//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Some Stay Dry and Others Feel the Pain // Story: A Heart of Stone // by BorgiaBrony //------------------------------// The clouds settled in on Canterlot as the pair walked though the Royal District of the city. Discord, who would stick out like a sore horn in the bustling city streets, took on the form of Celestia’s breastplate, and was wrapped around her neck. She couldn’t take her eyes off of his face, which was vaguely visible in the jewel. He seemed to be hurriedly scanning the crowd of unicorns, almost as if he were looking for something. “Is there something wrong?” she asked him. He looked up at her. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen a grey mare with a golden apple cutie mark recently, have you?” She told him that she was rarely allowed time to leave the castle and had no clue whether such a pony even lived in Canterlot. And with that Discord returned to his normal self. As they walked along the road, the ponies that lined the streets all bowed their heads to the ground as Celestia walked by them. She had never felt comfortable letting everypony worship her like she was some sort of deity. It made her feel like her presence was a bother to them all and that everypony was scrutinizing her heavily. Besides, she was still only a princess, not yet the queen. But still, her parents always taught her that accepting their reverence was the polite and “princess-y” thing to do, so she did it. Discord looked up at her with disdain. “Is this how you ponies act all the time?” “No, just…..just when I’m around,” she said with a good deal of embarrassment. She felt the breastplate vanish from her neck and she looked up to see Discord leaning on the wall of a nearby alleyway. “So you mean to say that everypony treats you like you’re the best thing since sliced bread? Even your friends?” “No!” she cried indignantly, even though she knew it was true. Everypony DID treat her like a goddess. And what’s more, between her studies with Athena and spending time with her parents, she never really had any friends of her own. Discord raised his hands in defense. “Hey, hey! I was only asking a simple question. No need to shout. But regardless Canterlot is so much more boring than I imagined it…..” He scratched his head for a minute, before his face lit up with the look somepony would get if they just came up with a brilliant idea. He looked at her and snapped his fingers, replacing her breastplate. He put his arm around her and pointed to the park across the street from them. “You walk around the city for the day doing…..whatever it is that you princesses do. I’ll meet you under that old willow tree in a few hours.” With this, he turned his back on Celestia and began to walk away. “Where will you be?” she asked worriedly. She didn’t want Discord running around causing mayhem all day. He turned around and looked at her. “Following you, of course!” He snapped and he vanished in the typical “flash of light” fashion. Celestia looked around for a few minutes, hoping to find Discord hiding around a dark corner, in a trash bin, or on a low rooftop, but to no avail. After a few minutes of this fruitless search, she grew bored and started to wander aimlessly around the city. When she arrived in the Garment District, she was surprised to see almost nopony there. The only one who was there, in fact, a lone lavender unicorn stallion. He was sitting on a bench, contently enjoying the sleepy afternoon without a care in Equestria. That is, until she tapped him on the back. “Excuse me, where is-“she was cut off immediately. The stallion nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard her voice and immediately brought himself to attention. “My liege!” he cried as he threw his head to the ground. “Forgive my extreme foolishness in your presence! Is there any way at all in which I could assist you, Princess?” “Yes, there is. Stop bowing and look me in the eye,” she said commandingly. “I swear, you ponies need to calm-“she trailed off. The stallion still had not raised his head. When she looked down, she saw the reason: his horn was stuck in the ground. It wasn’t just stuck in the surface either. It appeared that the ground had literally opened up and swallowed the poor stallion’s horn. As she magically removed the unfortunate unicorn from his grassy prison, Celestia could hear a faint snickering in the distance. After she sent to purple unicorn on his way, Celestia wandered into a foal’s play park. She watched three little fillies play on the swings, laughing all the while. They looked like they were having the time of their lives. Celestia envied them. While she was lost in thought, one of the fillies flew off of her swing and high up into the air. Luckily for her, she was a pegasus, and her wings helped her to stick her landing. After the three friends moved on, Celestia went closer to investigate. The pegasus' swing chains had snapped: after they mysteriously turned to licorice. The laughter in the distance grew louder. As the day drew to a close, Celestia made her way back to the tree Discord mentioned earlier. He was nowhere to be found. What she did find, however, was a massive crowd of ponies screaming and running from rain clouds: pink rain clouds. Before she could fly up to them and get a better look, the pink blobs let loose a flood of chocolate milk. Discord appeared on a branch above her, laughing like a madman. “Did you see that?! Oh, that was probably the funniest thing I’ve seen in months!” Celestia was not amused. “That wasn’t funny Discord! Somepony could’ve gotten hurt today!” He jumped down from the branch. “Yes, but they didn’t! I took special care to make sure of it.” Celestia continued her scowl. “Alright fine. Look me in the eyes and tell me that today wasn’t even a bit funny.” She stared down the draconequus, looking deeply into his crimson eyes with the utmost austerity. Almost immediately though, his pupils transformed into smiling faces, that in turn, grew legs, arms, and a top hat, and begin to dance a jig against the backdrop of his yellow irises. After that Celestia just couldn’t deny it any longer: that was the most fun Canterlot had ever been. It was all harmless fun, and all of it made her and Discord laugh. So she did. They both did. They laughed and laughed, until they simply couldn’t laugh any longer. Discord, still fighting off the last of his giggles, reached up into the leaves of the tree. “I think you’re going to like this one Celestia….” He pulled is fist down and in it, he clutched a pile of green leaves. She had no clue what to say, other than “Ummmmm…That’s nice.” “Oh, you haven’t even seen the best part of it yet, Tia.” He clenched his fist, and a brilliant light radiated from it. When he opened his paw up, the leaves were gone, and in their place, was a small round green creature, with bright blue eyes, four wings, and four tiny legs. Celestia immediately fawned over this strange new creature. “I call it a parasprite. You like?” “This creature is adorable!” she cried happily. Discord smiled widely. “I’ll take that as a yes.” The parasprite flew off into the night, much to the disappointment of Celestia. He put his arm around her as to console her. “Don’t worry. You’ll be seeing more of them. Really, really soon. Until then, how about some chocolate milk and cotton candy?” He snapped and a pink cloud appeared over their heads, and a few seconds afterwards it burst in a rain of chocolate dairy drink. “My favorite!” Celestia exclaimed. “Let’s go home.” And they did, catching the chocolate rain in their mouths all the way.