"Yoohoo! Anypony here?" despite initially being worried the... Ground? Floor? Wouldn't even support her (luckily, it did), now the filly was trotting around with almost a spring in her steps. A timid smile was showing on her muzzle and her loud voice was slightly reverberating in the mysterious place she found herself in. "My daddy always used to say 'if you get lost, trace your steps to get back on track!'" But despite her confident demeanour, she didn't like being alone; the large, empty space was really taking a toll on her. Therefore, taking comfort in the memory of her parents just came naturally. "But", the pegasus pondered, "I don't know I got here" The whole thing was certainly going to give her an headache "Let's see... I was in the village..." And so she tried to remember. And her memory started... Fairly normally. She was in the village most of the time. The thing is, this was definitely not the village. There was much more light than even in the Summer Solstice celebration, and of every colour she could conceive of. Also, mysterious spheres of white light were floating everywhere, but never getting too close "End everypony was sad..." back to the story, she was managing to recollect what happened. "Because Prismia..."
Suddenly, a picture of the sorceress herself appeared out of thin air, making the filly jump, startled. One moment later, noticing that the floating picture was actually moving, showing her what had happened earlier that day, she started to be quite interested in the mysterious object. She had seen magic, a few times, but certainly nothing like that. And, after a few moments of confusion, she found herself smiling: "Yes, exactly that. Thank you, weird magic window!" As she was still watching the familiar scene unfolding in front of her, a few more started to pop out around her. And then a few more still. Soon, two rows of magic screens showing her entire life were describing a road she could easily follow. There were so many memories, big and small, and she felt like she could have gotten lost in them. There was the day she discovered her cutie mark by sharing her kindness and love to a filly in need. One of the many times she helped the baker make some cookies they would then distribute to the poorest ponies in the village. Then the birthday from two years prior, and the dress the village got together to give her, as nopony in town was really able to make something (let alone something pretty) meant to accommodate wings. And even the day, many years prior, when her parents found her in the woods.
The filly stopped, her eyes widened considerably, and her mouth gaped slightly. That wasn't a memory. That wasn't a scene she could even remember, being too young at the time. And yet, every detail of the event was there, perfectly vivid as if it was really unfolding in front of her. A small tear descended from her left eye, accompanied by a little smile. She didn't think she would be able to see once more their kindness, and yet she did. Right in front of her, doing the greatest act of kindness she could imagine
"Uahahahah"
But then, suddenly, she heard slightly raucous laughter reverberating in the space she was in. It came from behind her, still inside that corridor of past moments, and she immediately started galloping towards it, still wiping away her little tears. As much as looking at her parents could be pleasant, she needed to know where she was. And maybe, just maybe, the pony whose voice she had heard might have been of help.
"H-hello!" Getting closer to it, the figure became progressively more definite through the magical mist that enveloped the whole place, and one thing was soon clear: that was not a pony. It was close, but not quite there. It had two horns, both much longer than those of a unicorn and of a much more twisted shape. He had two wings, only one of which could have passed for that of a pegasus. And only one of his four legs ended with a proper hoof, while the other three ended with claws or paws and so on. Also, his long, snakelike body ended with a proper, scaled tale. But what surprised her even more, was the fact that he was actually floating in the hair, holding his belly and thrashing around laughing, while a bucket of popcorns was floating nearby. And for as many of them were falling to the ground, the bucket was actually always completely full. "What are you doing?" The filly surprised herself. She wanted to ask many things about the place she was, about what was happening, and so on... But nothing had piqued her curiosity as the... Stallion? right in front of her.
"Mh?" He seemed to be noticing the filly just at that moment, and no significant emotion (besides the preexisting amusement) was revealed. "I was just looking at that" He pointed at a screen nearby. It showed Prismia with her amulet, using her dark magic on the ponies in the city. Not the funniest scene, according to the filly, but the creature in front of her had a different opinion. "Stealing love, can you believe her? Such a dumb plan. What is she, a changeling?" And again, after trying to contain himself for just a few more moments, he burst out laughing once more. Still trying to catch his breath and wiping a tear from his face, he spoke again: "This mare here is such a jerk!"
And while she was previously confused, one feeling immediately emerged in the filly: indignation. She couldn't accept that he would speak like that of the sorceress (or of anyone for that matter) "What? She isn't a jerk!" After this outburst, she thought for a moment of everything the mare had done. hurting all the ponies was certainly a jerk-like thing to do, but she knew better than just pointing her hoof like probably many others had done before. "She just needed love! Now she is good too!" And she quickly pointed at the last scene she could remember of the day, which was luckily not too far away. A hug between her and a crying, apparently changed Prismia, her evil necklace sitting broken on the ground.
Discord reaction caught her by surprise. For a moment, a brief moment, it seemed he couldn't keep a little smile. A smirk, maybe. it was unclear if he was kind of proud of what he had just heard or on the contrary contemptuous. But it was a moment, and then he made a very dramatic face, accompanied by wide movements. It was trying to show desperation, possibly a soft anger. All fake, though, somehow comedic, and the filly had no doubt about that. "No! You spoiled me the ending!" The filly blinked, twice, not believing what she was hearing "And I was just getting to the good part!"
he was talking as if everything was nothing more than a story, just like those her parents told her before she went to sleep. The suffering of Prismia, her evil deeds, the pain she inflicted the ponies in the village, and the even her actions to help everypony. Just something to entertain himself for a few moments, soon forgotten. And the thought, as much as she would have liked to deny it, was terrifying. Her voice wavered a little bit. "W-who are you? And what is this place?"
The smile on his muzzle, with its pointy teeth, was definitely not the most reassuring, but the filly still tried, timidly, to match it. "Haven't you learned about me in school? Or in the history books -which I mostly co-wrote, by the way?" The filly blinked twice and then shook her head, not even knowing what she was talking about. He sighed in response. A snap of his talon and an oversized golden grown appeared on his head, an expensive-looking red mantle fell on his shoulders, and a sceptre appeared in his paw. he was looking at the filly expectantly. "Still nothing?"
"I'm sorry." The creature looked disappointed, and she really didn't want to have that. Somehow, she felt like she had to explain her ignorance. "We don't really have a school in the village. And books are too expensive for us..." She looked down, a bit ashamed of the fact. Sure, Miss Aroma was a very nice teacher, but her cutie mark had nothing to do with education. That was probably the reason for which the brightest colts and fillies were sent to Vanhoover with the little money the village could put together so they could go to a real school. And they rarely came back, seeking better opportunities elsewhere. "But... You must be... Somepony important?" Still, she was trying (and pretty hard at that) not to disappoint him. And to those words a small smile appeared again on the creature's face.
"Important? Maybe", he said nonchalantly as if ignoring the part about the village's crippling poverty "Have you ever heard of King Discord of Equestria?" Naturally, the filly nodded. Even in their little, isolated village the name of the king and all the stories about him were well known. And after a moment of well-calculated suspense, he continued deadpan "Good. That's me." And now she was in shock. She would never have imagined of actually ever meeting the king. The one that, as they had always thaught her, was not just important, but really the most important pony in all of the kingdom. And the most powerful, too, which she in retrospect had no difficulty believing, seeing even just the little reality-bending magic he had been showing her. The natural reaction was, therefore, to lower her head to the ground and kneel, but then she didn't know what else to say or do. luckily, the Draconeequs went on unfazed, after laughing softly for a moment "Relax, You are actually pretty special too."
Timidly, the filly raised her head, not fully believing what she was hearing. Okay, her parents had always been telling her that she was special... But that didn't really count, did it? "R-really?" And yet, despite her doubt, there was a hint of hope in her voice. As if, even if she loved her village very much, she had always kind of thought that there was more in the world to do and see. That life couldn't just be confined by the woods she lived in.
And Discord was trying to show his warmest, kindest, most patient smile. Which was not very effective, but that was better than nothing. "When that unicorn tried to stole love, that was nothing but child play." It was actually extremely advanced dark magic, but Discord had very different standards compared to the average pony "But when you amplified your love through her necklace? That's another story entirely!" He looked... Kind of excited even, which really surprised the filly. "You created magic! Is the kind of stuff that used to earn ponies the title of princess!" He paused for a moment. There had not really been a princess for centuries, so she wanted to double check "You know what a princess, an actual Equestrian princess, is, right?"
Timidly, the filly nodded. There were many things she didn't know, as her education was all but complete, but that was just common knowledge. Everypony knew that princesses, which only appeared in ancient legends, were different from you average pony by more than just that title. Twice as tall as a normal pony, ten times stronger, and with one hundred times more magic. Or at least so the legend went. "But I can't be a princess. Princesses are born with wings and a horn, everypony knows that!"
And to that, Discord simply laughed again. And it lasted more than a few seconds "Little filly, you are wrong. First, princesses", or alicorns, but he didn't want to make things more complicated, "have unicorn, pegasus and earth pony magic." Which was a very significant difference. In the end, he could easily make a pony look like an Alicorn with his magic. But the real thing was just very different, and an expert eye would certainly not be fooled by his pale imitation "And second..." Then his smile became wider and wider "You know what? I'm not going to ruin the surprise, unlike someone else." He sounded kind of petty, as if taking vengeance for the previous spoiler, but most of it was just him really liking surprises "Follow me, now. And tell me your name."
And as the draconeequs started to float away, following the path set by those fragments of memories, the little filly could do nothing but obey the command. She started to follow, trying hard to match his speed with her short legs, but soon she got a good rhythm, and was able to reply: "My name is Cadence."
The king's eyes went on the little filly, focusing especially on her cutie mark. Soon a second Discord, sneakily, appeared beside the filly, floating beside her and observing her flank with a magnifying glass. That weirded out the filly quite a bit, but before she could complain "That won't do!" He shook his head, decidedly "You might actually look the part, and your cutie mark is good... But your name doesn't really leave that much of an impression." And it really seemed to be a real problem for him. "From now on, due to my royal authority yadda yadda, your name will be... Let me think..." For a few moments he looked as if lost in thought, but it didn't last long. A lightbulb appeared right above his head, to the confusion of the littly filly (who had never seen one) "Mi Amore Cadenza!" He tried to leave the base name mostly unaltered, and that seemed to him quite the kind thing to do. And he did see then no other problem with that. "Much better right?"
The filly, still following him, had no idea what he was even talking about. Nothing really made sense to her. The talk of creating magic, being a princess and everything else. And on top of that, there was another problem that kind of overshadowed all the others "But I like my name!" After a few moments, she realized that she wanted at the very least to understand a very important detail "Also, look the part for what!?"
"You'll see" And there again, he just dismissed her every concern in just a moment. Because, in the end, those were definitely not his concerns, and therefore he didn't care that much about them "And also, there is another thing we'll have to fix." And his voice sounded very serious, which kind of worried the filly "You know what these fragments around us have in common?"
Without ever stopping, she tried to quickly look at them, as if something very wrong was supposed to become manifest to her eyes. Nothing did, so she had to improvise again, trying to find some kind of pattern"Uhm... All of them..." She was grasping at straws. Her being found by her parents had very little in common with a random lesson from her teacher, or a time she played with some other filly "Are about me?" Nah, that was too obvious. Even Discord looked kind of unimpressed "Ok, no. Then... Most of them..." She tried to think harder, and she thought she just had an epiphany. It just had to be linked to earning the title of princess, and what she did to get there "Are about sharing love?"
Discord's slightly mismatched eyes were gazed at her for moments, capturing her with their depth. Wa that really the right answer? "Nice try, but wrong." Nope, and he reinforced the concept by shaking his head. "Almost all of them, barring maybe the stuff with that witch..." And now his eyes were locked on her once again "Are terribly boring!"
For a few moments, Cadence waited. He was kidding, wasn't he? All the fun she had with her friends, all the love from her family, all the things she did to help other. The short but full life of a filly... Was boring? Okay, he was a king and everything, but that was kind of mean "Hey!"
"Ssh!" With just another look, he silenced every complaint. "I didn't mean to offend you, it's just a fact." A very debatable one, but Cadence would have a hard time actually arguing with him. In the end, she had been taught to be quite respectful of authority figures, and who was more of an authority than the creature in front of her? "But I'm not saying we can't fix it, either..." And now, that smile was on his face again. he was planning something "You have to learn to have fun!" That... Didn't sound that bad to the filly. Who doesn't like to have fun, in the end? "And you'll have the best possible teacher." A pair of smart-looking glasses appeared on the creature's face, and a brownish, old looking jacket was now on his body. The world fun was written in what looked like chalk on a newly appeared blackboard just besides him "Me!" And just as it appeared, all of that vanished soon afterwards.
The overwhelming feeling of confusion he had awakened in Cadence, though, stayed. Too much information was being dumped on her, and she couldn't really manage all of it. especially not the most mind-blowing parts. Such as this: "Y-you are going to teach me? Personally?" A King, no less. It was unthinkable for her to have somepony of that standing actually spending time on her (although that was what Discord was already doing). But there again, there was in her voice that familiar hint of hope...
"Not just me, obviously." And he spoke with surprising confidence, that once more took the little filly aback "If as you said you never went to a real school, I should have the best teachers teach you about grammar, history, geography, governance and whatever else." Discord didn't like what he had just said. it sounded kind of boring, and despite being necessary it was also the exact the opposite of the point. "But having fun will be by far the most important topic, that's for sure!" Then, he took a longer pause, but the pensive look in his eyes made quite sure to Cadence that it wasn't her turn to speak yet. "That is..." And now, the King himself was trying his best to muster the cutest puppy eyes he could imagine. There must have been some magic involved, because they felt much larger than they were before. "If you'd like to be adopted as my niece..."
Okay, that was it. She was going to have a meltdown. Her eyes were now fully open, her pupils as large as discs and her breathing started to accelerate. It was fairly difficult to speak, or to even form coherent thoughts for that matter, but she tried nonetheless. "B-but... But... But" And now it seemed to her she was even being surrounded by a more and more intense light, and she stopped feeling the ground under her hooves. Hallucinations, she thought, were definitely not what she needed right then.
"Oh, it seems we are here already!" Discord now looked calm. Comforting, even, as if he was trying to put a special effort in not confusing, or upsetting the filly anymore "There's not much time left! Just say the word, and tonight you will be with me in Canterlot, dining with the best food in Equestria and sleeping in a room made just for you, with a bed as large as your whole old room, fit for a princess!" He paused, then, looking at the filly straight in the eyes, gentle but firm "So, do you want to be my niece?"
That did sound just too nice to be true. She wasn't starving, but she didn't have a really filling meal in a while. And she couldn't afford a bed, just sleeping on some hay. And despite needing more time to think, and to really process all the information she received, she just knew she couldn't let this once in a lifetime, once in a million chance. And her voice was shaky, full of raw emotion, as she finally managed to say: "I do!"
On Discord's face now she could see a smile. A completely real, genuine smile, filled with happiness in a way she hadn't really seen him display yet "Then it's settled! I need to look around here a bit more, but I should be back in five minutes top." There was something lingering in his voice, besides the happiness, but there again she wasn't able to fully understand what it was. She didn't know him enough yet, and the light now blinding her was certainly not helping. "I'll see you on the other side..." A wink" Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!"
The last thing the filly could see was Discord now looking and moving around as if hopefully searching for something or somepony, but it was for just a few moments. Then, everything faded. There was nothing but white light, and a warm feeling running through her whole body, from the feathers of her wings to the tips of her hooves. But nowhere it was as intense as on her still bare forehead.