"Why are you watering the flowers?" Screwball as she trailed behind the white alicorn. They were walking in the gardens, with Celestia tending to her part of the garden and watering flowers. "Don't you pay other ponies to do that for you?"
"Well, I like a bit of gardening myself." she replied, smelling the daisies that she had tended to.
"Ohhh...." mused Screwy as she sat on the ground, enjoying the breeze and watching Celestia. "....daddy says alicorns are lazy."
Celestia then tended to her bush of roses. "How so?"
"Well for starters, he said that ponies like you stays cooped up in some fancy-shmancy castle while sending letters to other ponies to do your job for you like taking care of the Equestria and saving everypony from dangers."
"Is that so?" she raised a brow as she smiled at the statement.
"Uh-huh." she nodded. "But don't take it personally! My daddy says that about everypony." she looked at his statue from afar. "He's a hypocrite."
"Now who taught you to say that?" asked Celestia as she sniffed her roses.
"Princess Luna." she said.
Celestia chuckled as she shook her head. "You can't say that. After all, I thought he was your father?"
"Well he's not doing a good job at fathering." said a new voice as Princess Luna flew towards the two, her eyes locked on Screwball. "I should've known better that you were but a mere snitch."
Screwball giggled as Celestia rolled her eyes. "Hello sister. I suppose you aren't sleeping?"
"Hearing this topic being pulled up, might as well listen in." Luna sat herself next to Screwball.
Screwball giggled. As her eyes laid on the statue that stood not far away from them, a thought came to mind. A question really.
It's a reoccurring thought. It bugged her almost day and night, and leaves her feeling rather empty for not having a real answer. It's not the fact that the sisters won't say otherwise, it's that she's afraid of asking. How would they think of her?
But it has been cycling over her for ages and since its the right topic, it should be the right time to ask as well. "...Princess Celestia?"
"Yes?" she said as she then sat herself down as well.
"Will you ever free daddy?"
Celestia's calming smile dropped into a more....questionable look. "Pardon?"
"Will he ever come out of being a statue? Or will you guys keep him in there forever?" she asked again.
Princess Luna started to speak up on behalf. "Child, please keep in mind on who we are talking about-"
"Yea, I get it. He's a bad guy and whatnot- but that's not my point. Will he be freed at some point? I mean, Princess Luna, weren't you freed from your moon prison after a gazillion years? And you came out alright." she said, which left Luna quiet.
Celestia coughed. "She was different. She-"
"There are bad guys out there. But it doesn't mean they can't change, right? If Luna can, then he could too, right?-"
"Don't compare me to the buffoon, child." Luna interrupted. "Never compare me to that...heartless...traitor..."
"He's not heartless, he's actually pretty ni-"
"What do you know about him?" Her tone was serious. "You probably don't know of his real past- well why would you? All it will do is spoil his image. Haven't you realised yet? He fooled you! He wants you to see good in him for God knows what plans he may have in mind." she stomped. She then stood above of the filly, who trembled below her shadow. "He's a monster, and will always be one-"
"Luna, enough." Celestia cut her off, seeing as the filly was shaken up by the sudden change of atmosphere.
Luna scoffed as she flapped and flew back to her balcony. Screwball looked down in between her front hooves, the ground if you will.
Celestia took in pity for her, and rubbed along her back in comfort. "There there, Screwball. She's just-"
"Can you tell me more about him?" she asked as she looked up at her, teary eyed. "It's true. I don't know much about him. Maybe she's right, maybe I was fooled. But I don't understand why. Why would he even fool me- I thought....he said he loved me....I..." she stammered.
Celestia sighed. She feared that the filly may not get over the sudden change of lifestyle, even if it had already been months since his defeat.
Although with that being said, the filly had a point to prove. She couldn't just imprison him forever. Even after seeing how Luna changed. She felt....bad. Somehow, she did. Telling the filly of his past could answer some of her questions, but then.....
It seemed as if the chimera had already gained most of her trust. Even more so as to leading the filly on that he's her father now. What plan would he be up to even? Especially involving a child. She knew him well enough that he didn't have the heart to hurt a child, let alone toy with their feelings. He's crazy, not demented. He's not crazy enough to hurt even a single living being to an extent of their lives. Annoy, yes. Irritate, maybe. But never to physically hurt them is a well known priority to him.
"Celestia?" she called out again, which made the princess snap out of her thoughts.
"Hmm? O-oh. My apologies, I must've zoned out quite a while."
"Oh. Well can you tell me of his past then?"
Celestia sighed as she figured that the filly probably will not drop the subjectt as fast as she would hope her to be. So she agreed with a nod.
"He.....of course, was different from everypony else. He was also the only draconequus or last of his species to exist. We met in our childhood years when I caught him snooping around. But instead of being afraid, I was mostly amazed. Amazed that such a......someone like him even existed. But, it took us awhile to learn to communicate with each other, he spoke a sort of different language than us ponies, which was odd since even creatures such as griffins could speak English. I used to thought that he just didn't know how to talk, and that everything he said was gibberish, but we resolved that situation after a while of reading and teaching him English. Of course, I couldn't have done it all by myself. Have you heard of Starswirl?"
"You mean that wizard that everypony talks about? Yea, I know him."
"Well, you see, he was assigned as our mentor by my parents. And he was the first other pony- aside from Luna herself- to had known of Discord's existence. A few months before his arrival was a war which had been said to be between ponies and draconequui, so it was dangerous to let him roam outside on his own less my parents found out of him."
"Your parents never knew of him?"
"Well, during the first few months of course. But before we get to that, we'll talk about Starswirl. He had a book about draconequui and was able to find and learn of the language Discord spoke. So by then, he was able to make a chart, translating the draconequuian alphabet into ours. Sounding them out and teaching Discord to speak English was hard, and took months. But it was worth it in the end."
"How'd you guys start to communicate with him then if you guys couldn't even actually speak to him?"
"Well, the first few days were using sign language. Next, Starswirl was able to learn enough to be able to translate Discord's speech for us at times. Then that led on to the next and Discord started to speak English. When he mastered English, Starswirl thought that it would be great if Discord learnt the arts of magic with us. Which was what got Discord discovered in the first place by my father after an incident occurred. Starswirl was able to convince my father...somehow. And then from then on Discord lived with us. The outsiders were mad to say the least, saying that we were lunatics to let a 'beast' live with us. I....don't know much after that. I think the hatred from the ponies were what made him snap in the first place, opting him to making our Kingdom a wasteland." ended Celestia, which left Screwball confused.
"Hmm."
"Is it too much to process?" asked Celestia, seeing the sudden change in her look from interest to confusion.
"It....doesn't sound like him at all." said Screwball.
"Pardon?"
"Well, he would always tell me that sticks and stones would break my bones, but words would never hurt me. He had alays told me to not think much of anything that comes in my way. So it doesn't make sense how he would just snap from 'hatred'. He would laugh whenever ponies mock him for being evil and such, I just don't get it- are you sure that you didn't miss something out?"
Celestia hesitated but comfirmed. "No....I didn't. Or maybe I missed something that I didn't know happened.....uh, let's go in, child. We should get ready for lunch." she said as she stood up and started leading the child in.
"Woah, what's the rush?" said Screwball as she stood up quickly as well, giving a last glance back at the statue as she followed Celestia.
"Oh, nothing. I apologise if you think that's the case." she said as she slowered down a little and walked.
Screwball caught up this time and started walking beside her. Her eyes gazed to the exterior walls of the castle as it trailed down. Her mind slowly took over as she finally thought back to what the Princess had said.
"I have another question, if you don't mind me asking." said Screwy.
"And what would that be?"
"Well....you were friends with daddy, I presume?"
"Yes, that is about right." she confirmed.
"Then...do you think I'll make any friends? Aside from you two princesses, of course." she asked as she glanced up at Celestia.
Celestia gave a motherly smile as she nodded. "Well yes. Everypony would get friends in their life. Don't fret, soon enough you'll meet plenty of them."
They were close to the entrance way. Screwball smiled. "Hey, you're right. Thanks, Princess. This is why I count on you for advice. That and because you're the only one I've talked to."
Celestia held the door open as she let Screwy in. Her smile faded as she felt a breeze, and glanced back at the statue. ".....plenty of friends indeed."
Author's Note
Woo.
