“Now, hold still, please,” Starswirl said while giving Discord his best attempt at a bedside manner.
Discord did as he was told and tried to not move a muscle. He was seated on top of a low table in the middle of their secret lab’s main cavern. Starswirl powered up his spell; a brief moment passed before Discord felt a tingling sensation wash over him, an involuntary shiver running down his spine, causing him to shoot a nervous glance over to a distracted Starswirl who was busy furrowing his brow. Yet, Discord wasn’t called out for moving as Starswirl continued channeling the spell.
Boredom had already started to settle in after a few moments of sitting stone still, and Discord's eyes and mind had started to wander. They fell on Atlas who was hastily comparing notes on the other side of the cave. Five scrolls were floating in front of him while his eyes darted to and fro in an attempt to glean some new information by rereading what he’d jotted down upon the assorted parchment. His workspace was awash by an obscene amount of loose papers, with the most important notes magically stuck to the walls in front of him.
The experiment to create new runes, or re-discover old runes was still underway. Lynx, while their most promising rune yet, was still not perfect. It was able to properly function for about half an hour before failing. In a bout to find a solution to the flaw, Atlas and Starswirl set out to find yet another new rune to stabilize the first one.
In an attempt to take his mind off the perplexing problem, Starswirl decided to do something else for a while, and that something else happened to be experimenting on Discord.
The reason for the draconequus’ existence was still a mystery, and the answer was currently limited to, “there was an accident with runes.” Of course, tests had been performed on Discord before by other unicorns, but their findings had been deemed top secret and were not even disclosed to Discord’s surrogate father, which meant they’d just have to run their own tests if they wanted to know more.
“Alright, you can move for the next one, but at least try to stay on the table this time please…” Starswirl said as he jotted down some notes on his clipboard.
Discord hadn’t even noticed that the previous spell had finished when Starswirl cast the next. Contrary to before, the current spell couldn’t be felt by Discord at all. So he was at least grateful for one less annoyance.
A completely new species created by runic magic, Discord was an oddity among ponies; the townsfolk were always clamouring to ask him questions; where he came from, what kind of magic he had, and a lot of the ponies were thoroughly surprised when the little draconequus said that a unicorn pony was his father. Yet, despite all the attention, being the only one of his kind made Discord feel like he didn’t belong, like he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Ironically, it was probably Discord who was the most interested in what the test results might say. He was a completely unique being in the world, technically a new species really. Ponies were around him all the time, so he got used to them pretty quickly; one of them was his father after all. Yet, he could never really shake that feeling of being an outsider, someone who doesn’t belong.
When Discord demonstrated his magic to any intrigued ponies, they became hesitant around him. Nopony knew what he was ultimately capable of, or what could happen if his powers should go awry. It didn’t help that he looked, for the lack of a better word, like an abomination. During his time in the Crystal Kingdom, he’d been called all sorts of names, mostly by older ponies, but Atlas taught him to ignore them. According to his father, they were little more than fools stuck in the old ways of judging others by their appearances.
Atlas’ words of wisdom were proven true when the Windigoes started to feed off the prejudices of the three tribes.
Discord would never admit it, but he sometimes had nightmares about the months they’d spent in the kingdom after the Windigoes arrived. He’d tried to put up a strong front to keep Atlas calm, since it had been Discord's idea in the first place to stay behind instead of evacuating with Crimson and his family.
Discord’s faith in his father was remarkably unshakeable; he trusted Atlas’ word on things he normally would question from anypony else.
After all that Atlas had done for him, despite not even being his real father, how could he not? Atlas had raised him, fed him, protected him, and even helped him get his magic under control.
Of course, there had been the time where Discord found his father's journal.
A simple book, looking just like all the others, yet holding much more importance. He was halfway through reading when Atlas came home and stopped him. There was so much knowledge in that little book. Knowledge that shouldn’t exist.
Discord could still remember the face Atlas had made when he found him reading his journal. Anger, confusion, worry… fear. A mix of different emotions flashed across Atlas’ face, and it was only a matter of time before he caved and told Discord everything.
It was a lot to take in, but from that moment on, Discord felt a stronger bond with his father. They were different, yet, the same in a lot of ways. Unorthodox beings stranded in a sea of common strangers. But still, Discord was pretty sure Atlas hadn’t told him everything. Because in that little blue book Discord read something that gnawed on his curiosity to this day.
His own name.
The book had mysteriously vanished after that, so he couldn’t read anymore about himself. The only thing he knew, was that Atlas knew what the future held in store for them. At least to some degree.
After realizing that he’d been staring at the floor for quite some time now, Discord redirected his gaze upwards towards Atlas. Or at least he attempted to anyways. Atlas wasn’t at his desk anymore, and a quick scan of the cave revealed to Discord a severe lack of gray unicorns. He listened for any sounds that would give Atlas’ location away, and soon enough heard his voice from outside the cave.
He was talking to someone, or something rather, judging by the sound of his voice. If somepony else heard him they’d probably assume he was talking to a puppy or a foal, but Discord knew better.
There had to be a snake sunbathing outside the cave.
For some reason, Discord’s surrogate father absolutely loved the slithery reptiles to bits. Whenever one appeared anywhere around their cave; he dropped everything he was currently doing and went out to play with them. Albeit the ward that informed him of their sneaky visitors was a bit much in Discord’s opinion.
“Alright, that was the last one!” Starswirl exclaimed happily, ripping Discord from his ruminations.
“Finally!” Discord said overdramatically, stretching his limbs to impossible lengths with a satisfied groan. “Can I go now?”
“Hahaha, no,” Starswirl said shooting him down. “Those were only the magical tests, next up are the standard physical tests, like eyesight and blood pressure… You do have blood inside you, right?”
“Ummm…” Discord racked his brain, but as far as he could remember he’d never been injured. Even the researchers back in the Crystal Kingdom never took blood from him. Not for a lack of trying though, no, Discord just simply refused to let them take any. “I… I don’t know?”
What otherwise seemed to be a simple question threw Discord's mind into a panic. Was there blood inside him? What if there wasn’t? The implications spawned thousands of questions inside Discord’s head, and now, more than ever, he craved answers. Answers about himself that he absolutely needed to know.
“That’s quite alright, we’re about to find out.” Starswirl said, slightly taken aback. “Just follow me over here please.”
Starswirl lead Discord towards another table with all kinds of random knick-knacks and items on it, and Discord followed close behind eager to find out more about himself.
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Discord sat on a tree stump in the forest a fair distance away from the cave he called home. The small clearing he was at served as a practicing stage, far away from the world’s prying eyes. Here, he perfected various theatrical plays he put on for his father, and sometimes Starswirl.
Out here, he could really focus on what he wanted to do and play around with his magic in order to find the perfect spells to support his acting. As a single pony acting troupe, he had to play all the roles himself after all. It wasn’t too much of an issue though, since Discord could simply create duplicates of himself. His magic was oddly suited for the stage in that regard, as Atlas had repeatedly stated.
Being able to conjure things out of thin air with the snap of a talon, like props, other actors and even background music allowed Discord to really bring his performances to life.
At first, Discord only used simple props while performing short plays. But now he had moved on to plays that Atlas said were almost indistinguishable from “movies,” whatever that meant. The important part was that Atlas enjoyed them a great deal. Atlas’ reactions were what kept Discord interested in them in the first place. They confirmed that he was doing everything right, or sometimes, showed him his shortcomings.
According to Starswirl, it would be a few days at least until the test-results were complete. So, to take his mind off the somewhat disturbing thoughts swirling around in his head, Discord had come out here to practice.
With his eyes closed, Discord sat cross legged on his favorite stump, focusing on what he had currently established for his play. Letting his thoughts play out like images before his closed eyes as he did a mental practice run.
The play he was currently preparing for was originally his favorite bedtime story. Atlas had told a lot of different stories, each fantastical and unique in their own right. But, the one that captured Discord’s heart the most, was a story about finding one's place in a world that shunned all things different. He could relate to the main character, that’s why he loved the ending so much, where finally, everything turned out alright.
Discords eyes snapped open once his mental run-through was finished. The play was far from perfect, but he wanted to do a practice run while actually playing it out. Stepping into the center of the clearing like an actor taking the main stage, he took a deep breath before snapping his fingers once, and a small cart housing that looked like a puppet theater popped up. The soft ringing of bells could be heard in the distance as Discord used his magic to conjure up a jester's outfit.
“Listen! They’re beautiful, no?” he asked his invisible audience while cupping his lion paw to his ear. “So many choirs of sound, so many changing moods, because you know… they do not ring all by themselves!”
“They don’t?!?” A mini Discord appeared and asked the question in an annoyingly high pitched voice.
“No, you silly boy!” Discord answered the question with a shake of his head. “Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower, lives the mysterious bell-ringer.” He gestured towards an invisible building off in the distance, while the soft chiming of the bells changed their tune time and time again.
“Who is this creature?” Discord asked.
“Who?” echoed the smaller Discord mockingly.
“What is he?”
“What?”
“How did he come to be there?”
“How?”
“Hush!” Discord reprimanded his smaller self, smacking him over the head with a wooden stick.
“Discord will tell you…” he continued in a mysterious voice. “It is a tale… a tale of a man… and a monster!”
Putting emphasis on the last word, Discord fully immersed himself in his made up world. Temporarily forgetting all about his worries, and instead, thinking of the songs that should be in this play according to Atlas. And how neither of them could sing, at all.