Abandoned Discord and Celestia origin story

Those of you who aren't writers, and even some of you are, would be amazed at how many ideas I generate (and how many I throw in the trash) on a daily basis. At any given time, I usually have about sixty projects open in my writing folder. An idea may stay in my folder for years before I eventually decide to scrap it, usually after salvaging anything of value from it to incorporate into my other writing, or at least into my worldbuilding notes and essays. Why, it was only recently that I finally decided to give up on Twilight, Season One, a Dexter crossover that I had been planning and writing small bits for since 2012. It's because of this habitual cycling through ideas which is why I no longer tease new story releases until it's a sure thing that I'm going to finish them. And even then, it's sometimes a bad idea because of factors outside my control.

This blog is about one specific abandoned idea.

One of the many ideas I had and threw out was a story (or series of stories) called One Thousand Years Ago. It was intended to be set in the Borderworld (of course), and would've shown the entire history of the Classical Era, beginning with the end of the windigoes, going through the defeats of Discord, Tirek, the Dazzlings, and Sombra, and eventually ending with the Nightmare Moon saga. I abandoned this idea because a complete history of the Classical Era in story format felt unnecessary, since we already know how large parts of it went down, and I didn't just want to retread canon in the places where I had no original ideas. Plus, I revised my headcanon on a lot of major historical stuff and came up with new ideas that displaced my old ones.

Right now, all the details of the story that I kept are being incorporated into my Equestrian history series, while new stories are being planned and written in place of the stuff I didn't keep.

For one thing, almost everything about Discord was changed for new stories. Before, I gave him a backstory that took a lot of cues from The Last Draconequus by Alara Rogers, with Discord being the last of his kind due to windigo attacks, who was taken in by ponies and raised amongst the princesses, until becoming the Spirit of Chaos ruined his and everyone else's lives. It stands in contrast to the backstory I use now, with a heavier focus on his cosmic origins and a lot of Norse mythology inspiration. Celestia and Luna are also very different now than they were going to be in OTYA. And since Discord and the princesses were going to be such big players in OTYA, when I first began writing the series, I began with a scene of their first meeting.

And this is where we get to why this blog was written, because I want to show you that scene. It's as far as I got with this fic before I gave up on it, and it's largely unedited, but I rather like it, and I think it's worth preserving, unlike 95% of everything else I scrap. I just wanted to give context to why this isn't going to be a full story, and why you shouldn't expect any more.

So without further delay:

One Thousand Years Ago:
Chapter 1: Where It All Started

Outpost Neverwinter was one of the northernmost points of Equestria. The earth was frosty outside the camp, but inside, it was merely damp. A bonfire burned in the centre of it all, a number of large tents erected in a circle around as if they too were clamouring around for warmth just like the ponies who put them up. Wooden spears stuck out of the ground along the perimeter of the camp, acting as a stern warning for potential attackers or intruders.

The sole permanent feature of the place was the watchtower, built out of wood taken from the forest around them and constructed overnight. It rose above the camp, and from a fortified position at the top of it, an earth pony hailed the approaching sky carriage and signalled his comrades on the ground to let them know who was coming.

The carriage touched down just outside the front entrance to the camp, the sole gap in the wall of spears. A gruff pegasus stallion in full armour stepped out, testing the ground with a hoof before he dared step on it.

The pony's armour was purple and trimmed with gold, and its design was very elegant and decorative. It was ill-suited for such a grizzled old pony, contrasting starkly against his prominent scars and eyepatch. He seemed aware of it too, looking down at his breastplate and scratching at it with a hoof once he stepped off the carriage, grumbling and frowning at it all the way. Behind him, a white unicorn filly with a pink mane also emerged from the carriage, shuffling over to the stallion's side, unnoticed.

The filly kept behind him and slightly to his right as a unicorn approached them both and saluted.

"Commander Hurricane, sir! Welcome to Outpost Neverwinter."

The commander eyed his subordinate's armour, which was far more practical and less showy than his own.

"At ease, lieutenant."

The lieutenant lowered his hoof. He turned and started walking towards the camp, and Commander Hurricane followed after. Trailing behind the both of them, the white filly looked back at the carriage longingly.

"Troop morale is high," said the lieutenant as they walked. "Every victory forges new bonds between the soldiers here, every friendship makes the Fire burn brighter, and every time the Fire grows, our next victory becomes all the more certain. We have these cowards on the run, sir."

"Good," said Commander Hurricane. "But I already knew this. I am more interested in the state of the outpost. I need to know about supplies, conditions, and if the location is still strategically viable. If we intend to establish a more permanent holdout here, that last one is especially important."

The lieutenant stopped in front of the bonfire, as did the commander and the filly.

"In truth, the location has many flaws, but I'd prefer we stay instead of uprooting and moving elsewhere. Were we fighting our fellow ponies again, we would be better taking the high ground. However, our enemies being what they are..."

"More defensible, less exposed, yes?"

"Precisely, sir. And not so easy to completely freeze over if they muster the strength for an attack."

Behind the two military ponies, the unicorn filly fidgeted and idly scraped at the ground. Looking up at the bonfire, she stopped, noticing a faint pink glow from within it. She tilted her head.

"Father, what is that?" she asked, pointing at the fire and looking at Commander Hurricane.

Her question forced Hurricane and the lieutenant to acknowledge her for the first time since they arrived at the outpost. For a moment, the commander seemed unsure of what she was referring to, until he looked at where she was pointing and noticed the glow himself.

"That would be an ember from the Fire of Friendship," he explained. "'Tis our greatest weapon against the windigoes, but it would be ill-advised to bring the true essence of the Fire out to the wilderness. This is but a facsimile, but it is just as effective. Clover herself devised it."

The filly sat on her rump next to the fire, raising an eyebrow and staring into it again.

"Huh," she said.

A moment of silence passed, before the lieutenant cleared his throat and turned back to Hurricane.

"Perhaps we would should continue our discussion in my command tent."

"Indeed."

Commander Hurricane turned back to his daughter.

"Celestia, I must go with the lieutenant. Do not bother anypony who looks busy, and do not leave the outpost walls unless you wish to return to the carriage."

Celestia nodded. "Yes, father."

Hurricane and the lieutenant walked off soon after, and Celestia was left by herself. She stayed by the bonfire, mesmerised. Several minutes passed where she didn't move an inch, only gazing ceaselessly into the pink glow at its core. At one point, another soldier came by to rest next to the fire with Celestia, holding out his hooves to warm them. He glanced sideways at the filly for a moment, but he said nothing, and the both of them remained silent until he left.

It took some real commotion to break her trance. Shouting came from the other side of the camp. A few pegasi flew over and landed behind one of the closer tents. Celestia tore her eyes away from the bonfire to watch them flying overhead, and took a step backwards and winced when she heard a pained wailing from behind the tent.

"Agh! He stabbed me in the leg!" somepony called.

"Medic!"

One of the further tents collapsed. The stakes flew out of the ground, the poles clanged loudly as they fell on top of each other, and the canopy fell as soon as it was no longer propped up. The dozens of ponies still inside the tent started struggling and bucking to get it off them, their figures still visible under it all. On top of the fallen canopy, a panicking pony barreled forward.

No, not a pony. Its forelegs were red and scaly and ended with claws, like a dragon. In fact, it had a dragon's tail and chest too. The rest of it looked like a pony, with a black mane, pegasus wings and a plain grey coat, but the draconic body parts were very prominent. It was a chimera of some kind, and it was running straight towards Celestia.

"Stop it! It's getting away!" called somepony.

Celestia's eyes were wide as she rapidly tried to back away from the creature. To her surprise, it ignored her and ran straight past. She twisted her neck around to watch as it tried to run for the way out of the camp, but a pair of ponies with spears blocked the way. The chimera stopped in its tracks and backed away. Turning around, it saw Celestia. She and the chimera looked directly at each other. Yellow eyes stared at her, but they looked desperate to her. Pleading, almost. She noticed then that the chimera wasn't that much larger than herself.

He (or at least, Celestia thought it was a he) looked up. Celestia noticed five more soldiers approaching from behind her, all holding spears of their own. The pegasi carried theirs under their wings, the unicorns levitated their weapons, and the lone earth pony of the group clutched his weapon in his hoof somehow. They moved in on all sides.

The chimera unexpectedly ran over to Celestia's side, snatched her up, and held the filly in front of his own face. He pointed her at the five ponies advancing on him, while he turned his head away and closed his eyes, cringing. The soldiers paused, all looking genuinely confused. Celestia, for her part, was taken off-guard by the whole thing. After taking a moment to gather herself, she turned back to face the chimera. He opened a single eye to meet her gaze, and she gave him a flat look, as if to say, "Really?"

The creature was flushed, and gently set her down again with an apologetic look. He twiddled his claws and sat in place, letting Celestia run away and giving the soldiers time to close the gap and point their spears right into his neck. Again the chimera closed his eyes. This time, Celestia could almost swear she heard him whimpering. But he did not move futher, remaining obediently still.

While Celestia stared on at the scene, transfixed, Commander Hurricane and the lieutenant emerged from another tent. The lieutenant's eyes widened and he galloped over as soon as he saw them, while Hurricane merely furrowed his brow and approached with a brisk trot.

"What happened here?" the lieutenant demanded.

"It somehow escaped from its cage, sir," the earth pony with the spear reported.

"Somehow? What is that supposed to mean? How did it escape?"

"Sir!" said one of the unicorns. "It stabbed Private Shale Stone with a sharpened piece of wood, and took his key, sir!"

"What!" the lieutenant shouted. "What drivel! How would it know how to use a key?"

Commander Hurricane's look of confusion morphed into a frown.

"Because it's a draconequus, lieutenant," he said, as if he were talking to a six-year-old. "They're as intelligent as you or I! Of course he knows how to use a key!"

Celestia looked back to the draconequus, as did everypony else. He had opened his eyes again, and his attention was on the two senior stallions and their argument.

"I... forgive me, sir. This one was captured a few weeks ago, trying to steal our food. We'd never seen anything like it before, so we thought to bring it back to the capital for study once we were done here. I was not aware that it was a thinking creature."

"Why would you assume it wasn't?" Hurricane pressed. "Quite aside from the fact that chimeras are more often intelligent than not, it's a hybrid of a pony and a dragon, not a pair of random wild animals with no higher thought process. There really is no excuse for this."

The lieutenant sighed.

"Sir, with due respect, it did not respond to attempts to communicate."

"Probably because he doesn't speak pony, you imbecile."

The draconequus looked at the ground.

"I do speak it..." he mumbled, drawing everypony's attention back to him.

The lieutenant blinked.

"I... I..." he stammered as Commander Hurricane glared at him. "I swear, sir, this is the first time he's spoken a single word."

The lieutenant ran up to the draconequus and leaned in close to him.

"You!" he yelled. "Why didn't you speak sooner if you were intelligent?"

The draconequus shrinked away from the shouting pony as the rest of the soldiers pulled their spears away. Commander Hurricane rolled his eyes.

"Lieutenant, stop it. You don't need to intimidate him. He's a child. He's already probably terrified of you."

Most of the spear-carrying soldiers took another glance at their target and fully withdrew their weapons.

"...I apologise, sir."

Commander Hurricane brushed his lieutenant aside.

"Let me handle this, idiot." He trotted up to the draconequus. "You, son, what's your name?"

The draconequus looked at the ground.

"M-my pony name is Discord."

"Okay... Discord... I've met draconequui before. You're safe, okay? Do you know where your parents are, so that we can get you back to them?"

"Mm, well..." said Discord, scratching his head with a claw, "Actually, I think they're dead."

Commander Hurricane paused.

"You... think they're dead?"

"Well, I saw them get torn limb from limb by windigoes, so I'm pretty sure, but I admit I don't know for certain."

The commander let that hang in the air for a moment.

"Any other family?"

"Not that I know of," Discord said with a shrug.

"Do you know any other draconequui at all?"

Discord shook his head. "All dead. Mother always said that we were the last."

He spoke with an eerie nonchalance that made one of the nearby soldiers shiver, in spite of the bonfire. Commander Hurricane turned away from Discord and whistled, summoning two of his personal guard from over near the carriage. They stopped and saluted.

"Soldiers, take this young gentlecolt back to the carriage," he instructed. "It seems we really have no choice but to take him back to the capital with us."

Discord looked from the commander to the guards. He seemed to be expecting them to point their weapons at him, but instead they simply gestured in the direction of the pegasus carriage outside the camp. Reluctantly, the draconequus started walking, following after the guards as they led him onwards. He looked back over his shoulder at Celestia as he left.

Once he was out of sight, Commander Hurricane sighed and turned back to the lieutenant.

"Back to the tent. You and I will be having words about this incident. Celestia, stay here."

As her father vanished once more, Celestia was left by the fire for a second time. This time, she couldn't just sit still and stare into it. Now she fidgeted and kept glancing in the direction of the carriage. It hadn't escaped her notice that she had gone completely unacknowledged through that whole debacle. None of the soldiers had even seen fit to mention to her father what had happened to her. Well, no more.

Celestia stood up and defiantly trotted out of the camp and towards the carriage. There, she found the odd-looking chimera lounging across the back seat. He was pulling threads out of the cushion and chewing on them.

"Hey," she said as she hopped up into the carriage.

Discord looked up at her.

"Hi," he said, waving but not smiling. "Sorry about using you as a meat-shield."

It was only up this close that Celestia finally noticed that he had a dragon's teeth as well, with two large fangs inside his mouth.

"It's, uh... it's fine, I guess."

Discord went back to pulling the threads.

"My name is Celestia."

He ignored her as he found a thread that didn't break when he pulled it, and he began yanking it all the way out.

"Why are you doing that?"

"I don't know. I just feel like I should."

The thread snapped. Discord tried to grab another thread and start pulling again, but semed to accidentally tear the whole cushion open instead. Pegasus feathers spilled out everywhere, causing Discord to smile.

"You're weird," said Celestia.

"Hey, want to see a trick?"

Discord picked up the feathers and threw them into the air, causing them to start raining down on the both of them. Celestia opened her mouth to say something, but Discord interrupted her by snapping his dragon claws and producing a clicking noise. Celestia at first thought that was his trick, as she'd never seen a creature with opposable digits before, but then she noticed that the feathers were dancing around them, forming rings in the air around the two of them.

The filly gasped.

"You can do magic?" she almost squealed.

Discord gave a smug smile.

"Draconequus magic."

"Do some more!"

"Well, alright then!"

Two minutes later, Commander Hurricane would return to find his daughter screaming, a draconequus flailing his limbs in an uncontrollable panic, and his carriage full of dozens upon dozens of bullfrogs.

And thus began the long relationship between Discord and the Equestrian royal family.

Comments

[alarajrogers]

I like this. I may go recursive and borrow bits of it (the tearing apart the pillows is such a very low-key, character-setting thing for a child version of Discord to do.) I can see how it doesn't really fit with what you developed the character into later (although, you did say he was born as a draconequus, and didn't come into his memories as the reincarnated Spirit of Chaos until later, so have you retconned that or does this just not fit with your current concept of his childhood?) Commander Hurricane as Celestia's father is a really interesting choice, one I don't think I've ever seen anyone make before; I have him as her grandfather, but given that he was old when he fathered her mother, and I don't deal with her mother much because she died when Celestia was little, my Celestia probably never actually met him.

[DannyJ]

3274513

Always an honour to inspire my inspiration.

This Discord was still born a draconequus and regained his memories later. But he wasn't born in Equestria anymore. He was born in Jotunheim, one of the Realms of Chaos, which his forces conquered in his previous life. One other big change between this backstory and the one I use now is that I no longer go with Discord as the last of his kind, but rather say that the overwhelming majority of his species live in another dimension nearby. Like the breezies do. Much of the new backstory I use is detailed in the Locations and History series. So far, Locations is two parts (covering the greater universe and the Nine Realms individually) and History is three parts (covering a broad history of the universe at large, the early pre-history of Earth, and the Pre-Classical Era).

One thing I did retcon since we last talked on this backstory was that "Discord" is no longer his birth name, but his inherited name as the Spirit of Chaos. His birth name now is Loki, fitting with the Norse themes.