“... I could swear that Discord did not return to his usual behavior because of our surprise. Neither do I believe that it is because he is a being as mind changing as a draconequs. No. It is something else.
I could use my ‘gift’ to find out the reason for his sudden change of attitude, but I would feel as if I do not like his happiness. It intrigues me, I have no way of denying it, but I do not dislike it at all. I am glad that naughty rogue has returned who always finds a way to get a smile out of Celestia.
I wish someone else would share this joy, but said someone cares little or nothing what happens to my rogue.
I still do not understand why does he hates so much a child who had nothing to do with the past mistakes of his extinct race.
A child who has never seen or will ever see someone like him.
My little rogue. I pray that you never be invade by the pain of loneliness, if you do, I pray that you find someone to help you face it...”
~
The morning arrived. It was curious, it didn’t seem to have taken any second at all. As if he had awakened the next second after falling asleep. It was also annoying. He was hoping to have a little sleep.
Celestia wasn’t at all ready to wake up, even as the sky began to clear up and the galaxies to fade away as the day arrived. To her disgrace someone was going to change that and not in the sweetest way.
Maybe Discord couldn’t create from nothing by completely ignoring the law of conservation of matter but at least he could turn things into others at will.
Who would say that fire can be turned into water, and cold too?
Moving silently which snake was placed next to the girl's bed. He caused the water he created from the fire of the candle to float so that it covered his entire body. And he dropped it.
Celestia screamed and jumped out of bed scared.
“Dizzy, what are you doing!?”
“Good morning, Celestia!” he smiled without any shame at his behavior. “I am hungry. Mother and your father are already gone so you have to make breakfast.”
She looked at him bewildered, making Discord grow in satisfaction
“A-Alright,” she answered confused and frozen.
“Good!” he left the room to then poke his head out the door. “Hurry, I am starving.”
He sat quietly at the table waiting anxiously, not for breakfast, which wasn’t a bad idea either, but to see how the game he had started was progressing. He was no longer a mental enslaver but he still loved to play with minds a little, either to make them understand something or, in this case, to show their true personality. How long would little Celestia endure before dropping her facade of best and eternal friend?
It is true that being a little rude and rough wasn’t being vile but for a little girl was enough reason to say that someone was a bad person. And hadn’t Celestia herself said that he couldn’t be a monster because he was someone good? He almost felt sorry for the great disappointment that she would take.
With time he was reminding his next moves and by the time he realized Celestia had left the room, dry and dressed in a simple pink dress. While he looked at her with a smile that warned her to be careful, she looked at him with the same look of bewilderment and doubt she had shown minutes earlier in the room. None said anything. Celestia only started preparing breakfast as Discord had ‘asked’ her.
It was something simple, a few slices of bread with jam that she had prepared, both bread and jam. It was a little surprising that a 6 year old girl was able to cook, and more with fire, but this had its reason. Galaxus and Nebula often traveled to Equestria in search of things that could help them with their life in Earth Heaven. Before Discord was born they looked for seeds of plants from which they could obtain wood and food, when they obtained they made them germinate and grow in a matter of minutes with a spell, thus obtaining everything they needed to live. After that, their trips used to be to buy what they could not create, of course, they disguised and paid for using fragments of gems that they collected.
The little draconequs ate hurriedly, trying to pay no attention to the taste of the food, which proved quite difficult due to the delicious taste of the jam. While Celestia showed a pleased face with each bite at first, then she faded away, showing rather a bit of pain when she saw the little interest that Discord was placing on the food she had prepared. It was as if he didn’t find it special, something common.
When he finished with his own food he stole a slice of Celestia and ate it in one bite looking to bother her a bit but to his surprise the alicorn simply poured another one ignoring the act of Discord. That bothered him. It was she who must be exasperated. He repeated the play only to be canceled with the same movement. Again and again and another. Soon the jam and the bread were over and Discord was on the verge of indigestion and declaring war on the jam. Certainly the shot backfired.
“By Exodo! You were truly hungry.”
“Ugh! Shut up! If I see jam again, I will throw it in the lake! Better poison the fish to poison me!” he complained.
At first he didn’t notice but that comment was a bit hurtful to the little alicorn. When he realized he didn’t smile just because of the apocalypse happening in his stomach. It seems that after all it wasn’t so bad that Celestia had ignored him and continued to serve, but he wasn’t going to repeat it! Although that was technically what he was doing.
Anyway, it was worth watching Celestia clench her little fists trying to hide the pain and how she looked down while cleaning the jam jar. He was winning.
A few hours later…
The stomachache had calmed down a while ago. Both children were sitting under the tree where Discord had awakened at the beginning of this experience, waiting for the return of the adults. While Discord was just leaning against the tree, complaining about the time lost due to his stomach ache, Celestia was reading a book of stories that her parents had brought from Equestria.
Since breakfast they hadn’t spoken to each other and each time they made eye contact he just turned around, making it clear that he had no interest in talking to her. All this elusive and cold attitude had managed to affect more and more the poor Celestia. If she was reading it was to distract herself from that attitude on his part.
Discord had advanced quite a bit. But he was getting tired. He was dealing with a 6-year-old girl, it shouldn’t be so difficult to annoy her enough to hit him or insult him, proving that she wasn’t as good as she seemed. However, he had given the opposite of a pleasant awakening, the food she had prepared only gave him disdain, stole his breakfast, he shouted her, insulted her food, had only despised their friendship in what had passed of day, and she, rather than giving him back all this, had only hidden behind a facade of disinterest in his actions.
He was tired.
He got up annoyed with a jump and stood in front of Celestia.
“Discord?” she spoke almost fearfully.
He didn’t say anything. He looked at her with a frown and in no time he was joined by a malicious and malicious smile.
“Is something wrong?” she clung to her even more frightened book.
This time he didn’t keep silent, he did something else.
“Give me that!” he shouted trying to snatch the book.
“No! Stop!” she fought.
“The books are stupid! They only tell silly stories! They are better as food! So I will eat it!” he licked his lips.
“No! Mother and father bought it for us! I thought you liked it! What happens with you!?”
“It is none of your business! Just give me the book!” he pulled harder keeping his smile.
“No! Let it go! Let go!” she redoubled her efforts.
“Alright,” he quietly obeyed.
When Discord drop the book, Celestia fell against the tree, hitting her head and emitting a moan of pain. She looked up slowly holding her head to calm the pain a little, eventually finding the little draconequs looking at her even with an expression which, rather than showing a simple mischief typical of him, was the same malicious smile that had put to start all that show. The only difference between before and now was the satisfaction he began to sow. It was clear in her gaze it wasn’t just her head that was feeling the only pain.
“You told me to let it go,” he lifted his shoulders as if it were something obvious.
She looked at him with... The truth is that he wasn’t sure what were her eyes transmitting. It was something negative, that's for sure, but what? Sadness? Rage? He couldn’t read it clearly. Less could he when she looked down.
“Is som-…?”
“ENOUGH!!!”
After that shrill scream in Earth Heaven was only the sepulchral silence.
All the sarcasm that Discord had expressed seconds before had now been abruptly replaced by surprise and seconds later by pride and realization.
Had he won? Had she dropped that facade? What would she do now? Would she scream at him? Would she insult him? Would she say that she was wrong with him?
Would she call him monster?
Suddenly his triumph wasn’t so successful.
The day before he had only feared that she hated him and now he had given her enough reasons to detest him and want him as far as possible from her.
One second.
Someone who had given him they trust in spite of everything and that he had originally tried to win it over, which had now shown he wasn’t at all someone in whom anybody could leave their confidence without being stabbed in the back eventually?
It couldn’t be.
He had done it again.
It was the same thing he had done with Fluttershy and the princesses and Equestria in general. One second. These were his memories. So when he teamed up with Tirek, it wasn’t the first time he betrayed someone he supposedly cared about. It was this moment.
He wanted to apologize but the mind of his memory was blank. He couldn’t do anything. And soon it got worse, when he saw her cry. He panicked. It is true that at first he intended to make her angry enough to show him in her anger that she wasn’t so perfect and she could miss her promises, but he never had wanted to make her cry. To shout at him, to insult him, to say he was a bad person -the more he thought about it the worse it tasted- only that. But it was too late to correct anything.
Celestia’s crying worsened and she ran out before Discord could do anything to remedy her mistakes. He tried to reach her but she teleported to who-knows-where, leaving him alone with the book he had tried to snatch from him before. It was almost like a reprimand or a divine memory of his stupidity and arrogance trying to prove that Celestia could be as disloyal and disrespectful as anyone, that she could be just like anyone.
In her scream minutes before, he had felt anger. Aggression comes with anger. Even so. She had the perfect opportunity to shout at him. And she didn’t do it. She could have thrown the book to hit him. But she didn’t. She just yelled at him to stop and ran away.
She knew. She knew that if she stayed close to him for a long time or if she spoke to her even with all the pain in her, she would finally hurting him and the night before she promised that she wouldn’t let anyone hurt him. That included her.
At least that part of the promise hadn’t been broken. She hadn’t hurt him but she hadn’t done anything to get him into...
So what the hell was he doing now?
If he could, he would have slapped his forehead with enough force to sink it. What a fool he had been.
When she shouted at him, he thought he had won the game and when he thought about how she would express her hatred towards him he realized that he wasn’t winning anything but that he was hurting the person who promised to protect him and losing his confidence.
She fulfilled it. Each word.
For the first time since he had started this adventure. His memory of the past and his current mind were perfectly synchronized.
“Maybe she is better than anybody,” he thought guiltily when lifting the book.
She had saved him from giving in to evil again. Better said, for the first time. His reformation was the second time. Although it was Fluttershy who carried it out. But she would never have done it if Celestia hadn’t asked for it.
He was already hesitating again. Why did he seem to doubt something he should have more than clear? He loved Fluttershy, Celestia was just a friend. That’s all.
He would have time to argue with himself about his doubts, which had no reason to exist, but now he needed to correct his mistake. He had to find Tia and apologize for how badly he had behaved with her, if she was still capable of forgiving her.
He checked the entire field of tall grass around the tree, hoping that, looking only to get away from him enough to stop crying, she would have hidden there. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there. She had gone to another place and he would find her. Snapping his fingers, he teleported home hoping to see her in the garden, half hidden among the plants. She wasn’t there. He searched in their room, in the attic, throughout the house. She wasn’t there either.
“Tia!” he shouted as he left. His voice echoed in the cave. “Tia! Are you here?!” he shouted from the entrance producing a great echo.
She wasn’t there either.
Discord imagined now he would spend a good time combing Earth Heaven in search of Celestia but he was wrong. In less than he blinked he was on the way down to the lake. He had a vague recollection of the places he had visited before he had gone there, the hollow hill, the tunnels under it, the inside of the cave, but he wasn’t sure in what order he went through them or if he had gone somewhere else. He had been very worried looking for Celestia and because of that he hadn’t been interested in remembering everything that happened in those places.
Less work for him.
“TIA!!!” he shouted pleadingly at the top of his lungs.
“What do you want?”
It was a sad, muted murmur, but it was her. Celestia was there. When he looked down the hill he saw her sitting on the shore, hidden behind a bush. He quickly ran towards her, without repeating the scene of the previous day. Almost. He took too much impulse as he descended the hill and if his powers of shaping reality to his liking hadn’t begun to awaken, rather than stop close to the water and then back away defying gravity, he would have become soaked again.
Being next to her he had more reasons to apologize. The laughing, energetic and talkative girl from the previous day had left, leaving in her place a little and quiet girl whose happiness had died down, her eyes red from crying and tears of recent tears on her cheeks.
That scene was painful, no matter how many times he saw her, no matter if he saw her as a child or as an adult, it was very painful.
It hurt to see her like that. A lot. Worse when he thought that she wouldn’t be in that state if it weren’t for his arrogance and distrust. He was about to apologize when she spoke.
“Discord...?” she began, snore because of the crying and without looking at him. “...Do not you want to be my friend anymore?”
When this happened for the first time, he had been dumb by the shock that question provoked him but on this time what he felt was even more guilt. While the shock of his memory continued, Celestia spoke again.
“That is why you have been so mean with me?” she buried her face against her knees, tears began to fall in greater quantity. “Did I do something that bothered you and that is why you want to end your friendship with me?”
“Tia…”
“Why were you so bad?” the cry became harder and harder for her to speak with clarity. “You ...you have been acting really weird lately. I-Is it because...?” the crying stopped her from talking.
“I am sorry.”
When she heard that, she raised her head and looked at him, confused.
He didn’t speak again, only handed him the book.
“Did...did not you ate it?” she took it hesitant and even more confused.
“I only said it so you will be mad at me.”
“Why would you want me to do that?” she wiped away the last tears as she set the book aside.
At first he said nothing again. Back then he thought that she wouldn’t want to be his friend anymore. That what he had done had no forgiveness. That Galaxus was right and he was just a monster. And that she had been his first victim.
“I am bad,” he said without encouragement. “I did distrusted you. Nobody cares for a monster and I thought that when you made your promise last night...”
He couldn’t remember it.
He didn’t remember what he had thought at first. Even the spell wasn’t able to return that memory. Because it didn’t make sense. It had never had it
As a child, when he apologized to Celestia for what he had done, he wasn’t even sure why he had made her suffer so much. The reason for all this, everything he had thought the night before had vanished forever from his mind. That had convinced him of one thing. He had confirmed a recent fear.
“You were wrong.”
“Uh?”
“You were wrong with me.”
“I do not understand.”
“I am a monster”
She hit his head with the book.
“Ouch! Why did you do that?!”
“You are not a monster!”
“Yes, I am a monster! I hurt you just because!”
“You are just a fool!” she hit him again.
“Ouch! Stop!”
She sat down, dropping the book to one side, pouting and frowning. She didn’t say anything again. She stared in the opposite direction to him. She wasn’t sad anymore but she wasn’t very happy either.
“Are you angry with me?”
“Yes, but not only for having behaved so badly to me. It bothers me that you doubt me,” she turned to see him. “I told you last night: you are my best friend and I will not let anyone hurt you, no matter what happens,” the determination shone in her eyes and resonated in her voice.
Wow. It was the only thing he could think about after that. Nothing seemed to make her change her mind about him. So confident did she have him? It shouldn’t surprise him so much considering that he had conquered Equestria once and then tried again a millennium later and that same girl, already an adult, had asked to be freed from her stone prison to correct that behavior.
Even after more than a thousand years he had kept his promise.
“You're really someone special, Celestia,” he thought.
Something seemed to explode in his head. Memories began to flash through his mind, but they were different. They were memories of things that would happen from this moment. Almost all the rest of the day started to materialize in his mind in that instant, a specific moment already he knew it.
The little Discord under the look embarrassed by his behavior and by chance came across the book of stories that Celestia had thrown seconds ago. Interestingly, the fall had made it open on a page with the drawing of the coronation that occurred in a story about a girl who became a princess because of its virtues, courage, loyalty, kindness, among others.
Loyalty. If the devotion that Celestia had kept for a thousand years to his promise to him wasn’t loyalty, then he didn’t know what it was. Rainbow Dash would have felt embarrassed as an element of loyalty. Although the way she said what she thought without shame, she could well be the element of honesty.
Anyway, that story and that drawing gave him an idea. And he started it immediately. It was easier now that he could create from nothing thanks to the slight increase in his powers, considering that, apart from some lilies in the water, there was no flower around them.
“What are you doing, Discord?” Celestia asked, wiping away the marks that had left the tears on her face.
“You will see,” he answered animated and with a smile while a glow was produced in front of his eyes.
The glow began to shine with more force. He really didn’t need to do that, he could materialize what he wanted just by thinking, he just wanted to show off a little bit of his new skills. When it went out, there was something in his hands.
“A flower wreath!” she exclaimed the girl surprised “How did you do it? You did not have anything to transform.”
“It is a secret,” he actually didn’t know how he had done that when he did it as a child. He was better to lie when he was little.
Before she could say anything else, he held the object he had just created in front of her. Offering it.
“Is for you.”
“For... me?” she asked incredulously.
He nodded with a silly smile from ear to ear. Well, not so far in reality but very large, and quite silly.
It looks familiar, right? Celestia in a pink dress, sitting on the grass and Discord giving her a wreath of flowers? Hadn’t he seen this in a vision the day before? Yes. That memory had a great importance for him, that's why he came back before the rest. At that moment, although he never told anyone, he promised himself that he would never make Celestia cry again, he would only make her laugh and smile. It was a beautiful wish. Cheesy, but cute.
“In the book there is a story of a girl who became a princess for being loyal. You are very loyal, so surely you could become a princess and that's why I made you this wreath,” he put it on her head, making her blush. “Princess Celestia, it sounds good,” he had no idea.
Her blush only increased.
“Although you would be a very ugly princess if you always had red eyes,” he scoffed.
Goodbye blushing.
“Shut up!” it was obvious that this comment didn’t seem funny at all “I am like this because of you!” she wiped the tears that were still in her eyes and cheeks.
“You look like me!” he laughed. “But yellow and red look a lot better than red and purple,” he peeked into the lake, boasting about his appeal. That part of him had not changed.
“Well, if my parents come back and they see me like that, you will end up with your butt red also for all the spanking they will give you!” checkmate.
Nebula and Galaxus. Dammit. Well, Nebula would probably scold him, force him to eat only vegetables, forbid him to eat a single candy and put him to do all the housework for a month or more. It sounded bad, but it was the best option. Galaxus surely would not have mercy with him. Surely he couldn’t return to sit down in days!
Thinking about how unhappy his life would be during the next month if the adults found out, splash!, he finally fell facing the water. Again. Celestia did nothing but laugh at this.
“Do not laugh! This is not funny!” he yelled, throwing his head out of the water with a look of desperation and childish terror.
“It is to me!” her laughter grew, almost on the verge of crying. “You deserve it!”
“The fall or that mother and father are going to kill me when they return?” he asked drying the water.
“The fall,” her laughter was finally dwindling. “The anger of my father is too much punishment,” there was no doubt about that last thing.
She smiled again and seemed more cheerful. It was then when he finally asked her.
“So, you forgive me?”
“Mm-hmm,” she nodded. “But never again doubt me or treat me like this. You promise?” he nodded frantically in answer. “Then everything is forgotten,” she smiled.
For Discord it was forgotten for like ten centuries.
It was a relief to hear that forgiveness. Also to see her happy again. He hoped not to hurt her again but he was not sure of that. He had recovered part of the memories of his childhood but only until a week after that day, but anything from that point on did not come back. When she woke up in Everfree she was at least a decade older than she was in that memory, ten years was a long time to hurt her again. He prayed to Exodus that he had not.
“Another thing, Discord,” oh, no. He wasn’t going to like it. “I will not tell mother and father what you did...” that wasn’t the annoying part. “...but you have to give me your dessert for a week,” it was that.
“What?! Tia!” he pleaded.
“What? If mother finds out, she will not let you eat more than vegetables for a month. I only ask for a week. I had no answer for that. My deal is fairer, Discord.
At this point a little doubt had arisen regarding Celestia. He already knew the answer to that doubt but someone can’t just avoid doing something when is stuck in their own memory. So he asked:
“Why are you still calling me Discord?”
“Because you called me Celestia this morning and I promised you that if you called me that again then I would call you Discord forever. I always keep my promises,” her expression became a bit more boastful at the end.
It was never good with hints.
“But can I still call you Tia?” she nodded almost hopeful for some reason. “Thanks. It is just that Celestia is very long,” he commented mockingly killing his hope.
“You are a fool!”
Now he who was laughing. Celestia was upset again, but it was a different annoyance, one of those annoyances in which someone usually says is going to kill somebody but when finally puts your hands on them they just do nothing but laugh. In fact, what Celestia did was jump to the shore and splash Discord as much as she could. He just dried and she was already soaking him again? That was the war.
Both children began splashing each other. Between laughter and splashes, sometimes they decided to run to escape the attack of the other. In one of those races Celestia stumbled and Discord fell backwards in the water because of the loud laughter that this provoked. But the girl had her revenge when, when she got up, she threw a ball of mud at him. Who was laughing now? Well, both, apparently. During the next hour they played the mud war.
How did it all end?
Well, in which both children fell exhausted and as dirty as they could and, mainly, without a winner to the bloody battle they had had, although ‘he gave more fight’. They were still laughing between each gasp that escaped them to catch their breath. After a while trying to recover the energy which didn’t seem to want to return, they fell asleep on the soft grass that covered the hill.
That memory was undoubtedly one that he wouldn’t mind reviving a million times if it was necessary.
He will had to thank Twilight for the spell when all this was over. A few days without bothering her would be a good payment. Very boring for him, because her reactions to his jokes had simply no price, but good pay for her.
Of course, that break for Discord ended as soon as it started. Was it too much to ask for only 5 minutes to take a nap? Rhetorical question that nobody answered. Well, Celestia did it, waking him up. By then it had been another hour or so since they decided the truce of their war.
The wreath he had made had broken between the game and the turns the girl had given while resting in the grass. Now she was holding what little was left of it, looking at her with a depressed look.
“Do not be sad. I can make you another if you want," he said calmly.
“Thanks,” she said dully. “But I do not think he feels the same.”
“I do not find difference between the petals of one flower and those of another,” obviously he hadn’t understood what he was referring to.
“Is not that. Is just...” it was as if she couldn’t find the right words.
“Oh, I know!” he interrupted her before she could organize her thoughts. “It is because when I gave it to you, I told you that you could be a princess. All women are same,” he said boastful.
He only knew a woman and a girl and already dare to say something as if they were all women in the world? He mentally inflated his chest proud of how since childhood he cared little, or nothing, logic.
“Is not that! And I am a girl, not a woman!”
“But one day, in any case, you will be a woman,” <And what a woman. The envy and dream of every woman and every man of Equestria,> he added mentally. “And if it is not that, then what is it?”
At first she just turned around making an expression that said: ‘Like I was going to tell you now.’ And that seemed to give him an idea.
“I will not tell you,” she said smiling with some mischief.
“What? Please, tell me,” he pleaded.
“No,” she laughed fleeing uphill.
“Tia! Tell me!” he pursued.
"No!" she laughed and ran faster.
“Tia!” he shouted smiling at the new game that had emerged.
They continued that persecution until they reached the Meadow of the Thousand Flowers. There were flowers of all types known until that time. This meadow had been the idea of Nebula, who didn’t like the eternal green which covered Earth Heaven and wanted to give it more color, and the name had been the idea of Galaxus, who said it out loud by accident.
There Discord had given up trying to find out why the crown he had given to the not-yet-princess was so special to her. He would have bet his wings she didn’t tell him to kill him with curiosity as punishment for having called her ‘woman’. First she forbid him call her by her full name because it made her feel old and then she would chastise him for calling her a woman as if she were an adult. Why so much effort to make clear her age? He was immortal and eternally young.
“Meh, women and their things with age,” he thought.
If she hadn’t told him in the following years, he could ask the actual princess why. That if she hadn’t forgotten. She was more than a thousand years old after all, it is likely that some memories of her childhood had vanished.
Almost at noon...
There was no sign of adults yet. They had taken so long that the children had time to notice the book had been left in the lake, to look for it, in fact Discord only made it appear in his hand, and the red Celestia in her eyes because of the cry had vanished. Such a delay began to alarm Celestia.
“Where could they be?” said the girl a little worried.
“I do not know. They said that they would go to Equestria to look for our surprise, but they had never taken so long,” said the boy a little more relaxed, lying on the flowers.
Indeed. That delay was rare coming from them, usually when they went to Equestria they were always back after a few hours but now it had been over 6 hours.
“Do you think something has happened to them?”
“Something happen to them?” he kicked and hit laughing. “It will be enough someone pull a feather off of mother and your father will send them straight to Tartarus!” it wasn’t remotely, an exaggeration.
“You are right,” she smiled but her voice still worried.
“Do not worry, they will come back at any moment,” In fact, it wasn’t long.
“I hope so.”
5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
“Ah!” something pecked at Discord's foot. “What was that?” his attacker jumped into his face. “Help!”
“Is that... a chicken?!” in effect.
“Take it off! Take it off!” the animal continued its attack.
“Enough! Leave him!” she took the animal and this redirected its attack towards her “Ah!” she shouted.
“Hey! Do not hurt her! Silly bird!”
“Okay, enough,” a third voice emerged and its owner threw the hen a spell that reassured her.
“Mother!” the children shouted in unison.
When they turned to see her they finally knew what was the surprise that she and Galaxus had gone to find Equestria. They were animals. A cow and a bull, a couple of hens, one of which had attacked them, and a rooster, sheeps and pigs.
That's why they had taken so long. Animals and teleportation don’t work very well together, so they had to bring them on foot.
“It seems someone escaped from its cage. Come, little one,” she called the chicken and this quietly went with the woman.
“I am afraid it is my fault,” said Galaxus. “The salesman warned me the door was loose. This roguish took advantage of my carelessness to run away. Did you get scared, Celestia?
“A bit.”
“Silly bird,” said Discord rubbing the bites.
Just he spoke Galaxus gave him a stern look. Anybody could see the patience he had was nil if not less.
For some reason, every time they saw each other, he felt a bit of hatred and anger directed only towards him. Even before all this madness of his memories began it was enough for Celestia to mention it in the ruins so that a knot in his stomach would be made. And he could bet the diary page almost suffocate him had been written by Galaxus. He must have done something before he lost his memory. What? He would have to wait to know.
“It only wanted to be free, Discord,” said Nebula. “If you were imprisoned for a long time and suddenly saw the opportunity to escape, would not you take that opportunity?”
“I guess so. But the chicken still seems silly to me.”
“You are a lost case, little rogue,” she said after a sigh.
“If someone seizes Discord, I will free him,” Celestia said.
Galaxus laughed.
“How will you save someone else when you cannot protect yourself, my child?” the father smiled at his daughter's comment.
“You can teach me, father. No one in the whole world is a better warrior than you or my mother. If you train me, I will be able to face whoever it is and I will not let anyone hurt my loved ones,” he moved as if wielding a sword.
After those words, the couple shared a smile and an accomplice look. As a child he had wondered what that look meant but now it was quite clear to him.
“And you do not want to train yourself, Discord?” his mother asked .
“I am not interested in fights. But if someone hurts Celestia, I swear she will regret it. He had already done it and did not have to move a finger to regret it.”
While Nebula smiled at his words, Galaxus only looked at him with some suspicion. Seconds later he sighed with defeat and then show a smile to his family.
“We can chat later. Now we have to make a good place for the animals to rest. Will you help us, children?”
“Yes!” they answered together.
“I take the pigs!”
“I take the silly chickens!”
And the family went home with the new inhabitants of Earth Heaven.
Upon arriving home, Nebula looked for the bag where she kept the seeds, planted one not far from his home and with a spell made it germinate and grow in an instant. Maybe it was a single tree which was planted but the rumble it caused when growing completely from one second to another was enough to upset the animals. For that reason, Galaxus imposed a sleep spell on them so they would remain calm until they finished their work.
Once the tree, a majestic oak, grew, Galaxus knocked it down cutting it with a magical aura thrust. When it was on the ground he asked the children to look for nails and tools in the attic and once they returned with his order he used the same technique he used to tear down the tree, this time to turn it into tables.
They weren’t going to build a barn but to make a fence where the animals would rest. In Earth Heaven never bad weather or snow, therefore it wasn’t necessary a barn to protect the animals, with a fence that always kept them in one place was enough. Then why did they build a house for themselves? Because of Discord, could say. Earth Heaven wasn’t much bigger than the Crystal Empire but it was still big enough for a restless baby to get lost, and probably die, or miraculously find the way out and end up in a world where the mere resemblance to a draconequus could already cost his life
For chickens, on the other hand, they would have to build a chicken coop. But the rest of the animals would stay inside the fence.
After many hours…
The work was finished. They had made drinking troughs and feeders and the fence was large enough so that the animals could walk for a while if they wished, the cattle maybe but the pigs had gone to rest as soon as they entered the fence.
Actually only adults should see that work as a job. The children found abundant fun seeing who worked faster or who helped the most. Undoubtedly, neither of them liked the hens very much, they just took them and began to peck them.
When they finished, they all agreed that the best celebration would be with a good meal. Unlike the day before, this meal was very enjoyable for Discord. He went back to doing his pranks, bringing laughter to Celestia, tranquility to Nebula and headaches to Galaxus. Celestia kept her promise and told nothing about Discord's actions hours ago so that the poor boy had to pay for his silence. His mother was surprised that he left the dessert but he justified himself saying that the truth didn’t want to eat anything sweet after his indigestion at breakfast. She seemed pleased by his half truth.
When finished, after reviewing how the animals were, parents and children enjoyed some time together.
The older alicorn had the idea of going to the Meadow of the Thousand Flowers. There Celestia, inspired by the gift of Discord, made wreaths for everybody. Nebula told the children about a great wizard of Equestria and about the marks people get when they find their destiny or the reason that makes them unique.
Just as Celestia was inspired by Discord's gift, Galaxus was inspired by her daughter's request to train her to play with her pretending to be an evil dragon and she a brave knight sent by the king to eliminate him. Minutes later, the vile dragon lay dead on the ground, annihilated by the brave warrior.
Nebula and Discord eventually also joined the game as a servant witch of the fallen dragon in search of revenge for the death of their master and the brother-in-arms of the dragon slayer respectively. After a long battle, the witch shared the fate of the dragon but not without snatching the energy to the brave warriors, who fell inert before being able to return triumphant to their kingdom to tell the good news to the king.
As the sky darkened and filled with galaxies, the family returned home.
The rest of the night continued as usual: Discord with his antics from dinner to the bathroom, worse now he had new skills. Only the work of taking care of the animals was added to her routine and that, on this occasion, Celestia didn’t fight to go to sleep, she was too tired to do that. The day had been very long, exhausting and cheerful, mostly. The little girl didn’t have the almost unlimited energy that he possessed, so she had to rest. Or that she wanted to make her parents believe.
Both children pretended to be asleep and after the alicorn couple said good night and they were sure they were far away, they threw the facade. They were silent in the dark, looking at each other with a grin. After a few seconds a senseless laughter invaded them. They had to muffle their laughter as they could so as not to attract the attention of the adults. Discord almost put the whole pillow in his mouth and Celestia covered hers with both hands as she kicked the bed as her compressed laughter continued. Discord didn’t even know what they were laughing at, and surely Celestia had no idea either.
Finally their mute cackle stopped and they decided to sleep. But before either of them could even try, Discord crept like a snake, literally, to Celestia's bed and with puppy eyes asked:
“Can I still sleep here with you?”
She nodded sleepily but smiling.
Yay! He slipped between the sheets in less time than the girl blinked and lay next to her. Now they were face to face, smiling.
The tiredness was getting more and more over the little alicorn. She let out a yawn and laughed, in a low voice this time, when the child was contacted in front of her, the laughter also infected him. When she was about to fall asleep, Celestia took Discord's hand and smiled at him.
“Friends forever.”
Those two simple words, although he knew they would arrive, touched his heart. After everything he had done she had forgiven him. On another occasion, such a gesture would have caused the crying but it wasn’t like that. If he was going to make her happy, he was the last one who should cry. There were no tears, only some moisture in his eyes and a brittle smile. He was very touched.
“Friends forever,” he replied, squeezing her hand.
The girl yawned for the last time, then fell asleep. But Discord didn’t, he stayed awake a little longer. He stared at her, she was so calm and, still asleep, smiling.
He couldn’t help but be happy to see that she had once again been the almost restless girl who had charged him when he woke up under the tree. As happy as if everyone had transformed into candy with an eternal and delicious chocolate rain.
Not only it made him happy. He had a very enjoyable day. He played so much with Celestia his whole body would hurt the next day, he enjoyed the Nebula’s stories, even getting involved in a game where Galaxus participated was nice.
He had never felt so happy in the company of so many people. Well, actually he did, that time.
Was that how have a family felt like? So happy, nice and with pain in the cheeks and throat from so much smiling and laughing? If that was the case, he liked it, he liked it a lot.
But it also hurt.
He always thought no one would ever be able to see him as normal and ordinary. But it turns out that, actually, some time ago, before his madness, there were people who saw him as a member of their family. He had a loving mother, he had a best friend before Fluttershy. He had a home.
He wanted to remember everything. He would recover his memory. He would recover his life.