“... it was expected that they played together today, those children do not have anything else to occupy their time in this place. In this regard it is useful that this boy has not suffered the same fate as his tiny race. Even so I do not tolerate his constant company to my daughter.
I keep wondering why did she decided to forgive him and almost raise him as if she had conceived it. But that monster is not her son. And even though Armageddon itself imposed it on me, I will never see him as my son. And over my body death I will allow my daughter to see him as more than her playmate. The day Celestia stops being a little girl there will be no need for games, therefore, there will be less of a playmate. Then I will have gotten rid of that monster.
The only thing that calms my conscience is that I have already made it clear that with us it is not, and will never be, his home...”
~
Had he really died?
The same question repeated itself in Discord’s head again and again while he remained absorbed in the divine landscape that surrounded him. There was no way that such a beautiful place was in Equestria and he, who had combed that world from end to end, had never seen it.
He tried to remember what had happened before he woke up there. He remembered... Celestia crying... the pain, stronger than ever, and... Fluttershy and Twilight finding him. After that he could only remember a flash followed by darkness and calm and then he was where he is now. Everything pointed to what had happened to ‘the other earth’.
That place could only be the Elysiam Fields, the land beyond any reality that he himself could reach and where the souls rested until the time came to come back to life, reborn.
So, was that how be death feel like?
After a second he snorted disappointed and at the same time, somehow, funny. So many stories had been made about that world beyond all known world. A land where there is no evil, hunger, cold, fatigue or fear; a place like dreaming inside a dream; Paradise in every sense of the word. Nothing farther from reality, he didn’t deny that it was a magnificent place, enough for him to feel bad if he were to alter something. It was no more than an infinite meadow, with the most beautiful sky that anyone could imagine, where it didn’t feel like to spend who-knows-how-much time until returning to the earthly world.
What a fiasco! He could have created something much more fun. A 6/10 for the famous Elysium.
He mocked and criticized that site again and again, soon he almost had to invent an excuse to continue. Actually he wasn’t in the mood to claim anything, it was just a facade to distract himself from his sad reality and so weak was that he fell almost immediately after having been built.
It could be worse. He could have ended up in Tartarus by conquering Equestria, having tried it again a millennium later and allying himself with a monster that had already escaped from there, so that he would spend the rest being punished for his mistakes and unable to return to life.
Who was he cheating? Even Elysium itself was a Tartarus if Fluttershy wasn’t there. What did it matter that he could spend a million years causing all the chaos he wanted if he hadn’t even had a single chance to tell her that he loved her? And, apparently, someone hadn’t thought that this was enough reason to become a ghost. Even if she didn’t feel the same he just wanted to tell her.
He cried in silence, feeling pathetic. He didn’t care about anything, even if Exodo itself had appeared to him, called him ingrate and given him a sermon of how he should treasure his memories with the woman he loved even if he hadn’t been able to tell her his true feelings towards her or any of those wisely cheesy things. All that would have been nothing but more reasons to curse it and call it an unjust and petty god. He just wanted to stay there, leaning against that tree, letting time pass until it was time to return, without any memory of his previous life, without memories of Fluttershy.
The grass creaked.
Discord rose exhaled. If someone wanted to play a joke on him, they had chosen a very bad time to do it.
“Who is -...?!” covered his mouth instantly.
Was that his voice?! It sounded almost as if that baby dragon of Spike had swallowed a helium tank. Greater was his astonishment when he noticed his hand. It was tiny. The hand of a child who luckily passed the age of 8. The peak of his astonishment was when he decided to see his body and, in effect, it was the body of a small child. Not only that. He was also dressed in clothes he didn’t see in a millennium. A long-sleeved beige T-shirt that reached to the knees, tied with a rope, pants that should have been tights and bare feet made up his clothes.
What the hell was happening?! Why was he dressed like that? Why did he have the body of a child? How was it even possible that he looked like a...?
“I found you!” someone shouted.
Before he could react, his attacker rushed at him and once on the ground they placed themself on top of him, immobilizing him.
“Silly Dizzy. You are supposed to hide from me, not stay where anyone can see you," said the attacking girl.
“Agh! But what the-...?” he stopped when he saw the girl over him.
A horn on her forehead and two wings on her back. An alicorn and not any alicorn. Her skin was snow white and her eyes were deep, bright purple. Excluding her hair, long, wavy and pale pink, nothing keep him from being sure who she was.
“C-Celestia?” asked somewhat confused.
“I told you not to call me that, it seems that I am an old woman and I am not. For you, I am Tia. Tia. If you call me Celestia again then I will call you Discord all my life. And besides, who else could I be? We are the only children in Earth Heaven, or did you find other children?” she finished excitedly.
Was that energetic talkative really Celestia? Tia? Why was she a girl? Earth Heaven? For the umpteenth time, what the hell was going on?!
“Get off!” he tried to shake her off.
“What a bad loser,” she took off.
Discord pouted. He crossed his arms and sat there with the face of a spoiled child dissatisfied while "Tia" stared at him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find an explanation for that situation. According to Tia they were in "Earth Heaven". That name caused an unexpected nostalgia.
“Are you okay?” Tia asked him suddenly.
“Uh?”
“You are crying”
“What?” he put a hand to his face. Indeed, he was crying.
“Is it because you lost the game?”
“What? No,” he wasn’t even sure why he cried.
Little Celestia stepped forward and, a little awkwardly, wiped away his tears. The smile that had held since they had met now had vanished leaving in its place a little worried and protective look from the little alicorn. Discord couldn’t help but blush a little. She was one of those girls that when you saw them laugh you felt a stab of sweetness in the heart and you needed to pray to a thousand gods to restrain yourself from embracing her without permission. It seems that she noticed her friend's blush but gave it little importance and smiled. There was the dagger of sweetness and an increase of red in Discord's face, this time Celestia couldn’t help but laugh.
“He, he. You are red.”
“It is not true!” he replied embarrassed.
“Liar. You are acting weird today.”
He didn’t answer. Celestia stood up.
“If you do not want to play hide and seek then let's go to the lake.”
“Alright,” he replied discouraged.
“All right! Let is go!” she laughed and pulled the small draconequus.
Discord had no idea where the lake was, he had barely heard that there was one there, so he had no choice but to follow his "new" friend. He couldn’t help having a prolonged dejavu sensation while accompanying her and began to remember a little more of what happened before waking up in Earth Heaven, luckily he managed to remember Twilight talking about a spell to save him. In first place, if that spell had saved him, that would explain why hadn’t he ended up in Elysium or Tartarus and didn’t feel very different from when he was in Equestria. Now that he thought about it, minutes before when he thought that he had separated from Fluttershy forever, even though he had to repeat himself over and over again that he loved her, he felt no pain.
This day was getting weirder, even for the god of chaos.
“Dizzy? We are here.”
If Celestia hadn’t spoken he could have passed through a ravine and he wouldn’t have noticed until he reached the bottom.
The lake was going down a hill. Its source was a small waterfall from a rocky formation overlooking the hill, a spring. The water was crystal clear, shallow and a beautiful blue-green color that invited to dive.
“The last to arrive loses,” said the girl before running downhill.
“Wait for me!”
“No!” laughed while running.
Celestia had already come down almost half a hill by the time Discord started running. He couldn’t take 3 steps before he tripped on his own feet and ended up rolling down the hill.
When it seemed that victory was for the little alicorn, splash, the draconequs sounded as he fell into the water. It seems that so many thoughts had made his head heavier and the stumble and gravity made him gain speed and, incidentally, win the race. His face ended up being the first to reach the water.
With a whimper the child stood up just so that his reflection would confirm something that could no longer be clearer. In front of him was the reflection of a child's face. His face. He was a boy. A little boy whose horns were just beginning to show on his head. He didn’t understand why both he and Celestia looked so childish even more Celestia that didn’t look older than 7 years, 6 minimum.
It was said that those who ended up in the Elysium, even if they died like old, decrepit elders, showed themselves as at the height of their lives, young, strong and, ironically, vivacious. He knew he wasn’t in the Elysium and even if he was there, it didn’t make sense that he had rejuvenated like that. He was never a child. He wasn’t born like any other creature. He simply, emerged.
One winter night he woke up knowing only his own name. Although a little weak and dazed, he was totally grown up. After that the story almost tells itself. A deformed and powerful monster that did whatever he wanted against those simple and weak creatures that surrounded him. He had fun with them until a par of Alicorn sisters spoiled the party. But there was nothing before the awakening.
Nothing.
For a second he glimpsed in his mind the image of a girl. Sitting on the grass wearing a simple pale pink dress, hair of the same color and skin like snow. It seemed that he was placing a wreath of flowers on her head. Crown that he held, with his little hands.
He shook his head frightening that vision. What was that? In his more than a thousand years of life he never saw any girl like that. Until now only little Celestia fit that vision. But he had never made a wreath for her. She didn’t even dress like in the vision, her dress was wine color not...
Splash!
Celestia jumped into the water, soaking Discord even more, purposely. Instantly began to splash laughing at the fun only she seemed to have. Meanwhile, Discord was just trying to dodge the water she was throwing at him but in a few seconds he wasn’t even trying. So many questions had snatched his cheerful spirit, all his essence. Almost a minute after he stopped vainly trying to cover himself of the splashes Celestia stopped, crouched down and asked.
“What are you thinking about?”
He blinked
“You always stop playing when you think a lot about something and you have been acting estrange all day. What is wrong with you, Dizzy?”
“I... I do not know,” answered without any heart and looked again at the water.
Celestia noticed this and wanted to ask about the reason he was seeing his own face in the water but as soon as she looked up...
“Celestia! Discord!” someone called from the top of the hill.
Both children turned around in response to the call.
“Father,” said the girl.
“It will be dark soon! We must go home!”
“We are coming, father! Come on, Dizzy.”
Both children stood up and headed towards the man.
Discord had only heard stories about Galaxus but had never seen him before. It fit perfectly with all the descriptions. He didn’t look very young but he wasn’t an older man either. If he had to say a number, he would place him between 30 and 35 years old, tall and stout with skin so dark blue, practically black, that he remembered the night sky. He had a serene face as opposed to the stern look in his cyan eyes.
Maybe it was just the color but they seemed so cold, especially against him. And the feeling was almost mutual. For some reason.
Wavy hair, so long that it came just below the hip, adorned his head, black in essence but with certain blue and red glows. Needless to say, he was an alicorn but his wings were strange. Some feathers shone, others were completely spiraling and others faded away as they approached the tip.
He also had black spiral-shaped marks that covered his entire arm, went up his face and ended up over his eyes.
If Rarity saw him for sure she melted at his feet, even Rainbow would have blushed.
Just came to the top the father took his daughter in his arms giving her a warm smile. He noticed the moisture in the girl's dress and the clear soak of the child but only gave one of those smiles that an adult gives when a child commits the same innocent mischief for the umpteenth time, those that mean something like ‘you won’t change’. Considering how good father Galaxus seemed, and especially how happy Celestia seemed, the coldness with which she had mentioned his name in the Castle of the Two Sisters didn’t fit.
Wait a second! Why did he compare the adult Celestia with that girl who called herself Celestia? It didn
Nothing made sense anymore.
While father and daughter talked happily, Discord devoted himself to follow them listening almost unconsciously to what they were talking. Something was so familiar in that talk, but no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t quite come up why. The feeling only worsened as he walks. Every step, every word, everything, everything was like reliving something, but how are you going to relive something that you didn’t live at first? He finally gave up, it was worthless to get his head so hot.
Celestia saw the bewilderment in her friend and was distracted from their conversation, which Galaxus noticed immediately and turned to see the child. His crestfallen walk didn’t bother him at all, he probably attributed it to boredom or fatigue and continued his walk. Nobody spoke again in the next few minutes.
Silence made the journey an eternity as the sky turned dark and more galaxies appeared. Celestia just continued looking at Discord over her father's shoulder and that he put her down when they arrived at their home was a surprise.
“Go inside with your mother, Celestia,” kneeling told him serenely.
That phrase woke Discord and he slowly looked up. What he saw surprised him, considering who resided there. It was a common house, a little big but, nothing special. Built of wood between 10 and 15 meters long on the rocky slope of a mountain that couldn’t see top, only two stories high, a rock chimney and a simple thatched roof. On one side there was a small orchard with all kinds of fruit and vegetable plants and a small spring and on the other side a cave was formed so deep that it was sure to reach the middle of the mountain.
Was that the house of the great kings and their daughters?
With everything that had happened he was still surprised?
“Only me, father? Why you and Discord not?” asked the girl.
“We will go soon, my daughter. I need him to see something,” he turned to see the boy with a kind of cold look.
“All right... father...”
With a little worried look the girl went to the rustic house. Galaxus kept a smile on his face until the door covered his daughter's sight, then he stood up with a serious face and spoke as if he were challenging an enemy to duel.
“Come with me, draconequus,” and started walking to the cave.
Discord felt a clash between disgust and uncertainty when he spoke, especially to call him directly by his specie and not his name, but that didn’t stop him from accompanying him to the interior of the mountain. There wasn’t a single torch, so Discord lit a small light in his hand to get a glimpse of what was there. From the incredulous look Galaxus gave him and the light emanating from his horn, he didn’t expect him to do that, but, again, he gave more importance to his own affairs and went into the cave without saying a word.
They walked and walked until the cave entrance wasn’t even visible. Everything was giving Discord a bad feeling, the silence, the darkness, the distance from the exit. Something in him screamed at him that he didn’t want to see what Galaxus was going to show him, and he kept moving forward with it. His light flickered as his fear increased. He didn’t want to see what he wanted to show him. He didn’t want to.
He repeated the same words over and over again. Until he started noticing something. Strange signs began to appear on the walls. A kind of hieroglyphics that he had never seen before. The first were only rare "letters", then began to appear prints that took a while to process, not because they were very rustic, on the contrary, they were incredibly well made. Some, even, seemed to move.
The strangest thing of all, is that he could understand it.
“Do you like drawings?” Galaxus asked suddenly.
“Amh... yes ...” he replied trying to look focused.
“These are different from any other. They are special,” he ran his hand through an engraving that instantly began to move.
Discord stopped to watch it for a second. Three people were attacking each other, one point protruding from one's head, another had a spiral with lines on their back, but the third had nothing. Some lines were against them, they came from beings that would be quadruped if there should be a kind of smoke where the hind legs should have been. The three people ran to a mountain and the entrance disappeared but the creatures started doing another. The three people no longer fought, they trembled in the cave. They began to act kindly with each other by providing food and trying to have fun. When the creatures opened the entrance and entered the mountain the three people became a bonfire and the creatures disappeared. The three people returned to normal and the mountain opened showing another place where they went, together.
A unicorn, a pegasus and an earthly.
Windigos.
The Hearth’s Warming Eve.
All that was a representation of the Hearth’s Warming Eve.
“Neither these writings nor these drawings are not like any other. This language is the lartsecna. The Language of Exodo. These engravings are prophecies,” spoke Galaxus “Everything you see here is written since centuries before the world of the 3 tribes began to live. Everything written by my father, Exodo, is destined to be fulfilled. My father can see more than a thousand futures to be formed from a single event, only the future that is narrated with this language can exist. The world wants it or not, if it is good or bad, if it is written here, it will happen,” he turned to see Discord.
The coldness in the gaze of the alicorn would have make seen a glacier as a desert at noon.
Why did he seem to despise him so much? What had he done to him?
Discord didn’t entirely believe what he said. Who assured him that he hadn’t done it himself? Even so, he couldn’t help noticing a faint tone of sincerity in his voice.
“Do you feel good here? With MY family?”
Although confused by the question, Discord nodded.
“Hmm. There is something you should see. A prophecy of which, I fear, you are the protagonist. This one,” he stopped in front of an engraving.
Something in the back of Discord's mind screamed at him not to look at the wall that Galaxus indicated. If only he had listened to it.
In the engraving there was a being with a point and something branched on the head, behind it had a spiral with lines and a line from which others stood out and also seemed to have a tail. A pegasus, a unicorn and an earthly, the three of them kneel as if begging for the mercy of being, all locked in a lartsecna symbol that the being held.
It was him.
That symbol represented chaos.
That was the day he took Equestria.
“This prophecy talks about a draconequus. One day, they will bring chaos and despair to the new land. Equestria will be cruelly taken and brought to ruin...” he paused “... by you. The last draconequs.”
That said, the engraving began to move showing how the being waved the symbol of chaos with the three races inside having no care how they slowly fell to the ground and the symbol of death was emerging over them. Discord could only look in terror. He knew he had hurt Equestria, but he looked worse represented with black ink that moved showing how everything worsened with the passage of time instead of seeing everything represented in a colorful stained glass window. He wanted to erase is stain from his past.
“Do you understand what it means? It means that you are a monster. A danger that roams in full freedom,” Galaxus looked at him with hate. “You could believe you are with your family. You could believe that you are with your parents and sister. But Nebula is not your mother, you are not Celestia's older brother and, above all, you are not my son. If it depended me, you would have run the same fate as your treacherous race. But Nebula took pity on you. When she see that she was wrong with you, that being raised by an alicorn does not change your nature as a traitor, then nothing will stop me from getting rid of you,” the hatred in his eyes was also clear in his voice. “Until then, remember: You are no more than a monster and your only family years ago was devoured by worms along with your despicable species.”
Having finished speaking, he started his way to the exit.
The little boy was totally paralyzed. The light in his hand went out a long time ago. As the alicorn had continued talking, he almost felt as if he were hanging him, even though he hadn’t put a single finger on him. But everything he said, his taking of Equestria, happened a thousand years ago. Why did he call it prophecy? Had he traveled to the past? Even if he had somehow done it, there was no reason for him to have rejuvenated at an age he never had.
Why was he a little boy?
Why was Celestia also a little girl and his best friend?!
WHY WAS THERE A ‘PROPHECY’ ABOUT SOMETHING THAT NO ONE REMEMBERS HE DID A MILLENNIUM AGO?!
Then he remembered.
Twilight’s spell.
That girl knew a million different spells but, with the little awareness he had left when she and Fluttershy found it, he managed to keep the kind of spell she used on him, a memory spell.
Now everything fit.
He hadn’t died. He hadn’t traveled to the past.
He was reliving lost memories. That's why he and Celestia had that childlike aspect and she acted as if she knew him forever. That's why there was a prophecy about something he had done centuries ago, because by the time that memory was created he hadn’t even gone to Equestria.
Even so there always remains a but.
A thousand doubts clarified by a single word, but new ones emerged. If those were his memories, why didn’t he remember them? If the Twilight spell had begun to restore the most important memories linked to the pains he had for loving Fluttershy then why had he gone back to his childhood? How old was your problem?
“Move! Staying in this cave will not change anything!” the alicorn shouted taking the draconequs out of his trance.
Discord didn’t already care so much about the prophecy. He had destiny written in stone, literally, but changing his memories wouldn’t change anything that already happened. Although it was equally painful to know that he was always destined to be a madman, the madman who took Equestria. Now he could only do one thing: take advantage of this experience and recover his memories, recover his life.
Still a little depressed he made to run towards the exit. Now he had a hope of returning with Fluttershy and could recover what he unknowingly lost.