//------------------------------//
// Chapter 119 
// Story: Dadonequus Discord (Book 1) 
// by CrazedLaughter 
//------------------------------//

"Wow, checking this place out in person. It's really desolate. Why did you set up the town so far away?"

"I didn't want my town to gain too much attention until I was ready to span out. You know how it is."

"That makes sense. You didn't want anypony judging you until you had more support to persuade a positive outcome, right?"

Starlight nodded. "Right" She wanted to focus on the conversation, to get her mind out of the negative slump she was feeling deep inside. "I don't understand how you don't have your Cutie Mark. It clear that you're talented, or at least, very intelligent. Do you have any special skills at all that you're good at?"

Not any worth mentioning. You were smart because you were actually an adult. Otherwise, you really haven't learned to do much of anything else. Especially in your pony body. "Couldn't tell you, I think I would have gotten my Cutie Mark by now if I was good at something in particular."

"Well, it's not just about being good at something. It's also about realizing your destiny."

...Destiny, that irked you. That was a subject that you feel nobody would be straight with you about. It was also something you didn't feel Discord actually knew about. Since he himself didn't have one. "Yeah, about that. When everypony says "Destiny", does that mean that's what my life is going to be like? Just, completely centered around my Cutie Mark?"

"Given the situation, I would have to say no. I have my cutie mark, and it doesn't look like I'm going to be going through with my plans anytime soon… Mnnnn..." Starlight felt her heart jump when you both approached a cliff overlooking the town. "There… it is."

Yep, there's the town. It… really didn't change too much since Starlight got run out of town. It looked a little more vibrant. But… it was still the same. "Yeah, looks like everypony is still down there too. Alright. So… how exactly do we get down from here?"

"We could take the long way down."

You felt that you didn't have time to take the long way. You did leave without telling anyone. And while you knew everyone else could assume you were sick or something. Discord could come looking for you. And the last thing you needed was him butting in on this. "What about a shorter way? Don't want to tucker myself out walking all the way down."

"There is another way" Starlight looked at your horn "But you're going to have to change me back."

You felt you could trust her, hopefully… God, you hoped this didn't come back to bite you. "Magic huh? Are you sure about that? It's a pretty big drop if something goes wrong."

"Just trust me" Starlight was scanning the horizon, notably, a huge boulder that was sitting just outside of town. "I won't let anything go wrong, in fact. I kind of want to show you something that would make something like wings, obsolete."

"You mean hovering with magic?"

Starlight was too worried to act arrogant, she just wanted to move things along. "It's more than that, change me back. And I'll show you."

Here goes nothing, hooves crossed she doesn't do anything bad. "Right..ok… Hold still… annnnddd...."

You point your horn at her, and zap her with a ball of magic. Covering her in a blue smoke cloud with white static around it. You can hear her grunt and groan, her pitch deepening as moments go past. Until finally… the cloud dissipated, and she was back to normal. Horn and all.

Starlight started tapping her horn, to make sure it was there and not popping off like yours just did. "Amazing, I feel like myself again… thank you Anon.."

"You're welcome...hrn...hmm.." Things felt a little uneasy for you. Seeing her back as an adult gave you a bit of a chill. You didn't know what it was, but you felt things were more fluid when she was a filly.

Starlight however, was truly thankful. She turned towards the cliff, and again looked down at the town. She took a breath. "Ok… here we go...."

Her horn started to glow. And as it did, both you and her started to glow as you both rose up. 

You gulped. "You sure you got this?"

She nodded "Not just got, this is something I managed to master. Anon..." She looks at you. "Have you ever flown before?"

"Sort of, just not very well."

"Then this is going to be an experience" She slowly moved forward, looking down at the boulder. "Try to relax, and don't breath too fast."

"What do you mean? We're just going to hover down right?"

She shook her head "No, we're going to fly."

Oh good lord, here we go. You knew not to even question it. She somehow mastered flight. You could see it in her determination… You just hoped she's learned not to drop a passenger during flight. You braced yourself… ooohhh shhhiiitt.

And there she went, with you floating right behind. She zipped downward and curved, flying straight to the boulder. And while you weren't screaming, you were making a very annoying "mmnnmmmnnrrmmmmnnhggmm" noise the entire time.

She flew right behind the boulder and stopped. "Well... that was...refreshing."

You however..your heart was pumping hard. Holy shit, You didn't think a unicorn could do that so skillfully. And yet here was Starlight, able to do shit Twilight could never do. Even as an Alicorn. Maybe she didn't need a companion at all for that season finale. She could probably take Twilight on her fucking own.

But Starlight already felt her confidence draining as the town only stood a few yards away. She looked around the boulder for only an instance. And felt like her heart had been poked.

"I..geez...that was, I..w-woah. Starlight that was...Starlight?" You notice she looked more and more unsure of herself.

"Y-yeah?"

"Hey, don't quit on me ok? The town is right there."

"But..I just can't walk into town. They are all probably still angry at me for what I did to them.." 

You look around the boulder, you could see a few townsponies. Smiling, getting along, it looked really natural. As opposed to when they had equal signs as cutie marks.

"Maybe, but that's where I come in. I'm going to go in there, and have a chat with whoever their leader is. I'll be upfront, cool, and I'll get them to see reason. All you have to do is show them that you're ready to change. I know it's going to be tough, but if we both do our part correctly. Then it should be fine."

"How can you be so sure?" Starlight wanted to trust your word, she found your intelligence impressive yes. But you were still… only a colt. "Do you think they'll even listen to you?"

You felt they would, all you had to do was be dutiful in getting your point across. "I think they will. It's probably going to take a lot of persuading. They probably don't have many good memories about you. But that's not what it's about. If my Aunt could befriend my Dad in a day. Then this should be no problem."

"I hope so… So, I just wait here?"

"Yeah, I'll bring them over here. And.." You stop

You turn to Starlight and give her a gentle smack on the chest. "Stop being so scared, it doesn't suit you. To tell you the truth, When you're all confident and even cocky, I kind of find it..." ...Wait, where were you going with this? Oh geez… Don't say "hot".

"Inspiring?" She asks, confused.

"Yeeeeah… that's the word I was looking for." If it also meant....sexy...anyway.

"Well, they do say ponies follow other ponies who are full of confidence and leadership..." Starlight sighs, "...but we have more important things to do then talk about things like that."

Right..the plan… Ok.. "Ok, then I'll be heading in. Just trust in me Starlight, I've got this." You give her a confident smile. Surely you could do this. You've got saturday morning cartoon knowledge after all. You would just have to show them in some way that she was good now, even if it has to be a grandiose display.

"Good luck Anon, I… really hope you you can do this."

"No worries, I've got this" 

You hoped. And you were off. Off into the town to look for it's current leader. "Ok Anon, just act natural. You can do this. ...you...can do this..."

You didn't even need to really sneak in or anything. Most of the ponies you were passing by seemed pretty busy painting, fixing up, and conversing with one another. No foals about. Must be at some sort of school within the town.

You started heading towards Starlight's old place. Maybe whoever was mayor or whatever was in there. Hah… this is easy. Super easy. 

Then, you feel a tapping on your back. You jump forward and turn around, startled. You weren't expecting that.

"Woah, woah...who did that?!" You look forward, nobody.

"Up here."

You look up, a white mane, midnight blue pony was flying above you. Night Glider… you think her name was. It had been a while, and she wasn't THAT noteworthy. "o-oh, hey. Ummm… what's up?"

"That's what I should be asking you, I don't remember being told a new family moved into town" She chuckled "How am I supposed to show you the skies if you don't let everypony know you just moved in."

The skies? 

She was just being friendly. It seems she likes to fly around with foals. Probably so they can have fun zipping around in the open skies. Not what you came for however. "No no, you got the wrong idea. I'm just visiting"

"I'm?" Night Glider realized that you didn't say "we're". "You're alone? Wow, I've never seen that before. Why are you out here all by yourself? Are you running away from home. Because… you know, I can promise you, whatever it is. It isn't that bad."

Night Glider landed, and came closer to you, she was trying to be warm and inviting. "If you let me tell my friends I'm going out, I'll fly you back home. We can talk on the way, how does that sound?"

...Oh good geezez. You felt like the foundation of a "run away kid" episode. "I'm not a run away."

"Hey, I know. I know. But your parents are probably worried about you. Maybe we can get some lunch. Do you like candy? or eclairs?" She was still talking down to you as if you were a kid. It was, honestly annoying. But you held it in. It was pretty weird for you to appear just, out of nowhere. In her case.

"Look, I know what you're thinking. But I'm actually here on official business of....." Of what exactly?...Fuck, what's a good way of putting it?

"of?" Night Glider was waiting for your answer. Whatever it was, she was going to take you to get a snack right after.

Of....of...wait. Duh, there's a fucking obvious answer. Especially here in magic horseland. "...Friendship"

"Well, hey. That's no problem, because we can be friends right here, right now. Mission accomplished" Night Glider gave you a friendly grin.

For fucks sake. You felt like you were starting your life in Equestria all over again. Except even harder because you didn't know too much about this town. It wasn't exactly a character highlight post Starlight. Keep your cool Anon, keep your cool...keep..your cool.

"Look, I know you're being nice. But I'm being serious. I need to see the mayor of this town. It's urgent."

Now that struck Night Glider as odd. You were looking pretty serious, And she didn't expect you to be looking for a leader. Especially… since the town didn't have one. "Sorry to say, but we don't have a leader. We're sort of what you can say, "a team""

"A team? But then who manages the town?"

"Nopony, we all work together to make it the way it is. Everypony is always helping everypony else, we’re a community that sticks together and works together to make everyday a good one. We've always been like that."

...Always? "What do you mean? Didn't you guys have a leader at some time… where… things happened..?"

"Yeah, we did actually. Her name was Starlight Glimmer. She, well. I don't want to go into detail. She was a bad pony, with a bad message. But the way she ran things wasn't really that bad. Everypony knew each other, and everypony worked together. Essentially, everypony was equal. But that also held us back, and kind of made us mindless… speaking of… are you doing some kind of report on our town?" Night Glider asked. "Because, I have a few friends who could probably help you if you're doing some kind of school report."

Night Glider was trying to come up with the reason you were in town. If you weren't a run away, and you were on official business. It could be a school report.

You shake your head, though her offer of seeing her friends might be helpful. Still, how were you going to open this up to "Hey, Starlight is here and she wants to make up with you all."?...or maybe, maybe it'd be that simple. First, you should probably see what she thinks of Starlight, then work on changing it when you meet up with the others. "What did you think of Starlight Glimmer herself? What are your thoughts on her,"

Night Glider took a few looks around you, you definitely weren't doing a report. She was trying to figure out what you were doing. In fact, she didn't even know your name. And that irked her. "Well, hold on, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We don't even know each other's names. I'm..."

"Night Glider, some of your friends go by Sugar Belle, Double Diamond, and Party Favor" You were totally going to get ahead of this. She wasn't taking you seriously. You needed her to realize you weren't here to play.

That knowledge however, made her both suspicious and astounded "How did… how did you know all that?"

"I know all about this place. I know about the ponies here, and I know what happened when Starlight ran the town. I need you to take me seriously. What I have to say is very important. As for introductions, I'm Anon. Son of Discord."

You hoped you didn't go too far with that, but you were getting annoyed. You felt you weren't going to get anywhere if she was going to treat you like a garden variety colt.