Kind Hands

I’d never felt so ashamed. Once I was out of range of the crowd, I broke off into a sprint, fighting to keep myself and my cargo from falling to the ground. I could barely breathe, and I doubted my ability to run much further, even as the tiled floor was replaced by the soft grass of the castle’s garden.

The grass’ surface did well to cushion my fall once I’d inevitably ran out of steam. Dropping down to all-fours, I lightly pushed Eve away from me before emptying the contents of my stomach onto the area below. It felt like my entire life force had dribbled out through my lips by the time I was done.

As I heaved, I felt Eve gently place her hands onto my back. “It’s okay,” she softly reassured me. “Daddy did this too.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Instead, I just choked as I felt my throat close up. Judging by the spluttering that followed this, I guess I’d decided on crying in the end. I don’t have much else to add; how do things keep getting worse?

Wiping away any bile from around my mouth, I wearily glanced up at the little girl in front of me. Despite the small smile she possessed, her red eyes and redder arms reminded me of my misdeeds. “I’m so sorry,” I managed to force out from the back of my throat.

That seemed to be enough to set Eve off as well. Through a mixture of tears and pained cries, she was back in a familiar place in an instant, allowing herself to be cradled slightly as we sat together. I gripped the little one as hard as I could; letting her leave my touch would be like letting the world fall through my fingers.

But after a short while, I relinquished my grip just enough to present Eve’s face in front of mine. Assessing the damage that the night had done to the girl, I wiped away some of her tears before brushing the hair away from the left side of her head, scanning the scalp underneath it for any damage.

“Well, you don’t seem to have a bump, littlun,” I was thankfully able to conclude. I repeated the process of checking for any damage on the other side, and was delighted to see nothing worth noting there either. “You didn’t hurt your head, did you?”

I repeatedly inspected the little girl’s head for any sign of physical damage, but her extended silence reminded me that much of her pain was emotional. “I’m sorry,” she eventually decided to answer, dropping her head down once my hands moved away from it. “I did something wrong again.”

In an effort to prevent any more tears, I raised the little one’s head and kept my hands on each of her cheeks this time. “No, you didn’t, sweetheart,” I commented in an attempt to hearten her, but I stopped halfway through. “Well, you kinda did…”

Something between a laugh and cough left my mouth as Eve’s feeble smile strengthened. “Yeah, you shouldn’t have left your room, but I did…so much more wrong,” I continued, fighting against my innate desire to break eye contact. “I’m really, really, really sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Eve repeated to me before closing her eyes and slumping to the side. From there, she just rested on my arm. Anybody could see that she was in dire need of her bed; I’d never seen her be knocked out like that.

I felt safe in this moment of reassurance, however one-sided it may’ve been, but I was worried about Eve’s earlier comments. I’d never heard of her father- much less seen him- which likely hinted at the type of man he was. Was I just making her repeat the same experiences?

It was only when the night was quiet that I pushed myself up off the ground. I found difficulty doing this, but my head was noticeably clearer now that my most immediate concern was sound asleep. With Eve’s soft snoring in my ears, I scanned the area around me to search for the nearest exit, yet I was to be denied this opportunity of escape.

Everywhere around me suddenly looked the same. The entire area was just a flat, grassy plain that stretched out from all angles until it brushed against the night sky above in the far-distance. It was all monotonous, clearly an unnatural formation, and I was smack-dab in the middle of it.

Well, I jest- it wasn’t entirely featureless. There was a lovely little tree not too far from where I stood. Given everything else that’d happened in my life so far, I knew that I was bound to walk up to it and start rubbing my hands on it until it revealed the ‘human prophecy’ or whatever, so I headed out to fulfil my destiny.

It was evidently larger than it’d looked from afar. It was slightly greyed-out as well, like it had that ‘late 2000s piss filter’ gracefully draped over it. In this world of colour and prancing rainbows, it certainly looked out of place. It made me question where it had come from, and the…fuckass mental thing that stepped out from behind it wasn’t helping.

I really don’t know what to say at this point. The thing looked like a syntax error. It stood upright despite having no appendages that should’ve allowed it to do that, nor possessing anything to support it. There was nothing that I could associate the thing with, and the only way I could tell that it was anything more than a statue was the way it grinned at me. Bear-bat-goat-snake-looking ass.

“Don’t tell me,” I started as the creature approached me. “You’re some crazy bastard who’s going to reduce the foundations of this little world to dust?”

Now, I wasn’t entirely sure if this creature could even speak- but given how the rest of this world seemed to work…yeah. Sure enough, the creature showcased its vocal talents. “And you are the little troublemaker who has been working up a frenzy since the day you arrived.”

Wow, what a riot. I could tell that this guy had a way with words, given the ease at which he spoke, and the charisma that was dripping from every syllable. I was kind of falling for him, not gonna lie. Still, just because he was a verbal maestro, that didn’t mean that I was, so I did my best to look unimpressed.

“Really?! No response?! Do you have any idea how hard it is to round up a runaway human without causing a scene? Oh, the backbreaking labour…” the creature continued before very painfully folding himself in half several times until he appeared to be two-dimensional, after which he vanished into thin air.

I wasn’t too sure what to do once he’d disappeared, but I soon heard his voice emanate from my shirt’s breast-pocket. Sure enough, that was where he’d reappeared, thankfully shrunken down a smidge. “I even had this meadow tailormade for somepony like you- just like this lovely suit,” the creature commented, pulling himself out of my pocket and hanging off the side of it. “Rarity’s work, I presume? Don’t answer me: of course it is.”

With this, he dropped himself out of my pocket and hurtled to the floor. Thankfully, he grew back to his original size just before he reached the ground, allowing him to reassert his dominance over me. “Any comments? You’re a quiet one after a few drinks,” he noted, glaring down at me with a clear degree of impatience.

I could understand his frustration. This guy seemed to do everything with an exaggerated flair, so I felt almost guilty about being numb to the whole thing. His introduction wasn’t too dissimilar to Celestia’s in a way, given how I’d come to terms with my own mortality more times than I can count by now.

“Honestly, mate: I’ve had so many breakdowns in the past few weeks that this feels comparatively mediocre. If you plan to kill me, then do it now- although, I’m sure that everyone in Equestria likes playing with their food.”

Yeah, that probably wasn’t the correct answer, as the creature’s look of admonishment persisted for a great while longer. “You’re a year-or-so too late for that, human. I’m a changed draconequus now. During the time I was gone, I turned over a new leaf,” he explained.

Despite the creature’s purported change in moral alignment, I had no interest in hearing him out. “I have an annoying tendency to find myself at the feet of some of the most powerful beings in this world,” I softly lamented, finding issues with gripping the child still wrapped around my torso.

“More powerful than you can imagine- unless you want me to check your head next,” the draconequus continued. “In fact, let’s free up some space…”

Clicking his ‘fingers’, the creature grinned eagerly as he magically lifted Eve out of my arms and into the air above me. I’m sure I let out a wail of grief as the little girl was taken from me, and I could only watch as she floated just out of reach, cradled within a bubble of magic. I observed the girl as she shifted around and lightly kicked at the space that held her in, thankfully still asleep.

“Look at her up there- so unaware of the predicament you’ve forced her into,” the creature commented, twirling his taloned hand around while he spoke. “Tell me: what would be more merciful- keeping her here with you or sending her back alone?”

It was clear that the draconequus wished to be enlightened- but I wasn’t giving him an inch. “Give her back,” I warned him, drawing my bow for the second time that night. I was fully aware of the inevitable futility of such an action this time, but I still had an obligation to play the cards I held. “After what’s happened tonight, I won’t-”

“-Yes, yes; alright,” the creature thankfully relented with a huff. Another click followed, and the bubble around Eve burst. Rather than have her hurtle to the ground, I was grateful for the mercy shown as the little girl was gently returned to me.

I was so pleased with the turn of events that I barely registered my ‘friend’ as he began to mock me again. “We’ve surely had enough of that now, haven’t we? Of course, when involved in a bar fight, why not try out the old bow-and-arrow? It’s always worth a shot.”

“I’m not proud of it,” I simply replied while gently bouncing on the spot…for whatever reason. “But you surely didn’t bring me all the way out here just to insult me?”

“Just watch where you aim the thing next time. One wrong move and it’s over for somepony like you. Is it somepony or someone- which would you like?”

He momentarily vanished once more before reappearing in a butler’s suit. Bowing, he presented two dishes to me. There was one on the left and one on the right, displaying the words ‘somepony’ and ‘someone’ respectively, bringing a more literal interpretation to the situation. I mindlessly swiped at one of the dishes with my free arm. “Can I sit down? You make my head hurt.”

I didn’t wait for any response or permission. Given how amicably this conversation had been going, I felt as if I would’ve been given the space to act in a way that suited my own interests. “Do what you like. You’ve spent lots of energy on your night of ‘fun’,” the creature confirmed to me with a continued joy behind his words.

For once, though, I was able to share his enthusiasm; the grass was fantastic to sit on. It was much softer than the cheap crap up at Canterlot, and it allowed me to brood with my knees up to my chest like an insolent teenager, albeit with some fiddling for Eve’s sake. “I’m not even going to ask for your name because you won’t give it to me, so-”

“-You never get if you never ask, human.”

In the midst of my sulking, the draconequus had slithered next to me. So much so, that the sudden emergence of his voice from such a short distance caused me to jump in surprise. My jerky movements ignited fresh concerns as to Eve’s continued slumber through all this, but she was still kicking away quite nicely. “Then, what’s your name?” I asked him.

Faced with such a simple question, the creature scratched at his face as it stayed just inches from mine. “Too late!” he gleefully concluded before teleporting away from me once more. “Look at that: your pessimism caused you to miss the last train out of town. And those tickets are so hard to come by.”

To emphasise his point, he created a train ticket out of thin air. I watched as the flap of paper floated down to me, and I grabbed at it and read its contents in a bid to gain some extra information. “Oh: ‘The Discord express’…Discord?”

If the ensuing, brightly-coloured celebrations were anything to go by, I’d likely stumbled upon the correct answer. “Ring-a-ding-ding! Congratulations! Your reading has come such a long way!” Discord informed me, although it was difficult to hear him over the confetti cannons.

Once all the noise had died down, and I’d wiped any remaining confetti out of Eve’s hair, I shifted my focus back to the make-believe ticket. “So, ‘Discord’? Synonym for ‘lack of cohesion’? ‘Causing trouble’?”

Discord grinned wildly at this. “Are you trying to make sense of my name? Or are you just trying to get on my good side?”

This guy really was in control here. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that I was in his garden right now. It was certainly far away from Canterlot. “What are you doing here?” I dully enquired, shaking my head despondently.

“Is it not obvious? I’m here to help you.”

“And what’s the point of doing that?”

“For you- it depends if you want to survive. A binary choice; don’t make me pull out the dinner plates again. For me…well, there’s no better entertainment than to watch you run amok and cause chaos- and now I get a front-row seat!”

Once again proving himself as someone who loves a demonstration, Discord conjured up a small deck chair to sit on. He quickly found a place within it, all dressed up in a fancy dressing gown and lobbing popcorn into his mouth.

“Did you really create a separate dimensional plain just to do dad jokes?” I asked him, having finally stood up to face the draconequus…which is a word that never gets any easier to write.

Slightly impatient, I walked straight past the trickster; I was more interested in the tree in the background. There obviously must’ve been a reason for it to be here, so I thought it’d be best to get a bit closer to the big bastard and give it a closer inspection.

For a tree of such a large size, it was hardly imposing. While it bore lush leaves of varying sizes and textures up above, the bark and branches that connected the green clusters were much more decrepit, showing clear signs of age and other damage that went beyond the standard wear-and-tear.

There were no markings or carvings in the blackened bark, which was rough to the touch and left small particles on my hands that felt like ash. I persisted with dragging my fingers along the tree’s surface as I internally questioned the reasons for its presence.

“Aren’t you tired of asking questions you already know the answer to?” Discord suddenly asked me, having once again closed the distance between us without my knowledge.

I instinctively attempted to swat his smug face away, thankfully missing, before turning around to face him. “Care to explain, then?” I questioned him, leaning on the tree behind me in order to keep my balance.

“I don’t do deals where I’m on the losing end, you see; I never bet on the losing horse,” Discord elaborated. He came to join me next to the tree, placing one of his ‘hands’ upon its surface. “Hence why we’re next to this tree.”

“So, what? You’re a trickster, a shady dealer, or are you just a madman like Celestia-”

“-Really?! The princess says that I’m mad? It’s not me- it’s the world that’s mad!” Discord vehemently protested, whirling around on the spot in a catatonic gesture towards the area around him. “Look around you: this whole world makes no sense.”

I couldn’t really speak on the world’s behalf, but the draconequus certainly wasn’t making any sense to me. “This is the world that you’ve created,” I reminded him, doing my own, slightly more lethargic gesture to the empty space.

Discord was broken free from his unnecessary spinning by my comment. Once he’d finally stopped moving, he glared down at me as if I was the least cooperative person he’d ever met. Or more likely the dimmest. “Equestria was here long before I was, human. Even this tree holds secrets that I could never possibly understand.”

Perhaps showcasing a hint of pride, Discord made a display of patting the tree like you’d do to an old friend. I didn’t know why he was so enamoured with it, but I’m sure that his mind works in mysterious ways.

Something more concrete was how effective his stare was. His pupils were narrow yet oh-so expressive, deviously working in tandem with the way he spoke to create what must be the definition of ‘persuasion’. The urge to blindly follow him was so strong that I’d forgotten what I was planning on saying.

I must’ve been slack-jawed or something, as Discord’s smile grew before he thankfully closed his eyes, giving me time to look away from them. “This is the Onus Tree: passed down through generations. It’s known for its ability to draw fortunes,” he explained of his own volition; I wouldn’t be surprised if he could also read minds. “Do bear in mind, human: they’re for your eyes only.”

The draconequus’ continued patting on the Onus Tree was hypnotising in a way; I swear that I could feel the vibrations that each gentle hit unleashed. However, this action actually had a purpose this time, as a small box soon protruded from the tree’s trunk.

If there were fortunes to be drawn, this looked like the place to do it. The box itself was small in size, obviously wooden, and with small engravings on its front that resembled small pillars. Such small details were not replicated on the box’s lid, which only displayed a hole for my hand to be placed into, noticeably worn down from possible repeated use. Perhaps I wasn’t the first soul to have ended up here.

The box wouldn’t have looked out-of-place if it was part of a school fair for a raffle. “Stick your hand in and hope you get a good prize?” I wearily asked Discord, who continued to watch me expectantly, smile never wavering.

It was highly likely that a smile was his answer to my question, yet I had some reservations about following through with his wordless instruction. “What are you hoping to get from this?” I asked him while lightly placing Eve onto the ground in order to free up both of my hands.

“I’m not looking for anything,” he simply replied.

“Then what do you hope for me to get from this?”

“Different question; same answer.”

There was no point arguing with him; it was like pissing in the wind. I nervously thrust my hand into the box and silently began to rummage. Happily, there didn’t seem to be any form of booby-trap held within, so I was free to shimmy and shake the box’s contents for as long as I desired.

Sadly, I was to be disappointed: unless my senses were deceiving me, there was only one scrap of paper lollygagging around at the bottom. “I can only feel one,” I mentioned to Discord, who didn’t even hint at the idea of a reply. “Kinda takes the fun out of it, doesn’t it?”

Once again, I was met with silence- at least until I’d removed my hand from the box, scrap of paper in-hand. “They’ll throw open the castle gates for you,” Discord eventually commented; there was a permanent enjoyment in his voice. “Soon enough, the kingdom itself will wait for you with bated breath.”

Although he was clearly enjoying the narrative he was creating, I just couldn’t understand his reasons for doing so. “Even if that’s not what I want?” I questioned him, once again lacking the ability to stay on his wavelength. This feeling was increased tenfold once his answer was uttered.

“You misunderstand me- they will do it because it’s not what you want.”

It was entirely possible that the draconequus was simply living a fantasy at my expense- making a storm in a teacup. He seemed like the type. Nevertheless, I had nothing to work off of when forming such a conclusion, so I pushed that possible omen to the back of my mind.

“We’ve stalled for long enough; time to reveal your prize!”

I was bracing for a barrage of confetti that never came, clutching at the piece of paper in my hand with every ounce of strength I had. Deciding to turn away from Discord and instead have Eve serve as the backdrop while I drew my ‘fortune’, I clumsily unfolded the scrap of paper in my hands until I could see what it displayed.

“Another. ‘Another’ what?”

To my disappointment, my ‘fortune’ displayed only one word- and one word that barely gave me insight into anything. “Do you mean ‘draw another’ or is this some kind of-” I questioned Discord, only to find an empty space once I’d turned my attention back to where the draconequus once stood.

The tree was still stood in front of me; sadly, a quick scan of it offered no insight into the whereabouts of that damned trickster. Frustrated, I crumpled the piece of paper and chucked it in a random direction, deeming it worthless. Annoyingly though, it seemed to have a mind of its own as it fluttered in a make-believe wind before landing in a small, white bag a short distance away from me, which Discord was happy to describe.

“Apologies: I’m not…altogether these days, I’m afraid. I’ve left you a little something to remember me by. Take the bag with you, my friend; it’ll come in handy.”

He was only here in spirit, unfortunately. In fact, taking my eyes off the all-important tree had caused it to disappear in tandem, leaving just Eve and I in this grassy void. Granted, now that the tree had taken its leave, the little girl had nothing left to lean on in her sleep, so she was back with me in an instant.

Truth be told, I didn’t want to take the bag with me, but the void’s continued existence suggested that I wasn’t leaving without it. The events of this entire night- and possibly my existence in this world to begin with- all seemed out of my control, so why not take the surprise gift from the disfigured man talking gibberish next to the bushes?

Inside the lovely bag, made from what felt like the finest cotton, was my wonderful fortune, as well as a couple of other noteworthy objects. Inexplicably, the bag contained a pair of teddy bears, withered and damaged from overuse in a similar vein to the old tree. It was clear whose gifts those were.

More interesting for me was the other item kept within. Right at the bottom of the bag was what appeared to be a spell book, if my earlier experiences were anything to go by. I inquisitively picked it up to scan it further, and I let out a loud laugh once I’d made sense of the front cover.

“Another.”

Indeed, scrawled on the front cover was the word-of-the-day. Besides that, there wasn’t anything else to describe apart from the black background that the writing sat atop of. I wiped my finger along it and found nothing strange about it. Well, comparatively…

“Do stop by again sometime. I know better than anypony that it takes time to build trust. I’ll be waiting when the time comes.”

And with Discord’s farewell message somewhere in my subconscious, I looked up from the book to see that I was back within the castle grounds. Given the nonsense that’d just happened, I was glad to be back; the evening’s previous events from within the ballroom felt like a distant memory, even if such a short time had separated that event and this one.

That was if time had even moved at all. The Gala seemed to still be ongoing by the looks of things, but I certainly wasn’t going to join in with the fun. As far as I was concerned, I’d fulfilled my end of Celestia’s bargain, so I set off (both child and bag in-hand) and headed back to bed.