"Tahh'mut" I hear the voice next to me say.
"Bless you" I say in response, looking in my saddlebag for some tissues.
I hear a chuckle and then the voice explains "Not sneezing, merely remembering the past. I was trying to work out why this valley looked familiar and now I realise it's because it's Tahh'mut."
I give Discord a weird look, I'd never heard of anywhere called like that and I was pretty sure we were still in Ponyville.
In response to my reaction, Discord explains "A long time before any pony's had visited these lands, in fact I'm pretty sure Ponies didn't even exist at the time, there was an empire of sentient 4 ft tall ants that used to live in the area, they called the hive and these lands Tahh'mut."
It's not often I hear Discord talk about the past, usually he seems to just try to live within the moment, so I ask "So where are they now?"
"What's left of them is probably fossilised beneath our hooves, there have been several extinction events since their mandibles last clacked. Probably a good thing to be honest, they were not very friendly" Discord mentions.
Taking some moments to take in the words, I hesitate but decide I need to ask the question "I hope this isn't rude but our conversations and the letters you write, well I have been getting a feeling, how old are you?"
Discord brings his claw to his chest while summoning a fan to his paw "You should never ask a Draconequus their age, Fluttershy."
I resist the urge to apologise and continue looking at him.
Watching his grin somewhat falter and his form seems to somewhat droop, "I can't really remember anymore. I've got a general idea, but I've lost track numerous times. Last time I'd bothered to tally it I think it was at least seventy million and that in itself was a long time ago"
Slightly recoiling at the number, "that's a lot of years" I mumble.
Discord flashes me a grin "Indeedy, you are in fact talking to the oldest being in Equestria, the living fossil."
I look up at the ancient figure, trying desperately to imagine the years that Discord seemed to exist.
"I've seen it all, Shy" Discord floats back down to the ground "Continents drift, empires warring with each other, the death of the first sun. nature dying. And even" Discord's talon taps on her nose "The start of the ponies"
"The first sun?" I say wrinkling my nose.
"Oh? Ponies don't know about it do they? Funny, they are the ones dealing with the consequences. Tell me Fluttershy, before the ponies, who moved the sun?" Discord, with a newly acquired professor's hat on top of his head askes.
Struggling to come up with an answer, I fire in the dark "You?"
*BEEP* I hear a blaring buzzer.
"Wrong, my dear. Though I certainly had the ability at the time, it was the dragons that did it, though they'd deserved the responsibility. Many years prior, we had a sun that we used to orbit. No magic required, Equus rotated around it in fact. But at the dawn of magic, there was a ritual dragons fulfilled for their infamous internal fires, previously they were these weird cloaked lizards but the fires enabled magic and also enhanced their size. Now the idiots didn't consider what would happen if they ate the whole damn sun and Equus was plunged into darkness."
DIscord then snapped his claws and a small orb appeared hovering over his hand.
"Now back in those days, I was mostly an amateur mage and definitely not on the scale of dragons but I had picked up a few tricks, igniting some of my lifespan. I threw a smaller sun up and basically said to the world to deal with this. Dragon's dealt with it at first but the wielder of the sun usually switches to those who have the power during the period."
Throwing the orb into his mouth, Discord remarks "Got a bit of a kick."
Watching Discord and debating whether there was any truth to his words, I'd have thought that would be in some book of some variety, I mentioned one part of his explanation "Ignite your lifespan? Isn't that bad for you?"
Discord motions his finger and I watch a line form in the air with small indentations with numbers.
"Now imagine your timeline, you're twenty-ish right?" Discord snaps and the timeline marks from 0-20 "Now let's say on average a pony lives about 70 years, that leaves you about 50 years of life potential. Life potential can basically be burned, so if we burn 5 years you now will live about 65 years. Now in general it's a bad idea, because with the magic output you get you just go into a life burning spiral and you cannot know prior if it's actually 65 years you have, maybe you were ten years below the average so you just burn up. "
Discord snaps again with a point at himself afterwards with his thumb, "My timeline on the other hand, is massive. Slight benefit from being immortal I suppose, so if I do it, it burns away from infinite potential, still stings like a buck to the face though."
Discord sits back down on the hill, a beach lounger seemingly appearing under him, "Funny really, most of my spells got wiped by the elements when I adorned my stone suit the first time. Would have loved to see Celestia's face she fired the painbow at me, the sun just vanishing from reality and realising she'd doomed everyone"
I give Discord a disapproving look.
Discord waves his talon in a dismissive manner "Yes, yes. I know, reformation and all that, can you blame me though? Petrification isn't necessarily the most fun of experiences and a millenium not being able to move puts a damper on your mood."
"But you were spreading chaos all over the lands, something most ponies also were not have the best of experiences with" I return.
Discord starts maintaining his claws with a file summoned from thin air, I don't think he's even aware most of the time he performs magic that Twilight would take a week to understand, and after extending the hand to ensure it looks okay, he says "Difference in timescale for one, my age of chaos was only about three years. And two, there was a purpose, well beyond the amusement factor."
Discord then sighs, a sigh that feels more weary than anything, and starts "I was aware of the elements of harmony before I decided to challenge the pony race, and wondered if they might be able to solve a challenge I've been trying to solve. I forced the ponies to look for anything to defeat me and when two fillies found the tree, I orchestrated a fight, evidently, I failed the first goal fairly badly but I knew I'd get a second time round. But as you know my dear, that failed as well."
I hesitate when asking and the sound struggles to get out of my throat "Wh… What was the challenge?"
Discord gives me a look that sends shivers down my spine and in a casual tone, almost dismissive of the topic, "My death."
I cough in reaction to this, and manage to get out "What?"
"You know, bereft of life, kicking the bucket, shufflin' off the mortal coil. I wanted to die Fluttershy, and the elements of harmony seemed to be the ticket. If I disrupted it, to a level of disaster, then I was sure that to regain harmony it would have to kill me. Which, I put my hand to heart, was entirely the wrong call, I didn't even factor in that I could be neutralised in another way" Discord says with a cheery tone.
I look at Discord with tears attempting to blur my vision, my brain rapidly attempting to come up with any response to this "Is this what happened at the tea party?"
"No, that was a series of bad decisions that genuinely stemmed from me attempting to host a nice party. Nor would it have killed me, what it would have done is merely leave me without a body" Discord responds.
"Isn't that dying?" I ask.
"Depends on who you ask really, death is quite subjective. But no, I've lost bodies before and usually with enough effort I can get a replacement" Discord motions down his body "This beautiful body isn't even my original form, something I made through necessity really."
I blink at him and say the first thought that comes to my mind "What did you look like then, originally I mean?"
Discord seems to strain for a moment and then reaches out to snap his claws.
An equine-like creature is frozen in the air, seemingly having small scales covering the body and probably about half the size of a regular pony.
"Behold the Draconequus, in all its ferocious fury" Discord says with a smirk "to be honest, I've probably influenced the image of the race but I do still carry the name with pride."
Trying to take the form in, I can see that it seems to be missing several distinguishing traits that more modern animals seem to have, but I respond with "he's cute."
"Sadly, others at the time didn't think so, we were descendents of a dragon like race and while the dragons stayed reptilian and could fight off predators we were the tasty new proto-mammals on the block. Hunted to extinction, including me by the way, did you know being eaten hurts considerably?"
I wince at the words, usually if Discord gets into these moments he tries at least to tone it down for me, and say "I.. uh .. I would think so"
Empathising with Discord could be challenging at times, a being of extremes, wise beyond eternity yet seemingly so childish at times, teeming with enduring power and capable of rendering reality to his own whims but at times like this when he's showing a more vulnerable side of himself, I wish I could understand more.
I notice that after the energetic display that Discord has sat down again, his tail wrapped around himself, and he seems to be staring towards the horizon almost wistfully.
Discord speaks up "The draconequus used to have a myth, when we'd die we used to leave our souls to protect our loved ones until the end of the day and when the sun sets they'd leave."
"Do you still want to…" I try to ask but the fear about the response shakes me to the core.
Discord chuckles and says "Do not fear, at the moment I am happy to kick around. These tea parties are delightful and I do enjoy watching your little group of friends expand and just get a little bit weirder"
I frown at the weirder comment but try to kind my mind on the topic "And, when we… leave?"
"My my, my dear Fluttershy, what morbid conversations you are wanting to have these days? I have endured without your group previously and I will do so again, I am used to loneliness. Also rather out of options on that front anyhow. I imagine I'll probably go for a long nap, it's what I used to do to pass the time. And this time, I am planning to do it in the sun and wake up with a nice tan."
I ask, hoping that there could be somepony that could keep Discord company, "What about the princesses? They'd be around right?"
Discord sighs and says "For a while, Both the sisters have already started to become weary with their many years, Cadence and Flurry will be interesting to see depending on Shining. Twilight really depends on her reactions to you all. The longest I have ever seen any other immortals survive is ten-thousand years."
I flitter through thoughts desperately trying to find any solution, I cannot let him be lonely again.
I feel the gears whir to a stop as I think of something.
"What about me?" I ask with more determination than I've felt in a while.
Discord raises an eyebrow quizzically and asks "What about you?"
"I could keep you company. Stay with you, and make it less lonely?"
"Are you asking me for immortality?" Discord says with a chuckle, but I notice something else reflected in his eyes.
"Maybe? I don't want to leave you alone, especially if you are going to have issues after we leave." I say.
"Fluttershy, please can we just drop this topic?" Discord says, the cheerfulness seems to drain away from him.
I step to my full height, desperately trying to get as close to him as possible "But if we don't talk about it now, we'll never talk about it. I don't want you to sleep away your existence and hope for oblivion and if I need to be there for that, why not?"
Discord stands up onto his hind-legs and I hear him say "Please, Shy, don't ask this again. I don't know if I'm going to have the strength to say no again."
I try to get more words in but I watch Discord raise his claw and I hear a loud crack as he disappears.
Author's Note
This is not quality writing but I was feeling a mood when writing this and I feel it would do it injustice to go through and rewrite it.
