//------------------------------// // Back To Work // Story: What Is This Strange Feeling? // by PonySage86 //------------------------------// Discord shifts around hesitantly unsure of his next move, he glances down from his hiding place in the ceiling at the Princess of Night below, his plan was to sneak up on her while she was napping and jump scare her awake, but before he could she had woken up and... started crying for some reason. This confuses Discord to end, he doesn't know what to do when a mare cries, the only mare he's ever seen cry is Fluttershy, and all he has to do when that happens is get rid of the thing that sacred her. But Luna is far different then Fluttershy. He starts thinking about his friend the Princess of Friendship, but decided Twilight's way of doing things probably wouldn't help here, whatever her way is... Discord only listens to about every fifth word Twilight says. His mind wonders back to Fluttershy, the one pony he does pay full attention to, whenever one of her animals is upset Fluttershy talks to them and finds a way to cheer them up, sometimes it's food other times it's breaking their neck, Fluttershy calls it a massage, Discord doesn't believe her, but that's not important. Discord finally makes up his mind, with a flash he leaves his hiding spot. Luna has her head buried in her hooves, she felt a little better, but fresh tears were still coming from her eyes, she was ready to give in to another wave of sobs as thoughts of her brother return to her mind, but before she can she hears something that makes her freeze. "Hey Lulu?" Luna recognizes Discords voice, she quickly wipes her tears away before looking up to face him. "I'm fine why do you ask?" Luna asks while hoping he didn't notice she had been crying. "So uh... " Discord scratches the back of his head. "Why were you crying." "Oh." Luna covers her face with her hooves again trying to hide her embarrassment. "I was hoping no pony heard that." "Well I more saw it then heard it." Discord enlarges his eyes and shrinks his ears for emphasis. "Being in the ceiling makes it kinda hard to hear." "Of course." Luna says with her face still covered, she doesn't seem bothered by Discords hiding place, a silence over takes the room after she speaks. "Sooo... uh..." Discord rocks on the heels of his feet, unsure of what to do next Discord just decides to go for broke and just ask. "You wanna talk about it?" "Huh?" Luna uncovers her eyes and looks at Discord, she smiles at her friend. "That's oddly nice of you Discord." "I know, you ponies are a good influence on me." Discord pretends to gag, Luna chuckles at Discord as he continues in a joking tone. "Still not sure I like it." "Don't worry, deep down you're still the same old Draconequus." Luna says with a smile as she wipes her eyes, Discords eye twitches. "What do you mean by that?" Discord asks a bit harshly, Luna blinks at the sudden tone change. "You've always been a prankster." Luna looks around utterly confused that she needs to explain this. "And you'll always be a prankster." "Oh yeah." Discord puts a paw to his head and shakes his head a little. "Duh." "Discord are you ok?" Luna asks as she stands up from the desk, Discord looks over at Luna. "Oh uh yeah I'm fine." Discord takes his paw off his head and gives Luna a grin. he coughs. "So what's wrong?" "Oh it was a..." Luna averts her eyes as she thinks about the dream she just had. "Good dream, or I guess it was a memory." "A good dream made you cry?" Discord asks with a raised eyebrow, Luna chuckles. "Yeah." Luna says with a nod and a shrug. "That doesn't even make sense to me." Discord says with a roll of his eyes. "You'll understand when it happens." Luna says with a shrug, Discord snaps his fingers, suddenly Luna is laying on a therapy couch and Discord is sitting in a chair dressed as a therapist. He summons a clipboard and a pen. "Alright Miss Night." Discord peeks at Luna from behind his clipboard. "Wanna talk about it?" Luna sighs heavily before smiling at her friend. "Yeah I wanna talk about it..." "Alright then let's do this thin-" Discord says while excitedly clicking his pen and prepareing to write stuff down." "But not with you." Luna finishes while interupting Discord, Luna suddenly hears a snap, she turns to face Discord, her eyes go wide when she sees the death glare on his face and the broken pen in his head. "Uh... Discord? You ok?" "Why can't you talk to me about this huh?" Discord growls at Luna. "I ain't good enough to talk too?" "What?! No!" Luna sits up on the couch just staring at her enraged friend. "Oh really then why can't you talk to me about this, Huh!?" Discord nearly shouts. "Because this a personal thing I need to talk to Celestia about!" Luna shouts back, this only seems to make Discord angrier. "Oh of course you'd rather talk to Celestia over me!" Discord snaps his fingers causeing the chair and couch to distintagrate. "No pony ever comes to Discord with their problems!" "I'm not talking to you about my problem because it doesn't concern you!" Luna yells using her royal canterlot voice. "This is between me and my sister!" "Fine! If your problem doesn't concern me then my problem doesn't concern you!" Luna blinks in surprise at Discord. "Wait what do you mean by that?" Luna asks suddenly feeling a bit nervous. "I mean your fired! Off the case!" Discord pauses momentarily to clutch his head with his paw, without removing his paw from his head he growls out the rest. "I don't need your help anymore! I never did!" Luna just stares at her friend unable to believe what he just said, she can't that the one pony who has ever invited her to help on an adventure just fired her... Lunas wide eyed stare suddenly narrows. Luna grinds her teeth and growls out her reply. "What did you just say?" "I said your-" Discord notices a dark aura begin forming around Luna, he is suddenly much more nervous when he says the last word. "...fired." "So let me get this straight, you ask me for help out of no where." Luna asks without looking at him. "Yes." Discord answers nervously. "Knowing full well that I never get to do anything, and would love the chance to go on an adventure." Lunas voice becomes cold and monotone. "Uh yes." Discord removes his paw from his head. "And now you want to just drop me from the team, thus ruining the one adventure I've been on in a thousand years?" Discord takes a few cautious steps backwards as the dark aura continues to grow. "Well when you put it that way." Discord yelps in surprise as Luna suddenly locks eyes with him, her eyes have become sli and the dark aura has nearly consumed her entire body. Discord feels his blood run cold. His eye twitches as a throbing pain starts up in his head, the pain makes it feel like his brain is shouting at him. I'm the embodiment of chaos, I won't be intimidated by a Princess. With this thought Discord narrows his eyes and matches Lunas intense glare, magic begins swirling Discord similar to the dark aura around Luna, the entire room seems to shake at the pressure of the most intense staring contest ever, the auras around the two continue to grow until each has claimed half the library. "Is this really what you want?" Luna growls through her teeth. "Yes it is." Discord growls in return, to Discords surprise the dark aura around Luna suddenly starts to shrink soon it's gone completely. Luna sighs heavily before turning away from Discord. "Fine." Luna quietly walks back the desk she was napping on and sits down in the chair, Discord watches as she silently grabs a book of the stack and seems to start reading. The pain in his head subsidies as he watches his friend quietly flip the pages, he is relieved to see her eyes have returned to normal. Discord scratches his head in confusion, he's glad he seems to have won the argument, sad that he has probably hurt Lunas feeling, and confusion over the fact that he doesn't regret his decision to go solo, in fact he feels a bit proud of himself, which also confuses him. "What is going on in here?" Discord and Luna turn to look at the door, Celestia is standing in the door way wixe eyed. Her eyes scan the room , the library is a complete mess, It looks like the library had it's own personal earthquake. "Nothing sister just a slight disagreement." Luna answers coldly without takung her eyes off her book, Celestia takes notice of Lunas tone of voice and decides to dig any deeper for now. Celestia turns her attention to Discord. "I'm glad your here Discord I have an important task for you." Celestia says in a serious tone, Discord sighs. "Oh what now?" Discord grumbles in response. Celestia ignores Discord comment and continues. "Another hurricane has formed off the coast of Manehattan." Discord and Luna exchange a knowing glance, Celestia doesn't seem to notice. "Alright i'll go take care of it." Discord proclaims as he heads for the door, but something Celestia says makes him stop short. "Oh Rainbow Dash will be meeting you there." Discord turns to look at Celestia. "Why?" Discord asks a bit harshly, Celestia blinks in confusion at his tone. "Well since you two took care of that tornado very quickly last time I figured she could help you deal with the hurricane this time." Celestia says with a smile. Discords eye twitches as he feels his brain screaming at him again. "What Celestia don't you think I can handle it?" Discord asks with clenched teeth. "Um... no I know you can hadle it." Celestia raises an eyebrow at the Lord of Chaos. "I just thought you'd like some help." "Oh so I don't do a good enough job for you is that it?" Discord thrusts an accusing finger at Celestia interupting her before she can speak. "I am Discord the Lord of Chaos, I am the single most powerful veung in the entire world, I don't need anyones help to do anything! So you better mail that rainbow maned show off and tell her not to waste her time cause Discords got this shit in the bag!" Before Celestia can speak Discord vanishes in a puff of smoke and cinnamon rolls, she just stares dumbfounded at the place he'd been standing. Slowly she turns her head to look at her sister. "What was all that about?" Celestia asks with a look of shock on her face, to Celestias surprise Luna doesn't seem bothered by Discord behavior at all. "You'll have to excuse Discord." Luna speaks flatly as she looks back down at her book. "He's letting his pride get the better of him today." "I see." Celestia looks at her younger sister slowly flip through the book in front of her. "So what are you reading Luna." "Just one of our brothers brilliant novel's." Luna notices Celestia flinch at the mention of their brother. "I see." Celestia looks around the room attempting to avoid eye contact with her sister who isn't seeking it. "Any reason for the sudden interest in those old books?" "Well these 'old books' are the only thing we have left of our brother, and I never took the time to read them a thousand years ago, so I thought I should now." Luna wasn't being one hundred percent honest, the main reason she was going through the books was to try and find the journal Mother Nature had told her about. Even though Discord had just fired her Luna was still focused on finding that journal, after all he had to have been writing it up till his death... Luna stares off into space. "The death I caused..." Luna stares at the book shes holding, she had just flipped to a picture of Starswirl The Bearded, she smiled at the thought that he had actually used that name. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Celestia speaking to the librarian. But everything is silent as she focuses on the face of her departed brother. "Did the curse make him suffer...? Did it hurt...?" Tears begin forming in Lunas eyes. "Did he know I caused it?" Luna turns her head and looks out the window, she stares at the cloudless sky and asks the question she wishes to know the answer to most. "Would he forgive me for what I've done...?"