a line on a blackboard out of nowhere as a marker. “Well? What are you doing here, so far from your palace in Canterlot?”
“In shortly it's Luna's birthday. I thought I could find something here that would remind her of the good times,” your voice broke slightly for a moment, it was obvious why. “Well, I confessed, now it's your turn. What are you doing in my old home?”
“~Shopping~” he practically imitated Rarity by showing up a shopping cart full of books. The alicorn couldn’t help but laugh at such a clown. “I had some hunger and because of your faithful student I can’t eat a single book from her library I thought I could come here to fill my stomach before it starts to eat on its own.”
He placed a screen in front of his belly, showing his stomach holding with its hands a knife and a fork, with a napkin tied and a face between disgust and sadness.
Only the God of Chaos could do such madness. This time the princess could contain her laugh. Barely. She would never understand how this crazy guy doesn’t run out of ideas. Nor did she understand how she was still surprised. After all this time, she should have gotten used to it.
An object on the floor erased the smile on her face. It wasn’t just because, that thing brought too many bad memories. Bad memories for which she would give anything as long as they were vanished forever -or at least she believed that-.
“You said you came to eat some books, right?”
He nodded.
“I'm not sure but I think that looks appetizing for a draconequs,” she pointed to the book of gold and jewelry that ‘someone’ had dropped.
“Why do you think I almost drowned 5 minutes ago? I'd rather eat the entire Twilight library exposing myself to the worst indigestion there might be.”
“Oh,” she sighed disappointed.
With the same disappointment she took the mentioned book from the ground. If Discord had been in front of Celestia when she had put that object in her hands, he would probably have doubted his safety with the woman when he saw the hatred that burned in her eyes. Of the few things in the world she could hate, it was one she almost wanted to throw into the flames of Tartarus herself. Almost.
“And what is special about that book?”
The princess was so immersed in her hatred that she had completely forgotten the presence of the draconequs. Hearing her voice almost made her jump in surprise.
"It's the diary of my parents, Queen Nebula and... King Galaxus.
For some reason Discord felt a knot in his stomach upon hearing those names, along with a shock between a slight sense of joy and hatred. The latter prevailed in the gaze of the princess with the mention of the last name. It seemed that someone wasn’t very happy with their dad.
He was curious about what might be the reason for this father/daughter conflict. He had got Rarity's interest in gossip. But with that idea he came up with a way to help the princess with her gift for her little sister. Two very juicy options: learn about a gossip or do something good for a damsel in distress. Considering his situation, he could have his days counted and he didn’t really like the fact that on his tombstone were wrote that he had been an apathetic weirdo, a weirdo who helped as he could and when he could sounded much better. Well, no pranks for the draconequs this time. Nothing excessive at least.
“Uagh! What are you doing?” she exclaimed when he snatched the book from her hands.
“A real pity, a book so beautiful and so useless at the same time, not to mention its dreadful taste. Well, easy comes, easy goes,” he threw the object without care of its direction and then catch it with its tail. “Hmm. Does it have any picture of you? Oh, fool of me. Cameras and photographs weren’t even thought a millennium ago. Then a drawing or a sketch,” strangely excited leafing through the book.
It was enough to see Celestia's face to know that she didn’t understand that behavior at all.
“Neither? Ow! I see why nobody writes diaries anymore. A book without drawings is boring, is not like that it was so easy to imagine everything that these words say and less when it comes to how someone describes the world around them.”
And then she understood. In what she hated was what her sister could most desire. Oh, Discord, he never gave an answer if it was not with a riddle.
As he did with her, she snatched the book from his hands and for the first time didn’t want to burn it or hide it where even Exodo couldn’t find it.
"You welco-ohhh!" he exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around his neck without warning.
“You are a genius!”
“Did you doubt it? You offended me, Celestia. And right now you're also hanging me... Would you mind letting go? I've been too close to suffocation too many times for a single day.”
“I am sorry. It's just that I'm very happy. Luna often asked me about our parents but I have never been able to talk to her enough about them and now, with this book, she can even know how they saw her. I just hope I have enough time to find the right pages.”
“Well, maybe you should go back to the palace. I mean, you sent the sun to sleep almost an hour ago, and if your sister doesn’t find you and finds out that I was with you I think I’ll spend another millennium as a garden gnome.”
“You're right, in both respects. Will you stay here?”
“No. I think I'll eat average food for a while, until I'm past the trauma of dying from a book. I suppose I'll take you out.”
She nodded and they started.
Again they wandered silently through the corridors of the ruins. Celestia constantly gave slight glances around her, recalling her previous life among those walls. Her life with her mother, her father, her little sister, Starswirl the Bearded and a certain young man who was always with her until a terrible day. Like everything, that shattered castle had had its good times and bad times. In the midst of her memories, she thought that everything would be more bearable, being sure that she wasn’t alone in that place.
It doesn’t hurt to chat a little.
Unfortunately, she would soon wish she had never met Discord.
“Can I ask you something?”
He nodded in response.
“You said you came here looking for food and I was wondering: why you came here for books instead of having a meal with Fluttershy?”
“It's better for me to stay away from Fluttershy. Only until a certain issue is resolved," his voice trailed off.
“Oh, did you argue or dislike each other?”
“The problem isn’t WITH her. It is ABOUT her and with respect to my feelings FOR her.”
She petrified. She could feel as if something in her were beginning to break. Then he continued.
“I think that, due to my draconequs nature, I’m incapable of loving without dying and with Fluttershy nearby I just put the rope around my neck. I don’t want to hurt her but if I leave just because I’ll achieve just the opposite, if I tell her everything, she will feel terribly wrong because she unintentionally made me suffer and if I stay with her I’ll most likely die sooner or later and I don’t even want to think about what would she do if she comes to discover that everything happened because I fell in love with he-…”
*Paft*
The diary of the kings sounded as Celestia fell to the ground. If had she had a darker skin color, instead of her white porcelain complexion, he would have clearly noticed the paleness of the princess. Her expression was a blank canvas. Her eyes were wide open, empty and lifeless. It was as if a black hole or something had deprived her of any emotion. The light of the moon made something shine glitter down her cheek. A tear.
While her body had been transformed into an alabaster sculpture, a thousand thoughts collided in her mind.
Was he in love with Fluttershy?
All this must be a nightmare.
Had HE been right?
No, it couldn’t be possible.
All this time had she lived a lie?
“Hey, are you okay?”
This was the last straw. First he destroyed her and now he asked her if she was fine. Could he be more hypocritical? Could he be crueler?
Could he be more monstrous?
She tried to wipe away the tears but she brusquely pushed his hand away with a slap.
“What's wrong with you?” he spoke annoyed.
“WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!” she yelled at him and cried even louder.
In a blink she flew away. She felt too bad to be able to say anything to him. As much as she wanted to curse him and all his ancestors, she didn’t even have the strength to emit an audible cry. She just wanted to be as far away from him as possible. Of that castle. Of everything. He did not care where, he just wanted to be where no one else could hurt her. She couldn’t stand more pain.
For a few minutes, Discord stayed there, analyzing the scene and wondering what the hell just happened. Before his neurons could synapse. He tensed. He couldn’t move, think or feel anything at all. His five senses vanished as if they had never existed in the beginning. The first to return was his touch, in the worst possible way. It was as if his soul had been torn by a wild beast, merciless and hungry for blood. Had he been lacking in judgment, he would gladly have ripped out all the organs in an attempt to get rid of that pain. Not a thousand words could describe perfectly what he felt, but it was enough to bring down his dead body in life. The hit was strong enough to give him back control over his body and the four missing senses, intensifying his suffering. His face transmitted as clear as day all his grief. His eyes were almost out of their sockets and his teeth were so tight that anyone would think that at any moment they would end up broken by so much force.
He wanted to scream. He wanted to ask for help. Nothing came out. The pain deprived him of the voice and in a short time it was depriving him of his conscience and, apparently, also of his life. He was going to die. He would die alone in that place abandoned and separated from everything and everyone. The same as he had emerged. If only he could see Fluttershy one more time. If he could tell her that he loved her and say goodbye to her. Then his death would be quieter but not necessarily less painful.
Everything was getting dark. He could see how his surroundings were consumed in deep darkness. He felt heavy, less tense and, above all, weak.
His time had come to an end.
“... Look!”
Or not?
“Oh, for...!” another voice.
“This is not right! He is too pale!” that first voice turned out to be Twilight.
“Discord! Discord, please! Say something!” the second voice turned out to be his beloved Fluttershy. Even dying, he was glad.
Fluttershy had cradled him in her arms, prey to worry. She spoke to him hoping that he would respond. Even a joke would have calmed her down. But nothing came out. The poor man hardly breathed. He tried to pronounce her name but nothing again. Not even his lips was able to open. At least in his state he couldn’t see the yellow pegasus crying.
Twilight felt so impotent. One of her friends was dying and she didn’t know what to do to calm one of her best friends. She looked away in an attempt to calm down enough to think of some solution to this horrible situation when the book on the floor caught her eye. When she took it in her hands and realized what it was she was on the verge of a heart attack.
“The Diary of the Kings,” she murmured, self-absorbed.
She leafed through its pages, stunned and almost feeling unworthy of having in her hands the most sacred book of Equestria. It was said that it couldn’t be found by chance or by force, but rather by both. That if were used a search spell and what was wanted to find was linked to the book and it was not the book itself it was a matter of time before found the diary. If directly searched, the book would have teleported on its own to any other place. Whoever was in the Castle of the Two Sisters was a miracle or a curious play of fate.
She didn’t return to the terrible reality until she saw a writing in the last pages. They mentioned.
A memory spell?
She remembered reading about the subject in Starswirl's book that Celestia had sent her. It used to be applied to the worst criminals and their families so that, if they had been betrayed, they couldn’t make a vengeance on their informers and on families used to be applied so as not to have to live with the shame of sharing blood with such despicable people. They were powerful spells but conditional and simple, so they were easy to reverse. Just had to pronounce them backwards to cancel them.
An idea crossed Twilight's mind like lightning. Maybe the spell had caused Discord to forget something vital about himself. If she returned his memories maybe, just maybe, they could save him. If they failed. At least dying with his restored memories was better than dying with memories of a millennium petrified and a few of years living with new friends.
“Fluttershy.”
She turned to see her. Tears welled in her eyes.
“I think I know how to save him.”
“How?!” she asked hopefully.
“In this book they talk about a spell imposed on Discord...” she stopped thinking what he was about to say. “If I turn it over... I can save him,” she tried to pause as little as possible.
If she had shown doubt, she would have broken Fluttershy's frail heart. She didn’t have the heart or the coldness to tell her that maybe that spell was useless and there was nothing they could do.
“Do it. Please, do it,” she instantly prayed hopefully and worried in the middle of her crying.
Twilight nodded decisively. She placed her hand on Discord's forehead. The poor man was so lacking in life that he hadn’t even understood the words of the winged young women. He was still trying to understand what they were referring to with a spell but his thoughts didn’t go beyond having that word echoing in his head as he was fading.
“~Arutan orev et artsnom. Erarebil airomem. Ieid mecum tidiv mumina idnetrever medae. Iut eri.~ ”
With those words spoken, Twilight's hand lit up with such power that even in Ponyvilley someone must have, no, it is certain that someone saw that light. When that blinding brightness vanished, a portion remained in the eyes of the draconequs, which were now fully open. Although it wasn’t long before they began to close slowly.
“Twilight?” Fluttershy asked alarmed. “What do we do now?”
She didn’t answer. She just stared at the inert body of the friend who had valued so little. Wondering if she had done the right thing. It took her a while to return to reality, answering in a low voice.
“Wait.”
~
The bright light of the sun bothered him in the eyes. Who had changed the batteries in the sun? Why hadn’t he thought to do that before? He should remember it for future days. When he finally focused a little more, the scatterbrained Discord became aware of more important things.
Wherever he was, it wasn’t in the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters, at all. It was at the foot of a tree in what appeared to be an immense green meadow of tall grass. He looked at the sky so that his eyes would come across a landscape even more beautiful than the one in front of him. He could see several incredibly close planets in the blue sky and although it was day some areas even showed galaxies of wonderful colors and a kind of aurora borealis crossing the sky from horizon to horizon in various directions.
Such a scene was impressive. He had never seen anything like that in his life.
Never.
In his life.
His eyes widened at the realization.
“Am I dead?”
Author's Note
I decided to use latin for the memory spell, but I just wrote something on google translate, translated it to latin, re-write it from right to left and done. If someone here speaks latin and I wrote something stupidly wrong, I'm sooooooooo sorry.
“... it was expected that they played together today, those children do not have anything else to occupy their time in this place. In this regard it is useful that this boy has not suffered the same fate as his tiny race. Even so I do not tolerate his constant company to my daughter.
I keep wondering why did she decided to forgive him and almost raise him as if she had conceived it. But that monster is not her son. And even though Armageddon itself imposed it on me, I will never see him as my son. And over my body death I will allow my daughter to see him as more than her playmate. The day Celestia stops being a little girl there will be no need for games, therefore, there will be less of a playmate. Then I will have gotten rid of that monster.
The only thing that calms my conscience is that I have already made it clear that with us it is not, and will never be, his home...”
~
Had he really died?
The same question repeated itself in Discord’s head again and again while he remained absorbed in the divine landscape that surrounded him. There was no way that such a beautiful place was in Equestria and he, who had combed that world from end to end, had never seen it.
He tried to remember what had happened before he woke up there. He remembered... Celestia crying... the pain, stronger than ever, and... Fluttershy and Twilight finding him. After that he could only remember a flash followed by darkness and calm and then he was where he is now. Everything pointed to what had happened to ‘the other earth’.
That place could only be the Elysiam Fields, the land beyond any reality that he himself could reach and where the souls rested until the time came to come back to life, reborn.
So, was that how be death feel like?
After a second he snorted disappointed and at the same time, somehow, funny. So many stories had been made about that world beyond all known world. A land where there is no evil, hunger, cold, fatigue or fear; a place like dreaming inside a dream; Paradise in every sense of the word. Nothing farther from reality, he didn’t deny that it was a magnificent place, enough for him to feel bad if he were to alter something. It was no more than an infinite meadow, with the most beautiful sky that anyone could imagine, where it didn’t feel like to spend who-knows-how-much time until returning to the earthly world.
What a fiasco! He could have created something much more fun. A 6/10 for the famous Elysium.
He mocked and criticized that site again and again, soon he almost had to invent an excuse to continue. Actually he wasn’t in the mood to claim anything, it was just a facade to distract himself from his sad reality and so weak was that he fell almost immediately after having been built.
It could be worse. He could have ended up in Tartarus by conquering Equestria, having tried it again a millennium later and allying himself with a monster that had already escaped from there, so that he would spend the rest being punished for his mistakes and unable to return to life.
Who was he cheating? Even Elysium itself was a Tartarus if Fluttershy wasn’t there. What did it matter that he could spend a million years causing all the chaos he wanted if he hadn’t even had a single chance to tell her that he loved her? And, apparently, someone hadn’t thought that this was enough reason to become a ghost. Even if she didn’t feel the same he just wanted to tell her.
He cried in silence, feeling pathetic. He didn’t care about anything, even if Exodo itself had appeared to him, called him ingrate and given him a sermon of how he should treasure his memories with the woman he loved even if he hadn’t been able to tell her his true feelings towards her or any of those wisely cheesy things. All that would have been nothing but more reasons to curse it and call it an unjust and petty god. He just wanted to stay there, leaning against that tree, letting time pass until it was time to return, without any memory of his previous life, without memories of Fluttershy.
The grass creaked.
Discord rose exhaled. If someone wanted to play a joke on him, they had chosen a very bad time to do it.
“Who is -...?!” covered his mouth instantly.
Was that his voice?! It sounded almost as if that baby dragon of Spike had swallowed a helium tank. Greater was his astonishment when he noticed his hand. It was tiny. The hand of a child who luckily passed the age of 8. The peak of his astonishment was when he decided to see his body and, in effect, it was the body of a small child. Not only that. He was also dressed in clothes he didn’t see in a millennium. A long-sleeved beige T-shirt that reached to the knees, tied with a rope, pants that should have been tights and bare feet made up his clothes.
What the hell was happening?! Why was he dressed like that? Why did he have the body of a child? How was it even possible that he looked like a...?
“I found you!” someone shouted.
Before he could react, his attacker rushed at him and once on the ground they placed themself on top of him, immobilizing him.
“Silly Dizzy. You are supposed to hide from me, not stay where anyone can see you," said the attacking girl.
“Agh! But what the-...?” he stopped when he saw the girl over him.
A horn on her forehead and two wings on her back. An alicorn and not any alicorn. Her skin was snow white and her eyes were deep, bright purple. Excluding her hair, long, wavy and pale pink, nothing keep him from being sure who she was.
“C-Celestia?” asked somewhat confused.
“I told you not to call me that, it seems that I am an old woman and I am not. For you, I am Tia. Tia. If you call me Celestia again then I will call you Discord all my life. And besides, who else could I be? We are the only children in Earth Heaven, or did you find other children?” she finished excitedly.
Was that energetic talkative really Celestia? Tia? Why was she a girl? Earth Heaven? For the umpteenth time, what the hell was going on?!
“Get off!” he tried to shake her off.
“What a bad loser,” she took off.
Discord pouted. He crossed his arms and sat there with the face of a spoiled child dissatisfied while "Tia" stared at him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find an explanation for that situation. According to Tia they were in "Earth Heaven". That name caused an unexpected nostalgia.
“Are you okay?” Tia asked him suddenly.
“Uh?”
“You are crying”
“What?” he put a hand to his face. Indeed, he was crying.
“Is it because you lost the game?”
“What? No,” he wasn’t even sure why he cried.
Little Celestia stepped forward and, a little awkwardly, wiped away his tears. The smile that had held since they had met now had vanished leaving in its place a little worried and protective look from the little alicorn. Discord couldn’t help but blush a little. She was one of those girls that when you saw them laugh you felt a stab of sweetness in the heart and you needed to pray to a thousand gods to restrain yourself from embracing her without permission. It seems that she noticed her friend's blush but gave it little importance and smiled. There was the dagger of sweetness and an increase of red in Discord's face, this time Celestia couldn’t help but laugh.
“He, he. You are red.”
“It is not true!” he replied embarrassed.
“Liar. You are acting weird today.”
He didn’t answer. Celestia stood up.
“If you do not want to play hide and seek then let's go to the lake.”
“Alright,” he replied discouraged.
“All right! Let is go!” she laughed and pulled the small draconequus.
Discord had no idea where the lake was, he had barely heard that there was one there, so he had no choice but to follow his "new" friend. He couldn’t help having a prolonged dejavu sensation while accompanying her and began to remember a little more of what happened before waking up in Earth Heaven, luckily he managed to remember Twilight talking about a spell to save him. In first place, if that spell had saved him, that would explain why hadn’t he ended up in Elysium or Tartarus and didn’t feel very different from when he was in Equestria. Now that he thought about it, minutes before when he thought that he had separated from Fluttershy forever, even though he had to repeat himself over and over again that he loved her, he felt no pain.
This day was getting weirder, even for the god of chaos.
“Dizzy? We are here.”
If Celestia hadn’t spoken he could have passed through a ravine and he wouldn’t have noticed until he reached the bottom.
The lake was going down a hill. Its source was a small waterfall from a rocky formation overlooking the hill, a spring. The water was crystal clear, shallow and a beautiful blue-green color that invited to dive.
“The last to arrive loses,” said the girl before running downhill.
“Wait for me!”
“No!” laughed while running.
Celestia had already come down almost half a hill by the time Discord started running. He couldn’t take 3 steps before he tripped on his own feet and ended up rolling down the hill.
When it seemed that victory was for the little alicorn, splash, the draconequs sounded as he fell into the water. It seems that so many thoughts had made his head heavier and the stumble and gravity made him gain speed and, incidentally, win the race. His face ended up being the first to reach the water.
With a whimper the child stood up just so that his reflection would confirm something that could no longer be clearer. In front of him was the reflection of a child's face. His face. He was a boy. A little boy whose horns were just beginning to show on his head. He didn’t understand why both he and Celestia looked so childish even more Celestia that didn’t look older than 7 years, 6 minimum.
It was said that those who ended up in the Elysium, even if they died like old, decrepit elders, showed themselves as at the height of their lives, young, strong and, ironically, vivacious. He knew he wasn’t in the Elysium and even if he was there, it didn’t make sense that he had rejuvenated like that. He was never a child. He wasn’t born like any other creature. He simply, emerged.
One winter night he woke up knowing only his own name. Although a little weak and dazed, he was totally grown up. After that the story almost tells itself. A deformed and powerful monster that did whatever he wanted against those simple and weak creatures that surrounded him. He had fun with them until a par of Alicorn sisters spoiled the party. But there was nothing before the awakening.
Nothing.
For a second he glimpsed in his mind the image of a girl. Sitting on the grass wearing a simple pale pink dress, hair of the same color and skin like snow. It seemed that he was placing a wreath of flowers on her head. Crown that he held, with his little hands.
He shook his head frightening that vision. What was that? In his more than a thousand years of life he never saw any girl like that. Until now only little Celestia fit that vision. But he had never made a wreath for her. She didn’t even dress like in the vision, her dress was wine color not...
Splash!
Celestia jumped into the water, soaking Discord even more, purposely. Instantly began to splash laughing at the fun only she seemed to have. Meanwhile, Discord was just trying to dodge the water she was throwing at him but in a few seconds he wasn’t even trying. So many questions had snatched his cheerful spirit, all his essence. Almost a minute after he stopped vainly trying to cover himself of the splashes Celestia stopped, crouched down and asked.
“What are you thinking about?”
He blinked
“You always stop playing when you think a lot about something and you have been acting estrange all day. What is wrong with you, Dizzy?”
“I... I do not know,” answered without any heart and looked again at the water.
Celestia noticed this and wanted to ask about the reason he was seeing his own face in the water but as soon as she looked up...
“Celestia! Discord!” someone called from the top of the hill.
Both children turned around in response to the call.
“Father,” said the girl.
“It will be dark soon! We must go home!”
“We are coming, father! Come on, Dizzy.”
Both children stood up and headed towards the man.
Discord had only heard stories about Galaxus but had never seen him before. It fit perfectly with all the descriptions. He didn’t look very young but he wasn’t an older man either. If he had to say a number, he would place him between 30 and 35 years old, tall and stout with skin so dark blue, practically black, that he remembered the night sky. He had a serene face as opposed to the stern look in his cyan eyes.
Maybe it was just the color but they seemed so cold, especially against him. And the feeling was almost mutual. For some reason.
Wavy hair, so long that it came just below the hip, adorned his head, black in essence but with certain blue and red glows. Needless to say, he was an alicorn but his wings were strange. Some feathers shone, others were completely spiraling and others faded away as they approached the tip.
He also had black spiral-shaped marks that covered his entire arm, went up his face and ended up over his eyes.
If Rarity saw him for sure she melted at his feet, even Rainbow would have blushed.
Just came to the top the father took his daughter in his arms giving her a warm smile. He noticed the moisture in the girl's dress and the clear soak of the child but only gave one of those smiles that an adult gives when a child commits the same innocent mischief for the umpteenth time, those that mean something like ‘you won’t change’. Considering how good father Galaxus seemed, and especially how happy Celestia seemed, the coldness with which she had mentioned his name in the Castle of the Two Sisters didn’t fit.
Wait a second! Why did he compare the adult Celestia with that girl who called herself Celestia? It didn
Nothing made sense anymore.
While father and daughter talked happily, Discord devoted himself to follow them listening almost unconsciously to what they were talking. Something was so familiar in that talk, but no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t quite come up why. The feeling only worsened as he walks. Every step, every word, everything, everything was like reliving something, but how are you going to relive something that you didn’t live at first? He finally gave up, it was worthless to get his head so hot.
Celestia saw the bewilderment in her friend and was distracted from their conversation, which Galaxus noticed immediately and turned to see the child. His crestfallen walk didn’t bother him at all, he probably attributed it to boredom or fatigue and continued his walk. Nobody spoke again in the next few minutes.
Silence made the journey an eternity as the sky turned dark and more galaxies appeared. Celestia just continued looking at Discord over her father's shoulder and that he put her down when they arrived at their home was a surprise.
“Go inside with your mother, Celestia,” kneeling told him serenely.
That phrase woke Discord and he slowly looked up. What he saw surprised him, considering who resided there. It was a common house, a little big but, nothing special. Built of wood between 10 and 15 meters long on the rocky slope of a mountain that couldn’t see top, only two stories high, a rock chimney and a simple thatched roof. On one side there was a small orchard with all kinds of fruit and vegetable plants and a small spring and on the other side a cave was formed so deep that it was sure to reach the middle of the mountain.
Was that the house of the great kings and their daughters?
With everything that had happened he was still surprised?
“Only me, father? Why you and Discord not?” asked the girl.
“We will go soon, my daughter. I need him to see something,” he turned to see the boy with a kind of cold look.
“All right... father...”
With a little worried look the girl went to the rustic house. Galaxus kept a smile on his face until the door covered his daughter's sight, then he stood up with a serious face and spoke as if he were challenging an enemy to duel.
“Come with me, draconequus,” and started walking to the cave.
Discord felt a clash between disgust and uncertainty when he spoke, especially to call him directly by his specie and not his name, but that didn’t stop him from accompanying him to the interior of the mountain. There wasn’t a single torch, so Discord lit a small light in his hand to get a glimpse of what was there. From the incredulous look Galaxus gave him and the light emanating from his horn, he didn’t expect him to do that, but, again, he gave more importance to his own affairs and went into the cave without saying a word.
They walked and walked until the cave entrance wasn’t even visible. Everything was giving Discord a bad feeling, the silence, the darkness, the distance from the exit. Something in him screamed at him that he didn’t want to see what Galaxus was going to show him, and he kept moving forward with it. His light flickered as his fear increased. He didn’t want to see what he wanted to show him. He didn’t want to.
He repeated the same words over and over again. Until he started noticing something. Strange signs began to appear on the walls. A kind of hieroglyphics that he had never seen before. The first were only rare "letters", then began to appear prints that took a while to process, not because they were very rustic, on the contrary, they were incredibly well made. Some, even, seemed to move.
The strangest thing of all, is that he could understand it.
“Do you like drawings?” Galaxus asked suddenly.
“Amh... yes ...” he replied trying to look focused.
“These are different from any other. They are special,” he ran his hand through an engraving that instantly began to move.
Discord stopped to watch it for a second. Three people were attacking each other, one point protruding from one's head, another had a spiral with lines on their back, but the third had nothing. Some lines were against them, they came from beings that would be quadruped if there should be a kind of smoke where the hind legs should have been. The three people ran to a mountain and the entrance disappeared but the creatures started doing another. The three people no longer fought, they trembled in the cave. They began to act kindly with each other by providing food and trying to have fun. When the creatures opened the entrance and entered the mountain the three people became a bonfire and the creatures disappeared. The three people returned to normal and the mountain opened showing another place where they went, together.
A unicorn, a pegasus and an earthly.
Windigos.
The Hearth’s Warming Eve.
All that was a representation of the Hearth’s Warming Eve.
“Neither these writings nor these drawings are not like any other. This language is the lartsecna. The Language of Exodo. These engravings are prophecies,” spoke Galaxus “Everything you see here is written since centuries before the world of the 3 tribes began to live. Everything written by my father, Exodo, is destined to be fulfilled. My father can see more than a thousand futures to be formed from a single event, only the future that is narrated with this language can exist. The world wants it or not, if it is good or bad, if it is written here, it will happen,” he turned to see Discord.
The coldness in the gaze of the alicorn would have make seen a glacier as a desert at noon.
Why did he seem to despise him so much? What had he done to him?
Discord didn’t entirely believe what he said. Who assured him that he hadn’t done it himself? Even so, he couldn’t help noticing a faint tone of sincerity in his voice.
“Do you feel good here? With MY family?”
Although confused by the question, Discord nodded.
“Hmm. There is something you should see. A prophecy of which, I fear, you are the protagonist. This one,” he stopped in front of an engraving.
Something in the back of Discord's mind screamed at him not to look at the wall that Galaxus indicated. If only he had listened to it.
In the engraving there was a being with a point and something branched on the head, behind it had a spiral with lines and a line from which others stood out and also seemed to have a tail. A pegasus, a unicorn and an earthly, the three of them kneel as if begging for the mercy of being, all locked in a lartsecna symbol that the being held.
It was him.
That symbol represented chaos.
That was the day he took Equestria.
“This prophecy talks about a draconequus. One day, they will bring chaos and despair to the new land. Equestria will be cruelly taken and brought to ruin...” he paused “... by you. The last draconequs.”
That said, the engraving began to move showing how the being waved the symbol of chaos with the three races inside having no care how they slowly fell to the ground and the symbol of death was emerging over them. Discord could only look in terror. He knew he had hurt Equestria, but he looked worse represented with black ink that moved showing how everything worsened with the passage of time instead of seeing everything represented in a colorful stained glass window. He wanted to erase is stain from his past.
“Do you understand what it means? It means that you are a monster. A danger that roams in full freedom,” Galaxus looked at him with hate. “You could believe you are with your family. You could believe that you are with your parents and sister. But Nebula is not your mother, you are not Celestia's older brother and, above all, you are not my son. If it depended me, you would have run the same fate as your treacherous race. But Nebula took pity on you. When she see that she was wrong with you, that being raised by an alicorn does not change your nature as a traitor, then nothing will stop me from getting rid of you,” the hatred in his eyes was also clear in his voice. “Until then, remember: You are no more than a monster and your only family years ago was devoured by worms along with your despicable species.”
Having finished speaking, he started his way to the exit.
The little boy was totally paralyzed. The light in his hand went out a long time ago. As the alicorn had continued talking, he almost felt as if he were hanging him, even though he hadn’t put a single finger on him. But everything he said, his taking of Equestria, happened a thousand years ago. Why did he call it prophecy? Had he traveled to the past? Even if he had somehow done it, there was no reason for him to have rejuvenated at an age he never had.
Why was he a little boy?
Why was Celestia also a little girl and his best friend?!
WHY WAS THERE A ‘PROPHECY’ ABOUT SOMETHING THAT NO ONE REMEMBERS HE DID A MILLENNIUM AGO?!
Then he remembered.
Twilight’s spell.
That girl knew a million different spells but, with the little awareness he had left when she and Fluttershy found it, he managed to keep the kind of spell she used on him, a memory spell.
Now everything fit.
He hadn’t died. He hadn’t traveled to the past.
He was reliving lost memories. That's why he and Celestia had that childlike aspect and she acted as if she knew him forever. That's why there was a prophecy about something he had done centuries ago, because by the time that memory was created he hadn’t even gone to Equestria.
Even so there always remains a but.
A thousand doubts clarified by a single word, but new ones emerged. If those were his memories, why didn’t he remember them? If the Twilight spell had begun to restore the most important memories linked to the pains he had for loving Fluttershy then why had he gone back to his childhood? How old was your problem?
“Move! Staying in this cave will not change anything!” the alicorn shouted taking the draconequs out of his trance.
Discord didn’t already care so much about the prophecy. He had destiny written in stone, literally, but changing his memories wouldn’t change anything that already happened. Although it was equally painful to know that he was always destined to be a madman, the madman who took Equestria. Now he could only do one thing: take advantage of this experience and recover his memories, recover his life.
Still a little depressed he made to run towards the exit. Now he had a hope of returning with Fluttershy and could recover what he unknowingly lost.
Author's Note
Just to make something clear: Exodo isn't Galaxus' father, he just consideres it like this because it is his creator.
“... Discord was very quiet during dinner. Too much. Although I am glad he behaves a little, tonight I was worried. He did not play with his food to make Celestia laugh, he did not turn her food into candy, he did not even talk.
Celestia says he has behaved abnormally since they played in the afternoon and has continued in that state ever since. Maybe it may have even worsened.
The vision of events close to happen in conjunction with the vision of past events, the past and the future, was given to me when we abandoned our astral form to come to the earthly world to fulfill the mission that was dictated to my love and to me, same mission that placed Discord in my life and heart.
I have used that vision to find out what has kept his young mind distracted and tormented during the last few hours.
And now, more than ever, I fear for him. I fear for my little rogue.
I am afraid of what may happen to him now. I am afraid would he do now...”
~
Leaving the cave felt liberating to Discord, he no longer had to endure the pressure of having an irreversible destiny, or having had. Even so, and although it took him a while to realize it, he was crying. Before understanding his situation he would have been surprised by this act, as when he was with Celestia, but now that he knew what was happening, thoughts came back to him that he had the first time this happened.
At that time everything had seemed confusing, as if his world had crumbled before his eyes or awakened from a dream to fall directly into the flames of Tartarus. He could only think of Galaxus' words telling him that he had no family and that he was nothing more than a monster. He couldn’t help crying as he refused again and again that he wasn’t and would never be a monster but his infant mind soon succumbed to the idea. He had been filled with terror at the thought of being hated, that he could be hate by...
“Dizzy!” Celestia pulled him out of his remembrance calling him from the door. “The meal is done. Mother wants you and me to set the table”.
“I am... I am coming!” he responded by drying his tears quickly.
He was always a crybaby when he was young. Although that habit began to disappear little by little after... he couldn’t remember it, but he felt he would do it in less time than he thought.
Before entering, he took one last look at the cave. Galaxus' slow and calm gait made it clear that he had no intention of leaving too soon, unlike him who had thought of nothing else but to leave that place immediately.
He didn’t like that man.
He shook his head, pulling out of his own thoughts and concentrating on his friend's request. He would have time later to remember why those negative feelings towards the still-not-king.
Upon entering the house he couldn’t contain a couple of tears, again. What a crybaby. But I would have done it even if it had not happened the first time it did not happen. Opening the door caused a great blow of nostalgia.
Everything was the same, not like something was supposed to have changed, but it was the first thing he thought when he stopped to look inside the house.
A table with enough space for 8 people but only with 4 chairs, a couple of armchairs, bookshelves full of scrolls and books. Simple, but well-crafted, handmade wooden furniture placed on a clean wooden floor. Not far from the ‘living room’ there was the fireplace, which could be seen from the outside, that was actually a simple stone oven and next to this a countertop, also of stone, on which was the cupboard where they kept the food. At the back of the house were his and Celestia's and Galaxus and Nebula's rooms, the bathroom, a door to the orchard and a staircase to the attic. There they kept musical instruments, tools, the cradle of Celestia which had previously belonged to Discord, among many things awaiting the day when they were used again and others waiting to be used for the first time.
“Hurry up,” Celestia said as she pulled out of the oven a huge fish to make mouth watering. “Mother went to the garden for some fruit and said she would not give us dessert if we did not have the table ready when she returned and I want dessert!” she complained childishly.
He was already becoming distracted again. Since she was taking care of the food, his job would be to place the plates and cutlery. It could have simply snapped his fingers and even made a banquet appear on the table but at this time he barely knew how to turn things into others. Too bad, magic couldn’t make things easier for him as always. He took the plates and cutlery from the cupboard and placed them quietly on the table, just after, and with a little help, Celestia placed the fish. It only remained to wait for the adults to have dinner.
Galaxus entered and almost synchronously the back door opened and the woman entered. A simple sight and it was clear that the beauty of Celestia and Luna hadn’t been a matter of luck or chance.
Her body was a perfectly proportioned hourglass that made doubt if she was already a mother, because it presented no sequelae of this. She looked like a young but mature woman just like Galaxus, as tall as Celestia, the adult.
Alicorns had always shown a higher than average height, mainly Celestia who was almost half a head taller than Luna and Cadence, who had an average height for a man, and a little more than a head that Twilight being the youngest the 4, resulting in that it had the height of an average woman being just a girl. And Galaxus, the only male alicorn that had been reported, was a head taller than average.
Nebula not only had a great height for a woman but her hair was even more wavy than her husband and daughters, to the point that it was almost completely curl, made her slightly taller. That beautiful mane that adorned her head was essentially blond but at the end of each curl it turned purple and more or less in the center of the head was reddish, it shone like the hair of Galaxus and the royal sisters.
Her wings were exactly the same as those of Galaxus, only the color, white snow, was different.
Her face, also covered with marks from her arms but this time in a golden color, was calm, warm, conveyed a sensation similar to that transmitted by the sun as it emerged on a cloudy and gray day that began to seem eternal. In her beautiful purple eyes gleamed the same warmth and a great aura of motherhood.
That was the woman who raised him.
Discord's eyes moistened with that thought. He wasn’t even sure why he thought that. Everything became blurred around him. The first time he saw her come in he only wanted to run into her arms and tell him he wasn’t a monster, only his little rougue.
“Today you do not think to punish us by a crime that we have not committed preventing us to eat your delicacies?” Galaxus spoke smiling mockingly.
Celestia laughed at his comment.
“Careful, my love,” Nebula laughed and returned the smile. “Do not let gluttony take over your being.”
That voice.
Discord wasn’t aware of anything after that. Despite the spell that should make him remember what he forgot, the dinner and the bathroom were only cloudy memories and without detail. The conversations, everything in general that happened during that time was just fog turning in his head. By the time he realized he was already in his room lying on his bed. It felt strange to say that but it was the truth that it was.
A small room with fine handmade furniture. In the center was a bedside table with a candle as the only light, close to a wall was Discord's bed and on the opposite wall Celestia’s bed.
Nebula was kneeling at the foot of his bed observing a tender scene on the other side of the small room. While he was already quiet, as incredible and impossible as it sounds, while Celestia was just being convinced by her parents to go to sleep.
“Look at you, my child, you can not even speak without yawning,” said the alicorn.
“That is not true!” she contradicted a tender yawn that escaped from her lips. “I still have strength. Please, father, mother, let me stay awake until a little later.”
“But then you will not be able to play with Discord tomorrow because you will be very busy falling asleep,” said Nebula smiling as always.
The girl tried to hide her childish pout of disgust by covering her face a little with the sheets but in her eyes it was clear that this idea pleased her less than going to bed early.
“Remember, we will bring a surprise tomorrow. The more time you sleep today, the more time you can enjoy tomorrow. Alright, little princess?”
“Yes, father,” she yawned again and her father kissed her forehead.
“I will be with you in a moment, my love,” said the mother. “A song surely will make things faster.”
“Song? I am beginning to be envious of these children,” he commented, making her laugh. "Take your time, I will take the opportunity to take a bath in the meantime,” he kissed her lips tenderly and left the children's room.
Once it came out, the adult alicorn went to the little draconequs.
“Discord, I know that Galaxus does not like you to call me mother but you know you can do it whenever he is not around,” she paused from his motherly speaking. “You did not do it today,” she looked at him with concern.
The emotion in Nebula's eyes hurt. He tried to deflect his when she spoke again.
“Discord, is there something bothering you?”
At first his only response was silence and a glance in his eyes, but, by some universal law, the mothers always manage to get an answer. Nebula wasn’t the exception.
She didn’t say anything again, she stared at him for a few seconds before her eyes began to shine, literally, not metaphorically, but only the iris.
It was strange for Discord, a part of him was calm, almost as if he was used to seeing that but another part remained in the intrigue, doubtful of what was happening. When the glow faded, so did the calmness that he had felt before, being replaced by fear. He didn’t fear because of the brightness or because this was some kind of spell that forced you to tell the truth, but because of what might come after it on the part of Nebula. Not a punishment, not one from Nebula, but her disappointment.
Nebula looked at him with a serious face but she looked at what he decided was worry. Feeling like someone caught after committing a crime, the boy surrendered.
“I am sorry... mother,” he let go, his heart shrugged with the last word.
She fell silent again but not with the same expression this time. After a sigh, she wore a motherly smile. She stroked the boy's head, pulled rebellious hair from his forehead and kissed him on it. He almost thought he heard her voice inside his head saying: ‘It is alright, my little rogue’.
This gesture so affectionate made his heart shrink even more, almost hurt. No, it hurt. It hurt a lot. He wanted to cry, he wanted her to hug him, to cradle him in her arms, to let him know that everything was in order. He wanted her to make him feel safe.
These emotions and desires. That security that he transmitted to be with Nebula. The loving mother who once cared for and protected him as her own child without having the same blood or being of the same species.
How much had he lost?
“Forgive me, children,” she finally spoke. “I promised you a song and I am not fulfilling. What kind of mother am I?”
“You are the best,” thought the boy.
“You are the best,” said the girl.
With only one candle in the room, the darkness was quite dominant but she couldn’t hide her blush. A second later she began to sing.
The song, despite not being accompanied by any instrument, seemed to produce its own melody with every word that came from the lips of Nebula, a sweet melody but, at the same time, something sad. It addressed them as if they were princes, preparing them for the pains of reigning at the same time that they calmed and calmed them. It said that sometimes darkness and evil could surround them but that there would be no reason to fear, that it didn’t matter what they lost while they had each other. It said that they could change the world.
Maybe it was only Discord's impression when he was reliving a life he didn’t even think he lived but the song became a little sadder as it came to an end. With faint hints of camouflaged pain, he could almost swear to feel something breaking in her voice. What thoughts would pass through that woman's head as she cooed with that song?
When the song ended, the only thing the woman saw around her was a pair of sleeping children. She kissed each one's forehead, blew out the candle and headed for the door. Before closing it, she turned to see that peaceful scene and whispered:
“Good night, my little ones,” she closed the door behind her.
The sound of the door closing for Discord meant that the coast was clear. Yes, unlike Celestia, he didn’t fell asleep with the beautiful song of Nebula, he just pretended to make her leave the room soon. It wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last time either.
He couldn’t get the song out of his head. He knew that melody. After he woke up in Everfree a millennium ago, every time he found it hard to sleep, he heard that same melody resonating more lightly than a whisper in the depths of his mind. Any doubt that might remain about whether he was truly reliving a past he lost now had completely vanished.
He wasn’t only sure of what was happening but he had also recovered some simple memories of his childhood. Memories like once he had devoured a couple of Galaxus parchments and this one almost gave him a fit of rage while Celestia and Nebula only laughed until they cried as he tried to chase him. Or as on another occasion had turned the whole house into cake at the request of Celestia finishing everything in which both had a stomach ache worthy of a nightmare, punished by prohibiting them and preventing them from eating any candy in months and that Celestia didn’t direct him the word in almost all that time. Those and many beautiful memories returned to him.
Why had he forgotten? What kind of amnesia could he have had to forget such a beautiful place as Earth Heaven and a loving mother like Nebula? If at least he had never seen anything related to all that, it would make a bit of sense but the problem is that for more than a millennium he saw Celestia, who was the living portrait of her mother, and didn’t remember anything at all and now in less than 3 hours had already remembered almost half of his childhood.
What happened?
How could he have forgotten such a happy and peaceful life?
Was there any guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again?
For hours he rolled on his bed trying to find an answer and found absolutely nothing, and the depressed remembering every 5 minutes that he had lived for more than 1000 years deceived thinking that he was simply the embodiment of chaos in Equestria didn’t help. That and something else was preventing him from concentrating, although that being centered wasn’t exactly his specialty anyway, a past feeling linked to that girl in the bed parallel to his that now slept deeply and quietly.
After all that Galaxus had told him, what had bothered him the most was: if he ever became a monster, what would she do? Would you face it? Would you hate it?
He already knew, more or less, the answer and that made him wonder if he had asked Twilight and her friends to reform him because she wanted him as an ally or wanted to get back her lifelong friend and adopted brother and if she knew what was going happen the first time she and Luna used the Elements of Harmony. He understood that they wanted to stop him but to lock him in stone and just neutralize him like Nightmare Moon when she came back were two very different things and it wasn’t possible that someone who adored him like that, although who couldn’t worship him, would do something so cruel to him. Did something change in she? Luna eventually envied her and tried to snatch the throne from her -and apparently also kill her- Would the change of mind be a family thing?
The more he thought about it, the more his own curiosity arose and not his infantile self. He couldn’t take it anymore at midnight. He got up from his bed and mentally lighting the candle he walked silently to the opposite side of the room. He needed to know. He needed to ask her.
“Tia?” he shook her gently to wake her up.
With a little whimper the girl wrapped herself more in the sheets trying not to wake up and forcing the child to redouble his efforts.
“Tia, please, wake up,” he shook her with a little more strength and raising his voice a little, he didn’t need to wake his parents too.
“Dizzy? What happens? You cannot sleep?” she let out a long yawn as she sat down.
For a second, Discord hesitated about his decision and the next he dreaded that doubt, his curiosity and anxiety were greater. But he couldn’t stop a thread of fear from entering his mind. What if he didn’t like his answer? What if the answer turned out to be something he knew wouldn’t happen?
“Tia, can I ask you something?”
She nodded slowly in her drowsiness.
“If one day I...” he took a while to find the right words. “... I become a monster, very very evil and cruel and hurt many people...” he paused again looking down and squeezing the sheets making the flame of the candle would grow. “... What would you do?”
“You will never be a monster.”
An immediate response and without hesitation.
He couldn’t believe what he heard. He looked up expecting to see her smiling, ‘following the game’, but such a gesture didn’t occupy her face. In its place there was a serious gaze fixed on him.
“You are good and nobody good can be a monster,” she replied.
“But... But if I became a real monster, what would you do then?” he still couldn’t believe his safety.
Although Celestia had a little more time to respond this time, it just took a few seconds before releasing her response with the same confidence that she had before.
“If one day you became a monster, I would look for a way to get you back to normal.”
Discord's eyes widened. Now seriously he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How could this girl be so good -or so innocent- ? Had not heard him say that he could hurt many people or what?
He climbed onto the bed and began to touch her face with a finger.
“What are you doing?” she asked between blinks for each touch.
“Are you still asleep?”
“Of course not,” she took his hand from her face and looked into his eyes. “You are my best friend, Dizzy. If you became a monster then we could no longer be friends and the monsters are killed, I do not want you to be killed. If you become a monster, I will return you to normal and I will not let anyone hurt you,” she smiled warmly. “We will always be friends.”
Should he laugh in her face or should he hold her and release all the tears he had held back in the last hours?
Discord's mind went blank like the expression on her face. He had insisted about three times that one day he would be an evil monster, a monster that could hurt herself and anyone she cared about, and she promised him to protect him? Either she was so stupid that she didn’t even think about the weight of her words or was more loyal and brave than anyone he'd ever met. A part of him, who already knew how this story ended, begged for it to be the first, that it was all because of her childhood innocence, but when he looked into her eyes he saw more security and determination in that little girl of whom he had seen in many members of the Royal Guard.
Even for someone like him, who lived in complete lack of logic, all this was meaningless. The light of the candle was extinguished as the storm of ideas in the head of Discord was waning and his gaze went down, extinguished with one last thought: She was lying. It was logical, it must be one of those times when someone promises something and then at the moment of truth any word said remains a simple sound in the past.
Only that could be.
Celestia yawned.
“Dizzy, do you think it will difficult for you to go back to sleep?”
He didn’t deign to answer despite the sincere concern in her voice. He would have preferred her to just say good night and go back to sleep.
“If you can not sleep then come with me, we can share my bed.”
Nothing else said that, he teleported to his own bed and in a quick and abrupt movement he wrapped himself in the sheets with turning his back to Celestia. Meanwhile the girl stared at him in silence, bewildered by his behavior. Finally she also wrapped herself up but didn’t turn her back on him as he did.
“Good evening, Dizzy,” again she was left with the last word.
Obviously he didn’t fall asleep so easily. Perhaps he no longer had that anxious curiosity eating his head but now there was a strong sense of distrust instead. He just didn’t think anyone could be so willing to help him, and protect him, if he went crazy like he knew he had done, or would. Even Fluttershy and the other girls didn’t even try to make him react when he allied with Tirek, Applejack's eyes screaming at him: ‘Traitor!’, still wandered clear as day between his memories. They had simply accepted that his loyalty was already in favor of someone who offered him something ‘more powerful than friendship’ and give up without a fight. They had accepted that he was loyal to power and his own ambition. Only Twilight had given him one last chance after he had seen him weak and regretful, otherwise right now he would be a stone statue again.
Even without going so far. It was only necessary to go back to the day he was reformed to confirm that little faith that the kind Fluttershy had shown him after hours trying to make him see the advantages of being good.
Only Celestia had had faith that something good remained in him. Only she trusted him. As nobody had done.
He shook his head scaring away those thoughts once he heard them. Fluttershy knew him only as a madman dominated back then and Celestia knew him since she was born. It was logical that she should lose hope, and patience, so soon. Fluttershy wasn’t Celestia. She didn’t know him like her. Again he shook his head.
Why was he favoring so much the princess who locked him in stone respect the pegasus he loved?
He didn’t even try to find a good answer to that doubt. He only excused himself that it was the effect of the memory of his friendship with her as a child. When all this was over, his friendship with Celestia was anything but strong and long and he remembered how she abandoned that friendship, then he would see Fluttershy as the prefect and pure being that she is. It was only that. It was only a side effect of this trip through his lost memories.
It wasn’t the best excuse but he didn’t want to analyze it too much and he was afraid to start having more ideas in favor of Celestia if he did.
It didn’t matter, anyway.
The only thing that should interest him was that, no matter how well Celestia knew him, any rational person would have at least taken time to respond in a negative way to his doubt preventing making a promise that he wouldn’t fulfill or she wouldn’t have said anything until the situation would happen.
She was lying. She was lying and he knew it. The day he did everything he said, the first thing she would do would be to take him away with a sword, or he would shoot him with her horn. He could almost hear her shouting: ‘Get away! Get out of me! Monster!’
She was lying and he would prove it. A plan began to be formulated in the child's mind to prove that there is a long way to go. Would she protect him? Soon they would see that.
And decided, he fell asleep.
Author's Note
Again: you're in all your right to correct my gramathic or ortography, I'll be very thankful.
“... I could swear that Discord did not return to his usual behavior because of our surprise. Neither do I believe that it is because he is a being as mind changing as a draconequs. No. It is something else.
I could use my ‘gift’ to find out the reason for his sudden change of attitude, but I would feel as if I do not like his happiness. It intrigues me, I have no way of denying it, but I do not dislike it at all. I am glad that naughty rogue has returned who always finds a way to get a smile out of Celestia.
I wish someone else would share this joy, but said someone cares little or nothing what happens to my rogue.
I still do not understand why does he hates so much a child who had nothing to do with the past mistakes of his extinct race.
A child who has never seen or will ever see someone like him.
My little rogue. I pray that you never be invade by the pain of loneliness, if you do, I pray that you find someone to help you face it...”
~
The morning arrived. It was curious, it didn’t seem to have taken any second at all. As if he had awakened the next second after falling asleep. It was also annoying. He was hoping to have a little sleep.
Celestia wasn’t at all ready to wake up, even as the sky began to clear up and the galaxies to fade away as the day arrived. To her disgrace someone was going to change that and not in the sweetest way.
Maybe Discord couldn’t create from nothing by completely ignoring the law of conservation of matter but at least he could turn things into others at will.
Who would say that fire can be turned into water, and cold too?
Moving silently which snake was placed next to the girl's bed. He caused the water he created from the fire of the candle to float so that it covered his entire body. And he dropped it.
Celestia screamed and jumped out of bed scared.
“Dizzy, what are you doing!?”
“Good morning, Celestia!” he smiled without any shame at his behavior. “I am hungry. Mother and your father are already gone so you have to make breakfast.”
She looked at him bewildered, making Discord grow in satisfaction
“A-Alright,” she answered confused and frozen.
“Good!” he left the room to then poke his head out the door. “Hurry, I am starving.”
He sat quietly at the table waiting anxiously, not for breakfast, which wasn’t a bad idea either, but to see how the game he had started was progressing. He was no longer a mental enslaver but he still loved to play with minds a little, either to make them understand something or, in this case, to show their true personality. How long would little Celestia endure before dropping her facade of best and eternal friend?
It is true that being a little rude and rough wasn’t being vile but for a little girl was enough reason to say that someone was a bad person. And hadn’t Celestia herself said that he couldn’t be a monster because he was someone good? He almost felt sorry for the great disappointment that she would take.
With time he was reminding his next moves and by the time he realized Celestia had left the room, dry and dressed in a simple pink dress. While he looked at her with a smile that warned her to be careful, she looked at him with the same look of bewilderment and doubt she had shown minutes earlier in the room. None said anything. Celestia only started preparing breakfast as Discord had ‘asked’ her.
It was something simple, a few slices of bread with jam that she had prepared, both bread and jam. It was a little surprising that a 6 year old girl was able to cook, and more with fire, but this had its reason. Galaxus and Nebula often traveled to Equestria in search of things that could help them with their life in Earth Heaven. Before Discord was born they looked for seeds of plants from which they could obtain wood and food, when they obtained they made them germinate and grow in a matter of minutes with a spell, thus obtaining everything they needed to live. After that, their trips used to be to buy what they could not create, of course, they disguised and paid for using fragments of gems that they collected.
The little draconequs ate hurriedly, trying to pay no attention to the taste of the food, which proved quite difficult due to the delicious taste of the jam. While Celestia showed a pleased face with each bite at first, then she faded away, showing rather a bit of pain when she saw the little interest that Discord was placing on the food she had prepared. It was as if he didn’t find it special, something common.
When he finished with his own food he stole a slice of Celestia and ate it in one bite looking to bother her a bit but to his surprise the alicorn simply poured another one ignoring the act of Discord. That bothered him. It was she who must be exasperated. He repeated the play only to be canceled with the same movement. Again and again and another. Soon the jam and the bread were over and Discord was on the verge of indigestion and declaring war on the jam. Certainly the shot backfired.
“By Exodo! You were truly hungry.”
“Ugh! Shut up! If I see jam again, I will throw it in the lake! Better poison the fish to poison me!” he complained.
At first he didn’t notice but that comment was a bit hurtful to the little alicorn. When he realized he didn’t smile just because of the apocalypse happening in his stomach. It seems that after all it wasn’t so bad that Celestia had ignored him and continued to serve, but he wasn’t going to repeat it! Although that was technically what he was doing.
Anyway, it was worth watching Celestia clench her little fists trying to hide the pain and how she looked down while cleaning the jam jar. He was winning.
A few hours later…
The stomachache had calmed down a while ago. Both children were sitting under the tree where Discord had awakened at the beginning of this experience, waiting for the return of the adults. While Discord was just leaning against the tree, complaining about the time lost due to his stomach ache, Celestia was reading a book of stories that her parents had brought from Equestria.
Since breakfast they hadn’t spoken to each other and each time they made eye contact he just turned around, making it clear that he had no interest in talking to her. All this elusive and cold attitude had managed to affect more and more the poor Celestia. If she was reading it was to distract herself from that attitude on his part.
Discord had advanced quite a bit. But he was getting tired. He was dealing with a 6-year-old girl, it shouldn’t be so difficult to annoy her enough to hit him or insult him, proving that she wasn’t as good as she seemed. However, he had given the opposite of a pleasant awakening, the food she had prepared only gave him disdain, stole his breakfast, he shouted her, insulted her food, had only despised their friendship in what had passed of day, and she, rather than giving him back all this, had only hidden behind a facade of disinterest in his actions.
He was tired.
He got up annoyed with a jump and stood in front of Celestia.
“Discord?” she spoke almost fearfully.
He didn’t say anything. He looked at her with a frown and in no time he was joined by a malicious and malicious smile.
“Is something wrong?” she clung to her even more frightened book.
This time he didn’t keep silent, he did something else.
“Give me that!” he shouted trying to snatch the book.
“No! Stop!” she fought.
“The books are stupid! They only tell silly stories! They are better as food! So I will eat it!” he licked his lips.
“No! Mother and father bought it for us! I thought you liked it! What happens with you!?”
“It is none of your business! Just give me the book!” he pulled harder keeping his smile.
“No! Let it go! Let go!” she redoubled her efforts.
“Alright,” he quietly obeyed.
When Discord drop the book, Celestia fell against the tree, hitting her head and emitting a moan of pain. She looked up slowly holding her head to calm the pain a little, eventually finding the little draconequs looking at her even with an expression which, rather than showing a simple mischief typical of him, was the same malicious smile that had put to start all that show. The only difference between before and now was the satisfaction he began to sow. It was clear in her gaze it wasn’t just her head that was feeling the only pain.
“You told me to let it go,” he lifted his shoulders as if it were something obvious.
She looked at him with... The truth is that he wasn’t sure what were her eyes transmitting. It was something negative, that's for sure, but what? Sadness? Rage? He couldn’t read it clearly. Less could he when she looked down.
“Is som-…?”
“ENOUGH!!!”
After that shrill scream in Earth Heaven was only the sepulchral silence.
All the sarcasm that Discord had expressed seconds before had now been abruptly replaced by surprise and seconds later by pride and realization.
Had he won? Had she dropped that facade? What would she do now? Would she scream at him? Would she insult him? Would she say that she was wrong with him?
Would she call him monster?
Suddenly his triumph wasn’t so successful.
The day before he had only feared that she hated him and now he had given her enough reasons to detest him and want him as far as possible from her.
One second.
Someone who had given him they trust in spite of everything and that he had originally tried to win it over, which had now shown he wasn’t at all someone in whom anybody could leave their confidence without being stabbed in the back eventually?
It couldn’t be.
He had done it again.
It was the same thing he had done with Fluttershy and the princesses and Equestria in general. One second. These were his memories. So when he teamed up with Tirek, it wasn’t the first time he betrayed someone he supposedly cared about. It was this moment.
He wanted to apologize but the mind of his memory was blank. He couldn’t do anything. And soon it got worse, when he saw her cry. He panicked. It is true that at first he intended to make her angry enough to show him in her anger that she wasn’t so perfect and she could miss her promises, but he never had wanted to make her cry. To shout at him, to insult him, to say he was a bad person -the more he thought about it the worse it tasted- only that. But it was too late to correct anything.
Celestia’s crying worsened and she ran out before Discord could do anything to remedy her mistakes. He tried to reach her but she teleported to who-knows-where, leaving him alone with the book he had tried to snatch from him before. It was almost like a reprimand or a divine memory of his stupidity and arrogance trying to prove that Celestia could be as disloyal and disrespectful as anyone, that she could be just like anyone.
In her scream minutes before, he had felt anger. Aggression comes with anger. Even so. She had the perfect opportunity to shout at him. And she didn’t do it. She could have thrown the book to hit him. But she didn’t. She just yelled at him to stop and ran away.
She knew. She knew that if she stayed close to him for a long time or if she spoke to her even with all the pain in her, she would finally hurting him and the night before she promised that she wouldn’t let anyone hurt him. That included her.
At least that part of the promise hadn’t been broken. She hadn’t hurt him but she hadn’t done anything to get him into...
So what the hell was he doing now?
If he could, he would have slapped his forehead with enough force to sink it. What a fool he had been.
When she shouted at him, he thought he had won the game and when he thought about how she would express her hatred towards him he realized that he wasn’t winning anything but that he was hurting the person who promised to protect him and losing his confidence.
She fulfilled it. Each word.
For the first time since he had started this adventure. His memory of the past and his current mind were perfectly synchronized.
“Maybe she is better than anybody,” he thought guiltily when lifting the book.
She had saved him from giving in to evil again. Better said, for the first time. His reformation was the second time. Although it was Fluttershy who carried it out. But she would never have done it if Celestia hadn’t asked for it.
He was already hesitating again. Why did he seem to doubt something he should have more than clear? He loved Fluttershy, Celestia was just a friend. That’s all.
He would have time to argue with himself about his doubts, which had no reason to exist, but now he needed to correct his mistake. He had to find Tia and apologize for how badly he had behaved with her, if she was still capable of forgiving her.
He checked the entire field of tall grass around the tree, hoping that, looking only to get away from him enough to stop crying, she would have hidden there. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there. She had gone to another place and he would find her. Snapping his fingers, he teleported home hoping to see her in the garden, half hidden among the plants. She wasn’t there. He searched in their room, in the attic, throughout the house. She wasn’t there either.
“Tia!” he shouted as he left. His voice echoed in the cave. “Tia! Are you here?!” he shouted from the entrance producing a great echo.
She wasn’t there either.
Discord imagined now he would spend a good time combing Earth Heaven in search of Celestia but he was wrong. In less than he blinked he was on the way down to the lake. He had a vague recollection of the places he had visited before he had gone there, the hollow hill, the tunnels under it, the inside of the cave, but he wasn’t sure in what order he went through them or if he had gone somewhere else. He had been very worried looking for Celestia and because of that he hadn’t been interested in remembering everything that happened in those places.
Less work for him.
“TIA!!!” he shouted pleadingly at the top of his lungs.
“What do you want?”
It was a sad, muted murmur, but it was her. Celestia was there. When he looked down the hill he saw her sitting on the shore, hidden behind a bush. He quickly ran towards her, without repeating the scene of the previous day. Almost. He took too much impulse as he descended the hill and if his powers of shaping reality to his liking hadn’t begun to awaken, rather than stop close to the water and then back away defying gravity, he would have become soaked again.
Being next to her he had more reasons to apologize. The laughing, energetic and talkative girl from the previous day had left, leaving in her place a little and quiet girl whose happiness had died down, her eyes red from crying and tears of recent tears on her cheeks.
That scene was painful, no matter how many times he saw her, no matter if he saw her as a child or as an adult, it was very painful.
It hurt to see her like that. A lot. Worse when he thought that she wouldn’t be in that state if it weren’t for his arrogance and distrust. He was about to apologize when she spoke.
“Discord...?” she began, snore because of the crying and without looking at him. “...Do not you want to be my friend anymore?”
When this happened for the first time, he had been dumb by the shock that question provoked him but on this time what he felt was even more guilt. While the shock of his memory continued, Celestia spoke again.
“That is why you have been so mean with me?” she buried her face against her knees, tears began to fall in greater quantity. “Did I do something that bothered you and that is why you want to end your friendship with me?”
“Tia…”
“Why were you so bad?” the cry became harder and harder for her to speak with clarity. “You ...you have been acting really weird lately. I-Is it because...?” the crying stopped her from talking.
“I am sorry.”
When she heard that, she raised her head and looked at him, confused.
He didn’t speak again, only handed him the book.
“Did...did not you ate it?” she took it hesitant and even more confused.
“I only said it so you will be mad at me.”
“Why would you want me to do that?” she wiped away the last tears as she set the book aside.
At first he said nothing again. Back then he thought that she wouldn’t want to be his friend anymore. That what he had done had no forgiveness. That Galaxus was right and he was just a monster. And that she had been his first victim.
“I am bad,” he said without encouragement. “I did distrusted you. Nobody cares for a monster and I thought that when you made your promise last night...”
He couldn’t remember it.
He didn’t remember what he had thought at first. Even the spell wasn’t able to return that memory. Because it didn’t make sense. It had never had it
As a child, when he apologized to Celestia for what he had done, he wasn’t even sure why he had made her suffer so much. The reason for all this, everything he had thought the night before had vanished forever from his mind. That had convinced him of one thing. He had confirmed a recent fear.
“You were wrong.”
“Uh?”
“You were wrong with me.”
“I do not understand.”
“I am a monster”
She hit his head with the book.
“Ouch! Why did you do that?!”
“You are not a monster!”
“Yes, I am a monster! I hurt you just because!”
“You are just a fool!” she hit him again.
“Ouch! Stop!”
She sat down, dropping the book to one side, pouting and frowning. She didn’t say anything again. She stared in the opposite direction to him. She wasn’t sad anymore but she wasn’t very happy either.
“Are you angry with me?”
“Yes, but not only for having behaved so badly to me. It bothers me that you doubt me,” she turned to see him. “I told you last night: you are my best friend and I will not let anyone hurt you, no matter what happens,” the determination shone in her eyes and resonated in her voice.
Wow. It was the only thing he could think about after that. Nothing seemed to make her change her mind about him. So confident did she have him? It shouldn’t surprise him so much considering that he had conquered Equestria once and then tried again a millennium later and that same girl, already an adult, had asked to be freed from her stone prison to correct that behavior.
Even after more than a thousand years he had kept his promise.
“You're really someone special, Celestia,” he thought.
Something seemed to explode in his head. Memories began to flash through his mind, but they were different. They were memories of things that would happen from this moment. Almost all the rest of the day started to materialize in his mind in that instant, a specific moment already he knew it.
The little Discord under the look embarrassed by his behavior and by chance came across the book of stories that Celestia had thrown seconds ago. Interestingly, the fall had made it open on a page with the drawing of the coronation that occurred in a story about a girl who became a princess because of its virtues, courage, loyalty, kindness, among others.
Loyalty. If the devotion that Celestia had kept for a thousand years to his promise to him wasn’t loyalty, then he didn’t know what it was. Rainbow Dash would have felt embarrassed as an element of loyalty. Although the way she said what she thought without shame, she could well be the element of honesty.
Anyway, that story and that drawing gave him an idea. And he started it immediately. It was easier now that he could create from nothing thanks to the slight increase in his powers, considering that, apart from some lilies in the water, there was no flower around them.
“What are you doing, Discord?” Celestia asked, wiping away the marks that had left the tears on her face.
“You will see,” he answered animated and with a smile while a glow was produced in front of his eyes.
The glow began to shine with more force. He really didn’t need to do that, he could materialize what he wanted just by thinking, he just wanted to show off a little bit of his new skills. When it went out, there was something in his hands.
“A flower wreath!” she exclaimed the girl surprised “How did you do it? You did not have anything to transform.”
“It is a secret,” he actually didn’t know how he had done that when he did it as a child. He was better to lie when he was little.
Before she could say anything else, he held the object he had just created in front of her. Offering it.
“Is for you.”
“For... me?” she asked incredulously.
He nodded with a silly smile from ear to ear. Well, not so far in reality but very large, and quite silly.
It looks familiar, right? Celestia in a pink dress, sitting on the grass and Discord giving her a wreath of flowers? Hadn’t he seen this in a vision the day before? Yes. That memory had a great importance for him, that's why he came back before the rest. At that moment, although he never told anyone, he promised himself that he would never make Celestia cry again, he would only make her laugh and smile. It was a beautiful wish. Cheesy, but cute.
“In the book there is a story of a girl who became a princess for being loyal. You are very loyal, so surely you could become a princess and that's why I made you this wreath,” he put it on her head, making her blush. “Princess Celestia, it sounds good,” he had no idea.
Her blush only increased.
“Although you would be a very ugly princess if you always had red eyes,” he scoffed.
Goodbye blushing.
“Shut up!” it was obvious that this comment didn’t seem funny at all “I am like this because of you!” she wiped the tears that were still in her eyes and cheeks.
“You look like me!” he laughed. “But yellow and red look a lot better than red and purple,” he peeked into the lake, boasting about his appeal. That part of him had not changed.
“Well, if my parents come back and they see me like that, you will end up with your butt red also for all the spanking they will give you!” checkmate.
Nebula and Galaxus. Dammit. Well, Nebula would probably scold him, force him to eat only vegetables, forbid him to eat a single candy and put him to do all the housework for a month or more. It sounded bad, but it was the best option. Galaxus surely would not have mercy with him. Surely he couldn’t return to sit down in days!
Thinking about how unhappy his life would be during the next month if the adults found out, splash!, he finally fell facing the water. Again. Celestia did nothing but laugh at this.
“Do not laugh! This is not funny!” he yelled, throwing his head out of the water with a look of desperation and childish terror.
“It is to me!” her laughter grew, almost on the verge of crying. “You deserve it!”
“The fall or that mother and father are going to kill me when they return?” he asked drying the water.
“The fall,” her laughter was finally dwindling. “The anger of my father is too much punishment,” there was no doubt about that last thing.
She smiled again and seemed more cheerful. It was then when he finally asked her.
“So, you forgive me?”
“Mm-hmm,” she nodded. “But never again doubt me or treat me like this. You promise?” he nodded frantically in answer. “Then everything is forgotten,” she smiled.
For Discord it was forgotten for like ten centuries.
It was a relief to hear that forgiveness. Also to see her happy again. He hoped not to hurt her again but he was not sure of that. He had recovered part of the memories of his childhood but only until a week after that day, but anything from that point on did not come back. When she woke up in Everfree she was at least a decade older than she was in that memory, ten years was a long time to hurt her again. He prayed to Exodus that he had not.
“Another thing, Discord,” oh, no. He wasn’t going to like it. “I will not tell mother and father what you did...” that wasn’t the annoying part. “...but you have to give me your dessert for a week,” it was that.
“What?! Tia!” he pleaded.
“What? If mother finds out, she will not let you eat more than vegetables for a month. I only ask for a week. I had no answer for that. My deal is fairer, Discord.
At this point a little doubt had arisen regarding Celestia. He already knew the answer to that doubt but someone can’t just avoid doing something when is stuck in their own memory. So he asked:
“Why are you still calling me Discord?”
“Because you called me Celestia this morning and I promised you that if you called me that again then I would call you Discord forever. I always keep my promises,” her expression became a bit more boastful at the end.
It was never good with hints.
“But can I still call you Tia?” she nodded almost hopeful for some reason. “Thanks. It is just that Celestia is very long,” he commented mockingly killing his hope.
“You are a fool!”
Now he who was laughing. Celestia was upset again, but it was a different annoyance, one of those annoyances in which someone usually says is going to kill somebody but when finally puts your hands on them they just do nothing but laugh. In fact, what Celestia did was jump to the shore and splash Discord as much as she could. He just dried and she was already soaking him again? That was the war.
Both children began splashing each other. Between laughter and splashes, sometimes they decided to run to escape the attack of the other. In one of those races Celestia stumbled and Discord fell backwards in the water because of the loud laughter that this provoked. But the girl had her revenge when, when she got up, she threw a ball of mud at him. Who was laughing now? Well, both, apparently. During the next hour they played the mud war.
How did it all end?
Well, in which both children fell exhausted and as dirty as they could and, mainly, without a winner to the bloody battle they had had, although ‘he gave more fight’. They were still laughing between each gasp that escaped them to catch their breath. After a while trying to recover the energy which didn’t seem to want to return, they fell asleep on the soft grass that covered the hill.
That memory was undoubtedly one that he wouldn’t mind reviving a million times if it was necessary.
He will had to thank Twilight for the spell when all this was over. A few days without bothering her would be a good payment. Very boring for him, because her reactions to his jokes had simply no price, but good pay for her.
Of course, that break for Discord ended as soon as it started. Was it too much to ask for only 5 minutes to take a nap? Rhetorical question that nobody answered. Well, Celestia did it, waking him up. By then it had been another hour or so since they decided the truce of their war.
The wreath he had made had broken between the game and the turns the girl had given while resting in the grass. Now she was holding what little was left of it, looking at her with a depressed look.
“Do not be sad. I can make you another if you want," he said calmly.
“Thanks,” she said dully. “But I do not think he feels the same.”
“I do not find difference between the petals of one flower and those of another,” obviously he hadn’t understood what he was referring to.
“Is not that. Is just...” it was as if she couldn’t find the right words.
“Oh, I know!” he interrupted her before she could organize her thoughts. “It is because when I gave it to you, I told you that you could be a princess. All women are same,” he said boastful.
He only knew a woman and a girl and already dare to say something as if they were all women in the world? He mentally inflated his chest proud of how since childhood he cared little, or nothing, logic.
“Is not that! And I am a girl, not a woman!”
“But one day, in any case, you will be a woman,” he added mentally. “And if it is not that, then what is it?”
At first she just turned around making an expression that said: ‘Like I was going to tell you now.’ And that seemed to give him an idea.
“I will not tell you,” she said smiling with some mischief.
“What? Please, tell me,” he pleaded.
“No,” she laughed fleeing uphill.
“Tia! Tell me!” he pursued.
"No!" she laughed and ran faster.
“Tia!” he shouted smiling at the new game that had emerged.
They continued that persecution until they reached the Meadow of the Thousand Flowers. There were flowers of all types known until that time. This meadow had been the idea of Nebula, who didn’t like the eternal green which covered Earth Heaven and wanted to give it more color, and the name had been the idea of Galaxus, who said it out loud by accident.
There Discord had given up trying to find out why the crown he had given to the not-yet-princess was so special to her. He would have bet his wings she didn’t tell him to kill him with curiosity as punishment for having called her ‘woman’. First she forbid him call her by her full name because it made her feel old and then she would chastise him for calling her a woman as if she were an adult. Why so much effort to make clear her age? He was immortal and eternally young.
“Meh, women and their things with age,” he thought.
If she hadn’t told him in the following years, he could ask the actual princess why. That if she hadn’t forgotten. She was more than a thousand years old after all, it is likely that some memories of her childhood had vanished.
Almost at noon...
There was no sign of adults yet. They had taken so long that the children had time to notice the book had been left in the lake, to look for it, in fact Discord only made it appear in his hand, and the red Celestia in her eyes because of the cry had vanished. Such a delay began to alarm Celestia.
“Where could they be?” said the girl a little worried.
“I do not know. They said that they would go to Equestria to look for our surprise, but they had never taken so long,” said the boy a little more relaxed, lying on the flowers.
Indeed. That delay was rare coming from them, usually when they went to Equestria they were always back after a few hours but now it had been over 6 hours.
“Do you think something has happened to them?”
“Something happen to them?” he kicked and hit laughing. “It will be enough someone pull a feather off of mother and your father will send them straight to Tartarus!” it wasn’t remotely, an exaggeration.
“You are right,” she smiled but her voice still worried.
“Do not worry, they will come back at any moment,” In fact, it wasn’t long.
“I hope so.”
5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
“Ah!” something pecked at Discord's foot. “What was that?” his attacker jumped into his face. “Help!”
“Is that... a chicken?!” in effect.
“Take it off! Take it off!” the animal continued its attack.
“Enough! Leave him!” she took the animal and this redirected its attack towards her “Ah!” she shouted.
“Hey! Do not hurt her! Silly bird!”
“Okay, enough,” a third voice emerged and its owner threw the hen a spell that reassured her.
“Mother!” the children shouted in unison.
When they turned to see her they finally knew what was the surprise that she and Galaxus had gone to find Equestria. They were animals. A cow and a bull, a couple of hens, one of which had attacked them, and a rooster, sheeps and pigs.
That's why they had taken so long. Animals and teleportation don’t work very well together, so they had to bring them on foot.
“It seems someone escaped from its cage. Come, little one,” she called the chicken and this quietly went with the woman.
“I am afraid it is my fault,” said Galaxus. “The salesman warned me the door was loose. This roguish took advantage of my carelessness to run away. Did you get scared, Celestia?
“A bit.”
“Silly bird,” said Discord rubbing the bites.
Just he spoke Galaxus gave him a stern look. Anybody could see the patience he had was nil if not less.
For some reason, every time they saw each other, he felt a bit of hatred and anger directed only towards him. Even before all this madness of his memories began it was enough for Celestia to mention it in the ruins so that a knot in his stomach would be made. And he could bet the diary page almost suffocate him had been written by Galaxus. He must have done something before he lost his memory. What? He would have to wait to know.
“It only wanted to be free, Discord,” said Nebula. “If you were imprisoned for a long time and suddenly saw the opportunity to escape, would not you take that opportunity?”
“I guess so. But the chicken still seems silly to me.”
“You are a lost case, little rogue,” she said after a sigh.
“If someone seizes Discord, I will free him,” Celestia said.
Galaxus laughed.
“How will you save someone else when you cannot protect yourself, my child?” the father smiled at his daughter's comment.
“You can teach me, father. No one in the whole world is a better warrior than you or my mother. If you train me, I will be able to face whoever it is and I will not let anyone hurt my loved ones,” he moved as if wielding a sword.
After those words, the couple shared a smile and an accomplice look. As a child he had wondered what that look meant but now it was quite clear to him.
“And you do not want to train yourself, Discord?” his mother asked .
“I am not interested in fights. But if someone hurts Celestia, I swear she will regret it. He had already done it and did not have to move a finger to regret it.”
While Nebula smiled at his words, Galaxus only looked at him with some suspicion. Seconds later he sighed with defeat and then show a smile to his family.
“We can chat later. Now we have to make a good place for the animals to rest. Will you help us, children?”
“Yes!” they answered together.
“I take the pigs!”
“I take the silly chickens!”
And the family went home with the new inhabitants of Earth Heaven.
Upon arriving home, Nebula looked for the bag where she kept the seeds, planted one not far from his home and with a spell made it germinate and grow in an instant. Maybe it was a single tree which was planted but the rumble it caused when growing completely from one second to another was enough to upset the animals. For that reason, Galaxus imposed a sleep spell on them so they would remain calm until they finished their work.
Once the tree, a majestic oak, grew, Galaxus knocked it down cutting it with a magical aura thrust. When it was on the ground he asked the children to look for nails and tools in the attic and once they returned with his order he used the same technique he used to tear down the tree, this time to turn it into tables.
They weren’t going to build a barn but to make a fence where the animals would rest. In Earth Heaven never bad weather or snow, therefore it wasn’t necessary a barn to protect the animals, with a fence that always kept them in one place was enough. Then why did they build a house for themselves? Because of Discord, could say. Earth Heaven wasn’t much bigger than the Crystal Empire but it was still big enough for a restless baby to get lost, and probably die, or miraculously find the way out and end up in a world where the mere resemblance to a draconequus could already cost his life
For chickens, on the other hand, they would have to build a chicken coop. But the rest of the animals would stay inside the fence.
After many hours…
The work was finished. They had made drinking troughs and feeders and the fence was large enough so that the animals could walk for a while if they wished, the cattle maybe but the pigs had gone to rest as soon as they entered the fence.
Actually only adults should see that work as a job. The children found abundant fun seeing who worked faster or who helped the most. Undoubtedly, neither of them liked the hens very much, they just took them and began to peck them.
When they finished, they all agreed that the best celebration would be with a good meal. Unlike the day before, this meal was very enjoyable for Discord. He went back to doing his pranks, bringing laughter to Celestia, tranquility to Nebula and headaches to Galaxus. Celestia kept her promise and told nothing about Discord's actions hours ago so that the poor boy had to pay for his silence. His mother was surprised that he left the dessert but he justified himself saying that the truth didn’t want to eat anything sweet after his indigestion at breakfast. She seemed pleased by his half truth.
When finished, after reviewing how the animals were, parents and children enjoyed some time together.
The older alicorn had the idea of going to the Meadow of the Thousand Flowers. There Celestia, inspired by the gift of Discord, made wreaths for everybody. Nebula told the children about a great wizard of Equestria and about the marks people get when they find their destiny or the reason that makes them unique.
Just as Celestia was inspired by Discord's gift, Galaxus was inspired by her daughter's request to train her to play with her pretending to be an evil dragon and she a brave knight sent by the king to eliminate him. Minutes later, the vile dragon lay dead on the ground, annihilated by the brave warrior.
Nebula and Discord eventually also joined the game as a servant witch of the fallen dragon in search of revenge for the death of their master and the brother-in-arms of the dragon slayer respectively. After a long battle, the witch shared the fate of the dragon but not without snatching the energy to the brave warriors, who fell inert before being able to return triumphant to their kingdom to tell the good news to the king.
As the sky darkened and filled with galaxies, the family returned home.
The rest of the night continued as usual: Discord with his antics from dinner to the bathroom, worse now he had new skills. Only the work of taking care of the animals was added to her routine and that, on this occasion, Celestia didn’t fight to go to sleep, she was too tired to do that. The day had been very long, exhausting and cheerful, mostly. The little girl didn’t have the almost unlimited energy that he possessed, so she had to rest. Or that she wanted to make her parents believe.
Both children pretended to be asleep and after the alicorn couple said good night and they were sure they were far away, they threw the facade. They were silent in the dark, looking at each other with a grin. After a few seconds a senseless laughter invaded them. They had to muffle their laughter as they could so as not to attract the attention of the adults. Discord almost put the whole pillow in his mouth and Celestia covered hers with both hands as she kicked the bed as her compressed laughter continued. Discord didn’t even know what they were laughing at, and surely Celestia had no idea either.
Finally their mute cackle stopped and they decided to sleep. But before either of them could even try, Discord crept like a snake, literally, to Celestia's bed and with puppy eyes asked:
“Can I still sleep here with you?”
She nodded sleepily but smiling.
Yay! He slipped between the sheets in less time than the girl blinked and lay next to her. Now they were face to face, smiling.
The tiredness was getting more and more over the little alicorn. She let out a yawn and laughed, in a low voice this time, when the child was contacted in front of her, the laughter also infected him. When she was about to fall asleep, Celestia took Discord's hand and smiled at him.
“Friends forever.”
Those two simple words, although he knew they would arrive, touched his heart. After everything he had done she had forgiven him. On another occasion, such a gesture would have caused the crying but it wasn’t like that. If he was going to make her happy, he was the last one who should cry. There were no tears, only some moisture in his eyes and a brittle smile. He was very touched.
“Friends forever,” he replied, squeezing her hand.
The girl yawned for the last time, then fell asleep. But Discord didn’t, he stayed awake a little longer. He stared at her, she was so calm and, still asleep, smiling.
He couldn’t help but be happy to see that she had once again been the almost restless girl who had charged him when he woke up under the tree. As happy as if everyone had transformed into candy with an eternal and delicious chocolate rain.
Not only it made him happy. He had a very enjoyable day. He played so much with Celestia his whole body would hurt the next day, he enjoyed the Nebula’s stories, even getting involved in a game where Galaxus participated was nice.
He had never felt so happy in the company of so many people. Well, actually he did, that time.
Was that how have a family felt like? So happy, nice and with pain in the cheeks and throat from so much smiling and laughing? If that was the case, he liked it, he liked it a lot.
But it also hurt.
He always thought no one would ever be able to see him as normal and ordinary. But it turns out that, actually, some time ago, before his madness, there were people who saw him as a member of their family. He had a loving mother, he had a best friend before Fluttershy. He had a home.
He wanted to remember everything. He would recover his memory. He would recover his life.
Author's Note
In the last chapter I forgot to put the original song which I bassed the idea of Nebula's lullaby. My bad. Here's the link (that song is beautiful --->) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMaKrU_ru8E
~
“... the children have adapted well to the animals, Celestia even gave herself the task of naming them all, I would like to know how long it will take to lose her patience confusing the sheeps. Discord was, rather, disdain. What else could you expect that child?
His new skills alarm me.
His race was sometimes called the "Distorters", not without reason. They were able to alter whatever they wanted if it was within their abilities. There were no more than a few thousand but all there were were unique in appearance or abilities, not even the few twins who were born had similar aspects. There were those who could alter the passage of the seasons, completely ignore the laws of physics, control the passage of time. But child is different from everything he has seen or heard of his ancestry.
I have seen him make objects appear out of nothing. He does not use teleportation spells, he creates them.
It is not only his skills that concern me, but also the age at which he manifests them. That child is only a few months away from his ninth birthday and he is capable of doing things that require a spell to be performed, but his thought is enough or a simple gesture to carry them out. The best sorcerers in the world take all their lives to develop these skills and still have a rudimentary skill.
Such facts could only be made by a god.
If the power of a god does truly resides in a being as unpredictable as a draconequus, then our destiny is sealed...”
~
“... Celestia has started her fighting lessons a few weeks ago but she shows great combat ability despite her short 7 years of age. Someone on this sealed earth does not stop puffing their chest with pride every time they sees her training on her own.
Discord for his part has shown a great interest in music since he found a lute in the attic. Obviously I could not resist his request to teach him and he turns out to be a born musician.
These children have shared everything since they know each other and their knowledge is no exception. I have seen Celestia teach him the combat movements she has learned, while he teaches her how to sing and play music. She says that she trains him so that if she is not with him some day then he can protect himself long enough for her to find him and help him. He, on the other hand, says that he simply wants to see if Celestia also has a beautiful voice. Liar rogue, I know that is not his motive.
This looks like a house of erudites.
Sometimes I wonder: If we had another child, what would they highlight? Would they be a great writer? An athlete comparable only to a pegasus? A portentous sorcerer?
I suppose…"
~
“... How little head do he think I have? I know the contempt he has for Discord or, I should say, fear.
If he has decided lately to also polish Celestia’s magic abilities, it is because he fears that Discord will overcome them and she will not be able to face him.
Galaxus has many good qualities. He is brave, determined, nothing is more important for him than the welfare of his family, he is loyal in many ways, and he has never laid a finger on Celestia or me, even if he loses his temper, even with Discord he has been a little pious and only reprimands him when he has done something really serious. But he is distrustful, prejudiced and cannot leave the past behind. He annoys me.
I know the prophecy as well as he does. I know what a god writes in lartsecna will happen eventually. If only he knew
He is so blind he does not see someone can have a pure heart if they are given an opportunity or blood does not influence someone’s actions if it is corrected in time.
Discord is not like the rest of his race. Even they had a kind soul once but they took the wrong way and that led them to their destination. That brought Discord to us.
Discord is different, I know. I have seen it…”
~
“... Archery, fencing, hand-to-hand combat, Celestia has learned all this and more in just 4 years. She has also proven great dexterity and power with magic. I cannot lie, I'm proud.
Having trained she relieves me. The situation in Equestria has become somewhat unstable. Every time we go to the market we hear people complaining whether they cannot trust anyone or that we do not save them again.
I think I finally understand the reason why Father always stays away from the earthly world, far from the mortals it created.
Sometimes that same reason makes me think that maybe we should never have come to earth beyond this, but then I see my family and my doubts vanish.
Even so it bothers me that Celestia teaches what she has learned to that draconequus. I have forbidden her to do it but I know that my words have no value for her. I have seen them training in secret and every time she does it is when she only makes me feel disappointed and worried. With his powers and training for combat, only Exodo knows how dangerous that monster can be...”
~
“I have been smiling for hours, I know I look silly but why should not I do it if Nebula is expecting another child.
Celestia does not disapprove the news either?" She screamed like a possessed, jumped into her mother's arms and with the same joy burst into tears just told her she would be a big sister in a matter of months.
I lost count of how many times I heard her murmur: “I am going to have a brother, I am going to have a brother, I am going to have a brother...”, always with a huge and bright smile while her eyes were lost in her fantasies. I could not help but laugh at each time she noticed I saw her behaving that way.
Discord was also glad for the news, but I feel his joy is due to Nebula’s. He has never seen Celestia as a sister and I doubt he sees the new child differently, he just sees my wife as his mother and her happiness is enough reason to provoke the same feeling to him.
As much as I hate to admit it, he loves her. For him she is his mother and if she is happy, he is too ...”
~
“... last night he went to the cave and returned as if he had seen how much horror the outside world could offer, even, no, more so.
Celestia also worries me. Since this morning she has acted distant, the brightness of childlike wonder that shone in her face just by looking at the sky has vanished, not even with Discord has she shown, what I believed, her eternal joy. I tried to talk to her but she only excused herself with a task she had to do. Discord had no better luck, not at all. He told me trying to get an answer all he could earn was a scream from her side, an almost desperate scream that was soon succeeded by a disheartened weeping that Discord hardly managed to stop.
My sun, my love: What makes you so tormented?...”
~
“... I wish I had bitten my tongue today. I asked Galaxus for a reason for his recent behavior, since he did not give me an answer I threatened to use my vision to know what had happened and in a matter of seconds he stopped me looking at me with terror.
“Please, forgive me. I would tell you everything if it was not a risk, if I knew some way to soften this that torments me and make it less painful, then I would tell you. But you see what it has done me to know what I know. If something happened to our child or you because of my indiscretion, I would never...”
He could not continue from that point, tears did not let him. The last time I saw him cry for the happiness Celestia's birth caused to him, this was the first time I saw him cry out of fear and helplessness. I sang to him to calm him down until he fell asleep. I never imagined seeing him like that, so weak, helpless and insecure, now that I have seen him my fears have increased.
What could he have seen to be in that state?
I want to help him, but if truly my intervention can only bring more harm than good.
He is already too broken, hurting it more would be a cruelty worthy of Armageddon...”
~
“... Right now I have so many things in my head I am almost glad that boy is here.
Celestia's mind is as full of thoughts as I have mine, but that draconequus has managed to distract her either by entertaining her like a jester or by annoying her with her jokes. He also entertains Nebula singing to her, playing music, dancing or the three of them unanimously.
That was the original purpose of his race. Bringing joy to those around them was their reason for existing, until they found their own fun in the suffering of others.
Unlike my wife and daughter, I have no appreciation for that draconequus. His dark destiny is not my main concern.
It is someone else's fate that worries me.
Father, please...”
~
“Luna. That is the name we chose for our new daughter.”
~
“Why did not I destroy that damn prophecy as soon as I saw it? Because I did not want to accept it? Because I did want to find a method, whatever it was, to avoid it?
I simply do not have forgiveness for that decision.
If I had just ignored that denial, if I had only erased that torment, then she would not have to suffer in this way...”
~
“... I did what I should have done months ago: I destroyed the engraving. I will not let that prophecy cause my family more pain.
I still cannot forget her crying. It was horrible. I saw less devastation when the draconequus went mad than with each tear fell. Meanwhile I was there, hugging her, unable to do anything to calm her down.
Why should I be so impotent when I want to help my family? I caused that pain and I can not do anything to appease it? To comfort the woman I love and who I would walk barefoot through the most horrible abysses of Tartarus?...”
~
“...Equestria does not seem to have a minute of peace. Only a little over a decade has passed since the last conflict was resolved and now a new evil is rising.
In the markets has spread the rumor of the rulers who are in our search to put an end to this new conflict. If the search intensifies they could not only find us but also our home.
We live in Earth Heaven because it is impossible for us to return to the next plane, and our daughters could not have even gone because they were born with a body besides their soul. If we had stayed in Equestria or in Old Land, we would have had to live wandering around praying they would not find us...”
~
“... I have spent days searching for an answer to what this new evil could be and once again the remedy has ended up being worse than the disease.
I had already seen these beings when we lived above all with Father. They are being like us, without a real purpose, that was the reason for their corruption, not having a reason to exist since their creation led them to form their own objective, which seems to be to take over the world they were born in.
I fear I do not understand that desire for conquest. Is it that they feel so empty inside they believe taking what belongs to others will be completed? What will they do if they discover it did not fill them?
Beyond this small land maybe the children are spoken of us as angels, reigning beings, who sit next to the Creator as a son sits next to his father, with a castle of gold walls and diamond windows with enough servants to make a town. Nothing further from reality. Here we are not different from many farmers and workers, we have nothing which can be considered of great value and yet we are happy.
In this small land is what I love most in the universe, they are my purpose, I do not need more...”
~
Author's Note
Maybe you don't know but I actually write this fanfic in Spanish and then I translate it to English, so, if the next chapter takes a while to came out don't get surprised it's principaly because I haven't finish chapter six already, I've been through a creative block and altought I have the idea of how chapter six should go I d]on't how to write it. (I hate my brain!)
Everything was dark... his vision had been clouded... Luna's cry echoed in his head ... he could not breathe well...
A yellowish light began to shine... it was warm... it came from...
“Where are they?” that voice woke him up from his vision. “Not six hours to go dark,” said the worried alicorn girl.
“Maybe they had some encounter with the Hunters,” he said without the least concern. Then he turned his gaze from the treetop to her, wanted to swallow his words. “Hey, do not worry! Do you really think that a few of Hunters can do something against mother and your father? It would take a hundred of them to make one of them perspire!”
She didn’t seem to react to his comment, this made him panic. It's funny how his brain was put at full speed from one second to another, in 3 seconds he had at least 15 ideas of how to distract her so she could think of something else. He was ready to suddenly invert the gravity and crash into a couple of branches of the tree above him, when she sighed smiling:
“I guess you are right.”
Those words were a relief, he wouldn’t have to break his face to worry more about his health than his parents' tardiness. On second thought, maybe that wasn’t the best idea.
Changing the subject: What had all that been before Celestia spoke?
Discord had been spinning his head for a while now, recovering his life. How much? He didn’t know. It felt like it had been days, even weeks, he just prayed that when all this madness was over it hadn’t been long enough for Fluttershy to have a family of her own, so Twilight and her friends would have to look for something more powerful than the Elements of Harmony to neutralize him.
In any case, enough time had passed for Discord to notice ‘advances’. These were memories that came before he was even in the same place where they happened, normally they were very significant events for him, like the wreath he made for Celestia. But normally they were memories very lacking of something, color, sound, sharpness, it was never the complete memory, if what had been a few minutes ago had been an advance it must have been something very important to have been able to remember so many sensations.
Now Discord was reviving his adolescence, he had just turned 15 years old just a couple of months ago. He was a carefree teenager, it might seem that this description is superfluous considering that he lived in a land where life was simply calm and perfect but is still a carefree. It didn’t help that his powers had increased and he had dominated almost everything they could offer so far. If there was someone to blame for that, it was Galaxus himself.
The story happened like this: about a month after Nebula announced that she was expecting a new child, Discord was bothering Reginald, the bull that adults bought years ago along with the rest of the animals, and this filled the patience of the animal, who rammed it. Discord tried to protect himself from the furious bull and, as by instinct, he ended up turning it into a bird, a woodpecker to be exact. It took him a while to understand what and how he had done that, when he did, he started to play with this new skill, turning the ‘Reginald woodpecker‘ even into completely impossible hybrids: a lion-rabbit, a rabbit-giraffe, an elephant-seal ; until he made the mistake of returning the animal to its original form, now even more irate than before. He would probably have been seriously injured that day if Galaxus hadn’t stopped the bull.
What followed was a sermon, which he had the good fortune to forget almost completely, about his irresponsibility with his powers and how they were the reason why they couldn’t leave Earth Heaven. Although he hated to admit it, Galaxus intimidated him very much that day, that is why in the following days he began to exploit his powers to see how much he was capable of and to silence the man's mouth. It was quite simple when he noticed that, in a way, he wasn’t as tied to the rules of reality as any mortal.
But once he handled everything he could, he rubbed it, almost literally, on Galaxus' face. The arrogance that caused him to be outside the rules of the Creator brought an ironic satisfaction to the alicorn and concern to his mother, in fact, if it hadn’t been for a pair of alicorns in that land, probably Equestria would have sunk into chaos decades before. It hurt him to remember her mother's gaze when she saw her new abilities. Why had he thought she would be proud to see how his power dominated him?
He locked himself in his room for days, excusing himself of being sick, and didn’t leave until Nebula talked to him and still felt his blood boiling every time he met Galaxus. He was sick of him. Sick of up with that eternal hatred towards him. Of his contempt. Of his mere presence.
He was so sick of the alicorn and so afraid he would break his mother's heart again that he decided to leave Earth Heaven, but another alicorn gave him back the sense: Celestia. How did alicorns always convince him or take him the right way? Genetics? Nebula and Celestia were like mother like daughter, so it was a possibility. Anyway, Celestia made him see that if he left the only one in that land that would be happy in some way would be Galaxus. Galaxus, Galaxus, Galaxus, always Galaxus. Would there come the day when he is a bastard, wouldn’t make his life be bitter?
Celestia made him understand that no matter how much Galaxus hated him, she needed her friend and her mother needed her son. Celestia couldn’t have been older than 12 when that happened, but she was very mature and sensible for her age. That characteristic of her had been increasing and showing more as time had passed, but she didn’t notice it clearly until that night.
“Those Hunters,” the girl spoke again with some frustration. “By Exodo! Sometimes it seems that they do not rest. What do the equestrian earn with which our mother and father free them from this new evil? Another will come and then another, there will always be a new problem to face, they cannot wait for a man and a woman to help them always. They did it once without their asking or thanking! Cannot them let them live a quiet life now that they have fulfilled their purpose?” she fell against the grass next to the small Luna, who was sleeping peacefully lying on the ground.
“That is the way people is: once they find something effective, it does not matter if they are aware that this entails a risk, they will use it over and over and over again until it is something everyday for them.”
“Says the young man who performs all his tasks of the day with a snap of his fingers,” she commented jester, making all the solemnity of his comment meaningless.
“Thanks, Tia,” he said sarcastically as he got up. “I say something sensible for once in life and you ruin it. Then do not complain if I make nonsense,” he crossed his arms comically.
“Do not get mad at me,” she laughed. “It is not in you to be mature, you are too spontaneous for that.”
“And you are too boring!”
“Hey!”
“What? It is the truth, you look like a grown-up woman cursed and doomed to stay in the body of a girl for the rest of eternity,” he put his hands to his forehead in exasperation and dragged them along his face. “Even since you got in your head that idea of becoming a knight!” began to cry false tears. “I had hopes that the new child could give me someone to have fun with again But I can not even hold Luna without her crying! The universe hates me!” he shouted at the sky, dropping to the ground before raising an arm pointing to the sky to finally scream. “Your grandfather hates me!”
By saying her ‘grandfather’ he was referring to Exodo, although Celestia never liked using that term. It's funny: her parents had been created directly from the hand of the Creator, but she never felt very attached to the great divinity, even seemed she didn’t have it any faith. And he was the illogical?
With respect to the Hunters, they were a group of ‘mercenaries with class,’ as the Council of the Three Races called them, although with time the royal guard was also employed to find the divine saviors and bring them before the rulers. Discord often wondered how they didn’t replace them after almost half a decade searching for the alicorns without success.
Of course, lately between both failure and failure they seemed to have gained experience and each time it was more difficult for Nebula and Galaxus to avoid them.
“Do you really think I have changed since I decided I wanted to be a knight?”
“If there is someone on this earth who knows you, that is me, or I believe so, and, yes, you have changed. You have become very boring with those things of ‘follow the footsteps of your parents as a warrior and guardian’, or that ‘as soon as we leave this land you will look for a Lord or Lady who deserves to be protected to provide your services’. Would not it be easier dedicate yourself to something else? I can not think of an instrument you do not know how to play and you have a very good voice, you could be a world-known artist,” at that time he didn’t notice his words, but Celestia did.
“Oh, shut up!” that was embarrassing. He barely noticed that Luna was beginning to wake up, unlike her sister, who took her in her arms.
“Alright, Discord,” she said after a giggle. “I had no idea that he had changed so much. And, yes, I know it would be easier, and accessible to me, to dedicate myself to entertaining people but that is not what I want to do,” she looked at the baby in her arms. “It is just...” then looked at the horizon. “... there are so many people out there that can not protect themselves, there are people with great power and a good heart whose lives end prematurely at the hands of those who want to use that power for selfish purposes,” she turned to see him, he wasn’t sure, but it almost seemed like she was about to cry. “My parents were warriors, they were under orders from the Exodo itself! I could never find a Lord who would compare to that, but at least I want to follow in their footsteps and protect everyone who deserves to live,” at that moment, Discord could almost swear he saw her dressed in armor and with a sword in her hand.
Discord sighed defeat and, somehow, also happy, he stood up using his powers so as not to have to move a single muscle and said:
“Well, maybe it is your destiny to become a knight, you do not have a cutie mark that proves otherwise” she didn’t have a cutie mark at all.
“I do not have cutie mark...” she repeated to herself lowering her eyes.
“If you are going to start getting depressed about the fact that you do not have one of those marks you better do not keep talking,” he said with a tone more bored than severe. “We have been all our lives trapped in this land without interacting with anyone else, repeating the same routine day after day. You can not expect that living the same day over and over again for years will give you a clue as to what makes you special,” he meandered around in circles around her while she looked at him incredulously and confused. “Someone's destiny is always designated by the world who surrounds them and the people they know,” he finally stopped and stood in front of her. “So instead of worrying about the fact that you still do not get that stupid mark, you should consider all the opportunities it could offer you.”
“I know, but still there is no guarantee that my cutie mark indicates that my dream and my destiny are the same.”
“And so?”
She looked at him confused by that question. He could see that she was trying to formulate an adequate response to that question but she herself ended up asking herself that question.
“It is just a magical tattoo that reaches all eqeans sooner or later, why does it have to tell you how to live your life? It is yours after all, is not it? You can do what you want with it, or are you a mere puppet of fate?”
She looked at him with very bright and open eyes, full of hope.
“You are right!” she finally said with great encouragement.
“Always,” interrupted boasting mockingly, finally he could get a smile of her.
“I... I do not even know why I worry,” she said animated and smiling. “I will barely be 13 years old in a few months, most of the eqeans do not get their cutie mark until after 15 years of age. And I do not even have to follow it blindly! I do not have to be a puppet of destiny as you said, I will live my life as I want.”
A puppet of destiny.
It was ironic that he had told her that when he was practically one. The Eye of Exodo, the cave where the omen of his madness was recorded, was proof of that. He couldn’t escape from the destiny that the Creator had written for him and, sadly, he knew that Celestia couldn’t achieve her dream. He felt bad for giving her hope at that moment.
“Thank you, Discord.”
“I am at your service, My Lady,” bowed in a jocular and exaggerated manner.
He heard her slight laugh and his self-imposed work was done. He raised his head without leaving his pose to admire his work when something in the distance caught his eye. A dark spot was moving on the horizon, too far to distinguish what it was.
“What is wrong?” Celestia asked.
“Someone is coming,” he barely noticed that he was already standing a few steps from where he had made his false reverence.
“Do you think they are mother and father?” she tried to see what he did.
“I would not be so sure.”
It wasn’t them. He knew when part of the spot raised in the air. It wasn’t the adults.
“Run!” he took her hand and made her run as if her life depended on it, and it did.
“Discord, what is wrong?!” Celestia asked scared as she tried to keep up with him while keeping Luna safe.
“It is not them! I do not know who they are but they are not!” he ran without looking back.
“Get down!” she threw him to the ground and quickly covered Luna as much as she could.
Before he could ask why had she done that, he heard a rumble coming from the tree and when he looked at the origin of this sound, what he saw was a green flame torch where the tree had been before and what little was left of it. I found flying with dangerous speed towards them.
Like Celestia to her little sister who was now crying inconsolably, Discord covered Celestia when he saw the pieces and tree branches flying towards them. Instinctively he made them less dangerous to them: cotton, big balls of cotton.
He took a second to recover from the shock, thanks in part to Luna's constant crying. He picked up Celestia and they ran again.
“By Exodo, who are they?” Celestia said running.
“I do not know and I do not care! They almost killed us! We have to hide!”
“If they find the house they will look for us there as soon as they see it! Let's go to the tunnels! They can not find us...! Aaaaahhh!” Celestia screamed when she saw strange creatures approaching quickly.
“Tia!”
“Get away!” she yelled at the strange being who was coming closer and closer as she threw a magic beam that pierced its body. Killing it.
Both were totally blocked seeing the dead creature in the tall grass. He was in shock but could only vaguely imagine what Celestia was feeling. The poor girl, the snow would almost look black as coal compared to her expression. She had just killed something or someone! She needed time to process it! And time was just something they didn’t have at that time. He looked up to find that at least a dozen of those beings were flying towards them.
"Enough!” he thought before snapping his fingers and converting those creatures as soon as an insect occurred to him."You are quite similar, you sure feel comfortable," then he grabbed the catatonic Celestia by the shoulders and teleported them to the deepest part and intricate he knew from the tunnels of the Hollow Hill.
Celestia was right to choose that place as their hiding place while all that madness was developing. The tunnels of the Hollow Hill extended and branched for long distances and, according to something that Nebula told them when they were younger, past a certain point, the earth under Earth Heaven faded into an eternal void. If these creatures dared to enter and ended up taking a wrong turn at some point they would spend the rest of eternity trapped in nothingness.
Of course there was no problem for them, they had spent their lives touring those underground dirt corridors. They were the best place to play hide and seek. Now they were their refuge.
Who knows how long they were in there? He didn’t have the slightest idea, he just knew that it was enough for Celestia to get out of shock enough to form coherent sentences.
“Are you okay?” he asked worried.
“Yes...” she barely managed to say. She clung to her little sister now calmer as a small child to their favorite toy when are is afraid. Silent tears ran down her face, she herself hardly seemed to have noticed.
At another time he would have mocked her for being so shocked to kill someone minutes after saying she wanted to be a kind of soldier. But making fun of something like this at a time like this would have meant the end of their friendship and, probably, of his life and Celestia’s sanity.
“In the name of Exodo: What were those things?” she said in frustration as she dried his tears.
“Who knows? They had horns at the same time that they had wings, but they did not look like you, they looked more like some kind of insect,” they were changelings.
The creatures that attacked them that day were changelings. Somehow they managed to find the entrance to Earth Heaven and they entered that land. Of course, back then he was only sure of the latter.
“One thing is for sure:” he continued. “: they were not common equestrians.”
“And they are someone to reason. They attacked us just seeing us! We would have died if we had not run. Thank you, Discord,” she gave him a look and a smile full of gratitude.
“Thanks to you too, Tia, that insect would have caught us if you did not kill him first...” just say that he bit his tongue so hard that he almost ripped it off. What an idiot! She was just coming out of shock and he was pouring salt on the wound! “I am sorry! I am sorry!” he repeated again and again.
“It is fine...” were her words but everything else in she said otherwise, her voice, her eyes, nothing was right.
“It was not my intention to bring up the subject, Tia, I swear it for my life,” he still wondered if that was a good choice of words.
“Discord, please, let's not give it more laps,” she said frustrated while the tears reappeared. “I can not believe I did that!”
“You did it to protect us, it is not your fault,” he sat down next to her.
“But still...” that sentence was unfinished when Discord placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at her to calm her down a bit, strategy that worked. “I am a shame, right? I say that one day I will protect a Lord at any cost and when we protect ourselves, it affects me to take someone's life.”
“I should worry more about not affecting you.”
She looked at him confused.
“A soldier who is not afraid to kill fifty men in his first combat and after a hundred deaths by his hand without remorse does not hesitate to look for another hundred, and even finds it pleasurable, does not kill for his people's sake but for the simple pleasure of decide which lives end up as if they were Exodo. On the other hand, the soldier who in the first combat does not consent to the unnecessary loss of enemies and after the tenth honor to the enemies that he believes fought with more fierceness and honor, that is a warrior worthy of a king.”
She looked into his eyes for a second, there was a special brightness in her eyes, a glow of joy and confidence both in him and in herself. She snuggled closer to him with a silly smile and he returned the gesture, it was a way for them to say ‘Thank you’ and ‘It was a pleasure’.
They stayed like that for a few minutes until their optimistic smiles faded away as they came to the idea of a reality: They couldn’t stay there for who-knows-how long just waiting for these creatures to leave. Hunger and thirst weren’t so much a concern, Discord could make a banquet appear if he wanted, but that was no excuse to stay to live underground as hermits for the rest of their lives. They had to go out and see what was happening outside, they couldn’t leave both because of Luna but at least one of them had to check the terrain. That was Discord.
“Where are you going?” Celestia asked when she saw him moving towards the exit.
“If mother and your father have returned, I must tell them that these things must be in our house. Stay here with Luna.”
“Have you lost your mind?! If those things already wanted to kill us just seeing us, now that we have charged one of their own they will not hesitate to tear your head off.”
“They can not kill me if you do not recognize me,” he smiled mischievously and winking his eye turned into a snake. “Do not worry, Tia, I will just go to the entrance of Earth Heaven and if I do not see a mother and your father will come back to here.”
She didn’t seem very convinced by this idea but it seems that after considering the options, stay there until who knows how much or face the creatures, she finally had to yield. She let out a sigh, kissed the tiny head of the snake and begged:
“Be careful, please.”
“Do not worry, I will be back soon.”
And he left quickly, partly because he didn’t want her to see his blush, that was the first time she showed such a gesture to him and it was a little embarrassing.
It took him a few minutes to get out of the tunnels and more than half an hour to reach the limit of Earth Heaven where this and Equestria connected. He saw no sign of the adults in the whole journey and he didn’t see them appear in the limit after several minutes.
Why did they take so long? And why at a time like that? Maybe if they had run into hunters, dammit, that was the worst synchrony of life! He couldn’t even take the risk of going out to look for them because I did not have the slightest idea of what blessed part of Equestria they were in and he couldn’t just leave Celestia and Luna to find them!
As frustrated as he was, he ended up undoing his transformation and pulling his hair until it was a few inches longer. His tantrum passed in a matter of minutes giving way to a feeling of disappointment and concern. What if his mother and Galaxus had been captured by the Hunters? Would they have to leave Earth Heaven and live in Equestria on their own? In those moments, Discord wanted to remember a little more about the history of Equestria to get an idea of what might happen next but had never been interested in any kind of history, not even his own.
Feeling defeated and seriously considering leaving Earth Heaven with Celestia and Luna, he prepared to return to Hollow Hill and tell his friend about it when something happened to him. If those creatures got there to plunder, because he did not think those things were Hunters, then maybe they would have gone already. After all, the poorest villages of Equestria were more looting than a land with only one house and family. He smiled to himself when he thought that all he needed was to snap his fingers and transport himself to the house to check his theory and his and the alicorn girls’ safety. Of course Celestia would hate him if she found out that he went to the wolf's mouth when he promised to come back after see if the adults had returned or not, but he was too confident to worry about that now.
“AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”
That distant cry, that voice, was none other than Celestia.
“No,” he said to himself, astonished. “No, no, no...!” he repeated terrified again and again as he flew up and headed faster than his wings should allow him to head for the Hollow Hill.
Even so, he knew that the scream didn’t come from there. He preferred to deceive himself thinking that his ears were wrong and that that scream came from where he wanted but when he was there, when he reviewed every corridor that he was able to remember in that moment of hysteria and proved his fear, he had only one place to go: the source of the scream, his house.
He didn’t even need a snap of his fingers to transport himself and there he was. He saw Celestia with Luna tied behind her, floating in the air, held by all her limbs by bonds by the magical bonds of a woman like those creatures: dark skinned and pierced limbs, a long twisted horn, translucent insectoid wings green, a tail that looks similar to iher wings. A complete stranger at that time, someone more familiar than he would wish now: Queen Chrisalys.
“Tia!” he shouted without thinking when he saw her, he needed to step forward to find something that added to his horror.
When they were young, he and Celestia used to go barefoot so it took him barely a second to notice the pool of blood he had just stepped on and not far from that puddle was the decapitated body of Clara, their cow. Terrified, he fell backward and his hand plunged into another pool of blood. A part of him shouted at him not to look up and he still did not know why the hell he did it but when he looked around he saw only all the animals animals, the pigs, the chickens, all were lying on the ground coloring the emerald grass of crimson.
He didn’t have the stomach to bear that vision, the closest he had been to a massacre had been war stories that he ventured to read from time to time.
“A draconequus?” he heared Chrisalys saying and when he looked at her again he saw her watching him with remarkable curiosity. Then she smiled with some malice. “Interesting.”
“What are you doing here?!” Celestia yelled at him, pulling him out of his shock.
“Me?! What are you doing here? I told you not to go out of the tunnels, stupid girl!”
“As if you had not thought to do the same! Come on, deny it!”
“Silence!” Chrisalys cast a spell that covered Celestia's mouth, preventing her from speaking.
“Tia!”
“So that is her name?” she said, keeping her smile as she walked towards the teenager. “Thank you, young man, your friend did not deign to give us that simple information when she introduced herself to me. I am Queen Chrisalys, sovereign of the changelings and, soon, supreme ruler of Equestria. Tell me boy: What is your name?” she spoke in a… seductive way? The only thing he was sure of that behavior was that he didn’t like it in the least.
After taking a few seconds to regain his composure, Discord got up, forced a confident smile on his face.
“My name is Discord, your majesty,” he bowed mockingly. “And you already know Tia and Lulu.”
“Tia and Lulu? I expected names more worthy of beings like them,” ‘Someone does not know nicknames,’ thought Discord. “They are your friends, am I wrong?”
“The smallest, I do not think so, the eldest, is my best and only friend,” he looked at her with a nervous smile.
Celestia gave him a furious gaze. He had to free her and Luna but he had his hands tied, that woman and her people had killed all their animals, they had neutralized her, she was a prodigy in combat and he hardly knew anything about combat. The best option for him was to wait and get them out of there when Chrisalys let her guard down, if they had to flee to Equestria then they would.
“How long have you known her? If it can be known.”
“Since she was born. Not even in dreams could I forget that day,” pure irony.
“Then I suppose you have meet her parents?” she asked even more interested, moving closer to him with a look that disturbed him. Maybe she considered that being Discord a teenager would have the typical ‘needs’ of one, and that she could use that in her favor but the effect was completely the opposite, he was each second more uncomfortable.
“O-Of course, Majesty,” he trembled.
“They would not be, by any chance, a dark-skinned man and a white-skinned woman, would they?” that question caught Discord's attention.
“How ... you know that?” the only response he received was silence, then the insect queen crouched until her face was at the same height.
“And tell me, young Discord, where are they now?” she stroked her face, Discord felt as if he was been touched with a corpse. Her skin was cold, smooth and covered with animal blood. He noticed then the other changelings around him, all emitting a gloomy buzz in their intrigue.
“I-I... I do not...” he swallowed and finally spoke clearly. “I do not know, Majesty.”
Chrisalys’ smile faded, the buzz died, that response wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Chrisalys got up, unraveled the spell that held the girls and at the same time ordered:
“Hold the older one, do not let her escape... and bring the baby to me.”
“What?!” exclaimed the young ones in unison, they knew that she didn’t mean well with Luna.
“No, no! Luna!” Celestia cried when her sister was snatched from the back, four changelings pinned her to the ground.
“Majesty, I beg you...” Discord grabbed her arm in a futile attempt to stop her but she immobilized him as she did with Celestia. A second later she already had Luna in her arms, the poor girl had not stopped crying.
“Did not you say that the name of this girl was Lulu?” she said while somehow managed to calm a little Luna. “Then, why her sister has called her by another name? What else have you lied to me, young man?”
“I have not lied!” he said desperately.
"Please, let her go!" Celestia struggled.
"Then can I trust that you do not know the whereabouts of the warriors of the Creator, either?" He ignored Celestia’s pleas.
“I swear I do not know, Majesty!”
“Pray to the Elysium that your words are true, young man, because otherwise...” she used her magic to hold the baby by each wing and pull them out spreading them. Doing that for a baby as young as Luna was back then could, in the best case, delay that she could fly, and in the worst, leave her wings completely unusable, but Chrisalys didn’t seem interested in the physical development of the little baby alicorn.
“I swear I do not know where they are! Please, let her go! Both of them!” rectified
Chrisalys didn’t seem convinced and continued to pull Luna’s wings harder, intensifying her crying.
“Please! I do not know! I just do not know!”
Chrisalys stopped, this gave the young people a little hope. But that hope died when the insect queen said:
“What a pity,” she smiled wickedly before beginning the final pull.
“LUNA!” Celestia yelled loudly before a beam of magic hit Chrisalys’ left arm, almost cutting it.
“AAAGGHH!” she agonized, her concentration broke and Discord and Luna were free, the first caught the second before it touched the ground and then took off.
Celestia screamed again. This was more a war scream than a prayer. When Discord looked to where his friend was and saw her shoot magic right and left hitting one or other changelings and almost him and Luna. This attack served to intimidate those in charge of immobilizing it, two of them fled almost immediately and the other two could barely contain the furious girl, leaving her then a hand, a wing and a free foot.
Celestia’s hand then caught fire, terrifying one of the changelings who still held her and all that remained was to hit her face with her burning hand to the last one left. He fell to the ground writhing in pain from the fire in his face, but soon his fight stopped just like his life, while Celestia stood up. She didn’t find it easy to recover his posture, when she did she looked at Chrisalys with a defiant face.
“Kill her!” Chrisalys ordered with anger. “Kill that stupid bitch!”
Discord was terrified to hear those words and without thinking he flew to Celestia looking to take her away.
“Tia!” he shouted when she saw the remaining changelings approaching her, but she recoiled when she noticed Celestia's gaze: there was so much rage and thirst for revenge in her eyes, he barely recognized her best friend. Those eyes just weren’t hers.
Her horn lit up and the magic that came out of it mixed with the flame of her hand and formed a sword of fire and aura. She placed herself on guard and as soon as the first changelings approached her she cut off they head in a quick movement, without flinching. The next she cut was from the collarbone to the stomach, the one that followed that one was pierced in the chest by that magic sword. A couple of them tried to attack her at the same time and Celestia had to go from attack to defense using her sword to block her attack.
“Go back to Tartarus, you damn demons!” she shouted full of rage as she shot him between the eyebrows, if it can be say so, to one of them and draw from his other hand a dagger of fire with which the other stabbed the side. Once the latter was on the ground, Celestia pierced his head with her sword.
Discord was terrified but he didn’t know what made him feel the most: That that killing lack of blood because the blood coagulated instantly by the heat of the weapon? Or that all this killing was running by the hands of her best friend?
Was that demon really the peaceful princess so revered in all of Equestria?
One by one the changelings were falling, each one as savage as the last, until it was left alone: the queen. The rage in Celestia's eyes burned with more force when she saw who would be her next victim, but not only rage burned in her eyes, so did pleasure.
She railed against Chrisalys with obvious intent to kill her and would have done so if he hadn’t intervened.
“Celestia, stop!” he wrapped her arm around hers while keeping Luna from falling of the other.
“What are you doing?!” she struggled opening her wings in an attempt to get rid of that grip “Let go now! This monster deserves no more than death and she will have it by my hand!”
“Are you even listening to your own words! This is not you, Celestia!
She turned to see him and again he had to meet those unknown eyes. He hesitated a second before regaining the strength of his grip, then said:
“She no longer has allies, you already snatched her arm, she is helpless.”
The anger in her eyes began to fade but was still latent.
“You have done enough,” she was placating her attack, he didn’t need to apply so much force now that she was calmer. “Please, do not cross that line that separates the hero from the murderer, Tia,” prayed almost with tears in his eyes.
Deep down, he was afraid that everything would be in vain and that such a line would no longer exist for her. To his joy, the hatred in her eyes continued to extinguish until finally only a confused look remained.
“Discord…?”
“Heh” Chrisalys released and when they turned to see her they saw her smiling and her horn shining and vibrating.
In an instant a beam of magic came from behind them and through Celestia's wing.
“AAAAAHHH!” Celestia yelled falling to her knees on the floor with Discord.
“Stupid kids!” Chrisalys laughed getting up. Or at least that's what he thought.
Actually everything around Discord seemed to fade after seeing the wound in Celestia's wing. Maybe that hole in her friend's wing didn’t secrete any blood, but the simple vision of that missing part of Celestia's limb, seeing her tremble with pain in the ground, the smell of burned flesh, knowing that the cause of all this was a few meters away from him. All this filled him with hate, more than he had felt in his entire life.
In that part was when everything became strange. One second he was next to Celestia and the next Chrisalys was lifting him off the ground holding him by the neck. What the hell happened? It was what he asked himself back then and he kept asking it today. The only difference between the first time that question was asked and the following ones was that in none of the later occasions was it pierced in the stomach by the insect queen. Unlike the murdered changelings, Celestia's wing and Chrisalys’ arm, he did bleed, a lot.
He wasn’t able to utter a cry at all, just a muffled sound as Chrisalys muttered triumphantly:
“And this is the end of the life of the last draconequs,” and she let him fall.
He was sure that it must had hurt, a lot, but he really wasn’t able to remember it. He was completely blocked, he was only sure that in front of him he saw hundreds of celestial bodies and that on his back was the ground covered with grass.
So that was it. The moment he had remembered when they were under the tree. It was that moment. When his life hung by a thread by the invasion of the changelings to Earth Heaven when he was young. Of course, there was still a detail missing so that the memory was complete, and a certain alicorn girl known for everybody was going to take care of that.
“Discord...” he saw her crawling over him crying and pulling him out of his shock.
“Tia...” he could barely say. “...run...” he wanted to tell her more, to calm her down, to lie to her about that he would be fine, but barely had the strength to say the few words he said. Anyway, he knew she wouldn’t listen to him.
“Never,” still crying her voice showed determination. She placed Luna next to him, the little girl must have had a serious sore throat after so much crying today.
Celestia then stood up and re-formed the sword of fire, or rather, the swords of fire. Discord knew what she was going to do, on that occasion he just wanted to avoid at all costs to commit the madness she was about to do. Now he was very happy that the battle he feared didn’t happen.
The earth trembled and shone. Celestia seemed to see something and quickly teleported the three of them to a point farther from the house. He turned his head faintly to the spot where they had been a second ago and saw how the earth shone and from it came large columns of white light that caught Chrisalys and his changelings who had left the cave, the few who managed to get away they were soon caught in smaller pillars. When all were trapped, one pillar shone with a blinding intensity and the changelings within disintegrated. Soon the process was repeated little by little with the others.
“What is the meaning of this?” he heard Chrisalys scream.
“I thought you capable of a lot, Chrisalys...” a voice came from behind the young ones and both turned to see where the voice came from.
“You!” Chrisalys said.
“... But, attack children? I begin to doubt if you are the work of the Creator or Armageddon,” the bearer of that voice passed by them and continued to walk until facing the insect woman “At least now you will give more problems,” there were fewer pillars left, a couple more and Chrisalys would have gone.
Or so he believed then.
Chrisalys let out a laugh:
“You underestimate me, old man! You always do it!” she cast a spell and the pillar changed color from white to green, a second later it exploded.
“Chrisalys!”
She was free and was flying towards them. He would have attacked them if Celestia had not shown her face and fired. Then she left, finally there was calm. Especially for him.
Discord's vision had been darkening since Chrisalys wounded him, now everything was very blurry and his eyes were struggling to stay open. He wasn’t sure then if that stranger was an unconditional ally or a temporary ally, maybe a bounty hunter looking for his prey. If he didn’t turn out to be a friend he wanted to be focused enough to teleport Celestia and Luna away from there.
Then he felt a warm light on him and that the pain was going away, it was Celestia, she was using a little healing spell. Actually it was only a spell to alleviate the pain, there were no spells with very powerful healing functions at that time, even in the actuality the magic medicine was a field very little explored. It was better than nothing.
“It is not common for a girl of your age to have such skilful abilities,” they heard the old equestrian say.
Celestia left her attention to Discord, and placed herself on guard between him and Luna and the stranger threatening him with their swords. The old man stepped back.
“Easy, young lady! I have no intention of hurting you. Death rather than hurt the children of the Creator's guardians,” he said calmly.
“How, you know my parents?” she asked with a tone between anger and distrust. “Who are you, sir? How did you get here?”
The bearded old man removed his weeping hat, bowed and opened his blue cloak and said:
“Allow me to introduce myself, young lady,” he got up later. “In Equestria I am known as Star Swirl the Bearded.”
Author's Note
Hi!
“It is enough, young lady,” he heard the old man say. “You’re running out of strength.”
“...I am... fine...” that was Celestia, but she didn’t sound good at all.
Discord slowly opened his eyes, trying to get used to the light coming from his stomach. He no longer felt so much pain, his wound still hurt but not enough to continue fainting as he thought it had happened. Then Celestia fell on her stomach and the twinge of pain woke him up completely.
“Agh!!!”
“Are you allright, young lady?” Star Swirl said and when he opened his eyes again, he saw that she was holding Celestia.
“...I am... a little tired...” the little alicorn said breathlessly.
“I warned you not to use so much energy, it has been imprudent on your part.”
Celestia then moved away from him and stood next to Discord. It was there that he realized that they were not outside but inside the house, he was lying in his bed with his torso wrapped in bandages.
“Tia?”
“...you woke up...thank goodness...” on another occasion she probably would have jumped on him to hug him but then she just seemed to have the strength to stand up.
He wanted to get up to comfort her a little, but as soon as he got up a couple of inches his wound forced him to stop.
“...Do not... try...” Celestia told him.
“She is right, boy. Even with the help of magic your wound will not heal in a while.”
Discord took a couple of breaths to ease the pain a little. Then he looked at Celestia and gave her a wicked smile, which he thinks she understood, considering the worried gaze she gave him. He gave not much thought to this concern, took a last breath and stood up in a quick gesture with a big smile.
“Stupid,” Celestia murmured annoyed as Star Swirl just looked at him in surprise.
He would have answered Celestia’s insult, if he hadn’t been completely numb from the pain. He had committed an idiocy but didn’t regret it and kept his smile now twisted by the agony, of course he could not prevent some tears from trickling down his face.
“Another imprudent,” the older unicorn said sternly. “Can be know what you were thinking, boy?”
“W-Where is the fun... in thinking?” he kept forcing his smile.
“...Do not... waste your strength... in correct him ... sir... my own... parents... could not...”
“Do not waste yours either, girl,” he knelt, placing a hand on her shoulder.
At that moment, Discord understood how great Celestia’s weariness was. If she did had all her strength with her, she would have withdrawn Star Swirl’s hand from her shoulder as soon as he had placed it on it. He might have saved their lives and Nebula and Galaxus may had told them a thousand stories about the greatest wizard of Equestria, but he was still a stranger, as well as an older man. But he didn’t understand exactly why this exhaustion in his friend. Not that he had a very vivid memory, but he didn’t remember having seen her so tired before fainting.
Realizing this, he struggled to swallow his pain. He moved forward until his hand reached Celestia’s, struggling not to emit a single sound that would settle suffering on his side, and when she looked up at him he replaced his agonized smile with an empathic one. Gesture that was returned.
Suddenly something felt different in the room and a chill ran through him. He felt as if something between cold and hot had mixed. Celestia quickly withdrew her hand and turned to look at Star Swirl.
“Sir, you don’t have to do...!”
Discord looked also at the old man and noticed that from Star Swirl’s hand was where that feeling came from. He was using a spell he didn’t know, but he would have bet that it was the same one that Celestia used with him. Glancing at his friend’s face, she noticed that she was looking at the old man with more concern than gratitude.
Barely a minute later, the sensation disappeared and Star Swirl fell on the ground, or would have done it if Celestia hadn’t given him support.
“I appreciate your help, sir, but you should not have done that,” she lifted the unicorn and guided him to her bed.
“It’s the least I can do, young girl,” he said tiredly.
“Still, you should consider your health, sir.”
“Hey!” he exclaimed. “Do not talk to me like I am a decrepit, young girl. I am only 60 years old, I am going to spend half of my life.”
“The first half or the second half?” Discord joked. “Because if it is the second one then you are a decrepit, old man,” he wanted to laugh but his wound didn’t let him loose a laugh.
“Discord, be respectful!” Celestia demanded. “Forgive him, sir.”
“Do not worry, young girl.”
Celestia then turned around and slowly walked to the bed where Discord was while removing a bandage from her left wing. The wing where she had been shot. He tightened the sheets thinking that he would have to see that missing fragment in his friend but to his surprise, when Celestia completely removed the bandage her wing was completely healthy. There wasn’t even a scar. He knew that total healing wasn’t a novelty in the alicorn, even if a large portion of the body or an entire limb had been lost, in a matter of months or a few years it wouldn’t even seem like there had ever a wound in the first place, but, unless half a day or a full day had passed, that healing shouldn’t be possible.
He looked then at his own wound. When he was hurt, he could barely keep his eyes open, now his biggest difficulty was flexing.
“How much time has passed?”
“No more than two hours. Mr. Star Swirl taught me a spell to transfer some of my energy, so the healing became faster. In fact you saw him use it on me a minute ago,” Celestia clarified and then sat next to him. “Discord, what you were thinking?” she asked suddenly. “Why did you attack that crazy woman like that?”
“I...” he was ready to answer when he noticed that he also lacked that information. “What?”
“You rushed on that woman after I got my wing hurt, you were completely out of you. You know you are not good at hand-to-hand combat. Why did you do such madness?”
Despite Celestia’s words, he didn’t remember doing any of that. He would have thought more than Chrisalys took him by the neck while he was in shock but; he attack her? He?
“I... I do not remember doing such a thing.”
“How you do not?”
“Maybe it is a trauma from the attack,” said Star Swirl.
“I do not think so, old man,” said Discord in a somewhat apathetic tone. “I remember that before stabbing me, that madwoman was holding me by the neck and I remember that after that I was with Celestia.”
“What about what goes between the two points?” Celestia asked.
“Nothing” released after a few seconds struggling to recover that lost memory. “Simply, there is nothing.”
“Well, you pounced on that woman like a wolf on a lamb, but you ended up more like you had faced a manticore. What a recklessness!” she scolded him.
That scolding wasn’t funny, but it wasn’t like he gave much importance. After all, giving a little review of that reprimand found something of his benefit.
He smiled mischievously and gave a little hit to Celestia’s horn.
“Ouch! Why did you do that?” she complained.
“To go back to the house when I told you to stay in the tunnels, that is why, silly girl.”
“Do not play saint now, Discord. I am able to bet my two wings that you also thought to come to the house after you left the Hollow Hill. Refuse me if I am wrong.”
Touché.
“At least I was going to get there without anyone seeing me!” he lied. “Besides: why the hell did you get off the hill?” he tried to regain ground.
“You said you would be back soon. Tell me in what world almost an hour is synonymous with soon!” she almost shouted.
“Try to travel almost a kilometer or more distance being as small as a snake! It is not an easy task!”
“You could have teleported!”
“Calm, calm!” interrupted Star Swirl. “You both failed to make your own plans without consulting the other in a situation like the one you were facing,” he scolded. “Be thankful that things did not end worse than they did.”
“So, Celestia committed stupidity by not paying attention to me,” he boasted.
“Stupid!” she pushed.
“Ahg! Why are you hurting me?” he cried.
“More damage I could do to you.”
“I do not doubt that...”
Before he could continue he heard screams:
“Celestia! Discord! Luna!” they were Nebula and Galaxus, they had finally arrived!
“Mother! Father!” Celestia shouted with joy as she ran to the door.
Star Swirl followed her, he didn’t understand with certainty why at that time but she thought it was to make sure it was not a trap of the changelings. But he knew it could not have been like that. He heard whispers, he could not make out the words.
A few moments later he heard rapid steps towards his room and Nebula appeared by the door. So happy was he to see her that he almost managed to get up without paying any attention to any pain, but he could not help but let out a small moan before.
“Mother” he called her.
“Oh, God!” she ran to him and hugged him. “Oh, my dear!” then she pulled away and examined him. “Are you okay? What happened to you?” she would have continued with the interrogation if Discord hadn’t embraced her again. After a few seconds he heard her calling Celestia: “Come here, my daughter,” and a second later she had also joined the hug.
So it was a few seconds in which Discord felt that everything was right where it should be. He and his mother separated while Celestia remained clinging to Nebula a little more. Then Galaxus arrived with Luna in his arms and embraced his wife and his other daughter.
That was a beautiful family picture. One in which he was not involved.
He knew he should be happy that the family was reunited but he resented the fact that this moment looked so perfect without him. He was a member of that family after all, it wasn’t his fault to be different.
To his joy, that family moment ended after a few seconds. Galaxus was the first to break the hug, then Nebula took Luna from the arms of her husband and sat next to Discord.
“What happened? “ Galaxus asked giving Celestia a moment before releasing.
“Some strange beings came here and attacked us,” replied the girl and then looked at Discord “They killed all the animals. They caught me and hurt Discord.”
“Everything out there looks like a battlefield,” Galaxus said with a dull tone suddenly, stroked Celestia’s head with a sad look and continued. “Please forgive us, children. All this could have been avoided, if we had arrived earlier.”
“It is not your fault, father.”
“Yes it is,” Nebula interrupted. “The Hunters caught us off guard, they were making revisions to all the travelers, and they also used a spell capable of nullifying the enchantments of illusions. We were exposed before they even used such magic on us” the guilt in Nebula’s voice and gaze was something that broke Discord’s heart.
“Celestia said it, mother: It was not your fault,” he placed a hand on her shoulder, didn’t notice that he had said the forbidden word to Galaxus, but he would have done it anyway.
“In any case,” Star Swirl said attracting the eyes of all towards him. “If there is someone on this earth that bears the guilt of something that would be me. I designed that anti-delusional spell by order of the Council as a measure to uncover the suspects of being changelings. I apologize for any predicament in which I was able to place them due to my invention.”
“It is obvious that you did not intend to harm us, magician” said Galaxus advancing towards him. “The fact that your creation has affected us must not have been more than a play of fate worked by my father.”
“It would not be strange of Exodus such behavior” said Nebula.
“In any case, I owe you my life, Star Swirl, for having protected the young ones of this house,” said Galaxus, extending his hand.
“Who already freed to my people of an evil owes me nothing sir,” he shook his hand with a smile. “Besides, I did little for your children. By the time I arrived, your daughter had already finished with more than a dozen changelings.”
Celestia suddenly trembled and writhed lightly while letting out a moan that was just as slight. Her wings were fluffed and Discord could have sworn she looked pale.
“Tia?”
“Are you okay, my daughter?” Nebula asked worriedly standing up.
She didn’t answer.
All eyes were now resting on her. Its wings continued sponged. He hunched a little and his breathing was heavy and labored.
Finally he spoke. He was smiling but his face was...
“I am fine, mother. I just got dizzy, it is nothing serious.”
Nothing serious?! If Discord felt like a ghost had appeared before him when she turned in that direction! He would have seen eyes with more life in the skulls of skeletons.
That was not a dizziness. I could bet that.
“After what you have been through today, it is amazing that you are still standing, young girl,” Star Swirl told her and then addressed the adults. “I do not know why I should expect anything other than the daughter of a couple of warriors of the Creator,” he paused. “By the way, I have noticed something, sir.”
“You tell.”
“It seems that in this house my name is well known, but I fear that it is a pleasure that I do not share.”
“Oh sure! Excuse me. My name is Galaxus, sir,” he bowed. “The lady here present is my wife, Nebula,” she repeated her husband’s gesture.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you” the foreigner replied with the same gesture. “And it’s nice to know your true names. In stories for children you are simply called the Dark Knight and the White Lady.”
Both alicorns laughed at such nicknames.
“What creativity!” Nebula laughed. “But they are a bit distant from reality.”
“Indeed!” said Galaxus with laughter.
“But yours are also quite curious, if you allow me to say it.”
“We have chosen them ourselves,” said Nebula. “We looked after them when we were brought into the physical world to fight in the name of your people and of the Creator, Exodus.”
“And, speaking of those for whom we have chosen names, the girl in my wife’s arms is our youngest daughter, Luna, I suppose the other two older ones will have already introduced themselves to you.”
“I am afraid not. I heard you screaming their names when you approached but my memory fails me.”
“Oh, forgive me! My name is Celestia, sir” she also bowed.
“I am Discord” he said dryly with the least interest. His mother looked at him with some severity and finally added: “Sir,” then Nebula smiled.
“I suppose that in the stories for the children is not mention of the children of the warriors living in their tiny house,” joked Nebula.
“Absolutely, my lady. In half of the stories you are not even thought of as husband and wife.”
“It is understandable” said Galaxus. “After all, we share the same origin.”
“Which we have always seen with different eyes, my love,” Nebula stood next to him and then looked at the old man and with an accusing voice said: “Sir, forgive me if I am very direct, but I can assure you that you did not arrive on this earth giving a I walk in the mountains; or am I wrong?”
“No, you are right, my lady,” he said more earnestly, erasing from his face the smile he had been wearing up until that moment. “But, if you would allow me, I would prefer to speak this alone with you alone.”
“I came looking for my parents, right, sir?” Celestia said.
“For fighting those creatures that attacked us today,” Discord continued.
Star Swirl took a step back in amazement.
“What insight!” he said.
“Youth does not have to mean ignorance,” Galaxus said in the same tone as his wife. “After what they have faced today, I doubt that there is anything that can affect them seeing or listening.”
“If you wish, sir. But maybe it would be better to talk in the living room than in the bedroom of some young people.”
“Agree.”
“Discord?” his mother called.
“I do not have to move a muscle” he snapped his fingers and was already in the room floating calmly in the air. “You see?”
Star Swirl turned away from the door and everyone left.
Celestia took Luna from her mother’s arms and went to leave her in her crib while the others sat at the table. Nebula offered some wine to the guest and poured some water for Celestia and Discord. Neither Galaxus nor Nebula tasted any kind of drink.
“First, I must tell you that your son has been successful in only part of his assumption a minute ago,” Discord made his best effort not to drown himself with water when Star Swirl called him son of Nebula and Galaxus by mistake. To his surprise, Galaxus, who was most feared by any reaction to this error, did not seem to care about. “I came here to ask for your help against the changelings, it’s true, but it is not my only goal for you.”
“I must assume that your requests come mainly from the Council of the Three Races,” said Galaxus.
The Council of the Three Races was founded by the rulers of the unicorns, Terrestrials and Pegasus: Princess Platinum, Chancellor Puddinghead and Commander Hurricane, respectively. It had been decided that Equestria would be a land where all races of eqanos could feel at home. Pegasus, earthlies and unicorns would maintain their relative governments, but they would work in alliance with the other 2 races. In order to keep the three types of equans in harmony, the council was created, where the leaders would see how to bring peace to their people and how to help the subjects of the others. Now they would all see for the good of all.
“The Council...” Star Swirl murmured to himself. “There is no such advice.”
“What do you say?!” Galaxus almost got up from his chair.
“Excuse my concern but: When was the last time you left this land?”
“Without counting today, a month ago,” said Nebula.
“I see, then you will not be aware of what has happened.”
“What?” Celestia ventured to ask.
Star Swirl didn’t say anything. He took a deep breath and then spoke:
“A week or so ago the changelings attacked the council during their... last meeting. The three leaders were killed.”
“My goodness!” Nebula exclaimed.
“That is not the worst part, my lady. They also killed their guards, and like bloodthirsty beasts they attacked some surrounding villages at the same time. A few who did not kill were cut off their horns and wings.”
“How many?” Galaxus asked and Discord could almost swear he felt his voice tremble at that moment. “How many dead?”
“For every changeling we’ve managed to kill, a dozen of our people have died and we’ve killed more than a hundred changeling,” He sighed. “And many of those casualties have not even been soldiers.”
Discord shuddered at the thought of the figure, and could have bet that the others did too.
“If I understand well, you are asking us to fight on behalf of your people against Chrisalys and her changelings” Nebula said.
“That and something else, sir.
“What else?” Celestia asked
“My people are weak, scared, without leaders and under the threat of an insane one. Only one of those factors is enough to start the fall of a nation as young as Equestria. Anarchy begins to set and Ministers cannot appease this emergence long enough.”
“Long enough for what?” Galaxus asked.
Star Swirl didn’t respond. He turned his gaze to Galaxus, who in a matter of moments seemed to read every word the magician had in his mind and heart. It shouldn’t have been a pleasant reading, because he recoiled and made a face of not being able to believe what he knew.
“Fear will pass mostly once the threat is no longer, but we would remain weak and lost like sheep without a shepherd without the guidance of our leaders, fear would resurface and, as is customary when fear dominates sanity, everything would unleash in aggression and hatred.”
“You ask us to be those new leaders,” said Nebula.
They all looked at Nebula. Discord expected to see her with her eyes shining, in sign that she had used her ability to see the future and anticipate what Star Swirl was going to say. To his surprise, her eyes were as normal, and beautiful, as usual.
“That is it, magician,” she concluded.
“Yes, my Lady.”
The faces of both Nebula and Galaxus showed some skepticism about that claim. They looked at each other with some severity and doubt before returning their gaze to the visitor.
“I do not intend offenders or make you see that you have made a trip for a useless cause, but: why should we be?” Galaxus asked somewhat contemptuous. “In the past there was a time when you had no leader and someone decided to face for your group. Forgive me if I seem insensitive, but in times of crisis, people will follow those who show the ability to keep a cool head. You could see yourself as a leader.”
“Thanks but I do not have capacity for a politician. Also, in no crisis that has ever happened in the past was because of beings that can take the form of an elderly and senile father or a child not much older than the girl was in your arms until recently. A few weeks ago I heard a story of a mother who strangled her child in her paranoia that this was a changeling.”
Discord could seriously have sworn that he was not the only one to shudder on that occasion.
“Besides,” he continued. “It is what the people think is right.”
“What do you mean?” Discord asked.
“You know the stories that are told about you since you took us away from... that threat,” it seemed those were not the words he had chosen. “That you are angels sent by the Creator, who came to save us. After the point of how you helped us, people split into what happened to you.”
”Some believe that you had fulfilled your mission and returned to heaven, to enjoy eternity,” said raising a hand. “Others believe that you stayed in the underworld,” lowered his hand. “And the story again divided into more and more branches being one of them who walked among us all these years waiting for another evil to face.”
“Typical of mortal beings!” Discord sighed. “Believe that there is always someone out there watching over their safety.”
“Not everyone, boy,” Star Swirl told him.
“You say then that not everyone keeps a blind faith in Equestria?” Galaxus asked.
“No, sir. Many, after seeing that you did not arrive the day or the week after, if before they believed that you still walked among us, now they believe that you have abandoned us and you do not intend to fight again for us.
Galaxus and Nebula looked at each other and Discord saw something in their eyes that he had never seen before: insecurity. Then both excused themselves, got up and moved a little away from the table, enough so that their voices were not understandable if they had spoken in a volume slightly lower than the one they had used at the table, which was what they did.
Not only did they not speak in the same volume as they did at the table, but they did not speak in the same language either. They spoke in lartsecna. Of course, that did not stop Discord from understanding what they said.
Their conversation was mainly about asking each other if they were to follow the demands of the equestrians, emphasizing the part of being the new leaders of Equestria. He was surprised to see that they admired what some considered unnecessary.
While they chatted, Discord looked at Celestia and Star Swirl. The first one seemed to understand as perfectly as he did the second one had the look of wondering if they were even talking or just babbling. That gave him a lot of grace.
By the time he noticed, the adult alicorns returned to the table and speaking the normal language again Galaxus said:
“Sir, you have told us that in Equestria there are those who trust and who doubt our role as benefactors and that is why they are looking for us to fulfill the mission we fulfilled 20 years ago.”
“We are honored by such a request and we understand it,” Nebula continues. “But the one we cannot understand is why do you want us as leaders. In any land other than this we will always be foreigners and, throughout history, foreigners who take power from lands that are not theirs are not welcome. Why do they ask us?”
“There is another reason, besides the stories of our eternal mission,” Galaxus finally finished.
Star Swirl didn’t say anything. Instead, he raised his hand with a finger pointing at Galaxus’ horn, then pointed his finger at Nebula and aimed it at his own back, a gesture that Discord interpreted as a reference to his mother’s wings.
Nebula and Galaxus looked at each other with a hard realization and then looked at the magician who said:
“The fact that you have two features as incompatible as a horn on the forehead and two wings on the back has made many believe that you represent the same Equestria for years before it was founded” stood up. “If you do honor to the stories, then stand out in those things that identify each of the 3 races, you are quick as lightning, stronger than 10 men each and with enough magic to move the stars,” Discord could testify that at least one of those characteristics were completely true and the other, although it was not a lie, was not very real either. “My people see you as the pinnacle of creation, the masterpiece of the one who created everything. For Equestria, you are the promise of a peaceful world for the 3 races, because: Who can ever better understand three groups so different than someone who is part of all at the same time?”
Silence was made throughout the house after Star Swirl finished speaking.
Discord looked at the faces of all the members of the house and could still assure that he was the only impassive one. Celestia’s eyes sparkled as if she had heard the most moving speech ever said, it seemed exaggerated but at least it had returned a little life to her eyes. While Nebula and Galaxus had expressions that threw the praise and disbelief at the same time. The expression of the latter soon replaced the praise for fear.
Who knows what will have gone through their heads at that time?
Before they could solve any conflict that was going through their heads Star Swirl spoke again.
“But you are right about one thing: people will follow those capable of keeping a cool head in times of crisis. Maybe all those ideas of giving you the throne will leave with the fear. But, even if it is to rid the world of the evil that Chrisalys and her entourage represent, can we count on your help?”
It took them a while to answer, time in which they looked at the old man, at Celestia and, finally at him. He could feel the fear in his mother’s eyes when he looked at her, but she looked away before he could say anything.
“Could you wait until tomorrow to know our decision? “ Nebula asked surrounding Celestia with her arms.
“We are determined to help your people,” Galaxus said. “We will fulfill once again the purpose for which we were brought into the world as we did years ago,” he gave a quick glance to Discord, full of contempt for a change. “But governing...” he put his hand to his face in a gesture of weariness. “...It is a very important decision and right now we have exhausted our mind after a day as long as today.”
“Thank you!” The magician exclaimed with joy. “And, please, you do not have to give me an answer to that question today or tomorrow or even when you have completed your mission. The simply thing that you have agreed to help is more than enough.”
“We appreciate your understanding,” Nebula said smiling a smile of gratitude. “Now,” he turned away from her daughter. “This day has been long but not yet finished.”
“Oh no!” said Discord. “There’s a lot out there to clean...” he covered his mouth as he remembered how it had affected the last time the killing was mentioned. He glanced at Celestia quickly, praying he hadn’t managed to say anything that bothered her, but then he was not sure if it had been better or worse.
“It is true, there is much to do” she got up with a smile that terrified Discord due to his tranquility.
“Well, let’s get to work,” said Star Swirl.
“Will you help, magician?” said Discord skeptically.
“It is the least I can do right now, boy.”
“Well, the magician has said: Let’s get down to work!” Celestia exclaimed running to the door.
“Tia, wait!” Discord shouted when he saw her running.
He tried to stop her before she reached the door but he did not reach her with the pain of his wound. She feared the worst when the door was completely open and this fear grew when she turned around and smiling said:
“Fear not, everything is fine.”
Although those were her words, he knew that nothing was right. She could have a smile on her face, but her face and eyes could almost hear the cries for help coming from them.
Although he was worried about Celestia he didn’t know what he could do, he wasn’t even sure what he should help her with. In addition to helping her to collect the bodies.
With the wound he had, Nebula recommended him to take care of collecting the bodies using his magic while others excavated tombs. He didn’t agree with the idea of making tombs for the bugs that a few hours ago had wanted to send him to the next life, but his mother convinced him anyway. Honestly, it was a little uncomfortable having to keep those inert bodies floating in the air, so he simply placed them next to each other on the ground and waited for the discomfort of having been some way in contact with corpses to pass.
When he finished noticing that the others had just dug a couple of tombs, he moved some of the bodies in the holes in the ground and quickly placed the extracted earth on top of them. No, he just couldn’t get used to death.
One would think that at least animals could have some use now that they were dead but only the body of the cow was intact enough to be useful after death and yet Galaxus insisted that they also bury it. Hens and pigs were made a jumble of gut and flesh slices drenched in their own blood. They weren’t a very appetizing dish, in Discord’s opinion.
Taking advantage of the fact that he had finished with everything he had to do, he tried to talk to Celestia but without even looking at him he reminded her that there was another body near the burned tree. Following his work as a Professional Body Loader, he went off to find that solitary changeling and regretted terribly when he realized that he would have to carry a corpse for almost a kilometer away. Completely alone with a corpse, it wasn’t, nor ever would be, his idea of a pleasant company. It could have been brazen on his part, but when he was closer to the burnt tree, and the corpse, he went back from the house, refusing to make the trip. Galaxus called him a coward and then he went to find the body himself and Discord could not be happier.
Since it took him a while to go and return, by the time he arrived it wasn’t only almost nightfall, but the others had already moved forward in their work. In fact Nebula had taken the opportunity to prepare the meal seeing that the work was almost finished. But Discord was worried about something besides food, or, rather, someone.
To his surprise, the only one working was Star Swirl. Celestia was sitting in front of the house with her gaze fixed on the graves. Discord knew that this was the best time to talk to her, she had no excuse to put him. She wished or not, her best friend would do something to help her.
It was with all determination to do a good deed towards her, but all that will vanished when he was close enough to see her face. Again that look of someone who has lost their soul was in her eyes and gave the feeling that this emotion had impregnated throughout her body. He came to doubt if there really was anything he could do.
“I did this, right?” she said in a brittle voice.
“Tia...” he sat next to her.
“I know I did it to protect ourselves...” she tried to force a sympathetic smile but it vanished before forming and her face formed an expression of terror. “... It was ... that is why I did it ... Is not it?”
“Of course it is!” he responded instantly, almost panicking.
“No,” she said as if she hadn’t heard her words. “No!” she almost shouted holding her head while tears ran down her terrified face. “It is not true! Something...! Something in me was screaming that I would kill them all! That he should send them to Tartarus! That I would only feel good when I was bathed in his blood!”
“Tia...!” he didn’t even know what to say. That was a memory that he wished would not come back. “I had never seen her like this,” he thought. “The only thing I could think of doing was ...” He hugged her. More to calm himself than to soothe her.
Celestia trembled in that embrace, terrorizing Discord more, until her strength seemed to leave her. Indeed. Discord looked at her face and, to his joy, there was no look of terror or a body without soul, only a calm and exhausted expression.
“Tia?”
“What is happening to me, Discord?” she said in a breathless murmur. “Am I going crazy?”
It wasn’t a bad possibility.
“Of course not, Tia,” he said with an empathetic smile. “You were under a lot of pressure.” Then he recalled a special comparison he could use again. “Even the greatest warriors have been carried away and horrified by their actions in battle.”
He expected to see at least a slight smile or a sigh on her part, but nothing came up. Her gaze was lost in the distance. She was no longer looking at the graves but neither she did look at anything specific. Discord sensed that he was thinking of something.
Before he could ask if she was all right, she spoke again:
“That was not me. The one that killed those creatures was not me.”
“What do you say?”
She turned away from him. She seemed more stable.
“Call me crazy if you want after what I am going to say, but I’d swear I felt something or someone guiding my body. I swear I heard a voice in my head, first whispered when they took Luna, but by the time I attacked the changeling who was holding me he was yelling at me to do everything I did. After that everything is blurred, as if I had departed from reality.”
Discord then could not help but remember her eyes when he stopped her from killing Chrisalys. Those eyes that were not Celestia’s. He didn’t want to admit it but that terrified him enough.
Whatever happened, Discord still had something to do.
“What if you are going crazy?” he said in a tone so carefree that he had to hurry to continue, in a more empathetic tone, before Celestia could broke into tears. “Listen, Celestia, I do not know what happened to you but if I am sure of something, I do not intend to allow that to happen again.”
“You cannot deal with an evil without knowing the cause, Discord,” she said wiping away her tears.
“I think you forget who you are talking to,” he boasted with a big smile without worrying about hiding his pride, or pride, because of what he was implying.
Then, for the first time since that madness had begun, he heard her laugh.
“Oh, that wonderful sound!” he thought of that memory.
Hearing her laugh gave him hope that she would recover from all that, even though her still a little depressed look demanded a little more time before the Celestia he knew and appreciated returned. But, Rome was not built in one day, so the wait would be worth it to have back that bossy Celestia he loved to bother and make laugh alike.
By then it was almost completely dark and Discord’s wound had healed almost completely and he could afford to abuse his powers a little. He helped Star Swirl dig the last holes in the earth while Celestia went inside the house with her mother. By the time Galaxus returned with the last corpse, the only thing left was to place him with the other deceased underground.
Then Celestia called to say that the food was ready.
Unlike other previous meals where the variety of foods abounded, that night there were mainly fruits and vegetables and a little meat. In fact, it was not until dinner that Discord realized that Nebula and Galaxus had returned from Equestria empty-handed.
Not everything was so bad. Finally there was someone else to chat at dinner! Or so it would have been if Star Swirl hadn’t spent all dinner practically questioning Nebula and Galaxus. Discord didn’t even try to follow the thread of the conversation. He ate like a bitter child because he was not allowed to play with a new toy. The worst thing is that this interrogation lasted for hours and at a certain point Celestia left him to interfere in the conversation and start her own interrogation of the magician. Soon he himself had to get into that extended dialogue.
As the conversation progressed, it was redirected to issues related to the current situation of Equestria and the pleasant atmosphere that took so long to constitute collapsed. It was fortunate that Discord came up with the excuse of the hour and the fatigue before the thing got more depressing, if it had not been done by then.
The time passed while everyone in the house cleaned, bathed and prepared to sleep.
When Discord and Celestia went to their room Nebula stopped them and told them:
“I must ask you two things. We do not have a guest room here, so it is necessary that you give your bed to Star Swirl.”
“It is not necessary, my lady, I can sleep outside. The sky here is more beautiful than anything I have seen in my life, sleeping under such a stellar mantle would be a pleasure,” Star Swirl intervened.
“Please, sir, there is no need for such a thing. You can take my bed if you wish,” said Celestia.
That request put Discord in a small quandary. On the one hand, he didn’t want to let that old man sleep in his bed, and on the other...
He sighed as he cursed his own kindness.
“You need to rest as much as anyone, Tia, and I know you will not sleep in my bed even if I tell you that I can sleep just as comfortable hanging upside down like a bat, so...” redirected the visitor. “You can sleep in my bed, old man!”
Celestia tried to hit him for returning to disrespect but he dodged easily. That didn’t stop her from trying again, again and again, until he had to stand on the roof to evade her attack. Before Celestia took off to continue her aggression, they heard the light laughter of Nebula.
“I just needed your consent, children. You should have waited to hear my second request: that you sleep with me tonight.”
The terror of hearing those words almost made Discord forget that gravity was working inversely for him and make him fall headfirst to the ground.
He hadn’t slept in her mother’s room since he was a child, she allowed it on a whim or when he had nightmares, there was a specific one that was quite frequent. But after Celestia was considered too big to sleep in a crib and they had to share a room, Galaxus would stop him at the door and remind him that he was no longer a baby to sleep with his mother. He didn’t like to admit it, but there was a time when he was a child when Galaxus could be quite intimidating.
And, either because of fear or because he didn’t want to seem like a burden, he had never dared to spend more than a few minutes in that room. Especially when adults were in it.
In his nervousness, he vaguely could to notice how Nebula spoke with Galaxus for a few seconds. He didn’t come back conscious until he heard Galaxus say:
“..Sleep well,” he kissed Nebula’s forehead and left.
He continued in shock at the thought of sleeping in the same room as his mother with the approval of Galaxus and by the time he realized he was already in the adult’s room, in their bed, wrapped up with Celestia and Luna, who they were lying between him and his mother in that order, and receiving a kiss from Nebula on the forehead. She did the same with her daughters and giving everyone a loving and motherly smile told them:
“Goodnight.”
Discord knows he answered, but he didn’t hear his own voice. He was too distracted analyzing his mother’s tone of voice. For the first time, he felt in the voice of his mother that he thought impossible: fear.
In his childhood he had let them sleep with her to free himself from fear. Now she did it to rid herself of fear. The worst part? She was smiling to hide her fear. That hurt like a dagger and at the same time it made him feel trapped in a space that was getting smaller and smaller. For him, she was a tireless being, without fear of anything, more wise and kind than anyone who had ever existed on the face of the world. Maybe it was a vision too idealized but she had never given him reason to think otherwise, until that day.
The only thing he could think about was:
“Mom, stop!”
He doesn’t know how but he managed to fall asleep. As far as he knows, Nebula took hours to fall asleep, Discord was frightened to think that something could have alarmed his mother so much that she would lose sleep. Galaxus was awake all night, and could have sworn that Star Swirl did the same.
At some point in the night something woke him up. With the darkness and silence he didn’t notice anything, he thought it had been his imagination, and there was no need to blame him after the day he had had. He tried to go back to sleep but again he heard something, a murmur and felt a tremor in the bed.
He got up and modified his eyes so he could see in the dark. Then he noticed that his mother was not there and something else.
“... stop...” again that murmur and he knew it was coming from Celestia “... I do not want...”
She was shaking, sweating and pressing the sheets tightly, she even had some tears on her face. The poor thing must have been having a nightmare, and he bet he knew what it was.
He knew the myth that it is bad to wake up the sleepwalkers but: What about those who have nightmares? What if he woke her up and then she could not get a good rest? She needed to rest.
He had no choice but to hold her and take her hand trying not to wake her up. Even so she continued to tremble and had to squeeze her hand a little with the hope that somehow in her dream she could feel his presence and that would give her courage. How cheesy!
Her trembling continued and she considered waking her up.
“If the rest brings more torment than to be awake then it is no use to indulge in the dream” he thought then.
But just as he was about to wake her, her trembling stopped and he seemed to breathe easier. Same as him.
He waited a few seconds to check
“Maybe even the gods have weaknesses,” he thought.
He didn’t get much sleep that night. He didn’t even manage to reach a dream deep enough to dream something. Although he remembered seeing a light in the hallway and his mother following this light, he was not sure if it was a dream or reality, it was very blurry.
Finally he got a deep sleep and, of course, it took a second of his mind to move from that memory to another. Discord had no idea that it could be so exhausting something like reliving your whole life in one fell swoop. Technically he was asleep or fainted somewhere and everything that was happening were like dreams. But even in his own dreams he had taken five minutes naps! For Equestria’s sake!
It seems that he fell asleep when he finally got to sleep, because when he woke up he seemed to have woken up hours later than anyone. Celestia was not in bed and Luna was not there either.
He heard some murmurs and vaguely distinguished the voice of his mother and Celestia. He tuned his ears to listen to the voice of Galaxus and Star Swirl somewhere in the house, but even enlarging his ears, a whole meter could not hear either of them.
He came to believe that he had been transported to an alternate reality where that man did not exist. Until he remembered that Exodus hated him and his illusion went out at the rate that his ears returned to normal.
Then he heard the sound of bumps crashing. The intrigue hit him and he peeked through a crack in the door looking for the source of that sound. He saw in the room a set of 5 or 6 full bags.
Now he was much more intrigued.
He didn’t bother to take off his pants that he had used to sleep and change clothes. Actually, he changed his clothes for the first thing that occurred to him and teleported to his room. He found Celestia packing his clothes in a bag.
“What happens?” he asked interrupting her from her work.
“Good morning to you too, Discord,” she joked.
“Good morning, Celestia, and, I repeat: What happens?”
“We are moving.”
~
“... I still consider this a bit hasty.
We always wanted the younglings to visit Equestria before they were older, before their young and adaptable minds withered and betrayed them as foreigners when dealing with equestrians. We even considered establishing ourselves permanently on that land once Luna was old enough to understand the need to hide her true self from the rest of the world along with the rest of us.
But, above all, we had planned to leave Earth Heaven in times of peace.
Now our plans are altered by the twists of fate and the call of duty.
I can not get the wizard's words out of my head. Those about how the equestrians interpreted our wings and horns. Until I heard them, I had never questioned why life was given to us.
But I must postpone my doubts for another time. With everything that happened, Celestia worries me...”
~
“What do you mean with that we are moving?” he asked incredulously.
“Just that, Discord,” Celestia said continuing her work. “Mother and father have made the decision while we were sleeping; we left to Equestria today as soon as we finish gathering everything we could need there. I must warn you that we are almost done with this task and father will probably be upset with you if we delay, so you must hurry before he and Mr. Star Swirl return from the cave.”
Celestia turned to look at him at that moment. He was even more incredulous than before and his face probably prove it. He only blinked and stood there stunned, but this didn’t stop him from complying with his friend's warning or order. He snapped his fingers and all his clothes flew inside a bag that made appear on his bed and on which he sat once everything was kept inside these, all this without losing his astonished expression.
Celestia looked at him with a mixture of confusion and amazement but then sighed and rolled her eyes before selecting her own dresses again.
The minutes passed: Celestia picking up and Discord stunned. He couldn’t believe that they were really going to leave Earth Heaven. So long had he dreamed of seeing the world outside that encapsulated earth and now the dream came true. Of course, his dream was always different, something more like that Celestia's birthday or Nebula's insistence would visit Equestria and he and Celestia would probably get into a crazy adventure where they would meet all kinds of equestrians and then return with adult alicorns and promise to meet with their new friends someday. That would have been a more exciting adventure than going to Equestria to deal with a race that threatens to enslave and, or, exterminate the other three. There was also that matter of being members of royalty,
“By the way, thanks for last night,” she turned to look at him with a smile.
“I completely do not know what you're talking about”, he lied without worrying about pretending honesty.
Celestia pretended to be offended and threw a clothes to his face, which he couldn’t dodge. She laughed at his lie and he accompanied her. That Celestia, that one was the one he liked to see.
After a few moments of laughter Nebula entered the room, she also looked like the Nebula that Discord was used to seeing: radiant and divine.
“Oh, you woke up, you little rouge! Good morning!” she smiled.
“Good morning, mother!” after that, Celestia threw another clothes to his face although in that occasion it took more time to him to understand why she did it.
“It seems that you have finished collecting your things. Your breakfast is on the table, you should eat it before the bread dries and hardens.”
“That is not a problem for me, mother,” and left the room, but not before returning to Celestia the last two textile attacks.
Discord's breakfast consisted of a couple of slices of bread and butter that he toasted when putting them in his hands and a juice that he drank directly from the orange after shaking it a bit. A simple but delicious breakfast since the bread and butter were prepared by his mother and the orange was harvested by it. If it came from Nebula, everything was worthy of the gods.
“I cannot believe we are going to Equestria,” he said as he cleaned the dishes and Nebula checked some strange boxes in the room, no bigger than a head.
“I hope you do not dislike it,” Nebula said in a maternal tone but Discord found something strange in this.
“I do not, I feel well. But, I wonder: What have you decided on the proposal that Star Swirl has made to you about governing Equestria?”
“We decided to wait a little to know better the situation of Equestria before making a definitive decision,” her motherly tone faded more and Discord realized the sadness and fear in her voice. “Even if we are not needed as leaders, we will settle in Equestria definitively once everything is over.”
“We will not return to Earth Heaven?!” he could not believe it.
“No,” she said sadly as he looked at one of the boxes, a golden one.
After her review, she placed the box next to a black one and with a sad expression walked towards him. Once in front of him she bowed so that their faces were at similar heights, it was not much, he was always quite tall. When they were face to face she placed her hands on his shoulders and said:
“Discord, listen to me, my dear son: when we arrive at Equestria, for your safety, you must hide your appearance. No one must know that you are a draconequs. You can still show how you are when you are with us and Star Swirl, since he already knows.”
“Hide my appearance?” he recoiled in confusion. “Why, mother? What danger can I run for being what I am?”
“Discord,” she took his hands. “The people in Equestria are in panic because of a strange being,” she caressed his face. “There is nothing and nobody like you and fear and the desire to survive could lead them to hurt you even being in our care,” the sadness in her expression grew and mixed with fear, he understood that being hurt would not be the worst thing that could happen to him. “Please, my son, for me, do you promise to hide from me?”
“If you wanted to convince me, mother, you only needed to ask me in your name,” he smiled and changed shape, becoming a brown unicorn with a blue horn.
Nebula smiled tenderly and hugged him.
Discord hoped that this memory would be pleasant but for some reason it was not like that. He actually felt a knot similar to the one he felt when Celestia mentioned her name and Galaxus in the castle.
“I love you so much, my son,” she said. “I could never forgive myself if something happened to you.”
Then why that feeling?
The only idea that occurred to him didn’t like him very much: that Nebula had done something to him that modified his perspective of her as a loving mother, perhaps, even leading him to hate her.
No. That was illogical even for him. She would never do anything that could change her perspective of her. What could she do in 3 years that he still had to go in his head that she had not done in previous 15?
Or, maybe it was he who changed.
Had his madness affected him so much? Enough for, in the absence of a less hurtful expression for himself, not to appreciate so much the woman who raised him without distinction of those who were truly her daughters?
What could have turned him into the madman he once was?
Or, rather: Who could have turned him?
Discord finally decided not to brood over the matter and let his memories advance before waking up and confusing Applejack with Granny Smith.
When he and Nebula broke their embrace, she kissed his forehead and Celestia left her room. She carried a full bag on his back and placed it with the others stacked in the room. Not without first stopping to observe the change of Discord.
“What do you think?” he asked.
She examined him up and down and with a face of slight discomfort said:
“It will take me some time to get used to it. Why the change?”
“Mother has begged me to. He said it would be safer for me.”
“Why safer?” she turned to Nebula.
She was about to speak when Luna began to cry and, after making a sign to Discord to give the explanation himself, had to go to the moans of the baby.
“Mother said that if people saw me in my natural appearance fear would enter and attack me even being in the company of their great saviors,” explained putting a bit of sarcasm in the last part.
“Oh! And why a unicorn?”
“So I have an excuse to continue using my magic. Although I admit that it will take me a while to get used to looking at myself in the mirror with this face instead of my beautiful being,” he boasted boosting a slight and ironic laughter to Celestia.
An awkward silence arrived, no one knew what to talk about.
Discord then had the idea, good or bad he didn’t know, to ask her how she felt with everything that was happening. That doubt remained in his head to never leave his lips, because when he was going to formulate it, Star Swirl and Galaxus arrived. The first was visibly surprised by Discord's change in appearance, while the second didn’t even seem to flinch.
“Good morning,” he said dryly.
“Good morning,” he answered with the same tone.
“Have you taken what you plan to take?” his tone didn’t change.
Discord snapped his fingers and the bag he had left in his room went to keep the others company.
Galaxus seemed satisfied with this and redirected his attention to Celestia after examining the room a little.
“Where is your mother, Celestia?”
“Luna cried and went with her.”
“Thank you, my daughter,” he advanced to her with a smile and stroked her head and then said with the same smile. “I will talk to your mother for a minute, maybe we'll leave when everything is ready.”
Celestia nodded and Galaxus went to his and Nebula's room in which they also kept Luna.
“Good morning, young man,” said Star Swirl.
“Hello, old man,” he replied laughingly.
Celestia gave him a hit for that disrespect. That made the wizard laugh, but Discord didn’t even try to correct his lack of respect.
“Excuse him, sir,” Celestia asked.
“It is fine, young girl.”
Silence reigned in the house again. It was barely possible to notice the murmur of the adult alicorn in one of the rooms.
“I must say,” the magician broke the ice. “That language that adorns the walls of the cave that Galaxus has shown me is quite interesting. It could take me years to understand it, even more dominate it.”
“You say you do not know that language, magician?” Discord asked. It seemed very curious to him that someone who must master a thousand ancient languages to give more power to his magic did not know the lartsecna.
“Discord, remember that the lartsecna is a divine language, only a privileged few are able to understand it,” Celestia explained.
“And are you able to understand it without studying it?” Star Swirl asked.
“Yes, sir,” she said. “I myself have been able to understand her and speak her without problems since I have known its existence. The same goes for Discord and only time will tell if the same case happens for Luna.”
“Then, if I have not understood it nothing else to see it I will not do it with years of study either,” he said with certain air of disappointment.
“I am sorry, sir.”
“No, young girl, even if I cannot understand it the way you do, I plan to understand it as much as I can. Anything that involves acquiring more knowledge will be strongly appreciated by me even if my efforts are in vain.”
Although that was touching, Discord was more interested in seeing how he could take advantage of this situation to get some fun out of it. He grinned mischievously as he approached Star Swirl and then told him a certain word in that language that if his mother had come to listen to him she would have made him eat soap for a month regardless of his pleas and apologies.
“Discord!” Celestia shouted before pulling her ear hard and hitting her head multiple times.
That show brought his laughs to Star Swirl, who then said with one of those faces adults put on when a young man is incorrigible:
“By the reaction of your sister, I intuit that what you have said has been serious.”
There was a word in that sentence that caused both of them to stop what they were doing and slowly adopt a more serious pose.
"We are not siblings," said Discord.
Star Swirl adopted a more attentive pose showing some surprise on her face.
“Well, not in blood at least, I suppose,” tried to correct himself.
“Not even frater,” Celestia said.
The magician again adopted the same pose as seconds ago before Celestia continued:
“It is true that we have been raised up in that way, mother above all, but we have never seen ourselves that way.”
“Especially not me,” said Discord.
“Curious,” said Star Swirl. “Those who are raised together often tend to consider themselves family, sometimes cousins, sometimes siblings.”
“You have said it, old man, ‘frequently’, not ‘always’.”
Star Swirl looked at them with some curiosity, adopted a pensive posture and then asked:
“And you have known each other for a long time?”
“I was in this room the day Celestia was born,” Discord said in a rather cold tone. “Not even Exodus could make me forget that day,” it was not a memory that he liked to relive.
“It is a long time, without a doubt.”
Discord heard Celestia say something to the old man and to this one but that conversation was only a murmur echoed in his head. He was busy dealing with the memories of his childhood linked to the then-soon arrival of Celestia. A specific memory was an idea that he kept in his young mind for so long that he became attached to it with the passage of time.
“I suppose,” he said with a wry smile. “If I have never seen Celestia as my sister is because as a child my mother explained to me that the child that grew in her womb would be her and Galaxus’ child,” she laughed. “At that time I was unaware of the requirement of a man and a woman to conceive a child and I believed that I could only consider as my brother or sister a child that was a child of Nebula and only Nebula, no one else.”
Both Star Swirl and Celestia laughed at that innocent occurrence of a small child and Discord accompanied them in their cackling.
“What a nonsense!” Celestia said.
“What do you want from me?” continued Discord laughing. “I was 2 years old, besides that I had always called our mother ‘mother’ while your father never allowed me to call him that way so from my point of view I did not need a father to be born.”
Upon hearing this Celestia bended over with laughter, had to lean on a piece of furniture so as not to fall. Star Swirl, on the contrary, had stopped laughing a few seconds ago and was looking at him again with curious eyes. The curiosity of that man was a bottomless pit!
“And are you able to remember your life from such an early age?” Star Swirl asked.
“Even before,” Discord replied.
Actually the memories of Discord began approximately when he was 1 year old, months more, months less. But there were some strange memories that over time became less and less clear. Although most likely it was a dream he had when he was younger and could not forget, mainly because they always came to him when he dreamed, like the day he remembered when he started this journey.
Then Nebula and Galaxus left their room, the first carrying Luna wrapped in a cloth tied around her neck and the second carrying a bag in her hand. For Discord, that could only mean one thing.
“Now everything is ready,” Galaxus said with a sad air “It is time for us to leave.”
Then everyone took the bags. Celestia, Galaxus and Discord each took two bags while Nebula and Star Swirl took one each. The golden box that Nebula had placed so much interest in minutes before was kept by Nebula in the bag she was carrying with her. A similar but black box was taken by Galaxus and he kept it in one of the bags he was carrying. What could there be in those boxes?
Discord ventured to open the door for others. The adults left first and when it was Celestia's turn to leave, she stood at the door looking towards the interior of the house. Discord thought she had forgotten something and also looked inside trying to see what he could forget. It was then that he understood the problem.
That house saw them be born. They had lived there all their lives.
And now they should leave it. Forever. To live in a land in crisis where they would be foreigners.
Discord had lived little more than Celestia in that house and although he wasn’t someone to stay in the past, it hurt to leave that place where so many adventures and good times. Even the bad times didn’t seem so bad anymore, mostly.
To be reliving that moment didn’t help Discord that it hurt him less to leave home.
But, there’s a need to remember that he wasn’t someone to stay in the past.
Finally he closed the door with a quick slam.
He thought he saw Celestia take a small jump in shock to the door slam.
He sighed, gave her his classic carefree smile with an equally relaxed look, walked to her. Once with the alicorn girl, he offered her his hand.
She looked at his hand and then at him in disbelief. He rolled his eyes and pointed his ears at the adults, who were waiting for them several meters away from them. The translation of the message he wanted to give to Celestia was more or less: do not worry anymore and just keep going before you start crying. In his humble opinion, he thinks she read the message quite well, after all, she laughed and accepted his hand.
And so the road to their new home began.
He took the bags he carried with him on his shoulder as he walked foolishly, taking Celestia by the hand. He knew that Galaxus was wishing him a few dozen different deaths for every second he spent holding hands with his daughter, and he enjoyed every minute when he realized the suffering he was bringing to the alicorn. He could only walk even more foolishly from the joy of bringing agony to Galaxus, that, of course, when he wasn’t busy answering the infinite questions of the magician along with Nebula.
He remembered talking again and again with Celestia but didn’t remember exactly what. In fact, at a certain point, he wasn’t sure whether before or after going through what little remained of the lonely tree that had been exploited by the changelings the previous day, they did not even open their mouths again. What a luck! Every time he had the chance to ask Celestia about how she was doing, something had to appear to stop him!
As if it was not enough the awkward silence that arose between them also taking his hand was something... awkward.
It is true that they were always very close, but exactly not the physical aspect. They rarely did have physical contact or signs of affection of this kind in general, especially not for such a long time. In addition, the most usual thing was that Celestia showed signs of affection for him and not the other way around. She always gave him a nice phrase or a hug so brief that he could not feel the absence of it.
His head almost exploded when he remembered that it was he who had offered his hand. He hadn’t taken that initiative since he was a child. He prayed so much for Celestia to not notice his blush, or would not have stopped bothering him looking for the reason for it if she had noticed. Although she would had known the reason just seeing how his walk had become more rigid as his hand despite his grip had decreased.
He tried to convince himself that there was no reason to be ashamed. Not that he was in love with her or one of those silly boy stupidities. If he hardly had come to consider accepting her as her sister, emphasis on ‘consider’.
“I do not think so,” he thought.
Either way, he tried not to think about that much.
After a while they reached the limit of Earth Heaven: a complete nothing. He couldn’t help but tilt his head like a confused animal. There was nothing he hadn’t seen if he had ventured to want to see when he was a child. Where was the exit?
Suddenly Nebula took a few steps forward and her horn shone, increasing its brightness more and more. Then his magic culminated in an intense glow and when his eyes adjusted back to normal light, in front of them was a cave. Deep and dark
He always believed that Nebula and Galaxus simply used an illusory spell to hide the entrance to Earth Heaven, but it turned out that adults were much more cautious than that and had used magic to block the bridge between Equestria and their home.
The adults lit all their horns and the younglings soon replicated this action.
The couple entered first, followed by the magician. Celestia followed them but stopped when she noticed Discord. He was completely paralyzed. They were really going to leave Earth Heaven. An hour ago he hadn’t worried much about leaving home, but now that he was literally 10 steps away from going to a new place, he was terrified of leaving.
A part of him told him to move forward, that he had a bright future a few steps away from him, while another part was shouting at him like a small, frightened child not to leave, who was in his home, who did not need anything else.
“Discord,” he heard Celestia say and his trance ended.
Maybe it was just an impression caused by the low light and the considerable amount of darkness, or it could have been the own security and calm that Celestia transmitted to him at that moment, but even after going from a warm and bright day to a cavern almost completely dark Discord did not feel the weight of the gloom affect him and induce him again to fear and doubt.
As soon as he was in the cave with the others, the entrance was closed.
Discord panicked.
He touched the wall in an almost hysterical way, looking for any... failure? Opening? Point where the two dimensions come together weakening the fabric of reality? In general, he was just looking for something that would prove that it was still possible to return to Earth Heaven.
But there was nothing.
“You waste your time,” Galaxus said in a cold tone. “Earth Heaven and this world have separated... until the right time comes,” concluded with a tone even colder than the previous one and, if it had not been Discord's idea, even with sadness.
Those words struck Discord like an iceberg. The pain of leaving ‘his land’ caused an ironic smile. If he needed proof that he could no longer go home he just needed to lay his horn against the wall.
He smiled at his own misfortune and got up without stop looking at the wall. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Celestia. It was then that he realized that he had let go of her hand, which he corrected once he paid attention to her.
After all that depression on the part of Discord they were finally able to continue.
Celestia squeezed his hand, smiled at him with tenderness and empathy and guided him with the rest of his family into the cave.
They walked for several minutes in which Discord believed that the cave was eternal. Beyond the light emanating from them there was only darkness, darkness in front and darkness behind.
Darkness…
Darkness... Darkness...
Celestia…
Darkness…
The end of the cave...
Oh! Right. The brain has the good habit to forget things when they become very monotonous. Spend almost half an hour walking in an eternal corridor of darkness where every meter to come was the same as the past was something that Discord could describe, not just as monotonous, as the most boring thing in any world. But finally the exit!
He ran, unable to wait to see natural light coming from a real star and not a luminescence created by magic. It took him a few seconds to realize that Celestia was still holding his hand and it was only because she was pulling it, as if she was trying to stop him. But he was too excited to care about that.
Celestia let go and he kept running even though Celestia was no longer with him. Then, a few meters from the exit he noticed something that made him slow down. He walked towards the exit calmly, each step confirmed his suspicion more and more and when he arrived it was clear.
They were at the top of a mountain surrounded by forests and more mountains, some larger, some smaller. There was no sign of civilization nearby. It was a little cold, it was the first time he felt cold without having to directly come into contact with some material with that temperature. But that didn’t interest him as much as a small detail:
There was no sunlight.
There was not even light. But the moon’s.
“It is night,” he said to himself.
He heard Celestia and the others arrive in a matter of seconds. His friend went to the head but nothing else put a foot outside stopped and with the lost glance she looked at the horizon. He barely gave importance before turning his gaze to the adults, all had disbelief painted all over his face.
“Mother, did not you tell me that if it is daytime in Equestria it is also in Earth Heaven?” he asked in a tone like someone who feels cheated. “I think you were wrong.”
“Stupid child!” Galaxus shouted. “This is not something to joke around!”
“He is right, boy,” Star Swirl said with concern. “It is almost half a day and the moon does not yet touch the top of the sky. Something is terribly wrong.”
“If so,” Celestia said without taking her eyes from the same point she had looked out of the cave and with the tone of someone who pays so much attention to her own affairs that she does not bother to disguise her interest in conversation alien to these. “Then we must arrive with your people.”
“Let me stop your feet,” Discord told him. “Because you have not noticed: We are in the middle of nowhere, we do not know where is the village of this old man!..”
“We are far away, yes,” said Nebula. “We are closer to the capital of the Old Earth than to Equestria’s.”
“From here, risk to use the teleportation would be a suicide and using it from time to time it will take us hours to reach the capital of Equestria,” the magician complained.
“The typical teleportation is a bad choice, there is no doubt,” Galaxus said drawing a magic circle on earth. “But one through circles is much safer, especially with a power like ours,” got up and began to formulate the spell in a low voice.
The circle began to shine, Nebula immediately went with her husband and replied the action of this also murmuring the spell. Their horns shone and a line of light went towards the circle drawn on the ground, which remained intermittent for a few seconds.
Star Swirl entered the circle immediately and Discord was about to do the same, but stopped and turned to look at Celestia. She was still lost in infinity. Once a circle is fully charged with energy it is only a question of the one who casts the spell activating it, it could delay it, yes, but it wasn’t a control that could be maintained too long, not even an alicorn or two. In addition, the amount of magic required to empower a teleportation circle is directly proportional to the distance between the point of departure and arrival, and if they were really as far from the capital of Equestria as his mother had said then that spell could not be of those which stay under control for a long time.
Galaxus called Celestia and she vaguely reacted. Discord got fed up with all that spectacle of the special girl who sees things when others do not and pulled her into the circle with the others. She seemed to come to herself for a moment.
Finally the horns of Nebula and Galaxus went out and he circled brightly with great intensity. As if it were an explosion, Discord and the others ended up bathed in a blinding light that lasted a vague second.
When arriving at the capital of Equestria the terror invaded him.
They arrived in the middle of a village from which many houses were on fire. People ran from one side to another screaming, carrying buckets of water, helping whoever they could, saving whoever they managed to. Chaos, one that Discord didn’t enjoy at all.
That scene reminded him too much of a dream that haunted him for as long as he can remember. In it he saw only blurry patches of orange and red as I listened to things breaking and people shouting. Wherever he was, he would shake a lot from left to right, suddenly he would hear a great rumble and feel gravity pull him against the ground. He no longer heard the screams and the patches of vanished. He could feel a pleasant presence wrap around him and then hear the voice of his mother, Nebula.
"Changelings!" Someone shouted behind them and as he turned he saw a furious crowd armed with whatever they had at hand. "Miserables!" a middle-aged unicorn pounced on them with remarkable anger carrying a stick still burning.
“Stake?! Stake! For the love of the creator: What happened?!” Star Swirl asked.
“Do not steal the face of my friend, parasite!” that unicorn tried to strike them but then there was a glare and he fell into fear.
Actually there were 2 glows, one golden and one dark blue, almost black. The light soon faded, revealing Nebula and Galaxus both wearing magnificent armor. Both armor had details in the form of wings and spirals that highlighted the femininity of Nebula and the masculinity of Galaxus along with the power of these, but disagreed in colors and ornaments. While Nebula's armor was completely gilded and adorned with multicolored gems, Galaxus' was black as the night becoming clearer in details and with just a handful of white gems (probably diamonds) here and there.
Seeing them, the whole crowd stopped. In their faces he distinguished from jubilation to doubt and rancor. He didn’t understand why.
“The saviors!” someone shouted. “They have arrived! Our prayers have been heard!”
After those words many people knelt before them as each village does when their messiah arrives. Discord knew that the gesture wasn’t directed at him, but he liked, very much, to think that they could worship him like that.
“Ingenuous!” the same unicorn shouted from moments ago as he got to his feet. “Do not trust them! They are just changelings wanting us to lower our guard!”
“Stake, for love of Equestria who is still young: What has got into you?!” said the magician.
“As if you did not know, parasite!” the unicorn tried again with the stick that was still in his hand.
While Discord backed away from the danger, Galaxus stepped forward and in a quick move disarmed the man and brought him to his knees. Many people reacted negatively to this action and those who previously maintained a hesitant position were running towards them with the obvious intention of defending that unicorn. Suddenly golden scythe dawns rained down from the sky that surrounded Galaxus and his family, he knew where they were coming from, all he had to do was turn his head to see that it was his mother who had invoked those weapons. Those who a second before wanted to attack them backed up.
The unicorn struggled trying to reach the rod that Galaxus had made him pull. When he was about to reach his goal the alicorn placed a hand on his forehead and both his eyes and those of the unicorn shone with a light that changed from red to yellow and finally to blue. The brightness vanished, Nebula made the scythes vanish, the unicorn began to cry and Galaxus removed his hand from his forehead and then helped him up.
"Such a fair leader for this village," Galaxus said empathetically. “And have to pay such a penalty.”
“They…” the unicorn said between tears. “...They did not deserve ... they should had not...”
Star Swirl suddenly took a few steps forward to the unicorn.
“My friend,” said the unicorn. “Please forgive me. The anger has blinded me... and the pain...”
“My friend, what happened?”
“Yesterday, in the night, the changelings attacked. It was an attack without warning or mercy or more goal to weaken us. They killed right and left all the unicorn they found on their way. They did not discriminate against women, children or the elderly.”
"Have you also attacked other races?" Nebula asked, stepping forward.
The unicorn stepped back and instantly, with a face of terror, bowed before Nebula.
“Oh, my lady! Oh, my savior! I do not deserve your mercy but I want you to know that I regret having tried to attack you! I am sorry, oh, how sorry I am!” he begged and wept like the criminal who prays a thousand prayers to a king.
“There is no need for such apologies, good sir,” Nebula said as she encouraged the man to get up. “I know you were not in the voice when doing such a thing. But, and I repeat: Have you attacked other races?”
“Anyone who tried to help us, my lady, but they did not attack pegasus or earthly villas. They have not killed alone here. Send for help and I received the news that every village or town of unicorns was going through our same situation. If we have not been able to raise the sun, it is due to...”
Discord no longer heard what came after that. Celestia had just released his hand and he gave more importance to this than to the conversation.
Celestia walked like in a trance, she didn’t even seem to care about the crowd at her side that had tried to hurt them a few minutes before. At a certain point she stopped and stared at the horizon as she had done in the mountains. That started to make Discord nervous.
He was about to float towards her when he remembered that he was no longer a draconequs but a unicorn, and unicorns do not float without magic. He opted better for the option of teleporting. Already by her side he looked at her face. While her face didn’t reflect any expression, in her eyes there seemed to be a dozen of these. There was a glint of innocence in them that Discord had to rub his eyes and look back to be sure her eyes were not really shining.
“Tia? What is happening to you? You have been with that behavior since we left the cave. Do not tell me that the air of Equestria makes you lose your head,” he joked.
He expected her to reply that this was nonsense, but that was not the case.
“I am sorry,” she said without letting me look at whatever she was looking at. “It is just that...” she raised a hand and as he followed it with his gaze Discord only saw the horizon. “...there is something there and... it seems to call me.”
“And... What does it say?” he said barely having any idea what to ask.
“I do not know but…”
Then she closed her eyes and placed her hands as if he were holding something. Her horn began to shine. She began to raise her hands with difficulty as if whatever she was ‘holding’ would constitute a great weight. Her horn also shone brighter and her face betrayed her effort. She then extended her wings, causing Discord to depart, and then began to rise slowly.
Discord didn’t understand what she was doing, then he noticed how in a house he struck a light that did not come from Celestia. He turned his head to where he thought the source of light was, it turned out to be the sun rising on the horizon. He understood that Celestia was raising the sun, it was the first time that the princess of Equestria did that work.
Her horn shone brighter and rose higher in the air. The Sun was almost touching the top of the sky when the brightness of Celestia almost did not allow Discord to distinguish its form. Then he realized that it was not only Celestia’s horn that shone, her whole body was doing it.
The sun finally reached the highest part of the sky and an explosion of light enveloped Celestia threatening to leave Discord blind. He covered his eyes and while waiting for the outside light to diminish enough to not be a risk he heard people saying things like: ‘It's a miracle!’ ’Great blessing!’ ‘Thank you, young goddess!’ And things like that. He wondered if something else had happened while he had covered his eyes and discovered them to check. Then his eyes met a vision he had never appreciated.
Celestia. She looked like a goddess. Her whole body was wrapped in a golden sight. Her dress and hair fluttered in the wind in a fluid movement like the waves of the sea. Her eyes were completely white but they shone with a purple light like her beautiful eyes.
He had never seen her so beautiful.
Author's Note
I know in the show they said there were needed just five unicorns to raise the sun but in my opinion that somehow says Celestia and Luna don't have as much power as we have been taught, so in this story there are needed at least 1000 unicorns with total control of their magic to raise the sun.
~
Why should not a princess be able to wield weapons? A general not only traces the strategy, carries it out and leads his subordinates to victory.
I was aware that in Equestria every member of royalty practically has a small army of their own completely at their service and no one else's but that is no excuse for not knowing how to protect oneself...”
~
“...Celestia is starting to regain her confidence when it comes to wielding weapons but remains doubtful.
I hate to admit it but I think that if it is managing to overcome this trauma it is thanks to that draconequus. On more than one occasion I have gone through Celestia's rooms after the internship and after a few minutes or as soon as I arrive I hear the voice of that boy calming her down.
If the rest of his species had maintained this position now the boy would live with his parents peacefully...”
~
“...continue emerging.
Every day there are more and more rumors of a rebellion against us by people who do not consider us worthy of the crown.
The ministers advise us to take action on the matter and eradicate these rumors before the words take physical shape, but we will not do such a thing. Why should we? The people are in their right to demand someone with equestrian blood for the throne of the same earth. We are only strangers, we were in the Old Earth and we are now in Equestria, we do not belong to any land.
Star Swirl had already warned us about this, that there were those who did not love us more in their affairs. An admirable position in my opinion, but there have been few who have chosen to redo Equestria by the equestres. That majority who begged to see us and adore us, who saw us as messiahs sent to guide them to peace and harmony made us leave the only place we could call home a home.
They have the right to ask us to leave.
I wonder: What would be their reaction to knowing that someone in this castle fervently shares his opinion and is also a member of the royalty they hate so much?...”
~
“...we had been summoned to travel to Griffonstone today. We have only gone Celestia, Discord and I, Nebula has stayed with Luna in Equestria. I have understood the stratagem of my wife and eldest daughter but I fear that it has not worked.
The skepticism of the king before our presence and origins has been quite entertaining. Not because he saw us with childlike curiosity but because of that disbelief of an old man who has seen so little that he does not believe anything.
Of course, it has exasperated me a bit by talking about the skills we are proud of, respectively, saying that they were just exaggerations of a frightened people. Celestia on the contrary has not remained silent but has not spoken with imprudence.
He proposed to the griffin king to give a sample of his abilities in a public fight. Of course, the king set his standards to this proposal by forbidding Celestia to use her magic and putting her to fight against three of her best warriors. Even with my doubts about this matter Celestia made me agree.
I will not say that my daughter has fought without sweating, no, a girl of almost 14 years old no matter how skilled she is still at a disadvantage against three men who have dedicated their lives to combat. Even at a disadvantage, Celestia has achieved the victory and the wrath of the king who was about to kill the warriors for such dishonor towards him losing the fight in front of a girl. Again Celestia has been as quick with the mind as with the sword and has reminded the king of the old custom of his people that the day the undefeated warrior is defeated becomes a slave to the one who has broken his long winning streak for to live in dishonor, so that now they would be slaves of Celestia...”
~
“... I hope I have made myself clear today.
The same minister who months ago warned me that it was unbecoming of a princess to know the arts of combat came to me today telling me the greatest folly I could ever hear in my life.
‘The princess is without a doubt a portentous young woman,’ he told me, ‘full of virtues, majesty. But this kingdom... many subjects ask for an heir... who is male.’
I managed to not unleash my anger on that rat as much as I wished.
What need is there to have another son just to give him a responsibility that one of my daughters has already proven more than capable of carrying more than a dozen men on his own? And if we tried to conceive another child and another girl was born, what? Leave it aside and try again until I'm no longer the only male alicorn on the world?
That miserable rat tried to excuse himself by suggesting it for me, that people started talking about my lack of manhood having conceived only two heirs, both being women and that in the year that we have been in power my wife and I have not given news of expect some other child.
I have heard more sensible things come out of the mouth of that draconequus Discord.
What does it matter to me what people think of my virility or another of those excuses that mortals seek to point out defects to each other?
Men or women, I love my daughters as every father should. What they have between their legs has not been one of my concerns or when they were still in their mother's womb not long before. They are my daughters, my flesh and my blood, the fruit of the love that I have for my wife...”
~
“... Celestia is sick, but not the way I was months ago when I was poisoned.
The poor girl spends the day and the night letting out sighs. She rarely sleeps but she does not seem to be sleepy either, she spends the day writing letters that nothing else to send becomes nervous of not having an answer yet. He laughs and smiles always with his cheeks dyed red, he does not walk, he flies, and little does he do to the desserts that weeks ago he would have devoured nothing else.
I know that evil, I still suffer.
A beautiful evil that has infected a certain Prince griffin my daughter. The same griffin prince with whom he has been exchanging letters since we left Griffonstone.
That young man had shown great interest in Celestia from the moment we arrived on his land. I do not know if my daughter noticed it too, but Prince Gavlian, that's his name, did not take his eyes off her while we met him and his father. I also noticed in him a desire to beg his father for moderation when he spoke of us and great concern and amazement when Celestia fought against his warriors...”
~
“...the rumors are no more.
Many have left and many have joined the cause against us after my husband announced the changes he had made in the standards for our daughters and the women of the kingdom in general. By changing the rules that prevented the kingdom from having a female heiress among others that prevented women from performing tasks that could be carried out like men, my husband has brought an avalanche of opinions.
Some of those who previously conspired against us have separated from the group to see these progressive actions by the hand of my husband. They have come begging us, some forgiveness, others death, for the acts they have committed. They did not believe us when we confirmed that there was no resentment towards their actions and they have confessed everything they knew. Their location, their leaders, every secret they know, information that we have not decided if we will even use.
On the other hand many more have seen these reforms as an abuse of power by Galaxus and have turned to the rebels who have promised to stop this before it goes too far...”
~
“... and the war ended before started.
The rebels have attacked us while my daughters and son, Galaxus and I were enjoying a walk outside the castle.
Farmers and workers mostly, armed a few with real weapons have ambushed us and demanded that we abandon the crown and Equestria immediately. Their leader, I still laugh when I remember his expression when we gave our crowns quietly, those who had them with us, of course, Celestia rarely carries his, Luna still does not receive his and Discord wanted to deliver his beloved lute.
The poor, come ready to face those who already fought without help to two races and find that these are delivered without the need of an attack. He did not take it well and saw it as an insult or mockery, until Celestia took a few steps forward.
‘Why,’ she said, ‘should it be a mockery to return their land to those who have lived in them more than their own rulers? They deserve this right more than we do...’”
~
“... Today a new kingdom arises: The Crystal Empire ...”
~
Chapter 9: You Promise...?
~
“... I feel bad for Celestia. The whole business of living like the new Equestrian princess is unbearable for her.
That girl was raised in a land where, although she could not leave, she had more freedom. Earth Heaven was for her what for a lonely bird an aviary: walls that enclose a false forest where to spread her wings while outside extends an almost limited world that will not reach her whole life to understand. She was imprisoned, I do not deny it, but even in that prison she had her liberties, her pleasures, good and bad.
Now all that has been taken from him.
Their once simple and comfortable clothes are now garments decorated with stones that to see them under the sun is to look at the sun itself. The meals that she prepared herself and the satisfaction was double when tasting it have been replaced with dishes so spicy that no flavor is captured. The pleasures that could occur "must be eradicated" to allow their real being to emerge and dazzle everyone.
This life is not what Celestia would want.
It is not what I want for her...”
~
“The princess has disappeared! Where is the princess? Princess Celestia responds! Where are you?”
These and many variants of desperate screams echoed throughout the castle.
“Again?” Discord asked more frustrated than surprised.
He gave little thought to the almost agonized cries of the servants and guards who were earnestly seeking their young mistress. He let out a sigh, decided to take advantage of that madness to sneak into the kitchen and steal an apple, once he had the fruit in his possession he turned it into a red ball that later split into many more and started on a palate with all the calm of the world while leaving the room. He could barely close the door when a guard rushed at him.
“You! Chamberlain!” shouted him.
“Good heavens, sir!” he faked his surprise. “You almost make me throw my balls.”
“Do not play the funny one, boy. Where is the princess?”
“I do not know,” said the younger and tried to leave.
“You know and well, it was you brought the princess back to the castle on the last two occasions,” he said.
“Oh, dear!” he sighed in false defeat, turning to the guard. “You are right, I know where the princess is.”
“Well, take us to her!”
“No,” he answered paying more attention to his resumed juggling.
“What?”
“I think I spoke your same language, or did I speak lartsecna?”
“Listen boy:” he almost shouted making him throw the balls again. “I do not have time for your stupid little games. You know where the princess is and, if you value your life, you will take me to her, now.”
“With that attitude? Not even in dreams,” he said in the tone of a refined lady indignant.
“You miserable!...” furious, he tried to grab him by the neck but Discord slipped away like a snake.
“Oh, relax!” he spoke from behind, amused by his confusion. “I said I will not take you to Celestia, I never said I would not go looking for her. In fact, you have delayed me.”
"Bastard!" he tried to throw his hands on her again.
“Bye-Bye!”
With those words he teleported out of the castle, far away from this, his hustle and that poor guard. He was far enough away to have a beautiful view of the palace. It was comforting for Discord to remember the ancient beauty of the palace in which he had resided for some time.
The beautiful white palace erected in the once called Everfree Valley was something worthy of a fairy tale.
But no matter how much he wanted to look at that landscape until he sighed like a teenage girl in love, he had to look for Celestia before the nearby towns learned about the disappearance of her princess just a month after the coronation.
One month.
It was hard to believe that his memories would pass so quickly. He had gone from a boy living in a paradisiacal land with pseudo-divine beings to a chamberlain in the service of the new kings and princesses of a land younger than him in what for him had been only a couple of days. Things escalated fast. In a certain way.
After they reached Equestria it took Galaxus and Nebula almost two weeks to find Chrisalys' hiding place and his changelings. For some reason they did not exterminate them completely, both gave the excuse that they were simply not destined to disappear? He couldn’t remember clearly the words they used, probably because he was more concerned about an angry people because their saviors were not up to the expectations.
After that they dedicated themselves to returning peace and order to the chaotic kingdom, this made those who had lost faith in them to follow and respect them. By the time he realized, the date of the coronation had already been decided. When they learned that Celestia was ‘an adult’ according to the criteria of the time and that she wasn’t yet to turn 13 years of age, Discord could only think of the curious date when the reign of the alicorns would begin. Or thy was another member of that family or Exodo pays more attention to the alicorn than to other beings in the universe.
Sure, it hadn’t all been honey on flakes. Especially not for a certain alicorn girl.
Discord teleported to the only part in Everfree that could be considered a forest, a small area to the northeast quite dense of trees. A very good place to hide, in the shade, among a lot of foliage, far from the castle.
He walked for a while through that small forest, with a little while can also be interpreted that in a blink thanks to his lack of memories, Discord soon noticed a some yellowish dress hanging from the branch of a tree. He smiled and passing the apple from one hand to another walked whistling and comical walking to the tree from which hung the dress.
“How many times have been already?” he asked, standing against the mentioned tree but didn’t receive any response. He didn’t mind, he wiped the apple a little against his colorful suit and asked another question: "Is this branch taken?"
Celestia abandoned her ice law and with a wave of her hand invited him to sit with her before returning to her old posture: with her legs barely extended on the branch and leaning her torso on them placing her arms on her knees. He still wasn’t sure if Celestia expected him to sit next to her on the branch or do the first madness he could think of. Anyway, he opted for the second one, gave a pirouette totally lack of effort on his part and sat parallel to Celestia at the bottom of the branch.
“It is the third time this month, right? No offense but those servants are a bit innocent by simply hoping that the last time was truly the last time,” he said while examining the apple that had just polished. “Maybe I should have put some varnish on it,” he thought with his present mind before that remembrance.
“I hate this,” she said in a husky voice in an almost inaudible murmur.
Discord who was about to take a bite of the apple stopped and paid attention to his friend.
“I hate being a princess.”
“If you knew how many girls are willing to kill for being in your place,” he said while crossing the fruit with his finger from bottom to top extracting his heart.
“Poor illusions! What could be good about this?” although angry at first, her anger slightly subsided when Discord offered her the fruit she had just extracted from her heart.
“I suppose they only think about luxuries,” he put the apple kernel in her mouth to quickly spit out everything except the seeds and peel. “The lands, the exquisite meals, the fine clothes and the valuable jewelry, everything that an average woman could aspire to.”
“Mortal ambitions,” she said frustrated. “Lands that will have dried before they knew they had them, meals to feed an army if so many spices do not poison them, dresses embroidered with gold and gems that weigh more than the wearer, jewels so varied that they will need geology classes to be able to fully distinguish one from the other without fear of being wrong. It is too much! It is just too much!” she threw the fruit in her hand with fury against a tree.
Discord cringed like a kitten frightened at this reaction by the little alicorn. Who would have thought there was a time when the wise and kind princess of Equestria repudiated the idea of having a kingdom to lead?
It didn’t take him long to regain a relaxed pose at the bottom of the branch. Celestia, on the other hand, heard her let herself fall hard against the trunk and let out a long sigh.
In such a situation, friends tend to give supportive advice. But Discord no. Don’t misunderstand, he cared about Celestia, he wasn’t a cynic, but the problem was that he wasn’t affected by this whole matter of royalty. The only thing he could have about this new life was the fact that he had to hide his true aspect by disguising himself by changing his form into an unicorn, but even so he was so careless that he often forgot that he was using costume. That moment was a good example.
Discord looked at himself for a second to confirm that he had forgotten to return to his true self now that he had been left alone with Celestia. He returned his body to its chaotic normality and embraced thinking: “Oh, how much have I missed you, my dear body!”, and continuing this action that his own body refused to stop he looked towards what for him was below, towards Celestia.
His body, following the logic of his master, adopted a certain awareness and wasn’t at all satisfied with the behavior of Discord: staying there knowing the causes of the problem and not doing anything to comfort his friend.
His hand slapped him hard, pulling him out of the trance. When Discord turned to see his attacker, it just pointed to the girl under him. He knew what his body wanted but didn’t know what to do or what to say, any action without foundation, no matter how well intentioned, can lead to major problems if it isn’t known with certainty what action to take. Someone can not be sure how to deal with a situation that doesn’t share, he wanted to help you but he just didn’t know how to alleviate a pain that he didn’t share.
His body didn’t take this excuse well and while the hand that slapped him dropped and shaked from left to right with disappointment, the other hit him in the head.
Soon he was fighting with himself. Maybe she waved the branch they were in during this self-fight and pulled her out of whatever thoughts she might have had or Celestia simply wanted to say something she had thought without realizing her literal combat against himself. Whatever the case, Celestia spoke again after several minutes.
“Discord, can you promise me something?” said in a sad tone.
“Of course,” his body finally restored his autonomy.
“I know that you have no interest in living in a palace and that my father will probably expel you from the castle when he considers that you are not useful in this. This could be the as in a year as in a month as in a week, but, please, promise me that you will stay by my side, at least until I adapt to this new life that they have imposed on me. Then you will be free to go where you please.”
He didn’t say anything but he smiled tenderly and sadly for his friend. He dropped, if can be said so, his hand so that Celestia noticed it and when she did he offered it to her. Celestia clung to his hand and thought he heard a sob he was sure that if he had looked at her he would have seen a grateful smile on her face.
“I do not have to obey your father, Celestia,” he said, leaning calmly against the tree. “He is not mine. I promise that even if tomorrow banishes me or if it takes you a thousand years to get used to this life, I will not turn away from you,” and squeezed her hand.
He heard her let out a melancholy sigh and felt her squeeze his hand in response to what he had done.
“I owed you, Celestia,” Discord thought sadly with his present mind and soon felt a pleasant warm feeling in his chest as he thought. “Oh, Tia, Tia, Tia! I promise to stay with you until you adapt to a move and you protect me and trust me even after a millennium. I doubt that someone has so much faith.”
In retrospect, he finally noticed his ideas and this caused him terror. Of course there was someone who had faith in him! Her name is Fluttershy, a beautiful and shy yellow pegasus that he loved. She had faith in him. Well, maybe she gave up trying to reform him when Celestia entrusted it to her and didn’t even talk to him when he allied with Tirek until he apologized to her even after she had seen him weak but still she trusted him.
Again, what he would have once given as sordid proofs of something sounded to himself as excuses. Why? Wasn’t he in love with Fluttershy? Wasn’t she the best thing that could happen to his life?
He finally came to the same conclusion as when he relived the memories of his childhood: it was all because of memories. Each time he revived a moment of his past, his mind changed with the melancholy of that memory. If the spell extended to his last memory with Fluttershy, he would probably love her even more.
After all: if Celestia had such confidence, why didn’t she try to reform it herself? Was she too busy with her royal duties that she could have entrusted to her sister for a single day? Perhaps the realm that she had so renounced when she was young was now a subject of much more appreciation and interest to her than friends and family. That would explain why he had never married, because she didn’t have time to look for a boyfriend having an immense pile of work and extremely important meetings and to which she had to pay close attention every day of her life until the end of time.
Well, maybe Discord could give her the benefit of the doubt, after all she had visited him frequently during the thousand years that he had adorned her garden.
He cut his line of thought not wanting to give himself more reasons to appreciate the princess more than the animal keeper and decided to let his memories keep returning to his head. Then he remembered a thought he had when he looked at Celestia's hand again as he held her that day.
“Oh, Tia, forgive me, but I lied to you. Now I wish you had not made that promise when we were children, because, you do not know, but one day I will fall into madness. There will be nothing that matters to me and maybe, like a monster, I will forget the promise I have made for you. I swore to protect your happiness, as you swore to protect me, but I will be glad you gave up your oath if you came to renounce mine. Please, Tia, whatever you do, do not cling to me and let me go if there is no forgiveness or cure my actions. I prefer to fall into your oblivion and even your hatred to bring you regret for preventing you from fulfilling your word...”
“... Will you do me that favor, Tia?”
