//------------------------------//
// Obliviously Obvious 
// Story: The Daughters of Discord 
// by AkumaKami64 
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With strange eons, even death may die.

But boredom was eternal.

'By Phaos's cake, Celestia. Could you at least throw a garden party, or something? At least then I have some ponies to make fun of, even if it's only in my head,' Discord thought within his statue, sensing no ponies in the immediate area. 'Guess it's another day of bird tracing for me.'

Many would expect a thousand years spent as one's own living tombstone would drive a creature insane or mad with rage. But Discord's rage had long smoldered into resentment. He had entertained and grown a new found sense of sanity, but that died off in the course of the long centuries. All that was left now was his eternal boredom with the world Celestia had created.

But he was a patient being. He just wondered, what would give first? Would the magic containing him erode away against his power? Would his plunder vines deal with that weed of a tree? Or would something chaotic enough jumpstart his release?

He blinked, mentally at least, as he heard a great thunderous boom echoing across the land, and saw a great shockwave of prismatic magic rushing through the sky. 'Well, way to be flashy, Harmony,' he thought as he felt the magic over his prison.

There was an instant, a chance in a millisecond that he might have missed in another life as he felt Harmony rewriting fate itself, this display being the sign of a catalyst that would change the world. Between that, the great surge of magic within the city and the reactions of so many ponies around Equestria from witnessing the event, there was only one word for it:

Chaos.

It was small, a droplet to him, but oh so refreshing

Discord's gaze narrowed in delight. 'Oh, you young fool,' he taunt in pity as his magic surged through his prison and into Harmony's own magical shockwave. He could feel it, feel HER squirming and struggling against him. But she was too weak. A thousand years without her elements or champions, holding back the Everfree Forest had left her too little to spare against this surprise attack. He scowled, tempted to do more damage to the very essence of his great enemy, but he was interested in one thing and one thing only: Freedom.

Chaotically and Harmonically charged mana raced across his statue as the garden, the castle, the very city began to rumble. The fear, the panic only fueled his powers more against Harmony as she dutifully tried and failed to hold him back. 'Careful, Harmony, you might actually kill yourself at this rate,' Discord forewarned as he held her off. 

Not that it was easy, admittedly. If he backed down for even half a second, Harmony would have his prison repaired enough to hold him, for now at least.

'Sorry, Harmony, but my release date is long overdue,' Discord declared as he committed everything he could to this escape, his statue glowing bright as cracks formed all along it. His talon, raised high in the air, slowly moved even while still in stone.

"Discord!"

His attention almost wavered as he registered Celestia herself had appeared in the garden, her eyes fixed in a glare as her horn lit up with her own mighty magic. 'Well, that's not good,' he realized with a scowl. Reforming a body would not be that hard out of this statue, but being shattered by solar Alicorn magic while within it would be much more problematic.

He grimaced as he saw the spell coming. There was no way he'd finish overpowering Harmony before it hit.

Yet as the spell reached half way to his statue, he was shocked to find all resistance had disappeared.

Which meant he was now the magical equivalent of tumbling forward.

The Statue of Discord erupted like a small bomb, decimating the garden and shattering every window in the palace. Celestia grimaced as she lowered her shield once the blast had settled, finding nothing but a scorching crater. "Discord is free," she realized with a scowl of anger and worry.

Meanwhile

"HOLY GWACK OMOLLEY WITH SOLELY AND ONLY BALONEY!" Discord declared as he suddenly appeared in the middle of a forest, landing on the ground with a thud. He sat up instantly, staring at his hands in disbelief before running them over his body, detaching from his torso to scurry all over him before reattaching themselves. A giddy, relieved smile worked onto his face.

He giggled, his mirth building into a chuckle. "I'm free! At long last, I am free!" he declared, doing a whoop of joy. He hopped around before snapping his talon, relishing the sensation of raw chaos flowing through him and into the world once more, as the trees all came to life with lights strung in their branches as they all used their new branch-hands to play various instruments to create conga music. Creating his own rattlers, he continued his little celebration as he danced with his tail twirling about.

The music literally screeched to a halt as he stopped in mid-stride, the trees looking to him in confusion. He took on a thoughtful look, discarding the maracas as his mismatched hands reached down, feeling around the backside of his hips. He blinked as he grasped something distinctly not him. He squeezed, and earned a giggle for his actions.

Contorting his body in nigh-spine defying fashion, he look down to see who was behind him. "And just who are you?" he asked curiously.

"Hi! I'm Pinkamena!" the very young, very pink earth pony answered with a wide smile.

"Charmed. And the rest of you?" he asked, looking to the rest of the conga line of fillies that had formed behind him…formed without his knowledge or intent, for that matter.

"I'm Rainbow Dash!" a blue coated, prismatic-maned pegasus filly boasted proudly, her little wings carrying her into the air.

"My name is Rarity, Sir," a white unicorn answered with utmost politeness.

"Applejack's the name, ya'll!" the earth filly with a satin hat answered with a friendly smile.

"Um, Twilight Sparkle?" a purple unicorn in the rear answered uncertainly.

"Uh-huh," Discord acknowledged, his lower half floating up and twisting about so that he was simply floating now, causing the pink one to fall back with a giggle. He eyed the group oddly as they looked to him, as if expecting something. "And why exactly are all of you out here? Did your parents bring you to the woods to get lost?" he asked jokingly.

"Maybe?" Rainbow answered in confusion.

"I hope not," Applejack answered with a look of hard concentration.

Discord raised a brow at that, seeing uncertain looks on everypony's face. "What is that supposed to mean? How did you all get out here?" he asked in bewilderment.

"I don't know!" Pinkamena answered with over the top enthusiasm. "I just assumed everypony else knew why we were here! Then you started partying, so I thought we were here to celebrate!"

"Yeah, I don't really remember anything either," Twilight answered cautiously, looking around.

"Bummer. I'm sure I had a lot of awesome memories too!" Rainbow answered with a self-confident smile.

"Wait, you don't remember how you got here?" Discord repeated, getting an idea of where this was going as he groaned. "Oh no, we're doing this cliché?"

"What's a cliché?" Applejack asked curiously.

"Is it tasty?" Pinkamena added in hopefully.

"Sometimes," Discord answered with a resigned sigh. "Okay, show of hooves, who here can remember anything besides your names? Like your parents' names, hometown, I'll even take a zip code," Discord requested, suddenly wearing a brown delivery uniform.

This elicited six laughs, but none raised a limb as Twilight answered. "Not...really? I just remember a rainbow, and then...here?"

"Right. One second," Discord said, pointing toward a bush. He raised his finger, prompting a sixth filly to shoot out of the foliage with a squeal as she was brought into air by no power of her own, upside down no less. "And of course there are six of you. So, what's your name, Miss Shy?" he asked, ignoring how the other ponies were ogling his magic.

The filly just whimpered as she tried to hide behind her own pink mane, shivering like a leaf.

"Well, one of you is scared of me," Discord murmured with an eye roll as he levitated her down to the other ponies.

"Are you okay?" Rarity asked in concern. "You're not ill, are you?"

"N-no, I'm not sick. J-just s-scared," Shy answered softly.

"It's alright!" Pinkamena declared, making the skittish pegasus nearly jump out of her skin. "Nopony here wants to hurt you."

"Draconequus included," Discord offered half-heartedly.

"Draco-what?" Rainbow asked in confusion.

"Never mind, the name is Discord," he offered.

"Do you know why we are here, Mr. Discord?" Rarity asked politely.

Discord's eyebrow twitched. Why weren't these fillies just running away and screaming, like most ponies who got a good look at him? "I have no idea," he lied, having no intention of trying to explain to these fillies anything about his situation. "I, however, have no memory problem and teleported here. Now, why don't you all run along and find your way home."

"How?"

The question came to him from all six mouths. "Little mares, do I look like a pony that might know where you live?" Discord retorted dismissively, turning to leave. "Now if you'll excuse me, I am very busy."

"W-wait, sir, please don't leave us!" Rarity called urgently.

"W-who knows what kind of scary things are out here," Shy whimpered, shivering like a leaf.

"Oh come on, girls! It'll be like an adventure!" Pinkamena declared before looking sheepish. "But could you pretty please help us find some food, Mister Magic?"

"And water! Adult ponies can only go five days without water, and we're tiny fillies!" Twilight urged in alarm.

"I was going to say I could just fly and find help, buuuuut," Rainbow paused as she fell to the ground with shame, her wings giving out. "I'm really tired for some reason and my wings are sore. I must have flown really, really hard."

"Come on, Mister, it's not like we're trying to slow ya down or anything," Applejack called out.

Discord watched the pleading fillies with a scowl and crossed arms, tuning them out as he thought about this. Was he really going to leave a bunch of fillies to possibly die in the woods? Normally no, and he knew that this was partially his doing; they had to have been caught in his teleportation, somehow. Why their memories were gone, he had no idea. So he felt inclined to at least drop them off in a village.

The one donkey in the hole? He was positive these were Harmony's new champions. Twilight's cutie mark being Harmony's symbol for Magic was a dead giveaway, and there being six of them was no coincidence. Which meant in a decade or two, they'd probably be bonded to their elements and seeking to put him away. Again. Maybe sooner if Celestia had her way. Granted, that didn't make dead fillies a more appealing outcome to him.

Damn his very few morals!

But sending them back where they came wasn't really an option. Simply put, he had no idea where they came from and he had no idea where he was right now. He was definitely on the same world, but that was the extent of his awareness. And his on-world teleportation relied on knowing where or who he wanted to go. Knowing where he was exactly helped a lot. The only place he could teleport to at the moment would be back to Canterlot. And he was NOT dropping these six off together right on Celestia's doorstep, and making it obvious to her who the replacements for her and Luna were. It would already be obvious if six fillies suddenly showed up anywhere as a group after magically disappearing like they had.

He could just vanish; let the girls think they were all on their own while keeping an eye on them to make sure they got to safety. But they'd be scared, and he'd still have to deal with them if they didn't find help fast, and- what was appealing about this option?

"S-sir?"

He glanced back down at the soft colored pegasus, staring up at him with fearful yet kind eyes. He didn't answer her, beyond giving her an expectant look.

"Did...did we do something wrong?" she asked, looking ready to ball up and bawl out tears.

Discord's face contorted in confusion, wondering how she came to that conclusion. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"You...you said our parents might have left us out here, to get lost?" Shy answered with a whimper as adorable, soul-crushing noises of sadness started to rumble through the group.

Discord could hear their little hearts cracking under the notion. Literally, he could actually hear them. "I was only joking about that!" he assured quickly. "I just wasn't expecting to find a bunch of fillies in the woods with me."

"B-but if you don't know-" the purple unicorn starts, eyes darting around in dread. "Then she might be right. Maybe...maybe we're just bad fillies."

"You mean," the pink earth pony breathed, her puffy mane actually deflating to Discord's amazement. "Nopony wants us?"

"That can't be right!" Applejack retorted fiercely. "And why the hay don't we remember anything?"

"Maybe we were so bad, they had someone take our memories away?" Rainbow said with a frown. "Magic can do that, right?"

Discord blinked as all eyes went to him. "Well, technically, but-" he started only to pause as a lot of sniffling and teary eyes were forming across all their faces.

"W-we were so bad, they wanted to make sure we could never go home," Rarity said, pulling a low-hanging leaf to use as a handkerchief.

"M-Mr. Discord?" Twilight spoke up with a crack in her voice. "D-do you know what we could have done? What did we do wrong?"

Discord felt a heart breaking, and it wasn't one of theirs. "Everypony stop!" Discord called out, grimacing as they all winced from the volume, looking up at him with those eyes.

Confused, lost eyes begging someone not to hate them; to understand that they didn't know what they did that was so wrong.

Discord came down to their level, standing more like a quadruped. He preferred two feet, but it helped sometimes- or at least didn't make things worse. They all stared up at him, curious and fascinated despite their own fears. "Girls, listen to me. You didn't do anything wrong. No one hates you. I promise," he promised as sincerely and softly as he could.

"But..." Shy stared up at him, uncurling from herself in an adorable fashion. "Why don't you want to help us?"

Discord had a thousand and ten excuses even their tiny minds could comprehend. He was busy, he had someone waiting on him, he was allergic to ponies, etc. "Little Fillyshy, nopony wants MY help," Discord said with a drawl, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"We do!" the six called out, as if it was that simple. And of course it was that simple to them. Things were never complicated for children at this age.

Discord let out a soft sigh. Really, was this Harmony's revenge? Play on his unwillingness to leave such young and innocent children to their inevitable deaths in the wild and thus forcing him to help and aid his future enemies, her future champions? He felt the bitterness swell in his heart, glaring off to the side, at nothing at all.

He hoped Harmony knew just how sick he was of her now.

"Fine, I'll help you," he stated without inflection or warmth, not really looking at them.

The cold act didn't prevent six- young, terrified, lost, lonely, nowhere to go, no one to trust- little ponies from leaping forward to wrap him in a grateful group hug.

Hugged by six fillies that would one day become his mortal enemies.

'And I'm the twisted one, Harmony?'