The haven where two worlds collide
Once upon a time, the heavens sent a seed to a small but quite dimension called Equine Beta. And from this tiny seed grew grew a magnificent plant that would later be known as The Tree of Harmony. The Tree of Harmony was about to sprout two more seeds of its own, ready to make their own journey into the cosmos and found a dimension to call their home. They were The Seed of Solaris and The Seed of Artemis.
But, one day, lighting struck The Tree of Life and one of branches fell. Through this open wound, the seeds escaped. The Seed of Solaris, instead of sprouting into a plant, created smaller life forms that could walk around and defend themselves. And these smaller life forms were strange but wonderful creatures called alicorns, earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. The Seed of Artemis, much like its brother, too created smaller life forms instead of sprouting into its true form. And these smaller life forms were great but terrible creatures called Chimeras.
The King of Chimeras, Discord, promised peace between these warring and confused two tribes. However, this was all just a trick. For soon, he can drain the magic as well as the life force of the equine race’s beloved queens: Queen Celestia and Queen Luna. With great anger and darkness in their hearts, the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi banded together to defeat this dreadful king. Their power was proven to be too mighty, even for The King of Chimeras. They would have defeated him even if he didn’t open three dimensional portal and separated the three equine races forever.
Using the magic he had obtained from Queen Celestia and Queen Luna, he wiped away all of their memories. The creatures of The Seed of Solaris could no longer remember their origin, their fellow equines, the creatures of The Seed of Artemis, or King Discord. His people took over The Tree of Life, and it’s dimension, for their own and sealed away the three portals forever.
But, in the midst of this war… in the midst of King Discord’s rule, The Tree of Life began to slow rot away… struggling to stay alive…
King Discord’s claw swiped over the small rainbow colored, glowing portal that seeded itself upon the surface of a boulder. As he did so, glowing black and blue thorny vines sprouted and knitted the portal closed. When the portal was closed, any trace of its magic, glow, and even his vines were nowhere to be found.
The King let out a sigh as he stood up to gaze upon the tree that has rooted itself around the boulder. Then, he turned his skeptical gaze upon the unicorn dimension. A glittery, bright dimension filled to the brim with color and spectacle. Especially in the light of their pink sun. Thanks to the unicorn’s magic, this once natural land, was now completely taken over by crystals, gems, stones, and all sorts of fantastical wonder such as mythical beasts and birds. Hardly anything truly earthy left was barely surviving. The only things that these unicorns grew were modified crops, and herbs and plants they needed for potions. Hardly any grass or trees grew.
As Discord took in powerful aroma of magic that lingered in the unicorn’s dimensional atmosphere and scratched his chin, he pondered on… why. Why after thousands of years after the great war did his portals began opening up again? Why did it just suddenly start just twenty five years ago? While the portals were small, it wasn’t their size that concerned him. No, it was the fact that they were also popping up in the pegasi dimension and the earth pony dimension. And these portals have only increased in numbers.
There seemed to be no sign of these equine regaining their ancestral memories. Oh sure, there was that one crackpot or two he had to take care of, but these crackpots were nothing compared to him. In Discord’s mind, all these equines were nothing compared to him. But, regardless, this hard to certain of. These equines defeated him once, and he will never let that happen again. They were lucky the first time,... but they won’t be lucky the second time.
There was only one way to find out, and it was time to talk to the only unicorn in this universe he can converse with. With his eyes now directed to the glorious castle in the distance, looking more like spiraling crystals and gems growing out of a cave than an actual carved castle, Discord gave the castle a smirk before disappearing away.
With just one trickle of his power, King Discord was able to effortlessly take the form of snapdragon flower. Just a single snapdragon in the large patch of snapdragons of Queen Rarity’s personal castle garden. The only place in the entire dimension that comprised of plants, flowers, and trees that weren’t needed for crops or spells. But instead, as a memento of what this land used to be. A memory that the unicorns seemed to have no recognition of.
No unicorn within and outside the castle knew why Queen Rarity had such a garden in the first place. It served no purpose in raising her magical potential. Was it a sign of her wealth and status? Was it's a rarity that made it appealing to a unicorn as rare as she? Was it’s beauty that appealed to this lady’s fancy? Discord, however, knew the true reason why Queen Rarity allowed this garden to exist and it all had to do with the garden’s groundskeeper.
“Speaking of the devil,” Discord mentally observed, as the equine in question had just arrived in the garden.
The garden’s groundskeeper was a buttercream colored unicorn with a long, flowing pink mane and tail. She had a green, curved horn, along with eyes and fetlocks that matched with the color of the horn. Unlike her fellow unicorns, this mare did not dress her up in fine cloaks, dresses, jewels, and magical artifacts to increase her power. No, instead, blue lilies live within her hair. Staying forever in bloom and good health from the magic coming from her hair.
“Greetings Milady,” Snapdragon Discord greeted, swaying and bowing towards
The unicorn giggled sweetly before replying back with, “Greetings oh good snapdragon, how is the garden today?”
“Dull and completely thirsty before you showed up. Speaking of thirsty, would you mind hitting us with some H2O?”
“Not at all, “ she gently chuckled; walking over to the water pail placed near the garden’s crystal fountain.
Before Discord showed up in this garden a couple of years ago, the existence of a talking and long lived flower in this castle’s natural playground would be considered abnormal. Despite the fact that, every else in the kingdom, sentient and long life span flowers are considerably pets for unicorn wizards and witches. The goal of the castle garden, as set and created by this soft spoken groundskeeper, was to be a sanctuary of all things simple and true to the earth of this world before magical influence. If he wasn’t the charming yet cunning Chimera that he was, he would have been ripped up by now and would have to start all over.
“Where have you been? I haven’t heard your voice for over a week now.” She asked before taking the water pail’s handle with her teeth.
Once again, another thing Discord didn’t understand about this unicorn. She had enough magic to lift this water pail, yet she carried it in her mouth. Why did she do this to herself? Discord didn’t know why, but… he was strangely and faintly fascinated by this. The more she proved herself different from the other unicorns, the more that he was… well… the best way he could describe was… curious of her. And that was the best compliment he can ever come up with for any creature of equine race. Discord never thought such a day would come. He, The King of the Monstrous Chimera clan, complimenting a pathetic creature of light.
“Oh you know me, exploring the cosmos and discovering the complexities of our universe. That’s all.”
“And what did you learn about the universe this time, my dear little explorer?” Discord was managed to understand through her gritted teeth, as she began to water some of the roses.
“Remember that Milky Bar Galaxy and that Andy Stick galaxy that I told you about last time?”
“Mhmm-Hmm.”
“Based on their speed, and their paths, those two galaxies are going to collide soon!”
“Oh dear,” said the groundskeeper with great concern, placing the water pail down, “that sounds horrible! W-Wouldn’t mean-”
“Don’t worry, it won’t eliminate any life in those galaxies or anything.”
“Unfortunately,” He mentally groaned.
“Instead,” The little disguised snapdragon continued to explain, “It will create a new, giant elliptical galaxy. Life in those respective galaxies will adapt to their new galaxy, and even new life will be formed as a result of this collison. It won’t be a traditional explosion if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Again, unfortunately,” Discord mentally groaned again, “It’s been forever since I’ve seen a good explosion. Especially a galactic explosion.”
Before she moved on to water the peonies, the mare remarked cheekily, “Are you sure that an astronomer didn’t create you, my little snapdragon?”
“Oh please Fluttershy, you wound me! No astronomer can keep up with me. I’m what you call a happy little accident. A different phenomena entirely.”
“Are you sure that you’re an accident?” Fluttershy managed to spit out through her gritted teeth, watering peonies with delicate grace.
“What do you mean? If that weren’t the case, how would you explain all this?” Then, Discord gestured to his tall stock of a plant body with his leaves, “How would you explain how I’m talking to you now?”
Fluttershy put the water pail down and spun to meet the snapdragon, “Oh no no, I don’t mean that. But rather, I mean… your purpose. What you’re supposed to do and why you’re here. I personally don’t think any plant is here for no good reason. And I don’t think that a special plant like you isn’t here for no good reason either.”
Discord was then taken back when she suddenly walked over to him and began to softly pet the tips of his petals, “The flower of the purpose of the flower is produced nectar for bees and bugs, and food for other animals and unicorns alike. In return for this gift, their seed and pollen gets to spread and other flowers get to live on. Even when others die as a result. Enchanted or not, whether by magical beasts or insects or not, for as long as I can remember, flowers have always been this way.”
Then, she smiled at Discord, “That is, until I met you, my little snapdragon.”
“I’ve noticed with you that no bee or insect goes near you. No other snapdragon blooms with you. Grass barely grows where your roots are. Enchanted or not, I’ve noticed that the life in this garden avoids you and I think I know why.”
“You do?” Discord replied unconsciously aloud, cursing to himself in silence as soon as it left him.
“I think, and I could be wrong on this, but I think… you’re the voice of this garden.”
“Pardon? Excuse me, but in case if you didn’t notice, but… every time we converse with one another, we talk about everything else but the garden.”
Fluttershy then giggled melodiously, “That is true, but… just because you’re the voice of this garden, doesn’t mean that you can’t be your own being. You still have thoughts and feelings of your own, do you not? You still have dreams and aspirations.”
“And what of you, Fluttershy?” Discord asked softly, not knowing why he was going to ask, “What are your dreams? What are your aspirations? What is your purpose?”
Fluttershy drew her hoof away from Discord’s petals and looked to the garden around her, “My dream is to live in this garden forever. My aspiration is to be the best I can be. As for my purpose,... hmmm… that’s a good question.”
Before the two could speak more, a voice interrupted their silence, “Milady!”
Fluttershy rose from the grass and turned to see one of the royal guards approaching.
“Lady Fluttershy,” He bowed before continuing further, “Her Majesty is requesting you in the throne room.”
“Of course,” She bowed her head in return, “Tell her that I’m on my way.”
The royal guard saluted before marching out and back into the castle halls.
With a soft grin, Fluttershy turned back to Discord and whispered, “Goodbye my little snapdragon. Oh! Or should I say… my little garden?”
“Just call me snapdragon as usual. You and I don’t know for sure yet if I’m this mystic voice of the garden that you speak of.”
“Very well then, snapdragon it is.”
She paused before asking in, almost hopeful tone, “Will I… be hearing from you again soon? Like… maybe… tomorrow?”
“But of course! If it weren’t for Her Majesty’s rude interruption, we could have had a lovely afternoon.”
“Besides,” Discord mentally noted, “I haven’t asked you yet about the portals. Or any suspicions ancestral memories that you or the rest of the unicorn race might be having.”
“Oh, she’s not rude. You really need to her. She’s quite the kind and generous soul once you get to know her. Maybe I can bring her to the garden tomorrow and you too can finally meet?”
“No thanks, I rather get to know her from afar, thank you very much.”
“My dear snapdragon, do tell me that you’re… shy?” She sweetly teased.
“No no, that’s your job. Not mine. I simply rather speak to those who are worthy and since you take care of this garden, you are worthy. Her Majesty has not taken care of this garden since it got here.”
“Her Majesty is very busy. There’s so much that needs to be done in one day. And if I could help her with this one small task, then it’s enough for me. Anyway, I really need to get going. I’ll see you tomorrow, my little snapdragon.”
And with that, Discord watched the unconventional unicorn walk away. Making sure that she had left the garden and the court yard area completely.
“The voice of the garden, huh? Well, that’s a new one. So close, my dear, but not quite right. But despite this, ever sooo… creative. Well played Fluttershy, well played.”
With that thought in mind, Discord summoned his spirit out of the plant’s body and headed back to his kingdom.
Author's Note
MissKoi doesn't own MLP, for MLP belong to it's respective owners and creators. Happy Day 3 of Fluttercord Week everybody^^! This was the topic I was the most excited to tackle simply based on the fact that there's so much you can do with this premise:D There was so much more I wanted to do with it, but I unfornately did not have the time and the proper planning to make this come to life as I wanted. It still turned out pretty good, but the idea I had in my head turned out that it couldn't really fit into a tiny one shot. It is truly meant to be a big story. And it was silly of me to try to fit this big story into a small square peg hole. And for those of you saying "Hey, this light and dark coming from the same body/place" premise sounds familiar. It sounds familiar to all of you is because yes, I stole this idea from The Dark CrystalXD Forgive me of my unoriginality, but I truly think this kind of premise would be a really interesting and fasnciating topic for MLP Gen 5 to tackle since Gen 4 was all about the harmony of opposing forces and personalities and species:) Why not take it a step further by suggesting "Hey, these beloved ponies we know, they come from the same place and origin as the villians they're fighting against"?;) This concept will really compliment the idea of reforming/befriending the villains and giving the villains character development because of this specific origin, we can see that they have one small part of them that's good like the ponies and that they can be better. Vice Versa, the ponies could have that one part of themselves that's not perfect and they can make mistakes and can have a bit of a dark side to them like the villians. The rest of it like the multiple dimensions, Fluttershy being a unicorn, and the three races of ponies separated, are all based on the leaks and I do not own those ideas. Anyway, I hope you guys like this story and I can't wait to read all the Day 3 stories and see all the artwork for Day 3 as well^^